Worksop Half Marathon

Today was another stop off on the journey of attempting to run a Half Marathon in under 1 hr and 50 minutes. Having run the Robin Hood Half last month and getting 1.53 have been determined to beat that and take my PB down into the 1.40's.

I arrived in Worksop then with a plan to better my Robin Hood time and then take that to the flat Norwich Half Marathon in three weeks time and get the time that I wanted.

There was no way that I was going to get it today as the Worksop Half is notoriously hilly with a whopping 186m of climbing within the 13.1 miles of the route - I would have to have a good day to trouble even the Nottingham time....but this is how it went.....

J'arrive !

Nice and early having taken just 40 minutes to drive from Lincoln. We found street parking just 30 metres or so from a car park and in the process saved ourself a gargantuan £1.20 !! A ten minute walk, if that, into the centre of Worksop then followed and then we found the registation area - things ran like clockwork and I very quickly had my race number and timing chip. I had a jog around to warm up trying to look like I knew what I was doing and then joined the queue for the toilets - big mistake, as there were clearly not enough toilets for the amount of competitors and the queues moved very slowly - to fix this the orgainsers could have organised stand ups for the chaps but hey ho ! When I eventually managed to 'get in and out' as it were, and had about a minute to get myself down to the start. Seeding myself towards the front of the sub 2 I managed to filter myself in from the footpath as the Klaxon went to signal the start of the race.

The race

I had been told that the first mile of the race was uphill and that is true, but forgivingly its not steep and it comes right at the start so with adrenaline still pumping my pace was better than expected. My runners world pace band said 8.42 and I was little over 9 so no panic - I knew the first mile would be slower as the pack had still not settled down. Mile 2 was undulating, but the faster downhills meant that I picked up good time here and manged to get myself into credit against my target pace !

Miles 3 to 5 continued to undulate and to be honest I enjoyed the downhill sections but was getting a little fed up looking ahead to see a sea of bobbing heads going upwards !

I got through 6 miles in 49 minutes or so which is only a minute outside my PB 10k time - no wonder then that it felt like hard work. At this point we were in Clumber Park for the middle section of the race - and parts looked very familiar from the Duathlon earlier in the year. This was better too, with not many if any hills, just 'deceptive' flats as I recall.

At mile 9 , I began to feel tired and my pace dropped a touch - which I think was down to the earlier battering my legs took on the hills and the fast start. At mile 10, my ankle started to feel painful and I think it cramped up - this meant that I had to stop a couple of times to stretch it out and give it a wiggle ! This helped and I was soon on my way again and even managed to chase down Elvis during this section - uh uh !!!!

During the eleventh mile , I finished the last of my gel, and thought another runner asked me what I was doing - in fact it was David Greenwell and we ran together past the mile 12 marker, but Davids pace was a little too fast for me and I dropped back from him. The last mile as previously mentioned is all downhill and I tried to blast it as much as I could. There was nothing left in the tank by the time I turned the corner for home , but was elated to be under 1.50 for the first time, crossing the line in 1.48.18. That is a further 5 minutes off my PB, and 26 mins for the year.

I found the t shirt to be great and must applaud the work of the marshalls and the organisers for a great race.

Whats next ? Well theres the No Walk 5k next Saturday and the a cycle sportive in the Yorkshire Dales the week after. I am tempted to give Norwich a miss now but will make a decision on that later in the week.

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.

Robin Hood Half Marathon

Everybody panic !

Hurricane 'Malcolm' or something is about to hit UK shores and we had been told for most of the week that this was going to land sometime Sunday/Monday. Image my surprise when I opened the curtains this morning to lovely blue skies with hardly a cloud in the sky ! Not too warm and I'd say ideal conditions for a nice 13 mile race.

I left sunny Lincoln at 7.45, and arrived dead early again in Nottingham 45 minutes later. This meant we had plenty of time to park the car away from the race centre and enjoyed a nice walk along the embankment to the race village. One there, I resisted buying yet another race day technical T-shirt (I clearly have too many !), and then failed miserably to bump into any fellow NetNutters ! - there was no tardis that I could see so I mingled around the Lucozade tent for a bit where I managed to get a pacing wristband which I think is brilliant. I opted for the sub 1.55 band, which having all the expected mile splits wriiten on it gave me something to focus on.

