Whilst we’ve been here we’ve managed to take in a 5k fun run/race and I (David) did a little ironman distance triathlon two weeks ago.  As we’re preparing to leave the south island and are in Christchurch a little hunting around found me the website of Saturday Runners – organised running/training groups that run regularly in the city.

The plan for this weeks run, starting at 7:30am (prompt!) was distances ranging from 3k up to about 16km.  This sounded perfect – we could decide what we wanted to do on the day.  Even better was that we ‘know’ one of the coaches/organisers – Bevan from the IM Talk podcast that I listen to religiously.  I dropped him a message beforehand to let him know that we were thinking of coming along.

The first session is free and then you can sign up for a five or ten session plan.  There’s a lot of people involved and taking part and just like at a parkrun event people appear from seemingly nowhere shortly before the 7:30am start.

David and Bevan - with hair looking like they've been dragged through a hedge backwards!

After parking up our ‘monster’ campervan near the meeting point we strolled over.  Bevan spotted us (he knows I’m pretty tall) and came over to say hello.  We had a good chat with him and then got chatting to another guy who’s hooked on this kind of thing – group running and fitness.

Just before 7:30 some pre-run announcements were made, maps of the route distributed and the group ‘leaders’ introduced (who were on bikes).  It was an out-and-back route and you could choose what you wanted to do whenever, although for some groups (there’s a 5k and 10k training group they had slightly ‘stricter’ schedules to try and work to).

Saturday Runners pre-run briefing

Shortly after setting off I was running with a couple of others and then one lady mentioned that she’d done the Wanaka half ironman triathlon a couple of weeks ago (the same event where I did the full distance race).  I kind of recognised her but she recognised me and said “David, what brings you here today…?” – it turns out that it was Nicolette, a lady who I’d met at Wanaka on the day before the race when I went out for a swim practice and met up with a couple of other swimmers (Nicolette being one of them) and we swam and chatted for about 45 minutes or so.  Although I am useless at recognising people and putting names to faces, when you’ve only seen someone from the head up wearing a swim cap, wetsuit and out swimming all bets are off on me remembering anything!  I knew she was from Christchurch but certainly wasn’t expecting to ‘bump’ into someone here!

Anyway, the two of us ended up running for just under 10 miles (around 8 minute mile pace) and had a good old chat about Wanaka, the Saturday Runners group, our travels around New Zealand, the Christchurch earthquakes and other bits and pieces.  The time flew by.

Heading back to the start/finish area Bevan came alongside on his bike and told us to pick up the pace for a final sprint race to the finish!  Oh dear.  There was even a small crowd of people there at the finish area (some drinking coffee as there was a coffee van at the finish just for the runners) who cheered us on.  We had quite a race to the finish which was a bit of fun.

Afterwards finishing our runs Sharon and I had a coffee from the van (lovely it was too) and chatted some more.

At the top of the picture are peoples houses. At the bottom are shipping containers there to try and protect the road from any further falls from above!

Before long it was about 9:30am and time to head off on our travels for the rest of the day.  During our short stay in Christchurch we’ve done some pretty cool things and seen plenty of ruined buildings from the events of the past 12 months.  The city seems to be strong and coping well and although we’ve been self-sufficient in our van for the past four weeks we were more than happy to ‘throw some money’ over the counter to some of the local businesses to try and help support their efforts during these tough times.

I did an ironman distance triathlon called Challenge Wanaka in New Zealand.  It was an amazing race.  It was hard work.  I think I did pretty well.  The end.

The long report…

Before I get on with it I wrote a number of posts in the week leading up to the race which may (or may not) be of interest.

Race start was set for 6:30am and as we like to be well prepared in advance the alarm was set for 3:30am. As we woke the van was moving around with the breeze outside. Damn it. Today could just be a tough one. Just after 4am we arrived at the race site in the campervan and found a car parking space literally 3 minutes walk from the main race marquee.

Coffee, suncream, and half a bowl of porridge (I'd already eaten a bowful and was just 'tidying up')!!!

Breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee and a big bowl of porridge, although actually probably no bigger than I’d have at home on a normal day! Sharon and I headed off to the transition area where I made final preparations to the bike – this involved filling up the little ‘storage box’ on the top tube of the bike with energy gels and then filling up both drinks bottles with some Powerade drink that we bought in a supermarket a few days ago. Once the bike computer was turned on everything was ready.

The flags close to transition were blowing frantically in the wind and almost directly onshore. This meant that it would be a choppy swim when daylight arrived.

5:15am and a little apprehensive about the day that lies ahead

Shortly after 6am I put my wetsuit on, had a couple of Immodium tablets (to keep ‘things’ at bay!) and an energy gel. Then it was time to head off to the swim start.

The Swim

The race starts on the beach where we run into the water and after about 30-40 metres in it is deep enough to start swimming.

Returning to the beach after a short 'warm-up' in the lake

Before the start most of the competitors (there were 238 finishers in the full ‘iron distance’ event myself included had a little swim to try and get acclimatised to the water temperature (16 degrees). A few minutes before the start a helicopter appeared overhead and we were all called back to shore. A few handshakes and ‘good luck’ messages and suddenly the race began. I rushed into the water, took a few leaping steps (handy when you’ve got long legs) and then got straight into front crawl.

I started near the far right of the field on the outside as I’m really not a big fan of a crazy swim melee that takes place and especially so with the water being rough. Although the water was rough it actually wasn’t as bad as it had been the last few days when I did practice swims (on Wednesday and Friday). It still was choppy but not horrifically so.

The first leg of each of the two swim laps was going to be the worst as we headed directly into the waves. It was very bumpy and being able to bi-lateral breath (breathe either side) whilst swimming was a great benefit as most of the out I had to breathe to the left to minimise the chance of getting a gallon of water in my mouth each breath.

The lake was cold but with my neoprene swim hat and the adrenaline of the race I didn’t feel the cold one bit. There wasn’t a great deal of contact between myself and other swimmers – the occasional contact of arms, legs and feet but nothing excessive. Everyone just seemed well behaved.

Although the lake was choppy the visibility underwater was still a few meters, which meant on much of the course you could see the sandy bottom of the lake. I saw a couple of other competitors swim caps on the bottom during the swim. One was an elite woman’s cap so perhaps whoever it was had got involved in some feisty action with someone else out there!

Sighting was nigh on impossible on parts of the course as you were heading directly into the sun, which was coming up over a clear blue sky. You just had to try your best and keep an eye out for the marker buoys every 50m apart.

I spent a fair bit of the swim very close to a female racer – she must had been tiny as her wetsuit didn’t stop half way down her legs (like mine) and she had these little neoprene booties on. I tried my best to stay close to get some sort of a draft but towards the end we drifted apart.

Exiting the lake and reaching for the wetsuit zipper

Coming to shore was a welcome relief – as soon as I stood up when the water was quite shallow I glanced at my watch which said 1 hour 11. That’ll do nicely all things considering.

Coming out of the water there was a good crowd of supporters on the beach (including Sharon) which was great and as I ran past her I said something like ‘that wasn’t too bad at all.’

Transition is actually quite big – I got my wetsuit unzipped to my waist (swim cap and goggles still on my head as there’s no point me holding them at this point), ran to collect my swim-to-bike bag and then you have to run about 100m or so across some grass, head up over a temporary bridge that crosses the main road, go back down and then run into the changing tent. Wetsuit off, socks and bike shoes on, arm warmers on (it’s pretty cold at 7:45am), sunglasses on and then run to my bike.

The first pirate 'sighting' of the day! Arrgggghhhh!!

Total swim time was 1 hour 12 minutes and 3 seconds. This was 82nd fastest, 64th male and 26th in my age group (30-39).

Transition one time was 3 minutes 56. This was 39th fastest, 30th male and 9th in my age group.

I think the nature of the entire day was a case of JFDI (just f**king do it), or just get on with it, or HTFU (harden the f**k up). This theme continued all day…

The Bike

Getting on the bike was a welcome relief. I had a plan which was just to push to a power output hopefully in the region of 230-235 watts. On the uphills I’d not get out the saddle and push like hell or anything like that. The idea is to put a constant and steady effort in throughout and not have any extreme ‘spikes’ of effort, as these will haunt me later!

Bike training has been reasonable lately although I’d not managed to get in all the rides I wanted to for a variety of reasons. I put in some good miles before Christmas but from 30 December to 17 January I didn’t ride a single mile on my road bike. Far from ideal but those were the facts and I had to deal with it. Maybe the ‘extended’ taper would help me feel fresh on the day.

Heading out of town I immediately overtook one of the female ‘pro’ racers. Perhaps she had a bad swim or is a great biker/runner (I don’t think I saw her again all day). I find that it’s so easy to get carried away early on in the bike (and run) and I really wanted to avoid this.

Bizarrely after about 40 minutes as I approached an incline I changed down from the big ring at the front to the small one and my chain came off. I cannot remember the last time my chain came off like this and typical it happens mid-race. Well, I tried about two of three times shifting back and forth to get it back on and it was having none of it. I was just about to slow down and get off the bike after one last attempt to re-engage the chain and lo and behold it clicked in place. Lovely. 30 seconds saved works for me.

