Sunday, 18 October 2009

Medal #20 - The University of Birmingham 5K, 18th October 2009

A nice little trundle around the Uni campus, wreathed in nostalgia for me, as this was where I went to uni. And it was at a very civilised hour of day too, an uncommon finding for races - it started at 11:30. Nice.

Having been suffering with a rather stinking cold over the last week, I decided that an all-out race was definitely not going to be on. Vixx wanted to get sub-30, so I stuck with her and we got round in 29:18. Lovely weather and a nice pleasant course, nothing too "up", nothing too "down".

One to do again next year, I feel.

Medal #19 - The Birmingham Half Marathon, 11th October 2009.

It was cool and drizzly for the second Birmingham Half Mara last week.

So drizzly, in fact, that I had to stop three times to wipe my glasses. There is something about heavy drizzle that is much worse than out-and-out rain for specs wearers; the drizzle seems to manage to obscure your vision much more effectively than mere rain can.

I also got rather wet.

I forgot to take my usual paracetamol before starting the run, too, so by mile 11 I'd really had enough and wanted to go home! However, I was rather pleased to come in with a time that equals my PB, which, considering I wasn't able to train as well as I would have liked for this event, was fair enough in my book.

Medal #18 - Stourport Shuttle 10K, 27th September 2009

As a last-minute decision, Vixx joined me for this nice little club-type event in Stourport.

We were both impressed by the pleasant, modern facilities in the club house - and the fact that it served fresh-brewed coffee (well, OK, it was out of a machine, but close enough).

The field was quite a small one, with a number of scary-looking proper-type athletes. Vixx and I kept ourselves to the back of the pack to start with, although both of us overtook a number by the end of the race.

The route was pleasant enough, quite flat, but with one right b*gger of a hill just after the three-mile point that sapped my legs completely. It ended with a lap of the track, which is a novelty for me as I've never really run on a proper track surface.

We finished off in proper Vixx 'n' Cath style with a coffee from the clubhouse. We really must get round to doing that coffee run...

The Thirty Medal Quest

...although, frankly, I'm not sure it'll be do-able, although not for the want of trying - there just seems to be a bit of a dearth of races around this time of year which offer medals.

My medals so far, prior to the start of the quest:
  1. RfL 1999,
  2. RfL 2000
  3. RfL 2001
  4. RfL 2002
  5. RfL 2003
  6. RfL 2004
  7. RfL 2005
  8. AUK 10K 2007
  9. AUK 10K 2008
  10. Muller 10K 2008
  11. St Michael's 10K 2008
  12. RfL 2008
  13. Birmingham Half Marathon 2008
  14. Sneyd Striders' Xmas Pudding 10-miles 2008
  15. AUK 10K 2009
  16. Forest of Dean Half Marathon 2009
  17. FLM 2009