Tag Archives: Race

Tin Tin Ten: race report

by Ben

This race has been the site of a number of ‘firsts’ for me. In 2014, it was the first trail race I had ever taken part in. It was because of this that I bought my first pair of trail shoes, and it was the first time I wore them. It was the first Somerset Series race that I competed in, and this year it became the first race that I had visited three times. This year was also the first time in the last three years that anyone else from my club ran the race. It also nearly became my first ever DNF, but more about that later.

Having raced this three times now, it is interesting to see my development. In 2014, when I took part in this as my first trail race, it was something to be feared. Something new and exciting, an excuse to get new shoes, but mostly I arrived full of trepidation. It was a particularly wet year, and I found the terrain tough, and the hills hard work. Last year, the weather was perfect, and the course was pretty much bone dry. The course was being run the opposite way around from 2014, and I found the balance difficult: the first half was mostly quick roads, while the second half was off-road with more hills, and lots of stiles to wear down already tired legs.

Not a great start…

This year didn’t get off to the best start: nevermind about a DNF, I was worried that I was going to DNS. After getting home pretty early so that I could have a late lunch and a bit of downtime before the race, I headed back out to my car. Which had a flat tyre. After a bit of ummming and ahhhing, I decided to take it to the petrol station and put some air in it, and then see what happened. Probably predictably, what happened was: the air went in… the air came back out. It wasn’t leaking out all that quickly but, nice as Tintinhull is, I decided that I wasn’t willing to take the risk of being stranded there. Thankfully Iain was going to the race, and only works a five minute walk from the petrol station, so I parked my car up and headed over to meet him. Or, more accurately, I headed over to stand outside his building for what felt like forever, while the quick operation he was running ground to a halt, and ended up making him about twenty minutes late! Still, in the end we arrived in Tintinhull in plenty of time to get our race numbers, head out for a warm-up and get to the start line.

It would be fair to say that I wasn’t feeling in the best shape coming into this race. After a week’s holiday at Center Parcs, during which I had eaten copious amounts of rubbish, I had also picked up a cold and tight chest. Thankfully my chest actually felt alright on the Wednesday of the race, after a couple of bad days on Monday and Tuesday: had it still been bad on Wednesday, I wouldn’t have considered racing. Still, lining up at the start, I was feeling okay, though I wasn’t intending on racing hard.

The weather had been wet in the days leading up to the race, but also hot, so the course wasn’t in bad shape: slippy, rather than boggy, except for a couple of parts. One of these came during a narrow section: you turned a sharp bend and stepped straight into it without warning, it could probably have done with a marshal really, but no harm done! (I’ve been stacking up the excuses for a slow time here, have you noticed?)

We headed off, and for the first third of the race, I was going well. I wasn’t taking it quite as easily as I’d intended, but I was by no means pushing myself. In fact, everything was brilliant until about 4.5 km. We were climbing up a hill, and I started to realise that I could quite do with going to the toilet… and not the sort that you can just pop behind a hedge for. Well, not without hording some soft looking leaves first.

Tempting…

My following thoughts went something like this:
“It’s fine, it’ll pass.”
“Hmmm… this rhythm doesn’t seem to be helping. I’ll slow down a bit.”
“This isn’t getting any better.”
“We’re heading back into the village now, I wonder if I can pop over to the village hall, use the facilities and then get back into the race. Except I don’t know which way the village hall is…”
“Okay, now at the stage that just behind that tree looks acceptable.”
“Ooo, that marshal just came out of that house, maybe I could… Oh, too late, I’ve past him.”
“Yes! Finally, it’s eased off!”

By this stage, I’d ticked off another three kilometres. My pace had dropped to a comfortable one, though I was still slowly catching runners, and was only passed by one other. Given that I had the start of a cold, and had already lost any chance of what I would consider a good time, I decided to continue at a similar level of effort to the finish. When I saw Iain, about 20 metres from the finish line, I glanced behind me, saw noone was anywhere near, and continued to amble to the finish line rather than put in any sort of sprint. Not like me, but there we go!

I found the course much easier than I had been expecting. This might have been because of my relaxed pace second half, which would have meant my legs weren’t anything like as tired. Another major factor is the amount of off-road running I do now compared to previous years. Although I’ve not been able to do as much lately as I would have liked, I try to get out on some ‘proper’ hilly off-road routes at least once a week, where before most of my running was on flat roads in Taunton.

Wells 10k: race review

by Ben

After easing myself back into running and racing in April, May was pretty full on. At Glastonbury I ran better than I had been expecting, while at the really tough Wambrook Waddle I was brought back down to earth a little, although I was still pretty chuffed with my result. My times at the Yeovilton 5k races were coming down, and though not back to my peak times of last year, I wasn’t far off.

With all of this, I was heading to the Wells 10k feeling pretty confident. I hadn’t done the race before, and although I knew there was a hill that we hit twice on the two-lap course, I thought that there was the possibility of getting close to my PB from Langport last year. I had thought that I might end up as the only club member at the race, but in the end there were a few of us, and my parents came up as well, although they spent as much time exploring Wells as watching the race, I think!

What do you mean it’s not on right?

We arrived in Wells in plenty of time, and coincidentally met my club-mate Iain in the car park, and so bimbled over to the town hall together to collect our numbers. From this stage on, I pretty much ignored my parents and wife: I’m quite open about the fact that at races I need to do my own thing beforehand, although in this case, it was just chatting to Iain! The collection process was nice and easy, and before long we had our numbers tacked onto our tops… and there was still the better part of an hour before our race started. The weather forecast was for a really hot day, and the morning sun was out in full-force. Iain and I hid in the shadow of the town hall, wondering why everyone else was stood out in the hot sun, dehydrating. Maybe it was just the novelty factor!

