Northern Ireland parkrun Tour

Mon 17/6 - Sun 23/6

Mon 17/6 6.21 Miles @ 8:40/mile
Tues 18/6 6.21 Miles @ 8:14/mile
Weds 19/6 6.21 Miles @ 8:36/mile
Thurs 20/6 Antrim parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Ecos parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Portrush parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Derry parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 Enniskillen parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Thurs 20/6 MUSA Cookstown parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Belfast Victoria parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Queens parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Falls parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Craigavon parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Fri 21/6 Belfast Solstice 5K NAD (5.19k) (18th) 18:03 (5K 17:23) (5:27, 5:45, 5:43)
Sat 22/6 Waterworks parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sat 22/6 Ormeau parkrun (1st) 18:24 (5:55/mile)
Sat 22/6 Wallace parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Oldham parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Worsley Woods parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Preston parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Pennington Flash parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Wythenshawe parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Heaton Park parkrun (Freedom) No Time
Sun 23/6 Huddersfield parkrun (Freedom) 18:28 (5:56/mile)


 Total Mileage : 87.7 Miles



As mentioned last week the chances were that this week was going to turn out to be fascinating...... and it certainly turned out that way!!


Hannah and myself had decided to go and tour all the Northern Ireland parkruns in one visit, including two at Antrim and Derry which haven't yet started. It was going to be as much a tour about how safe or otherwise Northern Ireland is for English travellers these days as much as the actual running.

You simply can't travel around in Northern Ireland without getting a sense of how the political land lies in each of the areas you venture into. This is the list of venues that we were looking to visit:

1. Belfast Victoria, Victoria Park nr Belfast City Airport
2. Citypark, Citypark Park, Craigavon
3. Ecos, Ecos Park, Ballymena
4. Enniskillen, Fermanagh Lakeland Forum, Enniskillen
5. Falls, Falls Park, Falls Road, Belfast
6. MUSA Cookstown, Mid Ulster Sports Arena, Cookstown
7. Portrush, East Strand Beach, Portrush (the only beach parkrun in the world)
8. Queens, Upper Malone, Sth Belfast
9. Wallace, Wallace Park, Lisburn
10. Waterworks, Waterworks Park, North Belfast
11. Ormeau Park, South Belfast
12. Derry
13. Antrim



Thursday 20th June 2013

Our first destination, due to it's proximity to Belfast International Airport, was Antrim.


Antrim (Future parkrun)

As this parkrun course hasn't been published yet we were met at the venue by Matt Shields. Matt is Ireland parkrun Country Manager as well as being Chairman of North Belfast Harriers, current holder of the Senior Coach of The Year award presented by Belfast City Council Sports Awards and a former 2:19 marathon runner.

Admiring the scenery on the edge of Lough Neagh before we got going:

The course is one of the best with numerous areas of historical interest. The majority of the run takes place in Antrim Castle Park, which is a very attractive modern park laid around some very old ruins. In terms of more recent history the course runs right up to the boundary fence of the Massereene army barracks where the pizza delivery shootings took place in 2009. There are items of interest wherever you look.

Back at the Antrim post parkrun coffee venue, Matt advising on how not to get lost at some of the other venues on the list:

Ecos (Ballymena)

Ecos is a course running around a nature reserve area and looks pretty confusing on the course map. However, it is permanently signed in such a way that even the likes of me can't get lost.



A very enjoyable venue which seemed to be being well utilised by school groups while we were there.

Portrush

Portrush claims to be the only parkrun in the world which is a beach run. I have no idea whether that is actually the case but it is certainly unique amongst the 100 or so venues that I have seen.

It was great to be met at Portrush by Andy Deal, the Portrush parkrun ED. He had gone to the trouble of putting the parkrun flag out for us so that we would know where the start and finish points were.

If you've never tried it I can confirm that 5K on sand is tough work and with the nature of this course they never have two weeks run under the same conditions. On some weeks the difference between the 2.5K out and the 2.5K back can be as much as two and a half minutes for the faster runners.

