Official Running Thread

[Guinness Boy]

Finally managed to compete in a race I've entered following a couple of shocking weeks both personally and running wise.

Not up to the Ninja and Nuts standard but I SMASHED my current 10k PB coming in at 47:14 chip time in 112th position. Absolutely delighted and my last two KM's we easily the quickest so there was probably more in the tank. Was just so desperate to go sub 50 that I didn't want to risk pushing it too early and have a jelly legs situation with 1 km to go. One thing I would say, whoever decided to plot the last 150m on deep gravel is an absolute bellend! At least all of the HM wasn't in vain and I can now focus on my 5k pace over the winter.

http://results.racetimers.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16487&RId=2090

Why my gender is unknown I don't know but at least I came 5th in my gender category!

Tremendous running. That half marathon time is getting booted out of the park once you get a dry race somewhere.

 

[dazzer6666]

Fantastic running by the gaffer and all of the 10k boys. I saw [MENTION=18183]big nuts[/MENTION] before kick-off and he knew it was gonna be tough to beat the Ninja.

Me? When I passed through three start/finish area I was on the homeward leg of what turned out to be 13.8 miles of relatively evenly split miles. The young guns can stick to the short, fast stuff; I'm more than happy to be a plodder [emoji23][emoji23]

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Outstanding pacing [emoji122][emoji122][emoji122][emoji122]

Still on the crocks bench here (first time for 18 months so can’t really complain) and dealing with elliptical trainer tedium. If I can get back on the road by the weekend might do Southend Pier marathon but unlikely at the moment....[emoji3525]

 

[Bozza]

I took Thursday and Friday off, largely for weak reasons involving rain and the like, so decided to set a 6:30 alarm to get up early on Saturday morning and run 10 miles before the rugby at 8:15 otherwise I could see a third run-less day passing.

As it happened I was awake before my alarm so out on the road just after six and I've never been an early morning runner.

I wasn't really sure what pace I should be aiming for, having completed by 13.1 last Sunday at an average of 8:42 miles, but I seemed to slip into a pace of just over 8 minute miles, and I finished off at an average of 8:14. Checking back, I ran my first 10 miles since being "back in the game" three weeks ago at an average of 8:38, so a nice improvement on that.

It's only this morning that I noticed Strava reported it as my 10 mile PB. I've just flicked back and it looks like my previous PB was 1:22:40 on July 25th 2015 and I took 20 seconds off that. It feels like 1:20:00 should be an achievable target for me, possibly.

Once again, nothing compared to the ridiculous speed merchants on here, but it feels like I'm moving in the right direction.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I don't feel I can criticise for being put off by the rain - I took one look outside the window this morning and decided that cycling into town to go to work was beyond me. So I'm sat at home, sort of working - sort of catching up on ironing and whatnot!

I imagine a nap will happen at some point later.

All that being said, I am looking forward to getting out for a nice 5-8 miler later on, just to get the legs on the move again. I'm feeling very lethargic this morning, but I think that may have something to do with the whiskey yesterday.

 

[timbha]

I don't feel I can criticise for being put off by the rain - I took one look outside the window this morning and decided that cycling into town to go to work was beyond me. So I'm sat at home, sort of working - sort of catching up on ironing and whatnot!

I imagine a nap will happen at some point later.

All that being said, I am looking forward to getting out for a nice 5-8 miler later on, just to get the legs on the move again. I'm feeling very lethargic this morning, but I think that may have something to do with the whiskey yesterday.

Is this what you told your boss?

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Is this what you told your boss?

Word for word. My job is oddly paced throughout the month - generally the first and last week are short of work, so I bank a few hours which I then put in over the middle 2 weeks which require far more hours than the opening and closing weeks of the month. I was working until late last night getting the reports finished in time to be sent through to the necessary people. It's all done now - there's a little bit of polishing before the big bosses get involved, but the pace of this week is lovely, after two weeks of relative madness.

I do and don't miss a more evenly paced month. Either way, I make absolutely certain I get my lunchtime running done! I always intend to take a leaf out of [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION] 's book and do an early morning run. But then it's 8:30 when I'm starting to become a functioning human, and the ship has long since sailed.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Word for word. My job is oddly paced throughout the month - generally the first and last week are short of work, so I bank a few hours which I then put in over the middle 2 weeks which require far more hours than the opening and closing weeks of the month. I was working until late last night getting the reports finished in time to be sent through to the necessary people. It's all done now - there's a little bit of polishing before the big bosses get involved, but the pace of this week is lovely, after two weeks of relative madness.

I do and don't miss a more evenly paced month. Either way, I make absolutely certain I get my lunchtime running done! I always intend to take a leaf out of [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION] 's book and do an early morning run. But then it's 8:30 when I'm starting to become a functioning human, and the ship has long since sailed.

