Tag: racing

Racing again – Port Sunlight 10k

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Does anyone read this for up to the minute news about what I’m up to? I really hope not.

Not last Sunday, but the Sunday before was the first ever Port Sunlight 10k and I ran it. Not only did I run it, I was proper looking I think it was a combination of the fact that it was a brand new race and that they sent safety pins out with the race pack, but I had a feeling that it was going to be a lovely one. In fact, how can a place called Port Sunlight be anything but lovely?

The soft mist of spray on the breeze was very welcome

Port Sunlight was built by Mr Lever (of Lever Brothers fame) for the workers at the Sunlight soap factory. What makes it wonderful is that he commissioned thirty different architects to design the houses, meaning that there is an incredible mix of styles of housing – in fact the village has an amazing 900 listed buildings within its 130 acres. This was always going to be a bit different  to running along Blackpool front.

It’s a bit posh round here

When my safety pin filled race pack arrived, the first thing that I did was look at the course. The second thing that I did was start panicking that I was going to get lost. It’s a two lap race that goes round the village in a sort of complicated figure of eight – I tried to trace the route by following the arrows on the map, but kept ending up at the start point without going around the top half of the eight. Sensible logic told me that (a) there would be marshalls and (b) it was highly unlikely that I would find myself at the front of the pack yelling “tally ho chaps, follow me….”.

Even though my training continues to be unfocused and erratic, my enthusiasm for the race had me convinced that I could pull a decent performance out of the bag. It turned out that whilst a positive mental attitude is important on raceday, it cannot replace sweaty hard work out on the pavements. Whether it was a bit of sunshine, thinking too hard about what I was doing or a lack of actual training, I did find it hard going and although I was happy with the first half, I slumped between 5 and 6km and found it hard to get going again.

Strictly speaking, this is mostly the queue for the loo rather than, say, the start line

The race itself is very friendly – lots of local runners from the village and lots of people standing outside their houses cheering on people they know. The looped route made it quite spectator friendly and the sight of Ginge popping up when I least expected it was a welcome bonus. My other spectator highlights were a girl playing the spoons and the lady who yelled “come on, no slacking” at me as I shuffled past her front door. The marshalls were plentiful and supportive – on the second loop “this is the last time that you’ll pass these marshalls!” kept me going for a stretch. There was a good mix of club runners (to the chap in full compression gear – I salute you and can only imagine the ‘flub’ sound that would accompany me taking off that amount of tight lycra), mid-level runners, beginners and a bloke who was running proper barefoot. All in all it was a good morning out, even if my time wasn’t the best I’ve ever managed.

My lesson learned is that if I want to get a bit faster, I’ll have to have a bit of focus and as such I am embarking on a plan to shift my arse into gear. Luckily it’s nearly Juneathon…

Drummers – a guaranteed pickmeup

I may or may not be a weasel.

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Viceathon. Yes. Um. Well… If I’m completely honest, I’m not sure whether or not I’m still aboard the Viceathon bus and if so, for how much debt. Last week, I introduced the concept of ‘time shifting’ – this is an ethically grey area in which I weaselled out of time shifted two runs from the time that I was supposed to do them to the next morning. So technically I didn’t weasel. The run was still done (in fact maybe I should apply for bonus points for getting up early in the morning AND ending up doing a hat trick of run, yoga, weights on Wednesday) just not at the allotted time.

Whether or not time shifting is acceptable to the Viceathon gods, I’m not sure, but I suspect that the second half of my excuses will be dismissed without thought. Basically, I haven’t weaselled from Saturday to Tuesday because although I haven’t done any exercise in that time, I didn’t plan on doing any. Alright, so I may have had a misguided idea about going to the gym on the Saturday after my friend’s wedding but that’s only one weasel, the other three days were exercise-free because that’s what I chose to do. So there.

Since coming back from our yarntastic weekend (did I mention the crab sandwich knitted from elastic bands on the pic-knit blog? No? I am an idiot) I have yogaed (Wednesday), done treadmill intervals and weights (Thursday), ran a very heavy legged 6 miles today and declared tomorrow a rest day. I’m hoping that the heavy leggedness is because of Wednesday and Thursday’s exertions because on Sunday I will be doing the Bolton 10k. I signed up for this in what can best be described as a fit of foot stamping. Basically, I went for a run in the morning and was spotted by a friend. Later in the day, Ginge was on the phone to that friend and I suspected that my running efforts were being mocked. Unfortunately, I was looking at the Bolton 10k at the time so I entered it in a “ha, that’ll show you” frame of mind. Even more unfortunately, it turned out that at worst my friend was guilty of affectionate teasing and was actually being quite positive about the sight of me lumbering along the main road, but by this time I was fully paid up.

I did consider ignoring the race (it’s also the first one that I will run without Ginge there as my cheerleader) but have been shamed into it by all the London Marathon talk on twitter. If so many people are going to run 26.2 miles, I can hardly sulk about doing 10k (even if it is a bit hilly) at the same time.

Good luck to everyone running London on Sunday, but in particular these lovely and inspiring people; Mark, Jay, Carla, Julie and Jo who have all worked bloody hard and deserve to have a fantastic race. Incidentally, I am equally in awe of everyone who I know who has run/is running marathons whether they are in Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester, Lochaber or wherever. A marathon is a marathon is a marathon and 26.2 miles is 13.1 miles more than I ever want to run – I salute you all.