We last ran this race in 2007, and it was then that I set my Half Marathon PB.  I haven’t bettered it since, admittedly I’ve only run two more Half Marathons since then.  My training has been reasonable, I have lost (so far) 41 pounds in weight, so I was feeling almost prepared.

Fast forward to this morning – I was terrified.  In fairness, I’ve been terrified for the last few days!  I was feeling the pressure (from myself, no-one else might I add) and I was happy to see some friendly faces in the form of lots of the Pirate girls – and even happier to hear from David who had arrived safe and sound after cycling to Bedford from home this morning, as part of a brick training session.

We lined up on the start line, I saw some Ranelagh pals which was lovely.  We were off!  I can barely remember details of the race and it’s less than 12 hours ago.  I set off in a melee and clocked my first three miles starting with a 9.  That sort of wasn’t in the plan.  Ah well, I was having a nice time – then I saw the first hill of the race, a short, sharp incline.  Up and over I went.  The next couple of miles were fine, little bit windy and a bit of a drag up a dual carriageway (speaking of which, if a race asks you not to wear an MP3 player for safety reasons and you wear one anyway, would it serve you right if you didn’t hear a car and got squashed on aforementioned dual carriageway?) slowed me a little but I felt OK.

Mile 7 to 8 I really didn’t feel OK.  What a horrible, headwindy, drag upwards.  I decided that once I got to mile 8, I would have the gel I had in my pocket.  I don’t really “do” gels or drinks when running but I felt I needed it.  I somehow got it into my tummy (bleeurgh!) over the course of a quarter of a mile, timed it like that so I could have some water at the drinks station.  I actually think it helped, whether it’s a placebo effect or really did, I don’t mind.  Still bloody horrible though.

The next few miles just passed in a blur – every now and again I would glance at my watch and think, “ooh, perhaps I’ll get a PB” – but then I remembered that my Garmin was recording the miles slightly early (as it did in 2007), making the total distance 13.2 miles, which then had an effect on my finish time.  Mind you, working that out whiled away a few minutes ;)  I was happy again to see the 10 mile marker, just a parkrun to go.  Hooray.  I carried on, feeling strong, when suddenly at 12.5 miles on my Garmin I thought, “Oh no, my wheels are coming off”.  I could have sat down at the side of the road, I just wanted it to end.  In 2007 I employed the, “Paula Radcliffe Counting Method of Distraction” at mile 10.  This year, it wasn’t until mile 12, so that’s an improvement at least ;)

Before I knew it, I was heading up the final incline to the finish, I just couldn’t do any kind of a sprint finish, my legs were well and truly done for.  I saw David and heard him telling me to push on – all I could reply with was, “I’ve done a PB!”.  I had.  A PB of over 3 minutes – giving me a new Half Marathon best of 2:08:26.  Totally over the moon.  Totally.  If you don’t believe me about how over the moon I was, the photo below taken seconds after the finish shows it pretty well :)

A bit of milling about, a coffee, some catch ups and cheering in, out for scampi and chips and we were homeward bound.  What a day!

If you’re interested in such things, below are my splits from this year.  I’ve looked at my mile splits from 2007 – and the obvious gains were in the tougher bits, although there’s a general gain on every mile.

(1) 9:27, (2) 9:17, (3) 9:43, (4) 9:55, (5) 10:02, (6) 9:53, (7) 9:39, (8) 10:13, (9) 10:06, (10) 9:11, (11) 9:32, (12) 9:37, (13) 9:57, (13.2) 9:42  avg 9:44 (but based as in 2007 on 13.2 distance, I can’t be faffed trying to remove the extra 0.1!)…so obviously really it’s a slower miling pace than that.

This year I finished 1322/1523 and I was 76th in my age category.  I guess that after scoring myself a shiny PB, it means I will be training to stand on that start line at the London Marathon in April…

So, after a slight lack of tapering (meaning a 17:33 ‘one second away from my PB’ at Bushy parkrun on Saturday) I got my bike ready for a very early start. A 5am wake up call on a Sunday is never a good thing but sometimes you just need to get on with things.

I left home just after 5:40am for the 55 mile or so ride to the start of the Bedford Harriers Half Marathon. Although it was cold on the plus-side there was a slight tailwind which I wasn’t complaining about. With sunrise not until just before 8am it was going to be a dark ride for a couple of hours.

The roads around west London were lovely and quiet – even the North Circular up to Hanger-Lane. You rarely get to say that! The route I chose avoided most big roads and I headed up through Harrow and up to Elstree. After crossing the M1 motorway there was a stretch of about 3 miles or so with no street lighting at all so it was pretty damn dark and I had to rely on my (reasonable but not great) bike lights for visibility.

I next headed up to St. Albans, Harpenden, Luton, Clophill and then across to the start in Wooton. I arrived shortly before 9am having ridden for 3 hours 1 minute of cycling at an NP of 237 (TSS 218). Sharon had the car conveniently parked nearby so I packed the bike away and got changed into my running gear. A couple of energy gels before the start and away we went at 10am.

The run was pretty uneventful. I enjoyed it and it was nice to be in such a large race.

I hoped to run close to 1 hour 30 and I think I did myself pretty proud! Going through half way in around 45:10 I crossed the finish line in 1:29:57. Close enough I’d say. I can’t say it was particularly easy. Well, the first half was pretty steady but towards the end I had to concentrate pretty hard to stay on pace and not get dropped by any groups.  I didn’t want to kill myself out on the course today so did hold back a little as this is just one piece of a much bigger picture.

My finishing position (at least in the provisional results) was 173rd out of 1,523 finishers.

Job done.

The Three Molehills - Course Profile

The race is a three leg event that can be run as an individual or as a relay team.  Individual all the way I say :)

Leg 1 – ‘The Box’

A fast start saw me get to the bottom of this Box Hill in probably 15th position or so.  Although I’d raced off at just slower than 6 minute miling pace I knew that this wouldn’t last – and Box Hill would take care of that!  The first obstacle was some stepping stones across a river.  Well I wasn’t expecting those.  Straight after the stepping stones came the steps – around 270 steps that take you up to the top of Box Hill.  These were tough.  You couldn’t run up them – it was just a quick powerful walk/climb up the hill with many other runners all around you.  There was no real room to overtake and everyone around me was going at a speed I was happy with.

Once at the top you run to a turnaround point (a lovely viewpoint which has great views of much of Surrey) and then down Box Hill.  With a severe lack of any kind of hill training (for months if not years) I knew I’d not be prepared for some of the downhills – which I find much harder than going up.  I restrained myself a bit coming down as I didn’t want to completely destroy my quads and because of this I was caught up and passed by a few people on the downhill section.  Once we got onto the flat parts I could keep up a good pace but going down I didn’t want to risk things too much – as this race was more for fun than a position and is just part of the grand race plans for the next few weeks/months.

After 3.63 miles of running and 27 minutes 11 seconds, most of it up and down, you return to the start/finish to start the second leg.  There was stacks of support from spectators and other runners who were running the event as part of relay teams.  I like this style of race as you get plenty of support and as there’s a lot of ‘out and back’ you see other runners who encourage you and you can encourage/support back.  I was very surprised to see an average of 7:23 miling.  Surely I couldn’t keep that up…

Leg 2 – ‘Norbury Manor’

The second leg headed off in the direction of Westhumble and then up yet another incline!  This was a much gentler climb – still hard work but not one that you had to walk up!  It did go on for quite a while but that’s the nature of this event.  Near the top there was a water station with PowerBar gels (the only time I’ve been given gels in a race before I think is in an Ironman triathlon – so top marks to the organisers for sorting this).  I took a gel and some water and continued on.  During the downhill a couple of runners flew past me.  Whenever anyone came past I’d try and see from their race number if they were an individual or relay entrant.  Unfortunately these were individuals.

Two more runners then closed in on me and I decided to try my best and hang on with them.  At the bottom of the descent the three of us were all together and we pushed on as best we could (around 7 minute miling pace) alongside the A24 on the way back to the start of leg three.  My GPS measured leg two as 6.04 miles and it took me 42:31 (7:02 miling).

Leg 3 – ‘Ranmore Ramble’

Leg 3 began in a different direction and headed straight uphill.  A steep incline took us up, up and up and it was just a constant climb all the way up to the top of Ranmore Common. At the start of the leg I heard one of the chaps right behind me say, “I think he’s overcooked it!” about one of the runners ahead who overtook us a couple of miles ago and was now walking.  The three of us ran past him and didn’t see him again.

