Second second of the season!

On Sunday 9th August I had a not too pleasant 5:30am wake-up call to drive to Dorset to take part in the Sherborne Oxley Sprint Tri. Now, I am infamously not a lover of early mornings, which doesn't really sit all that well with my new hobby as triathlons tend to be crack of dawn affairs involving a fair bit of travelling to get to them. Hauling my backside out of bed to form the diligent habit of doing an early morning swim before work has been a sufficient shock to my delicate, sleep-loving system these past few months!

This was my second tri of the season and my third bash at the swim-bike-run combo in total, after my initial tentative toe-in-the-tri-water attempt at Taunton tri in May 2014; however, as that was done on a hybrid bike and with the swim done at a gasping and wheezing frontcrawl / breaststroke combo, I am counting 2015 as my first proper tri season!

My last blog, written after the Geopark Event Sprint Tri in May this year, highlighted how thrilled and excited I had felt to podium at my first proper tri event. That said, I was very much aware that it was an event targeted at novices, with a safe, off-road, multi-lap bike route around a velo park track, and so the standard of entry was well below that of an established club organised event. The Oxley is a favourite on the race calendars of many club athletes due to its slick organisation and tough but scenic bike course. At 30km, the bike is also quite long for the sprint distance and was double that of the Geopark tri bike course. With this in mind, and having studied the results from the previous years, I did not expect to repeat my beginner's luck and get a podium place here: I was just in it for more tri experience and to enjoy it!

Haha! Yeah right.... this is me. Although I don't have the kit – got the road bike now, but still not got the cleats, so biking in my running trainers! – me and my £10 Aldi trisuit were still going to give this all we'd got and, who knows, maybe just maybe there might be the outside chance of a category place, if all the other athletes in my F30-39 age group were out for the season having babies!! (There is a reason that this age group attracts proportionately less entrants than the F20-29 and F40-49 sections!!)

Setting up in transition; far too early in the morning!

I have been working hard on my swim and expected to dip under the 8 minute mark this time round, but I felt a bit flat in the water on the day and the swim didn't feel that smooth. Also, ironically, the lane seeding was a bit too much of a success as the other two swimmers in my lane, one man and one woman, were too similar to me! They were going that little bit too fast to overtake them within a length, but too slow so that I was stacking up behind them and having to hold back slightly from the pace I wanted to swim at. All in all, a 7:46 min 400m split was pleasing enough.

7:46 min swim split, slowly progressing!

Exiting the pool and off to T1!

The transition area was over a quarter of a mile away from the pool, so my transition time of over 3 minutes looks dire on paper, but is explainable and comparable to everyone else. Apart from overshooting my bike and having to turn around and head back to it, T1 went smoothly and I was soon off the bike, weaving my way through the twisty, narrow streets of Sherborne.

Time maybe to mention here that I lived in Sherborne for 2 years whilst working as matron (hold the Kenneth Williams impressions please!) at Sherborne International College, in 2011 and 2012. It was here that my running really progressed and training on the lanes around Sherborne led me to my sub 3 hour marathon in April 2012. The bike course was 2 laps of one of my popular marathon training routes, around the back of Sherborne Castle. It was great to have some familiarisation with the route and nice to relive some memories of that time.

There was a 1 mile long hill, tackled twice, on the bike course. My training runs never used to take me up this actual part of the road as there's no pavement and there's too much traffic, but I would often do my hill reps sessions on a wooded track that runs parallel to this road, so I was at least familiar with the length and gradient of the hill. I started conservatively as the hill came less than a mile into the 18.5 mile ride, so I didn't want to wreck my legs and lungs this early on, but, even with holding back, I found that I was picking off all the riders in front of me, many of them men. Over the two times of tackling the hill, I must have overtaken about 15 riders and I didn't get overtaken at all.... the descents, however, were a completely different story! The only people I managed to overhaul on the downhill sections were ladies on hybrid bikes taking it cautiously! It sure highlighted where I need to put the work in!!

Lack of cleats and £10 Aldi suit aside, I am almost starting to pass for someone who deserves the prefix 'tri' in front of their description!

Loving the bike course!

Last hill up into transition and I'm done!

I figured a 1h05m bike split for the hilly 30kms would be a feasible target, so I was shocked and thrilled when I rolled into T2 in just under the hour! I'd averaged 18.5mph! I've never even broken a 17mph average on a training ride on the flat before! Amazing what the combination of adrenaline and a competitive mindset can do for you!

The usual wibbly-wobblness in the legs as I headed out on the run soon worked out and I established a comfortable rhythm and my heart rate began to settle. The run route was a bit twisty-turny and convoluted – as most sprint tri 5k routes tend to be – but it did mean that there were plenty of opportunities for Matt to pop up and shout some encouragement at me... and to take photos! Again, the run route was on roads I was familiar with from my time in Sherborne and so I knew at the halfway point that I felt strong and in control and so it was safe to push on. I managed to pick a fair few people off on the run and didn't get overtaken myself, so it was reassuring that my legs can still react and perform well in this third discipline, even though I have been neglecting it a bit of late in favour of the bike and swim training.

Feeling strong on the run - good to finally have my running legs back!

Running under the finish gantry in the stunning setting of the Sherborne Girls' School playing fields, I stopped the clock at 1:31:36. My pre-race estimations had been for around the 1h40m mark, so I had smashed that! Woop! I had absolutely no idea of where this placed me in relation to everyone else, as, with the wave-start format, you have no way of knowing where the competition is at over the different disciplines. There is a real purity in this style of event as you have to approach the thing as a time-trial and go hard the whole way, which suits my style of racing as I am more than capable of pushing myself and motivating myself without the need of other athletes to work off. Nothing annoys me more than someone who uses me as a pacemaker the whole way only to burn me up at the end in a sprint finish as I have no kick to respond with!!

