The ups and downs of this running lark...

In the last posting I was feeling slightly deflated after some recent lack-lustre performances. Have things progressed since then? Well, yes.... and also no.

I followed up my 2nd place at the Sidmouth Beat the Bus race with another 2nd at the Run Exe Summer 5k series on July 3rd and then yet another 2nd at the Wellington 10 mile race on July 8th. The 2nd place at the Run Exe didn't seem so bad as I came 2nd to a superb athlete from Westbury Harriers who is a 17 minute 5k-er at best, and so by trying to hang onto her coat-tails, I bust my backside around the course to a new PB of 18:40, shaving 5 seconds off my previous best set last August. This was a pleasant surprise as I haven't done a scrap of speed work since May and the D.D. is still slightly in my legs. I had hoped to better my PB by the end of the summer season and so to dip under it in my first outing over 5k of the season was a massive bonus! The only annoying thing is that at the moment it does not officially count as a PB as the race does not have the appropriate UKA licence so it's not showing up on the Run Britain Rankings. Infuriating!

The Run Exe Summer 5k: 5ks are most hated distance, nothing but an 18 minute asthma attack!

The 2nd place at Wellington was harder to swallow though as, like with the Beat the Bus, I won this race last year and so had to settle for one place less this year, but, what really bites is that my time was also slower by 18 seconds! Yes, it was a hot day (the only hot day we've had so far this summer and so my body was perhaps not accustomed to the heat), and yes I had raced hard in the week, both on the Tuesday at the 5k and the Friday, running a leg for the Harriers ladies' team at the Erme Valley relays, but I still feel I am in better shape than I was this time last year. I felt I pushed on at every opportunity during the race; I didn't back off on the hills and I didn't just cruise the downhill stretches, I really did push, so I am struggling to understand where I lost those 18 seconds!

Come the evening of July 11th when I lined up on the start line again, my legs were feeling a little heavy with already having 3 hard races in them from the previous 7 days but I was desperate for a victory to prove to myself that I could still do it! On the start of the inaugural Colyton Rebel Run 10k I caught sight of the lady from Sidmouth Running Club who had just beaten me into 2nd at the Sidmouth Beat the Bus race the previous week. Now I was doubly keen to win, but I also knew that if I wanted to, there could be no taking it easy, even if my legs weren't feeling fresh. This time I at least had an insight to the strengths and weakness of my main competition and I knew that on the flat and the uphills, I had the superior fitness, but on the downhill, she had the superior descending skills. The profile of this course was a steep uphill climb for 1 mile - steep to the point that it reduced you to a fell running type hands on knees walk - then it levelled off for a couple of k, then came a long gradual descent into some woods, followed by another climb back out, then a flat stretch before the final 1 mile steep descent to the finish. I knew that I would have to work hard on the uphill and flat sections to give myself enough of a cushion to hold this lady off on the long final descent. Forewarned is forearmed and luckily I managed to stick to my task and I stayed in front for the whole race, eventually finishing about a minute ahead of her. Victory in the ladies race and 12th place overall in 40:34 (the course was a killer but the distance only 9k, not a full 10, hence the decent enough time!). A much needed confidence boosting win, at last!

Racing to victory at the Colyton Rebel Run

Two days later and I was off racing again. Like the Colyton, the Otter Rail and River 10k is also an off-road mudsy. A week before the race and the river Otter, alongside which you run for about 3k of the race, had totally burst its banks and so it was uncertain that the race would be able to go ahead. Fortunately the flood waters subsided a little but the course was still a boggy mud bath with thigh deep, 10m long muddy puddles all serving to make the going tougher and to slow your pace.

A very high quality field turned up on the male side, headed up by second claim Exmouth Harrier, Tom Merson. On the female front I notice the diminutive figure of Jane Allison from Plymouth Harriers; although tiny, Jane is a mighty fine runner who clocked a much faster time than me at the Erme Valley relays, although I did get the better of her by almost 3 minutes at the Torbay Half marathon, so I was hoping that maybe over the in-between distance of 10k, my stamina would help me out! Jane went off very fast indeed and shot out of the playing field and off along the river bank. I decided her pace was far too suicidal to try and go with so I stuck to my own task and, after about 1k, I came up alongside her and passed her. Get me, learning to be sensible and run my own race!! After that I also overhauled a few overzealous male runners who had gone off too hard and then crashed and then I found myself, to my delight, running on my own, with my own space around me. The course was terrific but very muddy, as advertised. Having half the contents of a muddy bog stuck to the underside of your shoes really did zap your energy levels and so in these conditions I was thrilled to cross the finish line in a time of 42:18 on an accurately measured 10k course. In the end I was almost 3 minutes ahead of the next female, Jane of Plymouth Harriers. Tom Merson had stormed around in 34:51 to set a new course record - on a flooded, muddy course - what a talent that guy is!

Start of the Otter Rail and River Run 10k

Approaching the finish of the Otter Rail and River Run: 1st lady and 10th overall.

So, 2 victories in a week, back to winning ways, all going well, right?... Well, as I said at the start, yes and no. Whilst I am doing well at all these races, the races are also taking loads out of my legs. If I was only doing these short fasties, that wouldn't be a problem, but I am also in the throes of a marathon training schedule in my build up for the Guernsey Marathon on August 26th. Fitting in a long run when I've also been racing midweek and each weekend has proved tricky. I had a 20 miler scheduled in for today but I have had to shaft it in favour of a rest day as I am starting to feel a few niggles in the achillies and calves. My plan is to skip the long one this week and do two long ones next week when I'm up in Wales and not racing. The thing is, I'm really enjoying all these short, off-road local races, they are the highlights of my summer, and I am getting really tired of all the long runs and the marathon training. Hell, I have been training for one marathon or another since January with no break! I trained solidly for my sub 3hr at Taunton, then 4 weeks later ran a 3:02 at North Dorset, then 4 weeks after that I ran the Dartmoor ultra, and then straight back into training for Guernsey after that. In hindsight, the timing of Guernsey is not the greatest and I think that next year I will not do a summer marathon, but give myself a break to enjoy the short stuff before picking up the training again for something in the autumn. At the moment I am down to run Guernsey and then Snowdonia in October. I don't think my body (or my mind!) is up to it. That will mean 10 months of solid marathon training with long runs on an almost weekly basis without a break: that's crazy even by my already crazy standards! Much as it pains me to say it but I fear my attempt at Snowdonia Marathon victory may have to be shelved until 2013...