Not the most common form of reward, but one in true Sandra style - for surviving a very intense week long Laser Safety Management training course (away from home), my personal prize would be to run a marathon... Marathon of choice, Dartmoor Vale - a nice "undulating" fun run for 26.2 miles!Also a chance to try out my new ankle support, new trainers, new shorts and measure my heart rate for the longest ever race. What better way to spend a Sunday morning...
The plan was to take it very easy, any incidents with my ankle and I would pull out at half way. Being a very cold morning I didn't warm up until about 5 miles, little cold fingers prompting me to envisage within my mind the run across Antartica. Hardly comparable, but did lead to many hours of thinking all about the challenges ahead, in particular my rapidly expanding PhD thesis.... Marathons are fantastic times to think out plans - inspiration and motivation strong. This marathon was exceptional in that aspect as I was running within myself for the full duration and so never hit any tough patches or uncomfortable periods.
Between 16 & 17 miles my ankle became "troublesome", but it did not last and I soon forgot about it - until the 19 mile point when it was painful for a short period and then no more.
20 miles and I was fully warmed up. Ankle strong all hill climbing done, I stepped on the gas. Decided to push on and fully test my ankle support and rapidly growing confidence. Fast down hill section, the sort of decline that only weeks previously would have had me feeling physically sick with fear. Fear of ankle collapsing. But not today, today I flew and what a liberating feeling it was. I overtook many people, growing more and more confident with each stride. Running at just over seven minute mile pace it felt good, both ankle and hip strong.
I maintained a strong pace all the way to the finish. Mission accomplished. My trial of support, trainers and shorts all a success. A full marathon's worth of Garmin data to analyse later.
And my time? 3:33:12 (with nine minute negative split) - third lady overall. Not bad for a fun run, pretty good prize for what had started out as a reward anyway!
And a date with a friend and pizza in the evening to look forward to as well...
