2019 - it’s a wrap!

QUICK STATS: run 1,565miles, bike 477miles, swim 59,230 yards. Races 7 

parkruns 30, parkrun volunteering 25, different parkruns 8 and fastest parkrun 23:57

January-  Ran the New Year's day parkrun double at Hanley and the Wammy; joined Derwent Running Club as a Social member, to help with my Marathon Training when it starts. We had the annual Family New Year's day meal and realising how much my nephews are growing up and a lovely birthday surprise weekend in Manchester for a cheeky parkrun and a visit to the Manchester Beer Festival….oh and how could I forget a haircolour change!! 

February - My marathon training began, my long runs were getting long!! WE had a girls night out to Bingo again, unfortunately, our luck had run out but we had a great evening catching up and it was the month of my best clean joke for a long time!  "I had a hen who could count her own eggs…..she was a mathemachicken"

March - The long runs keep coming and the aim is to run 18 miles before our week long holiday in Mexico, which I manage not once but twice so I could go away safe in the knowledge that 1 week of lower mileage would not hurt the training too much. Had a lovely week away in Mexico, we were testing out a few theories this holiday..was Mexico too far for a week's holiday, how was Cancun compared to Playa de Carmen and could I pack for a weeks holiday with just hand luggage! The holiday was both informative and successful in terms of our theories, the responses were; yes, no Playa is nicer and yes!! So no more waiting at the carousel of doom!

April - Early in the month means that I was getting into the tough weeks and my longest runs were coming up with a 20 one week and 21 mile a week later running to my parents' house on a very hot bank holiday Sunday!   It didn’t get any easier but knowing they were behind me was a comfort and that my miles would start to decrease helped to lift my spirits in the final mile. We decorated and swapped rooms around in the house, the carpet that had been down since we moved in finally went and both rooms got spruced up!  Our collective weight loss is becoming more and more noticeable and we had to take 8 bags of clothes to the charity shop!!

May -Can only mean one thing Marathon Month, but before the Marathon, we had the Market Drayton 10k and I managed a very respectable time of 50:29, I had secretly hoped for sub 50 but that wasn’t my A race so I let it go and carried on with the taper which should have been easy at a lower miles however it certainly didn’t feel like that.  Then before we know it were heading up to bonny Scotland and finally the marathon is here! 4hours and 3 minutes later and 26.2 odd miles and I crossed that finish line and yet again vowed to never run another marathon again…but I still wanted to run

June - After all the build-up, miles and hours put into training I was able to diversify my training again and with a Pool based sprint triathlon scheduled for September I needed to get back in the pool again que the 5:30am starts and being in the pool for 6am!

July - we are in the holiday season and we were heading back up to Scotland first to go to Rewind 80festiveal in Scone with another cheeky parkrun tourism and the commencement of our Scotland road trip in the campervan, we visited some lovely places and I got to swim in a Lido which was another first for me!

August -  The Hanley park renovations have finished and we could finally run the course 2B and start to use the bandstand again, shame they never did put the sides on it so we could use it as a shelter during the occasion wet Saturday parkruns….final bank holiday of the year before Christmas was an excellent opportunity catch up with friends and walk/wander and stagger the  Hartshill beer mile 

September- after much discussion about house renovations we decided to that wanted to update the garden and make it a haven to come home too and spend time in during the summer months (should we actually get some nice weather) so our GRAND DESIGNS garden work started and finished! I ran the Great North Run again and had a blast this is one of the best half marathons and one everyone should run and I closed out the month with the North West Sprint Triathlon.

October- We had a quick running weekend away to run the Bilbao half marathon and if it hadn't have been long I'm sure that I would have got a sub 1:50 but that is Brexit for you…also the realisation of the over the last couple of months starts to dawn on me that my running has really improved recently, my times are coming down which is great !

November- There was a brilliant weekend away with the girls to Wales and we saw our first snow of Winter 2019, we participated (very hungover) in Pont y Bala parkrun  and I finished in a very respectable 5th, to be fair there were only 24 people and we made up a third of them! I managed to actually get a 10 mile PB at the Derby 10k which I was really pleased with, but then got injured right after it!! Oh and I finish my contract in Nottingham and start to look for my next contact as well as updating my project management skills

December is all about going out with friends, catching up with friends and spending time with the ones you love! Oh and I ran my fastest parkrun in 6 years!!

Heres to 2020 and whatever not only the new year but also the new decade holds :) 

Great North Run Re-cap

My Great North Run POST it was a bit longer than intended…sorry!

As you will have seen from my last blog post I have run GNR 4 times in the past and this was to be my 5^th time. We travelled up on Saturday after a fast spin out on the bike for me and a cheeky parkrun PB for Sean, having been to the race a number of times before we decided to skip the expo/ pasta party and our only aim was to get to Start Fitness for some new trainers and possible new kit!

So after a brief stop for lunch, we arrived in Newcastle dumped our bags and hurried out of the door to StartFittness three shopping bags later with two pairs of new trainers, new bike helmet and a few other essentials (honest) we headed off some pre-race day hydration via Brewdog. 

The lovely thing with it being race weekend is how many people there are in the City, now to be fair I have never been in the City when it isn't GNR weekend so that might be normal vibe, although perhaps race weekend does mean that the number of people wearing GPs watches, trainers and previous race t-shirts…. after sampling a couple of ciders and watching the world go by it was back off to the hotel and chill out for the rest of the evening. 

