Anyway now it’s time to go back to how I ended up getting involved in this event. About 2 weeks ago I got contacted by a Digital Agency working for Adidas asking if I’d like to be involved in an event and test out some of their kit. I said I’d do some research and also asked if I could invite some other runners. I got an affirmative to the later question so on top of asking my colleagues who were all busy I contacted my running partner Rich from the Serps who gave the answer ‘why not’. I confirmed and double checked we would be entering a FULL team of 8 and said to go for it. I know I can run 12 miles with my training how it is at the moment and in my calculations we would end up doing about 24 laps or 18miles tops…

Setting off bright and early on Saturday morning we made our way to Catton Park in Staffordshire. Rich and I had both looked on the website a little but as neither of us had considered training there was little point getting too worried about what we had signed up for. As we turned down the final road to the entrance of the park I clocked a running path that swung left into a forest up a pretty sharp hill. This was the moment I wondered whether it was such a good idea!

Other than a few emails a couple of days before the event I had no idea of who would be on our team. We had been put together through the agency based on being previous triallists or bloggers. For some unknown reason I had been nominated as captain and the agency chose to call us the Lock and Loaders. About 30 mins after Rich and I arrived most of the team was formed and after a brief introduction we started putting up our tents and pulling on our ‘test team’ kits.

I’m going to be fairly blunt here and say that at a normal running event or running club I don’t think any of our team mates would have talked to us. They were all much faster runners with very impressive PB’s to match. Rich and I have chatted before about the better/best runners all sticking together, which to be honest is perfectly acceptable – afterall they have no reason to run with us! But here we now were with a group of runners who win events or if they don’t they are close runners up. Not like mid-pack Rich and I! Within the first 20 minutes of meeting I made a rather big slip up in their eyes by saying “we are here to enjoy this, not to win it” – the looks that greeted this from some of the team were priceless and I suddenly realised that I was in company that ran to win.

After a shakey start we had constructed our initial list of runs. For some reason, I don’t no why, we wrote a plan based on 1hour laps. After the third runner had gone out we realised we were way off, sub 40,sub 40,sub 40 I think it was!? It was about now I realised how incredible the runners on my team were. Our expected 60mins per person was thrown out of the window and by 8pm we were back to the pad reorganising things, not before my first run though….

The run itself was unlike anything I have ever done before. For a start it wasnt on a road! Starting off on a nice little bit of green path it didn’t take long before a sharp right up and into the forest! Weaving through the trees on uneven surfaces and narrow trails – this was no PB territory. After 5 or so minutes of sharp turns and bends I exited the forest onto a wider trail and back past part of the campsite. From this point on I can remember bits and bobs and patch things together, a couple more inclines, one lasting a fair while some more between the tree running, one short but very sharp drop etc etc. About 46 mins from the start I found myself almost at the finish line with one more incline to go. My team mates, Laura and her firend Megan were there to cheer me on. From this point on it was down hill and time to hand over our “relay batton” to Atheer and away he went!

My first 10km was over and with only 2 more runners in our group left to run it wouldn’t be long before people started their second laps. It was now time for me to eat and refuel and get off my feet before I was scheduled to go out again about 6 hours later…

It was clear after our 8th runner that our schedule was massively out of sync. We decided to adjust the timings a bit and also add extra time for the night runs although even that we couldn’t be to sure about. Afterall, how quickly can you run in the dark?! My second 10km was scheduled in for 11:30ish so at about 11pm I made my way back to the handover pen and waited, with my head torch on, for Des to come in with the batton.

The Night Run

After waiting what seemed an age I set off, about 50 meters from the lit start area the path turned dark and i couldnt see a thing. I was about to embark on something I had never done before and my heart rate rocketed and im sure my breathing became deeper. It was pretty apparent fairly soon that, like with driving, in the dark, I can’t see very far without glasses – This was going to be ‘fun’! At about 3km in I fell over, picking myself up and brushing my leg down it didn’t feel like I had any cuts so onwards I continued. More potholes, ditches and protruding tree trunks caught my footing, but fortunately didn’t contribute to another fall. 52 minutes later I crossed the finish line. I hated it and loved it, never wanted to do it again but wanted to see if I could do better. A whole new bunch of senses were used and it was very, very different!

