Swansea Half Marathon - June 2016

I hadn't run a half marathon for a few years, my first was 2008 in Llanelli, a mildly undulating course (had a few short hills) exposed to the elements on the coastal path. Then I did both the Forest of Dean Trail Half Marathons, the spring one and the autumn one. It's on one of these that I had my personal best time of 1hr41. These trails routes are hilly so I was intrigued what I might post on a flat course like Swansea, which has a total elevation of less than 10metres I think. Coming into this race I'd been getting the long hilly miles in for my July marathon and had done a few tempo runs but I hadn't followed a race plan and I hadn't focused on any particular pacing, I was just going on feel throughout my training. This is what I decided to do in the race, not focus on pace but rather start out on a pace that I felt I could maintain and then try and pick it up in the last few miles. Even though my main focus was the marathon in a month's time I still tapered for this race, just to see what I could do but the last couple of runs before the race I noticed a pain on the outside of my left knee which I wasn't pleased with as I hadn't noticed it before, it had come from nowhere even though I had tailed back the training that week.

Race day came and I was wearing the colours of my running club Run4All for the first time. I'm still with my triathlon club Celtic Tri and it felt very strange and disloyal to be wearing another club's colours, but I've had more to do with the running club of late and I liked the fact that the R4All race vest was nice and tight and that they had race pins in club colours, plus a nice buff to keep the hair under control. I had no support at this race so off I toddled in the morning, getting to Swansea by about 7:30am to be sure of parking and the place was deserted almost! Still, at least I got to use a portaloo that hadn't been used before...a clean portaloo!!!!!!!!!!

The weather was great, not too cold, but not hot, a very slight breeze but nothing that would affect running...Upon entering we'd had to enter an estimated finishing time and as a result we had been grouped into pen starts. I can't remember what time I had put down but I was in pen B, the one behind the elites/fastest club runners! In my mind I'd like to go sub 1hr40 as that would be a PB but if I could get anywhere near 1hr35 I'd be well chuffed. I didn't think 1hr35 was on as that would be consistent 7:15 minute mile-ing and whilst I was running well in training I hadn't done much consistent speed work or threshold work so thought keeping that pace up for 13 miles would be too much. So I thought I'd hang out by the 1hr40 pacer and then towards the end up the pace and move ahead. As it was in my pen I was much nearer the 1hr30 pacer which wasn't intentional but I thought I'd start and see how long I could keep that pacer in my sights as long as the pace felt OK for me. 

The start was delayed by 1/2hr due to road closure issues so this meant we had all been standing around in the pen waiting to go for at least 45 minutes, not ideal by any means and thankfully I didn't need the toilet having gone 3 times since getting to Swansea in the morning! The organisers had gone to a big effort and there was a choir singing in the starting area, and there was another part way down the course which was fab. The support to be fair was amazing out on the course, the best I've experienced and the shout outs I had for being in R4All colours was fab and I found that I overtook someone every time I had a shout out, which wasn't intentional, lol! I was also thoroughly enjoying myself, having been so long out from racing, to now be in a race and loving every step was an amazing feeling!!!! 

Clearly enjoying myself!!!!

The route was a little route out from the city centre starting point and then out and back along the coast road, out on the road and back on the cycle path, this meant supporters could see you on both ways which is great as a spectator and as a runner in terms of maximising support. It also meant you could see the runners ahead/behind you on the route so extra shout-outs for fellow club runners. I also got chatting to a celtic tri bloke at the turnaround point, Gary, had to say I was in that club too but in different colours for the day, lol! I surprised myself immensely when I looked down at one of my mile lap times and saw that I was clocking sub 7 minute miles! This wasn't intentional but the pace I was running at felt comfortable so I stuck with it. As it was, post-race, looking at my pacing, I was pretty consistent other than the last 2 miles when the pain from my knee hampered efforts, but otherwise I had stuck to a pace based on feel alone, and that pace had been both consistently fast and consistent! Happy Days for me!

Just before mile 12 - this is me trying and failing for sub 7 min pace - sheer agony!

