Allermuir Gallop and Rigg Race

Allermuir Gallop and Rigg Race

An update on a couple of races I have ran recently.  First of all, The Allermuir Gallop.

The Allermuir Gallop - Thursday 12th May 2016

 

This is a hill race in the Pentlands and is organised by one of my club mates, Ian Campbell.  Very low key, and entry is by donation to Ian’s charity of choice, which this year helped to build a school in Guatemala.  

The weather was perfect, and the race was short, steep, and challenging.  As any reader of this blog knows, I am not a hill runner, and so I struggled.  Every single time I run a hill race, I swear to myself that I am “never doing this again” but, inevitably, I do.  My Garmin tells me that I ran 4.34km in 6:46, but it’s worth mentioning that the majority of that is uphill.  The race route is about 2/3 uphill and 1/3 back down again.  Elevation gain was 319m. 

Here are the Garmin stats…

And here are the results…

I was beaten to the top by most people, but managed to pass a few again on the way back down (unusual for me).  One incident worthy of a mention is that in order to pass fellow HBT runner Amy,  I had to go slightly back uphill on a sort of mound, then back down again because the path was too narrow to pass her otherwise.  As I went by her she said something to me that sounded a bit like, “You cheeky bar steward!”.  I must ask her what she meant.

Rigg Race

Brilliant race.  Loved, loved, loved this race.  Loved it.  Straight into my all time favourite races, and I am already looking forward to next year’s. 

Again, in the Pentlands, starting from Balerno, ostensibly a  road race, but extremely hilly.  You might say “undulating”, but you’d be stretching the definition of that word to it’s limit.  I had no idea about the race at all beforehand, only deciding to run it at the last minute, and I couldn’t find any information about it on the website of the organising club, Harmeny.  I took with me my road, trail, and fell shoes.  What I forgot was my wallet, so thanks very much to Jon Rathjen for paying my entry. 

According to my Garmin, I ran 9.41km in 42:26 which I am very please with given how “undulating” it was.  Check out this graph sowing how uphill then back down it was.  Before the race, the aforementioned Amy suggested ‘d probably beat her to the top of the hill easily.  I wasn’t so sure, and to be fair, although I did (just) reach the top before her, it wasn’t easy.  I think I passed her with about 200m to go before the top, and as I passed I did mention to her that she had been right.  The downhill was like dropping off a cliff.  I pegged it with my maximum pegginess, trying to keep my balance as I ran the steep downhill at pace.  At the end, my right heel was BURNING – I had to take my shoes and sock off and put my heel in the cool mud to let it recover. 

The weather was great, the scenery was fantastic (great view of the Pentlands), friendly race ran by mainly club runners with a few locals thrown in, and cheap beer in the rugby club bar afterwards. 

Here are the results, and the Garmin stats…  

Running with Ruby and Kata

We bought a running buggy.  This is the 4^th buggy/pram/stroller/whatever that Ruby has had, which is slightly ridiculous, but this is the first one that I have taken for a 6 mile run.

 

The Baby Jogger XC, Kata, and Ruby

 

We decided on the Baby Jogger XC, predominantly because Kata’s friend and fellow HBT runner, Fiona, was selling hers – so we bought it.  Running with a buggy and an 8kg baby is surprisingly difficult.  I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me how hard it would be, but it’s hard.  Really hard.  I am sure it’ll get easier with practice.  We took it out for a run around Inverleith Park for our first family run, and it was great.  It’s the first time Kata has been running at all since… ages (weeks before Ruby was born) and it was really great to get out with her – she’s responsible for me running in the first place.  Ruby didn’t seem to notice we were running.  The trail around the park is covered in rocks and tree roots, but the suspension on the Baby Jogger XC is fantastic and Ruby even had the audacity to FALL ASLEEP!!! 

 

Wheeeeeee!!!!!