After a quick shower I headed to bed in preparation for my next run that according to the pad would be at about 6am. I barely slept, anxious about how the next run would go. At 5am I got up for a breakfast of sausage bap and a cup of tea, hardly the best running breakfast but at that time in the morning it seemed a good idea. At 6:15 I set off again for my third 10km. This seemed much tougher, unlike the previous runs my heart rate didn’t fall in the later sections when I descended. I felt like I was lacking all energy and it was tough. I was nervous about having a recurrence of what happened in the Marathon so also held back slightly. After 53 minutes I crossed the line of what I thought and hoped to be my last run…

Was 3 enough for me…?

As I rounded the final bend I can’t deny I was slightly worried that I may have to go out again but fortunately what played out over night as well as the competitiveness of the team was soon about to prove otherwise….

The night laps only had one real hitch, however that one was a corker…Mel returned to the handover pen to find nobody to take the batton and start the next lap. Where was Des…!? He had been woken up, I had heard that whilst laying awake in my tent, however he headed to the start without either a number or a timing chip…He panicked and then headed back to the tent to try to find it, whilst Mel was just approaching. After a while he took Rich’s chip and went to the start but this cost us 6 mins and left Mel very unhappy…

Des seemed to realise, perhaps through Mel’s reaction, that he had really messed up and he spent the rest of the morning apologising to the team and promising he would make it up. He did this by taking on a 5th lap right at the end. To be honest, Des was perfectly capable of it. A fine runner, and even in his fifth lap he bettered my time by 5 minutes! He pulled out all the stops and showed what a super athlete he was and proved that his training could see him through any event – even an adhoc 30mile 24 hour session.

Ben was our strongest runner of the day, his first run came in at 37 minutes putting him in the top 10 runners for the whole event. Much like with Des, whilst he had completed 4 laps to our 3 he would still be able to manage a faster leg than either Rich, Atheer or I. As our team had now decided that 4th place was achievable, the faster runs were critical, so Ben ran a 5th and I took the opportunity to eat a bacon cheese burger and relax – doing my bit for the team…

About the Team

I think I could double the size of this post writing about the team. However, for most I think that would be a bit of a dull read so I will just take the opportunity to say what a great bunch of people they all were. They all helped contribute to a very memorable occasion and I hope we stick to our word and keep in touch. I’d love a reunion of sorts as whilst we all had different personalities we all had one major thing in common our love for running…

Top Row: Des, Ben, Justin, Mel. Bottom Row: Rich, Neil, Atheer, Josie

Position: 4/79
No Of Laps: 31
Total Time: 23:55:11

On Saturday afternoon I was over at Laura’s parents in Kent for a party. Whilst out in the car about 5pm I noticed a number of ‘Caution Runners’ signs and a 9 mile marker. I also spotted a road closure sign for the Sunday between 9-12. Returning back to the party I did a quick Google on my iphone to see what run was happening, where and when. That is when I found out about the Dartford Half Marathon on 11 July. They were accepting entries on the morning so at about 8pm on the 10th July I decided I would run in the event which started just down the road. Knowing nothing of the course or how my fitness would be as recently 7miles has been my distance cap.

About an hour after deciding to go for it I noticed a friend on facebook wish people good luck for a tough course. At this point I started to realise this wasn’t to be a ‘flat as a pancake’ Silverstone type race and there were to be hills…oh well, it’s just a group training run for me!

We were out of the house at 7:30 following a cobbled together breakfast and taking on some powerbar energy drink as that is all I had access to. Unfortunately my kit was also not my normal ‘race kit’ as I hadn’t intended on doing anything other than an individual long slow run, however luckily I did have all the necessities.

The race set off at 9. Fortunately it was quite cloudy so the worry of heat from the sun wasn’t so much of a concern. The race headed out of Central Park and into Dartford before moving onto smaller country roads and before long the undulating nature of the course started showing. To be honest the first few hills didn’t bother me as much as it seemed for others and once at the top there was plenty of recovery time down so all seemed fine.

