Monday 27 June 2011

Re-Trail Therapy


If you feeling down in the dumps and stressed what better thing to do but get on the trail and run......
Yesterday morning (Sunday)I woke up and hour before I was supposed to and lay there listening to howling wind outside thinking to myself, freak I am going to need anti-freeze to get my engine started for this race, I was racing the 3rd of the 4 Trail Series yesterday morning. I got up and decided that under my racing vest I should wear a long sleeve top and that is all because I hate running in too much clothing, the least possible amount is good, I get very hot when I run. I had my coffee and some toast with honey and ventured outside in to the freezing cold only worsened by the howling wind, and you all know about the wind chill factor.
All the way to Segwati near Hartebeespoort I was wondering how unpleasant running in this wind was going to be, though I decided to put it out of my mind like I had told a buddy of mine that I would put the long hilly drags out of my mind (I hate hills), I heard somewhere that we should love hills so I was trying my best….. my bud just said just said “what hills, this is a completely flat course” :-0 Yeah right, this was and undulating course with a 3km climb from 1 to 4 km and a 2.5km climb to the finish, so no fun and games. I was pleasantly surprised to find when I got there that there was no wind, cool I thought to myself what a great start. By the time it was time to warm up I was back to normal, I had removed the long sleeve top and was heading out with some friends to warmup, by the time the race started I had warmed up sufficiently and enjoying getting on the way. Segwati is a dangerous race in the way the 1st km is down and if you are not equipped to keep the pace over the first km you will suck, my first km was 3min44sec per km and I thought maybe that was too fast but I was glad to say that it wasn’t, I worked to first hill right up to the top, even though I did have a 3km warm up before the race I still only felt warm about 4km into the race. The rest is history though, I ran this race much my fluidly than the last and enjoyed the times when I could move faster and even tackled the technical pieces awesomely.  I also managed to conquer the mind over matter issue so many of us have, I was been trailed by two guys and I managed to keep them in the position of trailing me throughout the race, they never managed to pass me, in fact I pushed a little hard up the last hill which opened the gap to almost a minute, this race for me yesterday was an achievement, my time from the same race last year was 8min faster. I redeemed myself after the last race at hennops when I took the tumble and ran a great race. All in all I had an awesome race and got a great result…. so I am thoroughly chuffed, lets just say this trail made my day - my re-trail therapy. Well….. Another Trail Series done and dusted, and I am ready for the next and last one at Pelindaba on Sunday. Thanks for all the great support from my friends and thanks again to Trail Series for yet another well-organized race!! See you guys on Sunday!!

2 comments:

  1. Another great run Clinton, well done! I agree with you on the therapy. Even a run on the road in the morning do me good for the day.

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  2. Indeed Johann, running is the key ;-) No matter where you are....

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