Feeling a little frustrated...

Well, I couldn't wait to break up for the summer holidays and get stuck into my running but so far the start of my intense season of competing and training has had its fair share of ups and downs and more than its fair share of frustrations. I broke up on 23rd June, drove back to Devon and on 24th June I was on the start line of the Torbay Half Marathon.

The Torbay Half is a high profile event that always attracts a decent number and a good quality of entrants. You even get the smattering of elite athletes who make the trip down to it from the more prestigious clubs, such as Bristol and West, and you even get a handful of Kenyans toeing the start line. This is of course due to the generous prize money on offer (£450 to the winning male and female). There are mixed feelings as to whether it is fair or not that athletes from outside the area who wouldn't normally bother coming to Devon to race suddenly rock up the minute there is cash laid out on the table. On the one hand, to say that it isn't fair would be discriminatory, but on the other, from the point of view of a devoted local athlete who supports many local races throughout the season and runs hard to try and sneak a victory whether the prize at the end is £450 or just a £5 bottle of wine, it is frustrating that the one chance we local runners get of winning some decent prize money is denied to us because top runners from elsewhere in the UK swoop in to claim all the spoils. But that is a separate debate really...

Anyway, I started Torbay with the Dartmoor Ultra still very much in my legs - it having taken place just 2 weeks before. Most of those 2 weeks were spent recovering and certainly not doing any quality training that would get some speed back into the legs, so I started this race very much in the frame of mind that I would go out hard and just try to hang on!

After the initial 1 mile lap of Paignton Green we all slotted into place and I found myself in the 5th female spot, working hard to gain a distance and open up a gap on a young female runner from Erme Valley Harriers. This girl and I are pretty evenly matched over the 10 mile / half marathon distance. On the shorter stuff she would have the advantage and on the longer marathon distance, the advantage falls to me. I just managed to hold her off at the Plymouth Hoe 10 mile in February and our half marathon PBs are within 10 seconds of each other, so I knew she'd give me a good race... however, she had the fresher legs!

I managed to increase my distance on her over the first of the 2 laps on the course but the gap between myself and the lady in 4th place also increased as she became harder to spot in the distance. By the end of the 1st lap at the 7 mile mark my legs were beginning to feel heavy and keeping up the tough 6:20m/m pace I had set for myself was getting harder. Shortly after leaving Paignton for the second time, on the climb up towards Torquay, 2 women passed me together. They were both from Erme Valley, one of them being a strong female vet runner. I tried to stay with them but just couldn't and so suddenly I found myself sat in 7th place. The remainder of the race became a mental battle to stick to the task and hang on in there as all my muscles tightened and I'd had enough! I passed Tarq at the 10 mile mark, just as I approached the final turn around at Torquay, and he was having as hard a time as I was after having gone off too hard and blown up.

In the end I easily hung on to my 7th spot (I was 3 minutes ahead of the next female) and I finished in 40th place overall out of nearly 1300 runners. My time: 1:25:48. Over a minute down on my PB which, granted, was set on a totally flat course, but I was a bit frustrated as part of me wants to keep getting quicker with every outing and if I couldn't place in the race then it's a nice boost to be able to set a PB instead and thereby still have something to take away from the experience... (besides the memento tee-shirt and medal!).. That didn't happen! I did place top in my age category (female 25-29) and this race is a rarity in that they offer prizes to each 5 year age cat, including seniors, so that was at least something positive to take away from the day. I know my legs were tired, I haven't been doing the speed work as I have been concentrating on marathons and the ultra for the past 3 months, but I still felt frustrated and like I'd had a bad race. But I guess that just means that I am competitive and push myself to achieve the very best and anything short of that is simply not good enough. Attitude: 10/10, performance: 5/10. Could do better!

Running with Stu at the end of the first lap. I ran most of the Crewkerne 10k with him and he just got me at the end; here at Torbay though he was far too fast for me to hang onto as he stormed home in 1:23 for a new PB! It's nice that the same friendly faces keep cropping up on the circuit!

