My last couple of posts have focussed on the steps I’ve
taken in preparing for my autumn challenge, taking things up to the completion
of the Nuts Challenge at the end of August.
So, how have I shaped up in September and part one of the autumn
challenge?
A week before the first of my half marathons, I somewhat
naïvely got carried away with the conviction that, as I felt in pretty good
shape, I should absolutely “go for broke” to achieve a personal best at
Parkrun.
For those not in the know, Parkrun has become something
of a cult activity for the running fraternity.
In much the same way as congregations have come together on Sunday
mornings for centuries across the land for the undertaking of religious
worship, in recent years across the land on Saturdays mornings, runners head to
their local parks to participate in the ritual challenge of a timed 5KM
run.
While not in their “Sunday best”, appearance is not
unimportant at Parkrun…
… and though there is no direct equivalent to clerical
robes there is certainly extra respect due to those who have earned the right
to wear a specially presented top to confirm their completion of 50 or even 100
Parkrun events.
I am only a sporadic attender at Parkrun having
participated in my local event at Crane Park just 10 times since my inaugural
run about a year ago. 5KM is not a
distance that I feel entirely at home with as I generally prefer a longer run
at less frenetic pace. Nevertheless,
every now and again I sense a call to attend and, for whatever reason, I sensed
such a calling on 13th September. I even restricted my alcohol intake to one
glass of red wine on the evening before with a view to being in a good state to
run (very restrained for me on a Friday night)!
Arriving at the start line and seeing a few BRC club mates waiting
there, perhaps unwisely I announced to them my intention of going all out for a
PB. It’s difficult to go back on such a
statement of intent and so, disregarding the subsequent discomfort, I pushed myself
hard through the run and with encouragement from “Sir Alun” of the BRC who
tracked me throughout (with relative ease on his part), I made it round the
course in an official time of 22m17s, a whopping 35 seconds inside my previous
best.
Achieving a PB is a pretty joyous occasion, however,
there often seems to be a cost and on this occasion pay back came the next
morning in the form of an annoying strain to my right calf and Achilles’ tendon. Despite this, with the wish to do one more
long training session, I pushed myself to complete a 10 mile run as part of the
BRC’s second anniversary celebration (the 10 hour challenge). With little improvement to the strain over
the next few days, I took up the recommendation to try acupuncture for the
first time and, whether or not this made the difference, by Sunday 21st
September I was pleased to wake up feeling in reasonable shape and raring to
get my first HM of the autumn challenge underway.
This was the “Visit Richmond” HM, part of the Richmond
Running Festival. Making this event all
the more special for me was that my eldest daughter Carmella was competing in
the Kew 10KM event at the Festival.
How did the run go?
On reflection, I think I did everything possible to screw it up, but thankfully
managed to hold out and complete the course in 1h48m02s (pleasingly inside the
1h50m target time I’d originally set myself).
How did things nearly go wrong?
Partly I have the excuse that my watch didn’t start functioning until I
was well over half a mile into the race.
A pretty poor excuse, as I knew only too well that I had set out far too
fast, but even I was surprised to work out later that I must have set out at pretty
much the same pace I’d run at Parkrun (which is less than quarter of the distance). No surprise that by the 5 miles mark I was
feeling a lot less comfortable than I would have liked and my pace began to
seriously stall by mile 9. However, it
was a wonderful feeling when I crossed the finish line and great to have photos
with Carmella of a double Reece triumph.
However, Monday morning wasn’t so good as I found the
problems of my right leg were significantly aggravated, to the point where
walking was not at all straight forward, let alone running! Through the rest of the week I stuck to a
regime of strict avoidance of running, a foam roller workout at least twice a
day, regular application of ice packs and a good few ibuprofen pills.
Consequently I reached Sunday 28th
September, the day of the Windsor HM, just about ready to run!
Unfortunately, my confidence took a severe knock as I
came to the first of a long succession of morale sapping hills! This left me with the very strange sensation
so early in the run (about mile two) of feeling like I’d “hit the wall”! At this point, if my right leg could have
been described as a coiled spring then sadly it was a “slinky” that had sloped
off to the bottom of the stairs and run out of momentum!
From there on it felt to me that, rather than a half
marathon, the event was more like the second half of a full marathon! Thankfully the event was well served with
water points and for most of these I slowed to a walk (not much slower than the
pace I was running!) so I could take my time in drinking 2 or 3 cups rather
than trying to gulp 1 cup on the run as per my usual practice. This made each water point a blissful relief
but I was pleased to retain sufficient resolve to overcome the immense temptation
to slow to a walk on the seemingly ceaseless uphill sections of the
course. One hill at around the ten mile
mark drew a particularly colourful expletive from a fellow runner which at
least brought a smile to my face.
I sometimes ponder on what is the hardest part of a half
marathon, the beginning, the middle or the end?
On this occasion I think it was a dead heat! Even the downhill section
in the last mile, with a straight sight line to the finish, was pretty
agonising until the last 20 metres. To
add to the sensation of being under the cosh, in the last two miles of the
course I saw a couple of runners being put in the recovery position and a
couple of ambulances also went by with sirens blaring. 
I don’t want to put too much of a downer on the event which
was generally well organised and well attended (and in its 32nd
year) and I’m sure on another day I’d be able to complete the course in sub 2
hours. Overall, I don’t think the course
was more challenging than the Bacchus Half Marathon I did last year in 1h51m (I
think Bacchus was no less hilly but was a more visually interesting course and
with a wider range of running surfaces – Windsor was almost entirely on solid
tarmac).
Despite feeling utterly spent in the immediate aftermath,
I am pleased to say that a cold bath and a good refuelling session were very
restorative and by the next day I was in better condition than I had been the
week before, following the Visit Richmond Half.
I close with a note of appreciation for the donations
made to my fundraising for Shooting Star Chase, now 70% of the way towards my
target of £750.
Shooting Star Chase say about their work, “Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or
years, we are here to make every moment count." When I started planning my running schedule
for the autumn the thought was very much in my mind of making as many as
possible of my own moments count. I very
much hope the autumn running challenge I have set myself will inspire donations
for Shooting Star Chase and help them to make more moments count for more
children and young people.
To find out more about Shooting Star Chase and help me
reach my fundraising target please visit my Just Giving page:
