BUPA Great Yorkshire Run

I've had a little bit of a hazardous weekend if truth be told:

Firstly I played Golf yesterday morning which can have a bad effect on my back, and secondly and more dangerously, I had a night out at the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' last night, where I dressed up as main protagonist Frank n Furter complete with high heels - that was a sprained ankle waiting to happen I can tell you.

It was with some relief then, that I managed to rock up this morning in Sheffield to compete in my second Great Yorkshire Run, the first having been completed in September of last year. On that occasion I was a white wave runner, very much centre of the pack, but this year having had a great season of improving times, I found myself in the first wave of starters for the first time - the orange wave. The plan today was simple - run as hard as I could over the first 9 kilometres to lessen the effect of the PB killing hills in the last stretch that dampened last years performance. To assist with this, I made my own pace band http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/racing/runners-world-pace-band-generator/3918.html which if I followed it correctly would give me a PB.

We walked to the start area, and after using the world most indiscreet open air stand ups, I joined my fellow wave runners for our 10.00am start. The professional athletes were introduced to the masses along with todays celebrity - Life On Mars very own Ray Carling, actor Dean Andrews - a much better celebrity scalp than last years effort.

We were soon moving forward, and then jogging, and then back walking, and then finally over the start line and away ! The pace was immediately fast, and knowing that this was downhill, tried to make the most of it in the first kilometre. My pace band told me that I needed a 4.58 first km, but was delighted with a 4.37 effort. Things calmed down a little bit and I was able to settle at a hard pace but a manageable one as we passed the 2nd kilometre marker and entered the effectively 6k out and back section of the race along a dual carriageway to the Hillsborough stadium. This section went very smoothly, I was disappointed though that there was not a big screen this year at the turnaround as there had been last year - to make up for this though I did notice the Hillsborough stadium, which last year I was completely oblivious to even though it is massive !

The first half of the race passed in around 23-24 mins which was good pacing, the second half of the race though was tougher and I found that even slight inclines were hard work. I managed to keep the pace constant though and as we made our way back to Sheffield City Centre there was no real slippage in the time that I had in the bank ahead of plan and I ran hard to make sure that this did not happen. Just before 9km, the first climb came and went and there was time to recover with a downhill, before the PB killer came up. I tackled this head on and although the pace dropped considerably I continued to attack it and although a lost half a minute by my reckoning, I was still able to cross the finish line in 48.26 - a new PB by over a minute and I can't be anything over than delighted with that.

Overall then, 834th on the day and in the top 17th percentile of finishers - the kind of performance that I just want to keep improving on. Next up for me is the Worksop Half Marathon on the 30th - and until then I will be giving some though to some goals for the rest of the year and some for 2012.