runners united: the one with the time running with other people

Hi all!

Sorry I've not been about recently-RL getting in the way and all that.

Well, today was my first proper race (have done Race for Life for the last 7 years or so) and was the longest I have ever run at 10k. I was so nervous and had just enough time to queue for the toilets. Had just finished in the loo when the race started!
There were no mile/km markers so had no idea of my pace (I'm not a garmin gal. Yet.) I had to walk twice as the heat was crazy. But there were lots of lovely people out cheering everyone on, plenty of water stations, a few places along the route with live music. The only marker I saw was at 9km and I really couldn't believe I was nearly at the end. I found a bit extra in my legs and really pushed it at the end. The race commentator was reading out random names of those coming up to the finish, and mine was one, which gave me another little lift.

Not sure of my time - about 1hr7m I think but have to wait until tomorrow for official chip time.

Dh and dc's were waiting at the finishing line for me but completely missed me as I was wearing a hat, so he forgot what I looked like!

I am so pleased with myself for doing it and raising money for something so close to my heart (nearly £200 so far). I had to give myself a shake near the finish cos I could feel that I was going to get a bit emotional but I managed to hold it together!

Then about an hour later, DS (aged 4) had his race, which he wanted me to do with him. It was 1 km and he was so excited at the start line, counting down and saying hello to all the other boys and girls. He started too fast I think and wouldn't listen to slow down a bit. About half way he wanted to walk and so after that it was walk/run the rest of the way. We were right at the back and were over taken by the last 2 children about 100m from the finish. He wasn't upset at being last though. All the 5k and 10k runners walking home were cheering him on, the race stewards etc and he was waving to them all as if he was royalty, smiling for the official photographers... . All the race stewards/volunteers were lovely to him, getting down on their knees to give him his medal, water and goody bag.

A great, well organised, friendly race and will be signing up for it next year!

Well done the rest of you Super Sunday racers and welcome to all the new lot. This is such a lovely supportive thread. You will never leave!

Haha rhet yes I have a feeling I'll be standing on the sidelines a lot in the future. Mind you, I should be used to it, it used to be me playing football on a Saturday morning then Sunday afternoon when I joined the seniors. You're right, I just need to encourage him and let him try things out on his own. Who knows, I may have a professional sportsman on my hands gets carried away Oh and re: potty training - most frustrating thing ever. DS is dry pretty much all the time now, but unless I bribe him to pee before we go in the car, he invariably ends up soaked through. I think it's our own fault though as we had him in pull ups when we did our mammoth road trip in the Summer... so I think he thinks it's ok to pee in your pants in the car.

Have had time to catch up on Super Sunday:

Well done squix great race! Think your time is fab considering the hills in Edinburgh. I think the conditions were similar in Edinburgh to Inverness today - I too felt like I wasn't hydrated enough. Lesson for the future I suppose!

futurity I'm a flipping nightmare for going to the loo before a race. 4 times was a bit excessive though Well done on your race - sounds, well, hot.

Hat Well done today! I know what you mean about feeling strong - that was exactly how I felt in my final km today.

DrNo Sorry to read about your injury - maybe see a sports masseuse? My mate telling you to 'run fast' did make me chuckle. He's very droll, our Neil!

Wiifitmama wow at your weight loss, well done you. Hope you enjoyed your 5k today. :)

Debi how on earth do you find the energy to cycle after a run like that!

Good luck tomorrow, Running

Bumply not bad at all - we all start somewhere :)

Congrats on your first half, Fairy and great time - especially considering the heat!

Hope I've not missed anyone... if I have, I apologise :)

Brilliant race reports, not sure mine will be such entertaining reading though...

So, having decided that my calf pain from Thursday evening had vanished, I decided to do the 10k today. Set off in good time, thankfully, as got lost en route. Luckily arrived at start in good time, collected number etc, found other club members to natter to.

Like (most) other races today it was a scorcher, though what worried me most was my leg, I was just so scared I would have to drop out, if it all flared up again. Before the first mile was up I realised my leg was not better - am pleased to report that I did manage to complete the race in 53m 29 - not a PB, but 10 seconds faster than my 10k time last week. I feel so frustrated that I did (for me) a ok-ish time with an injured leg - I know I was not running at my best and I keep wondering what I could have done, had I been injury free. Never satisfied!

It was 2 laps, and while many friends say that hate lapped races, I quite like it, as once you have been round the first time, you can anticipate the next lap. First time round was hard because there were a lot of hedgerows, and the sun was flickering through the gaps as I passed, I almost wanted to shut my eyes. Second time round, this did not seem so bad, but possibly because the sun was higher in the sky.