As expected I started to run out of juice at about 9 miles. This was probably partly due to lack of fluid as drinking from paper cups whilst running is almost impossible! I nervously approached the hill at mile 10, I had no idea what to expect but had overheard a lot of natter back at the start about “Gore Road”. That was not a hill for running, in fact contrary to what I would normally do I decided walking was the better option. As people started going pass me I was a little bit upset – for the last few miles I had stuck my position and no-one had over took me. As it turns out I had nothing to worry about – at the top of the hill all of those who had overtaken me seemed to come to a complete halt, they had spent all the energy getting up and had nothing to get back down. At this point I was feeling fine so enjoyed the downward run back to the finish…

The last mile was also a toughy, entering the park the route was very bendy and it was one of those places where you can see the finish but are detoured around the houses to add a few more meters to make up the distance. Very demoralizing end to the race, but fortunately that was the end before a 350m lap of a running track and coming over the finish line!

Ignoring the huge hill this was a pretty well organised run – plenty of marshals out on the course which was a bonus – there were quite a few spectators sat in their drives which was nice. No real goody bag but they are normally a disappointment anyway! I had a good time and it was a great little impromptu run!

N

Heading to Laura’s on the Saturday evening so we could have a 15min journey to the start it meant I could get up as late as possible at 6:30 for breakfast, a shower and to start taking in my energy drink. Out the door by 7 and on route, it was quite cloudy but the rain looked like it was staying away. I think we got there a lot quicker this year as I don’t remember having to wait around for the start for as long but nevermind – i was warm enough so it wasnt a problem.

I was hoping to do a sub 45 but wasn’t sure whether this was realistic – at Newham I made 46:07 and I had a sub 45 race which I had achieved as part of the Silverstone Half. I headed to quite near the front of the pack so I wasn’t caught up having to spend most of the race overtaking people – fortunately I don’t remember being overtaken too many times so I couldn’t have upset too many people!

The race set off fast – once again, the Virgin pacers got it completely wrong, trying to stick with the 45min pacer was almost impossible and looking at my stop watch after the first mile it was clear why – she was running faster than 6:40 pace, or a 41:25 10km…too fast! After about 2-3km I overtook her as she clearly couldn’t maintain that pace, but I would be intrigued to know if that was her strategy fast start then slow down, but that’s hardly “pacing”. Anyway, as with last year the course can by no means be described as flat – it’s referred to as undulating on RW forums and I remember reading someone describe it as a ‘fun’ challenge.

The first 2 miles were mostly downhill and amazingly I managed splits of 6:41/6:48 respectively – following that came the uphill. The garmin indicates an elevation incline of 40meters over 1mile or alternative a 2.5% incline. Needless to say this was tough and I dug in as much as I could. Fortunately Bluewater is 4meters above sea level and at the top of the hill we reached 40meters so between mile 3.5 and the end we would have to come back down again, but not before a couple more hills. The mid miles I had 7:14/7:26 splits. On the road back home I managed to get my times back below 7mins again. Putting my head down I dug in till the finish line with the final 100meters being another hill just to tease you right at the end, although I had nothing in me to even think about sprinting!

As the title suggests this was a new PB for me – taking about 5mins off of my time for last year and a couple of mins from my time at Newham. I’m well chuffed as I have certainly broken the 45min barrier with that time and it was a hilly course – would be interesting to see what I could pull of on a flat, but will save that for a bit – time to enjoy the moment, let the recovery barby sink in and chillax…Whilst I remember I want to say how well the Bluewater 10km is organised, the goody bags are spot on and probably the best I have ever got as well as that they give out a technical tshirt that is actually quite nice. Well worth the cost of the event…

Edit: since starting this post the race results have come online, there was only one female virgin active pacer even close to the start of the group and she came in at 50:13, me thinks she blew up…

Also the field was obviously very strong this year, in the 2009 race my time would have seen me secure a top 100 finish out of 2000. This year I came in at 189/2092 although today it did feature the Kent County Championships and Kent Grand Prix so I wonder whether there were some faster runners out there! It doesn’t really matter though

Click here for the Bluewater 10k Results.

The day started off as planned, the clothes sorted the night before, breakfast eaten and Laura and I set off for the tube at 7am. Heading into London I got to Greenwich DLR and made the Green Start by 9am. Plenty of time to get prepared and relaxed, we had been allocated a tent to stand in so when the rain came we were sheltered.

