Letting it slip

I turned up to the second midweek league event fired up for another fun race, and even the constant rain wasn't going to dampen my spirits. Well, OK, any of you that have seen me before a race know that I'm generally not at my most cheerful at that point, and I often seem to have odd aches and pains that never surface at any other time - why is that? But I was looking forward to the next race of the league.

Until 5 minutes before the race it looked like Shaftesbury Barnet hadn't turned up. I thought perhaps they'd decided that the competition was beneath them after last time. But just before the start they all appeared - maybe they'd all been sheltering under the same tree. During the first kilometre, on the cycleway we know best from the winter 5k series, pretty much all I could see was the entire Shaftesbury Barnet men's team ahead of me - it looked like they had about 7 of the first 10 runners. So of course I couldn't see them for long.

I knew the course was mainly flat for about 4k, then uphill for about 4k, and downhill for the last 2k (OK, there's a course profile on our MWL page, but any information more complicated would have overloaded my brain). As I mentioned for the last race, I don't mind hills - the only problem with a hill so long is guessing how much effort to put into getting up it. Too fast and you're too tired to really benefit from coming down the other side. Too little and you've wasted too much time (and it's a measured 10k, after all, so there's still an outside chance of getting a PB!). I don't think I got it too wrong - certainly nobody caught me on the way up, and I very much enjoyed the sensation of speed on the way down. And it was only when I saw the clock at the end that I could definitely rule out getting my best time (even though I missed it by more than 20 seconds).

The big sports hall was a perfect HQ, and I can't comment on the showers or changing rooms because I've never used them (too close to home). The sandwiches and snacks were OK, but fell into second place behind Bishops Stortford. Not that food reviews generally form part of a race review...

So what was going on score-wise? Pretty much the same as in the last race, only more polarised. Our fantastic ladies were even more fantastic, with Tash joining in the fun this time as part of a 1-2-3-5 NHRR finish for the first ladies' team (it has to be said that it's a good job she did - without her the ladies' race would have been neck-and-neck with the improved Spartans ladies' team). But our average men were even more average, again finishing 3rd in the men's event and losing even more ground to Spartans (let's ignore Shaftesbury Barnet; we know they're going to wipe the floor with us!).

MEN
1 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 129 7
2 Fairlands Valley Spartans 373 6
3 North Herts Road Runners 484 5
4 Harlow Running Club 652 4
5 Herts Phoenix 684 3
6 Bishops Stortford 815 2
7 Broxbourne Runners 1191 1

LADIES
1 North Herts Road Runners 44 7
2 Fairlands Valley Spartans 60 6
3 Bishops Stortford 143 5
4 Harlow Running Club 153 4
5 Broxbourne Runners 248 3
6 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 325 2
7 Herts Phoenix 356 1

Why is this? Well, it looks like FVS got more runners out this time and we were a bit weaker. It really is as simple as that (but comments welcome!). So overall it's another 12 points each for each of us, but we've now been overtaken on 'goal difference'.

Pos OVERALL Score Points
1 Fairlands Valley Spartans 933 24
2 North Herts Road Runners 1022 24
3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 1203 18
4 Harlow Running Club 1489 16
5 Bishops Stortford 1634 15
6 Broxbourne Runners 2394 9
7 Herts Phoenix 2377 6

But hey - it's so close that it can all change around again next time. PLEASE all come to the next race!

Joys of spring

I went for a very pleasant run on Sunday. Not a race (thank goodness - still heavy-legged from the MWL race on Wednesday and the 4 x 7-and-a-half minute Balke test session the day before), just a long run. It was rather less relaxing than my usual Sunday runs, since I went with Lindsay's brother Simon, who is rather fast . Luckily he'd done a race the night before, so I could at least breathe while keeping up with him.

It was a mainly off-road route, from Hitchin to Pirton, Offley, Preston (nearly) and Charlton - I hadn't run over towards Pirton for at least a year, which seems a shame because there are some nice paths over there.

