Gary's Running Commentary

The results

2009-04-21T19:29:00.002+01:00

So how did my decisions for the Flitwick 10k work out? I won't bother to review the race because it was much the same as last year. Although one thing that did annoy me was the entry form making a big fuss about making sure that you put a 'large' stamp on your SAE or your race entry pack wouldn't get to you... and when it arrived it was two sheets of A4 paper saying where the race was, when it started, and that we had to pick up our numbers and chips on the day. They could have EMAILED that little information out, for goodness' sake.

Running it at all: well, I got round, which was the whole point. I didn't have to walk, which was a pleasant surprise. It took about 41 minutes, which even tells me that it might be worth attempting to do the midweek league races (thank goodness).

Race strategy: I simply didn't dare go fast. But my 'jog' was fairly steady, at about 42-minute pace. Just like at Sandy, my knee felt a little stiff after only a minute or two, but nothing worrying. But this time it stayed that way - mostly. A couple of times I had to change direction suddenly, and it didn't like that. And in general a little pain just below my knee kept coming and going.

After a while I found I was speeding up a bit and overtaking people, but I always felt that if I tried to consciously push on and go faster I'd get myself into trouble. Thankfully I was catching enough people to keep things interesting. Right at the end John Franklin beat me in a sprint finish. Well, only he was in the sprint finish, which explains why I came off second best!

Contact lenses: the question I asked myself when wondering whether to put my contact lenses in was 'well, how likely is it that my glasses will steam up or my face will get too sweaty to wear them?'. What I should have asked was 'how much water am I likely to spill over my glasses when trying to take a drink from the water station?' Since the answer would have been 'enough to embarrass even a four-year-old' perhaps I should have taken the other option on this one.

Listening to the iPod: well, I ran with it, but didn't actually use it. I thought I'd wait until all the runners spread out, but actually that didn't happen until much later than normal (it's busier in the 41-42 minute part of the race than 36-37 minutes). Normally it'd be single file by 2 or 3k, but this time it was more like 5k. By which time I was more interested in enjoying the view (I didn't realise you could see Sharpenhoe Clappers from the route - well, the visibility was really poor last year).

Choice of clothing: I was running faster and for less time than I expected, so I probably could have done without the extra layer. Oh well. It hid the MP3 player.

So my injury has improved. But it's not fixed. The resting, stretching, massaging approach may be working (but since it's not possible to do a controlled test in these circumstances, we can't be certain that rest alone wouldn't have had the same result). But it's probably worth seeing if a physio has any other ideas...

Preparing to fail

2009-04-19T07:31:00.002+01:00

So how's my knee? I suppose the short answer is I don't know. I haven't really tested it out properly. The most running I've done in the last few weeks was a mile jog from Hitchin railway station back home (after picking Lindsay up so she could take the car to the club while I sulked at home). I could move OK, but my knee felt like it could give way at any moment.

So I suppose I've been avoiding the club a little. There's not much I can do there, and although it's nice to see everyone, it's a bit depressing to see everyone enjoying themselves when I can't join in. I can understand why people drop out of circulation when something like this happens.

So, it's the Flitwick 10k in a few hours, and of course I'm not confident. If I hadn't entered a month or two ago I certainly wouldn't be attempting it today - but since it's a Run of the Month I'd still turn up to spectate and see how many Squirrels we can gather at the same place at the same time. But I've paid, so I'll damn well get round the course. Even if I have to walk. I've been the trail cyclist at Standalone in the past, so if this event is anything like that I'm still in no danger of coming last. But am I in danger of Lindsay beating me? Well, that's a different worry.

But some worries go away. I went to a gym session yesterday lunchtime called Boot Camp, which I normally avoid the day before a race. I had a really fun time at a party last night and didn't care about eating curry, drinking beer or not getting much sleep. I'll probably wear a T-shirt under my vest, which I wouldn't normally do in this weather. I might not bother to put contact lenses in. I might even take my iPod and listen to The Now Show.

I'm watching the start of the Chinese Grand Prix and they're all talking about race strategy (even though they're plodding around behind a safety car - Formula 1 is a bit of a joke this season). I can only think of two strategies for myself: 1) jog along, try not to aggravate anything, see how long I last, or 2) go as fast as I can on the assumption that it's the amount of time I spend running that causes the problem, and so when I eventually have to jog/walk I'm further round the course. I'm a bit too risk-averse for option 2.

But hopefully it'll be nice to just be out.

Nothing conclusive

2009-04-05T18:30:00.002+01:00

Lindsay and I are in Switzerland for the weekend, so I had to get to the airport early on Friday evening, so I had the afternoon off work, so I had some free time to go and see Sharon to see if she could find anything wrong with my knee. It wasn't the obvious 'ah yes, I can see the lump' diagnosis I was hoping for.

It might be an IT band thing. There was a lot of tightness either side of the knee. So perhaps that's going to be the answer. But for now, some rest, some stretching (in a notoriously difficult area to stretch)... and some finger-crossing.

Well, I'm not running this weekend, anyway. I'm enjoying the contrast of 14-degree temperature to sit in the garden in the sun... and in the snow. Strange country.

The joy of gym

2009-04-05T18:25:00.002+01:00

Thank goodness I can still go to the gym (actually, thank goodness I can still walk normally and climb the stairs at work and go shopping and do everything apart from running, but this post is only about the gym so let's ignore all that other stuff).

I miss running quite quickly when I can't do it, so something as simple as going to the circuit training classes at the gym are almost becoming a lifeline. It's an addict thing. Got to get the endorphine buzz from somewhere.

I even noticed the beginnings of arm muscles in myself the other day. Now that would be a first.

Sandy 3 - 29 March 2009

2009-04-05T18:23:00.000+01:00

After my sage advice to the Three Counties guy at Milton Keynes (don't set off too fast), I received some useful advice of my own today from Neil Ward: If it hurts, stop.

We'd been talking about how we were doing, and my dodgy knee was mentioned. This would be its first test for a couple of weeks. So on a lovely sunnny morning, just after the clocks had gone forward, it was quite warm at the start of the Sandy 10. I decided I would start fairly slowly (although now I think about it, that's the best way to aim for a PB on this course anyway), and see how I went.

I didn't feel anything at all in my knee. For about 90 seconds. And then it felt a bit stiff. OK, that's not pain, so I'll carry on. After a mile we got to the sharp uphill (see Statto's blog - well, where else? - for the elevation profile) and I was quite happy to jog up that. Actually, as it happened, I was catching Statto up, so I obviously wasn't taking it as easy as I expected, but I felt fine. In fact, I noticed, my knee wasn't hurting at all. Hurrah!

At the top of the hill I met Sibbo and Shirley, doing excellent supporting work, and at two and a half miles were Astrid and Steve, out on a bike ride from Hitchin. Lucky they chose to come to Sandy. It was almost as if they knew we would be there.

I could see the 3 mile marker when my knee made itself known again. This time it was a sharp pain, and not one to ignore. I stopped. I walked. I waited. Then I jogged a bit. And it still hurt. I crossed 3 miles in not much more than 19 minutes, so I hadn't lost much time, but my race was over. A few more steps and I decided it would be a bit silly to carry on.

So for the first time ever, I dropped out of a race. I took my vest off (don't worry, I had a T-shirt underneath) to prevent any rival clubs seeing a stricken NHRR member, and tried to persuade all the rest of the NHRR members that I was going to be fine (they all asked as they ran past - what a nice club we are!).

And I went back to have a proper chat with the McKeowns, and wandered back with Pete and Mrs C, and found that if I jogged slowly, and restricted the movement in my knee, I could actually move OK. And I wasn't being overtaken all that much by runners in the 70-75 minute range. Damn, I thought. I could have carried on, and perhaps Lindsay wouldn't have beaten me. And I could have had one of those nice blue long-sleeved tops. (Actually, I'm sure if I asked nicely I would probably have been allowed one, but that wouldn't be right, would it?)

But no. Resting didn't fix my problem, so on to step 2. Let's see if Sharon can fix it.

An odd injury

2009-03-27T08:47:00.002Z

I'm injured again and I don't know why.

The MK half marathon went OK. I went for a jog the following day, and my right knee started to ache. But after a few minutes the ache went away again. I was so busy enjoying my run (because, due to a combination of too little daylight and too much work, this was the first time I'd been able to run after work and not need to stay under street lights) that I didn't think about it again.

The next day I ran at the club, and completed the speedwork session without any trouble. But it was jogging back to the club that my knee started to hurt again. And a few days later, on doing some circuits at the gym, it seemed that my knee hurt more when I was going slowly on it than when I was going fast.

So I don't know what's going on. But I've been trying the approach that's worked best for me in the past: leave it alone and it'll sort itself out. So I've done nothing for the last week... and hopefully I'll be able to get round Sandy on Sunday.

