Just Wonderful weekend......

This past weekend I travelled up to Birmingham in order to take part in the JW Ultra a race that has been important in my calendar for 4 years now.

I first did the race in 2008, having heard about it being really good in it's first year 2007 ....... I didn't really know anybody involved in the running of it at that point but was into runners world and so was aware of them and other people who would run this sort of thing. I remember travelling up on a Friday to stay in a hotel in Brum, after a horrible day at work and not feeling well. I had argued with Mr H because he was supposed to come and then decided last minute he didn't want to. (on reflection, maybe I WAS being unreasonable asking him to come). So next day which was race day didn't start the best and tbh it didn't really get any better. I didn't feel well and had a pretty awful run. At 20 miles or CP2 I could have easily thrown in the towel, but met up with Dick who was having a bad run too....we decided to finish together and just moaned and ranted our way home :) I think the time was something like 5.50.

I hung around for the presentation and despite being pissed off with my performance realised that this was actually a pretty special race, where the organisers knew everybody and cared that they had a good day. I had a train booked that evening but realised lots of people were staying and going out that night. I decided that in 2009 I would do that too.

2009 - 4.45 much better, got pissed after....even better ;)
2010 - 4.40 ran most of it with Matt and had a really enjoyable run that ended with a PB. Got pissed after. brilliant.

2011 special 5th run of the race and social run.

This year I went up Thursday and shopped. Sometimes I do act like a girl :) Ate in a pasta place and went to bed early. Friday got picked up and went to Rowheath to meet up with Mark, Matt, Gavin and Sharon and Gus. Sharon drove us to the start of the race at Stratford, and we started the first JW social run which was also a chance for Gavin to run the race for the 5th time (he had run every year before) as he couldn't make the Saturday.

We basically ran walked the whole route, with banana cake stops at the checkpoints (Thanks for the cake Sharon, I am a fan) It was a pretty fab way to spend the day with friends, and different for me than always worrying about how long I was taking and if I was doing better than last year, yeah all that rubbish Anyway, we finished in about 7 hrs and then it was a quick dash back to the hotel to eat and shower before meeting back at Rowheath for traditional night before drinks. I decided to try 3 pints this year (bearing in mind I had covered 30 miles already) and some vegetable pizza. I think I was quite well behaved and I did apologise for throwing the money :-D I was asleep pretty much before my head hit the pillow.

Race day (official)

Woke up feeling ok. Lifted the sheet, nothing had fallen off in the night. Slight blister on one foot.

Got a lift to Rowheath with others and got on the coach with Matt. He said he felt ok too but tired. Yeah I guess I felt a bit tired too but nowhere near as bad as I felt some days on the 10 in 10. Arrived at Stratford and did all those stupid faffy things you have to. Tried to work out who the lunatic who kept smiling at me was (I am soooo sorry Jules you must have thought I was very rude at first......) and finally lined up. I said to Matt 'I'm just going to start steady and see how I feel' and then suddenly we were off. And I had that thing......that race thing. My head said just effing go and my legs seemed to concur. So I did, thinking at any minute I was going to blow right up.

I was sure that any minute it would all go wrong and I know how long 30 miles is. I also knew very well which were the parts of the race I disliked the most it being fresh from the day before. Well that spurred me on because the only way to get those bit over quicker is to go faster.

And so it went. CP1 didn't stop just grabbed water. The run to CP2 seemed as long as ever and I promised myself a special tablet when I got there :-D I also got to see Meldy waving her pint at me which truly warmed my heart...................not!!! But it did make me get running again, sadly losing my water bottle top almost immediatly and therefore giving my knees a lovely drink but not me. I knew this wouldn't be good, so some time later wasn't suprised when I started fantasising about lying down and dipping my face in the canal. However, when you come off the canal onto the road there is a shop so I got some coke which was as usual the best coke I have ever tasted and spurred me on to the finish.

Finish 4.42 and something. Absolutely delighted and presented with the best goody bag ever.

Found out that Matt had stopped at CP2 and was going to stop but obviously somebody knew which buttons to push because he had a pint of cider and then set off to finish (do you think that's what happened to Haile yesterday? Cos I do) which he did....legend ;)

Didn't think the weekend could get any better really but then me and Matt were presented with fantastic hand painted mugs for 'doing the double' (Sharon they are absolutely beautiful) AND THEN I WENT OUT FOR BEER.