Wells, or the Algarve? Who knows?

After gathering for a club photo, Iain and I trotted off for a warm-up. In keeping with the two-lap nature of the course, this ended up being a two-lap warm-up, as our loop only ended up being about half a mile. While we were warming up and preparing, lots of other races were taking part. I can’t remember them all, but there was certainly a 5k, and a couple of short distances for children too. Lolly found the format great to keep her entertained while she was waiting for our race to start, so I can feel slightly less guilty about ignoring her.

Given the weather and the hill on each lap, added to the fact that I’d spent the last three and a half days off work with vertigo, I was aware that my chances of a PB were pretty slim. Nevertheless, I opted to head out at or around a PB pace and see what happened. Predictably, my first kilometre, which dropped downhill slightly was faster than I intended. The course also very early turned off the road and through a farm-yard, before later picking up a dusty path. While neither could in any honesty be described as “trail”, I had been expecting a road race, and was slightly unsettled. Whether that accounted for my gradual drop in pace of the next couple of kilometres, or whether that was just a reflection of my current state of training, I’m not completely sure.

Focused. Driven.

After the dusty path, the course returned to the road, and there was a short out-and-back section. Oddly, I thought, we turned around a marshal despite there being more cones beyond. Stupidly, I didn’t realise why this was. The course dropped downhill from the out-and-back section, before we hit the hill. As soon as I saw the hill, which was visible in its full glory, I knew that any slim chance I’d had of a PB was gone. This was no mere undulation, nor even a short sharp burst like that at Glastonbury. This was a Hill. I wasn’t particularly cheered up by the older chap who passed me, pleasantly telling me that it was a 30 metre climb. I maintained a gentle run for the first half of the hill, dropping to a walk at the water station, and then mostly running again after.

From the peak of the hill, the course levelled off for a little bit, before dropping down towards the Bishop’s Palace, where we turned onto a path which passed behind it. The path was lined with spectators; a brilliant stretch of support, which reminded me of Longrun Meadow parkrun.

Running past the Bishop’s Palace. A great place for spectators and great support for the runners.

On the second lap, after managing to pick up the pace initially, it slipped back to around 4:30/km from 6 to 8 km. During this stage, it became abundantly clear why the traffic cones had continued beyond the marshal on the out-and-back section on the first lap: the out-and-back was longer on the second lap. This was because the course was the same as the 5 km race on the first lap, and so to make up the distance we cut off by taking the path by the Bishop’s Palace, they had to extend it slightly on the second. I really should have worked it out the first time around, but instead it was just an unpleasant surprise. Still, it did delay hitting the hill for the second time!

Which, despite the garden hose being sprayed across the road to help up keep cool at the bottom of it, was awful again. I pretty much stopped to drink at the drink station, and walked for much longer than I had the first time around. My pace was awful for this kilometre, dropping to 5:05, but all I could hold onto was that very few of those runners around me were doing much better.

Hot, tired, and not in the mood for a sprint-finish (for a change!)

My final kilometre, dropping down to the finish, was my quickest of the race, though I demurred from a full sprint- finish. Given that at a few stages, I’d thought that I’d struggle to come in under 45 minutes based on my pace, I was pretty happy with 44:10, all things considered.

So, after a bit of a moan-y, negative post, the question is: Did I enjoy the race? – Yes, on balance I did. Most of the negatives were simply things I wasn’t expecting, and that’s my own fault. I should have properly researched the course, so that I was aware that parts of it strayed off-road, and more importantly, so that I knew how significant the hill was. Most of my annoyance came due to the fact that I’d arrived with whispers in my ear that I could get a PB. That was never going to happen on this course, but that doesn’t make it a bad race!

The medal was pretty basic, and I think I have a few others that are identical, but its better than nothing. The race itself was great value. Would I do it again? Yes. It might not be as high on the list as Glastonbury or Wambrook, but if I was free, I’d certainly give it another go.

Wambrook Waddle: race review

by Ben

After running better than I had expected at the Glastonbury 10k, the focus was on building up my mileage. Though I would like to set some short distance PBs in the near future, my main focus remains on an autumn half, so I don’t want to start introducing too much speed-work if it’s going to compromise my endurance efforts. Hopefully soon I can find a nice balance between the two.

However, in the mean time there were the next two club championship races: the second Yeovilton 5k race and the Wambrook Waddle. It’s reasonably fair to say that there are few races that could be more different: Yeovilton is a flat, fast, road 5k, while Wambrook is a hilly, technical, trail 10k.

The smiling Running Forever group after Yeovilton.

Going into the week, my prospects didn’t seem great. After my Sunday run, I was starting to get bad knee pain, and so I was pretty concerned about running on it. I skipped my planned Tuesday run, and drove out to Yeovilton knowing that I might have to be a spectator. My warm-up run, roughly one mile, was completely pain-free, and so I made the decision to race. Despite having been raining most of the day, by the time the race started the sun had come out, and it was really quite warm. Nonetheless, I had a good race, managing better (though still pretty bad) pacing than last time, and improved to 20:44. Still about 30 seconds slower than my best, but a 20 second improvement on last month, so I’m still hopeful of beating my best this summer.