And with that in mind, it becomes even more mind boggling that Andy (pictured below) was going to attempt to run the parkrun course continually for 24 hours starting with the official parkrun on Saturday and then running around the clock into Sunday morning.

A final tally of 82 miles in the 24 hours on that surface is beyond impressive. We thought that we'd had a busy week but Andy had completed the same mileage in just 24 hours!

Derry (Starts 29th June)

Derry parkrun starts next week so we were running it in advance of the official launch.

Again, it is difficult to visit Derry (Londonderry) without noting the connections to recent history. The photograph below is the Peace Bridge over the River Foyle, which will be run over twice in the parkrun. The border between NI and the Republic actually runs right down the middle of the river in parts of Derry which is why it is politically sensitive.

In fact this picture is actually taken from the Bogside in Derry where Bloody Sunday occurred, the incident which is widely acknowledged as the start of the main troubles in NI.

And this is the 2.5K point on the other side of the river which will be the turn around point for the parkrun course:

 Enniskillen

After Derry it was on to Enniskillen, which just a couple of days earlier had of course played host to the most powerful world leaders at the G8 shindig.

This was the river in the early evening sun looking rather picturesque:

 And again, recent history at Enniskillen is centred around the 1987 Remembrance Day parade:

MUSA Cookstown

The MUSA in the the title of this parkrun stands for Mid Ulster Sports Arena and is a very new set up which is still being constructed.

The parkrun course is on a newly laid 'trim path', a term that seems to be used for a path that runs around the edge of somewhere in NI. Thankfully it also a floodlit path since we arrived here at about 10pm.

I like the course but it doesn't seem to get much of an attendance for the actual parkrun. Hopefully in time it will gain in popularity.

Friday 21st June

Belfast Victoria

Belfast Victoria is right in the heart of Belfast, sandwiched between the Harland and Woolf Shipyard and Belfast City Airport.

If you weren't pre-warned you really would think you had gone the wrong way trying to find this park as you drive through a staunchly Loyalist housing estate and then eventually find this:

But once inside the park you discover another of those hidden gems of the parkrun world. Victoria Park is immaculately maintained and, although parkruns aren't about times per se, this has got to be the fastest parkrun course anywhere.

There is also a nice unique feature by the start of the parkun, a mosaic of individual parkrunners' photos made up into a sign saying 'VICTORIA PARKRUN'. The Belfast Council guy below was so helpful and it didn't take long before he revealed that he was also a parkrunner and was due to be volunteering at Waterworks the next morning.

(Stormont)

Next it was on to Stormont, not a parkrun venue of course (yet ;) ) but well worth a visit.

It came as a surprise that you could just wander into the grounds and walk around at will.

Again, immaculately maintained which is very impressive considering how large the area is.

Queens

Queen's University, Belfast was next on the visiting list. As with most of the courses in NI this is another parkrun course that is permanently signed so that you can Freedom run it at any time without any fear of going astray.

Falls


Falls Park is not surprisingly at the other end of the political spectrum to where we started the day over at Victoria Park. Situated on the Falls Road this is the centre of republicanism and lies directly across the road from Milltown Cemetery, the location of most IRA funerals over the last few decades.

The park itself is very relaxing and has a backdrop of the Divis, a 1500ft mountain, that makes you feel as though you are nowhere near a city.

On it's parkrun page this course is described as 'this is a hilly one' or, as we like to term it in Yorkshire ever so slightly undulating :)



Craigavon
We popped down to Craigavon to run our final Freedom parkrun before getting ready for the evening's racing.

This is a one lap course around two lakes and flows really nicely. Not entirely flat but a tarmac path all the way round which plays host to several other races throughout the year.



Belfast Solstice 5K, Belfast City Hall

And so it was now time for some racing in Belfast City centre. This was the first running of the Solstice 5K, starting and finishing at Belfast City Hall.