I took our daughter and our new rung buggy out for a longer run the following weekend.  It went well and at the moment every run with a buggy is a learning experience.  I took her down to the cycle path because it would be quieter, wider, and there are no roads to cross.  In order to get there, I had to run the first 3km or so on pavement which is useless.  You just can’t run with  a buggy in a busy city centre.  It’s like trying to ski down Oxford Street.  Pedestrians and roads to cross made progress slow but once we reached the cycle path it was great.  I received a few smiles and waves from other runners and walkers, one girl even gave me wave and shouted “Good job!”.  Ruby was asleep for most of this run too.

What happens if I pull this chain?

So it’s hard running with one arm and sometimes no arms, but I enjoyed it and if it helps me get out for longer runs at the weekend, and gives Kata some well deserved downtime, it’ll be well worth it.  I am excited about the Baby Jogger XC.

On a side note, a lot of cricket seems to be played in Edinburgh on sunny weekends.

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket

Cricket

National Road Relay Championships 2016 - Livingston

On 3^rd April the National Road Relay Championships were held in Livingston, a commuter town on the outskirts of Edinburgh.  My running club (Hunters Bog Trotters) had entered a few teams in the event, but also appealed for volunteers to marshal.  Kata and Ruby were in Hungary and so with nothing better to do with my weekend, I volunteered myself and that’s how I found myself standing around in Livingston one Sunday afternoon…and then running in the National Championships.

 

The route

 

Did this sign make me redundant?  No. 

Knowing HBT like I know HBT, I decided to pack my club vest with me on the “off chance” that something would go awry and I would be required to run.  Wise decision.  The day started to plan, I assumed my position at a turn on the race route.  At first I thought that my role was redundant as I was standing next to a giant arrow that pointed the way.  Turns out I was needed.  Despite the big arrow, I had to point a few runners who were about to miss the turn and point them in the right direction.  One runner did something totally weird and did a U-turn which I was not expecting and not ready for, and I had to shout after him.  He’d have realised his mistake pretty quickly anyway as he hit a dead end.  Anyway, I stood on my corner with my yellow vest, arm outstretched pointing the way, and occasionally shouting some encouragement. 

 The view from my station

Then…inevitably…one of my club mates (Dave) who had earlier ran by me at speed, jogged up to me and asked if I would mind awfully running a leg of the race if he took over marshalling duties from me.  And that’s how I found myself running around Livingston.  I didn’t do very well and completed the 5k leg in a poor 21:56.  I was running for the club’s B-Team so it didn’t really make much difference anyway, and I tried my best on the day so I couldn’t do any more.  Despite the poor time (and some later confusion about which leg I had ran), it was a fun experience none the less, and I saw parts of Livingston I had never seen before.

Maybe I’ll give Livingston Parkrun a go one day. 

 

My reward

    

Balfron 10k - 2016

On Sunday 24^th April I ran the Balfron 10k race.  This is the third time I have ran this race and it’s one of my favourite events.  It’s hard to say why I like it so much, it’s an out and back route and is pretty much uphill the whole way back.  The course is undulating with some pretty steep climbs thrown in, and is predominantly downhill for the first 5km where you turn back and run back up he hill to the start again.  It is not a PB course by any stretch of the imagination.  It’s a nice sized race and has a good, community feel to it.  

 That's me with the weird shaped calves

Driving to the race (90 mins away) I started to get flash backs to last year.  As last year, the race was on London Marathon day, and was listening to the coverage of the marathon on the radio on the way there.  The radio commentators mentioned how cold it was and that the leading elite women runners were wearing gloves (they are East African to be fair).  A glance at the car’s thermometer told me it was 6 Celsius outside.  I now remembered last year, it was a bright sunny day, warm in the sun, but chilly when the sun went behind a cloud and there were occasional icy showers.  Remarkably, it was pretty much identical today.  The showers weren’t as icy, but it was pretty much identical conditions as last year – pretty good running conditions actually. 

 Underway

 

I arrived with only 25 mins to spare, collected my number and chip (hopefully a WORKING chip this year – last year’s chip timings didn’t work) and made my way straight to the start where I bumped into my club mates Pete and Stuart.  Turned out to be a decent HBT presence in the race with 5 of our runners taking part.  The race was started by Balfron High School alumni and Rio Olympics Team GB runner, Ross Murdoch, and off we headed out of the school grounds and down the hill.  

