Bridlington Mist

As I lay wide awake at 4 am I questioned again and again, why?  I wasn't worried or nervous, I didn't feel ill,  I didn't need the loo, in fact I could think of no good reason at all. I had even set an additional alarm on my mobile phone to ensure our Eccleshill friends weren't left waiting for us to board the coach should my dear husband decide to press 'snooze' on his alarm as he so often does on a work day!

When I decided enough was enough I got up and began my routine as I do on the morning of any race. Breakfast eaten, bag checked, we set off for our usual meet point to board the coach.  It didn't seem to take long before we arrived in a very misty Bridlington.  It wasn't a heavy fog so the thinking was that it would lift as we drew nearer to lunch time and the sun would peer through.  The 12 o'clock start time arrived and we assembled on the start line, being chip timed for the first time I had wondered more than once what effect this may have.  Bridlington being my pb for a half I questioned whether I would be able to better it. I set my watch as we crossed the line and soon came upon Steve and Claire.  The pace seemed comfortable and after a while Steve pulled away, leaving Claire and I running side by side.  We seemed to take turns to take the lead, sometimes I would overtake and she would follow and vice versa, I was just waiting for the time when I would start to fade and when we happened upon a short hill at around mile 4 I thought that would be it.  We kept good pace up the hill and I managed to recover ok and keep up.  I always feel like it's a gamble but am a firm believer in staying in the moment and if I feel good I'll go with it if not I'll drop back.  I surprised myself until mile 11 when I started to feel tired, an onlooker shouted to us that we only had two miles left and Claire uttered 'have we?' with an air of surprise. I was never entirely sure how Claire was feeling, and advised her if she had anything left to go for it for the last two miles. She did get a little ahead but was never out of site and I was more surprised to come upon clubmates, first, Brian and then Steve, we were all on for around a similar finishing time it seemed.

The cliff top finish I had been looking forward to was a bit of a let down, shrouded in mist you could see no further than the sea front, as always though there was plenty of supporters out along there and as I edged nearer and nearer to the finish, it seemed never ending.  I crossed the finishing line and stopped my watch 1:53:28 I was elated to have beaten last year's time 1:56:58 by a reasonable margin. Let the celebrations begin! Off to the Leisure Centre to freshen up and change and then meet up with the rest of the coach to while away the afternoon.

Team ERR

Misty Finish!

Next on the agenda is the Guy Fawkes 10 mile race so training will resume as soon as I feel I can put in a recovery run and get back to it.  I don't envisage a 10 mile pb having the Birstwith Brute, Swinford Swine and For Fawkes Sake to contend with, time will no doubt tell.

Winter is nigh..

With the Winter championship races well and truly placed on the Eccleshill website and this weekend's Roundhay parkrun being the penultimate race of the Summer championships we can't ignore the fact that Winter is almost upon us. The gloves are out on training runs albeit they sometimes turn out not to be needed! The next step is the clock going back and that will complete the cycle!

Thankfully, we have had dry runs of late though, parkrun at Roundhay on Saturday was beautiful if a little cold, the sun shimmered on the frosty grass as we ran the three loops of the park.  This was the message I got when the results were emailed:

Congratulations on completing your 16th parkrun and your 1th at Roundhay today. You finished in 90th place and were the 14th lady out of a field of 185 parkrunners and you came 1st in your age category VW50-54. You can view the full set of results here. As this is your first run at this event we have set your PB.

Amused that it was my 1th run at Roundhay I then spied that I finished the race first in my age category! I'm just 'taking it' I don't even want to know how many ran in the category!! Although it is obviously a Roundhay pb I was three seconds away from my 5k pb and just one second away from my all time parkrun pb, note to self: 'must try harder'!