Once at the top of the hill you run along a quiet road and then through a muddy wooded area which was rather energy sapping.  Another water station at the turnaround point (where I walked for a couple of seconds just to get some water in) and then it was time for the race back down to the finish.  I was still with the two other chaps at this point and we’d helped each other on the climb up.  If it wasn’t for them I don’t think I would have made it up there so quickly.  During the final descent to the finish I couldn’t quite keep up with the other two and they moved off up ahead.  I kept pushing and was really happy to cross the finish line in 1:41:22.  The 4.37 miles that I measured for this leg took me 31:40 (7:14 miling).

In the overall results I was 21st out of 106 individuals (the winner finished in 1:30:50).  Looking at the team relay entries I was beaten by 7 teams (out of 46 overall relay teams).  My overall miling pace for the 14 or so miles was 7:12 miling – which is what I need to be running a marathon in – although I have no plans to run a marathon that hilly!

So, two longish runs in a week – on Tuesday I ran a half marathon in La Santa in Lanzarote.  That I thought was a hilly course – altitude wise that run had a total elevation gain of 620 ft.  I thought that was pretty hilly for a 1 hour 37 run.

As for this run, well, the elevation gain was 1,697 feet!  That’s probably more hill climbing that I’ve run in a whole year!!  As I write this the following evening my legs are truly screwed and I feel like I’ve almost run a marathon.  A couple of hours easy riding on the bike today surely must help.  Only time will tell…

Finally I have to say the course marking was excellent, the water/gel stations fantastic and the marshalls superb.  They were everywhere!  Top marks to Events To Live for a really well organised event.  It was also a nice touch to be greeted by Alan (the race director) as you cross the finish line.  Oh, and I made my best effort with my big hair to get onto the blog of the race photographers for the event – I think I did a good enough job :)

So, at 10am I was on the start line ready to see how my legs would cope with 10 miles of hard effort, especially after a surprise 18.02 time at Frimley Lodge parkrun yesterday (which doesn’t really lend itself to fast times).  I’d not planned to run that hard but had a couple of people were breathing down my neck and that spurred me on.

Anyway, back to today.  Ignoring whoever was around me (there were about 60 runners from Ranelagh Harriers in the race) and just going at my own pace I started off and settled into a pace around 6:15 minute miling.  This would get me over the finish line in 1:02:30 which I’d be really happy with, compared to my previous years times…

• 2006 – 1:11:47
• 2007 – 1:03:09
• 2008 – 1:06:02
• 2009 – 1:02:22
• 2010 – 1:11:48 (was part of a much longer run)

After two or three miles I was running around 6:12 pace on average and thought I’d just try and stick to it.  The first half should feel fairly ‘steady’ which it did and I crossed the 5 mile marker in 31:11 – bang on my PB pace.  I knew the second half would get much tougher, especially when I’d not trained for this race any way whatsoever (my current training is more about going longer and slower as part of my marathon/Ironman prep) so this could get interesting.

Looking at my GPS I went through 10km in 38:31 (28 seconds slower than PB pace).  Interesting…

During the second half of the race I think I kept myself together very well.  Only three people overtook me – one from The Stragglers running club, a Thames Turbo Triathlon Club member and just before the 9 mile mark it was Ranelagh Harriers clubmate Sean P. who drifted past.

I pushed on as hard as I could through to the finish where I crossed the line in 1:01:56 – giving me a new personal best time over the distance by 26 seconds.  I also managed to negative split the race (first five miles was 31:11, the second five was 30:45).  I finished in 125th place overall (there was some really quick times ran this morning) and my age grading was 73.95%.

A good mornings race, that’s for sure.

I started to get back to running again in January this year with the aid of Marathon Talk’s, “Jantastic”…swiftly followed by, “Febulous” and then, “Marchvellous”.  Essentially it meant I started to run again 3 times a week, with my runs getting a bit longer and I even had to “race” a parkrun again.  I was feeling good – but then Marchvellous ended and with it went my motivation.  I stopped running again.

At the very end of April I decided that I needed to do something about it.  Mostly I was being hindered in my running by my weight.  Something somehow clicked in my head and so far I am 30 pounds lighter after 18 weeks.  It’s definitely helping with my running, which in turn makes me want to run more.  This is a Very Good Thing.

So, here we are.  Tuesday 30^th August saw me don my Ranelagh vest for the first time in quite some time – and I was beyond excited!

It was the Ratchford Relays.  This is a women only race at my club, each team consists of one fast, one medium and one slow runner (me!).  There are 6 laps to be done and the traditional ordering is F, M, F, S, M, F.  Each lap is 1km long.  Our team actually became 4 members due to the late arrival of Olivia, who is an awesome 10 year old runner, who ran one of our fast laps.  We controversially swapped our order as well to take advantage of Olivia’s fresh legs!  Before I knew it, I was off!

When I did the Relays in 2008, I was a medium runner and did my laps in 4:54 and 4:56, in 2010 I joined in for the fun of it and did 5:41.  This year, I tried really really hard – and did a time of 5:10 for the km.  I was over the moon – my legs haven’t moved that quickly since, I reckon, 2008!  They were very excited about it :)

It was lovely to be with my Ranelagh club mates (and David who was my PA for the evening!), lots of people I hadn’t seen in an age and lots of new runners to meet too.  As an aside our team finished 4^th out of 6 teams – but that’s not the point of the Ratchford Relays.  I really enjoyed myself, as the photos may testify!

Recently my 5k times have been good and after a cracking run last year I felt that I should be able to better that performance if everything went alright on the day.  I actually had a pretty lazy week of exercise having been working away from home (lots of travel messed things up a bit) and enjoying the delights of hotel food so I’d either arrive at the start feeling lethargic or fresh.  Only time would tell.

After the 2010 ‘fun’ that I had racing with Duncan M. from Ranelagh (see last years blog for that) he decided to adopt a different, but perhaps more sensible strategy.  Rather than race it like a 5k and die towards the end he was after even splits and if all went to plan he’d come cruising past me close to the finish.  Interesting tactic… however, it could just work.

Conditions were ideal, a light breeze and temperature probably close to 20 degrees.  A lovely summer evening (for a change!) and a good crowd of over 400 runners.  I was lined up on the front row and as the start signal went we were all off like rockets (kind of!).  Naturally getting carried away with the faster runners I settled into a pace that although comfortable at the time I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain.  After about a half mile I eased back ever so slightly.  I was still at around my 5k personal best pace and it took a while to gently ease back some more.  It was good to have a few other runners around me at the same sort of pace so we were all pushing each other pretty hard.

Shortly after the start as we settle into pace

At around 3k I saw the first casualty – a chap who had gone off way too quick early on and was paying for it – unfortunately well before the half way point!  I had no sympathy as he was wearing an MP3 player with music blaring out (I could almost make out the words as I ran past him).  So antisocial.

At this point I was running close to Mark H. from Ranelagh and a chap from Cambridge Harriers.  The guy from Cambridge pulled ahead and I sat right behind him.  As we turned off of the grass alonside Chestnut Avenue and headed back into the park he started to open a gap which I wasn’t able to close down on.  It turned out that he had a fantastic second half and gained quite a few places on me.  Nice one.

From here on in I was running alone.  I went through 5k in around 18:05.  This was three seconds slower than in 2010 but I was feeling a little stronger this time around and I remember how much of a struggle the last bit was last year.  Hopefully this time I was more under control.

The final 2k were hard work.  I was slowly closing in on two or three men ahead of me and as I headed into the finishing straight I’d got past two of them but one put in an almighty sprint finish to take me before the line.

This wasn’t really an issue as I crossed the line in 26:08 – a 17 second personal best on last years time.  I certainly cannot complain about that.  I finished 29th out of 487.  Although my time was much better this year I was further down the field.  Last year I was 19th out of 505.  As for Duncan, he just wasn’t feeling it on the night so was unable to test out his even pacing strategy against my ‘go like a nutter and hang on for dear life’ approach.

Following the race it was time to enjoy a picnic out on the field in front of the cricket club with friends.  As with last year (and the previous times that I’ve run this race) it was back to Bushy parkrun the following morning where I ran a nippy 18:33 which I followed up with a 50 mile bike ride.  Busy busy busy.

Finally looking at my times at this race over the years – 27:03 (2007), 26:44 (2008), 26:25 (2010), 26:08 (2011).  What will 2012 hold?

I wanted to get in a long run on the day of the race so the plan was for a moderate warm-up and then a slightly harder ‘race.’  The warm up was just under 4.5 miles – almost a lap of the single lap course and this was followed by waiting around at the start/finish area for about 25 minutes or so chatting to others as I waited for my start time (as its a handicap race).

