Tag: Race Reviews

Warning: super long blog!

It’s been a busy week, but I have finally had time to put some thoughts together.

First of all, what an epic training block. 15 weeks. 1st January 2024 to 14th April 2024. It was so all-encompassing and such a bubble that I feel a bit bereft without it!

During this training block:

• I started the block with a 5k PB of 26:23 (set in December 2023); via weekly fast efforts at parkrun, I whittled it down to 24:05.
• I started the block with a 10k PB of 54:23 (set in October 2023); in week 13 of the block, at the North Tyneside 10k, I took it down to 49:34.
• I started the block with a half marathon PB of 2:14:52 (set in September 2023); in week 6 of the block, at the Valentine Half Marathon, I took it down to 1:59:31.
• In week 11 of the block, I ran my first ever ultra – the 34-mile Tyne Bridges to Boundaries Ultra.
• Through careful prehab habits built up over time, I never allowed any slight niggles to turn into injuries, and managed to get through the whole block without missing a single planned training run.
• Following years of attempting to fuel with gels and chews that made me feel sick, I appear to have cracked long-distance fuelling (for now at least), having switched to Active Root ginger gel mix.
• I went through three tubes of Deep Heat, in addition to using up all the sample sachets collected from race goody bags over the last few years.
• In global running news: Kelvin Kiptum sadly and shockingly passed away, Camille Herron broke the women’s six-day record, Jasmin Paris became the first ever female finisher of the Barkley Marathons, Nicki Clark was awarded the first ever parkrun 1,000 milestone shirt, the London Marathon tightened up its GFA times, and Russ Cook became the first person to run the length of Africa.

A typical week during this block:

• Monday: TMBR social run (3-4 miles) in the evening.
• Tuesday: speedwork session in the morning, strength session in the evening.
• Wednesday: rest day one-mile streak saver.
• Thursday: long run.
• Friday: TMBR social run (3-4 miles) in the morning.
• Saturday: fast effort at parkrun.
• Sunday: medium long run (2 miles solo, 6 miles with TMBR, 2 miles solo – 10 in total).

Most of the plan was just adapted from my usual routine. I based the long run distances and speedwork sessions on the Ben Parkes improver plan, but I didn’t do any of the marathon goal pace work recommended within the long runs – I kept them all easy and focused on hitting the distance. This was because the distance itself still felt a bit out of my comfort zone, as I hadn’t attempted a marathon for two years. I decided to include both a long run and a medium long run in the weekly schedule because I felt I should keep the mileage high in order to prepare for the ultra. I knew it wasn’t ideal to plonk my first ultra in the middle of a marathon training block, but it was an event I really wanted to do!

On weeks when I had B races (weeks 6, 11 and 13) I swapped the Tuesday and Thursday sessions round in order to give myself a slight mini-taper before each race. I also only did 10 miles for my midweek long run in week 11 instead of the scheduled 20, as I knew the ultra would provide more than enough mileage for that week.

Random maranoia niggles during the taper:

• Bruised calves from sports massage #1 in week 13 – these were tender for days and gave me a bit of a scare! I do think the massage contributed to my 10k race result that week though.
• Wisdom tooth / gum pain, which I haven’t had for years. Every time I thought it had gone away, it would reappear on the opposite side of my mouth. This went on for a good fortnight leading up to the marathon.
• Right hamstring – this felt like it had pulled as I was walking off after my final fast parkrun effort, 8 days before the race. Cue PANIC, though my mind was eased a bit when there were no issues with it during sports massage #2 in week 15.
• Ankylosing spondylitis symptoms – I haven’t had any spondylitis symptoms since I started my current treatment 11 months ago, so having twinges of the old familiar back pain and sciatica was really scary. It was this that cemented my decision to skip the calves during sports massage #2 – I asked the physio to work on my lower back instead. However, I could still feel the dull ache in my back on the tram of the morning of the race, and I was almost in tears when Geth went off to his start pen – I was convinced, despite everything that had gone right during the training, that the spondylitis was going to descend and scupper my race yet again.
• Uveitis – I haven’t had any uveitis attacks since starting the current spondylitis treatment, as protecting against uveitis is a (happy) side effect of the medication. However, I kept getting itchy eyes in the final few days before we were due to travel to Manchester, and similarly to the spondylitis, I was convinced that it was all happening again. (Nevertheless, I did run my very first marathon (London 2019) three days after being diagnosed with my first uveitis attack and was stopping to put in eye drops once an hour during the race, so I knew it could be done if necessary!)

Race weekend, then.

We arrived in Manchester on the Friday, as the last time I did a long drive the day before a marathon (Edinburgh 2022) I felt it contributed to issues during the race. We stayed at a hotel at the airport rather than in the centre of Manchester so that we’d have an easy place to park; unfortunately, the hotel wasn’t great and the food selection was limited, which meant we weren’t as ideally carb-loaded as we would have liked. Definitely a lesson for the future.

We did my ideal ‘pre-marathon Saturday’ that had worked for me in London in 2019 and 2021 – shakeout parkrun (Wythenshawe – parkrunday catchup blog to follow!) and then back to the hotel to get everything sorted for race morning and rest as much as possible. I prepped my gel mix flasks in advance, as I had done for the ultra, as it takes a while and I didn’t want to be faffing with that on race morning.