After Yeovilton, my knee continued to trouble me, though it had been fine during the run itself. I was more wary of Wambrook, knowing that a hilly course would be more likely to be problematic, and so I had a discussion with my physio about what I could do to minimise any trouble. He recommended a few exercises, some kinesiology tape, and Voltarol gel. I continued to avoid my other planned runs, and so I arrived for the race not really sure if I’d be able to complete it. Like Glastonbury, this was a race that I hadn’t done before, but I knew a fair bit about as Lolly ran it last year. Or at least, I thought I did – turns out that nothing really prepares you for this course.

For a full description of the route, you’re probably better off reading Lolly’s report: she describes it well. But succinctly, it is a beautiful, but very challenging course. The hills would make it difficult enough, but the terrain is very technical and varied. There are descents on grass, loose stones, solid but wet stones, and ascents on all of those, plus bog. And trust me, there is little that is more draining that running up a hill through a bog. Three river crossings, a scramble over a fence (no stile), and even a couple of short stretches of road!

Beating Clive to the first river.

The race starts with a sharp descent to the first river crossing. I’m better than average at trail descents, and so I was happy to fling myself down the hill and see what happened. Apparently, one of my club-mates, Nigel, took this one step further, and was aiming to be the first runner to the river. He didn’t quite manage it, but I was a little surprised to see him ahead of me when I passed him at the start of the climb after. As is typical of these Somerset Series races, I knew a lot of the people around me, and was able to use these to gauge how I was running. Which told me that even after the really, really, really long climb after the river, I remained further forwards than I would have expected. I was just behind the first woman (Jo from Minehead), and one position ahead of another of my club-mates who normally beats me by a minute or two, Clive.

On the second descent, Clive took a bit of a tumble behind me, but got back up again quickly, and then passed me on the next climb, when my calves really started to complain. The first four miles of the race are by far the hardest, and judging myself against those around me, it was the section from miles three to four on which I lost time. I think I simply wore myself out so much on the first two climbs that my legs went. I dropped back a fair bit on a descent through a field, in which I simply didn’t trust my legs enough to run as I normally would, and I dropped straight to a walk on the hill after it. After that walk, I actually stopped at the drinks station to finish my whole cup, a rarity, particularly in a 10k!

I really struggled with this section of the race.

The last section of the race was run primarily through fields or on decent paths, and once I had recovered slightly, I was able to start catching up to those that had passed me. On the final hill, I passed two runners, but wasn’t able to close down the gap to Clive in front. In fact, on reflection, my own position didn’t change at all from the picture above on the left, struggling up the hill. The two runners in red passed me shortly after this drinks station, but they were the pair I passed near the end. So I guess overall, we just chose to put effort in at different points of the race.

In summary, I loved this race for many reasons, even if it was really hard work. I love running off-road, and this race just cemented that fact. The tricky terrain was brilliant fun, and although this route as a race would probably benefit from being a little less hilly, the hills add to the rewarding nature of the course.

The smiling Running Forever group after Yeovilton.

Next up: Wells 10k (29/05/16)

Round the Tor 10k: race review

by Ben

I love the summer, because it’s when all the winter’s training comes to fruition in what can be a pretty non-stop string of short distance races. If course, the fact that I keep getting injured and missing winter training is something of a spanner in the works, but it’s still fun to be out racing!

After the first race of the Yeovilton 5k Series, in which I moderately exceeded my expectations, I had the Glastonbury 10k. This is one that Lolly raced (in my place) last year, when I had a further setback. I was pretty excited to be running it this year, but I knew that it wasn’t the flattest route. In fact, plenty of people who did it last year had been moaning no end about the hill at the end.

Looking bizarrely fresh at 9.5 km.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about; I’d stood at the top of that hill, and yes, it was steep, but it was also pretty short – surely you could just power through it? Of course, that fact that it was in the last kilometre of the race was less than ideal. But anyway, more on that later.

Given the… undulating nature of the course, and the fact that my training ‘long’ runs had only just hit 7 miles, I wasn’t particularly optimistic of a fast time, and was aiming to go sub-45, with the expectation that it might be tough to achieve. (My PB is about 42:22, for reference.)

The start pen was pretty well organised (Lolly tells me that this was NOT the case last year), but it was a little bizarre. There were two areas: the front was reserved for club runners, and the rear area for unaffliated runners – irrespective of pace. This worked out reasonably well for me, but it did mean that I ended up a little bit too far forward, and unsurprisingly (and characteristically) I flew off far too fast.

The first kilometre was predominantly uphill, going up the high street buoyed on by the big crowds. I’m not joking either – there were LOTS of people. The run coincided with the Beltane celebrations this year, and so the place was packed. I’ve never run with such loud support before, and to be honest, it was a little intimidating. Less intimidating was the sight of Lolly and Lani at the top of the high street, right where I was expecting them. It always makes me smile when Lani notices me running (she doesn’t always!) The crowds, and my position a bit too far forwards meant that I ran a 4:11 first kilometre, and then was even faster for the second (admittedly downhill) kilometre, 4:05.

That first hill is the worst of the race, but the course continues to undulate throughout. Personally, I enjoyed this – I tend to find completely flat courses a bit of a slog, and like the varying effort that an undulating course allows. Through these middle kilometres I averaged about 4:23. I spent most of this section worrying that I’d had gone off too fast, and continued to go too fast. I was well inside my 45-minute target, and although the pace felt reasonable, I was worried that I was just going to hit a cliff at around 8 kilometres, and struggle home for the last couple, particularly with the hill.

I was wrong. The eighth and ninth kilometres were both relatively easy downhills, and although I was starting to worry about the prospect of the hill, my pace increased accordingly to 4:14 for each. The final kilometre began with a little bit more descent, but then the hill loomed large ahead of us.