I hate to break it to you, but 8:30am isn't time for an 'early morning run'. You want to be out when it's still dark for that

I feel your pain on the work front – one of the many reasons I left my job years ago was because it was so cyclical. Mental busy in certain months of the year and then naff all to do for ages – typically over the summer. Now I'm just on permanent flexitime Which, admittedly, can be a bit of a ballache sometimes and partly why I DO run at stupid o'clock!

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I hate to break it to you, but 8:30am isn't time for an 'early morning run'. You want to be out when it's still dark for that

I feel your pain on the work front – one of the many reasons I left my job years ago was because it was so cyclical. Mental busy in certain months of the year and then naff all to do for ages – typically over the summer. Now I'm just on permanent flexitime Which, admittedly, can be a bit of a ballache sometimes and partly why I DO run at stupid o'clock!

Thats what I mean! Come 8:30 and I do the rounds of Strava, Instagram, Facebook - my feeds are already clogged with people who have ALREADY smashed into their session for the day and can go about their usual business. Personally, I'm a lunchtime runner almost exclusively during the week. That being said, my boss did find it INCREDIBLE I made the Littlehampton start line for 9am on saturday, and then Hove Lagoon for 9am yesterday morning. But the earliest I can be at my desk in central Brighton is 9:30 (on a wonderfully good day!). It's tough to explain/justify.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Thats what I mean! Come 8:30 and I do the rounds of Strava, Instagram, Facebook - my feeds are already clogged with people who have ALREADY smashed into their session for the day and can go about their usual business. Personally, I'm a lunchtime runner almost exclusively during the week. That being said, my boss did find it INCREDIBLE I made the Littlehampton start line for 9am on saturday, and then Hove Lagoon for 9am yesterday morning. But the earliest I can be at my desk in central Brighton is 9:30 (on a wonderfully good day!). It's tough to explain/justify.

Ha ha! We're all different and there aren't many people that can do early mornings – let alone run at that time. As I went through the throng of people at the start/finish line yesterday morning, I did wonder if you would get there on time...

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I tend to start following people who outpace me at the various events I run, so trust me when I say that there are a dozen or more people who everyday are posting an activity which started before 7am. I'm perfectly comfortable with my approach to training, I'm doing more than enough for what I want to do - but I always want to see what people who are better than me are doing. I've been inspired by this thread down the years, inspired to try and catch [MENTION=18183]big nuts[/MENTION] and if we go through the thread 4 years back, I was talking about trying to run sub 20. Then it was about sub 1:40 for a half marathon, and 3:45 for a marathon. And so on. The big question now is, what's next?

Other than [MENTION=15605]knocky1[/MENTION] long standing 5k PB...

 

[Badger]

Congrats to you guys who ran over the weekend.

I had a slightly different running experience yesterday. It was the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the city's biggest running event and I was helping out as event staff. It was a very early start to help set up and manage loading people on to the shuttle buses for the 5K race. The 5K started at 8am and the shuttle buses ran from 6am-7am, so of course everyone turned up after 6:45. Utter chaos.

I also had the job of operating the clock on the lead vehicle. We had to sit on the back of a pick-up truck and update the display after every km marker to tell the lead runners their current pace and projected finish time. It was a horribly manual process involving editing a spreadsheet and copying/pasting in to the software for the display. I'm definitely going to write better software for next year! However, it was so much fun getting to see the race from the front and seeing just how fast these guys are. They were consistently putting in sub 3 minute kms and 4 of them were battling for the win right up to the end, so the pace was just getting faster. The winner was the Kenyan Philemon Rono, who ran the perfect race to take the lead a few hundred metres from the end and came home in 2:05:00. In fact, the top four all broke the course record in perfect running conditions.

It's a real eye-opener seeing a big race from behind the scenes. My girlfriend is the race director and the hours she's put in over the last few weeks are crazy. There's so many little things to organise and so many people involved.

 

[soistes]

Finished my month in NZ (which included several parkruns - one involving running round steaming geothermal pools at Rotorua - and some great bush trail runs), with the Auckland half marathon on Sunday. Was never going to be a fast one - I’d been feeling slow and sluggish and it’s a fairly hilly course (including 1km of slow climb up to the mid point of the Harbour Bridge), but it’s a lovely course with stunning waterside and city views. Came in at 1:55 - a good 12 min outside my PB of 1:43 this year at Brighton, but it’s probably the most enjoyable half I’ve done, just because it was all so new, from the initial ferry shuttle to the start at Devonport, to the early start (6:50 am, with the marathon having started at 6:00 am!), and the aforementioned views from the Harbour Bridge.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

[MENTION=6625]Badger[/MENTION] - sounds like an amazing experience seeing that pace the whole way through. Horribly manual though, and a lot of pressure on you to help them get their desired times. What have you got on your running calendar for the rest of the year?