Milton Keynes Half - 8 March

2009-03-27T08:32:00.001Z

Milton Keynes Half - 8 March

Another fairly local race that I've never done before. It seemed an odd mix of seeming to be a big and small race, possibly because it wasn't organised by a running club.

The first thing we noticed - beyond the long queue of cars to reach the venue - was that there were no yellow signs guiding us there. But that didn't matter because we'd received detailed step-by-step instructions in the post.

The HQ was at the Open University campus, although everyone was crammed into a small reception area, so it was a good job the weather was good. There was a baggage area - but it was just the upstairs area of the HQ, and nothing was labelled, or attended. I heard afterwards that some people claimed their bags were stolen, which I suppose wouldn't have been difficult.

There were lots of arrows painted on the floor pointing the right direction - but there was a significant absence of marshalls at some vital points, which could have led to trouble (in fact, judging by some of the comments on the Runners World forum, some people did go wrong). Someone not far in front of me nearly missed a turn in the last mile until I shouted at him (not very competitive, I know, but my conscience wouldn't let me get away with anything else).

It was a good course for spectating, too, since we kept running near the HQ. There were even spectator maps designed for the supporters.

Overall, I enjoyed the race. It probably deserves its reputation of being a fast course, but the strong winds made that difficult this time. In particular, I remember seeing the 10 mile mark and preparing to look at my watch for a split time, and then not seeming to get any closer to it. The moment I got to the lamp post with the 10 mile sign on it, a huge gust of wind came along and I felt like I was going backwards! Statto reckons that the wind would have made about a minute's worth of difference, and who am I to argue with him?

Speaking of which... In the last mile I could see that I wasn't going to reach my 1:20 target and so gave up a bit. I crossed the finish line, not unhappy with 1:21. I only had enough time to stop and catch my breath when a cheery voice behind me said 'Hello, Gary!' I'd forgotten all about Statto. He hadn't eased off at all in the last mile - far from it - and finished only half a minute behind me. That could have been nasty. Forgetting he was there showed a shameful lack of respect, which I suppose I'm making amends for by mentioning it now, and I really will try not to let him finish anywhere near me in future!

And strangely, before the race (and this was all Martyn's fault) I got interviewed by someone from Three Counties Radio, who was running his first half marathon. Thankfully it wasn't live, and it probably won't be broadcast because I didn't make much sense. But I did give him the simplest, but best, piece of advice I know: don't set off too fast. Of course, you only ever realise that's good advice after you don't take it.

Team East Haddon XC - 1 March

2009-03-12T22:58:00.000Z

The final cross country proved a day of contrasts. The furthest distance to travel, for the shortest distance to run. As we drove up the M1 it got darker and damper - but the moment the race started the sun came out and it felt quite warm. The mood was gloomy too, before the race, but by the end of the day things had brightened considerably. I'd better explain.

Actually, it doesn't take much explaining. As we gathered in the sports hall before the race it was clear that we were going to struggle to field a complete men's team. Which set us grumbling about how useless all the absent squirrels were, of course. But we got ourselves to the start as normal.

I had a strange start to the race. The start line was at an angle to the course, so that the first corner was far closer to the right hand side of the start line than anywhere else. Naturally, I stood there. But nobody else did. So when the race started and I darted for the corner, I found I was almost alone. It took about a quarter of a mile before the fast boys overtook me, which was a very odd experience! But even then it was clear that other clubs were a bit light on runners too. Probably the best way to illustrate that is the fact that I came 7th. Yes, I felt like I'd had a good run, but normally I'd be about 20th.

The sandwiches and cakes afterwards were very good - in fact, they rivalled our own efforts, which is saying something. And it was just as well that it was sunny and warm outside, because we had a long time to wait before the results were ready (something about the software not being able to cope with the fact that we had a cancelled race). And this is where the mood changed. On the day it turned out that the men came 2nd (quality over quantity) and the ladies 3rd. And that was enough to confirm NHRR as 3rd overall, and the men as 3rd too, which was better than expected.

So there. A happy ending.

National Cross Country

2009-02-22T21:50:00.001Z

Well, we were lucky with the weather. After all the crazy conditions we've had recently, I was very pleasantly surprised to find Parliament Hill Fields bathed in warm sunshine. I can't remember the last time I could stand at the start of a race in shorts and vest and feel warm.

As expected, the course was tough: the usual hills and mud. It was actually less wet than it has been in previous years, so the mud was stickier, which made it even harder to get through. But unlike the 15k course for the Southerns, this was only (!) 12k, so we only did 2 large laps instead of 3 medium ones.

Oddly, I had more family than club members running (well, Lindsay's family, really). Lindsay, her mother, brother, sister and brother-in-law were all racing, and the only remaining Squirrels were Tash and Chris Priestley. Although Pete, Karen and Ollie were there to shout encouragement (I think that's what they were doing!) from the sidelines.

So, just like the Southerns, I didn't really have much way of telling if I was doing well or not. The only person I knew well enough to compare myself against was the aforementioned brother-in-law, and he smoothly overtook me after about 5k and proceeded to disappear off into the distance. And my energy levels started to fall, and I didn't enjoy the second lap very much at all.

Which made my thoughts start to take a negative turn. Why was I doing this? If I'd just stayed at home, it would have made absolutely no difference to the results. We couldn't put a team together for either the men's or ladies' races, for a national event only an hour from home. Why is our club getting so pathetic about cross country races? Did nobody think they could manage it? I know the name of the club is 'road runners', but that's not all we do. And I'm bored of the marathon-training excuses too: I've managed to work cross-country events into a marathon schedule before, and a bit of off-road running on softer ground is better for you than endlessly pounding around roads.

Humph.

Anyway, it appears I came 524th - coincidentally, the same position as Lindsay did. This wasn't so bad, since there were about 1500 people running, which was part of what makes the event such an experience in the first place.

Another cross country next week, then...

There snow cross country

2009-02-18T21:16:00.000Z

I have mixed feelings about the Ampthill cross country being cancelled. Or are we saying postponed? I don't fancy our chances of being able to reschedule it within the current season.

Firstly, disappointment. It's one of the best courses we do. And well-organised.

Next, confusion. What caused it? Frozen car parks? Soggy ground? I suppose if the council made the decision, they had to do it during office hours, even though a decision made on Saturday might have kept the race alive. And having 300 people do 2 laps of the park might have done too much damage if the ground is especially soft.

Finally, relief. I'm doing a half marathon in a few weeks, and I can't remember the last time I've run that far. So Sunday proved a useful chance to try it out, and get out on the country lanes for the first time in quite a while.

High point (apart from simply being out there): running on non-icy non-slippy roads, but running past fields covered in snow.

Low point: coming across a huge flooded section of the Charlton-Preston road, and being completely unable to avoid it. Cold wet feet from that point on.

A lot of catching up to do

2009-02-11T22:20:00.002Z

You know those jobs that you never get round to doing, and the longer you put them off the harder they are to do? Well, that's what it's been like trying to find time to get this blog back up to date. So I'll do it in very small chunks. Each of these would be a whole blog post on its own, but I never seem to find the time!

At the start of January we had a few days of snow. This was exciting at the time, but after February's much heavier snow it seems like nothing. Still, it was enough to cancel a Tuesday club night, apart from about 8 of us who ran a parlauff session around the cricket pitch, which was lots of fun. That was probably the first time I met our new speedy girl Rachel...

...who had won our cross-country event (when I didn't know who she was) and went on to come about 4th in the Herts XC. My thoughts on those races: our event was, as usual, very well organised*, and Santa's Grotto was especially fun. But a word of advice: if you ever have a stone in your cross-country shoes, do try to notice it before you're on the start line. I didn't have a good day at Watford at the Herts XC, although it was nice to run a course I've never seen before. But I was plodding a lot.

* Although Steve McKeown and I were trying to put up the gazebo, and had to stop when there were no plastic connectors for all the rods to fit into. They were last seen at Standalone. Does anyone know where they are? The gazebo is useless without them, obviously.

The Southern XC was quite fun too - very wet all the way round, pretty hilly, and only Lindsay and I there to represent the club. I started slowly, and sped up half way round, which felt really good, overtaking lots of people. But after looking at the results, I probably took it too easy early on. The funniest part of the race was right at the start, when the horde of a few hundred runners all set off. After a few seconds there were shouts of 'wa-hey!' from up ahead, and we soon found out what it was for as we stomped through a huge ankle-deep puddle, and splashed everyone up to their faces.

There seem to have been a lot of new people at the club recently, which is good. It could be the January "new year's resolution" effect, or the "I've got a place in the London Marathon" effect... but it also seems to be the result of some disagreements within FVS Tri. I've always thought this club was particularly friendly and welcoming, so if we gain new members because of that, then I think we deserve it.

