You may or may not be aware dear reader but Oxfordshire is flat, flat, flat. So much so that hills actually obtain their own names (The Wittenham Clumps, The Didcot Mounds, Headington Hill etc.). So when I say I am not used to running up or down hill I genuinely mean it.
When I first started running I noticed every little incline around the Didcot Ladygrove Loop, the torturous lip by the chip shop, the bulge of girth by the school – all these slight deviations from flat I noticed them and they had the power to drain me, strain me, make me ache. I am better than that now, I can’t say I even notice these little bumps anymore, but my point remains the same – my training has a distinct lack of vantage points acquired via hard graft up a gradient.
Lack of hills is generally not a problem, except, I have signed up to a few races which do include more generous amount of inclines. Primary concern on this list of races is the Sheffield Half Marathon on the 10th of April. I am running this with my brother, Kyle, who lives in Sheffield (as previously mentioned) and whom generally considers anything with an incline of less than 10% not a hill. Seriously – he asked how to adjust the incline on our Mum’s treadmill but it turned out that he had already MAXED it out (12%! And he wanted more). To further disadvantage me in this race, Kyle runs the actual ROUTE 2-3 times a week. My Mum told him it was cheating, but what else can you do? In Kyle’s position I would do the exact same thing. Of course it does leave me wondering if I will be able to keep up with him on the race day and whether my ego could handle the repercussions.
Egos aside, Kyle, loyal as he is, would not abandon me mid hill – so I mostly just don’t want to disappoint him, hold him back or have him wait for me. If that wasn’t enough of an incentive to find a hill to run on in Oxfordshire a visit to my brother in January certainly galvanised my plans. Even a short visit to Sheffield – like overnight to see my favourite band InMe play – and you can see the streets go up and down with vigour. Most of the preparation for this half was therefore not attempting to increase my speed or distance then, but rather to get used to hills – which in a place as notoriously flat as Oxfordshire is kind of a challenge in itself.
For example – Andreas and I had to run 7.5 K to get to the closest hill in Didcot. The hill (in Little Wittenham – by the clumps) lasted only 500 m. By the time we had gone up and down once we needed to head back or risk nightfall eclipsing us again.
Suffice to say there is one hill in Oxford and between early March and now we have been getting well acquainted. Introducing Headington Hill. It’s about 800 m long but quite steep. Once a week I go out and run repeats on it. Thankfully I can do a bit of variation, snaking up more slowly and gradually using the more scenic park route or just heading straight up to the apex via the footpath next to the road. Up and down I go like a yoyo. I count off the reps until I have done nearly 8-10 K then I head back. I have no idea if this will prepare me for the relentless monster of a hill that I will face in Sheffield – but I don’t exactly have many other options.
Fortuitously for me, Runner’s World recently did a feature on Fears of Running and hills were included. The advice was to convince yourself that you love them. And distract yourself with music. So if you can imagine I am running up and down Headington Hill with a new electronic album blaring, maintaining a positive monologue in my head such as; I love this hill, I am really enjoying this, oh look more lovely hill, third times the charm, once more with feeling, keep the hills coming… Only time will tell if this is enough for me to be able to keep up with my brother Kyle – but as the weeks have gone by I find myself more excited than nervous to find out!
KerryRUN 