Week 12, race 12: Pretty Muddy Race for Life 5km, Bedford

This weeks 40/40 challenge race was the Pretty Muddy Race for Life 5km in Bedford. Pretty Muddy is a new Race for Life event and it involves running, obstacles and mud.
It was a damp day too but that didn't really matter given we were planning on getting wet and muddy. The obstacles started off OK, climbing over some inflatables, getting squirted at by a large pistol, crawling through a tunnel and jumping through some tyres. Later on there was a cargo net with some mud to crawl in, a climbing frame (not done one of those since I was at school) and an inflatable slide into a pool of mud. That's what caused most of the muddy mess (you should see my shower!), maybe we should have gone for a swim in the lake like some of the other competitors?
All in all it was a fun experience (although it took me 33 minutes o it wasn't a full 5km)

Week 11, race 11: Hitchin Relays

Race 11 in my 40/40 challenge was a new one, the Hitchin Relay Race organised by Hitchin Running Club. The race was 12 1 km laps in a team of 2-4 people around a field at Hitchin Rugby Club.

Team Cook consisted of me, Gary and fellow NHRR Christine and we ran 4 laps each. Christine and I are on the...er...slower side which gave speedy Gary plenty of people to aim at when it was his turn.

No idea of my times but I  know we didn't finish last! And the post race food was yummy. And Gary and I did an extra lap running with Hannah and James in the children's 1km fun run.

It was glorious weather and a lovely time was had by all!

Week 11, race 10: First Saturday in the Month 5km

Post race relaxing

Back to the First Saturday in the Month 5km for race 10 in my 40/40 challenge. I love this race, especially on days like today. It's 2 laps around Norton Common in Letchworth which, especially on a sunny day like today, is very pretty indeed.
After running on Thursday, I was very pleased to finish in 30:34, my fastest time at this race this year and a minute and a half faster than 2 months ago. And after the race, we relaxed in the sun (and cool wind!) at the nearby paddling pool.
So I have done 10 races and I am a quarter of the way through my daft challenge, so far so good I think!

Week 10, race 9: St Albans Midweek League

After having the weekend off (due to holidays and children's party), this week's race was the St Albans Midweek League Division 1 fixture, 10km starting at Highfield Park in St Albans. The first km was round a playing field, followed by around 4kms along the Alban Way cycle plath, a loop around the top and then back the way we came.
It was a warm evening and the course was lovely and shady but as a lot of the route was in a straight line it was a tad boring at times. But the course was fairly flat and pretty fast if you like that kind of thing. I was very pleased with my run and my official time of 1:02:02 (although by my watch I was around 30 seconds faster).

Week 9, race 8: Panshanger parkrun

The 8th race in my 40/40 challenge saw me return to Panshanger parkrun for the third time. Not much to say about this run, it had been a long, tiring and emotional week due to Matthew having a nasty bug and not sleeping (and then passing it on to me) and a load of driving to and from Preston. It was also a little humid.

That said, I still enjoyed my run but it wasn't my fastest, I finished in 30:57, 158th and 50th female.

Week 8, race 7: Luton Wardown parkrun

For the 7th race in my 40/40 challenge we returned to the parkrun at Wardown Park in Luton. Of the parkruns I've done recently this is probably the least interesting (3 and a bit times round a lake in the park with a little hill on each lap past the museum) but it is the closest to home, fairly simple to get to and park, there's tree trunks to climb on, a lovely park to play in after the race and my support team get to see me 3 times.

I can't keep up!

Hannah has been desperate to run with Mummy so after she got some new trainers we said she could join in for a bit of each lap.Gary thought she might slow me down (I wasn't convinced she actually would) so I ran hard for the bits where she wasn't with me. She loved joining in, running and chatting with a huge smile on her face and the third time round she ran off ahead of me!
I finished in 92nd place in 29:47 which was 1 second quicker than last time I ran this course so I don't think she slowed me down atall!

So far my silly challenge has been worth doing. Every Saturday we drag ourselves out of the house in a bit of a rush but then Hannah and James get to run around in the fresh air, climbing on tree trunks, running in the grass, playing in the park and seeing running as a completely normal thing to do (so much so they both want to run with me every chance they get).

Only 33 more races to go...

Week 7, race 6: Panshanger parkrun

After my marathon effort in week 5 of my 40/40 challange I gave myself last week off but I was itching to be back this week.
We decided to go to Panshanger parkrun again as it seems to be the easiest logistically and is a pleasant course. I was rewarded by some lovely bluebells in the woods which made the first half of the race very enjoyable despite it being a little busy until everyone had spread out. There were some other NHRRs there too and it was nice to have a quick chat before the race started.
I was pretty happy to finish in 30:07 which was 40 seconds faster than last time I ran this course and my legs still appear to work despite not having run for 2 weeks.
6 races done, 34 to go!!!