It’s a beautiful day and I’m on holiday. It’s Kent rather than the Costa del Sol but I’m still by the seaside and it isn’t as cold as you might imagine considering it’s the middle of January. All of these things combined have made me feel like going for a run. Except I didn’t pack any of my gear. I could live without my running shorts, tee shirts and socks as I could substitute those for normal clothes out of my suitcase at a push, it’s the lack of running shoes that has kept me sat on the sofa. It’s not been the best of days as it started with a trip to the hospital and a 4 hour wait in a&e as Nic had some quite gruelling stomach cramps that had kept her up all night. She was sent home with some strong painkillers and a diagnosis that a GP could have offered had we been at home so all is ok thankfully. This has led to a lazy day in front of the tv however which I no longer feel any good at. I’m using this blog as a way of keeping my running alive even though I can’t physically do it right now. Ridiculous right?
So far I’ve read through approximately 15 online articles about running, taken a closer look at upcoming race events that have appeared on my Facebook stream and gone back through my Strava for 2017 to see what races I ran in and try to find the dates for those same races in 2018.
At this time of year of course, most running articles are centred around people who are thinking about starting their running journey. If this was January 2017 I’d be sticking my nose right into every one of those articles right now but a year on I don’t think I should call myself a beginner. I’m not blowing my own trumpet here but it has been exactly a year since I laced up my running shoes and joined WRR’s Couch To 5k programme. (I know it’s been a full year because this years course began this week.) The articles I’ve been really wanting to delve in to are more about improving than beginning. My only goal for 2018 is to achieve a sub 1 hour 10k. That’s it. No other goals, just that one. The problem is that I think I can achieve that goal in my first race this year. Then what am I going to do? I’ll worry about it once it’s happened I think.
Mad Dog 10k is just around the corner (4th February) and my heart has just started pounding. When I entered I did so with the aim of getting under an hour for the first time. My last 10k race at Birchwood wasn’t far off it and my performance in the Winter Handicap was even better. Plus this next race is a whole lot flatter than either of those two previously mentioned so I shouldn’t even be worried about hitting my time. But here’s the thing. I am.
I keep thinking that I won’t be strong enough to last the full distance at the pace required to get my time. I have day dreams about looking down at my watch at the start of the race and seeing my finish time calculator clicking over 1 hour and having nothing left in the tank to get it back under again. I feel the frustration of the failure and the pang of regret. This all makes me worry that on the day I just wont be good enough. It’s a silly thing to think because I know that once the day comes I will be so pumped up and ready to run that I won’t even look at my watch until the the half of the race. I’ll be in my competitive element and will either achieve the time I want in glorious fashion or fail disastrously. Whichever one it is to be I know there won’t be a happy medium. Even the shiny medal and finishers tee won’t pull me back to the middle ground. I’ll be unbearable for either being too happy or miserable.
This is why I want to just get outside and run. The act of running will take my mind off all of this gubbins and allow me to concentrate on doing something that I love. No amount of reading or writing about it can replace the physical activity itself. I dread to think what I’ll be like if I ever have a serious injury!
Trying to forget about my next race, I start taking a look at my rather bare 2018 race diary. Thinking about it now I really should get myself a real one of those! Apart from Mad Dog I have nothing else planned. Well not events that have officially been entered and paid for anyway. I want to do the Liverpool Spring 5k again this year and I also want to do the 10k version which is the day after. I have a friend who has already entered the 10k and it will be her first ever race, so I want to support her. There are obvious events like the EHM and Birchwood 10k which I will no doubt run again this year but they are months away so not worth thinking about yet. The Manchester 10k would be another event from last year to consider running in 2018 but it is so expensive to enter that I will wait and see if anyone else is doing it before I sign up. The first race I ever did, Whitley 10k, is pretty much a definite but isn’t available to enter just yet. I’m not sure how I will be running this one. It will either be for time or to simply help the new beginners get round like Bryan and Sarah did for us last year. I want to make sure I’m giving something back.
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Second race of the year entered! The Mid Cheshire 5k has been officially entered. I couldn’t help myself. It appeared on my Facebook wall and I just clicked the button. I remember a lot of the club members talking about it last year as being one of the fastest 5k races in the UK and that it was the Championship race also. It is the 5k Championship race for 2018 too which means there are going to be some fast people taking part. The winner last year did the course in 14 minutes flat! Strangely, it is on a Friday night which may mean I’ll be able to get a parkrun and a Sunday social run in on that same weekend. Ooh just think of the mileage!
I’d love to get at least one race a month in to my calendar for this year but a lack of a race in January will already see me playing catch up. I want to do as many as I can that’s for sure but it’s going to be a year of consolidation I think. Apart from my sub hour 10k, my only other goal is going to have to be to simply keep running. I think that’s why I want to enter more races. It will give me a target, a reason to keep going. I don’t think I’ll go any further than a half marathon in 2018 but I didn’t think I would go further than 10k at the start of 2017 so who knows.
I’ll have to get back to my holiday now or Nic is going to blow her gasket at me but let me know what races you’re entering this year and what your goals are for 2018. I might just see you out on the race course.
charles will run 