Being ill almost continuously for 4 months is not the ideal preparation for running a 20-mile road race.
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| Trimpell 20 mile route |
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| Race start |
I didn't want to lose my entire Garmin track, so I had to fiddle around with unlocking the touch bezel, then browsing to Menu > History > Delete > Old Activities > Delete? > "Yes", which wasn't terribly easy whilst still trying to shuffle along. By the time I'd finished faffing with the Garmin, the group I'd been running with were several hundred metres ahead, and I was feeling mentally drained from the multi-tasking.
I then backed off a fair bit and pottered along pretty steadily for the next 10km. I went through 10 miles in 64 minutes, which had been my pre-race target time to achieve sub 2:10 for 20 miles. However, very soon after the 10-mile marker I got attacked with a stitch, so couldn't breath properly for a mile or so. I also started feeling very tired and worn out generally.
By 11 miles, I knew the wheels had fallen off. I got repeated stitches, a pain in my right foot, and generally couldn't breathe properly or generate any pace, both of which are quite useful when trying to run.
The second half of the race became a steady procession of runners passing me, whilst I shuffled along at little more than walking pace. I dropped 18 places from Mile 10 to Mile 19. Once I passed the 19 mile sign, I started to make a bit more effort just to get the thing over with. I did increase the pace a fraction, but not enough to prevent dropping one more place. As we approached the Salt Ayre stadium I could hear the first lady breathing down my neck, so I tried to maintain a gap, not knowing if we would have to complete a lap of the track. I kept something back just in case, but luckily this wasn't needed.
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| At 18.5 miles |
On a more positive note, Ellie had a great run to finish as 2nd lady in a time of 2:24:36, in her first long run since London Marathon 2011.
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| Ellie at 18.5 miles |
3 comments:
Hey Chris, it's been a while since I checked your blog, but it seems you've had a flurry of activity of late - and tough races at that. That's a solid 20 mile race you ran, even if it's not what you'd normally be able to push out. What's the deal with the illness over the last few months? Absolutely love the annotated graph of the km splits by the way! Particularly easy to understand for me as I've now become so used to calculating splits and race times in kms as opposed to miles.
Rest and recover well for London!
Scott
Hi Scott, Good to hear from you. My running has been pretty sporadic bordering on non-existent lately. Had a string of illnesses since last November - gastroenteritis, chest infection, sinusitis and now the persistent tail end of a cold. The graph was done in Excel with data dumped out of Garmin Connect. It's quite a good way to see where the pace starts to slip. Have you any races on the horizon? Cheers, Chris
That's a pity about your running of late, but come May/June I'm sure you'll be right back on form. Benjamin will be sharing loads of germs with you as well I bet. I seemed to be sick at least once every month last year from all the germs Lucia picked up from the nursery over here. I've been racing regularly since December (long trail races, 10Ks, 1/2s and crosses) and have managed to pick up the pace again at long last and post quite a few PBs. I did an 8km cross at 11am this morning and it was 15 degrees, which was rather an odd sensation! But I'm really looking forward to the hill racing season getting into full swing over the next month or so. Hopefully I'll manage to catch you at a race back in Glasgow some time over the summer.
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