I was surprised to find my nerves had gone when I woke up on Sunday. I suppose I was just laser-focused on the race morning logistics. Breakfast in the room (brioche! I have crumpets in training but brioche is my marathon race day good luck charm), kit and numbers and warm layers on, tram from the airport to Trafford Bar. The circuit round Old Trafford cricket ground to drop our bags off and get ready was fine, as there was lots to see (including the finish straight) and lots to keep my mind occupied, but I found the next two hours of waiting for the start incredibly difficult. Geth’s wave started a full 45 minutes before mine and was called 45 minutes before that, which meant I had 90 minutes of being on my own and worrying about the race. I tried to focus on moving through the process to the start line, but there was a lot of standing about and time to think. This really wasn’t helpful mentally, and in future we’ll either make sure to be in the same wave or travel separately.

Because of trying to keep moving through the process whenever I could, I was right at the front of my wave. When we finally set off, of course there were the usual slight panicked thoughts about having a long way to go, but as soon as I was running I instantly felt better. I had made the decision a few days previously that I wouldn’t panic about pace for the first few miles as I did not want to be constantly looking at my watch – whatever was comfortable was comfortable. What was comfortable turned out to be quite fast, but I was okay with that – the aim for this marathon was just to see what I could do.

My electrolyte water supply (soft flask in the front pocket of my Naked band) was driving me nuts by the end of mile one, as it was bouncing all over the place. I managed to swap it with one of my gel flasks, which instantly made everything more comfortable. However, this meant the heavy flask of water was now on my lower back, which has been a spondylitis trigger in the past, so I made the decision to lighten the load more quickly by drinking only from my electrolyte flask rather than the water stations until the later stages of the race. Mile two was my fastest of the whole race because I unconsciously run faster when I’m faffing about with stuff in my running belt – I think it’s because it feels like the faffing is slowing me down so I try to make up for it!

In terms of the general feeling of a marathon being a long day out, this was a world away from the marathons I had run in the past, which ranged from 6:26 to 7:13 in time. With me being so much faster now, the miles were ticking by so much more quickly, and mentally it felt like a much shorter race. This really, really helped. It really drove home to me how different a mental challenge it is to complete a marathon as a slower runner trying to finish the distance versus as a faster runner trying to get the best time possible – the mentality I used to have to build around it was more comparable to the ultra I did in training than to the race I ran on Sunday. The ‘be out on your feet all day’ mental challenge and the ‘run this long distance at a fast speed’ mental challenge are absolute worlds apart, and so in many ways I felt like a marathon newbie all over again, because I had never run a marathon in this way – I had never ‘raced’ one before.

I had some gel every four miles and some electrolyte water every four miles, alternating at two-mile intervals. This meant that I was never more than two miles away from the next ‘treat’ and broke up the distance really nicely.

I got a small stone in my shoe at mile seven. It was annoying but not painful at that point. I knew it would undoubtedly sting a bit later in the race, but I did not want to stop running to get rid of it. I had found a good flow and I was doing well.

The Manchester crowds were incredible – for me the most atmospheric crowds I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve done London in person twice and GNR in person seven times! All I could hear was my name being called over and over, and at some points I found it a bit overwhelming. Because of this, I stuck with my plan to chunk the race up by starting some podcasts on my headphones at the mile ten marker. I’ve never felt the need to listen to anything in a race before, but on this occasion it did really help, and I’ll probably consider it for future marathons.

I was still running 9ish min miles at the halfway point, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold it for the second half, so I let go of any wild dreams of sub-4 (that’s for a future attempt!) and focused on running the best race I could. The course was beautifully flat, and the infamous hill in Altrincham (mile 16, not mile 17 as I’d been told) was barely a hill – it was over before I knew it! In the next couple of miles, I did start to slow quite noticeably. I didn’t know what pace I’d be able to hold for the rest of the race, but one goal was now at the forefront of my mind: run the whole marathon nonstop without stopping or walking. This was something that had previously seemed impossible, but I still felt strong and knew I could do it if I was determined.

Whenever I felt tired, I focused on my form, which felt good. I was in my Nike Vaporflys, which I only wear for fast races; this was a minor gamble as I had only run up to half marathon distance in them previously. However, I was confident that they would see me right on race day, and I was correct. In regular shoes over a long distance, my feet always hurt eventually – it feels like the bones on the sides of my feet are painfully rolling against the ground, which can be agony. This doesn’t happen with the Vaporflys. Of course they give the speed benefit as well, but it’s the comfort factor that has really made them my go-to race shoes. Still surprised that speedy carbons like that seem to suit me, but that’s why you try everything once!

The spondylitis didn’t… not show up. I did feel that stiffness and discomfort in my lower back in the later stages of the race. However – and this is the important thing – it didn’t stop me running or cause me any additional slowdown. I am glad that I drank my carried water quicker than planned, because I think it helped prevent it being any worse – I didn’t use the water stations until after about mile 18. If that’s as bad as it’s going to get in marathons, I can 100% live with it. Hopefully, though, this marathon was just a slight aberration and the medication will go back to doing its usual job of keeping the condition completely at bay.