There were a few other cyclists around me and in the first 15-20 miles I overtook a handful of other riders. After about 22 miles you head back through the centre of Wanaka and got some good cheers from the crowds. For the remaining 90 miles there’s very little support – just a few people here and there – and the aid stations. It’s just you, the bumpy roads and some other cyclist a quarter of a mile up the road that you’re chasing down (or trying not to lose sight of!).

When you get to about 70 miles you reach the town of Cromwell – which is where it has been said that this is where the race begins. This is often because of the headwind you normally face all the way back to Wanaka (oh, only 40 or so miles then!!). The wind on the first part coming back was mostly side-on so not too much of a problem but then later on from about 85 miles in you make a left turn heading back towards Wanaka and that’s when the headwind hit you. The wind had been increasing throughout the morning and oh my, it was howling at times. Everyone was in the same boat and you just get on with it but I have to say it wasn’t very pleasant!

One thing I like about this size of field is that it is pretty much a 112 mile solo time trial on the bike. There are no packs of riders like you get at a big Ironman event (which you can spend time and effort trying to avoid so you don’t get penalised for drafting). You just spend time on your own pushing the pace and doing what you can to stay fast and powerful. I didn’t see any drafting at all and everyone I went past dropped back out of the ‘draft zone’ that’s specified in the race handbook and likewise I dropped back whenever anyone overtook me. It was a fair race all round from what I could see.

As for myself, I started fast and powerful and then it got tougher. Early on in the ride I was comfortably pushing above 230 watts and then watched the number slowly decrease! I just found it difficult to keep the effort up. Perhaps I over-estimated what I would be able to do after a 2.4 mile swim and not the ideal taper (about three weeks!). Anyway, as the ride went on I think most people around me were in the same sort of position as my actual position in the field didn’t change much at all. After 34km I was 38th fastest on the bike, I then moved to 32nd, 28th, 29th and then 30th and by the end of the 180km bike (112 miles) I was 31st fastest rider.

Regarding on the bike nutrition – I had about eight PowerBar gels that I’d brought from home and then took High Five gels that were given out at the aid stations. I took one gel approximately every 20 minutes during the bike. After you’ve ridden for a few hours the time flies by and you look at your cycle computer and say “Oh no, surely its not 20 minutes already.” You just have to get on with it even though they’re not the most delightful things to ‘eat.’ I will have had around 15 gels on the bike, together with the one before the start making it 16 so far! Drink wise I took regular refills of the High Five electrolyte drink that was available and also took two or three bottles of water to help wash down the gels.

I set my GPS to give me a bike split every 10 miles. Not for any real reason other than to get a feel for how the headwind/tailwinds were helping (or not!). The first 40 miles I was very close to 30 minutes for each 10 miles. Then I did a super fast 23:45, 26:39 and then 26:21. This was the lovely tailwind down towards Cromwell. The splits then ‘fell apart’ because of the headwind back to Wanaka. The splits then went 30:02, 33:08, 36:19 and 35:51. It just got tougher and tougher as we headed back to transition.

It was lovely to return to Wanaka and my bike computer had the distance down as 111.72 miles. Spot on I’d say.

Total ride time was 5 hours 37 minutes and 23 seconds. This was the 31st fastest of the day, 25th male and 9th in my age group. Clearly I’m a better cyclist than swimmer!

After finishing the bike you run into the transition area and rack your bike. Cycle helmet comes off and then you pick up your run bag and head to the changing tent. I put clean socks on (my bike socks seemed to be a little, er, wet ;), running shoes, grabbed a bit of Vaseline to put on where I thought there may be rubbing, got my GPS turned on and away I went. Much like in Transition 1 you have to run up and over the little bridge that goes across the main road. Sharon was cheering me on and no doubt pleased to see that I was off the bike and onto what I enjoy the most.

Transition two time was 2 minutes 30. This was 35th fastest, 31st male and 8th in my age group.

The Run

Heading out onto the run I got my usual cheer from Sharon who’d been patiently hanging around the main race/transition area as this was the best chance to see me during the day. The run is two laps – of 13.1 miles…

Weather wise at this point it was quite warm (low to mid 20′s I believe), the sun was blazing but the wind was truly howling. It must have been getting close to gale force in the gusts – it really was that windy.

After a slight climb away from the main ‘high street’ you head onto the gravel off-road ‘outlet track’ which goes on for around seven miles (11km). Earlier in the week both Sharon and I had separately run the first few miles of the course and we both agreed that it was ‘a bit like Richmond Park.’ Little did we know…

Before long the gravel turned into sand and you were running very close to a beach. I’ve no idea how the bikes that follow the race leaders got through that section at any speed. It was actually only sandy for about a minute or so but this pretty much marked the start of a whole new section of the run course…  In addition to the ‘terrain’ it was hot, sunny and blowing a gale in exposed parts of the course.  I had to pull my visor down slightly over my ears to try and stop it from being blown off of my head.

About 2/3rds along the outlet track the path narrowed (just wide enough for two people to pass – not run together side by side) and entered a densely wooded area. It went up, down, left, right, all of those together at the same time and was frequently covered with large tree roots (and trees) as obstacles. I wasn’t expected this at all!! It was tough. You couldn’t get any sort of steady pace going in this section. There was even a narrow wooden ‘bridge’ to run across (obviously without any sort of handrails). This was more like a cross-country running race than an iron-distance marathon!

On a couple of occasions during this segment of the course (seemingly in the middle of nowhere) you’d come round a corner and be ‘met’ by one of the official photographers! Bizarre.

Some crazy looking trees out on the run course

There were aid stations dotted around the run course offering a selection of items – water, electrolyte drink, coke (for the caffeine and sugar), high-five gels, bananas and some little chewy sweets. Additionally at the ‘start’ of each aid station was someone with a dustbin full of water and big sponges.

At every aid station I took a sponge and squeezed it over the top of my head to try and get some cool water over me. I then took an energy gel and then water and electrolyte drink. After the first couple of aid stations I got into a more efficient system – when I saw an aid station approaching have a gel (as I’d try and keep at least one or two in the back pocket of my top) and then use the aid station liquids to wash it down and get a new gel.

Coming out of the wooded section at around seven miles you then reach a road called ‘Gunn Road’ – this is a nasty incline that gets steeper and steeper are you reach the summit.

It is about half a mile long and was guaranteed to sap every bit of your energy and slow you to walking pace no matter how prepared you were for it! At the top was a (very welcome) aid station and then you were back on more gravel for the return to Wanaka. On my first ‘ascent’ it took five minutes.

After a while you head into a residential area and are running either close to the edge of the road or pavements. There were a couple more hills (most unwelcome!) and then about 2.5 miles from the end of the lap you look over Wanaka from above. You see the race marquee. You see the main road. You see the finish line. You are so close (probably about half a mile direct) and then the bloody course makes you turn right and head away!

I’m not being negative in any way about the course – much of the scenery and surroundings were beautiful. It was just hard work to run and even harder to enjoy the view!

During this section I could hear a helicopter overhead meaning that the race leader was closing in on me (him of course on his second lap). A few minutes later I was overtaken by the eventual winner (who crossed the line in 8 hours 41 minutes and 53 seconds).

Hard work heading back into town for the turnaround and another 13.1 miles!

You eventually head back towards the start/finish/turnaround area and it’s slightly downhill. I passed Sharon who was about 500m from the turnaround point and I said something like ‘it’s f**king tough’ as I ran past her.

As there was a half-iron distance race taking place at the same time there were many runners of that event on the course and as you head to the finish area on Ardmore Street you head left if you’re finishing or right if you’re one your first lap of the marathon. Unfortunately I headed right as I had another lap to go. My first lap took me approximately 1 hour 48 minutes 32 seconds. An even split second half would mean a 3:37 marathon time. Hmn, quite unlikely as I’ve never even splitted in a marathon! Not least an ironman where it really gets tougher as the day goes on. Maybe I should try and even/negative split it one day…

Heading back out of town when I ran past Sharon she said to me ‘I know it’s shit but keep strong’ or something very similar. After running the first of two laps I knew exactly what I’d be up against for the next 13.1 miles and I knew it would be tough.

Every aid station on the second lap I walked (rather than ran) through (I started this practice towards the end of the first lap) and followed the same routine – have a gel, grab a sponge and squeeze it over me, take a cup of water, electrolyte and coke and briskly keep walking (with the three cups). Drink them all (in any old order!) and then discard the cups and continue running.

Beautiful scenery on the Lake Wanaka Outlet Track

Three iron-distance races in and I firmly believe that (at least for myself) a nutrition strategy consisting of gels and no solid food seems to work and not cause me any real stomach problems. I’ve always tried to avoid coke on the course (although I do remember having I think one cup at Challenge Roth in 2010) but I had no problems with it at all this time and was happy mixing up coke/water/electrolyte drinks! Sharon does say that I have a ‘stomach of iron’ which I think is pretty handy. I’m of the opinion that if it’s good for me then I just have it and get on with it – no matter how it tastes.

