Edinburgh Half

This Personal Best is a little bit of a cheat as the race starts at the top of the hill, you run down it and then is flat flat flat until you reach the end, check it out …The only worry was going was the sun, because if you have been in a cave or outside of the UK for the last couple of weeks, you may not have known that the weather last weekend was FAB , wall to wall sunshine. Personally I love the sun and love running in the sun, it was great way to get your fill of vitamin D and to make sure you don’t spend you life either in the office or in the house.  

We flew up to Edinburgh on the Saturday, with the price of diesel and the time it takes to drive up to Edinburgh finding flights for just over £100 was a bargain really .  The weather was lovely on the Saturday, HOT HOT HOT (wall to wall sunshine).  Unfortunately I packed the wrong type of shoes for the trip, other than my trainers I had new shoes (bad idea) and flip flops (worse idea), after walking for an hour in both I had to put on my trainers to make sure I had no blisters .  The other challenge was staying out of the pubs , it was so tempting to sit outside a pub with a little drinky or two and soak up the sun.

The great thing   about the half marathon the race starts at 8am, however the bad thing   about the half marathon is that it starts at 8am.  There was ups and down,   it was still quite cool and over cast,  you had to be up for breakfast at 6am and out for 6:15 to get to the start.  However we managed to do both in plenty of time and before we knew it, wewhere at our respective starts; me in green and Sean in purple.

The run itself was lovely, not much support because of the early start but it was everything it says on the tim, flat and down hill. I had reassessed my goals the day before; I was just going to go out and enjoy the race, I didn’t want to set myself goal and then push it too hard in the sun.  However I was feeling really good and my splits where great! I averaging 8:11 minute miles and even snook in a cheeky sub 8mins, then when I reach the 10 mile make I noted that I could get a sub 1:50 and thought well why not give it a whirl.  Well it all paid off, I didn’t throw the hammer down, but I kept my pace up and finished in 1:48:03 a full 2mins of my previous time!

As I said earlier I really like the race and so did Sean, we hadn’t even got back to hotel and Sean said he would like to run it again!! so it looks like we will be back next year, I just wonder we will like it as much in the rain ??

Races and personal bests galore!

It has not been long since my post but I have completed another 3 races, Market Drayton 10k, Clayton 10k and my 9th Park Run!  All of these things have happened in the last 7 days, it has been a busy old week really!

Market Drayton 10k Sunday 13th May

This is the 3rd time I have done this race and it  really is a little gem of a race; well organised, nice course, lovely marshals,well attended and a fantastic overflowing goodie bag!! The morning was lovely, sunny with nice fluffy white clouds the slight down side was that it was a little windy which meant went the sun went behind the clouds it went a little chilly but all in all good running weather.

I do like this race and I nearly didn’t enter this year as I was focusing on the NSRRA league however Sean had said he want to run it so rather than wait around for him to finish I thought I would enter too .  I didn’t want to push too hard as I had got Clayton (NSRRA) race and I needed the points……but as all runners know secretly I thought it would be nice to get a sub 50!! And I did, I finished in 51:05 which was a PB  but not sub 50 maybe on Wednesday at Clayton!

Clayton 10k Wednesday 16th May

Considering I work in Newcastle I have never entered this race, but as I am now in the NSRRA league I have to get myself along to as many races as possible to ensure I get the points. However this being local and a 10k I thought it was be a good one to take part in.  Got to the race on time and managed to relax. Saw loads of Potters Trotters, twitter, Facebook and parkrun friends and caught up on what everyone was hoping to achieve and wished everyone a good race. It was a two lap course, and I am not a fan of laps, I think it is something about passing the finishing line that bothers me but I only have to do it once so it shouldn’t be too bad.  I started out ok but there where a couple of bottlenecks and we had to walk but they didn’t last long and then before we knew it the field spread out in to a more manageable chunks so no more bottle necks.  The course is rather deceptive the hills were quite long and drawn out, you so didn’t notice them until they started to burn.  I didn’t see my nemesis until the start of the second lap , I felt good but not sure if I could catch up to her. The gap began to close, I was still going at my pace but I could see that I was gaining on her, BUT did I have enough to take her down…..unfortunately not, those dam hills on the second lap seem to get steeper and I just didn’t have enough, she came in 27secs ahead of me .  However I on a positive note I did beat my personal best from Sunday by 6 seconds ,  it doesn’t sound much but as everyone says it was a tough course and a PB is a PB. The other great result of the day was Laura Thompson won and she was so please, Laura is seriously on speedy lady! 

9th Parkrun Saturday 19th May

It has been a while since I have been to Parkrun and following on from Wednesday’s race I decided that I wanted to work on my speed work, both by using Parkrun as a time trail and potentially joining a cheap gym for on some additional cross training.  The other reason was that I had set a 2012 challenge to improve my 5k time to a sub 25 and coupled with fellow Potter Trotter Liz Tideswell recently achieving a PB of 24:56 I needed to pull my finger out!! .   I started out a little too quick and had an equipment fail which I needed to sort out on route, but the “Hanley hills” kick my ass again! But I did achieve a Parkrun PB of 25:12  which is a full 27seconds faster than my last Parkrun PB which is awesome!! 

South Cheshire 20 – Personal Best 3:00:26

Short report for this on I am afraid as it has taken to me too long again to update my blog!

The weather was awful actually it was bloody awful, it was a week after the London Marathon, which again had a lovely running weather and then for the following week it did nothing but rain . In a way it meant that all my training in preparation had been in the cold and wet so I was use to it.  But on the morning of the run it seem to be windier and colder than it had been in ages!

I decided that I was going to dress for the occasion, long tights, long sleeve top, Potters Trotters top and jacket  and I was lovely and toasty in the car on the way up there. Saw Sharon as I turned into the sports centre and she was wearing 3/4 and a short sleeve top, all I could think was “boy she was MAD” and then I saw that Laura Thompson from Trentham was wearing a crop top and shorts eeek!!!

The field was very small only 95 ish runners, I ran with Sharon for a little while but by mile 3 she was heading off into the distance.   I could see her in the distance for the 1st 8 ish miles and then the route got twisty and turning and I lost her until the finish.  For a large amount of the race I was running on my own with NO MP3!! at 1st I thought that I would really struggle, as I normally run with Music or an audio book, however I found that it was fine and didn’t get bored!  

All I wanted to achieve was a better result than Stafford, which was a disaster! I just wanted to put it behind me and move one, for the last mile I was at 2:52 and thought if I knuckled down I would make sub 3:00  . However after spending the last 2:52 minutes been battered by wind and rain, I didn’t;t have it in me, especially when they evil  race organisers had a twist in the tail….the finish was passed the sports centre sand then across the field .  I finished in 3:00:26 so although it wasn’t sub 3 hours it was still miles and minutes better than Stafford.

Don’t tell anyone, but I was actually enjoying the race, I am sure that I would be enjoyed it more if the weather was slightly better, but it gave me a much needed confidence boost and to top it off I WON a 1st in my age category which was a real shock and a very nice surprise.

The other nice surprise was that I got 50 points for the race, YIPPEE