Flat and Fast for Fun

I’m currently training for a 43 mile race, so perhaps unsurprisingly, “flat” and “fast” aren’t a big part of my training schedule. Long, easy miles dominate, sprinkled with hill and speed sessions. This is to build endurance so that my legs (and my brain) can hold strong for the duration.

However when a friend said she was doing a flat and fast 5 mile race in December, I couldn’t resist joining in. If there’s anything I learnt from training for a 50k race earlier in the year, it’s that I need to keep doing the fun sessions. When I’m out there on the race course hitting multiple walls after hours of pounding the terrain, I need to remember why the hell I’m doing it. During the 50k race, the best answer I could come up with was that I needed to get home somehow. This worked - I completed the race - but a very loud part of my brain believed that instead, I could just live the rest of my life under a nearby bush.

I want a better answer this time. 

So I signed up for the Perivale 5 mile race. I love running 10k and 5 mile races because it’s just long enough to use your brain, but short enough that you can really go at a lick. The kilometres arrive in digestible chunks. A quick bit of maths will tell you whether you’re going to catch up to that woman in the pink leggings (no). But will you overtake the man in the sunglasses before the end? (Yes.)

In the first two kilometres or so, I sat tight in the pace I knew would work, and paid no attention to anyone overtaking me. I smiled to myself. I had time. Most of all, I had experience. As the next few kilometres ticked by and I increased the pace - just a little - I started picking off those people who had flown past me in the beginning. Hey, people have different strategies. All I’m saying is that I know the one that works for me, and I knew I had a devastating kick in store for the final 600 metres. 

It helps that I didn’t care too much about performing well in this race. I really was just there for the fun of it. Running can be really hard. We put pressure on ourselves to do well because we care. But life itself has a lot pressure. Sure, training is a satisfying kind of pressure. But sometimes it’s good to run fast for the sheer fun of it.  

At the end of the race, I met a woman who had run so hard she threw up. She did well, but she looked a bit traumatised. I’m sure when I’ve finished a session of hill repeats I don’t look great either, but that’s just my territory at the moment, and this was hers. 

After this ultra marathon, I’m having a procedure on my cervix which will mean I will be out of running for 6 weeks. (Growth found in routine smear test = ladies, get your smear tests.) Realistically, this means I won’t be back up to speed before April or May. I’m trying to view this as well-deserved recovery time, rather than fearing for my mental and physical health. 

But if there is anything that I should have learned from sitting tight for 5 miles, or holding on for 43 miles, it’s patience. I think I mainly wanted to do this fast race because it will be a while before I’m this fast or strong again. I had such a brilliant time and I hope that memory will keep me going, through the ultra and beyond.