Running under the finish gantry: always a great moment to savour!

We had arranged to meet friends Wayne and Marie for lunch afterwards and so I wasn't sure whether it was worth hanging around for the presentation ceremony as I was pretty sure I wouldn't have placed as there were some seriously fit looking ladies on some seriously bling bikes out there. I thought I'd better check with the organisers before disappearing though, just in case I had managed to sneak my beak in and they told me that I'd definitely want to stick around for the presentations. It transpired that I had placed second lady and first in my age category, so I came away with two little trophies for my efforts! I was a good 5 minutes behind the first lady, who I recognised from a few running races, but I was a full 2 minutes clear of the third lady, so it was a hard-earned podium place this time, not just a lucky break!

Some triathlon bling to keep the running bling company in the trophy cab!

The tri season is very short in the UK due to our rubbish climate, but I'd like to sneak one more in before the end of the year and I'd like it to be an open water swim. I've proved to myself that I can deliver a decent enough performance in a lovely, warm, smooth-surfaced swimming pool, now I need to step up to the next level and wetsuit it on up: that brings a whole new set of challenges in itself! I have an event in mind... check back in September to hear how it turns out!

What goes up...

My first blog post as Ellie Dominey. Here goes...

I ended the last post by stating that Ellie Dominey would be more successful and less injury-riddled than Ellie Sutcliffe and, touch wood and whistle, so far that is proving to be the case. My first race as a Dominey, the Llanberis fell 5k, whilst on our “mini-moon” in Snowdonia, yielded a pleasing victory. We drove up to Wales on Wednesday 15th July to start a 10 night mini-moon there (our actual honeymoon will be in Iceland in September). We just fancied going somewhere quiet and peaceful where we could chill out, enjoy a moment of calm after the hectic few weeks leading up to the wedding, and, of course, enjoy each other's company as husband and wife. This did not mean that amidst all the relaxing and prosecco swilling there could not be a bit of running and racing thrown into the mix.

I mentioned in my last post that doing the Snowdon Twilight uphill race had seemed to do wonders for my dodgy achillies. It in fact proved to be somewhat of a miracle panacea of a cure as since then I have had no swelling or stiffness in it and no pain at all upon running! I can only assume that something was trapped inside – it certainly felt that way, and resting wasn't doing it a lot of good – and that stretching it by running uphill has released it and made it more mobile again. Not a conventional cure but, as it appears to have worked, I have nothing but praise for what I am calling the “mountain method” of healing.

And so I lined up on a beautiful, sunny Wednesday evening in Llanberis high street a little more confident about the behaviour of my unruly and defiant left leg and raring to race. Matt and I had been given race numbers '1' and '2'. He let me have number one, “ladies first”, what a gent! Wearing number 1 on my vest has never brought an analogous result on the few occasions I have been privileged enough to be given it in the past, but maybe tonight would buck the trend? I figured that as I didn't have a cat in hell's chance of placing in the top 10, let alone the top 3, at the main Snowdon Race on Sunday (it's loaded with international and national fell running talent and the standards are probably higher than any other race I've competed in), I would give it everything tonight at the 5k and then just enjoy the main race on Saturday.

The first mile of the race was entirely up hill and I was surprised at how fit I felt. I anticipated having to walk some of that first mile but, as it was, I posted an 8:28m/m split for it and felt relatively comfortable. One other girl had gone out hard from the gun but I soon realised she had overcooked it and I began to reel her in, passing her just before the 1 mile point and the brow of the hill. From here we were entreated to a flat section of running, even a little bit of downhill, before the route kicked up again to Hebron and to intercept the Llanberis path on the lower slopes of Snowdon. But, what goes up must come down and now came the part I most dreaded: an insanely steep and fast descent, on tarmac. I knew my achillies felt ok until this point, but I wasn't too sure how it would feel after subjecting it to forces 10 times my body weight on this 1 mile long, harsh, steep descent. But I was winning the women's race, so I had no choice but to go for it. For all I knew, there could have been some master descenders stacking up behind me waiting to pounce! Apparently I actually increased my lead on the descent and finished in 22:31; a respectable time on a mountain 5k involving 800ft of climb and a bit of a boost that my current fitness levels are not as dire as I feared! The race numbers proved lucky - I was 1st lady and 1st Dominey, Matt was 2nd Dominey! I was 10th overall, Matt was 20th overall... there's kind of a pattern emerging there!

Having just crested the first hill, running towards Snowdon on the Llanberis 5k fell race.

Husband and wife dream team!

On to Saturday, but first we were off to Llandudno to check into our hotel for the next three nights, which was on the sea front, right at the top, with sea and promenade views: a real treat. We ate out both night and, on the Friday night, we went to a Mediterranean restaurant and I decided I wanted to have mussels. Yes, I know what you're thinking, and my husband said the same: “Are you sure that's wise, the night before Snowdon Race?” “Yeh yeh, it'll be fine. I've had them loads of times before and never had a problem”. Well, you can probably guess what happened next.... It wasn't pleasant. Being violently ill at 15 minute intervals from around 9pm until 2am. I soon became so weak and shaky that I couldn't even kneel over the toilet, I just collapsed in a pathetic heap at the base, shivering and convulsing. Snowdon Race suddenly seemed like being yet another DNS. The one thing I will say for food poisoning though (and believe me, I'm fast becoming somewhat the expert having now had it 3 times, in addition to the Norro virus once), it soon passes. Once your body has rid itself of the evil substances within, you soon stop being ill and start to feel better. The problem is, you are empty and weak. I woke up feeling pretty bloody naff and not in the mood for any breakfast, but I knew if I were to have a chance of making the start line I would have to start replenishing everything I'd lost sharpish. I resigned myself to forgoing my last chance at a proper cooked breakfast and settled for plain toast! The start time for Snowdon Race is 2pm; normally I hate afternoon events as I struggle to get the eating balance right between having enough energy to get me through, but not overdoing it at lunch so that I feel sluggish. This time I was grateful: had it been a morning start there's no way I'd have made it! I necked that toast like a trouper and, after some fresh sea air to ensure it stayed down, we checked out and headed off to Llanberis.

