Runners United: Where we support each other through the good runs, the bad runs and everything in between.

[Themasterandmargaritas]

15/10/11 - Donadea Forest Trail 10k - rhetorician
16/10/11 - Abingdon Marathon: MoshiMoshi
16/10/11 - Aviemore 10K: Piffpaffpoff
16/10/11 - Richmond Castle 10k: Stickylittlefingers
22/10/11 - Shockabsorber 10K Richmond Park - sfx
23/10/11 - Thruxton Mass Attack Duathlon- DebitheScot
23/10/11 - Big Fun Run 5k Edinburgh Holyrood Park - Bumply
23/10/11 - East Coast Run 10k - Ibbydibby
30/10/11 - Great South Run: Wheely, squix
30/10/11 - Nairobi Standard Chartered Half Marathon - M&M
05/11/11 - Glendalough Trail Run - rhetorician
06/11/11 - Lancaster Half Marathon - Fannybanjo
06/11/11 - Bonfire Burn 10K - Futurity
13/11/11 - Stebbing 10 Mile - bonkers20
19/11/11 - Maasai Mara Half Marathon - M&M
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
27/11/11 - City of Norwich half marathon: ibbydibby, MoshiMoshi
27/11/11 - Bicton Blister (10M) - RunningAllDay
22/01/12 - Four Villages Half Marathon (Helsby) - Fannybanjo
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
04/03/12 - Milton Keynes Half Marathon - pawsnclaws
11/03/12 - Cambridge Half Marathon - Futurity, Runnerstipple, Cherry (what have I done??)
25/03/12 - Edale Skyline - (21 miles. 4,500 ft climb) Hatwoman
10/03/12 - Blackpool Half Marathon - DrNortherner, Fannybanjo
01/04/12 - Reading Half-Marathon - RunningAllDay
22/04/12 - VLM: ibbydibby
29/04/12 - Shakespeare Half Marathon - FairyBasslet
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity
09/06/12 - Blenheim Sprint Triathlon - Cherry

Not caught up properly yet but good luck fanny and futurity.
Well done rhet sounds like a great race and you did really well. Great report too.
I did 5k on treadmill on friday night as I knew I had a busy saturday. Went well besides problems with the treadmill. I normally just run till counter reaches the distance I want but thought for a change I would put in the distance and see it count down instead. So 3 mins in treadmill stopped and said I had done then realised I had put in 0.5k instead of 5k. So I started again makng a mental note that when I got to 4.5k I had acctually done 5k. 15 mins in I went to drink my water bottle and accidentally hit the stop button with it . So I spent the rest of the run trying to do the maths in my head how much further I needed to do to do 5k and maths is not my strong point. So I think I did 5k.
Had fab day yesterday took the boys to see horrible histories at the opera house then went to musuem of sceince and industry. Then I took ds2 to his favourite chinese resturant whilst dh took ds1 out. It was really good day and nice to spend some one to one time with ds2. But a bit tired today

Did it! 59.20 . That's my watch time as no chip time ...expect my gun time will be just an hour as I started at the back...which I regretted as it was very slow and congested for the first mile and I had to over take loads.
Splits:
Mile 1: 10.05
Mile 2: 9.29
Mile 3: 9.24
Mile 4: 9.39
Mile 5: 9.41
Mile 6: 9.35
Last bit: 8.55
Average pace: 9.38

Well done futurity, fab time. I wil look forward to the report.

futurity yay! another goal ticked off the list for you - you have made a lot of progress since I started post on this thread (well threads, as we are on about the 10th since I started earlier in the year).

Dr No - it's a glorious day here, and I really want to go out, but my quads are a little sore (from those downhills) and I've also done just over 35 miles this week, so a rest day won't do any harm.

Going to make Christmas cake and then tackle the various looming tasks for next week...

can't wait to hear how fanny did too

Well done futurity that time is ace! You can see the difference on the splits for that first mile - a lesson learnt I think!

Well done futurity you did what you set out to!

