...it's about the milliseconds!

So this week ended with yet another race! My house-mate had been training for the last 8 weeks from couch to 5km! And last Sunday at Clapham common he had his first taste at racing! My boyfriend and I decided during one of our long 10k training runs that instead of standing on the side line cheering Sean on we'd sign up and run with him! Though there was a little change, I did the 10k instead of the 5k with them.

http://www.innovationsports.co.uk/

The week leading up to this wasn't a great one for training or preparation. Following the British 10k on Sunday I took a rest day Monday followed by intervals on Tuesday. I have begun my 13week training program for the Royal Parks Half Marathon so I changed up the intervals to 4x600m at 13.5kph. This was a little different as I was used to longer reps of a shorter distance. I kept it up and got a great 4miles done. Though that was it for my training. Due to a lot of mismanagement of time (not from me) at lab I had to come in really early a couple mornings to run experiments which meant run in the evening ( I don't get out til after 7) or not at all. I went with the latter unfortunately. I was supposed to do a little 2-3miles on Friday evening with the boyfriend but we both worked late and it was too late to do anything. BUT I did run the .5miles to the tube station when I got a phone call about a lost oyster card. So that counts right? Got my blood pumping so it must count? Saturday also was spent walking around London instead of resting and eating a hell of a lot of meat at a BBQ that evening. I think I had 5 baby potatoes...protein loading? Oops. At least I didn't drink! Off to bed rather late after downing a pint of water and we were up at the crack of dawn.

Me and my protégé! 

The day was gorgeous! Sun was shining and we were ready. Well Sean was. The two boys started 2 minutes before me in the 5km heat. I was slightly nervous as I felt under prepared but off I went. There were a lot of runners and the paths were narrow but everything seemed okay for the first 2km. That was until I saw the amount of trail we had to run on and the muck from the last month or so of rain. The route was lovely, if it had been dry. There were a couple of moments where I thought I would slip around corners, especially when some unkind woman elbowed my and pushed me out of her way. But even with a silly 8min/mile first mile I was on track. I had a pacer and was following their nice 8.20pace. I saw the boys at their 4th Km which was great (not due to catching up but a meandering course)! They looked good! They got to turn off the track and finish while I carried on for a second lap.They finished in a great 27minutes though Reis beat Sean by 2/10s of a second! Wowzer!

 I was conscious of the fact that ~1,000 runners had already ran on the mucky track so I kept an eye on the mud. I felt quite tired around the 8k mark which was annoying but I slowed for about 2mins and then got back up to speed. At the last 300m I saw the boys cheering me on. The words sprint were being screamed so I felt I had to. I paced out 2 guys in my effort and got across in a great sub 55 time!

Clapham Common had a great race! I would recommend it to anyone! Pity about the muck but the marshals were great and the atmosphere for a small race amazing! I would do this again but maybe checking the weather first....

New shoes?

Now onto my question of the week. Does anyone else find this when using a stopwatch or some sort of timer. I know that there are lots of times when routes are longer/shorter then they should but what do you go with? This happened last week and this week again. My chip time was 54.53 but my watch.....measured a 53.54 as the route was longer...annoying in a way but could be worse! Could be shorter!

Next up is the Royal Parks but I'm sure a 5k and another 10k will be shoved in there! :)

...you love spectators cheers!

So this week ended with The British 10k in London! 2months of hard training for Reis and me and we finished the wet race with a great sub 60 time! But before this race we had a couple more miles to clock up and long runs to smash.

This started with last Sundays 5.8mile run where we decided to run the same distance as the week before but avoid the massive hill and pace better. The week before I was not very nice and forgot to check my watch often and most of the time we were doing 8.50min/miles which wasn't very fair on my novice boyfriend. This week we started at 9.20min/miles for the first 3.5miles and then boosted to 9.15min/miles for the last bit of the run. This proved to be good and we finished our training with a great long run!


A week of tapering commenced where we kept the mileage low but not too low. I had a Royal Parks training workshop on the Wednesday where we were taught about how to avoid injury, nutrition, stretches and better running form. This got me all pumped for a run Thursday morning where I decided to try new said techniques. Not a very good idea as the new leg movements meant I had a very sore inner thigh on Friday. This got me worried for the race but I decided lots of rest would get me through. Just to say quickly as well, thanks to Royal Parks for the event! It was great and I am already enjoying this half marathon experience! Roll on October 7th!

We then relaxed on the Saturday and carb loaded for lunch and dinner with copious amounts of water so we were race ready.


Training miles - complete
Nutrition - complete
Bag packed - complete


We were ready! 6.30am the alarm went off and we were up and ready for this wet race. Along with  30,000 other runners we made our way up to the starting point of the race. The race started 10minutes late and there were so many walkers within our first 1km that we had to make up our pace by ducking under the barriers and run with the other serious runners on the other closed off road. We got our time right though 9.20min/miles and that's how it continued. Apart from some negative splits and loss of GPS in the tunnels we were keeping a great pace! The rain was quite refreshing in parts and the atmosphere amazing! We slowed a little for the 7th and 8th kilometre to 9.35min/miles but all was good as we were on time to finish well. I had told Reis to tell me when he was tired so that slowing in the middle would mean he would 1) finish strong and 2) not stop. This was true. For the last 2kms we rocked another 9.20min/mile pace. That and out photo sprint finish meant we got a great time of 58.29! Well to be honest that was my time. Reis beat my by a second as I shoved him through people onto the mat to make sure he got his time. So again, he beat me technically ;) 

10k finishers! 

This was a great route and great race but I don't think I will do it again as I came across quite a few problems. 

1) I got my race pack on Friday (I actually got 2 and 3 numbers were registered to my name). Some people had to collect theirs in London on the Saturday which is not very fair.

2) The baggage area was more a cornered area that wasn't covered even by plastic when rain had been forecast for the last week. 

3) Nike were not very good at contacting people who had problems and I heard there were more then I experienced. 

4) There were no starting pens which meant even though Reis and I were in the front (about 1,000 from the front out of 30,000) we had to dodge quite a few walkers!

5) We had to collect our own goodie bags and medals from a cardboard box on a table in the baggage area not at the finish line. There were spectators in this area also and many people took more then one bag/medal and this meant that some people did not get medals. Not nice to finish a race and not get a medal (you know I only run for the medals!). 

Overall I really loved running through London and we had a great experience but I am unsure if I will do this or any Nike event again (Run to the Beat organisation was very similar). 

On another note.....next Sunday at Clapham there will be 3 of us running! Me and my two protege will be running the Clapham Common Series. I will be tackling another 10km while Reis and Sean battle it out at the 5k! Hopefully we'll stay a little drier and there will be smiles all around!!