About half way through the second lap I remember being overtaken by two men – I thought that it was likely that they were in my age group although the only way to tell is from their race number – which on the run is worn to the front.

From here on I tried to keep them in my sights. I had no plan to ‘race’ them as such but didn’t want to lose them. The run was very quiet (competitor wise) and it made a change to have someone close by running at a similar pace. Second time up ‘Gunn Road’ one of the guys walked it whilst I was about 20 metres behind I mentally didn’t want to walk so kept running/jogging. It wasn’t fast and was in fact pretty much the same speed as the chap walking ahead of me but I wanted to not walk the hill. I kept running. It took about 5 minutes 30 or so to get to the top.

I look like I'm having fun here. Oh how the pictures hides a whole world of hurt!

Although there was not a great deal of support on the run course it was really good to receive. I got a few pirate related comments and ‘aaarrrgghhh’ sounds from people and it really provided a welcome boost. I recall seeing outside one house a family had put a sofa and a couple of chairs out in the road and were cheering runners along from a very comfortable setting! On two or three occasions during the run course local residents had put garden water sprinklers in the road to give us a spray. This was most welcome. I also recall a couple of children with binoculars who were looking at you from a distance to see your name (which is printed on your race number) when then personally cheering you on when you passed them.

I’d been doing all sorts of calculations about finishing times during the run and I remember hoping that a sub-11 hour race was my ‘public’ goal (to be honest, it was my only goal!). Well, it looked like I was safe for sub-11 hours and then I was thinking about the possibility of going sub 10:45. I was thinking things like, ‘If I can get my last three miles under 9 minute miling it’s on.’ For someone who’s run all their long runs normally under 7:30 milling this should be a ridiculously easy but I tell you, after 10 hours of constant exercise, the heat, the hills and the wind things are very very different. However, it seemed I could just do it…

Heading into the final 4k (the bit where you see the finish but are nowhere near it!) I decided it was time to make my move and dig really deep. It’s only 4k – less than a parkrun!

At the last aid station I took my usual cocktail of drinks but didn’t walk through – I ran through trying to balance three drinks at the same time! I just didn’t want to slow down at all – I was on a mission!

I didn’t take a gel at this point as it was so close to the finish (and quite frankly I’d had enough of them during the day already!). I’d say my gel count probably totalled around 25 for the day!

I dug in hard and slowly made progress against the men who’d previously overtaken me – and before long I slowly edged past each of them. I now just had to hope that they’d got nothing left in them and that my move was decisive.

Thankfully it was, and they were both in my age group.

Heading towards the finish on Ardmore Street was fantastic. The hard work was done and all I had to do was try and savour the moment. My watch was on 10 hours 39 minutes and I knew I wouldn’t get to the finish before it hit 10:40 but that wasn’t a problem – I was well inside of 10:45.

It was 5:10pm and there were lots of people out and about. The finish line looked busy (ok, nowhere near as busy as a race like Challenge Roth or an Ironman branded event) and loud music was playing and a guy was welcoming home the runners. I headed left this time (I’d probably die if I tried a third lap!) and ran straight for the line. I saw Sharon near the finish which was great and as I ran past the MC he said something like ‘this guy’s tall – he could be a basketball player.’ The man then raised his hand to high-five me and I jumped in the air. Mid-air I thought ‘this could all go wrong!’ but somehow I landed on both feet and kept going without any sort of embarrassing tumble!

Seconds later I crossed the line. What a f***ing relief! That was tough. My GPS has recorded the run as 26.19 miles and everyone of them being tough. My run time was 3 hours 44 minutes and 22 seconds. I’m really happy with that seeing as though my time on the much flatter course at Challenge Roth two years ago was 3 hours 35 (and I didn’t measure 26.2 miles there either although you should never fully trust these GPS devices). In Switzerland in 2009 I ran 3:47:26 on a very very flat course. For info my second half split was 1:55:50 (1st half was 1:48:32).

So… overall my time was 10 hours 40 minutes and 15 seconds. I was 30th overall, 23rd male and 7th in my age group. These numbers (overall and male) include all the ‘pro’ athletes who raced as well. Had I not have got past those two other chaps in the last few km’s I would have been 32nd (and 9th in my age group). Digging in that bit extra was in my opinion well worth the effort. If I could have swim, biked or run 15 minutes faster that would have made an even bigger difference and put me 3rd in my age group!

Straight after the finish you are presented with your medal (ah, lovely) and then you head to the ‘recovery tent’ – what this means is you get weighed, get fed, get massaged and get a finishers t-shirt.

First stop… the weigh in. I’ve not had this at a race before and they promptly told me that I’d lost about 7kg during the race. I think it must have been slightly less as when I was weighed at race registration a couple of days before I’d just eaten lunch and had more clothes on. Either way, around a 5kg weight loss it not ideal! I sat down, drunk a few cups of electrolyte drink and then headed back out of the tent to see Sharon who I knew would be waiting for me. After meeting up and trying to describe the day in about 30 seconds I decided to lie on the ground to rest my legs. Sharon suggested that I was looking a little pale and should probably head back to the recovery tent for more drink and some food.

We headed back and spent about 30 minutes near the St. John Ambulance staff who kept an eye on me and told me to keep drinking. Sharon fed me with hot soup and plenty of other drinks and before long I was feeling much better. The post race food was sponsored by Subway, so it was sandwiches all round!

'Coach' John from the IM Talk podcast (he's tiny compared to me) and, er, me, wearing my awesome cycle jersey that I paid good money for to help support his excellent podcast!

A few minutes later we saw ‘Coach John Newsom’ from the wonderful New Zealand based IM Talk podcast which I’ve been listening to for a few years now. He’d run the marathon as part of a relay team and I just had to introduce myself. He sat down with us and had a chat about my race and his (which didn’t, er, quite go to plan). A lovely chap, and compared to me, a rather short chap! Meeting him was a highlight of the day and in the podcast they (he records the show with a chap called Bevan) recorded a few days later Sharon and I got a nice mention.

I then moved from the food/drink area for a massage, and really it was just an excuse to lie down for 20 minutes and have some lass rub oil on your legs and back. Lovely!

Returning to our van which was all of 400 metres from the finish line!

After leaving the recovery area Sharon and I watched a few finishers come in, had a little walk and then headed the whole two minutes stroll to the van and I had a shower. It really was great to have the van right by the finish. After cleaning myself up we had a takeaway pizza and then headed back to the finish line area to watch and cheer the rest of the finishers in. If you’re able to walk and talk after a race like this then I think it’s only fair to go back to the finish and support and celebrate those who finish after you. We had a great time at the finish area chatting to locals and other racers and also joking around with the two MC’s who were great at getting the crowd going – especially in a small race like this where there aren’t many finishers coming in later on in the day. The last ‘official’ finisher (before the 17 hour cut-off) was greeted by a great fireworks display. The end of an Ironman (or ‘iron-distance’ race) is really enjoyable and well worth staying around for and getting involved.

After leaving our campervan site at about 4am we returned back shortly after midnight. Long day! The following day we were back at the race marquee at 10:30am for the prize giving and breakfast buffet – which was superb. I ate like a horse and had two huge platefuls of breakfast. It was lovely! Easily pleased I am… especially when it comes to food.

In summary…. Challenge Wanaka – a fantastic race, a fantastic venue, well organised and far from easy. What a day.

Ironman race finish line 'party' fireworks for the final 'official' finisher. Superb.

We took the campervan straight down to the beach this morning. Sharon had her breakfast whilst I sorted out getting myself ready for a swim. Conditions were marginally better than on Thursday. It was still quite rough but the wind wasn’t blowing a gale! There were quite a few groups of swimmers on the course.

Self portrait during Sharon's long run checking out the Challenge Wanaka marathon course

Sharon headed off for a long run – taking in the first five miles or so of the Challenge Wanaka run course that I’ll be doing tomorrow whilst I jumped back into the lake. The first few minutes were once again pretty horrible – I think its mostly just getting acclimatised to the cold water and the chop. On race morning I will try and get in the water for a bit of a splash around/warm-up prior to the 6:30am start. I met up with a couple of other swimmers – from Christchurch (the one in New Zealand that is!) and we had a good chat whilst swimming gently to the first main turn buoy.

After getting back from the swim it was off to the race briefing in the main marquee. When the Run Course Director came on to talk about the course she let us know that they currently had people out on the course picking up ‘road-kill’ and that they’ve been quite busy! One thing we’ve noticed from driving around the island is that there are a large number of squashed animals on the road. It’ll be nice not to have to swerve round them tomorrow!

Sharon finished her run (pleased to have managed her planned 10 miles) and we headed back ‘home’ for me to sort out my transition bags (the bag I pick up after the swim which contains my bike gear and the one when I transition from bike to run containing my shoes and GPS) and get everything ready for tomorrow.

At around 5pm after a little snooze we headed back to the race site as I had to rack my bike and hand some bags in. One of the bags was the compulsory ‘Special Needs’ bag which will be available at about 90km into the bike course. This has to contain a long sleeve thermal top to wear on the bike if it gets cold (which can happen very quickly in an alpine environment – even with the forecast set to be in the low 20′s on race day.