I had considered switching from podcasts to music at mile 20, but stuck with the podcasts as I felt music would be too much for my overwhelmed brain. The final few miles did really hurt. A few thoughts of ‘can I really do this again so soon?’ (having already signed up for the Yorkshire Marathon in October). Counting down the miles, trying to work out how much difference there was going to be in mileage between the course and my watch, digging deep to hold on for a nonstop run, sighing slightly as I let the 4:15 pacers go (might have managed a better time if I’d run with them from the start… but I don’t regret starting faster to see what I had in me). And the soleus pain in both legs. OMG, the soleus pain. This was a niggle that had briefly arisen in January before I fought it off with my copious nightly application of Deep Heat, and I hadn’t heard a peep out of my soleus muscles since. Not even during the taper, when every other part of my body was flaring up just to mess with my head. Now, though… they ached so badly with every step. But I kept running. I knew I could keep running, even though I was getting slower and slower.

I even kept running during the AGONISING few seconds when the stone in my shoe flipped itself over and jammed itself directly into the cumulative blister that had first developed during the ultra four weeks previously and revitalised itself during every long run in the intervening period. I nearly screamed out loud, but I kept running. I was so close now.

The great thing about the Manchester finish line is that you can see it from more than half a mile away, after you turn the last bend. This is also the bad thing about the Manchester finish line. I ran and ran and ran and it still looked far away. But somehow, eventually, I was there, and the timing mats were under my feet, and finally, finally, I could stop running.

4:21:28. More than two hours off my marathon PB. And the nonstop marathon – no stopping, no walking, no breaking stride – that I had worked so hard for in the last few miles.

I didn’t quite hit my time goals, but I was so proud of what I’d done. I collected my medal, held it the wrong way round for the official photographer, walked what felt like a very long way before they gave us any water, collected my t-shirt, collected a can of Erdinger for Geth, and saw my sister-in-law Heulwen before I entered the cricket ground, which was a lovely surprise. At the bag drop, I collected my bag and reunited with the newly sub-4 Geth, who asked how I was doing.

‘I am broken,’ I said, because I was. I put on my warm layers and had my bottle of water and my bottle of full-fat Coke and my protein bar (good thing I brought that because there were no snacks to be had at the finish!), and I shivered uncontrollably because I get post-run freeze and the harder the effort the worse it is, and then we hobbled out of Old Trafford in our Oofos, fought our way through the crowds and the queues, got on a packed tram for one stop, and then got a lift with Heulwen the rest of the way back to the hotel, which was hugely appreciated.

I have learnt a lot from marathon experience #5. This is a distance that requires so much study and I think it will take a few more goes before I get it right. But it’s also a distance that I find strangely fascinating and I’ve sort of fallen in love with – for the exact same reasons. It’s a fulfilling distance precisely because it’s so hard to get right and it takes so much work and it feels like such an achievement.

During training, I listened to an early episode of Marathon Talk where someone said ‘the hardest thing about the marathon is that you have to wait for so long to put a bad run right’. I have had to wait for two years since my disaster at Edinburgh. While I still think there’s a lot of room for improvement, I certainly feel that I put that bad run right. I’m glad I won’t have to wait nearly so long for the next one.

Things I will do differently in the next marathon training block:

• Marathon goal pace efforts during long runs. I’ve always done all my long marathon training runs at easy pace because that’s what you do if you’re just trying to complete the distance – and I want to do more than just complete the distance now.
• I will have a better idea of my goal paces. At the start of this block, I had absolutely no idea what my goal paces should be, because I was improving so fast and my running was so different to what it had been the last time I’d attempted a marathon – so I just had to wing it and guess at a pace when my speedwork sessions called for ‘tempo pace’ etc.
• I will fuel with Active Root from the start! I’m glad I discovered it in the latter stages of this training block, but I still had to suffer through a lot of bad long runs where I felt sick and had no energy.
• Additional strength and cross-training. I did quite well with this, but I want to improve it.
• Fewer B races, as they do distract from the training. I’ll do the GNR as usual in the run-up to Yorkshire, but nothing else (and certainly no ultras!).

Things I will keep the same:

• Mileage. In fact, I might do even more. I was averaging 50-60 mile weeks at peak and I’ve never felt so strong.
• My general weekly routine. It’s nice and varied and really works for me.

I won’t be marathon training again until July though. Yes, I still feel bereft! But in the meantime, it’s 10k season. I have three 10k races and a 5.8ish mile race (Blaydon Race, which is an odd duck distance-wise but a lot of fun) in the next two and a half months, and the goal is to have a bit of fun with speed during that time… and try and forget about my long-distance dreams for a little while!

The final B race of the spring marathon training block!

This was my first 10k race since Leeds Abbey Dash last October, and my parkrun times have improved by a few minutes since then – so I expected a PB, even though I’m not in ideal 10k shape at the moment given all the marathon training miles in my legs. The hope was that I would knock two or three minutes off my Leeds time (which was 54:23), giving me a good benchmark for going into my summer 10k races and hopefully getting a sub-50 time by July.

