11/11/19 – Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

In an effort to let our bodies recover at a natural pace, it’s fair to say that training has been fairly light for both of us since the Yorkshire Marathon.
Aside from Saturday parkrunning, I’ve been pretty much sticking to my mile a day, mainly at a fairly easy pace. Sue has been running for 30 minutes a couple of times a week. Hill training has become a bit of a tradition on Thursdays over the last six months, so we’ve been keeping that going too.

Crease Park is just around the corner from us and it has a heartrate-raising incline on a hard, albeit uneven, tarmac surface. We run up to the top, then circle around the streets back to the start, rather than just running straight back down. The challenge comes in seeing how many times we can do the hill in 30 minutes. My record is eight and Sue’s is six. The actual distance achieved in 30 mins is equally important. Sue is average is about 2.4 miles, with her best being 2.5. My average is 2.85, my best topped out at 3.07 miles – tantalisingly short of 5k.

Hill work is decent prep for what is traditionally our last formal distance outing of the calendar year: the undulating Beckenham 10K Trail race held on Remembrance Sunday. Sue is keen to do a Santa Run and has been badgering me for years, but Mr Grinch’s resistance to this idea has yet to be broken.

After an unwelcome course change last year, we had considered not entering, however were tempted back when they decided to go back to the original course. Although it was a bright morning, the weather the day before had been truly filthy; the mud was down and deep. Even getting to the start at the top of the hill proved to be slippery issue.

As it turned out the course was slightly different from the one that had been used prior to 2018. Thankfully, a section that involved a mad steep scramble up the railway embankment has been replaced with a more sensible path to the bridge. It always seemed to me to be an accident waiting to happen, as slower runners like myself would find themselves hauling themselves up with their hands, using tree roots and branches for extra purchase. On an ultra-greasy surface, like yesterday, I suspect any attempt at ascent would have ended in tears and a very soggy bottom.

Neither of our finishing times were particularly quick, on account of the mud, but at least the course was much more enjoyable than the previous year. Sue made a pal halfway ’round and they ran together for the second lap. She still managed to beat last year’s time, though. I found it quite tough but managed to come in around 1:05 which was just above my average for that race.

This race felt like the first step on our next Marathon journey and as such we were both left the run pretty happy with our efforts, but in dire need of a shower.