Race Report - Princes Parkrun

This was the race that wasn’t supposed to happen. I had a pretty tough week last week with double runs on both Tuesday and Thursday. I’drealised that I’d been doing the morning runs far too fast (grrr get out of therain quicker). Therefore, when it came to the progression session on Thursday evening I was blowing bubbles by the time I got to Threshold. With Friday as arest day I had opportunity to take stock and work out what I can do better infuture.

Still, I was pleased that I was coping with increase insessions. When we started I’d said to my coach about doing 5 sessions a weekand here I am doing 8! I’m not complaining about that though, when you’re doingsomething you love, its not a chore – I just get to do more of it (and gothrough trainers at a rate of knots eek).

The training session for Saturday was due to be three lotsof 10min continuous hill reps. When I woke of Saturday morning, my body stillfelt like it was recovering from the earlier sessions in the week. I don’tnormally do this, but I took the decision that the hills probably wouldn’t dome much good with such tired legs. I decided to take myself over to Princes Parkruninstead, the course being suitably hilly whilst being over relatively quickly. Evenon the start line, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a steady jog round or raceit and see what happened. I’ve had a few bad experiences at Princes in the past,the course can be a bit of a mindfuck, with the uphills being REALLY UPhill.

We set off and I settled into Threshold pace finding myselffurther down the field than normal. The front runners don’t like getting boxedin on the narrow path at the start and so Princes generally is quite pacy upthe first slope. After a passing a few people I found I had some open space andcould relax into a race pace. My friend, and Training Partner, Ceredig was marshallingand stood at the Pinnacle, about 800m into the first lap. I ran past expectinga sarcastic comment, but strangely none came. “Thanks C” I thought to myself.As I’d had such a good start, I was keen to take maximum advantage of it, I wasconscious of my racing lines, not going too wide and was really enjoying it butthe time I came down the slope to complete the first mile. BEEP, my Garminregistered the first lap, I quickly looked down “6:07” “FUUUUCK” was my firstthought, but that soon vanished and I thought about how that was good as I hadseconds in the bank to call upon later if needed.

As I attacked the up section of the course, I could feel theeffort level increasing. The hill is split into two parts and a guy overtook mejust after the first section (the only person who did I think). Instead of it mentallydeflating me, I focused on his back and had a good look at what he was doing. Likemagic, he relaxed his shoulders to get ready for the next slope. “Of course,that what I should be doing” and on we went to race the next competitors infront.

It’s a great feeling to overtake someone. A little minibattle appears to play out until one of the people mentally goes ‘sod that’ andyou glide on. The grunt you hear as you pass a runner’s shoulder signals ‘gameon’, but as long as you’re still relaxed and in control that lovely glide pastwill take you forward.

We passed Ceredig for the second time, again he saidnothing. “Most unlike him” I thought :D but more importantly there was anothergroup of runners ahead, we were also starting to lap the backmarkers at thispoint. After the experience at Harrogate, Ijust treated them as racers to pass like any other.

The racing continued and with 800m to go, we passed Ceredigfor the last time. “Remember what your coach says, race the vest in front”. Justthe thing I needed to hear and I prepared myself of the final push to thefinish line.

As we came to the crest of the hill, I was behind a runnercalled Jonny (I’d heard Eamonn call it on the last lap). Now I realise this isincredibly geeky, but I imagined it was Johnny Mellor, and I challenged myselfto overtake him. Silly, but it worked and was a big confidence boost.

Turning into the final straight, I dithered slightly aboutwhen to push, but then realised I was already going like the clappers. I hungon for the end, willing the finish to come without being overtaken on a finalkick. I wasn’t going to stop until I was over the line and my body protestedappropriately as I was bent double at the side of the field.

Final Result – 12^th Place 19:28

Garmin Data 

I still can’t believe it, 48 second PB and a 58 second PB onthe Princes Course - a tough course. Of course, after basking in the warm glowof it, my thoughts of course turn to what would happen on a flat course?

A lot of the things that have caused me grief when racing inthe past all conspired to boost my confidence on the day, the hills didn’t seemas steep, the pace didn’t seem crazy and the racing was intense butpleasurable. My favourite quote of “If you do what you’ve always done, you’llget what you’ve always got” rang true. I changed the way I approached the raceand it paid dividends.

I think I’ve got a little bit more excited, if that’s at allpossible.

Race Report - Harrogate Parkrun

Overall, a good race. 12^th Home out of 160ish runners - Time 20:16

I was feeling a bit sore in the quads when on the start line. Had got there early and warmed up as per plan and I lined myself up nicely near the front. Your advice to take it steady for the first bit was a big help as I was relaxed about it all. The course was 3 laps of “The Stray” in Harrogate, a big square of parkland. Two sides of the square were run on grass and two sides were tarmac. We were warned at the start about the muddy state of the course, in reality it wasn’t too bad.  We set off and people went off VERY fast. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what Threshold feels like so I kept to that feeling, and quite a few flew past me. There was a little boxing in, but only for about 50m. The guy who was supposed to be pacing a 7 minute mile shot off in front of me, but I ignored it and kept to my own race plan. Sure enough, after 100-200m, people’s adrenaline calmed down and I was passing runners. The grass sections of the course were formed by little avenues of trees, and were quite narrow so you found yourself going up a bank in order to overtake other runners. Getting onto the Tarmac paths was a big relief because it felt easier to push the pace slightly.

