July brought what has been my most physically gruelling challenge so far. There is an event called the adidas Thunder Run: an off road relay where you have to get as many laps of 10 km run in 24 hours as you can. The past 2 years I have entered in teams of 6 and 7 people, and we've managed to do 24 and 22 laps respectively.
This year, however, was different.
Initially, I decided I would effectively become 2 members of a team of 5, but due to injury, we started with only 3 runners: myself, my boyfriend Ben and his friend Sam. This si what we looked like at the start:
We began strongly, smashing our schedule and finishing 7 laps in the first 6 hours. Maybe this was our downfall, as both of my team members were struck by knee problems, meaning that after their 3rd laps, they were reduced to walking.
We had a fantastic support team, of Sam's family and girlfriend who provided massage, encouragement and snacks throughout the 24 hour effort. Without them it would have been a different story.... As it was, we powered through and before sunset I'd done 5 laps, with Sam and Ben contributing another 5. After a 3 lap stint from Ben, and a very speedy walking lap from Sam, I set off at 2:45 on my hardest session: aiming to finish laps 6, 7 and 8 before handing over to Ben at 6:30.
Thanks to borrowed headtorches, it was barely dark at all! This meant I survived without falling over, and managed to (mainly) run all 3 laps in a slither under 4 hours. This brought up to 17 laps in total, and we decided we should all drag ourselves round the course once more to bring us to the end. I'm extremely proud to say we did it! Unlike previous years, the rain held off for 23 hours, so it was only my final lap when I had to whip out the waterproofs...
Although we didn't finish looking like the speedy gazelles we imagine we looked like at the start, we made it! 200 kilometres run in 24 hours! I would never have imagined I could run 90km in less than a week, let alone one day!
Thank-you so much to all those who supported, lent kit and donated - we definitely couldn't have done it without you!!
www.justgiving.com/RADCC2015
And just in case you wondered what we felt like afterwards - here is me trying to get up the stairs...
