Pre 2009 Bupa London 10000

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:12:19 +0000

It’s a lovely warm sunny sunday and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. My fiance has driven to the airport to pick up her mum who is flying back from Belgium today and my son is having a nap, so I thought I’d write some more rubbish for you to read (or not, as the case may be).

I think I’m ready for the Bupa 10,000 tomorrow and I even went for a run this morning to test out my ankle and to see if any shin splints would flare up. It was okay. I haven’t done much running at all this week, but I thought that was prudent since I was injured after the Woodley 10k last Sunday.

I ran 5.33km (3.31 miles) on Friday morning (on the treadmill) at a 05:38 min/km (09:06 min/mile) and I felt okay. I wore an ankle support (just to be sure) and I only had a short painful twinge in my ankle after about 15 mins that went away quickly. I also had no shin splints at all.

This morning I got up at 06:30 and it was a great clear morning with a nice blue sky. I thought of going to Dinton Pastures to run around the lakes but I opted to run the roads and go to the local supermarket (not to get anything, just as a destination) and back but using some roundabout route. I forgot that it is mostly uphill the entire way to the supermarket… nice. Overall it was a great run and I covered 5.14km (3.19 miles) at a 05:48 min/km (09:20 min/mile) pace. I just took it easy and it felt great.

My fiance was bugging me to sort out what we are doing tomorrow because we have to travel in to London for the Bupa 10,000. I’ve already got my race number and timing chip and tomorrow morning we are going to go to Reading town centre and catch the train there straight in to Paddington Station. We can then get the Underground to the Assembly Area in Green Park which is near the Queen’s house (Buckingham Palace).

The race starts a short walk away (walking past the palace) over to Birdcage Walk. From there the race takes us along Victoria Embankment out and back and past a lot of historic places. It should go past the Houses of Parliment, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Horseguards Parade, Nelsons Column, Cleopatra’s Needle, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Millenium Bridge and the Tate Modern. I’m actually debating whether or not to run with my phone in my hand so I can take some pics for you all while I’m running around. What do you think?

For those of you in the UK that read this (all both of you), the Bupa London 10,000 will be televised on Channel 5 live from 09:50 in the morning. Keep an eye out for me. I’ll be the slightly overweight, sweaty, bald guy shuffling along. Number 5641!

However, I am wondering what predicted time I gave when I registered. The start is phased based on predicted finish time and I’m in the blue section at the front (section A). If you’re interested you can look at the map and instructions from Bupa by clicking here.

As for non-running related matters, my (best) friend Robby returned from his trek across the artic a few weeks ago and I haven’t heard anything from him at all. I hope he’s okay and gets in contact soon!

Undulating v Hills

The Virtual Runner — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 19:14:00 +0000

According to Dictionary.com “undulating” is defined as “to have a wavy form or surface”. Clearly the word undulating is used a bit to loosely when it comes to running events and their descriptions.

The Princes Trust 10k which I ran today was described as “undulating”, even by the announcer at the event this morning. They also announced to all of the runners that the race route was “sodden” in places.

Overall the organisation of the event was okay but obviously not fantastic (they didn’t send me a race number and timing chip). There was also no clear indication where the finish line was for spectators to await the finish of their loved ones.

As for the race it self, there was a warm-up beforehand and then the race was started by 2004 Olympic Gold Medal winner Marlon Devonish. My warmup was good and I felt like it was going to be a good race. Marlon sounded the air-horn and off we all went. I crossed the start line and passed waved to my family as I ran past. Initially the race was fine and on asphalt which eventually led on to hard packed gravel trail through the woods. I thought “this is fine” and kept on pushing through.

After a very short distance the trail became a “sodden” grass road through the woods. Like a dirt road but grassy. There were some muddy tire grooves and many people avoided these to run on the grass in the middle. There were many occasions where we had to stop because of a huge muddy section and a bottle-neck formed as people made their way through the muck (my trainers are not clean anymore). I’d say this was a bit worse than “sodden”.

There were a few hills and I believe it was “undulating” like they described, however as the race went on the hills became more and more frequent and steeper as well. When you combine that with slippery grass and mud it wasn’t ideal, but definitely a challenge!

I had to walk on about three occassions, usually near the top of a large hill that I managed to run most of and just couldn’t take anymore. I kept watching my time and at the 5k mark I was at about 27 mins which (if I could have kept up the pace) would have put me on about 55mins finish time. Alas! This was not to happen.

The hills got progressively worse during the second half of the run and even though going downhill was enjoyable, I just knew there would be an equally large hill waiting at the bottom as we progressed through steep wooded valleys.

At the 9k mark I thought I could push on through and still come in with a respectible time of around 57mins. Wrong again! The whole last km was uphill! What bright spark at the Princes Trust decided to put the finish line at the top of a hill? I had to walk with only 400 metres to go (but only for a second) before plowing on for a slow (no sprinting) finish.

Hardest race I’ve ever run and I definitely feel I earned my medal. Would I do it again, probably (50/50 chance I think). It was also nice to receive my medal for something so insignificant as a 10k race from an olympic gold medalist. He congratulated me and I said the same to him for his achievement in 2004.

I clocked my time at about 58mins 14secs but I won’t know officially until they post it on the site. Considering the surface I was running on and the massive hills I’m still impressed with my finish time. I’ve put some photos we took at event on facebook and on my website for you to see.

It was great having my family there to support me and they help make it worth it. Now I have a break from events until December when I’ll take part in the Santa run in Reading, Berkshire. After that my next event isn’t until the Reading Half-Marathon in March 2009.

Overall a great day out and a great sense of achievement for surviving!

The Virtual Runner Running Blog » hills

Pre 2009 Bupa London 10000

Undulating v Hills