Sunday On The Heath With The Betties and Berts

After yesterday's 21 mile undulating solo training run, today I headed to Royston Heath with a group of runners for a hilly 12 mile run. Flat Cambridgeshire is a long way from the Lake District and even further from the Alps, so we have to make do with the bobbly hills of Hertfordshire for our hill training. Today I was joined by ten of the Sweaty Betties and two Bearded Berts.  A circuit of the Heath is about 4 miles. Most people in the group were aiming for about 8 or 9 miles, i.e. either two circuits or two and a bit. Three of us were aiming for 3 laps. The hills aren't high, but they are relentless. It is a great lung bursting and leg wrecking training ground. 

The last time I took a group of Betties to the Heath I ended up taking one girl to A&E with a broken finger. On that particular day the ground was especially slippery and a few girls slipped and ended up smeared in mud. Thankfully, today's mud was more sticky than slippery, so it was just pure hard work rather than treacherous. Amazingly, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The vast majority of the runners today are training for the Cambridge Half Marathon, with those doing three laps also training for a marathon. At the end of the run one of the girls asked if running around Royston would make the Cambridge Half seem easy, to which I replied, "but of course". At that point Viona cast a spell of negativity over everyone by muttering, "but it won't, will it?" I'm hoping her fiancee, Chris, took my advice and took her home to work on improving her optimism. 

The Sweaty Betties: Julie, Jen, Rowan, Emma, Jo, Caroline, Rachel, Louise, Viona & Sonia,
and the Bearded Berts: me, Chris and David.

Emma, closely followed by Rowan, at the top of the first climb.

Chris leading the way over the series of short bumps that make up the third climb.

The girls and David arriving at the top of the fourth climb, quite possibly the hardest of the hills.

I don't really consider this one a hill, but it is hard work with tired legs.

The fifth and penultimate hill on the course.  Louise leading the majority of the group,
just a short way behind Rachel.

My other news of the week, which I forgot to mention yesterday, relates to the outcome of my application for the 100km CCC race around Mont Blanc this August. Once again I was unsuccessful in the ballot. However, this year I felt confident enough to upgrade my application to the 119km TDS race instead. All of a sudden I have a much stronger motivation for running as many hills as I can get to. I think there should be a handicap system for running mountainous events, with those coming from very flat areas having the biggest handicap. The handicap should be translated into a time bonus which should be deducted from your finishing time. What do you think?