There's been a lot of talk on the forum recently about running on treadmills. I'm not a fan, but when the streets are full of ice, as they have been for the last couple of weeks, they can prove very useful. My gym has a running club, and on Sunday morning its session was on the treadmills. We all formed into pairs, and one person ran 1k as fast as possible, while the other cycled on another machine. Then we swapped over. Half a dozen of those made for quite a fun session.

Which brings us up to date. Yesterday was the first time I've had a proper run from the club for what seems like ages (but it's only a couple of weeks). And even though there was still ice to avoid, it felt very good to be out.

Buntingford 10

2009-01-05T19:18:00.000Z

I entered this race too late, and got telephoned by a nice person from Royston Runners to explain this and wish me better luck next year. (It's not better luck I need, it's better organisation.) But since quite a few NHRR members dropped out late on, both Lindsay and I were able to get hold of numbers. Once we got to race HQ we were also able to get hold of chips, but the next conversation was a little like this:

where do we go to do a number transfer?
What do you mean?
We've taken over someone else's numbers, so we need to change the registrations.
That's OK, you don't need to do that.
But if we run as we are, we'll be running under the wrong names and mess up the results.
But you've got a number and it's paid for?
Yes.
Oh, well, don't worry about it.

Fortunately Karen spotted the Royston Runners chairperson, who directed us to The Man In The Van outside, who very quickly amended the database, so all was well. (Although with no audit trail, so I think I prefer the way we do it at Standalone, where number transfers are done by filling in a form.)

For some reason, every year I do this run I forget how difficult it is. The first three or four miles are quite hilly, and they always catch me out - and this year I had an aching leg to contend with. And it's usually cold, of course. But after getting thoroughly depressed for the first half of the race, and thinking that I was going to be extremely slow, the second half comes as a welcome relief, and things start improving. OK, I was never going to get close to an hour, but I was quite pleased when I finished in 61:04.

Earlier in the week Statto had said that if I was slower than about 61 minutes, then when he published the updated list of 'fastest 10 mile times over the last year', then he would be on top, rather than I. So I left the race thinking my time would be enough to keep me at the top of the list. But oh no - when Statto says 'about 61 minutes' he means... well, he means 61 minutes, since Statto's impressive 61:01 is now top of the list. So I'm going to have to be fit, fast and injury-free by the time of the Fred Hughes 10...

Training partners

2009-01-05T19:17:00.000Z

A few times recently I've commented how much I'm looking forward to getting back to training with what looks to be a promising little training group. By coincidence, I've trained with most of them individually over the last few weeks.

On a cold, wet, windy Saturday morning I met James, to go for an off-road slip-athon for an hour or so. It was the sort of weather I never would have chosen to go out running in, so it was a good thing that we'd arranged to meet previously. With leggings, long sleeves, hat and gloves, there was very little of me showing, and as I ran back home through Hitchin town centre, I saw shoppers struggling with huge Woolworths carrier bags and wondered who looked sillier.

The following week the training schedule said we were to do 800m reps at Sainsbury's... but on the night there was hardly anyone at the club. But Ollie said he'd arranged to meet Sibbo at the 800m venue, so I went with him. It was very strange doing a speedwork session with only the two of us there, but it was quite fun to do so. Sibbo never showed up.

And a similar thing happened on the Tuesday before Christmas. While half the runners who turned up on the night went on their 'bling run', Statto wanted to stick to what it said on the schedule, which was the 2 x 3 mile session down and up the A505. Unfortunately a muscle in my leg started giving me trouble on the first of the runs, so I bailed out of the second. (And as it happened, without the pleasure of my company Statto felt he couldn't go on either, so it was quite a short session in the end.)

Now if only we could all train at the same time...

Nothing to report

2008-12-12T19:16:00.002Z

It's been a whole month since I last wrote anything on this blog. If there are any regular bleeders out there, then sorry (and if not, then I don't need to say anything anyway).

But there's a fairly good reason why I haven't written anything - there's been so little to write. So, I can do it in summary form. Since last month I've:

- had about three different colds (the first week after the marathon was expected and pretty much guaranteed - it's kind of the price that everyone pays after running a marathon)

- been too busy at work (and with putting together the NHRR quiz on 21 November, which seemed to go well)

- been on holiday for a week to Madeira (very nice - there aren't many people I wouldn't recommend it to)

- done almost no training (mainly due to the above), but done 4 races:

1) The cross-country at Wing. I remember this in the past as being a race where we ran in a field alongside excitable horses. This year we ran in the same field as excitable cows, which was rather more scary. At one point I decided it was in my best interests simply to stop and wait for a couple of the herd to get out of my way. I ran OK, but was affected by a cold. If my legs had done as much running as my nose, things would have been far better.

2) The first Stevenage 5k. This wasn't long after the marathon, so I was quite pleased to be able to get round in under 18 minutes. It was a new course - hilly but not necessarily slower than the old course, and Ollie was pleased to beat me in a photo finish... even though, I claim, I wasn't really racing that night (until that sprint finish, of course, which I lost)

3) The second Stevenage 5k. I felt quite good for this one, and went under 17:30 (of course, last year I went under 17:00, but that was never going to happen this year). Ollie was back in his rightful place, a few seconds behind me.

4) The third Stevenage 5k (spot a trend?). Very cold! This time I thought I'd go for the tactic of 'go off as fast as I can and see how long I can keep it up'. Interestingly, this made absolutely no difference, and my split times for each kilometre were almost exactly the same as race 2. No sign of Ollie this time - he tweaked his ankle early on and didn't really recover.

Why all the mention of Ollie? Well he started it. He's getting very competitive, and seems to take pleasure in running faster than me. Which cannot be allowed, clearly. To be honest, it won't just be him - with James and me getting back into training, and Ollie and Statto improving all the time, there could be a fun little rivalry going on. Now if only we were all Steve McKeown's speed that would be even more exciting!

Private investigations

2008-11-12T18:08:00.002Z

I thought I'd try a bit of internet investigation to see if I could clear up what had happened to my result for the marathon. The most suspicious thing was receiving an email link to the various photos that had been taken throughout the race - quite a lot of me plodding around the streets of New York, and even some near the finish line. These had (I think) been taken by human beings, then tagged with my race number (what a boring job that must be - unless computers are good at reading numbers from photos now), and assigned to me. All very well.

But there were a few photos not containing me at all. One was of a chip mat somewhere on the course, and another was at the finish. I think these were taken automatically, and assigned to me based on when my chip crossed the mat. But of course, it seems that 'my chip' was not mine at all.

So, I thought, if you can search the photo database by race number, I can try and find a photo assigned to someone else which shows me crossing the line. I reckon I crossed the line when the clock said 2:55:30-something. But after lots of trial and error, no luck. The best I could find was what I'm convinced is my right leg and shoulder...

(don't believe me? Have a look at the picture in this list where the clock's showing 2:55:29!)

...but I can't think it would convince a jury. Although if they run it through the computers they have in Spooks or in the Bond films, I'm sure they'd be able to reconstruct the full picture of me (and probably tell who my known associates were and what I had for breakfast).

So I gave up on that approach. I don't think there is a picture of me at the finish line. There probably would be if I'd have crossed the line right in the middle of the arch, but I think I was all the way over to one side, so I'm probably out of shot.

But what's this? Tash texted me this morning to tell me that the results on the website have changed - and now they have me down as 2:54:52! Well, that's enough to put a smile on even my face... until my conscience takes over. It's more accurate, certainly: it's probably now correct to within 10 seconds, rather than 5 minutes. And the split times look a lot more like my race (not the nice even but slow splits I was given before). But do I think I was that fast? Well, not quite. But would I have accepted the result if I thought it was wrong in the other direction? Probably. So I think I'll leave this alone now.

The NY post-mortem

2008-11-07T19:43:00.002Z

It's probably safest to write this blog a few days removed from the events, since yes, I was being ungrateful and miserable and disappointed at having run one of the world's iconic events in my fastest time ever. No pleasing some people. I've calmed down now, though.

Lindsay has done most of the talking for me (nothing new there then), so I'll try just to write about things she didn't cover. If I can remember. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend (my first time in New York).

Yes, we might have done a little too much walking on the Friday - but we were being tourists, after all. It was quite a spectacular introduction to the city to walk along the Brooklyn Bridge, both because of the building itself and the views looking back at Manhattan. Timing our trip on the Staten Island Ferry at sunset was a very happy accident. After spending an hour or two nearly as high as we could get in New York, we even managed two or three hours just sitting down playing cards - a proper rest at last!

