Sunday, June 24, 2007

Hah

I've written before about the first time I really tried to run. I signed up for a 1 mile race in my local park. Although I finished in what was actually a fairly respectable time for a 260lb lump (about 11:30), I was mortified that while I was walking up a hill, I was overtaken by a local tv presenter who was, should we say, not in the first flush of youth, and who was pushing a pram.

Well, he did the same race as me today. 2:14. I finished in 49 minutes. I can run a half marathon faster than that (in fact I've never run one slower) Hah.

(Ok, he may have had a good reason for walking (?), but I still beat him. By a long way).

Hah.

(Also, just to show how many walkers there must have been, I finished 641/6076 overall based on chip time - almost top 10%, and 84/1998 - based on gun time - in FSEN, which is top 5%. bearing in mind I ran slower than normal, it just shows the standard of the field I suppose).

Jane

Today's race was interesting. It was the first running of what may well become a big event, and I wanted to be part of it. I never expected to get a good time, but I still wanted to turn up and run because it was a Jane Tomlinson thing.

For those of you who haven't heard of her, she is a local woman who was diagnosed with terminal cancer about six years ago and given six months to live. She did a marathon, and an ironman, and cycled across America, and across Europe, and generally did all sorts of inspirational fund raising things. But even though she defied the doctors and lived far longer than they were expecting, you get the impression that time is running out for her now. She was heavily involved in the organisation of this 10k, but she didn't run it. She isn't participating any more, and who knows whether she'll be around for the second running of this race. So I wanted to be there for the first one.

It was targetted very much as a charity race rather than a serious runners race. It still surprises me that I find myself falling in the latter category rather than the former. there was an "elite" start for people expecting to run under 40 minutes, but I'm not that fast. (I did have to laugh when someone walked past me on the way to the elite start and motionned for me to come with them. Possibly because there weren't many people wearing club vests, but do I really look elite?! Actually, given the delusions of the people who lined up in the 40 - 60 group with me, I may have been better with the sub-40 runners...)

The start was slow. Lining up at the start was very much a free for all. Even though the PA bloke encouraged people to start somewhere appropriate for their speed, there was no way of enforcing it - no time banded pens or waved starts, so I didn't really get going until about 3k. By which point I'd probably run nearer 4k due to my weaving in and out in an attempt to get anywhere near my normal 10k pace. Even at the end, I was still finding myself having to weave in and out, and constantly vary my pace to deal with the congestion. I have nothing against people walking that sort of event, but it does grate a bit when you try to start in the right place, and come across people walking within the first 500 metres. Particularly when there are four of them, together, dressed in giant balloon costumes. Walk if you want, but preferably not in the way of people who want to actually run the whole thing.

But it wasn't a race about times. It's the first time recently I've really just let myself run to enjoy an event rather than thinking about times and targets. I knew that it probably wouldn't be a PB and I was happy with that. I even cycled to the start on the assumption that it wasn't the sort of race I needed to save every last drop of energy for. Even more unusually, I had a couple of drinks last night, which I never do before a race I'm taking seriously. I was happy to treat it as an experience to be enjoyed rather than anything else.

There were some good bits. Seeing Tracey Morris in full flight for one (I think she was actually in third place overall, beating most of the men). And the bizarre bits like thinking "that smurf needs a better sports bra" and hearing tales of people being overtaken by superman's sprint finish. And all the people who had been inspired to raise money for charity, even if they weren't natural runners.

At the end I was a bit disappointed. The t-shirt was a bit uninspiring, and the "goody bag" was a bottle of lucozade in a plastic bag. I'm sorry, that's not a goody bag. It's a drink. Fair enough if you're paying £6 to enter, but for over £20 with plenty of big name sponsors on board it seemed a bit stingy.

Time wise, I suppose I have to be happy. Two years ago running 10k was a distant dream. This time last year, a good 10k was around, or below, 50 minutes while a vaguely acceptable one was under an hour. Today I ran a congested 10k, without really focussing on it in under 50 minutes, according to my watch (I'm still waiting for my chip time but expect it to be about 49:53). It that's a below my best performance, then it's not exactly something to get upset about.

Next week I have a race which I may well take a little more seriously. Unusually for me it's a 5k. I hate 5ks. You have to go off far too fast, and I'm only just getting going normally by 5k. But it's being sponsored by my firm and I've been press-ganged into turning out for it so we have a decent corporate turn out. Of course, my competitiveness means that I want to beat all the other people from work, which is made slightly trickier by the fact that they're all blokes. But I'm the resident runner, and I don't want them to forget it.

