I’m not sure what I love more about running at the moment – the dedication of training and drive to dig deep all the way to the glory of a PB or the amazing support and friendship I’ve found from various running groups, clubs and online communities over the last year or so.
Going out and smashing a run is one thing, but sharing that experience with others – seeing each other in to the finish, cheering each other on or picking each other up when our confidence falls; posing for team photos; getting stuck for hours in endless conversations about pacing, shoe porn, races, training woes and triumphs, PBs, chafing and all things in between – it really is magic.
People are magic.
I used to run alone all the time, use it as ‘me time’, to de-stress and clear my head. I’d turn up to a race, run it and go home. I didn’t know about BOSH or #ukrunchat or Arena80 or RunBrighton.
I didn’t know you could volunteer at races or run free weekly 5ks at your local park.
I had no idea about the Sweatshop Run Community or Hove57 Run Club, or BTRS, and I certainly didn’t know about the thousands of other runners all over Brighton and beyond who are just as passionate (and maybe obsessed) with running as I am.
To share something you feel so passionate about with others who feel the same way is just awesome. This is what running’s ALL about.
I can’t be the only one who feels like this, surely?
This year has been just amazing for me in terms of running and fitness – and I’ll bang on about why in another post but for now I just wanted to tell you that I love running and I love people and I love Brighton and I love my new shiny 10k PB (53:15, thankyoupleashe).
A half naked PB…
Thanks to fellow BOSHer Nick Jones for the photo |
I wanted to go for a PB at the Brooks 10k but didn’t wanna tell people in case I couldn’t do it. I’ve only just picked the running back up after my boxing fight and haven’t specifically trained for a 10k PB so I was nervous to announce my intentions to the world.
A friendly nudge from a fellow BOSHer on Twitter did the trick…
Saying it out loud turned it into a proper goal, and suddenly I was really excited but still terrified of failing. Even though it’s just a personal challenge it’s always hard to deal with the disappointment of not making it – so to ease the pressure and just ‘go with it’ a bit I toyed with the idea of going ‘naked’ and not wearing my watch.
Anyone who knows me will know that this is almost as hard a challenge as running the PB itself – I’m such a stats whore and couldn’t bear to not have the race to look back on afterwards, so I did wear it but put a wristband over it and tried my hardest to ignore it throughout the race. Half naked, if you will.
A photo posted by @fitbits_tess on
My previous PB is 54:54 so to get under that I had to run anything under 5:30/km for the whole time. I must’ve looked at my watch about five times in total – which might seem like a lot but for me that’s a massive improvement on the 20-30+ times I would’ve probably looked had it not been covered up.
It didn’t really matter anyway as the bloody thing stopped recording about 1km into the race and I didn’t notice until nearly half way through. So I’ve only got the last four miles of it, but really, who cares – check out my pain face:
This was only 2km in – mayyyybe a little too fast… |
Sprint finish to PB glory |
All I know is that that race was proper hard work. I went out too fast and tried to hang on for dear life but ended up slowing a bit in the middle. There were so many people I knew running their own race and going for their own goals it was great to all be in it together. Everyone ran hard today.
I’ve never ran so hard that I thought I was gonna throw up before though and those last two km were touch and go I can tell you!
The sprint finish nearly killed me and I had to take a couple of minutes after finishing to catch my breath and regain composure before staggering back to my amazing supporters in the finish line funnel.
I’m so chuffed I got it, and even more chuffed it’s a decent PB as I thought I’d only be able to shave a few seconds off. Next stop – sub 50! (Totally leaving that until next year though!)
Sign up for the Brooks 10k
Are you part of any running groups, clubs or online communities? Do you love sharing running with others or are you a solo runner?
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