5km / 10km Challenge

In January of this year I set out a few aims, one of which was to run sub 19 minutes for the 5km, the other was to run sub 40 1okm. Things have come together and I'm pleased to say that I can cross these two aims off the list with 18:58 at the recent Edinburgh parkrun, and 39:16 at Inverness half! Neil had a great run in Inverness too, chopping another 30 seconds off his time, and is now down to 43:03. Looking at the rest of my 2010 aims, I'm still not as close to the half marathon time I would have liked, so may try and get another half in before the year is out. Now, I've just got to get those extra 24 Munros I'd planned...!?!

I'm looking forward to a few cross countries over the next few months - starting with the East District XC Relays in Prestonpans this weekend. CAAC will be out in force!

Pedal for Scotland 2010

On September 12^th, myself, Neil, Dean and Gillian (aka Springvalley Riders) and fellow CAACer Susan, cycled the 51 miles from Glasgow to Edinburgh – otherwise known as Pedal for Scotland. This would be the second time I had done this event and was looking forward to it! The neighbours of Springvalley got a rude awakening as we got bikes ready and left at 6:30am on the Sunday morning. We pedalled the 5 miles down to Victoria Park to join the queue for our bus to Glasgow. We could already see that there were many more cyclists than in previous years, as we waited for about an hour just to get on. Plenty of time for Dean to cover his new baby in bubble wrap though! Once at the other end, we eagerly waited for our bikes and joined another queue to get across the start line. This one was much quicker and before we knew it we were off!! We started on Glasgow Green and overtook a few people on Penny Farthings in the first few miles – rather them than me! Once out of the hustle of the city we were onto quieter roads. We were disappointed by the fact the first feed station had run out of food, and the home baking station had a queue a mile long! We decided to push on through to Linlithgow Palace for our lunch, were we would be over half way. We were really lucky with the weather which was sunny most of the way. Neil was enjoying his new road tyres which he’d put on his bike the night before and was cruising along. Unfortunately the two of us got separated from the others at one point and missed out on the giant chocolate muffins at Kirklingston! However, we made up for it with a nice drink at the Cramond Brigg pub with only 6 miles to go. As you can tell, speed was not the aim of the game on this occasion! The last push to the finish line was good, and I for one felt the 51 miles as being much easier than two years ago. We all enjoyed receiving our Pedal for Scotland medal and goody bag at the finish. However, the 5 miles cycling back home were still tough!

There is now a 100 mile Sportive running on the same day, dare we enter this one next year….time will tell.

Final Meadows 2 miler

The final Meadows 2 miler took place a couple of weeks ago so I was keen to improve on my time, which had remained unchanged since last year. I was pleased to knock off around 15 seconds to come in second at 12:18. Next year I’ll definitely be aiming for that elusive sub 12 minutes!

Wolverhampton Half Marathon

One of my aims for 2010 has been to get a PB in the half marathon - so while many other CAACers were in Glasgow, I headed south to England, to take part in the Wolverhampton Half Marathon. The reason for me choosing this race is that I have family who live there, and so I combined a visit to see them, with the half marathon, which quite conveniently followed many of the roads I am used to running along while down there.

I was feeling confident after last weekend's 10k in Perth and so decided to aim for around 1hr35 as a good target. The race started nice and early at 9:15am. A 19.5km cycle race went off first, then the marathon relay runners, and then the marathon and half marathon runners. There were no start pens so I decided to get as close to the front as I could. That way I wouldn't get boxed in and I could keep an eye on my position. I felt good over the first few miles and did them in just over 7minutes. I was going at a slightly faster pace than I'd planned, but I felt good. The route was good, fairly flat, on closed roads and some even on cycle paths and pedestrian areas. I had the added bonus of having a family fan club at mile 9, which was the ideal boost at this point. I could see my grandparents, Auntie Jan, and Joyce and Reg on the corner and their cheers were very welcome!! I wasn't sure what position I was in at that point, but I'd overtaken a few girls, so thought I must be quite high up. I overtook another at mile 11. One girl was right on my shouldler with only 1.5 miles to go, so I picked up the pace and lost her on a small hill. Someone shouted to me to say I was in second, but third was just behind, so with 400m to go I just went for it. I crossed the line in second place in a new PB of 1hr34:39. Really pleased!!! Felt good all the way round and feel like I have more in me for a half marathon. A great race, and even better being presented with my prize...by the Mayor of Wolverhampton no less ;-). I can safely say I was the only person in a Scottish club vest, and the guy on the loud speaker gave up trying to pronounce Corstorphine which made me laugh!

A good fast course, nice medal, t-shirt, and a Gregg's goodie bag! What more could I want!