View from our seaview hotel room in Llandudno. 

We checked into our holiday cottage for the next week, which was in Fachwen; a lovely little village on the opposite shore of the lake to Llanberis, with stunning views of Snowdon, the Eilio ridge and the lake. As coincidence would have it, it soon transpired that we were renting the cottage of a couple of local fell running legends – Joan and Dennis Glass. Joan is a former 3 time winner of the Snowdon Race (1977, 78 and 79) and a pioneer for women in the sport in the 70s and 80s. She and her husband were the founders of the Moel Eilio fell race, now a firm favourite on the fell running calender and the second biggest in the area after Snowdon Race.

The amazing view from our holiday cottage in Fachwen, looking over Llyn Padarn, Llanberis and Moel Eilio.

Post-race prosecco rehydration at our holiday cottage.

At 2pm I lined up on the start line which was in the high street this year as the race was celebrating its 40th year and so the start was put back to its original place. This was not ideal for me: it made the race over half a mile longer, and all of that extra half mile was on flat tarmac – yuck! I felt surprisingly strong on the ascent, considering the state I was in sprawled in a pathetic heap on the hotel bathroom floor not 12 hours previously, and made good pace to the summit, churning out a steady rhythm. I didn't push as hard on the steeper walking sections this time, opting to save the legs and the energy for the descent, and I arrived at the summit in 1h06m. This was 7 minutes slower than my Twilight uphill only attempt and 4 minutes slower than my summit time from the 2011 Snowdon Race; however, when you consider that the extra half mile at the start would have taken at least 3 minutes, this time wasn't actually that bad.

About half way up Snowdon on the Snowdon International Fell Race (10.5 miles / 3300ft)

Three quarters of the way up, heading up to Allt Goch.

I was nearing the summit when there was suddenly a huge amount of congestion on the main path. As I got near it became clear that one of the female runners – I later learned an English international athlete who had been in 3rd place – was being tended to by marshalls. She had sliced her head open by falling onto some rocks at the start of the descent and there was blood everywhere. On an already queasy stomach and not being a lover of the sight of blood, this pretty much tipped me over the edge. My legs suddenly went wobbly and I felt rather unsteady, so I took the decision to just pootle down steadily, enjoying the experience and views, and to spare myself a similar fate. I have seen lots of trips and tumbles and injuries on the mountain, but this one really shook me up. By the time I made the turn around she was just being taken away by mountain rescue, but the pool of blood on the path was a stark enough warning alone...

The descent down Allt Goch on the scree - the part I dread most, especially on jelly legs!

A brief moment of cheer came in the form of passing friend and Exmouth Harrier Rich Bishop. I summitted 2 minutes ahead of him, so we high-fived as I turned around and passed him near the summit. “You'll get me on the descent”, I hollered, and, sure enough, in no time at all he came flying past and went on to register a super time of 1h42. I trailed in 14 minutes later, having been overtaken by over 100 runners on the way down! My overall time, a rather naff 1h56m, was 20 minutes slower than my 2011 effort, but I was in one piece, my legs felt good and I lived to fight (and race!) another day, having enjoyed the experience tremendously for not having been operating at my limits for a rare change! A few swims in the lake later and my legs felt good as new!

The best way to recover from a hard mountain race? Open water swimming in a freezing cold lake!

Next up? Well, I was entered into the inaugural Scott Snowdonia Trail half-marathon the following weekend. It was meant to be a swansong to our time in North Wales on honeymoon and I entered it when I was running descent mileage around February time. With my achillies niggle, that mileage had dropped off to less than 13 miles a month, let alone in one go, and so I made the sensible decision to DNS. Annoying, but it would have been more annoying if I'd ran, injured my leg again, and set my recovery back by months. Instead, we did the Penrhyn parkrun, at aNational Trust estate near Bangor, where I again surprised myself with my fitness levels to finish as 1st lady and post the 3rd fastest female time on the course of 19:49.

I now want to capitalise on the swimming and cycling fitness that I've been working on and so my next event is a duathlon, followed the week after by another sprint tri. More about those in the next instalment! For now, it's goodbye from me, Mrs. D!

Ending my time as a Sutcliffe on a high!

It's now one week on from my Snowdon Twilight Uphill race experience and my legs have just about recovered! What a cracker of a race it was, being all the more sweet as I went into it after 2 months of no running due to (yet a-sodding-nother) achillies injury and expecting very little of myself. Yes, I know what readers will think: running up a mountain with a dodgy achillies, really? But my thinking for going ahead with the race was six fold:
1) I needed (and wanted!) to go to North Wales anyway to deliver a bridesmaid dress to Sarah, my bridesmaid who lives in Llanberis.
2) I had paid for the entry and couldn't get a refund on it: didn't want yet another £20 to go down the drain on a DNS.
3) I figured, in my present state of (non-existent) running fitness, I would be walking rather than running most of it anyway, thus not compounding overuse running injuries.
4) I also figured that my left leg was so buggered already, what harm would it do if I broke it some more as I'm not running on it at the moment anyway (yes, I do realise that this skewed way of thinking is probably why I am perpetually injured...)
5) I have enough non-running related stuff going on over the next few months to distract me if I did screw myself up completely and so I had mentally prepared myself to accept the consequences of potentially damaging it some more.
6) This is the first and only race on Snowdon to go uphill only and finish at the top (well, the first one that has been open to anyone and not purely to elites on an invitational basis) – an absolute dream for me as I hate the downhill part – so I sure as hell wasn't about to miss out on a chance to be a part of Snowdon Race history!

