2013 Challenge Series: Stoke-on-Trent 10k

Zoe, me and Elaine..... before the race....

The last race I ran in this challenge series was back in June, so several months have passed, and a lot has happened. I have reached my time targets for the half marathon and the 5k, so I had just one more target to reach........

Back in June when looking forward to this race, I had hoped that I would beat this last time challenge: to break 50 minutes for a 10k. And this race, the Stoke 10k, was my last opportunity in this series to beat this time. 

However, this was never going to happen: training for New York has become the priority, so in running over the past few weeks, I've not been aiming for speed, but for distance and have therefore been running well within myself. In addition, I could not afford to take it easy this weekend, as I needed to get some more miles in these legs of mine. So Saturday, the day before the race, was a bit of a compromise..... instead of trying to run 20+ miles, which has been my aim over the past month or so, I ran a very slow 14 miles. I hoped that I'd be able to keep up some of the mileage needed to keep me going for New York, whilst still being able to have enough in my legs to run 6 miles on Sunday. Well that was the theory..... 

Pre-race selfie!

Anyway, Sunday came, with an early start to get to Stoke for about 8.30. The race started at 9:00am, which was a little earlier than most of the other races I've been in this year. I was meeting a couple of colleagues before the race who were running with me, Zoe and Elaine, who both work for NYAS. They had taken up the challenge and had agreed to run with me in Stoke: it was great to see some friendly faces before the start of the race, a real encouragement! I'd run with Zoe last year in my very first 10k in London, so it was good to run again with her. Elaine is a far more experienced runner than me, having run several marathons and half marathons over the past few years! It was great to meet up with them before the race started and to discuss tactics................... not!

The day itself was another really good day for running, dry and about 12 degrees, so coolish, but not cold. This was the first Stoke 10k road race, but although it was the first, it was really well organised. Parking was close by, free and plentiful, there were adequate facilities and the route was very well marked and marshaled.  I really liked the course: I never know what constitutes a really hilly course, or what differentiates hilly from "undulating". This one was certainly (at least) "undulating"!! Starting in Hanley Park, the route climbed for the first mile, then dropped gradually for the next two miles, until about half way, when the course then rose again, particularly around 8km, until ending with a fast finish at Hanley Park. 

After... still looking fresh!

I hadn't intended to go flat out, but I did start at a steady pace, which I more or less kept up with and with which I felt happy throughout. The hills, although not especially steep, were pretty long, so I was pleased that I didn't feel like i was struggling much with these (although I wasn't going quickly!), and the downhill parts were fun! I must have placed myself well at the start, as although I was passed by a few people, I found that I also passed others, finishing the race about 240th out of approx 550 runners! My time was 54:07, so my slowest 10k this year, but I was happy that I felt strong at the end!

Zoe and Elaine did brilliantly. I almost missed Zoe finishing, as when I was at the finishing line, she zipped past me at the speed of light! She had not done much training before the race, felt her knees go at about 3km, but still kept going and even really went for it at the end! Elaine took it easy and chatted her way way round the course, having met some people she knew during the race! I really appreciated the fact that they had joined me in this race and they had obviously had fun! 

post race selfie!!

All of us, Zoe, Elaine and myself, were running to support NYAS, a charity which provides advocacy and other services to children in care. We, like the hundreds of staff and volunteers who work for NYAS, are committed to supporting some of the most vulnerable children and young adults in England and Wales. For more about our work, please take a peak at our Annual Review and make a donation at out BT Donate page! 

So now I just have one more race before the New York Marathon. The Birmingham Half Marathon in a few weeks time was the first half marathon I ran in last year, and is still the race I've enjoyed the most, mainly due to the fantastic support and atmosphere created by my fellow Brummies watching. Before then, I reckon I need to look at doing a couple more long (20+ mile) runs and then start to taper them so that I can hopefully arrive in New York fresh and injury free! I am making some progress in raising £2000 for NYAS, so if you would like to support me and NYAS, please visit my fundraising page. Donations, large or small will be fully welcomed!! 

New York: Training update......

The good news is that I'm still running and have no injuries! Its been a few weeks since I made the decision to run the New York Marathon, so I thought I'd give a bit of an update on my training so far......

