Day 9

Week 2 - Day 2 Tuesday 24th of July

Today's run was 4 miles according to the training plan.  We were all aware that it was going to be a very tough one because of the weather.  It was 27.5 degrees hot and there were hardly any visible shadows or clouds or anything to protect us from the sun.  I hadn't even put suncream on as I can still vividly remember last time I did it run into my eyes and made them sting like hell.

It was left to me to pick a run again so I decided I didn't want to start off running upbank.  That ruled out all the ones that were going up to Hanley or Sneyd Green.  None of us fancied doing the Stoke station run again for the umpteenth time nor did we want to run to Milton and back.  That only left us with one more run - the Bucknall Hospital run.

I have already done that one once before but in the opposite direction.  I remember it being quite a nice and straight forward run without any really bad hills so off we went.

Oh my God. It was soon apparent that we had underestimated the effects of the heat and sun.  It was really unbearably hot.  Sam and Sharon felt ill and wanted to walk for a bit but Kath and I weren't going to give up because we both knew that there could be a strong possibility that it will be hot when we run Burton 10K, so we may as well get used to it.  Once we made our minds up, it somehow seemed easier to get on with it, stay focused and concentrate on what we got to do.  We even ran up Limekiln Bank up to the highest point where it starts flattening out.  We were pleased what we had achieved when neither of us has had any chance to get used to this kind of weather.