I am glad I did it, but now resigning myself to a few weeks rest, and feeling a bit miserable about that!

Re clubs - am really pleased that I plucked up the courage to join one 18 months ago. Members are of all abilties, and I have found that I do work harder there - don't want to be seen to be opting out!

Woo hoo ? super Sunday!

Did a warm and soggy 58:48 on a hilly course. It started by pouring down and first big decision ? what to wear ? ended up taking about 5 options in the car with me. At the start in plenty of time (very impressed with the toilet arrangements ? quickest wait I?ve ever had at a race). Jumped around a bit at the warm up and started by the 55 min pacer (a tad ambitious). We set off and the first 2K are up hill ? which was really, really tough. I lost the 55k pacer at about 1.5k . I enjoyed about the next first 4k then found the next 2k hard again. I?m not sure I really hydrated enough before hand - I know it sounds ridiculous to you guys in the south at the moment but I think I underestimated the heat,because it was so wet. I got a wee spurt at about 8k when I got overtaken by the 60 min pacer and thought I?ve got to beat him! The last bit of the race was down hill and I was shattered at the end. I missed DD &DH on the last bend as I wasn?t expecting them there. So 58.48, Garmin said I did 10.3km so I think I need to work on hills, speed and my racing line! I was a wee bit disappointed with my time but it was a PB and I did a 10k about a year ago (off road, but same hilliness) in 1:07 so I suppose that?s OK to be going on with.

By the time I?d finished it was dry and DH & DD came to meet me, then off for coffee and bacon rolls whilst we waited for DDs race ? which was the best fun! On the way there she said ?mummy ? I can feel my heart pumping in my chest?. She was a bit overawed by the noise at the start but when we got going she was really enjoying it ?mummy, this is great?, lots of waving to the crowds. We ended up doing fartleck ? run to the next traffic cone, skip to the next, gallop to the next and then walk for a bit ? and it took a bribe of Jelly Babies to get her to run over the line (that?s my girl ). She really enjoyed it. Some of the wee kids were really speedy ? it was quite funny watching the parents trying to keep up.

So, off to bed ready for a 6:35 flight booooooo so no for me. At least I?m flying down to the tropical south east!

Well done to all the other Sunday speedsters too! Especially Backwardpossum - what a great time.

Thanks rhet he loved it - DH said he had a big smile on his face the whole way round. He started off walking, but when he saw the other kids running, he went for it! Very proud of him

And yes, he's really good with physical, athletic stuff. At 25 months, he could cycle a bike with proper pedals (steers it, too) and can hit a golf ball with a golf club (both plastic, thankfully) with ease - and gets a fair distance on it, too! He runs all the time and has a fair bit of skill with a football. He can also catch a ball without any difficulty. He could do a proper forward roll at 18 months and at 23 months, could hit a tennis ball with a racquet. He loves being outdoors, even if it's raining, and he also loves swimming and asks us every day if "I go swims?"

It's actually a bit scary - his childminder has been minding children for close to 30 years and says she's never seen such an active and coordinated 2 year old. I have to keep fit by running just to keep up with him!

I really want to encourage him, obviously, but I don't want to turn into "tennis mom"... There aren't any groups where I live like Socatots or Tumbletots, so I don't really know where to go with him. I do think he has a talent (I know this sounds very braggy, apologies!) but I don't know what to do with it. sigh

Then sometimes I wonder if actually this is normal for a just-turned-2 year old and if I'm maybe just getting ahead of myself... this parenting thing is really confusing sometimes, huh?!

Sorry, gone off on a tangent there!

Rhet when you do give me a shout - it is v.v. local to me.

Futurity - that is why I do the races. Not to do well but they make a good tempo run. The intervals are working really well too. My mile times have come down over 2 minutes since I started doing them 6 weeks ago.

backward great report I did smile at you saying you went to the toilet 4 times..I thought I was obsessed going 3 times today! Loved the picture of your son..they love getting medals don't they!

Rhet that's nice of you to say so...I don't feel they have improved that much ...well maybe my 3 mile run has but I still feel like a plodder compared to some on this thread.

I suppose though I have been trying harder and there has been an element of me thinking "why can't I do better?" and pushing myself more. I am naturally lazy so need pushing and that's where running club has helped...I can't plod along doing 11 min miles with them..I have to try harder and that has translated into an gradual improvement which has given me a taste of what I can do and therefore I try harder.