Definitely not so fresh looking in the final sprint.

I’m a little unusual – I love hills. As soon as I saw the hill, I kicked my pace on, and passed two runners that I’d been following for a while before we hit the hill. At the bottom, there was a sign – I can’t remember the exact wording, but it was essentially “high five for hill power”. I did – I was willing to take anything on offer! I powered up the hill. From the bottom you could see the turn at the top, so I was happy to put my all into it.

It was fine. I won’t say it was easy – I felt pretty nauseous at the top from the effort, but it was fine. From the top of the hill, the course turns left down hill, and I just let gravity help me down. It might have been more efficient to put less effort into the hill, for more effort down the hill, but meh.

Although I’d known for a while that I was going to be well under 45 minutes, I was pleasantly surprised to see 43:20 on my watch – for an undulating course early during my training, that was far closer to my PB than I was expecting!

I really enjoyed this race, and it was good to have a few club mates around for it as well. Unfortunately, we weren’t organised enough to get a proper group photo, as we all seemed to be in different places. Lolly and Lani were near the end to cheer me in again, but unfortunately I didn’t notice them in the large crowds. I have to say a big THANK YOU to Lolly for her support during this race, which as I understand, mostly involved standing in the toilet queue with Lani, who kept declaring that she needed a wee. Definitely a runner in training!

Next up… Yeovilton 5k and the Wambrook Waddle

Early summer speed

by Ben

Spring is generally considered to be marathon season, while the summer is dedicated to shorter distances. With both marathon and half marathon distances out of the question for me this spring thanks to yet another winter injury, I always knew that my first races back would be quicker, shorter distances.

My ‘training’ started again gently in March, with a number of runs aimed mostly at building some confidence and clocking up some miles. But I struggle to run without definite aims in mind, and there was no way that an autumn half marathon was going to get me going in the short-term. So, I had a look around, considered how far I was running (up to 4 miles) and decided to book the Brean Down 5k on 3 April.

In all honesty, this didn’t end up being a goal, so much as part of the journey. For those that don’t know the area, Brean Down is a headland between Burnham on Sea and Weston-super-Mare in north Somerset. The race starts by the beach and climbs up to the top of the headland, runs along and down to a fort at the end, before climbing back up to the peak and dropping all the way back to the beach. Off-road. It clearly wasn’t a course on which to get a PB, but that’s fine, as I was hardly in any shape to get a PB anyway.

Grimace, grimace, smile for camera, grimace.

The day before the race, we travelled up to Kingsway parkrun, where Lolly kindly ran with the buggy to allow me to put down a more realistic benchmark for my training; 21:59. Two minutes off where my next target, and more like three minutes off where I’d like to finish the year. But at least I had an idea.

At Brean Down, I ran pretty well; my legs were tired from the hard effort the day before, and they certainly weren’t prepared for the hills, but I enjoyed pushing myself around, and getting the buzz of the race. It was also pretty nice to get a medal to add to my collection! Time was pretty irrelevant, but I came in quicker than I’d been targeting, finishing in 24:56.

After that race, I built my training up more, putting more structure in place. While I still wasn’t running from an actual training plan, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to be doing. A couple of runs in the evenings, parkrun, and a “long” run. Which was 5.5 miles of hell that first week. No idea why, it was just a bad run.

“This is so easy, I can do it with my eyes shut.”

Another chance to set down a benchmark followed soon after; the first race of the Yeovilton 5k series. I’d been meaning to race in these for a while, but this year I let myself give it more importance, and I’m planning to use it through the summer to benchmark my progress. I’m going to be pretty pissed off if I don’t go sub-20 at one of them!

I don’t tend to run all that well in evening races, though I do really enjoy them. Still, I managed to prepare relatively well, with a shorter day at work, and a mid-afternoon meal. I didn’t really know what to target, other than quicker than the 21:59 I’d run at Kingsway. With that in mind, I changed the settings on my watch to km pace (I usually use miles) and decided to aim for around 4:20 per km, which would give me a time of somewhere around 21:40, which seemed reasonable.

My pacing was dreadful. Perhaps unsurprising, given that the races are known for having a fast field. I started too far forwards, and found myself drifting back for the first kilometre. After that I steadied myself in the pack, but obviously everyone around me was pacing badly too, and we struggled to maintain our pace. All that said, I was chuffed to come around in 21:07, within a minute of my PB.

After Yeovilton, I had two and a half more weeks of training before my next significant benchmark, the Glastonbury 10k. But I’ll cover that in another post…

The other side of the race

by Lolly

Our running club, Running Forever RC, organise two races every year (well, technically three), and last weekend it was the Humdinger (and Hurtle). The Humdinger is a half marathon around hilly country lanes, and the Hurtle is a shorter version at between 4 and 5 miles.

The club have a policy that means every member should volunteer, or name someone to volunteer in their place, and only enter the race if all the volunteer slots are filled. Personally I think this is a great policy. What better way to support the running community than volunteering at a race? Runners always make the best marshals.

This year we went for a slightly different role. The day before the race, Ben drove round with the race director to put out all the signs (mile markers, ‘caution runners’, ‘drinks ahead’ etc). On the morning of the race we drove round the course together to check that all the signs were still there, and to make sure there were no surprises on the route.

The runners are coming!

As we had no specific role at the start of the race, we stood near the first signs to be collected with our cameras. And then the fun began. Driving round the course again to pick up all the signs. My career as a sign-retriever did not start well – I tugged so hard to get it out the ground that it hit me on the nose. Lesson duly learnt.

