Skip to main content

Back In The Game!

Flitwick 10K

I hate the word ‘undulating’. Just say ‘hilly’ so that we can all mentally prepare for a race that mainly consists of hills. Magic hills that seem to go up and up but never come down! Flitwick 10k was one of these races. The hills weren’t massive but the 2-3k sections of a steady incline were not my favourite. 
It has been two weeks since the Brighton Marathon and one week since me and Raf nearly repeated the Marathon distance walking around Disneyworld. I tried to start running again on Monday but had to stop after two miles due to pain in my knee. Luckily I had an appointment with the physio that afternoon and so she suggested that resting it for a week should help. My rib injury has massively improved and whilst I still haven’t got my full lung capacity back, I am in hardly any pain now and not dependant on painkillers.
So I hesitantly signed up for the Flitwick 10k on Friday as I had been leaving it as long as possible to see how my knee was doing. I decided that I needed to keep running to get me towards my 300km goal even if I did it slowly. I taped up my knee and set off in the rain this morning round the ‘scenic and undulating’ course which I struggled with in the first mile or so with the steady inclines. But then I seemed to warm up a bit and felt a lot stronger than I had at the start and managed to get quicker and quicker with every mile I completed. I think it helped knowing I was only running 6.2 miles instead of 26.2 miles! I started the race running at 10:08 minute miles and ended at 9:02 and crossed the finish line at 56:24. It isn’t my fastest 10k but I was happy that I was able to run at a much faster pace than I have been able to in the past two months. I had started the race with a goal of running under one hour and with a secret hope of running 58 mins. And so I am extremely happy with my time and hopeful that my training is back on track!

Thank you to all my sponsors from the past two weeks: Didde Bjerglund-Martin, Wilf Francis and Ashley Berglund Buscanera. I am now officially at the half way stage of my fundraising. Woo hoo!

If you are able to donate then please visit my fundraising page at:

KM Complete: 135KM
KM To Go: 165KM


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It was raining.....

I completed the first 5k of my challenge on Saturday at Bedford Parkrun. It was raining....a lot! So I managed to drag my freezing cold and wet behind around the course in 29:24 placing 233rd out of 418. Not my best time but definitely a good place to start. I am planning on doing the Parkrun every month this year and hopefully with some more training and some better weather I will look less of a mess than I do in this picture! Please visit my fundraising page and help support me in this challenge. I am still looking for that first donor to get me started. Will you be the first??   https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HelenFrancis10
Post a Comment
Read more

Half Marathon Success

Slightly red faced after the Hampton Court Half Marathon This morning I had the pleasure of getting up at 5:30am and travelling to Hampton Court  for my first half marathon of the challenge. It was absolutely freezing when we arrived but by the time the race started the sun had come out and it was perfect running conditions. Despite arriving only thirty minutes before the gun went off and navigating my way through the insanely long lines for the toilets, I was ready to go at 8:30 am and start my run around the Thames Ditton area accompanied by a slightly wheezy Batman and a gentleman who loudly shouted encouragement to himself when things got tough! The first half of the race was fairly sedate but I managed to push through the second half and storm down the finish coming in at 2:03:32 which was over ten minutes faster than my current PB. Woo hoo! It only got better when I looked into my goody bag and discovered a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer! That made all the pain worth it. The hour an
Post a Comment
Read more

Wish Me Luck, I’m Going to Need It!

It has been a really tough month in my marathon training and I am hoping my luck will change NOW! After the success of the Hampton Court Half Marathon I unfortunately had to take nine days off training due to a bad cold. Whilst I was annoyed that I was ill I thought “Well at least I am getting the illness over with now” I was wrong! Raring to go after my forced rest the Beast from the East had me running in -4 temperatures and forcing me into the gym to run on the treadmill which I absolutely hate. I managed to get out and run 16 miles once the snow had melted before being hit with the flu on Mother’s Day. We are 13 days on from then and I still have a chesty cough and have managed to pull the muscles around my ribs from coughing which is painful to say the least. Tomorrow is the Bedford 20. ‘20 Miles of Magic’ supposedly although I am currently sceptical! So what do I do? Should I withdraw from the race because running probably isn’t the best idea right now or should I give it a go
Post a Comment
Read more