We were somewhat surprised  to find news reports on the NIrunning site the following day that had been naming Hannah as 'pre-race favourite'. On the basis that we thought that we were anonymously running around Northern Ireland it came as a puzzle to see our names had been linked with both this event and the inaugural Ormeau parkrun the following morning. Fame, eh? :p


This was the scene outside City Hall as the preparations took place:

It was going to be interesting to see how the legs would hold up over 5K after having completed 18.6 miles of parkruns the previous day and 12.4 miles earlier on the same day.

The course was a fast flat 2 lap course although just before the start the rain started so some of the corners were a bit slippy.

Nonetheless the legs seemed to be in great nick and went through 5K in 17:23, which if it had been an official time would have been the fastest 5K for 20+ years. However, it appears that for the convenience of having the start and finish in the same place outside City Hall the course was around 200m long and has therefore been given a 'NAD' classification on Po10. The time for the 5.2K was 18:03, which was very pleasing indeed.



Likewise, Hannah also found that the series of parkruns had done nothing but tee the legs up for a big performance and she went through 5K in 17:53, her fastest ever, and 18:33 for the full race.


3rd place resulted in a prize presentation with Miss Ireland in front of City Hall and snapped by Belfast's finest papparazzi:

Of course it was now time for a post race pint of Guinness so off we went to try to find an appropriate hostelry.

What we hadn't realised was that around 8pm, the same time that we were racing around the city centre, there had been an incident involving a police land rover and Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Fein councillor. Because it was also the start of the marching season in Belfast our route out of the city through the Shankhill Road area was lined with countless armoured police landrovers.

It all seemed rather tense so the post race Guinness was postponed a little while.........



Saturday 22nd June


Waterworks
As a warm up before the inaugural Ormeau parkrun we popped into Waterworks on the way. This is a really nice course with smooth paths all the way and again permanently marked out.

As we completed the first lap the park was pretty much empty except a couple of dog walkers but by the end of the second lap the parkrun finishing funnel had appeared ready for the morning's event. As we were completing the second lap though we heard a voice shouting 'oi you two, aren't you supposed to be across town at Ormeau?'

Once more we looked at each other puzzled at how our whereabouts had become common knowledge until we realised that it was the lovely Mrs Shields, Matt's wife, setting up for Waterworks.

Ormeau

And so after a short trip across town to Ormeau Park it was time for the official parkrun, the inaugural running of Ormeau parkrun. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Fein's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, turned up to start and then run this event. He made a point of having a chat about our travels around the province and welcomed us to Belfast. Just 5 days earlier he had welcomed some other, slightly better known, guests to Belfast:

After the Solstice run 12 hours earlier this could have been quite a slog but happily the legs were in fine form and seemed to relish the two lap undulating course to register 18:24. Not bad at all. :)

And a nice mention in the run report:

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/ormeau/news/2013/06/25/ormeau-parkrun-event-number-1-22nd-june-2013/

The post run venue at the Ozone in Ormeau Park:

And then it was back across town to join the Waterworks team for breakfast:

Before literally nipping round the corner (about 200m) to have a look at Alexandra Park, the park that was mentioned by President Obama in his speech last Monday as being the only park to have a dividing wall built across the middle of it to separate two communities, the wall was built in 1995:

Wallace

Wallace parkrun in Lisburn was the final Freedom run of our visit to complete the set of 11 existing + 2 future parkruns in Northern Ireland.

I would put this down as one of the tougher parkruns, simply because there is a stiff, lengthy hill to tackle three times. It is a great setting though.

So after seeing what Northern Ireland parkrunning has to offer we wouldn't hesitate in recommending others to get over there and try them out.

A diverse collection of interesting courses, very friendly people and an enthusiasm for parkrunning every bit as strong as back home. What's not to like :)




Sunday 23rd June

Longest Sunday - Yorkshire/Lancashire

This will be blogged separately when all the data from the two loops have been collected together.

Since VLM......

It has been 8 weeks since VLM, usually a pretty quiet period to allow the rickety old infrastructure to get back into shape.

However, on this occassion, the 8 weeks since VLM have contained no less than 22 races/parkruns ranging from 800m upwards and including another marathon at Cork in the Republic of Ireland.

