This morning I set out in search of 14 hilly miles. In one sense it was mission accomplished, but if you’d have asked me at the end of my “run” whether I thought it was a success I would have said NO. The first few miles felt ok. Sure I wasn’t enjoying the conditions (80 degrees & high humidity), and the pace wasn’t electric, but I was making good progress. I made to it to top of Mt Bonnell (highest point on the run), and I felt tired but content that the worst was over…or so I thought. Coming down the other side I could feel how tired my legs were, and I knew it was 7 miles back to base. I had started the decent with a small group of runners, but soon they were pulling away. After a couple of miles I bumped into the coach who gave me some pointers on my form, which was worse than normal as I was feeling pretty rough. Fortunately with 4 miles to go I ran into one of my friends in the group and he stayed with me for the next 3 miles. That kept me going when I was feeling like I wanted to stop. Once I got to a mile to go I told my friend to push on, and I just put my head down and just held on until the end. It was a bit of a shocker, but a reminder of extra work that is needed on the road to Steamtown. | 