Placings

GUN - 1846/3950
CHIP - 1958/3950
F - 349/1599
FSEN - 170/762 (female non vets)

I'm pretty pleased with that actually.

Abbey Dash, mark 2

Woo Hoo. One of my new years resolutions back in January was to run all the races I ran last year, and run them quicker. Well, it's November and I've finally managed one. Race for Life got shelved because of work (and torrential rain which didn't encourage me to leave and do it anyway). The Harewood House 10k got shelved because it was the week before Berlin. So, the Abbey Dash it was.

Last year this was my first "proper" 10k. The Cancer Research ones aren't timed officially, don't give you a club discount, and are very much more fund raising thing than races. They're fun, and the scenery is fantastic, but I wouldn't call them "races". This is what I said last year.

This year, I was so much more relaxed and confident. Basically, my only target was to run the whole race. That might seem odd, but I hadn't managed that in a race since April. The only 10k I'd done in that time was on a horrendously hot day in London when running just wasn't sensible, other than that it was hilly 30ks, and marathons, and stuff like that. Walk breaks galore. So I wanted to prove to myself that I could run a whole race.

Back in April I managed a 47:44 10k. I've been banging on for weeks saying that I was never going to better that, and I was right. Based on the Amsterdam half time, Guy Fawkes and my club runs recently I thought I'd manage about 54 or 55 minutes. Sub 55 was my target (compared to 59:19 last year), but running all the way was the important bit.

I met up with a couple of people from the Runners World website before the race, then headed to the start. I hate the start of that race. It's very handy because it leaves from my office, and runs past my gym after about 200 metres. I can leave my stuff in the gym and shower afterwards, and I can go in on the bus without stressing about not knowing how long it will take. But the road it starts on is far too narrow, with a sharp right turn after about 100 metres. Why they don't start it on the wider road at the front of the office rather than the narrow one at the back, or on the main road rather than turning right onto it, I don't know, but they don't. It took 2 and a half minutes to cross the line, and it was slow getting out onto the main road.

But then I seemed to find a decent pace. For the first 5k I was running about 50 minute pace which really surprised me. The route was utterly familiar (passing, as it does, the office, the gym, running club, and then coming back the same way), and I've run most of it recently on club runs. Not all at the same time, but all the different bits of the route at some time or another. Although it's pretty flat (for Leeds) there are some "undulations", and I knew when to expect them. I got to 5k in pretty much dot on 25 minutes (which is an improvement even from the time trial I did on Wednesday - that was hillier though), then started to slow down a bit. I've not run that fast for over 5k for a while, so I slowed back down to more the pace I was hoping to do.

It was pretty uneventful really. I got a couple of cries of "come on Kirkstall", particularly going past the leisure centre where we meet. I guess that's likely to happen when you're wearing the name of the place you're running through on your chest. I saw a friend from running club heading up towards the Abbey as I headed back into town and gave her a wave. It was pretty sunny, surprisingly, and heading back into town I couldn't see much with the sun in my eyes, and was feeling surpringly warm with the sun on my face.

But other than that, I just kept running, really. In the end I finished in roughly 52 minutes. I forgot to stop my watch, so I'll wait for the chip times to come out tomorrow. I was happy with that, it was better than my "realistic" target, and gives me hope that I can get back sub-50 minutes soon.

The finish was chaotic again. I don't know why I do this race. The admin was awful, the start is horrible, the finish is horrible, and the route isn't particularly inspiring. But it means a lot to me because it was my first proper 10k, and my first 10k under an hour, and it's handy so I turned up, and I probably will next year, no matter how often I say I won't during the year.

I waited on the town hall steps for a couple of people I knew to finish. I'd been wearing a bin bag before the start (yup, from dressed up photo shoot glamour to a bin bag in less than 24 hours) and because I couldn't find a bin to put it in, I'd carried it with me on the race. I put it back on at the end, the sun seemed to have disappeared when I wanted it. Then off for a shower, and to the pub for a bit more of a chat with the RW people.

I whinge, but I enjoyed it really. Just sort the start and finish out, folks.

A break, and then back to it

I ran 3 miles last week. November is looking to be a very low mileage month, with holidays and illness and general laziness taking hold. It's not awful by any means, but it's slipping a bit and I need to start perking myself up again.

Still, last night I did the club 10k route over 2 minutes faster than the last time I ran it (and the last time I thought I'd had a pretty decent run) and I'm getting closer and closer to the middle group with every run. So it's not all bad and lazy.

I'm worried about tomorrow though, we're meant to be doing a time trial, which I've never done before. I think they set the slowest off first, with the aim that everyone finishes at roughly the same time. I'm just hoping they don't think I'm faster than I actually am and set me off too late!

Then after that it's the Abbey Dash on Sunday. Finally I'll get to repeat a race I did last year. Last year I managed to finish in 59:19, and I'm pretty sure I'll beat that. I'm equally sure I won't get close to my Rothwell time. I'd be happy with anything under 55 minutes I think, 54 or 53 might be realistic. But more importantly I want to run all the way, which would be something I haven't managed in a race since... well, Rothwell, probably. Admittedly most of my races since then have been longer, or hotter (or both!), but I just want to get that confidence of sticking it out. I know I can run 6 miles, but if I go off too fast I could end up sabotaging myself again. I really MUST control my run and not stop for walk breaks. MUST MUST MUST.