It’s now gone 7pm. I’ve had a pile of pasta for dinner and am washing it down with some ‘lovely’ Gatorade sports drink! We’ll then have an early night before an even earlier start tomorrow.

If you’ve nothing better to do on a Friday evening then you should be able to follow my progress via this link. My race number is 358 and I’m doing the ‘Challenge Wanaka Individual’ event (there’s a half-ironman distance race taking place the same day). The race starts at 5:30pm UK time on Friday evening (6:30am Saturday morning in NZ). If that link doesn’t work here’s the main link to the results section of the site – http://www.challengewanaka.com/challenge-wanaka-live

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for hopefully a slightly less choppy sea, but increasing westerly winds during the day. The later they increase the better as I’d much rather them affect me on the run than during the bike leg.

I’d like to swim around 1 hour 15 minutes and anything quicker would be a bonus. In silky smooth lake Zurich 2.5 years ago I swam 1:08 and in Germany in 2010 I swum 1:04. This time if I’m close to 1:10 I’d be chuffed to bits. It all depends on the conditions in the morning.

Bike time is much more of an unknown. I’ve turned off the speedo display on my bike GPS as it makes no difference to me. I’m going to try and go purely by my power meter and try my best to not push too hard or too easy. Constant effort throughout is the plan. I hope to push about 230-235 watts during the bike leg. I’m not so sure how long it will take but lets just say something close to 6 hours is what I’m anticipating.

As for the run, a sub 4 hour marathon is what I should be capable of. A 3:45 would be nicer though.

So… ignoring transition times something around the 11 hour mark is my current estimate. In events of this length anything can happen on the day so I just have to play it by ear and hope for the best.

Stay tuned for a later update or feel free to keep an eye on Sharon’s twitter account as she hopes to post some updates during the day.

Wanaka as a town is lovely. Not too big, not too small, situated right on a stunning lake with mountain ranges all around. It truly is a stunning location and I can believe it when it is referred to as “The World’s Most Scenic Iron Distance Triathlon.”

After tons of driving/sightseeing and a good dose of rain (i.e., about 48 hours worth of the stuff – non-stop!) training opportunities have been rather limited (my running mileage for last week was about ten miles in total!). My bike has only just been put back together after flying it round the world (which only cost £35 when we checked in at London – bargain!) but first things first, the Radio Wanaka 5km Fun Run on Monday evening.

It’s amazing that the whole town is fully behind Challenge Wanaka. Event flags are flying on lamp posts all down the high street – the regional newspaper had a 12 page event ‘pull-out’ in it a few days ago with details of the race and a full entry list – my race number is 358. The local radio station is always talking about the race and what’s going on in town this week. It really is something special and amazing to be a small part of it all.

Sharon and I arrived in Wanaka on Monday afternoon to be met by blazing sunshine and a very light breeze. Going out for an evening run was meant to be refreshing!

Recycling is big in NZ - So much so that they're re-using last years sign

We jogged down to the lakefront and paid our 10 dollars each (about £9.50 pounds or so) for the two of us to register. The money all goes to a local cause so that’s good. Well over 200 people signed up for the run (or 5k walk) and it was really really warm.

When I went off for a warm-up Sharon kept an eye out for any serious looking athletes and she spotted a few out there. We had a race briefing where we were told that the course had changed slightly to make it a more accurate 5k and before long we were lined up.

Right in front of me were a group of young lads (early teens I’d say) and one of them had a Triathlon New Zealand Squad vest on! Hmn, this could be interesting!

So… the hooter sounded and away we went. A group of four pushed hard from the start and I thought I should try and stick onto them. After about a quarter of a mile I noticed that I was running about 5 minute 15 second milling, which is something like low 16 minute 5k pace. Not bloody likely I’d say!

I eased off slightly and dropped back to sixth place at a pace I was more comfortable with.

About a minute or two later a shout from behind us said “You’re going the wrong way!” – oops! We all turned around, then followed this chap (who was going mighty fast) as he led us back to the ‘real’ course. Sharon had run the correct course all along and it was only a large group of us at the front of the race (I mean fun run) that didn’t turn off at the correct place (the lack of a marshal or sign didn’t help!).

Anyway, back onto the course and before long the positions had re-established themselves and I was in sixth place and the fast guys were back at the front. At this point there were plenty of marshals in place and we were led in the direction of a golf course. We literally ran up a grass bank and across the middle of the course – including one of the putting greens from a hole. I was probably 15 feet away from a golfer as he just watched us all (whilst waiting to take his shot) run across his lovely course!! From here we headed off onto a lakeside path and into the grounds of a local vineyard.

Vineyards like to be positioned on hills. Oh dear. Next thing we were directed up a dusty path and it was hard going. The weather was baking hot – the sun was out and there was nothing ‘fun’ about this run! Well, it was fun but in a painful kind of way!

Eventually we headed back onto the path close to Lake Wanaka and back in the direction of the finish. I spent much of the race running close to the chap in 5th place and in the final km I edged ahead of him and pushed on to take 5th spot. The slight course ‘directional issue’ didn’t make a difference to the overall placings so that’s good.

My GPS measured 3.39 miles and a time of 20:36. Had I had run 5k my time would have been 19:03 which I think is not bad going on the hilly course.

It was a great fun event, lots of people at the finish supporting and spot prizes for a number of the runners (sadly Sharon and I didn’t win).

Sharon finished in 29:19 and her GPS said it was 5k spot on. Lovely. Her first words after finishing when I asked how it was were “Hot, it was hot.”

We then jogged (very) gently back to the campervan site, had dinner and watched the sunset. Lovely.

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…

More decisions were made for me in the shape of the three of us running a lap of the course with the intention of a reccy and a warm-up. I am very glad we did, as we saw the canal path before it was full of runners!

Anyway, soon enough we had listened to the first time runner briefing and after a “welcome” from the Race Director for the day to us visiting from Bushy, we were off to the start. The course isn’t fast underfoot (though I think a slight downhill gain) and is rather twisty turny but there are marshalls and arrows, so no getting lost. You run in a melee around a football field at the start, then up onto the canal path, OMG! It’s so narrow and tree stumps everywhere!!! It’s so hairy scary, especially given you can’t really overtake anyone including people who set off nearer the front who clearly shouldn’t! Then you go through a lovely little wooded “cross country” area, over a weird hard to run on path during which time I feared for my ankles, through a quagmire squidgy bit and then finally over another football field. Oh, then you repeat it :) I rather like a multiple lap course I must admit…

I don’t know what I was thinking really about my pacing before the start, certainly the canal path on the first lap slowed me down when there was no over-taking but when I glanced at my watch at the start of the second lap, it said 14:01, so I was happy enough with that. I tried really hard to keep pushing but with half a mile to go I was really starting to feel tired. Soon enough though, the end was in sight. I pushed on and crossed the line, my official time was 27:56 – my fastest parkrun time since 22nd March 2008. I was over the moon :) I was even more pleased when I looked at my splits and saw my miles were 9:09, 9:05 and 9:04 (obviously plus the last bit), so pretty much even.

Then of course, the boys made me run another lap as a cool-down. It’s my favourite apparently. Ahem.

We headed off afterwards for a coffee and a chat with some of the Frimley Lodge volunteer team. By the time we got to the cafe, we had received our text messages from parkrun with our official times, super-quick service! All in all a lovely day, lovely run and great, friendly people. I would thoroughly recommend it if you fancy a visit to a different parkrun.

This morning saw us heading to the inaugural Nonsuch parkrun, in Cheam.  I was so impressed at the organisation and the turn-out for a first event was brilliant, very nearly 200 people.  Wow!  The Lady Mayor is a member of one of the local clubs (Epsom Allsorts) and she was there for the first event too.

We set off, a slight downhill on a path, which swiftly became a little uphill, then along some weird grassy stuff, over a little flint path, through a hedge, over a little bridge, more grass, a bit more uphill, then a slight down to the finish.  The course is two laps, I was just hoping I wouldn’t be lapped!  It was a leg-sapping course I thought (or maybe that’s just a measure of how rubbish I am!) but I enjoyed it.  It was certainly nice to push myself.

David has been twittering on about my doing a sub-30 for the whole week.  I had a great run on Wednesday night, which made me think I might have a chance depending on the course.  I haven’t been sub-30 since 23 March 2009 (29:39).  In fact I finished in 28:51, which was my fastest time since 25 October 2008, when I did a 28:32.  So, suffice to say I am as pleased as punch.  David thought I looked, “a bit tired” when I finished, so I had obviously tried hard!  In fact, our Bushy parkrun visiting group of four were all pleased with how we had run – I managed 155th place out of 199 runners.

The other lovely thing was that we got to catch up with some of our Ironman pals and then went for a latte (skimmed milk, yay!) and chat – David also had a yummy-looking piece of cake but then he had run 11 miles to get to the start of the parkrun, so he more than deserved that.

