Running and Race for Life 2012.

Let me get my boring bit out of the way first as I haven't given any updates on the status of my running recently. About six weeks ago I realised that I wasn't the type of person to ease myself into anything, I was more of a "jump in and see what happens" type of guy. That's no great shock as I knew that anyway but I had intended to ease myself back into running and distances. Finally I did what I should have done from the start and pushed my daily distance up to 5 miles and on the following Sunday ran 8 miles. I had some muscle pain and sore feet, as expected, so the following weekend I ran 12 miles and kept up the 5 milers during the week.
Now I haven't mentioned that my daughter had her appendix out so I was left to my own devices, hence the increased daily miles. She started back the following week so I ran 3 miles with her on 2 alternate days and 5 miles on another 2 days, then I ran 11 miles on the Sunday, rested on the Monday and started again.
I have just finished my third consecutive weekend of 11-13 mile runs and it's going very well, I'm enjoying it, feeling some pain in my muscles and feet but nothing that is worrying me. I am back to loving the run but I am struggling to ship the weight I put on during my lay off, it's going but slowly.

Yesterday, Sunday, was Race for Life day. My youngest daughter ran it, of course. It was back at Waddesdon but they have reversed the course. This means tha there is a very long and steep hill towards the beginning of the run, around 3/4 to a mile long, nasty! The weather wasn't looking hopeful with rain threatened. There were 2000 women and it was as poignant as ever. I bumped into a couple of old friends, one of whom had lost her mother to cancer the previous month and had decided at the last moment to run this race. It was reading the dedications on the backs of the ladies, so many names being commemorated. It is watching a Mother with the dedication to her parents on her back standing next to her daughter with the dedication to "Grandad and Grandma". It was watching the survivors and the way that women know how to bond, that this is a "one-ness" event, something that we men can never do. We laugh, compete and shake hands, we don't know how to cry and celebrate lives and I suspect that we wouldn't want to either, being blokes an' all that....It's a shame.

 

My daughter was determined to run this as a race, my hopes weren't too high for her as she was only freshly back to running so I did warn her to take it easy and enjoy the run. She went off with the runners and pushed her way to the front. 

I didn't see the start as it was out of the way of spectators so I made my way to the finish line to wait. After ten minutes the rain came down in a torrential shower. Sheltering under my umbrella, I gave thanks that I wasn't running in this. Another ten minutes and the first runner came in, my daughter's previous PE teacher, Mrs Austin, a superb runner and absolutely mad keen on it. She has been very supportive of my daughter so it was a thrill to see her romp home. The second place runner was a minute or so behind her and all the while the rain poured down. My daughter came in 6th, an amazing result that is a testament to her fitness and determination and a steely resolve to do better next year.

The worrying thing for me is that I have been running more but I know that my daughter is faster and stronger than me over most distances. I have taken her up to 8 miles and she is faster than me, I know that even beyond that, she will outpace me. Still, there's never a hurry to be beaten, that can wait a couple of years.