Weekly Training Review: 13 Jan

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

So, as I mentioned before, this week was a “recovery week”. This is a new concept to me in running, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I’ve never really strung together more than two weeks of proper running. And secondly, I’ve always sort of made up my own training plans. This time, having been completely overawed by the array of different plans I could choose from, I adapted a custom plan generated by Runner’s World’s SmartCoach. In my fifteen week plan, it inserted three easier weeks; the first one was the week commencing 16 December, when in place of my normal runs, I ran 3 miles each time. I didn’t really notice that though, partly because I was still running distances that I was comfortable with, and partly because I slacked off over Christmas anyway. So with the mileage now ramping up towards the limits of my past failed training, and the cumulative effect of sticking to a plan for a change, I was really, really looking forward to this week!

Tuesday: 3.95 miles @ 9:00 min/mile
This run felt a little odd: normally at the moment I am running two miles on a Tuesday, so in actual fact, my nice, easy recovery week started me off tougher than usual! I was starting to worry whether my training plan was in fact just lulling me into a false sense of security. But actually, four miles is a pretty comfortable distance for me, and this run went pretty well. As documented, this was the first run on which I used my new running shoes, and I had a bit of teething trouble with them. In general though, this was pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: a decent, pretty easy recovery run.

Thursday: 4.10 miles @ 9:05 min/mile
Somewhat lacking in imagination, this was actually exactly the same route as I ran on Tuesday, but the other way around, and with an extra lap of my estate slotted in at the end. Call me silly, but it annoys me when I go out planning to do a four mile run, and then map it and find it was only 3.95 miles. In my head, 3.95 miles is a three mile run. I know. It’s stupid. Anyway, stupidity aside, the pace was pretty consistent with Tuesday, and was also pretty comfortable. My trainers started to feel more like running shoes than clown shoes, which I reckon is a bonus too!

Saturday: Parkrun, 5km (3.11 miles) @ 7:25 min/mile
However much I tell myself that at some point I need to start taking it easy a bit on the parkrun to make sure that I don’t get injured in the run up towards my half-marathon, I don’t listen. I more or less adapted the same tactic as the last couple of weeks: I slotted myself behind I runner I figured was around my pace on the first lap, and then sped up or slowed down as I felt appropriate on the second lap. I think overall I probably pushed a bit too hard this week, especially given that I hadn’t really had anything to drink since getting up to feed my daughter at half six. I’m not a morning person, especially at the weekends! All that considered, I probably shouldn’t have been as disappointed as I was with my time. Especially as I’ve only completed the course quicker than that twice.

Sunday: 4.12 miles @ 8:15 min/mile
Either my recovery week has proved extremely good for me, and my pace improved accordingly, or I’m mismanaging my pace! I know in many parts of the country, Sunday was a bit horrible, but in Somerset it was gorgeous. To be honest, I was a little disappointed that I was only running four miles, but I figured that I should stick to the plan. I took advantage of the weather by running along the canal, something I have rarely had the chance to do recently as I mainly run at night. One downside of the plan was that everyone else seemed to think that it was a good time to walk/run/cycle along the canal as well, which did mean that I spent half the run dodging around people.

Oh, and the dogs. I have nothing against dogs, or dog walkers. But I’m nervous around dogs: I wish I wasn’t, but I am. So what should have been a completely lovely, tranquil run was actually a lovely, tranquil run frequently interrupted by periods of anxiety as my mind went something like:

Oh my God: it might kill me!

A dog.
Is it on a lead?
Yes. -> What if it is let off the lead, or the lead extends, or it jumps at me as I go past because the path isn’t wide enough to avoid it.
No. -> Arghhhhhhhhh!

Which was a little silly, because most of them were pretty much the same size as my three-month-old daughter.

As for the run itself, dogs aside, it was too good: I enjoyed the weather, the scenery and the running. As a result of this, I ran at a much more natural pace than I have been lately, and so probably went a little too fast. But I don’t care, because I enjoyed it!

Next week, I’m back to my training plan as standard: unlike at Christmas, I’m not going to be able to find an excuse to continue the easy runs. Which is good, because while it is nice to have an easy week from time to time to help recovery, I’d go mad if that was all I ran. Oh, and my half-marathon would be a write-off!

Horrible new shoe syndrome

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

I wrote on Sunday about my experience of buying new shoes. As I mentioned at the time, I tried on five different pairs. The ones I eventually chose had that “laid back in an armchair with a cup of tea” feel of comfort as soon as I slipped my foot in. I was chuffed.