After a bit of a warm up I headed down to the start area, and into my allotted pen which looked to be getting a little congested the nearer to race time we got - some big hairy bloke came and stood practically on my toes for the final couple of minutes. At a little over 10.00 am though there was movement at the front and we started moving forwards - always a good sign that a race has started !

The race...

The start of larger races of this type are always congested for the first couple of miles and I am used to this.... but today it seemed stupidly so for the first kilometre along the embankment or so as the race had to sort itself out and those people that again started in the wrong pens had to be navigated. As a result I didn't get to settle down until we were near the one mile marker and a quick look at my watch and at the pace band told me I was about about ten seconds behind schedule already.

Having settled down though I found that even though it was busy, if I managed my lines correctly I could always find space and not get myself too boxed in. As a result I made up time in that second mile and edged in front of target. There was a lovely long climb in the city centre which strung the runners out a little before we headed out towards the Trent University campus for some scenic running around the park and around a lake. I felt the wind here for the first time as it had got up a little but was enjoying the surroundings a little too much to care !
Quite a bit of this section was familiar as it was partially the same course as the Jagermeister 10k from August so I knew that we were going to going up some climbs very shortly.

At mile 5 I was ahead of schedule by about 40 seconds or so, but then we had the climb into the Trent building which was again a long incline and I had to make further time up on the way down - I also overtook the bloke that I had been using for pacing at this point and had to search around for a while for another target - and finally found one in the shape of a young woman - a perv me...noooooo.... racing reasons only I swear guv'nor !

We made our way out to Wollaton Park, which seemed peppered with inclines and the worst of the days climbs but as long as I didn't overcook things going up, I found I could quickly get back on track when things levelled out on top and of couse enjoyed the declines where I was able to get a bit of respite. My pace had not dropped and I still had those 40 seconds in the bag as we passed mile 10 and made our way through the city towards the finish. With all the ups and downs mostly finished, things flattened out and the wind began to pick up again - I started to stiffen a little and my gel bottle now looked like warm milk as I finished that heading through the final water station. At mile 12, I tried to quicken but could not manage too much and found myself running next to a fellow triathlete ( yes there were at least two of us dressed like transvestites!) , and we spent the last mile grunting events we had completed to each other, before he completely did me in a kick for home. I managed to get over the line in 1.53 something which was a 21 minute personal best for me and then got a super medal ( I'm a bit of a medal tart TBH and although a tshirt is OK you can have too many! )

In all, a super day at the office, at a gem of a race, and I might even be back next year.

Lincoln Wellington 5k

Lincoln Wellington Athletic Club host a four race series of 5,000 metres over the summer months at Yarborough Leisure Centre. Having competed earlier in the year at a similar event in Chesterfield, I was pleasantly surprised by both the size of the event and the organisation behind it - and the best bit was that it was super cheap to enter - just a £5, bargain !

The race

I turned up very early again, but this time it was because I had been suffering from DOMS in my hamstring for the preceeding couple of days and wanted to make sure that I spent enough time warming up before the race - besides warm up was on the running track and it was a great running surface. I also met up with John from UK Netrunner, himself looking to break the 25 minute mark for the first time - you can follow Johns blog here :http://runner795.blogspot.com/

We lined up at half past seven and after a short race briefing we were set on our way. The course is made up of a short loop, followed by three larger loops, all run on the cycle track which follows the perimetre of the leisure centre grounds. The pace for the first lap was a bit quicker than I am used to as I found myself running with John ( the netrunner peleton! ) and I was struggling to keep with his faster pace. As we hit the first of the larger laps though I managed to settle down into it and found myself targeting one of the runners about twenty metres ahead of me.

She was still in my sights for most of the second lap, but towards the end , I managed to squeeze past on a corner just before I got lapped by the race leader. For the rest of the lap, I concentrated on not dropping my pace and getting re-taken.

On the final lap, I found the pace hard work, but decided to try and keep going as long as I could. For the final 400m I could hear someone beginning to catch me and it took all I could muster to finish just ahead in a near sprint finish.

23.37 then for the night, and a PB by nearly two minutes at this distance - a good evenings work.