Approaching the finish of the Torbay half by Paington pier.

4 days after Torbay came the chance to redeem myself at the Sidmouth 'Beat the Bus' race. Organised by our neighbours, the Sidmouth Running Club, this is a 5.75m (9k) off-road funsie that requires you to 'beat the 157 bus' from Otterton to Sidmouth and back again. The bus takes the main road route and has to make stops, of course, whereas runners go across country and take fields, farm tracks and the coast path to try and cut a short route to beat it. In reality beating it is quite easy as it takes a rather sedate 56 mins and the first runners back take under 40 mins. This is one of my favourite local races and I had the fortune to win it last year in a time of 44:12. I was hoping that as I am comparably fitter this year that I would be able to shave some time off that and win it again. I achieved only partial success in this as, yes, I did run faster (43:43 this year and on a much slower course as this year was a total mud bath and some parts of the route were entirely flooded with thigh deep muddy puddles) but I did not win. A veteran lady from the host club, Sidmouth, stole my crown. On fitness alone, I came out top and I would pull away from her on the flat stretch and the uphill climbs. The first half is mainly uphill and by the time I hit the turn around point in Sidmouth I had a 100m (roughly 30s) advantage. Sadly though this was not sufficient to compensate for this lady's tremendous descending skills. Downhill running has always been my, well, downfall! I have conceded many places on steep downhill sections: the Snowdon International Fell Race being a prime example! It's not just a question of nerve as on steady, neat grassy descents I do dare go faster, it's just that my legs will not tick over any quicker. I guess that more speed work involving shorter, faster repetitions is the key to improving here, but I do so hate that sort of thing!

In the end I finished just 11 seconds adrift of 1st place and a comfortable 3 minutes ahead of 3rd. I do hope that is not to set the tone of my summer season: improving in terms of time yet being beaten into lower places that last year! Without a doubt, as more and more people take up the sport, the standard of local club running is getting higher, so it is getting harder to place and you have to fight more for those placings. This is no bad thing. At the end of the day, if I want to have any chance of being really successful, these are all people I will need to beat to do so.

So yes, these two experiences coupled with the fact that I have been fighting against multiple niggles in my as-ever obstructive left leg all week have left me feeling rather frustrated. I guess an outsider would say I am doing too much and need to do less competing and continually hammering my legs on races to allow more recovery time between competitions and thus allowing for more structured training. I can see this myself! However, when I do not get much chance to compete during term time due to having to work weekends, I do like to make the most of every (or almost every!) opportunity to race in the summer. I'll just have to endure a few more ice-baths and sports massages to help me cope with my hectic summer schedule!

Approaching the finish of the Sidmouth Beat the Bus race in 43:43 (last year I ran 44:12)

This is what you have to beat - the number 157 bus from Otterton to Sidmouth and back!

The photo does not show just how muddy I was! I had to wash in the river Otter before I was allowed back in the car!

Fair yee well, Dorset!

I am just having a brief break from my packing to write a post about my 18 months in Dorset. I am leaving the county and my home and job at the International College, Sherborne, in 2 days time to head to a new post and life at Stover School in Devon.

When I left North Wales in December 2010, I had only been running for 6 months. I was spoilt, taking up running whilst living in Llanberis. Often I would go into work in Bangor, do a day at the desk, then get changed, send my work things back in the car with Moira, and run the 14 miles home via the beautiful country lanes that offered the most majestic views of Snowdon. Some days I would drive home and get in, get changed, don the running shoes and go for an early evening summit run up the Llanberis path. I was terribly sad to leave North Wales and I regretted that I did not start running sooner as I felt as though there was this whole fell running scene opening up to me that I would now have to miss out on. I worried that Dorset, with its mellow countryside and quaint villages, just wouldn't be an adequate swap: but it has been!

