4th Place

The Cheltenham Harriers Men's Team was 4th overall (out of 65) with the mixed team coming in 33rd. Pretty good results I reckon although I know the men's team has won the competition outright before.

Feet update: Much better today (sudacrem is not only good for babies bottoms, a great healer for blisters!) but I think I'll give the Forest of Dean Trail 10k a miss on Tuesday. I need a rest.

Tough one

That was a tough race.

Awful start, got blocked in at the back of the group and had to spend the first mile squeezing past other runners. Middle section (miles 2-9) ok, got a good rythm going and made good progress. The field spread right out and as I went up past the Air Balloon I was running with a chap from the Great Western Runners Club. We ran together for quite a while until he expired on a hill and I carried on. At about mile 10, my legs started going. Probably due to the marathon on Sunday so I supped some frog intestines (aka energy gel) and a swig of lucozade and hoped for the best. Then a strange thing happened. I had been running alone for a couple of miles, nobody in front, nobody behind and as I crested a hill in the woods, suddenly there were 3 runners right behind me. No idea how they had caught me that quickly but it took them another mile to pass me. Then I re-passed one of them on Coopers Hill. Strange.

Anyhoo, I dug deep up a couple of lung busters and arrived at the finish in foot agony yet again. My time of 1hr 37min was about what I hoped for and I finished 10th. Pretty good.

So my feet. Blisters again and they definitely need time to heal (heel, get it?) now because they look like I've crossed the Sahara in flipflops.

So the next race is the 'Race for Life' where I get to watch Helen and the two Rebecca Louise's run while I put my (absolutely awful) feet up!

So here's the Motion Based output, you can see from the elevation chart, that was no picnic.

Not sure how the team did overall, will check later for results.

Recovery

Just been out for a nice little meander from Cleeve toward Stoke Orchard with Rusty. Nice little run across the fields until I lost track of the path so we turned back. Not sure how far it was, probably 4-5 miles or so but a useful test to see which parts of me hurt. Not much actually, just one toe on my left foot that is giving me some grief and is quite concerning given the relay on Saturday. I'm sure some taping and suffering will see me through.

Talking of the relay, I'm running stage 4 which can be seen by looking at http://www.cotswoldwayrelay.co.uk/S4.htm

It's just over 20km long, a bit hilly and described as 'hard'. Nice, so how come I get the longest stage? The record for men stands at 1hr 18min, and I'll be shooting for somewhere around 1hr 35min which would have placed me in 13th place last year. So we'll see how it all pans out on Saturday.

The Day After

Not bad actually. Managed to cycle to & from work without too much distress (especially getting on/off bike). Just heard from the Challenge Organisers that I was 2nd overall so my course record didn't stand for very long! But, 2nd place is pretty pleasing!

Just been doing my normal post race blister emptying. One of my left foot was quite spectacular and spurted everywhere..nice.

So my attention now starts to drift toward the Cotswold Relay on Saturday. My leg (stage 4) is a shade under 13 miles from Seven Springs to Cranham Corner. Not quite sure what state I'll be in come Saturday, but will give it my best shot. Two races in the space of 6 days is not good planning, especially with a combined mileage of 40 miles!

Cheltenham Challenge Marathon

So I did it. The Cheltenham Challenge Marathon was certainly a challenge. Great weather for it today and I must say, the marshalling and volunteer work around the course was first class although I surprised a couple of marshalls who were a bit slow in showing me which way to go next! Hard slog but I finished in 4hr 06min which was a whole lot faster than I was expecting. Also, that broke the course record by 9 mins!! I'm not sure if anyone else finishing later than me went quicker, but I was definitely the first person to complete the marathon today, starting at 8am this morning.

A couple of slow miles. The first was the never-ending hill up from the Resevoir near the A40 and the second due to me having to stop and sort blisters out and use the loo. So all in all, delighted with the time.

The last mile was a bugger - all uphill and through oil see rape plants that were waist high and were determined to wrap themselves around my ankles - not what you need after 25 miles of cross-country slogging.

Anyway, here's the Motion Based output.

Here we go!

My run to work last Friday (the 13th I hasten to add) turned into a face-off with the wildlife. Firstly there were bulls in one field that is usually free from rabid, human eating animals. Still, unphased I confidentally approached them until they all looked my way and started their advance. I tactically retreated and circumvented the field. Next was a focussed dive-bombing attack from a buzzard. I must have been near its nest 'cos it was determined to scalp me and tried at least a dozen times until it got fed up with handfulls of dirt being thrown at it. Lastly was my favourite field of bulls. Thankfully they were in the adjacent field on Friday but they still charged and put the hairs on my neck on full alert. On the way home I ran the road route; got a huge nosebleed and an attack of the munchies so it was not great.

So based on all that I've sent off my application for the Cheltenham Circular Challenge. Sunday will see my first full marathon attempt, not one to take an easy option (the all time record is 4hr 15min) - I think it's going to be a long, hard, painful slog. Great stuff.

Have a look:

http://www.cheltenhamcircularchallenge.org.uk/

Tuesday Night with the Harriers

Another week, another hill. This time Leckhampton Hill which is probably somewhere similar in size to Cleeve - they looked about even from the top of Leck Hill anyway. Bit of a struggle right from the start last night, no idea why. Legs felt stiff and tired and I struggled all the way up and all the way back. Still, average pace of 7.30min/mile isn't too shabby given the run profile (see below).

It is weird how much attention a group of runners gets from some members (read 'morons') of the public. What is it about a few people (4 last night) running that attracts so much attention and comment? Has the human being never run before??

Quiet week

A very quiet running week this week. Following my mileage blitz last weekend, I had a fairly leisurely run to work on Tuesday and then didn't run again until Saturday and that was only a short (4.3 mile) bit of speed. Still, my mileage for the week was 22ish, so not too bad.

Still haven't decided whether to run the Cheltenham Circular challenge yet. My toes are healing but the race is only 2 weeks away and I'm not sure they'll be up to another hammering. I'll probably wait until next weekend to decide. So, races on the horizon are:

22 June - Cheltenham Circular Challenge Marathon
28 June - Cotswold Way Relay (12.5 miles)
1 July - Forest of Dean 10K Trail run
October - Abingdon Marathon

Meanwhile, Helen has started running again and is signed up for the Race for Life at the Cheltenham Racecourse. She's running 2-3 times per week, gradually building up the distance. Bravo.

Cotswold Way...

..too painful for my feet. I had planned to recce Leg 4 of the Cotswold Way with Dave today so when I run during the Cotswold Way Relay, I'll know where I'm going. Of course, my feet were agony yesterday to the point where blood was spurting out of one of my toes, near the root of the nail. So I patched myself up with plasters, compeed and even iodine (!) and gingerly put my trail shoes on this morning. Ouch. No way. So I ran in my normal road shoes for 12.5 miles along a really nice trail, through woods, up some fairly gruelling hills and finished in reasonable shape. Toes are still complaining like billy-oh, but 34 odd miles in three days ain't bad.

So I'm off to get them sorted out again for the evening, not only do they look awful, the iodine adds a really deathly look!