National Club Relays

My triathlon season for 2011 officially ended with a trip over to Holme Pierrepont for the National Club Relay Championships where I was part of a four man Lincoln Tri team competing in the mens Sunday morning event.



I did this event last year and it was complete chaos, it also rained heavily for the entire event ! I hoped for better waether this year and the triathlon gods duly obliged by providing a sunny day, with some cloud cover albeit with strong wind.


I arrived at the National Water Sports Centre very early and met my team-mates ( Mark, AJ & John) under the Lincoln tri gazebo - AJ was the team captain and he had already registered the team and paid my £5 non BTF registration fee. We had plenty of time for some chatter, before taking the bikes down to transition and walking the course, checking out and agreeing our changeover points and generally getting our bearings as there is a lot to remember !


Once we had changed into our wetsuits, we were ready to start and at a little over 10.15am, our first swimmer enetered the water - this is how things unfolded....

Swim - 500 metres

Last year the swim course was 400m, but by moving the swim start to the end of the lake, the organisers had to lengthen the course so that those people in the grandstand could see some swim action. Whilst AJ was in the water, I managed to get in for a little swim, before getting out and standing at our tag point for the baton handover. One I had been given the baton I then preceeded to run past the water entry point and then had to turn back and do it again - I think I lost 2o seconds or so here....I managed to flop into the water gracefully and then set out to find the first bouy. Now, my swim felt fine (apart from swimming through the weeds and it grabbing hold of my face like something out of 'Alien'!), and considering I have had very little swim time since Ironman I though I had done very well, however I later found out that my swim leg was 12.45, which was over a minute slower than the rest of the team. I think the time has come to invest again in some swim coaching because it really is my achilles heal !

Bike - 15km

The bike course is three laps of the lake and is as flat as you can get. There was a strong wind that blew right along the lake which made this a bit of a heaven/hell bike ride. The heaven part was the first part of the lap where you could get into a big gear and stay aero for a very quick opening two kilometres. The problem came when you turned around and headed back up the other side of the lake, it was murder ! By the end of the first lap my legs ached and the second lap was very hard. The third lap I started taking some places back and then put in a big effort along the back section to tey and beat last years 25 minutes bike lag - but this wasn't to be and by the time I tagged John in to do his laps the clock had ticked over to 26.21 which I initially though was a step back. The results showed that we were all in the 26 minutes band and as there were some decent cyclists in the team, in the end that was a very very good effort !

Run - 5km

Last year I ran a time of 27.14, but knew this year my times had been tumbling, so set myself a target of beating 25 minutes. I set off on my leg like a hare (for me) but soon settled down into the same pace that I ran Birchwood last weekend. This pace although tough was manageable as I first navigated the off road undulating section. and then as I got to the lake and had the wind behind me , down towards the bottom to complete the first three kilometres. However, as soon as I made the turn home into the wind it became doubly tough and I could feel the pace noticeably dropping. At this point I was racing a chap from Wakefield Tri and as a result got a little bit of shelter. 24.43 was my time for my leg and I was chuffed with it to say the least.

That was my race over, my times adding up to 1.03.49 exactly 1 second quicker than last year, but with an extra 100m of swimming thrown in which at my current swim pace means an extra 2.5 minutes - not a bad days work.

I had time for a shower and to yam a bowl of Bolognese Pasta before making my way down to the finish to see Mark - our anchor man - complete our event with a strong run. 4.09 for the team overall, and I think we all came away with something to smile about.

Next up is a crack at an official 5km sub 25 time on Wednesday evening at the Lincoln Wellington race at Yarborough Leisure Centre.

Spectrum Striders Birchwood 10k

No, not the Birchwood in my home city of Lincoln, but the Birchwood shopping centre over the other side of the country in Warrington !

Suffice to say then, it was a very early alarm call on Sunday morning and I think I did well to manage to only hit the snooze button three times. Once I had caught up on Match Of The Day, had a coffee and eaten some raceday porridge, it was time to get in the car and make my way over to Lancashire in a journey that would surprisingly only take two hours and ten minutes.