Don't get me wrong, you cannot compare the dramatic landscape of Snowdonia to the green hills of Dorset, but the countryside around Sherborne is beautiful in a very different way, and, if dramatic scenery is what you want, you only need to head to the Dorset coastline and you have it in abundance!

My running has come on in leaps and bounds since I've been here, so something about the place has worked for me. However, it must be said, I will not miss being attacked down country lanes by officious farm collies; nor will I mourn the loss of fields full of beligerent bovines who seem to find it amusing to block the stile and the escape route from their field by standing menacingly en masse in front of it. But the country lanes that are lined on one side with thatched cottages and on the other with a babbling brook trickling on past with ducks splashing about in it (Oborne is a classic example - go there, you cannot get anywhere more quintessentially English!), I will miss running along those. I will miss the off-road routes through the Sherborne Castle grounds; I'll miss heading out with Andy, a fellow running colleague, in search of new paths and invariably getting lost down overgrown tracks, being stung to buggery by nettles and arriving back a muddy, bedgraggled mess!

Just as I stopped to look down upon a snowy Llanberis and to reflect upon the whole process of leaving a place and moving on when I summited the Dinorwig slate quarry trails on my last ever run in North Wales, on Tuesday I paused on the hill above Sherborne and gazed down over the school playing fields and thought: for all I am excited to leave and it is time for me to move on, I will miss this place...

Here are some of my running memories from my time in Dorset...

North Dorset Villages Marathon, May 2011

North Dorset Villages Marathon, May 2012

My favourite run around the Sherborne Castle estate grounds. It changes so much with the changing seasons: this run with Tarq was on a particularly cold February day and the muddy ground was frozen!

A 16 mile run from Durdle Door to Weymouth and back again, one unseasonably hot day at the end of Setpember 2011

Cliff tops above Durdle Door

Dorset coastal run

 

 The beautiful Durdle Door and Man O' War Bay

With the ICSS running club students at the Blackmore Vale races, Feb. 2012

My favourite off-road run around Sherborne and the Castle estates, June 2012

Running along the Terraces, above Sherborne

Running through the castle grounds, with the castle in the background

Running through the deer park and sending the deer scattering!

 

Race for Life!

On Sunday 17th June (also my 29th birthday, as it happens!) I took part in my first ever Race For Life. I know you are really meant to start by doing a 5k race, such as this, and work up from there, but I started out by signing up for a marathon and worked backwards in distance, having only run my first 5k last summer, after a year of competitive running. I've always prefered the long stuff!

Anyway, ordinarily I would not perhaps bother with Race For Life. Please do not misunderstand me: I think the concept is superb and it gives everyone the chance to achieve something whilst earning money for one of the most deserving charities out there (Cancer Research UK). However, for myself, at £14.99 it is too expensive to just enter as a race, especially considering that it is not meant to be competitive and does not award finishing times, but I also feel a bit cheeky using it as a fundrasier when 5k is not much of a challenge to me. For my first marathon I raised nearly £300 for the eating disorders charity, B-eat, and I felt like I'd really had to work hard to earn that sponsorship money, just like the non-runners have to work hard in Race For Life. What I am trying to say is, it's all relative!

Yet here I was, 11am on a sunny (we were very lucky!) Sunday morning in Bournemouth, dressed in luminous pink and lining up along 5000 or so other bright pink ladies, ready to 'race for life'. I was there because we had taken 20 of our International College students and so staff were required to accompany them. I naturally volunteered as it was my birthday and if I really had to work on my birthday, what better way than to do a running-related activity?! 4 staff accompanied the 20 students and we decided to space ourselves out in the field, with myself going off hard so I could get back first and be at the meeting point ready to greet and congratulate the girls as they completed the race.

