"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Lee Valley 2 Mile Race - 26 November 2023 - Cheshunt

Having got my running back together in time for the night race on the Sugarloaf, I was keen to kick on with my build up to a marathon or ultra in Spring 2024. Who knows if that will work out, but I'll take it one step at a time and see what happens. I managed some longer runs - 10-23 miles - and when the Joy Day at Lee Valley came around it was a chance to see how my speed was going in one of our regular 2 milers. The course was GPS measured (I did it on a bike a couple of years ago, throwing in an extra percentage just in case to make sure it wasn't a short course) and as flat as you'll find. Conditions were still too. But, as we gathered before sunrise on the Sunday morning for the start, the main thing concerning all of us was the sub zero temperature. Not great for racing!

I had had the job of setting out the course - a couple of arrows and a cone and not much else to be fair - so that had allowed me to get in around half an hour of walk/jog as a warmup. Then it was time for Race Prayer and the briefest of silences (as it was not great standing around weather) before I counted down to the start and went off with everyone else into the crisp morning air. With our faster runners not in town for this one, I was expecting to go out at the front and that was how it turned out. I started stupidly fast, then settled into a hard pace and after that it was just a matter of trying to hang in there. With nobody around me it was hard to stay on pace, so things did fluctuate a little as I passed the various landmarks - The Shrine (an elaborate wooden scuplure), the narrow bridge, the turnings and the lake. After ticking off that list I came to Tejvan, our soliatry marshal well coated-up at the turnaround, with the time around 6.36 which was disappointing if unsurprising. Surely we couldn't have a 2 miler with nobody going under 13?

I decided it was my self-imposed duty to get the second mile in a bit quicker and break 13 minutes, but it was way harder than it should have been. Perhaps I was more out of condition than I'd thought, perhaps it was the cold, but I had to push myself very hard to scrape in with a time of 12:59. With the Christmas Trip a few weeks away I would have liked to have been running 12:30 but there you go - at least I am out there racing so I am very grateful for that!

Next up is the Plym Trail Half Marathon where I am hoping for anyhing under 1:40. Hoping for a time and actually running that time can be a world apart though.

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