Month: March 2020

Unless you live under some sort of social media protective bubble, you can’t have avoided the fact that there won’t be another parkrun on a leap day for many years, so of course all the parkruns were doing various themed events. Ellenbrook were running their course in reverse, and I missed this last time they did it because I was marshalling. I had already volunteered to tail walk at Jersey Farm, so I shall have to wait for another special occasion for EF (FE?).

I had originally thought I would borrow something from work for fancy dress, but totally forgot until I was driving home on Friday- too late. I remembered my Kermit hat though- perfect for the frog leap theme, and also pretty good for the weather!

The weather was pretty bad- pouring with rain and more wind thanks to the next named storm. I checked it was on, as I saw a few cancellations (nothing too close) but all was good. I drove to Dad’s and then we walked around together, leaving it until the last moment. The start/finish area is the highest part of the route, in a big open grassy field, and it was properly boggy and squelchy. Dry socks was not an option!

Bottom right you can see someone trying to avoid the water, but it was really pointless because even the grass at the side was boggy!

I was going to be tail walking with a D of E volunteer (I don’t think they can do roles like this on their own) so we chatted a bit, and then a lady came and introduced herself, explaining she would be walking as she was recovering from a foot injury and could not go any faster. It’s funny with tail walking- you never know if you will be walking or jogging, but of course you are prepared for both. I was thankful of my trail shoes, but the puddles were so huge. In fact, they weren’t puddles, basically most of the paths were like little streams so it was really tail-wading around the course! The first part was tricky as it is narrow in places anyway, and once the faster runners started heading through we had to walk in single file and often step over out of their way (to try and minimise the splashing from them too). Dad cheered us on his way past, and we saw a few fab costumes (a child and her mum in frog outfits and hats, a cow onesie, and a bird costume complete with feathery wings).

It’s two laps and as we were coming up to finish our first lap, Dad had finished and gave us a cheer- he was going to head home and I’d meet him there once I was finished- no point in him standing around getting cold and wet.

The rain had stopped during the first lap, but my feet were just soaking. At one point I had stepped to one side and a runner went through the middle of a puddle and went up to her knee on one leg!

I finished with token 120, which seemed very low for a tail walker but no surprise that the conditions had kept a lot of people at home. My time was 61:31 (and I am sure that has changed, in that the last time I was tail walking and finished in over an hour my time was written as 1:01:something?).

I ended up chatting at the end for a bit, and so when I finally started the run home I was very cold. I’d brought a change of clothes but had a quick shower in the end because my feet and legs were so muddy. Then it was time for pancakes and tea- the hot tea was especially needed!

Fancy the mud-fest to get your J for the alphabet? Did your parkrun have a leap day theme?

After the Brighton half I had a fairly quiet week. My legs felt OK on the Sunday but were very stiff on the Monday so I did a lot of foam rolling, mainly in front of the TV but also looking at the beautiful sunrise.

On Tuesday it was my niece’s birthday so we met up with Andy’s family after work, then I had to go and get some petrol and a bit of shopping, and once home I made us some pancakes.

I can only make the little ones, my Mum makes proper crepe ones but I just can’t do them, not sure why. They were quite pale, but tasty (with  some fruit, yoghurt, peanut butter and maple syrup, because it’s all about the toppings!).

Daffodils on my walk, oils in my diffuser to help me sleep, sunset view and icy windscreen

On Wednesday I had a short run to stretch out my legs- I felt better but also I still felt very tired. I’d gone out on a walk at lunch time too. Andy requested pancakes again, and this time I remembered to include the banana that I had forgotten about on Tuesday. I have this lovely buckwheat pancake mix where you just add a little milk and oil (eggs are optional but I didn’t use one), so I mashed the banana and added it in- they turned out really well.

On Thursday I did another 3 miles and it was so much colder than I expected. Yes, it had attempted to snow in the morning, and had settled a bit on the grass, but it was gone by lunch time and I thought  it had warmed up more than it had.

We have been re-watching Friends at the moment and it was the episode where Rachel and Phoebe go running. (I also got these salt and vinegar chickpeas in Asda- not as nice as salt and vinegar peanuts but pretty good. The best salt and vinegar snack was the Sainsbury’s popcorn but they stopped doing that so I’ve been on the hunt ever since.)

On Friday I had booked a massage at my regular place- my shoulders had been very tight after the half marathon (no surprise battling the wind). I popped into Gail’s after and they had chocolate almond croissants so I picked up a couple of our Sunday breakfast, and also went to The Pudding Stop.

Cornflake tart and rhubarb doughnut- both very tasty (we had half each).

Did you have pancakes last week? Favourite toppings? 

On Sunday morning I woke up to the sound of the wind howling! This was not going to be the glorious sunshine of 2019!

I had a hot cross bun for breakfast and then got dressed- I still couldn’t quite decide what to wear because I hate being too hot, but also the wind was very cold and I knew I wouldn’t be running as fast as normal so didn’t want to get wet and cold. In the end I wore a t-shirt and a long sleeved thin top, with my jacket on to walk down to the start (Andy walked with me so I could give him my jacket- no need to use the bag drop). I think we got to the seafront about 15 mins before the start, so no need to hang about for long and get cold. In my jacket I found a pair of gloves so decided to wear them too. My headband which was mainly to keep the wind out of my ears, kept sliding down my face because of the wind!