At 9:45 the race started and off we went, I deliberately knew to hold back on my pace so this year I made a conservative effort to get my pace in around the 8:35 pace and all of my splits give or take hovered around this marker. Sadly – what I didn’t pay attention to is the Heart Rate…

As with last year – the first half was still tough, something about 13miles of a real marathon is so much tougher than 13miles on a training run…anyway, this is a marathon – it’s supposed to be tough. Onwards I pushed, 14miles – check, 15,16,17 all within reaching point of my ideal pace so all was going fine…this is when things go a little hazy and to marathon story comes to its devastating end for me. At some point around the 18 Mile point I collapsed. I don’t remember much…what I do remember is:

• struggling to breath a bit, but nothing I would worry about if I wasn’t running a marathon
• someone talking to me as I seemed to be on the floor sitting (don’t remember getting to the floor)
• me telling them to carry on – “i would be fine soon”
• waking up in st johns ambulance tent
• throwing up
• finding it difficult to talk
• throwing up more
• sweating immensely

After an hour or so, following standing, then sitting back down again twice I eventually got out of the tent – St Johns told me I couldn’t continue so I had the task of working out whether I could make it home…Fortunately an hour or so I made it home but the next drink I took in came back out again.

Four months of training almost to the book and sadly the race was over and to be honest 3 days later I’m still not sure why. I could spend hours analysing my Garmin stats, my heart rate was phenomenally high from the start (170bpm) and by 10miles it was where i would have been on a threshold run (I finally topped the reading at 188bpm). When I was taken in my blood sugar levels were through the roof and my blood pressure was low…

Obviously its a huge dent to my pride and also makes me question what I do and how I move on. I’m sure my readers may think a little less but this time I don’t know what happened – I want to work out what went wrong on this day and how I can progress on. I want to spend the next few months running with friends I have met over the last few months and forgetting about this one day – VLM 2010 wasn’t for me but no doubt there will be another run some time and another race which I will do…

Cheers for reading

Neil

The massage was excellent and left my legs feeling a lot better than earlier and with the added knowledge that I wasn’t showing any real signs of damage I left the clinic ready for Sundays run, although at that point I hadn’t decided whether to race or just take it as a training run, although Chris did say as I left – go and crack 1:45, i’m sure you can.

Sunday arrived and with all the negative press that Silverstone seems to receive I don’t think I was looking forward to it as much as I possibly should – reports of difficulties getting in and out of the course on top of a dull circuit filled me with a bit of dread on the 1 and a bit hour drive. Fortunately, as always, Laura offered to come along and do the driving as well as watch from the sidelines and take photos, this is always a blessing – to have company before and after an event is perfect as it stops me stressing and getting worked up, not what you need before a race!

We got to Silverstone at about 1015 ish, plenty early for the noon start. We pottered down to the start areas and had a look at the shops before I started the lengthy process of sorting out my kit. Gel belt, heart rate monitor, pre-race isotonic drink, toilet break, banana….this routine takes almost as long as running the race but I find it works so I may as well stick to it. At 11:15 over the tannoy we were ushered into the pens, so I left my hoody with Laura and headed in – bad move. It was actually pretty damn cold still and I realised at this point I would be hanging around for 45mins without a jumper – did they really need 45mins to enter pens? On top of this because I got cold my body decided it needed the loo but I decided to hold it, if I needed to go during the route I would grudgingly have to stop!

Bang on midday Martin Yelling started the race and we were off – as usual I set off faster than I had really intended on and found myself running with the sub 8min runners. I tried to take the pace down a bit but judging by my Garmin that didn’t really happen! I managed to maintain a sub 8min/mi for the whole course – averaging 07:43 min/mi and according to my chip time I came in at 1:41:52 a new PB knocking 6 1/2 mins off my previous PB of 3 weeks prior (Laura – you were right I did a 1:48) and amazingly about 20mins off my Half Mara time of last year. On top of that my 10k chip time was sub 45 mins @ 44:15 another PB for me!