All in all, a great event, pretty location, nice cafe, good cake (by all accounts), super organisation :)  Thumbs up for Nonsuch parkrun!

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!

After December’s last minute cancellation of the Luton Marathon my training eased off over Christmas and I’ve been getting back into it again in advance of the Brighton Marathon – which is in four weeks time on 10 April.  This means that right now I’m reaching the peak of my weekly long run distances – which if anyone is interested I count back the weeks from race day and my weekly ‘long’ run is around the following distances – 26.2 (race day), 12, 18, 20, 20, 20, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, and so on.

This weekend was my third 20 miler.  This was the weekend of Not The London Marathon (there’s no fixed date for it – just a mutually agreed date ‘a few weeks’ back from ‘London’).  My plans went up in smoke when my dad called me on Friday evening and asked if I could go down to their house on the south coast and help him with some work being done on their house.  My plans therefore made a sudden change and I ended up running my long 20 miler on Saturday morning – early – with Bushy parkrun thrown in a few miles from the end to give me a good hard push and to make me finish the run on (very) heavy legs!  Great training.

It was a shame to miss the third installment of NTLM but thankfully Sharon was around and went along to do her long run (not quite 20 miles I must add).  Naturally of course she had to get the annual photograph so here you go….

Not The London Marathon - 13 March 2011

My Sunday run was three miles (just to give the legs a little spin after Saturday’s long run) along the sea front.

As for my marathon training I’d say that it is going fairly well.  My regular run consistency isn’t as great as I’d like – although I am getting in exercise pretty much seven days a week – and when I’m not running I’m out on my my bike – normally on my 28-ish mile a day commute into London where I’ve been working so I’m not overly concerned if I don’t get a run in as often as I’d like.  I’m currently running 3-4 times per week on average – but as I said when not running I’m getting in a couple of hours or so on the bike.

Hopefully I’ll be back on the start line for the fourth NTLM in 2011 and I’ll post another marathon training update soon…

Well…. the good people at Black Park parkrun near Slough decided to run an event on Boxing Day at 9:30am. Excellent.  The trouble is, I love running the ‘Cabbage Patch 4′ race on Boxing Day as well (at 11am).  What should I do…. The Double of course!

Showing off the 'spikes' - photo: Kirsty Bangham

After picking up Kirsty we were at Black Park by 9am to get ready for the 9:30am start.  Following the ice fest that was Bushy Park on Christmas Day I thought I’d try a new strategy – wearing cross country ‘spikes’ rather than just trail shoes.  In my shoe bag I had some brand new 5mm spikes which did absolutely nothing to help grip so had only one option – go for the ‘beavers teeth’ – a set of 15mm spikes that stick out like, well, er, beavers teeth, from the bottom of my shoes.

After a short test run and warmup I decided that the grip on the snow and ice was amazing.  Decision made.

As we lined up for the start there was a big group of runners – in fact just a few under 150.

We set of and within a few seconds we’d all settled into our pace and I found myself in about 7th place.  I had a chap in full Santa Claus outfit (with beard) right on my tail.  After about 1.5 miles I edged ahead of him and hung on to keep in sixth place.

The ‘spikes’ I wore were fantastic and made a huge difference.  I was able to concentrate more on running, rather than dodging around the ice on the ground.

I crossed the line after a solid effort in sixth place in 18:53 – a position and time that I was very happy with.

After registering my parkrun barcode we jumped in the car and headed straight to Twickenham for the 4 mile race at 11am…

The Cabbage Patch 4 race was an altogether different affair.  Trail shoes were worn, the Thames towpath was covered in ice and it was bloody scary and difficult to run!  The amount of times my feet slipped around on the ice was incredible and this, together with the fact that my lower right leg was hurting (as a result of the difficult run at Bushy parkrun yesterday), ensured that I took the run nice and steady.  This is and still remains one of my favourite races, although the conditions were really tough.

I followed the run with big hot chocolate at the local coffee shop with friends.  All in all a good morning out.

Christmas Day 2010 at Bushy parkrun

Christmas Day at 9am means Bushy parkrun – well at least is has done since 2006.

Last year I didn’t run (damn injury) but Sharon did. This year we were both at the start – albeit not fighting fit!

Recent snow and ice had made the course absolutely treacherous. The paths that make the 5km route had become sheet ice and completely un-walkable, let alone runnable. With the cancellation of a couple of other local Christmas Day parkruns because of ice this meant that the numbers at Bushy were going to be more than usual.

Over 530 people were lined up at the start in fine weather, apart from the freezing cold and ice underfoot! After a brief set of announcements we set off on our way – albeit cautiously – a theme that continued for the rest of the run.

I saw one runner almost slip just after 1km and another who was about 3 metres in front of me fell at about 2.5km. He soon got up, overtook me and stayed ahead of me so didn’t come a cropper!

It was hard work on the snow and ice and my time of 19:33 showed that. Of the 531 finishers there were six runners who got new Personal Bests. Looking at Christmas Day 2009 where there were 414 finishers there were 27 runners who recorded PB’s. Clearly the conditions were not conducive to fast times.

Sharon ‘slogged’ her way round to her worst ever parkrun time, but finished with a smile on her face – and to be honest – that’s all that matters.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse with some recent snow and from weighing up both events and the likelihood of a last minute cancellation we opted for Woodbank – as they have an alternative 5k route for these kind of conditions.

So, after an early start we headed to Woodbank – found the car park close to the park and saw a growing number of lycra clad runners get out of there cars and head towards the running track.

Well, the location is perfect!  There’s plenty of car parking (if you’re in a car – if it weren’t 30 miles away then I’d rather run/cycle there), then there’s a little club-house to shelter from the cold, and finally toilets literally 15 metres from the start line!

Today (well, the 18th) was the Woodbank pre-Christmas parkrun and almost everyone was wearing a santa hat or similar.  Except Sharon and I who forgot to pack ours when we drove up the day before.  Rest assured we’ll have our hats out on Christmas Day at Bushy parkrun.

Because of the snow a sensible decision was made to run the three lap flat course rather than the regular two lap ‘full’ course.

David - photo: John Paul Kearns

After a short briefing the 43 of us headed off onto the first of three laps.  Looking at recent results I should be right up at the sharp end of things so headed off in close pursuit of the two chaps who raced off the front.  One runner opened up a slight lead and in second place was a youngster in a ’10 club’ tee.

About two thirds of the way round the first lap I overtook the second place runner and then had probably a 10 second gap between myself and first place.  The trouble is, I just couldn’t bring the gap down!  The on course support from the marshalls was superb and very encouraging – but clearly every word of “you’re catching him up” to me was preceded a few seconds before by “keep pushing, the tall lanky one in the hundred club t-shirt is getting closer!”

Being a three lap course I lapped a few of the slower runners and we gave one another plenty of support.  Everyone was super friendly.  Must be a northern thing.

In the final km the leader extended his lead and by the finish beat me by 15 seconds.  My time was 19:11.  Considering the conditions (and the fact that my Garmin measured the course at 3.24 miles – however accurate that may be) I was happy with that time, although would have loved the victory!

Sharon - photo: John Paul Kearns

At the finish line we were all given a goodie bag – leftovers from the Stockport 10 road race the week before and then ushered into the Stockport Harriers clubhouse for tea/coffee and cakes.

Everyone we spoke to was incredibly friendly, the number of runners was very manageable, the facilities were top-knotch and this event (of the 16 different parkruns that I’ve been to) had a lovely ‘feel’ to it.

Well done Woodbank parkrun.

The Roth adventure began last year when I knew full well that David would enter another iron-distance race, despite saying originally that he was only doing one! Training went reasonably well for him (besides the broken metatarsal!) and before we knew it we were off to Germany.

I have to confess to feeling apprehensive – after such an awesome debut performance last year, I could sense that D was feeling pressure regarding what his finishing time would be this year. I don’t think this in intentional from anyone but it must make it tough. I was also feeling apprehensive about how I would be able to support him as the Roth course takes a different form to Ironman Switzerland in that it has split transitions. If I was a more confident cyclist, I would have taken my mountain bike and ridden around, as lots of people did, but I am not, so I couldn’t. If I had known what the day would bring, I would have done bike training myself!

Race morning dawned, cooler than it had promised and once more I was stood watching people prepare for the off. There is the most bizarre atmosphere in transition – it’s full of anticipation, yet calm and eerily quiet, especially in the half-light. You can see athletes lending each other things like pumps and goggles, not talking, just “being there”, some going off for quiet time, some with friends and family.

David did his prep, I took a few things back to the car, chatted to a few pirates and pirate supporters. Before I knew it, he was half in his wetsuit and it was about 30 minutes before the start. We decided it would be good for him to be away from people, to go and get himself ready. It’s hard, all those months of training for one day. There was no way I wanted him not to be in the right place in his head. As he left me, I was suddenly terrified. I haven’t been like that before, I have been nervous for him but this felt different. Little did I know that perhaps I felt like that because my day was not going to go according to plan! When he went off into transition to get ready for the start of his wave, I must confess to shedding a tear. Never done pre-race crying either. Oh dear.