Fast forward a few days, and they became uncomfortable, misshapen, solid lumps of plastic. In short, horrible new shoes.

I’ll start from the beginning. Although I bought the shoes on Saturday, I had never intended to wear them for my long run on Sunday, I thought it better to stick to my old trusted trainers for that run, and switch to the new ones during my “recovery week”. As a result, it wasn’t until Tuesday that I first put on my new Brooks Glycerine 11s in anger. I put them on, and waited. Waited for that cup of tea to materialise in my hands, but sadly the moment never arrived.

Undeterred, I headed out for my four mile run. I took my first running strides, and more disaster. The lovely moulded insoles just felt like all the lumps were in the wrong places. My foot, rather than being snugly held in place, was moving around all over the place, slipping over moulded bumps. My toes leapt up and down, hitting the sole, then the upper, then the sole, then the upper. What size shoe had she given me, a 14?!

Still, I persevered. I got around the first mile, and while my feet seemed to have finally settled into their appropriate dips in the insole, the shoe itself felt inflexible, solid and heavy. What happened to all that cushioning? Instead of a nice running action, my feet were slapping against the floor: I didn’t have to ask people to move to the side of the pavement to let me past, they could tell I was coming as much as they could an ambulance with siren and full flashing blue lights.

Oh for my old shoes, with their lovely, thick SofSole Airr. Come back: all is forgiven!

And yet, I continued. Three miles in, and my left knee was starting to hurt. Despite the fact that this has been bothering me on and off for a few weeks, my mindset was such that it was all the fault of my new shoes. My right foot/ankle/shin/whatever was also aching. Again, not an uncommon occurrence when I was running, but again, it was all the fault of the new shoes. It must have been the new loop lacing method I was trying. Argh: evil new shoes.

I arrived home – I’d done it – I’d defeated them.

I took the blue devils off in disgust and… and realised that there was a reason I hadn’t worn them on my long, eight mile run on Sunday. New shoes need to be worn in. Of course they wouldn’t be as comfortable as my 18-month-old pair that had seen me through just over 400 miles worth of running. No, the moulded insole isn’t as cushioned as the thick SofSole that I was used to. But maybe 18 months of injuries would suggest that while comfortable, the SofSole may not have been too effective at preventing injuries. And so, rather than find a stake and some holy water, I instead tucked my new shoes away on the shelf, and resolved to be patient.

Two days later, another four miles on Thursday evening, and they felt fine. Our relationship may have, almost literally, started on the wrong foot, but I have confidence that we can persevere and make it work.

Weekly Training Review: 6 Jan

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

A little late, but they do say better late than never… right?

Tuesday: 2.21 miles @ 8:37 min/mile
This run last week I used a heart rate monitor to control my pace: no such control this week. My concern over my left knee had risen by this stage, and I had found that running quicker seemed to control it reasonably well. So rather than follow my training plan, which dictates that this is a nice, slow recovery run, it just ran it at a comfortable, but reasonably quick pace. Either because it was a short distance, or because of the pace, my knee was actually fine. The time included a stop towards the end to give a couple some directions to Travelodge (actually, because they caught me right near the end of my run, I was a little boggled and just said I didn’t really know and wafted them generally towards the Toneway. Good look to them walking along there.)

Wednesday: 2 miles
This run was scheduled in my plan to help gain distance without making any of my other runs too long. However, because I was worried about my knee, and wanted to give it as much recovery time as possible I skipped this run.

Thursday: 6.38 miles @ 9:10 min/mile
This very much felt like the mid-week medium distance run that it was. My legs were weary from the week’s work, and Thursday itself had been a particularly long day. Again, my knee held up better than I had been expecting, with just a niggle over the last mile or so. The route was a familiar one and generally, apart from the heavy legs, it was a decent run.

