Running - Maria Runs

Tail run fun

This weekend I was back at my home parkrun of Panshanger. I had volunteered to tail run a while back, because I have a 10 mile race tomorrow, but it worked out even better as in the week I got a bit of a virus, or something. On Tuesday I went out for a run with the OH ladies- we did the shorter route of around 4.5 miles, and it was so cold, and I really struggled to keep up (although looking at Strava, it was still 9ish min miles). By Wednesday lunchtime I was aching and had no energy, and had to go to bed once I got home instead of running. I still felt bad on Thursday so cancelled my Body pump class, but luckily on Friday felt pretty much normal (although no time for a run as we were travelling down to a funeral). Anyway, a tail run was just what I needed as it meant keeping it nice and steady. Or just walking in the fresh air.

My dad and brother were running, and had said they would wait for me (they are so good) but we cut it a bit fine, arriving at 8.45! Luckily I could be the last runner to leave. I had a nice chat with the run director, and also my running club leader (she was time keeping- that must be so stressful- one of the tasks I have not tried yet), before collecting the high viz jacket and bag, and heading to the back.

I was in all the colours- purple tights, blue t-shirt, black top, fluorescent pink jacket, high viz…

Even after they had said “go”, I could see people running into the car park starting area, so I had to wait for a bit before running behind them. I then got a little cheer from the time-keepers as I went past!

Soon I caught up with a couple of ladies who were power walking, so I hung back a bit to give them space as they seemed to be together. I never know how much encouragement people want or need. As you have to collect the signs, I kept having to pop to one side or the other, getting the arrows and km markers. Each time I reached a marshal, I would tell them I was tail runner (just in case they could not tell), and so they would head back to the start while I carried on. In a few places I stopped to take some photos, before jogging to catch up.

This is the highest point of the course, before the first km marker. It’s very muddy right now!

At about 2 miles, the ladies overtook a man and his son, so I ended up chatting to them a bit, and encouraging the boy to keep on going. That was really good fun, as he was quite chatty to me, and I felt like I helped as he was worried about being the last one, so I explained that that was my job, and unless he volunteered to do it, he would never be the last one. He walked quite a bit, but once we could see the finish hill, he started to run, and properly sprinted up the hill- I was very out of breath when I finished as I was trying to cheer him on a bit too. I like that side of tail running, although I think marshalling is easier to be enthusiastic as people pass you by- I worry that the people near the back would get annoyed with constant “well done, keep it up” etc.

That was my 59th parkrun (and actually, 60th, as I was a tail runner once and didn’t take a finish token- ah well). Time 54.54 (love the repetition). My brother did brilliantly- he managed his first sub-30 minute parkrun on Christmas day, and today managed 25.28! Now he’s faster than me!

There was ice on the lake, and some huge icy puddles on the way around.

After handing the bag full of signs back, we headed off as I had to be back to finish tidying up, as we were having an open day for our house. That was a bit weird as we had to vacate for the estate agent to show everyone around. We went into town and got some late lunch (we shared a really lovely goats cheese panini and gingerbread muffin in Caffe Nero- so good), and then we had booked a viewing so went to see that house, before heading back home.

Now I am off to make some pear crumble, and to paint my nails as my pre-race ritual. Hope your weekend is going well too.

The first parkrun tourism of 2016

Earlier in the week my lovely running club “Guv” shared that Gadebridge parkrun would be hosting a special guest (Special Olympic Ambassador Mitchell Camp, and the mayor) on Saturday. I then started having a look at the location and course, because I didn’t realise they had one there- it’s about a half an hour drive away, and has been going for less than a year. I messaged my dad to see if he fancied it, but he was busy, and no-one from my club fancied it, so I decided to head there on my own and check it out.

I left at around 8.15am, a little earlier than usual, and I got there at 8.40am, so plenty of time to walk to the start. It wasn’t far from the car park at all, but it was so cold.

This is taken from the start- you can just about see the car park through the trees so it wasn’t far to walk at all.

Everywhere was frosty, and the fields were all rutted but frozen solid, There were plenty of icy puddles, and the pavements were sparkling. It was beautiful.

We had the most enthusiastic marshal delivering the new runner briefing, and then in the normal run briefing the mayor talked briefly, although it was a bit hard to hear as I was behind a big group of tourists from the same running club. Then we were off!