The main reason for blogging is for my own purposes so that I can flick back later to see what the build ups to various races looked like, what went wrong or right etc. But if anyone else can learn anything from all my cock ups then all the better :)

So, with that in mind, it is worth starting with the bare stats since VLM:

Tues 30/4 : Club 3,000m Champs, Cudworth, Barnsley. 10:31
Weds 1/5: Spencers Arms Dash, Barnsley 23:05
Sat 4/5: Dewsbury parkrun (1st) 18:21 (5:54/mile)
Sun 5/5: Kirkbymoorside 10K (8th/1st V40) 37:47 (6:04/mile)
Mon 6/5: Avenham Park 5K, Preston 18:13 (5:52/mile)
Weds 8/5: John Carr 5K (Race 1), 17:33 (5:38/mile)
Sat 11/5: Cannon Hill parkrun (9th) 18:01 (5:47/mile)
Tues 14/5: Trafford GP, Manchester 800m (2nd/Ht 12) 2:24.83
Tues 14/5: Trafford GP, Manchester 1500m (1st/Ht 5) 4:59.36
Weds 15/5: John Carr 5K (Race 2), 17:38 (5:41/mile)
Sat 18/5: Dewsbury parkrun (4th) 18:52 (6:04/mile)
Weds 22/5: John Carr 5K (Race 3), 17:35 (5:40/mile)
Sat 25/5: Brockenhurst parkrun (2nd) 18:15 (5:52/mile)
Sun 26/5: Westminster Mile (7th) 5:09
Sat 1/6: Castle Demense parkrun, IRE, (1st) 18:11 (5:51/mile)
Mon 3/6: Cork City Marathon (63rd) 3:06:19 (7:06/mile)
Weds 5/6: Spencer Arms Dash, Barnsley 22:51
Sat 8/6: Newark parkrun (1st) 18:32 (5:57/mile)
Sun 9/6: Marsden 10 Mile Challenge, (21st) 1:11:40
Weds 12/6: Otley 10 Miles, (20th) 1:03:29 (6:21/mile)
Sat 15/6: Dewsbury parkrun (5th) 18:31 (5:57/mile)
Sun 16/6: Staveley Stampede 10K (4th) 36:52 (5:55/mile)

The surprise during this period has been that despite letting weight rise a bit, ie (2-3 kg) as usual after a marathon, the legs seem to have been relishing racing lots and feel very strong.

I was expecting a distinct lack of speed during this time but it hasn't been at all bad, notably:

1. Weds 8th May - A comeback PB over 5K of 17:33 at the John Carr race.

Looking a little bit desperate (below) coming into the closing stages, Emmerdale viewers may recognise the background, the village of Esholt being the old filming set for Emmerdale (thanks to Philip Bland for the pic):

2. Sunday 26th May - A 5:09 mile at the Westminster Mile despite being 4kg heavier than when clocking 5:00.2 at the Leeds Golden Mile last September. I didn't expect to be as near as 9 secs at this stage, so very pleased indeed with that.

3. Monday 3rd June - Cork City Marathon, IRE (3:06:19)

So what was the idea of doing another marathon 6 weeks after VLM?

Firstly, the build up to VLM had been pretty good but due to the 'tripping on a bottle' incident it felt as though I had come out of that marathon with the training unutilised and, in addition, in the following days there were none of the usual post marathon aches and heaviness.

So, it was possible that I was still 'marathon fit'. Maybe!

When Hannah came up with the impromptu idea of entering the Cork Marathon I tried really hard not to be interested....... but failed :p

I was interested to see what shape the legs would be in purely off the pre VLM training with no new 'marathon specific' training being added in the six weeks between VLM and Cork.

The Race:

Not knowing whether the legs could handle a marathon it was good to see that the course was designed in such a way that it never really went too far away from the city centre, especially in the closing stages, so dropping out would be relatively easy if needed.

It was clear from before the start that the conditions were going to get warm and humid, conditions that were ideal for widespread marathon carnage. Since I didn't fancy being a casualty the decision was made to run a more cautious first half than probably would have been the case otherwise in order to try to come away with a negative split, feeling strong towards the end if at all possible.

