Last week i did a lot of running (Mon-Thursday), nothing hugely out of the ordinary apart from ENJOYING a tempo run on Tuesday, which is a rare thing indeed! It was very hard but I felt a huge huge sense of achievement when done.
The biggest thing this week was of course BUCS, which went really well. Our highest woman was Elspeth Curran, a truly amazing runner, who was 8th in a very competitive field. I was the second slowest GUHH girl but for me my time was alright! The girls team was 8th overall. Our captain was lovely and said that he was so impressed at all runners. Personally I was seriously impressed at Neah and Stephen, who had great races, and at Luke for battling through seriously hurting his shoulder. He was almost in tears when he finished but He. Finished. and thats incredible.
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| The men's A Team: from left: Adam, Chris (El Captain), Mike, Dave, Kerrick and Shabir. |
Its a tough course too- a lap that was a) over the distance stated and b) had a double loop hill, where you are required to race up, run down, then turn on your heel and go straight back up... That its a lap course can also be quite demoralising as the best runners lap you.
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| Women's race start |
I may not be any good as a competitive runner, but events like that remind me of why I race. Everyone was cheering everyone on- by name or by institution if you didn't know each other. If you saw someone flagging you yelled 'Good effort!' or 'Not long now!' or simply 'Come on insertunihere!'. It also reminded me of why I love my club- No one yells 'try harder' or anything, just full on support. Whereas other clubs had members shouting advice... in a race I wouldn't want to hear that! Also the overall feeling of GUHH is that its amazing if you happen to be a gifted athlete, but if you're not all they require from you is that you love a run and banter.
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| Back Row: Julie, Stephen, Chris, Neal Mid Row: Megan, Me, Neah, Bernadette Front Row: Yulia, Cat, Sarah |
| Fiona McG |