As is generally the case at the moment, the logistics were almost more anxiety-inducing than the actual race – especially given that the clocks were going forward the night before – and so I didn’t sleep well. I arrived at the Metro station early, which was for the best, given that the train was also eight minutes earlier than advertised! I’d have had to wait another half hour if I hadn’t caught it, which would have made it very tight to get to the bag drop in time.

As it happened, though, I had plenty of time, and after dropping my bag was able to find all my TMBR clubmates and chat for a while before the start.

We got a bit split up heading to the start, but Ed and I were able to get fairly close to the front, meaning we were over the start line about half a minute after the gun – though there was still a lot of weaving to be done for the first couple of miles. I focused on feel, trying only to look at my watch on mile splits. The pace was quick but comfortable to settle into, and I overtook Ed about two miles in, after which I concentrated on trying to keep up with people in front. I’d run the North Tyneside route on a couple of long slow marathon training runs recently, and so it was fresh in my mind, though of course racing it feels very different to plodding it!

Ed then overtook me again at around the five-mile mark, and so I focused on keeping up with him for the last mile. It was getting hard and so it was good to have someone to chase! I kept up right until the final turn onto the finish straight at the lighthouse, then I sprinted – or tried to, anyway, I didn’t have much energy left! On the finish line I was amazed to find that my watch read 49:35 (49:34 official chip time). I’d managed the sub-50 that I hadn’t expected until later in the year! Ed was just a second behind me to the line (we got the same chip time) so it was nice to finish another race together after the ultra a fortnight ago. We got our bags and waited for the others to finish so that we could have the traditional celebration photos.

I couldn’t have asked for more from this race. I’m absolutely floored to have got my 2024 target 10k time already, and now I don’t really know what to aim for when I’m specifically targeting 10k races in the late spring/early summer… just keep trying to chip away at the PB, I suppose!

This race has also been a real measure of how far I’ve come in the last couple of years. When I first did it in October 2021 (the version originally scheduled for Easter 2020 and postponed three times), I had a bad day with my spondylitis and dragged a dead, painful leg round in 1:20:18. My second attempt in April 2023 was a good day with no symptoms, but that was still purely down to luck (it was the following month that I would start on the medication that has rid me of the chronic pain and has finally allowed me to train properly for the last ten and a half months). I finished the 2023 race in 1:05:07 and was thrilled – it was my second fastest 10k race to date at that time – but the fact that I’ve been able to take more than 15 minutes off my course time in the space of less than a year is mindblowing.

Onto the final couple of weeks before the marathon, then. All my excuses for avoiding thinking about it yet are well and truly gone, and the first nerves are starting to hit. Onwards we go.

An all-day adventure!

I was up at 4:20am for this one (couldn’t sleep) and was parked at the race start soon after 6am, mainly because I was more nervous about getting a parking space than about the run itself. I’m glad I went so early because it meant I had an hour or two in the car to decompress with a magazine.

I got myself set up and warmed up and found my friend Ed at the start, and soon we were off along the banks of the Tyne. It was fairly busy for the first few miles of the run, and it mostly seemed to be locals – lots of people using it as a training run for The Wall ultra in the summer. The first few miles ticked along fairly quickly, and I was glad I knew this bit of the route from doing my recces during the last couple of months of marathon training. It didn’t feel like long before we reached the first checkpoint at Wylam, 11 miles in (though the race guide had listed this as 8 miles in – there were quite a few last-minute route changes!).

The next section felt a bit lonelier as people started to spread out, and Ed and I started taking the odd walk break as the route became trailier. I hadn’t done this bit in training, which meant that it felt longer as I didn’t really know where I was. The race guide was slightly off in distance again for the halfway checkpoint at Stocksfield – advertised as 16 miles but it was 17.5 miles in. It felt like it took a while to get there! I was really grateful for the banana and cola on arrival, but we made sure to get going again quickly.

More wooded trail sections awaited us on the south side of the river for the next stretch, including a few muddy paths that were fairly unrunnable! Again, I didn’t know this section at all and had now adjusted my mental schedule so that the checkpoints were approximately a mile behind their advertised position and the total distance was 33 miles rather than the advertised 32. In addition to the checkpoints (where we had our ‘brevet cards’ stamped) there were also pieces of information we had to find along the route and note down. By this point these were about a mile behind schedule too. At the end of this section, we briefly crossed back to the north side of the river to visit the Wylam checkpoint a second time at 23 miles in.

I knew that the east end of the Ryton golf course marked 9 miles to go, as I had recced that section on an out-and-back 18-miler a couple of weeks previously. It seemed like it took a long time to get there (the golf course is massive!) and by the time we did, it was clear that the total distance was going to be about 34 miles. I found this a bit of a challenge as I had mentally prepared for 32 – and you wouldn’t think 2 miles would make much of a difference for an ultra, but it really does in the mind. I just started counting down the miles instead of counting up, and I really appreciated having scoped out this bit of the course as I knew exactly how far it was back to the Quayside.

Ed and I did a lot of walking in the last few miles as it was getting very tiring! We picked it up again in the last couple of miles as we were approaching the Quayside bridges and knew we didn’t have far to go. Geth was waiting for us at the finish and filmed us as we came in – 34.2 miles, just over 8 hours. It had been a very long day but a good adventure, and I’m so proud that I did it and can call myself an ultra runner.