When you’re eventually lined up ready to go it’s interesting to see the people who set off in front (who you want to chase down and beat) and the ones behind you (who are racing after you!).  This adds some pressure onto the race as you’re not just all starting together and seeing the super fast runners race off into the distance.

I last ran the course a year ago immediately before driving over to Germany for the Challenge Roth triathlon race.  Apparently I had a ‘steady’ run and completed the course in 34:56.  My best time over the course was in 2009 when I ran it in 32:03 (a few hours after a fast 5k at Bushy parkrun).

As I set off today I planned to push pretty hard and just see what happened.  I didn’t fancy being overtaken by too many people and once I caught the sight of the runners ahead of me I pushed on.

It took close to two miles before I was overtaken by the first of the faster runners.  When overtaken it gives you the impetus to try and stick with them, even though they’re faster.  This helped no end and I ended up having a good little run with Mark H. where we swapped positions with one another on three or four occasions (he got the better of me in the end).  One point of note during the race was about 1.5 miles from the finish, when a young deer ran out of some fern that we were running alongside and almost took out Mark.  It was so so close and he almost jumped out of his skin as it flew in front of him!  The perils of running in Richmond Park.

Very few other runners came past me (perhaps two or three others) and in the final couple of miles I was flying past many of the slower runners ahead of me.  Very motivational.

Conditions underfoot were very firm – the weather was cool and there was a fresh breeze blowing – which was really quite gusty in some of the exposed areas of the course.

As I crossed the line my time was 31:04 which put me at 11th position overall, and (more importantly) 11th fastest (out of 70 runners).  This was a 59 second personal best on the course so an excellent result.  The course is measured at 4.95 miles which equates to 6:17 minute miling over the bumpy terrain.  Finally, looking at my individual age graded performance chart at the Ranelagh Harriers website for club cross country courses this is my best ever performance – with an age grading of 72.2%.  I’ve never made it over 70 percent for the club before so I’m really pleased with this.

I ran this in 2007 and 2008 and missed the past two years as I felt that close to 10 miles running through very uneven terrain a week or two before an Ironman triathlon was far too risky.  This year I’m not doing an Ironman so it was great to go back and take part again.

To learn a little more about the run please see the post from 2007.  When I’ve done this run in the past the weather has been beautiful.  This time it was different.  It was pouring with rain!

A group of 7 or 8 of us headed off under the lead of Chris Owens who knows the park like the back of his hand.  With no maps he led us along paths, through undergrowth, through gates, across streams, over tree stumps and through woods to get to (I believe) 20 different ponds.  The route he took was excellent and without a GPS I wouldn’t have a hope in trying to do it on my own.

Although the weather was shocking the run was great fun and was nice and sociable.  I very rarely go social running with other people so this was a nice change.

Unfortunately my GPS had no battery power when I turned it on before the run so I the only information I have is that it was around 9 miles and took us about 1 hour 15 minutes in total along a route from the Ranelagh clubhouse back to the clubhouse.  The route I believe was the same as I’d run previously (maps available in the earlier posts).

We arrived with plenty of time to spare and after a cup of coffee I headed off for a warm-up.  The race is a flat figure-of-eight course completely on footpaths around a large housing estate – ideal for a fast time.  Weather wise it was great – warm but only a very light breeze.

Although it’s only a small race (in 2010 there were 157 finishers) the winning time was quick (25 minutes – 5 minute miling pace) so I knew I’d be some way back off of the front.

The start was pretty empty and I found myself on the line.  My only plan for today was to push hard and if I could hang onto something like 6 minute miling for a time of around 30 minutes I’d be happy.

The first couple of minutes I pushed off a little too quickly but that seems to happen in most races.  I then settled into a pace and had a runner very close to me for a couple of miles or so.  The leading runners were way up ahead and the next group up from me were two chaps and the leading woman.

Going through 5km my time was 18:39.

I then edged ahead of my nearest rival and kept the pressure on.  One of the men ahead of me pulled to the side with an ankle injury and I found myself closing in on the woman ahead of me.

I continued to dig in, hold pace and in the last mile I got past her and pushed on to the finish.

As I crossed the line the clock showed 30:01 which was close enough to 30 minutes for my liking!  I really pushed hard this morning and I think I had a great run.  It was hot out there and there was no drafting to be had for the entire 5 miles.  Extrapolating this time out to 10k a sub-38 minute time is certainly possible.  Perhaps something to aim for.

The winning time was 27:15 and my 30:01 put me in 9th position overall (out of 100 finishers).

Following the ‘main event’ it was time to run the 2 mile fun-run with seven year old Grace.  I can’t say that her pacing was up to much but although we ‘sprinted’ about 20 times, watched her sit on a bench to rest and also stop to look at a birds egg on the side of the path we ran the 2 miles in 21:55.  This was 10 minute 58 mile pace so not bad at all I’d say.  During the fun run, Harry raced off with his pals and finished in around 19 minutes, he looked pretty pleased.  Harry and Grace both beat their Mum, Kate ;)  Clearly she let them win…

The day continued with a visit to a Donkey Show (a bit like a dog show, but with donkeys!) and then lunch by the River Thames.  Good times.

I rarely race over 10k – for the main reason that its such a bloody tough distance.  You run at close to 5k race pace…. twice!  Normally the Bognor 10k is pretty much my only 10k of the year however a couple of weeks ago I found myself running the Sutton 10k race and found myself getting a well overdue personal best of 38:27 in tough windy conditions.

Shortly after 2km

Looking back through my records (there’s a few blog entries here from previous years) this will be my eighth year in a row of taking part in the Bognor 10k.  I’ve gone under 40 minutes on three previous occasions at Bognor.  My previous times over the years have been 52:59, 46:28, 44:26, 39:27, 39:17, 40:24 and 39:53.  Sub-40 should be simple enough for me this time…

Sunday morning arrived and with a 10:30am start I could have a leisurely start to the day.  Sharon was on my mum’s bicycle so cycled the two or so miles to the start whilst I jogged alongside her.  The weather was lovely sunshine but with a 10-15 mph WNW wind.  This meant that there would be a headwind during the second half of the run (but nowhere near as bad as in previous years).

After a good warm up I lined up at the start, about two rows back from the front.  The first km of this race is very twisty-turny and with a large group of people who race off the front it gets pretty congested.  As I had started a little further forward than in previous years things were a lot better this time around.

I went through 1km in around 3:50, which was right on with my pacing plan.  I wanted to run two pretty even 5km splits of 19 minutes.  I ran 19 minutes for 5km at the Sutton race a couple of weeks ago and planned to do the same again today.

As the km markers went by I continued to hold my pace.  There were no groups of runners around me and unfortunately nobody to draft off of.  I’d say that I ran the entire race on my own.

The support on the course is fantastic (as always) and I knew that I’d get some good cheers from Sharon (at the 2k and 7k points), and then my mum (4k) and dad (6k) as my parents were marshalling.

Around 7km. Beautiful course scenery.

I went through 5k in about 18:57 which was bang on target.  After 5.5k you turn back onto the promenade for the long slog back to the finish – almost entirely alongside the sea.

I was still running on my own and there were a few individual runners up ahead of me.  I was desperate to close the gap and get on the back of someone and get a bit of a free lift/draft during the windy parts that were coming up.

The trouble was, every time I managed to close the gap and get behind someone, they were running slower than I wanted to and I didn’t feel that hanging right behind them would have given me any overall benefit (I’d use less energy but I’d be running much slower – which isn’t the idea).  So it turned out that every person that I caught up with, I ended up pushing straight past them and doing my best to make sure that they couldn’t try and sit on the back of me!  Yeah that’s mean but this is racing… it’s not a knitting club :)

Photo: Jason Evans

The last few k’s were tough – really tough – but I knew I had a chance of beating my previous personal best (38:27) from a couple of weeks ago.  I just had to keep focused on good running form and leg speed.  There’s a photo of me deep in the ‘hurt box’ at around 9km in over at flickr.com thanks to Jason Evans. I was deep in concentration and able to grunt occasionally in thanks to people cheering me on!

The crowd support was fantastic throughout and during the final few hundred metres both sides of the road were filled with cheering supporters.  I continued to catch up with (and overtake) runners who were ahead of me and as I came round the final corner I caught sight of the finishing clock – 37:58, 37:58, 38:00…. doh!  I pushed on and crossed the line in 38:03 – which is another personal best by some 23 seconds.  Certainly no complaints there.  I finished in 21st position out of 1,486 finishers.