After Andy left I headed into the start pen- I was in the purple pen for 2-2.15, and I was pretty sure I’d be towards the end of that, due to the crazy winds.

I was wondering what I was doing, and regretted not bringing longer tights (these blue ones are my usual race ones, but my skin was getting cold on my legs!).

Anyway, it wasn’t too long before we were off. The route had changed a teeny bit from last year, but basically up along the coast (East) for 2.5 miles- the wind was behind me and I looked at my watch out of curiosity and saw 8.50- no way should I be running that fast (I think 2 hours is 9.09 pace and seeing as I have only managed that on a short course, my pace should be slower especially at the start!). That was the only time I looked at my watch though- I didn’t think there was any point in trying to stick to a certain pace because of the wind, and as I wasn’t aiming for a particular  time I was going on feel.

As we turned at the top and began running into the wind, it just felt like madness. The spray from the sea (or possibly a bit of rain, not sure) was stinging my face and legs, and at points it felt like you just weren’t moving forwards. At least this was downhill! I didn’t notice any of the mile markers, but heard people around me commenting on the  miles so far. At around 4.5 miles we were back by the start and heading in to the town, next to the Pavillion. When I have run it before, it’s a short loop, but this time it went further inland, around a small park (The Level?) before heading back to the coast. Here I started noticing the mile markers- we passed the 7 mile mark just after joining the coast road and this time heading towards Hove.

I knew this would be the hardest part  – mainly flat and into the wind- towards where I did parkrun on the Saturday, and beyond. There were a few detours around small squares, which provided a tiny respite from the wind, but it was a time to just dig in. A few times the wind pushed one leg into the other (especially if you were sheltered by a building and then ran past a road).

I kept thinking we would turn- the whole way along you could see people heading back the other way, but the road just kept on going! Kudos to all the people who were out supporting- I love running in Brighton and the crowds were still out with jelly babies and signs and instruments. Not a good day to be stood around!

Finally we did turn, with 3 miles to go (just a parkrun to go- phew) and the wind behind! The waves were crashing up onto the beach, and at first the path was right by the beach with no barriers, so the sea spray was again stinging my face and also making me feel very invigorated. At this point I ended up with the Moana song in my head (because of the wind being behind me….) and I am pretty sure that powered me through those final 3 miles. My hood kept flapping and my ponytail kept smacking me in the face (makes for an excellent race photo- there were only 2 of me in pretty much the same place)

I took a couple of photos of the sea whilst running at  that point, but of course the waves don’t look very big at all. Anyway, the final 3 miles went well, with the end in sight. I felt like I was about to get a stitch in the final half a mile, but I tried to focus on my breathing and felt OK. I remembered last year I felt dizzy near the end and had to slow down and stop for a bit (it was a very warm day) and compared to that I felt miles better.

The final part was tough- due to the wind (completely understandably) they had not put up the finish gantry, so I had no idea where the finish was- it’s so hard to know when to give that final push!

When I finally crossed the line, I was very surprised  to see just under 2:05- I was thinking I would be closer to 2:15! Andy was back at the hotel so I shared my location with him, so he could track me heading back. I then had a minor panic because check out time was 12, and now it was approaching 11.45! I was given a can of water (yay for recycling),  a banana and a cereal bar, my medal and a foil blanket, and tried to fight my way out of the finish funnel. I saw some people with goodie bags but I am not sure where they got them from (Runners Need ones)- we did get a voucher with our number.  I do think they could organise this bit a little better, as for ages I was battling people wandering the other way trying to meet up with people. It’s narrow down there and not really the best- I had to run further up along the road to find a crossing point too- I had to run 1.1 miles and got back to our room at 12 on the dot. I had got everything ready and so I jumped in the shower for a two minute rinse before changing into warm dry clothes (housekeeping knocked on the door while I was in there but he explained we would only be a few minutes). Andy had made me a tea so I sat in the lobby and had that (plus some of the cinnamon roll her got for me) while he checked out.

Lots of people were coming to the front desk saying that their keys weren’t working, and they were being let in, so I needn’t have panicked, but you never know!

Lunch was Leon (I LOVE their love burgers and we shared fries and hummus) and then I got a chai latte for the train.  Once back in St Albans we walked up from the station to The Pudding Stop, as I was in search of an amazing sounding peanut butter and jam skillet cookie thing, but they didn’t have any, so we shared a cookie dough and coconut ice cream- pretty good.

We then walked back to the car and drove home, where I could finally have a proper shower and  lounge around for the rest of the evening.

When I looked back on Strava, despite it being one of the slower Brighton half’s for me in recent years, I got loads of Strava segments due to the wind assisting me. My final 5k was 26:48- I’d love that as a parkrun time (I think I’ve only run a couple with 26 at the start) so to manage that after already running 10 miles isn’t bad!

The medal was lovely too- because it was their 30th year it was shaped like 30, almost like two medals joined together. My chip time was 2:04:36

What’s the worst weather you have raced or run in? I remembering being out once when it started hailing, and another time it rained so hard that my eyeballs filled up with water and I couldn’t see- I just had to stand on the pavement and wait for the rain to ease off a bit!