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| Fran's modest representation of our run |
I know it's ridiculous. As Scott pointed out "What's scary about going for a bimble around the park?". But this was a bimble around the park with people with stopwatches waiting for me at the end, and a list documenting just how badly I'd done (it's a good job I hadn't realised that there would be numerous people there taking photos too). It felt more like a school games lesson than anything else I have done my entire adult life, and as I previously said, games lessons don't hold fond memories for me.
A couple of not-brilliant runs earlier in the week had succeeded in building my conviction that this was going to be a messy event. Not that these were horrible runs, no ambulances were called, no obituaries were written, but somehow in my head I was convinced I was going to do spectacularly badly. So two days before, when Scott announced that his friend Fran was going to run with us my fate was sealed, not only was I going to humiliate myself in front of people who don't know me from Adam, but also in front of Scott's friends. I got 2 hours sleep that night. On a plus note I had no appetite so great for helping drop some weight pre-race!
6am Saturday morning and the alarm goes off after 4 hours sleep. It usually takes a good couple of hours for me to wake up but abject fear did the trick and I was pretty much wide awake from the off.
Now normally I have a fairly rapid, if nervous, digestive system so I was counting on 2 hours being plenty of time to get my breakfast of toast out of the way (in every sense of the phrase). Oh no, not today. Today my stomach went into shutdown, causing extra anxiety that it was going to spring into action at some inopportune moment.
Arriving at Woodhouse Moor it was sunny and slightly cool, pretty much perfect weather actually. There didn't seem to be very many people around when we got there (a few of them stretching and clearly taking this very seriously), on the plus side this meant that there wasn't going to be many people to witness my collapse, but on the downside there was an increased chance most would be on their second post-race coffee by the time I got to the finish line. The fact I wasn't vomiting at this point probably indicates my whole body had gone into denial.
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| Honest I'm not nervous at all |
Having only ever run either alone or with Scott on a couple of occasions, running in a crowd was a little weird but not as bad as I expected (yes I have a crowd phobia too, it's really quite amazing I manage to leave the flat), and the crowd pretty quickly stretched out. It was nice to realise that I wasn't immediately flagging at the back, and it didn't really register when we started getting lapped - and I had only the thinnest sliver of despair when we passed the finish line to start the second lap and there was already a queue of people waiting to have their finish times logged.
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| the route |
Scott did a fantastic job of keeping me going and it was 18 minutes in, and over half way, when I finally succumbed to walking. That was 8 minutes longer than I've previously managed to run in one go so I was more than pleased with that, but I confess that then seeing people that I'd been keeping up with, heading off into the distance was disheartening, and made it mentally more difficult to get myself running again. It was a small, and very pathetic, achievement that on the home straight I managed to whip up enough energy to outrun a guy I had been swapping places with for the last kilometre.
The eventual result - 35:29 minutes, and 323rd out of 342 runners, which put me behind a 3-year old, who'd even had time to stop en-route to relieve himself, and several babies in pushchairs, but people were still queuing to have their times recorded when I got to the finish line so I didn't feel so embarrassingly slow.
Overall my experience of the event was positive, and I would recommend it to anyone. I am totally in awe of the commitment of the organisers and volunteers that turn up at silly o'clock every Saturday morning to do this, all of whom were friendly and encouraging. And having managed not to humiliate myself too much, and Fran having achieved her goal of running her first full 5k, we've decided to return in October to give it another go, although once the endorphins had settled down I went from hoping to improve my time, to the fear that I wouldn't be able to repeat the day's performance. I guess only time will tell...
23m 16s. 2.11 miles. Average Speed 5.45 mph. Average Pace 11:00 min/mile
3:03r / 1:00w / 3:03r / 1:01w / 3:02r / 1:01w / 1:40r / 1:00w / 1:01r / 1:01w / 1:46r / 1:30w / 1:01r / 1:01w / 1:22r
Turns out a 4-mile dog walk isn't the ideal warm-up (at least that's my excuse). Felt tired right from the start and calves felt very tight.
Monday 26 August (afternoon)
37m 29s. 3.1 miles. Average Speed 4.97 mph. Average Pace 12:05 min/mile
3:02r / 1:30w / 2:01r / 1:00w / 1:32r / 1:29w / 2:22r / 1:01w / 0:59r / 5:01w / 1:31r / 2:00w / 1:18r / 2:00w / 1:33r / 2:01w / 1:32r / 3:01w / 1:01r / 0:52w / 0:42r
Today I ran my canal route in reverse, and discovered that despite all laws of physics, what feels like a nice flat route in one direction feels like a slow uphill slog in the opposite direction.
