East Grinstead 10 Race Report - Once is Enough

With Run Jersey fast approaching and a consecutive 5k, 10k and Half Marathon to do over 3 days, I saw this 10 miler as a step in the right direction for my training. I didn't really look into it much more than that though and to be honest, It kinda came back to bite me on the arse!

With my usual my run nerves not helping matters, I knew the only plan for today was to get round in one piece. I did but no real thanks to the course. I set off with a group of maybe 250ish people at a 'take it easy' pace but it soon became apparent that whatever pace I may want to run was completely irrelevant. Within half a km, we all had to stop to go through a little opening. Then, in the space of around 5km, we went over, I think, 5 stiles. (and again on the way back). In between that was a lot over very narrow either single track path or mud puddles 6 inches deep. Me in road shoes (this maybe where I didn't read enough in advance) meant that I was slipping all over the place and could barely keep my footing and even when I could, I couldn't get into any kind of rhythm.

It soon became a just an exercise in staying upright and finding a nice bottom to follow round the course. That's all it was. I didn't look at my pace once (Garmin tells me it was as slow as it felt though). The entire intention was get to the end to get in my car and go home. I finished. No relief, no emotion, no nothing. I just didn't care. But hey, I completed an undulating 10 mile race so I can't argue that it didn't do me some good training wise but I hardly pushed myself.

To finish on a positive though, the marshalling was exceptional, friendly and encouraging, the scenery on the open bits of the course was spectacular (I think I saw about a dozen houses on the entire route) and at the end, there were jaffa cakes, fig rolls, mini mars bars and yogurt covered raspberry flavoured thingys.

In short:
The Organisation: Brilliant
The Course: Could to better
The Trainers: In the washing machine.

10 bloomin' miles

Good Friday. Well it certainly felt like it. OK so spring hadn't actually sprung but the sun was shining, the wind had dropped and with the temperatures reaching the dizzy heights of +1, I set out with a friend of mine who I don't get to run with very often on my longest run since the Berlin marathon and my friend's longest run ever.

I was back visiting my parents where I grew up so the chance to run on some small country lanes through the Essex countryside and catching up with someone I hadn't seen in a while was a great thing to do and although it certainly wasn't fast, it was good to get some miles in the legs. With only 5 weeks until mine and eatingtrees'  epic ride across The Netherlands and Belgium to run in the Maas Half Marathon, I now have a more little confidence that I'm actually going to be able to run at the end of the 3 days of cycling.

Tomorrow, the plan is to get on the bike and try a little more of that too as after all, If I can't even make it to the start of the race, what's the point in doing the running...

Amphibians and bad calculations

So another 10.1 miles this weekend meaning a socially acceptable 15.8 miles for this week. Clocked 1:28:49 for the 10.1 which is still OK but I was a touch disappointed. I think after last week I expected it to go wonderfully well again and break all records known to man obviously forgetting that I'm a slightly overweight foodie who likes a few too many glasses of wine most of the time. Plus, In my experience, a bad run always follows a good one. That will be my excuse of the day! Write it down and use it as your own.

I set off around 8.30am on Saturday morning safe in the knowledge that at least I wouldn't have a trip to Sainsburys to interupt my run this time. (It should be mentioned at this point that if your delightful and wonderful girlfriend asks you to dinner and also knows that you are running home from work, it's bad form to be asked to stop on the way home to buy ingredients for said dinner.) For the record, the dinner was lovely but that's really not the point. Anyway, I digress.

Back to this weekend's run. I was really intending to take it easy for the first 5 miles like last time but I took it a bit too easy me thinks. A 9:23!!! Ooops. Time to play catch up! Then caught up too much and went backwards and forwards over and under the magic 9 m/m time until 6 miles had gone. By this point I was 32 seconds over where I should have been. Something wasn't right and I'm not just talking about my ability to run. Since sitting down this morning and re-checking my route on runningAHEAD, I've worked out 2 things. Firstly, my 10.1 miles is actualy dead on 10 miles as I now use a tow path which cuts a bit off the route and secondly, I was slightly out with all my mile markers and therefore my spilts were all over the place!! The net effect appears to be that I've run a slightly shorter distance in total and therefore slower BUT my first 6 mile splits were quicker than I though they were. This proves one things and one thing only. I'm very confused! It may be time to become a running geek and invest in a Garmin. I don't tend to need encouragement to spend money on gadgets but with a holiday coming up in April, I will wait until my return I think.

Question: Why did the frog cross the road? No honestly, just near Fulham FC's ground, in the road and not far from the path, a bright yellowy/green and black frog/toad type thing. I know I'm trying to be a 'proper' runner now but this really did take up a lot of the next 8 miles of thought process. Where had he come from? Where had he been? Did he turn up at the wrong weekend as Fulham were playing away? Plus, was he (I'm assuming it was a he anyway, I didn't really check) going to get squished by a runner/cyclist/motorist at some point. He didn't even flinch when I went past!

One last wonderful point to leave you with. I'd like to celebrate my first blister of the new trainers. It's taken a while but it's finally here. Right on the tip of the toe that has the ever-non-growing nail! That in itself is weird. It hasn't grown since I started running in these trainers. I'm not sure if it's in mourning for my previous trainers or whether it's just in protest at my decision to run but whatever it's reasons, it appears to be happy to have it's growth stunted! Actually, maybe it has started smoking....