On the other hand, if any of them do happen to beat me, I'll just challenge them to a rematch over a distance of my choice. 26.2 miles should do it...

Thursday, June 14, 2007

When is a PB not a PB?

When it's my 10 mile PB. I've only done two 10 mile races, and I've struggled each time. I always seem to do it on the back of a longer target race, when I've not prepared properly for it. I also seem to choose 10 mile races with horrible horrible hills, which doesn't help.

Anyway, last night I decided to do my longest post Edinburgh run yet in the Otley 10. I should be able to run 10 miles, surely? Hmm.

It was pouring with rain at the start, and even though I'd been wondering for the past week or so whether it was such a good idea to race again so soon, I decided to turn up on the basis that it would make me do something a bit longer. I really did wonder why when I saw how horrible the weather was. But all of the group I normally run with at running club were going, so if I'd opted for the shorter training run I wouldn't have had anyone to run with, and it would still have been wet. It was an evening race, which meant that I didn't really know how to prepare, and I ended up sticking to my normal weekday routine, which maybe left me a bit tireder than I would normally be for a race.

The first four miles weren't too bad. They were flat, and I was motoring along at a decent pace, but once I hit the hills (one of which had a 16% gradient sign!) I just fell apart. I started getting stomach cramps of a magnitude not experienced since Berlin, and I mentally just gave in. Because I'd never really been focussed on the race I guess it just didn't matter to me, and I thought I may as well just treat it as a training trot out. Except I don't normally walk on training runs, which is precisely what I ended up doing here.

Some of the time it wasn't even that I couldn't cope with the hills, or that my legs didn't have the energy, it was the pain in my stomach that stopped me running with any fluency. I even had to take walk breaks going downhill, which is not at all like me.

I'm not sure whether I ate too close to the race (but I did leave nearly 3 hours), or whether it was something more serious - I ate some pineapple earlier in the day which could have been past its best, but it wasn't just during the race. At 1am I woke up with horrible stomach pain and really doubted whether I'd be in a fit state to come into work today, it was so bad. I eventually got to sleep with the aid of painkillers, and even though I feel a bit better now (and was able to cycle into work), there's something not quite right there still.

Anyway, on paper I still got a 10 mile PB, but it's a bit hollow. I know that I have run 10 miles faster than that in all of my half marathons this year, as well as in the first 10 miles of Edinburgh. I know that I could do so much better than I did, but it just wasn't the night for me to do it. I've got another 10 miler in mind in August which might give me a chance to show what I can do.

But even before then my next race is more targetable. I'm doing a 10k and although it's a big race which may well be pretty crowded and not necessarily PB material, I get the impression that due to the way it's been marketed, a lot of the people running it will be novices, and it might not be so bad amongst the sub-50 runners. A bit more speedwork, and keeping up the reduced mileage might let me put in a decent performance in that one.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Targets

So, I don't think I'll ever knock 59:15 off a PB again, but I still have targets.

Amsterdam - sub 3:45. I actually printed out a sub 3:30 schedule earlier, not because I think I'll be that fast, but because I want to be between 3:30 and 3:45, so I thought I'd print out the schedules on either side of my target.

Actually, I was shocked earlier. I knew that I'd beaten the times of the three girls who did London this year from my running club, but I started looking back through times. Last year at London only one of my club "colleagues" was faster than I managed in Edinburgh, and in Berlin 4 of what I consider to be the "fast" group (all men) ran, and only 2 beat my Edinburgh time - and one of those only beat me by a minute. OK, I know Berlin last year was horrible, because I was there, but still, it made me realise how well I actually did.

My other target for the next couple of months isn't the 10ks I'm doing. I've got 2 lined up before I ramp up the mileage again, but they're both big races and possibly too crowded for a good time. But I've got a 5k. My firm is sponsoring it, and they've asked for people to turn out for a big "corporate" presence. It's not far away so I've said I'll do it. But then I started thinking, it's only a small race, and if I can finish 9th woman in Pulse when I was trying not to push it pre-Edinburgh, maybe I can actually get a decent placing. And of course I want to beat all the other people from work. So maybe that's my target race rather than the 10ks. Although racing a 5k scares me. I've only ever done 2, one was RFL which was my first race, and the other was over a year ago. the first mile and the last mile of any race are always hard, and with a 5k that doesn't leave much in between. It scares me that I now think of a 5k as a "sprint" rather than something to be slogged through to the end, but that's how I now see it, and I'm not looking forward to running that fast after all the distance running, but I have professional pride to maintain if other people from work are there!

