Dumfries Half

I was meant to do Glasgow half & ditched it for Perth 50k. Susan asked me to go down & do this race and seeing how she is always visiting me, how could i refuse?

On Thursday i did the photo shoot @ the studio with Roger, went to pub first and took a bottle along with me(dutch courage!)then pub after. Not big or clever on a school night...Still ran to work in morning though. Had very quiet night on Friday jumping between fetch, twitter & Facebook keeping updated on hardmoors and nervously waiting on news of Phil. Luckily he was Mr Sensible again and pulled out when his foot started to niggle a little *phew* he is a worry that boy!

On Saturday morning i ran to gym for meeting with Pascale to go over what i was looking for in a gym plan. Had good chat with him then headed off home to catch back up with Hardmoors. Headed off for train to Lockerbie at 4pm and Susan picked me up@ station.

A very girl night followed of mucho catching up, talking about boys, Chinese , xfactor & wine, followed by cocktail. The film, not *actually* any cocktails ;) Honest.

Woke up around 7ish and got up even though alarm set for 8. I made my intentions clear on Facebook that i wanted a PB.This was last chance saloon for the yr. I thought the extra pressure of telling everyone might just help. Susan was marshaling so we headed off sharp so she could get her instructions then we drove to lovely grounds where it started about and sat all warm n cosy in car. Caught up with Gav & Soph @ start and also made my intentions clear to them s0 after a quick rundown of my plan to Gav (run as fast as i could) it was time for off!

Caught up with Bobby on first mile and we chatted about future race plans for next yr, then he took off never to be seen again... Gavin overtook me around mile 2 and i kept him in sight for few miles before he too disappeared. hmmm, this is Gav *taking it easy* Decided to try & keep Marian in my sights instead and i managed to do that for rest of race. Really lovely course with quite a few long drags, not hills as such, not as us Ultra runners know them but then we tend to get a rest on hills, there was no chance here. I had a PB to chase.

But it wasn't to be. I did put my all into it but came around 18secs short of it. I guess it's surprise really, that was fastest I've ran since March. I never run that fast in training and I've done no other short races. I guess my legs need to be retaught how to run fast? It's no big deal, i didn't throw myself to ground and have a tantrum, except when i found out i got a mug instead of a medal anyway! ;)

So I'm quite glad I'd decided i was pulling out of Loch Ness & Abingdon before that, takes pressure off big time. Newcastle looking doubtful too for diff rent reasons.

Got kinlochleven to look forward to, and that's all about enjoying it, not racing. no more races for yr planned. Just lovely training runs to look forward to. I think if I'm at loose end anytime I'm just going to head up WHW and just run, just because.

In other news, I'm an Auntie again. My sis in law had wee baby boy last night(all boys in our family!) well except me of course lol 3 big brothers have all only had boys now. Stephen is excited to have a new wee cousin, he loves kids and would've loved a wee brother or sister. He'd have had to find a new Mum first though! haha :P