Enough justification, so I thought, to give it a bash.

So, what did it entail? Well, quite simple really: start in the lakeside field where the annual Snowdon Race starts and run to the summit of Snowdon up the Llanberis path. 5 miles, 3250ft of ascent, with the added twist of it being run at dusk so that you also raced the sun to the summit, which in turn entreated us to the most marvellous sunset views from the top. (Think glowing orange sky over Anglesey to gawp at on the jog back down).

The event did not disappoint. It was far more low-key than the main up and downhill event in July, with a small but select crowd of 103 runners assembling on the start line. We were counted through the start by marshalls, checked that we were carrying all the mandatory kit – headtorch, waterproof, gloves, hat/Buff – and then we charged off towards the mountain.

A small but perfectly formed field assemble at the base of Snowdon ready to race to the top!

Considering my abysmal build up for this race, I had absolutely no expectations of performing well. I most certainly didn't plan to be competitive at the front end of the ladies' field, knowing full well that some experienced fell and mountain runners would be toeing the line, and I resigned myself to having to walk some of the sections that I previously scampered up with ease. My main concern was that I would make the 1h05m cut off at Clogwyn station (three quarters of the way up) and be allowed to continue to the top. I know, I know I always undersell myself, but this time I really did fear this would be a challenge too far. When I say I haven't been running, I mean it! A DNF at Welsh Castles relay, followed by a week of hobbling at a walk, closed the book on my last attempt to run. Since then, I've just been cross-training, biking and working on my swim: I figure I might as well use the enforced rest from running to work on the weaker of my triathlon disciplines! (Which, by the by, appears to be working if today's 400m time trial PB is anything to go by!).

The one positive of going into a race with the 'complete' rather than 'compete' mindset was that I was totally chilled out leading up to it and really looking forward to running an event out of my area, where I knew nothing of the fellow runners (and they knew nothing of me!) and where I could just slot into the pack and run my own race: no pressure! Well.... no pressure, that is, aside from the usual amount I heap on myself once I toe that startline and the adrenaline kicks in! I suddenly found myself scrutinising (and doubting) the contents and weight of my Camelbak: am I carrying too much water? Did I really need to pack that extra Helly top for the descent or could I have just managed with my windcheater? And I found myself scrutinising my own weight: look at all these ultra-skinny fell types around you; you're going to be hauling about a stone more bulk up that mountainside than these other women. Are my shorts tighter? I'm sure they are. My thighs are definitely bigger: bloody Chris Hoy cycling legs. I feel heavy and sluggish: definitely shouldn't have had that extra spoonful of pasta at lunch. Shouldn't have had pasta at lunch at all: idiot. Hate evening races: all that waiting around and worrying about being hungry and having low blood sugar come race time, I've now gone and consumed too much. Oh well, too late to do anything about it now.... oooh, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: we're off!!!

The usual manic charge and jostling for position along the 0.40 mile opening stretch of flat tarmac. Quick check of the watch: 6m/m, what the hell?! I'm meant to unfit and starting conservatively. Over the cattle grid and, bang, we hit the hill. “Here we go, the fun starts”, I share with a fellow competitor who is alongside me at this point. “Well, we wouldn't be here if we liked the flat tarmac I guess”, he offers back: that's one of the things I love about mountain running, the camaraderie and banter (did I really just use that awful word?!) between runners, all there sharing a common love and a common goal.

Snowdon, via the Llanberis path, is a run of three parts. The first third is horrendously hilly, the opening section on tarmac, then the hill continues up steep, rugged steps until level with Hebron; the middle third levels out and is surprisingly runnable, you scamper past Halfway House and are just beginning to establish some sort of rhythm and then, BOOM! The fun really starts. You approach Allt Moses, followed by Allt Goch. You can largely forget running for this entire mile long section, save for a very brief moment of respite as you head under the railway bridge at Clogwyn.

A quick check of the watch as I passed Halfway House read 29:30. Hmm.... the first half covered in under 30 minutes; surprising. However, never being quite sure whether it is exactly halfway, if it is halfway in terms of height gain or in terms of distance covered, I promptly dismissed any faint glimmer of hope of getting anywhere near my previous summit PB (set in 2011, before injuries kicked in and when I was training descent mileage and hills every week) of 1:01:56. Knowing that the toughest section was to come, I figured I had likely gone out too hard, was imminently to blow up and would pay the price for my over-exuberance later on!

Just before halfway, on the flatter middle section.

A brief boost came in the form of seeing Moira shortly before halfway. She informed me that I was third female at that point and I was flabbergasted! In the mad-dash start I had totally lost sight of where I was in relation to others, and, to be honest, I hadn't paid as much attention as usual as I had ruled out a podium finish from the get-go. Shortly after, a little wisp of a lady effortlessly floated past me, only serving to reaffirm that she was pacing a sensible race and I, clearly, wasn't. (Also reaffirming that my recently acquired chunky, muscular triathlete's body is not the ideal physique of an uphill mountain runner!) On the more level, runnable stretches, I found that cardiovascular fitness was letting me down and I as looking forward to the steep sections for an excuse to walk. Once I hit the steep sections, my back and quads and calves would start screaming and I was praying for it to level out so I could run again and give my back a break! (Mental note to self: much more core work needed.)

The stream of runners snakes its way ever upwards towards the summit! (I'm on the far right, in the yellow!)

