Market Drayton 10k & A PB!!!!!

I was looking forward to the Market Drayton 10k as it was voted the best 10k two years in a row so I was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about. The final info on the face book group stated there was a steep hill around 5.5 miles.. seriously who puts a hill in the last half mile of a race?!

The morning pretty much started lay in my sisters guest bedroom listening to the pouring down rain and wondering how on earth I had forgotten to pack my baseball cap and any form of jacket or coat which by now were 40 miles away at home. After worrying over this for an hour or so it was soon early enough to message my friend Rebecca who was also running to see if I could borrow a coat. With this sorted I ate my porridge and was out the door to pick Rebecca up and make the half hour journey to the race. I wanted to park at the school so we could collect our T shirts and put them back in the car without having to walk to and from a different car park. This was no problem with ample parking that was well sign posted. We had been discussing times on the journey with Rebecca being a faster runner than myself we decided we would start in the same pen around the 58 minute or sub hour pen then I would just do my best. My personal best up until that day was 1 hour 3 seconds and I so desperately wanted to shave 4 seconds off at least to get my first sub 1 hour 10k. 

After milling around and getting a drink of water we then ventured over to the starting pens which were literally some white signs in a field, the slowest pen was 55-60 minutes!? Surely that can't be right, there were a lot of charity and fun runners and from the conversations I overheard first timers so surely a pen of 1 hour plus or something would have been ideal. It was just a mass of bodies so we had no choice but to get in near the back. Suddenly we were off! Running across a large field though the room to run was so compact I couldn't actually run at the pace I would have liked. The first mile was difficult as people had already started walking.. these were people that had started way ahead of me in the pens. I was frustrated as at some points couldn't make my way around them and kept getting blocked in. I just wanted to run! At this point any thoughts of a pb had gone out the window.. the first mile was over 10 minutes and I knew for a 1 hour race I'd need to run 9.17 minute miles. By mile 3 I had lost Rebecca she had a stitch and had slowed down. I had found some room and made a break for it. I was running like a mad woman mile 3 was finished in 8.55 minutes.. I wasn't sure I could keep this up but the support from the locals was brilliant, I was still ducking and weaving around people and soon felt very competitive. By mile 4 I started to feel the same way I did in the Birmingham Half Marathon back in 2012 when I set my still current pb. I felt good yet knew I pushing hard, very hard, the course starting getting undulating now and mile 4 crept around in 9.04. I knew this big hill would be coming up and decided to run as fast as I could to make some time up in the bank so I could walk near the end if I had to. Mile 5 came around with a time of 8.48 minute miles! Excellent.. by this point I was well aware that I looked exactly the same way I described the front runners of Park run in a previous blog.. I reckon I had drool flopping around off my chin, I probably had a wild look in my eyes and my breathing by now was very laboured but I kept pushing running up every hill. 

It was at this point that mile 5.5 came along and I was faced with The Hill. It was steep and veered around a bend right in the middle of the shopping centre with big crowd support and a very loud drumming group. Something hit me and I panicked I had pushed too hard it felt, I was certain I was about to collapse , I really didn't want to walk but the hill was so steep and the drummers were so loud I think I had a mini panic attack. I stopped for around 10 seconds though it felt like a lifetime and gave myself a good talking to. I hadn't ran my arse off for 5.5 miles to fail in the last little bit so I did the only thing I could do... I ran!

It felt good to be running away from the drummers, Mile 6 was run in 9.12 minutes and I had a quick glance at my Garmin, I couldn't believe the time I was on for. As I approached the field that we started on I was told I was nearly at the finish though the same field I had run around 50 minutes before seemed to have doubled in size. I couldn't see the finish as I was looking out for an inflatable arch but it was simply a line to cross over. I had finished Market Drayton 10k in 56 minutes 45 seconds.  The way I felt when I eventually stopped running was a mixture of sheer joy for the time I had run and elation that I could actually stop and rest. Rebecca came in a few minutes behind me and we had both earned pbs that day. After being loaded up with our goody bags and medals I decided it's probably not worth me running another 10k as I don't think I'll ever get near that time again but I will certainly give it a bloody good go at Worcester 10k in June. 

Worcester Half Marathon 2014

Here we go again! On Sunday I ran the Worcester half marathon for the 3rd year in a row, a few people had stated I was mad to do it more than once as it's such a tough hilly course but with it being on the doorstep it feels rude not to give it a bash every year. I had originally entered the full marathon but after London made the decision to drop down to the half and it turned out to be a good decision.

In the few weeks leading up to Worcester half I had joined my local running club The Black Pear Joggers and had been out on a few runs with them already including the magic mile challenge where I pulled out a 1 mile personal best of 7 minutes 55 seconds.. not without suffering pins & needles from my finger tips to my shoulders through lack of oxygen circulating around my body! I had made friends with Margaret who had never ran a race and had never ran over 10 miles, with very little convincing she decided to enter the race with four days to spare and I was looking forward to running with someone rather than on my own as I used to.

The morning started with the usual half mile walk to the rugby ground where we met up with the rest of the Black Pears and had our team photo taken.

I had asked Margaret if she had a time in mind for her first race and we decided I would help pace her around to a 2 hour 20 - 2 hour 30 finish time. My course record was 2 hours 17 but I knew I would be pushing trying to beat this time as the weather was due to be hot and sunny. We also met up with Jane who was running her first half marathon and she had the same time in mind so we started together.

The first 3 miles flew by sticking to the pace or better that I knew would see us to a 2:20 finish of 11.23 minute miles. Margaret and I lost Jane around mile 4 when she stopped for water and soon the hills started flowing, I had never really thought about how hilly the course was until a few people mentioned it prior to setting off.  By mile 6 I was glad I had dropped down to the half course as it was lovely to be able to run with company. Margaret and I continued running along at a faster pace than needed taking in the country side views and just enjoying ourselves. We were often cheered along by supporters as a pair of pears as the locals recognized the club running tops. There was even a Black Pear water station which was fab and our own photographer who almost caught me walking up a hill!

 We stayed together the whole course and at mile 8 were now overtaking a lot of runners that had set off too fast and by now were walking. We decided to power walk the hills and through the water stations and this worked very well for us. At mile 12 we came out next to the canal for the final stretch back to the rugby ground and I told Margaret to run on her own, I wanted her to get her own time. She finished in 2 hours 20 minutes and 20 seconds so turns out I'm not that bad at being a pacer though I'm sure she would have finished quicker if she had ran without me. I finished at 2 hours 21 minutes which I wasn't pleased with at the time but looking back at it now I can say I am happy with that time for the day and the course. Will I do Worcester again? Ask me again January 2015!