Thankfully, that is how it worked out:

First Half: 1:34:04 (111th position)

Second Half: 1:32:15 (63rd position)

On a day when negative splits, or even anything near even pacing, were rare I have to be very happy with the best feeling marathon I've ever run. The time may not be anything special, and in hindsight the first half was probably too cautious, but it felt great to be passing people throughout the second half and feeling in control of the distance.

But the highlight of the day by far was looking around just after I'd finished to see Hannah smashing her PB and ducking under 3:10, with 3:09:51, thus securing a VLM Championship place. She actually finished 6th in what we later found out was an IAAF accredited race, a requirement of which is that there needs to be at least 5 male and 5 female elite athletes (as defined by IAAF), so to finish 6th was not only very impressive it also came with a very nice prize fund!

She was quite happy:

And we were both happy with the post race free food:

followed by the post race free beer at The Bodega:

Coming up:

It will be interesting in the coming weeks to see if getting back to racing weight, about 68 kgs, will deliver some new comeback PBs. The main focus races being:

7th September (12 weeks) - Leeds Golden Mile (sub 5:00 would be nice)

29th September (15 weeks)- Singelloop 10K (sub 35:00 would be even nicer)

13th October (17 weeks) - Budapest Marathon (just to see what comes off the back of the shorter distance training)


Next Week:

This next week is going to be fascinating.

Sunday sees the Longest Sunday tour (formerly Longest parkrun) of 7 parkruns, ie 21.7 miles of running whilst enjoying a varied selection of attractive parkrun courses. We will be setting off three separate loops from Oldham at 9am, the loops being a) Yorkshire, b) Lancashire and c) Cheshire.

I'll be joining the Lancashire loop of:

Oldham
Worsley Woods
Preston
Pennington Flash
Wythenshawe
Heaton Park
Huddersfield.

These multiple parkrun tours are always great fun to get involved in so can't wait for next Sunday's fun and games.

However, before then, myself and Hannah are going over to Northern Ireland to experience a range of venues that may not even have been possible a few short years ago. There are currently 10 parkruns in Northern Ireland as follows:

1. Belfast Victoria, Victoria Park nr Belfast City Airport
2. Citypark, Citypark Park, Craigavon
3. Ecos, Ecos Park, Ballymena
4. Enniskillen, Fermanagh Lakeland Forum, Enniskillen
5. Falls, Falls Park, Falls Road, Belfast
6. MUSA Cookstown, Mid Ulster Sports Arena, Cookstown
7. Portrush, East Strand Beach, Portrush (the only beach parkrun in the world)
8. Queens, Upper Malone, Sth Belfast
9. Wallace, Wallace Park, Lisburn
10. Waterworks, Waterworks Park, North Belfast

We are hoping to visit all these venues as well as a couple of upcoming NI venues at Antrim and Derry with the kind assistance of Ireland parkrun Country Manager, Matt Shields.

There will also be a new parkrun starting on Saturday morning, 22nd June, at Ormeau Park in Sth Belfast which we are really looking forward to:

So, all in all, up to 13 parkrun venues will be visited in Northern Ireland during our visit. You may ask why?

Well, when we flew over to Dublin at the beginning of this month on the way to the Cork Marathon, we decided to use some of the free time in advance of the marathon in nipping up to Belfast just to see what the area was like now and how it compared to the scary place that many of us only know from endless news reports about terrorist incidents and such like.

Although there are clearly still tensions in the area we were surprised at how 'normal' it all feels. We visited three parkrun venues while there - Waterworks, Falls and Wallace.

Driving down the Falls Road there are clearly still things which illustrate the recent past of the area:

But as soon as you reach Falls Park it could be any parkrun venue anywhere else:

This was Wallace Park not far from the old Maze Prison:

And Waterworks, near to the Antrim and Shankhill Roads:

 But above all it really made us want to go back to do lots more exploring!!

