“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy” Sun Tzu

The 2012 Baker Hughes 10k will mark my 2nd anniversary of road racing and will be my 21st race! As documented earlier in the year this race was to be a goal race and my plan as I set it out a few weeks ago was to crack the 50 minute mark at the 10k distance. For me this is not an unsubstantial goal, especially coming off the back of an Ultramarathon where I was training happily at an ultra-pace of 10:30 minute miles. To finish a 10k in under 50 minutes meant shaving that pace right down to a minimum of 8:01 minute miles and applying the mental stamina built at the start of the year to conquer 33 miles, into transcending the pains of running fast. I used to laugh in disbelief when friends like Dave and Mike would say that racing a 10k was harder work than completing an ultra, but believe me my friends; it really is.

These days I would happily take a 6 hour running journey over a 50 minute suffer-fest. What I grew to love about ultradistance running was the time that you have alone to think over, strategise, travel, and transcend the distance. In a 10k race you don’t have a second to dawdle; if you’re going into it well-trained then you should be running purely on muscle memory from the moment the gun goes off ’til the second you cross the finish line. No day-dreaming, no appreciating your surroundings and certainly no mid-race cake. Shame!

As recently documented, my body hasn’t taken too kindly to my requests that all my miles be quick ones. Initially I found my pace creeping down easily and my interval sessions and attempts at tempo runs seemed to be making a difference. Unfortunately I hit a glass ceiling towards the end of April when ITB problems reared their ugly head and I found myself in a lot of pain. Perhaps this is my body saying it’s not ready to run so fast – when I pick my speed up one of the first things to go is my form; I feel like a bag of spanners when I run and I probably look like one too; with a marvellous heel-strike to complete the image! I’ve had two session of sports massage with a great therapist at the SPEAR clinic at Aberdeen Sports Village, but I continue to get pain after 3 miles of running and the day after a run it hurts a lot even to walk.

I didn’t mention this at the time but I also caught a cold at the end of April which went straight to my chest; I missed about a week of runs when the weather was cold and I was coughing up green sludge. I followed the rule that if your sickness is above the neck then you’re ok to run, but when it goes below…you stay on the couch. The cold has long since gone but for a week or two afterwards my chest felt so tight whilst running – perhaps I was sicker than I thought.

So when considering my plan for Sunday’s race, the above quote by Sun Tzu is painfully appropriate. In my case, the enemy is injury. I find it very doubtful that I am going to achieve my sub-50 minute goal on Sunday, but do you know what? I am ok with that.

On Monday night I ended up squeezing in a run between 9pm and 10pm after a work commitment and enjoyed 3 fast miles before the tightening in my ITB started to give way to pain; not enough pain to stop me running but enough to keep my pace down and make my heart sink. I completed 6.5 miles in about 56 minutes and came home and sulked. I sulked most of the morning the next day until I told myself to man up and figure out exactly how I felt about my troubles and how I was going to deal with them as by this point I was even pissing myself off.

Running is too important to me to spend half my time on the bench injured whilst trying to hit an arbitrary speed goal. In the last year I’ve developed my endurance and skills at distance running and found what I love most about running. It only occurred to me this morning that the last 10k I did…was actually last year’s Baker Hughes! I am not a particularly fast runner and I don’t even like running fast that much; there is no need for me to push myself to meet certain goals just for the sake of them. Sure, I’d feel like a bit of a bad-ass if my 10k PB started with a 4 …but I’d get far more satisfaction from training for and completing another ultra.

So that is why I’m setting the bar lower for Sunday’s race. I’ve got lots of fun running things coming up this summer such as the Ythan Challenge and being a support runner for my friend Vicki at the West Highland Way race so I need to keep myself in good shape. I’m sure I’m capable of a small PB so I’ll be happy with anything under 52:30 which will mean a rather chilled 8:26 minute per mile pace:

My ‘Happy Pace’ currently is about 8:30 minute miles which feels great – that is until my knee starts hurting after three miles. So I’m just going to play it by ear (knee?), run as hard as I can and take the pressure off by ditching the big sub-50 goal. Speedy Kynon will be starting with me and we may well run together for a while, but as far as I’m concerned it’s every man for himself once we’re over the starting line. Hopefully my competitive side will be engaged if he pulls ahead though, and I’ll be hot on his heels.

Whatever happens it looks to be a huge race and a great day out with so many of my friends joining me including several first-timers. Best of luck to: Kynon, Scott, Niall, Fiona, Morven, Emma, Claire, Adam, Ryan, Mcaulay, Rachel; and of course the Fetch massive: Corrah, Hamster, Mother Duck, Dawdles, Lesley C, Lou C…and all the rest. See you on the start line!

I was recently sent a set of these headphones to review by from  iPhone, who were looking for fitness and running bloggers to test out their products. As someone who runs 90% of the time listening to music I was happy to receive a set in return for an unbiased review.

The headphones are designed with extra features for people who run with their phone and wish to be able to answer calls on the move. I have to admit I have a strict rule that my running time is Rhona time, and if I have my phone with me it is for emergencies only – if it ever rings when I’m on the run, then I ignore it! They have a little control box on the cable which if you tap it once it will answer your call, tap twice and you can skip a track on your mp3 player, and three times will rewind the track playing. The control box also contains the microphone. The headphones are compatible with iPods, iPhones and other smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 which I use.

I currently run with an old iPod Nano which is still going strong after 6 years of heavy use on trails, and Sennheiser in-ear earphones. My preference for carrying my ipod is to just tuck it inside the top of my sports bra next to my shoulder; then I can loop the short cable around the back of my neck and tuck any excess under the straps, causing the minimum of fuss. I hate things flapping around when I run!

This was the first thing I noticed about the Jabra headphones – they have a very, very long cable, and no way to adjust the length.

People running with their phones or iPods have a couple of options of where to store them – in an armband, a waist pack, a short pocket, or any other place in their clothing they could find. Either way the cable was unfortunately far too long to be practical – I measured it and it’s 65 inches long. Some versatility could be added here by segmenting the cable and giving the wearer the option of having it shorter or longer depending on preference. This is something I appreciate in my current set-up – If I’m walking around town I like to wear my iPod in my pocket so I need a longer cable; if I’m running then obviously I need it shorter.

Next I took a look at the fit of the earbuds. I have both my tragus’ pierced so in-ear earbuds are the only things which work comfortably for me. I was pleased to see that the headphones come with three different sizes of rubber earbuds which easily pop on and off so I selected the one which fit best and slid them on. Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to get them to sit comfortably and on closer inspection I found out why:

When I examined the solid edge of the earbuds with the rubber covers slipped back I found a somewhat rough edge where in my Sennheisers (the white, as seen above) there is a smooth surface. I have to say this was not terribly comfortable and it meant I couldn’t secure the earbuds firmly. This meant sound quality was reduced when running as they were unable to form a firm seal in the ear and could move around.

In terms of sound quality on calls, I used the headset when walking and the sound was clear for both myself and the person I was speaking to – the wind-proofing on the microphone clearly works. Listening to music from my iPod or whilst sitting at my computer and the sound quality again is excellent – but it’s a shame the fit doesn’t survive the rigours of running.

I think that this product would be an excellent purchase for the person about town listening to music on their phone – the ability to switch seamlessly from listening to Metallica to your Mother without fumbling with your phone is really quite nifty; however I wouldn’t have said that these headphones are particularly suited to runners. Perhaps for a gym bunny who sets their phone on a treadmill shelf to watch videos or listen to music, but for someone out and about pounding the ground in the great outdoors they lack the versatility and secure fit that an adventurous runner needs.

I’ve been having minimal trouble from my knee and ITB issues. I really think the sports massage treatment I had last week did a great job – what exactly it did I am not sure, but I’m certainly feeling the benefits. I went out on Sunday with the intention of doing 6 miles along the Deeside Railway line, but I felt so relaxed and happy that I decided to keep going and in the end ran 11 miles in 1:35. That’s 8:40 pace!! It was one of those runs where I completely found my groove and was able to push out mile after mile at a decent clip. The weather was a little odd however – I was wearing a tank top and shorts with sunglasses as it was sunny when I left. At mile 9 when it started pelting hail and snow, I began receiving some very odd looks from dog walkers and other people hurrying home…

We’ve been plagued with really bad weather recently and I have to admit my shorter runs have suffered – it is not possible to squeeze in short runs in between day and evening work when it is pouring with rain. I frequently work front-of-house at concerts so looking presentable is a must – not easy to do after taking an alfresco shower in the great outdoors.

