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Massive respect to those people who took 20 - 23 hours and spent 9 - 12 hours wandering in the dark - wading through Windermere in the light was okay, going through in the dark I'd have been a bit more pensive.
I'll do a report at some point, but my main discomfort afterwards has been blisters on my feet, even ran round to Greggs for my pasty this lunch time.
Yes, that doesn't sound like huge fun in the dark for 3 hours, let alone 12!
I'm getting rather bored now of the recovery period! Managed to get a few races booked in though to end the year.
Decent session on Tuesday of 4 x 1m off 2 min jog just to wake things up again. Pretty surprised by the paces and how good it felt suggesting I'm in decent shape.
DT - good luck on Sunday. Do you have a target time in mind?
Not much to report from me. 2 pretty easy weeks due to work and a nasty cold. Picking the miles back up again this week though.
I'm mainly going as it's county half mara champs so good medal chance plus the race has separate prizes for v40 and v45. Looking at last year's results only the top 4 went sub 80 and first v45 was 81.xx. of course I've no idea who will turn up this Sunday.
Any target race for you to work towards as yet?
Hopefully it will motivate me to get some decent miles in over the next few months.
The only issue is it sells out as soon as it goes on sale so its not always easy to get a place.
That's annoying, Skinny. Look forward to the report.
Had e mail off England athletics the other day confirming my qualification to next years v45 mara team. Quite happy to take that experience again and have a go at Chester without Berlin I my legs.
Will go out to burn some adrenaline with a mini session in a bit once flooding eases off.
Went out for 13 with 3m easy then 2 x 4m at mp off 1m easy then 1m cd. Was surprised on the mp miles, 6.08, 6.08, 6.09 and 6.05. Then 6.05, 6.07, 5.59 and 6.05.
Happy enough if that's my starting point after this coming week in lanzarote.
Yes was in team at Chester. I was 6th of 10, 3rd ran 2.43. Next year I'll have it as a target race and hopefully be fitter so target a higher team position.
Back yesterday from lanzarote, got 4 short runs in over 7 days to tick over. 6 x 1k yesterday in pouring rain was unpleasant. Perception of effort was high but hr quite low. Easy 6m just over lunch.
Time to start building back up now.
I've had a quick read back; excellent marathons from DT at Berlin and Chester (although I'd noted these on Strava). Skinny - top work on the 50 miler, furthest race for me was 38 miles and that was plenty. Mr V - looks lie some good consistency - hope you managed to get a place at Brass Moneky.
Been away for a while, work has been totally insane (very busy, not enough staff which i turn lead to existing staff not being able to cope and having to take time off) so running has had to take a bit of a back seat (with the exception of parkrun most weeks, although more often than not with the kids so usually come in around 30 minute mark) Very gradually starting to get back in to some more regular running and it's starting to feel a little easier.
Did a race last weekend, the classic 7 mile distance. I did this race last year, it's on the edge of Dartmoor and therefore pretty undulating. Target was to hold 7 m/m pace (I was close to 6:30 m/m last year) for as long as possible, ended up with an average pace of 7:02m/m so I was happy enough with that as the conditions were much worse this year, so I've now got something to build on over the winter.
As a bonus, the race was the Devon Road Running County Champs and I was part of the team that finished third so ended up with a bronze county medal to go with the gold one from the track champs earlier in the year. So after not a particularly good year of running I've ended up with two county medals.
Glad to see the thread is still going, will try and be a bit more active from now on!
Skinny, Where's that race report?
Spin Thursday, 12m Friday morning, core and glutes stuff Saturday and 7 today. Training not overly interesting at the moment, miss being in the midst of the pointy end of it all.
Session Tuesday (2k, 90s, 1k x 3) hitting paces quicker than previously gor the effort. 8m easy Wednesday, spin Thursday then 6m tempo yesterday (10m in total) averaged 5.58, first session (beyond shorter intervals) where I've averaged sub 6mm.
Popped along to parkrun this morning for a social jog. Ran it progressively with 6.07, 5.55, 5.51 then 5.40 for scraps for 18.31 and 6th place.
Easy 13 tomorrow, weather looks set very pleasant.
Very good DT particularly that 5:58 stat!
I did parkrun Saturday - 20:05 on the 3.23 mile winter course - not run sub 20 round my local course since I was a V50 so was gunning for that but 6:14 average pace left me reasonably happy.