The beautiful lake at Roundhay

So another Monday arrived and although I really enjoy our monthly Enterprise Surprise sessions I once again realised we were only a week away from a half marathon as I did the week before the Great North, and I really felt I could not take part in the fun and games session and risk compromising my fitness ahead of the Bridlington Half marathon so I and a few others who are running this weekend opted to do our three mile time trial, a little more effort than our social runs but no twisting and turning involved! I think it's important to keep up with the variety of the sessions but to just be sensible about it. It seems to work for me anyway, I know you have no way of knowing what's around the corner but in my opinion there's no need to invite trouble! Sadly one or two at club have already announced they are pulling out due to injury or illness which always puts a damper on things but on the plus side there are 53 of us going on the trip so it should be a fab day out despite some of us having to run 13.1 miles and I will keep in mind the words of the late great Arthur James and run 'because I can'.

The plan now is to coast along the rest of the week, sports massage with Peter May is booked and so I hope to get to the start line in Brid and more importantly Wetherspoons after the race in one piece!

It never rains but what it pours!

The weather forecasters distinctly said it was going to dry up - I know we often don't believe them but on this occasion I hoped against all hope that it was true.  Just how much more rain is there up there waiting to come down?

It always seems to start raining an hour or so before run club. Monday's time trial session ended before the rains came but Wednesday's longer run night we were not so lucky, the heavens opened, the wind was blowing, enough to make the dog refuse to go outside never mind us runners. Numbers were not bad despite the fact that it was atrocious and felt really cold. I ran with Dawn and Sarah - we formed small groups and decided to ditch the waiting game this session, it was far too cold and wet to be hanging around.  We seemed to keep good pace and as we headed into Pudsey town centre before taking a left turn to loop back to base the wind seemed to increase, flinging the rain at us, it felt like icy globules! 9.7 miles later, back at the club house after taking a soggy photo to prove how wet we got, we dried ourselves off and made our way home.  There's extra satisfaction in knowing you've braved such weather conditions and still done the suggested route and can  go home and have a hot bath, bliss!

Friday's 5.5 miler meant another training week was over and the weekend appeared again, this time I decided to take my own advice and make a decision whether or not to race since pre entry is not required for the YVAA races and I already have a number.  Having spent all day Saturday hopping on and off buses and exploring Leeds College of Music with Marc I was physically and mentally worn out.  I decided a day of cheering was in order instead of the hills of West Vale.  I have to admit it was just the tonic.  After a cooked breakfast off we went to Cheer the runners in at the finish of the YVAA race at West Vale with quite a few family members which was uplifting and I didn't feel too guilty for not running since the trusty team had enough ladies to count. Much better I thought than turning up feeling tired and not really wanting to run and the sun shone making for a lovely Autumnal morning.  There was though, still plenty of mud around from the recent rain fall and the runners came back covered in it!

The beautiful surroundings at West Vale

A couple more weeks to go until the Bridlington half marathon and training is not feeling so easy, I am convinced the changing season has an undesirable effect.  It's not so much that I don't want to go out and train but that something just doesn't feel quite right. I'm suffering disturbed sleep and think maybe I'm suffering an 'inner' cold.  I don't have the outward signs of sniffles and cold sores any more but still don't feel that I have totally shaken it off. Hopefully that won't still be the case a week next Sunday. I'm going to keep a lid on the mileage for the next couple of weeks and hopefully I'll get round with pleasure and not pain!!

Carr Lane Revisited!

Training and racing have continued to go well since the Great North Run.  Having had a few days rest I'm now back to club and looking forward to the Bridlington Half Marathon. The last week or so have seen us training in some horrendous weather, getting a thorough soaking most nights. Last Monday and Wednesday being no exceptions.  Monday was just a short interval session but by the time I had finished running into the lashing rain along Canal Road I looked like I had jumped into the road's namesake! How nice is it though, to get home and jump into a lovely warm bath when you're cold and wet?

