Trans-alpine challenge by doc_s

Oh dear, I feel like a fraud, I am sitting here with wee pink cheeks, all shame-faced and embarrassed. I apologise sincerely, for my grumbles, moans and pleas for sympathy re my tired legs, pain and slow pace, clearly it was a scam as I set a new PB at helensburgh half-marathon. I left my garmin and racing flats at home, and decided to treat the race as a training run and a  box-ticking exercise to complete my club championship. I was feeling a bit queasy before the start as I had swapped my usual breakfast for toast and peanut butter and jam, which i normally like but not at 7am. I had decided to implement the no-dairy and immodium regime to see if it helped my stomach and I must say I wasn't feeling too clever before we set off.

When the horn blew I just trotted off at a comfortable pace but I found it really difficult to judge what pace I was running at without my garmin. At about 3 miles I was overtalken by another Bella team mate and I was surprised to see her as I thought she would have charged off at the start, as she is a very strong runner. Starting to feel a bit boyed by the sight of her I quickly deflated as I was overtaken by another two women. One lady I recgnised as she has frequently beaten me, albeit narrowly, in the past, and I was determined not to just let them trot off into the distance so I decided, on the proviso that I still felt comfortable, to just tuck in behind her as then I knew I would be running at a steady pace. We stayed like that for the next 3 miles or so, the other girl pulled ahead. I had been told before the route was flat (it's not, it is 'undulating' grrr) and it was a loop so around 6 miles we had just passed some of the runners heading out, which meant a few cheers of encouragement from other Bella fellas and babes, not to mention the peace protesters outside Faslane. This always lifts my spuirits and it gave me a crilliant boost and as we turned a corner I suddenly thought 'come on girl, you can put a bit of effort into it' and out of nowhere I just felt an incredible burst of energy, my tired stiff wee legs could suddenly stride freely and away I went. As I passed the other lady, I heard a guy running with her say 'don't worry, you'll get her in no time'. 'Oh aye, is that right?' I thought to myself, I was glad he said that because it made me even more determined to get moving.

The difference all these crazy long training sessions have made is it takes me about 5 miles to warm up now but as everyone else is fading, I'm just getting going. So the next few miles were very satisfying as I felt that old familiar power return (albeit briefly) to my limbs and I picked off fellow competitors. I managed to pass a total of 4 women, finally catching back up to Debbie, my fellow Bella lady, who had passed me at the start and had been a distant speck on the horizon. I did start to feel the pace around mile 11 but by that time I knew I was on the home straight and just had to hang on for the finish. Although the official results aren't out yet I think my time is about 1 hour 27 mins and 30 secs, knocking about 1 minute off my PB and coming in 4th lady overall. I am absolutely delighted as it has given me a real psychological boost and even with a training run the day before, I still managed a good run and I can see the training must be paying off. My stomach was absolutely fine, although I don't know if it was the lack of dairy or the immodium that did the trick. this is the problem- too many variables to be able to really work out what is going on but fingers crossed it continues like this.

Even better, there is an article about the trans-alps in todays newspaper and I got a phone-call this morning asking me to go into Radio Clyde tomorrow as they want to cover the story. Overall a brilliant weekend and with 9 hours sleep under my belt I feel like a new woman today.

I hope you all had a great running weekend x