Category Archives: Ranelagh Harriers

David Cranleigh 21 mile race – 25 March 2012 (David)

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I tried to run this in 2008 but injury got in the way. In 2011 I ran and enjoyed it and I was back again this year for more of the same.  Last year when I finished my run I felt that I could have run another six miles there and then and had a great marathon.  The marathon I ran a few weeks later didn’t quite go to plan (being ill two weeks beforehand didn’t help) but perhaps I’d left my ‘best’ run on the road at Cranleigh in 2011.  This was not going to happen this year…

The schedule I’ve been following had me down for a long run of 17 miles.  So, I’ve messed that up for starters by running 21 miles but never mind (my session on Saturday wasn’t as long as it could have been so the miles will balance themselves out).  The planned long run pace is also considerably slower than my expected marathon pace so the run shouldn’t feel too difficult and should also not require too much recovery meaning that my mid-week sessions can be run with enough intensity to make me stronger and faster.  That’s the plan anyway!

The run is split into a nine mile loop and then two six mile loops.  The first nine miles were done at around 7:58 pace (a little faster than planned but not too much) and then I gently increased the pace a little, running the next six miles at 7:54 pace.

When it came to the final lap I pushed much harder and ran the next six miles at 7:25 minute miling pace.

After a little over 2 hours and 45 minutes I was over the finish line collecting my medal.  The run went pretty much to plan.  My legs (currently) feel fine and my heart rate averaged 145 bpm which is bang on in my easy long run range.

I’ve another long run planned next weekend and then it’ll be time to start cutting back the milage in advance of the London Marathon.  I can’t wait.

David Ranelagh Harriers Clutton Cup Race 2012

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During the winter months I managed to avoid all cross country running races for my running club, Ranelagh Harriers.  There were a few reasons behind this…

  • I didn’t want to injure myself as cross country courses are far from the smooth roads of, er…. roads.
  • Saturday afternoon racing (which is when all these races are held) didn’t seem to fit well into my diary.
  • Because of the fear of injury and a big race planned (an Ironman race I did in January in New Zealand) I didn’t want to take any more risks here.

So, with the Ironman race behind me and a 17 mile run scheduled as part of my London Marathon training…. and an experiment that the running club were doing by putting the race on a Sunday morning, and the familiar (and just a little bumpy terrain of Richmond Park) I really had no excuses but to take part.  As the race is just under 10 miles long I just had to squeeze in a few miles beforehand to make the total up to 17 miles.  The plan was for about 14 of these miles to be close to marathon pace (around 7:12 minute miling pace).

I put in about 6.75 miles warm-up before the race and then got into position.  As it’s a handicap race everyone sets of at different times (determined by a secret calculation by the club ‘handicapper’) and I felt I had a pretty favourable start time.  With about 15 seconds to go Andy B., said to me something like “You’re going to win this if you put in a good run. My money’s on you!”

I set off far too fast (closer to 10k pace rather than 10 mile pace – and I don’t normally do a 6.75 mile hilly warm-up before a 10k) but kept on pushing.  Before long I caught up with a couple of runners ahead of me and I was feeling alright.  My plan was to push fairly hard and see if anyone overtakes me, and if they do I’d then take stock of the situation and decide what to do next.

Well, about three quarters of the way round the first of two laps I was overtaken by Andy himself.  He said he wasn’t expecting to see me so soon (I felt the same) and he was absolutely flying.  I didn’t have a hope in hell of keeping up with him.

I completed the first lap (about 4.95 miles) in 33.20 which is around 6:44 miling pace.  Hmn, just a touch faster than 7:12 miling (especially on a hilly course).  I knew for sure that setting off so fast was going to make thing tough on the second lap and I wasn’t wrong there.

I really had to push harder to maintain any kind of similar pace (which I understandably couldn’t manage after setting off too fast) and my second lap was one minute 50 seconds slower (34:50) with a pace of around 7:02 miling.  To be honest I thought I was much slower than that during the second lap so I’m quite positive about the second lap time.  Had it been a more important race to me I would have controlled my pacing much better.

With the final results in I finished in 68 minutes 10 seconds and was seventh overall and sixth fastest.  I clearly managed to run 14 miles at marathon pace (actually much faster than I should have) which I’m not too worried about.

My next long run is a 21 miler at the weekend where I’ll be pacing this one exactly as planned…

Sharon Bedford Harriers Half Marathon 2011 (Sharon)

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Dear Reader, let me set the scene.  After “discovering” running and losing weight back in 2007, I have had a couple of years unable to run for one reason and another, which I won’t bore you with.  Back in April, I was trying to decide whether or not to take up my deferred London Marathon place from this year and run in 2012.  I was 4 stone overweight.  So, I joined Weight Watchers and started to run a bit more.  I decided that if I could run a “reasonable” Half Marathon at Bedford today, then I would train for London.

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…

David Bedford Harriers Half Marathon 2011 (David)

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I very rarely run half marathon distance races but as part of Sharon’s running ‘comeback’ she wanted to do the Bedford Half – a race she did really well in a few years ago. I was up for doing the race as well and as part of my Ironman training I thought I should add a little twist to the event by cycling there first – weather permitting.

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.

David The Three Molehills – 27 November 2011

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I heard about the Events To Live Three Molehills running race a few months ago and thought it might make a change from the regular 5/10/13.1 running race distances that I often get involved in.  I’m trying to avoid cross country races at the moment as I don’t want to risk injury so close to my next Ironman distance triathlon (in late January) so the idea of a tough run to get some miles in the legs sounded like fun.  So much fun that I decided to cycle the 19 or so miles to get to the start in the morning as a warm-up!

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 :)