There is a sharp left turn just as you exit the school and I got caught up in traffic a bit.  I had to slow a lot to get around the corner and that is a learning point for next time I run this race – make a fast start and a dash for the first turn.  My attitude to this race was pretty relaxed.  I am not going to do a 10k PB either in my current level of fitness, or probably ever on this course.  A course PB wasn’t very likely either due the fitness issue.  I have been sick recently (conjunctivitis and a bad cold) and spent last Saturday in bed the whole day.  So I just ran as best I could.  The lovely sunny weather and picturesque scenery reminded me why I always try to run this race.  I ran the first 3km in times of 3:56, 4:32, and 3:59.  I wasn’t getting over excited because I knew I was going downhill and had to come back up again, but I was encouraged and felt I was doing better than I thought I might.  My target such as it was, was to run sub 45 mins and I could see that was very achievable.  At the 4km mark, one of my club mates, Lucy caught up with me and said “Hi, Steve!”.  After asking where Kata was, (at home with Ruby), she mentioned at the 5km mark that she had just ran a 5km PB.  J  Impressive.  She obviously had a lot more energy than I did and this was born out as she pulled away from me on the uphill and at the 7.5km very steep incline, she was well ahead of me.  However….she had just made herself a target and so off I headed in pursuit.  I caught and passed her at I think about 8.5km, but at about 9.5km she passed me again and I hadn’t the energy to go any faster.  I made it my new goal to finish behind her and not be overtaken.  I finished seven seconds behind Lucy, and 3 seconds ahead of the guy behind me, so mission accomplished.  These was ‘gun times’ by the way, chip times show that Lucy was 10 seconds ahead of me and they guy behind me actually finished in a faster time than me. 

 The 7.5km hill.  This is roughly the distance apart that Lucy and I finished as well.

My time of 43:54 was OK.  I am pretty happy with it.  It is over a minute slower than last year’s time, but all things considered, I am pleased.  It’s amazing really how long it took me to break my goal of a sub 45 minute 10k, and now sub 45 minutes is my mark or respectability.

 

Out and back and undulating.  Makes a pretty, symetrical graph on my Garmin. 

 

Nice medal and t-shirt this year.  This year was the 10^th anniversary of the race and I think they pushed the boat out.  The t-shirt is technical as opposed to the usual cotton, and the medal is ceramic which is nice – I don’t think I have any other ceramic medals.  There was a display along the route of all the previous year’s t-shirts.  I say “display” – someone had pinned them to their garden fence.  Amazing though.  Really good. 

I love this race.  Thanks to everyone involved in making it happen and I very much hope to run again next year (and get a course PB). 

 Technical T-Shirt and Porcelain Medal.  Nice. 

Alloa Half Marathon 2016

I ran the Alloa Half-Marathon for the second year in a row (and I’ve been running every day in between).

The weather was amazing, it was officially the first day of spring and it looked like it too.  I arrived with not too much time to spare and by the time I had collected my race number, availed myself of the facilities, and made my way to the start line, there was only 3 minutes to go until the start.  The starting pistol sounded and after the usual wait of a few seconds to let the runners ahead of us start off we went.

 

In the zone?

Now, I had very low expectations for my performance in this race.  To be perfectly honest I didn’t even know if I had it in my legs to actually run 13.1 miles, never mind  the time.  I haven’t trained in 6 months, I haven’t been running any sort of distance, and my diet hasn’t been amazing.  I have been pre-occupied with Ruby.  She is doing great though and Kata and I can see light at the end of the tunnel with regard to getting at least a new kind of normality back into our lives.  I am planning to go back to training with HBT this Thursday.  So anyway, I set off in a relaxed frame of mind, not really bothered about times – my aim was to complete the race and try to keep it as respectable as possible.  I even said to Kata in the morning that running it in 2hrs would almost be better than running in 1hr 40mins and she said she knew what I meant.  For my run on Saturday I ran a very familiar 5km loop around Inverleith Park and I struggled to get air in my lungs.  During that run I was thinking about the Alloa Half-Marathon and was doing the arithmetic to calculate what my time would be if I averaged 5min/km.  Final whinge:  I had (have) a sore lower which is also baby related. 