Wednesday was the first training session for me from our Winter base since ERR moved back to Undercliffe Cricket Club the previous week.  It's nice to get back to some 'new' routes when Summer training ends and vice versa.  This week though I was dreading the thought of revisiting Carr Lane at about the 6 mile mark for the first time in quite some months -  I did question whether I may or may not get up the 'hill from hell' without stopping.  I often recall the early days of club running and my attempts to get up it, my making land marks of where I got to without stopping, 'the first bus stop', 'the second bus stop' etc.  On  'going all the way' for the first time I remember my elation and it obviously did wonders for my mental attitude towards it since, all be it slow, I have managed each attempt in one every time since! There is nothing like getting to the top and turning to look at the spectacular view of the town of Shipley - if you can stand upright enough to look whilst trying to regain control of your breathing!

I wasn't able to run on Friday due to work commitments, yet another wet and windy evening made me thankful I was actually indoors even if it was at work until going on 11pm.

And so.......to the weekend.  Horsforth 10k on Sunday, I had several emails from the host club and I ignored the first couple telling myself I had already entered.  Finally I decided to check in my 'race entries' email folder whether I actually had since I now had my third or fourth email from them in a week! It turned out I hadn't entered! I have no idea why but I still held off entering telling myself I could enter on the day if needs be.  Still undecided I made pasta for Saturday tea and then began to wonder whether I should have a glass of wine with it. Just one I thought, well maybe two - I'll see if I feel ok in the morning and then decide whether to enter or not.  So it continued, I am convinced I was still undecided as I left the house at 9:10 and headed down to Apperley Bridge.  I parked up and it started to rain, I began to jog along to the registration area still thinking I wouldn't be disappointed if there were no entries on the day left.  There were.  I joined a large queue and paid my entry fee.  Just time for a quick warm up before we were walked a short distance to the start on Woodlands Drive.  I then realised why, surprisingly, I had only done this race once before, quite likely due to the fact that it was uphill for the first two miles. I soldiered on but quite soon began to feel awful.  My legs felt weak and I gasped for air. Thankfully we reached the part where we were turned right and I knew it was flat and then downhill.  I managed to pick up a bit of speed and overtook quite a few other runners.  Downhill and then the canal would usually be a perfect time to get control of your breathing and pace your way to the finish. Not so for me, I continued to feel terrible as I tried to find my pace - I just had nothing in my legs, I could barely put one foot in front of the other and considered stopping quite a few times,  Finally we turned into Woodhouse Grove to the finish, people surged past me as I struggled to keep moving forward.  Thankfully it was a long finishing funnel, a chap in front of me was hardly able to walk, asking if he was ok he said he was but he couldn't walk any faster. I reassured him that he was ok, I didn't want him to go any faster and breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't about to keel over in front of me! It seems the race had taken it's toll on a few of us! No doubt all will be forgotten until the next time, I will though, learn from that hopefully and prepare better, I already know that mind as well as body needs to be in order if we are to give ourselves any chance of having a satisfactory race so shame on me for acting the way I did. Amen

If that isn't enough to make me want to make better
preparation I don't know what is!

(Not so) Great North Run!

Our return from oop North today was a gradual descent from Whitley Bay via Newcastle and the Angel of the North.  Our extended break made it seem an absolute age since we had taken part in the most anticipated race of the year.  I'm always on a count down from one year to the next as I 'love', in every sense of the word, this race.  From the very first time we did it in 2006 we have managed to better our experience each year, even in 2010 when I wasn't able to run due to injury, I stood on the sidelines, drinking in the atmosphere and whilst there is no comparison to taking part, I enjoyed my first time waiting at the end to try and spot anyone we knew coming through the finish.

