On Sunday, in Horsham Park, this happened:

In case the giant red spot doesn’t give you a clue, it was Sport relief all around the UK this weekend. There were runs and swims and all manner of crazy sports events going on to raise money to help people both in the UK and around the world.

Part of this was the Sport Relief Mile, a short distance that people could run and be sponsored to do. At more or less the same time there were also 3 mile and 6 mile races going on. I chose to run the 3 mile which is 4.8km so doable I thought!

I bullied some people into running with me and we looked like this:

It was basically 3 laps of the park, which is a route I run fairly often so I knew what to expect. But this did encompass a few firsts for me…

1) it was the first time I was running with other people and no music at all!! not eve in one ear!!

2) It was the first time I had run with a HR monitor for a few years, and the first time I had paid attention to the HR monitor while I was running, this represented a new running strategy for me
(I am not 100% sure you should try new running strategies in races…but it wasn’t really a race, it wasn’t timed or particularly well organised!)

3) it was the first time ever I have managed to run and have conversations at the same time! This surprised me!

The heart rate strategy was sally’s theory that if I keep my heart rate below 150 bpm I can run the whole thing without having to walk. Now, I found this pretty tricky. I am used to running much faster for a shorter period then walking, basically I am incredibly conditioned to run intervals!

However I did run most of it. I did not run all of it, I did have to walk a few times mostly on the last lap. But…there was much less walking than previous 5kms I was past the first 1.5 km possibly 2 km before I had to walk at all which for me is a real first! and the main reason I had to stop running was my calves (as blooming normal) they hurt and I had to stop to stretch them a couple of times!

All in all however it was lots and lots of fun 🙂 I had Sally who was running at my pace (even though she could completely out run me!) and Lisa running in front, often backwards and round in circles generally acting as a cheerleader…I even threatened her with pompoms!

It wasn’t the fastest run ever, about 39 mins (discounting the calf stretches) but the main thing was we  raised £258 between us for Sport Relief!

<—–The other thing that happened was this.

I pulled up one of my socks before the start of the race, possibly to show someone, then forgot I had done it and ended up running the whole race with one sock up and one down. What is more, everyone else thought I knew and had done it on purpose therefore didn’t tell me!

Honestly!

Day 276 complete 😀

PS…sponsorship is still open if you want to donate, then click on any of the pitcures and it will take you to the site 😀