Now, 13 parkrun venues is not a bad start for a short 3 day visit but there's still room for more :)

So, on Friday evening Belfast City Council are launching a new event, the Belfast City Centre Solstice 5K, a flat, fast 2 loop race starting and finishing at Belfast City Hall:

We couldn't resist taking part in such an iconic event!

And then after the inaugural Ormeau parkrun on Saturday morning, and as long as the legs haven't fallen off, we are going to take part in the Dromore 10K just outside Belfast before flying back in time for the Lancashire Longest Sunday.

Could be an entertaining few days :)

VLM 2013 - Race Week

VLM  - Week 14 of 14

Week 14 - (Mon 15/4 - Sun 21/4)


Mon: Rest Day
Tues: 6.21 miles @ 8:48/mile
Weds: 6.0 Miles incl. Sth Yks Road League Penistone (4.23 miles) 28:40 (6:39/mile)
Thurs: Rest Day
Fri: 2.0 Miles (No Time)
Sat: 4.0 Miles incl. Rotherham parkrun 23:17 (7:30/mile) (15th)
Sun (very early am) : 1.0 Mile (No Time)
Sun: 26.21 Miles VLM 2013 3:11:29 (20:48, 20:46, 21:12, 20:44, 20:43, 21:12, 23:55, 29:03, 13:06 )


Total Mileage: 45.41 Miles



Weds - Sth Yorks Road league, Race 2 Penistone

This 2nd race in the 5 mile road race series was very well timed. With it being run for the most part on the flattish Trans Pennine Trail it was ideal for a 5 miles @ MP type session, which is a typical session four days out from a marathon.

There was a reasonably steep hill in the middle section before returning to the TPT but it was still a nice run for tapping out a controlled rhythm. I intended to stretch the legs out a bit more over the last mile but just after the 4 mile mark a marshall declared that the finish was only about 400m ahead.

This was a bit confusing as these races are accurately measured but it turned out that the entire field had taken a wrong turning very early on in proceedings, thus cutting off the missing three quarters of a mile.

Nonetheless, 4.23 miles @ 6:39/mile avg. represented job done.

Sat - Rotherham parkrun

Saturday morning had perfect sunny weather for the inaugural Rotherham parkrun at Clifton Park.

It is another of those undiscovered gems of the parkrun world. Venues always look more attractive in sunny conditions but this is certainly a park that surprised and is highly recommended for a visit if you get chance.

The run itself was a relaxed pre-marathon leg stretcher. The idea was to get as close to 24 mins as possible so as to keep the legs intact for VLM but since my Garmin battery seems to be dying a very quick death, it gave up the ghost after a mile and we ended up with a satisfactory 23:17.

Hannah, Tacey Healey, Sam Healey, Jess The Dog and myself pre-run:

It almost seemed inevitable, even when we had 6 foot snow drifts a couple of weeks back, that by the time we got to the weekend of 20th/21st April there would be bright sunshine and thoughts would be quickly shifted from frostbite to sunburn, and so it proved.

So, after getting the day off to a very pleasant start it was time to have a relaxed journey down to London, with the aim of picking numbers up after all the fuss had died down towards the end of the Expo.

The advantages of doing it this way are:

1. Literally 1-2 minutes to get the registration and tags sorted out.

2. Much easier to see what is on offer/display at the Expo stalls.

3. Goody bags are piled on you in a desperate attempt to get rid of them before the doors close. I think we ended up with about a dozen, each with a beer voucher worth upwards of £4 inside. It is just a pity that they expire on 5th May!

On the way out a VLM official politely enquired 'how many have you got?' My reply was 'not sure, about 8-10 I think'. I thought he was going to take some off me but instead I got a 'well have another couple then' :p

It was now 5pm on a sunny pre-marathon evening, so plenty time to go for a nice stroll around the finish area of Birdcage Walk, The Mall and Horseguard's Parade to give Hannah a feel for how things would work in the morning and, much more importantly, how to quickly get out of the finish area and get to The Red Lion on Whitehall.

And since we were there anyway it would have been rude not to.....

