Glen Lednock Race 2010 + Shopping.

Today, Al, along with quite a lot of other harriers, was entered into the Glen Lednock race. This is a really local race run from Comrie out to the end of Glen Lednock and back making a total of 8.5 miles. It has a killer start and goes steeply up almost constantly for the first mile and then undulates mostly to the top of the glen and then undulates back until you come down the last steep mile to the finish,

Al's aims for today were to a) finish as his shin splints have really flared up again and b) run sub 1hr 10 as he is trying to regain his fitness after a terrible period of stop/start running due to a variety of factors, including impending redundancy, colds brought on by the stresses of that and then shin splints!

I was so chuffed for him as he managed to run 1 hour 8mins 49secs so both goals a and b achieved. His focus now is to try and keep up running with lots of x-training to help him get back to fitness without another re-occurence of these dreadful shin splints.

Al at about 2.5 miles

Al at about 8 miles

I had a lovely morning too as I set off 20 mins before the start and hiked up the hill via the trail so I could stay off the road as long as possible. After about 20 minutes of plugging up the hill quite fast I reached the road where it starts to flatten off and knew the race had just begun. I then, once I had caught my breathe from the uphill, started to jog. It felt a little uncomfortable at first and so I dumped my little backpack under some bracken and plodded on. I couldn't believe that the first 2 runners caught up with me after only 10 mins of running!

I kept on running until I had headed out for atleast 2.5 miles and by that time most Harriers had been past me and the last few arrived soon after I turned around so I was able to get photos of them too. I plodded back towards my bag and was able to fill up my water bottle at the water station on the way back. Not long after picking up my bag, back came those 2 fast guys - able to chat to each other would you believe - reckon it was a tempo run for them! I trundled on down until the bench about 0.5 miles from the start to get photos of the runners on their way back and then headed back down to the finish, enormously pleased with 5 mile run.

There was a free drink for all the runners in the Ancaster Arms after the race for the prize giving where quite a lot of club members won a prize - well between the Strathearn harriers and the wee county harriers there weren't too many other people in the very small field of 33 runners!

Shopping

Yesterday Al and I had our NCT run breastfeeding class. It was really informative and helpful. Afterwards we went into Stirling to buy stuff that I will need for taking to hospital. We got everything I need so all I need to do now is pack the bags. Once we had got that stuff I just HAD to buy some more maternity clothes as I had a complete hissy fit the other day as I felt like such a frump! So many of my clothes are just too short to cover my bump and I just can't face another 7 - 9 weeks of 'what the heck am I going to wear?'

I got some floppy trousers for around the house and after baby is born; a hoody that goes over my bump and doesn't sit in a ring like fashion half way down; a summer dress; a funky top for work and casual; a white blouse type top for work and smarter wear; baby bump bands; some vests and a pair of combats. I was really pleased with all I bought and for the first time in a wee while actually feel quite good (if I do say so myself!).