I went and hovered around a bit, tried to get by the canal for a few photos, another trip to the car to drop off more of David’s kit, then I was back to transition. I heard David’s swim wave start and gave a little cheer and went to wait. His race times are detailed in his blog so I won’t go into that, suffice to say I was so pleased when I saw him come out of the water faster than we expected. I screamed at him in T1, but he didn’t hear me. Shouted at a lot more Pirates too, mixed bag of swimming fortunes I would say. Also did a bit of tweeting to update the Home Support Crew with how the Pirates were getting on.

After all Pirates were off on the bike, I headed off with Gill and Rick to the Solarer Berg and literally as we arrived I saw the back of David go through. I screamed and shouted and almost wondered if he heard as there was a little turn of his head. Apparently he hadn’t heard. We found a comfy spot and made camp, ready for the shouting. I have to say it was difficult for the 3 of us to be heard, some Pirates heard the shouts, some didn’t. I tried to get photos but they are not my best work and I knew at the time I would be disappointed. I was getting text message alerts about David’s progress on the bike, which showed he was going well.

The first Pirate we saw on their second lap was Melli who was looking really strong. I knew David should be fairly soon behind and I had received the 153km text alert. We waited, and waited, and waited. Terrible thoughts were going through my head. Had he come off? Where was he? Tried to keep myself under control, difficult to be honest. Still no sign of him. Started to see other Pirates. Oh feck. Where was he? My heart was beating like mad. Suddenly my phone bleeped, another text message: “David Rowe is out on the run”. What. The. Feck. How did we miss him? It’s not like Pirate kit is subtle is it. I was gutted I hadn’t been able to cheer him. I was worried he would notice I wasn’t around – of course in sensible mode I know that wouldn’t be on his mind, the race was on his mind – but I was being irrational!

Shortly afterwards, things started to go a little awry. Not for David, for one of our other Pirates. I shall not detail it here, suffice to say all is well but it’s bloody scary being the wife of someone when all is going, shall we say, not to plan. We needed to get to T2, or the finish, to check out what was going on. It was a nightmare. We ended up going about 35 km to go 6! I was worrying for our Pirate, and his wife and (at the back of my mind as I knew D was OK from the text alerts) I was worrying that I hadn’t seen David. I just wanted to cheer him on.

We got to the finish and found out all was well with our Pirate (thank goodness for that!!) and by that point I was weighing up whether I could get out on the run course and back to the finish. To be honest, I was panicking that if I went out, I wouldn’t get back. I know it’s ridiculous. I was not at my most rational by this point in the day. I decided I was going to find a spot and stick to it and await David’s arrival.

I had about an hour to wait, I busied myself cheering people in. I was getting the text alerts still, he was running so well! I was starting to get excited, trying to work out possible finish times. Soon enough, I saw a flash of yellow! I was absolutely screaming my head off as he looked so focused, I was worried he wouldn’t even see me there if I didn’t. After what seemed an age, he locked eyes with me. We had seen each other! Finally! After the whole bloody day! I watched him run under the gantry and almost immediately I got my text alert with his finish time. 10:10:58. Wow! I believe my tweet was something like, “David is fucking awesome”. He is.

This time he appeared out of the finishers area really quickly. I saw him, ran over and gave him a massive hug. It was the kind of hug that you don’t want to end and then once again the tears flowed. It did of course end and before we knew it, it was the finish party :)

I am so proud of him. I really am. He is so motivated and determined and strong of mind. Once David sets his mind to something, you know he will give it his all. To say I am proud doesn’t seem enough – it’s a massive understatement. He knows how I feel though. I am also so proud of our Pirates, they demonstrate the very same qualities. They are seriously tough to be out there for more than half a day. It’s an honour to be standing on that finish line cheering them on. Joy and pain, all in one day, who could ask for more?

6:15am on Saturday morning and Sharon and I jump in the car to head to Lakeside Multisports in Eastleigh for their second parkrun 5k run.  Why so early?  Well, as the run is organised by the same people who run an open water swimming session in a lovely little lake.

After being welcomed by a couple of lovely ladies at the swim ‘sign-in’ I donned my wetsuit and went down to the water where I was given a briefing (the water isn’t deep and if you’re in trouble just shout!) and sent on my way.  Each loop of the lake buoys is a little shy of 400m and in my opinion its a great distance.  There’s plenty of time to concentrate on your stroke and sighting, but also plenty of buoys to navigate round and with a ‘small’ lake there’s always plenty of people nearby – rather than being all out on your own in a huge lake.  The water is also pretty shallow and as such it will warm up quickly over the coming weeks and months.  Today it was 13 degrees.

After just over 2km of swimming I cheered on some of the competitors in an aquathlon (swim/run) that was taking place and then it was time to get changed and ready for the 9am 5km Eastleigh parkrun.

Sharon and I lined up at the start with just over 50 others and were given a briefing by Brett, the race director.  We were then set off on our way.  The course is lovely.  You start by running round a couple of lakes, where there were plenty of fisherman and geese and their goslings dotted around the edges.  After a right hand turn you head up a slight incline, through a wooded area and then have to content with the first obstacle – the local minature steam railway!  Across the tracks and then you head alongside the tracks for a little while towards something called ‘the bowl’ – a little like a volcanic crater but without the lava, or something like that!

After running round the top edge of the bowl you cross the railway tracks twice more, avoiding any trains (!!) and head back towards the start.  Two laps of this and there you go.  The course is mostly gravel paths and grass, and expect a pair of trail shoes would be well advised for the winter months.

I’d left my GPS at home and was happy to run without it and just went at a medium/tough pace.  After about a minute I’d settled into sixth place and just stayed there, running pretty much on my own for 4.5km.

Although I don’t yet know my finishing time (the results aren’t up), I believe it was around 19:30 or just under.  No complaints there.  UPDATE: the results are in and I finished in 19:46.  Still no complaints.

In the afternoon I then went out sailing and then headed to the pub to watch the second half of the FA cup final football match!

David out for a little sail in Sharon's boat.

• Start around 9am
• Start at the Bushy parkrun current finish line.
• Run the Bushy parkrun course as many times as you like, looping round the start line and finishing line trees.
• Anyone can join in and run any number of laps at any time at any speed, either alone or in groups.
• No official timing, time yourself if you’d like.
• Friends and supporters congregate at the parkrun finish line to give encouragement and support, or maybe just enjoy an alfresco picnic/refreshments and a social.
• People can run as many laps as they like.
• It’s Not the London Marathon, cos it’s not a race, it’s not a marathon distance for everyone, and anyone can join in anytime.

In 2009 Sharon and I took part along with about 15 or so others and had a great time.  Today we did it all again…  At about 9am a group of 25 of us lined up at the start (ok, so there’s 24 in the photo, but Tom Morgan turned up too late for the photo!) and started our watches.  A few other runners joined in during the first ‘lap.’

Not The London Marathon 2010

After a (pleasant if you can call it that) 75 mile bike ride on Saturday my legs were in need of a little stretch so I planned to run 10km – two laps of the Bushy parkrun course.  Because of my dodgy left foot (read about it elsewhere on the blog) and visits to other parkrun’s I’d not run in Bushy Park since the 1st January.  It was lovely to be back in the park and oh I love it being so flat!

After setting off I watched the fast runners head into the distance whereas I settled in to a moderate long run pace for me (about 7:30 minute miling).  One lap down…. two laps down…. and then I decided to do a third.  After crossing the finish ‘line’ after the third lap and heading back to where some of the others were watching/supporting my GPS had clocked me at 9.5 miles in just over 71 minutes (7:28 miling).  Lovely.  This is the furthest that I’ve run in almost four months so I’m really pleased with how it went.  My 5k parkrun times were approximately 24:04, 23:08 and 22:27.

Not The London Marathon is turning into a little fixture in our unofficial racing calendar.  Just don’t remind Roger about his idea to do a 12 hour version later in the Summer!

7am on Saturday morning and Sharon, Kirsty, Paul and myself jump into the car for the drive to Greenwich – or Avery Hill Park to be precise.

There’s ample car parking, toilets right by the start and its a small 3 lap course with each lap being just over 1 mile in length.  This is a perfect parkrun for those who are not yet up to 5k (3.1 miles) of running, as you could run a lap, walk a lap, run a lap etc.  I’d also say its a pretty child friendly course as you’re never more than about half a kilometer from the start/finish area if you need to stop short.

After recent rain the past week has been dry and Saturday was no exception – the trouble was that part of the course was a bit waterlogged and extremely muddy – and thus slippery underfoot.  I didn’t bring trail shoes and just had my standard ‘runners.’

After an introduction and course description we were off, all 18 of us (nice low key numbers for this first Greenwich parkrun).  Immediately I found myself in the lead and I was glad I’d run a warm-up lap beforehand to work out the course (there’s great signage on the course which makes it extremely difficult to make mistakes).