Saturday: Parkrun, 5km (3.11 miles) @ 7:12 min/mile
Somehow I ended up arriving quite late for this. I left home at more or less the same time as usual, but the cold weather, rather than spurring me on to keep warm, seems to have just frozen my joints during the walk. That said, it must have worked as a bit of a warm-up, as the run was pretty good. After quickly collecting my Sweatshop voucher, as I talked about in the last post, I headed over to the start. I decided to sit on the shoulder of a runner that I knew generally finished about 30 seconds ahead of me for the first lap, and see how I felt. In similar fashion to the previous week’s run, I stuck with him for the first lap, and then naturally felt that I could go quicker on the second lap, so stepped past him and headed off on my own. The course was a lot drier than it had been for a while, and that probably helped to contribute to a personal best of 22:27. I could certainly have pushed harder towards the end as well, which gives me great confidence for being able to break the seven minute mile at some point soon (although I don’t want to risk injuring myself with the half marathon less than two months away now!)

Sunday: 8.40 miles @ 9:19 min/mile
This should have been the same route, but in reverse, as the previous week, but I messed up a little straight out of the house, and ran the wrong way! Because of this I added about quarter of a mile onto the route. The weather was pretty horrible, I went out later than I meant to and it started raining/heavy drizzling soon into the run. By the end I was looking for any excuse to shorten the run, and kept feeling phantom pains in both knees, but I resisted and ran the planned distance. In general my left knee has been feeling a lot better, both during this run, and throughout the week, so I’m confident now that with some management I can keep it together!

Of parkrun and Sweatshop

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

As I’ve certainly mentioned before, I’m a big convert to the parkrun phenomenon. Since running my first one on 9 November, I have participated in every event at Longrun Meadow. In late December, I volunteered for the first time, being one of the two timers. I think I was more nervous before that event than I was before any of the ones I was running.

Last Saturday, after completing the first parkrun of 2014 (at Longrun Meadow anyway: some runs have a New Year’s Day run,) I was planning to head down to Exeter to get some new running shoes: mine are somewhere between 18 months and two years old, and have never been ideal. (Nike Lunarswift 3 for the record.) The weather was horrible though, and we decided not to: which turned out to be a lucky decision, as only an hour or so later, I got an email from our parkrun director saying that I had been voted as the winner of the monthly prize: a free pair of running shoes from Sweatshop. Ideal!

So plans were remade: a quick look online confirmed that there were Sweatshop branches in both Exeter and Bristol, but Exeter only stocked Nike kit, so Bristol seemed the more sensible option. That Saturday was out of the question by then, so we decided to go up this Saturday (yesterday). Before the parkrun, I was presented with the voucher by the day’s race director Mick Drohan. I marked the occasion by running a PB, a despite a few initial problems which meant my time didn’t show up on the system, this was speedily resolved to show a time of 22:27, almost a thirty second improvement on my previous best.

Parkrun completed, there was the small matter of getting our three-month-old daughter ready to go: so roughly two hours after getting home, we left for Bristol. The shop was in a David Lloyd Lesiure centre, which made parking very easy. I headed straight in while my wife fed the baby. The store was compact but reasonably well stocked, especially for shoes. I ambled around for a while, looking at their range of shoes without really taking much of it in: I had no idea at all what I was after. Presently, one of the members of staff asked if I needed any help, so I told them I had a parkrun voucher: she beamed excitedly at me and told me she’d be right back.

Straight away, I was slightly more relaxed: I’d been a bit worried that because I’d be getting free shoes, the level of care might be in some way reduced, but this was certainly not the case. First, she got me to stand on some glass, lit from below, which identified that I had a higher than average arch (who knew), and then some further exercises, one of which had me crouch down, and the other lift my toes. These identified that I had a reasonably stable stance, without too much over-pronation. She then selected a pair of neutral running shoes (New Balance 1080s), and videoed me running on the treadmill. The video suggested a little more over-pronation than we had first thought, mostly on my right foot, but it was still nothing major, so we decided to stick to neutral shoes, with loop lacing.

So then the exciting bit: trying on shoes! I think overall I tried on five different pairs of shoes: the 1080s, Mizuno Wave Rider 17s, Brooks Ghost 6s, Brooks Glycerin 11s and a pair of Adidas shoes I don’t remember the name of. The Adidas shoes were immediately discarded as being too narrow; as I have quite wide feet, I’ve never fit into Adidas, who tend to manufacture quite narrow shoes. The Mizuno was a comfortable shoe on the sole my feet, but when I ran with it on the treadmill, it was aggravating around the ankle, so that ruled that one out too. The New Balance 1080s were a nice shoe, but by far the most comfortable were the pair of Brooks shoes: both felt snug and friendly around my foot, and when I was on the treadmill, I was just running and enjoying it, rather than nitpicking. The choice between the two was simplified by the fact that only one of them was in stock in my size; although the 9.5 felt okay, the size 9 was much nicer. So, shoe decided: the Brooks Glycerin 11.

