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HS - big day for you tomorrow. All the best. Looks like weather could be just about perfect. Looking forward to hearing your report.
Tried out the new (to me) parkrun today: 'Bevendean Down' just outside Brighton. You know it's going to be tough when only 32 runners turn up while the other local parkruns will be some way north of 400! And tough it was, resulting in a 23:35 for me. However, this gave me 1st place in the Age Grading column so pleased with this. That's 4 races in 8 days for me; quite intensive by my standards.
A flying visit from me because as you can see, I'm posting a bit late at night (tsk tsk).
HS - good luck at the Southampton Marathon
MWW - good luck with the London Marathon
RF - great photo!
Columba - glad to hear your knee is still okay
Aquarius - sorry to hear you still have a virus
I had no after-effects from my 3ml run a few days ago and the ankle seems heaps better so I'm doing the Corsham 10k tomorrow. The race starts at 11:00am but its a 90 min drive from home so I'm planning to leave at 8:30am. I have already packed my bag and put it in the car to save a bit of time in the morning. We have my swim club's AGM tomorrow at 4pm so it will be a quick turnaround when I get back home. I'll try and pop online later on tomorrow evening to let you know how I got on (planning to start steadily and see how I get on and anything between 65 and 70 mins will do just fine).
As it was Easter last week i took an extra day off running, doesn't seem to have hurt me to be honest, i have decided to try changing my schedule a bit, and put in a few shorter fast runs to try and improve my times for the next run, i have to say my longer run yesterday was slightly better, which was 12.5 miles at 2.13 and a pace of 10.35, although in order to fit it all in with my day i was up at 4am out at 5.15 now its lighter i can do what i need to do home shower and be ready for my voluntary job which i like to start at 9am.
Good luck to all of you that have runs today, i am going to watch the London marathon on TV later.
Good news on the job front, i was successful in my interview and now have to go through a lengthy screening process, before i get a training date, and from what i can gather may not be until after September! i was so fed up with waiting for news i ended up phoning HR after 2 weeks of hearing nothing. the upside of this means it will not affect my training schedule for the Southend half, and i can do some self study before hand, plus of course enjoy the summer!
Well happy Sunday everyone, have a good day and enjoy your runs.
Looking forward to reading your Southampton report TE.
Cheers!
A quick visit ..
glo2 - congrats re passing your interview and getting your new job .. hope all goes well re the screening process.
dbiw - pleased to see others (HS, RF) can see your posts now.
My time for the Corsham 10K was 1:06:30 - pretty much what I expected. As planned, I started steadily and gradually increased the pace over the second half. I always find its psychologically better for me to do that as I find myself overtaking the people who passed me early on and went off too fast at the beginning.
Good news about your job glo2, congratualtions! Your running seems to be going well too (although getting up at 4 am doesn't sound much fun!)
Well done WtnMel on your Corsham 10k result and I hope your ankle didn't cause any problems. I also try to keep to a steady pace during a race, because, as you say, you can pick off the runners who started too quickly, which is a very satisfying feeling.
Hi DBI, I think we can all see your posts now.
Looking forward to hearing about Southampton HS.
Columba - how did Youngest son get on at London?
MWW - hope you had a good VLM, looking forward to your race report
The weather down here (I'm not very tall) is still fine for now so I'll be doing a bit of hill work today.
I watched the VLM on TV and it always 'gets me'. Some fantastic racing, record breaking and of course 40,000 compelling narratives. And, while I'm not a huge Brendan Foster fan, it was poignant that this was his last VLM outing.
Legs are completely shot this morning and I won't be running for a few days. I was very pleased with my race result, I was first MV70 in a chip time of 4.10.16. The course was 2 laps of the City including Southampton Common, Southampton Football Stadium and Itchen Bridge. It was very cold at the 9.00 start, but warmed up quickly, and was rather too hot during the final miles. Crossing Itchen Bridge the second time at 24 miles was tough. I had to really dig in and was able to sprint the final 200 metres. The course was long, 26.46 miles, but better than being short, I suppose. I've now done the double, 1st MV70 in last years Half Marathon, and 1st in this years marathon, the first for 30 years. Time to retire whilst I'm still winning? My club mates won't let me. Alice ran the London Marathon in 3.24, so was pleased with that. We will be lunching together later today to celebrate our respective marathons. I ran the first 23 miles with Emma, who finished about a minute ahead of me. We were filmed and interviewed before the race by the Meridian News Team, but it didn't appear on the Meridian News.
jb, well done in your parkrun and coming first in your age category. 4 races in 8 days is indeed very impressive.