I went off hard, yes, but my legs were not fresh, still having the Dartmoor Discovery and Dawlish Dash races in them, and they are certainly not up to 5k speed at the moment! However, after a young teenage girl sprinted off ridiculously fast at the start, then blew up and faded, I found myself in the lead. And what an experience! No, this wasn't a competitive race, but I had a lead bike clearing the path ahead for me and the amount of cheers and support I received from spectators was phenomenal. At 1.55m, the half way point, we spun around and headed back down the Bournemouth prom. Now I was running into a crowd of 5000 pink ladies - all of them were clapping and cheering me as I weaved my way through them. The return half was hard as there was a stiff headwind and having to snake through the massive pink-cloud of on-coming runners meant I couldn't go as fast as I did on the way out.

Approaching the finish gantry I saw the clock was reading 20 minutes - I was pleasantly surprised as this was not the fastest course and I had not run it flat out. Everyone lining the finish was cheering and waving banners and flags and I felt more overwhelmed than I had done at any other race, even the ones where I have had big victories (Taunton, Guernsey). I took the tape in 20:14 and was immediately pulled to oneside to be interviewed for the BBC local news.

After, I felt rather emotional. The fact that all of these women were here for a reason, that they were running for someone loved, perhaps lost, and for such a worthy cause, I felt humble to have been the first runner home amongst 5000 people who were all running with their own poignant and personal motivations.

Race for Life is a fantastic event that has successfully captured the imaginations of thousands of women across the country and pushed them out of their comfort zones to achieve something they would otherwise never think twice about doing. It might also leave some of them with that buzz that only comes from crossing the finish line of a race, knowing you've given your all and couldn't have tried harder, and, who knows, it might encourage some of them to take up running...

Start of the Race for Life, Bournemouth.

Some of these youngsters were competitive, but I soon reeled them in!!

At the end, with my medal!

I did win the D.D. afterall!!

Ok, so, to come instantly clean, I'm not talking of the Dartmoor Discovery D.D. here (unfortunately, I still came 2nd at that one!), but rather the Dawlish Dash (about 7/8th shorter and 99/100th flatter!!) Organised by the Dawlish Coasters, this great little run is just a shade under 4 miles and starts and finishes at the Boat House Inn, on the sea front at Dawlish Warren.

Despite being only 5 days after the D.D. (Dartmoor version), I felt rested, having not done a scrap of exercise in between, and just had a few muscle niggles in the legs that I hoped I would work off! The first half of the race is run on the beach and sees you having to negotiate about 15 coastal defence groynes. No sooner had we descended onto the beach and I managed to get a momento of said beach inside my trainer. It lodged itself under the ball of my left foot, made itself quite at home and felt so uncomfortable it appeared more boulder-like than pebble in stature. Stopping to de-stone myself would have wasted precious time, so I ran on and learned to live with my pebble friend for the remainder of the race.

I almost came a cropper on one of the groynes early on too. I approached with gusto, flinging my foot up onto it to hurdle it steeple-chase style, but I am no lithe, agile Kenyan and my foot slipped, almost cutting me in half upwar... yeh, well, you get the idea, it wouldn't have been pleasant! After this I took a more cautious approach and used my hand to vault the blighters, which lost me some time but saved me from causing myself a mischief!

After 3/4 of a mile down the beach you turn around and run all the way back again, then up the boat launch slope and onto the sea wall. You follow the sea wall almost as far as Dawlish before going up and over the railway bridge and onto the coastal path at the other side. This is the only hill on the course and only entails 60ft of height gain. From here it's a 1 mile steady canter back down towards the finish at the Boathouse.

In the last 1/2 mile my thighs were really beginning to tighten and had the race been much longer, I think they would have cramped up totally. Luckily I hung on to claim 1st female and 17th overall in 25:14, over 1 minute clear of the super talented veteran athlete Karen Cook of SWRR in 2nd. Pete Monaghan of Torbay AC won the race in a spritely 21:15 from my ex b/f, Daryl (Tarq) Milford of Teignbridge, in 2nd in 21:26 - pleased for him as he hoped to place top 3.