The course was tough. It started on path, before straight away going onto a field- up, along, and down (over frozen mole-hills), then under an underpass, up the other side of the valley (and if you know Hemel, and Galley Hill, it is steep), along the ridge at the top, then steeply down, under the underpass, gently uphill to near the start, where you then get to do it all again. I really had to concentrate as the ground was so rutted (the spike imprints from previous runs were frozen solid)- I didn’t want to twist an ankle, and the cold air made it hard too.

I got a stitch (not sure if this is down to the nakd bar I had before leaving- I think my eating before parkrun experiment may have ended now), but the park was so pretty in the early morning sunlight, with all the frost everywhere. I enjoyed the run, looking at the surroundings, and even warmed up enough to take my gloves off after a mile! I was half tempted to take some pictures, but I had worn my flip belt as I didn’t know if I would take my jacket off or not (it has big enough pockets, but if I tie it around my waist then anything in the pocket bangs on my legs) and it’s hard to sort that out while running. I could not speed up on the flat ridge part because the ground was so frozen, but that was fine with me!

After I came out of the underpass for the final time I had a straight and gently uphill path to the finish, so I put on a bit of a sprint finish. There was someone taking photos and my shoulders are so hunched! Argh! I know I need to sort this but I don’t often realise until I finish that my shoulders ache.

From their facebook page.

I also thought that I was smiling!

Anyway, it was a really enjoyable run.

Time: 31.20, 65/100 runners (nice even number), 12th female and 4th in my age category. It’s funny, apart from San Francisco which had such a tiny field, I seem to hover around the 3rd or 4th age category placing. It’s a course pb of course (your first parkun at a new course always is) and my dad was keen to visit it, so I am sure I will be back.

I didn’t hang around in the end, as there was going to be a talk, but as soon as I stopped running I was totally freezing, so I headed back to my car to put my coat on. Then the day didn’t go so well- I had to stop off at the post office, and the queue was huge, and then I decided to have a hot drink once I finally got home, before having a shower. All of this meant that I didn’t eat breakfast (lunch) until 12.30 (although I had eaten the cereal bar).

I had a few hours of work to get through, and once that was done I popped to town, but the feeling of the stitch either came back, or it had not gone away, I’m not sure, but it was quite sore. I ended up having a lie down when I got home, and it really only went away when I went to sleep. I thought I had maybe pulled a muscle or something, but I don’t remember it aching when I was working, so I don’t know when it actually came on.

This morning I was awake before the alarm, and very excited to see snow! Most of the girls in the club were doing shorter runs, so I went out on my own for a lovely 9.5 mile run in the snow. I was fairly slow at first as I didn’t want to slip, but actually the snow was nice and soft (making that lovely creaking sound as I compacted it). I stopped for photos too, of course.

I ran around the lake twice- some of it was covered in ice.

I ran back through the fields, which was fine until I trod in a puddle (hidden by the snow) and my shoes filled with icy water. I sped up a bit then I think!

I cracked out the leg warmers this morning too!

I loved it though! And although about two miles in my stitch feeling reappeared for a bit (and I considered turning back) after a bit it went. After a quick shower we were off to brunch with some friends- we tried Coast to Coast, which was OK, but I don’t think I would rush back.

Anyway, my first parkrun tourism of the year was great, and I have already started looking at others nearby- I need to spread them out a bit but there are a couple of others that I could visit now fairly easily. Panshanger is still my favourite though!

Some musing about pacing

So my fastest parkrun time on my local course in 2015 was 27.44

On Saturday (2nd January) I had volunteered to do token sorting, and after a day of rest (well, travelling home from Spain) I was itching to get out there. I had not been running fast, but I had kept my running up during the holidays. I put in 27.30 in a pace calculator as an optimal time (to make a course pb with a bit of leeway) and it said 8.52 per mile. Miles with an 8 at the start sound way too fast for me, but actually I know I am capable of it now (in fact, on Tuesday on the club run we did a 4 and a bit mile run, and the last 3 miles began with 8). I could not remember my exact Brighton 10K time, but I knew it was under 55 minutes, so I put in 55 for a 10K, and it came up with 8.52 per mile.

