My whistle-stop tour of June and July!

Gosh it's really had been a long time since my last blog!  There are no good excuses to give you!  However let me catch you up; this is what has happened since 1^st June (grab your hat for a whistle-stop tour!)

I have finally finished my HNC course in Sport, Health, Fitness and Exercise however I am still awaiting my final mark!! I am free again from study, all this free time what should I do??

I have become a run director at my local parkrun which is Hanley and I have to say it is the most friendly parkrun there is around Stoke on Trent (ok ok it is the only one around Stoke on Trent) so far I have been RD 4 times and I am notorious for a) not needing to use the mega phone and b) counting up rather than down on the starting line…. Well it adds to the excitement.  

Don't we scrub up well    

Being part of the parkrun family I,  with my fellow directors and a few lucky parkrunners, attended the Stoke on Trent Personality of Year awards evening, we were nominated for the Sport in the community award. Unfortunately we didn't win, but we had great fun during the evening ( I believe there may have been some wine drinking going on!) and it was strange seeing everyone in there proper clothes for once! 

I have been away on holiday to America, we drove down Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) from San Francisco down to Venice in Los Angeles.  We had a great time visiting the sights of SF Alcatraz, Napa Valley, Lombard Street, China Town, traveling on a tram to down town and of course Sports Basement to name a few of the sights we saw. Whilst we were there we also ran the See Jane Run Half marathon which gave us great views of the bay area.  

Then we started to travel down the PCH to Santa Cruz for couple of nights, Malibu and finally stopping the last few nights on the Boardwalk In Venice Beach.  Where we also finished off the holiday with the Red White and Blue Half Marathon run along the Santa Monica Boardwalk.  

All in all we had a great holiday not what you could call relaxing but it was still fun all the same.

Trentham encampment 

I managed to get a late entry to the Thunder Run 24 race at Catton Park and pulled together a team of 5 fellow Trentham running mates.  I was a little daunted as we got a team place 2 weeks before the race and also our team only had 5 people in it!! Although we had all said it was for fun…..the pressure was on a little.  I was team captain and organised the team and the timings of the laps, at my initial calculations we would all be running 4 laps of the 10k course with the men in our team running 5.  However it soon transpired on Saturday that my timings were way out and we would all have to run 5!! So this last weekend I ran 50k which makes me a ultra runner!! I know it wasn't all in one go, but I am still taking it!   

All in all we had a brilliant weekend, alongside our team of 5, there was another Trentham Team of 8, a couple of Trentham Solo runners and finally two club mates running with other teams.  It was and is a truly amazing event, like glasto for runners, the camaraderie is brilliant not only cheering on your team, any other local teams and also cheering on the runners who ran past our camp at all times of the day and night over the weekend! 

Thunder Ru 2014 DONE!

We had some brilliant results, our fellow runner Janson Heath won 1^st solo male, and Jill Phillips came 3^rd in ladies solo.  Our team of 8 finished 6^th and our little team of 5 finished 17^th in our category, not bad off no training and only 1 hour sleep in 36 hours!! 

The only downside was the lack of internet (although hardly surprising as we were in a field!) but a lot of my twitter friends were running and it would have been great to catch with them, oh well may be next year. 

And with that I think we are all caught up, I will try not to leave it so long next time I promise, however I do have a couple of busy months with, training for Great North, Robin Hood Half, Amsterdam Marathon and also Rewind 80 festival in August all to look forward to. 

Kirsten photo bomb

Edinburgh Marathon done and dusted

This is the short story…

So after all my worry about my fitness before Edinburgh Marathon and my resetting of my goals, I only went and got a new marathon personal best and a London Good for Age (GFA) and Boston Qualifying (BQ) time.

This is the long version – stop and grab a cuppa before you start.

In all honesty my training in between Manchester and Edinburgh had felt like an uphill struggle, I felt very disappointed that I had not bounced back as well as I had last year between London and Edinburgh.  I had such high hopes of achieving a London Good for Age (GFA) time, but each time I laced up my trainers my stepped out, it turned out to be another disappointing run and it was really knocking my confidence.

So the morning of Edinburgh came around all too soon, I had reassessed my goals and said that I was happy with a sub 4 hour marathon, well sort of happy! It is safe to say that the weather matched both my mood and prospects, the rain has started to fall and it steadily got worse.  Sean was happy and looking forward to his half marathon, he told me to go off and find somewhere warm to wait until the start of my race ( I think I was killing is pre-race buzz)

Firstly I found shelter in a bus shelter, but soon got bored and thought I may as well  head to my starting pen and then there glimmer of light in the distance “Starbucks” sign shone out like a beacon. As I pushed through the door, the warmth hit me and the queue was small and free WIFI RESULT. Twenty minutes later after a couple of trips to the facilities and a full fat tall latte with a caramel shot I felt ready to tackle to walk to my pen and bonus the rain had stopped!

