Grim: Beast in the East Race Report

I'm a huge fan of the Grim Original event generally held in December (although in January this year due to the snow) so immediately after finishing last years event I signed up for 'Beast in the East' hoping for more of the same.

I was looking forward to it so much and brought with me, the usual towel, change of clothes and joyful anticipation of what was to come. There were quite a few people I knew doing this including eatingtrees and Shaun, plus friends Paul, Graeme and Chris so it was a social affair and one I felt we'd be talking about for a long time yet.

We won't. In all honesty, it was a tough 10k. Or 9.7k or 9.6k or 9.5k depending on who's Garmin we read but that's about it. No puddles, no marsh, no freezing cold knee deep mud. No shrieks and whoops of delight and frankly, no lasting memories. I didn't even have to get changed before I drove home!

The website states 'we didn't think anyone would break the hour for this 10k' but I'm an overweight 31 year old who only runs so I can eat more crap and I finished in 58:23. Quite frankly, it was a tough 10k and not even as tough as the Hard As Snails 10k i did a couple of years ago.

It was good to see a few people who I knew and catch up but this just wasn't a patch on Grim Original and there is no chance of me doing this event again. There was nothing grim about it. Give me the water, mud and screams of delight of the original event any day.

I did have a chance to try some Voltz Energy Shots that I'd been sent though and they are pretty good. I've tried gels in the past and find them too difficult to stomach but these shots are just liquid energy. Basically, pure sugar and caffeine. They do both Citrus and Berry flavours and the best thing about them if they don't taste too strong. It's a subtle taste and the citrus one tastes wonderfully like (this description has been deleted due to stolen words taken from eatingtrees).

Oh, OK. But I will say again , they taste very good and I'm looking forward to trying them when I go out for a long ride in a couple of weeks too. I reckon they'll go down just as well then.

During the race, my left knee appeared to flair up again so apart from a couple of little runs with Mrs HMC, I'm going to stay off the knee until the BUPA 10k at the end of May as I really don't want to do it any more damage. Then maybe, just maybe, I might be in line for a PB

The glass was half flat

Saturday. Early morning. A lot of rain. Plans to cycle 34km. Oh well. Now I had plans to cycle 34km in the rain. Being a little precious about Yolkey, this was the first time I was ever going to go out on it in the rain but it would be a good test of the tyres if nothing else. I helped get the boy ready before jumping on the train to Horsham. Then I cycled some of the most beautiful countryside roads I've ever been on. Powering on, head down it was not. Head up, looking around, 'la le la', 'isn't this pretty' was a lot closer to the truth. As for the rain, a little drizzle was about it which was a result!

ALL I KNEW WAS THAT I HAD TO GET TO THE TOP OF THOSE HILLS

I knew I had a 17% gradient hill coming up on the way out of a little village called Steyning so I was resting my legs a bit on the downhills approaching the village and had to come out from the kerb a little to avoid some broken glass as I was coming up to a junction. It seems i didn't come out far enough though. There I was on a grass verge at a main road junction, bike upside down and wheel off. I had to prise the shard of glass out of my tyre with the pliers on my leatherman but eventually got it out. Then repair to both, a bit of air back in and off I went again but never fully trusted the tyre again. This is why I don't like hand pumps. You can never get that solid feeling back.

THE VIEW FROM WHERE I'D COME FROM WAS SATISFYING

The hill hurt. a lot, and no, I wasn't able to cycle up the whole thing with the single speed but I got up quite a few and walked up other bits. Actually, I reckon I found the walking harder than the pedaling. Anyway, I finished the ride with an absolutely horrendous sound coming from my cranks which happened on my last ride too so it appears my bottom bracket is well and truly screwed. As it's a sealed unit so sod all I can do about it. New one is now on order along with a spare inner tube and a spare tyre!

