Well the time had finally come, my second charity run of 2015 and another warm up distance of 10k as I start to train for the longer and tougher runs of my 14run charity campaign for 2015......
So this event had been coming up on my calender since the start of 2015 obviously, and after doing the Southport Mad Dog 10k as run no.1 of my campaign I had continued with my 10k training runs as a standard distance to do on my days off etc. I had done this in order to build fitness and eventually distance as I would soon be moving into my marathon training for my 3rd event the Excalibur mountain marathon at the end of May, more on that later.
My lead into this event was never going to be good as I had had my days off work earlier in the week and had already done 3 10k training runs this week alone, and I was working til 11.30pm the night before the run, and had been on my feet all night.
As soon as I got home it was feet up and tea in the microwave. On this occasion it was chicken and pasta followed by 2 hours sat up making sure it was well on it's way down before I went to bed. I managed to utilize this time on Facebook running forums I am part of, mainly the Running Discussion Board and my own personal running group 'Run or Cake'.
Time for bed finally, and alarm set for 8am as a last resort as I was confident I could be ready in an hour in the morning and not need much food etc.
Race day
Up on time, showered, dressed and toast and peanut butter down and a coffee, and I was ready for my lift by the very helpful and new running pal Barry who is a fellow member of the Natterjack Running Fast Forward Group who meet in either Liverpool on Monday nights at their local store, or the Southport store on a Tuesday night.
9am and we were on our way to Ormskirk, it doesn't take long thankfully as it is not that far away so ideal as a local event.
A short time later and we arrived safely at Edge Hill University and into their ample on site parking on campus. It's a cracking place and a hell of a lot of money has been spent on it and it's lush buildings, it looks more like a business and technology park to be honest with all the landscaping and water features etc.
Off to registration next to pick up our numbers, and thankfully no queues as we clearly got there early which was good as we then got to say hello and chat to fellow running friends, in my case, Adele, James, Mandy, Clare, Marc, Sarah, and also Andrea and Sharon from 'Run or Cake' who I'd never met before.
The Three Amigo's
Perhaps one of the highlights of the day for me and several others including the guys themselves was the return of the trio Stan,Keith and Derek as the self named 'Three Amigo's' who hadn't run together for a while especially as Keith had had a calf injury to overcome and like the trooper he is managed to overcome it with grit and determination as he always does. He is a shining example of the runners spirit and will not let injury define him or indeed overcome him.Look out for their finish line photo later :)
The race event
The race itself is organized by Skelmersdale Boundary Harriers along with support and sponsorship from O2 Ormskirk to raise funds for the National Autistic Society and actually coincided with World Autism Awareness Day this year.
The race was this year titled the 'Jacobs Leg It 10k' in honour of Jacob who is the Autistic son of Nick the owner of O2 Ormskirk, who has tirelessly supported this event over the years and as well as starting the race today was actually going to run it.
So off we went after a ready, steady, go! or something like that as we all surged forward over the start line which was on the race track on campus....
Off we went around 3/4 of the running track before we exited and ran off through campus and the various area's amongst it. It certainly is a big place and seems to go on forever, but it's nice to look at, which can be a problem when there are several b*ll busting bollards in some of the narrow points and if you are not looking where you are going you can fall foul of them. Thankfully I noted them from last year and I had already run off into a decent sized gap in the runners so I could see where I was going at all times.
We eventually exited the campus and entered a country road towards Westhead, this was not a closed road so we did have to watch out for cars etc.
The first mile I had sped off at a sub 7 minute miles pace in order to get clear of as many people as possible ( totally different to advice I had given myself and several others) it was now time to settle down a little and try and find a pace that was not too comfortable that I slowed but fast enough to make me push for a new Personal Best time, which was my intention here as I got one on this course last year, and this was also going to be my last 10k until at least Sept, so it was now or never.
Onwards we all ran down the country roads until we got to Westhead and through a few residential area's and then down a little side lane towards some fields and a Church. This was to be the beginning of the trail/multi terrain element of the course and where the fun starts as now we were at 5k and halfway through and usually this is where legs start to tire especially if you have been pushing the pace a little.