In a way we were completely separate to the race; no concept of the number of runners or how the leaders were doing. But we saw everything from a completely different point of view. Walking up and down hills to pick up signs gave me so much respect for the people running up those hills. We stopped off at marshal points to talk to club friends who were packing up to go home. And we saw how strong the guy running at the back of the pack looked, accompanied by the two tail runners holding to the sacred club rule: Nobody gets left behind.

I’d really recommend getting involved in a local race the next time you get the chance. If you’re not sure what it involves, or would like to start with something a little shorter, then head down to your local parkrun and volunteer there.

A Streak and a Stampede

by Lolly

After a 6 week absence, with very few runs in between, I returned to running Longrun Meadow parkrun with a time that showed my drop in fitness. The thought of running the Stoke Stampede 10k two weeks later was not a pretty one. When I’d signed up for the race, it had been as a target race. I wanted one more shot this year at improving my PB. With two weeks to go, I’d struggled with 5k and was completely out of the training habit.

Back home I checked my Garmin stats and discovered I still had 48 miles left to run to hit my goal for 2015, with a mere 19 days left to do it in. Not going to happen. Ben commented that if I ran 5k a day for the rest of the year then I’d manage it easily. It was a good laugh, but somehow I couldn’t shake the idea.

The next day I got ready to go for a run. Ben asked how far I planned to go, and the answer was simple. 5k. It felt rubbish, but I went. The next day I had an exercise class in the evening. The route I took to get there was slightly longer than usual, and I checked my watch carefully on arrival to check the distance. Heading back I took a slightly longer route. As I took an extra loop around my estate it became clear I was already addicted. I HAD to run 5k every day.

The breakthrough in my streak came at the end of the week on parkrunday. I was volunteering, and wore my kit under my coat and hi-viz. After parkrun I swapped into my trainers (wellies are essential at this time of year) and tried to work out a good route. I clocked in 4 more miles and, importantly for my self-belief, did so at 9:31 min/miles. Pretty much a minute a mile faster than my mid-week efforts.

My mindset had changed from “can face going for a run today?” to “when will I go for my run today?” The only difficulty was working out the route. Oh and December weather. One day it rained straight in my face to the extent that my contact lenses got knocked out of line.

The test was Christmas Day. Day 14 of my run streak, and a return to parkrun. The puddles covered most of the course, and were up to my ankle in places. It was brilliant. I finished in 29:11, almost 2 minutes faster than on Day 1 despite the worse conditions. Day 15 was a recovery run, in preparation for the race.

The Stoke Stampede is a popular 10k race in Stoke St Gregory. Popular to the extent that it sold out of places this year, as everyone always raves about it. Ben ran it back in 2013. I knew very little about the course, other than that it was on country roads. Then Ben mentioned there were hills, which I’d suspected, and that there was a small loop and a big loop, which was useful to know. The thing I really didn’t know was how the race would go.

I started way too fast. It was really hard to wait far enough back, and with the downhill start and excitement of the race it was really easy to get carried away. Slowing down was a difficult but necessary task. The nature of the course means you pass the cheering crowd three times: near the start, after the small loop, and just before the end. This was gratefully received support, even if my daughter didn’t spot me first time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, at about the 4 mile mark I got really tired. It became much more of a struggle and so I just settled in to a pace that felt comfortable. Some of the country lanes felt very quiet, with little noise other than feet and jingles. Yes, I’d worn a jingle bell hairband. That might be why there was rarely a runner close by.

The few spectators that were dotted around the course were great. I’m pretty sure I’d have stopped to walk on the hill up to the 8k mark if it wasn’t for the support from the top of it.

When I returned to the village for the final push I was tired but pleased. I felt better than I’d felt on a tough run for months. I finished in 56:34, so sub 9 min/miles. Faster than I’d run for over 2 months, while going further than I’d run for a month. Whatever my original plans had been when I’d entered the race, I’d done myself proud.

Even better, just over a mile into the race I’d hit the milestone that I’d thought there was no chance I could achieve.

goal complete

Yesterday was day 17. We went for a walk up Brean Down in the morning, and I ended up carrying our daughter back down the steps. Annoyingly, not in a carrier. My afternoon run was hard work.

Today I woke up with sore legs, and my left quad has yet to improve. Tight, sore, painful on movement, they would all describe it. The moral of the story is that running is good for you, taking a toddler on a day out without a back carrier is not.

run streak.PNG

My run streak has given me everything I needed it to. Fitness, confidence, and a renewed love for running. It’s the love for running that means I’m breaking my streak and not heading out today. Not today. But in a couple of days’s time I’ll be back out again. And again. And again.

Exmoor Stagger: race review

by Ben

Two weeks after getting a half marathon PB, and four weeks after running a slightly long half marathon, I was lining up to start another race that was over 13 miles: the Exmoor Stagger. The distance was about as close as the similarities got, and even that was a little tenuous:

Distance:
Two Tunnels – 13.5 miles (ish)
Burnham – 13.1 miles
Exmoor Stagger – 15.8 miles (ish). Both the Two Tunnels and Burnham could fairly be described as half marathons, even if the Two Tunnels was a long course. Exmoor on the other hand was very definitely longer. In fact, I wasn’t sure exactly how long to expect: the course had changed slightly from the previous year, when it had been around 15.1 miles, and there wasn’t a published distance on the website for 2015, though it was clear it wasn’t going to be too different. I like to consider it an “ultra half-marathon”!

Dunkery Beacon. It’s up. Lots.