Doing the local 10 mile race this Sunday - would love to be going for a PB but need 6:19 pace so think will have to accept that I can get close but no cigar (I am considering setting off at 6:19 pace and making it a thoroughly miserable experience though
I've the local half Sunday that was cancelled a few weeks ago.
Easy half Sunday, spin last night then a reduced session today of 2 x 1m - 3 x 0.5- 4 x 0.25.
Couple of easy runs next few days before race.
Skinny - hope the 10 miler goes well. Like DT I recommend you go out at pb pace....why not!
Tommy - good to see you reappear. Hopefully you've been able to find time for some more running recently. I did manage to get a BM place. Just realised it will be my first race since May 2019. Hard to believe its been that long.....
I've had a solid 3 or 4 weeks of training. Think I'll try an all out parkrun effort on Saturday and see where I'm at.
That said weather forecast is perfect and my view is sub 80 on that course would be a solid result. Funny though I'm talking about a sub 80 like it's a base line achievement!
Good luck on the parkrun. Be good to get a benchmark time to work from.
Brampton to Carlisle 2022 10 Mile Race report
At 63:19 my 10 mile PB is my weakest PB, set in 2014 and never ran a 10 mile race when fully fit so as I’ve started being able to run again I’d always had an eye on this race and distance as a PB opportunity; I did get a 5k PB by 2 seconds earlier on in the year so that goal was already achieved but was another PB possible today which would make this a good year.
Since the Lakes in a Day 50 miler though my last 5 weeks had only been 20, 16, 41, 8 and 13 so the recovery from that had impacted my training and a 20:05 parkrun at 6:14 pace last week suggested that the 6:19 pace I needed for a PB was probably beyond me. Nevertheless it’s a fast route and as mentioned earlier in the week the plan was to set off at PB pace and see what happened.
I did parkrun yesterday and probably ran it slightly faster than intended but my legs felt okay this morning. My dad was giving me a lift out to Branpton and arrived a bit early so I grabbed my number and safety pins and headed out of the house. Seconds after he had dropped me off I realised I had forgotten my watch which was going to make running at a steady 6:19 pace a bit difficult but I remembered that the only previous time I had raced without a watch was when I had set my 10 mile PB so after a bit of a warm up and a few strides I committed to running to feel and see what time I finished up with.
It's a very popular club runners race so I was well back at the start but the roads are wide and this didn’t really affect my pace. Just to highlight how popular a race it is it was won today by Philip Sesemann in 48:47.
Anyway back to me I hit a fairly comfortable pace over the first couple of miles and after 3 miles I was running with someone so when his watch beeped I asked him what pace we were going at - 6:11 so slightly too fast but I’d gone off at a pace to give myself a chance of a PB.
Then out of the blue (as it always is) the shooting pain in my foot started leading me to hop a few times and run with a limp for about half a mile but whilst I dropped back from the group I was with I was able to get through it until it settled down again. However this left me running on my own frustratingly with a big group of 10 about 50 yards up the road – we were running the whole way into a slight breeze so would have been helpful to be running with them but at least something to focus on.
I started picking them off at around 6 miles and caught up with my watch friend from 3 miles at 7 miles so caught up on my pace – 6:15s now but with a few uphill stretches in the last 3 miles and starting to tire it was going to be tight.
Near top of a hill just before 9 miles my legs started to feel like jelly and knew I’d lost some time there but on way back down tucked in behind a couple of people and tracked them till close to the end and sprinted the last 200 yards away from them and desperately asked someone who finished just in front of me what time he had on his watch. Quite amusingly as he looked down I saw he only had a watch with hands and said about 63 minutes which was no use to me but the two people behind me both said 63:30 so disappointingly it seemed I had just missed out.
Results later confirmed that I’d run 63:22 which is 3 seconds slower than my PB from 2014 – can’t help thinking if I had remembered my watch I would have found 4 seconds somewhere but who knows. Pretty frustrating but can imagine focussing on this race in second half of next year – it’s a good race and like the distance.
For now though I’m going to back off and just try and tick over to Christmas with some strengthening exercises and then if everything’s okay I’ll have one last roll of the dice at a marathon.
Hopefully things will feel OK in morning. Which mara you eyeing?
