Great South Run

I think it is fair to say my head was not in the right place for Sunday's race. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it and had real doubts that I could achieve the same time as last year.

The Great South Run is the largest race I've ever taken part in with 25,000 runners lining up at the start. This causes one or two problems getting to the area meaning you do need to plan to be there far earlier than most races !

I was planning on meeting up with friends and running a paced race with them. But I ended up missing them. The queue for the loo was so long I missed the meeting time/place so I was running on my own...

My first mistake was starting too far forward in my start group. This meant when we did finally start I was running with people at a pace faster than I had planned. I had worked out to finish at 1:25 I needed to run at 8:30 min miles. My first mile was sub 8 minutes and I was trying to work out if I thought I could sustain this pace. Daft really when it is faster than my 10k pace ! I kept this up for the first few miles and realised that I couldn't sustain it; I still don't know why I thought I could ! I slowed down to my 8:30 pace but by then the damage had been done and I started feeling really rough. Looking back at the data my HR average over the first mile was 233..... and this does partly explain why I felt so crap. Between mile 6 and 7 I had to stop to be sick. I then needed to walk for a minute to make sure I re-hydrated and ate a few jelly babies to try and feel a bit better. The last few miles I managed to get back towards my goal pace but it really wasn't pretty.

I finished in 1:27, about a minute faster than last year but if I had got my pacing right I could have been faster and that bugs me a bit...

My next race is the Brooks Brighton 10k and that will be my last road race for a while. I think at the end of the day I've just done too any races in too few weeks 😄

I've fallen out of love......

Well, I have fallen out of love with road running. I'm not sure exactly when it happened but it has. The thought of road racing doesn't fill me with excitement but more of a "oh well here we go" type feeling. I have two more road races booked for this year and I will run them but after that I think that will be that for a while. Knowing me sooner or later I will change my mind but at the moment I just can't see the appeal of running on roads when you can run on hills, through mud and generally have great fun rather than just Tarmac....

I think the last two races have shown me what I love doing and that is real off road running. The Wimbledon half was good fun, and where else can you run a half marathon and get a hug from a womble at the end of it !

Last Saturday I was in my element for the Brutal 10. A true off road race with bogs, lakes and sand thrown in 😄 The hills weren't as bad as the ones I run round here but there was a LOT of water, it actually felt quite nice to cool down a bit. I think if the weather hadn't been quite as good it would have been a bit more brutal but I wouldn't have changed it. The organisation was brilliant and it made me realise that this is what I really love doing.

So, next year I have the Steyning Stinger to train for. I would still like to run an ultra but I still need to work on my strength. I also need to work on my upper body strength to complete some of the other races I would like to enter, so watch this space !