Looking at my mile splits on my GPS, which recorded 6.25 miles they were as follows: 5:55, 6:10, 6:03, 6:09, 6:11, 6:09, 5:48 (for the final part).  This pretty much follows the usual pattern for me in these kind of races (at least when it goes to plan!) – set off a little too fast, bring it under control for a few miles and then speed up at the end.

So, after my eighth Bognor Prom 10k race I’ve got myself a great personal best from no dedicated 10k training.  Who knows what 2012 will hold…

So, let’s talk about the warm-up to Sunday…

Friday morning I met up with Danny and Kirsty and we cycled the 17 miles over to Black Park for their Royal Wedding parkrun.  The run kicked off at 9:30am and my plan for both this weekends parkruns was run close to 20 minutes.  A solid run had me finishing in 19:34.  That’ll do nicely.  After a bite to eat and watching some of the early wedding action on my iPhone we cycled back on the lovely quiet roads – remembering to ring our bells at any sight of bunting on peoples houses.  Much fun was had (by Kirsty and myself) – Danny didn’t seem quite as excited about the Royal Wedding as we were.  Our timing was also perfect as I made it back home in plenty of time to see ‘the kiss’ – oh, and to watch it all over again and again!  Buntingly good fun.

Saturday it was back to the regular haunt of Bushy Park.  An easy ride over there on the mountain bike, a steady 19:53 and then ride back home.  Two races – well, parkrun’s are not races, but an individual time trial ;) done.

Oh, in between all of this I managed to ‘win’ an entry into Monday’s Thames Turbo sprint triathlon race which is held only a few miles from home.  My bike and running is going OK – my swim isn’t but it’s only for fun, right!  My three ‘race’ weekend suddenly turned into a four race weekend – ‘The Quadruple!”

Sunday morning arrived and Sharon and I drove over to Sutton for the 10k.  I raced this last in May 2007 and this was where I first went under 40 minutes – 39:45 to be precise.

My current 10k personal best is 38:54 on a tough course and I’ve had that since August 2008.  The only 10k race I ever do nowadays is the Bognor Regis 10k and normally I’m either in the middle of ironman training or coming back from injury – or its blowing a gale by the seaside so I normally just dip under 40 minutes there.

This morning, although pretty windy I felt that I should be able to run a couple of 19:30 5k’s back to back so should just aim to push hard (but not too hard) early on and see what happens.  With the company of other club runners nearby (Duncan and Bill) who are both capable of similar times I should have some company on the run.

As we set off we soon established a pack of Ranelagh Harriers runners – Duncan, Bill, Trevor, John and myself.  Chris B. sped off into the distance and I didn’t see him until after the finish.

Gun Show just after 2 miles - Bill (ITN News), David (show off), Duncan (serious)

This is a three lap course and much of the second half of each lap is slightly uphill and into a strong headwind (about 15mph or so this morning).  We stuck together as best as possible, all pushing hard and trying to keep up with one another – which was a great help.  The first lap felt pretty easy.  I had to hold back on my pace as I’d be needing my energy later on and the support on each lap as you head through Beddington Park was great.  Sharon was taking photos and Kirsty (who’d run to the race to support) seemed to be wearing my clothes to keep herself warm!

We went through the 5k mark in exactly 19 minutes (by this time it was Duncan, Bill and myself – Trevor had run off ahead a couple of km before).  If I could just do this again this would be perfect – although the 5k point is just before the uphill/headwind part which I’d only run once and had to do twice more.  I expected there could be some drop-off because of this.

Keeping up the pace was getting much tougher on the second lap and by the third lap – when we were overtaking many of the much slower runners I certainly had to dig deep.  Bill had drifted off the back of us and it was Duncan and I shoulder to shoulder.  Just after 8k I moved ahead along with a guy from Clapham Chasers running club.  About a minute or so later Duncan re-appeared with a second-wind.  He muttered something along the lines of ‘I almost lost you then’ and it was good to have him back.  The thing is, he then started running off ahead and I just couldn’t keep up with his pace.

Post race and its all smiles

As we turned into the park the wind eases off and it was just a case of getting to the finish as quickly as possible (which is actually what I’d been doing for the past 35 minutes!).  I knew I would get a PB and as I ran under the finishing clock to see it say 38:27 that was good enough for me. My overall position was 49th out of 422 finishers.

As it’s a 3 lap (and a bit) course I’m was able to look at the data from my GPS and see what my lap times were – 12:10, 12:29 and 12:22.  First lap was easy, second lap tough and third lap much tougher but I pushed much harder.  Had I not have done so then it would have easily been over 12:30.

I love 10k’s but on the other hand I hate them as they’re such hard work.  Never mind… only a couple of weeks before the Bognor 10k – oh, and a little triathlon in the morning!

Pre-race day preparation

5:30am wake up followed by coffee and porridge.  We were staying at my parents house on Saturday night (about 45 minutes drive from Brighton) which was nice but I have to say that they’re not quite familiar with the do’s and don’ts of races.  Firstly I was offered fresh seafood for lunch on Saturday and then asked if I could help my father move a large sofa from storage a little distance from home to their new extension.  Dodgy food and anything that could injure you or pull the wrong muscle is not good day-before preparation.  I declined on both counts.

We arrived early in Brighton and were fortunate enough to be invited round to a friends house who was also running the marathon and just so happened to live about 10 minutes walk from the start.  Brilliant.  That meant fresh coffee and no pre-race portaloo visits.  Result.  I was also able to leave his house at 8:35am and be in the starting pen at 8:45 – ready for the 9am start.

The weather was going to be on the warm side, that’s for sure (20ish degrees).  A light wind with clear blue skies.  The sunshine and heat wasn’t of any concern to me.  I’ve run in much much hotter weather both in training (not recently I might add!) and also during the marathon run at Challenge Roth in Germany last summer (where I ran 3:35 after a little swim and bike ride ;).  I was happy with all my pre-race nutrition and liquids and was ready to run a steady 3:09.  From a ‘pacing band’ that I’d printed out I wrote on my arm the main splits I needed (5, 10, 13.1, 20, 25 miles).

As the starting gun went it was only about 10 seconds before I crossed the line.  The first couple of miles were pretty busy but it soon got quieter.  With the first half of the race being rather ‘lumpy’ I was anticipating running up to two minutes slower during the first half, but with a pancake flat second half I’d be able to make up time with a good ‘negative split.’

Around 4 miles

The first few miles were actually fairly speedy, and I hit five miles bang on target – 36 minutes.  This was time for my first energy gel (well, my second as I’d had one about 30 minutes before the start).  At around eight miles I could feel that my quads were really starting to hurt.  Somewhat similar to how they hurt after my ‘easy’ 13.5 miler on Monday of this past week (they were still hurting on Friday).  This did not particularly bode well!!

My heart rate was also messing around with me – much higher than I would ever expect it to be based on effort.

At around 13.5 miles

I ran close to the 3:10 pacer for the first 10 miles or so although my quads started giving me real grief at about 8 miles. I soldiered on. Hit the halfway mark bang on target (about 1:34:15) and deep down hoped that the flat second half would allow me to fight round the last 13 miles!  Oh how I was wrong.

Miles 16-20 were a nightmare as my splits got worse and worse and my heart rate went up and up. As I hit 20 miles I’d waved goodbye to my target and had to resort to a run walk strategy – something I’d never done before in a marathon (not even during Ironman).  I just wanted to get round at this point – the race I wanted wasn’t going to happen and I didn’t want to kill myself – I just wanted to finish in a respectable time.

It was hard hard work and my legs were hurting almost as much whether I walked or ran.  After walking for 2-3 minutes I tried to run and occasionally I could run more than a 3 or 4 minutes at once!  At around 23 miles after the 3:20 pacer came past I was able to run more and walk less.  I say run in the loosest sense there!

Mileage splits

At around 25.5 miles I saw Sharon and Kirsty (who knew things weren’t good after seeing the 3:10 and 3:20 pacers run past) so I was happy to stop very briefly to let them know that I was fine.  I ran to the finish from here alongside a chap from Wimbledon Windmilers – we had both had a bloody tough day.

As for my time, I came in at 3:25:37 which although is way off of my target I’m fairly happy with it considering the conditions and how I felt during the last 16 miles (for info my standalone marathon personal best is 3:19:46 at London in 2009).  Many people would kill for a time like that.  I was 358th out of 7817 finishers – the last finisher came home in 9 hours 8 minutes 54 seconds!