Looking round start line, the speedster I was aware of was there but beyond that it looked short on talent that I would usually recognise. Went off with speedster then after 200m he pulled away. I was conscious of 2 other lads 10m or so behind. At about 1m a bloke came on my shoulder and stayed with me. I was feeling really crap and didn't think I could stick the pace. Bizarrely though a couple of successive climbs at 3m marker and just after woke me up. We exchanged chat and he said his best mara was 80.xx and we were averaging 6.05 so I knew he was on his limit and I noticed the two hills had damaged him as he had gone from conversational to working hard. I decided then to attack the next couple of hills to put him under the cosh. Albeit I was risking similar but felt I had it in me and ultimately if my time suffered I was in a race now not a time trial.
Anyway that worked well and by about 6m I'd opened a comfortable gap but not one that allowed error and it stayed same until 10m when a few hills , which hurt me also, hurt him a bit more so by 11m I was coming off quite long drags up as he was starting them so I knew 2nd place was secure.
Saw the rest of the race out on my own and was really battered from the constant undulations coming in 80.52. He came in a50s later and 4th was 85.xx.
I was robbed of a podium presentation however as they gave me an envelope immediately on crossing the line with an Amazon voucher for £20. No double bubble allowed though on the v45 prize and 2nd v45 was about 1.29. County awards not made either but that does allow double claim so I'll have open silver and v40 silver.
Felt really rough post race, coughing lots and wiped out. Did a covid test when home but negative.
Feel OK now though coughing still. A fairly surreal experience literally racing for a place but nice also to not be obsessed with time.
I've noticed sometimes when I've felt ill that your body can almost suspend the illness whilst you are running - particularly a chesty cough - but you really suffer for it afterwards,
It's also a very good time on a tough course. Well done.
PS Probably Manchester if there are spaces but Blackpool would be another possibility.Need to understand when I would need to run a GFA time for London because I'm 55 at end of May but think I might need a time before that.
Skinny - that's frustrating but still a great time and shows you are in decent shape. I have fond memories of Brampton as I probably ran my best ever race there. I actually think it was also in 2014 if I remember correctly.
I skipped my attempt at an all out parkrun effort on Saturday as it was chucking it down and very windy when I woke. Did a 15 miler later in the day instead, which was my longest run for a few years.
As for gfa qualifying for London 2024 I would suspect the qualifying window may be January to August which is when it used to run but based over 2 years. That would only leave 9 months to run a time which seems a bit tight. However, I'd say sometime may- August would be OK.
Yes I thought it might have been a bit more. Personally I'd have just rathered a trophy of some sort.
Mr v, no point suffering a 5k if weather is like that. Yes it did change my approach which was useful as it wasn't a race for chasing a time anyway. It was almost quite surreal looking around in the first 400m expecting a few lads to come by me. I was thinking as people settle they'd come by then I thought if anything I'm less likely than those behind to have gone off too fast and realised the 4 or 5 hanging on behind would just fall away after a mile, which they did.
Runbritain liked my performance and gave the course quite a hard rating. Took my handicap to 1.2 which beats my previous lowest last December of 1.3.
5m easy yesterday and 8m today.
Really pleased to have gone sub 17.30 and hr data suggests I had a bit more in me. I was 50s ahead of 5th and 40s behind 3rd so largely a sole effort. Decent wava pb as well.
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Firstly congratulations to DT (the only surviving thread member still out there I think) for his Boston run - truly out of everyone who contributed on here your transformation has been the greatest (apart from maybe mace in the wrong direction).
As planned back in December after my annual layoff to mend I started again by running 10 miles with a friend on 27th December and since then have run 40+ miles virtually ever week until the last 3 with the goal of one final attempt to complete a marathon (Manchester).
Along the way though I've had a few other notable performances so worth just scooting through those first.
25th Feb - 19:30 at Carlisle Winter Course parkrun (long) which was only 12 secs off my best ever time. Showed that training was working.
5th March - 1:21:54 at North Lincs Half - only 9 secs off a PB but missed out on an England Masters vest by 2 and a half minutes which was the gold target. Still I'm obviously fit. Another worthwhile note here is that I could only run about 10 miles in my Next % before it started becoming an issue so knew I would have to do my marathon in normal trainers which would be slower.
1st April - first finisher at Fort William parkrun in a not particularly fast 20:22 but course is down and then back up and all off road.
8th April - 18:22 - 5k and parkrun PB by 9 seconds (Maryport Prom - very flat and right length).