[MENTION=25508]soistes[/MENTION] - my cousin also ran Auckland Half on sunday, she's a Doctor who emigrated from the NHS to New Zealand. She ran a very similar time to you, and reported that it was the least fun she'd had whilst running a race! Amazing event to go and do though - it's one glaring omission from my running CV at the moment, no foreign race experience. That's something for me to correct in 2020.

 

[Badger]

I tend to start following people who outpace me at the various events I run, so trust me when I say that there are a dozen or more people who everyday are posting an activity which started before 7am. I'm perfectly comfortable with my approach to training, I'm doing more than enough for what I want to do - but I always want to see what people who are better than me are doing. I've been inspired by this thread down the years, inspired to try and catch [MENTION=18183]big nuts[/MENTION] and if we go through the thread 4 years back, I was talking about trying to run sub 20. Then it was about sub 1:40 for a half marathon, and 3:45 for a marathon. And so on. The big question now is, what's next?

Other than [MENTION=15605]knocky1[/MENTION] long standing 5k PB...

I was actually looking back at the first few pages of this thread only the other day and have had similar experiences. The thread was started just after I'd signed up for the 2011 Brighton Marathon, having never run more than about 3k. I was completely clueless about running and took a lot of advice from people on here. I was delighted with my 4:01 finish back then. How things have changed!

[MENTION=6625]Badger[/MENTION] - sounds like an amazing experience seeing that pace the whole way through. Horribly manual though, and a lot of pressure on you to help them get their desired times. What have you got on your running calendar for the rest of the year?

It was such an amazing experience. I'll definitely be volunteering to do the same thing next (hopefully with better software).

My priority at the moment is getting over this calf strain. I haven't run for over a week and I've been following my physio's orders with various exercises. The only race I have left is a half marathon in Philadelphia in just under 5 weeks. I was planning to try and go for a PB, but I'll see how things go with my recovery. Boston training starts in December, so that's the top priority going into next year.

 

[knocky1]

Just realised that getting home a week early means I can do NOT the Bevendean Parkrun but EAST BRIGHTON on Saturday that is one of the Arena Challenge races. I’ll be a virgin and need advice and tips from NSC.

Where are the hills and how challenging?
How is the last half mile?
Will Salomon speedcross trail be better than normal trainers?
How much slower is the course to Hove Prom?

Cheers lads and sorry Ninj.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Just realised that getting home a week early means I can do the Bevendean Parkrun on Saturday that is one of the Arena Challenge races. I’ll be a virgin and need advice and tips from NSC.

Where are the hills and how challenging?
How is the last half mile?
Will Salomon speedcross trail be better than normal trainers?
How much slower is the course to Hove Prom?

Cheers lads.

Congratulations for getting yourself over to Bevendean. The whole first half lap is pretty much up hill. You start at the far side of the Down, then run along and swing a right which takes you gradually up hill until you hit the beast. It's got to be a kilometer from bottom to top and then you run downhill to the start line and do the whole thing again. When you hit the bottom of the hill, you start what would effectively be a third lap but you only have maybe half a kilometer to the finish line. You run past it on both the full laps so you'll know where the finish is.

In my experience, it will add about a minute to your time unless you pace yourself like an old professional!

 

[knocky1]

Congratulations for getting yourself over to Bevendean. The whole first half lap is pretty much up hill. You start at the far side of the Down, then run along and swing a right which takes you gradually up hill until you hit the beast. It's got to be a kilometer from bottom to top and then you run downhill to the start line and do the whole thing again. When you hit the bottom of the hill, you start what would effectively be a third lap but you only have maybe half a kilometer to the finish line. You run past it on both the full laps so you'll know where the finish is.

In my experience, it will add about a minute to your time unless you pace yourself like an old professional!

Thanks. Excellent answer. Sorry to waste your time but I meant East Brighton. I am 60 next week......

 

[timbha]

Thanks. Excellent answer. Sorry to waste your time but I meant East Brighton. I am 60 next week......

Made me laugh!

 

[penny's harmonica]

Just realised that getting home a week early means I can do NOT the Bevendean Parkrun but EAST BRIGHTON on Saturday that is one of the Arena Challenge races. I’ll be a virgin and need advice and tips from NSC.

Where are the hills and how challenging?
How is the last half mile?
Will Salomon speedcross trail be better than normal trainers?
How much slower is the course to Hove Prom?

Cheers lads and sorry Ninj.

Is this was happens when you turn 60?

East Brighton is one of those parkruns that turns out much tougher than it looks. 3 laps each a little shorter with the climbs at the start of each lap. The last half mile is a gentle climb and I would recommend trail shoes as it hasn’t stopped raining since you left.

I’d guess around a minute slower than Hove.

 

[penny's harmonica]

Man flu wasn’t quite finished with me and haven’t run now for a week. I’m still full of snot and mucus but hoping to be at the start line for Beachy on Saturday. I’ll just walk if required and try to enjoy the day. Quite a few on here doing it and hope to see some of you there.