 

The DANGER zone!

First km completed in 4:19.  Too fast.  Second completed in 4:17.  Need to slow down.  Third completed in 4:08.  What’s going on?!  I felt great and completed the first 10km in 44:15.  Considering how long it took me to break the 45 minute barrier for a 10km race, that’s not too bad.  I was feeling fine and started to think ahead.  I was on track for about 1hr 34mins, but I knew I would tire and I knew there was a big hill in my way.  Relax.  Just keep on keeping on. 

 

You ran how far?  For this?! 

The second half of the race was much slower.  Every kilometre was completed in 4:4x or 4:5x apart from the last one where I was digging  in and managed a 4:36.  At about the 10 mile mark, at the top of the hill, I could see that I was easily going to finish in under 1hr 40mins and I was very pleased with this.  I’d not have believed it if someone had told me that yesterday when I was coughing and wheezing my way around 5km of Inverleith Park.  I’m afraid that I relaxed a little too much and with about a mil and a half to go I thought I would PROBABLY finish in under 1hr 40mins.  All that was needed with a  slight change of gear and I finished in 1:37:37.  Very pleased with that and I am going to use this as a platform to kick on from.  Training on Thursday and I am going to do all I can to up the mileage and eat better.

 

13.1 miles.  Yes.

A few words on the event.  I really like Alloa Half-Marathon.  It’s the perfect size in my opinion (1002 finishers), and it’s a great route will supported by the locals.  A lot of people lining the streets, especially in Tillicoultry and Tullibody which is fantastic.  The hairs on my arms and neck were standing on end when I ran into the finish – the support is only matched by Men’s 10k in Glasgow or The Great Glasgow Run in my opinion.  The long back stretch is gruelling but beautiful.  I heard one guy next to me comment to no one in particular, “It’s a long road ahead”.  True words.  True words.

It was brilliant to see Kata and Ruby at the end, home straight.  Really nice – I was looking out for them but only saw them when Kata shouted on me.  Thanks, girls! Xx  Ruby was asleep and not that impressed J  One day she will care, I am sure she will.   

Other points of note;

•  Number 395 who overtook me FOUR TIMES, stopping to stretch his calves (or hamstrings – couldn’t tell) before re-joining and running by me.  I made it my goal to finish ahead of that guy and I did.  In your face Number 395!

•  The woman that was running with either her personal trainer or a really annoying guy.  They were around me from about 9 miles to the finish and were running next to one another.  He was chatting away to her about the race in a bright, cheery fashion, (about their pace, about the scenery, about last year’s race and signing up again for next year) seemingly oblivious to her grunts in response as she tried to breathe never mind chat.  Also a couple of times he stopped, peeled off to the side to take a photo, then caught up with her again.  I really hope he was her trainer.    

 Great race and I hope to make it a fixture in my calendar.  Thanks to everyone involved – the stewards, the organisers, and the entire population of Clackmannanshire for cheering us on. 

Dundas St to Calton Hill Loop

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“Hello?”

 

“Is anyone there?”

 

“Hello?”

 

It’s been some time since I updated the blog.  Frankly I’ve been busy what with helping to take care of the tiny human being that now lives with Kata and I.  Running at weekends is a struggle, and I think the last time I ran a Parkrun was Christmas day.  I am not overweight and slow.  On the bright side I have still managed to keep up The Most Runningist Year Ever and I am on Day 648.  I have the Alloa Half-Marathon this weekend and I will just be trying to get round it – I’m trying to think of it as training rather than racing because my PB is in no danger whatsoever. 

 

A couple of weeks ago I ran with Keith and Ewan a route that we run from work quite often – it includes two ascents of Calton Hill.  We pegged it round in 33:19 and that got me to wondering how fast I could run that route if I really tried.  Keith threw down the gauntlet last Friday by running it in 32:01, and today I tried to beat that.  I did.  Just.  In fact it was amazing how close our times were as I finished in 31:53 and that was me running as fast as I could.  I left nothing out there.  