I think I may have lost some of the blinding optimism of my last post – Baker Hughes is now only 9 days away and the prospect of knocking out six sub-8 miles on the trot is as scarey and alien as ever, but perhaps not completely out of reach. I am mindful of the fact that there is another 10k shortly after Baker Hughes (The Running Shop Beach 10k, on 12th June) which is entirely flat and without the crowds of Baker Hughes so that may well be a better bet for me to achieve my sub-50 goal, but I am still out to destroy my PB of 52:36 on May 20th and celebrate the start of my 3rd year of racing with a strong race.

It’s been some time since I’ve posted about food on the blog, so to make a change from endless narcissistic chat about my 10k training I’d like to share this recipe with you which I created and enjoyed this week. As a vegetarian ‘athlete’ I get asked quite frequently what on earth I eat to fuel my running, and honestly the answer depends on what I’m training for. In general however, I try to eat a diet as full of as many different fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses as possible, I tend to steer clear of dairy and eggs as much as I can (although I am not vegan) and am concious of sneaky added salts and sugar that can creep in to my diet when I’m not looking.

Processed food in general is a no-no for me, and instead of buying ready meals to eat throughout the week when I’m short on time, I prefer to make a big pot of something at the start of the week which will last a few dinners. This particular dish is a prime example of a typical meal which I enjoy; except this was given an unusual twist when I got the chance to use a somewhat unusual ingredient…

Last weekend my gentleman friend and I were enjoying some unnecessary and indulgent food shopping around some of the boutique specialist premises in the West End of Aberdeen and we came across this Garlic Beer. My love for unusual alcoholic beverages is well documented here, so unsuprisingly I picked up a bottle of this when I saw it on the shelves at Hammerton Stores. When I took it to the till (alongside bottles of Brewdog Paradox Jura, Bitch Please Islay Cask, several smelly cheeses, vegetable pates and a loaf of locally made bread…) the server asked me if I was going to cook with it! The thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but then later in the evening when we tried the beer it seemed like quite a good idea.

I poured a small glass to try it – it’s very, very aromatic and smells just like freshly crushed garlic. It tastes immediately like a hoppy IPA but follows with an intense garlic flavour which sticks around in your mouth for some time. It is certainly not a session beer! I have to admit I struggled to finish the small glass and immediately got to thinking about how I could use the rest.

Garlic Beer and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

• Box of chestnut mushrooms
• 2 x medium onions
• 1 x pepper
• 1 x large courgette
• Bag of quorn chunks or similar (I used Asda’s own brand)
• Half can of Chickpeas (drained)
• Small can of sweetcorn
• Can of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 pint of GARLIC BEER!
• 300ml Vegetable stock

Method:

Heat a decent swig of olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan and lightly fry onions until soft.
Add chunkily chopped mushrooms, courgette and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring.
Gently add half of the beer and the vegetable stock and cook for further minute or two.
Add can of tomatoes, sweetcorn, chickpeas and quorn chunks, stir well, add spices and allow to simmer for around 10 minutes.
Add remainder of beer and simmer until desired sauce thickness is reached.

Spices

This recipe is fairly adaptable in that you could season it in many different ways – I went for a spicy Cajun flavour but you could as easily add a blend of Indian, Middle Eastern or Italian spices to creat a completely different dish. I mixed approximately 1tsp each of garlic powder, paprika, cumin, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, chilli powder and thyme into the pan, alongside a couple of dashes of liquid smoke. Being a huge hot-head I also used around a tablespoon of my current hot sauce of choice, 100% Pain.

I served this with cous-cous and wholemeal pitta bread. It was amazing and this pan gave me two more dinners. You could easily replace the Garlic beer with your favourite Stout or IPA perhaps, if you can spare some that is. I will certainly be trying beer in more of my recipes – it gave the stew a unique flavour and depth which was very enjoyable!

For the last two weeks or so I’ve been having mild-to-moderate ITB pain in my left leg. Not enough to stop me running, but enough to have me spending concentrated time with my foam roller and using an ice pack when I can. Since I’m getting well-versed in dealing with my problematic left ITB, I was happy to just keep training and running as normal and manage the pain myself as I saw fit. This Saturday however, I completed my progressive run as planned by running to Parkrun and then running the 3.1 mile Parkrun route hard (I finished 5th lady in a time of 24: 58) but was feeling pretty acute pain in my knee when walking around after I finished. I took advantage of a lift home from a friend to avoid running home again and quickly got ready for the Brewdog AGM which I was attending that afternoon.

I was quietly concerned about my throbbing knee but took some ibuprofen and hoped that like it had done after  other recent runs, it would calm down within a few hours. Unfortunately the AGM involved a lot of standing around and as the afternoon went on, my knee became increasingly sore and the familiar ‘creaking’ feeling of an incredibly taut ITB became more acute when I bent my knee. I realised I was going to have to make a decision – was running a 15 mile trail race for fun the next day really the best decision I could make for my body?

It was obvious really – of course it wasn’t, but I was reluctant to accept that this was the case. If I ran the race then the chances are it would either finish me off in terms of being able to continue training hard for Baker Hughes, or I would end up injured on the course and face the prospect of a DNF (Did Not Finish) and the end of my sub-50 hopes. Also as an Aberdonian, the notion of wasting money entering a race which I wouldn’t run was galling!

My furrowed brows and deep thoughts had not gone unnoticed at the AGM and my friends wondered what was bothering me but I was embarrassed to admit what was going on in my head. How does the saying go again? “DLF (Dead Last Finish) is better than DNF (Did Not Finish) which greatly trumps DNS (Did Not Start)”. Great, thanks. Now, I’m at a Brewery’s AGM – where’s the damn bar?!

That is not a real tattoo unfortunately, but does anyone want two tickets to the gun show? The Fitness Yoga classes and weights I’m doing have been shaping up my arms very nicely recently I feel!

Here I am with three of my best buddies and fellow Aberdeen Brewdog regulars; Scott (my flatmate), Fiona and Niall.

Representing Brewdog Aberdeen.

Needless to say I enjoyed the rest of the AGM very much – as a shareholder I’m proud to have been able to invest in a brewery and attitude I believe in and am a proud, card-carrying Equity Punk.

The next morning I was wide awake at 7am, brow furrowed again wondering if I’d made the right decision. One step out of bed when I put my weight on my knee confirmed it, and I promptly slathered the joint in ibuprofen gel, turned my alarm off and went back to sleep.

I spent the rest of the day in a tremendous huff; disappointed in my body, embarrassed to admit that I didn’t run to my friends and parents, and gutted at how my training was falling to bits so quickly. (And also trying to figure out how to blog about this disappointment). I KNEW it was the right thing to do, but to not even start something goes against everything in the standards I set for myself in life – always try your hardest, always give it your best, don’t wimp out in the face of adversity… In this case I have to adapt my train of thought however; it was a preventative action, I have to keep my sights on the bigger picture and my goals for the rest of Spring and beyond.

So what now? Well yesterday I returned to the SPEAR Performance clinic at Aberdeen Sports Village who treated me for my ITB issues after the Loch Ness Marathon, and had my first experience of Sports Massage. I had booked an hour-long appointment and I have to say I was a little unsure of what to expect at first but I really enjoyed it! I knew to expect some discomfort to say the least, but I found the pain to be good pain – a release of sorts. The whole experience was oddly exhilarating and I left feeling totally flushed out and about 10 feet tall! I have not experienced any pain so far today and I’ve been advised to train as usual, with religious foam rolling and icing after runs, and to come back in 10 days for a follow-up. This will allow my therapist to examine the muscles in more detail and perhaps establish whether this is an injury related to something to do with alignment or whether it’s just a reaction to my change in training.

Tonight I’m going out for 6ish miles in between day work and evening work, and will hopefully be able to throw in a few tempo miles in the middle depending on feel. It’s safe to say the wheels have come off my previous training plan entirely, but I refuse to let go of the sub-50 goal yet! Perhaps it won’t come as easily as it might have done, and it may even be a fluke on the day; but it’s happening. 17 days.

I’ve been concentrating on how to train efficiently and effectively around various engagements; thankfully a key ingredient in building speed are interval sessions which for someone at my level, don’t need to be any more than 4 miles. This means I can squeeze in workouts where previously in ultra training I’d be struggling to find time to do so.

I’m working on the basis of three speed-based sessions a week, one easy run and one ‘long’ run, and one day cross training. I still have a great fitness base from the Ultra so I’m forgoing hill training for now and just focussing on getting my legs moving faster. I don’t have a great deal of time at all so I’m hoping for the best; if I don’t reach my goal at this race there are a couple of other options later in the year to have another go – further afield either the Crieff 10k or perhaps the Forth Road Bridge 10k, or closer to home the no-frills and flat Running Shop 10k in June which takes place along the oh-so-familiar Beach Promenade.

