Sneaking in Before the Rain

As I fought off consciousness on Saturday morning (damn birds!), I put on headphones and tuned in to National Radio as I find it very interesting but also very soporific. However, I caught the 7am news and the following Wellington weather forecast: "there is a heavy rain warning for Wellington which should arrive in about an hour. This will be followed by Southerly gales."

Groan. If I was going to get a run in, it needed to be now. So for possibly the first time in my running "career" I struggled out of bed, into my running gear and rain coat (it was already raining lightly) and out the door before 7.30am.

Heading down into Wilton bush, there were some campers tenting it in the middle of the picnic area. As I arrived (heralded by my giant plodding footsteps), the tent flap unzipped and a head poked out to admire the drizzle. "Heavy rain on it's way", I called as I ran past. Moving wet gear and packing down wet tents in the rain - ahh, the joys of camping.

I decided to head up through the trees via previously discovered mountain biking paths which were still dry, the rain having not made it through the trees yet. I took to wearing my raincoat around my waist, until I got up to the cleared farmland and out of the trees. Pausing to put my jacket on, I looked at the exposed area I was about to head out into, again with low visibility due to low cloud, and decided that I was tough enough to tough it out and headed off upwards.

However, once up on the tops and being blown back and forth while (attempting to) stand still, I again turned tail and headed back into the trees. Now is NOT the time to fall off a bluff, twist an ankle or do anything that might hamper next weekend's (eeek) run.

Aside from trying to find somewhere sheltered, I spent most of the run thinking "this time next week.... I'll be 2 / 2.5 / 3hrs into the run.... hope I find some nice people to run with.... hope the weather's not like this.... hope there's not too much snow on the tops.... hope my feet hold up and I don't die..." etc

There's a sense of panic that's building in the pit of my stomach. I'll be merrily thinking about Christmas presents or family birthdays or upcoming holidays and then my brain reminds me that "... dun, dun, daaahh...that's all after you've run 60km ...this coming weekend". Cue heavy breathing, tightness of breath and an urgent need to head to the loo!

I headed back through Karori Cemetery and back to the picnic area to find the campers, still in their sleeping bags, sheltering under the um.. shelter, enjoying a cup of tea watching the rain come down. It did now seem significantly more civilised that running around the bush at that hour of the morning.

Returning home, I did some core strength work which I've basically stopped doing since my gym sponsorship expired, mainly because I'm not practised at doing it at home. Much to my surprise and consternation, I noticed a huge difference in my comfort levels when I was out on my 4hr run the other day - my stomach (yes alright, my gut!) moved more than it should when running down the final descent from the ridge line and over several hours would easily become another source of ache.

This week's all about maintenance, tapering and injury prevention. A few small small runs, white spirits on the feet and sit ups. And not panicking.