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I've got my number...

Yesterday I ran with a running club for the first time. My long time friend and occasional running partner Tina suggested that I and our joint friend Fi joined her and her running club as they were going to do the Taunton 10k route. Great idea we thought and agreed to met her at 6.30 at the start of the route. Fi and me arrived at the same time and both declared how nervous we were. We found Tina and the group and soon set off. Almost immediately we were abandoned by the 3 males in the group who declared the pace was slow!

Slow, I was barely able to breath and already panicking and deciding that there was no way I was going to keep up with this lot. After a brief level start an incline had me almost gasping barely able to make polite conversation with the person next to me. Inclines are quite often followed by declines and during this short stretch I was able to take off my jacket and relax a little.

Running with a group brought quite a few differences to running solo or with a partner. We were now on a stretch of road without a pavement and we were on the left side of the road, the back marker shouts out when vehicles are approaching and single file is observed. I spent quite a lot of the route in my customary place at the back and every now and then those leading and widening the gap loop back and rejoin at the back for a while. I felt quite guilty about this, after all it was highly unlikely that I would ever have to loop!

A brief stop at Stoke for water kindly left by one of the boys by now far, far into the distance, was much appreciated although the stop really broke my albeit slow rhythm, plus an incline up to the church had me once again thinking I was not going to make it back. I didn't dare look at my ipod to check how far we had gone nor to check the pace, we were definitely moving more quickly than I am used to. I struggled for the next kilometer but then seemed to have a second wind, I was right up with the front runners, apart from the whippet leading the way, and as I knew a downhill was fast approaching I so dearly wanted to overtake them but thought that might not be polite etiquette and decided to stay where I was. I was enjoying following somebody, keeping in time with their rhythm.

Only a few minutes later and I was at the back again. Fi and I ran together for a while through my most hated section, the road through Haydon. It's long and I am always slow through here. Last year during the race I had serious concerns that I would have to walk, fortunately on this outing I managed to keep going, probably because the back runner, whose name I didn't manage to find out, kept me going. She assured me she didn't mind how slow we travelled and she kept reassuring me that I could keep going.

The last incline up and over the M5, oh my, so hard, I was so hot, so tired, more encouragement got me to the other side and I was able to relax into the downhill and make some headway towards the pack, the whippet in pink was long gone but I wasn't letting the rest disappear. The back runner and another girl, who I am sure isn't normally at the back but who was having problems getting her breathing right were behind me. I had to keep going I had to keep my pace up, I was not going to be last, they were not going to catch me.

Last turn to the end, they caught me, I could hear them, I thought they were going to overtake, but they shouted encouragement, they told me to not let them catch me, they told me to run, I found something from somewhere, it burned like hell, my legs hurt, there's nothing left, I must not stop, I must not stop.

I did it. At last I could stop. I had knocked 3 minutes off my most recent time for the route and 2 minutes off my previous fastest time. And now Fi and me have to do it all again on Sunday 30th September. Tina and Fi are going with Running Forever again next Wednesday, will I join them?