The pasta party on the Saturday evening was an impressive display of queue management. It was held in Tavern on the Green, in Central Park, and there were about a dozen separate rooms all containing tables full of pasta dishes, bread, energy drinks, water, fruit... Yet we seemed to get seamlessly guided through the maze of the building to an available room with empty seats without really noticing what was going on. The organisation to get everyone to the start line was equally impressive - they must have hired the city's entire supply of coaches to get us all there!

OK, the race. I enjoyed it, better get that clear. I didn't enjoy the 3-hour wait in the cold before the start, but I was warned... I just didn't take enough extra clothing. And there didn't seem to be anywhere to hide from the wind. We'd had porridge and bananas for breakfast at about 5am, and taken along some more bananas and cereal bars to eat before the start at 9:40am. There were also bagels available in the start areas, so probably no danger of running out of food... just awkward wondering exactly when to eat it.

The cold weather at least made it easy for me to carry my jelly babies with me, in my gloves. I didn't want to risk trying out an unknown energy drink too early in the race, in case it disagreed with me. I probably didn't need to worry, but better safe than sorry. There was also less need to drink water, so I only did every 2 or 3 miles for most of the race.

And things were fine for about 19 miles, I think. I started a little too fast: mainly 6:20s rather than 6:30s, and actually that was when I was consciously trying to slow myself down. Which just proves I'm not very good at pacing, really. But of course it didn't feel too fast (it never does).

It was fun experiencing the huge crowds all the way round the course - with only a couple of areas where the support was thin. The roads were generally very wide, so even from the start there was little danger of tripping over other runners' heels. Although the state of the roads left a lot to be desired - I even nearly put my foot in a foot-sized hole, which could have been very nasty. This was worst in The Bronx, which was where it also started to get hilly, with a few more corners in the course, and 20 miles of running in the legs. And yes, I got caught out, like everyone else seems to, with the terrain coming up to and within Central Park.

I had thought I'd be able to hold on to my times enough to still finish quicker than 2:55... but I was agonisingly wrong. Even trying to use my muscles differently to give other muscles a rest didn't seem to be helping, and when the signs said '200 yards to go', that coincided with the gradient turning sharply uphill - not at all what I needed!

So I eventually reached the finish line, slowed down, stopped my watch (I hope it was in that order, but I really can't remember!). I looked at it, and was absolutely gutted to see it said 2:55:03.

And then I had to walk MILES to get my bag back. They'd arranged the runnners in order of expected finishing time (for the start, of course), and those with the lowest numbers had furthest to walk to get their bags (which makes sense, in a way). But it did mean I had to walk past van 49 (49000 to 49999), van 48 (48000 to 48999), van 47... all the way to van 4. I had to stop for a rest at least three times. All of that gave me even more time to despair about what I was going to tell everyone when I saw them again.

Incidentally, this baggage system led to about the only case of bad organisation for the whole weekend - if everyone finishes as expected, all the finishers will be using the same baggage vans at the same time. When Lindsay got to the baggage area, it was completely packed and very hard to get through.

Anyway, we both managed to get ourselves safely back to the hotel, Lindsay happy and me not. If I'd have been 2 or 3 minutes quicker I'd have been fine. Even 3 seconds quicker would have been something. Yes, it was a PB, but over that kind of distance, if you break your PB and the hours and minutes still say the same time, what exactly was the point?

Greedy? Me?

The next morning we found an internet connection outside New York Public Library, and I excitedly tried to find my official time, to see if it had shaved off the offending 3 seconds. I was more than disappointed to find that my official time was recorded as being FOUR AND A HALF MINUTES SLOWER! It even had a set of 5k split times... all of which were kind of close to mine, but not mine. It's not even the standard problem of recording a gun time instead of a chip time (I crossed the line after about 30 seconds) - I can only assume that my chip has been mixed up with someone else's.

What's even worse, of course, is that I have no evidence at all to back me up. For all you know, I could be making all this up. (The athlete doth protest too much, methinks.)

Ah well - that's all in the past now. I'm having a week or so off, then I'll see if I can run without my legs complaining. Then what? I haven't been PB-hunting for a year or two. No point letting the training go completely to waste...

New York secrets

2008-10-29T16:46:00.003Z

You may have read, or heard, that Lindsay's blog will automatically keep you informed of her progress in the New York marathon on Sunday, since whenever she goes over a chip mat her details will be automatically emailed to the blog.

As much as I like technology, what a horrible idea!

It might just be my personality, but given the choice I'd rather nobody knew that I was doing a marathon at all (except perhaps until afterwards). It's bad enough that anyone can go to the marathon website and investigate my progress for themselves; I'm certainly not going to spoon-feed it to everyone! It just feels like it's piling on added unwanted pressure on my performance (I've got enough of that on my own!).

But, especially after last night's snow-curtailed training session, everyone knows where we're going this weekend and what we're up to. And thank you for all your good wishes! Thanks also for all the suggestions on what to do when we're there, and if only hope that it will involve a lot less shopping than you suggest. Anyway, with the pound not so strong against the dollar, that's another good excuse to give the shops a miss (although it's impossible to make financial predictions like that at the moment without them being proved wrong five minutes later). I'm just glad we paid for the flights and hotel in February...

Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound: if you insist on tracking my progress, I'll let you know what to look out for.

I'll try to go at 6:30 pace, which should be enough to target 2:50 overall. Now, I already know that that's a bit ambitious, but you don't get many chances at these, do you? So if I consistently go any faster than that for the first... 20 miles, say, then I deserve to get my wrists slapped, because that'll only lead to trouble. After that, though, anything goes. Hopefully I can keep it up, but if not, then hopefully I won't lose so much time that I end up any slower that 2:55. Well, 2:55:57 at the very worst.

So now you can decide when you see me again if New York is a topic which is likely to be out of bounds!

Dunstable XC

2008-10-28T08:30:00.004Z

Speaking of getting injured at the last minute, I've never really had that much patience for people who avoid cross-country purely on the basis that they think they're going to get injured. That's too long a phrase to keep using; I need a shorter one. I know: wimps.

Yes, I'm sure someone will be able to give an example of someone who got injured at the last minute by doing cross country. But Lindsay nearly got a career-ending injury just by chatting with Claire Messenger at the ball, when Claire's high heels got too close to Lindsay's toes. Over the weekend I had a sore back that I presumably developed in my sleep. So these things can happen at any time.

That was the rational part of my head talking. Halfway round the muddy, slippery, hilly Dunstable XC, I started to have some sympathy for the wimps, seeing that one extra slip could pull a muscle, or one concealed rut could twist my ankle. But I wasn't going at top speed, and I wouldn't have started if I felt I had any injuries beforehand. And anyway, half my training runs are off-road, so if something had happened during the race I would have been in a better position than training - at least have had someone to pick me up. Hmm, no, perhaps I'd have just had Sibbo step on me.

One other thing - for the first time in about 10 years at the club, I managed to forget my race number, and had to make do with a last-minute home-made one. Of course this was never going to last the morning, so I had to hold it in my hand after the first mile. Which one do you think I should use next time?

I enjoyed the event. I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so wet, and I'd have done even better if it was twice as long! It was obvious as I went round that the hills and the distance weren't bothering me much, but I simply couldn't go any faster. I'd already been to the HQ last month for the Dunstable 20 mile trail run, but what I hadn't noticed about the showers then was that there were only 4 of them - so queues developed quite fast. Speaking of queuing, the food queue didn't clear until after the announcement of the results - which meant the last people to eat missed out on the scores, but the people who heard the results missed out on the spare sandwiches on offer! Speaking of the results, they were better than I expected, especially considering three of our fastest ladies were unavailable.

One of those ladies was marathon-training-buddy Tash, of course, since she did the Basel marathon at the weekend. (Or Basle - I guess that's the problem with having two official languages.) Anyway, I hope she's happy with her PB of under 3:05, even though it wasn't the holy grail of under 3:00 (which, as far as our club is concerned, only Paula has managed so far).

It's time to get scared now - the New York marathon is my Next Thing.

Catching up and looking forward

2008-10-28T08:27:00.000Z

I've not written here for a couple of weeks, so here's a quick catch-up: the holiday on the canal boat was very relaxing. I only went running a couple of times that week, which was probably taking tapering a bit too far, but should certainly have served as a recovery.

Immediately after the holiday was the ball. With our old venue being turned into a Travelodge, we'll hopefully use Letchworth Hall Hotel more in future. It worked very well (the food especially!).

I tried going for a long(ish) run the day after the ball. Then wished I hadn't. Half way round I ran out of energy, so there was a lot of walking involved. Not the best confidence boost for a couple of weeks before a marathon. (But with a good excuse.)