I arrived, again, very early and spent at least half an hour just sitting in the car playing with my phone, before it was time to get out, find a toilet (it was stand ups - bliss !) and have a bit of a stretch and go through my warm up routine. There was an organised warm up, but as soon as the guy started doing lunges that was enough for me and I just did my own thing.

I lined up for the race about halfway down the pack of about 650 runners, and met Peter & Tristan, two other Netrunners. We didn't get too much time to chat before we were set off.

My plan pre race was to have a crack at going under 50 minutes for a 10k race for the first time. I knew that on my not very accurate Garmin this would mean keeping my pace at an even 13 or above which would lead to 5 minute kilometres ( it was only two years ago that I was in Manchester aiming for 6 minute kilometres to go under the hour !).

For the first kilometre, I averaged about 13.2 or so and this took me through the first kilometre marker at just under five minutes and from there the challenge was set - get to each kilometre marker within 5 minutes and it would be mine !

By the time we left the retail/office park, and had passed the second kilometre, I was still on time, but felt like I was working incredibly hard - still, it wasn't an uncomfortable pace, and I felt during that third kilometre that I was settling down. At this point I was still overtaking people, and making a conscious effort not to fall into the pace of any runners in front of me and just concentrated on my own pace.

I managed to get to 5km in around 24.45 (looking forward to my 5k race next week!), stopped briefly at the water station to pour some water over my head, and then continued on my way.

I tried to run an intelligent race and looked ahead for the most efficient line as the country roads were winding at this point, which I think I managed. The second half of the race was mostly quiet lanes, there were some fly overs, and we even had to negotiate a horsebox road block !

All the time, the kilometre markers were coming and going until the point that I reached the last kilometre marker at around 44.50 - which meant that some effort over the last 1000 metres would see me reach my sub 50 goal - in all honestly, that was the point where I knew I'd done it, but took the last kilometre seriously and entered a sprint finish to cross the line in 49.36, a new personal best by nearly three minutes, and second place in the club handicap.

I collected my very smart race towel, and went and met up with other netrunners, and together we applauded our club mates as they crossed the line. A top, top day !

This was part one of Sundays mission, and after a quick hop over to Bolton in the car, I unpacked the bike and rode the Sheep House Lane climb of Ironman UK which was an aim of mine to complete in 2011.

Mmmm makes a special trip to test the Ironman UK course....what's he up to ???

Jagermeister 10K

Goody, goody, goody ! A return to the 10k distance for the first race at this distance since Lincoln in what seems a lifetime ago back at the start of April.
The Jagermeister 10k takes place entirely within the grounds of Nottingham Trent University , and is a two lap affair with a fair amount of climbing thrown in. It is mainly run on service roads, but there are some tarmac paths and gravel paths thrown in for good measure. I had been entered for this race last year, but suffered my only ever DNS when my knee flared up following Antwerp, so as a result I had been fired up all week and really looked forward to this Friday evening event.

Realistically, given my Ironman five weeks ago, and my running only just getting back into the 5-6 mile distances since, I wasn’t looking to get near to the 52.28 that I set at Lincoln. Instead, all that was wanted was a good solid run, and a foundation to build on at the Club Handicap in two weeks time.

I arrived early so had plenty of time to warm up, meet other NetRunners, and make my way down the road to the start. At around 7pm, whilst I was still chatting, the klaxon went off and the race started. Well, the first kilometre went by far too quickly and I think I may have been just a little exciteable ! Kilometre 2 was a much soberer experience and also had a real big climb to negotiate which calmed things down considerably. At this point of the race, I just decided to keep going at this quicker pace and see how long I could keep going for, electing to slow if I felt I needed to.

The kilometre markers came and went, and I rounded the lake for the first time and went through five kilometres in around 25.30 or so, so if I could keep going at the same pace then I could be on for a PB by about a good minute !
OK, get to six kilometres and see how you feel, got there, then tried for seven. At about the 8km mark though, I just could not keep it up and felt myself slowing – although I knew that I could aim for my PB all the same.

I was grateful to see the orange colouring of the Jagermeister advertising which decorated the last 50m or so of the run, and I could see the electronic clock counting away for most of the finishing straight. I managed to finish in 52.08 which was a PB by 20 seconds and a result that was completely unexpected at the start of the day.
Next up is a trip to Warrington for a club handicap event.