10k’s are for wimps*…

On July 2, 2013September 18, 2019 By Girl Running CrazyIn Race Reports, Thoughts2 Comments

…I’ve drawn this inevitable conclusion after finishing my 4th 10k race in 6 weeks and still not clocked a new PB. 10ks are stupid.

Sunday was the RunThrough Clapham Common 10k and it was the hottest day of the year so far. The Metro reported temperatures of 27 degrees in London, quite a contrast to the wind and rain just 7 days earlier (where I also blamed the weather for my under par performance…)

Saturday was also a beaut of a day and I found myself in a beer garden with a craving for cider. I never drink before a race so this surprised my friend who was more than happy to join me for some fruity pear goodness (practically one of your 5 a day anyway). Staying sober and sensible hasn’t done me any favours in the speed stakes so I thought I’d try the ‘fluid & carbs’ approach. 3 seemed about right.

I also made a careful effort to match my nails to my trainers to see if that improved my speed…

Conclusion? Well, neither of these things worked but you can’t compromise on style just because you’re a big sweaty mess and fluid & carbs are as important as oxygen (this is a fact), so I stand by my race prep.

It really was a hot, hot, hot day and I was even beginning to feel the heat as I left the house at 8.30am. The sun was scorching as we set off on the 2 lap course and it wasn’t going to let up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sun and I love the heat but running in it is HARD, I even took a cup of water at 5k which I wouldn’t usually bother doing. I finished in 48.16 and couldn’t get my hands on a bottle of Lucozade quick enough. I’ll just call it a training run then.

The best part of the day was spotting super speedy Cat in the crowd, who I met for the first time at the Richmond Relays and meeting Hannah & Lorna who I hadn’t met before but were both fabulous. It’s always great to meet up with people who think the same way as you and, despite all being amazing runners doing amazing things, they all had their own self-doubts and concerns. I think they’re just bloody brilliant.

On my way home from work yesterday I was trying to draw some positives from my recent 10k attempts and it wasn’t actually as difficult as I thought:

Race 1: I beat Paula Radcliffe, ran a time I was more than happy with 4 weeks after VLM and had a fab evening with Zoe & free Prosecco.

Race 2: I only bloody well came 2nd and am now the proud owner of a badass trophy!

Race 3: I was the 3rd female Chaser in Richmond which officially makes me a Surrey Road League Race points scorer.

Race 4: I met some truly inspirational runner chicks who reminded me of the true spirit of running and that’s something no timing chip or Garmin stat can ever take away from us.

On the plus side, I didn’t ache at all yesterday which meant I was totally up for the Club social run and weekly bants with the Chasers – winner!

*Obviously I don’t really think 10ks are for wimps. I have nothing but respect, admiration and embarrassing amounts of jealously for anyone who can nail this git of a distance that’s too long to put the pedal to the floor from the off and too short to make excuses for. RESPECT

The Eternal Quest for a new 10k PB…

On June 24, 2013July 12, 2013 By Girl Running CrazyIn Race ReportsLeave a comment

So yesterday I failed once again to beat my 10k PB. Yesterday I failed to run faster than We Own The Night which was only 4 weeks after the London Marathon so I really should have been on better form. It was a bit windy, and there was a tiny bit of congestion on one of the paths, but I’m not sure either are a valid excuse.

The problem with 10k’s, I’ve discovered, is that they’re hard. They’re hard because you practically have to sprint the whole way to get a good time. You can’t give yourself an ‘easy’ mile, you can’t ‘hold back’ in case you run out of energy and you can’t let your focus slip. You go hard, and then you go harder, or you might as well just give up and accept that you’ve already achieved your best.

Yesterday was the Ranelagh Harriers Richmond 10K. As a Surrey Road League race it was about 90% club runners and there was a pretty good turnout from the Chasers – 11 boys and 7 girls. My usual race strategy is to pick someone in front who’s faster and try and keep up, however, this only works when they’re consistent… Yesterday I seemed to overtake all the people I was hunting down which made it all too easy to fall into my own comfortable pace. I say comfortable, it wasn’t comfortable at all but it wasn’t pushing myself to the nauseating limit which is where I needed to be for a sub 45.

Lauren, Ruth and I. A little bit sweaty and a little bit rained on.

