BPTT Update – 12 JanuaryThis morning Sharon headed to Bushy Park to watch and take some photos at the weekly time trial. I was being mangled by my physio at the same time although I did manage to get back to the park to watch most of the finishers come in.
Unfortunately I missed watching the winner of today’s race – our good friend Danny. This is his second win at Bushy Park so well done mate.
2007 Running Summary – SharonSo, the end of the year is upon us and I have been thinking about what I have achieved this year in terms of my running. Indulge me if you will whilst I run through some statistics I have retrieved from my running log:
In total I have run:
663 miles, which is enough to take me from Land’s End, England to Stonehaven, Scotland (20 miles South of Aberdeen), with the majority on the M6. I could drive it in about 11 hours, however have calculated that it has taken me 111 hours to run those 663 miles! My biggest mileage month was September when I hit 91 miles. My lowest was June with only 26 miles, which coincided with a broken bone in my foot.
68 races!! This comprises 38 x BPTT 5k’s, 2 x RPTT 5k’s, 7 x 10k’s (Goring, Chichester, Sutton, Elmbridge, Bognor, Lanzarote and Brighton), 3 x 10 miles (Thames Towpath Ten, Dorking and Cabbage Patch 10 , 2 x 8 miles (one slightly longer but what’s half a mile between puddles?), 1 x 7km (Wedding Day), 1 x 4 mile (Cabbage Patch 4), 1 x half marathon (Bedford), 7 x cross country of varying distances, 3 x 5.17km (Stragglers handicaps), 1 x 5k(Belgrave), 2 x cross country relays and an aquathlon (Lanzarote)!!
I have additionally won 4 handicap prizes!! Who’d have thought I would win anything? I’ve won the Belgrave 5k Handicap prize (£75 no less!), 2 Stragglers Handicap gold medals (August and September – I have retired now) and finally the Dysart Cup Sealed Handicap – not sure f I actually physically get anything for this though…will find out in March. The last prize was a lovely shiny medal and a rucksack from BPTT, thanks to finishing 7th overall in the women’s league for the year 2006-2007.
In terms of progress and PB’s, I started the year with a 5km PB of 32:01, which I reduced in October to 25:22. My 10k PB has gone from 71:40 in January to 54:45 in November, my 10 mile PB from 1:52:08 in April to 1:32:27 in October. I will have to wait until 2008 to see if I improve over other distances, as they are strange race lengths which aren’t raced very often.
I have had lots of fun over the past year with David, Kirsty and Danny travelling to races and training together (well, I say together, I mean in the same place at the start and end of a session!). I’d like to thank them for all their encouragement and cries of “sandbagger”! I also have had lots and lots of support during races from members of both our running clubs which is great, so thanks everyone for that. I went on a running holiday, which was great and something last year I would never have dreamed I would do. My life has changed immeasurably, as has my weight (I have lost 19lbs since the start of the year with not a diet in sight, combined with the weight loss in 2006 that brings me to 46lbs lost in total). My bank balance is slightly worse for wear, I am now on my 3rd pair of shoes, as well as having trail shoes and a pair of cross country spikes! I also now have more running kit than normal clothes (actually, that’s not true but I do have an awful lot!) which further accounts for the reduced bank balance…
So what’s in the plan for next year? Firstly I need to sort out my injury. I have been injured for over 3 months now and it is really starting to get me down. I can still run but occasionally in a lot of pain and generally in moderate pain. I am contemplating having January off with lots of physio visits, just to see if that will do the trick. I will be annoyed though as there are some great cross country races in January which I want to do but then it’s more important to get my leg better I think. I also have some time targets for a couple of distances but I won’t put them in black and white here, they can stay in my head (and some people know what they are).
I think that’s about it. This is like an Oscar speech, sorry! Final special thanks must go to David for encouraging me so much with my running. He has even come out with me at my pace from time to time, which I am sure must have been incredibly irritating for him – despite insisting that it wasn’t. See you all running soon…
The Stragglers Cabbage Patch 4
On 26th December, whilst many people are taking it easy after the Christmas excesses Sharon and I donned our running gear and headed into Twickenham for the annual Cabbage Patch (it’s a pub and serves as an excellent race headquarters) 4 race which is organised by our second claim running club – The Stragglers.