WtnMel, well done in your 10k, I tend to apply the same tactics, as it is good to overtake runners that are struggling, having started off too quickly.
Aquarius, sorry to hear that your virus is getting worse, but I hope you soon recover. Well done to Steve knocking 5 minutes off last years time.
glo2, congratulations on being successful with your job application. It's good that you will be able to stick to your training schedule for your half marathon.
MWW, hope your London Marathon went well and look forward to your race report.
Aquarius - well done to Steve for improving his time
JB - I didn't see the VLM coverage but have to say, Brendan's commentary over the years has sometimes got on my nerves. Will be nice to have some 'fresh faces' on the job and I hope they are more interesting. It must be difficult to fill those hours of coverage - a bit like the golf coverage and (ahem) 'dear old' Peter Alliss who I wish would also retire as I don't just find him irritating .. just downright patronising and sexist too.
HS - Wow! Well done being the first MV70 across the line - and a fabulous time too. Enjoy your celebration lunch with your clubmate Alice.
I've had a closer look at my race details from yesterday - I did a blog on Fetch so I'll copy & paste it onto here to save me typing it all out again
While that 'little event' was happening in (that) London, I was running in the annual St. Georges Day 10k in Corsham (I think this was the 34th running of the race). My last visit to Corsham was in 2011 when I got round in 1:01:02 - I had no plans to try and emulate that sort of pace this time. As mentioned in a previous blog, spraining my left ankle then bruising the same ankle after falling off some play equipment meant I had not been able to run since the end of March - I had only managed one 3ml run so not ideal preparation and in my head it was a case of just getting round.
This is race that has a nice 'local' feel about it - but with 1100 runners it's not a small-town affair anymore. The numbers had been mailed out beforehand and incorporated chip timing so there was none of the frantic race number collection to worry about or starting/stopping your Garmin at the right times (but which I did anyway!). A pre-race aerobic warm up (for those interested!) and a pre-race briefing and then it was time to make our way to the start. This went like clockwork - they had huge banners to follow depending on whether you were a fast, medium, slow runner .. and pacers with bibs for times between 40 & 70 minutes.
It was nice to see St. George being interviewed before the start wearing his crown & robe - he was presumably there to keep an eye on the race as it was being held in his honour. I saw him at the start as well but he disappeared into the distance, never to be seen again!
I stuck to my plan of starting steadily and seeing how I went - my first three mile splits were 10:50 (flat), 10:59 (slight incline) and 10:45 (flat). After the water station and free orange segments I checked how I felt - the answer was I felt okay and wasn't worrying about the 2nd half of the race. The 4th mile split was 10:51 (flat) and I began to increase my pace a bit. This was the best part of the race psychologically for me - for a while I had been running with the same people and we had been swapping places. Now I felt stronger and when I overtook them they stayed behind and didn't re-appear. My 5th mile split was 10:32 - the last mile includes a short, sharp hill and I was able to run strongly to the top (overtaking some more people on the way) and the 6th mile split was 10:15. Then it was a case of heading for the line and I increased my pace some more, overtaking a few more people on the way - my pace over that last .2 ml was 08:39 .. this is unheard of as I'm usually pleasantly surprised to see a 9-something when I log details of my training runs.
And for my efforts, a nice technical t-shirt, a bottle of the local 'Box Brewery' beer and some assorted other goodies. I'll try and be back there again next year and hopefully, will have a better training period beforehand.
WtnMel - and you deserve that beer for your sprint finish. I used to have a bit of a 'kick' but there's nothing much there now. I totally agree with your point abut Peter A. but (forgive me) golf does attract some quite smug sounding commentators. I do enjoy the Ryder Cup coverage though, Little Englander that I am.
