In some sort of divine blessing, the weather for the FoD half this year was marvellous again. Unfortunately, it hadn't been in the previous week - so there was a fair bit of mud around!
The FoD half has evidently been becoming more popular due to its great reputation, but I think this year it had slightly exceeded its organisational capacity. There was a woeful lack of toilets at the start considering the number of runners, and once the course left the main driveway and deviated onto the forest trail, it became hopelessly congested. Mind you, it wasn't helped by some runners who appeared slightly surprised at the appearance of mud, who actually stopped and walked around it. This, predictably, created chaos amongst a congested field, with people almost tripping over each other in the resultant bunching up.
There was a fairly sharp long descent within the first couple of miles, which meant the rest of the course was almost relentlessly uphill. There were a few downhill runs, don't get me wrong, but certainly after that first descent we had around 6 miles of gradual uphill. Around mile 12, heading up towards the finish, there was approx a mile of shoes-sucking muddy uphill - great fun, but gruelling at this stage of the run!
Despite the challenging nature of the course, I managed at PB in 2h 9mins, which I was really pleased with. As long as the organisation improves, I would certainly do this again as it's a lovely forest run, albeit a challenging one.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Running Down My Batteries
Right, so finally a blog-like update!
Training has been going OK-ish - did some snowy runs, which were great for core stability. However the cold, unpredictable weather we've had through February thoroughly threw me off track, and, combined with a break in the Lake District, resulted in me losing my running mo-jo for a little while. But we're back on track now, combined with my mate setting up a circuits class in Solihull which is great for cross-training and all-round strength.
14 miles today (actually it was 14.2) on top of 5.8 yesterday with the running group. So 20.5 for the weekend, which really does give me a good psychological boost. I had a flare in my ITB a couple of weeks ago after I pushed myself up the Hagley Mile, but, after some icing and finding a new stretch for it *crosses fingers* it's been fine and hasn't bothered me today. Stupidly, after it bleeped a low-battery warning at me yesterday, I forgot to put my Garmin on charge. I realised this five minutes before I went out this morning - so quickly stuck it on charge, not expecting it to last the run. My MP3 player, though, was showing two bars of battery, so I thought it should be fine.
Of course, in a delicious stroke of irony, my MP3 player gave up the ghost within 25 minutes and my Garmin lasted until I was back home. You do the math, as our American friends say.
Now I really need to get going on my fundraising. In a perhaps the most bizzare fundraising story, I earned my first £20 by helping to push an old lady's car from off a rock in the Lake District. I've set up my new fundraising page - www.virginmoneygiving.com/drcathsmarathonwheeze. So tell all your friends, and let's get that money rolling in! Cheers :)
Well, I had a nice long nap (about two hours of it) this afternoon, because I was knackered after the long run. But I'm still pretty tired, so I think an early night may be in store - but after House, of course.
Training has been going OK-ish - did some snowy runs, which were great for core stability. However the cold, unpredictable weather we've had through February thoroughly threw me off track, and, combined with a break in the Lake District, resulted in me losing my running mo-jo for a little while. But we're back on track now, combined with my mate setting up a circuits class in Solihull which is great for cross-training and all-round strength.
14 miles today (actually it was 14.2) on top of 5.8 yesterday with the running group. So 20.5 for the weekend, which really does give me a good psychological boost. I had a flare in my ITB a couple of weeks ago after I pushed myself up the Hagley Mile, but, after some icing and finding a new stretch for it *crosses fingers* it's been fine and hasn't bothered me today. Stupidly, after it bleeped a low-battery warning at me yesterday, I forgot to put my Garmin on charge. I realised this five minutes before I went out this morning - so quickly stuck it on charge, not expecting it to last the run. My MP3 player, though, was showing two bars of battery, so I thought it should be fine.
Of course, in a delicious stroke of irony, my MP3 player gave up the ghost within 25 minutes and my Garmin lasted until I was back home. You do the math, as our American friends say.
Now I really need to get going on my fundraising. In a perhaps the most bizzare fundraising story, I earned my first £20 by helping to push an old lady's car from off a rock in the Lake District. I've set up my new fundraising page - www.virginmoneygiving.com/drcathsmarathonwheeze. So tell all your friends, and let's get that money rolling in! Cheers :)
Well, I had a nice long nap (about two hours of it) this afternoon, because I was knackered after the long run. But I'm still pretty tired, so I think an early night may be in store - but after House, of course.
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