It’s been a pretty busy time at Powered by Rabbit Food. The house is coming on rapidly, we’re ever closer to moving in date. We’re working what seems to be three jobs simultaneously and we’ve been deep in a training block that ended for Gabby on Saturday evening with her first ever half marathon. (My race week is this week – report will come after!).

After a morning of working up at the house trying to get some of the jobs around that need finishing before the flooring can go in we took the 90 minute drive up to Adamów. Registration was super quick and easy, even if the foreign surname was difficult to pick out on the sheets.

Actually, looking back we did arrive a little early, like two hours earlier than we needed to. This did however give Gabby plenty of time to get some fluids on, eat a little bit and have a really good stretch / warm up.

Finally the 6pm race start approached and Gabby headed over to the start area, whilst I ducked out to get out of the way and try to grab a couple of photo’s. The course was entirely forest based and a rectangle type shape throughout, this meant that it was difficult to get out to the areas to get other photos, so I went for a little run myself. As such, it’s over to Gabs:

The start of the race was really tough, with the first kilometers being very sandy, dusty and narrow. This meant there was a real squeeze to get to the outsides of the track where there was some grass. After the first bend, the real forest started. One of the nice things were towers that were memorials to the historic events in the forest. It kept the kilometers ticking over.

After a few kilometers the faster runners had disappeared on up the track so it had all calmed down and I could focus on getting the running done. In this deeper forest I definitely appreciated the light rain that kept the temperature down.

The race was really well organised with water / aid stations every 3km.

During the race I tried a different way of pacing, previously I’d tried to keep a specific pace but found it really frustrating. This time I went with a heart rate zone focus and it was much better, it meant I pushed harder even when maybe my legs didn’t feel like it. I think I’ll take that approach on towards the marathon.

The final run in was welcome of course and there was the fun of the fireman running with me. It was nice to have the company at the end!

Waiting at the finish line, with the music blaring, the BBQ in full swing (more on that later) and the party vibe going on the finishers started to come through. The final straight was quite long but because of the light it was hard to pick out who was coming.

Then, I saw someone, alongside a fireman, running with an absolutely massive grin on her face. Gabby had arrived. She clocked an almost 15 minutes better than she hoped 2:16:36 and was super happy. Now it’s on to the next one for her which is the 3rd of August for a trail run in Kazimierz, after being a race sherpa for me on Saturday.

It has to be said the event was incredibly well run with the party and everyone on the finish line to cheer the final finisher over (at 2:33, the average level in Poland is for the most part, nuts – it seems that normal people are put off from these challenges, that’s another blog post though). The BBQ, unfortunately didn’t have anything veggie. Mustard sandwiches and pickles all around for us then!

On to the next one!