Event 14 of #fortyb4forty

It's the bank holiday Easter weekend - and it's raining and windy at the time of writing this. This morning however, the rain held off long enough for me to run a quarter marathon. Now a quarter marathon does sound quite grand to me, I mean a marathon is a challenge, something that is enduring and hard work. The reality is that a quarter marathon is 0.3 miles longer than a 10k distance - 6.55 miles. But I like quarter marathon - it's sounds much more grand.

However, whilst there was no rain in Boscombe this morning, there was certainly wind. And the rolling waves on the beach definitely indicated that it was no mild wind either. Predicted speed had been 40mph. No idea what the reality was.  So the run starts along the promenade - complete exposure to the sea, but not horrendous, but still hard work to keep going. However, once we went up to the road, the wind was a different matter. It felt like it was constantly changing direction- so it could blow me sideways (usually close to the road), or running straight into it, but made it impossible to find the energy to push forward. Sometimes the wind would push me along and I took full advantage of this to make up some time that I had spent walking as the wind literally took my breath away. I definitely walked more and I did wear my watch today. I was really pleased with my time. I practically matched my 10k time from last Sunday (1 second slower today), and came in with a really respectable time.

At times I had to really fight the demons in my head telling me that this was going to be hard, and what was the point. So I needed some distraction. I didn't wear any headphones and I was pretty much alone (as my running buddy I started with was doing a fabulous run and had run ahead). So I was counting each step in increments of 10. No idea why, but it certainly kept me moving and distracted me from the negative voices.

Despite walking so much more that I intended, I am really chuffed with today. I'm so glad it didn't rain as I think I would have been pretty miserable going around. It was a hard race. And it's given me some more confidence about the half marathon which is in 29 days- eeeek!!! I think if I can use a run/walk strategy around I could be okay, and just need to practice the distraction techniques I used today as they really seems to work. Also very thankful that my knee problems I was having last year do not seem to be repeating. Slight niggling, but nothing that is causing a problem. Thankfully I know a sports massage therapist.......