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No Ego Trail Challenge: Otterburn – 10km

by Sarah J.

Today was J’s first ever 10km race event – and typically for her she threw herself right in at the deep end with a nice tough one! Getting lost in the dark around Wallington just wasn’t enough of a challenge it would seem! We headed up to Redesdale Forest near Otterburn for the event, starting at the airstrip near the army basecamp. J had butterflies on the way up, so had to be content with a handful of chocolate raisins while I filled my face with orange juice and chocolate chip brioche things (I was so hungry this morning for some reason – I ate four!!!), and then tucked into the chocolate raisins! Obviously, today I was destined to be a huge pig.

There were only 34 runners for the 10km route, with the 10 mile runners having left 30 mins before, so quite a small group compared to some runs we’ve done. I think the Sand Dancers may have pulled quite a few of the club runners away as I believe that one was part of some sort of league thing. Still getting up on the club lingo :S We were at the start line for this one anyway, In our lovely matching pink monstrosity canoe trainers that we’d bought specially for such events!

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North Tyneside Road Race – 10km – A Taste of Summer

by Sarah J.

What a gloriously sunny day for a run! A positively tropical 12ºC and clear blue skies for Easter Sunday. It makes a massive contrast to the horrible snow and hail we were running in only last Tuesday – I can’t believe it was less than a week ago! I made it to the leisure centre at North Shields early enough to nab an on-site parking space and then loitered around there – without a jacket on, or tied around my waist in my usual ridiculous ways! I’d not even taken one with me, my hoody was in the car but that wasn’t even an option for running in. I had my buff on my head, but I’d been fine with that on muggy Saturday’s morning run. And the great thing? Even while standing around outside the sports centre for 40 minutes I wasn’t cold! Unheard of for the cold North on an April morning! I was running really lightly laden for me – only a tiny waist pouch with phone, dextrose tablets, keys and a small amount of cash – normally for a 10k I take the bigger bum-bag with the bottle pouch, but this time with there being a water station in the middle I didn’t bother with it – and of course made myself psychologically thirsty at the start line without it and had to visit the water fountain a few times!

The North Tyneside 10k is a road race from North Shields to St Mary’s Lighthouse and follows right along the coast, the views were fab, and with the exception of a bit of a pig of a hill by Tynemouth Priory, which I’ve only ever seen from further up the coast and never been to, the route was pretty much flat or downhill for the whole stretch. I still don’t think I can say I’ve been there – I know nothing about its history or anything, but as with Penshaw Monument, I have been ignorant from a much nearer distance! I’ve been to Whitley Bay before, but only to the Sea Life Centre or for a walk along the beach from about halfway between the aquarium and the lighthouse – and never in the direction of the lighthouse, so I’ve probably only covered maybe 2.5 miles of this stretch of coastline.

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No Ego Trail Challenge: Hamsterley Forest – 10km

by Sarah J.

Off on my running travels again today, this time to Hamsterley Forest in Durham with J as my trusty driver, chief waver and photographer! I’ve driven past signs for Hamsterley Forest before on the A68, but never actually pulled in to see what was there – expecting something similar to Kielder Water – several pretty walks and maybe a visitor centre and some other buildings scattered about. All of these were present, but it also appears to be biking central for those who want to launch themselves through the air on their mountain bikes to land in copious amounts of mud. Even on a rather damp day like today, it was pretty busy – it must be really buzzing in the summer!

I had mixed expectations of what this was going to be like after doing the No Ego Torch Challenge at Wallington Hall last month, I’d already figured that I’d probably be going a little off the beaten track and was likely to end up rather muddy, but as the same description was on both the Hamsterley and Otterburn trail run descriptions, I wondered how much of it actually applied to this particular route.

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Thirsk Ten

by Sarah J.

http://www.thirskandsowerbyharriers.co.uk/thirsk-10

Today was my first attempt at a 10 mile race – first time running the distance at all, and first time in an official event. It’s also the first time I’ve been to an event that was organised by a running club rather than a racing organisation, and I was very impressed – Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers did a fantastic job planning and running a long road race that felt welcoming to all levels.