I think because my legs were not fully back to normal and I was nursing them a little, I didn't go at full pace, so this meant that my sports asthma was not so much of an issue. Normally a race of this length would be a 25 minute asthma attack for me, which is why I much prefer the long stuff. Once in a while though, it's good to give the lungs and legs a blast, and with the ocean waves crashing in as I ran along the sea wall, it wasn't only my legs that were blasted!!

I received some abolutely fantastic prizes, which included a bottle of wine, some stationery, a tee-shirt (that actually fitted, for a change!), a slate coaster and a voucher for a meal of my choice in the Boathouse Inn, where I planned to eat afterwards anyway with a gang from my 2nd claim club, the Trotters... I may have ordered the sirloin steak... it may have been the most expensive item on the menu... Well, they did say any meal of my choice! Hmmmm, STEAK!

119 runners completed the race. Ordinairily it would have been more but the atrocious weather conditions will have put some people off. The organisers say it was the worst weather they have known in all the years the race has been running! Despite the weather, a super little race, very low-key, and at only £6 to enter I would strongly recommend people give it a go next year.

Heading back along the sea wall with about 100m to run to the finish of the Dawlish Dash

D.D. victory remains an ultra ambition for another year...

On Saturday 9th June I was on the startline in Princetown for the D.D. (the Dartmoor Discovery 32.3 mile ultra race). Organised by the Teinbridge Trotters, my 2nd claim club, this is the only 1 lap road ultra left in the country and is a brutally tough, insanely hilly challenge. You can see why I would sign up then! I did it for the first time last year when I hadn't even been running for 12 full months (like I say, I have ultra ambitions, sometimes a little too ultra...). I did the Anglesey marathon in September then saw this advertised a few weeks later and signed up on a whimsical bout of post-marathon euphoria. It's very easy to sign up to things when they are still months off in the future!!

Pre-race banter with Dave Tomlin (last year's winner) in the holding area

I loved last year's race. It being my first ever ultra and only my 3rd time going to marathon distance (I shoe-horned the North Dorset Villages Marathon in as a last minute long training run in May!), I had no expectations of myself. I set off at a pace that felt manageable and stuck to my task. To my abject surprise I found myself up near the front with the leading lady, and the 2nd placed female from 2010, Diane Roy. At mile 14 on the climb out of Ashburton I even went into the lead, building up a 2 minute gap at one stage, but Diane's experience and mileage in the legs proved too much for me as she overtook me on the climb out of Postbridge at mile 28 and ran on to take the win in 4h29. I finished 2nd female and 13th overall in my first ultra in 4h33. The feeling of achievement and self-worth you get upon completing something like this is unrivalled and so naturally, I signed up again for this year but with greater expectations...

And we're off! 9.30am and the loud rocket explosion gets us underway

Training had gone well in the final weeks before the race. I again used the North Dorset marathon as my longest training run, it being 5 weeks before the D.D. This year I improved my time on that marathon from 3h11 last year to 3h02 this and took a comfortable victory. I did 2 more long runs of 18 and 22 miles in the next 2 weeks and then started to taper off towards race day. As I really cut my mileage back in the last 10 days I succumbed to that usual blight of the tapering runner - the common cold! Strange how your body keeps going when you are making it work like stink for you but then crashes the minute you allow it to relax! I got the cold on Sunday and thought 6 days would be enough to shift it. It started to go but then came back with avengence on the Thursday. I threw every medication I had at it - Lemsip, Nurofen, degongestants, eccinaccea, Otrivine - and by race morning it was down to just a snivvel. However, once I started running it didn't take long for my stomach to protest that it was not happy about this extravagant concoction of meds that had been thrown at it and I suffered from rather bad cramps for the first half of the race - something I never normally suffer with. 8 miles in and my stomach hurt (especially on the downhill sections where I was using the stomach muscles to hold me up) and I felt a little weak. I just knew it wasn't going to be my day...

Only about 4 miles in but already not feeling terrific. Gonna be a long day...

The first part of the race is the easiest: predominently downhill to Ashburton. 

