DW Runners

Short-short version: 01:03:10 - PR!

Short version: I had hoped for sub-1h2m, and think I could have made it, if not for the GIANT HILL they re-routed the course over this year. Other than not making hopeful-target, I had a really good race, though, and wasn't particularly knackered after crossing the finishing line. Which means I could have pushed harder and made my target that way. Still, good race, PR, and room for improvement, yay!

( Looong version )

(from left to right: K, me, M, H)

This weekend, I ran the Cambridge 5k Race for Life, which raises funds for cancer research, with three of my lady friends.

Some of you may recall that I posted a few months ago asking about how to keep a group together during a race. It turns out to be fairly simple to organise - ask who wishes to be in the group first! We ended up running as 3+1, with three of us paced similarly (running continuously) while the fourth ran alone (in intervals) partly from personal preference and partly due to necessity from injury.

We arrived at Parkers Piece, where the race began, about half an hour early. I left the house feeling rather self-conscious in my kitteh outfit. We rounded a corner onto a busy road and were faced with two angels, three fairies, a bunny and a chicken. My self-consciousness evaporated.

On reaching the green, we were blinded by pink. Thousands of girls and women in pink. Seven and a half thousand, according to the official tally. We marveled at matching mothers and daughters, at tutus, at feathered head-dresses. Then we tried to place ourselves in the correct corral for the start of the race. We opted for what we thought was the "runners" corral, but ended up going through in the first pulse of 1000 participants, amongst the "serious runners". This turned out to be a stroke of good luck, as due to the congestion we had to pretty much walk the first 500 metres.

The field opened out after that and my companions H & M and I took off. We started passing people. In fact, we spent most of the race passing people. At one point, M, who has a weak ankle, took a tumble to a chorus of "Ooohs". She rolled (hello, self-defense training) and was on her feet in the next instant, to a chorus of "Yaaaays". We threaded through the crowds as one kilometre after another melted away. Spectators cheered us on. I received many compliments on my costume. Each gave me a little extra burst of energy. We kept up our banter for almost 4k. Just before the marker, we saw H's husband and son. Her husband cheered. The baby snoozed obliviously.

As we rounded onto Jesus Green for the last 500 metres, we started going faster by unspoken agreement. There was more space, so we could push ourselves harder. Chatting stopped abruptly. H, who is the fastest, silently egged us on, incrementally increasing her pace until with fists raised and adrenaline pumping, we bounced across the finish, 31:24 after we'd started.

I figure we probably could have done it in under 30 minutes if it weren't for the early congestion and a couple of bottlenecks that slowed us down. For a first attempt at keeping a group together and for what was really a fun run (no timing chips involved), I feel pretty happy about the performance. It would have been impossible for us to train together as M normally lives across an ocean. K, the friend who did intervals, finished in just over 35 minutes. I'm also pleased because I never thought that running would be a form of exercise that I would enjoy quite so much. I don't have a "natural" runner's build, as you can see from the pictures under the cut, and I'll never be a placing competitor, but the fantastic atmosphere and energy of races is well worth the training.

Also, I was pleased because my kitty ears stayed on the whole way.

I've now done a 5k adventure race and a straight 5k. The next step up for me is a 10k in October!

( +4 )

x-posted to my personal journal: Apologies to those for whom this is turning up twice.

It's a week to (American) Thanksgiving, and that means only one thing for runners here in the US - Turkey Trots. No, that's not what sends you to the bathroom after eating too much at dinner. For those of you who don't know, the Turkey Trot is a Thanksgiving Day race that gives runners an excuse to eat even MORE at dinner.

The typical Turkey Trot is a short race, usually a 5K. Here we have a 5-mile race that alternates sections of trail and road running. It's the biggest event of the year, probably because although the prizes for top male and female runners are cheap pumpkin pies from the grocery store, after the race there is a bib-number raffle with a hundred or so prizes ranging from pairs of socks from the running store to $50 gift certificates at nice restaurants. I'll be running this year - last year I won a 12-oz package of coffee from a local roaster, the year before I didn't get anything.

Anyone out there running a Turkey Trot? (I figure maybe half of us are in the US...) Any other races coming up for anyone here?

Race report here in my journal! Cliff notes version: 3:35:57, a 6-minute PR and 10/256 in my age group, on a seriously gravity-aided course, on a stupidly hot day, wearing a tiara, on pretty much no sleep and the least amount of fuel ever, feeling good (for values of good that are possible while you're running 26.2 FREAKING MILES) the entire time.

I’m back from the Get Outside on Governor’s Island 10K!!

It was my first, and overall it was great! It was COLD at the start because of wind – I guess when you’re on a little island in New York Harbor you’re going to get wind from all sides. But once I got going I forgot about it – except when it became a headwind from hades. Oy!

Still, I ran within myself and walked when I needed to. I still improved on my 5K time with the first 1/2 of the race. I was on track to essentially double that time but in the last mile or so, my right knee tightened up a bit so I slowed down to keep from doing serious damage.

One thing that was great that at around 4.1, someone from my running club was the volunteer marshall. We hadn’t met yet, but I was wearing my new club singlet, and she saw it and was all “WOOHOO FRONT RUNNERS!!!!!!” and then asked if I was Beth (we have a women’s listserve, so we’d chatted online). She was SOOOOOO encouraging, it helped me fly through that section of the course.

I still managed to pull a 1:17:19 chip time!! (1:18:10 gun time) So I’m happy with that! Even if I was last in my age group. I RAN IT and that’s what matters!!

Eating now, and icing the knees with bags of berries and chicken fried rice. Hey…you go with what you’ve got. LOL.

Oh yes…one discovery I made? I can definitely use GU Mint Chocolate gels!!! That stuff is good!!!!

And a picture of me before I left this morning. Forgive the backwardsness…I had to take it in a mirror.

Sorry for spamming the folks who've seen my write ups on my journal or on the tri_me community, but for those who didn't see those, here's a link to my race report.

This is my last tri of the season, but I'll be doing an adventure race in November and a few 5k and 5 mile road races over the next few months (along with some bike races) to keep in shape.

So, those of you who ran races this past weekend - how did you do? Link us to your race report, if you wrote one - and if you didn't, write one now!

If you didn't race, tell us about your week in running, or about what you have planned coming up, or about your next planned race. Or anything else. :-)

What are you up to?

I'm doing the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in NYC. It's labeled a "fun run" and I'm hoping to make it so! :) It's 5K.

In twelve days, I will be running The Spartan Race, which is my first race ever. It's a 5k, but since it also involves wading through mud, leaping hurdles, crawling under barbed wire, dodging some big dude with a stick and jumping through fire, I figured it would be a good challenge. It looked to me like a cross between Calvinball and an obstacle course, which had the right element of silliness to make it my first race.

In a fit of madness, I agreed to run the race dressed as Princess Leia if I could raise £50 for Oxfam and to wear the earmuff braids if I could raise £100. My friends, ever eager to see me make an idiot of myself, have come through. And so I am running the race in this outfit.

O dear.



( (+2, possibly NSFW) )

If anyone happens to be in Royston, UK on Sunday 19th September, feel free to come along and giggle at me in person. Also, if anyone has any tips about how to secure ridiculous headgear while running a race, please let me know.