Wrexham 20

It’s been a while since my last blog, 4 months to be exact, so without further ado…

Russell wants a drone. Like in his dreams. Literally. Russell does a lot of dreaming, especially during high millage training. What else is there to do, on a treadmill, in the basement, staring at a spot on the chipboard on the wall? He wants to have this drone follow him descending Snowdon. Which would make great footage. And he can back up the vanity of it. He has had one of the fastest descents in the International Snowdon Race for the past couple of years (not that anyone’s counting).

The drone footage isn’t of great interest to me. If I haven’t actually seen him run down all the parts of the descent, I’ve seen it as clear as day in my mind. I know his running style; I know where he holds his arms, and how he holds his hands, I know what his foot looks like in every stage of a single stride. I know what facial expression he has. I pretty much know what he’s thinking. I’ve seen him do ‘fast foot drill’ on the track enough times to know that it looks the same at times. When it comes to Snowdon downhill, I even know what song is in his head. Every time.

I’d like to say I’ve been to enough races to know my way around Russell. And myself. But I’m in the dark almost every time. I find it shocking that I can’t confidently predict a thing. More often than not, I’m waiting for him (or whoever) to emerge; round a corner, up over a hill. My heart is in my throat. I can’t swallow properly. I can’t sit/stand still. I know how much he wants this. And so I want it too. Sometimes I’m next to a marshal with a radio who might be able to give me a heads up. But information is normally scant and unreliable. I can’t trust anything until I actually see him or hear from him, across the finish line. It’s not much relief if he’s in the lead, anything can happen. It’s worse though, if he’s not; he has to make something happen. So when he wins, it’s a great reflection of all the weeks, months, years of hard work and dedication, the blood, sweat and tears. But that doesn’t necessarily stop him bemoaning a slow time or saying ‘that guy shouldn’t be anywhere NEAR me’. Stats have to be checked. I never get into the celebratory spirit until we’ve debriefed (and I never trust the debrief until it’s just the two of us). If he loses, it’s sometimes justified, sometimes damn bad luck, organiser incompetence, (I can’t even TALK/THINK/WRITE about the Bear Grylls Survival Race 2015 without feeling sick to my stomach) misfortune…or he got lost. Or he’ll say ‘considering everything, I’ll take that’.

So I’m prone to think that experience, and MOTHERHOOD, have toned emotions down for me a bit. You’ve got to roll with the punches a bit more. And in the event of something going wrong, it’s not right for us both to feel like we’ve had our lights punched out, surely. I’m generally on too little sleep to handle that. The kids might be hungry, tired or need the toilet and this seems to take over with its own evolutionary force.

I know how I’m going to feel at mile 25 on 22^nd April. Sweating, scared, silent. F***ing invested.

Nina X

Best non-running related highlight of the week

Take el and Jim swimming by myself on Friday, and then for jam donuts after. We have a brilliant time, and Nina is happy to have the free time, so everyone wins.

Best thing on the internet this week:

such a classy video, I LOVE white trainers and I LOVE the Cloud X. So it looks like I have found my London Marathon shoe…

 

Thing I’m digging this week:

Re-reading Charlie Spedding’s autobiography (bronze medal 1980 Olympic Marathon, current England record holder 2hrs08), full of so many gems…

“the minimum requirement to achieve something, is to believe that it is possible”

“if you don’t believe the mind is the most important factor in athletic performance – it is quite simple, you are wrong”

“I would often have cars tooting their horns at me. I would either ignore them, or simply indicate that I had two miles left to run”

5/3/2018	AM	PM
Monday	7tm	REST
Sposed to do 10, but don’t wake up early enough
Tuesday	5tm	2 miles @5.40 pace. 1km (2min rest) 600m (2min rest) 400m (5min rest) x3 @2.58 km pace. 1xmile – 5.38. 10 miles total
1st session since pulled ham here 2 weeks ago. No pain at all very relieved!
Wednesday	5tm	10tm
Thursday	5tm	10tm
Friday	REST	10tm
calves tight AM, wake up 6am, stretch them out, go back to bed!
Saturday	Dolgellau Park Run – 16.52. 13 miles total	volunteer at RunCoedYBrenin Academi
Sunday	Wrexham 20 – 1st. 1.56.45. 25 miles total
Ham feels great. Pace training partner Ryan to mile 15, then try and pick up
TOTAL:	100 miles	tm = treadmill