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Saturday 6 March 2010

A Good Reminder

Yuck. Getting out of bed this morning was really horrid. A very late night out (for us anyway) meant what felt like zero sleep before the alarm sounded at 7am this morning. A hurried breakfast and a frantic drive into Leeds got us there just in time for a reasonable warm up. This 5k course is not so quick; full of bends and muddy bits it's probably 30 seconds too slow for a 5k PB. But it's a welcoming and low key event and great for those wanting to squeeze a bit of speed work into the weekend.
M & I were less than optimistic about our likely performance; we played 'who's got the best excuse for a bad run' Snap around the warm up route as the weather turned a bit nasty. It was even Stevens on who would be slowest as we stripped at the car and got ready to race. It was freezing, a bit windy and then it started to rain. I was by then feeling very grumpy and had come completely unprepared; you might say I wasn't feeling terribly up for it...
After our 3 mile warm up wiggle we lined up with the crowd. The event attracts a healthy number each week of all shapes and sizes, including the odd star. This week we were joined by superb runner Sarah Tunstall, who was herself racing for the first time after recent injury woes.
M & I braced ourselves ready for the pain, joined by Mark H, (hi MH), who was also looking for a bit of a lift and a good speed session in preparation for his VLM. We were soon off and I somehow forgot how to run fast and hung back a bit too much at the start; hordes of runners whooshed past me and forced me to wake up and respond. After the initial shock of the speed the race went quickly, with a handful of blokes and Sarah T in my eye line. I gradually worked through the course, feeling strong if a bit tired but running with a flowing rhythm, something I never thought I'd write about running a 5k! I'm not sure if I pushed it enough but was mindful of the major mileage this week and the 23 miles planned for the morning. I paced it evenly and worked through to finish second overall, results due to be published here. It was a good speed session and a nice reminder of why we should come more often.

M came in soon after, running strong despite his recent glute problems as well as the sniffles and heavy mileage this week. Mark H was also right behind him, looking fresh despite his 20 mile run on Thursday. Well done boys. It was then a nice easy warm down; 3 more miles at a chatty pace and time to catch up. MH has his first 20m race next weekend, same day as me, (good luck MH). We shared a plan of attack before parting; we're just gonna race flippin' hard. Nice to see the Brooms from Holmfirth too who were as friendly as always, like so many of the helpers and supporters today. What a nice and friendly lot.

2 comments:

Mark H said...

Hi Sarah.
Great to see you and M again yesterday.
Thought you ran really well and controlled and you really seemed to push on in the 2nd half of the race.In the middle of very high mileage marathon training also.

Good to see M's injury woes are over , he's a gutsy runner like yourself.

We must meet up for more of these 5'ks once our marathons are out of the way.

PS
Was surprised about you being grumpy.
You always look so cheerful whenever I've seen you :)

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