……….. that I did run a ParkRun before starting with Ally Pally, and this was just to see what running a park run was like!
Here is a picture of sunny Highbury Fields!
Here’s some useless information on Highbury Fields……… it’s the largest park in the Borough of Islington, at 11.5 hectares!
As this was my first organised run for a very long time (6 years!), I found it incredibly hard going, since i felt like I was being pulled along by the people around me. I could have sworn that there was an elephant crushing my chest all the way through the run and I was so glad when it was over! For the rest of the day i was on cloud 9! Like i’d been taking amphetamines (which I respectfully mention I hadn’t).
But what struck me about the run was that there was a sense of everyone being in it together, a community feel, that i haven’t felt for a very long time in a group of disparate runners (there were 322 runners that day).
My time on this run was 30 minutes 58 seconds. When i was fit i was used to being in the low 20s, so seeing this time made me slightly upset, but it also has given me the enthusiasm to get fitter!
Lesson learned and osteopathic helpful tip! After the race i realised that my calves were really tight. This is pretty much caused by running with too much continuous pressure on the balls of the feet. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with landing on the balls of the feet (known as forefoot running) as long as you then let the weight of your body go through the whole of the length of your foot, all the way back to the heel, before taking off again on the toes.
This can be achieved by imagining that you are running like a puppy, with your feet completely relaxed as you take each step. If you can feel more pressure going through the balls of your feet then you are not relaxed enough.
Next stop Ally Pally!………
Gavin's Blog 