Terrain:
Two Tunnels – Primarily canal tow paths, some of which was a little uneven, but generally good condition. Also some pavements and roads. A short off-road section early on was slightly harder going.
Burnham – Sports field at the start and finish, but otherwise entirely road and pavement. Easy and fast conditions.
Exmoor Stagger – Proper off-road fare, with the exception of a stretch at the start/finish and through Wootton Courtenay. The east slopes of Dunkery were particularly treacherous, with fist sized rocks which slipped around under your feet, trying to find the ideal position to break an ankle. Although the weather had been pretty good to us, there were still some pretty slippery sections too, but thankfully not anything as bad as I heard it had been in some of the previous years.

Elevation:
Two Tunnels – Strava says 479 ft, but this is an overestimate, as it will assume I climbed over the hills, rather than went through the tunnel. I would hazard a guess at around 100ft, maybe.
Burnham – Strava says 0 ft. Really. There were a couple of railway bridges, but this was as flat as a half marathon gets. No marble tests were needed here.
Exmoor Stagger – Strava says 3,199 ft. Three major hill climbs, though the middle one was split into two, so it felt like four climbs. Many of these were far too steep to have any chance of running, and even walking was a significant effort. Dunkery Beacon is the highest point on Exmoor, and the highest point in Somerset, while Minehead, where the course starts, is a seaside town. Oh, and in between the two is another hill. In fact, the short road section through Wootton Courtenay in the middle was about the only extended flat-ish section, and even that was hillier than most of the Two Tunnels and Burnham courses!

Scenery:
Two Tunnels – Pretty good, the tunnels themselves were a great experience, I enjoy running alongside canals, especially a working canal, unlike the Taunton & Bridgwater Canal, and running up to the weir at Poulteney Bridge in Bath was pretty cool too.
Burnham – Nothing amazing; the back lanes were all much of a muchness, and although I think we could see the sea around Berrow, by that stage I really wasn’t interested.
Exmoor Stagger – Stunning, with a caveat. I’ve run to the top of Dunkery Beacon before, and the views were spectacular. On the day of the race however, it was foggy. In fact, on the top of the hill, our useful visibility was about 10 metres. It was brilliant conditions for running, but not great for appreciating how amazing Exmoor is. That said, even within our limited visibility, there was plenty to appreciate, and at lower altitudes, we could see much further.

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With my club mates before the run.

Fellow runners:
Two Tunnels – One of the chaps I was running with seemed perpetually grumpy, and spent most of the race moaning at the other path users that they were getting in the way. He wasn’t a good advertisement for runners. On the other hand, he encouraged me to start running again when I dropped to a walk near the end. Otherwise, I had little interaction with other people during the run.
Burnham – No interaction at all with other runners during the run. Too busy running.
Exmoor Stagger – Lots of hills meant lots of walking, which meant lots of chances to have a bit of a chat. I think the fact that I was taking the race a bit easier, and being more laid-back also contributed. On the climb up Dunkery, I had a lovely chat with a bloke who’d come down from Rugby for the race; we were both dismayed at the point at which a walker coming down suggested it was “only” 15 minutes to the top! (Thankfully he was wrong.) Another hill got me chatting to a lady who had done the Stumble a couple of times before, but not the Stagger, while I had a few short chats with an older fellow who opined that the course change had benefitted “road runners”. All in all, whether because of my own attitude, or just the nature of the race, it was extremely amiable.

Overall, this was a completely different challenge to anything that I’d done before, and I really enjoyed it. It has given me a lot of confidence ahead of the Grizzly next March, and I certainly wouldn’t rule out doing this one again, though I’d quite like to try the Herepath the week after…

Burnham-on-Sea Half Marathon: race report

by Ben

Partly due to not running in the first half of the year, partly due to bad organisation, and mostly just due to bad luck, I ended up with three races scheduled in five weeks. The first, the Two Tunnels half marathon, I’d signed up for when it had become clear that I wasn’t going to be able to run the Bath half due to my knee injury. I’d seen some talk about it on Twitter, and a couple of blog posts about it, and it looked like a good race. The one downside was that it clearly wasn’t a PB course. As I felt I had a fair chance at getting a decent new PB in the autumn, this meant I had to find another race. I went through a few options, near and far, but the one that I kept coming back to was the Burnham half. It was pancake flat, apart from a couple of small railway bridges, and only half an hour away from home. It was cheap, and crucially, it wouldn’t sell out, so I could sign up on the day. After losing a fair bit on money on races I’d signed up for in the spring, and then not been able to run, I liked the idea of not having to commit too early!

Of course, the downside was that it was only two weeks after the Two Tunnels. This was compounded by the fact that I then signed up for the Exmoor Stagger, which was two weeks after Burnham. Prior to September 2015, I’d only run 13 miles or more twice. By the end of October 2015, all being well, I’d have done it five times. Gulp. Still, I had a plan – I wouldn’t push too hard at the Two Tunnels, but use it to try and gauge my pace to give me a better idea of a target time for Burnham. I’d then push as hard as I could at Burnham, and then Exmoor would just be a case of finishing, irrespective of pace.