I kept my position at the front and just ran solidly steady.  It was hard work on the slippery mud/grassy area (in the summer the lower part of the course will be just fine, but for the other three seasons it could get messy).  Towards the end of each lap you head onto a tarmac pathway and there’s a slight incline to the finish/lap point.  Plenty of marshals were on hand to let you know where to go, and to encourage you to keep on pushing.  Thanks.

My run wasn’t fast but I led the field home to my third parkrun victory (after Bedfont and Bromley in 2009).  My finishing time was 21:16 and probably one of the slowest ever winning times.  According to my Garmin my mile splits were fairly even (6:48, 6:43, 6:43).  This, er, winning time means that I currently hold the course record for the parkrun.  A record that will surely fall this coming Saturday.

As for the others in our little ‘outing’, Paul finished in second place, and Kirsty was first lady.  Sharon’s back was playing up (she hurt it at work a few weeks ago) and she was way off of her best.  Her form/fitness will return.  You just mustn’t rush these things.

Overall it wasn’t an easy course, and this was mainly because of the mud and I’d say hill-wise its got a little more climbing that the Bedfont Lakes parkrun.  I’d say this is a lovely little parkrun, even though the cafe was being re-furbished and wasn’t open on the day!

Because of the cafe situation we had to head into Eltham, just up the road for a coffee and some cake, so all was well.  I then spent most of the journey home fielding mobile phone calls for Paul as a result of a little computer issue back at parkrun HQ.  I think I spoke to probably most of the parkrun race directors during that journey home!

Anyway, back to the present.  Sharon and I had been wanting to come and visit some friends of ours who live in Glasgow for a long time and we found a date that fitted in all of our diaries.  So here we are, up in Glasgow.

With our friend Richard being one of the Glasgow parkrun race directors (and our parkrun addiction) we had to go for a run whilst we were visiting.  In my preparation I managed to run 5k on a treadmill earlier in the week with no real difficulty so felt I was good to go for the 5k parkrun this weekend.  I’d run 6 miles in January and 5k on the treadmill so far this month.

Saturday morning – 9am came and passed – which wasn’t a problem as Scottish parkrun events take place at 9:30am.  Glasgow parkrun is currently going from strength to strength and they’re puling in fantastic numbers – this week being their third record attendance in a row – with 286 runners taking part.

My plan for the run was really just to enjoy it but put in some decent effort and see how my fitness (and foot) was holding up.

Coming into the finish - photo: Gill Williamson

The Glasgow course is lovely – it’s not easy but not too tough (I’d rank it similar in difficulty to Richmond parkrun).  All the hilly bits are fairly short so you’re never having to slog uphill for long – and the down-hills are not too steep as to make it difficult.  The course is on a great surface and running through the woods of Pollok Park is lovely.  I’m sure it is stunning in the springtime.

I started steady and after a few minutes settled into a solid pace.  There was little movement between myself and the runners around me and we all just got on with it.  After the first lap (it’s a two lap course) I did wonder if I’d be able to hold my pace for the next 2.5-3k as I’ve not run this fast since November.  Thankfully I was able to do so.

Before long I came into the finish in 38th position and my watch stopped at 19:44 – a time that I was very happy with.  My legs certainly felt it but my (dodgy) foot felt no worse than before so that’s all good.  Sharon had a reasonable run and finished in 33:35 considering the lack of running that she’s been doing of late.

As with almost all parkrun events we followed it up with cake and coffee which was lovely.  A top morning out with great friends on a great course.  Well done Glasgow parkrun.

Interestingly my last seven parkruns have all been at different events – I wonder if I’ll find another new parkrun to try next time or whether I’ll just play it safe and go back to Bushy Park…

After some discussions last week at Bushy parkrun a few of us decided to ‘tick this one off of the list.’

First thing Saturday morning (7:30am) Sharon and I collected Kirsty and headed out west to Black Park parkrun.  Pre-run toilets were all locked so although some people chose to ‘water’ the plants themselves, we chose to wait till the obligatory post run coffee shop visit.

My running has pretty much been non-existant of late.  I did a parkrun on the 28 November, then one on 1 January and nothing else until today.  My foot still hurts all of the time, but doesn’t seem to get better (or worse) – so I’m kind of thinking that this is probably just how its going to be from now on.  As the Black Park course is mostly soft ground and any running I plan on doing right now will be on soft ground, I thought I’d give this a go.  I had no plans to try and run fast (I’ve forgotten how to anyhow!) so just wanted an easy run…

I set off close to Kirsty and the main mass of runners who finish between about 22-28 minutes.  We had an easy first mile and then I started to warm up (actually, my hands took a couple of miles to get vaguely warm!) and speed up a little.  I slowly but surely worked my way past people and at the same time ensured that I wasn’t racing or pushing too hard.

David a few seconds before the finish - photo: George Mardall

After about 20 minutes I made the turn into the final long long straight and just about managed to glance back to see Kirsty running strong (having a great run by the look of things).

I crossed the finish line in 24:26, so only 6 and a half minutes away from my PB but happy to have got round with no additional foot pain.  Kirsty came in a few seconds behind me and then Sharon came in a few minutes later.

As we waited in line to register our positions we chatted away, congratulated Darren ’250 parkrun’ Wood on his 3rd place and generally admired the surroundings.

The parkrun is located in beautiful park and I’m going to try and make sure I head back there in the spring to run or at least take some photos.

Following the run we headed to the coffee shop, had a drink and refuelled ourselves before going to the local swimming pool for a swim…

Post-Polar Bear Swim Victory Photograph! (Kirsty, Sharon, David)

The past couple of weeks have been extremely cold with snow and ice being in the headlines almost continually.  What better way to see it for yourselves than to go for a swim in a lake!

During the warmer Spring/Summer months I did most of my triathlon swimming in open water – mostly at Princes Club in Bedfont, West London.  In 2008 they held their first annual ‘Polar Bear Swim’ and 16 swimmers turned up.  For 2009 they wanted to get 50 so I had to put my name down for this piece of post Christmas idiocy!

The idea is simple – a non-timed, non-race 100m swim in extremely cold water – just for, er, fun.

Sharon, Kirsty and myself arrived in plenty of time to get into our wetsuits (after some squeezing and pulling following the numerous festive feasts) and then listened to the briefing.  I’d say that out of the 51 who turned up there were about 10 or so who chose not to wear wetsuits – and in the 2.5 degrees (celcius) water temperature they were extremely brave (or foolish!).

There was a line of buoys about 50m ‘off shore’ and the idea was to swim to the imaginary line between the buoys, turn around and swim back.  Simple.

We all lined up on the jetty and got ready to dive in on the call of ‘GO!’  I never really dive straight into water and swim, especially when its that cold but today I just got on with it.  My goggles had steamed up before I’d even got them wet but that was the least of my worries.

As the starting signal was made I dived in and pushed on with full-on head-in-the-water frontcrawl as fast as I could.  I could barely breath in the cold and was absolutely freezing – but the adrenaline took over.  There were a number of swimmers around me and there was a lot of kicking and shoving going on – just like at the start of a mass-start triathlon swim – I couldn’t believe it!

As I got to the turnaround point I eased off a little bit and tried to catch some air – which was really difficult when your feet, hands and face are slowly turning to ice!  I swam back to the jetty at a more leisurely pace and got out of the water.

Once out of the water I stood by the jetty to help others get out and I cheered Kirsty, Sarah and Sharon as they returned to dry land.  After getting out of the water we jumped in the sauna for a few minutes to try and warm up and get over the ‘fun’ we just had!

I think I’ll stick to open water swimming in the summer months (although I’ll happily go back for this just once a year – and could be tempted to go non-wetsuit next time!)…

After a lot of overnight rain the weather cleared up, but there was plenty of evidence on the ground – many of the paths were waterlogged!  If you look at the course map at the parkrun website your head will probably be spinning with confusion trying to remember the course.  However, the course was superbly marked and marshalled, so there was never any chance of taking a wrong turn.

After last weekends Epsom 10 miler when I hobbled home in pain this past week has been interesting.  On Monday and Tuesday the only way for me to get down the stairs was sat on my backside and sliding down the stairs one by one.  Things have made a lot of improvement since then and I’m walking fairly normally now, although still feel some pain in my left foot when walking.

My plan for today was to just get round the course.  I’d threatened to run with Sharon – which I thought she’d enjoy as its our 11 year wedding anniversary today – but she didn’t want any of it!!!

The parkrun is set in a lovely park area with all sorts of playgrounds, bowling greens and a large lake.  It’s a great park in a very accessible location (and a huge car park right by the start).

With the event currently run by volunteers from the University of Manchester this possibly explained the large number of young people/students taking part.  Sharon and I were some of the oldest runners there!  We were most impressed to see these young students out and about before 9am on a Saturday morning.  When I was a student I would always end up watching Saturday morning TV at 9am on a Saturday.  Then again, I was over 17 stone in weight and didn’t know the meaning of the word exercise.

After a detailed briefing (follow the yellow arrows for the first 3.5k, then follow the pink ones, ‘homeward bound’,  to the finish) 77 runners set off on this, the third South Manchester parkrun.

Sharon's muddy feet post parkrun!