I ran this for the first time last year and I really wanted to see how I’d improved over the past 12 months. Conditions were ideal – it was cold and dry – lovely for running. I was feeling good for this and the end result proved it – I finished third! The race is just under 4 miles (my GPS said 3.95) and takes in a lovely route along the towpath beside the River Thames between Twickenham and Richmond.
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Because of the day of the year and the course route I really enjoy this race – you’re running along the path beside the river and have to navigate between the large number of families walking their children/dogs/grandparents in the sunshine. I ran the entire race alone – watching the two runners ahead of me slowly drift into the distance. Just after 3k I could hear someone close behind me but there was no way I was going to look to see how close he/she was – that would only show that I was running scared (which I wasn’t…much). I dug deep and after a while the breathing sound just faded away – phew.
My finishing time was (according to my watch 23:08) which gives me an average pace of 5:51 per mile (a few seconds off of my best 5k pace) – a time that I was very happy with. Sharon ran it in 35:50 and was pleased with her performance – especially as she’s still half on the injury bench!
Outside of our race, the winner was our good friend Danny. Last year he had a ‘navigation issue’ and went the wrong way – this year he ran brilliantly and finished first – followed shortly by another friend, Paul.
Finally, last year I ran this in 24:40, so was over 90 seconds quicker this year. I think that calls for a celebratory glass or two of wine this evening…
(Thanks to Danny’s dad for the photo at the start)
We’re in Runners World magazine!
OK, there’s two things I can say about this rowerunning.co.uk blog website:
Since I ran my first 5k time trial in June 2006 I slowly became hooked, and by September of that year I became full on addicted. Sharon joined in shortly afterwards and since then we have just about made it to a time trial every week – unless we’ve been on holiday – although we managed to run our own “Time Trial” in Lanzarote this past August.
A few weeks ago Sharon and I were contacted by Paul (the man who started the Bushy Park Time Trial) telling us that Runners World magazine in the UK were writing an article about time trials and that we had a story worth telling! They asked me to call Nick (the journalist) which I duly did and arranged a time to have a longer conversation. The following day Sharon and I had a good telephone conversation with the guy where he asked us all about our involvement with UK Time Trials and how we’d improved (or not) by doing it. We then left it at that – curious about what would come of it.
Just over a week ago the January 2008 issue of Runners World dropped through the letterbox and if I may say so myself, what a fine issue it is! On page 82 there is a four page article about running time trials and Sharon and I are the featured “Case Study” – together with a photo of us both. I’m also quoted a couple of times in the article and I think it all portrays the UK Time Trial ‘movement’ in a very positive way.
“There’s no doubt that seeing yourself improve week by week is a huge boost,” says BPTT veteran David Rowe. “It’s made me into a real runner – something I’d never thought I’d be saying a year or two ago.”
So, if you’ve not seen it yet go and get yourself a copy of the January 2008 issue of Runners World magazine (UK), or read some of the article at their website – but if you read it online you’ll miss the case study!
Ranelagh Harriers Ellis Trophy 2007Following on from the ladies Dysart Cup race earlier in the afternoon the men set off for the 5.5 mile Ellis Trophy race on a windy afternoon in Richmond Park.
My only plan for the race was to have a good run, and see how things go, and make sure I didn’t set off too quickly. The course was two laps and it was good to run with a good group of runners from Ranelagh Harriers, The Stragglers and many other local clubs in this invitational cross country race.
At the end of the first lap I headed into what can only be called a ‘Stragglers sandwich’, where I (running in blue) was caught in the middle of a group of runners from The Stragglers club – two of whom I know fairly well (Nigel and Ian). We had a right good tussle with all of us swapping positions multiple times throughout the lap until the final 400 meters or so where I managed to dig deep and get ahead. I was really pleased with my finish and certainly put an effort in – so much so that Sharon (who was watching) thought I was going to collapse!
In the overall results I finished 37th out of 111 with a time of 35:51 (the winning time was 31:47). I scored points for the Ranelagh Harriers team who finished overall in fourth place (with Hercules/Wimbledon first, Serpentine second and The Stragglers in third place).