Obviously as I hit PB’s the run was incredible for me – it was tough but it wasn’t a killer I’m not sure I had another half in my legs at that speed but that is to be expected really! Marathon training is going well this year All in all a great run, wide course with no bottlenecks which is perfect! Would I do it again? If i was chasing a PB again then possibly, if I was going for scenery then probably not!See 19Mile Splits

Chip Timer Splits
Split Time
5K 00:23:25
10K 00:44:15
15K 01:11:25
20K 01:35:07

place (total) 671
place (gender) 614
place (cat) 484
finish time 01:41:52
http://silverstone.r.mikatiming.de/2010/index.php?content=detail&type=&id=0000030F5ECC83000005416E&lang=EN&event=SVRM&ageclass=

A 10k run was not however helpful with regards to my training schedule so I had to bring my long run forward to the Saturday. 18miles was the distance required according to the schedule and on a blue sky morning I set off for a local 7M loop before proceeding onwards towards my nans flat in Kennington, 11M away and the other side of the river. Following Thursdays run to my dads office he suggested I run and keep my heart rate down which may allow me to push further as historically I’m not great at maintaining speed. Taking that into account I said my garmin onto ‘Heart Rate’ mode with a max H/r of 164 and a min of 155 (I think!). For the next 2hrs40 mins, bating the first mile or so stayed within the zones only dropping low whilst waiting to cross at traffic lights. The run itself went pretty well with every mile coming in at sub 8min 50, some by quite a bit. The 19th mile was a bit lethargic and slow but I think that’s cause I hadn’t prepared my brain for it! It was great to be out in the sun even though it wad still cold – I think that’s the first blue sky running I’ve done since this marathon training began! 19M conquered leaving only 3M more to do in training and 7 on the day with a few weeks to go. Amazingly this week I managed to run 55 miles at varying speeds and intensities, this was because I had to switch the days of the long run over otherwise it would have dropped down to 36 miles (guess next week will be less ) I find that incredible and I think that is the most I have run in a week.

See 19Mile Splits

Sundays 10k was a race and against my what my brain told me I should do I went for it pushed on by my male ego (plus I was running with a friend who I know wouldn’t go slow)! Another week, another race and another PB with my 10k time coming in at 46:07 taking off about 40seconds off my previous best – running 6Miles at a sub 7min32sec pace – guess you could call that a threshold run! Awesome stuff – think the next stage (sub 45) is a little way off, taking off 67 seconds over 10k is a big push – I would need to have a constant pace of 7min 15sec miles and none of my splits hit that – even the first one which felt mentally fast! Oh well, 10k’s aren’t really for now so back to the long runs! Well done for Soo on that one, incredible running coming in just behind me by about 10 seconds and also having the stamina left in his body for a 200m sprint at the end! Good Effort.

See Newham 10k Splits

Till Next time

On Saturday, acutely aware there maybe a problem I took to the streets for the scheduled 3M warmup run – fortunately all seemed well no symptoms which matched Wednesdays run and it appeared that all was good

I’m a leap year baby so 28 Feb is when I opt for my birthday presents, according to facebook today is my birthday. On sat eve a load of my mates came over to take part in a murder mystery evening – whilst the food wasn’t entirely unhealthy I’m not sure the circumstances were the best pre-race routine especially the going to bed at 1am bit!

Sunday, my birthday and also the date of the Roding Valley half which I had decided to do as it’s rare to find an event where the start is less than a mile from home! On signing up, I realised the date, and new that I would be doing things the night before, howerver, I hadn’t predicted the wind and rain crashing into the window as my alarm went off – brilliant! I was so close to going, nah I won’t bother but fortunately I didn’t.

The race was wet and reasonably undulating couple of nice downhill recovery sections including a 1mile downhill to the finish line. The perfect thing about racing locally is the insider knowledge – I knew about the last mile, knew there wasn’t anything uphill so I think my final mile I clocked in a 7:40! Anyway, the finished the course in 1:48 according to my watch. The official race time came in at 1:50 but that doesn’t take into consideration at least a minute waited to get through a gap in a hedge as the main route was flooded!

I think 1:48 is a pb on my watch, and I actually think the official race time of 1:50 maybe a pb for me too from memory! The other positive thing was I still had more miles in my legs, wooo!

Haven’t seen the schedule for this week all I do know is i’m scheduled for an 18M on Saturday and I’m booked in for the ‘Newham 10k’ (completely pointless for marathon training). This run goes via the Olympic park which is always cool so looking forward to that!

Till next time.