Up until this point my decisions had all been about which shoe was best, independent of the cost, but my next decision was not so easy. During the shoe trials, I had also been sampling some FootBalance custom insoles. These were heated in an oven, and moulded to to my feet. They also aren’t cheap: £45 for the pair. I’ve worn insoles in my running shoes for at least four years, as an attempt to minimise shin splint problems that I suffered badly from, but previously I have always worn a generic SofSole Airr. Comparing the bog standard insole from the shoe with the custom insole was tough, as they offered completely different options: the shoe’s insole was more cushioned, by the custom insole gave me more support and kept my foot in place more within the shoe. In the end, I opted to spend the money: I’m not really sure it was worth an extra £45, but as I got the shoes for free, it seemed the best time to have a go and see if they suit me.

The whole process in Sweatshop probably took just over two hours: I went at lunchtime which meant that there was only the one staff member on duty, and she had to rotate around to help everyone in store. While this certainly made the process take longer than it should have, I still felt like I was getting very good service: she seemed to really care about me getting the right shoe and right fit. I was on and off their treadmill countless times, and even did a couple of laps of their car park while I was making sure that what I thought I liked was actually right for me. I have nothing but praise for Sweatshop from this visit, and it will definitely be in mind when I need my next pair!

Now I just have to be patient before I can run in them! Today’s eight miles doesn’t seem an appropriate time to wear them in… ah well. Tuesday?

Weekly Training Review: 30 Dec

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

Nothing complicated; hopefully a reasonably quick review of the week’s training runs. I’m now into the seventh week of my half marathon training plan, and after the exertions of the Stoke Stampede last Sunday, and a couple of cheeky quiet weeks over Christmas, the week saw a return to some heavy mileage.

Tuesday: 2.20 miles @ 10:03 min/mile
This run was exciting in some ways, and very boring in others! It was the second time that I used my new heart rate monitor, that my parents got me for Christmas. The first time I used it, I just tracked my average heart rate, but didn’t really know what to do with the information that I was getting. After that run, I did a bit of research into how HR monitors can be used to help training and racing. As a result, for this run, I set maximum and minimum heart rates on the monitor, set to beep if I exceeded them in either direction. The hope was, that as a slow recovery run, the heart rate monitor would help me to run slowly, something I’ve always had problems with. (I like to run fast, irrespective of the distance or the type of run I’m meant to be doing: this might be one reason I’m so prone to injury.)

The HR monitor certainly did its job. After some initial wobbles, when I wasn’t sure if it was recording properly, and so more or less sprinted for a while, I settled into a dreary, dull and doddery pace. For the first two-thirds of a mile, I kept hitting the maximum mark, and having to slow back down again, but after that I learnt the right pace and settled into it. On reflection, I probably need to run slightly quicker, so for the next slow run I use this for, I will probably set the maximum slightly higher, but on the whole I was pleased with the results.

Thursday: 7.32 miles @ 9:12 min/mile
Thursday is meant to be my “tempo/interval/hill/something interesting” run. I’m not very good at those sorts of runs. I tried it for a few weeks okay, maybe just once but never really got the hang of it, and then the mileage had built up to the point where the distance itself was a challenge. As a result, this was just a “roughly seven mile, as fast as I can be bothered, but not too fast or too slow” run. My legs were tired throughout the entire run, and mentally I was quite daunted by the distance, due to a combination of the easy weeks over Christmas, and the 10 km race on Sunday. Nonetheless, I ran reasonably well until the last mile or so, when my left knee started to hurt quite badly, particularly if I tried to raise it too high. Shortly after the run the pain subsided, but I remained worried about it.

Saturday: Parkrun, 5km (3.11 miles) @ 7:34 min/mile
The best day of the week: parkrun day! Perhaps the only thing to consistently successfully get me out of bed before 9 am at the weekend, it is fair to say that I enjoy my weekly parkrun. I generally run it with a friend, Al, and his son, but they didn’t arrive in time this week, so I ran alone. The first lap I settled around another pair of runners and happily ran their pace, but second lap I kicked on a little on my own. The course, as has been the case for a few weeks, has a few diversions and alterations to avoid us running through the River Tone. Even so, the course remains exceedingly wet and muddy, as evidenced by the back of my t-shirt (right).