In the build up to the race I had been billed by athletics guru and reporter, Kevin Fahey, as favourite to take the women's title, but I knew all along that I was not the favourite: that acolade went to Isobel Wykes of Truro AC. Having won the Duchy marathon in abysmal conditions in a time of 3h03 and then, only 1 week later, taken a convincing win in one of the toughest races on the Southwest running claendar - The Grizzly - I knew this was one talented lady who ate hills for breakfast and had the stamina of an Arabian horse! Of course, deep down, part of me did want to believe I could win, but it was only a small part and I knew that I would likely have a very tough battle on my hands and another 2nd place was pretty much on the cards!

Climbing the monster 0.75 mile long 20% gradient hill out of Dartmeet

I was just ahead of Izzy until we hit the first major hill at Dartmeet (20% gradient and 0.75 miles long!). She pulled up alongside me at the bottom, we both looked up and exchanged a few words 'Well, here we go then, fun, fun, fun!'; we put our heads down and set off up the hill. It soon became apparent that in order to stay with her I would have to push myself outside of what would be my "comfortable" pace. Reluctant to do that so early on when I wasn't feeling one hundred percent, I decided that the sensible thing to do would be to let her go and hopefully claw her back once the hill levelled out. This didn't actually happen and Izzy continued to increase her lead and I think the last glimpse of her I had was at mile 12, just before Ashburton, and then I didn't see her again until the finish!

At New Bridge, about mile 9.

Going through Ashburton at mile 13: the lowest point on the course, both geographically and psychologically!

To realise so early on that I was running for 2nd place, again, was a little disheartening to say the least. My other target was to run under 4h20, and I was on target for that up until about 16 miles, the halfway point, when that gruelling climb up to Buckland-in-the-Moor slowed my pace. My legs felt much more tired than I remembered them feeling at that point last year. I went through some rather dark moments out there on the high moor between miles 18 and 26. This is a very long and lonely stretch, but it was relieved momentarily by seeing Adam Miller - a good friend from my running club - who had come to cheer us 3 Exmouth Harriers on at Widecombe, and then by seeing my parents shortly after. (They were also meant to see me in Widecombe but their lunch date in Tavistock overran and they were late getting there and missed me. Kuh!) Roadside support in the form of my friend James Denne on his old faithful mountain bike was also massively appreciated. I would be having a very low moment, struggling up a hill, muscles screaming at me to stop and slow to a walk, and I would see James' cheery face up ahead waiting for me, 'Come on Sutcliffe!', and I'd dig a little bit deeper and keep on running. As it turned out though, James' bike was woefully ill-equipped for the Dartmoor hills, being about 10 sizes too small for him and with a flat tyre, and he finished off the race with worse cramp than most of the runners, bless him! Thanks James - your heroic efforts did not go unappreciated!

At mile 20 I came upon the shock sight of Dave Tomlin walking. Dave, also of Teignbridge Trotters, was last year's winner and was hoping to run just as well again this year. He just went off too hard, blew up, and had a bad one. Happens to everyone, even the best. I felt sorry for him and imparted a few consoling words as I chugged on past, but he was taking it all very well and informed me that he was going to enjoy the last few miles at a leisurely pace and so I left him behind making daisey chains as he went! Next thing I knew I was at marathon point and the big race clock was reading 3:29:30. I punched the air and shouted 'Sub 3h30, woo-hoo!' at the time-keepers (I went through marathon point in 3h38 last year), then head down and on we go again.

By now I had sort of been running with a guy called Richard Swindlehurst from Wimborne AC for several miles. I say sort of as he'd get ahead of me, then hit a hill and walk for a bit, I'd catch him and go past, we'd crest the hill, he'd pick up the pace, and catch me up again. Each time we passed each other we'd try and think of something encouraging to say. 'Only 6 miles to go until we can sit down!', 'Cup of tea and a pint, cup of tea and a pint, come on, we can do this'. Thanks Richard! You kept me going for those last painful miles!

This is Rich Swindlehurst who kept me company from about mile 16 to the finish!