While there were some very hard parts of the run, I know from experience never to say never again when it comes to running, and I expect I will do more ultras (and probably repeat this one next year!). However, there are a few things I’ll know for next time:

• Ultra distances are not necessarily as advertised! In future, I’ll be mentally prepared to do a few more miles than expected.
• I need to add walk breaks in from the start so that my overall pace can be a bit steadier. We weren’t deathmarching in the final sections – we were still doing a good walking pace – but I would have liked my run/walk splits to be a bit more even.
• Next time, I’ll train specifically for the distance. I’ve been training for Manchester Marathon (my spring A race) and thought that adding in an extra weekly medium long run of 10 miles in addition to my weekly long run and other sessions would be enough for the ultra, especially as I’d got up to 20 miles on the long run and everyone says you don’t need to do anywhere near the actual race distance when training for an ultra. However, the extra miles felt like a lot (especially when it transpired during the run that the extra 12 were an extra 14!) and I think I would prefer to have at least run a recent marathon before tackling this distance again.

Geth asked me the minute I finished the race whether I’d do it next year. I gave a lot of ‘ifs’ similar to the above list, but I didn’t say no, so I think the likelihood is that I will.

In the meantime, though, I’ll be glad to be able to give Manchester my full attention for the next four weeks! I managed a marathon PB within the ultra (my existing marathon PB is 6:26:47 from London 2021, and I hit marathon distance in under 6 hours yesterday) but I have much bigger plans for that PB as my training has been so good lately. Fingers crossed.

I am extremely late with this race recap. The autumn got away from me a bit. Never mind – at least I’m getting it posted now before my 2024 race season begins.

Geth and I both wanted one final crack at the 10k distance in 2023 after the Great North Run was out of the way. I hadn’t yet broken sub-hour and I was sure I could, while Geth hadn’t yet properly tackled a 10k race in 2023 due to his spring injury. We settled on Leeds Abbey Dash because it was said to be fast and because we both always enjoy a trip to Leeds – one of our favourite cities.

Following a nice Saturday evening in Leeds and a good night’s sleep at our favourite city centre hotel, we made our way to the start line. It was fairly cold now that we were well into October, especially as I have now made the decision to brave races in shorts and vest all year round.

As such, I felt a bit frozen solid when I started! But I soon warmed up and de-stiffened, and quickly caught the one-hour pacers, which was a good sign. The course is largely an out and back, which meant that once I was a couple of miles in and the leaders were coming back the other way, I had lots of people to focus on as I ran, and I was able to look out for Geth.

I felt really strong at the turnaround and after that it was just a case of hanging onto the pace, especially as I was mostly overtaking people rather than the other way round. I had to talk to myself quite hard during the last couple of miles, but I did manage to stay focused, and in the end I crossed the line in 54:23. Not just the sub-hour I’d been chasing for eight years, but also a sub-55!

I wasn’t really able to find the words at the time (part of the reason I’ve taken so long to get round to this blog), and even three months later my self-perception still hasn’t caught up with the paces I’ve been doing, especially as I’m still improving. I still find it a bit hard to believe that I was able to take such a big chunk off my 10k PB (previously 1:01:21) as I had had a few good cracks at it in the late spring and early summer. Three and a half months made such a difference!

I’m not really thinking about 10ks at the moment as I’m in the depths of marathon training. But I do have a few booked in 2024 so it’d be lovely to continue along this trajectory 🙂

A long one. Be warned.

I feel like I start all my race reviews at the moment with ‘I’m not even sure where to start’. This year has been momentous for me, and I’ve been able to improve so quickly that my brain hasn’t really been able to keep up and so I’m finding it all a bit difficult to process. But with the GNR in particular, there’s been so much going on behind it and so much riding on it. Despite everything that’s happened over the last few months, I was still doubting myself right up until race morning.

My half marathon graph over the last three years has been a sort of horrible slide into doom:

• Inverness March 2020: set a new PB of 2:23:42 as I was in really good shape training for the London Marathon in April 2020… which didn’t happen.
• Virtual GNR September 2020: ran this one with the proto-TMBR group, with whom I’d been training on Sundays. The group’s pace ended up being too fast for me, and so I ran an at-the-time 10k PB in the first half, died a death in the second, staggered in at 2:25:29 (on the race app) / 2:32ish (across the finish line) feeling the complete opposite way to how I had felt at the end of Inverness, and didn’t run with TMBR again for nearly two years (as I felt I was too slow).
• Virtual EMF Half May 2021: planned a lapped route for me and Geth to do this one after it went virtual, but could not plan for the weather, which switched from winter to summer about three days before the event. Hot uncomfortable plod that took me 2:56:52.
• GNR September 2021: the year when we all ran halfway to South Shields and then back again. I was using it as a training run for the London Marathon, but would still have liked to have done a lot better than 2:51:14.
• Sheffield March 2022: due to injuries and the beginning of my really bad spondylitis spell, this was a really painful one with lots of low points, meaning that just getting sub-3 (2:58:44) was a victory.
• GNR September 2022: one of the two big races of 2022 that were both completely ruined by spondylitis flare-ups. A horrible 3:30:26 (my slowest since my first GNR in 2016) that I’d rather forget.
• Winter Warmer Half February 2023: another awful spondylitis-ridden experience where I started slow, was quickly left behind by the small field, and had to walk from about three miles in. My 3:27:51 finish was barely any better than the previous year’s GNR, and was the catalyst for deferring my spring marathon and going back to the hospital consultants to seek better treatment for my condition.

