10k Blog

Dunnit!

Managed it in a time of 47:47, which is a personal best! This time, however, we got a Tracker bar, a bottle of water and a medal (pictured above). Nearly had a total nightmare trying to get there (I had gone as far as booking a rental car from York, which would have cost us £20 - cheaper than the £25 taxi fare), but Ben and Kelsey came to the rescue, and drove us over there like a pair of sweethearts.

It was a beautiful course, Castle Howard really is the most extravagant setting I've come across, with battlements and follies all over the place. And a rather steep bridge in the middle of a field, which the sadist who planned the route kindly took us over. Other favourite parts of the course: going past another part of the route (with one solitary runner coming the other way), thinking that it was going to loop straight back on itself...wrong! It took a minor detour of another 2k or so before arriving at that point...

All in all, a very enjoyable day, thanks again to everyone who took the time to sponsor me (current total £137.50), I really appreciate it. My sponsorship page is open until the 29th of October, so tell anyone who still wants to give that there's still a little time left!

Plans for the future: Training as per usual on Tuesday, then we need to get a new event planned...The half marathon is looking good right now...

Well, the official timing is in, and I came 225th (out of 370). I completed the course in 51:53, so that's given me a good time to beat tomorrow.

Plan of action for today: nice relaxing day, no exercise (our last, very short, run was on Thursday) and to bed early, ready for getting up early tomorrow to get to Castle Howard (despite its terrible transport links...well, that is, if you're trying to get there for 9am on a Sunday).

And then off to Nando's in the evening! Hurrah! I hope, however, that I avoid the dire fate of last week, when we went for a curry at Akbar's in Leeds in the evening...The naan breads were about the size of the table, I don't think I've had indigestion that bad for a very long time! Piri piri sauce anyone?

We did it! One 10k race down, one to go...

It wasn't actually all that bad, we did feel a little intimidated upon our arrival with the hundreds of very sporty-looking types all warming up (much to our amusement), although we seemed to keep a fairly respectable pace for most of it (Jen and I were quite surprised to be overtaking a large number of people on the uphill sections, and then being overtaken by the same people on the downhill stretches). My (unofficial) time was 51 minutes 45 seconds, although official times should be available soon.

At least we have something to aim for next week...

On a crazy whim, after buying my new shoes, I decided it would be a good idea to enter a 10k race as part of training before the big day.

So we've decided to join the Kirkstall Harriers for the Kirkstall Abbey 10k. I suppose we'll be able to use it as a benchmark to see what time to expect (and beat) for the real thing the week after. Amusingly we were going to miss the postal deadline for entry to the race, so took the forms and cheques over to the Race Secretary's house. He told us we didn't need the stamped addressed envelopes, and just gave us the paperwork. However, as we were running back, we thanked him and left his house...and then posted it all back to ourselves. That'll be embarrasing if it gets lost in the post, hehe...

After getting myself a big blister from either my new shoes or the change rattling around in them on our route last night, training continues (although in different places this weekend, as J Low is going back to Ashby)...

Well, after a trip down south I found myself needing a new pair of running shoes (having carelessly left the others down south), so I took a little trip to Up and Running in West Park to get myself kitted out. They got me on a treadmill to do a video analysis of my running to be able to advise me on appropriate trainers. Apparently, I am slightly pronate (and have a comically gammy right leg after my motorbike crash in France a few years back), and the shoes I bought have some unlikely sounding features, such as 'biomechanically placed flex grooves' and 'varying durometers of thermo plastics to provide torsional midfoot support'.

Sounds like I might need it too, given that we only have 18 days left before the race. Luckily, I have now met my sponsorship target, so thanks go to everyone who has sponsored me, and for those who haven't quite managed it, there is still time left! Click here to sponsor me.

Training is going well, we have now reached the 8-9k point in our training, which should mean that we will be ready come the day of the race. It's hard to believe that we've reached this point, considering that when I started training I couldn't run for the bus! The initial 4k runs now seem very short indeed. It's almost time to start looking past the 10k towards our next challenge, the half marathon in the spring of next year... Well, I might as well get my money's worth out of these shoes, eh?

The ghettofabulous Jenny Low has now officially signed up for the 10k at Castle Howard (1 month 5 days to go), so if you haven't sponsored me, you can sponsor her at http://www.10ksponsorme.org/Jlo!

Training has been a little interrupted this week, I had to take a couple of days off due to unidentified leg pain. I can't really imagine why, but it was brought on after a session swimming (I thought swimming was gentle, non-impact exercise?) at the Leeds International Pool, whose only claim to fame seems to be that it's not an olympic pool, because when they designed it, they forgot to allow for the touch pads at the ends, not to mention the alleged cockroach infestation. For some reason I couldn't go down steps or downhill, which was a bit of a problem for running anywhere other than in the gym!

After a couple of days rest, we took our longest run yet (only 6.5k). All a bit sweaty and disgusting, but we'd better get used to it, as it only gets worse from here on. I do, however, now understand why running tops are so expensive, if they really do keep you dry!

Well, managed to get the first training session under our belts on Wednesday, just a little 4.5k to start with, though we're gonna need to up the distance if we're gonna be ready for the 10k in 44 days' time! I was feeling a little achy on Wednesday night, though felt ok for a little cycle yesterday, and we're off training again later on.

Also, my Cancer Research pack came through today:



So I now know that I'm number 818, and I've got my t-shirt and a whole host of other gubbins.

If you haven't sponsored me yet, please go to my fundraising page: http://www.10ksponsorme.org/mh10k, the total has been steadily rising, and now stands at £52.50. You can pay by credit or debit card, it's fast, free and simple, and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

Please feel free to add comments or messages of support by clicking the link below!