Wednesday 30th May, 2012, 3 years and 10 days post LPAO, I ran my first official chip-timed 10k race.
It was a fabulous evening, sun shining, cool breeze blowing in the beautiful grounds of Petworth Park, West Sussex. It wasn’t flat, it was undulating – the up bits causing me the most difficulty, but I ran for the first 18 minutes, before the up bit started to get too much, so I walked for 2 minutes, till it leveled out and then continued. I ran what I could and walked when I needed to but I still managed to keep to an 11 minute mile pace throughout, and finished in a not too disastrous time of 1 hour, 7 minutes and 33 seconds. I had set myself a goal of 1 hour and 15 minutes, so was able to give myself a good pat on the back. Haslemere Border AC had a contingency of 14 runners out that evening and they all cheered, whooped and clapped as I ran past them to the finish line – that was special, really special.
It has been 4 years since I was last really part of the club, but I am back now and it will only get better. The ghost has been put to bed!
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