A fat lads Sunderland 5k

The lurgy has been hanging on since my holiday. My achilles has also been playing up, but my mantra these days is ‘do what you can’. I had pre-entered the Sunderland 5k in mid June when I was ‘on the up’. However, I haven’t shifted the weight and since my cold, not managed the miles. The evening race on the Thursday night looked uninviting, but the £12 or whatever had been spent, so I was committed.  I had also entered a local 10m time trial at Cramlington on the Wednesday, the night before Sunderland. I knew I was pushing my luck. 

It took me 20 minutes to track down the Race HQ near Cramlington. Armed with my new skinsuit I signed up and took my number to the toilets to pin on. This is no easy feat given the tightness of the garment and its stretchiness. I made some sort of job of it, but as my torso cannot yet manage a 360 degree revolution, I accepted defeat and asked for assistance from a fellow rider as I made my way out of the gents.

I really wasn’t in the mood for 25 minutes of grief, but it could only be better than the debacle that was Newton Mearns (see earlier blog). I was off 2^nd last and it was well after 8pm when I galloped downhill from the start to commence the 2 laps of the circuit. I had no illusions that I was in good shape; However, crossing the line in 24:50min I was pretty happy with the result, my second fastest time of the year.  I warmed down with another couple of miles and made my way home to a shower and a bottle of beer. The skinsuit was fine and in the search for a faster time, I find myself browsing the web for carbon wheels. Crazy prices for what….a handful of seconds?

I felt fine the next day and I drove Marg, Speedy joe and Ant to Sunderland. We were joined by the loz and the dark horse (linds), so all 3 daughters were running. Good to see them all getting stuck in. The Sunderland 5k starts with a ski-slope hill and it’s a 400m giveaway. 

However, it was super-muggy and hot and after 1k I realised I was going to struggle. I saw the back of many runners who, normally I would have expected to beat, but not this evening. It was a PW of 21:02 and I have rarely enjoyed a race less.  None of the others did well and this we put down to the remnants of the cold bug and the recent excesses of our continental trip. While Speedy joe still hasn’t found her mojo, loz appears to have put the bug to the sword with her win the following weekend at the Hamsterley trail half marathon. I totted up 12 miles running over the week but the achilles is easing off, thankfully. I have managed 100 on the bike, however in readiness for the two short time trial events that I have entered in August.  If I get in, it’s a trip back to Irvine and then one to Wigan. To what lengths will I go to deliver a PB on the bike? Quite a way, apparently.