The Unintentional 10k

Over Christmas I unintentionally run a 10k, quite a surprising feat and if someone had said to me before hand that I would have done it, I would have laughed. And then laughed some more!

I am not a runner - I don't really have the physique for it. I have tried bouts of jogging in the past because I've read that it's good for you, others have told me how much they enjoyed it blah, blah, blah. Each of these attempts have been short lived, long enough to see some improvement but I've never had the motivation to keep it up. For some reason I prefer the gym. I am one of those who will go regularly and use the membership.

This year I went back to the UK for the holidays and so going to the gym wasn't going to happen. I did want to continue exercising though and so packed my trainers as jogging is the easiest form of exercise to do when traveling.

I got to see the fields and very muddy lanes of Essex, the towpath of the Grand Union Canal through West London (jogging round the puddles), the damp and muddy lanes of rural Cornwall and the damp looking housing developments of East Sussex (it rained a lot during my trip).

In Cornwall my Bro-in-Law (BiL) got the map out and showed me a route I could do that took him about 20 minutes on a bike. So on Boxing Day morning I got up and out I went, past the fish and chip shop, the the pawn shop, past the village school and out into the countryside. And I went on and on, then on some more, and a bit more, and then some more, begining to think to myself 'He must be bloody fast if this takes him 20 mins on a bike.' and finally saw a sign saying it was a mile to the next village, which I new wasn't on the route.

Being boxing day morning, the village was really quiet but fortunately I did find someone who gave me directions and so on I went and on some more. I was very relieved to see the church spire and know I was on the back. By this point I was doing interval training and walking up the hills and jogging the flat and the downhill and whenever a car came past.

There were times when I was thinking I was going to get lost and die in the Cornish countryside, other points when I thought that if I was reasonably coping with this type of distance maybe I could train properly and do a 10k.

When I got back to my sister's I collapsed on the chair, well normally my jogs last for about 30 mins not 1hr and 20 mins. BiL got the map out and it appeared that I'd missed a turning just out of the village and actually came back along the road I should have gone out on. The perils of reading a map when slightly unsober on Christmas Night!

That evening we went round to some of their friends and BiL was telling them about my run that morning and they said that it actually was the route of the village 10k. I was impressed with myself - a 10k with no training, well done girl!

For a couple more days I entertained the thought of training for a 10k, and getting the time down to an hour. Then I got back to France and have been going to the gym again and the motivation to go out in the cold and the rain and pound the pavements just isn't there.