Widecombe-in-the-Moor at mile 21: having more fun than I remember having at the time, I was struggling here!

Postbridge, mile 28, and I think the pain I'm going through is written all over my face in this photo!

I did a lot more walking over the latter stages than I did last year. I guess going off harder meant that I struggled harder in the last few miles. There was also a strong headwind from mile 27 until the finish and as I was going much slower (about 9m/m by this stage), I wasn't generating enough heat to keep me warm. My exposed thigh muscles in particular got very cold and started to seize up. The last 4 miles, which are predominantly uphill, were a huge battle. Dartmoor Prison loomed into view, shrouded in low cloud and mist (it's in Princetown, just a few hundred meters from the finish), and Richard, up alongside me again, exclaimed, 'I have never been so pleased to see a prison in all my life!' I glanced across at the forboding edifice and wondered who was undergoing the most unpleasant experience - those prisoners holed up in there, in the warmth, playing on their snooker tables and watching their TVs, or me, in total agony, freezing cold and struggling to take another step! If they were watching us out of the windows, they must have thought that it was us crazy loons who should be locked up!!

Up the highstreet of Princetown and the left turn at the mini-roundabout to the finish. I have never been so pleased to see a finishline in my goddam life! I stumbled to a halt and rolled into the path of my mother and Roger Hayes - Teignbridge Trotters' chairman and Race Director - who congratulated me. I said, '2nd again, but she was phenomenal.' Roger joked, 'Yes, it was me that invited her and gave her the idea to do it. Sorry about that!' Found out that Izzy ran 4h07 - just 5 minutes shy of the female course record. I was a sorry 20 minutes slower in 4:27:02. (Incidentally, my time would have been good enough for the win last year - but you can only compete against who turns up on the day, and Izzy is an astounding runner and if I was going to come 2nd again, I'd rather be beaten good and proper by an athlete of this quality!) On the positive side I did knock 6 minutes off my time from last year; on the negaive side I had hoped for much better, about 8 minutes better, and I had come 2nd again!!

Bettered my time from last year by 6 minutes, but still came 2nd: gutted!

These were my split times:

10k: 43:13   20k: 1:28:08   30k: 2:24:32   Mara: 3:29:33   50k: 4:13:27   Finish: 4:27:02

The numbers don't lie: somewhere between 30k and marathon point was where it all started to unravel!

Dave Stone, my Exmouth Harriers' teamie, had suffered a very similar fate. Despite recording his fastest time on the course in his 8 outings of completing the race (3h43), he also had to settle for 2nd again like last year as a superb performance by John Ward from Bideford AC of 3h33 brought a new course record and upstaged Dave's run by 10 minutes! Dave Wright, the 3rd and final Harrier runner, had a great debut run, coming in as first MV50 in 4h46.

With my Exmouth Harriers teamie, Dave Stone, trying not to get hypothermia after the race in a St. Johns' blanky!

After the race I was straight up onto the massage table where another surprise awaited me, in the form of the booming voice of Giles Pepperell. Giles is an old riding club friend from Bangor University who whose family live in Lustleigh. To hear him shout out, 'Oy! Sutcliffe. Is this the medical tent?' and give me a good slap on the back was a lovely surprise as I didn't realise he was in the area, so a little catch up with him whilst I was splayed out having my legs pummelled on the massage couch was an added bonus to my day!

After that I started to get very very cold, despite having drank copious amounts of tea and being wrapped up in a St. Johns blanket! When Tarq informed me that my lips were starting to turn blue I knew it was time to head into my warm bunkhouse, get a hot shower and put some snug clothes on. What totally different weather conditions to last year where it was 28 degrees and full sun!

Well, a victory would have been nice as I have other plans for next year and the timing of this race doesn't really fit in with them, but, being "ultra ambitious", I am not going to give up on this one until I get my name carved on that winner's trophey! So, maybe I will leave it a year and come back with even more fuel for my fire in 2014!