At about halfway, I overtook a group of three runners and found myself with about a 200m to the next vest. Remembering what had happened at Welsh Castles, I set about reeling them in. I pushed on the tarmac slightly and kept it steady on the grass. All the way through I was using all the mental techniques I’ve used in the past few weeks to keep relaxed – Mentally running “handbrake on”, telling myself “relax and attack” and most importantly “No More Drama”! It was a big confidence boost, as I can say that I ran ‘within myself’ for a lot of the race, but kept a reasonable pace without panicking. When lapping the slower runners, I just treated them as competitors to be overtaken and I found it meant I wasn’t worried about being too fast.

As we turned onto the tarmac for the last time with about 750m to go, the next competitor (and 1^st Lady home) was 20m ahead, I went for my push for home. She notices me alongside and responded, there was a guy 20m in front again and the three of us formed a pack going for the line. The final 100m was back on the grass in a little runway to the finish line. Going onto the grass I was in the lead in our little pack. I could feel the two of them kick for the line, I was already running a pretty much max at this point so had nothing to respond with. The two of them passed me on the finish straight and we all somewhat gasped on the line. The 1^st lady thanked me for the push for the finish – I said likewise! So it was quite an exciting finish and I was almost Top 10!

I’m really happy with most aspects of the way I raced. It was a good way to get some confidence back so I can push it a little more next time. To run ‘within myself’, steady and still end up with one of my fastest times is a big lift.

I’ll have to call it a PB as they have never published the official Halewood times – the time from that race of (20:15) was a Garmin time.

But my coach is totally right, concentrating on racing rather than times is much more rewarding.

A Different Feeling

I don't really like to gush, It’s been a bit of an amazing week so I thought I’d better blog about it before I forget. It’s been one of those weeks that make all the training worthwhile. Everything I’ve set out to do in the key sessions, I’ve nailed on target.

Tuesday – Ran in the squad session doing 5 x loops of Allerton Towers. This is an off-road loop of just under a mile with plenty of varying terrain of path, tarmac, grass and slopes. I’d never done it before and was glad when we did a warm-up lap to scope the course. We split into two groups, with group 1 going off 30 seconds before group 2 and swapping after three reps. I was in group 2. We set off on the first loop and I was in the middle of the group. I thought to myself “you know what your threshold pace is so play around with that”. I focused on that feeling and found I was passing people. Then I found myself at the front of group 2. I kept going expecting one of the fitter members to shoot past me, but no one did. Of the course of the coming reps I kept finding myself at the front and enjoying the feeling, in fact I was in danger of picking off a runner or the at the back of group 1. The penultimate rep saw two of the fast runners shoot past me, but I didn’t let it faze me, just chased the vest down as my coach has been telling me to do. The final rep was great, I could feel one or two people just behind me, and so the race was on. I clinched it at the end, and wanted to vomit up my lungs, but it was great. I was in control of myself all the way around.

Thursday – Against my better judgement (well actually to try out my trail shoes before Thunder Run), I did the Devil’s Gallop. It’s a 9-mile Run with a “race” section along the beach for about 2.5 miles. With the mud and Mersey obstacles it can be brutal, and the couple of times I’d done it previously I’d had a bit of a mare. I suppose you could sum them up as “complete loss of balls”. But you can’t change things unless you try so I gave it a go. The first half of the run is flat and goes round the outside of Liverpool Airport, I was running with a fellow squad member - It wasn’t stated explicitly but between us we took the pace up just a tad. My plan had called for 3x10mins of Threshold so this suited me to a T – I was getting the best of both worlds. As we were running along I noticed something was amiss. Then I realised I wasn’t breathing hard. In that moment I realised that all the training was working and I’m in the process of building something good. Chatting to Marty, he commented that I seem to drop off at the beach section on this run. It’s because I’m like “Bambi on Ice”. When we got to the beach, I started steadily, after a couple of hundred meters I realised I should be taking it up and so I gradually worked through the field. Before long I was on Marty’s shoulder at the front. I realised it was a good place to be as I could see here he put his foot and so I was sure to get a good footing. We carried on together until the last section, where I make some disastrous foot placing errors. Marty pulled away slightly but I kept on fighting and trying to pull him back. I came in second, looking like swamp thing, but a world away from previously Gallop performances.

The best (and probably most pretentious) way I could describe the run was that I ran with Heart. I didn’t allow anything to affect me and I kept going no matter what, something that I’d also managed to do on the Tuesday. It made such a big difference to my performance. So maybe it’s the way forward.

Sunday – Long run day. 1:45 run with the last 20 minutes at threshold. I was joined by squad mate Colin and the plan was to do 8 min miles round and drop it to about 7 for the final section. For some unknown reason I hadn’t expect it to be raining, but it was absolutely hissing it down when I left the house. I was conscious that we needed to keep the pace steady; it would be do easy to drop to 7:40s and suffer for it when trying to take the pace up. I’m pleased to say we hit it spot on, and it was good to have each other keeping a check on the pace. When we turned onto the Promenade to head to the finish and the Gale of wind hit our faces. It was annoying but I thought to myself “There’s nothing you can do about it now”. When the time came to take the pace up, it was a hard battle, but I kept at it. I didn’t look at my watch on purpose as I didn’t want adrenaline rushes at that stage. I had one little mental wobble near the Britannia, but I saw it for what it was – unhelpful and of no relevance to what I was currently doing. I kept going and finished outside Eaglet. It was a great run all round, and I liked the gradual increased in speed over the last three miles. I think this was because I got used to running in the wind and was getting better at “blocking it out”.

So it’s been a great week, it feels like I’ve justified the training to myself as this week has proved it’s obviously worked. I’m able to work harder and for longer and I’m excited to move on to the next stage of the journey.

My coach said something to me this week which has become my new Mantra when running.

“No More Drama”

I'm here to race, nothing else.