My planned sessions are as follows:

MONDAY: Cross Training – fitness yoga/core/weights
TUESDAY: Intervals* – either at the ASV track or in Stonehaven with Kynon (who is FAST)
WEDNESDAY: Easy run – a short 45 – 60 min run to shake out
THURSDAY: Tempo* – 1 mile warm up, X miles at tempo pace, 1 mile cool down
FRIDAY: Rest – probably with beer
SATURDAY: Progression – Early miles getting faster and finishing up at Aberdeen Parkrun.
SUNDAY: ‘Long’ Run – 1.5 – 2 hours depending on feel. Mainly indulging my enjoyment of long runs.

*: – These sessions are interchangeable depending on work commitments.

The training plan itself looks like this:

I feel somewhat uneasy looking at this – it’s a bit alien to me and I’m really not looking forward to the tempo runs. Tempo Pace for me will be at, or as near as I can get, to 8 minute miles. I need to run 6 x 8 minute miles to get a sub – 50 10k so on race day ideally I should be knocking out 7:5X miles. At the moment my easy pace is 8:30 – 9ish. Makes me feel a little sick just thinking about it…!

I wish I could say that the plan got off to a good start but last week was somewhat patchy. I had a great interval session on Tuesday in Stonehaven with Kynon, who quite frankly kicked my ass with his speed. We ran up and down the beach front in Stonehaven doing 0.25m sprint / 0.25 recovery; I think I need to be more controlled at my Sprint sections though as towards the end I just could not maintain a decent speed for the full 0.25. It was a good workout though and puke threshold was definitely reached at times!

On Wednesday I had an hour to squeeze in a run between my day at work and a work commitment in the evening, so I rushed home and was out of the door within 10 minutes to try a new trail by the river I’d scoped out on Google maps. It was a sunny evening and I was really enjoying myself – the trail was interesting and new to me and I was very reluctant to turn back at 2.5 miles. I completed my 5 miles in 46 minutes and somehow got myself to the Town House for a civic reception, dressed smartly and looking appropriately glamourous (through probably with mud still between my toes!) by 7pm.

Due to work I had to shift my Thursday tempo session to Friday, and then when the time came we were experiencing monsoon-style Spring rains – the weather was absolutely atrocious. I took the opportunity to use this time to write my training plan before heading out for the evening, trying to convince myself that it was a worthy substitute for running. Close, but not quite…writing training plans for a sub-50 10k does not actually get you a sub-50 10k!

On Saturday I was all set to return to my new trail for a longer recce run and wanted to go for about 2.5 hours, or around an estimated 14 miles. Again there were more monsoon-style rains but I forced myself to man up and get out of the door for my run.

So close to the city yet five minutes in and you could be miles away.

Spring has not quite sprung here – I expect that this could be quite overgrown in Summer.

About 2 miles in I began to encounter some problems – all the rain did not come without consequences…

I sucked it up and got wading. If anything it washed all the itchy mud off and the icy water rinsed out the scratches and nettle stings that were accumulating around my ankles. The trail ends at the border of Cults/Bieldside but you can continue on to circumnavigate the Deeside Golf Course which I did. I don’t think this route would be possible in summer at all – it will be far too overgrown. The trail is pretty technical with a lot of rocks, dips, climbs, low hanging trees, and muddy embankments. It was on one of these muddy embankments that I felt a painful wrench in my left quad as I swung it forward to take a big step… My quads have been quite tight the last few weeks and I’ve been attempting to foam roll this tension out but I still feel it on each run.

I decided to walk for a bit and try and loosen the muscle out. At this point I really wasn’t feeling the run – I was tired, soaking wet from top to toe, sore, and grumpy. I just wanted to go home! I even toyed with the idea of phoning a friend to come and get me – I’d been out for an hour and had only covered 5 miles out of my planned 14 and had that horrible helpless feeling of ‘How am I ever going to survive another 9 miles of this?!’ that you can only truly understand when in the middle of a bad run. The trail had pretty much come to an end and I actually didn’t know where I was. I figured I was somewhere near Bieldside/Milltimber and if I ran up perpendicular to the river then I would eventually hit the Deeside railway line. I really didn’t want to double back and go back over the flooded muddy path again…

I had a jaffa cake and looked at some cows. They seemed happier in the rain than I was! I headed North to try and find civilisation again and eventually found myself in the Newton Dee Special Needs community and located the railway line. My quad was aching and I had had enough – time to head for home.

I made it 8.5 miles in 1hr 36 minutes… not exactly what I had planned, nor anything like the speed I wanted to be running at but these tough runs are the making of us. This weekend’s long run will be the Petrofac Challenge 15 mile trail race which I’m looking forward to. It is taking place out at Balmoral Castle as part of the RunBalmoral events (I did the 10k last year) so it should be a very scenic run. In terms of time I have no idea what to expect – probably somewhere around the 2.5 hour mark perhaps but I won’t be racing hard.

Official Time: 2hrs 01min 50secs
Overall placing: 1835 out of 3748 finishers
Gender: 607 out of 1922
Age group: 382 out of 1193

The much-hyped Competitor Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series rolled into Europe for the first time last weekend on the 14th and 15th of April, for the first stop on their ‘European Tour’ in Edinburgh. This race replaced the former ADT Edinburgh Half Marathon and a complete race overhaul had been promised, replacing this well known event with a new type of racing experience for the UK. The Rock ‘n’ Roll races have been going strong in hundreds of locations throughout the United States for the last 15 years; promising a big Race Expo the day before, live music at every mile on the course, plentiful food and refreshments during and after the race and a finish-line concert and festival atmosphere.

Having been an avid reader of many American running blogs for several years now, I was familiar with the Rock ‘n’ Roll series and keen to see how they would develop a race in the UK. When it turned out that their first step outside of the US would be more-or-less on my doorstep, I jumped at the chance to give the race a go and signed up on the day registration opened at a heavily discounted rate. I can’t recall exactly how much I paid and have no email receipt of payment; but I think it was either £20 or £22. That is a fair contrast to the £39 standard entry up until the 8th April, and  £42 being charged for late entry at the expo. However, you get what you pay for, so I was really hoping that the quality of the event would match the steep prices.

I took the train down on Saturday morning with Naomi, and after checking into our hotels we headed over to the Expo which was held in Holyrood Park alongside the start and finish. The Race had followed the American model of insisting that runners pick up their race packet and ‘swag bag’ the day before, or else pay £5 to have it mailed out to you if you booked this well in advance. I suppose there are arguments on both sides for this – the race gets to draw in thousands of extra visitors to a city for a weekend and can entice many sports vendors to trade at the expo with the promise of lots of foot traffic. However if you live outside of Edinburgh but within commuting distance for the race, then having to make two trips over two days may not be to everyone’s taste. I think the extortionate charge just to get your packet mailed to you left a bad taste in quite a few people’s mouths before the race had even begun due to blatant profiteering, however the Competitor Group is a moneymaking business and therefore such things ought to be expected.

The race expo itself was quieter than I imagined. When we arrived there was a large stage set up with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers performing, and a circle of tents of varying sizes punctuated by groups of port-a-loos. We quickly received our race packets without any queuing at all, and were directed to another tent where we could select the size of our souvenir race t-shirt. They even had Women specific sizing – what a treat!

After a brief wander around the stalls, we stopped to watch the rest of the concert. Standing listening to the people around me I was surprised by the amount of American voices I was hearing – I learned later that many hundreds of Americans had taken the opportunity to skip across the pond for this and the press stated that 43 US states were represented. Many runners were wearing apparel from other Rock n Roll races and I spotted a few wearers of the infamous Boston Marathon jackets as well. I suppose by earning a place and finishing the Boston Marathon you earn a certain amount of bragging rights, but my inner cynic can’t quite stop raising a somewhat judgey eyebrow at the reasoning behind stalking around a fun race expo in such an item. I guess in a crowd of runners some will always have the need to define themselves as different from the rest. For the record I was wearing a Brewdog Punk IPA shirt

After we’d had our fill of amplified bagpipes I headed back to my hotel room to sort out my things and have a snooze. It was regrettable to be in the Capital and having to take it easy but I was pretty tired and wanted to rest up rather than go exploring. I took the time to lay out my kit, double check the procedure for race morning and make sure I had absolutely everything I needed.

Race gear – black longsleeve under Fetch top and Nike running skirt, paired with gloves and 2XU calf sleeves. The weather forecast had been a bit unstable but the one thing we knew was that it was going to be chilly first thing.

Breakfast supplies – I knew that I’d be too early for breakfast at my hotel and would be receiving a breakfast tray outside my door. I wanted to make sure I had the bare minimum required to get me around the course in one piece just in case the breakfast tray was substandard.