16th April - Manchester Marathon...(see post below)
Despite all the successes at end of my training above the last two weeks had not gone according to plan - 3 weeks out I ran 23 miles in 2:58 with 4 towards the end at 6:47s and felt good but on following Wednesday my knee started hurting on inside and was so bad I had to limp home and have a few days rest before Fort William parkrun which was fine but could still feel it afterwards and this continued afterwards so other than the parkruns I was doing little running last 3 weeks were
13miles, 21 miles and 5 miles the last week on the Tuesday with 2 at 6:45.
Nevertheless if my knee would behave I felt I had enough training in the bank to do a decent race provided the knee behaved.
Travelled down Saturday and weather was ideal Sunday with little wind. Plan was to set off at 7s and just play it by ear. The goal was to get a GFA time for London good enough to make the cut off which I thought would be between 3:05 and 3:10.
I was in wave Red B so 20 minutes after official race start and off we went. Very congested at start but accepted the first mile would be sow and allow me to ease into the race and suss out my knee. The knee pain was fine but generally my knees did not feel bouncy and a 7:12 first mile felt harder than I would have hoped.
Then road opened up and a 6:51 and a succession of 6:55s saw me go through 7 miles in 48:38 - av pace 6:57.
Somewhere during mile 7 I got a twinge n my left hamstring which felt a little bit crampy and after a mental panic decided to drop the pace back a bit and I had a salt tablet and hoped everything would settle down. There was a water station every 3 miles and at first two I had a couple of swigs and then chucked - all the ones post 7 miles I kept hold of the bottle and drank the whole contents which I think was helpful.
Miles 8,9,10 and 11 drifted slower 7:00, 7:05, 7:10, 7:14 at which point the crampy feeling had passed and someone with Josh written on their back ran by and I tagged on to him helping me lift the pace back up to 7:02 and 6:55 for mile 13 and halfway in 1:31:35 but I still didn't feel like I was having a good day. Time to reflect.
I couldn't get sub 3 (my A target) but I was well on target for 3:10. Lot of risk of cramping so I took some pace off and looked for 7:15s to 20 and then reassess again. This proved to be a very good decision.
Miles 14 to Mile 20 in average pace of 7:15 ranging from 7:06 to 7:22. By mile 20 i was getting crampy twinges in both hamstrings and my hip and pelvis were starting to stiffen up. I remembered something a good runner had told me about when you get close to the wall it's a good idea to slow down a bit and then you can pick it up again later on - I'm not really sure if this was a conscious decision or I just slowed down but it got a lot more difficult and slower from here.
Mile 21 7:42 and at this point I worked out that I wasn't going to get 3:10 - this totally overwhelmed me and I had to try and get a grip. :-:smiley:
At this point all you can do is try and keep going and look at the carnage all around you as people stop to stretch various parts (NO not THAT part) and some are walking whilst others who have paced it better are bombing past you.
7:32, 7:50, 7:47, 7:50.
One and a bit miles to go and there is a blind woman running in front of me with a guide (started 15 mins in front of me) but this gives me a really good thing to focus on and I keep with them till hit 26 miles 8:03 and the finishing straight of 0.4 mile (Phew it's not short this time) at 7:19 pace and I've done it - I've finally finished a full length marathon race.
3:11:24
Not great but not bad for an old man.
A little bit outside my B target and whether that will be good enough to get into London we'll have to wait and see but even if I do get in I don't plan to race it, just enjoy the experience.
Achieved my C target of running the whole way non stop and I'm reasonably satisfied.
There is a video of the finish line which I cross at about 3:25 on the clock on the screen and if you stick with it you see me stop my watch and then I get a 'bit' overwhelmed.
Anyway I'll keep running, stick to the shorter distances and maybe have another go at getting an English Masters vest next year when I'll be a V55. Might also try a personal trainer to see if they can finally make me a bit more resilient to injury.
One final update to the TTT for old times sake to show
My 9 second 5k PB, my new WAVA best from that 5k PB of 82.84% and finally a genuine full distance marathon PB of 3:11:24 (which was also 29 seconds inside my 2015 shortMara time.
I've also updated DT's to show
A new 5k PB 22 seconds faster than previous. 17:28 still not good enough for a medal position.
A new 10k PB by 14 secs.
A new HM PB by 2 mins and 2 secs.
A new Mara PB of 2:44:32.
And finally his HM time gave him a new WAVA best of 83.29% and robbed me of the bronze cell.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed over the years - it's been fun!