I started slowly as I had no idea how my foot would be and I made a conscious effort to stay off of my forefoot whilst running as much as possible.  After a couple of hundred metres we turned onto a smaller path and this is where the water logged surface was at its worst.  The path was wet, and the surrounding grass was muddy.  Wherever you ran you couldn’t avoid getting wet and muddy.  I really wasn’t expecting this but it added a little bit of excitement to the run!

I was probably in the mid 20′s position wise and as I settled in I drifted further and further up the field.  There were marshals everywhere, all really smiley and with some of them jumping around (partly just to stay warm, as it was a cold morning).  I slowly moved up the field, my foot not giving me any real cause for concern (although it did hut a bit towards the end), and crossed the line in 8th place with a time of around 20:24 according to my watch.

After I finished, I went along to support Sharon (the course is great to see other runners multiple times).  I ended up talking to Linda one of the Race Directors (who was lovely and friendly) and we want to thank her and her team of super-friendly marshals for running an excellent event.

Sharon had an average run – her shoes filled with water early on because of the puddles and now we are back at the hotel, they weigh so much!  Sharon liked the cross country feel of the course – but wished she had brought spare shoes with her…off to the shops now :)

The parkrun is so easy to get to – within five minutes walk from the station you’re at the start area.  After a quick toilet stop (I snuck into the ladies as the gents were disgusting!), a warm up and saying hello to our friend Céline who was running her first parkrun it was time to get started.

Its a fast downhill start – so much so that I clocked a 5:36 first mile which wasn’t quite as planned, but ho hum.  I was sat in fifth place at this point and watching the guys ahead of me drift slowly ahead.  I’d heard about a tough uphill about 2/3rds of the way through each lap but certainly wasn’t expecting what I saw before me first time round.  In a park that I’d say was gently undulating was this bloody great incline.  OK, its not a ‘real’ hill but it certainly catches you by surprise (and took just over a minute to run up)!

The second lap, a bit like last weeks second lap at Gorleston Cliffs parkrun was pretty uneventful – I pushed really hard, but the effects of last nights dinner and beers at a Thai Restaurant were certainly holding me back a little!

I pushed on, and as expected (and actually just about planned for – for I ran up it two seconds quicker than on the first lap!) the hill was bloody tough.  As I crossed the line (in 5th place) my time was 18:35 which I was happy with.  I was aiming for around 18:30 so was on target.  The course certainly isn’t easy, and I’d probably put it as being a little easier than Richmond parkrun.  There are a few twists and turns, and I think a couple of extra marshals and/or signage would make it easier to navigate, especially as the number of runners is low and there are considerable gaps between some runners (the next finisher behind me was over 90 second behind me).

Sharon had a pretty reasonable run and finished in 31:22.  Kirsty’s run, well…. you can read about it on her blog.

All in all a really easy run to get to, with all the facilities you need (toilets, coffee, public transport) and a challenging course.  With it being the only (current) parkrun in North London I imagine it could get very popular very quickly, and I’m sure we’ll head back into ‘town’ again sometime in the new year to give it another go.

We were about 20 miles from the Gorleston Cliffs parkrun, which is just south of Great Yarmouth.  On a blustery day my mother, Sharon and myself made plans to head to the most Eastern parkrun in England.

The beach is huge and sandy, although it was clearly not weather for sunbathing, and the wind was fairly strong.  After a warmup at the top of the cliffs and introducing ourselves to some of the organisers we awaited the starting announcements.

As the event has only been running for just over six months (this was the 28th race) there are no ‘home’ members of the 50 or 100 clubs, so when Sharon and I turned up wearing our black 100 club t-shirts with pride we were announced at the briefing as ‘royalty!’

As the 3-2-1-start went I found myself running with two other guys – one who looked like a serious runner in his “Beckenham RC” club vest, and another chap who was wearing an ipod and I felt didn’t seem much of a threat to me.  My initial judgement was true and after a couple of hundred metres or so it was just myself and the club runner, Nolan Wilkens.

He had a slight edge on me early on, which I was more than happy to go with as the wind was blowing directly into us.  I had no problem drafting off of him for a little while.  After about 1/2 a km you start to head down the cliff by taking a narrow path.  The man who was just ahead of me missed the first turn, and after scrambling down an extremely steep grass bank he then missed the second slight turn and had to scramble upwards!

This was my moment to take the lead, but unfortunately it was short lived.  He was back on my tail and drifted past me.  After a hairpin turn and a steep downhill we were onto the promenade for the return journey back to the finish area and start of the second lap.

With the wind directly behind us the apparent air was still, and getting warmer by the minute with no cooling breeze in your face.  Running at around PB pace (5:45 miling for the first mile – especially into a headwind) I knew it was going to be hard to keep the pace going.  After crossing the finish line (this is a two lap course) you then head up a steep incline to get back to the top of the cliff, and then its onto the second lap.

The second lap was much more uneventful.  I ran hard, thanked all the marshals and watched any chance of a first place finish drift away.  Looking at recent results I knew that a top three was well within my means, but then you never know who’ll turn up on the day.

I ran hard all the way to the finish and with my mum watching proceedings I finished in second place with a time of 18:17.  This was a good strong run in tough conditions and although there’s two downhills and only one uphill I was pleased to be in the low-18′s.

After registering on the computer (for a change I brought my registration barcode with me but they’re one of the two UK events that don’t use barcodes yet) I cheered Sharon in (who “tried quite hard but was still rubbish”) and then we drifted back to the car to head back to our boat on the Broads.  If we weren’t on holiday with plans for the day ahead we would have stayed on for coffee so it was a shame we had to head off so quickly.

This is a great, low key parkrun (the smallest I’ve run in years) with a really nice group of supportive runners and helpers.  Well done Gorleston – you’re doing parkrun proud.

P.S. We really did look awesome in our 100 club tops!

I hadn’t done much training for one reason and another, therefore I knew it was going to be hard.  I had a plan.  I tried to stick to it – and yet still I fell out the back door and the wheels fell off!  My average pace was shockingly slow and I almost did a personal worst (PW) over the distance.  It was vile.  I hit 5.45 miles on Riverside Drive and wanted to stop – of course I didn’t as I was already over half way and my stubborn nature wouldn’t allow such a thing!  On Riverside Drive, poor Jane (who had left me behind some time previously and with whom I ran the first 7 miles of my first ever 10 mile race a couple of years back) came a cropper and met the pavement.  Poor bleeding woman.  Elbow, hands, skinned knees…she still beat me though :)  I crossed the line in 1:53:53 by my watch (which I will use as the race isn’t chip timed).  Disaster.  After the race was also a disaster and I felt so rough.  In fact, it was only really by yesterday evening that I felt better.  Horrid.  Sent me back to when I first started running races.  I also, I am ashamed to say, cried after I crossed the line as I was so upset with myself.

Enough of the bad.  What’s the good to be gleaned from this then?  Well, it’s good I got around 10 miles without stopping, my longest run since the Barbados Half Marathon in December 2008.  It’s also good that my legs were fine in the days following.  The other good thing is that it seems to have scared me a little into training…and not planning on doing races when I am not ready.  The other good thing was that after the race, after my tears, a Serpentine lady came up to David and I and asked if we were the couple who were in Runner’s World a couple of years back.  We said that yes we were and she told me that it was because of us and reading about parkrun that she started running.  She thanked us for spurring her on.  So that’s pretty awesome.

Onwards and upwards, right?

Members of the '100 Club', with myself in my '50 Club' t-shirt in the middle. Photo by David Nash.

So, that’s me, a fully fledged member of the ninja-tee wearing 100 Club.  The Club is growing and I think it’s something to really be proud to be a part of.  I ran my first parkrun in September 2006 so almost 3 years to the day I joined the 100 Club.  That means that for roughly 2 out of 3 Saturday mornings for the past 3 years I have run at a parkrun…what do you mean I have no life?

I (David) have run this race once before (in 2007) and wasn’t sure how things would go today – after running a pretty solid 18:55 at the Bushy parkrun 5k in the morning (in 2007 I ran the 5k in 18:48).

I believe my handicap (starting time) wasn’t particularly favourable for me but there’s no use complaining – just get on with it and run as best as possible.  I set off with Chris O. and within a few minutes I was overtaken by three of the faster club runners (one of which I caught up with just before the finish).

The race was fairly uneventful for me – I ran hard, fought my way up Spankers Hill Wood (a nasty little hill this one) and then pushed on till the finish.  I enjoy these handicap races as towards the end it gets really busy (with all the runners closing in) and you get to see many of the other runners (as the idea behind a handicap race is that everyone should finish at around the same time – as we start over a ‘staggered’ time).

I ran the course in 25.02, which handicap-wise put me in 38th position (out of 66 finishers), but speed wise – which is more important to me – I finished 8th overall.  Nothing to complain about there I’d say.  Out of interest, in 2007 I finished in 26.24 – although was racing in a triathlon the following day and taking it ‘easy.’

Sharon had a reasonable run.  She’s well off pace at present and finished much further down the field.  The most important thing is that she knows why this is and it didn’t come as a big surprise.