At 6pm I headed back out to meet Naomi for dinner and we decided, for all the magnificent eateries that Edinburgh has, to stick with a trip to the Filling Station as we knew we’d be able to get what we wanted to eat there. The Filling Station is a banal American-style diner chain which serves bog-standard American food at mildly inflated prices. Normally the kind of place I wouldn’t touch with a barge poll but it was within 5 minutes walk of our hotels and had exactly the food we needed.

Chicago-style deep dish margarita pizza with a side of coleslaw. Doughy, cheesy, delicious.

I was back in my hotel room by 8pm and was actually looking forward to a quiet night in for the first time in a while, even if it wasn’t in my own house. I was planning on watching some terrible TV, drinking lots of water, speaking to some friends on the phone and getting my head in the game for a good race.

Honestly, by that time in the evening I still didn’t know what I wanted from myself for the race. I knew I was comparatively under-trained, but that I was still more than capable of the distance. Since I hadn’t been running much since the D33 Ultra a month before I had grounds for reasonable doubts in myself, and unfortunately negativity began to creep in. Was I going to hurt myself? Could I keep a good pace? Did I want to try and PB or should I just cruise around and enjoy it? What if I fell to bits and had to walk? Was it worth my trying hard or was I just going to embarrass myself? Something someone had said to me the night before whilst drunk in the pub about my lack of training was playing on my mind as well – it was said in jest without any harm, but what if he had a point?

Sitting alone in a shabby hotel room by oneself can be quite a catalyst for snowballing thoughts and I quickly managed to completely freak myself out. Thank heavens for smart phones and my lovely family of  twitter runners who quickly offered kind and encouraging words of support. I chattered away with my friends around the country and wondered how many others were doing the same thing; sitting alone in a hotel room in a strange city on race eve, going over their race plan, questioning themselves and their ability, trying to stay positive and to keep the faith in themselves. Suddenly I really didn’t feel so isolated at all and reminded myself of how much I had to be grateful for – grateful that I’m fit enough to casually knock out a half marathon, grateful that I’m financially stable enough to indulge my selfish hobby by travelling to different cities to race, and grateful that of all the things in life I had to worry about – doing well in a race was currently at the top of my list.

Anxiety satiated, I turned off the light and went to sleep.

—-

Sunday morning dawned bright and dry and I was pleased to see the sun peaking through the blinds as I woke up, well rested after a surprisingly good night’s sleep. I snuck my head around my door to see if the promised breakfast tray had arrived and found myself presented with this:

Fruit, cereal bars, rock solid ‘pastries’ and scones with condiments and a greasy muffin. I was glad to have made sure I had my own supplies! I ate the fruit with my sachet of almond butter and got to work on the instant coffee and the muffin. I couldn’t bring myself to try the odd looking pain au chocolat or croissant, and the scone could have broken a window it was so hard so I left those behind.

At 07:15 I headed off to Naomi’s hotel to leave my bags and we walked the mile or so to the start area. There were a steady stream of runners wrapped up in outer layers and bin liners all heading in the same direction – whilst the sun was out there was a bitter light breeze and as soon as you were in the shade it was very cold.

Instructions had asked us to be at the starting area by 8, but we needn’t have been there that early at all. However that did give me the chance to meet up with some twitter runners for the first time and chat away our pre-race nerves. A few blog readers also came up and said hello – it was lovely to meet you all, and I hope you had wonderful races!

Naomi was wearing Fetch colours at a big race for the first time and standing together the two of us attracted the of attention from fellow Fetchies and Fetch supporters. We were able to meet lots of other Fetchies who were running including several of the Aberdeen crowd.

The race photographers were all over the place and we got our picture taken many times. I love this one but at £30 for a digital download…I won’t be taking advantage of marathonfoto.com’s ‘great deals’…

Before long we were being directed to the starting corrals by the perky American compere girl. I realised at this point that I was under the impression that this race was going to feel a lot larger – there were ~4000 runners on the day which in fact is around the same size as the Aberdeen Baker Hughes 10k. The biggest race I have done so far is the Great Scottish Run last September which had 8500 Half Marathon finishers, in addition to around 10,000 10k runners – the atmosphere at that event was HUGE. The start was completely electric and the organisers had done an excellent job of creating a party atmosphere with booming music, circus performers and stilt walkers, and obviously; thousands of people. This was an aspect in which I found that the Rock N Roll Half fell slightly short of expectations; the start lacked the crucial electric excitement which can be created in large groups of people and it just seemed like everyone was hanging around shivering in bin liners, desperate to get started. The music wasn’t very loud and only appeared to be playing at the very start of the corrals, there was an absolutely horrendous rendition of ‘Flower Of Scotland’ performed by an Edinburgh’s Got Talent contestant and our compere’s attempts to rouse cheers seemed to fail slightly due to typical Scottish blanket lack of enthusiasm about anything. I’m not sure exactly what went wrong or how best they could improve it for next year, but I think a decent sound system and banging tunes are a pretty good place to start for a self-proclaimed ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ race.

The corrals were assigned by predicted race time, I was in corral 4 which was for 1hr 55m runners. This was the time which I had guessed when I signed up last September, which that morning I considered to be a little over ambitious so I slipped right to the back of the corral to be by the 2:00 pace group. The corrals were set off every three minutes after 9am so to ease congestion on the course. I was really, really cold by now and wanted more than anything to finally get running as I sadly cast aside my bin liner and shuffled to the start with my corral. A countdown of 5-4-3-2-1 by the comperes and we were finally off…

I had decided that my goal was to run around an easy 9:30ish pace for the first half, deal with the big hills which came up around 6-10 miles and then blast the last 3 miles to the finish. As I held my 9:30ish runners were flying past me and for the entire first 5k, every three minutes where would be a rush of runners speed past as yet another corral was released and people got carried away and started fast. As ever I reassured myself that I was running my own race and that I’d be passing all of these runners later on as they blew up on the course for starting too fast.

There was, as promised, a band playing at the first mile – even though it was ~9:15am in a residential area! There were quite a lot of residents out sitting on their walls or hanging out of their windows though, which was a pleasant surprise. The first 5k had us making our way East towards Leith and the Firth of Forth. This was by far the most uninteresting part of the race in terms of scenery, but when we burst on to the Promenade at Leith in the sunshine that more than made up for it.

Mile 1 – 9:34
Mile 2 – 9:18
Mile 3 – 9:26

After coasting along the flat Promenade we were greeted by big signs saying ‘Welcome to Portobello!’ and the course support grew in numbers. Running back through Portobello was very beautiful including some awkward cobbled parts and a church with its bells peeling loudly. The first of the long slow climbs took us out of Portobello back towards Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Park and I was pleased to find my legs responding well to the hills and barely registering them in terms of my pace.

Mile 4 – 9:23
Mile 5 – 9:25 (gel taken at 5.5mi)
Mile 6 – 9:46

I passed the 10k point at around 57 minutes by my watch, but the timing map has me at 1hr 05min. I had had a few wobbly moments in the first few miles where negative thoughts crept in, but by the time I reached 10k comfortably I began to relax. The weather was perfect – sunny but with a sharp cooling breeze which prevented any overheating. I had taken water at one stop and powerade at another and taken my first of two gels after about 50 minutes of running. They were serving GU gels on the course at around 6.5 miles but I had decided not to take any. Despite free things usually appealing to my tight Aberdonian nature, I really can’t stomach GU and find it far too thick for my tastes. I stuck as usual with my High5 caffeinated raspberry gels, which I still maintain taste exactly like jam.

I was excited to feel the course turn back towards the city centre. As we crested the hill in Holyrood park we enjoyed a speedy downhill section between 7.5 and 8.5 miles which brought us very close to the finish line at Holyrood where the race had already been won by Portuguese lady, Leonar Carniero in 1hr 16mins 14secs.

Mile 7 – 9:46
Mile 8 – 9:29
Mile 9 – 9:40

I was mentally ready for another long slog – all the way up the Cowgate and the Grassmarket, which would be the last big climb of the race. Again I was able to keep my pace steady as others stopped to walk or were panting and wheezing up the hills. It occurred to me that I could probably be working a lot harder – how much faster could I get my half marathon time if I had my foot on the gas, so to speak, for the entire race duration? I felt a bit guilty and lazy again for not having worked hard for this race…

Running through the City Centre was fantastic. Even though it was still relatively early in the day there were many tourists and supporters about. It was particularly fun running up the Cowgate and having people shout down at you from the high bridge above. I was enjoying the bands too, but they weren’t a stand out feature of the race sadly as we really only heard them for 10 – 20 seconds at best as we passed them.