As soon as we reached Clogwyn we headed into cloud. At the start, the race director had mooted the idea that there might be a cloud inversion waiting for us at the summit and so I was hopeful. Of all my Snowdon summits whilst living in North Wales, I have never been fortunate enough to be entreated to this spectacular sight: maybe tonight would be the night?! As it turned out, it wasn't to be; just the usual grey mist. Luckily I know the mountain well enough by now to know when the summit is drawing near and when to time my final push. I managed to pick off a guy in the final 100 meters as, suddenly, without warning, Hafod Eryri (the summit building) appeared through the clouds and there was the finish line! Glacing again at my Garmin it read 59:46, with approximately 20 meters left to run. My final spurt ensured that I crossed the line in just under the hour: 59:57. My first ever sub-1 hour summit run and a new PB! What the hell? Garmin, are you drunk? Stop teasing me like this. But no, apparently it was confirmed by the results: 4th female, 3rd senior female and 30th overall in 59:57. I should be satisfied, right? It way exceeded even the most optimistic of my expectations. But I wasn't. The first thought: could I have found that extra 1 and a half minutes to claim the third spot? The second thought: if I can do this on no running training at all, what could I achieve if I was actually able to string together a decent spell of training and wasn't injured all the damn time?

The great thing about finishing at the summit is that you could have a panad and a post-race natter with all the other runners at the top before jogging down at a leisurely pace. Entry fee included a cuppa and a flapjack!

The beauty of racing at dusk: we were entreated to this stunning sunset over Anglesey on the descent. 

Ah, the injury. Did it aggravate it? Bizarrely, no. I didn't feel it at all and, the next day, it felt less stiff upon waking than it has in months. Furthermore, all the swelling in it had apparently subside overnight. The rest of my legs were trashed: walking downhill was virtually impossible, stairs were a total write-off for the next three days and I generally felt as though I'd been violently beaten up down some back alley and left there for dead. But it was DOMS: that much missed ache that gently lets you know that your body has been put through something tough and it wants you to look after it for the next few days. A nice, satisfying ache and NOT an injury.

We were allowed to jog back down the railway as it doesn't run after 6pm and I paused to savour this most amazing, peaceful moment where I sat down on a rock to appreciate the view and all I could hear was my own breathing. Pretty special. This was interspersed with moments of other runners catching me up (I was only shuffling to protect my leg!), stopping to run alongside for a few minutes and have a natter, share experiences etc. All in all, the summit finish concept worked superbly: it gave you a completely different experience of the mountain. 

So, what now? Well, firstly, there is the small matter of my wedding on July 11th. That will be succeeded by a honeymoon which, rather conveniently, will take place in North Wales.... just whilst the main Snowdon Race (uphill and down) happens to be on. It would be a shame not to give this a bash, given that my achillies came off the Twilight race so well, right?! ;-) Then, one week later, I am entered into the Scott Snowdonia Trail half marathon. This entails running up Snowdon and back down again, but with the added delight of running an extra 5 miles on the trails around Llyn Padarn afterwards. This one is not so set in stone: it's one thing getting away with an uphill stomp to the summit, then relaxing in the cafe with a panad before trotting down again at a leisurely pace, but 13 miles would be longer than I have run in one go since January 2014, so probably not a wise plan to even start.

Otherwise, our honeymoon will entail lots of open water swim training in the lake – doubles up as active recovery for the post-race leg aches and pains too – and generally lots of day-tripping, walking and relaxing in the beautiful Snowdonia.

So I completed my last race as a Sutcliffe on a high - metaphorically and physically; you won't find a finish line higher in England and Wales at any rate! The next blog post will be brought to you from Ellie Dominey. I plan for Ellie Dominey to be injury free and achieve greater things than Ellie Sutcliffe so far has. Here's hopin'! Watch this space!

Tri-ing again!

It has in fact been almost a year since I “made my triathlon debut”, as they say. In reality, my first tri, on June 1st 2014, was more of an experiment to see if I liked the concept and would like to revisit it at some point in the future. As tri events are much thinner on the ground than straight running races (and a whole lot more expensive to enter!), it's taken me a while to venture a toe into the tri waters for a second time, but once I saw the advert for the beginner-friendly Geopark Adventure Sprint Triathlon in Paignton, I decided it was time to tri again.

The beauty of this event is that it was held within the parameters of the new English Riviera Geopark, and so the whole thing was off road, even the bike! It was a sprint distance, which usually means 400m run, 20km bike, 5km run. However, due to this swimming pool being 33m long, it was a 12 length, 396m swim, a 10 lap (of the velo park) 15km bike and a 4 lap, 5km trail run around a lake. Having literally only just bought my new Canondale Cad8 road bike last weekend, and having only had the chance to have one decent, 17 mile ride on it, the multi-lap, traffic free 15km bike course represented the ideal opportunity to use the bike in competition for the first time.

This is a shot of the event venue, including the velo park cycle track, from the road heading out of Paignton. You can see just how tight some of those corners are!

SWIM
I have been working hard on my swim. I haven't renewed my membership at Exeter Tri club this year because I wasn't getting too much out of their swim sessions, so opted to go it alone! But I've taken what I've learnt at the tri club sessions regarding drills and technique etc and have tried to implement it in my pool swim sessions. I can easily manage 80 lengths all front crawl now. This took me a long long time to achieve. Front crawl used to tire me out and leave me breathless after 4 lengths and so for over a year I implemented an alternate breaststroke / front crawl pattern. I found my time trials were quicker when I alternated each length than when I tried to do all crawl! Even in the Taunton tri I did last year, I had to break into breaststoke for a few recovery lengths in the swim section. In the end, the best advice I was given was to try to slow my stroke right down, to a pace that I could manage to keep up without burning out, and it worked! One day I committed myself to 'no breaststroke, no matter how slow you have to go', and I managed 60 lengths of non-stop crawl. The 'go slower to go faster' tip really does work with swimming! Anyway, I digress, my swim indeed didn't disappoint: I was clocked at 8:40, but this included the hauling myself out of the pool and running the 100 or so meters around the pool building and down to transition, where the chip mat clocked me, so I think the actual swim would have been a sub 8 minute PB!