I didn't have a good excuse to skip last week's Tuesday speed session. It was 2 x 3 miles, and if left to my own devices I'd probably have done a 6-mile run anyway. It made me look forward to the time - hopefully soon - when I'm recovered from the marathon and back to training with everyone else. It was fun to try and keep up with Statto and Ollie, and now James is back from his mountaineering expedition he'll be back in the group too. Although (for injury fans) I was a bit concerned that I was pushing my calf muscles a bit too hard... hopefully all this means is that my real injury has recovered now, and I'm just getting paranoid about anything else going wrong at the last minute.

Friction burns

2008-10-11T08:33:00.003+01:00

Regular blog readers (bleeders?) will no doubt be waiting for news on my latest injury. Well, you may be disappointed but I'm pleased to say that I've had a good week as far as training was concerned. A bit interrupted by events - my 'proper' long Sunday run became a Saturday run because of Standalone, and my 'half' long Wednesday run became a solo effort from the club on Tuesday because I was away with work for a couple of days. Finally, we're going on holiday today (yay! a week buzzing around on a canal near Birmingham!), so I had to squeeze in another long run on Friday night. So now I'm very much bored of running around Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock in the dark, but I'm sure my hips, knees and calves will stop aching if I only leave them alone for a little while.

And with 3 weeks to go until the New York marathon, I've passed the peak of my long training in any case. Although, as my coach reminded me, that just means I've got to do 16 miles next weekend instead of 22. Perhaps it'll feel like a short run.

Oh all right, injury-addicts, I have got a new one for you (and a new one on me): When I came back from the run last night I had an unusual chafing pain. No need to be squeamish, it was my knees. It appears I'm getting so tired, and my running style getting so poor, that my knees are starting to rub together. Rubbish.

You are not alone

2008-10-06T18:34:00.002+01:00

And that's Standalone over for another year. Despite the first rain in 21 years (and it seemed the weather was making up for that by dumping it all on us in one day), our spirits were not dampened and the whole event was a success.

I always think of the Saturday session at Standalone as being the goodie-bag production line, but this year I wasn't involved in that at all. Instead, I helped put up the various gazebos we needed for the information desk, chip collection and goodie-bag pick-up. Since I'm tall, I feel I added something useful to this process (I was going to say something unique, but Duncan was there too, and he can reach as far as I can!). I'm also impressed at how much gazebo technology has advanced over the years - once you work out what all the telescopic poles do, and where all the velcro goes, it's really easy. (Gazebo technology? Of course such a thing exists!)

Unfortunately, it was too windy to risk putting all the canvas on the frames on Saturday (otherwise we might not know where to look for them the next day). So my first Sunday task was to finish that job. Then I spent an hour or two in one of the gazebos handing out numbers and chips, before going to the start line to stop the runners getting too close to the chip mats before the race started. Then a bit of tidying up in the 'quiet' half-hour before the runners came back, then a spell (in the dry!) helping Karen Franklin give everyone their kit bags back. And finally, when all that was over, I joined the general army of fluorescent yellow ants, working away at dismantling all the things we'd spent so long constructing!

I'm glad I didn't have to run. At the moment I'm about Ollie-Statto-Northy speed*, and since they all ran well, I wouldn't have added anything useful there. In fact, both the NHRR men's and ladies' teams won the overall event, which was a fantastic performance. It's just a shame I didn't see any of it!

I'm also glad I wasn't marshalling - it was more fun to have lots of jobs to do rather than stay in the same place all morning. And I was the trail cyclist one year and got very bored, so well done Sally for (dare I say) enjoying it this time round!

Looking at the feedback, the overwhelming response seems to be that everyone likes the enthusiasm, organisation and friendliness of Standalone, especially from the marshals. I think as long as we can keep that side of things up to standard, runners will keep enjoying themselves and keep coming back.

There are things we can improve, of course. The most immediate problem at number-collection was a lack of pins, and from what I understand, the race memento was a bag, but we also had some extra stuff to give out on behalf of the sponsors (not enough for every bag) so people were unhappy with the contents of their bags. Funny, if we'd left them empty then people would probably have been happier! During peak time at bag collection (10:50 to 11:00 maybe?) we could have done with a few extra bodies at the bag collection, too.

If you've got your own opinions about anything that went wrong, the NHRR committee in general and race committee in particular need to hear about them. It'll help to make next year's race better, so don't keep your suggestions to yourself.

*I mean over 10k. I hope I'd be able to out-run them over 26 miles. Only 4 weeks before I have to find out... back to the normal marathon blogging soon!

Not worried about blisters

2008-10-02T08:28:00.002+01:00

The Dunstable Downs 20 mile challenge is an off-road trail event, where you are given a route description and... basically left to your own devices. Anyone who's done the Fairlands Valley Challenge will already have an idea what this event was all about - although the scenery was better here (well, certainly on the Downs themselves) and there was more help from road markings and signs. Every 5 miles there was a checkpoint with water, sweets and chopped-up Mars bars - just the thing.

For the first few miles I ran with Tash and Mike Mello, and after a while Mike dropped behind. We started in the mist, so I probably looked stupid in my sunglasses, but after a few minutes the sun came through and it was a lovely day. The route went south from Dunstable, past Whipsnade animal park and on across lots of fields - some of them ploughed, and through a lot of woods (usually a good way to get me lost). Fortunately there was a group of a similar speed running with us, including someone from Dunstable Runners who knew the course, so it wasn't essential to do too much navigating. There were about 120 people at the start, all running together at first (of course), so I suppose if you didn't want to follow the route description you'd probably have found a way to avoid it. However, following the route was half the fun, and I always wondered what might happen if I lost them and had to find my own way, so I made sure I always knew where I was.

Towards the end we reversed our earlier steps and went across the Downs again, now dry, sunny and full of families flying kites and watching gliders. It looks like a fun place to go and visit, if only we didn't have to drive through Luton and Dunstable to get there.

Hopefully I can blame the terrain and the Mars bar stops for only managing 8-minute miling. I wasn't really bothered about the time; this was more a good way of sneaking a 20 mile training run past my brain while it was distracted with route-finding. Oh, and Tash won! Well, she was the first lady back - it wasn't as if there were any prizes.

The showers at Dunstable Town Football Club were good, and there were cups of tea, sandwiches and cake available free after the run - which will probably be the case in a few weeks when the same venue will host our first cross-country race of the season. It was still sunny after I'd eaten, so I got a folding chair out of the car, took it to the finish area and sat there reading a paper until Lindsay came back. Very pleasant, actually!

Imaginary injury watch: just for fun, it was my left leg that decided to be overly sore today, but only for the first 5 miles or so, or when going down steep hills. Otherwise it's just the marathon niggles I'm starting to get used to. With all the mist on the Downs, my shoes and socks got wet early on, and by the end I had blisters on my feet. But I'm not going to worry about blisters - at least I know how they're caused and I can see for myself how they're healing. The morning after this race, I got a new pain in my ankle - probably some stabilising muscles complaining. It wouldn't be the same if I didn't have anything to complain about.

A fortnight of improvement

2008-09-26T17:32:00.002+01:00

My initial problem - my seized-up calf muscles - seems to be pretty much solved. Rest, ice, stretching and massage seem to have got them moving again. They're still not 100%, but I can move fast enough (i.e. not very fast) to continue marathon training. Although I've had to pull out of running Standalone because it would be useless to our team to try and get round at my current pace.

But now my right leg complains in other ways. My knee aches a lot, although it seems to be in a different place every day. It makes so little sense that I'm wondering if it's psychological.

The biggest success was when I managed to complete an 18-mile training run with Tash last weekend. It's a good job she suggested it, really, since both of us would have struggled to get ourselves motivated individually. My knee was hurting so much after 3 miles that I would have turned round and gone home, but that would have left Tash on unfamiliar country lanes south of Hitchin, so instead we just slowed down further. That seemed to do the trick. In fact, after 17 miles my body felt better than it had at the start (must be those endorphins they keep talking about - probably just blocking the pain!).

I've also noticed that the extra training has got me eating like a pig again. Ah well, food is good.

I'm getting to the stage where I'm looking forward to the end of marathon training. Coming back from training runs and limping around the house is losing its appeal. I would have complained to my coach about this yesterday, but she was cooking dinner and struggling with her own new injury at the time, so it would have been a bit insensitive, really. On the plus side, our latest theory that only one of us is ever training properly at any time must mean that I'll be on top form until her ankle gets better!

This had better not be one of those 'commentator's curse' moments, because I'm just off out for a run...

Grunty Fen Half Marathon

2008-09-15T21:40:00.003+01:00

Since last week I've done no training. So:

- I've been in a bad mood
- I'm wondering how many weeks of marathon training I've lost
- My leg didn't seem to be getting any better

On the other hand:

- I've had to do far less washing.

I went to Sharon for a massage on Thursday, and she did a pretty good job of attacking all the built-up rubbish in my calf. And found a few other spots to apply pain to, too - she's good like that. But all the fresh mini-bruising meant a couple more days of rest were advisable.

