Being Heroic !

On Sunday I ran my first 10k event of the year - Heroes Brighton.   I've been a bit excited about doing this event, not sure why because as usual my preparation for the event was shocking, but it was billed as a "fun run" so with that in mind I relaxed, no pb chasing, just go out and enjoy!

Alma had entered as well so we decided to go dressed as Batgirl.  The first thing was to find something comfortable to run in.   We decided to go for a simple vest top with the batman logo on the front with a cape attached and an eye mask each.  I think we both look brilliant!

Heroes is also a great opportunity to support a different charity, this time Pass It On Africa which is currently working on school building projects in Ghana, Kenya and The Gambia.

I got to Hove Lawns dead on 9am.   It was great to see the little ones dressed up in superhero outfits.  They have their own 500m Dash, which is lovely to see them charging along.  It was starting to get very busy and Alma was running late thanks to the trains.   Soon after she arrived we were making our way to the start area.  We stood near the back, knowing that everyone in front of us would go charging off.   Apparently there was a warm up going on, but being at the back we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing!  Here's a video of the start 

We started off at a gentle pace, I didn't want to wear myself out before we reached halfway.

What I hadn't taken into account was the fact that the race route was two 5k laps (have I ever mentioned how much I dislike laps?)  The route headed west from Hove Lawns along the prom - nice enough but the memories of the Brighton Half and the flipping endless line of beach huts was rather fresh in my memory!   At 2.5k we headed back up on to Kingsway and headed back to Hove Lawns for the turn around point

Getting ready for the turnaround!

Here we go again!

We hit the 5k point at 35 mins (the fastest I've run 5k in a very long while).  The second lap wasn't so bad, being with Alma makes the time go really quickly!

Clark Kent/Superman!

 Alma just happened to mention that we were currently on target to finish at about 1hr 8 mins but only if we sped up slightly.

I was nearly dying and gasping for breath when we crossed the line at 1hr 8mins - the best I've ever run 10k since I started running!

Celebratory hugs were exchanged and Alma left us to go home.   I headed to Brighton Marina with Shaun and Mum & Dad to have a yummy lunch of ham, egg & chips and a Stowford Press!

All in all I loved this event, despite the laps and not because of the pb.  The atmosphere was brilliant and it was great to see so many different costumes.  It was nice to have a relaxed attitude, no timing chip and no expectation of finishing fast - just what I needed, even if we did "leg it" to finish!

Next stop is Bedgebury 10k on 8th June so from tomorrow onwards I'm hitting the footpaths to break my trail shoes in properly.

I'm not taking part in Juneathon this year.   With everything going on at home at the moment and my stress diagnosis earlier this year, I've decided putting myself through the stress of daily running and blogging will be too much.  If I did it I would want to run further than I did last year, and with two more running events to get through next month and in July I want to concentrate on training for those.

Fingers crossed for good weather in a couple of weeks time!