Rob's Running Blog

4 Miles Breakfast Run with Ron Hill and Sweatshop Hyde Running Community

Have not been able to make the Hyde Sweatshop Running Community runs for over a month, both due to my injury woes and also the fact Mondays and Wednesdays have been inundated with client bookings in the evening. So when I recieved an invitation to run a 4 miler with Ron Hill this Sunday morning, with free breakfast to follow, I felt I couldn’t really say no!

It was a bright, albeit chilly morning, definitely a few notches down on the thermometer, especially early in the morning. I wore my long sleeved top underneath my short sleeve SRC yellow top, and my tracksuit bottoms. I put the old-ish trainers on as I expected we might hit the muddy trails!

Got to the shop and it was still quiet, chatted to a few people, and soon some familiar faces arrived. I had to remind myself I have not had much running for a month, so didn’t want to start trying to maintain whatever pace I had last time I was there!

We set off into the bright Sunday sunshine with Ron Hill leading, and I held back my pace, feeling tempted to try to hit the front markers but knowing that might not go down to well with my legs or lungs! Chatted to someone I hadn’t seen before, and felt quite good at the pace we were going. When we hit the trails around the Tame valley things got very muddy, I was able to attack the hill before Mill Lane and put on some bursts of speed, but then waited for back markers at various points. We went through the woods and up the stairs in the hillside, I took it easy, and then there was a bit of a detour back up to the canal path, which was extremely muddy. There was talk of ecoli and plague in those dangerous puddles as people tried to avoid them but I just went straight through a few – I hope I shall survive!

On the hills up to the shop I watched a few roads and stayed with the person I had chatted to at the beginning, and supported her to the end, as this wasn’t really a run to go hell for leather with pace, but I really enjoyed the company and the bright sunshine of the run.

I felt quite good at the pace I ran and it didn’t feel like I hadn’t been out for a run with other people for so long, so hopefully the swimming and the few jogs I’ve managed have kept my fitness ticking over.

Work permitting, I might venture back to the 5k Wednesday group, and will hopefully meet some more nice new people as well as familiar ones, and I can slowly build my distance and pace back up so I can enjoy some long winter runs.

My leg and back seemed to hold up well on this one. But my trainers certainly needed a spray with bleach solution and a dunk in hot water, and are now steam drying on the radiator, ready to eat more mud another day, although the evening runs will probably be on roads from now on with the dark nights!