Need to work on my head tilt; that'll shave some time off my swim. As will learning to tumble turn. That last one might take a while longer...

Exiting the pool after a decent swim, heading for T1!

T1
T1. Hmmm.... this is an area I need to work on. I don't have a tri suit (yet...), and so had to put a tee-shirt on over my tankini combination, my socks, shoes, tri belt, helmet and sunglasses, grab the bike off the rack, readjust helmet as the straps were twisted... all of this took me 1:26. Looking at the results breakdown, only 3 people out of the top 28 finishers had a slower T1 than me. Appalling. I guess these things get slicker with practice though.... and having the correct kit!


BIKE
And so off on the bike! Round and round and round. 10 circuits, each circuit 1500m.
Advantages of a multi-lap velo circuit:
Lots of crowd support
Never far from maintenance, should you have a problem with your kit
Can keep an eye on some of the opposition and guage whether you're having a good bike or a bad one, depending upon how many others you are overtaking / are overtaking you
Very smooth tarmac surface with not a pothole in sight to worry about
No traffic

Disadvantages:
Easy to lose count of how many laps you've done
Slightly tedious and mentally taxing: no scenery to distract; no linear progress from A to B (A and B were encountered every sodding lap!)
Lots of tight cornering, which, as a novice road bike handler, did not play to my advantage
Over-zealous, testosterone-fuelled types on their carbon-fibre race machines carving you up and giving you next to no space when they pass you, scaring you half to death

The support from Matt, my parents and some other running-circuit friends there who knew me was terrific though and kept me focussed. Having them to count the laps for me gave added reassurance and was appreciated! With a wave-start tri event, you can never know how you are doing in the overall scheme of things. I like this aspect of tris; there is an honest purity to focussing on your own race and it rewards those who give it their all and don't try to hide in a pack and win the thing on a last minute kick! I had my head buried in the pool and so I had next to no idea how my swim compared to others in my wave (save that I just managed to lap the lady I was sharing the lane with, so I knew I at least wasn't last out of the water!). I later found out I was second fastest in my swim wave after a super-speedy man; not too shabby considering I'd probably class the swim as my weakest phase. The multi-lap course on the bike, however, did give me some indication that I wasn't doing too tragically as I kept picking others off, maybe about 20 people in total, but I was only overtaken on three occasions by three of the aforementioned testosterone types (think uber-muscular, vein-popping tanned limbs atop carbon clincher wheel sets, splayed out aerodynamically across their tri bars!). Hmm.... tanned limbs. I digress again.

Getting to grips with my one week old Canondale roadie. Coming down onto the drops would position me a bit more aerodynamically, but that will come. It was only my second ride on her!

T2
Into T2 and a much more respectable time of 0:26. The the one advantage of not cleating up for the bike is that you only have one pair of shoes to worry about! 

Only 26 seconds of faffing in T2, compared to 98 seconds in T1!

Exiting T2.

RUN
Once again, I had done absolutely no brick training in preparation for this event and so the jelly-legged feeling upon dismount was bound to happen. What I have found, though, is that although running off the bike feels horrendous to start with, the initial sluggishness does work itself out the further you run, and I found that again here. I'd also made the mistake of taking on too much water on the bike, which was sloshing around inside me when I started the run, causing me to get stitch. The first two laps of the scenic trail run course were thus uncomfortable. I ran most of them holding my side trying to alleviate said stitch. It disappeared about halfway in and then, Wooooosh!, my afterburners had kicked in and I instantly felt stronger, my legs felt good and I was able to lift the pace. I didn't time my laps but I know I was getting quicker and quicker as the run went on. Really I could have done with it being a bit longer as my run time of 19:10 suggests that this wasn't a full 5k – no way was I averaging 6:08m/m pace!

Into what should be my "comfort zone", i.e., the run section, though, with achillies niggles and super stitch for most of it, it turned into more of a 'discomfort zone' on this occasion!

FINISH
Across the finish line and that familiar but of late absent feeling of achievement kicked in, shortly followed by that euphoric post-race high: You know the one? The one that sees you going home after your first marathon and straight onto google to research ultra marathons, or, after your second triathlon, has you typing 'Ironman events' into the search engine.... or is this just me?!)

Second triathlon, done and done!

I wasn't sure how well I'd done in relation to all the other competitors. This is the added excitement of staggered start wave tris: since you can never know or influence how everyone else performs, you just have to concentrate on yourself and push, push push the whole way; backing off could mean the different between a place on the podium and finishing 4th (the horrors!). Did I want a place on the podium? Yes! Always! Did I expect it, given that this was only my second tri and first proper one with a fully functioning road bike? I shouldn't have done, I expect too much of myself, but secretly I did. Not that I expect it in the sense of believing I am capable of it; that is the paradox with me, I demand the world from my body but never actually believe it will deliver the goods! It catches me off guard every time with just how much it will put up with... it also catches me off guard every time by unexpectedly and periodically breaking down on me rather spectacularly, no doubt in some metaphysical 'F**k you' type gesture, 'I ain't takin' any more of this abuse, I'm knackered'. I still wage daily battles with my body and probably always will!

It was a long, anxious wait for the results to be published as their wifi was down on the day so they could not do overall results and prize giving, but the wait was worth it as I had a lovely surprise of getting in from work on Monday evening to find that I'd finished as 2nd lady, 1st in my age category and 8th overall out of men and women! My overall time was 57:51 (8:40 swim, 28:05 bike, 19:10 run). It may not have been as strong a field as the first tri I did at Taunton last year, but I will happily take that 2nd spot and try and build on it.