I had gone into this run extremely worried about my knee after the trouble it gave me on Thursday, but I had no problems at all, and all things considered I was very happy with my time: not a personal best on the course, but given the weather a very good one for me.

Sunday: 8.15 miles @ 10:29 min/mile
The long run. And long it was: the longest I have run since October 2012. And after that run, I was injured for the best part of four months! Despite having had no real issues with my knee during my parkrun, I yet again went into this run worried about my knee, and unfortunately they were justified. I first started really noticing the pain around five miles in, and adapted my run to minimise the pain: I slowed down, and shortened my stride length. I continued on around the eight miles, and it never got too painful, although I was always aware of it there on the edge. Having slowed down because of my knee, I ran a pretty slow time, and fitness wise it didn’t really strain me at all. After the run, I looked back for the exercises that my physio gave me when I had knee issues last year (after that October 2012 run.) I completed those, and hopefully by the time I run again next week, the issues will have subsided.

Otherwise, this run went reasonably well: mentally I wasn’t too fazed by the distance, and kept up a reasonably positive dialogue with myself (I don’t listen to music when I run.) I remain positive about my chances of remaining fit for the next couple of months in order to complete my scheduled half marathon, although I might have to adapt my training schedule a bit if the knee continues to give me trouble. Only time will tell!

A review, and some resolutions

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

It’s that time of the year when the television is full of rubbish 2013 review programmes. It turns out that you can’t get away from them online either! Hopefully this won’t be too in-depth, but instead just a quick look back at 2013, and an opportunity to set some targets for 2014.

So to start with, I think it would be best to clarify what my goals for last year were:

Run 365 miles in total across the year
Run a sub-50 minute 10 km race
Run a half-marathon

In essence, the first goal was meant to make sure that I got out and trained enough to give me a good chance at the other two, and to turn my running hobby from a casual past-time to a habit. The second was a very achievable goal, but one that I narrowly missed out on during the 2012 Cardiff 10 km, which I finished in 50:43.

The year began poorly; I was carrying a knee injury that I had sustained in October the year before, and was undergoing physiotherapy, which meant that I didn’t run at all in January. My first run of the year was on 4 February, when I managed the gargantuan effort of 1.22 miles – on the treadmill with my physio! That said, I managed to get out reasonably regularly throughout February, and built up the distance, though it was the end of March before I ran 4 miles in one go. By the end of June, half-way through the year, I had only run about 73 miles, putting me a long way behind my goal.

I completed the Wellington 10 km race in the middle of July, on what was quite possibly the hottest day of the year (according to AccuWeather, it was about 26°C.) Due to the weather, and the hilly nature of the course, I fell a long way short of my 50 minute target, finishing in just under 56 minutes. Despite that failure, I felt I was running well, but then at the start of August another injury struck: I tripped over at work and struck my head, suffering a concussion. I eventually felt well enough to run again, and did so at the start of September, but only a few days later, I was injured once more: this time badly spraining my ankle while playing football. This time, the recovery was not so fast.

At the start of November, I began running again, tentatively doing 2 or 3 mile runs, making sure not to strain my ankle too much. I completed my first Parkrun on 9 November, and from there I kicked on. The feeling of community that I gained from running the Parkruns helped me stick to my schedule through the week, and between November and December, I ran over 108 miles: easily the most I have ever ran in two months. At the end of December, I ran the Stoke Stampede, and on a nice course managed to finish in 47:23, well under the 50 minutes I had targeted.

So in summary, I failed to run 365 miles: I finished with 236 for the year, mainly thanks to those last two months. I did manage a sub-50 minute 10 km, but the injuries meant that I couldn’t even consider a half-marathon.

Now, it seems time to pick some targets for the coming year: they will look very similar!

Run 500 miles in total across the year
Run a sub-45 minute 10 km race
Run a half-marathon (I’ve already registered for the Silverstone Half – more about that later)

Wish me luck!

Stoke Stampede 10k: race report

by Ben

This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.

The “killing two birds with one stone” race. I scheduled this to give me a last chance at achieving one of my running goals for 2013, and to gauge how my running was going during my half-marathon training. The first part was reasonably simple: one of my three targets for the year was to run a sub-50 minute 10k. The second part is harder to judge: is a good time indicative of the training good well, or is a comfortable race? Are neither of these relevant, and good pacing more important: it’s hard to know. But enough about that for the moment: the race.

