Club Run

 Hi blog readers.

I don't want to say anything to loud, but look!  Another blog! Shhh, we don't want to frighten it away!  I had already 'prepped' my team at work, that if we had just a few kids then I will be leaving early, to get to club run.  Mind you, it's been quite a while since I got away during school term to run with the club, I almost thought, "I'm tired, maybe let one of the others go early instead"  I mean, my mind still thinks that this is the norm now, work = no run, school half terms = run.  Muscle memory, right, (is a brain a muscle... I should have paid attention in biology class).   

Anyway, I completed another run yesterday, with my club.  I wasn't leading, Tara was.  She had planned a route that she hadn't done before, it's always good to try new routes, keep things fresh.  There we 6 of us, Tara leading, J.J. who also hasn't been running for ages, Tina, Lesley and Mary.  Thank goodness Tara is quite happy to stick with the 60 60 routine that we have been doing!

We started off walking, well the carpark is quite dark, and there is this huge pothole just as we need to go through ally way, not as big as one in Godstone, but still an ankle snapping size hole!  Once out on to the roads Tara lead us up Birchwood! Up Birchwood! The first of a few hills!  My mantra, which I used to tell everyone to say while running up hills, just would not pop into my head.  "I hate hills!" is my new mantra.  Fortunately we are doing the 60 60, so we didn't have to run up the whole hill!

Once at the top we turned left.  It looked like we were doing one of my routes, but Tara did say that we were heading toward Leesons Hill, so maybe there will be another road that we will be turning down instead of the one I usually do. I was feeling pretty comfortable, the group were all still together, we were all running at the same pace.  That makes a change!  Usually group 1 is quite a diversity of runners.  But were have had some injuries and illnesses and work issues keeping us away from running!

We turned down Mapling Road, deffo still one of my routes, we turned left at the end of that, yup, deffo one that I have taken group 1 on.  But then instead of taking the next right we carried on straight.  Well, that's new.  This should be interesting.  Of course, now I am just following blindly, just 'enjoying' I want to say, the run.  The enjoyment was of course just being with my pals, my mantra, my new mantra, " I hate running" still escapes my lips.  

I can't really remember the 'lefts and rights' that we did, but I do remember the hills!  Tara did warn us there were a 'couple of little' lifts in the route, it's what we expect in Petts Wood.  There is always a 'little lift' somewhere on our routes, even on the flattest route.  What we didn't expect, not even Tara was to go slighty awry from where she had planned!  And guess what?  There was an unexpected hill involved! Oh well, there are supposed to be good, right!  We had ended up at St Mary Cray station! 

On our 60 second runs, some of them last just as we got to the foot of some of the ups, also some of them started as we were walking up the hills!  Boy, did I not like that!  I said out loud at one point "ok, run everyone, but I'm walking"  Tara said "Come on Old Girl, you got this!" Sigh, so I ran, but just not all of them.

We kept to the 60 60 mostly, all the way to the rec.  There were a few times I missed the start of a run, or, surprisingly the start of the walking bit, can you believe that!  I even suggested that once we were running back down Birchwood, we should ignore the 60 60 and and just see how we all do on the downhill. Me, I said that.  Maybe mojo is just peaking out from where ever it is hiding to remind me that I actually enjoy running!  It's good for you, it's free, it's mind easing exercise.  Plus with a club you get tons of friends and encouragement and banter and a whole lot of stuff!  What's not to like!