Several grassy,stoney and slightly muddy twists and turns later we hit another road and then into a nice woodland path and trail again and a water station. I thanked them but refused the water as I'd had some last year towards the end at the same event as it was hot and ended up with a stitch as I had too much.
Not long after we appeared out of the woodland and back onto the scenic running paths of the campus, these are actually part of a large landscaped and open area of the campus surrounding various sports fields etc and are undulating ups and downs for several kilometres so pacing was vital here.
I was at this point passed by Marc who told me I must be well on for my sub 45 min target and I admitted I hadn't looked at my Garmin/watch as I was pushing as much as possible in order to get a PB. Him passing me was handy as it gave me someone to at least try and keep in my sight as a faster runner and although I would never catch him, trying to narrow the gap was exactly what I needed at this point.
I got the final uphill out the way and shortly hit the 8k mark and I looked at my watch that was set for a 7:15 min pace target, and when I looked it was a row of puzzling zero's as opposed to how far ahead or behind pace I was, turns out I was exactly on pace to the second, so neither a second ahead or second behind target.This was good to know as I was not completely knackered so decided to push on faster to build a little time to ensure I got the PB.
9k appeared and I was puffing a bit but knew I would get around ok, I tried to catch the female club runner in front of me but she was 50 metres ahead and running as fast as me so that wasn't happening.
The finish
Final approach to the running track again for a final lap and low and behold friend and fellow runner Vicky was stood there pointing me in the right direction for the entry to the track ,and this was a nice bit of encouragement to get me around the last bit. I tried my best to sprint in, but there was no one close behind me so I didn't need to and I knew I was at least 30 secs ahead of target so was happy to cross without a beetroot red face......
So moment of truth as soon as I crossed the line and looked at my Garmin..... 44:10
a whole minute and a half off my previous PB.....the look on my face? the typical geek runner reaction of....if only I ran 11 secs quicker I could of got sub 44 minutes...we are never happy it's ridiculous lol.
I was truthfully very happy and I hope in the split second after the first above picture was taken that I actually smiled at least a little as I collected my medal from the volunteer kids giving them out with a smile at the finish. At the very least because I saw the ample supply of welcoming bottles of water and ample supplies of Mars Bars my favourite...
Welcoming friends home
So what happened to the Three Amigo's? I hear you ask, well they finished practically arm in arm in true running support fashion and all smiles, and as soon as they crossed the line what did they do?...of course the customary well done handshake for a job well done and another 3 runners safely home injury free.
It was good to see my friends coming in one by one and also having a quick catch up with the speedy ones who had beat me like Marc who I couldn't catch, he achieved a new PB as well.
Shortly after Sarah, Marc's girlfriend crossed the line to a new PB as well ( you may remember Sarah from my Tour of Merseyside blogs last year, she's getting faster ready for round 2 this year!).
Several other friends came home safely including Jane from 'Run or Cake' and Southport Waterloo Athletics Club, and of course new running mate and also new competition may I add as he beat me at the Mad Dog 10k recently, Barry. He had ran with a friend for a while today so was not on my tail as much luckily for me (Barry is on the left in the picture below).
Finally..
It was now time to go home after a good day and a good run, full of happy feeling for seeing all my running pals again, and no doubt full of feel good endorphins. Sadly I was on my way to work again in a few hours.
What next?... well charity run no.3 will be at the Excalibur marathon at Mount Famau in North Wales, running across the Clywdian mountain range on Sat 30th May 2015. Allegedly the toughest in Wales, I'm not sure I really want to see an elevation map for this one...........
Donations and support
As ever your support through the year will be greatly appreciated when I am training for the events or when I'm running them, and of course your donations are vital as that is why I'm doing all this and putting myself through all the training and events throughout the year, the Excalibur in particular will be one of the toughest for me this year and I have other tough events and challenges coming up, so please donate as the THHN Torbay Holiday Helpers Network it is a good charity cause that I am raising money for and I am personally chipping in £10 every month into the donations pot to try and keep it respectable.
Donations can be made here to my fundraising page:
https://www.justgiving.com/14runsthesequel
See you soon folks, God Bless you all.
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