Victory 5 - Last race of the year

I'm sure I'll do a reflection blog by the end of the year so I won't do that here. Although I will say this year has definitely been a roller-coaster ride in terms of my running journey.

Anyway, Victory 5.... well it's on my home turf and I also did the Lakeside Park Run on Saturday so for once I knew where I was! I even decided to run there, only 1.8km but still that would have been unheard of 12 months ago, probably even 6. I did contemplate running back, and I would have if my asthma had decided to play nicely. 

I hate my asthma (probably another blog - the list is compiling nicely!). I don't use it as an excuse as I don't want it to win. However, if I have to take my inhaler which means walking for 2 seconds then that's what I need to do. The problem on Sunday was that we were running into the wind which is never a good thing!

You should know by now that I digress quite a lot. Registration pack pick up was on the day, we had plenty of notification emails with our number etc, which really made the process smooth yesterday. Despite lots of runners and supporters in the area it was easy.

I'll be honest, the route is not the best I've done considering you have to run round a car park but the back of Lakeside past the lake is always nice but very muddy. However, I do appreciate you have an area to work with and they did their best. Hopefully next year the Hilsea path will be back open.

It's the first run I've done with bone conductor headphones and I think that really helped, especially as I ran this alone (although part of Portsmouth Joggers). I mean where else can you have a running play list that incorporates Boney M, Metallica, Spandau Ballet, Proclaimers and Red Hot Chilli Peppers!

My tartan leggings attracted some attention again. I'm glad people appreciate them and it's nice when random people say they love them. However, tartan is part of me and I'm glad I can incorporate it into my running now.

The finish..... well thanks to one of my friends (thank you Adam!) who ran with me at the end I managed a sprint finish that surprised everyone including me! I was the last Portsmouth Jogger in but I wasn't the last runner. I am really happy with 56.48, it's not a PB but it's not always about that. It was getting round it considering the conditions and actually just enjoying racing (well not racing as I'm never going to win).