My plan was to set out and run 8:30 for the entire race, this should get me a 3:44:30 marathon time and a London GFA  – what is that I was meant to be going to a sub 4 hours, well yes but you know how it goes…… the 1^st couple of miles would be the determining factor.

As it was the I found my pace which was around 8:15 which was well ahead of my required pace, now here is the problem the rule of thumb with marathons is start slow and get quicker (this by the way had been my strategy at Manchester).  The worry with going to fast at the start is that you can blow up in the last few miles, really fall apart and up losing your race goal.

However I felt good and I decided I was not going to over think it, just go on feel and see how things pan out. As it was I was having  a really good run, feeling surprisingly strong and focused.  Before I knew it we were heading passed Musslebourgh Race course and off up to the BIG Stately Home, it was at this point I saw Sean coming back long towards his finish and I gave him a shout out and carried on.

Now this is a LONG stretch not a particularly bad part it is just a little long, the only hope on the horizon is that you often get to see the race leaders coming back the other way, which helps to take your mind off things. 

Head down and concentrated on each mile I was in, trying hard not to over think about my pace, how much further I had to go or if I would run out of energy. 

Before I knew it we were running in to the Gosford House grounds and I focused and made sure that I didn't drop the pace (which happened last year), so my plan was to work on catching the people in front of me to keep me going.  Passed the home and now back out on to the road and the end was really in sight and all I had to do was keep going.

As the final miles ticked by my pace did start to fall off to around 8:30 ish, which was the pace that I should have been running all along, so all was good. There was time banked and this was my safety cushion just in case my pace really fell away, in the later miles.

It was around mile 23 that I decided it was time to break out the emergency jelly babies, I slowed to a walk and crammed in jelly babies like a woman possessed and washed them all down. Using visualization technique I imagined the release of sugar being turned into energy and making it was down to my legs and powering them along. 

Mile 25 and unlike Manchester nothing hurt, I was tired but nothing really hurt, the crowds started to get thicker and then the heavens opened and the rain started, but I didn't care I was on target to finish under 3:45 and I just needed to keep going and if possible speed up.

My only grumble is that my garmin and the mile markers didn't seem to want to sync up, so as my watch clicked over to 26.2 miles I was still 0.24 miles away from the finish…….GFA was still on the cards but there was no taking my foot off the gas, I  had to keep going as we turned on the to the grass I could see the finish gantry and clock, time was clicking down and my legs where feeling really heavy but there was no stopping… my mantra “just keep going” “keep going!”

With a small raise of my hand I made it over the finish and my official time 3:43:28! Looking at my photos on the home stretch it’s easy to see how tired I was, tired but elated. As I made my way out of the finishers enclosure Sean was there waiting for me, a little soggy around the edges but a very welcome sight, he congratulated on my time and my finish.

My words to him “now I have achieved a London GFA and Boston Qualifier, I never want to run a marathon again!!” Oh yes and I did remember my bra ;o)

Stats

Edinburgh on my mind

Since my Manchester marathon Edinburgh has been on my mind; 

"will I get a good for age time, how can I change my training to improve my time by 2:30 minutes"

I developed my training plans and reflected on my experiences from last year and I hoped that my fitness from Manchester would sustain me through. I was aiming to change my diet to help drop a few pounds and turn me in to a fat burning machine, however with Madrid half marathon in the middle it is fair to say that my plans did not go according to plan.

In fact I have really struggled, struggled with finding my pace again after Manchester, struggled with having the energy to run struggled with running under 8:30 minute miling for any length of time and struggled with motivation.

To top that off last week I was floored with a sickness bug which started on Thursday  and I have only just started to feel better (Thursday), the only silver lining to that story was that it helped me to achieve my new racing weight, but it is not a healthy way to do it!!

Now  Edinburgh is on my mind and it's only 3 days and I really don't hold out much hope for getting a good for age qualifying   time for London or Boston which is sub 3:45 however I am going to still run.I am feeling much better and I am going to be using UCAN nutritional supplement that should help with to sustain my running during the marathon and just hope for a good run, I tried it this week just before my last set of reps and it worked well, just tastes usual (lets say!)

The big debate now is Garmin or no Garmin, part of me wants to wear the Garmin for the stat porn but will I beat myself up when I fall off the pace? Although one thing is for sure, this year I will make sure that I pack my running bra! 

Decisions decisions