Sunday 21st's run, albeit a little late!

Sorry for the delay in getting this update done. It's been a rather busy week, in case Christmas has totally passed you by! But I now have the log times and the spare time to sit down and right the update.

Last Sunday's run was the last one before Christmas and we wanted to make it a good one before all the chocolate and booze took it's toll. However, I was also on call for work so we weren't sure if I would be able to join Ant or not ahead of time. Thankfully (in a way, as it means less money) I didn't get called out on the Sunday morning, so off we went on the 4 mile cross country run.

As Ant and myself are both asthmatics, running into a freezing cold head wind doesn't do us any favours. So guess what we were running into for most of the 4 miles? That's right, a freezing cold head wind! I didn't think to take a muff/neck warmer or anything like that with me so the left hand side of my neck was getting quite crampy and uncomfortable at times. Just breathing was tough going at some points.

Being so cold also mean the conditions underfoot weren't great either. It hadn't been cold enough to freeze the mud, but just enough to give it a coating of ice. So every soft bit was really cold AND muddy. Which wears thin very, very quickly.

There was one point on the big hill that I was half way thinking that I wasn't going to make it at all and that I'd need to turn back. My laces had come undone, my chest had gone all cold and felt weird but watching Ant run on round the next bend was enough to make me stand, suck it up and get on with it. It's just as well that I'm competitive!

We managed to keep plodding on. Due to it being such hard work, no photos were taken as we were both concentrating on just keeping going. We didn't even speak much for the first time. By the time we made it back to Ant's I was knackered and sure we'd been slow. I was certain we'd gone back above the 50 minute mark, and was bracing myself for a disappointing time.

Some how, that wasn't to be! I was genuinely surprised when Ant said we'd been quicker than the last run and come in at 46 mins 9 secs! This is now my quickest cross country run, and given that it felt so slow and had been such hard work I am really pleased with the time. I am also amazed at the time, but if I can do that time and in such crappy conditions then it can only bode well.