So, since we'd entered already and Lindsay's training is going well, we turned up for the Grunty Fen Half Marathon and found it held on a lovely warm sunny morning. I had no idea whether I'd be able to run at all, so the first test was jogging from the car to the race HQ: it took 30 seconds and resulted in no pain, so that was a good start.

On looking at the course map, I found that this was a two-lap course, with the first lap only 5 miles. So I realised I could start, and never be much more than 2 miles from home if things went wrong.

The start: I set off with Lindsay, Martyn and Rachel near the back of the field, and jogged slowly on. It was unusual enough to start at the back, so I wasn't used to having to move in procession for the first 5 minutes. And listen to the entire recording of the theme to Chariots of Fire (is anyone else bored of hearing that at races?)

2.5 miles: Still no pain. And at this point it's easier to go on than go back, so I'm definitely going to complete 5 miles in some manner.

5 miles: I'm back. In one piece. Well, I may as well carry on.

Half way: a marshal / timekeeper was shouting out times, and I'd got there in just under 47 minutes.

8 miles: My subconscious mind must have told my legs that this was the most awkward point on the route, that if I had to stop now I was about at the furthest point away from the HQ. So my legs decided to ache a little. My conscious mind took over and told my legs to shut up.

9 miles: I started seeing people I knew - Alan Jones, Paul Kelly and Mike Mello. I had a few cheery words with them before pressing on.

10 miles: Now my legs really were starting to get tired. But only tired, nothing worse. Occasionally I'd have a few steps where I'd lose my running style, and work my muscles in the wrong way, but I could get on top of that without too much trouble.

The end: Wow. I made it. That was a lot more than I was expecting. Adrian Sherwood and Richard Thackeray were already there, and I got there in about 1:31, so the second half was nicely quicker than the first. A bit of stretching and I could walk with only a slight limp.

So hopefully things will be OK from now on.

Oh yes, the race. Well organised, and I was especially impressed with everything being online, from entering through its own system (no paying an extra £1.50 through Runners World) and paying with PayPal, to the emailed information, and picking up your race number on the day - something Standalone should aspire to. Lots of marshals and water stations and sponges (and the marshal at 10 miles was especially noisy and cheerful, and probably used up more energy than I did!). The only potential problem is the course itself. It was fine this year, since there was only a slight breeze and the sun was shining. But I have done this before when it's been blowing a gale, and out on the fens there really is nowhere to hide. Still, it's flat as a pancake, so could be a potential PB course, if that suits your style.

Swineshead 10

2008-09-08T22:16:00.000+01:00

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.

Ouch

2008-09-04T19:43:00.000+01:00

What's the best thing to do when, 3 miles into an 8 mile training run, you get a pain in your calf muscle? OK, trick question, I know, since the correct answer could be anything between 'completely ignore it' through 'stretch it a bit and see how you go' to 'stop immediately and go home'. You can only really tell with experience and hindsight. Experience: well, luckily enough, I don't get injured all that often. Perhaps that's because I never train all that much! It does mean that in most of my experience, those niggles in your legs don't mean much. Hindsight: perhaps I should have abandoned the run instead of what I did, which was carry on (carefully). It hurts now.

So I've hit my first problem with marathon training (or second, if you count constantly being in unfamiliar places when needing to do long runs). If I stop training on it for a few days, maybe it will have recovered in time for the Swineshead 10 on Sunday. I was looking forward to that.

And I've been thinking recently it's about time I started seeing Sharon for massages again. This'll remind me, I suppose...

How's it going?

2008-08-18T20:38:00.002+01:00

Since I mentioned marathon training on the blog and forum, some people have been asking me how I've been getting on. Fairly well so far, and thanks for asking! Obviously someone reads this after all.

I've only been going for 2 weeks, though, and at first it was very much a shock to the system. I was exhausted after the first week, but managed some enforced recovery in and around a hotel swimming pool in the south of France, when we went out there for a wedding. That caused its own problems, of course, since I couldn't manage a long Sunday morning run when a) I had no idea where any of the roads went, and b) we didn't even leave the wedding until 3am, so Sunday morning didn't even exist.The solution to that problem was to go for a 5 mile run (Lindsay's already blogged this, so I'll steal her link ) before leaving France on the Monday, then do another 13 back home. I hope that did me some good, because I really didn't feel great doing it.

I had a similar problem this weekend - after another wedding (and not the last this month), I was at the in-laws with no real idea about suitable long routes to get through 18 miles. However, I was shown an 8-mile loop by brother-in-law Simon, so a couple of laps of that with some extra bits added was probably enough (I don't want to measure it and find out it was short).

But probably the best thing to come out of the marathon training is a little Wednesday night training group: me, Tash and James running around the country lanes south of Hitchin (although probably not for much longer, with the evenings drawing in). James isn't training for a marathon, just (even more) running fitness. Tash is probably training for a marathon, if she'd ever work out which marathon she wants to do...

Day One

2008-08-03T22:09:00.002+01:00

During our holiday last week, Lindsay (both wife and coach) came up with our marathon training schedules for the next 3 months, before the New York Marathon. (For the story about how we ended up in the New York marathon in the first place, see Lindsay's blog.

"Do you think you can run 16 miles at 8-minute mile pace at the moment?", she asked. Well, there were only 2 problems with that question - firstly, I don't think I've run that far since the last time I did a marathon about 16 months ago, and secondly I rarely have any idea about what pace I'm running, unless I've got mile markers to help me.

"What happens if I say no?" I asked.

"Well, then your marathon training schedule needs to start 2 weeks ago."

So, back from holiday, I thought I'd better get going. Luckily Northy had already arranged the usual Sunday run from the club, and the forum told me that Kevin Ferry (back on a flying visit from Oz) and Tash (hopfully also doing New York) were going to be there too. Stewart Bryant and Richard Thackeray made up our complete set, and we set off in the sunshine towards Weston. After half an hour we were subjected to a heavy downpour, which was actually quite refreshing, then the sun came out for the rest of our run. We had to extend the route a couple of times to get the whole distance in (even for those of us not training for a marathon - which was unnecessarily keen for some of them), but I was pleased to get all the way round without too much trouble.

Good job there was a Grand Prix on in the afternoon, though. I wasn't fit for anything more than sitting on the sofa with my feet up. 13 weeks to go...

Fairlands Relays

2008-07-25T09:39:00.002+01:00

Relays! These are fun, as long as you don't have to organise anything about them.

As I've said in the past, this is the kind of event where the team captains have a lot of work to do - picking the best teams possible, of course, but there's all the stress about wondering who is actually going to turn up (whether they've said they will or not), registering the teams, choosing their running order, giving out the numbers, taking the entrance fees... So since I've had to do that for the last three years, it was very refreshing just to be able to turn up and run!

All the organisation was done by men's captain Sibbo and stand-in ladies' captain Karen (since Melissa was unavailable), and they did a good job of it. I was sent out on the first leg, which was a new experience for me - it's the one part of the race that doesn't feel like a relay at all. It's also a bit tricky at the start, with all the teams negotiating a couple of tight turns in a crowd (that'll be my excuse for losing a few seconds... James!). And with the legs only 3km in length, it's more like one rep of a training session than a race in itself... and least compared to our normal race distances.

So it was actually quite fun to go again. One team was incomplete, so Karen asked Lindsay and me if we'd like to finish it off. So after a little spectating to see how everyone else was doing (very difficult if you haven't kept track of who is in which team), I took over from Karen to run the D leg of team 111. This was more fun than the first time round - there were people to catch! (No more shall be said about the child who overtook me halfway round...) And surprisingly, I only ran about 20 seconds slower the second time than the first... at least, that's what my watch said. Unfortunately when I looked at the official results our team was labelled as Royston and had most of the leg times unrecorded. I passed the imaginary baton on to Lindsay, who finished her second leg of the night.

What I used to beat myself up over when I was choosing the teams, apart from considerations such as entering county teams or vet teams, was if I'd picked the right people. Since most of our fastest runners were unavailable, it was 'simply' a matter of Sibbo picking the 5 fastest men for the A team - and with me, Pete Scrowther, James Atkins, Tim Street and recently-returned-from-injury Nick Beresford, this was almost the perfect choice - only Pete Northover and Ollie Saville would have improved our time by only about 20 seconds. Paula, Jane and Tash were our speedy ladies who finished 4th - although my sloppy spectating thought they were 2nd. But then I thought the person Tash was having a sprint finish with was a little girl, and therefore a direct competitor, rather than a little boy with long blonde hair (another child - grrr). I think I'll stick to the competing rather than the spectating.

