First Parkrun

Trying out Endomondo embed option...

This was a kinda fun thing, will do again...



They email results out that day and you also get a handy dandy webpage to look at too.

Kona 10 Mile Run, Northville, Michigan

Woke up, bright and early at 6am, the race was due to start at 7:30 so I had plenty time to eat, feed the dogs, let them out and get on the road. I got to Northville Downs about 45 minutes before this start, parking was no hassle (a pleasant change from most races). I wandered in and then went out onto the race track.It was quite a bizarre experience as I have been there a couple of times to watch trap racing, so to actually be put on the track was really quite surreal. I walked once around the track, just to try and stretch out my left calf, which has been bothering me. I was there a while before the start so I got to watch the starting line getting setup and the crowds build. I even had time for a couple of trips to the restrooms inside the racetrack. I met a couple of friends that were running in the 10k, had a quick chat then left them to it as they were getting ready for their start.

I wasn't feeling at all confident about this race due to injuries which led to crappy preparation, my goal was to finish and hopefully still manage to be able to walk afterwards. The race started on the racetrack and we done one loop and then out onto the open road. As usual, even though requested not to, the front of the field was full of walkers and slower runners, and as usual it made a mess of the start - a real pet peeve of mine. I had the usual messing around trying to find a gap and got underway. On leaving the track and car park, I saw a guy leaving and then rejoining the race, apparently he didn't like the surface in the racetrack so kept on his VFF's until he hit the road and was now going barefoot for the whole 10 miles, damn impressive.

The first hill came almost immediately, I decided that I had to try and power up it as I was planning on losing time later, it was a nasty ass kicker but got there. I decided at this point that my usual forefoot strike was going to hurt too much so opted for what I hoped was a mid foot strike with high cadence ¹. Even though I was midfoot striking the pain stayed with me for the whole race, didn't get any better or any worse, just stayed there,as a dull throb, but what the hell.

The race continued very hilly, but I struggled on, hoping  for a sub 1:45 finish, what with injury and dismal training. I cranked it up for the last mile, when I realised that a sub 1:30 was possible, but to no avail, all in all, very pleased with it though.

Snacks and entertainment after the race were great, as usual for a Kona organised run. I really enjoyed the Japanese drum troupe, especially.

The finish line and party

Shirt (tech), number (with QR code for personal results) and medal

Close up of the medal, The darker
blue stripes in the middle
are actually translucent, kinda cool

1 - I really must get someone to take a video clip of my various running strategy's so I can get a feel for what is truely going on down there.

Random musings of a frustrated runner

What a bloody pain in the arse of a year its' been so far, with respect to my training. I started out the year full of hope, running in the snow, doing great, setting a new 5k PR on an indoor running track and then on Superbowl Sunday it all went horribly wrong...

• rolled my ankle walking down stairs, sober at that
• pulled my left achilles tendon walking around
• acquired a left hamstring problem
• ...

So what was going to be my year of multiple >100 mile weeks and a plan for at least 1,000 miles for the year has ended up, at the start of June, having done 179 miles in total, just over half what I should have done for the year so far. I went to the doc about the hamstring last week, he said, no running for 10 days, which is just before my Kona Run 10 miler. We see if the Kona stays as a run or just a walk...

Trail Marathon

I couldn't miss the opportunity to run a trail half marathon, on some of the same trails we ran during the Dances With Dirt 100k relay last September. Booked the race well in advance and, of course, my training was a disaster, but I was going through with it, just because.

You could not have asked for any better weather for race day, it was perfect.

Due to the tightness of the trails and the amount of people in the race (~800), they were have a 'wave' start. The first group that started off were people that legitimately thought they had a chance of winning and then up from there, starting about a minute apart. I, rather over-confidently, decided to opt for the 8:30 road mile pace, but start at the back of the pack. The course started out across an open field at the edge of the lake, but very quickly went into the woods and didn't mess around from there. For the first mile it was still quite congested as either we caught up with the stragglers in the previous group of the sprinters in the following group. The trails are very tight and a quite a few people aren't so big on trail etiquette and can make it really quite tricky when they try and sprint around you like a bloody gazelle. You really have to pay attention of the trails and look out for exposed roots, loose rock, etc. This is mentally taxing and it really doesn't help when you are right behind someone and can't see what is coming up.

 My first problem arrived at around 1.5 miles in. I had gone for a short run on the Thursday before the race and ended up have a slight pain in my left achilles tendon, this came back with a vengeance, hills started to suck. Just to top it off, at around 2.5 miles in, my right achilles decided to join the fun, ahh the gangs all here, let the party begin, every hill came with pain, getting worse the longer we went on, deep bloody joy.

The race scenery was gorgeous, but with it being a technical trail run, to look around while running would have meant a severely turned ankle, or worse. Rather bizarrely there were a couple of times during the race when I was completely alone, with no one in sight, I even thought that I'd somehow managed to miss trail markings, but no, it was just hilly and I saw people ahead, it was really quite strange though.

The race had many, many hills, with varying degrees of nastiness. The pain in both achilles meant that they were all slow going. I basically ended up running/ walking like a bloody penguin up most of them.

 On crossing the line we were handed a bottle of water, the all important medal and sent on to the snack table, which had bagels, bananas, muffins, water, etc, all very pleasant. I staggered on, found a spot on the ground and lay down and tried not to die.

 Final official time was 2:18:00.2, 38 out of 68 for my age group, 339 out of 766 overall. According to my Garmin, taking into account stopping to let people past, I got 2:17:50

New Shoes

A good deal on new shoes and realizing that I had almost 400 miles on the Sketchers, ended up being a good coincidence. So my new road running shoes and going to be Saucony Kinvara 3's...