So this is interesting to me. Firstly, it reiterates that I am not a sprinter! I much prefer to get into a race. I can tolerate some discomfort because that speed over a 10K is way faster than my normal running, but I just can’t tolerate that feeling sick feeling for very long in a 5k. Jess mentioned something similar in one of her posts, about not being able to move her legs faster, but having some energy left at the end of a 5K.

Anyway, I was going to give it a shot (for a course pb and not an overall parkrun, as there are far flatter courses), but I had my sore hip thing in the night (I managed all of 2015 without it being an issue and it came back-grr) and it had been pouring with rain so it was going to be boggy. My new trail shoes had arrived! Love them! Although I got them from SportsShoes.com (normally good service) but I was sent an email that said “free delivery if you spend over £75”, so I added a few bits (another Light Spur and a headband) to push it over, but it wasn’t free. I have emailed them, and they claim that the offer ran out the day before I placed my order, but there was no date in the email, and I have even sent the entire email back to them for them to tell me where it says that, and they can’t. So I am a bit annoyed. (Today I finally received an email saying that the postage would be refunded because they could see there was no date in the email- I know it’s not much but it’s the principle of it that annoyed me so much).

I had set my alarm a bit earlier as I thought I would try some food first, so I had a nakd bar (they worked for me in Spain), and I did some warm ups at home before my dad picked me up. One glance at the footpath and I knew it was silly to attempt a pb (I would need spikes and not trail shoes), but I have been aiming for under 30 minutes, and decided to try to be faster in the middle mile, as that is often my slowest (even though it has the most downhill).

The start ended up being really congested and I had to stop for a bit. Plus the big puddles meant that sometimes the person in front would stop to avoid a puddle, and then that would mean you would have to stop too, to avoid bumping into them. But once everyone thinned out a a bit I tried to push a bit harder. Then came the mud! Normally it is muddy, but not too bad, and mainly in the final mile. This time the middle mile (on a grassy field) was so slippery and slick- it was hard to grip the ground and at times my trainers were nearly sucked off my feet!

It had held 4 parkruns over 8 days, so no wonder it was bad- it needs a break now! The final mile was again very slippery and I ended up wading through a few huge puddles as I didn’t want to waste time stopping and inching around the edge- plus my feet were wet through by that time.

My new shoes at the end! The laces aren’t too bad as they have a little pouch in the tongue to tuck the laces into.

Anyway, my final time was 29.05, so under the 30 minutes but not close to a pb! I think I need the mud to dry out a bit before I attempt it. The nakd bar was good though- I didn’t get hunger pangs and although I got a little stitch near the end that could have been from anything.

Strava says I got a pb for a section in the middle, plus my second mile was 8.45, so I am sure I can work towards that this year.

After we finished, we put on our coats and then started the token sorting (as I had volunteered, and my dad of course agreed to help). I have never done this job before, but luckily the team had a sort of tool box with sections for 20 tokens (1-20, 21-40 etc), so we sorted them into the sections before ordering each section. What was strange was that for ages we had a token missing from the first section- they must have been one of the last to be scanned (probably waiting for someone else running)- I thought they would be more in order than they ended up being. Even though I had my coat on (and a jumper) I got really cold, and I was glad it wasn’t raining. We were finished by just after 10am, so we were sorting for a good half an hour. It was quite a long job even with two of us, and really opened my eyes even more to how hard the core teams work each week to do all of these things.

After Dad dropped me home, I had a shower and then we headed around to my parents as my mum was cooking us pancakes! Parkrun + pancakes= an awesome Saturday, I think you will all agree!

So the aim for 2016 is to chip away at that parkrun time a bit. I don’t do resolutions, but I like things to aim for. I am trying to volunteer a bit more- around once a month, and in fact that would mean I would earn my volunteer t-shirt this year. There is a new one starting up near me, which will be much flatter, so potentially I could go quite a bit faster, but I would still like to bring my course pb down a bit this year too.

12 months of running

I love looking back over the past year, and so I thought I would choose a photo or two for each month to sum it all up.

Not all of the races had medals- some had t-shirts, or a chocolate santa, but this is I think the 2015 collection!