Well, I've done it! 1.49.10. average pace 8.19. Was fine but I fucked up, they only had Powerade in the garage and I've never had it, but bought it anyway. Well last mile, I had to stop and nearly threw up, won't make that mistake again. Water only drink for me. I'm chuffed with time. My friend did it half a minute faster. She nearly threw up at finish. I'll do full fanny report later!

Thanks everyone for your wishes. You are all fucking ace!

fanny brilliant effort! that completes this weekend's hat-trick of goals achieved. Wow, what a thread!

Futurity, ace time and great splits! Am I right in thinking that's your first sub 1 hour? Well done!

orange, had to have a chuckle at you in the treadmil , sounds like you had a nice day out though.

drNo, quite at your weather, is pretty grim in London. Yayy for hills!

Rhet, listen to your body, all those hills will have given your quads quite a workout. Christmas cake! Oooooh! Inspired by your Xmas shopping I did a little bit online for DD. DP and I haven't got each other anything the last couple of years (how romantic?!?) we do Secret Santa for his family, which DP sorts and we usually so secret Santa for my family but this year have decided we will all just give money to McMillans, so really just need to get for all the nieces and nephews, admittedly there are millions of them!!

peach we are lucky (sort of, I suppose) in only having one niece to buy for; my mother called to say that she wasn't buying us anything, but would send DD some finger puppets . DP and I are buying ourselves a new coffee machine because the beloved Gaggia Classic has finally fallen prey to limescale. There is a big cardboard box of toys in our bedroom which will have to be hidden away very soon.

Funny to think about what we wished when stirring our cake last year...

'lucky' I mean by that that it's handy at Christmas time, but that we would love to have more nieces and nephews - indeed, if we'd had a lot, we may not have had children ourselves; I'm an only child and DP is one of 6 very reluctant reproducers (oh the irony, that the lesbian daughter is the one with the most children!)

fanny well done! That is such a great time, you got the sub 1.50! All that training has deffo paid off. You'll get 1.45 in Blackpool I bet.............

Just been reading RW and there is a very interesting article for those marathon runners amongst us. The Hanson plan. The idea is your long run is never longer than 16 miles Interesting reading I must say, but the guy who followed it ran a faster marathon at aged 41 then he did at age 31.

Sunday roast for dinner, ds at a swimming party later, then sofa, Strictly and x factor for me

Wow, what a weekend! I'm so impressed by all three of you! Well done rhet and Fanny and Futurity you all fucking did it!

12/11/11 - Ashton Court 10K - N4NNY
13/11/11 - Stebbing 10 Mile - bonkers20
19/11/11 - Maasai Mara Half Marathon - M&M
20.11.11- Gosport Half-Marathon- Tulip27
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
27/11/11 - City of Norwich half marathon: ibbydibby, MoshiMoshi
27/11/11 - Bicton Blister (10M) - RunningAllDay
27/11/11 - RNLI Reindeer Run Stirling Uni 10K - Squix
03/12/11 - Jingle Bells 5k Phoenix Park - rhetorician
07/01/12 - Bupa Great Winter Run 5k Holyrood park - bumply
22/01/12 - Four Villages Half Marathon (Helsby) - Fannybanjo
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
04/03/12 - Milton Keynes Half Marathon - pawsnclaws
10/03/12 - Blackpool Half Marathon - DrNortherner, Fannybanjo
11/03/12 - Cambridge Half Marathon - Futurity, Runnerstipple, Cherry (what have I done??)
25/03/12 - Edale Skyline - (21 miles. 4,500 ft climb) Hatwoman
25/03/12- Fleet Half Marathon- DebitheScot
31/03/12 - Olympic Park Run - wiifitmama, runerstipple
01/04/12 - Reading Half-Marathon - RunningAllDay, Tulip27
22/04/12 - VLM: ibbydibby
29/04/12 - Shakespeare Half Marathon - FairyBasslet
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity
09/06/12 - Blenheim Sprint Triathlon - Cherry
29/06/12 - San Francisco Marathon - MoshiMoshi

Signed up for another 5k. Other way round Holyrood Park just for a bit of variety.

I'm thinking of doing a 10k next year as I know I can do the distance, just very slowly.

