Me a PB surely not!

My last race of the season was in November and I got a PB to boot, the race was the Derby 10 mile. The other 10 mile races I have done are; Flying Fox 10 which is a beast and very hilly and Castle Donnington which was around the race track which was also decidedly lumpy in places, so I was looking forward to a ‘nice’ flat race for a change.

Training had gone well,  with being back at home there is a new morning routine as my familiar running routes are on the doorstep and  the need to run on the treadmill has gone. But with coming home my normal once a week treadmill interval session had ceased; before you start yes I know these could now be run outside….but I can’t find the motivation to do this outside at the minute.

November in the UK was a decidedly wet with record rainfall fell during the month which saw record floods across many parts of the UK rain, which included Derby!  But the Derby race director and team in the week leading up kept everyone up today with what was going on via email/Facebook about the state of the race route and they were confident that the race would run, but the route may need to be tweaked.

The alterations needed to ensure we kept out of the floods meant that course it was going to be rather dull; a couple of out and backs with a loop through a park or two. Although it can be quite dull at times out and back the nice thing about it is that you have an opportunity to see friends which does help to take your mind off things a little. 

The miles were ticking by nicely and the legs were feeling fresh and they had plenty of miles in them, I kept a healthy pace of around 8 min miling, on the first out and back it was an opportunity to look out for Sean and it was great to see him just around the 2 hour pacer, which I knew he would be been pleased with. 

We pushed on through the park and out along the dual carriageway which was the second of the out and backs and the front runners coming back towards us. There was no clear indication of where the turnaround was and all I could see ahead of me was runners so there was only one thing for it, to keep pushing on.  

When we did finally hit the turn around point there was a cheeky downhill, under the dual carriageway u-turn and back up the cheeky little hill before heading off back down the road.  This was my next opportunity to look out for Sean, which help massively to distract me and kept pushing me on, then he came in to sight and he was now in front of the 2 hour pacer which was brilliant, with shouts of encouragement and high five I pushed on the to the finish.

Having worked out the maths, I needed to keep going at this pace or a little quicker to get a 80 minute finish time.  The legs were definitely feeling tired now but each time I passed someone it felt like I gain a little more energy and it was the last corner just before another sneaky little hill and the finish line came into sight…my finish time 80:47 seconds.....BOOM…a PB by around 2 minutes 💥 and Sean finished his run in 1:49 well under the unofficial target of 2 hours 👍. 

What a great way to finish off the year!! 

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…. 

Marathon training has begun!

As you may know, I have been preparing to train for my marathon for the last couple of months. It all started in December with running every day to 25^th and also trying to increase a single run to 10 miles.  All was achieved and I have been steadily running 4-5 times a week since the beginning of January 2019 and increasing my long run distance.

So 4th Feb signalled the start of my 16-week training plan; which does feel long but I’ve built in some wriggle room and factored in a week in Mexico🌞. I have still not managed to really get in much quality work, reps on the treadmill are hard work and no one really fancies a tempo session unless you have company😒 .  

But I did get my longest run for 2 years done a whopping 14 miles last week and followed up with 13 miles this week.  On both runs, I was feeling the effects by the end and none of it was particularly quick.  

I like to reminisce about my long runs, of the past when I could run 14 miles at 8:30 min pace and question whether I will be ever that quick again…..but then I remember that I’m older,  that style of running hurt and I didn’t really enjoy it.  So I will carry on with my plodding miles and hope that the pave does quicken a little.

You do have a lot of time during your long run and I used to decide which charity to run for. I'll be fundraising for it's Bowel Cancer UK and my link to my just giving page is here I had originally thought perhaps I could run for all the B cancers; Bladder, Bowel, Balls and Breast, but I don’t think that there is such a charity out there yet!

Bowel Cancer UK  provider expert information and support to patients and their families, they campaign for early diagnosis and treatment, they support and fund research to help stop people dying of bowel cancer and they educate. To find out more check out their website. https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/

Cancer has struck my family again; my Dad survived his last bout with Bladder cancer and has been fit and healthy for the last 8 years.  Then last year he started to get some symptoms, which made him book an appointment with the GP and following that he was put on the cancer two-week pathway and had a battery of tests. 

The outcome and diagnosis was not what any of us wanted but in the grand scheme of things it was in the early stages and he had stood a good chance to win in this battle too.  

His treatment plan was an aggressive one of combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy, neither were very pleasant and towards the end of the treatment, they were beginning to take their toll on him.  However, after 5 weeks his treatment stopped and although the treatment effects continued they didn’t get any worse and they even started to lesson week by week.  By week 5 after he finished treatment he was back to his chipper self….all be it a lot thinner than when he started. 

Now for the next barrage of tests again to see how things are going….and it was good news treatment had gone well the tumour was now a distance memory.  Although things don’t stop there, because of his previous cancer and the treatment he was unable to have the usual next stage in traditional treatment pathway which was an operation to remove the site of cancer, which meant there were several options to him. 

As it stands, 4 months after he finished treatment,  he is now on a watchful waiting list, where he has regular scans to ensure he remains cancer free and the second anything changes we face a new decision which is knife or no knife…..

It is a tense time for all of us, but I think that it is the Owen way to feel invincible and that we will defy the odds, so let’s keep our positive pants on and keep moving forward.