2012 Birmingham Half 

In fact, I don't think training's been going too badly at all. Since coming back from holiday, I've been running two or three times a week (aiming for three) and getting a long run in on Saturday mornings. I've been aiming to increase the distance I'm running in these longer runs, and so far, I've managed the following distances: 14.2, 9.98, 17.87, 20.21 and 20.26 miles. In between I've been doing shorter 4 or 6 mile runs and a bit of gymming, and although the longer runs have been slow, I've been reasonably comfortable up to about 17 miles. So, all in all, I'm pretty pleased with where I am at the moment and I hope that I'll be able to get to 22 miles a couple of times before November to get some more miles in the ol' legs.

Gasping for air: Fen Drayton 10k

So, what else? Well, I've found preparing for a marathon totally different from the running I've been doing up to now: I'm running at a much slower pace (5.5-6.0 mph) and I've been working on the mental bit as well. Running longer distances can be boring and lonely, so I've been trying to add a bit of variety and running in pleasant surroundings: today I had a "Club Sandwich", where I ran 5 miles on my own, 11 miles with the club followed by 4 miles on my own again. Although I wasn't very talkative, it was good to run in the company of others, despite the fact the club run took in more hills than I had anticipated! In addition, I've been looking at ways of breaking up the distances in my mind, so it becomes more manageable, as well as trying to put a positive spin on how far I've run (and therefore have to go!).

I've also been trying to practice with food and drink, as up to now, I've not really had to think about taking on food whilst running, although I'm not sure I've got the balance right yet: I've been trying to eat a chewy nutritional bar, but I think I'm going to have to increase my food intake a bit. I've also been taking more water with me, which has been invaluable. Following longer runs, I've taken to having a cold bath, which has proved to be very effective at easing the muscles (I have followed this up with a warmer shower to return everything back to normal!). The only other thing I'm aware of is that I'm not really following any "proper" training program: if I was, I think I'd be aiming to put in quicker times for my longer runs. This is something I might try over the next few weeks, although I don't think I have the confidence to try this out over any great distance.

I do also have another couple of races to consider as well: these are all part of my "Challenge Series", running for my charity, NYAS. I'm really looking forward to the Stoke 10k at the end of September and then the last one before New York, the Birmingham Half. Both should be a bit easier on the legs than the running I've been doing currently, and with Stoke, I'm also running with some colleagues from NYAS which will be great! As always, I'll remind you that I am running this Challenge Series for NYAS, so please do take some time to visit my fundraising page, and give generously!!!

Nerd Alert..................

Run Britain rankings. Not my favourite picture.

For anyone who wants to have a bit of a laugh, I thought I'd post some statistics about my running over the past year. I admit you have to be a bit of a saddo to be interested in stats like these and even more of a saddo to want to keep them up to date. If you like running stats, and I don't know why you would, you'll probably be gripped; if not, you'll have probably have stopped reading this blog already. Whatever, this sort of stuff is right up my street!

So what stats are they? Well, for my own personal running I keep up to date with the Runtastic running app, and use this to monitor my distances, times, pace and speed for each run. You can also get lots of other statistics, for example, this are my overall stats since I've been using Runtastic:

So this year, I've run over 600 miles, and over 1000 since this time last year...... which surprised me a little. You can also look at other stats, including a load around total distances per month, duration, calories burnt etc. All pretty riveting stuff.

Average duration of runs - Runtastic

However, my thirst for nerdism has been satisfied the most by the Run Britain website, which looks at the the times of runners at official races and compares them with other runners. The site then provides you with your own ranking out of runners in Britain, together with your very own "official" handicap. All very exciting. When I started looking at this last year, I had a handicap

Run Britain handicap progress

rating of something like 22.5 and over the year I've improved to reach the heady heights of a handicap of 15.8 (though I've dropped back from 15.6 as I've not raced recently!). The site gives greater weighting to more recent performances and also takes account of the difficulty of both the course and the conditions on the day. So a slower run on a more difficult course might give you a higher score than a quicker run on an easier track.

So, according to Run Britain, this is where I rank amongst all the runners in Britain: I'm 82,310th overall, the 65,134th best male runner and for men in my age category, I come a creditabe 5604th. I don't really know what this means, apart from (as my handicap would suggest) I'm a pretty average runner. I would acknowledge that being the 5th best male runner for my age group in my area does not particularly strike me as being something to write home about. 

However, there is something mildly addictive about stats and I have been encouraged to see my handicap drop over the last few months. I've also found the information from Runtastic to be really interesting and has spurred me on to try to improve at times. But there again, I'm sad.