At 10 miles the course made its way back in to a residential area before curving around and through the Meadows. Here I was snapped with a big smile on my face by Fetchie EllenM!

bobmarshallphotos@gmail.com

I’m not sure who or what I was smiling about, but possibly it was because I’d realised I’d passed 10 miles in 1:34. All I needed to do to get a new PB was do a 30 minute 5k and I’d be laughing…it was time to put the foot down and go!

I loved the last three miles – running past the University, over the George the VI bridge, over the Royal Mile and flying down the Mound towards Princes Street Gardens. There were lots of crowds now and people were cheering “Go Fetchie!” and calling out my name as I passed. As I predicted earlier in the race, as I picked up my pace I was passing people left right and centre who were shuffling along looking uncomfortable. My legs were feeling great, my stomach was feeling great and I knew exactly where the course was going so I could mentally picture the finish and how to pace my exertions.

The last two miles are mainly a blur, but I remember a man from Real Radio bellowing at us as we went along Market Street, telling us it was all down hill from here. A fair point to make, but at that precise location we were running UP HILL – I wonder how many times he was told that in the morning?! At the bottom of the Cannongate we arrived at Holyrood Palace and the barriers with the Rock ‘n’ Roll logos lined the street. This was it – the last 0.25 – puke threshold until I crossed that damned finishline! I knew I had a big PB in the bag but didn’t allow myself to look at my garmin and just pumped my arms and legs for all they were worth.

The crowds were in great form here and I loved having people shout out my name telling me to finish strong. I was dying inside and mentally going through the usual bargaining with myself along the lines of “30 seconds to go, you can do anything for 30 seconds…”, “Just cross that finish line and you never need to run another step again – you can quite in 30 seconds and you’ll never feel pain like this again…!”

Mile 10 – 9:06 (gel taken)
Mile 11 – 8:42
Mile 12 – 7:40
Mile 13.1 – 1:00

Upon finishing I immediately pulled over to the side until the urge to vomit subsided. A quick look at my watch showed 2:01:52 – unofficially 6 minutes off my personal best! Half grimacing, half grinning I staggered forward to be presented with my medal and shook my head in disbelief, what the hell happened there then?!

It would appear once more, that the tried-and-tested training regime of sitting on one’s arse and drinking a lot of wine for a few weeks will give you a new PB. You heard it here first folks!

I collected an assortment of crisps, fruit, water and powerade and stumbled through the finishing chute. I was happily lost in my own world when someone tapped me on the shoulder and I realised I was standing next to Marko and Rhalou! Two runners who I have been tweeting with for at least the last year, who have the sweetest running love story in the world. After meeting on twitter, they met in person at the Great Scottish Run last year and crossed the finish line hand in hand and then lived happily ever after.

It was so lovely to meet them in person finally! Rhalou even interviewed me for Women’s Running Magazine – You can watch the video on YouTube here – http://youtu.be/I31o6VsqGsQ

I met up with Naomi in our pre-arranged meeting spot and found that she had smashed her goal of achieving a sub-2 hour time – she was absolutely delighted!

I was especially pleased that this race issued foil blankets, or as I like to call them, VICTORY CAPES!

After we had eaten our post-race snacks we left the finish area quite quickly as we were getting cold. A quick shower at Naomi’s hotel and we were ready to get seriously refuelled.

We were both on a huge post-race high and talked about our individual races non-stop until it was time for me to get my train at 5pm.

All in all the race was a great even and a day out well worth the race fee if you sign up as early as possible. I can see this race getting bigger and bigger in the years to come and I expect any teething issues experienced will be dealt with swiftly. A lot of runners appear to not have had their time registered which is causing a lot of frustration, and there were many people who experienced issues with the delivery of their paid-for race packets. Thankfully my personal experience was a good one, which delivered with a stonking new PB makes for a very positive review of this race. I’m not sure if I will do it next year – I am hoping for a big Spring Marathon instead – but I would definitely recommend it, particularly for first timers.

On Monday I was pretty sore – the hills had taken their toll on my glutes and calves but it felt good to be achey again. I have almost finished my 5 weeks to sub-50 10k plan and hope to share it with you by the weekend.

In terms of recovery from the Ultra, everything was very straight forward. I found it very hard to move the next day, but just due to muscle stiffness not any pain or injury. I had some fairly gnarly blisters and the ends of the second toes on each foot were in a terrible state (they are longer than my big toes). One of them has gone numb, which was quite alarming at first, but a similar thing happened after the marathon last year and the feeling eventually came back. I did a couple of yoga classes, but other than that my physical activity since the race has been slim to none – as I said above; complete rest and recuperation!

Last night was the night I finally got back in my trainers again and enjoyed a 10km run around Stonehaven with Kynon. The plan was to do a progressive run – 2x 10min miles, 2x 9 min miles and 2x 8min miles. This sort of happened, but not quite; our splits were:

- 9:33 / 9:43 – Too fast!
- 8:55 / 8:41 – Nearly right…still too fast.
- 8:14 / 8:32 – Too slow!
Total time for 6.21 miles – 55:16

If I’m honest, I started to flag a bit in the last mile and just couldn’t quite hold the pace. I could make excuses about being hungry (which I was) and dehydrated (Rhona in non-training mode drinks coffee all day at work instead of water) but really I’m just a bit out of shape. I probably could have done with one less week ‘off’ but that happened to be when I was away on holiday so it was rather too easy to extend my period of leisure.

Never mind! I’m actually quite excited about throwing myself into some intensive training over the next five weeks until the Baker Hughes 10k where I’ll be having a good crack at a sub-50 minute attempt. If I don’t get it then at least I’ll have a good idea why, but you never know…

Unfortunately I am insanely busy for the next month with a combination of work and social committments which is going to make training rather awkward. I expect to be fitting in early morning pre-work runs at least once a week but since it’s Spring time, the idea of jumping out of bed at 5am in the morning to run actually quite appeals since it will be light and the weather less temperamental. I haven’t written a training plan yet but I am mulling over several ideas and seeing how they fit around my calendar. I hope to publish that here early next week to co-incide with the start of my 5 weeks to sub-50 plan.

Before all that however, there is the small matter of the Rock n Roll Edinburgh Half Marathon on Sunday! I’d be lying if I said that this race, despite it’s obvious glamour and impressive image, has been at the front of my mind recently; but I’m really looking forward to it. After years of reading hundreds of American blogs and race reports about Rock n Roll races I’m keen to experience one for myself. This is the very first outing for the Competitor group outside of the United States so all eyes are on them to see how they cope with this new challenge. The race was formerly the ADT Edinburgh Half Marathon and they controversially took over the race management just one year after the ‘Gold Runner’ scheme was launched, where many runners invested £99 to receive entries and VIP treatment for the ADT Half for life. There are many varying opinions about the Rock n Roll race franchise knocking around on the internet, but I am waiting until I’ve crossed the finish line on Sunday before I fully form my own.

I will be running this race for fun – no pace plan, no music and no goals other than to just enjoy myself and soak up the promised fantastic atmosphere as we rock around the streets of Edinburgh.

So, let me leave you with some snaps of what I’ve been up to the last three weeks…

Instead of double digit runs after work – a lot of relaxing Brewdog in the evening sunshine on my back porch!

I got a somewhat drastic new hair cut. It’s very short at the back but I love it!

I drove from Aberdeen to London with two friends – a long trip but lots of fun.

We enjoyed a lot of breakfasts in the sunshine in this back garden. Thanks so much to Mark who hosted us for the week.

In a break from the norm, we visited another brewery – Meantime, in Greenwich.

I rode a Boris Bike twee-ly around London in a spotty dress in the sunshine.

I enjoyed cider and vegetarian food in Hammersmith.

I visited Brewdog Camden…

…and helped deliver a very important gift for the Camden Brewdog bar! Niall created “Bracken Stackin’ ” which you can read about on his new blog, Running With Power Tools.

Then after a lengthly drive home to Aberdeen in Bank Holiday traffic, I hopped on a plane to Manchester to attend the Resistanz Industrial Festival in Sheffield.

…and that has been the last three weeks.

5hrs 56mins 48 secs
160th/192 finishers
18th in age group, 44th female (out of 59)

5:50am, the alarm goes off, my eyes pop open and I immediately sit up and look out of the window to my left to check the weather. The skies are clear, the sun is rising and a new moon hangs low in the sky. Perfect.

I check what’s happening in the world via my phone and read the #D33 hashtag on twitter before getting up. I prepare a coffee, a glass of nuun electrolyte drink and a bowl of porridge with peanut butter.

The coffee goes down a treat even though I’m already wide awake, but the porridge sticks in my throat and I have to force it down. I still feel satisfied from my dinner the night before; eating early in the morning is my least favourite part of a race day.