In vaguely running related news, I'm currently amused by the fact that I've bought a new running top (in Spain) which says "XS" on the label. It's been a while since I had an X on my labels, and it's nice for it to be at the other end of the scale! And I've now got hold of my North of England Athletics Association number - does that mean I'm officially an Athlete?!

In between

'm torn at the moment with running club. There are three groups usually, and I seem to be pretty much between the slow and the medium group. I'm too fast for the slow group, but I'd be at the back of the medium group.

I know that I am physically capable of keeping up with the medium group, but I seem to have lost some speed with all the marathon training (for example I know that I'll be nowhere near my 47:44 PB in the 10k I'm doing at the end of the month), and at the moment I'd struggle to keep up with them. I want to keep up with them, because that's what I feel like my pace should (and can) be, but it's a question of how to get there. Particularly while I don't know the routes, I don't want to get stranded at the back and not know where I'm going as the others speed off out of sight. (Although it's equally hard at the front of the slow group when I don't know where to lead everyone!)

I was actually considering introducing some speedwork into my runs, then I turned up at running club last night and it was a fartlek session. Good start, I suppose. Last night actually worked pretty well. I started off with the slow group for a bit of a gentle warm up, then speeded up and ran for a while with the medium group (including one point where they took a detour off the main route so they could meet up with everyone at the top having run slightly further, slightly quicker. I just followed them, looked round and realised everyone else was going the other way...). Then I cooled down a bit with the slower group again on the way back. That worked quite well, maybe I do need to just work on doing one leg with them, then two, and so on.

It really comes back to what I want to get out of running I suppose. If I'm just running for enjoyment and fitness, then there's nothing wrong with running with the slow group. You cover the same ground, and it's not as much like hard work. But if I want to actually improve as a runner (which is the sort of thing that I tend to want to do), then I need to get myself up to the standard of that middle group. The thing is, that after the first few times I suspect that I'd find it easier and easier to keep up with them, it's just getting the confidence to try. I think that once I know the routes a bit better I might be more confident about going out with the faster people and not worrying so much about getting lost, but at the moment it just frustrates me that I know I can run faster than I am doing, I just can't make my legs do it.

Running Club Rocks

Why did I never join a club before? People told me to, but I never quite got round to it. Big mistake.

Take today's race, a hilly 10 miler. Traditionally I'd drive myself up there, pace around on my own for an unfeasibly long period of time (being pathologically early, I'd be there hours in advance of the start), do the run, and go home. During the run, if things weren't going my way, I'd give in mentally.

Today, on the other hand, I got a lift up to the race with other running club people and, while we were still there nice and early, I had people to chat to while I waited. There were 10 or 12 of us, plus a couple of spectators. I hadn't actually met all of them yet, not all of them have been to training in the past couple of weeks, but still turn up to race. But pre-run was only the appetiser for the running club race experience.

It was the first time in my natty new Kirkstall vest which I picked up on Wednesday. At the start I was with some of the other girls I usually run with, but as soon as we started I tried to put some distance between myself and them. It may sound stupidly competitive, but I wanted to prove a point by beating them. I know that I should be faster than they are based on our half marathon PBs, and I wanted to remind myself of that. After less than a mile I spotted another bloke (who I'd never met before) in a Kirkstall vest ahead of me, and he spotted me too. Of course, he had more idea who I was than vice versa (having had a mention in the most recent club newsletter as a new member), and he hung back to have a bit of a chat.

I was actually finding the first two miles or so pretty hard. With being ill during the week, if I hadn't had someone talking to me I'd have been tempted to stop, turn round, and go back the way I came. DNFing did cross my mind, I'm sorry to say. But I kept going, trying to keep up with him (point to prove). Of course, he was actually faster than me, but he hadn't been able to train for a few weeks because his mother was in hospital and visiting times clashed with training, so he said he wanted to use it as a training run more than a race, and was quite happy to spend the race getting me round.

And that's exactly what he did. I will admit to walking some of the hills (I find it a better use of energy to walk up and then put on a burst of speed on the downhill, on the basis that my running uphill speed isn't that much faster than my walking uphill speed), and he got a little ahead of me, but he'd then let me catch up with him, or run back towards me for a while if he was getting too far ahead. The hills were hard, but actually not as hard as I'd been pessimistically expecting, and the views more than made up for it because it was a lovely scenic route.

For the last mile he really pushed me on, he was overtaking people and I was pretty much sticking with him, which felt good. I suspect that I got round a couple of minutes faster than I would have done without him there (although apparently just behind me was a second piece of motivation in the form of the fastest of the other girls. I think she finished 3 or 4 minutes behind me in the end, she said that she could see me for most of it, but couldn't quite catch me).

Afterwards, in another break from routine we went to a pub for lunch and a couple of pints. It was nice to actually be able to chat about the race and about running with real people who don't think you're a freak for spending your Sunday running up and down random hills for "fun".

I didn't expect the race day experience to be so much more fun as part of a group, and it definitely spurred me on to run a bit faster than I'd have done if I'd been there alone.

So 10/10 for running club!