13th-19th January Run notes

Tuesday

It's warmed up and the snow and frost has pretty much all melted. A real contrast to last week as I make my way on my slightly shorter route to Robin Hood via the greenway. Clear paths and streets bring back the hustle and bustle but I can take it all in on this short pootle.

Sunday

Race day. This week hasn't been the ideal race prep, my run on Tuesday was fine but my left leg didn't feel right on Wednesday when walking around and I've been overly aware of it for the rest of the week. It didn't feel like my injury from last year but more sensations of tightness I've felt around the leg whilst recovering. I thought I was past all this but apparently not. I decided to skip a run on Thursday and made the poor decision of going for a walk in a bad sock-shoe combination. This gave me a rather nice pair of blisters on each heel which compounded my race anxieties. So by Friday I was rather morose about the race, feeling worried I wouldn't be able to actually make it all the way round through some combination of leg issue or blisters. After a week of watching the fantastic daily updates from the Winter Spine and tracking those dots I gave myself a real talking too. Getting into my running stuff this morning my issues seemed to lighten, it was like stepping into a new skin. I made it down to York racecourse in good time and did my warm-up, that felt good, maybe this whole thing wasn't going to be so bad after all. And it wasn't, after the squeeze of the start I found some space and my rhythm, and it was all pretty great. The course for Brass Monkey is pretty flat so I was able to hold a nice consistent pace, having something to eat about 40 minutes in and managing my own water rather than trying to pick up the cups. I didn't really notice my leg which helped and mostly just battled the focus to keep my pace going. By the last 500m I had a little left to give it a final burst to the finish and ended with a PB time which feels excellent. A bit of a wild week in my head but not too bad all in all. A big thanks to the organisers of Brass Monkey for a superbly organised event!