VLM Race Day

Sun - 4:30 am:

Some runners like to do a very early morning short jog on marathon morning whereas others think it is a waste of time. It is difficult to know for sure but I get the impression that the legs feel looser at the start as a result. So at 4:30am we popped out and had a very slow jog of no more than a mile before tucking into the last input of carbs and a bucket of Costa coffee. 

Although it was completely empty we drew the line at taking our warm up jog onto the M4:

VLM - The Start

After taking the usual empty route to the start from Victoria to Lewisham we sauntered up to Blackheath in the morning sun with lots of time to spare. Once in the GFA compound the first little snag was that the usual free flowing coffee wasn't available due to water supplies running out. Ah well, good job the huge Costa was had earlier.

After milling about to use up the time before the start I got a tap on the shoulder from Kev Ogden. As we chatted and walked towards where I'd left my bag it became apparent that my bag (the one in the picture above) wasn't where I'd left it.

However, I did find it pretty quickly - in the possession of stern looking security personnel! It had been rifled through to the extent that it now contained mushed up bananas and squashed jaffa cakes amongst the rest of the resulting mess.

This was very OTT, it was a secure area that had no general access and bags were left all over the place while runners did a bit of jogging warming up or went to the loo, just as in every other year!

Anyway, onto the race:





The Race:

No specific times target were laid down for this race. I just wanted to execute it as well as I could on feel and see what came out of the other end. A sub 2:55 to deliver a comeback PB would be very pleasing and anything quicker even more pleasing.

0-5K 20:48

As last year I ran without a Garmin/stopwatch and just wanted to relax into the race and get into a metronomic rhythm for the first 15 miles and then take stock from there. The first 5K was used to just let tendons and muscles warm to the task.

6-10K 20:46

The run down to Cutty Sark at around the 10K mark is probably the easiest section of the race and, as such, it is important not to get carried away. It was still feeling like the legs were warming into the race and felt relatively effortless, as it should at this stage.

11-15K 21:12

The next two 5K sections between Cutty Sark and Tower Bridge used to be a very quiet area of the race where you could really switch off and let the time to halfway just fly by. But this year this section was as noisy and packed as anywhere else. Of course, with everything nicely warmed up this is the time when you're itching to get on with it so it takes some concentration to keep a lid on things with all the crowd noise going on.

16-20K 20:44

The 20K mark is actually very close to the centre of Tower Bridge before you start coming down the other side. I was feeling very comfortable through this section but have it ingrained in my hardwiring not to fall foul of the 'Tower Bridge Surge', which you see on the pace graphs every year. So still nice and controlled.

 

Halfway 1:28:01

With no pre-set idea of what the halfway time was going to be but having run two half marathons recently in 1:22 on testing courses, the time of 1:28 correlated pretty well with how it was feeling.

The thoughts now were turning to a negative split but not to start doing too much too soon. Mentally I wanted to get to 30K before starting to have to grind it out, so for now more metronomic patience was the aim.

21-25K 20:43

We were now in the Docklands loop and the route is completely lined with 6-10 deep spectators. At the same time the streets are narrower than in the previous sections so there is a noticeable heat build up as you get into this section.

Still going well though so the heat was very tolerable.

26-30K 21:12

Thoughts now turned to upping the effort level as the 30K mark approached. The current pace projected forward would deliver something around 2:55 so whatever increase in pace I could find was going to start getting the overall time into very pleasing territory.

31-35K 23:55

The 31st km was the fastest of the race so far by about 10 secs in 3:55 and felt like a good launch pad for kicking on. It was shaping up nicely as a result of getting in a group of about 6-7 runners moving at bang on the pace I was wanting.

With confidence growing and the circumstances going in my favour I just had a general feeling that this was going to be my day, one of those where everything clicks.

However, then the drama started.

As a result of the depth of the crowds and the relatively narrow streets mentioned earlier discarded water bottles were staying on the course as opposed to being thrown clear. Add into that the fact that the bottles discarded by the runners that had gone before us were pretty full, and were therefore solid, and a potentially dangerous situation existed.

Because I was in the middle of the group I got no warning when a bottle bounced off a kerb and came spinning back into our path. My right foot landed right on top of it resulting in a painful twisted ankle.

