Weekend Goal - Done

In preparation for today's run I drank lots of water yesterday and I planned to leave home at 7am to avoid the heat of the day.

After a bad night's sleep I woke up late but left at 7:20am feeling a little apprehensive about the hills but filled with determination to get to Titirangi Village without walking. That was my goal for the weekend and to do 16kms.

I ran up South Lynn and onto Golf Rd, head down and kept reminding myself, "One foot in front of the other..." I made it to Titirangi Rd and continued up towards Titirangi Village. My battle was not yet over, remembering the relief I felt on my last run up to the village when I had to wait for Mrs G, I got to have a rest. No rest this time!

I had a couple of things working in my favour today. I have a playful mind which often helps when I have problems to work through. In my mind I imagined my son, Luke, encouraging me to run up Rangitoto, as he did when we went over there for the afternoon a few weeks back. This helped. I have also been watching a program called, 'Escape To The Legion' about the training that the soldiers are put through. It is hard going for them and I am completely inspired by how much endurance they have. There was NO excuse for me to have to walk and so I pushed on, pretending to be in the French Foreign Legion.

Once through the village I felt like cheering because my determination was in good form. All that was left now was to ensure I made 16kms but the hard work was done. I ran to the Pipe Line, which was quite busy today with several runners/walkers/bike riders. There was one man with his son of about 18 months old, whom he had sat on the cross bar of his bike and I wished I had a camera so that I could show him how awesome he looked with his little boy. Onwards I ran and on the way back I picked up the pace, feeling really good at this point.

About 1km from the end I met Mrs G running towards me and so she turned around and ran back to the village with me. This was at a tad slower pace but it is so much nicer having someone to run with. We walked through the village together but once through the other side I felt the need to run hard and fast, its down hill most of the way and gravity does its job well. We parted company and I ran all the way home.

All in all it was a very pleasing run. I did it in about 1hr 35mins, not quite as quick as normal but I can't complain given how worried I was at the beginning.

Next training session will be tomorrow but not sure yet what I'll be doing. Happy again!