This year there were 15,000 entrants, and with 7645 finishers that’s just over 52 percent of entrants finished.  Many hundreds/thousands wouldn’t have even started.  In 2010 there were 12,000 entrants and just under 62% of entrants finished (7437 finishers).

I saw a lot of people struggling round near me and as for the 3:10 pacer – I saw quite a few people fall off of back of the group (it was about 25 people strong early on) and he was spotted running with one or two other runners about half a mile from the finish.  I’m not sure what the usual drop-out rate is but this doesn’t look good.  Unfortunately I don’t know how many actual starters there were this year or last.

The support was absolutely fantastic. The marshals/volunteers top notch and this is a brilliant race to run. I’ve got some unfinished business here!

Tough day at the office, that’s for sure.  A sub 3:10 time is in me, I know it.  I just have to be able to deliver the time I deserve on race day.  That’s the tough bit!  It will happen.

This time I’m not injured and the date fitted in perfectly with my series of long runs prior to the Brighton Marathon in three weeks time.  This would be my longest run and then I ease off the long runs (18 miles!! next week, then 12 the week after) going into Brighton.

My plan for today was not to run the 21 miles at race pace, as although I should be capable of doing so I don’t want to ‘run my best race in training’ – the plan was to run slower than marathon pace for the first 15 miles and then step things a bit in the final 6 mile ‘loop.’

My plan was to run the first 15 miles at around 7:30 pace or quicker.  I set off a little quick (first mile in just over 7 minutes, and the second mile not much slower) and then settled down a bit.  For some reason my GPS watch decided to go a bit nuts and after 5 miles it was beeping mile splits a quarter of a mile too early!  It seemed to settle down after then which was good.

The 13.1 mile (half marathon) marker was crossed in around 1:36:45 (which is 3:13:30 marathon pace) – or 7:23 miling.  At around 15 miles I ran for a few minutes with Danny, who was warming down after a fantastic run in the 15 mile race (running alongside the 21 miler).  I then turned onto the final loop where I had planned to step things up a little more…

During the final 6 miles I stepped up the pace and looking at the post-run data I ran round at 7:06 miling – which is pretty much what I wanted to do.  I won’t say it was particularly easy (the route is certainly not flat) but I pushed hard and did what I wanted.  I crossed the finish line in approximately 2 hours 34 and 13 seconds.

For those interested nutrition wise I probably had a total of one small plastic cup of water during the run (these plastic cups are a nightmare to drink from when running) and I had three energy gels.  On race day I’ll probably have four or five gels on the run and certainly be drinking much more – and whatever energy drink they provide at that.

Out of the 543 finishers of the 21 (and a tiny bit) mile route I was the 71st finisher in a time of 2:34:13.  The winner finished in 1:57:51, around 9 minutes faster than second place!

Overall a good morning run – the Cranleigh 21 is an excellent event – it’s dirt cheap to enter (10 pounds for 21 miles!) – a great change of scenery from the usual local long run routes and good to run alongside other people at a similar pace and work on real race simulation nutrition strategy.

After finding myself on the injured bench at the end of 2009 I desperately wanted to start 2010 with a parkrun. So, the start of the year began on the 1st January with Bushy parkrun. I finished in 24:24 and logged the following…

“First run since 28 November. Almost stopped after 1k but wasn’t sure if foot pain or just bloody freezing!”

My next run was at Black Park parkrun on the 23rd and then again in mid-February. My left foot was starting to get better but I decided to get back into things but not rush it.

As part of my Ironman training I was getting time in on my bike (and did the brilliant ‘Hell of the Ashdown’ cycle sportive at the end of January in the ice!).

• January mileage – 6.22.
• February mileage – 29.
• March mileage – 86.

So, things were picking up again but I needed to not rush things.

• April mileage – 93.5

In May I was back at the Bognor Regis 10k for my seventh year in succession. All I wanted to do was get under 40 minutes. I’d run a 40 minute 10k on a treadmill a few days before so felt good and with a steady run (although in a strong wind) I finished in 39:53. That’ll do nicely.

At the end of May I was in the pool for my first triathlon of the season (Thames Turbo Race 3) and finished 17th out of 330 finishers.

• May mileage – 147

In May I also started cycle-commuting into London a couple of days a week on my mountain bike. This was a great opportunity to get some extra easy miles in on the bike – especially on ‘recovery’ days when I wanted just an easy session.

I was going to write about the ‘National Family Week 5k’ that was held at Twickenham Stadium at the start of June but the event was such an (expected) shambles that I won’t. You can read about it if you want to…

Mid-June we were in Wales for the Bala Middle Distance triathlon. This is a great event on a tough course and I had a great race. Finishing in 4 hours 48 (nearly 4 minutes faster than in 2009) and 120th out of 629 finishers.

• June mileage – 143

A month later we popped over to Richmond Park to run the Ranelagh Harriers Coad Cup Handicap Race and then jumped straight in the car and headed to Dover to catch an overnight ferry. Five days later I was on the start line at the Challenge Roth Ironman Distance race. What a day! You can read all about it in my race report but my highlights were a 64 minute swim (for 2.4 miles) and a 3 hour 35 marathon!

• July mileage – 110

Post Ironman I seem to have plenty of 5k speed in my legs (no idea how!) so decided to run one of my favourite 5k’s – the annual ‘Wedding Day 7k’. What I hear you ask? Well…. you run it like a 5k race, then hang on for the final 2k. It’s torture, but enjoyable at the same time.  So, 12 days after my Ironman and I got a 19 second PB on the course. Nice.

At the end of August I raced hard at the Thames Turbo triathlon and finished 20th out of 357 finishers with a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes 37 seconds – a few seconds faster than earlier in the year. This was the warm-up for the Vitruvian…

• August mileage – 77

The beginning of September saw us at The Vitruvian half-Ironman distance triathlon – and what a race. I had a blinder of a race and finished in 4 hours 28 – just under 33 minutes faster than I was in 2008!

“What I like about this the most is that I have the same wetsuit and same bike… I am just stronger overall – especially on the bike and run. This is great to know, especially when I know that I can do better with more (and more structured) training.”

This marked the end of the ‘triathlon season’ and I’ve not seen my wetsuit since. Now it was time to concentrate on other things…

• September mileage – 122

I’d been asked if I ‘fancied running a marathon before the end of the year’ some time ago and decided it would be a good idea. The next couple of months were concentrating on marathon training and getting those long runs in. I took part in a few races but didn’t run them hard – I ran these more as controlled training runs.

• October mileage – 180
• November mileage – 184

At the start of December when all my training was banked and ready to deposit on the streets of Luton for their marathon the race was cancelled due to snow.  Very frustrating but something that can happen with a race held in December.  I got my first ever ‘podium’ placing at Bushy parkrun instead!

After missing out on the snow running earlier in the year through injury I got to enjoy what everyone had been raving about many months ago.  I also learnt that cross country spikes are awesome for running on ice covered paths.

In between some of the snow I found myself getting a 5k personal best of 17:51 at Bushy parkrun. It was hard work (as 5k always is) but very satisfying considering the cancellation of the marathon.

A few more parkruns (they’ve been going on all year, I’ve just not mentioned them above) and a couple of small mob-match/races completed the year.

• December mileage – 101 (before I go out for a few miles later today!)

My total run mileage for 2010 was around 1285 (1311 in 2009, 1028 in 2008, 1320 in 2007) so I’m ticking over again and have no complaints after a slow start to the year.  Here’s my monthly run mileage for the past four years where you can see trends for 2010 such as my mileage increasing for my summer Ironman and then again in my October/November marathon run focus.

Here’s a summary of the running races I took part in (ignoring parkruns) during 2010:

• 20 Feb: Ranelagh Harriers ‘mob match’ against Blackheath & Bromley
• 27 Mar: Ranelagh Harriers Baker Cup
• 16 May: Bognor Prom 10k – 39:53
• 31 May: Thames Turbo Triathlon – 17th overall
• 13 Jun: Bala Middle Distance Triathlon – 4:48:15
• 13 Jul: Ranelagh Harriers Coad Cup
• 18 Jul: Challenge Roth – 10:10:58
• 30 Jul: Wedding Day 7k – 26:25
• 30 Aug: Thames Turbo Triathlon
• 04 Sep: Vitruvian Triathlon – 4:28:01
• 09 Oct: Surrey League Cross Country
• 17 Oct: Cabbage Patch 10
• 23 Oct: Ranelagh Harriers ‘mob match’ against SLH
• 20 Nov: Ranelagh Harriers ‘mob match’ against TH&H
• 12 Dec: Stragglers/26.2 ‘mob match’
• 26 Dec: Stragglers Cabbage Patch 4

So, what’s in store for 2011. The cancellation of the Luton Marathon means that I will be going for my London Marathon ‘Good For Age’ time at Brighton in April and we’ll see what happens then. I’m going to be busy at work for at least the first few months of 2010 so I’m currently not planning another Ironman. I will however continue to swim/bike/run train and will do a couple of Half Ironman races in 2010.

