Hello blog readers!
It's school half term, woo hoo! It's means I can do what I love doing and that's leading! They only bit I don't like is running! Wait. No, I don't mean it, not really! I hate running, it's hard work! I'm over weight, I'm old, I'm slow!
Hang about!
For the past 17 years, I have been doing something I hate? Nobody does something voluntarily if they don't like it, surely? Don't make sense to me. I must....love it ....really! It's true. I complain like mad about it, I make excuses for my 'poor performance' and in my humble opinion, there is NO poor performance! But I look at what it's brought me, tons of new friends, a great club to belong to, fitness! Medals!! Gawd knows what I would be like now if I didn't do the running!
So no, I don't hate running, I love it really, but blimmin eck it's getting harder as I get older! But after 17 years of running, 15 years of that with the club, there is no way I am giving up! When I am leading it just seems to make the run that little bit more enjoyable. Moans and groans over, and excuses, back to the club run.
I was in two minds on which route I would take, It had been raining for hours during the day. Should I do the woods? It was quite breezy as well, could I lead them safely through the woods without a branch coming down! I think risk assessment is getting in my way of fun these days, its been instilled in my brain from school! But still, it could be a tad slippy. I know we had a few coming back from injury, also a new member joining us for the first time, as well as J.J. She don't do mud, or rain, so the roads it was.
I chose the easy route, with just a couple of little bumps in there. Of course the first one is more or less straight away, as we run down Crossways towards Petts Wood. It's that lovely little hill of Kingswood, just a small hump really...she says trying to convince herself! There were eight of us that left the rec, but by the time we got up the hill another runner joined us. Another runner who usually runs in group 5! I was thinking 'She's gonna find us a challenge to keep 'up' with!" And with that I mean, we are a slower running group, we are also still doing the 60 60 Jeffing! It's quite challenging to run with a slower paced runner if you naturally run at a faster pace! But it was lovely having Jane with us, it's good to run with others from our club! As I said to Jane, it's not as if we can go and fun in the faster groups just to mingle and get to know the other runners!
That hill always getting me, it seems to stretch out as you're running up it! Like in the movies, where the corridor seems to run away from you. With the Jeffing though I got up it, along with the other 8 other runners. That hill done, the rest of the way to the middle of Shepperton is on the flat! Perfect. I was leading from the back when we got over the other side of the rail bridge, just like a leader in the wolf pack.
Well you get the drift. Not that I am the alpha! And that's my excuse for being at the back, at that time. The fact that I was still getting my breath back from getting up the blimmin hill has nothing to do with it!
We turned right once we got through the carpark and ran around this little road until we were back on to Southborough road. That's when I took the lead back in front. Well, kind of everyone said "Go on Old Girl, get back in the front!"
We headed across Southborough Road and down Crescent Drive all the way around to Shepperton. Now for the nice down hill bit again. I like this bit....until it goes back up again. We kept to the format that, 60 60 and we were all together too, it wasn't stretched out as it has been on some of our group 1 runs. Of course, that means that there is no waiting, no stopping for catch-ups, we just kept plodding along!
The last hill, that's the last bit of Shepperton! It don't look like much of a hill, not when you're in a car, but running up it, that's a different story! Once we were up the top of the hill, it's all flat again. Beautiful! We turned right to run up the little round about and then crossed over the road to turn left, over the bridge and then a quick left turn into Beaumont. You just know when you on this stretch of the road it's all heading back to the rec. Run done. Time to smile and say "Yes, I done it!" It didn't take us too long on this road, especially as it is a slight downhill in our favour. Back to the rec for some cool down stretches, where our numbers grew by another three, as group 2 had just finished their run and joined in with our stretches.
Another run done! And look...another blog blogged! Two in one day! I forgot to take a picture of all of us together after the run, but remembered just as I got to my car so captured a picture of me and J.J. just to show that we worked hard.
I forgot to take a pictur
