Nine miles of misery and elation.

Now, other things have happened. We had a dinner party that was 4 days work, and seemed to work well for all. TheO covered the whole menu and shebang on her blog, and I am left to witter on about my god foresaken running.

Last week I did manage to fit in a quick 5k. It was 28.29 for the whole thing which pleased me greatly. However it was just fitted in between cooking and cleaning. (Mostly cooking and daily trips to see Mr Tesco.) We also took a trip to see Blarney and Spartan and babybelle - Blarney was in sore need of a massage and I fulfilled my role as kitchen assistant (not that I did much, Spartan cooked up a storm) and baby holder.

Now, I'm still trying quite desperately to pick up the miles in search of the Island Half. - which may morph into the Island 10K. So after a wonderfully relaxing Sat where we went mushroom hunting with a neighbour in a secret location - many good eatings were found and RF made them into a risotto that evening; post mushroom hunting we headed for a spot of lunch, then a wander round a fabulous little garden. A nice way to chill out post lots of cooking - and I only had a tiny hangover.

So relaxing and eating of leftovers was not necessarily the best preparation for a long run, but as that's what I had to work with, better to at least try.

Can best be described as: worst run ever. I took a new route as I needed to do a point to point run where there was a real destination rather than just building up the miles by heading up and down the same old roads. Sadly the route I chose (and had been warned off by TheO) was a very, very busy road. The verges looked like green pavements BUT the paths were all blocked and rough with huge divets and very long grass. Shoes were soaked in no time and I had to walk over the worst bits. This was followed by a torrential rain storm where it got so bad I couldn't see - but at that point the endorphins kicked in and this crazy, under-dressed runner was running though woods on a trail yelling "bring it on" - I may have seemed crazy but it was a very good moment. I felt like I'd defeated whatever nature was trying to thow at me. I hope that someone out there knows what I mean. I know it was all endorphins, but at least they did kick in.
9 miles and I felt I could have run further, but not a surprise as I was sooooo slow.

9miles, 1.42.29
avg 11.23 - noooooooooo

9.55
10.30
10.49 end of mile 3 the paths ended - and don't the times reflect that?
11.51 and then it started raining
11.48 and then it got dark under the trees
13.19 I finally went off road and through a woodlnd path - very rolling and there were bits of up hill walking in rain so heavy I could barely see
11.57 - still off road but getting back into my stride
11.04 - finally back on pavements and roads
11.13 - cannot be forgiven in time terms, BUT I was soaked to the skin and I swear my trainers weighed about 2stone each.

Luckily not hurting today but even before the run my knee has started to click (not painfully, just loudly) whenever I walk upstairs. Thanks body - that's the reminder of age I needed! Pah!