After the colourful wake-up call that was the Ely Colour Dash a few weeks ago—where I struggled to run a leisurely 5k—I was eager to see what difference not smoking would make.
I haven’t smoked since I realised why I actually smoked in the first place.
A couple of days after quitting I could already tell the difference.
And after a few weeks the feeling of impending death as I ran had significantly decreased.
I could breath again.
My pace had increased, from the meager 05:55 min/km during a 5k, to a more majestic 04:55 min/km during a 10k run.
I was ready for the next obstacle race.
The event, Go Insane, organised by Insane Terrain Running was a 5k course with obstacles such as wading in water, climbing over a pyramid of hay bales and sliding through mud.
Scott and I had signed up a few weeks earlier and we had both been training to get ready for it.
By the time I had finished the course I was having so much fun that I decided to run it again, bringing my total to 10k.
Again, I’m so sorry for mocking people who ran.
And aside for running my longest obstacle race to date I also decided to record my run using a borrowed GoPro Hero 4.
Now, I’ve never used a GoPro before and in hindsight I really should have checked that the horizon was level before I started running.
But I didn’t.
Oh well.
Despite this I think the footage came out better than I had expected.
Figure 2. Ass first into the pool of water.
After the race it was time I retired my running shoes.
They had served me well.
I had gotten the Saucony Swerve last January, in preparation for the Cambridge Half, and I should have probably retired them a long time ago.
That, and I had promised my coworkers I would retire the shoes after the obstacle race—as they rightfully keep pointing out—my toes were, after all, sticking out of both shoes.
Retiring them also meant getting new shoes.
For a while now I’ve been thinking about natural running and being able to run barefeet.
So I’m now breaking in my new Altra Lone Peak 3.5 zero drop shoes—I’ll let you know what I think of them once I had a few runs in them—and getting ready for the next event.
Next up, something much worse.