The race was 2 flat road laps through Richmond, it was a nice course but it was quite windy in places. I crossed the line in 47.34. It’s not bad, but it’s not good, and it’s most definitely not a PB. My self pity was relieved slightly when I realised I was the 3rd Chaser girl home and got a mention in the newsletter this morning, but I’m still disappointed.

So the quest for a new PB continues, but there is really only one more opportunity this year to smash it before I’m back in marathon training.

Sunday morning. Clapham Common. Flat, fast & all too familiar. Bring it on…

The one where they gave me a shiny trophy!

On June 17, 2013July 12, 2013 By Girl Running CrazyIn Race ReportsLeave a comment

It was Saturday night. As I was stuffing my face with more than my fair share of Heroes & Celebrations my brother turned to me and said “that won’t do you much good if you’re running a 10k tomorrow will it?!”

My brother has never talked much sense so I ignored him and carried on (I would like to point out he was also stuffing his face with them despite planning an early bike ride…)

I was down in Dorset for the weekend and had been looking for a local 10k. I usually run the Poole 10k in June but after they dropped the chip timing last year I dropped them from my race calendar. It’s laughable when they say ‘over recent years the Poole Festival of Running has grown in size and importance and now ranks as one of the most significant road running events in the South of England’ Pah!!! This is a 10k that starts at 2pm in the Summer (where it is often too hot to run well), the finishers t-shirt made of cotton so you can’t even run in it, the small is far to big anyway, and now it isn’t even chipped!

It makes me sad as the Poole 10k was my first ever 10k and I’ve run it every year since 2003 (bar 2004) but I think it’s days are over.

Anyway, the Kingston Lacy 10k caught my attention when I was scouring the Runners World website. Kingston Lacy is an old country mansion set in pretty gardens so I knew there would be a stunning backdrop, and it was chipped, perfect! I have another 10k in the diary 2 weeks later which is a flat & fast route so I didn’t want to push myself, just enjoy it. I didn’t realise at the time but the 10k was part of a ‘running festival’ including a half marathon, 5k and kids fun run. I was only looking for a 10k but this didn’t stop me feeling a bit guilty for not running the half…

The route was lovely, I wasn’t pushing myself, as promised, and I was really enjoying running somewhere different with some country air. It was quite twisty so I couldn’t really see everyone who was ahead of me but the runners I could see were all men. I started to wonder how many women were ahead of me, surely I’ll be in the top 10, maybe even top 5?!

At about 5.5k a women in an orange top overtook me. I thought about keeping up with her as she wasn’t running that fast, but I had promised myself I would take it easy and so I relaxed and carried on enjoying the run. There were hills, there were trails and, in the last 2k there was grass that went up to my calf (clearly National Trust membership fees don’t go towards gardening…) I was a bit concerned about twisting my ankle as the grass was really long and I couldn’t see anything so I slowed down and started to resemble a bunny rather than a runner what with all the hopping around. I could still see orange-top-woman just ahead of me but a quick glance behind showed there was no one on my tail so I carried on taking it easy, I wasn’t on for a PB so, as long as I retained whatever position I was in, I wasn’t bothered.

Rounding towards the finish people were clapping and I saw Mum & Dad in the crowd, then I was over the finish line. They had a chip system I haven’t seen before which involved plugging the chip into a machine at the finish, I was a bit thrown by this so my official finish time of 48.24 was 6 seconds slower than my Garmin of 48.18 but as it was no where near my PB it didn’t really matter.

I got my medal and went to look at the results, I could only see one other woman on the list before me. Had I come 2nd?! Surely not, not with that time? Turns out orange-top-woman had won, just 28 seconds ahead of me, and I was the second female!!

We then had to wait around so I could receive my trophy, this was new and exciting, lucky the sun was shining! There was a little presentation and they gave out all the trophies, I had a trophy!!!

If I had just pushed ahead I would have also won a pair of trainers….damn it!

Celebratory bubbles with the Sis-in-Law

The Night Paula Radcliffe Ate My Dust – We Own The Night

On May 19, 2013July 12, 2013 By Girl Running CrazyIn Race Reports5 Comments

Nike’s women’s only night time race, We Own The Night, was one of the best races I’ve ever run and most definitely the best 10k I’ve ever run. I cannot fault the organisation, enthusiasm, location, value for money, sponsor freebies, entertainment or facilities. Respect Nike, I’ll be back.

