20/03/2011 - Alloa Half Marathon

Today was a great success for so many reasons. Going into the race I felt like I was going a bit into the unknown. Usually when I do half marathons my training is geared towards them or at least a stepping stone to a marathon. While I’m still running 5+ days every week, the type of training I have been doing has varied greatly and has been more focused on the hills/ultras and easy runs. Not tempo runs and long bouts of pavement plodding which I usually do when I’m training for halfs. 

One thing I did have going into this race was plenty of experience in running half marathons. In fact I have run more half marathons than any other type of race or distance. This was my 11^th and 2^nd Alloa.

To the start

I decided to go for a slightly different approach to my journey to the start. I drove myself up to Alloa getting there an hour before. I parked in the furthest away car park and walked to the Leisure Bowl for registration. Picked up my number, dumped my stuff in the left luggage and headed for a warm up.  Since the course is a loop, I decided it would be good to re-familiarise myself with the last half mile or so. So on the way out I did some active stretching and the way back I did short burst between lamp posts at race pace. I then went back to the Leisure bowl and got changed, met Giffnock folk then headed to the start.

The start to 3 miles

We exchanged good lucks and I tried to step back a bit from the people I knew. The reason for this is that I like to just totally get in my own zone just before the gun and go through the course in my head.  It also means I am running my own race.

And Action...

The gun went off and I tried to look down as much as I could for the first mile just to let the field spread out and not pay attention to what other people are doing around me. To start with there is a mile loop which goes back near the start. There was great support here and I spotted a couple of Bella Harriers out of the corner of my eye who I recognised from park run, cheering, which was nice.  I heard a shout of ‘Keep it steady’ – wise words for the first mile of a half. In the second mile a Giffnock team mate, James overtook me and we had a joke and wished each other good luck since I hadn’t seen him at the start. I was feeling good and was enjoying easing myself into the race.

3-6 miles

I did something from 3-6 miles which I don’t think I’ve done in a race since the Lochaber Marathon last year. I worked with Neil from my club and we were stride for stride for 3 miles. We were gradually overtaking people and I felt I went up a gear.

6-10 miles

I think the 6 mile mark was about Tilicoutry where the course turns west. This is where I cranked it up another gear and started to pull away from Neil. My next focus was James who had remained in view but must have been a good 400 meters away. This is where I started using some mental ammunition and just stayed positive. The crowds that were there I would feed off and I would smile back at them or give them the thumbs up. I had 2 songs going round in my head. “Steady as she goes” by the Raconteurs and “Smile” by Flickerstick.  All these were good motivators and I was picking people off quicker now. I knew if I could get to 10 miles I could slog it out. I have to admit when I got to the 10 mile marker I did feel physically sorer at this point this year. But mentally I was in such a better place. I was thinking “Call this pain?” “Ha, try doing an ultra again – that’s proper pain”. 

10-13 miles

In the 10^th mile there was the famous hill everyone talks about. I did what I do for most hills which other people see as daunting. Take a look at it from the bottom – “This doesn’t look too bad and it’s never as bad as it looks”. It’s the only time since the first 2 miles where I looked down again. I look down at the kerb and watch the divides go by really quickly which make me feel like I’m going fast. I glanced up every so often to see if I have to overtake anyone. Boy did I overtake! I reached the top and felt like I was spent. But I knew that there was only a small incline to go and the rest was flat/down.  I continued to overtake and got overtaken once by a Wee County Harriers runner. I got to the set of lights where I reached during my warm up. At this point I was beginning to think just how well today had gone.  I really did nail it and didn’t hide my smile. I even managed to fit in a high five with a guy supporting who was dressed up as banana man. I turned the corner and there was the finish.

The Finish 

I crossed the line in bang on 1.39 (chip time). I was delighted and I was less than 3 ½ minutes off my PB. I went and congratulated the rest of my club mates who also had some fine performances before getting changed and having a slow warm down back to my car. What a great race this is and thank you to everyone involved  in making it so –organisers, marshals, police, water people, registration, folk at the start/finish, car park attendants and of course the runners. Chuffed to bits.

Splits:

Type	Distance	Time	Total Time	Pace
1	Interval	1 mi	7:43.61	7:44
2	Interval	1 mi	15:32.23	7:49
3	Interval	1 mi	23:31.14	7:59
4	Interval	1 mi	31:20.95	7:50
5	Interval	1 mi	38:56.75	7:36
6	Interval	1 mi	46:35.42	7:39
7	Interval	1 mi	53:59.83	7:25
8	Interval	1 mi	1:01:28.71	7:29
9	Interval	1 mi	1:08:46.36	7:18
10	Interval	1 mi	1:15:59.79	7:14
11	Interval	1 mi	1:23:13.30	7:14
12	Interval	1 mi	1:30:30.39	7:18
13	Interval	1 mi	1:37:31.49	7:02
14	Interval	0.23 mi	1:39:05.97	6:51

And Finally...

1. Well done to everyone who completed the D33 yesterday. I have read some of the news on Facebook and seen some pictures.  Looked fun!

