Emma Appleton's Blog - Posts Tagged "running"
Spartan Race
I got up too early this morning and I feel slightly disturbed and far too refreshed for a Sunday. My mind and body is in uncomfortable territory, it needs the obligatory Prosecco fuelled hangover to register the horrors that will await me.
Since February I have been training for the Spartan Race, I have lost almost 20kg and finally starting to see my resemblance to Lara Croft, I have spent hours running through fields, woods and rivers. Jumping over logs, climbing through muddy ditches and occassionally hugging a tree. Out of desperation. I have to thank ShaunT and the Insanity workout for kick-starting the well overdue health drive.
My aim was to complete the race in under an hour, a 5k extreme obstacle course. No problem, I have been training for months for this even joining a bouldering club to test my upper body strength. It was all going well until one night four Fridays ago about 11pm. My mother likes to join us on a Friday, the night begins well. Civilised conversation about the week, gourmet food oh and lots of Prosecco. And then Italian Brandy. Dancing, lots of dancing. Anyway a night like this she announces that she is going to run the race with me. Why?
I know the answer. In 2007 my husband and I travelled round Syria. She wanted to come with us and we welcomed the extra passenger. But the truth was, she was too scared to fly to the country and has regretted it ever since. So now, the Syria experience has automatically made her say yes to anything slightly out of her comfort zone.
She is 59. Has done zero training in the last three months. Well if you don’t count her running with me where I can sense her complaining as she jogs slower than I can walk, her knee hurts, no sorry its her toe. She once even tried to blame me because it was "too windy to run" I can’t keep up with her list of ailments. My timings are out of the window because I am secretly so proud that she is doing this race with me and I will stay with her throughout the course even if it takes three hours.
The bond between mother and daughter, aww I hear you cringe. Erm no actually, its just it’s her turn to buy the Prosecco and Marlboro Lights for our celebratory BBQ later today. Protecting my investment :-)
Since February I have been training for the Spartan Race, I have lost almost 20kg and finally starting to see my resemblance to Lara Croft, I have spent hours running through fields, woods and rivers. Jumping over logs, climbing through muddy ditches and occassionally hugging a tree. Out of desperation. I have to thank ShaunT and the Insanity workout for kick-starting the well overdue health drive.
My aim was to complete the race in under an hour, a 5k extreme obstacle course. No problem, I have been training for months for this even joining a bouldering club to test my upper body strength. It was all going well until one night four Fridays ago about 11pm. My mother likes to join us on a Friday, the night begins well. Civilised conversation about the week, gourmet food oh and lots of Prosecco. And then Italian Brandy. Dancing, lots of dancing. Anyway a night like this she announces that she is going to run the race with me. Why?
I know the answer. In 2007 my husband and I travelled round Syria. She wanted to come with us and we welcomed the extra passenger. But the truth was, she was too scared to fly to the country and has regretted it ever since. So now, the Syria experience has automatically made her say yes to anything slightly out of her comfort zone.
She is 59. Has done zero training in the last three months. Well if you don’t count her running with me where I can sense her complaining as she jogs slower than I can walk, her knee hurts, no sorry its her toe. She once even tried to blame me because it was "too windy to run" I can’t keep up with her list of ailments. My timings are out of the window because I am secretly so proud that she is doing this race with me and I will stay with her throughout the course even if it takes three hours.
The bond between mother and daughter, aww I hear you cringe. Erm no actually, its just it’s her turn to buy the Prosecco and Marlboro Lights for our celebratory BBQ later today. Protecting my investment :-)