The sun was shining, there was a nice cool breeze, and the fields were all bright green (or yellow) due to recent rain. Sometimes it's worth remembering that we have some beautiful countryside around here! I did struggle on a few hills, though - if I'm out running with people slower than I, then I have an excuse to catch my breath at the top of the hills. Not this time.

Towards the end we were caught up by someone else out for a run, going even faster than us. By a strange coincidence, it was someone Simon knew from competing against him, and whose blog he'd been talking about earlier in the morning (although we couldn't find it!), Dave Wardle of Woodford Green athletics club. Not to be outdone on the social front, we turned the next corner and bumped into someone I knew, Astrid, also out for a longer run, who had seen Jon Hunt, who had seen Chris Sharp and Sally Harkins, who had seen Lindsay... we were all out there somewhere!

Bring it on!

Hurrah! The start of another midweek league season!

Since we got relegated from division 1 last year, and so did Bishops Stortford, we had a chance to re-run last year's most memorable race, this year without the comedy weather. And being in division 2, that should mean that the competition is easier... shouldn't it? It certainly didn't look like that a minute after the start, when a whole swarm of Shaftesbury Barnet men were disappearing off ahead, and a load of Spartans were among them.

We've done the course a few times now, and it was as pleasant this time as before: a narrow road, a track, country roads through a village. The out-and-back course meant most of the marshals could double up, and there was even a drinks station halfway round - by no means expected for a midweek league race.

Until Statto posted this link on the forum, I'd forgotten that the middle loop of the route was so high up, and so there were more hills than I remembered. But we seem to be pretty good with hills in this club - I talked to a few people afterwards, and we all found that we dealt with the hills at least as well as our competitors. All that training really does seem to help!

I was happy with my run, doing a hilly 10k in under 37 minutes. I even saw Steve McKeown cross the finish line, although I suppose that was because we finished with a couple of minutes running round a playing field.

It's worth mentioning the excellent food Bishops Stortford put on for afterwards - loads of sandwiches and cakes, and arranged in such a way that there wasn't even any queuing. Good work!

The results are in now, and they match what our feelings were on the night: Shaftesbury Barnet and Fairlands Valley Spartans had better men's teams than us, but our women are pretty unstoppable - especially with an Astrid-Paula-Melissa 1-2-3 at the front. We could also tell that Shaftesbury Barnet didn't have a women's team. What we didn't know was how close it would be in the end. With the men's and women's scores combined, NHRR and FVS came out level on 'team points', and the fact that women's team is so fantastic meant we just sneak to the top of the table on 'runner points'.

1 North Herts Road Runners 494 12
2 Fairlands Valley Spartans 500 12
3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 750 9
4 Bishops Stortford 676 8
5 Harlow Running Club 684 8
6 Broxbourne Runners 955 5
7 Herts Phoenix 1338 2

So there's a long way to go, but we'll be fine if we carry on like that. We know we were missing a few runners - hopefully we'll be able to get everybody out next time. I'm looking forward to a fortnight's time already!

No running at all

Little did I realise that the Fountains 10k would be my last run for more than a week. The day after the race I developed a cold, and couldn't do any exercise for more than a week. It's weeks like this that make me realise just how much time I'd normally spend running. And how good it is to be out and about, and how ANNOYING it is to be stuck indoors feeling sorry for yourself with nothing better to do. (Oh, and speaking of annoying, Lindsay loves telling people about what it's like to be woken up in the middle of the night by your husband blowing his nose. Got to breathe somehow...)

Anyway, I'm better now, thanks for asking. So I thought I'd go for a little run this evening to get back into the swing of things, especially since it was lovely and sunny. This was all very well for a mile or so, and after that my legs felt like blocks of stone and I started to gasp for breath. It's amazing how quickly you can lose fitness... thankfully, it doesn't take all that long to get it back again (I'm telling myself). Better ease into it a bit more gently - only a week before the first midweek league race of the new season!

I've just realised I can summarise this post with 'being ill is rubbish'. Groundbreaking.