I go to where my clothes are carefully laid out and put on my race gear. These are my new favourite racing shorts, I like the grey tank top as it’s long enough to cover a tall runner’s tummy, and the blue long sleeve has been a staple in my running wardrobe all winter since I got it at the Fraserburgh Half Marathon in November. Fetch buff, 2XU calf sleeves and Ronhill running gloves.

I double check my drop bags and triple check my fuel. A bottle of powerade and a bottle of water are poured into the Camelbak and the pile on the left gets packed into the pockets – hula hoops, four jaffa cakes, three caffeinated gels, two gummy chews, and a partridge in a pear tree. The pile on the right goes into my half way dropbag along with the remaining bottles. I prepare a final bag with a waist pouch and a pre-mixed bottle of powerade/water for the Fetchpoint at 27 miles as I plan to leave my Camelbak there to keep me strong for the last few miles.

Time is slipping by and already it’s 7:30am. I allow myself one final double check of everything, put on my rucksack with everything in it and step out the front door in to glorious sunlight.

The short walk to the start takes around 15 minutes and gives me plenty of time to shake off any last minute nerves. I listen to upbeat tracks on my iPod and think about how grateful I am to have made it to the morning of the race in one healthy piece and what a great day of running I have ahead of me. I make sure there is no room for negative thoughts in my head as the anticipation grows when I enter the Duthie Park for the first time that day – how am I going to feel the next time I come through these gates? What will it feel like to be completing a 33 mile race and running down this path in a few hours time?

I pass the starting line on my way to registration and another wrench of excitement and nerves twists my stomach. I’m finally here, there is no going back now. I’m about to run my first Ultramarathon.

—-

When I got to registration I was immediately greeted by Race Director George, his glamorous assistant Karen, and Julie of Watching The Trails fame. I quickly got my number and some safety pins and took some time to wander around and say hello to everyone that had already arrived. I don’t think that up until this point I fully appreciated how many people I knew that were involved in this race; either by taking part, marshalling or supporting. If I had any remaining nerves they were quickly banished and hugged away by my friends who were all as equally excited that the day was finally here.

I made sure my drop bags were in the right places and found my parents who had graciously come down to see the early start and cheer us all on. My Dad took a couple of pictures of his fledgling ultramarathoner daughter blinking in the early morning March sunlight, probably wondering what on earth he might have done in my past for me to think that doing this was a good idea:

With George, and his fantastic race director’s shirt:

With some of my gang: L-R Me, Alan, Tommy, Annette, Ian, Donna.

After everyone was registered, George blew a whistle and the 199 starters were summoned to the starting line for the race briefing. I appreciated the warmth of the other runners around me as out of the sun, the air was quite cold. More greetings were exchanged and final good luck hugs issued as George dealt out the race instructions. Next year he needs to get a mega phone as unfortunately I did not hear a word!

With Sheri:

After the briefing there was a final few moments wait until the clock finally hit 9am…

Photo: Elaine Sandeman

photo: Ian Russell

…and we were finally, finally allowed to start our journey to Banchory and back.

photo: Ian Russell

Photo: Muriel Downie

Photo: Julie

Photo: IanS (Fetch)

Miles 1-8.5 (Checkpoint 1) – 1:27’36

The relief I felt to finally get going was almost tangible. I started in the last quarter of the crowd and held pace with everyone around me until we had left the park. The picture above shows the very start of the old railway line, which is accessible by a ramp just out of  shot to the right. There were one or two older ladies walking their dogs who found themselves enveloped in a sea of neon as we passed. Any other early morning users of the railway line were unfortunately sidelined until the pack had passed them, however most seemed to happily join in the cheering as we went on our way.

My parents had left the starting area before the gun went to get a good spot a little way up the route to take some pictures. They picked the old Holburn Railway station which gave them a great (and safe!) elevated view of us all as we streaked past.

Ultras are of course, known for their sociable reputation. Not even a mile in and I’d already made a new friend to chat to – Jenny, in pink.

“See you at half way!” I called and off they went to get on with their morning.

I kept checking my pace these first few miles and happily it was steadily at 10:00 minute miles which was exactly what I wanted. I felt ecstatic as I made my way up the trail in the sunlight with the Spring birdsong in my ears; I had my iPod with me to use later on in the race but for now I was happy to talk to my fellow racers and soak up the atmosphere.

After 3 miles it was time to take my first, reluctant, walking break and a gel. I reminded myself how important these early fuel breaks were and willed the five minutes away so I could get moving properly again.

For a while I spoke to a lady named Ann who was from Stonehaven Running Club. She and her friend run half the race – 33 miles is too much for them these days she said, but just to be able to participate in half of a wonderful race like this is a huge draw for them.

Photo: Julie

At around 6 miles we came to cross a relatively busy main road which was manned by a bunch of Fetchies. Haggis (yellow jacket) was in charge of stopping traffic, Duchess (Julie) was taking photos and Nywanda and MummyNy were manning a small refreshment table. Even early on, seeing friends was a huge boost; by now the field was quite spread out and at times it was hard to remember we were running a race.

After we got out of Peterculter and away from houses I was ready to take an alfresco leak so started looking for suitable bushes. A big bonus for training on this route is that I know when I can expect to safely and discreetly be able to, er, relieve myself, when required.  Shortly after, the route went onto the road for the first time and before I knew it I had completed a quarter of my race and was saying hello to Naomi and Carol at Checkpoint one!

MILE SPLITS:

1 – 10:09
2 – 10:21
3 – 10:43
4 – 11:31
5 – 10:23
6 – 10:01
7 – 11:37
8 – 11:10

Miles 8.5 – 16.5 (Halfway Checkpoint) – 1:32’15 – accrued time 2:58’39

I was very happy to see the check point and more friendly smiling faces. They were standing under a gazebo with a table of food, water and drop bags. I had debated getting rid of my long sleeve top here for a few miles – after emerging from the relatively shaded built up area of Peterculter, running in the direct sunshine was getting toasty. There were gusts of a fairly brisk breeze every now and then though so I decided to hold on to it until half way as planned.

There was a spread of sandwiches and jelly sweets but nothing really appealed. I sipped on a cup of water briefly to rinse my mouth out and quickly got on the move – my mile splits show I can’t have spent more than 30 seconds at the check point.

Despite the array of food I was a little mystified as to where my hunger was. Usually in training runs the thought of my next food break is always appealing but so far I’d had to force fuel down. Whilst I was running there was a constant low level of nausea which perpetuated the lack of appetite – not enough to disturb my rhythm but enough for me to take note. Gels seemed to be going down the easiest so I was glad I had several with me.

After leaving the checkpoint I felt truly alone – I could see no runner in front nor behind me, so I decided it was time to listen to some music and picked Florence and the Machine’s new album. At an hour and a half in length the duration would see me through to half way, I settled in for the long haul feeling very comfortable and the miles ticked by steadily without event.

Shortly after passing Drumoak at about 12 miles I realised the leaders would soon be passing me. I got excited and looked forward to seeing my faster friends and the boost that it would give me. At 12.8 miles I was passed by the leader who I didn’t recognise – how exciting; we all expected Grant Jeans to lead from the start and he was obviously facing some competition today. A minute or two later Grant passed me and one by one the fastest runners came into sight ahead. I passed Team Pyllon who were excitedly waiting for Paul to come through, unfortunately not long after he passed me walking with a furrowed brow looking most unhappy. I tried to think of something motivational on the spot to say but fumbled my words and blurted something like “Keep going Paul!” which is probably the least tactful thing I could have come out with – sorry pal, my running brain doesn’t think on its feet very well.

I was worried for Paul, but quickly focused on saying “Good job!” , “Well done”, “Nice running!” to the trickle of runners that were passing. Just about everyone greeted each other with a smile and a cheery greeting – the sense of camaraderie in the shared experience was amazing and I felt like I was running on cloud 9. I felt so lucky to be a part of the race and felt inspired by those speedier than myself.

In the distance I recognised Mike and waved excitedly, we passed each other with a big high 5 and wide grins; on the outside he looked strong and happy. Further on in the distance I saw a little red car I recognised and realised my Mum had pulled up ahead and was waiting for me. Hurrah, more smiley high fives! This was truly unlike any race I’ve ever experienced and was so far a walk in the park compared to Loch Ness. I saw her little fiat 500 carry on further up the road to the next checkpoint and wondered how many cars passing by were full of support excitedly scanning the trail for their runner, hoping to see them running strong and looking happy.

Just passed Crathes, Photo – IanS (Fetch)

Some Stonehaven runners including Vicki and Iain Shanks, and Alan and Tommy
Photo – IanS (Fetch)

Much as I was enjoying greeting every runner, my enthusiasm was getting a bit out of hand as I kept on catching myself running far too fast. Easy as it felt, I knew I had to hold back if I was going to finish strong in a couple of hours.

