We Run Now: Tewkesbury 10km & Half-Marathon

Another week, another run. Well two runs, for I was attempting an official 10km road race for the first time in a long while and Rach was taking on a quite literally massive half-marathon. All in lovely historic Tewkesbury.

After completing last Sunday's particularly warm Bulmer's Bash we also put in a good training run on Tuesday. I managed to run 12km, which is more than I've ever done in one go before. Rach clocked up just over 10 miles, which is quite a bit more impressive.

So we rocked up this morning in fairly good shape to register, queue for the toilets and vaguely warm up. The 10km run started before the half marathon, so I got to go some 5 minutes before Rach. The run was conducted on open roads (as in non-closed) which was quite interesting, but it didn't seem to affect my run adversely in any way. I got away fairly quickly and followed my plan of steady running with a "push" at 8km and a "kick" at 9km. What I wasn't expecting was the full-on sprint for the finish (I normally do a long-distance runner's sprint, but this was a out-and-out 100m dash for the line), brought on by a chap having the temerity to overtake me in the final section. I'm glad I did, because I pipped him to 25th place out of 191 finishers, in 46:50 (race time) or 46:46 (10km chip-timed time). Either way, really quite pleased.

Having collapsed on the floor a bit, eaten the majority of an unfeasibly large banana and taken on some fluids I then got to watch the rest of the 10km race finish, and the half-marathon runners begin to come through. I recognised the first three as being particularly quick lads who had passed me even before the route bifurcated into two separate races (between 4 and 5 km). After what was a fairly short wait, and plenty of supporting clapping for other competitors, Rach appeared. She'd been happily smashing out the miles but had struggled with a small lucozade bottle which tasted of shampoo (or, rather, shampoo bottle filled with lucozade), a race number who gave up early on and tried to escape, and her left knee. Mostly her left knee. Fortunately it had the good grace to hold out until the last mile or so, but after that it was something of a painful slog. Regardless of these facts she finished 159th out of 650 runners and 13th of 242 females runners (!!!) in a time of 01:41:48 (or 01:42:02 race time). For her first half marathon that's quite frankly absurd. As far as I can work out, it's like running a 10km race in less than 49 minutes, twice, then running a bit more at the same pace for a laugh. Quite impressive I'm sure you'll agree.

All the results are available here if you enjoy statistics as much as I do:
http://fqevents.co.uk/results-tewkesbury-half-2014/

Now we're both a bit achy, and we're probably going to hold off on training until at least Wednesday. We're going to try to increase our speed over 10km now, as our upcoming endeavours are either of that distance, or something else entirely (think cycling and duathlon-ing). The next planned (competitive) run is the Malvern 10km on Wednesday 11th June. It's an evening run, which will be novel, and off-road again, so unnecessarily uncomfortable for our ankles, knees and other sympathetic joints.

Please don't forget we're doing this for charity. I know, most people run one race for charity (and they are good good people), but having done the tandem thing, we thought that a series of runs/rides/challenges culminating in a 24 hour relay race would be more like us. The relevant website is, as always:

www.teamsnow.co.uk

Thanks everyone for keeping involved, reading this and supporting us in all the ways you do. A bientot.

As an addendum, Rach has just brought to my attention that I've only ever run three on-road 10km races. Two of them being the Great Manchester Run, in 2010 and 2012, and this Tewkesbury run. My times over this four year period were 46:39, 46:51 and 46:46. Weirdly consistent and quite amusing. Must try harder.

The Beginning and the End (including Bulmer's Bash)

Bonjour. I may have mentioned earlier that we were intending to do lots of running activities throughout the Summer. I also suggested that we were considering finishing the season with a very silly event designed to test us both physically and mentally. As such, we have begun our planned runs by completing the Bulmer's Bash 10km run through the hilly orchards of the eponymous cider brand. I thought they were Irish, but is seems they (or at least their apples) are not. Furthermore we have signed up for a 24 hour ultramarathon to be completed in late September, because it seems like a good idea.

So today we woke up early and drove to another part of Worcestershire, despite the

ongoing complaints of my body (which probably could've done without the mighty Arsenal winning the FA Cup final in extra-time the previous day - extra-time equals an extra beer, winning equals a celebratory gin and tonic), and got ready for a 10km run in the sweltering heat. The planned course was very confusing, very off-road and very hot, with the estimated time of finishing being approximately midday. We have been preparing fairly well over the last few weeks and even with the "extra" beverages consumed on Saturday, the overall quantity quaffed was still very modest. However, we had not trained particularly for the heat, the short steep hills or the uneven ground. I took this opportunity to sweat profusely and lose all feeling in my feet. By the end of the race it felt as though everything below my knees was made of painful wood, providing little feedback and almost no confidence. That said we both pushed on and completed the race in, what felt like, a pretty respectable time and position. Rach obviously was well out of my sight within about 2 minutes and remained that way until the last (seemingly neverending) section when, apparently, I made a bit of time back. I still didn't see her though. She just runs off. Upon crossing the dirt finish line each competitor was cryptically asked "bottle or can," at which point they were given the respective container of low quality cider. Excellent. Just what you need when you're dying of dehydration. The run was awesome though, and not half as confusing when the marshalls are there to point you in the right direction. Also, with our excellent one-man support team there to cheer us on (thanks for that Monsieur Bines) it was all as pleasant as such an endeavour can be. A good start and great preparation for...

The Equinox 24 Hour Run! Yes, we will be running across mixed terrain as a relay pair for 24 straight hours. Essentially, one of us runs a 10km loop around the Leicestershire countryside, then the other one does it, and so on... for 24 hours. We consider this to be the insanely difficult end to a season's running. Any race which exceeds the "standard" marathon distance is considered an ultramarathon, and it's perfectly possible that we'll end up running two full marathons (or more) each in the 24 hour period. As such, we're asking for lovely generous people to donate to the charities previously specified. The website is now even easier to get to, as we've created an easier link. We're really pleased that the donations have already started. Please go to the website by clicking here:

www.teamsnow.co.uk

We'll add further details of the 24 hour race as we progress through our planned races. I've just found out the finishing times and positions. We were told there were 101 starters, but only 92 seem to have finished the race; this is important when I tell myself I finished in the top half. Anyway our personal results (which we are pleased with) were:
Rach - 41st of 92 - 52:53
Sam - 47th of 92 - 54:12

The next race on our calendar is actually next weekend, when we'll be travelling the short distance to Tewkesbury to do some (hopefully quicker/easier) road racing. I will be doing 10km (as that seems to be the ceiling limit for how much pain I can conceivably endure from my ankles) and Rach will be stepping it up to the half-marathon.

As usual, expect fun.