Oh, I also seem to have got myself one of my running club ‘ballot’ places in the London Marathon so right now I plan to run the Brighton Marathon and then seven days later the London Marathon. Could be interesting!

Looking back at what I wrote in my Challenge Roth race report at the end of July – six months later and everything remains the same…

“So, what next…. the trouble with most of these Ironman distance races is that you have to enter them a year in advance and I’m not sure I want to commit to one next summer. What I’m currently thinking is concentrating on getting a better standalone marathon time under my belt and also getting some good cycle training in next year. If I don’t do something like the Outlaw Iron distance race in the UK in August 2011 then my next big race will be in 2012, and it could be any of them…possibly even Challenge Wanaka in New Zealand.”

• 2006 – 1:11:47
• 2007 – 1:03:09
• 2008 – 1:06:02
• 2009 – 1:02:22

This year I chose not to race as I’m planning on getting a marathon in before the end of the year and I wanted to do a long run this past weekend.  I couldn’t miss the Cabbage Patch 10 as its such a good event so chose to treat it as the second half of a much longer run.  The plan was to get around 10 miles in beforehand and then run the race at my planned marathon pace.  This would make it a fairly tough 20 mile run, but with the slightly easier first 10 miles the toll on my body and subsequent recovery shouldn’t be as bad as trying to run it all at marathon pace.

I set off from home just before 8:45am and ran most of the route in reverse.  I said hello to a few marshals and made it to the official race start at 9:56am.  My 9.4 mile ‘warm-up’ was run at 7:40 minute miling.  After a few minutes wait the race started and I soon settled into a steady pace just a few seconds  slower than 7 minute miling.

Photo: Simon Finch

From here on it was just running steady and comfortably for 10 miles – making sure I said thanks to all the marshals (as I wasn’t busting a gut and out of breath!) and enjoying the ‘race.’

I stuck to my plan and only really sped up during the last mile when my GPS clocked me at 6:59 miling.  I crossed the line in 1 hour 11 minutes 48 seconds, a whole second slower than my first ‘appearance’ in 2006.  An easy jog to where Sharon was marshalling and my running for the day was over – a total of 20.5 miles.

As my time was practically the same as in 2006 I had a little dig through my records.  In 2006 my average heart rate was 175bpm, this year it was 156bpm.  That is a pretty good improvement I’d say – especially after my 9.4 mile warm up (which averaged 144bpm).  I also wondered how much heavier I was back then and I was pretty much the same weight – about 12 stone 12 pounds (81.5kg).

Once again a superb morning out.

The weather was lovely and there was no need for cross country ‘spike’ shoes because of recent dry weather.  It’s a 5.3 mile circuit consisting of two laps, and if you asked me to describe the route it would be along the lines of ‘running around some large hilly type fields and moving from one to another through holes in the trees between them.’  It was a strange course.

Just over 160 men started the race (the women raced earlier in the day in Richmond Park) and my plan was to run pretty hard, but not absolutely kill myself!  My heart rate quickly rose up to the low 170′s and I thought it would settle down at some point but it was really just telling me that I was working hard!  For the 5.3 miles it averaged at 175 and maxed at 182.

I need to work a little more on pacing these races, but with cross country it’s really tough.  On a flat-ish road race you know what kind of pace you want to do and can stay fairly steady with it.  With cross country the ups and downs mean running to a pace is impossible and have you have to go more by feel.

After settling into position there wasn’t a great deal of moving up or down the field.  I overtook a few people – and a few people overtook me.  The second lap felt much much tougher than the first – as my lap splits show – 16:50 for the first lap, and 17:37 for the second.  Interestingly in the first race of last years XC season I was 45 seconds slower on the second lap.

Overall my time was 34:59 and I finished 74th out of 161 finishers.  My average pace was 6:34 minute miling.  Not bad for a bumpy course.  Ranelagh had an excellent team of runners taking part and we had three out of the top five finishers (with Phil K. winning the race).

It was lovely to race as a Ranelagh ‘team’ again and I look forward to more of the same throughout the winter months…

Well, this year things are a little different. I’d competed in an Ironman 12 days before but earlier in the week of the Wedding Day race I thought I’d give it a go. I seem to recover very well from triathlon events and knew I had a good 5k in me after last weekends 18:32 at Bushy parkrun. I wondered what I could do over 7k.

For this race I have a time honoured pacing strategy – treat it like a 5k then hang on for the remaining 2k until the finish. Well, lets just say that I followed the plan like a treat!

After a short warm-up (and a 4 mile bike ride to the start) I made sure I was near the front row and set off close to Duncan and Chris from my club (Ranelagh Harriers). The pace was quick and we all raced off into the park.

The start of the Wedding Day 7k. Photo: Guy Watson

I knew we were going a bit too fast but this is the fun of this race – you know the last 2k is going to be painful so you might as well make it one to remember! As my watch beeped after a mile I glanced down and saw it say 5:41. Oops – just a little too fast. I turned to Duncan who was right beside me and said something like ‘I’m blaming you for this.’ His response was ‘I’m just following you!’

From here on in it was just hard running. Conditions were ideal – not hot although there was a little breeze in places. I found myself running very close to Joseph from 26.2 Road Runners Club who looked like he was running very comfortably. I was puffing and panting and really giving it some welly! Just after 2 miles I edged past him and tried to bridge the gap between myself and the runner in front – a runner from The Stragglers running club. It took almost a mile to get to him.

At the 5k point I looked at my watch and it said 18:02. Oops! That’s 9 seconds off of my 5k standalone PB. I knew for sure at this point that the final 2k would be hard hard work (hmn, much like the previous five were!).

I then drifted past Simon from Stragglers, we both gave each other words of encouragement and away I went. With just over half a mile to go Joseph came back past me and I tried to stick with him as long as I could.  I couldn’t quite stick to him ’til the finish but I certainly tried.

A few hundred metres before the finish I saw Roger W. supporting – he said something like, ‘take it easy David’ – he could see how hard I was working at this point.

Seconds from the finish. Photo: Guy Watson

I then turned onto the grass area, raced to the finish and stopped my watch. My overall time was 26:25, a 19 second PB on my time from 2008 and I finished 19th overall out of 506 finishers. Brilliant. I was chuffed to bits with this – a great hard run. This is the hardest that I’ve run over a short distance for a long long time – my heart rate averaged 179 and maxed at 190.

As with all local races the Ranelagh Harriers ‘stats’ man and webmaster, Ken, was there making notes on everyone’s finishing times. He also had his list of estimates for people and had mine down at 29:08! Shocking. I went over to him and jokingly complained at his poor estimate and he commented something like ‘but you hardly ever race.’ Fair point. Also I have to admit that my previous Ranelagh races haven’t been raced hard at all – so his data will be a little skewed to how I’m really running at present.

The evening finished off with a beer, some food and watching some of the European Championship athletics on the TV in the cricket club in the park. Another great Wedding Day race done and dusted. See you next year.

PS. Saturday morning dawned and I put in a steady 19:08 run at Bushy parkrun. That was my running done for the rest of the weekend. A good 60 miles on the bike on Sunday was all I could manage…

My plan was to run steady, not hard and also be very very aware of any uneven ground – the last thing I want now is a twisted ankle!

I followed my plan well and ran the 4.96m course in 34:56 – around 7 minute miling.  Not bad for a cross country course in Richmond Park.  As it was a handicap race and I was taking it easy I finished 49th out of 55 competing runners.   In the order of speed I was a more respectable 25th fastest out of 77.  The extra 22 runners were ‘guests’ – those who do not have an official Ranelagh Harriers handicap time.  Only those who do (55 of us) were eligible to race and win the Coad Cup.