The mob match - 16 July

2008-07-25T09:13:00.002+01:00

After the main competition of the midweek league, where both divisions run their own competitions, comes the Mob Match, a single race where all the clubs race against each other to see who's the best. Good in theory, but some clubs, ours included, never really takes part fully.

It makes sense, though. We spend so much effort trying to get as many runners as possible out for, for want of a better phrase, The Races That Matter, that it's asking a bit much to drag everyone to this one, too. I suppose it's a bit far for our club to travel to, too - we don't often have to go inside the M25 for a run.

A shame, in this case. Trent Park is quite pleasant, especially on such a sunny evening as this was, and the 20 or so of us who took part enjoyed it. I'd woken up that morning with a cold, and wouldn't have gone at all if I hadn't been due to hand out the MWL trophies after the race (a duty not in the job description of treasurer of the midweek league, but fun anyway).

Both the men and ladies came 6th on the night - nothing spectacular. But there was a collection of NHRR trophies from the league to give out:

Steve McKeown: 4th overall
Stuart Smithers: 2nd V60
Don Powell: 1st V70
Paula Adams: 1st overall and 1st V35
Jo Summers: 2nd V35
Astrid McKeown: 3rd V35

And for those who weren't there on the night, those awards will be coming to a club night near you soon!

MWL4: 'If Only' territory

2008-07-09T21:03:00.002+01:00

Bit of a delay between this race and writing about it: sorry, been too busy with going to Wimbledon to see the tennis, going to Wales to walk up a load of hills, getting a cold and then recovering from all of the above. Breaking the laptop didn't help, either.

So all the excitement I would have written about has evaporated by now. Which is a shame, because it's worth writing down that we all did tremendously well in the last midweek league race. This was clearly helped by the return of Neil Miller, who finished second even while injured: he could see he wasn't going to win, but would comfortably beat 3rd place (which turned out to be Steve McK - a very impressive run), so every so often he stopped to stretch, until 3rd place caught him up, at which point he'd race off again. Fantastic. Also fantastic were the ladies, taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, and - unsurprisingly - winning the ladies' race.

Of course, with this being our home race, it wasn't just the running we had to worry about - there was the course to arrange and sign, food to prepare and marshals to organise. I won't go on about it (it's difficult to, since I mainly saw it from a running point of view), but as far as I can tell it all went really well. Although something must have gone wrong with the marshals' briefing, since only about a quarter of them were cheering loudly for NHRR. And that's not counting the marshals that FVS kindly supplied.

FVS seemed a bit light on fast runners, which could have been for any number of reasons. Possibly they thought they didn't have to bother, since their Comet report after race 3 was all about how they were guaranteed promotion even before the final race, which put my back up a bit, especially since it wasn't true. Although I don't know whether it was the perceived arrogance or abuse of maths that bothered me the most. Actually, now I think about it, it is the maths - we'd have been proud if it was us in that strong a position. It was clear from the start that Shaftesbury Barnet hadn't really turned up either - and the results showed that they ended up down in 4th place, behind the men from Harlow.

Ah yes, the results. They came out after midnight, and there were plenty of people still up and waiting to see them. Unfortunately they weren't quite what we wanted to see. We'd regained the match point we lost in the last event, so it was all down to 'goal difference' again... but we hadn't quite managed enough. 18 points was the margin in the end - firmly in 'if only' territory. There are so many examples of how it could have all been different if only thingummybob hadn't been stuck at work, or on holiday, or injured. It wouldn't take too many cases of runners coming a few places lower than they should have done to make up the difference, too.

1 Fairlands Valley Spartans 1864 49
2 North Herts Road Runners 1882 49
3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 2672 32
4 Harlow Running Club 2933 31
5 Bishops Stortford 3602 30
6 Broxbourne Runners 4969 19
7 Herts Phoenix 4915 14

But there's no point feeling guilty, or dwelling on what might have been. We got promoted - hurrah! - and get to race in the big league again next season, against Garden City Runners, St Albans, Orion and Barnet.

And Spartans, of course.

A trip to the city

2008-06-23T13:47:00.001+01:00

Since the company I work for recently introduced flexitime to my working conditions, I decided a good use of this month's bonus day off would be to do the Serpentine 'last Friday of the month' 5k. OK, it wasn't on the last Friday of the month this time, but that was an enforced change this month due to Nelson Mandela's birthday celebrations in Hyde Park on this event's normal running date.

I got the train from Hitchin, got a bus across the city (so I could look out of the windows, unlike travelling by Tube) and found the bandstand which acted as the race HQ - but not before I met Anna Priestley, who had also travelled from home to come to the race. As we waited for the regular runners to turn up (which they do at the last minute) we wondered what we were doing there... not in a negative way - but why travel specially from North Hertfordshire just to run round a park? Still, it was a lovely sunny day, so I was very much enjoying being there rather than at work.

The route - you'll never guess - took us around the Serpentine, on park paths wide enough to cause no trouble to the general public. Other park users were going about their business, but there was a disappointing lack of confused tourists or disapproving businessmen having their lunch - perhaps we just weren't that unusual. One particularly hard part mentally was at the halfway point, where we had to run past a tempting-looking ice-cream stall - and there was a short hill at about 4k that could easily have finished off an unsuspecting runner (Anna warned me about it beforehand!).

The route was well signed and marshalled - it looks like it's quite a slick operation, since they practise it every month, and all in all it was very enjoyable. I got round in 17:33, which was fine. After a swimming session earlier in the morning, Chris finished in 21:29. Unfortunately Anna didn't make it round - after tangling legs with another runner she ended up with impressive cuts and scrapes in the second kilometre and had to abandon. (Afterwards, we didn't reprise our conversation about what was the point in turning up...)

I was the only runner wearing a North Herts vest (the Priestleys were in rather nice kit designed for Chris's company) - and that's where my negative comments start coming in: I thought this was a well-attended event by our club, with talk of runners meeting up in the pub for a lazy afternoon afterwards... perhaps I'm a year too late for all that, since the 'pub posse' don't seem to do it any more.

At only £2 to enter you get a very nice, friendly, well-organised but low-key event, which would be perfect for those of you who work in London... but I think I'll only do it again if I know a crowd of other people are going.

MWL3: A picnic in Welwyn

2008-06-16T08:35:00.002+01:00

The midweek league races seem to be coming thick and fast, since they're only a fortnight apart. Keeps the excitement level up, which is good - and it really sounds like a lot of people in the club have little else on their minds! We like leagues - it's a shame we only ever take part in them at this time of year or with cross-countries in winter.

So race 3 was hosted by Herts Phoenix in Welwyn Garden City, using a course we know well from previous events by both Herts Phoenix and Garden City Runners. Plenty of car parking in Gosling sports centre, and changing and showers there too (important for me this week since we're getting the bathroom re-fitted).

No HQ as such, but since the rain held off it was fine staying on the green - more of that later!

Only a 5 mile race this time, which shouldn't feel much different from 10k but it does. You've got to go faster, for a start. I felt OK but not great, although this was probably more due to a busy day at work than my recent race exploits.

(Of course, that's nothing compared to Lindsay's trip to the race, where she turned up at full speed about 2 minutes before the start, but I'll let her tell you about that.)

Since it was a two-lap course we knew exactly what to expect the second time round, which is always useful. I was starting to flag a bit after about three and half miles, so it was lucky that James overtook me at that point to do a bit of pacing. The best part was the little sharp hill by the side of the A1, where at the bottom we were both in front of a little group of runners, but at the top were so far ahead of them they were nowhere to be seen (it's that 'strong hills' thing again). I don't know why, but for some reason Lindsay thinks the idea of me and James bounding up a hill side by side is very amusing - arms and legs all over the place, like some kind of angry octopus.

There were marshals at all the important points on the route, with only minor road crossings unmanned (and that certainly didn't bother me). Due to the lack of an HQ, Herts Phoenix came up with the excellent idea of giving out packed lunches from a gazebo on the green - a bag of sandwiches, drink, and even a bit of cake to eat at work the next day. The results, when they came out the next day, were what we've grown accustomed to, with one major difference: the ladies slipped into second place behind FVS due to some of our faster ladies being unavailable (a shame, actually, because the men improved a bit!).

So with one last race, there's a mountain to climb...

Pos
OVERALL
1 Fairlands Valley Spartans 1390 37
2 North Herts Road Runners 1525 35
3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 1654 27
4 Harlow Running Club 2312 23
5 Bishops Stortford 2575 23
6 Broxbourne Runners 3901 14
7 Herts Phoenix 3683 9

Of course, I'm only talking about winning the league. Stepping back a bit and looking objectively, it would take a disaster for us not to get promoted back to division 1. But it's a matter of pride, isn't it?

Barton 10k

2008-06-09T22:42:00.008+01:00

This Sunday was the Barton-le-Clay hyper-allergenic 10k - a hilly off-road event in a cloud of pollen!

