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I did the Woolacombe Park Run this morning, which is badly named as it’s not in a park and it’s barely in Woolacombe and there’s some bits that it’s not really possible to run. It was certainly a good deal more challenging than the one I’ve been doing in Stevenage, which admittedly has a mildly tricky slope for the last 100 or so metres. The walk to the Woolacombe one is probably more difficult than the entire Stevenage run, being up a hill and then a long walk through a narrow cliff edge car park that looked like it would never end. I thought I’d left in plenty of time but arrived one minute before the run began.
I’d briefly met a Devonian RHLSTP fan at the start who’d asked what time I was aiming for. I was aware that this one was going to have some slopes and mostly on sand, so I said I was treating this as a holiday run but was hoping to get under 25 minutes at my regular Park Run at some point. He said he’d never got under 30 here and he looked fitter than me, so I suspected this was going to be tougher than I’d imagined.
Indeed it was. Me2 was running this one and took over 9 minutes longer than Me1 had done on the last one. Not only was it hard to run on the soft sand and narrow paths, even when going down hill, but there was a long stretch along the beach, where the sand was firmer but still heavier going, and the sun was shining. And then at about the 3km mark we turned back up the bank and I laughed as I saw we were expected to go up the sandy bank where I’d been messing around with my kids the other day. It was not only steep but entirely soft sand. I don’t know if the front runners are fit enough to somehow run up this, but everyone I was with had to trudge up.
We then got on to a path that at least wasn’t a 45 degree angle, though still pretty sandy and were making our way to the top of the hill, still some distance away, but oh, cruel fate (or Park Run organisers) the path then went downwards again. Which meant the last kilometre was up a proper steep hill, but at least on a path made of stone. I’d been advised to keep something in the tank and wasn’t sure I’d managed to do that, but actually I found I had some reserves and whilst others slowed or walked, I ran up the hill with relative comfort and came in in 35m minutes and 44 seconds in 104th place out of 140.
I felt pleased to have run all the way (apart from on the sand bank) and the setting had been gorgeous.
I then had to walk back to my family, so cut down a path which seemed to be heading to a cliff edge, but then turned into a very very steep path. With aching legs I thought there was a chance I might tumble down this goat path and fall to my death, but eventually made it to the sand in one piece. It was a long walk to where my family was from here and I got a text said they’d got too wet playing in the sea and had gone back to the apartment. So I trudged on home alone, spending a good ninety plus minutes on my feet.
I think it’s unlikely that I am moving around enough to compensate for the eating I am doing. Tonight was my parents’ last night on holiday and my sister had also turned up and we had a posh meal to celebrate their imminent 60th wedding anniversary. The small kid slept through it and the bigger kid was a pyjamaed delight. Her best move had been, shortly after her aunty and explained that the helium balloons on the table were only being held down by weights, was to release one of the balloons, which floated up to the high ceiling of the restaurant, where it will stay till someone can shoot it down or the helium seeps away.
It was a lovely celebration of my mum and dad’s remarkable love story - they have spent almost 70 years together if you include their courting days. I only have to live til 110 and convince my wife to stay with me for that long to emulate them.
