Getting lost and Notts Easter 10k

'Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost'

I don't think I will ever get my sense of direction to work right here in the UK. My head is just too used to the square grid roads and neighbourhoods of the states and trying to change 40 plus years of directional training is pretty much a lost cause (pun intended).  Yes, this is a lead-up to me talking about getting lost on a run again which usually isn't a problem because I am not on that much of a time crunch about having to be somewhere...however on Monday there was.  I had won entry into the Notts Easter 10k via a Run Nottingham facebook contest and since I'm not in 10k race shape I decided to make it into a long run with the race being a tempo at the end.  Good plan, right?

It would have been if I'd recce'd the route first instead of just mapping it out on the screen! I ended up making not one, but two wrong turns so the 20 minute cushion I'd built into the time I thought I'd need to get to Wollaton Hall got eaten up by having to dig my phone out of the rucksack and waiting on the gps to find me so I could figure out where I went wrong.  I was running up to the Hall for a much needed loo stop when they were announcing 10 minutes until race start (stress from being lost and it being much warmer than usual equalled GI distress) and by the time I got all that sorted I didn't get to the start line until 4 minutes 'til go time.  No time to catch my breath, change my shoes or take in the Perpetuem I'd prepared so I knew it was not going to be a good result.

To say I bonked (check out this article about what it means to bonk) would be an understatement, the last 2 miles were pure torture and it took every bit of willpower I had to not stop and walk even though I think a walking pace might have been faster.  Needless to say the plan to run home was scrubbed.

The Good:

• Beautiful venue, Wollaton Hall is gorgeous
• Plenty of loos, in addition to the toilets at the Hall the race organisers provided portaloos closer to the start/finish line
• Well marshalled
• Free parking pass
• Coffee mug instead of a t-shirt
• Bananas! Actually they went a step further and had apples as well
• Other park users meant lots of cheering
• Every kilometre was marked and they had timing clocks on the course and at the end
• Additional food available for purchase
• Announced the names of the runners as they entered the finishing chute

The Bad:

• Not chip timed
• Other park users that were very perturbed about the race being held there and a few chose very inopportune times to cross over the course. There were more than a few near collisions
• Getting in and out of the car park was a bit of a hassle
• The bibs are too large! Yes, that might be a silly thing to grumble about but I hate when I have a paper bib flapping about, it's irritating and distracting plus it's a waste of paper.
• No water stop on the course. Normally not an issue but the temps had jumped from around 7C (45F) to 16-17C and was sunny so everyone was suffering because of not being acclimatised to the warmer temps

Would I do this race again? Yes, I would! Despite the snafu with the timing near the end which they corrected within 24 hours it was very well organised and under other circumstances (which were self-inflicted) I would have quite enjoyed it. Thank you again Run Nottingham for the race entry!

Rainy workouts and wrong turns

It's been an interesting week weather-wise here in England...we've had the hottest days so far of the year but it does makes me chuckle to think of temperatures in the 80s (Fahrenheit) as being a heat wave.  Then again it's not like everyone here has air conditioning, we certainly don't.  I would have thought the lack of AC would mean more screened windows (to keep the insects out) and ceiling fans but that's not been a thing I've noticed much of.  We've also have been having some severe thunderstorms with lightning strikes and flooding causing some fairly serious damage in areas.  Of course in between the rains we get some spectacular rainbows.

Like this double rainbow!

Yesterday was one of those rainy/sunny/stormy days but since it didn't look it was going to clear up anytime soon I went ahead with my weight/core workout which I try to do outside as much as possible--the partner is afraid I'm going to lose grip on a kettlebell one of these days and it will end up through a window or door, lol.  When I first started it was only a light sprinkle but a few minutes in, it POURED!!!! I also flipped the sandbag on my first clean and press right up into my upper lip.  Instead of packing it in, it just made me that more determined to carry on and it ended up being a good solid 40 minutes of work (:30 work intervals with :10 rest, every other interval was skipping rope) and I felt like I could have kept going for another 40 but went out for a 1 mile sprint instead.   Wouldn't you know, it quit raining and the sun came out for a short time before the heavy storm moved through, sod's law, eh.

And then there was one

One of the ladies in our running club had posted that she was going to run at 9 am Sunday (today) if anyone wanted to join her so I thought I would run from my house to the meet-up point to get in a slightly longer run.  It ended up being a far longer run than I planned because I missed my first turn to the trail, continued on in a direction that I thought would lead me to a different entry point and took 2 more wrong turns which of course led me in the completely opposite way.  I was 15 minutes late and had almost 3 miles more at a faster pace than I planned to get back to where I needed to be.  Combine that with the sun and mugginess and to say I struggled would be an understatement.  The last mile for me was a walk/run with most of it being the former. Of course I've not done any double digit runs since the Ramathon on the 15th of June so I'm not sure why I was expecting to jump right into a great 13 mile run straight off! 

Since getting home I have mostly been stuffing my face and trying to get re-hydrated while finishing up reading Rosie Swale Pope's "Just a Little Run Around the World", talk about a woman with drive and determination! It was a VERY engaging book despite some occasional chronology issues and a bit of repetition (normally that would cause me to throw a book against the wall in disgust), it engrossed me so much that I finished reading it in 4 days, disgracefully slow compared to how fast I used to get through books but now it seems that I fall asleep within a few pages of reading anything.  I might have stayed out on the sun lounger for an hour longer than I should have in order to finish it this afternoon.  

Alas, now that it is finished I need to turn my attention back to studying for the UK driving test