On the run: Lost in the country

Annie Hayes, HRZone.co.uk's very own contributing editor and self-confessed reluctant runner is bravely taking part in the London Marathon this year and she is charting her training regime here in this blog. This week, she winds up off the map and on the 'lost-on-run' list.

Like a true 'townie', I shrieked at the gruesome sight of yesterday’s road kill. I thought it was a badger, Sandra informed me that it was in fact a skunk. The weekend countryside jaunt was peppered by smells, animals and some red-faced difficulty with the map.

The brief visit of spring, that we’d so enjoyed in the previous week, was cruelly snatched from us as we braced ourselves once again to face the icy conditions. Sandra, co-running buddy and Marathon luvvie, took no risks and promptly got dressed for what looked more like an Antarctic expedition then a February jog. I reluctantly opted for the wind-shield walker’s jacket and cashmere gloves.

So off we went. The parents-in-law had armed us with what looked like a fairly easy-to-follow route, a big circle round the Cotswold countryside. A 10-miler - easy, I thought, how hard can it be?

It was a good 20 minutes until we saw a car, this was a highlight. Next was the road kill, the Queen and right royally (excuse the pun) getting lost. The skunk was, bar dead and disgusting, a reminder of our new surroundings and had we foreseen our inability to map read we could have used it as a marker. I also wish I’d packed some gingerbread men.

After the road kill episode, we were nearly knocked off the road, or country lane I should say, by what we were convinced was our very own Queen. The immaculate hair-do that peeped over the steering wheel must have belonged to her or, if not, Helen Mirren re-playing her starring role. Whoever the looky-likey was, they weren’t shy about the Land Rover’s accelerator.

Two hours in and the battle tales discussed, we decided that each lane was looking remarkably like the last. Used to more prominent road side markers, the Tower of London, Battersea Bridge etc, it was a little more tricky to decipher one Cotswold turn from the other. The realisation of our limited map reading skills sunk in when we ended up on the turning of a main road with no signs to the friendly parents-in-law village in sight. There was nothing for it but to admit defeat and phone a friend, or a mother-in-law.

Ten minutes later we were picked up and the whole family gathered to greet our arrival with disbelief. An emergency debrief was called. Oh the embarrassment, the shame. The jaded-looking husbands wished they’d stuck a GPS tracking device on us. The family name in disrepute, we were banished and put on vegetable peeling duty. Still, there’s always next time!

More news from me next week on how the training is going and how I got on with my longest run to date - a 15-miler – yikes.

Annie is running the Flora London Marathon on 13 April in aid of Heart UK. You can sponsor her at www.justgiving.com/annabellehayes

Marathon blog archive:

• Stuck on the same tune


• My marathon blog

HR Zone, 25-Feb-2008
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