Run # 5 - Part I
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- Category: The Runs
- Published on Sunday, 06 November 2011 22:48
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Run #5 – A sticky affair
I completed run # 5 on Saturday, 05 November 2011 in approximately 1 hour and 44 minutes. It was indeed a sticky matter and the richest of the 5 runs; so rich that it is likely to require more than one article. Apart from 'A Sticky affair', 4 other topics came to mind while thinking about writing an entry for this run:
· Beyond the pain barrier
· The zone beyond the zone
· The loop
· Runners in the mist
I will try to write 4 additional entries about this run, one for each of the 4 topics above.
This run was gruelling because it was very sticky, and slippery, affair. Run # 5 took me again back to Epsom Common. As I run towards the Common I started to wonder about the state of the tracks and bridleways after the copious rain that had fallen earlier in the week. Unsurprisingly, the answer was that several sections of the tracks and bridleways I usually run through were muddy, which made them both sticky and slippery. Thankfully I never lost my footing; although I would never describe myself as sure footed; but the stickiness made the going very hard and required lifting my feet more than usual; the result, most gruelling run to date; it wasn't exhausting, like previous runs, it was just hard going; but I must admit it was, to a point, also fun. During the run I experienced for the first time in many years the zone beyond the zone; this was not the first time I experienced the zone beyond the zone but the last time I had a similar experience was many years ago when I was a young man that used to cycle and play tennis regularly, often daily. Let's sticky to the stickiness, and I would write about the zone beyond the zone in a separate entry.
You may ask why I am so sure it was so gruelling. The answer is indeed quite simple: I normally carry with be a bottle of water and this was the first run during which not only I drunk all its contents but I wished I have had more water with me. Unfortunately I had to wait until I got back home!! This was also the 1st time I walked back home, instead of running, after completing the 10.8 kilometres; quite simply I could not keep running.
The 5th run was without any doubts also the first autumn/winter run, it was both cold and misty day, even in the early hours of the afternoon. I started the race around 12:30pm and it took me nearly 40 minutes to warm up, which did not help my muscle pains. In the end I realised that the only way to keep warm and overcome the sticky and slippery terrain was to increase the pace and run a more effortful run that I had initially planned. I felt so cold that I was slightly baffled when another runner wearing just shorts and t-shirt overtook in uphill stretch which thanks to the stickiness of the track felt steeper than usual.
After this run, one thing is clear. I may need to find an alternative circuit for the next 5 runs because the tracks and briddleways in Epsom Common are bound to get more treacherous as the autumn rainfall continues. Perhaps it is the time to try running in one the many great London parks.
Curiously, this time I did not encounter any friendly dogs. This, of course, does not mean I did not encounter any dogs; perhaps, during this run, I came across more dogs than in any of the previous runs. But either the dogs were not interested in me and my toy-looking bottle of water or we just blissfully (and respectfully) ignored each other. I must admit that the state of the terrain, soaked with rain water, was too tricky to pay too much attention to any dogs or their owners. I just managed to exchanged the usual pleasantries with a fellow runner and with a cyclist.