By Carole Ford
NTH – What can I say?
Truly, I was really feeling that this session was not for the likes of me. My feelings ran from reluctance, to real doubt in my own ability as a fairly new runner. The fact was all the gang encouraged me and supported me to keep bashing it out up that ‘Mother’ of a hill… Never mind up and back down three times over…
I think I muted to another runner that I would probably make it up once and then volunteer to help do the recording, as I was not up to this challenge and doubted my own ability….
With the faint humming of the Combine Harvester working its way around the curves of the village and the curious looks from the young cattle chewing on their cud, I dug down. I just got down to business. I felt more positive and encouraged when my first run up was pretty much with the rest of the group and back down too. Feeling a little more motivated I thought that I could actually do this again…. So timings were dropping a little, but not by masses… So I just kept going.
I eventually finished within seconds of another member of the gang. The reality of realising that I had battled against my own self doubt and overcome that initial panic and anxiety, was a powerful revelation in itself.
In conclusion…. No hill is too hard to conquer!