 

The route starts with a long and gentle incline from work at The Royal Bank on Dundas Street up to the bottom of Calton Hill.  This does involve crossing Leith Walk which is a very busy 4 lane road in the city centre at lunch time, and then London Road, a very busy 2 lane road in the city centre at lunch time.  This can cause delay.  Fortunately I was quite lucky, played a bit of real life Frogger, and made it across in relatively short order (I had agreed the rules of the race meant I wouldn’t pause my Garmin even if I had to stop).  From the base of Calton Hill it’s a short and steep ascent which is very challenging.  I ran by some very confused looking tourists and reached the summit exactly 11 minutes after starting out from work – it normally takes me about 13 minutes to get here so this was decent.  Also, we would usually pause here to catch our breath and congratulate ourselves before running down the hill and heading towards Holyrood Palace.  Not today.  Today I ran straight on down the hill.  

 

Heading down the hill I checked my watch and saw that at the half way point I was on track to easily beat 32 minutes, but I was aware that I still had to effectively run up 2 hills on the way back, as opposed to the one on the way here so it was going to be interesting.  I literally had no idea what my time would be.  

From Holyrood Palace at the bottom of The Royal Mile I took a right turn and headed up to Regent Road which would return me to the base of Calton Hill again.  The run up to Regent Road is very hard.  A very steep climb which always kills me, and once again instead of stopping at the top for breath and to applaud myself, I ran straight on.  I noticed at the top of this hill that where I definitely lose time is….the top of hills.  It is very hard indeed to reach the top of a hill then to immediately push on at speed.  The mental and physical reflex is to recover and take it easy.  

 

A short bit of flat to the bottom of Calton Hill and back up I went.  I reached the top for the second time, nearly wiped out a bunch of tourists posing with a selfie stick (really) and ran down.  I had 8 minutes left to beat Keith’s time and I was 1.6km away from the end and it was all downhill from here.  Got lucky again with the traffic, pushed my tired legs on as much as I could, and the next glance at my watch told me that I had been running for 31:26 – I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  

 

Make it I did.  Finished in 31:53 and must have looked ridiculous to any colleagues that saw me rock up outside work, pink faced and dripping in sweat.  

 

This lays down a marker for next time (Friday?).  31:53 to beat, and it was useful to get a hard run in ahead of the Alloa Half this weekend, even if the distance was 6.8km compared to the 22km I will need to run on Sunday.    

Day 613 - Deleted Run from Garmin!

Oops. For only the second time in 613 days of consecutive running, I don't have the prof go back it up. I deleted my activity straight after finishing the run instead of saving it. Oh no!

Fortunately I was running at lunch time with Keith and he recorded the same run on his Strava. So here are the stats...

No Good Advice - Crisis Averted

Yesterday was Day 585 of consecutive running and I very nearly didn't make it. My Most Runningist Year Ever very nearly stopped at Day 584. I hurt my back early in the mornin while putting Ruby in her bouncy chair. It was 5am, I was tired, but it's no excuse for stupidity. Her chair was on the floor and I bent from the waist holding a nearly 7kg weight down to the floor. The result was obvious. The worst of it was that I was worried I wouldn't be able to help Kata with Ruby for a while. I was angry and ashamed. 

Tried to run at lunch time. Failed. The spasming in my back meant I couldn't even run through it. It took me an hour to get changed, attempt to run 200m, fail, and get dressed again.  I resolved to drug myself up and try again in the evening. I was convinced it was over, but I'd give it a try. I told Kata my chances were about 30%, but I didn't even feel  as confident as that. 

In the end I ran 3.08km in 21:36, average 7:01/km. if running is never having 2 feet on the ground at the same time, then it was running. I was so relieved. How did I manage it?  Not in any way advised by any coaches or physics that's for sure. I managed it on a cocktail of paracetamol, ibuprofen, some prescription pain killers that were not prescribed for me (Kata was given them for recovering from child birth),....and whisky. This is probably how Keith Richards starts the day, but for me it's now how I start my runs!  

Disclaimer:  I in no way endorse this, and it's absolute madness.