There was a beautiful sunset on Thursday evening... it would have been a perfect evening for a run. Unfortunately, after the busiest day of the year in my 'day job' at the university when exam results were released and clearing opened, I watched it through the window of my office.
It was a rare moment of calm at the end of a very long day, which strangely reminded me of running an ultramarathon rather than a normal day at work.
I'd slept restlessly, worried about sleeping through my alarm, and being late - much as I did the night before the Threshold Ultra in May.
Staying hydrated and fuelled was priority number one for getting through the day. Some 'flat coke' and an energy gel would probably have really helped at about 4pm, but I made do with an extra cup of coffee, a cheese sandwich and a satsuma. By the time the last hour of our results-day shifts came around, I was definitely running an empty - my thoughts back in the last mile of Race to the King in 2017, where my legs were wobbling, my whole body fatigued and I didn't even have the energy to open a pack of jelly babies.
A change of shoes would have been great - I covered about 10km just around campus as I moved between office locations and meeting rooms. By the end of shift, I wish I could have swapped work shoes for my trainers (I didn't make that mistake on Friday). When I completed the Millennium Way ultra in 2016, I think I changed shoes three times - trail shoes and wet muddy trainers were discarded on the way to 41 miles.
But like with the D33 ultra in Aberdeen, I got through the day one step at a time, or at least one application or one enquiry at time. And was encouraged by lots of support along the way...getting through the first day of clearing was most definitely a team effort, although disappointingly there was no medal at the finish line!
So I might not have got to do too much actual running last week, lessons learned from previous running adventures helping me get through a long day at work.
Now to get back to actually running...
It was a rare moment of calm at the end of a very long day, which strangely reminded me of running an ultramarathon rather than a normal day at work.
I'd slept restlessly, worried about sleeping through my alarm, and being late - much as I did the night before the Threshold Ultra in May.
Ultramarathon Memories
Staying hydrated and fuelled was priority number one for getting through the day. Some 'flat coke' and an energy gel would probably have really helped at about 4pm, but I made do with an extra cup of coffee, a cheese sandwich and a satsuma. By the time the last hour of our results-day shifts came around, I was definitely running an empty - my thoughts back in the last mile of Race to the King in 2017, where my legs were wobbling, my whole body fatigued and I didn't even have the energy to open a pack of jelly babies.
A change of shoes would have been great - I covered about 10km just around campus as I moved between office locations and meeting rooms. By the end of shift, I wish I could have swapped work shoes for my trainers (I didn't make that mistake on Friday). When I completed the Millennium Way ultra in 2016, I think I changed shoes three times - trail shoes and wet muddy trainers were discarded on the way to 41 miles.
But like with the D33 ultra in Aberdeen, I got through the day one step at a time, or at least one application or one enquiry at time. And was encouraged by lots of support along the way...getting through the first day of clearing was most definitely a team effort, although disappointingly there was no medal at the finish line!
So I might not have got to do too much actual running last week, lessons learned from previous running adventures helping me get through a long day at work.
Now to get back to actually running...
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