Yesterday I did a 6+ k run which ended up being VERY slow. I was still stiff from doing lots of legwork in the gym on Friday and although I could do the uphill at my usual steady pace I couldn't manage the downhill any faster. Took me an hour! I'm as stiff as anything today.

Well done to this weekend's racers. I find it all quite inspiring.

Just saw your post about marathons Drno... very interesting. DP did the London Marathon (I think it was an FLM in those days) yonks ago, and only did one really long run. All the others were on the basis that moshi was talking about a while ago - if you do half, you can do the rest.

Though personally, I think some of the motivation for doing a marathon next year is so that I can do some really long runs (in my head it's a sort of pay off for being unemployed, so I still feel like I'm making progress). If I was working though, I think a plan like that would be the only way of getting the training in.

Food for thought (if you're not lucky enough to have Phish Food!)

bumply I think you are doing brilliantly and you should definitely aim for a 10k. Just build the miles bit by bit and you'll be fine.

Well done fanny ! Great to hear about your time (not so great about the nearly throwing up...evil Powerade)

Thanks for all the kind words...yes it was my first sub 1 hour 10K...have realised though looking at my Garmin that it was a shade under 10K (don't remember cutting any corners ) but have calculated that I would still of got in at 59mins 50seconds which will do me fine...still 1 min under my last run in October (the one with the random heatwave). I compared my stats and it seems that the slower first mile actually slightly helped me this time as I slowed alot in the last 2 miles last time (due to heat as well) but didn't this time which brought my race average down from 9mins 48seconds to 9mins 38seconds and therefore helping me finally break the 1 hour.

No time for race report now...to sum up it was very well organised, lots of people..all sorts of runners which was good....saw two unscheduled toilet breaks by men (shuts eyes) ...the route was varied ..bit crowded on the guided busway but opened up later thankfully. There were randomly lots of worms on one part of the route (must be due to the rain yesterday) and one man stopped..turned round ..picked up a worm and threw it to one side and carried on!? Not sure why he chose that particular worm to rescue!

Felt alright during most of the race although did have inkling of tummy cramp later on near the end but kept on top of it...will definitely have to think about my diet if I want to get faster as it seems to be the only thing holding me back. I was very good at the end and put all my layers onto keep warm, did my stretches and had a banana and felt fine which was relief. I know it was only a 10K but was reassuring that I didn't have a repeat performance of the half the other week.

That's all really..am chuffed I did it...a perfect race to end the running year with :)

Go fanny!!! that's an awesome time, so pleased for you! What great races we've had this weekend. (Notice the "we", she said having not left the house all weekend!) Inspiring stuff!

Great stuff bumply, you'll definitely be able to do 10k soon.

DrNo, that's an interesting approach, I guess would only be for experienced marathoners though. Even if I had done a few, I think the traditional 20 mile run would give me confidence.

Rhet, our Gaggia Classic (i.e beloved 4th member of family) got really badly limescsled up last year. We sent it off to be cleaned and serviced and it cost about £100 Inc postage. It came back as good as new. Might be somewhere good in Ireland. How charming of your mother

Indeed futurity you have ended your race calender on a total high. Amazing stuff!

My last race of 2011 is looming so fingers crossed for a PB here too.

You are all an inspirational bunch.

peach it was serviced in the summer and was great for about 3 months...

Hi everyone - I was looking forward to posting my first race report today, but the race was cancelled, if you can believe it It was the 5K "Cross du Larvotto" along the beach in Monaco and was cancelled not just because of the heavy rain but the waves that devoured more than half of the beach where part of the circuit was to lie.

Still, I was so pscyhed and ready that I just set out for a 5K of my own and made it in 35 minutes, a personal best. Considering this was under quite substantial rain and on slippery surface, I dare think I could easily have done better under normal circumstance.

just nipping in for a sneaky peak at the race updates!

blimey....i have to say i think you are all amazing! i just cant imagine being able to run these distances.

well done Futurity and Fanny!

Bumply - sounds like your doing brilliantly! im just building up to 10k, but then i need to work on my time ready for my first 10k next year.

