The First Hurdle

The First Hurdle….

….is getting out of bed. I manage that bit easily enough. There was only a small temptation to use the bottle of wine consumed the previous night as an excuse to give the run a miss. So I am up and dressed and there is no point in having a shower as I have a 5k run ahead of me. It is about 5 weeks since my last run. I had been giving it a miss as my knee was giving me trouble but I felt like I could give it a go this week.

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The next decision is whether to cycle to Malahide park or take the car. Sammi, my daughter, decides for me, by telling me it is raining and we are taking the car.  I always prefer to cycle the 8km to the meeting point as it warms me up nicely but I really don’t fancy a cycle in the rain. So we make our way to the park having had a fine breakfast of weetabix, coffee and two pints of Miwadi orange. Did you know that the name Miwadi comes from Mineral Water Distributors? It is amazing what completely useless information you retain. Wedding anniversary? No. Mineral Water Distributors oh yes I must store that in a special place where I will never forget it.

I digress, back to Saturday morning. Sam and I arrive at the car park and we decide to walk the long way to the meeting point. Now and again I start to jog, just to see if the knee feels okay. No twinges and I reckon I am good to go. For some reason the pain really kicks in when I am going downstairs. Luckily enough there are no stairs on the Malahide Parkrun course. I haven’t quite worked it out how yet but the route, to me, seems to have 4 or 5 uphill sections and no downhill? Should suit my knee perfectly.

Once we arrive at the meeting point the briefing starts almost immediately and then we are then off to the start point. I am a bit slow so when we arrive at the start the start hooter thingie goes off nearly immediately. I should explain that I have a new phone. It is great! I haven’t a clue how to do most things on it. Like start my sports tracker AND play music at the same time. So I am still playing with it as people run off ahead of me while I walk as i fiddle with the phone. Someone lets a yell at me. “Come on Pete, you won’t beat your PB like that”. I recognise her as one of the organisers, a dedicated bunch of people. I am always really bad at remembering people’s names and I am sure her name starts with a C. Caroline? No. Christine? No, but it is coming to me. C? C? C? Alice!! Yep thats it, Alice. I shout something about my knee, not wanting to admit I am struggling with technology.

Now you can see the route of the Parkrun from the image. It is made of two laps, going clockwise from the green start point marker. The first lap is small, you can see it as the circuit in the top right of the image. The second lap, the big one is the complete outer circuit. The run starts with a hill climb which we will have to face 3 times. The first time as you round the first corner has all the volunteers clapping and cheering you on. Now I know, having volunteered a few times that clapping the full field is hard on your auld hands and as I am nearly last I am not surprised to see the clapping has stopped. Then one person, in almost a distracted way, gives a single clap.  So I shout over, “a single clap? Is that all I get?” I get the desired response with a few laughs and lots of clapping.

Now I knuckle down to the task at hand, the first lap. I don’t think of it as the small lap, just as I don’t think of the second lap as the big one. It is the first lap and the last lap. I know I am slow and not going to setting a personal best (PB) today. I have adopted a slow jog barely lifting my feet off the ground. I am so conscious of the knee but there isn’t even a twinge. I press on.

Oh I haven’t mentioned Sammi. She left me at the start and is taking it easy, for her, as she has been over-doing the exercise stuff and needs to wind it back a bit. The next time I see her is when I cross the finish line where she will be cheering me to the finish looking very refreshed. Well she should do as she has had a 10 min rest since she finished.

Back to the first lap and I approach the hill for the second time. I am surprised at how easy I am finding the run. Well I call it a run but anyone looking at me would think i was going backwards. I am also surprised that the park is not showing any signs of storm damage. There was sign on the entrance stating all the pitches were closed. The paths however are looking reasonable. I top the hill and start the run down to the left turn that is the real start of the last lap. I have the course in my mind. Take the left turn and then a short section to the next left. A very short run to a hard right turn and then up through the forest. You then have a dash across an open field and then back into the forest. I come out of the forest and see a huge puddle in the middle of the path and I can see a lot of people went to the right. I think about running straight through the puddle so I can come across the finish looking all hardcore. Who am I kidding? I go left where the ground looks less trampled.

Back into forest and I love this section. It winds around and the ground is rough, you feel you could be up in the mountains or on the set of a werewolf movie. Strange what you think. When you get to the top of this section you take a right turn. I almost went the wrong way here once. As I make the turn today a man sprints pass me with a dog. I reckon he is in his sixties, so a little older than me and has a dog running with him. So unlikely to be a parkrunner, I will forgive him the sprint pass.

Now I am on a long section that takes you to a left turn and then a very short run to the Swords gate. There is a volunteer on the gate and I say something as I pass. I cant remember what but obviously it was extremely funny.  On the long section I had seen ahead of me two walkers. Oh the ignominy, to be beating by walkers………..again. I decide to catch them. After the Swords gate there is a nice winding section through the forest again. The path surface here is excellent, lovely clear tarmac and real easy on the feet. At this point I know I am good. The knee isn’t bothering me at all. My heart and lungs feel good. It is my lungs that give up first when I push it. At least I hope that stinging pain in my chest is my lungs  but not today. It may be a slow shuffle run but it is effective and I am sure if someone captured me on video I would look like I am sprinting ha ha ha ha. The fact that you would need the same instruments that they use for measuring tectonic plate movement to detect any motion at all is immaterial.

I come out of the forest and it is a short run up to the left turn that takes us down the back of the tennis courts. I hate this bit. It has a long straight and it is really boring. I normally try to dance or play drums  to the whatever music is playing just to take my mind off this horribly long straight. A couple of little turns and then you are back at the start. Now this is the most horrible part of the course. Straight up the little hill is the finish but no we aren’t going that way we have to take a right turn back up the slightly bigger little hill. But the finish is straight ahead. Please let me go that way. Nope, conscience and honour dictate I follow the course. On to the final hill climb. I

once had the Rolling Stones kick in on the phone as I started the hill. I sprinted up that day to the sounds of “Respectable”. Today, however, I have some stupid bloody relaxing track that is telling me to lie down and have a nap. So much for all track shuffle.

I crawl to the top of the hill and then start a really fast sprint for the finish. Okay when I say “really fast sprint”, I mean that I don’t change my pace one little bit. Not even when I hear Sammi screaming “COME ON DAD”. There is no bloody way I am changing my pace. I simply can’t. I think it is Alice who tells me I can stop running after I crossed the line.

What about the title of this piece? Do I enjoy running? I can emphatically state that I do not enjoy running. Not one little bit. I would rather cycle. But here is the thing, I really love it when I finish. The sense of accomplishment is unreal.  I wont’ be representing Ireland at the Olympics not even if they have a veteran’s section but I know I pushed myself. I had one of the worst times I ever posted but that doesn’t matter one little bit. What matters is I overcame the biggest hurdle of all. I got out of bed.

And my knee held up.

A big shout out to both the organisers and the volunteers without whom there would be no run, no sense of community and no publishing of the fact that I ran 5k in 42 mins and 56 seconds.