There is much work to be done. The female who beat me did all the damage on the swim (6:30 to my 8:40), and her T1 was also better (by 36 seconds). My bike and run were stronger, but not enough to claw back a 2 ½ minute deficit before I even mounted the bike. The swim though is definitely something I can work on as I am improving it all the time and really enjoying this sport with zero impact and limited injury risks at the moment! The bike will come as I gain confidence in bike handling and as I get more used to my new wheels, so I'm not too bothered about that. And the run, well, that very much depends on whether or not my achillies decides to start behaving itself. At the moment, all indications are that it's launched itself into a full scale rebellion, but I have more shockwave therapy lined up soon at the R D & E, which I'm hoping will appease it.

Hats off to Geopark Adventures for staging a highly successful inaugural triathlon event. Inaugural events are bound to bring teething troubles, especially when they have three different sporting disciplines combined into one event, and so the fact that the only glitch that came to my attention was the faulty wifi connection, I'd say their first tri event went as smoothly as you could ever hope for. There was a perfect mix of seasoned triers with all the kit and caboodle and absolute beginners, some of which were competing on bikes with wicker shopping baskets on the front! All were made welcome. 

For now, I shall bask in the glory of my first podium finish at a tri.... whilst maybe making a few trips to various tri and bike stores to invest in some better kit (a tri suit and some SPDs would be a starting point), as I have a feeling that I'll be tri-ing again in the not too distant future....

96, 97, 98, 99, ONE HUNDRED!!!

100 parkruns: I made it! I did my first parkrun on June 30th 2012 and managed my 100th on 2nd May 2015. It took me a while to get going with them, coming at them initially from the standpoint of 'why get up a stupid o'clock on a Saturday morning and travel 13 miles each way just to run 5k?' Back in 2012, I never even went out of the door for less than 6 miles, and even that was a rare recovery run! How times have changed since then!

As I reflect on my progress with running since June 2012, I mainly feel that what stands out most is a lack of progress! My Run Britain handicap chart offers a nice graphical representation of a steep and swift climb up a sheer mountainside in 2010, but which has since hit a a plateau and virtually levelled out since early 2012, with only some very minor contouring in between. Blah. I'd like to think this is natural, but the truth is, my string of injuries are the root cause of that plateau as I know that, given the chance to train properly, to the levels I used to, I have so much more in me. Frustrating.

So, whilst parkrun has not been great for my endurance - it's left me feeling like any race over 5k is a bit of a slog, when it used to feel like an 18 minute asthma-attack-inducing sprint! - they have been great in terms of enjoyment, pressure-free adrenaline-charged fun, and for meeting people.... chiefly, helping me to get to know my imminent husband-to-be, Matt.

I didn't know Matt at all when I did my first parkrun on 30th June 2012. I had just, one week previously, moved to Devon from Sherborne, Dorset (go back to beginning blog posts for this!) and didn't really know anybody in the Exmouth / Exeter area. Like me, Matt didn't go to parkrun every week at this time; however, as fate would have it, he was there on June 30th and my Mum managed to capture us both in the same photo at the start of the run! It would take us another 7 months to meet each other officially and actually talk, but I think it's kinda nice that he appears in my first ever parkrun photo memory! (Below).

A lucky capture! Matt likes this photo because he's ahead of me in it! My first ever parkrun, at Killerton, June 30th 2012.

It was around February time, when parkrun moved to Ashclyst Forest on a temporary course due to flooding on the Killerton estate, that a small but keen band of us began to go on a weekly basis and stay behind for coffee after. This is how I met my coach, Gordon, my close friends Adam and Carly and John and Alison, and, of course, my future husband! Parkrun likes to emphasise the friendliness of the scheme and always tries to push the post-run coffee and cake, and you will only hear good things about the parkrun coffee posse from me!

At this time, there were only 3 parkruns in the (deep) South West: Killerton, Barnstaple and Plym Valley. The latter two were too far to trek to at that ungodly hour of the morning (9am starts - I guess you get used to them after a while!), and so we found ourselves converging on Killerton on an almost weekly basis. There was a nice number who regularly attended in 2012 / 2013 and you could soon get to know all the faces. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, the parkrun phenomena has seen a massive boom in past couple of years and Killerton now regularly sees fields around the 300+ mark (a far cry from the 40 hardy souls who lined up every week in Ashclyst Forest!). Whilst it's great for the sport, it does take the intimate feel out of the event a little, and makes getting our favourite seat in the tea rooms after that bit more challenging: humph!

Luckily, several other parkruns have started up to take some of the strain, chiefly for us, Exeter Riverside parkrun, which is directed by our good friends John and Alison Caswell; Parke parkrun at Bovey Tracey; Montacute parkrun near Yeovil; Longrun Meadow parkrun in Taunton; Tamar Lakes parkrun on the Devon / Cornwall border and Lanhydrock parkrun, near my home town of St. Austell, in Cornwall. Weymouth and Blandford are also within driving distance. So we now have choice! Horrah! We have flat, fast courses (Exeter, Taunton, Barstaple), we have hilly scenic courses (Parke, Killerton, Lanhydrock, Montacute), and we have flat trail courses (Tamar Lakes, Weymouth, Blandford).