As expected, after the initial mad passing of many people at the start (passing me, not me passing them!) where I learned very quickly how to jog along with my elbows in so I didn’t cause too many injuries, the runners spaced out. Also as expected, I was near the back almost from the get-go! I set my pace more on my breathing than my speed or having any particular time in mind and pottered along at a comfortable jog. The route was gorgeous: the sun was shining, the roads were clear – the long road for the first few miles had been closed off to cars so I bimbled right down the middle, mainly just because I could! I realised when doing the 10km at Kielder last year and after the first 2km wondering if I’d actually make it round, that I just enjoy having my own space to enjoy the settings of a race – not running in a pack where my pace gets upset by mismatching people around me, getting pulled along at a rate I’m not comfortable with or feeling demoralised when starting to lag behind. I also quite enjoy just watching other runners; spotting the neutrals and pronators, different length strides, different breathing techniques, different gear. There were two wheelchair racers that I saw, one runner with a wheelchair passenger, a blind runner with a guide, large runners, small runners, short runners, tall runners, the speed demons and the steady plodders, all in a multitude of colours – pinks, blues, yellows and greens. The great thing about being at the back is seeing the colourful trail highlighting the route in front of you, it’s like a train of peacocks out on display! I think pretty much every type of runner must have been represented today!

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Run England – 7.88km

by Sarah J.

http://www.runengland.org/

I was out with the Run England guys again tonight – for the Bounders, this was a relatively flat route, but just to make things a little more interesting, they decided to throw in some interval training along a mile stretch – half a mile down, half a mile back. 10% faster than normal pace for 2 lamp-posts gaps, slower for 1 lamp-post gap. The distance between lamp -posts one and three has never been so far! I survived the interval training, but it exhausted me afterwards and I was trailing along at the back of the group for the rest of the route!

I’ve not tried interval training before, and I’m sure it’s one of those things that’s really good for you, but it doesn’t feel it when you’ve got another 3km to run back to the leisure centre! I may try it on my own along a nice level stretch – but I think I’ll need to be in a particularly enthusiastic and possibly naive mood first!

I’m pleased with my progress so far with the Bounders group on the Run England sessions, for the most part I have been keeping up roughly with the middle, but today has made it very evident I still have some way to go to be keeping up with the group the whole way round through thick and thin!

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Resolution Run – Sunderland – 4.75km

by Sarah J.

121213 - Resolution Run_Landing_Alternative

http://www.stroke.org.uk/resolution

I would first like to note that this blog post was written under duress. If this post was not written before J got back home from taking the dogs out for a walk after our run I was informed there would be dire consequences. Making me terribly threatened. She was unable to give me details on what these dire consequences would be. Making this a terrible threat. So I had a shower, did the washing and watched the birds in the garden before taking some photos and getting my screenshots sorted ready to waffle.

Running is taking me many new places at the moment, this time it was Herrington Country Park, right next to the Penshaw Monument, which I have seen in the distance from the A1 but never actually been to. I still can’t say I’ve been to it, and I still have no idea why it’s there, but I have at least been ignorant from a much closer distance. For some reason I deem this important.

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07-03-15 12.5km

by Sarah J.

I won’t say I bounced at the door for my run this morning, because that would be a moderately ginormous lie. I did however, bounce back in the house again afterwards as much as my tired legs would allow as my run, when I finally got out, went really really well.

It is currently very windy around our house at the moment, and it shrieks like a banshee round the corner of our house right above the bedroom window. Restful night’s sleep? No thank you, I’d love to be tossing and turning for hours! That’s just what I need after a week at work! Needless to say, I woke up a little tetchy…and then while trying to chuck my running gadgets on charge for a short time before going out, a technology tantrum started brewing. Could I get my ipod shuffle to charge? Could I hell! It froze my computer, which then took ages to restart, then wouldn’t register at all either on my pc, my laptop or a wall-charger. Fortunately I got it reset and it behaved itself after that but my slightly frayed nerves were getting increasingly angsty about it!

