This evening to Hackney's Victoria Park to run for my club in the second Assembly League meet of the season. The rain, which had kept up for most of the day, did not abate for our race. This was not a problem, in fact it made the event more comfortable and we all enjoyed standing, panting in a cloud of hot-body-generated steam at the end. There were 16 of us running, and our fastest were in 1st and 2nd position, which means Kent AC girls are still on top.
My own race? I enjoyed it, and felt strong, so was dismayed to clock a super slow time of 26min, but then the course is longer than average (5.5k) and the faster women were only managing 22, so that puts it in perspective. The pun in the title is a reference to a point I've made before: men and their constant phlegm clearing. A man I just had to overtake was hawking and spitting all the way round, the one ahead was doing the same. Yet women do not feel the need. Do men have more phlegm, or do they feel that expectorating helps them to go faster?
I met the others in the club house to congratulate and congregate for the mass exodus to the pub. We drank beer and chatted racing. I feel so envious of the women in their 20s and 30s who have so much scope for improvement. Am I stuck at this level because I am 51, or is there a way I can work on my times for these shorter distances? I feel I can push myself harder. Third woman Teresa told me how much pain and discomfort she's been in to clock her 22. The dfference is more than 4mins. It's a whole mindset, a realisation that I must kick out of that comfort zone. Perhaps I am too phlegmatic a runner, need to be choleric or sanfguine and whatever the other humours were (bilious? Certainly fast runners nauseate themselves when they try hard, and that has never happened to me).
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