N

For all of my friends this race was the furthest distance they had ‘formally’ run but even before we had started they showed the spirit of true amateur runners forming their excuses as to why they didn’t get the time they hoped for…

I am going to start this post by doing my stats etc then move on to my whinging about the course as I suspect there are a number of people who really couldn’t care about the poor organisation. Due to the flat course I new a personal best was entirely possible, the only concern was due to the large number of people, how much weaving I would have to do. As it turns out I would have to do a lot, racking up an extra 400meters on my watch as well as being on the curbside a lot more than I would like. Fortunately I still managed a time of 46:02 my fastest yet and the knowledge that probably given the right conditions I could make 45mins…my mates also did awesome coming in at 48mins(Soo), 55 mins(Kev), 1hr6(Jackie) and 1hr20(Kul). As Soo was the only one to wear a chip there is an element of trust on those times esp as 2 of them didn’t even wear a watch! To be honest though it really didn’t matter what time they got as ultimately they all finished and when I sat waiting and listening I could tell all of them had had that adrenaline buzz I have had crossing the finish line. Some said never again but I wouldn’t be surprised if they all try again as I think they all found it slightly better than they imagined…I think on that note if anyone wants to run another one I will willingly run with you to keep you company…

Bits of the course followed the marathon course taking in the infamous underpass on the embankment, one of the few bits of privacy that the London marathon runners will see. It was nice to do these bits and take in some of the sights and not have just run 23miles beforehand. The support was pretty good which to be honest makes sense assuming for every 2 or 3 runners they bring a guest. With better organisation I think this run has real potential, running past some amazing sights, sadly this year (and from reading some other forums) and previous years this poor organisation is a common factor.

Congrats and kudos to all my mates. 4 years ago I didn’t expect to be sitting on a pavement having run 10km with them (then again I suspect that is a mutual thought!) however now it’s time to do what I’m good at and moan, maybe this blog will come high up on google for British 10k and the race organisers may read it!

Having done a fair few paid for runs in the last year I thought the Paris half was the poorest organised until now. This event has to come fairly close to it faltering on several places. The event itself has to be one of the biggest 10k’s in London and with that the organisation should be on par to cope with that but it wasn’t…

Having rocked up into town at what I thought to be an early time I decided that I could avoid the portaloos by heading up Shaftesbury Av to McD’s when I arrived I clearly wasn’t the only person to have this idea as there was a queue. This queue however, as we were about to find out, was about 30 mins (at least) shorter than the portaloos in an incredibly bottle-necked baggage drop of area. I didn’t have to drop off a bag but for those who did it was a good job it didn’t rain as it didn’t look like there would be any coverage for the bags. Also this whole area was far to small for the shear number of people here.

Having found a couple of my mates due to him having his mobile on him we decided to walk to the start. This brings me on to issue number 2, the walk from the drop off point to Hyde park corner must be getting on for at least a km if not more. There must be places nearer to the start, to make matters worse they can’t even justify the bag drop being there as it’s close to the end as it was a similar distance from the finish lines to the bags…move the start or finish I’m sure it can’t be too difficult, that way you maybe able to avoid the u-turns which I’ll come onto later….

The start of the race was a complete shambles. Due to the fact that there were no pens to place similar paced runners I got to the back and realised there were several thousand runners of all shapes and sizes in front of me. Don’t get me wrong they all deserved a spot and they had clearly arrived earlier than me but I had paid money to do a run and with this number in front of people I couldn’t see that being possible for the first couple of kms. I decided to keep pushing forward. Eventually giving up when it was clear there was no way I could push further forward it was clear I still had a few thousand in front. The immensely underwhelming klaxon marked the start of the run yet we appeared to be standing still. We seemed to edge forward about 4 at a time and it wasn’t until I reached the “front” did I learn why. For some reason, they had decided to start the queue on one side and make runners cross to start but the gap to go through to cross couldn’t have been more than 5 people wide meaning the 30 or 40 person wide road had to bottlekneck through to the start. As I was on my own I could squeeze through but would hate to think what it was like to maintain a group at the start! Needless to say once through the start line I did indeed spend the first 10 mins weaving in and out past people that in any other race wouldn’t have started. On the plus side the roads on the whole were quite wide meaning that there was normally room to pass.

