Got-a-Sec?

On Saturday Ice Cream Sian and I go running. On our own. Fit Mark is off doing some sort of stag weekend - yomping over Dartmoor with 16 pubs in 48 miles. Or was it 48 pubs in 16 miles? I'm a little hazy on the details and by the end of it I expect Fit Mark will just be a little hazy...

We start at Ice Cream Sian's this time. We're determine to beat last week's time (1.06.55) mostly because Fit Mark said he expected us to. And as we're leaving Ice Cream Sian's house her husband reminds her they have masses to do and says we have an hour. No pressure then...

We set off. We're really lucky to live in the Welsh valleys near Caerphilly. We have lots of fields, forests, steep hills (they're all mountains really) and serious mud. And I have new shoes. However, after a bit of this...

They look like this...

Oddly, it no longer seems to matter what colour they were when I bought them...

We run exactly the same route that we did with Fit Mark last week. Only it's much wetter - seriously boggy this time. Even the field on top of the mountain that we run across is bottomless. In fact, it's so wet that Chepstow races, scheduled for the afternoon and only 23 miles away, has been called off due to 'heavy ground'. Really, those horses are such wimps.

We keep going, through mud and field and hill and forest (where there are going to be stunning bluebells in a few months - are we going too slow if we've got time to notice?) and there's much shrieking from Ice Cream Sian as she's still in ordinary trainers and sliding all over the place.

As we're approaching our finishing point I'm keeping an eye on the time - and we run REALLY fast down the last bit of forestry. I didn't know I could run that fast. I'm keeping up with Ice Cream Sian (just) only to find out afterwards that she didn't know she could go that fast either, and she thought she was keeping up with me. We finish.

1.04.52.

HOORAY! We've shaved off 2 minutes and 3 seconds and it was really heavy going! Woo Hoo!

We are, fairly reasonably, utterly knackered. And Ice Cream Sian's feet are a bit of a mess...

Yep, that's real blood. I blame the brambles...

I decide to hose my shoes off and balance precariously in the flower bed whilst hosing my tootsies with ice cold water.

It has since been pointed out to me that it would be easier if I took the shoes off... But, hey, since when was 'easy' any fun?!

Ice Cream Sian and I are very pleased with ourselves. We have two goals for this coming week:-

1. Get Ice Cream Sian some not-so-slippy running shoes.

2. Prepare ourselves for next weekend. Having been euphoric that we beat our time from last week, the slow realisation has dawned that next week Fit Mark (now also known as Sergeant Major Mark) will expect us to run quicker again.

Eek.