I was happy with the run and straight afterwards Sharon and I raced home, grabbed a bite to eat and headed off to catch a ferry from Dover to Calais…

I decided to walk/run the 2.4 miles to the start as a warm-up and arrived at around 10:15am in readyness for the 10:30 start.  I lined up in position, dumped my sports drink and got ready for the off.  The ‘elite’ guys were at the front and I kept myself a good few rows behind.  Speaking of people at the front, there were a couple of chaps with long shorts, football socks, polo shirts and well groomed hair – the type of runner who I wasn’t expecting to see there.  I wonder if they’re any good….?

My plan leading up for today was to aim for a sub-40 minute time, and run at around 6:20 miling pace.  Over the past few years my garmin has always measured the course longer than 6.21 miles so I’d planned to run based on a slightly longer distance.  This would hopefully get me to the finish in about 39:45 give or take a few seconds.  The only problem today was the wind – which would be hitting me firmly in the face for the last 4.5km.  I chose to pace myself evenly throughout and just push harder to maintain pace in the second half – a plan that worked well last year.

At about 3.5km

As per usual plenty of people overtook me in the first km – I was happy to leave them to it – I was sure I’d see a few of them later!  1km marker in 3:52, 2km marker in 8:08 (OK, that marker must have been wrong but ho hum).  I plodded on, with the wind behind me for the first 3 miles or so.  At about 3.5km I heard Sharon cheering me on (but didn’t see her!).

Just after 4k I saw the first casualty of poor pacing – one of the ‘chavs’ I saw at the start was walking and not looking great.  Ooops!  At about 4.5k I ran past my mum who was marshalling and then I went through the 5k mark at about 19:50.  Good stuff.  I knew things were going to get tougher when we headed up onto the promenade but I can handle that – surely.

As I headed up onto the promenade thats when the wind hit me.  Looking at the weather stats from Felpham Sailing Club (where we run past) it was blowing about 15.5 knots (that’s over 17.5 mph), pretty much directly in my face!  Lovely.  This was time to work on some drafting.  There were a few people dotted around and I took advantage and slowly moved up the field – one at a time.

6.5km - big hair!

I saw Sharon again at about 6.5k where she was with my dad, who was also marshalling and this time I saw her, and heard the shout of ‘run strong.’  I stuck with it and clearly had to push much harder than during the first half of the race.  I found myself running in a small group (about four or five of us) and we worked a little bit together in the strong breeze.

A guy in a brown tee-shirt was running strong with us and pulled away.  I stuck behind him as much as I could until the final few hundred metres when he pulled away.  At this point I’d also pulled away from the small group of runners that I was with and battled through to the finish.  It was hard work but I really pushed all the way to the finish.

As I hit the line the clock was a few seconds under 40 minutes and my chip time was 39:53.  Excellent.  I also found out from the results that I was 32nd overall, out of 1,446 finishers.

After finishing I grabbed some water and then set off on the 2 mile run back to meet Sharon.  Heading towards the finishing straight was one of the guys who started at the front and set off far too quickly – he was stood still and bending over in pain.  Oops ;)

Almost all of this run back to Sharon was running against the flow of runners still racing and every few seconds I heard calls of “you’re going the wrong way mate” or “now you’re just making us feel bad.”  I did my best to support and clap the runners still out there battling into the headwind.

So, as this race is over for another year I have to say I’m very happy with how it went.  My training for it has been non-existant (my only real speed training has been semi-regular 5km parkruns and apart from that lots of cycling and a few longer runs).  However, I did what I wanted to do and I can only hope that in 2011 I get closer to my 10km personal best of 38:54.

Sharon didn’t run today as she’s slowly getting back into running again after hurting her back at work earlier in the year.  Instead she was on full camera duties and did a great job :)

In 2009 I did a similar thing by getting a few miles in on the bike before the Baker Cup race but this time I chose to pace my run a little better and not blow up in the second half.

As we lined up at the start based on handicap timings I was horrified to see where they’d put me – I’d been screwed up good and proper!  I was not impressed to be starting 20 seconds after club ladies captain Marie and knew I’d have a tough time trying to not be last!

Well, I took the run at a steady pace (averaging 6:51 miling for the 3 mile hilly course) after about the first mile was in last place.  Ho hum.  Not much changed until the last few hundred metres when I overtook a couple of people, one of them being a ‘guest’ runner.

I crossed the line second from last (oops!) but was actually pretty happy with my run.  I ran the 3 miles in 20:45 with my splits for each lap being 10:22 and 10:23 – so great steady pacing.  Speed wise I was 15th fastest out of the 43 finishers.

Since last weeks Glasgow parkrun I thought my preparation was going well until I read that the length of the mob match was just shy of 8 miles!  I’ve run 3 miles at most in a ‘session’ since the end of November so this week I needed to get a few miles under my belt.  Two runs of five miles each on a gym treadmill was the best I could manage and that was my prep.

First thing Saturday I was out on my bike and put in just over 30 miles riding.  A few hours later I was back in Richmond Park for the start of the mob match.

My plan was to run the first lap easy and then depending on how I felt I would potentially run a little harder for the second lap.  Well, lets just say that the plan didn’t quite work.

The first lap was quite pleasant and it was lovely to be out in the park.  My average pace was 7:33 minute miling – around the pace of my long runs during marathon/ironman traning.  During the second lap I felt OK from a fitness point of view, but my legs just failed to keep up and my pace dropped to 8:33 miling!  That explains the number of people who overtook me!  For the entire run my pace averaged 8:07 miling.

I crossed the finish line as the 74th out of 123 finishers with a time of 63:16 for the 7.8 mile course.  The winning time was 43:40.  Looking back through my records I last ran the same course in November 2007 and averaged 6:34 miling to finish in 51:05.

Although much slower than before (12 minutes to be precise) I’m happy that I managed to get round the course in one piece.  The next few days will tell me how my foot coped and whether I’m able to sustain my training.  I just need to ensure that I don’t rush into running too many miles (er, like I did this week!)….

Injury once again reared its ugly head.  Running may be great for fitness but it really can hurt at times!   Aside from avoiding injury as much as possible, the main aim for 2009 was my first Ironman triathlon – a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a (short!) 112 mile bike ride, topped off by a 26.2 mile marathon run.  Easy huh!

Prior to this I had an entry into April’s London Marathon to prepare for.  Towards the end of January I was getting some ITB grief which turned into general knee pain in my left leg.  This made my marathon training tougher as I wasn’t able to do anywhere near as much training as I had wanted to.  I just about squeezed in three runs of over 20 miles and as I lined up on the start line with over 35,500 other runners at the end of April I just had to get on with it.  I finished in a time of 3 hours 19 minutes and 46 seconds – a time that I was very happy with – especially for my first marathon – although I know I can run quicker and a sub 3 hour time is in me (somewhere).  My London Marathon report can be found elsewhere on this site.

I recovered from London pretty quickly – which was just as well as I had to train for the Ironman in mid-July.  In addition to plenty of running, I was also putting lots of time in on my bike, with a number of 80-100 mile bike rides from the start of May.  My swimming was coming along as well and from an exercise point of view all was good.  My priority was on multi-discipline rather than just running, and I think partly because of this I just missed out on going sub-40 minutes at the Bognor Regis 10k in May (my favourite race).

During the spring, Saturday mornings mostly consisted of a lake swim followed by a 5k parkrun event – and occasionally a long bike ride afterwards.  At the start of June I won my first parkrun race (and running race at that) – with an 18:25 run at Bedfont parkrun.

A couple of weeks later I finished in under 5 hours at the Bala middle distance triathlon in Wales which I was chuffed to bits with – the race was tough but fun – tough during the race but fun once I’d finished!

July was Ironman time and I had a suberb race, clocking 10 hours 37 overall and a 3:46 marathon (after the swim and bike).  On our return from Zurich I wrote a very lengthy report about it all.

During the Autumn I was back concentrating more on parkrun 5k racing (i.e., races that last minutes and not over 10 hours!) and at the start of October got a new personal best (first one in 2 years) of 17 minutes 53.  I’ve not yet dipped again under 18 minutes – because of injury and other races taking priority.

As we moved into the Winter cross country season this was something that I was really looking forward to – challenging running which could only make me stronger – or break me!  As I write this now I’m not sure what it’s done – it was fantastic with my fitness but I’m a little broken at present (read the Epsom 10 report for more background).

At the end of November I decided to take a few weeks off of running – to try and sort out my left foot.  Right now I’m going to give it a few more days before attempting an easy run – and that will be on soft grass as much as possible.

After all the words above its time for a few facts and figures…

My total mileage for 2009 was 1311 (compared with 1028 and 1320 in 2008 and 2007 respectively).  This is only 11 months running as I’m not running in December.  My average weekly mileage was 25.1 miles (although based on the first 11 months it was 27.6 which is more accurate).  The increase in my mileage this year has to be related to my two marathons (at the London Marathon and Ironman Switzerland) – those long runs really add up.  I’d love to be lots more though – as that’s what I need to get quicker.