I have now completed 101 parkruns (snuck an extra one in whilst on holiday in Eastbourne last week!), on 16 different courses, and each course and run has its own very unique atmosphere and feel to it. Aside from the obvious fact that they are run over different terrain, the people that organise the event, the people that attend the event and the weather can all make a massive difference to the feeling you get on the day. I chose to run my 100th run at Killerton as that is where I started out and where I have run most of my parkruns; however, due to the scale of the event now, it has become difficult for them to keep tabs on all the runners comings and goings and so, unfortunately, my 100th run sadly didn't get a mention in the pre-run briefing or in the post-run write-up. Most of the runs I have done try to give acknowledgement to first time parkrunners, visiting parkrunners and parkrunners completing landmark runs (10, 50, 100 etc), but this is easier to manage when you have fields of 100 runners or less. Of course, one only has to look at Bushy, the founder run in 2004, to see how the popularity of parkrun has boomed: its numbers have swelled from a handful to over 1000 runners each week!

Enough parkrun waffle; now for some photographic memories of my parkrun journey from 1 to 101! (NB; It's also a visual documentation of how much my hair has grown in 2 1/2 years and, post wedding, it'll be getting the chop!)

My 2nd run at parkrun, and at Killerton, in autumn 2012: a course PB of 19:36.

First spot of parkrun tourism: running the Harrogate parkrun whilst visiting my Gran, in November 2012, in a time of 19:22.

In February 2013, Killerton celebrated its 101st run whilst the run was relocated to Ashclyst Forest. Compliance with the '101' theme was only adhered to by two of us!

Ashclyst forsest; a tricky 3 lap course with half  a mile downhill, then half a mile back up again each lap! Julian (orange top) and Tom have since become friends and Tom has even bailed me out at the Bicton Blister race by giving me a gel when I was struggling. Love the camaraderie that running, especially parkrunning, generates.

The coffee posse! After a parkrun in Spring 2013, when it was still easy to bag our favourite corner table by the log burner as not that many stayed for coffee! Left to right: Gordon, my coach; Carly, Adam, Dave Tomlin and me. (Matt's taking the photo!)

Second bit of parkrun tourism: after Mile End parkrun in London, on London Marathon weekend. I had started my spell of injuries that spring so couldn't run London, but went with Carly and Adam to support Adam. Also met up with Vicky, my flat mate from uni. Vicky used to think me bonkers when I did so much exercise, now she's a runner too: shows how the sport has taken off! 18:55 on a scenic course that included canal towpath! 

Patriotic red, white and blue theme to celebrate Killerton's 2nd birthday on 27th April 2013. Also a course PB for me that day of 19:20.

One week later, 4th May 2013, and I ran my Killerton PB that still stands today (see, lack of progress!) of 18:50.

June 2013. Parkrun isn't just about the running; it relies on volunteers for it to go ahead. They ask you to volunteer 3 times a year; I usually aim for about 5 times as I run so much. Gordon, my coach and regular Killerton timekeeper, has taught me how to timekeep: so you can also learn new skills at parkrun!

Parkrun tourism again! This time at the inaugural Montactute parkrun, near Yeovil. We went with our friends Adam and Carly in September 2013, it was hot but a stunning setting around the parkland in front of Montacute House.

Being a new parkrun, I got the ladies course record here, running 19:36. A year later, in June 2014, I lowered it to 19:23. It still stands as the ladies course record. I now gold 3 course records: Montacute: 19:23, Parke: 20:29 and Tamar Lakes: 19:33.

Winning the Killerton Christmas fancy dress competition in 2013, dressed as a fairy, complete with flashing halo!

My highest overall placing at Killerton, in January 2014: 1st lady and 3rd overall, just outsprinted for 2nd by John, next to me here approaching the finish. It was muddy that day and so my time of 19:19 wasn't too shabby!)

The inaugural Parke parkrun at Bovey Tracey, late March 2014. Probably my favourite parkrun course to date. It's also the hilliest, but you can't get bored! I hold the course record here (20:29), but I think that could be broken and someone could go under 20 minutes, if the conditions are dry and they are good on hills!

My favourite photo from Killerton: the tree lined avenue, with multi-coloured running tops, me leading the men up the path!! Spring 2014.

Bettering my course record and PB at Montacute, to 19:23, in June 2014.

Christmas fancy dress parkrun at Exeter Riverside: I seem to be the only participant, but there were others dressed up out of shot... but none with flashing tree lights like mine!! December 2014.

1st run of a New Years day double in Bristol. This was Chipping Sodbury parkrun, where I ran 19:10 on a flat but exposed, windy course.

And New Years' Day 2015 parkrun number 2, at Pomphrey Hill. 3 laps, 3 huge hills. Time 22 mins something!

My course PB at Exeter Riverside is 19:03, also ran a 19:07 and 19:15 here. Not got under the 19 min barrier yet as glandular fever saw fit to wreck health and hamper my running performances for the entire winter!

Plaits swishing! Like this photo from Killerton in March 2015.

Killerton parkrun's 200th run was celebrated by running the course in reverse (think starting low and finishing high, more hills!). I would prefer the course to stay this way, but I fear I might be in a minority!

And my 101st run was celebrated at a new event for me, Eastbourne parkrun in Sussex. A lovely flat course around some lakes and a nature reserve. A sedate 19:58. 

Sadly no photos of my most treasured parkrun memory of all: Tamar Lakes in October 2014. I set a new female course record there, which still stands, and had my highest placing overall at a parkrun: 2nd, just missing out on first by 1 second in a sprint finish. However, it is special because immediately after, Matt and I headed to Port Isacc and he proposed to me on the cliff tops there, in my home county of Cornwall. Aaaaah :-)

Looking back at the above photos reminds me of how much fun I've had and of all the the great friendships that I have developed as a result of parkrun; not least, my biggest friendship of all, with Matt. None of this would have been possible without parkrun and so I guess, despite it's downsides (like it being massively addictive to the point that I have frequently run on injuries as I have not wanted to miss out!), I think that parkrun and I will be buddies for a while to come yet! Here's to the next 100!!