Paintedrunner, INVINCIBLE until proven otherwise: A busy week

Rudding Park Race 10km Tuesday 14 May 2024

Flatts Lane Park Run Saturday 18 May 2024

Flatts Lane Orienteering Saturday 18 May 2024

Burton Leonard 10 km Sunday 19 May 2024

A busy week this week. Hard work on tired legs from the Pennine Barrier Ultra 2 weeks ago and the Ripon Rowel’s bike ride last week. Monday was a swim, always good for tired legs and Tuesday was the Rudding Park Race 10km trail race. This race is in its 3rd year and I have done both of the others. A bit of a fastest finger first entry, due to the goody bag. As a 10 km it is expensive but you get a goody bag, Madalyn and a hot sandwich and ice cream for supper.

The race starts at 7 pm. I got a lift with Annette, John and Sue. I met Ann there. We were glad of trail trainers as it had rained all day, but it stopped in time for the race. The route is undulating and a mix of trail, mud and grass. There were over 500 runners so the route was congested at times. A downhill start meant an uphill finish. I found it hard work, start to finish but pushed through, running it all, even when being passed by walkers. Finishing in my 2nd fastest time.

Rest day Wednesday.

A good training session at Codbeck was focusing on endurance speed on Thursday.

Rest day Friday.

Early start Saturday, Ann picked me up before 8 am to head to Flatts Lane near Middlesbrough. We had Orienteering skills at 10:30 so we had decided to do parkrun there too. The parkrun route is 2 undulating laps of trails. There were not many people there, 61. I ran quite hard but not bust a gut pace because of the race the next day. The main hill was steep but the rest of the course was ok. I ran it all, even when walkers passed me and pushed it the last 100 meters or so. I finished 1st in my VW55 age cat in just over 32 minutes.

The next thing was the orienteering course. We were focusing on contours. I did ok with the walking route. On the next exercise I could not find one control point. I was on the wrong path. DOH! The main exercise was much more complex, a peg relay. If you got to a control and there is a peg, you carried on to the next control, if there were no pegs left you cut a couple of controls. I had a nightmare with 1 control and ended up at another one. I then thought that was a different one. I was in quite q muddle. Didnt want ti give in. I knew how to get back to the car so not totally lost. One of the organisers put me on the right path and I gathered a couple more controls before heading to the finish. It was fun, but I’m not a great orienteer yet.

Saturday evening was RiponRunners’ Awards Night. It was a buffet supper at Ripon Golf Club. It’s always good to celebrate the successes with everyone. I was lucky to be nominated and awarded the Ripon Runners Ultra Female Shield again. I have been lucky to have had the award 3 times before. This year there was a strong field of female ultra runners. This is good, but I think that this is the last time that the shield will come home with me. Time for the others to get a turn.

Photo by Andrew

Throughout all this excitement I was tracking Billy who was competing at Ironman in Lanzarote with a dodgy calf. I was relieved to see that he had finished. I am so proud of him, for his dedication and determination, and of course inspiration.

Sunday I took Ann to Burton Leonard, the village where I spent most of my childhood, leaving when I got married. The 10 km run was from the school. A slight change to when I last ran it, maybe 10 years ago. The rest of the undulating route was the same. I went for road shoes as it has been a dry week, except Tuesday and most of the route was hard surface. We registered and Ann went to warm up one way and I went to run the first and last hills, the village green and road up to the school. The village has grown since left 30 odd years ago but still had a great feel of community, with lots of people out to support.

Race start was 11 am and shortly before, the clouds split and the sun started o beat down on us.

I found the race tough on tired legs but was determined to run it all, I was melting in the heat and the 2 water stops were very welcome. The predominantly downhill start made for an uphill finish, just down the green was a down, just a few steep meters on tiered legs. I was so relieved to cross the line. 1 hour 4 minutes 24 seconds. Faster than the slightly longer race on Tuesday. Ann beat me on both races, they were both first timers for her and fortunately she enjoyed them.

Photo of me finishing by Ann