We had our customary early morning start - 7.45am. It is rather lovely running past houses knowing that other people haven't even got up yet. Well, ok, that would usually be me at the weekend... Ice Cream Sian can't make our run because she has just got Too Much On with children and Eisteddfods and parlours and Stuff, so it's just Fit Mark and me. Fit Mark turns up complete with rucksack - oh great, I'm so slow he's now bringing luggage ... He says it's his liquid pack to drink from - sort of tube effort that means he doesn't have to stop to drink (hell, that's one of my best reasons for stopping!) He says he's surprised that I haven't brought a drink as we're running further than ever before. Bummer - didn't think of that...
He has said that this will be a 9k run ending up at Ice Cream Sian's house. Except she's not with us, so we'll run straight past it back to mine - that'll be 10k then. Eek. He says it's 'mostly flat'. We live in the Welsh valleys - 'flat' is a relative term...
We set off along the valley and it is 'mostly flat'. It's lovely - blue sky, green soft grass, gentle primroses and a happy smiling Sarah...
Fit Mark says he has a surprise for me - I guess at 'armchair', 'downhill' or 'wading across a river' but I'm wrong on all counts. Just after 4k we stop to go through a gate (tip of the week: pretend you can't open it - really good for at least 10 seconds breather) he tells me to open up his rucksack - he's brought me a drink! Aw, bless...And then I find out why... just after 5k we turn up a concrete drive which leads to a very steep hill through woodland. It is uphill for exactly 1k. And it climbs 100m. Good grief! That's a 10% hill then!
Early promise of bluebells, a whiff of wild garlic, blue sky, soft leaves underneath and a wheezing gurning Sarah...
And yes, I did take my pink top off whilst running up the hill - it distracted me for at least 20m while I got it stuck on my head... Fit Mark christened the hill The Tardis - because it's bigger than it looks. Actually, it looked pretty big.
After The Tardis anything else was a doddle - down a bit, up a bit, along a bit, down through muddy forests, across fields, stream and back down the fields to home... discussions included beer, beer and, er, beer.
And we did it! 10k! Actually, as you'll see from the clever watch thingy - 10.06k! Yay! So of course Fit Mark took a picture - with added graphics!
Rather astonishingly, the time was 1.22 (that's one HOUR 22 mins), just 2 minutes slower than last week's 8.6k. Amazing. Not quite sure how that happened, except that it was 'mostly flat'.
And this is me celebrating my first 10k! I was SO pleased... And look, still upright!
Obviously now I'm a proper runner I have to do serious training, so I'm currently on my way to Lanzarote for warm weather training... or 'holiday' as Guy puts it. We've left the house-sitters looking after my mud running boots and the animals, but I have packed trainers, swimsuit and running gear...
There's rather a fine hill opposite the hotel...
Guy says he'll take a picture from his lounger...
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