I did some hill work this morning and disturbed a snake sunbathing on the path. He or she wasn't very pleased. I thought it might be an adder, but after looking on the web it was just a grass-snake I think.
jb and WtnMel, thanks for your praise for my race result. Its only come from hard, dedicated training. My time would give me a good for age entry to the London Marathon, the requirement being 4.30. To be honest, I don't really fancy it, as I am not keen on running in a pack from start to finish.
jb, snakes won't normally bother you unless you tread on them. In all the years that I have been running in the forest, I have only seen two, and I didn't tread on them.
WtnMel: Well done to you too for your excellent performance in that St George's Day 10K . You sound to have paced it evenly and put in a strong finish. Makes me wish I was still racing...
Happy running to you all.
What is your next target?
Will do something today but I'm not sure what. I'm still concentrating on shaving a few seconds off my 5K time but there's a also a (hilly) 5 miler coming up that I need to prepare for.
Bright and sunny, but colder today. Legs are feeling much better, but still a bit of an ache in my left knee, so will have another day or two rest from running.
Thanks Rf and jb, don't worry, I've no intention of hanging up my trainers for a few more years yet.:) You are amazing Rf to be still running at 85, and I hope I will be too, if I'm still around.
jb, my next race is in 2 weeks time and is the Alton 10 mile which is a HRRL race. I don't expect to be first in my category with the effects of the marathon still in my legs, but want to run as we need all the points we can get to maintain a respectable position in the league. My next marathon is the New Forest which is multi terrain on the 10th September. I've a few more races in between. Good luck with your 5k training! I must try to do another parkrun in the near future, as the Brockenhurst run is now back in College grounds, and a faster course than in Wilverley Inclosure.
I've discovered a 6k event (funny distance) to do on Bank Holiday Monday. I'm hoping that I'll be the John Regis of this event: I remember that he was a very fine 200m runner and a pretty damn good 400m man - but at 300m he was a world beater! Seriously I sometimes wonder if our own personal 'optimal' distance might be one that is never or hardly ever run. (I used to do very well at a local 4 miler - a once a year opportunity!)
Bright and very cold, but rain is forecast later. I'm feeling ok this morning so will try a short jog later.
jb, the NF Half and Marathon were held previously from New Milton, and that is where I got my marathon PB of 3.12 in 1993. It moved to New Camp last year, and I ran it in 4.28. I intend running it much quicker this year. I believe I can improve on 4.10, but probably not in the NF race. I intend entering the Southampton Marathon again next year (sorry London), where I will try. It won't be easy though as I will be 72, but my WAVA might be better. Sundays was 68.64% which wasn't too bad considering elevation gain was 730 feet. Hope you do well in the Bank Holiday 6k. I've raced four 15k's, one 7 mile and one 7.25 mile beer race.
Just under 37mins for me for just under 5 miles. It was pretty windy so quite happy with that. (My WAVA rating for making excuses is 90%+!)
Very cold this morning, below zero earlier.
jb, you are right, the 70+ category has some really International Standard runners, which makes the category very tough. Many runners think that because the majority of races have less than 10 in the category, then it must be easy to get in the first three. Far from it, I'm training as hard, if not harder than in my forties to remain competitive. Well done for your 5 miler in windy conditions.
Ran a recovery 5 miles in the forest yesterday evening with Alice. This morning I'm running with Chris, but haven't decided how far to run. It will still be at a gentle pace though.
Hard session for me today - 5 x 500m hill repeats.
Rest day for me today. Will be cycling about 20 miles. That's enough for me especially as it looks like rain today.
Bright and sunny and today is a rest day.
jb,it's really amazing how those with disabilities both physical and mental achieve such incredible feats. They are truly inspirational. Hope the hill reps went well. Enjoy your cycle ride.
I ran a steady 6 miles in the forest yesterday morning with Chris. Legs were feeling good and hope to do a quicker run tomorrow.
It's very dull and dismal, but forecast to remain dry. I'm intending to run a bit quicker today, but not sure yet how far to go.