Sorry...waffling! Been a long day

Blimey - well done you all the heat has been so hard to run in. I felt like I was running in a sauna yesterday.
I waited until it started raining today before venturing out to do my intervals today.
It has been a while since I last posted - 3 races over 3 weekends have seen me falling asleep on the sofa more often than not. Shelf Moor, Coombes Tor and Lantern Pike fell races. I finished near the back in all 3 but moving up the field. Running in the club vest at LP was so cool - all the support from the spectators ( all 5 of them) was amazing.

I love this running lark

Right race report time I've been looking forward to this one!

Woke up this morning a little later than planned, grabbed myself a bowl of Weetabix (breakfast of champions, I reckon), loaded the boy and the husband into the car and set off for Inverness much later than planned and was panicking a bit about the boys getting to their race on time. I wasn't feeling particularly enthusiastic about the race, if I'm honest, and at that point I was just hoping to get round the course. I got dropped off at the school where the start line was and husband raced off in the car to get the boy (aged 2) registered for the under 5's 400m Wee Nessie race. About 20 mins later, I got a text to say they'd made it in the nick of time, so that was good!

Had to drop off our bags by 10:15am, but it wasn't very warm, so I tried to leave the stripping off until the last minute. I bumped into my club-mates so that was good, at least I had someone to chat to! Went to the toilet about 4 times, dropped my bag off and then walked to my starting area. Music started blaring from the speakers and this mad woman started doing an aerobic warm up with us all. Except it was far too crowded and we couldn't really do the moves... and then the heavens opened! So we warmed up, got ourselves ready to go, got soaked and were cold again

A minute to go and I notice my Garmin has switched itself off... weird, I thought. So I switched it back on again and it tells me that it has low battery and then switches itself off again. Fantastic... I'm thinking the boy must have switched it on and left it on without us noticing as it was pretty much fully charged the other day. Will teach me to leave it lying about...Kind of panicking about how I'm going to pace myself at this point. I didn't even have a normal watch so I could time myself and work out how I was doing with the km markers. I did have my iPod though and quickly worked out where the timer was on there, but it was zipped up in my back pocket so checking it through the race was a pain in the neck.

Off we went, out of the school grounds and up the right to a hill straight away. The rain had turned into a drizzle (this was really pleasant at about 3km in!) Then from there, we headed out of Inverness a bit into the countryside (which is stunning if you've never been there), and this bit was mostly downhill. I passed the 1km marker and checked my time as I felt I was going a bit fast and it said 5:23 so was quite pleased that I was keeping to my usual pace even without my Garmin! At the 3rd km marker, I wasn't feeling great and had a stitch. Managed to breathe and run through it without slowing down too much and passed the 5km marker in 26:13. At this point, we turned back towards Inverness along the River Ness and this bit was completely flat. I passed the 7km marker and looked at my time and I think my maths failed me at this point as I worked out that I wouldn't have been able to beat my PB so felt a bit deflated. Then saw a bloke collapsed at the side of the road getting treatment which was pretty horrid. :( Hope he's ok.

Then we were running towards the bridge that crosses the river below the Castle and reached the 9km mark - I looked at my iPod and it said 49 mins something and I thought, hang on, I can totally get sub 55 here! So I sped up a little and started passing people again! Crossed the finish line utterly exhausted, and checked my iPod and it said 54:44 - when I saw that I just had this ridiculous grin on my face, I couldn't believe I'd finally got a sub 55 min 10k! Delighted

Found DH and the boy about 10 mins after I finished and he showed me his little medal (some of you will have seen the pic I posted of him on Facebook) which is really cool. Basically there was a 400m 'race' for the under 5s - so cute, I'm pretty sad I couldn't see my son's first race! The park was so muddy from thousands of people walking over wet grass, so we decided not to stay too long. I picked up my bag and headed to the runners' food tent where we got a cup of Baxter's tomato soup and a roll while a band were playing ceilidh music. Was fantastic! Nice goody bag, too

I got a text on the way home from the chip people and my chip time was 54:39! I still can't believe it! I finished 212th in my category, but I have no idea how many people had entered as the full results aren't up yet.

So yeah, I'm really chuffed. Have treated myself to roast beef and all the trimmings for dinner and am now vegging out on the sofa. Might have a cheeky cider to celebrate

So my next challenge is to lose a little bit of weight (why is the last half stone a nightmare to shift?!) and work on getting sub 50... I did this without really training - after the Edinburgh half, I've not been running anywhere near as much as I should have been and I just kind of lost my enthusiasm, but this has really got me excited about running again!

re breakfasts - I always have a bagel. they're good and stodgy and filling without being greasy. last week the relay started at about 12.00 - so I didn;t think a bagel would be enough so I had porridge too - everyone says it's a good one, slow release etc and I like the stuff and do normally eat it. but I'm really not sure it suited me as a pre-race meal. stuck to just a bagel this morning.