I will post a picture of the mug when I remember to take one, currently I appear to only have pictures of chafing on my phone (why? I have no idea) and you dont want to see those.

I said I would................

So I have.

Yesterday I went to Redricks Lake in Harlow to do the RG Active aquathlon. There were 2 choices, a sprint, 750m swim 5k run and an olympic, 1500m swim 10k run. They were the same price so I thought I would get value for money and do the longer one. As I said last week I wanted to do a decent swim. I sure I can, but it's like predicted results isn't it, no fucking use unless you actually get the grades. I was predicted a good result in Biology A level at school for the mocks but since all I wrote on the paper was my candidate number and a (very good) sketch of a character from Mad magazine it meant nothing.

Anyway, we turned up at the lake and as I suspected it was a low key affair with I think around 80 competitors over both races. Oly started at 10 and sprint at 10.30. I mentioned to Mr H that no one would be hanging around much and that it was very likely I would be last out the water......he didn't disagree cos he has seen me swim!

Got in, water was colder than I have been in this year but not too bad. Had a bit of a swim about to check my goggles, they seemed ok and I felt ready. Then we were off. Up the lake and turn right at the bouys, back to the start and then another lap.

For the first minute or so I felt fine, then I felt a bit of water leak into my goggles and almost immediately I felt a band go round my chest and tighten. This is panic. I know it, it's happened before, I have no doubt it will happen again. So now I cant get enough breath in my lungs, and I cant put my face in the water, when I try I just get a mouthful of water because all rythym is gone.

So its head up fc as the field goes away from me.Thats ok, I know I can do it, just keep going. I do and round the far bouy, then the next one whch sends you back down to the start. This bit is just horrid, we had been warned about weeds but I dont know where they are and I cant see anything so I swim right into them. They actually stop me as I get tangled up and the boat comes over. I tell the guys I am alright but not having a particularly nice swim, they say thats ok just keep going you'll be fine. Swim into the middle more you will be out of the weeds.

What I wanted them to say was ok then get out you've done enough.

Got a clearer bit and made my way to the end of the first lap. I fully intended to get out, I really had had enough but when I got near the exit every flippin bugger there was cheering me on to keep going, so I bloody have to dont I.

Second lap I finally got a rythym going and my face back in the water. I beach myself on an island on the way up to the far bouy (no one told me there was land in the middle of the lake) and get caught in weeds on the way back, but I am so last by now I dont care. I get out run to transistion, apologise to Mr H for embarrassing him by being so useless and set out on the run.

The run was a lovely run, two laps up and down the river and through the woods. I dont wear an HRM but I am sure it would have told me interesting things if I did. I could NOT push. My chest was still tight so I was stuggling to breathe properly but at the same time I wasn't out of breath. I kept trying to get my legs moving faster but it just wasn't happening, none of it made any sense to me and I just had to keep going at the one pace I had. About a mile from the end I saw a branch on the floor and thought...ooh dont want to tread on that I might turn my ankle, and then I bloody did...........had a minute where I hopped up and down thinking I would have to stop but it eased and I carried on.

I finished finally not worn out at all, I would normally finish a 10k feeling like I want to throw up or die, I finished this one feeling like I hadn't run it. I honestly cant explain it, but I didn't like it at all. I want to feel like I worked, I want it to hurt, you dont get the feel good after if it doesn't and it must be pretty obvious by now that it's my drug of choice :-/

Anyway, I dont know times, they wont be good and I suppose it's one of them races that make the good ones seem better. Alarming Mr H greatly by blubbing in the car on the way home 'because I'm so shit' indicates to me that something about me wasn't quite right on the day, I'm not normally quite that fragile.

Today I dont feel like I raced yesterday but my foot is annoyingly a bit sore. I am not sure what exercise I am going to do today but I have been promised a trip to Aldi to look at technical thermal underwear.......I think you can tell we have been married nearly 20 years now cant you  :-D

Next weekend I am going to run, a lot. I am going to treat it as a purely social weekend with good friends doing the things I love to do, but I do hope it hurts a little bit ;-)

PS RG Active do good stuff, I will go and do one of their events again if they wait for me.

Just because you've got nothing to say......

Doesn't mean you can't do a blog ;-D After all I am mainly talking to myself you see.

I should have been reporting on a 5k and a 5 mile at the weekend. After a horrible nights sleep on Friday ( I was sober you see) I woke up Saturday and couldn't face parkrun. I could have run there, done it and run back but I wouldn't have been happy with the race and I see no point at all in setting myself up for dissapointment, you get enough of that in life from everyone else.