Then, I couldn’t decide where to go. My original plan from earlier in the week had been to go down to Wylam and do the loop down to Newburn and back, and see if I could run the last 1km back to the car rather than walking it as I usually do. 20 mins each way in the car minimum? Today? When it’s already about 1.5 hours later than I was intending to leave as I’ve frittered and fussed about so much? No thanks! Eventually I settled for somewhere a bit more local that I haven’t been to before but some of the guys at work were saying was worth a walk (so must be worth a run right?!). The Derwent Walk is just down the hill from us, but I couldn’t face the thought of having to run or walk back up that hill afterwards – it’s steep even in a car, so I took the car to the carpark instead.

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Run England – 8.36km

by Sarah J.

http://www.runengland.org/

After missing the last 2 weeks, I finally made it to another Run England session with the Blackhill Bounders! I confess, I have missed them; I’ve only been going out with the fast group for 2 weeks (not including the two I missed obviously!), and it really pushes me outside my comfort zone and to go faster and further. My current goal is to hit a PB of less than 30 mins for a 5k and less than 1h5m for a 10k, this year if possible. The 5k is looking increasingly achievable, the 10k may be more of a challenge – the pipe dream is to come in at an hour, but at the current moment in time that might have to be next year! Time will tell. Expect lots of dancing if that happens!

The route we took today is one that I’ve not done with the Run England group before, but it covers very similar ground in places to my local 4km route – so it was interesting to see how I found these stretches with the faster group. I felt I kept up pretty well for the first half – and for the first mile I actually came in with an average time of under 10mins/mile for the first time I think ever! The second half, when we left Medomsley and back up the hills again I was starting to flag a little…I’m not sure I’ll ever be entirely comfortable with hills – I don’t think there’s a fell-runner in me anywhere!

The really big positive for me from this run – I got a new PB 5k time! I beat my previous best of 34 mins by 1m16s – giving me a new best of 32m46s! This really buoyed me up for the second half when I was starting to lag a little bit – and I have the optimistic hope that I’d have been in for a really good chance at getting a 10k best too if I’d kept it up for an extra mile instead of bottling it when the group finished! Given this was a hillier route than my normal long-run route by the river on the flat tow-paths – it’s really given me something to aim for when I go for a longer run this weekend!

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Endurance Life – Coastal Trail Series – Northumberland – 11km

by Sarah J.

http://www.endurancelife.com

I did make it to the Endurance Life Coastal Trail Series race at Bamburgh Castle in the end. I’d woken up not having made any attack-the-cold progress from the day before, and decided that stuff it, I was going anyway and would just wrap up extra for the waiting before the race.

There were four races on at the same time, all finishing at Bamburgh Castle throughout the day with different starting locations. The race organisers had several coaches, which would pick up each race distance’s participants at a set time and take them to the start position. The ultra, marathon and half marathon runners all left before the 10k – and at the 10k start-line in Beadnell some of the half marathon runners were already coming past – the second half of their run being common with the full length of the 10k one. I did also see some ultra runners, but they had a full extra loop to do before they could plough up the hill to the finish line at the castle. I don’t know how I’d have felt seeing the castle coming into view and knowing I had to run straight past it to do another massive loop!

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23-02-15 – 3.2km

by Sarah J.

Image courtesy of Digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I left home this morning with the intention of repeating the 2.5 mile loop I did the other day in an attempt to get mile 1-2 down to below 10 min/mile, and the average time for the full route down to below 10:30min/mile. The good news? I managed this 🙂 I even managed to knock 50 seconds off the pace for the first mile with the long uphill! Similar weather conditions to the 18th when I last did this route – high headwinds up the hill at the start, but instead of being dark it was lightly snowy (and then when I got back, heavily snowy!). The bad news? I didn’t finish the route. I’d wrapped up warm having gone to bed last night and woken up this morning with a tickley throat, and got FAR too hot. I do not deal well with being too hot. I’d been in two minds whether to bother wearing a t-shirt over my thermal before covering up with my wind-proof shell – and going for this in combination with a buff, which I don’t normally wear, I started to cook. Walking back after I’d stopped my watch, I was actually a very comfortable temperature in all my layers, I was just wearing too many for running in!

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