Swineshead 10

After doing no training since my injury, I thought I'd give the Swineshead 10 a go.  Only on Tuesday night I was talking to James about trying to get a PB at this event, so my mood had taken a significant turn for the worse since I started limping.  So, having ruled that possibility out, I was one of the few people not at all concerned that flooding had caused a diversion in the route, and this wouldn't be a 10 mile race after all (it was about ten and a quarter, in the end), since it meant there was never any pressure to get a good time.

So with a PB off the cards, the next thing I thought it would be useful to do was trying running round at marathon pace, if only to work out what that felt like.  I hate to make it public - especially now it looks impossible - but I am/was aiming for 2:50 at New York, mainly because it's a nice round number rather than any analysis of what I should be capable of.  But that means 6:30 for each mile, which sounds a bit scary.  Coincidentally, that turned out to be the pace Pete (Statto) Scrowther was aiming for, too, so I ran most of the race only a few metres away from him.  By the way, if you ever need anyone to pace you, try and use Statto - he runs very evenly, so you wouldn't go far wrong following him.  It would be interesting to know if the same would be true if his GPS system suddenly packed up, though...

I ran a bit gingerly on my injured leg, and it was OK for about 3 miles, but started to ache after that.  I discovered that it was most comfortable going uphill, and most painful on the way down - I couldn't stretch my leg far enough!  But I found a way of running that didn't aggravate it too much (although it's probably caused other aches as a result), and got round without too much trouble.  6:30 pace wasn't too bad - I could still talk normally (or at least, my ego had to give that impression) - although I'm not sure I can imagine keeping it up for another 16 miles.  I like to believe I helped Statto get round the course in his (notional) PB time, although when he put on a proper sprint finish for the last straight there was no way I was able to keep up with him.

The original plan was to do the 10 miles, then carry on running to make it up to a marathon training distance, perhaps running back to Lindsay to see how she was getting on.  But once I got to the finish line the only sensible option was to stop.  Lindsay had come up with a different plan - she went out early in the morning and had already done 10 miles before even getting to Swineshead!

The event was really enjoyable.  Good scenery on the country lanes (lots of church towers and spires!), and the race HQ had a cake stall, impressively nice food on the barbecue and good live singers - it was just a shame that it rained before the race to dampen everything down.

In the 5 mile version of the race, James Atkins came first and Ollie came second.  Very impressive!

But there is something worth complaining about.  This was the Run of the Month for September, therefore an event designed to bring the whole club together at the same event, and I could count the NHRR members using my fingers.  What's going on?

It's a small race - if I wasn't injured, I would have come in the top 3 of either the 5 or 10 mile race (so that makes it even more annoying that I couldn't).  Perhaps the Welwyn 10 being on the same day attracted fast people over there?

Next stop - at least, this was the plan - the Grunty Fen half marathon, at the same pace.  But probably no training this week.