Well done everyone, hats off to you all. I'm in awe of the speeds some of you can run at.

Well done Hat. I felt a bit like you did in your relay today. There were only about 140 runners so they thinned out and it was a bit lonely for a lot of it.
What were your breakfasts that worked and didn't work? I can't figure out the best breakfast before running.

like the lesson in Baroque music bonkers.

well done to everyone running/racing in the heat today.

I had a great race today (8.5 miles with 1400 feet of climb). last weekend i did my 10-mile leg of a relay race and, I'll be honest, I didn;t really enjoy it. I ate a different pre-race breakfast and seemed to pay for it - my tummy was just not right, I had no energy, the overall race was so long (50 miles) that the field had completely thinned out so there was no-one to chase, and the scenery was boring. I was feeling quite negative overall. but today was fab - beautiful route, I had a great start and got that fabulous feeling of being STRONG (does anyone else get that?), my time was actually a bit slow but I really enjoyed it, and felt good throughout.

Quick question for those of you clued up on injuries, my leg niggle is back, getting on for 5 weeks now. Doesn't stop me running, but is often uncomfortable and feels tight the next day. Details are:
Left leg, the tendon just above my ankle bone
If I run a finger along it I can feel a knotty lump
If I press on it really hard it hurts like fuck but kind of feels good

So, I am icing, wearing my compression support around the house and using ibro gel.

After this long would you see a physio?

Will jabbing my finger on the lump do more harm than good?

Thank you o wise ones

master another kidnapping? How sad. Haven't seen anything on the news yet....

futurity well done, sounds tough, hot and hilly.

backward well done on your new PB sub 55 is what I am after at my next one, lol at your mates tip on FB to 'run fast'!

Hope all you racers are having

Well done to all the racers - am jelaous impressed with backwardpossums PB! And well done Wiifitmama, for the run and the amazing weight loss - fantastic. Hope you're all relaxing and enjoying a rest in the sunshine...

Got a 10-miler tomorrow - not sensible ahead of half-m on Sunday but am feeling very unfit and lardy undertrained... not sure it will make any difference but makes me feel constructive!

Gosh well done you super Sunday-ers, you ALL have done brilliantly, it's just not easy running in the heat, very well done for sticking with it. Perhaps one day I can run a cold and flat race .

Everyone is feeling the pressure here after another kidnapping on the coast. it's tough going for the families of those kidnapped and the implications for the tourist industry are huge.

Not got a chance to post a proper report at the moment, but needless to say I am delighted with my new 10k PB

Chip time in - 54:39 !!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, post properly later. About to have some dinner and bask in the glory of my first sub-55 minute 10k

Race report: It was hot! What more is there to say!? Got there in plenty of time - well organised run..you could tell they had been doing it forever. Lots of very keen speedy runners warming up around the place. My DH and kids had a look round the farm and then did the Fun Run early (by themselves as it was already getting hot - they got the medals though so were happy!)

I went out to the road when instructed to find where to start and they had signs up with estimated finishing times...I walked passed 35 mins..45 mins...50 mins...and that was it for signs! I wasn't right at the back though but it was SOOOO busy when it got going up the first incline/hill. Took a while to get any sort of pace going but was going alright at 9 min 30 ish for the first few miles which were perfect. Was very annoyed that the water stations were RUBBISH...no cups ready and waiting for us slower people so I was very pleased to be carrying my own. They laid on a second water station due to the heat but again it was practically pour your own so I carried on as I had plenty.

I was doing fine until just after 4.5 miles as the inclines/bypass and heat got to me. There was no shade and when there was it didn't last long before you ran passed it and then the sun glared suddenly again...it was like that all the time..quite disconcerting. I suppose the sun is lower in the sky this time of year? Anyway...last two miles were done around 10min 25 which wasn't shocking but was enough to take away the sub 1 hour.

Coming in the last 1KM was fun as it was all down hill...what wasn't so cool were people being treated on the side of the road...lying down and looking very poorly..not sure if it was heat or cramp. Saw one lady who looked very fit stopping due to stitches all the time (I heard her tell a marshall who asked if she was alright.) My DH said he saw 1 man collapse as he entered the final straight and two other people wobble lots until people ran over to help them.

So all in all feel pleased I survived it and even though I have unofficially run faster at running club it was my PB in a race (last one was in 2009 - 1hr 2 min 37 sec so almost 2 mins faster :)

So next week is the half (prays it will be cooler) and then I am kind of itching to do a 10K in the cold and have just found one in November...