In the lead up to Burnham, the plan seemed to be having mixed results. We went on holiday at the start of September, which disrupted my training a little bit, and I essentially started to taper a week too early for the Two Tunnels; particularly as I hadn’t intended to really taper for that race much at all. The Two Tunnels went well, much better than expected in fact, but I was unsure whether that showed that I’d got quite a bit quicker, or that I’d pushed too hard. I’d done some reasearch which suggested that after a race, it took one day per mile to recover. So a 13.5 mile race would take 13.5 days. I had a 14 day gap, so that did seem to be pushing things a bit tight, but hey, what could I do now?! One side effect of piling these races together was some uncertainty over what training I should be doing in between. Some suggested that I wouldn’t lose any fitness, so it wasn’t necessary to run at all, while others thought that I needed to keep ticking decent mileage over to keep my legs loose. I ended up just doing a couple of runs; a gentle parkrun on the Saturday after the Two Tunnels, and then a 10k run with my club the following Wednesday, albeit dropping down a pace group.

How thrilled do I look?! (credit: Mike Lang)

The night before I spent a while fiddling around with pace ideas, working out what I thought I should target, whether I should aim to run negative/positive/even splits. Mostly, I was nervous. I ended up printing off and laminating a pace band for 1:38:00. I figured that I’d gone through 13.1 miles at the Two Tunnels in just over 1:40, so cutting another two minutes off that seemed reasonable; I could always judge how things were going at five miles and either pick up the pace or slow down a bit. My main aim was to get under the 1:40 mark, and get my time into double digits (1:40 being 100 minutes). As it turned out, this was all to be wasted time. On the morning I left reasonably early, though given it was an 11:00 start, and it was only half an hour away, this was still perfectly sociable. I arrived shortly before 10, and by ten past, I had signed up, got my number, filled my number out, attached it to my race top, and was sat in my car wondering why I’d turned up so early.

The Burnham half is another race in the Somerset Series, and it wasn’t long before I started to see plenty of familiar faces. Eventually, I emerged from my car to run a short warm-up; it wasn’t anything too intense, about one kilometre, with some high knees, bum flicks, crabbing, that sort of thing. Midway through I saw Clive, one of the few other club members to run regularly in the Somerset Series, and we had a bit of a natter about expected finish times and the sort. He (somewhat optimistically) predicted that this would be the race when I’d finally beat him, but I wasn’t convinced!

The cars really were quite close! (credit: Burnham-on-Sea.com)

The cars were slightly intimidating! (credit: Burnham-on-Sea.com)

My plan at the start was to make sure I didn’t end up running with Clive: he tends to start quicker than I do, and I end up pushing myself too hard, too early. But typically I found myself stood right behind Clive behind the start line! Thankfully, although I did still start too quickly, I kept my pace reined in slightly, and by the end of the first mile, I’d settled at the right pace. Almost the entire course is on open roads, with the exception of the start and finish area, and while most were small quiet roads, the first couple of miles involved running on one of the main roads in and out of Burnham. Thankfully, as the race was being shepherded by a lead car, the queue of cars going alongside us were crawling along barely quicker than us (presumably at around the pace of the lead runner). It was slightly intimidating, but everyone, runners and drivers alike, was sensible so it passed okay. We then turned off that road, left onto a stretch of pavement, and then left again into the backlanes, by which stage we were around two-and-a-half miles into the race.

With the exception of mile one, I maintained an extremely consistent pace for the first eight miles, which was aided by the flatness of the course. My fastest and slowest miles during this stretch were only four seconds different! There really isn’t much to say about this stretch. Towards the end of it, a small group of four of us had formed, but in the ninth mile the chap who had been heading us started to dramatically vary his speed; he would stretch off the front, and then drop his pace right back again. As I moved to pass him, he would then speed back up. It was pretty infuriating, but then at around the nine mile mark his pace seemed to drop off completely, and I passed him and eased away ahead. I can only assume that he was struggling and trying to keep pace with me, otherwise it was just a really odd race tactic! My own pace started to trail off around this stage too, although less dramatically. Miles two to eight had been around 7:18 min/mile, while mile nine and ten dropped to 7:25. From the nine mile marker, the course ran alongside Berrow Sands, and for pretty much two miles it was one long stretch of road, which was pretty demoralising at that stage of the race.

On the bright side, the end of that stretch, eleven miles in, brought us back to the edge of civilisation, and the realisation that there wasn’t too much further to go. Unfortunately, my body was starting to remind me that I’d run a half marathon two weeks ago. My legs were really starting to tire, and it was becoming a struggle to maintain a reasonable pace. In all honesty, it felt like at this stage, I was crawling along. In reality, miles eleven and twelve were 7:31, only thirteen seconds slower than the early stages, and even mile thirteen, in which I thought my legs might fall off, was 7:41. A couple of people passed me in those final couple of miles, but all I could do was mentally congratulate them on having more left in the tank than I did, and let them go; I had nothing left to try and keep up, though maybe it was enough motivation to stop my pace really dropping off. We turned back into the sports centre grounds, and I really didn’t feel like I had anything left to give for a quick finish, but looking at my Strava details, I clearly had a bit, as I slipped under 7 minute/mile pace for that final 0.1.

My time was 1:36:37; offically a PB by around five minutes, though in reality only around three minutes quicker than I’d completed the distance at the Two Tunnels. Only! I’m extremely chuffed with the time; it was a good course to run a fast time, but I hadn’t realised I had that pace in me. I could maybe have run it a little bit quicker without the Two Tunnels race a couple of weeks earlier, but then I might not have been mentally prepared for that pace. Who knows?

Well, it’s different!