Event wise I did the following:

• 40 parkrun (5km) running races (although not all of them racing)
• 4 Apr: Ranelagh Harriers Baker Cup Handicap
• 26 Apr: London Marathon – 3:19 (very pleased)
• 17 May: Bognor Regis 10k – 40:24 (weather wasn’t ideal)
• 25 Jun: Thames Turbo Aquathlon – 8th overall
• 14 Jun: Bala Middle Distance Triathlon (4:51:58)
• 7 Jul: Ironman Switzerland
• 5 Sep: Ranelagh Harriers Thomas Cup
• 3 Oct: Ranelagh Harriers Page Cup
• 10 Oct: Surrey League Cross Country
• 18 Oct: Cabbage Patch 10 (new 10 mile PB of 1:02:22)
• 24 Oct: Ranelagh Harriers ‘mob match’ against SLH
• 14 Nov: Surrey League Cross Country
• 21 Nov: Ranelagh Harriers ‘mob match’ against TH&H
• 28 Nov: Epsom 10 (the run that knackered my foot!)

Looking ahead to 2010 my main race plans are a 20 mile race in March (which is looking more and more unlikely by the day and won’t be treated as a race) and an Ironman distance race in July.  I also have to put in the Bognor Regis 10k (in May) and the Bala triathlon in June.  Right now, those are my only plans for 2010.

Other things I’d like to do are…. run the Dorking 10 mile race in June and get a 10k PB.  I wouldn’t mind running a half marathon at some point – the last half marathon I did was in Barbados in December 2008 – maybe that’s a idea….

So, if you want to see how I get on, there’s only one thing to do – and that’s stay tune to this site.  Thanks for reading, whoever you are and wherever you are…

The weather was windy but the rain was just about holding off and at 9:30 prompt 235 runners headed off from Epsom Downs on this 10 mile undulating course.

The first mile is downhill and pretty fast, but you soon have to head back uphill – and this was pretty much the story of the race – up, down, up down, and so on.  I was feeling surprisingly good in my legs and only lost a couple of positions once we’d settled down.

At about 7 miles the top of my left foot started to hurt.  I’ve no idea why or how – it was just a gradual pain that seemed to get worse.  It was as if my shoe was laced up too tightly (which it wasn’t).  The pain got worse and the last mile really wasn’t much fun.  Rather than run on my mid/forefoot (which I often do) I was forced to run more on my heels to minimise any pain.

The final turn into the finish at the Queens Stand at Epsom racecourse was something different – it was blowing a gale at this point and because of a funnelling effect from the surrounding buildings the 50 metres or so into the finish was unbelievable – you were barely moving because of the headwind!  It felt so so slow.  I crossed the line in 33rd position with a time of 67:17 which was good considering the previous days race and my foot pain.

After collecting my finishers momento and watching the prizegiving (the race was won in 54:06) I hobbled back to the car.

This is a great race, with friendly marshals and great directional signs on the course ensuring that you can’t get lost.  Thanks to Epsom and Ewell Harriers for running the event.  I thought that finishing at the racecourse was great, and with the prizegiving/HQ in the jockeys weighing room it made the event a bit more special.

Something was seriously wrong with my foot so later in the day I went to the A&E department at the local hospital and they took a couple of X-rays.  There was no sign of any break or fracture (the problem is around the metatarsal on my middle toe) so they sent me home for rest, ice and ibuprofen.

Two days later I’m still hobbling badly but it does seem to improve during the day.  Most bizarre.  I’m now taking some rest from running (well, I can barely walk!) so will try and get some swimming done instead.  Yes its a pain but I’m not completely hacked off about it….yet.

Ranelagh fielded a massive 60 runners (although one didn’t finish) to Thames’ 34 which put us in a great position – meaning that almost all of Thames’ runners would count in the scoring, but only the fastest Ranelagh runners would count.

I wanted to have a good run so after a reasonable warm-up I pushed of fairly hard at the start – part of the reason for this is that early on you have to single file through some of the woods within Wimbledon Common and I didn’t want to be held up by slower runners.  This was a great move as although we slowed down through the tight spots – it was still a good pace.

Photo by Paul Sinton-Hewitt

About half a mile or so in Chris O. pulled over on a steep downhill – he must have pulled something.  I kept up a good pace and carried on.  From here on I didn’t really see any Thames runners – I was mostly running alone.

The course is very varied, with plenty of grass, mud, leaves and stony paths – and the paths are tough in spikes – you have to run right near the edge on the grassy/muddy bits.  However, on the muddy leafy terrain spikes are suberb – you can forget about any thoughts of slipping up and just get on with the job at hand.  There were some great obstacles on the course – large branches to practically climb over, others to duck under, and streams to leap across.  Wimbledon Common is ace!

Just after 3.5 miles in I could hear footsteps coming up from behind and before long John H. and Chris O. edged past me.  John said something along the lines of ‘stick with us’ – and that I did.  It’s much easier running in a group as you get to work off of each other (and in my case draft when possible!).  They were clearly running stronger than I was so I just hung on to them.

About a half mile from the finish there’s an pretty steep downhill section and whilst flying down here I almost took a really nasty tumble.  Chris, who was a few seconds behind me, said that I did absolutely everything but fall flat on my face.  My arms and legs were flying in all directions and I managed to stay upright.  Phew.

As I ran into the finish I was in 17th position and the clock said 47 minutes 24 seconds which I was really happy with.  Two years ago my time was 47:46, although this year the course was ever so slightly longer because of a couple of misplaced directions.  Overall Ranelagh convincingly won the match which was well worth celebrating – which we did at a pub in Putney with a number of other Ranelagh/Thames runners until late in the evening.

All in all a superb afternoon/evening out.

After arriving with plenty of time at Coulsdon (ie., about 3.5 hours before the start!) I toured the town centre – and made full use of the library and the local Café Nero.  After out-staying my welcome at the coffee shop I headed to the car to fetch my running gear and to go sign on at the South London Harriers clubhouse.  At this point the weather was abysmal – pouring with rain and blowing a gale.  Much like conditions at the earlier parkrun.

Thankfully today there were quite a few fast runners in the Ranelagh team to it was very unlikely that I’d be a scorer for the team (fastest ten men).  This meant that I didn’t have to kill myself out on the course, but if a faster team mate pulled out then I’d be there to do whatever I could to earn us some points.

When I last ran here a few weeks ago for the Ranelagh/SLH Mob Match I wore my trail shoes.  After all the recent rain and the fact that my trail shoes felt like they’d been sat in a bucket of water from my morning run out came my XC shoes – with the longest spikes that I had (15mm I believe).  These look more like ‘beavers teeth’ than spikes!

As the starting signal was made over 150 of us headed uphill into a nasty headwind.  My plan was to have a strong steady run but not over-do it.  I watched some of my team-mates (Andy B., Chris O., Trevor M.) drift ahead of me and I tried to keep at least one of them in my sights.

Before long I settled into lap one of this two lap course (total distance 5.41 miles).  There were plenty of people to aim for and running in spikes was perfect – you always had great grip and never slipped, even on the muddy, leafy surfaces.

At the end of the first lap I was reliably informed that I was 12th Ranelagh man – so out of the scoring team.  Phew!  I would love to score for the team one day, but only when I’m putting 100 percent into the race (and when the real fast guys aren’t there).

I soon found a nemesis for the race – a chap from SHL who was running well, but just didn’t seem to look very comfortable when he was running.  We swapped places a few times and for most of the race he was ahead of me.  He wasn’t skin-and-bone (like myself) and I felt that I should be ahead of him, so made sure this happened.

The only thing that got in the way was a slight stitch that I got at the start of the second lap.  I was tucked in behind another runner as we battled against the headwind but I had to just ease off as it was hurting.  After two or three minutes I was able to push on and try and close the gap.

With a mile or so to go I made my move and pulled ahead of the SLH guy – I pushed harder from here on in and remained ahead through to the finish.

My finishing time was 36:38 and I finished 109th out of 151.  In race one of this season I finished 102nd out of 152 runners – so not so bad for a ‘steady’ run.

For info, the winner (Paskar Owor from Belgrave Harriers, who has represented his home country of Uganda at two Olympic games!) romped home in 28:31 .

The next race of the series is at Richmond Park on 12 December.  Stay tuned…