KEEP RUNNING, MUMMY!
TAKE TO THE TRAILS
Our resident running mummy Claire Chamberlain discovers that some sketchy training and lack of sleep can lead to a surprisingly positive race experience
It’s not often you’ll find me standing in a clearing in the woods early on a Saturday, with a handful of other keen runners raring to take on a challenge. My ‘Mummy’ schedule doesn’t allow for it much these days. Nevertheless, I’d managed to schedule in some run time. And so it was, I stood on the start line of the Shoreham Woods Trail 10K, shivering slightly in the cool shade of the trees, my little support crew now behind me, and a heap of killer hills lying ahead.
I’d been waiting for this moment for a little over a month now – the date etched into my brain. I’d completed a little over four weeks of rigorous strength work, followed a proper training schedule and stuck to a strict healthy eating plan, and… ha ha! Just kidding, obvs.
There has been a distinct lack of sleep in my house recently: the 17-month-old is cutting teeth and the three-year-old has taken to wandering into our bedroom at 3:30am and asking loudly, “Is it morning yet?” before repeatedly demanding a bowl of cornflakes. Yawn. This means the healthy diet thing has had to take a bit of a back seat, as my exhausted body can only get through the day when fuelled with caffeine, chocolate digestives and cake (it’s a new carb-loading strategy I’m championing).