So the next month will be spent on speedwork. I know I can run 3.1 miles, but can I run it fast enough?

Sunday, June 03, 2007

3:52:11

A week late, but I've finally got some computer time to record a bit more detail about Edinburgh. The details get hazier in my mind with every day that passes, but here goes.

I felt the preparation went a lot better than for Berlin, and from starting my training with the vague idea of trying to get under about 4:15 this time round and then aiming for sum 4 (0r 3:45) in Amsterdam), I knew in the week leading up to Edinburgh that sub 4 was well within my capabilities, and 3:45 if everything went to plan. I also knew that the fastest marathon time by anyone from Kirkstall this year (so far) was 3:53, and although the girl who did that is usually faster than me, it was a time I felt like I could challenge. During the week I'd actually looked at the splits for about 3:51 and thought that was reasonabl, but there were only pacers for 3:45 and 4:00, and I didn't want to go it alone.

The weather forecast was horrible, and at the start there was torrential rain. I'd remembered to bring some bin bags but hadn't actually tried them on and on Sunday morning realised that they were smaller than they needed to be. I cowered under my umbrella until I needed to hand my bag in, then hid in shop doorways for as long as possible before the start. I did at least have an old t-shirt which I intended to chuck once we got going which kept me a bit warmer.

I didn't really have any nerves at the start. I guess I'm just getting more experienced, and the start of most races is similar whether it's 5k or 26 miles. You hang around at the start for what seems an eternity, make a few visits to the loo, and size up the competition.

Bizarrely I managed to get into a faster pen than the one I was intending (the times for each pen weren't very well signed and there was no-one checking which pen you were meant to be in), so once the gun went off I hung around waiting for the 3:45 pacers to catch me up before crossing the start mats.

Then, I basically stuck with them for 21 miles. The whole thing seemed a lot easier than Berlin. Then I was starting to feel it by 6 miles, in Edinburgh I was at half way before I realised it. Even though there were plenty of people around me I decided to zone out and listen to my iPod (which I never normally do in races), and just focus on running rather than the atmosphere). I heard a couple of shouts for Kirkstall over my well chosen and motivational playlist (which was 4 hours long as an incentive to finish before it did!). My left achilles started to make its presence felt after about 8 miles, but nothing I couldn't run with.

The rain had stopped shortly after the start, although there was a nasty wind for the first 17 miles. It would be at our backs for the last part of the race, but did I use up too much energy early on? Coming out onto the seafront at Portobello I could see the power station further up the coast, which looked a long way away - it was only when I got there thatI realised that was only at about 13 miles and there were another 4 or so to go before the turn!

I've never actually run over 20 miles continuously before. So to get to 21 miles still with the 3:45 pacers was something of an achievement to me. But my ankle was starting to hurt a bit more, and I knew that realistically I wouldn't stick with them to the end. I don't like taking chances with my left ankle because that's the one I broke, and I knew that if I took it steady I could run/walk to the end and easily break 4 hours, which would be a huge PB and a really good time. So, I reluctantly let the pacers go ahead of me, and I took it steady to the end. Or at least to 25 miles, at which point I decided I was going to run the rest whether I liked it or not.

I crossed the line at 3:52:11, and I'm pretty pleased with that. I know from how I ran that I'm not far off 3:45 - I'm OK for speed, I just need to work on endurance a bit more - if I could have got to 24 with the pacers I'd have kept it up to the end, but at 21 there was just a bit too much running still to be done to stick with them. I know which muscles I could do with strengthening, and I've got another shot at it in Amsterdam.

I'm also, at the moment, the fastest marathoner this year from running club, and I'm sub-4. Sometimes I forget how hard it actually is to do a marathon that fast, particularly for women. Because I can do it, I kind of assume that it can't be a big thing really, but then I sit in the pub with a load of people from RW (and K - lovely to see you!), and realise that I'm the fastest one there. Which isn't bad if you look at where I started.

My legs have never felt quite as dead as when I finished. I really did have to shuffle to the pub, and nearly cried when I realised the bar was upstairs. But a bit of food and beer later, and they felt a lot better, and bizarrely by Monday morning they were almost back to normal. I even felt up to negotiating the Madrid metro (complete with escalator and lift-less steps) with my case on Monday evening, and walking miles round Madrid on Tuesday. On Thursday I ran 3 miles as a birthday "treat", and I've done the same run a couple of times since, together with lots more walking.

So now I'm planning to drop my mileage a bit while I do a couple of summer 10ks, then start building the mileage again in mid July. Because I've got another marathon to train for, and I'm looking forward to it!