Last month did see a big uptick to this graph. I managed half marathon distance at the Saturn event and finished in 2:38:12 at easy pace, which was extremely promising. But I was still anxious about being able to run properly in a dedicated half that I’d set as one of my goal races for the year. I was convinced the spondylitis was going to scupper me somehow, and was agonising over whether to take extra water for the heat, as a heavy running belt has sometimes contributed to my back issues in the past. (I eventually settled on filling my water bottles half full as I couldn’t risk not having water between stations, but this did cause a lot of extra anxiety.)

Geth and I gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the start so that we could get our bags on the buses and meet up with TMBR folks before heading to the pens. It was nice to be able to chat to people beforehand as it eased my anxiety a bit, and I actually also appreciated having some time to myself in the start pen (Geth had decided to start further up this year). I had not enjoyed being in the pen by myself in the past… but that was when I was back in the pink wave and stuck on the start line for over an hour after the elites had gone! I started at a respectable 11:35am this year, only 35 minutes after the gun. It would definitely be appreciated though if we could start a lot earlier in future, especially on a hot day like it was this year.

I definitely felt the heat, but I was determined it wouldn’t be the factor that broke my race. I’d trained really hard this summer (because it was the first summer I’d actually been able to train without pain), so I did not plan to take it easy in the hot weather like all the race communications were advising. My goal pace was 10:15 min miles and that’s what I tried to run. I set off a bit fast (fairly unavoidable at the GNR due to the downhill start) and then settled into a steady effort.

There were water stations every two miles (unusual – I think they laid on an extra one due to the weather). I had a Clif Shot Blok on the start line and then one just before every water station so that I could wash it down. The water bottles I grabbed at the stations were used for a roughly 50-50 ratio of drinking / pouring over head, and I didn’t need my carried water until the later stages of the race.

I was amazed by how fast the miles seemed to be ticking past. Of course it wasn’t comfortable, but it was manageable. I told myself to dig hard on every uphill, knowing that there would soon be a downhill to counteract it. I never once stopped or walked – just ran, just kept going.

My Nike Vaporflys did brilliantly. I knew beforehand it was a bit of a risk to wear them, as I’d only really tried them out on one fast parkrun, but they’d been so incredibly comfortable as well as fast that I felt they were the best option, even for a longer race. I’ve never run a half marathon without getting my usual foot pain before. It blows my mind that speedy carbon plate shoes might be the solution to something that has dogged me for years – something that none of my numerous pairs of super-cushioned wide-fit plod shoes have ever been able to fix – but I’ll happily take it.

I always find some extra speed on the last mile along the seafront, even in bad years. This was a good year. With 150 metres to go to the line, the Red Arrows flew over my head into South Shields to start their finish line display. I had never seen the finish line display before. I never thought I would, because I thought I would always be too slow.

I sprinted to finish in just under 2 hours and 15 minutes – 2:14:52. I watched the Red Arrows as I collected my water, medal and goody bag, decided not to queue for a membership photo this year as I was already cold (the clouds had arrived and I was soaking wet from having dumped so much water over myself during the race), and made the trek to the baggage buses to collect my bag. A sit down and a change into warm clothes later, the Red Arrows were still going. I can’t stress enough how special it was to see them.

I then went back up to the meeting point to find Geth, and we sat down for another half hour or so to rehydrate. After that, we began our journey back to Newcastle. Much has been shared online about the nightmare everyone had getting out of South Shields that afternoon, so I’ll summarise ours in list form (times approximate):

• 3:05pm: joined long but rapidly moving bus queue
• 3:25pm: ominous-looking large and extremely black cloud appeared above us, covering whole of South Shields
• 3:30pm: heavens opened to release rain so utterly torrential our umbrellas were almost useless
• 3:35pm: felt sick and threw up twice in queue
• 3:40pm: queue started noticeably slowing down as buses became less and less frequent
• 3:50pm: queue came to a grinding halt with no more buses appearing (we were nearly at the front by this point)
• 4:40pm: we finally found out why (all the roads were flooded due to the storm and no buses or metro trains could get into South Shields)
• 4:50pm: they decided to recruit the baggage bus drivers to get us back to Newcastle (thank you baggage bus drivers!)
• 5:10pm: we finally got on a bus (a very slow bus due to the now-gridlocked roads but I was so happy to be sat down)
• 6:50pm: bus arrived at Haymarket station after nearly two hours
• 6:55pm: thankfully straightforward metro back to our local station (other than Geth now shivering so much he had to give me his bag so I could retrieve the now-damp metro tickets)
• 7:05pm: soggy walk home
• 7:25pm: home, nearly six hours after finishing the race

Not ideal, really. Hopefully we’ll never have those random extreme weather events on race day again.