So...It got to around mile 10 and I decided to ramp it up a bit, caught Gary back up and overtook him and didn't see him again, I always try and finish a race strongly so I was pleased that I was able to do this. However, the pain in my knee had been there from the off but it was just a mild niggle initially. However, from about mile 10 on it got steadily more painful until it started to actually hamper my running. I was now running in pain and I know it was showing on my face. Right before mile 12 I looked down at my watch and I was on 1hr23, the first time I'd looked at my time - f**k me!!!!!! I was on for a great time and if I could nail a great final mile I might get sub 1hr30!!!!!!! Unfortunately, the pain was just too much and as much as I was trying to push I just couldn't. I did manage a last final sprint though, just got to haven't you, as I had spiderman in my sights in the final straight so gave a sprint from about 100m out but I was in sheer agony, lol, and when I crossed the line, f**k, the pain of trying to slow down!!!!!!!!! The marshals were asking if I needed St John's Ambulance, lol. Nah, but I did decide to head straight to the massage tent, and slowed limped my way over. Thankfully the massage was free as all my cash was back in the car, but she was able to loosen things up slightly, but I was still in heaps of pain walking and spent the next few days limping around!

Spiderman in my wake...this was through gritted teeth though, not pretty on the eye, but at least I'm flying!

As it was I managed 1hr32:27 - BOOM!!!!!!!!! I was well chuffed with this given I hadn't thought I'd get near 1hr35 and know that if it hadn't been for the injury I could have gone faster, so the next target is sub 1hr30!! I'm also hoping that I get a 'good for age' time with this for the New York Marathon. This year for my age-group 1hr35 was the magic number, which is why I'd looked at 1hr35 pacing, so in January I can see if this time is good enough for me to try and get a 'good for age' slot in next year's New York marathon which would be amazing!!!! There's no guarantee of a place, but there's far more chance than if I entered the ballot. Just so happy with this result...I know there's more to come too if I get some consistent speed work in me once I'm over the injury.

So the injury is ITB syndrome so who knows what will happen for Snowdon Trails Marathon 4 weeks after this race...

Preseli Beast Bach May 2016

My first race for 18 months and a brutal looking race at that. But, it was a running race, I love running, it's unlikely I am going to die whilst running (although I came to think otherwise during the race), so I don't get anxious unlike in triathlons where the swim section is my psychological battle because of my fear of drowning. 

It was a late morning start time so nothing to early and the drive across was beautiful. I had decided to wear my marathoner camelbak for the first time to see how it felt ready for my longer marathon training runs. I know you shouldn't try anything new on race day but when I tried it on it fitted so snuggly that I knew it wouldn't be an issue, and it wasn't. 

I knew this race was going to be tough. It's 2000ft of climbing over 11 miles with "the beast" featuring as the highlight, basically a hike up a pretty big mountain over grassy terrain!!! I had seen the profile, but didn't know what to expect really in terms of terrain. I wore my trail shoes and the weather was decent so I had shorts and t-shirt on, with a buff to kerb the bed hair!! 

The start/finish was in a little village square and the locals certainly now how to put on a show with drums being banged and even a little golf cart lead out with hooters and sirens! The sound of those drums as I emerged from the trails on the way back was a welcome sound as this race was brutal! You had your race pack beforehand and I'd bought a t-shirt, as I love a good t-shirt to show off the race achievements, and a slate coaster. I still feel like a cheat getting these before the race has been finished, but then it is a motivator to make sure you complete to be sure you can make use of them I guess, lol. 

So the hooter sounded and off we went, hundreds of footfalls in tandem, up the road out of the village and then right onto the trails. Into a forest section which was fast but potentially a fall hazard as there were tree roots a plenty and little boardwalks that were going to be slippery if wet. After about 1k the race then started, up, and up, and up. This was pretty much a constant theme, lol. As it was the first ascent was a steep grassy single track and unfortunately if the person in front of you stopped to walk you had to also. I can't say I was ready for walk then but you had no other choice until you found a spot to pass. 

The terrain of the race was a mixed bag, forest fire roads, wooded trails, grassy single track ascents and descents, boggy marshland that landed you shin deep in mud, and then proper fell racing up almost vertical mountains on grass that required you to walk and distract yourself from the screaming in your calves! The final 3 miles was a very fast descent off the mountain followed by a return through the wooded trip hazard and then back out the trail to the village drummers! Coming into this race I wasn't sure if I was race ready. I was fit, but having not raced for so long and speed work having been minimal I didn't know what to expect of myself. 

As it was I can't say I "enjoyed" the race. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, especially on a sunny day, but you didn't dare look up because the footing was so uncertain that you could trip at any moment. There had been a long hilly on a forest fire road that I was determined to run all of it even as others started to walk but then rounding the corner and seeing a line of racers in front of you walking up a bloody big mountain that seemed to go on for at least a mile was demoralising, as was the way my calves said "no thank you very much" to the walked ascent due to it's beyond steep gradient! Then when you got to the top of that you had a little respite before it pitched up again. Thankfully though, at the top of that final climb over rough grassy terrain was the start of the descent and boy was it fast! If you'd fallen then you'd have landed a good 10 feet in front of you I'm sure such was the slope down and the hazards underfoot! 

