The pre-very big run big run

3 weeks before RACE DAY a.k.a. THE END you do your longest run, an endurance run, to test your body (and mind) and make sure that it can take being pushed a bit more than say a paltry 16 miles. So on 15th October I got the support team (Mr and Mrs Jaffa) ready: Hollie on the bike, and Andy in the car for course marshalling and energy drink pit-stops. What a team we were. I ran. Hollie pedalled. Jaff read the papers.

I have to say right now that Hollie being by my side was a bloody lifesaver. Not in that I passed out and needed resussitating but she threw a lifeline to my sanity. Yes, it was a gorgeous autumn day, yes I was running through some of Berkshire's finest countryside (and past some of the country's priciest houses) but running can and does get deathly boring when there isn't anything else to do. Whereas gossip is an unending fountain of trivia and entertainment. So we gossiped. Pretty much non-stop for 3 hours and I know it was this and this alone which helped the miles to pass much more quickly. And maybe seeing Jaff's giant bald head shimmer in the distance as we approached each drink pit-stop. I liked that too.

And so yes, 3 hours later it was done. I had reached my training goal of 20 miles and felt phenomenal....every muscle in my lower body ached to the point of exhaustion. The moment I stopped moving my legs seized up. I appeared to have morphed into part jelly part steel. A weird-ass sensation but in a good way nonetheless. Especially compared to blisters and jogger's nipple.

Then all I had to do was drive for 3 hours back to Leeds and then make soup for 30 people. Yes it's coming back to me now....on the seventh day, The Lord ran, drove and made soup.

Well done me. And so the tapering begins.....

Anna xx