Some more positive stats about my finishing time (2:14:52)!

• 8 minutes and 50 seconds off my previous half PB (2:23:42 at Inverness, March 2020)
• 21 minutes and 40 seconds off my previous GNR course PB (2:36:32 in 2019)
• first nonstop half (no stopping or walking) since Inverness, March 2020
• 1 hour, 15 minutes and 34 seconds faster than GNR 2022 (what a difference a year makes…)

I’ve blogged before about how I was in my best running shape ever in spring 2020, training for the London Marathon, and then… pandemic. It’s been a long three-and-a-half-year journey to get back to that level of fitness, and there were a lot of times when I wasn’t sure I ever would. But perhaps I’m even surpassing that now, and I can finally look forward rather than back. I’m so excited to see what I can do.

Squeezing a review of my last event in before the big A race tomorrow!

I returned to the Saturn lapped event in Durham a couple of weeks ago, after first doing it in April for the ‘Nearly But Not Quite London Marathon’ run. I only managed two laps last time (nearly nine miles), so I hoped to do at least three (a half marathon) or preferably four this time round. A few TMBR folks were doing it too so we got the train together.

I’m in much better shape than in the spring due to my spondylitis treatment and a good summer of training, so it was a much easier experience physically – but it’s still a pretty tough course, with slightly rickety bridges and quite a few ups and downs and trail sections. It was also a warm morning (the downpour didn’t arrive until I had finished and was getting my medal) so not the easiest of conditions. As such, I decided the third lap would be my last – but that did mean I got my half marathon pin for my medal, which I’d missed out on last time!

Despite the fact that I was running at what is now easy pace and took a few walk breaks, it was my fastest half marathon in three years – 2:38:12. Promising for tomorrow’s GNR and for going forward.

Another year, another Great North 10k route!

The Great North 10k used to be entirely in Gateshead, starting just outside Gateshead Stadium, heading out for an out-and-back along the Quayside, and finishing on the track inside it. I didn’t do it last year but I’m aware the route was changed so that it crossed one or two of the bridges and went along the Newcastle side of the Quayside for a bit, very similarly to the RunThrough Gateshead 10k that now takes place at the end of April (which I did for the first time this year). This year, they changed the route again, making it similar to the special 2021 route for the Great North Run where we all ran out halfway and then turned back. The difference was that as it was just a 10k, we turned back as soon as we got to the end of the Tyne Bridge – so we did pop into Gateshead, but only for a few seconds!

Still chasing that sub-hour 10k, I did some proper training for it this time with a couple of months of speedwork and higher mileage. Geth also offered to pace me as he was still recovering from his injury and wasn’t planning to race fast himself.

We set off too fast due to the downhill start. As with the GNR, this is hard to avoid. The bulk of the race after the Tyne Bridge out-and-back is a lot of twisting and turning in central Newcastle and I did start finding it a bit difficult to keep to pace at this point, especially when we went through what looked like the midway timing mats (quite a bit after 5k on my watch) in 30:08 and I knew I wouldn’t be able to match my first half. I kept up as best as I could up the hill to the Great North Road and the very tough final section along the gravel paths of the Town Moor to the finish line.

Geth paced it well but sub-hour still eludes me. I finished in 1:01:21, which was a 1 min 20 sec PB following my 1:02:41 at Sunderland in May. Getting closer. But not there yet.

Things that slowed me down on the day:

• A less than easy course including the Town Moor’s notoriously tough gravel
• Very strong winds, which in particular made the exposed Moor even tougher
• The course measuring long on my watch (about 6.3 miles) – I know you have to allow for these things but the watch reckons I did 10k in 1:00:37! Swings and roundabouts…

As such, I know I can do it someday. Just need to find that golden combination of a fast course and good conditions.

It was lovely to be at the race with so many Benchies and to go for a pub lunch afterwards!

I’ve arranged one final crack at this distance for 2023. Geth and I are running the Leeds Abbey Dash in October. It doesn’t appear to be that flat (Yorkshire flat perhaps), so not the fastest of courses, but I am determined to give sub-hour another go.

I’ve always had a bit of a ‘mare at the Blaydon Race in the past (see my 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 posts), largely due to not being an evening runner. Evening running has traditionally given me a stitch. However, I’ve been practising over the last ten months or so by regularly going to the Monday night TMBR run, so I hoped this would be less of an issue this time.

I’d also never managed sub-hour at the race, even in years when the course was shorter due to aforementioned stitch issues and other things. It was meant to be the same route as last year (which had been about 6.1 miles on my watch) and I’m still two or three minutes away from a sub-hour 10k, so I thought it’d be a close thing (but was hopeful).

I had pasta for breakfast in order to try and rejig my stomach clock appropriately (as the race was due to start at 7:15pm) and nothing else during the day except a small breakfast-type snack late afternoon. I then left for the race with plenty of time to spare so that I could use the baggage bus and hang around with TMBR folks before the start.