Things began slightly badly. Having scheduled the race into my diary, and onto our calendar towards the end of November, it seemed like my preparation should be reasonably good. Indeed, I stayed injury-free after booking it – a rare event, and logged 62 and a half miles of training runs in the month leading up to the race. Unfortunately though, when arranging to meet up with family, I forgot to consult the calendar and committed myself to family engagements the night before. It was all very pleasant, and I enjoyed myself, but it isn’t ideal race preparation!

So on race morning, rather than the relaxed, short drive of about 10 miles from Taunton to Stoke St Gregory, I instead had a 40 mile drive with my wife and daughter. We arrived in Stoke at about ten o’clock: an hour before the start of the race, giving me plenty of time to register. A quick hug and kiss goodbye (they headed on to Taunton) and I then merely had to find where I was meant to register. No difficulty there: a short walk down the road and I discovered marshals and runners, all wrapped up against the cold.

Registered, race number filled out and attached to my top, and it was only twenty past ten. Forty minutes until the start of the race, and I knew no-one else there. Still, I hovered around, listening to this conversation and that, trying to reccy some of the local running clubs (I’m not a member of one, but keep thinking I should be.) Eventually, it was time to walk to the start, just over a kilometre away. The walk should have been a good chance to warm-up, but to be honest I was a little too nervous, which sounds odd I know. I think with most other people being in groups of two or three, I didn’t want to stand out, or make it look like I might be any good!

After a few minutes I arrived at the start line. Which was something of a problem in itself, as it meant the late arrivals had to push their way through the front-runners to take up a place further back. For myself, this meant that after pushing through a couple of layers of runners I gave up, and ended up starting only about three metres from the start line. Or in other words, with runners much quicker than me! As I mentioned, my target was sub-50 minutes, and I was happy to just creep under, so my target pacing was something like 5:15 for the first 3 km, 5:00 dead through the middle 4 km, and then 4:45 and faster over the last 3 km. I ran a 4:36 first km. And not much slower for the second.

My pacing was out of the window. I figured I had two options: stick with the runners around me, see whether I could keep with this sort of pace, or drop back through the field through the middle and push towards the end, more in line with my pacing thoughts. I opted to stick with the runners around me. I was worried that if I dropped back, I would just let myself drift more and more, and get demoralised. Staying with those around me would push me, but if I could keep with it, I thought I’d have the best chance of staying sub-50.

By halfway around, I was doubting my tactic a little, but I ran somewhere around a 23 minute 5 km, so I knew I had a good chance of achieving my target, as long as I didn’t fall off the cliff in the second half. With the exception of the drinks at 5 km, the middle section of the race, from roughly 4 km to 7 km merged into something of a blur: it was just a rhythm, eating up the miles. Somewhere around the 7 km mark though, my left foot started to hurt, on the inner arch. I wasn’t sure if I had something in my shoe, or whether it was rubbing: I contemplated pausing to take my shoe off and investigate, but I was worried about setting myself back, so I soldiered on. By 8 km, it was really starting to hurt, but I also knew there was no more than ten minutes of running left.

With a kilometre left, I tried to kick on a little, and I passed a few people, though I’m not sure if that was a case of me speeding up, or them struggling and slowing down! I pushed again when I reached the (upside down) “200 m to go” sign, and as I turned the corner to bring the finish into sight, the cheering of the crowd helped me to push on further. I knew by this point that my sub-50 time was in the bag, but I wanted to finish quickly, so I started to stretch my stride out more. Glancing behind me, I saw another runner catching me fast, and I pushed again into a flat sprint, managing to keep ahead of him to finish in 47 minutes and 23 seconds: easily a PB, and easily under 50 minutes.

After crossing the finish line, I then collided with the runner who had finished ahead of me, who had stopped only a couple of metres after the line (a pet peeve), but neither of us were hurt, and I retrieved a plastic cup of water and wandered away to see if I needed to throw up. I didn’t, quite.

In conclusion, the race achieved my 2013 target of running a sub-50 minute 10k. The blister was caused by my insole being out of place, and has faded down already. I don’t yet know if I’m going to have to replace the insoles/shoes/my feet. As to being a benchmark for my half-marathon training, I really don’t know how much I can take from this. Certainly, it has given me confidence, and I know that the miles I’m building up each week is strengthening my legs, which helped me in this race. But the battle of the half-marathon will be as much mental as physical.