To race morning, if you are stopping in the City Centre you do get afforded a bit of a lie-in, as the walk to start is around 20 minutes, and that is mainly because it is so congested with people.  Having so many people around this does help in terms of determining “which way to the start” my advice would be to follow someone who is wearing at least two of the following, you are going to find yourself at the start of the GNR:

• compression socks,
• clean bin bag,
• running shorts /tights
• technical t-shirt
• superhero costume,
• fruit fancy dress costume
• trainers

This start is a specular feat of organisation, this year there were over 54,000 people taking part and I would imagine for most of us trying to organise a party with around 20-40 people is enough to give you palpitations, so taking on 54,000 is not for the faint-hearted!!

We found my starting pen easily enough (Zone C) and I joined the nervous throngs of runners, some stretching, other biting their nails, talking selfies and talking to friends.  Next was the warm-up and then the countdown and finally the claxon went off, as we edged forward at walking pace Sean walked/jogged alongside the fence until I passed the start and then I was off…..

Ooh look a portaloo with no queue!!! Quickly detour off and pause Garmin…back running again. My main objective was to keep to around 8:45 mile pace and try not to head off to fast at the start which is downhill and very easy to get swept along with all the excitement.

  

With a target time of sub 2 hours, my steady pace should get me there, I the 1:50 pacer came up alongside me so it was decided to hang out with him for the race.  Which is pretty much how my race went, we yoyo-d a bit in terms of being ahead of each other and my plan was to run in the middle of the road that way it was easy to dash left or right if there was a need to overtake or dodge someone randomly stopping!

My middle of the road strategy was good until there was this realisation around mile 7 that I had missed all the ice pops, following a quick correction and a detour to the left, there was an ice pop was in my hand within minutes.  Three ice pops later had the desired effect, my pace was back, core temperature was down, legs and body were ready to tackle John Reed Road around 10 miles in.

Before we knew it we were heading down to the seafront and the long mile and a bit to the finish, at one point there was a little wobble and it felt like someone had swapped my head on to a different body mid-race, but just as quickly everything came back to me and the finish was looming fast…throwing my hands in the air as I a crossed the finish line, which a chip time of 1:53 which was will within the goal going in! 

If you have never run this race, it is well worth the trip up North at least once, the people of the North East come out in their thousands to support this race, there is so much additional aid and support give out to the runners; from ice pops, jelly babies, jelly bean, sweets, oranges, beer to very much needed on this day sunscreen! You will never enter a race where there are so many people willing you along the way offering encouragement and support all the way so from me a very big THANK YOU.

      

Personally,  there are so many other races I want to run so I’ll leave it another couple of years before venturing and allow others the opportunity to enjoy the amazing atmosphere and brilliant race.

Next is my triathlon on Sunday and the Bilbao night half marathon in October!

Love a good stat or two

As the Great North Run edges ever closer, I’ve been thinking about my previous half marathons and times, which then lead me to review  my power of 10 page. If you are registered with a club it means you have an UK athletics number and the majority of your races times are logged on to run Britain and also the power of 10 which is a great resource. Check out the links to see your own results.https://www.thepowerof10.info/ sometimes they do struggle to find international races times but some of mine have made it on there.

This got me thinking I’ve run GNR 4 times what was my fastest, my slowest and the average??? The scores on the doors are: fastest  1:44 (2013 #purplepatch), slowest 2:09 (running with a friend and having a blast) with an average of 1:55:13, not too shabby. The average finish time for the famous race in 2015 was 2:12:19.

I’m not one to leave it there, so I delved deeper in to my half marathon stats:

Total half marathons: 40 

Same race multiple times: 8

• GNR, Potters arf, Robin Hood and Stafford *4
• Birmingham *3 
• Brighton, Cardiff, Liverpool *2

Counties covered 7: England, Scotland, Wales, America, Spain, Portugal, Ireland

City run in: 11: Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Las Vegas, Lisbon, Madrid, Manchester, Nottingham, San Francisco, Santa Monica

Fastest  1:42 (Nottingham 2013) 

Slowest 2:25 (Stafford 2016) 

Average 1:55:31

Total official distance covered 524 miles 

Total time run 77:12:05

Now I’m running unattached, meaning I’m longer attached to a running club, it’s a shame to think my times will no longer be recorded under my name and being able to access this type data will disappear. Perhaps it is time to join a virtual running club, but which one to choose…. 

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

*** When is a PB not a PB

When a PB not a PB, when the course is short!  I have had to adjust my 10k PB up from 47:02 to 48:07.  I've been thinking about changing this for a while, but I liked the idea that was my time and I was that fast... 

But alas no, the course was short; I thought it was at the then but I wasn't sure if it was just the old Garmin satellites playing up. However I have had it confirmed, from a reliable source, that unfortunately at the very last minute the race organisers had to change to the course, which made the course.  I have no malice against the course organisers or anyone else, at the end of the day if I want to have a time like that I will have to run a time like that, it really is that simple.

It is interesting how some athletes want to cheat their way into getting results, I am not casting any stones in any directions but when you hear people saying that they are taking steroids or performance enhancing drugs to get the desired results, I get the distinct impression that they are missing the point. 

When all is said and done, the chips are down and scores are on the doors, yes you might be coming out on top, but really was it a level playing field? in your heart of hearts you know it was right and wasn't your win, your PB or  record to hold.

However I did get a PB at the Great North Run at the weekend and that is official :)