...a bum shouted as he caught sight of my bright blue Superman t-shirt while walking through what turned out to be a pretty dodgy part of downtown San Francisco. In that city dodgy can mean all kinds of things; fortunately they're usually friendly, laid back, a little odd but in a good way. I had a plan to run across the Golden Gate bridge but a quick look at the map threw up a proximity issue... our hotel was miles away.
My training did lapse somewhat but I did make fairly good use of the hotel gym; well, I was wide awake at 5.30am every morning which was far too early for Lori's full American breakfast, enough to feed the S-man himself, which explains why everything fits a little more snugly now that I'm back.
The most I could manage on the treadmill was a pretty rubbish 3 miles, but as Joe pointed out if you keep going you find a whole lot more just when you thought you were spent; tell that to my credit card people!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Breathless in Brussels (01:02:48)
28th HIVERNALES DU RACING CLUB DE BRUXELLES avec l’aide précieuse de INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BRUSSELSHow pathetic is this... it's February and I have only managed one single, solitary run this year!! Having said that I do have some pretty good excuses; the elbow episode, Christmas (although strictly speaking it happened last year the effects were felt well into the new year), and it's bloody freezing outside!
The first run of 2008 was a forest race in Boitsfort, Brussels (http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df4hv48w_12htbrn7), and my first European run (the GNR doesn’t count; perhaps when they ditch the pound we'll reconsider...).
It was bitterly cold but spirits were high, unfortunately so were the hills! I thought it was a tough race with a variety of surfaces, oh and those hills... but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I crossed the line in 01:02:48, and I'm very happy with that! Here's a map of the route, if it displayed contours there would be so many that they would merge into one... honestly!!
I was running with Alain... well, we started together as he is what you might call a proper runner! We patiently waited at the start line and then, when the starting gun fired, he was gone... leaving behind a cartoon-like trail of dust in his wake. We started at the enterence to the college, on the edge of the forest. The route took us through the village and looped around to bring us back to the college, up the first of many hills and into the forest. That first hill was a bit of a shock; it was steep, long and very close to the start but it gave me a taste for things to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
