Owls Count

This past weekend I travelled down to Cornwall for the Duchy Marathon. My preparation for this race had been mixed. During January I did a decent amount of training, with some good long runs. The lack of running in February, however, meant that I had effectively had a five week taper. My plan was to start at around 4 hour pace and see how it went. The course is a mile out, two laps of a twelve mile loop, and one and a bit miles back in to the finish.

The first few miles were OK. They were slightly slower than planned, but I felt reasonable. I made sure I was not going too fast at the beginning. The first eight miles passed in 75 minutes.

At the eight mile point the course turned a sharp corner and we were then running into the wind for the next four and a half miles. Included in this part of the course was also a fair amount of the uphill. I slowed and went through halfway in about 2:10. I stopped for a quick chat with my mother and resupplied with energy gels.

I was back on the earlier part of the course now and out of the wind. I tried to pick the pace back up, but my legs were feeling heavy and the pace was just not there. The next seven miles went through in 79 minutes.

Then it was back into the wind again and from here it was just a case of getting to the finish. I had to walk most of the stretches into the wind – I was being blown backwards if I tried to run. The last part of the course took 85 minutes. I did manage a bit of a sprint into the finish!

Overall a time of 4:53:30, which is a PB by nearly 29 minutes.
The race organisation and marshalling was good. Afterwards we got a Cornish pasty, which I waited quite a while to eat. As the race HQ was a hotel, I was able to have a shower before heading for home.

On arriving back into the UK yesterday, after two weeks in Santa Fe, NM, I decided that I would run a half marathon. With the lack of sleep and the hours of travelling, I decided that I would run at an easy pace and then pick up the speed towards the end if I felt good.

The weather, when I arrived back in the UK, was cold and wet. While standing the in baggage drop line I did ask my friend quite why I had decided to come out for the race and not gone and slept. However, just as we started running the sun came out and the conditions were ideal for running.

My race data shows three distinct phases. For the first three and a half miles I was running at about 8:40 per mile. For the next three and a half miles I dropped the pace to marginally quicker than 10:00 per mile. At the seven mile mark I start moving faster again and went at 9:00 per mile, or quicker, to the finish. I even manage a decent sprint finish – overtaking quite a few people in the final stretch.

My legs felt heavy the whole way round and the tiredness meant that it was easy to let the pace drop. I finished in 1:58:02 – almost exactly a 9 minute mile average, which I was pleased with. The two people I had travelled with finished in front of me and I am glad they found me at the end, as I almost walked straight past them.

This past weekend I travelled down to Dorset again. The main reason was to meet my nephew, who is nine days old today. However, while down I decided that I would make it to the Poole Runners’ Boscombe 5k. My preparation was not great for this race – I finished my old job on Friday and the whole week had been busy, with me dealing with the hand-over and then giving a presentation on the final day.

On arriving at seafront there was a cold wind. The course is an out-and-back, so we were going to be running half the course into the wind. Then, with about fifteen minutes until race start, it became colder and started to snow. I did wonder why I was there at this point! Fortunately, it stopped snowing a few minutes before we started and the wind also lessened up shortly after we started running.

My legs were not as fresh as when I ran a PB last month. I completed the first half only marginally slower, but I was not able to maintain the pace on the way back. I finished in 20:25, which equals my second best 5k time. Not bad at all.

On Saturday I joined the SWJS – the south west junior orienteering squad – for a track session and 3k time trial. We did an good range of running drills and the group of us that had run the night before then paced laps for the others doing the time trial. It took a couple of practise laps to get the 90 second pacing correct.

Sunday started early. I wanted to fit a twenty mile run in and had to finish before my nephew, and his mummy and daddy, arrived for lunch. I ran a route through the villages close to where my parents live. A really good run and it is so nice to run out on quiet roads. Then there was time to have a quick bath before meeting my nephew!