Run The Date - Day 12

Date: Thursday 12th September

Distance: 12 miles

Motivational quote: "Run often, run long, but never outrun your joy of running."

Sponsor: Tricia Holley

Song: Common People by Pulp

Running partner: Paul Dunning and John Lawrence

Weather: Dry and warm with a strong westerly breeze.

Fuel: Weetabix, Alpen, Banana and cake.

Route:

Comments:

Last night I felt great doing the loops but by the time I went to bed two hours later I was dog tired. My feet ached and my legs were heavy. Mentally I was not in a good place. Throughout the night I had bad dreams about being chased and not being able to escape. Were these due to my concerns about what I had taken on?

I had fallen asleep wondering how I was going to possibly achieve the challenge when 11 miles was taking so much out of me. Despite being a third of the way through I still had most of the distance to complete. On the map representing the full distance from Folkestone to Fort William I had only reached Croydon, South London!

Today I was due to run with Paul Dunning, a colleague from MAF. Paul only took up running seriously this year after signing up for the Rwanda marathon – as you do – through Compassion UK. He ran to raise money to provide homes for families in the country and promote child sponsorship. He trained hard and stuck to his marathon training plan despite severe shin splints. In June he completed the marathon.

Since then he has run shorter distances but he had agreed to take on a longer one to support me, and this was the date that he and his wife, Rosie, had sponsored me for.

John came along too and we set off from the office on Castle Hill Road. We ran through Cheriton and out to the M20 before turning left and heading past the Channel Tunnel entrance. Here we picked up the Elham Valley Way through woodland and up the hill to the army buildings. We ducked down through Scene Wood and emerged on the golf course. This leads to Saltwood and down into Hythe.

We decided to take the seafront path as opposed to the canal path and a mile later reached the BP garage in Seabrook. I was gasping for a drink so popped inside for a Lucozade. We had been on the look out for a number 12 to include in our photo and we spotted one here on the side of the petrol tanker that was refilling the pumps.

My actions at this point provide a good example of ‘runner’s brain’. The fact that after a while tiredness means that all common sense goes out of the window. I approached the driver and asked if he could take a photo of the three of us in front of his tanker. He politely pointed out that you were advised not to use your phone in petrol stations due to the likelihood of causing an explosion.

Having said that he then proceeded to take the phone and snap a photo for us anyway adding that if it did cause an explosion ‘we wouldn’t know much about it anyway’. Feeling slightly ashamed but amused by the moment we continued our run into Folkestone.

Paul left at this point as he had a meeting to get back for. I was very hot by now and my leg muscles were tired, so I jumped into the sea to cool down. John and I still had two miles to go but as we started again I realised to my horror that shorts + salt water + skin = severe chafing. Note to self never swim unless you have a pot of Vaseline handy.

This resulted in a rather painful and awkward couple of miles along the beach, up and down the Harbour Arm and up Remembrance Hill cupping my crown jewels in my hand. Bot a great advert for the Rainbow Centre but one that was unavoidable.

Tomorrow is another MAF run. This time 13 miles in the company of previous Mayor of Folkestone and 100 marathon club member Martin Salmon.

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