The first Sunday of September marked upping the mileage - I was dreading it! I recruited my fab friend, Sarah, to help me through it. We've had our children at very similar times and, luckily for me, her youngest is 7 months so she's a little further on in her recovery and has done all her Great North Run training so was happy to pull me round a 5 mile loop.
Us before we set off:
My smile has widened and so has my hair! This is the look of a massive sense of achievement. It was really hard. Sarah was a really good partner, she talked me through the route so I knew where the inclines were and where the flat started so I could look forward to them.
5 miles doesn't sound a lot in my head because my pre-baby long run was generally 10 miles so it was hard to get my head around why I felt tired. Saying that I did really well at not beating myself up - I kept reminding myself to run tall and tuck my tail bone under, relax my shoulders and take in the scenery. By the last mile my concentration was slipping and was really glad when my watched bleeped to mark 5 miles. I was so happy we carried on to the car!
Sarah and I had a good debrief about the week with our children and it was really nice to have the safety to talk about the negative parts without worrying she thought I was moaning. We discussed why we don't do it more. I'm worried people will think I'm boring. I think I feel like that because I read that most of what we see and are told about the way the world works is written and told by men and any other topic or view point is an alternative to the norm. I studied psychology and found out that psychological theory is based on the observations of boys and men which is then applied to everyone. Women's experience isn't the same - both genders are treated and develop differently. This isn't taken into account. I have recently been reading about the women's experience and I get a fantastic feeling of being at home. Maybe I have been reading the wrong things!
This also brings me onto the Bechdel test and to ponder which films, books and wider media feature women who are talking about interesting things.
Meta rant over...recovery food!!!! I do wonder if the best bit about running is the eating afterwards! I managed to sneak chocolate past my toddler too - not sure which is the biggest achievement!
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