Marathon training in full swing!

It's all go!

5th July - I ran my first ever competitive race. Part 1 of the Hyde Park 5k Series. Granted, it was only 5k, but it was 5k in the sweltering heat of summer and I was quite nervous. Especially when I could see just how much of a novice I was compared to most of the runners there. They had the look: running club vests, stopwatches, fancy water bottles, rock hard calves..... you get the picture.

We all shuffled to the starting line and arranged ourselves into what i'd called some sort of pecking order - no point holding back those who would be emulating Road Runner. The horn sounded, and 150 stopwatch buttons were pushed. And then we started running. The rate at which most of the runners advanced from the starting line and away infront of me was like the Big Bang - those at the front just disappeared in a matter of seconds while others set off at a more human pace. I found someone to set my pace to quite quickly - a 74 year old man 10 metres ahead of me. What an inspiration - just muscle, skin and grey hair powering round the park.

I came 14th out of the 42 females in the race. Brilliant!!

And I completed it in a highly respectable 24min30. Which is an 8 minute mile. Not quite Kelly Holmes yet, but there's plenty of time to catch her up.

Onwards and onwards and onwards as they say.

Anna.

http://www.ukresults.net/2006/hyde1.html