Last year the big race for me was the Brighton marathon, but the “10 miles before Christmas” prep didn’t go well, as I had an awful cough and chest infection, and so hardly ran at all in December. But probably the rest did me good as the training went very well (with a little extra motivation from Jantastic).

January

2015-01-18 12.19.00

Marathon training kicked off after about a month of rest, with the freezing cold Fred Hughes 10 mile race.

February

Brighton half! Pb! I didn’t want to push myself as I needed fresh enough legs for my longer midweek runs, so I was amazed that I managed a pb and felt pretty strong throughout. If I had been training for just that race, I feel confident that I could have managed a sub 2 hour half. I will keep dreaming!

March

My highest mileage of 132 miles in March as marathon training ramped up.

April

Brighton marathon!!!! I loved it! I was so nervous, but I kept an eye on my pacing, didn’t start off too quickly, enjoyed seeing Andy and my parents in the crowd, and was so proud to get that sub 5 hour goal.

May

(We can’t have a post without any cake)

Birthday course pb at panshanger parkrun!

June

Whipsnade 10K- hot!

St Albans half- fairly hilly!

July

This photo is from tail running at Panshanger parkrun. I marshalled, tail ran and did the new runner briefing that month, and won the Sweatshop monthly prize of new trainers too! Awesome!

These are identical to my current trainers, so are still in the box for when my old ones die.

Me very excited before the Ware 10 miles! There were other runners from the club doing the 10K, and it was so lovely to have some company pre and post race.

August

Many runs in Hawaii, including a 5K race.

parkrun tourism at the Crissy Fields parkrun in San Francisco! 4th women! 1st in my age category!!! Yes there were only 31 runners (all very friendly) but you have to be in it to win it! Or come 4th!

September

One early morning run, sunrise looking like a fire.

October

Bournemouth 10k. The afternoon time wasn’t the best but I managed a pretty speedy run, giving me confidence to aim for a pb in Brighton later in the autumn.

Brighton 10 mile- another pb in Brighton!

November

My 50th parkrun, and Panshanger’s first birthday!

10K in Sherwood Pines (I was drenched in those picture, before it even started!)

10K pb in Brighton! I love Brighton! My 4th Brighton pb of the year! Is that a pb full house?

December

Running club run to brunch (why don’t we do this every Sunday?)

Christmas day parkrun with my brother (and jingly antlers- I found out that if I wedged them into my buff they stay put during running).

December 5K series for Virtual Runner UK.

There have been more races this year (the full list I keep on my Race Calendar page), but that’s plenty to be getting on with.

To sum up:

Brighton pb’s for 10K, 10 mile, half marathon and full marathon (full house?).

parkrun = awesome

Being in a running club= brilliant

I still love running.

December 5k Virtual Run series

Went like this!

Week 1- parkrun.

I can’t edit the image to flip it- no idea why as it normally works but it keeps freezing.

28.25. 4th in my age category. 20th female out of 78. 113th place/201 overall.

Love the tree medal!

Week 2:

Out and back on my own (no parkrun that week due to being in Bath).

31.33

I had a headache and I had to wait at the one set of traffic lights for ages! But anyway, medal still earned. No fun stats like you get from parkrun though.

Week 3:

A Santa medal! The medals were all labelled, but I feel like it should be for week 4, as the weeks run from Tuesday, so Christmas day will be in week 4. Anyway. Another parkrun.

28.50 (which I felt was further off week 1 than it actually was-25 seconds slower isn’t too bad). Felt fine but had been ill in the week so the end felt tough.

3rd in my age category! 23rd female/ 80, and 137/226 overall.

Week 4:

Christmas day parkrun!

Ran with my brother, and he managed to get himself a Christmas day pb!

My time- 29.10. 165/270 runners, 4th in my age category again! 37/98 women.

I ran with my antlers held in place with a buff, jingling all the way.

Here are all the medals. The reindeer is my favourite.

So all in all, fairly consistent. I was tempted by the other parkrun on boxing day, as it had a 9.30 start ( I woke up too late for my one) but its laps and I don’t like some of the really fast runners, so just went out on my own for fun. I will try that one in the new year at some point to see if I have sped up, as strava tells me I am trending faster with my course but I don’t believe it, but it will be good to test myself on a flat and mud-free course. I’m glad I joined the challenge, even if I didn’t finish with amazing times.