As I mentioned the route had some nice focal points but the last 3k in particular had bits of it that felt they were tacked on for an extra 200meters, with the number of people involved doing a complete 180 from one side of the road to the other didn’t feel ideal. This happened twice, being forced to go halfway across Westminster bridge then turn then past the Houses of Parliament up a bit then u-turn. I can understand road closures must be a nightmare but I’m sure that 500m could easily have been added without the need for these 180′s! Perhaps look at where the race starts and finishes and move a tiny bit!

I suspect most will be bored by now but if you are still here the course is certainly flat so if you can avoid weaving then there is certainly a pb chance.

From reading the reviews online perhaps we got lucky in knowing side routes into Bluewater, setting off at 730 and only sitting in a small queue of traffic it appears some were not so lucky stuck waiting on the A2 in a queue that could compete with Christmas Eve shopping traffic. By 8am we were parked and I was off heading for my usual pre run routine, namely queuing for the portaloos…sigh

Necessities out of the way and obligatory pre-run photo done, I set off for the start. Bumping into Sports Clinic Chris (would give a link but they have no website) on route was good to have a chat with someone I knew, he was quiet at the time but I suspect this wouldn’t last long and just after an hour after he should have clients trickling in. Start time was now approaching so I headed for the “pens”.

Being smaller in number to a few of the other runs the only restrictions in the starting pens was that women were one side of the road and men the other – not sure why other than it may make a nice photo opportunity. Both groups were started at the same time, and by 830 we were off, running down the road that you enter the shopping center on merging about 800m in at a roundabout.

I didn’t enter this course expecting to see sites, BW is built in a quarry and hence the biggest landmarks on the route could possibly be either the QE2 bridge or Asda . Sadly we didn’t get to run over the QE2 – something I would really like to do one day….Lakeside to Bluewater Run maybe heh. I was blissfully unaware of the hilly nature of this course. Looking at the reviews after most describe the course as undulating – “To give a wavelike appearance or form to”. This to me seems a fairly accurate description of the course, baring the hill at 5km which lasted best part of a 1.5km – that was fun but was over quite quickly with a descent to reclaim some of the time.

I ran a good time considering the conditions. The weather must have been in mid 20′s by 9am, sun fully exposed and also very hilly. According to the pdf on the run website I got the following stats:

Position: 354(2596) Time: 48:52.

This is a new personal best for me and to be honest given a flatter course I suspect I could knock of about 30seconds at least. The garmin also told me that the course was 10.25km, and according to the watch my 10km run time was 48minutes on the dot – see the splits.

What will it take to get my time down below 48mins, will I be able to do it by this time next month – how do people get below 48mins to 45mins? Is this something that is acheivable for me? Will be digging out my magazines and seeing what they suggest to pick up those extra minutes. Keep watching my blog to see my updates and whether in just under a month I can make a time sub 48minutes.




Whilst in my hay day when training for the marathon I may have taken this opportunity for a run home but aware that the distance hadn’t been covered for a few months and also the knowledge that if I ran home on one of the strike days I would still have to get back again, I decided this wasn’t an option. Instead I decided that Victoria station was a manageable distance from work at 4/5 Miles depending on the route so I would run there and head back to Laura’s which required an over ground train so all was fine.

It’s funny how my running has subsided over recent months, it was clearly obvious after the morning run (run no 2) that long gone were the days where I could put in multiple runs in a short span and still do fine. I’m not going to lie by run number 4 in 36hs I really struggled. A 6k ish run suddenly was really hard. I think that it may have been a case of lack of energy amongst other things but regardless it was a tough run.

There were certainly some pro’s to these few days above and beyond the general fitness benefits. I added to my knowledge of the geography of London, suddenly I knew where shepherd bush is in relation to Victoria and hence now having done London running for my marathon training I now know my way in a fairly straight line between a number of points of the city! This is a great thing to know, it means that if for some reason I can’t get a tube I am able to realistically determine where I can get to from a number of places in the center and the East.

It has been a tough few days of running and with an iminent run in the Bluewater 10k on Sunday this week has been a lot more intense than I had ever intended, it actually felt like one of the busier Marathon training weeks….odd, i’m not sure whether I enjoyed it or not! Sometimes I wonder why I do it! Then I book another run or read a blog/book about how others have enjoyed some event and i’m applying and hooked all over again…