Breaking Barriers……

Sweet Jesus, I only went and sodding broke a very solid barrier yesterday. Not a literal one, but more like a mental one. As most of you know, me and my training for Team Bangs has and is being somewhat hard. Who said things were easy right? but I never actually realised that just putting two feet in front of each other can be so sodding difficult both physically and mentally. I’m not going to lie, running is difficult. Any bugger that tells you it takes no effort, is either soul-less or hasn’t really trained to a goal. I started in Team Bangs as a relative novice – sure I’d jogged before, think I even managed 10mins non-stop once, and even that was hard. Now with going past the 5 weeks till Race Day point, things really start get serious, and more painful.

Training has been going steady, my pacing is ok, not brilliant, but I’m getting there. I then got ill with some virus so I took time off which pulled me back a little on the training but I picked it back up, dusted myself down and carried on. Now, the thing is, I have kinda been stuck, not literally, but mentally, at 6 miles. 6 miles was my safe bet, I pretty much knew I could (just about) manage this: it was safe, steady, worked me hard, but left me feeling confident. However, with under 5 weeks to go, I have been playing the following words over and over in my head: 10 Miles.

10 Miles doesn’t sound scary to you? Well, to me I was pretty much crapping-myself-crying scared. The sheer thought of even attempting to go that distance stopped me, my feet and my brain in their tracks – scared was not even the word. I knew that this was more mental than maybe physical, but being stuck at 6 miles for so long, and feeling confident and happy at this distance made the fact of stepping away from this so much worse. Conveniently enough, everytime I went out for the planned ’10 mile-r’ I was either sore, not feeling it, too cold, too wet, blah, blah, blah – I am also the Queen of excuses… and even more so when it came to running 10 miles. Until yesterday, with the help of my running angel: Michelle Allen (@_missallen) who finally managed to get me to slow-the-hell down I went for it.

I aint gonna be the one who tells you I felt fantastic, cos I didn’t. It was pretty much a breeze until I got to the 6 miles mark, my lovely, safe, friendly 6 miles. But oh boy, carrying on past that safety mark was hard, it was almost if my brain said no, no, no and well, my legs followed suit. But I did, continue… I did, carry on and I did, do the 10 miles.

It felt pretty darn amazing to be quite honest, and yes, I pretty much wanted to cry, I know, I know. But blimy,it felt amazing and I was so proud. No-one can ever tell you what it’s like to push your body as far as that. Granted people do alot more mileage, but for me, a novice, a newbie, it was amazing to see what a body can do.

Well ,there ya have it kids…. it is possible. Even for someone like me. Oh, and the ice bath afters? I swore… alot.

By the way, pretty please go donate donate anything you can to us 13 amazing ladies running 13 miles all in aid of Refuge. Donate HERE