We received, not a medal, but a running shoe “trophy”, which was quite a nice variation, though I have no idea where I’ll keep it! My left shin/knee (it was hard to tell) and my right ankle were both troubling me in the final couple of miles, and continued to for the following day or so, but subsided shortly after that. How would I rate the race? It depends. If you’re a confident runner and want a fast time, this is an ideal course; it genuinely is completely flat, with two small railway bridges the only minor exception. Mentally, that can be a little difficult; there are no hills to break-up the monotony of the distance, and the scenery isn’t that brilliant either (and being a foggy day, this was only extenuated). There is little to no real support around the course; a couple of the locals stood at the end of their gardens, but not many, and those people that had come to support their friends apparently didn’t want to bother to extend their support to the other runners, which was disappointing. Still, from my point of view, I wanted a fast race, and that’s what I got. I wouldn’t recommend this as a first half-marathon for someone, as the monotony and lack of support would probably be hard to deal with.

As usual, by late afternoon I had a splitting headache. I get these after almost all of my races, and I don’t know entirely why. Mostly everything says it’s dehydration, but there are times I’ve drank gallons and it still seems to happen. I just accept it as a “race hangover” now, but if anyone has any suggestions, they’d be greatly appreciated!

Taunton 10k: Race Report

by Lolly

For the third time in four years, I planned to run the Taunton 10k. The difference this year? I didn’t have a chest infection and so, despite having tired legs from my first half marathon the week before, I was actually going to run it.

The Taunton 10k is by far the most local race I’ve ever run, which made it a little strange. I even knew the guy directing us into the car park. Collecting my race number involved bumping into several familiar faces. Oh and there was the big club photo as well.

A few more RFRC runners than I’ve raced with before

For the size of race, the start seemed pretty disorganised. I had absolutely no idea where to line up, and so just waited with some other people from the club. As the race started it quickly became apparent that we were way too far back, even before we crossed the start chip mat. So I spent the first section in full-on weaving mode, spotting gaps and darting through.

As the runners started to thin out a little I settled into a steadier pace, and was immediately passed by fellow club member Claire. She’d followed my weaving pattern through and, having actually trained properly, was ready to speed off. But there were plenty of other familiar runners to greet on the way.

The first section of the Taunton 10k is what can only be described as a distance loop. The route leaves Chestnut Drive, goes round a few other roads, and then re-appears to cross Chestnut Drive further along. Along the way is a reasonably busy road with a narrow pavement. Running in the road didn’t feel particularly safe, and overtaking was pretty difficult either way. The curse of starting too far back!

As we approached Chestnut Drive, I could hear more and more people cheering – the pavements were lined with supporters. The loudest group of cheers was coming from a group of our club supporters, and that was before they spotted my top. There’s nothing like an insane volume of “Come on, Running Forever” to get your spirits up. A little further up the road (yes, actually up) Ben, Leila and Ben’s brother were watching and cheering.

Up + Hot + Grin = Not the best look.

So I was feeling pretty good as I started the ‘main’ part of the 10k route, climbing up towards the motorway and over the other side. The road towards Stoke St Mary was hot. It was an art-form balancing the need to stay visible to cars (on a country road) and the need to run in the shade. Still, I was happy with how nicely the kilometres were ticking over – a nice side effect of having recently run a longer race.

Just before Stoke St Mary there was a water station handing out bottles. Before this year I’d have said bottles were essential, but it felt pretty big and awkward compared to cups. Maybe small bottles are the way to go?

The support in Stoke St Mary itself was really good – I suppose if your village is being clogged up with runners then you may as well embrace it. Unfortunately I started to feel a little rough, so I just settled in to a pace and tried to focus. The undulating road back out of Stoke St Mary is exactly the sort of road I love to run on, although it felt quiet after the support.

As we turned onto the road back into Taunton the traffic level increased, meaning that everyone tried to stay a bit closer in to the hedge. Throughout the route there had been little signs from one of the local clubs giving advice on the route ahead, and the sign here said to push. Given we were still a fair way off seeing the 8k marker this seemed a little early.

People were out supporting in the few places where the road widened, including Sandra from our club who was handing out jelly babies (not my thing but nice idea). I was passed by a few people who were kicking on earlier that me. Even so, I felt much stronger on the climb back up to the motorway and very much enjoyed speeding up a little down the other side.

The support heading back onto Chestnut Drive was amazing, almost enough to make me give it my all. Not quite though, as I was acutely aware that the finish line was further than the start line. When I did kick for the final stretch, I found myself running alongside someone else from my club. Rounding the corner into the finish there was a mass of people on either side and then, much to my surprise, a couple of kids appeared in front of us. Having kids run with their parents over the line is sweet, but not ideal for anyone else running nearby.

This space would contain an official photo of me at the finish,
if it wasn't far too bad to pay for.
(The photo quality was good, my expression not so much)

I crossed the line, stopped my watch, and entered the chaos around me. So many people with not many places to go. I saw some more friends from club and we chatted about how we’d done. My watch showed 55:26, and I was telling the truth when I said I was pleased to have got within about 20 seconds of my PB.

Collecting my t-shirt from the hall was easy enough, although the t-shirt itself is nothing to run home about. I suspect it will be reserved for DIY days (which is what Ben uses his 2014 version for). Given the scale of event it seems a bit of a shame that they don’t do medals, but I knew that when I signed up so can’t complain too much.

Given this is a local event I’m sure I’ll end up running it again at some point. I’ll certainly be using some of the roads in my training runs, and with the added bonus of atmosphere it would seem silly not to enter again. If only that first loop didn’t have to exist.

Back at home we got talking about what my actual 10k PB was, as I wasn’t exactly sure. It turned out to be 55:23, so not that far off what I’d just run. Particularly as I always make sure my watch time is a little long. Then we found the chip results on the website, putting my official Taunton 10k time at… 55:22. And this was how I came to award myself the prize for most embarrassing PB ever.