The watch sometimes lies

They did warn me when I ran a 5K on Saturday that Strava would give me a quicker time, but does that mean it doesn't count?

I ended last week’s newsletter with the words: “The fast 5K will just have to wait.” And then, the very next weekend, less than 10 minutes from my house, there was a race literally called the “Fast 5000”. Ah, shucks, I couldn’t resist.

For those not following every twist and turn of my recent running story, a few months ago I set myself a goal of running a 5K in under 18 minutes. Since then, I’d run two fast 5Ks, the first in 18:00 and the second in 18:19. But also I have the deadline for my book at the end of June, so I haven’t been training very seriously. Although, I did think that maybe the restful few weeks might have left me feeling quite fresh.

In any case, if I didn’t run fast in the Fast 5000, it didn’t matter. It was just going to be fun to be in a serious race, with some really fast runners, belting it around the Torbay velopark.

I almost didn’t make it to the start. The race was at 3pm on Saturday, but late morning we got a phone call to say my niece, who lives nearby, had fallen over and possibly broken her leg and could I take her in to the hospital to have it looked at. I feel bad that my first thought was, “oh no, I’ll miss my race”, but I guess it had been playing more seriously in my subconscious than I had realised. But race or not, I had to help my niece, of course.

I sat there in A&E for a few hours with all thoughts of the race gone from my head, but it turned out to be an unusually quiet day in the hospital, and we were soon heading home earlier than expected (leg not broken). If I rushed back, changed and headed straight out, I realised, I could still make the race. The Fast 5000 was back on!