The sun was getting more intense as it got closer to midday, but it was probably only about 12C. Whilst this is March and the sun doesn’t even get that high in the sky this far North at this time of year, for runners who have training in the cold all winter it is a shock to the system to have to work hard in the sunshine.

Looking at my watch I realised half way was tantalisingly close. Eventually I could see some people moving in the distance and breathed a sigh of relief as I could get some cold water and get rid of my top. As I got closer I couldn’t see the recognisable figures of my Mum or my friends. Where were they? Maybe behind that crowd? No… By the gazebo? No. What? How is this happening?! Where are they?

There were cheers as I came in but I was anxiously scanning the small crowd for my support. No, my eyes weren’t deceiving me; they were definitely 100% not present. Looking at my watch revealed I was 5 minutes ahead of schedule – not a drastic deviation from The Plan at all. What the hell had happened to them?!

“My support isn’t here!” I exclaim incredulously to Fetchies Laurie and Susie who are manning the checkpoint; “I can’t believe this, I had this planned so well – they should be here!! Whenever they do turn up – please tell them they suck and I’ll see them at the finish…”

Rather than have assistance to sort things out I realised I was going to have to get my heat and mileage muddled mind in gear and do everything I needed to do myself. I located my drop bag and silently thanked my instincts which had told me to leave the drop bag with the half way crew and not my Mum, JUST IN CASE. I peeled off my top and poured the contents of my bag on to the ground, staring vacantly at it trying to figure out what I needed to do. “Dammit this is why we have support” I thought; “I can’t even tell you what my name is after 16.5 miles never mind figure this puzzle out”.

Photos: Laurie

“Right, Mitchell. Wise up; what are you doing? Quit doddering!” I chide myself; no time to waste energy on being annoyed. I crouch down on the ground and my calf muscles scream at me. “Empty gel wrappers and rubbish out, new gels in. Hula hoops in. Take some jaffa cakes out of the packet and put them in a ziplock. Put them in. Close the pockets. Right – unzip the bladder pocket and take out the bladder, no; unhook it first dumbass…” I speak to myself like a wayward child as my sweaty, swollen fingers fumble with the unco-operative twist lock of the camelbak. I can’t seem to figure out how to free the drinking tube so whilst I’m filling it up with powerade the whole backpack swings around precariously attached to the bladder. I eventually get the excess air squeezed out and the thing back into the backpack but not without excreting some language that would make a sailor blush.

After stuffing everything back into the drawstring drop bag I take a good look at the amazing spread of fuel – again the thought of anything solid turns my stomach. I force myself to eat one or two hula hoops and look longingly at the ‘ultra flapjacks’, made with almonds, cherries and pistachio which I’d looked forward to trying for so long, but my stomach was having none of it. “Alright guys, I’m off – see you at the finish!” I bid farewell and head back down the track with a final look back to see if I can see my support. For a moment I think I catch a glimspe of my Mum’s red hair in the distance but I tell myself I can’t wait and I need to focus on the task in hand: running back home to Aberdeen.

MILE SPLITS:

9 – 10:14
10 – 11:34
11 – 10:50
12 – 9:54
13 – 11:06
14 – 10:03
15 – 10:04
16 – 10:27

Miles 16.5 – 24.8 – 1:33’44 – accrued time 4:31:05

On this return journey home for the first few miles I was able to see how many people were behind me and to greet the rest of my friends who I had yet to see – Sheri was looking strong, Ian and Donna were running together and both looked quite happy to me but sadly Ian dropped out shortly after when he became a bit ill.

The feeling of the sun on my skin was good, but I was missing the suncream that I’d asked my support to bring. Some mild irritation remained but in the end their absence hadn’t affected my race, however the irony wasn’t lost on me that a similar thing happened to me when supporting Mike on the West Highland Way race last year – he ran a stage slightly faster than expected and we missed him by mere minutes.

A mile or two in and I passed the last runner, again I found myself entirely alone in the race. As it got hotter I began to feel tired, my legs felt strong but I recognised that the easy bit was over and I’d need to start digging deep. I spotted a red flash out of the corner of my eye and realised it was my Mum’s car speeding past me and I felt minor relief – I had a small worry that she’d perhaps had an accident and that’s why she’d missed me at half way. An irrational fear but the mind can play tricks on you when it’s tired. Not long up ahead she found a place to leap out and ran towards me with some suncream, she ran with me for a minute or so until I had coated myself sufficiently with the stuff and said she’d see me in a few miles again and that Niall and Fiona were finding a place up ahead to catch me as well.

I think miles 18 – 21 were probably the hardest of the race for me. It was an unfamiliar part of the route, I was fatiguing a bit and I lost some of my positive attitude as I ploughed on alone. My stomach was still a little funny but was accepting of the gels and hula hoops I force fed myself. I made sure to keep on drinking as well, even though my fluid was warm and sickly to taste.

Mum, Niall and Fiona all caught me at about 19 miles and it was great to see them all cheering for me. I was deep in the burn and couldn’t think of anything else to blurt out other than the mileage showing on my garmin and keep on putting one foot in front of the other. After I passed them I realised the chilled out music I was listening to wasn’t really doing me any favours and decided to switch to something far more upbeat. The difference was instant – what did I have to be feeling grim about? Nothing was hurting badly, I still had loads left in the tank, I was making great time, and all I needed to do was concentrate on running for the next 30 minutes. I didn’t allow myself to think any further than 3 miles/30 minutes at a time – negative thoughts of how long I still had to go tried to creep in but as long as I just thought of 30 minute chunks of running at a time it seemed perfectly achievable.

Miles ticked by one by one and soon I was back on familiar trails. I maintained my speed but passed slower runners as they either slowed down or lost steam. Everyone I passed said “Hello! doing ok? Feeling good? Good work!” or some variant and carried on their own race with a smile. Again the camaraderie of the shared journey shone through – everyone wants everyone to have the best race they can and we all know that the tiniest bit of encouragement can give the biggest boost to a runner.

I knew there would be the big, slow hill at mile 22/23 to account for, but I felt I was ready for it. I really wanted to keep running up it as I thought walking would hurt more. I weighed up the options and decided to go for it, after all it was the last hill of the race and after that everything was downhill (ish). I kept the pace steady and slow and passed three runners who were walking, including Robin who I had spoken to during the Devilla 15k. He was running with a Carnegie Harriers runner named Sue and asked me what on earth I was doing – ultramarathoners don’t run up hills!? I said “I’m feeling ok actually, I’m just going to go for it!” and kept on chugging. I was determined to stick to my run 30/walk 5 for as long as possible and was proud to have somehow conserved enough energy to keep going uphill.

On the other hand I knew that not long after the hill I would be back at Checkpoint 1 and Naomi and Carol would be waiting with smiles and hugs. I couldn’t wait to see them! I was so happy that things were still going ok and felt like I was having the race of my life.

MILE SPLITS:

17 – 15:19
18 – 10:14
19 – 10:35
20 – 12:19
21 – 10:22
22 – 10:33
23 – 11:49
24 – 10:48

Miles 24.8 – 33 – 1:25’43 – Finish time 5:56’48

I was greeted by the checkpoint team with big cheers and smiles. There was one other runner there who was looking weary but was enjoying some jelly sweets and a laugh with Naomi. I gulped hungrily at the cool cups of water and washed the taste of powerade out of my mouth but again did not fancy eating any solid fuel. I didn’t want to lose momentum so pushed on and left the checkpoint, I knew at this point that if I made it this far then I would definitely finish and I felt relieved and excited that it was going to happen soon!

I reached Peterculter and the marathon point in roughly 4hrs 40 minutes if I recall correctly – that time is 32 minutes off my Loch Ness Marathon time and includes all check point pauses and walking breaks. I shook my head in disbelief and couldn’t believe the difference in these two races! I made up my mind to definitely sign up for an Autumn marathon soon to destroy my marathon Person Best officially.

Niall, Fiona and Mum popped up again, still full of endless enthusiasm and high fives. I blurted out my ‘marathon’ time and raised my hands in disbelief – everything was going better than I could possibly imagine, and I was about to lose my excess weight at the Fetchpoint for the final push.

Just before the Fetchpoint and the final road crossing (27 miles) something started feeling a bit funny in my left knee. Funny, as in, grumbly ITB funny. It wasn’t a sharp pain but more of an unpleasant wrench and I became very aware of my knee. On the approach to the Fetchpoint I rummaged in my pockets and found my emergency paracetamol – prevention rather than cure, I needed everything I had for the last 10k.