There was plenty of rain on Saturday night which meant that lovely fresh air was too good an offer to turn down so I headed out on a lovely flat 10k run around the streets and sea front of Worthing. Bang on 10k route was plotted and a gentle pace was picked. However, I had a few minutes to go and not that long and realised I could be on for a good time here. Paced was promptly picked up and had it been a race, I would be telling you I had a new PB, 5 seconds faster than my current but is wasn't so it's not. It does mean that if I can avoid the crowds at the start of the BUPA 10k in a few weeks time, I could run my record pretty close which is kinda cool.

Next weekend sees Grim Beast in the East and a birthday celebration weekend for Mrs HMC so there won't be any time for a ride but I have a few extra km to be run this week yet and obviously a bike to clean. With the mixture of muddy water and grease, Yolkey is not looking his best!

Job done

The 2 birds, 1 stone theory came out last night as I headed out on an 8km loop that ended at the polling station to vote a mere 300m from my house. Upon walking in and giving my address, I got the pretty quick witted line of 'and you're that tired running from there, you need some more practice'. It was said with a smile and I thought still showed some humour after being sat at a desk most of the day handing out polling cards.

The run was non eventful but felt comfortable the whole way and that even includes the 2 hills that i have to contend with on that route. In fact I spent pretty much most of the run thinking about Saturday's cycle to and Sunday's run around Worthing. It was just nice to be running in the evening again to be honest without the need for torches, 14 items of clothing and frost on the beard. The 8km was run in 5.15's which was a comfortable non pushing pace for me.

A 34km ride is planned for tomorrow followed by a run on somewhere in the region of 9-10km on Sunday morning which should give me a good level of fitness as I approach Grim Beast in the East the following weekend. Not that will be fun. Quite a few people I know who are doing it so it will be a real team 'get everyone over the line event'. Bring it on!

Sorry for the extremely dull post. I even got bored typing it but I've come this far now so I better fi....

A great weekend for a run

My usual Saturday morning weekend run was delayed by 24hrs this week as I had some friends coming over for the weekend and he fancied a run to increase his training as he's signed up for his first ever race. That being Grim's Beast in the East. That meant on Sunday morning, after passing the babies over to the wives for their breakfast we hit the road.

He'd generally been running around 9km as his max distance so I added a couple of km for good luck and plotted a course on roads, paths, bridleways, mud and gravel over uphills, downhills and the odd flat bit. My thoughts being that it would be better training for Grim than just some roads.

He runs at a similar pace to my half marathon pace so it was easy just to hit the usual rhythm and plodded on. He's also talker but he's a very interesting person so it meant we chatted for a lot of it and it never felt tough or a chore. We finished after doing 11.77km in 1:04:58.

This week I had my race number through the post for eatingtrees home town race, the Hertford 10k and also got into the London2Brighton bike ride again. This year, we'll be doing it on the new builds and my Mum will be part of the team too. Such a good event last year that we couldn't resist. Life is good right now!

Homeless Lollipop Man

With the Wokingham Half only 3 and a half weeks away, I had to get out tonight so I could stretch my legs and therefore be able to go for a longer run at the weekend. As I mentioned in my last post, Grim was the longest I'd run in 5 months and as the cold wet clothing doesn't promote sitting in a field and stretching, my knees have been feeling tight on the stairs and also my ankle was sore from rolling it slightly in the mud.

I put on the usual array of running clothes (shorts, long top and buff) and then my bright yellow gilet, my dark woolly hat and my flashing armband then looked in a mirror. Oh dear. I really need to shave. The big beard and woolly hat combo screams homeless and the fluorescent gear shouts lollipop man. It's a combo I'm ashamed of and proud of in equal measure.

Today was also the first run in my New Balance MR1064CU's which so far, so good but that's all the review you're going to get until I start seeing some freebies! At least they're cleaner than the 1063's  right now.

Grim Beast in the East has also been booked and put in the diary but it's looking like it could be a costly weekend considering it's the weekend closest to Mrs HMC's birthday and I'll be dragging her to a muddy motocross circuit in Kent on a Saturday morning! I guess I better start saving...