Cote - shame about your 5k being cancelled, thats disappointing, good for you for doing one anyway! i think your times are around the same as mine - though with each week i feel a little fitter and a little faster, i think i knocked about a minute per mile off my 5 miles last week, making my average about 9 mins (still slow but improving!)

i have come to the conclusion i really need a Garmin....might drop hints for xmas!

i wish i could just run on set days but its so hard with shifts...and ive blobbed this week - im getting a little tattoo on top of my foot tomorrow - didnt even think about it affecting my running hope it doesnt stop me, should run tomorrow but coming off nights so probably wont feel up to it.

this thread is such a great inspiration to keep running when i see what you are all doing, and such a lovely mix of abilities - well done everyone.

Just another quickie as have just got back from a concert with the boys - well done fanny, you star! You're on fire at the moment! Look forward to the full fanny report soon.

Thank you everyone!

Right, here's the fanny report...

felt great this morning, not tired, not ill, not needing an enema , not worried or nervous, weather brilliant, traffic great - had all the signs of a "perfect" race day.

had good breakfast, drank water but didn't drink anything 2 hours prior (GNR taught me that!). Homemade flapjack which also had dried apricots and sunflower seeds in it was pre-race snack (good bloody idea as it really fueled me well).

Got to Lancaster at 10am with full fanny fambo. Parked at Asda (next to sports hall) and arsed about for a while, met my friend and her family and registered kids in the fun run (1 mile). Warmed up by jogging around one lap of track. Looked like a lot of serious racers, got slightly worried at that.

Went over to start line and jammied the fanny pack into middle of the crowd of people. Very disappointed there weren't any knobs out at beginning!

Set off, a lovely trail type run along canal and some river in Lancaster(!) and pace was slightly faster than I originally intended but felt very comfortable so kept with it. Got to mile 8 and still felt good but knew didn't have it in me to charge forward as quite a steep hill was ahead. Made it up hill but asked my friend to keep with me as could feel I felt a bit sick and knew if she charged off I would stop. Down hill for next mile and that was bloody welcomed.

Got to mile 10 and I started arguing with myself. "you can fucking do this, come on, only 5k left, don't let yourself down". I think I started making little noises to myself as was really feeling it, this Powerade was repeating on me and I could feel bile rising in my throat. My friend was powering on and I just zoned out, I was in a bubble the last 2 miles and it was a huge effort. Last mile marker was in front of me and I was feeling very ill.

12.5 miles and I just stopped dead, retched then fired up. Saw my friend (she had turned around a bend so was opposite me and she shouted "COME ON FANNY!!!" - I turned into the sports hall track at 13 miles and saw DH (he said I was GREY!) and mouthed 'NEVER FUCKING EVER AGAIN!" DD1 was running along side and that really fired me on. Saw my friend slack off before finish and I "sprinted" last 100 metres (have a cracking photo with me screeching to DD1, look like I am having a ball!) and nearly died at the finish. Couldn't believe I had done it, the euphoria was like I had won the Olympics and to be honest, I really thought I would struggle.

It was very mentally tough, not physically. My problem is I really need to work on my fatigue, I am quite a "weak" person (not well built or strong) and it shows whereas my friend is better built and she has better endurance.

here are my splits if anyone is interested. The last mile is where I suffered the most. I am chuffed though as I ran the majority of it faster than I intended. Never again will I touch Powerade, the sheer thought of it is making me balk.

My friend finished around 40 seconds faster but she is suffering tonight, she is feeling pretty ill, she powered off at the end and exerted herself.

A fantastic race, great for a PB. Very flat with only one easy hill. I doubt I will beat that time in my next HM (Very hill, local to me) but I don't care, I did what I set out to do.

Thank you for having the patience to get through the above!

ARGHHHH wrong splits!!! Fucking daft cow! DON'T BOTHER CLICKING ON LINK IN RACE REPORT PEOPLE!!!

HERE are the correct ones!

Great stuff Cote - that's proper hardcore, doing a race once it's been cancelled!!

futurity glad to hear you didn't have a repeat of last time. And well done again, what a great year :)

Bumply you're coming on leaps and bounds (even if you're presently too stiff be doing much leaping and bounding right now!!).

Much inspired by all your efforts, I'm going to put in another 11 miler tomorrow.