This year though, my experiences changed somewhat.  We decided to save ourselves some money and not get our usual transfer to the start line which would then also include being picked up from near the finish in South Shields and taken back to our caravan park.  Martin had spotted the Bupa Great North Run weekend Dayrover tickets in the Bupa magazine which accompanies your number/timing chip/race info etc.  For just £5.50 per day, £10 for two days or £15 for 3 days, your Dayrover allows unlimited travel on the bus, Metro or ferry.  Bingo! At £30 for the three of us a ticket we were going to save £60, not to be sniffed at! This would cover our travelling round on the Saturday to go and watch the City Games and also our travel to the start of the race and our return to the caravan park. Saturday went to plan as we had an enjoyable day hopping on and off buses, the highlight being able to watch Mo Farah win the 2 mile race and even though England & N I lost out to the USA in the City Games we still had a brilliant day all round.

After a sleepless night almost certainly aided by thoughts of how/if we were going to get to the start line on time, fear of the unknown personified.  We rose early and were out of the caravan by 7:30 to catch our bus to Newcastle.  As it turned out it was an absolute doddle and we reached the start area by 8:15. However, the toilet queues were that long that we were locked out of our starting pens by the time we returned to the start area.  We literally had to scale fencing to get into our pens. Finally we crossed the line and the race began.  We hadn't had the atmospheric start we usually did but the excitement was still building.  It began to rain.  It continued to rain. It rained throughout.  It wasn't unbearable and we had to thank our lucky stars it wasn't beating sun, give me rain over sun any day!

I didn't notice what time we did our first 5k in but by 10k we were at just over 54 minutes, acceptable I thought.  Onwards, at just before the 7 mile mark I heard a lot of screaming and shouting from the sidelines, looking across I saw a group of Hyde Park Harriers, Liz Jones and former Eccleshill Road Runners Clare Mason and Diane Aykroyd, what a boost, it's lovely to see familiar faces and if I'm honest it was lovely to see so many people in general, how fantastic of each and every one of them to stand out all day in the pouring rain. Brilliant! I take my hat off to them all.

A mile or so later and Martin began to struggle, his breathing was really heavy and he was a funny shade of green.  I tried to keep dropping back to him, this I think caused people to regularly bump into my arms, stepping on my feet, and generally antagonising me.  Martin walked a while and then would summon up the energy to begin running again, regularly telling me to go on without him, I tried not to lose patience and encourage him on but it was difficult, there was no way I was going to leave him, he looked like he might keel over at any moment.  Thoughts of how little training he had done came flooding back and I began to resent him.  Getting him to the top of the hill at just over 11 miles I knew we would make it to the finish line but it had been a real struggle.  Along the sea front I had my eyes peeled on the crowd looking for family, each time I turned round Martin was further away from me, I would go back to him and focus on the crowd again, after what seemed like an age we crossed the line - me holding him up, I was so glad we had finished but for all the wrong reasons.

It turned out we had marginally beaten our time from last year, only by a few seconds, and I really don't know how. Thankfully the other boys had really good runs, Marc and Taylor on their debut half marathons finished in 1:51 and 1:33 respectively.  Craig and Gavin also did brilliantly both finishing in 1:51 - very difficult to comprehend since Marc & Taylor set off in the faster (orange) zone, Craig set off with us in the white zone and Gavin much further back in the Green zone, the wonder of timing chips! The journey back to Whitley Bay left a lot to be desired as we faced quite a long walk to the Ferry Port and then an enormous queue of people to get on board, the only saving grace was that they were every 15 minutes and took 150 people each trip so although we had quite a long wait I assume it was quicker than getting on the train which also had enormous queues.  A long walk and two more buses later we arrived back at Whitley Bay, extremely tired!

I only hope now that I can change Martin's attitude to training for races if he is to continue and most certainly if he's reading this I plead with him to reassess his attitude to training as although he maintains how he felt wasn't due to lack of training - I had to point out that had he done adequate training he would have been reassured that that wasn't the cause of him feeling unwell and me being worried witless, as it is we don't have anything else to blame. We absolutely loved our few days break following the race and managed to visit St Mary's Lighthouse, Cullercoats, Tynemouth Castle & Priory and the famous Angel of the North before returning home.