Pretty beautiful right!

 Throughout the race I'd been too-ing and fro-ing with another girl and on that final pitch up I had just re-overtaken her. Thankfully, on that descent, I left her for dust and I left nothing out there on the way back in, overtaking people on the fast single track section, and then holding off others in the last section through the forest and out into the village. As it was a guy approached me after the race to say he had kept me as a marker point down the mountain by about 400m but that I had pulled away from him so he couldn't catch me. When I got back to the village with about 400m to go I was running as hard as I could to be sure no-one caught me and crossing that line was one of the most welcome reliefs ever!

Thank f**k!!!!

As it was I was 11th female so I didn't do too shabby at all! The food on offer back in the village hall was amazing, although I can never really stomach much after a race, so a nice free cup-cake did me nicely rather than the cawl that everyone else was tucking in to! A change in the toilets as i was stinking was a welcome relief and then after watching for a while and catching up with run4all club members I made the trip back home. All in all a good day's work! Can't say I enjoyed it...would I do it again??? Now I know what to expect maybe, but at the time I would have said no. Still, a cracking race, and great preparation for hilly races to come...

2016 - half a year gone and not one blog post?!?!

A serious lack of blogging has been going on!!!! Life has been a bit of a rollercoaster this year but having done three races this year (that's a huge improvement on recent years) I thought I best write some race reports at least!

So, just to bring events up to current day before the race reports, the start of the year was hit by illness which hampered training, then my asthma flared up as a result quite badly leading to a painful chesty cough that went on a long time. I was training for the Preseli Beast Bach (in May) by this point so when my chest felt a bit easier off I went for a hilly run only to jar my rib muscles on a steep descent when I was coughing badly. Pulled rib muscles are painful buggers as just turning over in bed caused sheering pain and running was out as was swimming as I couldn't stretch. Then I had a minor operation on my finger so again I couldn't swim so all in all I decided to drop out of the triathlons/duathlons I had planned and just focus on my running races as my training had been so sporadic at the start of the year. 

When I finally got back to run training properly things were going well and I was chuffed that all my miles at zone 2 heart rate had worked a treat as my time per mile was dropping steadily without any more effort. I started to add in a few tempo runs and was pleased that I could sustain a faster pace, although I wasn't training to any set pace, just going on feel. 

The races I had lined up were the Preseli Beast Bach, 11 miles covering 2000ft of climbing in the Pembrokeshire Mountain range - The Preseli's. This was a race carried over from last year when I was injured; then the Beast of Bryn (15 miles of hilly trails), again carried over from last year, the Swansea Half Marathon, and then the Scott Snowdonia Trail Marathon. Unfortunately, the Beast Of Bryn got cancelled due to events with Tata Steel (the sponsors) but I still had three good races to focus on with the last one, the Snowdonia Marathon being my first marathon and the most important one in my book. If i could achieve that after the years of running injuries I'd had then I would be well happy...

Training wise I was still using the turbo, but wasn't going out on the bike on weekends as I was focusing on long runs, and getting my gym work in. As it was as well, the early part of the year life took over a bit too so having just running to really focus on was helpful for balancing up work/training/life. My early morning training routine was very much hit and miss, but I was at least getting the training done and feeling good when doing it. It's not been plain sailing though as I've had some stuff going on that affected my appetite so I was conscious I was running on empty a lot of the time for a period but the positive was that the weight I had put on over the past couple of years from being injured and liking junk food too much fell off me so I was the lightest I'd ever been and feeling great for it!!! Now it's about keeping it off!!!!!!!! My shoulder injury still isn't sorted, I had a MRI that looked right at the shoulder joint but they found nothing there and then discharged me, even though I still had the issue. Not sure what I'm going to do about it but for now I'm just watching the pain when I do manage to go swimming and hopefully from now on I can get a couple of swims in a week and then maybe return to club swims from end of September when the focus will return to basics rather than the race prep stuff they will be doing now. 

In life stuff, I passed my MSc in Sport Psychology with a merit and graduated this month out of The Millennium Centre which was pretty stunning, (if not long and tedious as I was 3rd from last to go up!!). I've also started a new job which is setting up a service for people with personality disorders that I am leading from scratch, so that's been a challenge as no-one wants to be helpful and instead people tend to ignore your requests!!!!!!

Anyways...race reports to follow...