Nywanda, Haggis et all were all still holding fort strongly hours after I had first passed them. It goes without saying but the input of the volunteers at Saturday’s race was amazing – they selflessly volunteered their entire Saturday to look after us all and did such stellar jobs with their cheering. Nywanda had my waist pouch ready and helped me wriggle out of my camelbak whilst I grabbed my phone and two gels. “Right! I’m ready to get this job DONE!” I shouted as I left.

I took out my iPod and found the hour-long playlist I had entitled ‘Last gasp’ which was going to pump me up sufficiently to get me home in good time. Before anyone asks – no I will not share it as my taste in music for running is horrendous, embarrassing, and not for your eyes! I took the time to assess how everything felt now that I had the rucksack off; the knee was fine, my feet felt good, my shoulders were stiff but loosening up now they were free from carrying the camelbak. A quick look at my watch revealed I was yet to pass 5 hours – I forced my befuddled brain to do some maths – I was at 27.5 miles at nearly 5 hours, so that meant even if I ran 11 minute miles to the finish I would finish under 6 hours. It didn’t sink in for a minute or two as I thought I was making a mistake – how has this happened? Where did this speed come from?! I vowed to leave nothing on the course and beast these last 6 miles as hard as possible to come in as far under 6 hours as I could. I decided I’d go for three sub-10 miles, take a short walk and a gel, then go as hard as I could for the final three to the finish.

When my watch passed 30 miles I grinned and said “WHAT?!” out loud – “30 miles?! I’ve run 30 miles today?!” It was an amazing feeling to have. I passed a few male runners around this point who were doing an ultra shuffle towards the finish – they all seemed pretty tired, but there was a young girl up ahead of me who’d over taken them too and looked strong so I decided to try and keep in pace behind her. I don’t really remember much from these miles – there wasn’t really very much in my brain other than focusing on the girl’s (I later found out her name was Noanie Heffron) swishing ponytail.

With about 1.75 miles to go, suddenly Maz and her daughter popped up again on their bikes – they’d been at the Fetchpoint and were riding up and down the trail cheering runners on. “You look amazing! Finish strong!” they screeched “SUB-6 OR BUST BABY!” I bellowed as I ran past.

I was quite close to Noanie now and she kept on looking behind her so I decided to pull up by her side and say hello. “Are you out for sub-6?” She asked? “I am now” I replied “Come on; we can totally do this, let’s go!” Due to the nature of the trail we couldn’t run side by side as there were too many kids on bikes, families walking hand in hand or wayward dogs with sticks. I slipped in behind her though and pushed hard to keep with her pace, but she started pulling away gradually and I just didn’t have it in me to keep up. A glance at my watch revealed sub-9 minute mile pace – it was inconceivable to me that after 31 miles I could run like this.

I passed the Old Holburn railway station where my Mum and Dad had stood so many hours before, and although I knew I only had less than a mile to go I felt myself flagging; there was just nothing left in me to keep up the pace. I allowed myself a 30 second walking break to get my breath back and re-steele myself for the final, final push to the finish where so many loved ones would be waiting. I’d been deliberately not looking at my watch but I allowed myself one last peek – 5hrs 50 – and sighed with relief, it was ok – I had the sub 6 finish in the bag.

—

Photo: Laurie 

My eyes scour the distance for the Granite pillars which with show me I’ve come to the end of the railway line and the entrance to the park. I’ve run this route so many times before and I know how far I have left but I seek out the pillars regardless – hoping for a sign that it’s nearly time to stop. My lungs are on fire but my legs are still pushing strong and I send up a prayer of thanks to the running Gods for letting me race without injury. I finally spot the pillars and push my arms back and forth drawing myself closer to them, and safely navigate the twisted path which takes you in to the carpark. A van pulls in up ahead of me and I glower at the driver – no mate, after 33 miles you wait for ME to cross.

I finally sail through the gates and force myself to concentrate on the potential hazards ahead by the children’s play area; animals and toddlers are on the loose, sweet Grandparents are shuffling in to my path and I run the risk of getting clotheslined by a dog leash but I make it safely past and move my gaze to the distance where I can see crowds of supporters anxiously awaiting their runner.

The crowds come in to focus and some of the blobs start jumping up and down shouting my name and my face breaks in to the biggest of smiles – after 33 miles and nearly six hours on my feet I’ve made it home.

Upon crossing the finish I stagger towards Julie, George and Karen laughing. I’m incredulous and struggle to find words other than “Wow, ohmygosh, that was amazing!” and variants thereof.

Julie gives me a big hug and Karen puts my medal around my neck and I’m swamped with hugs from my Mum, my Dad, Laurie, Naomi, Carol, Niall, Fiona and countless other runners. The next half hour is a whirl of excitement as I catch up with everyone and find out how they got on, interspersed with breaks to cheer others as they finish. Everyone crosses the line with the most wonderful smile but the biggest smile belongs to Mike’s girlfriend Annette who finishes with her arms held high about her head – finishing her first ultra after four months of training and only a couple of short races under her belt. She falls in to Mike’s arms and everyone’s heart melts

photos: Laurie

My flatmate Scott and his girlfriend Alo arrive, shortly followed by Kynon who’s been in the pub watching the rugby. I ask the score…and then immediately regret it. I grab myself some cake and force it down before allowing myself to open the bottle of beer which has found it’s way in to my hand. It might be Miller, but it’s the best beer I’ve ever had.

—

So here I am, an ultramarathoner. Days later I’m still glowing with the memories of what a wonderful day it was. Naturally I’m already trying to decide which race on the Scottish Ultra circuit I want to do next – dipping my toe in to this wonderful world is not enough for me. It wasn’t long after I finished that I said to myself – I can do better. I can go for longer, go faster, run harder…

This is the start of something big.

]]> http://redwinerunner.co.uk/2012/03/21/race-report-d33-ultramarathon/feed/ 34 http://redwinerunner.co.uk/2012/03/19/i-am-an-ultramarathoner/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=i-am-an-ultramarathoner http://redwinerunner.co.uk/2012/03/19/i-am-an-ultramarathoner/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:20:17 +0000 redwinerunner http://redwinerunner.co.uk/?p=2436

D33 Ultramarathon
17th March 2012
5hrs 56 mins 48s

Race report forthcoming…

Naturally I am still labouring under a healthy amount of apprehension. As long as you’re fully prepared, to have nerves before a race is a good thing; It means you’re taking it seriously enough. They say if your dreams don’t scare you, then your dreams aren’t big enough. For me, I guess this is a damn big dream.

This week has been pretty agonising, but I’m glad to have had social media outlets and Fetch to share some of my nerves and worries with my fellow racers. We are all stretched to the limit by taper stresses and everyone is gagging to get started. For some like me it is their first nerve-wracking attempt at anything longer than a marathon, for others it’s the start of yet another SUMS season and ripe with hopes of new PBs, new distances, and new achievements.

The way I cope with stress is to micro-plan everything down to the last minute. My family and supporters have already been sent race plans and instructions. My meals for the entire week were planned and purchased on Monday. I can even tell you which underwear I’ll be wearing on Saturday morning and how many teaspoons of peanut butter will be in my porridge. It’s all about control for me, if I don’t know exactly everything that is going on around an important event I feel like I’m losing my grip.

The one thing I can’t control however, it what happens when I cross that starting line. I expect I’ll be calm and excited and will chatter to my friends as we slowly seperate out and take our own paces into the race. I’m not planning on running with anyone for the duration of the race,  I expect I’ll need to control my initial pace carefully, and I know it will be a chore to force down that first gel after 30 minutes… But that’s all I know. Unfortunatley I know from experience that things can fall apart in races – I felt equally as prepared and controlled before the Loch Ness Marathon, but by 13 miles my race was over as I was disabled by crippling ITB pain.

What if that happens again.

What if, what if, what if. What if it happens again? At 13 miles? When I have another 20 to go? What if it happens at 6 miles? or 16? I can’t shake the spectre of what happened to me in October – it is haunting my race preperations. Common sense tells me that every race is different, every RUN is different, that I haven’t been bothered by that pain since my  recovery last year, that I’ve trained smarter this time, that I’m stronger, that I am going into this race with as much a chance as anyone else as either getting injured or not getting injured. Common sense tells me that there is no point in wasting energy worrying over it.  But it will always be there in the back of my mind, in the shadows of the trees, in the whistle of the wind….what if….

The D33 finish last year

There is little to be done other than to find the courage and to take the first step across the starting line on Saturday, and then take it step by step after that. If I run strongly and smartly I have no reason to worry, I will complete the 33 miles and run straight down the hill to the finish with my arms held high – an ultramarathoner. I am made of belief, not barriers.

“It is not our success that give us strength. It is not accomplishment that make us persevere. It is the struggles, the hardships and even the failures that give us the hopes, the dreams and the ability to achieve the impossible” – htfu.com

See you at the finish.

~Redwinerunner