Ok fair enough I thought I will do a short run when I feel better later. So I did, it was ok nothing to write home about. Then early to bed so I could run to the Chase and run our club 5 miler then run home.

Another bad nights sleep but ok it wasn't an early start, but when 10 minutes before I was due to run there I was curled up on the sofa holding my stomach, Mr H 'had a word' with me and we decided the best plan was just to forget the running bit and get a lift there and find somewhere I could sit and marshall. Which I did, and it was fine. I enjoy marshalling partly because I think anyone who does races owes something back, but partly because I enjoy seeing people enjoying it..................often that means the people at the back because the front ones probably want to vomit, but whoever, I love it! Below is Dagenham in the sunshine from where I was sat marshalling.

I went home and later on felt ok for a bike ride so I did that. I would have a rant about it but I am sooooo over the two twats who tried to force me off my bike. I shall put it down to sharing the place I live with pondlife.

 Anyhow I was thinking whilst I was cycling (thats why I go through red lights, not cos I am one of those idiot cyclists who thinks they own the road, I normally just dont see them :-O) how much I enjoyed the tri last week and how much I want to do some more. I have decided that running is like going down the pub to meet your mates. Its nice and cosy, you can have a chat and you can pop in for one or two quite often. Now, triathlon on the other hand, is like when you go clubbing, it's exciting and loud and most of the time you (I) havent got a clue whats going on but you really like it :-D you cant do it so often as running, but you look forward to it.

(In my youth a night at a nightclub could often end in some sort of disaster or other entirely of my own making. I got lost many times.....see, like the bike course!)

Anyway, next week I am doing an aquathlon, 1.5k swim, 10k run, so a little in between the two...hmmmm wine bar maybe? though I always assume they are full of sleazebags :-D .......who like rubber.....oh!

I'll pop back when I've done it.

Triskaidekaphobia.......

is.......fear, dislike or hate of the number 13.

I became infected with this fearful disease this past Sunday. Shall I tell you about it?

Go on then I will.

This year has been all about the running, and that has been my focus, but when when Mark said BRAT club were doing a new Olympic tri in September I thought....oooh! Why not, so I duly entered (£40 a bargain for a standard distance).

I have been mixing up my training doing some swimming and biking too, and every now and then chucking in a 50 mile run just to keep it interesting. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

Me and Mr H drove up on Saturday and stayed in a hotel ...... just slight sound of aeroplanes taking off and the new building creaking and cracking every 10 minutes. We were up at 5.15 so I could force some instant porridge down my neck and kit myself up properly. Got a phone call to announce 'IT'S RAAAACCCEEEE DAAAAAAY!' in case I hadn't remembered ;-) and set off.

Met up with Matt and Mark at the waterski venue, and I think basically we all faffed in the drizzle setting up in transistion and trying to get wetsuits onto already wet bodies (well I struggled with that bit).

I drifted through the race brief, (this will become apparent) and suddenly it was time for me to jump in off the jetty.

Now this may be where my first problem was. The water wasn't too cold I dont think but in the deep water I obviously didn't adjust my goggles properly so when we started they immediately filled up. I stopped and tried to make a seal but I just couldn't. The wave basically swam off whilst I arsed about becoming more and more frustrated. The canoeist came to check I was ok. I assured him I was and I would be alot happier 'if I could get a fucking seal' (hehe that made me giggle, he might have thought I was after a blubbery marine mammal) ........ but eventually I decided that if I didnt want my friends who were off 20 minutes after me to swim over my head then I needed to do something. So I did face out of the water front crawl!!! Blimey that is energy sapping and hurts your neck but needs must. I found myself a rythym and when I got to the turnaround I decided to try swimming properly. Turns out my eyes were used to being full of water by this time and they let me put my face in the water and actually swim fairly decently. I was passed by many people (I passed a couple or 3 girls who had swam off earlier) but I hadn't given up.

Off out to transition feeling a bit exhausted to be honest, but glad to be getting on the bike. The rain was becoming steadier but I was well prepared for this having done 1 training ride in the rain this year. My aim on the (2 lap) bike course was to go as hard as I could so I was passed by my friends as late on as possible. I knew they both had potentially better swims than me and definitely both would be faster on the bike, so the way I saw it after a horrid swim they wouldn't be too far behind.