The beach through Tynemouth Castle window

Marc surveys the Angel of the North

Hey ho, bring on the Bridlington Half marathon in October! If you're reading this and taking part, get training! I can still hear myself saying 'well if anything goes wrong at least I know I have done the training' when I was on my way to the start line of the London Marathon in 2010. Remember, respect the challenge.

The end is nigh.....Countdown.....

Return to Wednesday training she did! Dawn that is.  Wanting to try and complete the longest route of 11 miles I pledged to run with her.  My pleasure I'd said as I now wanted to take it really steady as the race of the year draws near.  Out and back on the canal seemed a good bet as I had said to Dawn if we got to a point where she felt she had had enough we could just turn back.  We were pleased to reach the turn around point, no turning back, so to speak, we had now committed to the full distance.  We happily set off back towards our start point, Apperley Bridge, chatting away about one thing and another.  Suddenly it became dark, we were under a cover of trees and looking beyond them I could see that the sky was still fairly light, I reassured Dawn who by now seemed a little worried.  We carried onwards, it got darker and darker all around us.  I tried to focus ahead, occasionally a light would appear and turn out to be a cyclist, no doubt caught out as we had been.  Every so often I would spot what I thought was a figure in front of us, hoping it was a friendly one, only to find my fears were unfounded, the dark does play tricks!

Finally, our dark journey was over as we arrived at Dobson Lock, Apperley Bridge, back to civilisation and street lights! Within the next couple of weeks we will be returning to our Winter training base, until then we will seriously need to stick to road running!

On Friday I wondered if the weird and wonderful weather is keeping club runners at home, or maybe they are turning into opportunist runners and getting themselves out of the door when it's dry outside!  Numbers on Friday certainly plummeted as only five of us turned up, or was the uphill start to Yeadon maybe? Puzzle I did as I must admit I hadn't relished the thought of running in the pouring rain but as always once you get going you don't notice when it actually stops! Back after our 5 miler we all agreed although it had been quite tough we all enjoyed it, having got the flowers out of the way first this time (albeit that they were for a less than happy occasion this time) all round it was great start to the weekend.

Flowers for a memorial

Speaking of which I was pleased to play a part in the Eccleshill hosting of the Saltaire YVAA relay in Robert's Park - much respect to Ian our Membership Secretary for diving in there and doing what most of us would run a million miles from, albeit his nerves are now in tatters! All seemed to go very well and the feedback he has received has been positive so who knows what''s next?

Gaggles of geese, one flew over Robert's Park as another grazed!

Floral Training

Occasionally life gets in the way of my running and I hate it when it does.  I know 'hate' is a strong word but I was going to say 'despise' and that's worse!  I had a last minute request from a friend to do some flowers for the church for her wedding.  I was reluctant, firstly from a confidence point of view, although I adore flowers and wish daily that I could have more in my life, I don't 'play' regularly enough to build my faith in my own abilities. Also, with a theme of black, silver and purple, I had my work cut out! Bradford parkrun was a race featured in the club's Summer championships.  I really wanted to go and run it knowing that lots of club members would be there so I left it open, saying to friends that I would see how it went as I had a lot on and I wasn't sure whether I would be able to fit it in.  Getting home from Friday club run, shower and tea, I started on the flowers. Retiring to bed after midnight and only the bare minimum of preparation done I knew there was no way I could spare the time to go run the 5k.

Flowers for the altar

I've now missed a few run sessions due to flowers, socialising at the wedding and monthly time trial timing at club but hopefully Wednesday club run will fix that and I'll soon feel back on course.  I know I could have gone for a run on my own but as I document regularly I don't run to run on my own, I'm a social runner and that's how I would like it to stay.  A highlight this week was Dawn returning to run with us at Eccleshill. A steady time trial and a pledge to go a little longer on Wednesday will hopefully see her returning to regular training since her fall over 10 months ago.