How was your weekend running?

Let me share some hard-earned running wisdom with you: running a 10 mile hilly race on the first warm day in weeks after a day spent consuming almost entirely gin-based nutrition at the Epsom Derby is not going to be a pleasant experience. But hey, at least I won!

Err, some money on the horses, that is. Not the race. Though if it had been a hangover-handicapped race I would definitely have limped to victory. I’m fairly sure I was sweating actual gin by the end. The race was the Dorking 10 and thanks to some rather speedier teammates I can actually claim a win of sorts, being part of the first ladies team.

It’s a course of two loops, the first of which is spent thinking “What was I complaining about last year, it’s not that hilly” and the second of which is spent thinking “Oh dear god, why did I not remember this is where the hills were hiding”. Still, it’s one way to get rid of a hangover. Possibly not the sane way, mind.

Now that the summer is here - albeit until the last few days the weather had failed to notice - there are races virtually every weekend. Are you a serial racer? I find it’s almost impossible, even if you have no hope or expectation of running a PB, not to push yourself harder in races. As a training strategy, that could get expensive, but the proliferation of running - at least in the UK - means it’s fairly easy to find local, low key races for under a tenner a time. Do a couple of those a month and it’s still cheaper than most gym memberships. Now that reminds me, really must start doing some strength and conditioning again ...