It was the usual great atmosphere at the start area, and I was able to chat to plenty of folks I knew from various running groups. Bit of a nervous wait for the start, and I was a bit confused about where the start line was as everyone started running early (so I started my watch about 12 seconds before the actual timing mat!), but once we got going it was a nice fast race and I had to be really careful not to sprint off. This is a real advantage of the new Quayside start – it avoids all the bottlenecks we used to have in the centre of town, although it is a shame it doesn’t quite match the song as well these days!

I managed to hold a slightly faster and steadier pace than I’ve been doing in my 10ks recently – 9:40 min mile average, slowing from about 9:20 min miles at the start to just under 10 min miles by the end. I don’t think this would quite have got me in under the hour if it had been a full 10k, but thankfully the course turned out to be only 5.8 miles by my watch this year (no idea why, it was the same route as last year!) and I finished in 56:24! Finally a sub-hour by some margin, and a 4 min 11 sec Blaydon PB!

I still have a lot of running demons left to slay but Blaydon was a pretty big one. I’ve been trying since 2017 and I finally had a good race.

Of course I’ll be back again next year though – the unique race atmosphere is too good to pass up, especially now I’m finally able to enjoy it properly!

A few moments of déjà vu between Sunday’s race and the weekend before!

Just like the previous week, I got on the Metro to meet folks from TMBR en route to the race (thankfully half an hour later than the week before due to a later start time). We had plenty of time in Sunderland to drop bags and get ready, which also meant plenty of time to be nervous. I said last week that I’d like to shave a few seconds off the big PB I set at Gateshead, as Sunderland is the fastest 10k course I know. However, I wasn’t sure I could do it two weeks running. It felt like a big ask.

I went off far too fast. No pacers to judge by this time and my first couple of miles were closer to nine minute mile pace than ten. It was fairly congested at the start and quite difficult not to be swept along with the crowd. I settled a bit by mile three but was through the 5k marker in about 29 and a half minutes – something I really wish I could replicate at parkrun at the moment!

I did suffer for it a bit in the second half but just about managed to cling on, though I did get overtaken by the legendary Deano, who runs these things with a wheelie bin strapped to his back, with about a mile and a half to go. One day I’ll be faster than the bin! But not yet. The last mile did feel like a long one and it was a bit touch and go, but I finished in 1:02:41 – a 16-second PB following the previous week’s 1:02:57, and a 2-minute course PB exactly. My watch didn’t think it was quite as fast a 10k though – I think Gateshead measures a bit longer than Sunderland!

After three Sundays racing on the bounce I am ready for a break (and possibly the odd weekend lie-in), but I am so, so happy with the way the last few 10ks have gone. The next target is 59:59 at the Great North 10k in July. I’ve wanted a sub-hour 10k for the whole eight years I’ve been running but it’s never really felt feasible until now. Geth is going to pace me. I am hopeful.

It’s taken me a few days to process this one!

The Gateshead Half Marathon and 10k has been going for two or three years now, I believe. Slightly confusingly, people round here often used to refer to the Great North 10k as the ‘Gateshead 10k’ – and the RunThrough-organised Gateshead 10k does follow a fairly similar route to the old Great North 10k route, starting and ending in Gateshead Stadium. It’s two laps and an extra bit for the half, but as I’m doing a lot of races on the bounce at the moment, I decided one lap was more than enough for me!

There were quite a few TMBR clubmates doing the half, so I was able to meet up with people en route to the race and hang out in the stadium beforehand. Braving the rain, we were off, along the track and out onto the road.

I wanted a PB. My existing PB was 1:04:41, set at the Sunderland 10k in 2021. I had come close with a 1:05:07 at the North Tyneside 10k three weeks ago, and that’s a tougher course by all accounts so I was hopeful. The strategy was to semi-chase the one-hour pacer for a while and then just try to hang onto the pace.

The elevation was roughly one mile downhill, four miles flattish, one mile uphill. I did manage to keep the pacer in sight for some time, and was also able to try and keep up with some half marathoning friends every now and again. The worst bit was actually when we crossed into Newcastle for an out-and-back that felt like it lasted forever! Back on the Gateshead side, around about mile five, there were some more TMBR folks (Benchies) out supporting as part of their Sunday social, which was a huge mental boost.

The final mile uphill was really tough, and every corner felt like it should be the turn into the stadium but wasn’t yet! But finally I was back on the flat track. Between the rain and the crowds I couldn’t see exactly where the finish line was, and so I mistimed my sprint, but to be honest I didn’t have much of a sprint left in me. I finished in 1:02:57 – a 1 minute 44 second PB! I am gradually starting to believe that sub-hour is possible this year. I have another 10k this weekend, in Sunderland – and I’ve always found Sunderland to be a fast course so it’d be great if I could shave a few more seconds off. We’ll see!

I really loved Gateshead 10k – well organised, great post-race experience and I do like finishing in a stadium. I will 100% be back next year – especially as they’ve just announced an extra distance, the Newcastle-Gateshead Marathon, which will be three laps of an extended version of the course! I won’t be doing the marathon next year as I’ve already got Manchester booked, but I am thrilled we’re going to have a marathon taking place in the centre of town here and am really looking forward to the atmosphere already. I’ll probably sneak in for the 10k again seeing as I enjoyed it so much this year!