Turning up at Victoria Park at 6pm we immediately felt a festival atmosphere. Tents were set up around the park with various things going and there was stage complete with Kiss FM DJs knocking out some tunes. The place was buzzing.

They were handing out wristbands for different start zones but this was a bit odd as no one seemed to know what finish times the zones represented. Blue was for ‘professional athletes’ or people who ‘thought they might win’, orange was for people wanting a PB and pink for those who wanted to get round. Obviously I’m not a professional athlete so so I took an orange band. However, this bothered me, there were at least 3 people each with big bags of blue bands, seriously, how many professional athletes are you expecting? I stood there pondering for several minutes over which start zone I should go for, why did no one know what the expected finish times were? At this point I thought Zoe might get a bit cross with me. She didn’t, she simply told me to put the orange band in my pocket, go and get a blue band and then I could decide at my leisure. Fair point. I did just that.

We went into the Elle tent where we were offered a free mag, coconut water and bags of various dried fruit. Then someone asked if we would like a free Nails Inc manicure? Ermm, yes, yes please! We put our names down and went off to explore the rest of the ‘race village’. There was a caravan offering tea & crumpets, a delightful little meringue stall selling all sorts of different flavour meringues, including gin & tonic, cookies, coffee, more coconut water and a large tent selling Nike gear (obviously!) We took a seat on the large comfy bean bags and waited for our manicures. I went for a bright orange colour (because I needed to make sure my nails matched my race t-shirt), & we found out Paula Radcliffe had been in not long before us getting her nails done too, Paula was here!

We headed to the bag drop off, participated in a little warm up and then it was race time! I stuck with the blue band but I was more than a little concerned that I had only seen one other person with a blue band and she was the rather fit looking girl being interviewed…in all fairness she looked like she could win it. Uh oh.

I have since found out the fit looking girl was Perri Shakes-Drayton!! She didn’t run, she started the race but my quick evaluation of her was correct!

They asked people with the blue bands to wait behind and I was relieved there were at least 25-30 of us. We were then directed to a different area and I found myself walking to the very front of the race, on the start line, where you usually find the elites, how exciting! Whilst waiting there I spotted Paula and I was even more excited, I didn’t know she was going to run and, not only that, but I was literally on the start line with her, amazing!!

I have actually beaten Paula in a race before. OK, it was the Battersea 5k Race for Life and she was doing it with her grandma, but she crossed the finish line after me, I beat her, and that’s fact!

In all seriousness, it was an honour & a privilege to line up next to Paula Radcliffe on the start line, when does that ever happen?! I mean, there was me, and there was the female marathon world record holder that no one has even come close to beating in over a decade. What a women, what an inspiration.

The countdown hit zero and we were off, I was expecting Paula to zoom straight off so was surprised to find myself immediately running around her. That was weird, I guess she wasn’t racing after all, laters Paula!

All in all I ran a good race, it was fantastic to have a clear start, there was great support from both marshalls & spectators and it was a beautiful evening in East London. Special mention to Run Dem Crew who were owning their own night somewhere around 4 & 9k cheering everyone on. I felt the love, I high fived you, you were awesome and thank you!

I usually cross the finish line desperately looking for water and being made to wait, today water was in my hands in seconds, followed by 2 bottles of coconut water then a glass of prosecco. Yeah, the water can wait, I want the bubbles! It was like walking into a party where the waiters greet you with glasses of champagne on a tray, except I wasn’t looking so glam, and the glasses were plastic. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!

I finished in 47.06, not a PB but a good effort so close to the marathon, I was pleased.

I got my bag back and found out Paula wasn’t planning on going the distance due to injury, so I had beat her, again! In the last month I have raced Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe and beaten them both!

I found myself a comfy bean bag to kick back & relax on with my bubbles while I waited for Zoe. I had no idea what time the race had actually started in the end so I wasn’t sure when to expect her. She showed up pretty quickly with smiles and we sort out more prosecco which went down oh so very well. Shall we get some more? Yeah let’s do that! I was drunk after 4 glasses so it was only wise to knock back 2 more. Hey, give us a break we had just run 10k, it was Saturday and we owned the night!

People seemed a bit confused as to why I was spending my Saturday night running…running? Well, you know what, I spent my Saturday night with one of my best mates, doing the thing I love the most, with a manicure thrown in, beating Paula Radcliffe and finishing off by knocking back several free prosecco’s. Yep, that was one of the best Saturdays nights in a long time. Winner!