Hiding in plain sight

Yesterday I had my final recce run on the Lakeland 100 route.  It was a good job I re-ran the leg that I did as it turns out I had completely blocked out a whole section of the route from my mind! I wonder how much of the route I'm already trying to forget in order to control the fear in the lead-up to the race?

Other than the fact that I'd forgotten half of the leg the run was fairly uneventful; a twist of the ankle here, a twinge in the back there. Just the usual really. My runs are slow, clumsy and laboured. After a recent illness which resulted in a trip to the out-of-hours-GP I was pleased to have an 'uneventful' run.  I even wore my Garmin! For the past month or so I have made a point of not wearing it on most of my runs. I was getting too bogged down in stats and splits, worrying about how my training compared to other people's.  Whilst I still loaded my Garmin data to Strava, I changed my settings to private, and stopped going on the app. So if you're wondering why you haven't had any kudos from me of late, that is why. I have avoided it completely. I was too worried about mile splits and mileage that these were distracting me on my runs, worrying about how my run would 'look' to others that were following my training.  So I went offline. And I stopped always wearing my Garmin, not even wearing a watch. Just running. I have felt slow. I have felt heavy. And I feel completely unfit. But I don't have the stats and splits to fret about. And that's a good thing. I am definitely not as fit as I was before the Lakeland 50 but I am as fit as this year has allowed me to be. So whilst I am absolutely freaking out about the Lakeland 100, and with good reason - it's the hardest and craziest thing I've ever attempted - I cannot change the events of this year so I can only do the best I can do on the day.  

Coming towards the end of my run yesterday I passed Beth Pascal. Thankfully I was going downhill at the time, so I was actually running (!) and she was heading uphill. I admit I was a little star-struck but I managed to say hello. She looked so relaxed and fluid and effortless in the way she ran, almost floating along the trail. Oh to have half of her talent and skill, that would be pretty amazing. I daresay we can expect a new ladies course record at the Lakeland 100 - sub 24? 

So long as I am sub 40 I will be very happy.