Hanney 5 mile report, by Karen Evans
Hanney 5 – 14th October 2018
I’ve been running a Parkrun most Saturdays for the last eighteen months, gradually improving so I made a decision at the end of the summer that I needed to start running further and I needed a new challenge. I decided I would enter the Hanney 5, my sister Tina an experienced runner from the Brackla Harriers said that she would like to run the race with me. I managed a few weeks of training with my ‘Nike Coach’ on my watch and felt inspired and ready to go.
I arrived in Hanney in the pouring rain, parked up and waited for my sister and her husband to arrive. I began to get really nervous and was worried that it might be a mile too far for me. Tina and her husband John who is also an experienced and fast runner arrived, this was it there was no backing out now. We had a warm up jogging down the road and back, then it was time to go to the hall to abandon our soaking wet coats.
The time had come to go out and get on the start line, everyone was drenched but ready to get going. I set my watch and stood very nervously by my Tina, waiting to start. Off we went, I remembered that I must not start too quickly I must let my body get used to running before I started to push myself. The rain was still pouring down, the puddles on the roads were getting bigger and deeper, the first mile seemed to take forever to get to. I realised as we headed to the second mile that this was the furthest I had run on a road, I normally run multi terrain. I was pleased I had invested in some good trainers a few months ago. We overtook a group of runners during the second mile, I was determined to stay ahead of them. Mile three came and we were heading to mile four, so now I was running more than my weekly Parkrun, my legs were ok, I had my breathing under control but my back was beginning to ache which I had never experienced before while running. Tina was still with me, encouraging me and revealing her running techniques. Hanney Village Hall was in sight, I then put all my energy and effort in to finish as fast as I could only to discover as we got to the hall that the finish line was at the end of a track in the field behind the hall! I was cursing myself for not sussing out where the finish line was. I somehow manged to find some more energy and ran on pleased to see the end was definitely in sight, I crossed the finish line just behind Tina.
I finished like everyone else very wet and soggy, I was proud of myself and inspired by all of the other runners ahead of me who had made it look so easy. I knew I was never going to get a fast time, running doesn’t come naturally to me and I have discovered it late on in life. However I was pleased with my time and very grateful to Tina who had kept me going and had definitely helped me achieve my goal of running 5 miles without walking.