2. Well done to Geoff Roes on his course record at the Chuckanut 50k.

3. Well done to Mo Farah on winning the New York half marathon in 1.00.22.

Hill/Ultra runners dominate work fun run

I've decided just to focus on one run for this week's post. The reason being it stands head and shoulders above the rest because things happened which still give me a buzz today.

Usually myself and Alex go on our own run round Gogarburn. However this week one of the guys who we know from one of the other departments invited us to join him on a 4 mile run to celebrate one of his colleagues 50th birthday. He is based in the center of Edinburgh, so we got the all clear from our boss to work there for the day so we could join the run too. He was hoping to get 50 people but I think we got between 15 and 20 which is still a good number.

In preparation for the run, I was thinking it would just be a social run. But as we were walking to the start point and got chatting to folk it became clear the word 'race' kept coming up. I was starting to think maybe I shouldn't have done the club session the previous night but whats done is done. My legs were stiff but I was in good spirits and looking forward to the run.

Due to it being just a low key thing, I had no idea what the route was apart from that it was near the Water of Leith for a lot of it and I have never been down that way before. Most of the guys running yesterday go out running quite a lot so knew it. Therefore I tried to make sure I had at least someone in view all the time.

We had a timer who set us off and it wasn't long before we hit the paths along the Water of Leith. When things started to spread out, I was running along in fourth place, trying to keep 3rd place in view. It was kind of an out and back route with a loop round the roads at the turn. At this point I caught up with 3rd place and he told me where to go. Even then I had to turn around to check with him if I was going in the right direction. After a bit we started chatting and put positions to the back of my mind. Turns out it was Ian King who has run the West Highland Way race! wow, what are the chances? We ran all the way to the finish together coming in the same time and joint 3rd. He then introduced me to second place. Who was another WHWR veteran Keith Hughes. Only an ultra runner can be modest when he said he'd ran it 7 times. In fact in 2009 he ran the race then ran the Great Glen Way afterwards. In 2010 you can read my previous post to see what he did. There was one women so she won the women's race. The winners got champagne and we enjoyed free soup and cakes while having a post race analysis.

Who won? How about Pentlands Skyline course record holder Andy Kitchen! Turns out he was sitting 2 desks away from me yesterday and of course I had no idea. I'm glad I wasn't sitting next to him as I would have got no work done finding out all about his running.

Overall a great run, with a sound bunch of people along a very scenic route.

Crazy rest of week

Wednesday I did a nice and easy 4.5 miles.

On Thursday I couldn't go to the club as I had a work night out. So I went up to the Kilpatricks just before and did a run up to the trig point and back. This time I wore my Inov8s and I definitely feel a lot more confidence going down the steep hills with them over the Hokas. I think its because the rubber studs on the Inov8s give a lot more grip. But over longer distances Hokas would provide a lot more comfort and less damage to the joints.

On Friday I did between 2-3 miles round Gogar with Alex. Alex wanted to mix it up a bit so we went in the opposite direction. It's amazing how running the same route in the opposite direction can give you a completely different run.

On Saturday I helped out doing the park run where I did registration this week and it was good fun. In the afternoon I headed up to the Old Kilpatricks - to get my hattrick of the Kilpatricks this week. I again went up to the trig point and back and was nice and easy.

Today, I think I'm going to have a rest day. But I said that last week and ended up going out at night so see what happens and how I feel.

Now running has not made this a crazy week. It's been crazy because my mood has been up and down like a yo-yo. One minute I would be fine and laughing away. Next I would be down and just keeping to myself. I looked it up and it's called 'Rapid Cycling'. The good thing about this though is that you are not in a low for too long so it's easier to stay positive as I believe the next high isn't too far away. It's harder to deal with when you are in a low for days/weeks and you are just wondering when you are going to get out of it.  I think I'm getting better at dealing with it but I am still learning.

Anyway comedy is always a good one to cheer me up:

Kilpatrick Hills

Today was a great day.  In the morning I had my psychiatrist appointment. Normally when I go in to one, I think "do I really need to be here" and everytime I come out of it thinking "Yes, I did need to be there and feel a lot better for it.

Today I went into it thinking "I really need a psychiatrist right now" and came out of it feeling a lot better for it! Don't ask me how they do it - years of practice I imagine but they do work wonders.

In the afternoon I did some stuff then went back to the Kilpatricks hills. What a run! The morning was mental therapy. The afternoon was mental and physical therapy. I decided today to change my usual route and not go all the way up the road. Instead I turned off the road where the Kilpatrick Hill race goes up. Instead of following the route exactly, I headed straight for the trig point. This is the first time I've actually gone up this way - usually I just use this route to go down. I enjoyed it so much, my days of going all the way up the road are over.  When I got to the trig point I stopped and had a look around to get my breath back and have some water. Then I headed along the ridge joining up with the hill race route before it joins on to the road. I then followed the hill race route all the way round back to the trig point and back down to the car.  I didn't see a single person until I headed back down on the road where there was a runner coming the other way. But I did have the sheep for company who Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa'd me in the right direction.

I used my Hokas today which worked well generally, but I think Inov8s might still be better on the hillier stuff, especially steeper rocky terrain. So I might just leave the Hokas for really long runs on trails.

I had the added bonus today that it was nice and boggy so got muddy too.