Today, as afternoon turned into late afternoon, I performed (ran) my dress rehearsal (last run before the Great South Run on Sunday) around Roath Park, one of my absolute favourite places in the world, let alone just Cardiff. Some people might find running laps of a place really mundane and the furthest from motivating but it’s hard to find an eight mile run boring when you have Roath Park as your company.
So I ran a steady eight miles; a really easy pace. On a really lovely autumnal, pretty grey afternoon. Slightly drizzly; very leafy; a teeny bit chilly. A lot of birds creating traffic on the pathway, not caring less about the humans- exactly how it should be! It was the weather I would love Sunday to bring- although I do love a bit more of a blue sky to accompany me.
*Warning: pat on my back time.* I can feel how much I have improved over the last year. My easy-going pace is a lot faster than it used to be- I find a quicker run to what I would have been doing last year super chill and lovely. To feel genuine improvements and see them on my Strava app makes me delighted. I knew it was worthwhile anyway, but it does prove this running lark is worth the effort!
It’s just about three days until I run the Great South Run for St. George’s Street Hospital and I really can’t wait. Today brought my last run (although a little bit more training is to come) before the day and it was steady but super strong and I finished it thinking I could run miles more. Smug git. It’ll be awesome to be home for the weekend and incredible to experience my favourite run all over again. I know I can beat last year’s time- to what degree, I’m not sure. Although I’ll be proud of myself should I beat my personal best, I want to smash it mainly for the amazing charity I’m running it for so I hope I can kick some butt.
~ Kat ~
binging on beetroot 