Next weekend I’ll be heading up to Catton Park in Derbyshire to take part in my second ever Thunder Run.
TR24, as the cool kids call it, is a 24 hour ev…
Y’know what? I’m a VERY lazy man, and I already explained all this last year. If you don’t know what TR24 is, have a peek here and all will be revealed*.
This time last year I’d brought my weekly mileage up into the 30’s, including some days where I was running three or four 5-milers in a 24 hour period in preparation for what was to come. This year the only thing in the 30’s is the temperature. So far, 2013 has been one big running slump. The arrival of twins, sciatica**, a house move and a change of role at work have all combined to put a huge damper on my training, not helped by the fact that there aren’t actually 57 hours in a day. Since January I’ve struggled to get more than 10 miles a week in, and although my day to day performance doesn’t seem to have suffered (in fact, I’ve inexplicably smashed a couple of PBs this year) I can’t help feeling like I’m back to square one. To make matters worse, I don’t function well in the heat, and tend to morph into a grunting lump of sweaty clay at the merest hint of sunshine.
So this year’s TR24 will be crap. I may as well just pull out altogether.
Except…
That’s not what running is about, and it’s certainly not what I’m about. Running is digging in when things start to hurt, it’s about surprising yourself and kicking limitations up the arse.
(I’ve just realised I was starting to sound like an advert for some kind of high-fiving energy drink. Probably easier to say what running is not about. Running is not about rolling over at the first sign of adversity and acting like a big moping Jessie).
So this time next week I’ll be in a field with thousands of like-minded*** runners. I’m in a team of five: The Shibby Factos. Those of you who follow Marathon Talk may remember that the Shibbies tore up Jantastic, only to tail off a bit towards the end when we rediscovered the joys of gin and having a nice lie down. In fact there are two teams of five: the Shibby Factos and the Fibby Shactos, and I’ll be talking more about Taff, Anneke, Jane, Matt, Stuart, Rob, Rakesh and the Kellys when I come to write my long and ewok-infested race report.
So, wish me luck peeps. If any of you lovely lot are over at Catton Park next week, be sure to come and have a chat, or give me a shout on the twitter (@borntoplodblog).
For any of you who are a bit odd and have a lot of time on your hands, my race report from last year’s TR24 is here:
https://borntoplod.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/thunderstuck-part-one/
and continued here:
https://borntoplod.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/thunderstruck-part-two/
* Although I haven’t read that post in over a year and I’m just going by the title. Given my usual writing style and attention span, there’s every chance it could, for the most part, be a story about puffins. I like puffins. ** “Sciatica” isn’t the name of one of the twins. They’re called “Patellofemoralpainsyndrome” and “Bob”. *** My casual use of “like-minded” may have just offended thousands of runners who’d rather not be associated with a muffin-brained manchild.
Born to Plod 
Good luck matey! Proper jealous – I’d like to try the Thunder Run, maybe next year?
Also, don’t worry, often when you think things will be dire, they turn out to much better than expected. Of course, that didn’t turn out to be the case with the “cess-pit incident” but we’ll take that as the exception that proves the rules (never understood how that works – maybe you can explain?) and never speak of it again. On the other hand, measles was an absolute hoot of hallucination and unique tingling sensations, all which just goes to prove my point.
I would suggest you’ll be epic, but then you might misconstrue that I’m suggesting you’ll finish up having bought insurance during the day.
Go get ’em…
Cheers bud, sincerely.
Would be good to see you there next year. And I’m truly sorry for making you look a bit like a serial killer in my previous post.
Good luck Jay. I will be there as part of two teams from Finsbury parkrun, we are imaginatively called Thunder and Lightning.
I too am in a bit of a slump at the moment with just a couple of runs each week but it will be fun just taking part I feel. I’ll try and see you and say hello … or perhaps Flamingo!
Flamingoooooo!!!!!
Gooooood luck! Just think hot dogs and ice cream as soon as you finish!!!!