                             

Receiving my prize for finishing 2nd lady

With the winning Teignbridge Trotters ladies 'A' team - Emma and Tracy

If it's good enough for H F-H, it's good enough for me!

I write a blog on behalf of the Exmouth Harriers (http://exmouth-harriers.blogspot.co.uk/ if you're interested), and now I think it's time to be totally self-focussed and write one about ME! If it's good enough for the likes of Heather Foundling-Hawker, Helen Taranowski and Sarah Ridgway, then it's good enough for me! I love reading their blogs, finding out how their training is going, what their racing plans are, how they found certain races. I'm not sure that people will find my ramblings of any interest, but I love writing and it's something to do when I'm stuck in on duty, so I'm doing it anyway. Read it, don't read, I don't mind!

So, a bit about myself and how I got into this running lark. I took up running in 2010. I was living in North Wales at the time and a friend of mine, Sonja Frank, had signed up to run the Anglesey Marathon. I got talking to her about it, found out it was on the 26th of September, it was 26.2 miles long and I was 26 years old at the time. It seemed like some kind of omen - I should sign up too! So I did, and it all went from there.

My parents were a bit worried when I first told them I was going to run a marathon. They know what an all-or-nothing personality I've got and how driven I can be once I put my mind to something, and they also knew how I used to abuse exercise for weight-loss in my teenage years, so I think they were concerned that I would take things a little too far!! However, once I got into the training and started building up the miles whilst managing to maintain the same healthy weight, their worries subsided a little.

I started training for the marathon as soon as I signed up, in late May 2010. It was 4 months away which was enough time to sensibly build up the milage and do a couple of long runs. Having never really raced before (apart from the rare occasions at school when I was selected - against my will, it must be said - to represent the school at athletic meets at Newquay and Par) I decided I could use a little race experience so it wasn't all so new to me and scary on marathon day. I found a couple of 10k races that were taking place before the marathon and signed up for them - they were the Sidmouth 10k (apparently not the ideal race to choose for your first ever race experience - I must have been the only person to get a PB on that course!) and the Jurassic Coast 10k (similar!).

I remember arriving at race HQ to register for the Sid-Fest 10k and thinking how sporty and professional all the other runners looked in their running club vests. I thought I would probably end up being left behind straight away and totally embarassing myself. I had no bench mark to measure myself against and just feared that as I was new and these people had clearly done this before, I would be bringing up the rear! But not so! We set off up the hill and not only was I not last, I was fairly near the front. I was tailing a girl who was in thrid the whole way and trying to hang onto her, but she just got away from me at the end. Also at the end I was overtaken on the final downhill by Emma Dupain of the Exmouth Harriers... cue the initial encounter that led me to joining this fantastic club! So I came 5th female in my first ever race... but I wasn't happy. I wanted to place top 3 and be in the prizes next time. In my next race, one week later, at the Jurassic Coast 10k, I improved my position to 4th lady. Then a month later, back in Wales, I not only made my target of the top 3 but I amazed myself by winning the Caernarfon 10k. And so that was that, I was hooked on a sport that I found I wasn't too bad at either.

On 26th September, I ran my first marathon. I didn't use a watch, had no idea about pacing. I had done 2 long runs of 3 hours each and coped ok, and so I just ran at a pace that felt comfortable to me. Luckily, I didn't blow up - despite an awful fueling strategy which only saw me take on 2 gels for energy and nothing else, other than water, the whole race - and I finished 2nd female and 15th overall in 3:19:16. That left me wondering, if I could do that time without a proper training regime and by just running my own natural pace, what could I maybe too with a bit more effort... And so began my love-affair with competitive running, that is still just as passionate almost 2 years on.

More musings to come soon, but for now, some photos from the Sid-Fest 10k.


                              

At the foot of Peak Hill, after my first ever race in August 2010

  

And we're off! The start of the Sid-Fest 10k multi-terrain race: a 1km lung-busting climb, not the easiest race to pick as a first attempt!