Just like last year, Lindsay and I cycled over to the event. Just like last year, the weather was blazing hot, and just like last year I finished in 4th place. Well, that's the short version.

It's good to have a race so close that we could cycle there in under half an hour without wearing ourselves out - Barton's only 6 miles west of Hitchin so it provided a little warm-up. The race is a fund-raising activity for the village's school, and I suspect most entries were probably on the day.
There were still a few puddles around, even though it had been warm and dry for a couple of days. I can't imagine what the route would be like in the wet - cross-country spikes wouldn't be out of the question.

The 10k race started at the same time and place as a 5k fun run, so the start line was full of kids who sprinted off at top speed (only to come a cropper almost immediately, since the first kilometre was all uphill - very tough. (In fact, this was the route, clockwise - just count all those contour lines at the start!). I know I didn't flatten any of these kids, so my conscience is clear.

After 2km I realised that I was going to have to contend with my legs still aching from that ridiculous 200m session we did on Thursday (the one where you keep running 200m as fast as you can until you can't take it any more), so this was an excellent excuse to look at the scenery, and try to find a pace that didn't hurt too much. Most of the way round I had this song in my head (but that's OK because it's quite an uplifting one to run to!).

Right at the end was a long downhill stretch, which by rights should be a great way to speed up, but since my legs were so tired I didn't trust them to go where I wanted them to, so had to slow down a bit just to make sure I stayed upright.

Unfortunately, there was a marshalling malfunction at about 8k, when we had to turn left off the Lilley road and head towards the finish. Well, a marshalling absence, in fact. I was in 4th place at the time, and the first 3 runners all carried on straight ahead (I know what it's like, I've done it often enough myself!). So although I didn't know it, I found myself leading the race for a kilometre or so. The first 2 guys caught me up again, but the 3rd one didn't, so technically I finished 3rd, but I don't think I could really justify accepting the 3rd place medal in those circumstances, so sorted it all out after the finish.

There was a small but friendly NHRR turnout, with James immediately behind me, and Jaime, Jo S and Lindsay running too. And here we are...

Oh yes, after Jo asked about this race on the forum I said

Good off-road race that I would have considered doing again... if it wasn't 3 days before the next midweek league race.

So what happened? Well, obviously, I changed my mind. Although the midweek league is very tight at the moment, it's really won or lost by who turns up and who doesn't. It's not so tight (yet) that an extra 10k in my legs is going to make all the difference. (I reserve the right to change my mind again if I have a disaster on Wednesday.)

So the review stuff:

Facilities - the school was 5 minutes walk from the start and finish (don't know if it had showers). The finish was on a recreation ground so families could use the playground if necessary. There was a stall selling teas, coffees and bacon butties at the end, so a big thumbs up for that!

Course - marked every kilometre, but a couple of turns unmarked, and very few marshals. In its defence, this is effectively a fun run organised by a school, so it's not designed to be organised like a 'normal' race.

Did we win anything? - Well, I suppose I gave up my prize! So no.

Letting it slip

2008-05-30T19:00:00.003+01:00

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

2008-05-21T21:14:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-05-16T08:31:00.000+01:00

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

2008-05-07T23:07:00.000+01:00

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.

Fountains 10k

2008-04-28T15:38:00.000+01:00

Does anyone else look for races to do when they go away somewhere? I've been in Middlesbrough for the weekend to see my parents and go to the Sunderland-Middlesbrough match (booo! - but we did appear on Match of the Day for 3 seconds). So I looked on the Runners World listings site and found the Fountains 10k, based in a village near Ripon in North Yorkshire. If I'd read it more carefully I'd have discovered that it was approximately 10k, and over mixed terrain. Not that that would have changed my mind about entering.

Anyway, I entered at the last minute, which is why I was quite surprised to be given the number 3. That's probably the lowest race number I've ever had. And although it would be nice to play the game of 'beat your race number', I've only been able to be 3rd or better on three occasions that I can remember. Having said that, the entry limit for this race was only 350, so not very many of us there.

The event was part of a village fun day, which was billed to include "numerous stalls, activities bouncy castle and most important of all, ice-cream!" - unfortunately the weather meant it included numerous puddles, umbrellas, and most important of all, dry socks. But I guess if your fun day is in April in North Yorkshire, you've got to know there's a chance of that.

There was a fun run at this event that took place, unusually, an hour before the main race. I'd recommend races stick to the more normal technique of setting off the kids just after the adults get going - for one thing, you don't run the risk of people arriving in their cars on the same roads that are being used for a race. There was a slight problem with this event that there was so much rain that the car park had to be changed from its first choice field to one futher up a hill, but I didn't see anyone get their vehicles stuck in the mud, so it all worked out OK.

So the race: it was fun! It was about 4 miles on undulating (sometimes hilly) roads, about half a mile on firm bridleway, and the rest across moorland or on a grass track. It was the moorland that was given all the press before the race: we were warned that it was very wet, and it was - not least because it was pouring down all day. Quite boggy in places, but the way forward seemed to be to go in the puddles where you thought the path was, and hope that it was only ankle deep and not knee deep. The hardest part was actually the grassy track, because that was muddy and very slippery, and that's the only part I felt I lost much time (and was overtaken by anybody).

Each mile of the course was marked, which seems a bit strange for a 10k race, but I guess that's another indication that it was only an approximate distance. Also there didn't seem to be an actual start line, just a general area. And I suppose they had no idea which route anyone took to cross the moor! I finished in 5th in 37:40, happy that I managed to be stronger than the only other person I found myself running with for any length of time, leaving him behind after the last couple of hills (apparently I love hills, they've made me strong).

My parents were waiting for me at the finish (and apparently I didn't look too happy at the end), having stood in the rain for all that time - it's a bit rubbish for spectators when the weather is that bad. Everything was all right once we got back to the car and had some sandwiches, of course...

Flitwick 10k

2008-04-26T09:41:00.000+01:00

Before I forget, I'd better write about last weekend's Flitwick 10k. Another local race that I'd never done before - well, not as a North Herts Road Runner, anyway. I actually have been there before, but that was in 1998 on a day trip from university with the orienteering club and I was pleased to get 39:48 on that day (a minute behind Norman Leslie, now I look at the results).

The course was different then. I remember it as undulating but still fairly fast (but it's amazing how often your memory misses out important features of an event). This year the hills came as a bit of a shock to me. Which is a bit annoying, because normally I do quite well on hills. I think the problem this year was that I was trying to get a PB, or more specifically under 36 minutes. I didn't manage it, getting 36:10 instead. So of course I'm trying to persuade myself that it was all the hills' fault. That or the 200m finish on grass. Anything other than myself, really. OK, I probably went too fast for the first 2km. Don't tell anyone.

The race seemed to be pretty well organised. The pre-race instructions included a map marking different car parks depending on which direction you were coming from, which was a good idea (except the one we were aiming at was chained up when we got there - it didn't matter in the end, because we parked in a school the other side of Tesco instead, and so we bought our lunch on the way back to the car afterwards). Our Standalone favourite luxury portaloos were there, taking the strain off the facilities in the hall. And in the hall were huge maps - road and satellite - of the course.

Plenty of marshals, although it didn't appear to be a particularly tough route to marshal, and a scenic enough route, if you could ignore running parallel to the M1 for a mile or two. And if the clouds hadn't been so low that you couldn't see more than half a field away.

So I got to the end - slightly too slow - and could start to concentrate on the other club members finishing. It was good to see John Franklin finish with no sign of his recent long-term injury, and Suzy back racing again. It was also impressive to see Rebecca Lancaster finish her first 10k, having hardly run even half the distance before.

Did we win anything? I want to try and add this section to the end of race reports, but at the moment the Flitwick 10k site is broken. There are conflicting reports: Derek Myall may have won a bronze medal in the county vets race... but last time I talked to him he thought he'd come 4th.

Let's get started then

2008-04-21T19:24:00.000+01:00

Since the marathon blogs proved so popular - and since most were for the London marathon, now in the past - I thought I'd join in this new NHRR blogging craze. Well, I say 'I thought', but really the webdude twisted my arm until I said I would. This isn't a marathon blog, though (well, except in the sense that I might be doing it for a long time).

I've never really been interested in blogs - they usually strike me as being self-indulgent ramblings of people who don't have anything interesting to say. So that's exactly the spirit in which I intend to write this. You don't have to read it, after all...

I haven't worked out what I'm going to be writing about yet. I'm certainly not going to list my training every week, because that's a bit dull (and I'd have to admit how little I actually do). But this seems a good place for race reviews and anything else running-related that I come across. And I think all my posts can receive comments from you lot. If it takes off, it'll get like the Runners World forum, except I get to delete all the parts where your opinions differ from mine (i.e. you're wrong).