It wasn't a great run, despite lots of cloud it was surprisingly hot, and being a bank holiday the canal was like the Tour de France with added dogs. I lost the plot somewhat mid-run (spot the 5 minute walk), but managed to pull myself back together.
Wednesday 28 August (evening)
27m 12s. 2.21 miles. Average Speed 4.87 mph. Average Pace 12:20 min/mile
7:34r / 2:01w / 2:38r / 2:01w / 1:38r / 2:02w / 1:32r / 2:41w / 0:47r / 3:41w / 0:37r
I wasn't entirely sure where I was heading when I set off. The first 7 minutes felt good, and a lot better than my last couple of runs, but was probably facilitated by a couple of downhill segments. Having to stop running at one point because it was too dark to see is the first indication that the nights are starting to draw in.
Saturday 31 August (too damn early)
35m 29s. 3.1 miles. Average Speed 5.3 mph. Average Pace 11:20 min/mile
18:00r (yeah baby!) / 1:36w / 1:52r / 2:00w / 3:32r / 1:11w / 3:07r / 1:07w / 1:24r / 0:39w / 0:56r
Yeah, I've already bored you enough with this one. Apart to say a HUGE thank you to Scott for getting me round in the time I did, and for keeping me running for as much as I did. I have no doubt I wouldn't have done so well without him - and he didn't even get to officially record his early morning sacrifice as he didn't want to log it because it would be severely detrimental to his stats.
The eventual result - 35:29 minutes, and 323rd out of 342 runners, which put me behind a 3-year old, who'd even had time to stop en-route to relieve himself, and several babies in pushchairs, but people were still queuing to have their times recorded when I got to the finish line so I didn't feel so embarrassingly slow.
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| Last in my age group...at least I can't get worse |
Overall my experience of the event was positive, and I would recommend it to anyone. I am totally in awe of the commitment of the organisers and volunteers that turn up at silly o'clock every Saturday morning to do this, all of whom were friendly and encouraging. And having managed not to humiliate myself too much, and Fran having achieved her goal of running her first full 5k, we've decided to return in October to give it another go, although once the endorphins had settled down I went from hoping to improve my time, to the fear that I wouldn't be able to repeat the day's performance. I guess only time will tell...
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| Post-run, and those are genuine smiles |
WEEK 8
Sunday 25 August (evening)23m 16s. 2.11 miles. Average Speed 5.45 mph. Average Pace 11:00 min/mile
3:03r / 1:00w / 3:03r / 1:01w / 3:02r / 1:01w / 1:40r / 1:00w / 1:01r / 1:01w / 1:46r / 1:30w / 1:01r / 1:01w / 1:22r
Turns out a 4-mile dog walk isn't the ideal warm-up (at least that's my excuse). Felt tired right from the start and calves felt very tight.
Monday 26 August (afternoon)
37m 29s. 3.1 miles. Average Speed 4.97 mph. Average Pace 12:05 min/mile
3:02r / 1:30w / 2:01r / 1:00w / 1:32r / 1:29w / 2:22r / 1:01w / 0:59r / 5:01w / 1:31r / 2:00w / 1:18r / 2:00w / 1:33r / 2:01w / 1:32r / 3:01w / 1:01r / 0:52w / 0:42r
Today I ran my canal route in reverse, and discovered that despite all laws of physics, what feels like a nice flat route in one direction feels like a slow uphill slog in the opposite direction.
It wasn't a great run, despite lots of cloud it was surprisingly hot, and being a bank holiday the canal was like the Tour de France with added dogs. I lost the plot somewhat mid-run (spot the 5 minute walk), but managed to pull myself back together.
Wednesday 28 August (evening)
27m 12s. 2.21 miles. Average Speed 4.87 mph. Average Pace 12:20 min/mile
7:34r / 2:01w / 2:38r / 2:01w / 1:38r / 2:02w / 1:32r / 2:41w / 0:47r / 3:41w / 0:37r
I wasn't entirely sure where I was heading when I set off. The first 7 minutes felt good, and a lot better than my last couple of runs, but was probably facilitated by a couple of downhill segments. Having to stop running at one point because it was too dark to see is the first indication that the nights are starting to draw in.
Saturday 31 August (too damn early)
35m 29s. 3.1 miles. Average Speed 5.3 mph. Average Pace 11:20 min/mile
18:00r (yeah baby!) / 1:36w / 1:52r / 2:00w / 3:32r / 1:11w / 3:07r / 1:07w / 1:24r / 0:39w / 0:56r
Yeah, I've already bored you enough with this one. Apart to say a HUGE thank you to Scott for getting me round in the time I did, and for keeping me running for as much as I did. I have no doubt I wouldn't have done so well without him - and he didn't even get to officially record his early morning sacrifice as he didn't want to log it because it would be severely detrimental to his stats.
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