The day the killer mile nearly killed me
Friday 23rd July 2010, 9:50AM BST.
The Killer Mile. You can imagine why they call it that, writes Hannah Webster.
Every year my running club go a bit doo-lalley and decide to run a one-mile race on a practically vertical hill, and as one of their newest members, I thought it would be a good experience to take part in the ritual.
We all gathered outside a pub in Forhill, Birmingham, yesterday to pin our race numbers on. We ran down the hill slowly to warm up before doing our best to hurtle up it. I have never run just one mile by itself before, and truth be told I thought it would be easy to run pretty quick if I knew I could stop that soon after starting. But half way up the hill I felt like I could easily cough up a lung if I wasn’t careful, and my heart felt like it was about to desert me.
I did make it, however, and I even managed a sprint finish on the final, mercifully flat, straight as I clocked 10 minutes and 14 seconds according to my watch. I think I was about fourth from last but I won’t know for sure until the results are posted on the Bournville Harriers website.
One thing I’m conscious of is that on that final straight a photographer seemed to pop out of no where. When I say “pop out of nowhere” I mean he was probably there all along but by this point I was suffering tunnel vision. He snapped me as I tried my best to turn my grimace into a smile.
I have run a fair few road races over the last few years, and there’s never a photographer around when you are feeling fast and strong. They just seem to appear when you are at your most beetroot-coloured and sweating at an uncomfortable rate. But I suppose that’s the point really, what’s the point of doing races if you aren’t prepared to push yourself that bit harder? The photos are just evidence of your efforts.
That’s what I’ll be telling myself when that photo of me surfaces anyway . . .
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