Race: Trafford 10k
Distance: 10k
Date: 2nd September 2018
Supporting Runners: Nanci Henderson & Tim Gough
Fundraising to date: £4,851
Finishing Time: 00:56:58
In 8 weeks time, I’ll have landed in New York, awaiting the grand finale of the 30for30 challenge – the NYC marathon.
It is safe to say that the panic is setting in hard.
I could have all of the time in the world to prepare for something, yet I’d always be scrambling at the last minute.
When I signed up for the New York Marathon last November, I had dreams of running 15-20mile training runs over July and August, being well prepared and hardly phased by the challenge ahead.
Since the day I signed up, the furthest I have been used to running has stood still at a half marathon…until last Saturday.
There’s loads of excuses:
- the heatwave
- busy
- social life
- moving out
- tired
- no time
I think I underestimated the fact that at this late stage I need to train, alongside run races at weekends to make up for the 30 – which means every.single.weekend when someone asks “what you up to”, the answer is always ‘running’ 🙄 I’m even getting bored of myself.
So the weekend just gone, for race 26: Trafford 10k, I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and run there and back in a bid to do my longest training run yet…
Trafford 10k was another race that was rescheduled due to the blizzard-like conditions 6months ago.
The start line is in Partington (near Dunham), just 4miles away from my place.
My friend Nanci messaged me in the week to ask what time we were meeting and I told her of my plan to run there and back. She said she would do the same… u ok hun
I thought she must have been mad but went along with it as I was secretly glad to have the company (we discussed injury risk etc. and she told me she’d recently ran 12miles and felt up for it)
We met at mine that morning and off we went on part 1 of our feat.
It was quite a nice plod on the country lanes – For this kind of distance, slowness is your friend and we didn’t care about time. Apart from the small requirement to get there for the start of the race…
We got there and merged in with the other runners that were warming up, oblivious that our warm up had been almost as long as the race itself.
The race…
I managed to spot my other supporting runner, Tim, at the start line where we had some rushed “good luck, what time you going for” chat. And away we went.
Nanci and I stuck with each other again for the actual race – it was mentally very challenging to set off on this ‘race’, knowing that when we crossed the finish line (which wasn’t our ultimate finish line) we’d have ran over 10miles.
We kept on being over taken. Anyone that has kept up with the blogs will know that this doesn’t do well for me during races. I always try and be the ‘over-takee’ by starting further back, to selfishly give me that mental kick.
Throughout the race, I recognised a lady near to us – A blogger from around Manchester who I’ve seen on the internet. I preoccupied myself with trying to remember her blog name, and telling Nanci (who I don’t think cared at this point), but it was driving me mad.
I finally heard someone shout “go on totes” and realised that it was Totes Inappropes, prolific blogger of all things parenting, fashion, running and also creator of group ‘run bitch run’.
I made a mental note to try and keep up and say hello after the race – you know, networking and talking about running and stuff.
We finished the 10k race/10mile stint and immediately downed our water and had our energy gels ready for the final section.
Tim met us with his lovely family who had made personalised signs to cheer him on (no one in my family has made any signs for me yet *cough* hint)
I dumped my finishing bag of things with Tim to bring to work the next day, and it was time to get going.
I quickly fan girled over to totes to say hello, get a pic and tell her about what I’ve been up to. Turns out her and her running partner had also ran to the race to train for the Loch Ness Marathon and were running back the same way as us. It was great to meet new people that were as equally mad as us, and we all started running together for the final stretch.
Pace differences made us go our separate ways after a while and Nanci and I trudged on home. We made it back to mine after about 3 hours since leaving and 15 long miles in the legs, sporting our 10k medals.
We sat down on the steps by my place, trying to recover when we saw totes and friend again! After another quick chat and selfie, we let them get on their way to complete their own 20 mile training run whilst we went home and downed our complimentary rehydrating electrolyte tablets 💪
The hefty, 3 part run made me feel a load better and also a kick up the bum to do more of the same over the next 8 weeks. After that, I promise when someone asks me “what are you doing this weekend”, I’ll have some far more entertaining answers…
By now, everyone knows my views on running and the range of benefits (predominantly for better mental health). Over the next weeks I’ll be hammering this home and retelling the stories about the charities I have chosen to support as we enter the FINAL FOUR races.
A new benefit to think about: despite being an activity that you take part in on your own, running can be such a social sport. It was great to do this race with Nanci and Tim, but also to meet new people to run home with.
If you run on your own but want to share stories or get inspiration from others, then definitely check out the run bitch run Facebook group.
Really excited that this weekend I will be doing the Great North Run in Newcastle! I bagged a place through MIND so will be wearing my charity vest. This will be race number 27, if you’d like to sponsor please visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaBramwell2
30 for 30 