1st May Sometimes its all about the shoes (R14)


Sometimes it's all about the shoes. On Monday night I traded in the delights of Barcelona for the sights of the former pit at Annesley as I joined the eager beavers for our regular Monday night run. Meeting at the gates of Newstead Abbey I assumed that we would be followign our 'usual' route along trails and through the woods and so sported my trail running shoes. As well as a striking pink running top and shorts featuring pink flamingos but thats more a fashion statement rather than an aid to running. 

Unfortunately our route didn't turn left where we normally do but carried on running along the Abbey Drive, past the actual Abbey itself and then out for another mile or so on 'a road'. A pretty flat road I have to admit but a hard, concrete road for which my trail shoes offered minimal comfort. 

Meanwhile the gazelles, including one who had run the London Marathon a week ago and one who was running the Geneva marathon on Sunday bounded ahead. Bounded ahead that is until the very short sections of the route where we did encounter mud, and everyone slowed down to a snails pace as their 'road running' shoes struggled to grip on the slippery slopes. 

And again as we approached the water filled former pits, where I expected to turn left again and head home, only to discover we didn't, I said to one of the fellow 'tail runners'  "Well as long as we don't end up running all the way round these lakes, I'll be fine". And what did we do, yes we ran all the way round the lakes, then back along the road that was even harder and more concretey than on the way out. And then just to round off a not very perfect run, the last 3/4 of a mile was a long, long, long drag up hill.

This morning I ache in places I didn't even know I had but it a lesson learned for the 13 miles of the undulating Eyam Half marathon in a couple of weeks time. Wear the right shoes!!!

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