A Whole New World....

I was flattered to be invited to join two Elite English marathoners (Aly Dixon and Amy Whitehead) on a course recce in Glasgow at the weekend, as although I was sure that I'd covered some of the route in either the Women's 10k or the Glasgow Half marathon, I wasn't quite sure of the exact laps set for July.

I confess to a very poor night's sleep beforehand, partly due to an early start to make it up to meet them soon after 7am (in order to avoid traffic, pedestrians, shoppers etc on the route) and partly due to my worry that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace!

The route we should have run!

Luckily, the run was at a relaxed pace, and it wasn't too hard to get the others to use their breath for conversation. As I listened to them chat about the merits of running on the tartan track or the dirt track in Iten, and single vs double runs on other trips to altitude, I felt like I was entering a whole new world!

In actual fact, both ladies were lovely running companions, and spent time putting me at my ease and talking through previous events and competitions - both preparation for, the run up to, and the actual event itself, to try to allay my fears and answer some of my questions (without even commenting on whether I was asking ridiculous things or not!). I came away from the trip tired, but having really enjoyed the run, seen the route (with some slight extra detours), and soaked up (hopefully) lots of their tips, knowledge and experiences!