Running around Bilbao city at night!

As promised here is my recap on the Bilbao half marathon, this will be my 2nd night time half marathon, the last one was 3 years ago in Las Vegas.  Most would think that running down the Vegas strip with no traffic would be amazing but I was in my "I don’t like running funk" so it was all a little bit meh which was not helped with me being ill at the end of it.

Anyhow....Sean found night time half marathon and flights were only a couple of hours, so we signed up and hoped for good weather, surely in Spain, the rain stays mainly on the plane right…

Following our arrival on Friday evening, on Saturday we found ourselves exploring this quaint City as we used Sean's soon to be patented "Google-Zen-maps" for the Race Expo and scoped out the race start…no it's over here or is it here.  Once we finally found the start area and got it locked in for later we headed off for a nice cosy Italian to help fuel us for the evenings run and replenish us from this morning's roam around the city and 13,000 steps!!!

Not necessarily the right preparation for a half marathon, but it was done, so we meandered our way back to the Airbnb for a quick relax, with the dark skies looking very foreboding.  As we dressed for the race and made the decision to catch the tube to the race start to save our legs and stay out of the rain for as much as possible, we emerged from the tube in a haze of deep heat to the race start area which was heaving and bumping out Queen way up to 11!

After a long queue in the short loo line, we said our goodbyes and headed off to our race starting pens. The rain had been coming down in fits and starts although, it seems to stop just before we headed off, which I hope would be the case for the rest of the race. They released the fireworks and flames over the starting arch we were off. I wasn't sure what my race strategy was going to be, the GNR had gone better than expected and felt that a sub 2 again would be on the cards again Then the first mile clicked by 8 min🤔 a little quick, slow down or the wheels may come off.

As we ran through the city streets my pace did settle down for the next couple of miles and it was lovely to see people out cheering us onwards and upwards with Vamos and rapido, the City looked very different at night and now in the rain, we pressed on. 

Only now as I'm reflecting on my pace and race, it's clear that after halfway I sped up considerably, I don’t remember it being a conscious effort on my part but quite clearly, from the splits I had decided enough was enough and let's get this over with.  However, there was the realisation at around 11 miles that I might be able to actually break 1:50 for a half which has been unheard of in the last 4 years!! Although, as the bleep on my watch signalled 13 miles,  then 13.10 miles the finish was not in sight and then as I rounded a corner I could see the finish and the clock said 1:51:47 my official finish time.

But its raining!

So how do you start writing a blog post…for me it's about having something to write about, quite often during a run a subject heading pops into my head or an interesting question (dependant on your viewpoint) creeps into my brain.  During the run the foundations of my blog take shape, then it gets beaten into submission and we end up with a blog post. 

Why am I  telling you this, well you may have noticed that there was no blog post in October; I was running and even ran my fastest half marathon in quite some time in Bilbao so why no blog?  Well there were a number of things but the biggest was the uncertainty of my previous contract; I won't bore you with the details but there were 3 weeks of uncertainty and a lot of my free-thinking time was taken up by all that noise. 

Anyway we are through it all now, currently looking for my next contract and wondering where I will end up next, which means there is plenty of time to think, run and write....which leads me to the subject line of this actual blog.

Imagine if you can, you are rudely awoken at 4am in the morning with the rain bashing against the window and it sounds like it's settled in for the duration, your training plan says 10 miles and your alarm set for 5:30…joy! You drift off back to broken sleep periodically you wake up and hear the rain, check your watch and start to contemplate your life choices…..

Well that was me last Thursday morning, as my alarm went off at 5:30am I lay there thinking I have to run BUT IT'S RAINING, and so the bargaining started between brain and body;

• Body: why not go later it may stop raining later,
• Brain: quickly checks the weather, there is a yellow weather warning for your area, no it isn't going anyway
• Body: you could go tomorrow  
• Brain ou have made plans to go out with Liz before you head of to Wales for a girls weekend
• Body: you could do 5 now and 5 later 
• Brain: great get wet twice…genius 
• Body: you could not do it 
• Brain: it's on my plan what heresy is this
• Brain:  get up buttercup and put on your big girl pants it is only rain, you won’t melt or shrink! 

Needless to say I did get up and ran 9.50miles  in 1:26 in the end so 95% of my plan was completed, oh and the rain stopped around 1:10 in my run, so I should have gone later!!!

Postscript, its Monday and a very similar conversation happened this morning, this time I did delay my run till around 12:00.  The sky had been clearing from the rain earlier, it was looking windy but there was some sun earlier! First, 4.5 of my 6-mile run was dry and breezy..then it happened a few spots, to begin with, and just before I was into my last mile the heavens opened and I was soaked through the skin....and all I could hear was some faint giggling. 

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!