I Conquered the Clash

Well it was a very successful weekend all round - a PB on Saturday and my longest training run to date on Sunday!

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed off to Eltham College for this year's Clash of the Tritons aquathlon. Being quite a slow swimmer and unable to do 500m of front crawl I had an early start time to enable me to go in the nice wide lane they set up at the beginning for those doing breaststroke. The swim went well and I got into a good routine of one length front crawl followed by a 'recovery' length of breaststroke. I also managed to overtake the two other swimmers in my lane which is always a good feeling! Then it was out to the transition area to get my trainers and number belt on for the 5k run. Always difficult to gauge how well you are doing in these things when you're not wearing a watch but my legs felt quite tired and it was quite windy and overcast out - decided half-way round the first lap that I had probably been a bit over-optimistic in grabbing my sunglasses after the swim! Fortunately the marshalls on the course offered great support as I was running round with lots of clapping and cheering, especially the ones just after the bottom of the playing field who were very enthusiastic with their cheers! And so after 20 lengths of the pool and 2 laps of the park, I was finished. But what of my time? Well, the event used chip-timing and very efficiently there was a computer set-up at the end where you could type in your number and get your results immediately and joy of joys, I'd done it in 37 minutes - nearly six minutes faster than last time! :-) Mr W also got a PB and oddly our swim times were identical, although he ran somewhat faster than me. Finished the morning with a post-race sports massage (ouch!) and some yummy cakes.

And so, onto Sunday's sporting efforts.... we were rather late up on Sunday after going to see U2 the night before and so we opted for an early evening run when we were hoping it would be a little cooler. Unfortunately that ploy didn't really pay off but we did have a lovely run from home through Farnborough, past the church, across the fields to Downe, through High Elms and up the horrid steep hill so that we could run down the long footpath along the side of Cudham Lane South, before returning home along the A21 with a short detour along Shire Lane bridleway and past the church again to make up the mileage. Total distance covered was 8.3 miles in just under 90 minutes - the furthest I've run in a long time (probably since the Grim in December 2007, which was as the name implies and took me considerably longer than 90 minutes!)

Haven't run since then but decided I should probably have a rest last night after a race and a long run, plus tonight is the Orpington Road Runners vs. Petts Wood Runners mob match so I wanted to be on fine form for that or at least with enough energy to get round the course without being last!