The bike course was actually really nice, it would have been better without the rain but you cant have everything! I felt I was having a good ride, concentrating on staying on the drops and maintaining effort (i dont do tri bars) and when I saw 12.5 miles on my bike computer I was happy because I hadnt seen either of the other two pirate tops pass me by.

Then it went tits up.

I came to the roundabout where if you were doing the sprint you turned back to the centre one way or if you were doing the oly you went another. I missed all the signs, and although there was a women shouting stuff I wasn't processing it...............I thought I had to go second left but I obviously missed the first left because what I thought was left was apparently straight on..........anyway just to make it better in my confusion I just stopped and another cyclist shouted 'this way!'. So I followed him. Would've been great if he was doing the same race as me.

Anyway I happily cycled the wrong way for about 2 miles...............and turned left into transistion. I wish someone had had a camera then because the look on my face must have been priceless. I was absolutely furious with myself and wanted to stamp on the bike for taking me the wrong way. However I calmed down a bit and established that I could just turn around and go back on the course, adding a little bit more to the distance as I did so. I'm an ultra runner, miles dont phase me!!!! Anyway, spent most of the next lap on my own (but nice to see Sharon marshalling cos I missed her the first time) completely convinced I was going the wrong way and annoyed at myself because my initial target of breaking 3 hours was never going to happen. But I wasn't going to stop.

Walked my bike into transition cos there was absolutely no point in running, snapped at Mr H who was only trying to be helpful. Ran out.

After my disaster on the bike I realised I had no bloody idea where the run went or how many laps or anything really.....completely my own fault and a beginners one at that. So to make up for it I ran the first lap scowling at everybody and being not nice. Sorry.

Once I had worked out where I was and how many laps to go I cheered up a bit and got into it. I like running. It wasn't a particularly easy course with a long upslope that was a bit energy sapping but it wasn't too bad. I saw both my firends at different points and learned that they had both had their own dramas....but they both did lots better than me! Anyway they supported me loudly as I finished my last lap which was actually really nice and did spur me on. So thank you Mark and Matt, I think we all held up the Pirate tradition very well :-D

Finish time 3.14 something, ie since I last did an Oly 3 years ago I have made no improvement. In fact 3 years ago I would have looked at the race instructions and known where I had to go so I have got worse. But I didn't give up.

I wanna do another!

Do you remember the first time?

....and yep I do remember the worst time. It was Abingdon 04 limping the last 6 miles with a crocked knee. The next time I ran would be the following January. Yeah I was well happy.

But do you?? do you remember that feeling when you finished your first race......for me it was absolute elation and somewhere at home I have photos of me red faced and beaming holding up my medal for the very first Nike 10k in Kew Gardens. I didn't know if I could run 10k when I started it but the realisation that I could and in just under an hour made me very happy.

When do you think it is that you lose that? That feeling that you have acheived something, rather than the feeling that you could have, should have done better......I dont know. It is probably the reason that myself and lots of people I know enter ever more 'tough' events.

Heh, we would all probably be drug addicts without the exercise. Just start with a little puff (10k) 'go on you'll enjoy it, it wont kill you' before long it aint enough is it, so you graduate to a bit of C (marathon) 'everybodys doing it, do you want to be left out?' before you know it you're addicted to H (signed up for a 100 miler) because nothing else takes the edge off :-) and you never know, it might kill you, enough people have given me the benefit of their very UNexpert opinion to tell me how bad running is for you.

Anyway I went a bit off course there, I was thinking about a 5k I did at the weekend. Basically I ran 24.40. My PB is 22.48. I was sorely dissapointed in myself because I expected to be able to run close to my PB after multiple long distance events and no speed work.

Of course I'm a muppett, I know I am but I reckon there will be a lot of people (HA!) reading this who will know exactly what I mean, but I felt it was important to get this down so that the next time I am being an arse about my performance I can read it and remember that. Better people than me have already told me I'm an idiot for feeling like that........

So.....this weekend, an Olympic distance tri in Birmingham. Fits seamlessly into training for ultramarathons, ie it will be a bit of fun that may hurt a bit, but gives me a chance to walk my bike around holding the saddle so i look like a proper triathlete who knows what she is doing :D (I bloody love all the kit and stuff in tri it's the only reason I do it). You never know I might expand my shoe collection too.

Below is a picture which pretty much sums up what I saw at the PULP gig I went to last night (ie bugger all) added a bit of other stuff to keep my audience happy. I am nice like that.