Chislehurst Chase

After last Sunday's first foray back into running I managed another 4 mile run on Thursday evening. It was a beautiful evening and I got home from work early enough such that I was able to do half the run out in the countryside. In fact my intention was only to do a short trip into the fields and then home but I felt so good plodding along that I extended my route and took the long way home around the roads. A very positive run! I also went to a Bodybalance class on Saturday.

However this probably wasn't sufficient training for yesterday's Chislehurst Chase - a new 10k race around Scadbury Park and Chislehurst Common. The organisation was somewhat chaotic but they eventually managed to clear the road for the start and we headed off along the road for a short distance before turning off into the woods. The course was basically 2 laps around the nature reserve and although there seemed to be some downhill sections in the first half of the lap the second half seemed to be all uphill and it was tough! After starting out with a good pace I got slower and slower and tried to encourage Mr W, who was running with me, to go on ahead and finish on his own so that I could plod round at my own slow pace. To his credit he didn't leave me and kept up his boot camp instructor style of encouragement for the majority of the course, whilst I moaned and groaned about feeling sick, dizzy and having achy legs.

Eventually we finished the second lap of the nature reserve and were sent off on a short doubling-back section before the finish, at which point I realised that as well as being a hilly course this 10k was actually going to be more like 10.5k. Plus this last section was on the flat so there was no excuse for a sneaky walk up the hill to rest my weary legs...

Finally finished in a rather disappointing 1h 9min - a slower average pace than the Dry Hill 10 - and was left feeling slightly panicked about how I am going to manage to run twice the distance in two weeks time... eek!