After a few of these $%^%£"$&&^s and a few more of these *$&***^&*% the automatic reaction was just to get straight back into it. Although the ankle was ouchey I managed to get back with the group and just hoped it wasn't too bad.

We were still moving at just under 4:00/km and the ankle was easing off so at around 34K it felt tentatively as though the bullet had been dodged.

But not for long! There was now something resembling a limp in my right leg with the weakness being somewhere in the quad region. Presumably this had been caused when my ankle turned over and the result was that I was now struggling to lift my right leg properly. The left leg was fine but I was reduced to a shuffling action to nurse the right leg.

36-40K 29:03

I was hoping that, as with the ankle, whatever this strain was might work itself out over the next few minutes but alas that wasn't going to be the case.

At the 19 mile mark I didn't have any choice, the leg just wasn't lifting. I could still keep running, or rather jogging, but it was taking a long time to eat up any ground. 7 miles of this was going to be a complete pain when any reasonable result had now gone out of the window.

But what was the alternative? Taking a tube or walking wasn't going to get to The Red Lion any sooner so I may as well just relax and soak up the sun.

At least it could still serve the purpose of securing a place in VLM 2015 so it was worth getting to the finish as long as no serious damage was being done.

41-42K 13:06

It was like being a spectator for the last few miles, as indicated by my being shuffled back around 700 places through the field.

Going past the 25 mile mark in 3:00:00 brought a wry smile, I like round numbers :)

But probably the weirdest feeling is to be doing the last few miles of VLM without working hard. There is an automatic mental connection between these miles and suffering but on this occassion it was the exact opposite.

Helplessness was the overall summary, so there was nothing to be disappointed with. The training build up had been good, the pre-race arrangements had been absolutely spot on and the execution of the race was just how I had envisaged ..... but it hadn't worked out due to another factor.

This can happen any time of course, whether it be weather, illness or one of a host of many other possible gremlins. So it is just a case of enjoying the parts that went well and moving on.......

First Half  - 1:28:01

Second Half  - 1:43:28

Total  - 3:11:29

5K Splits - 20:48, 20:46, 21:12, 20:44, 20:43, 21:12, 23:55, 29:03 and 13:06 for the last 2.2K

Performances of the day:

In a nutshell there were lots of great performances so I am bound to miss people but a selection of the very impressive ones were:

1. Kev Ogden - 2:39:48 A superbly paced 1:19:34, 1:20:14 run for a 5 minute PB.

2. Jason Cherriman - 2:29:31 A grafted out 2 second PB to finish 41st overall (incl elites)

3. Caz Hall - 3:11:44 A well deserved 3 minute PB

4. Phil Sanders - 2:35:54 After a long injury lay off a superb run to land the 2:35 he had been looking for. And a run that meant he was one of the three counters in the overall winning team. Now a national champion!

5. Hannah Oldroyd - 3:16:29. Last, but certainly not least, was Hannah's superb performance. After being unable to run about 6 weeks ago, the emphasis had to be on a steady start. 

With a previous PB of 3:36:36 the first half of 1:42:26 was intentionally well constrained but all the same a second half of 1:34:03 for an 8 minute negative split was way beyond expectations.

5K splits were: 24:48, 24:16, 24:06, 24:06, 23:44, 23:05, 22:05, 21:11 and 9:08 for the last 2.2K
 

But the most impressive stat was that the pace over the last 7Ks resulted in her passing 906 runners with 0 passing Hannah! Not many people achieve that!

The finishing straight before the masses arrived:

Hannah with Kev and Ian Ogden in the Baggage Reclaim area;

The best bit of any VLM weekend, the post race relaxing outside The Red Lion on Whitehall:

This was Tony Burgin after suffering the same mishap as myself of treading on a discarded water bottle:

Next............

What comes next is a very good question.

I was going to spend the next few weeks targetting the mile towards the end of the Summer but that may now change after reviewing what I will potentially get most satisfaction/enjoyment from over the second half of the year.

Another marathon may now be on the cards but we will see.........