Race Report - Swansea Half Marathon

I like Swansea, if I ever moved from the Tyd and stayed in the UK it's one of two places I'd consider (the other being Bristol). So competing for s second time in their half marathon is a nice thing to do. The course is very straight, not as flat as I remember (based on the stats I saw, still feels pretty flat to me, I think there's a risk my strava was off there) but fast! A nice quick course.

It was rainy at the start as I lined up in pen B, in my all new 1bloodydrop.com vest (very snug, needed a size higher, but amazingly comfortable), the 1:45 pacers in my sights. All felt good, and we were off. Off quite quick, I did think if the pacers were struggling with maths. Miles were consistently a little fast, 7:15, 7:30... a few people questioned them for them to reveal their plan was to go quick to allow fall off in the second half. Personally I'd have liked even, but I was keeping with them...

Had a little grumble coming down the seafront, little pain in my side I couldn't really explain, but nothing to significantly stop me, so on I pressed, and when the pacer did slow, I pulled ahead, maintaining a similar pace to the natural 'target' for 1:45. Dropped off a little at the end, especially a disappointing last mile, which was a little climb and I had a few seconds of what could have developed into cramp, but behaved enough not to stop me.

Targets were:

Baseline:
1:50:00 I think even on a meh day now I should be sub 110 mins

Achievable:1:45:00
It's 'flat and fast' so lets find a pacer and say Hi!

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:
1:44:00 would be a big PB, I'll try...

and I got




The PBs just keep coming this year, that takes 2:39 off my previous 13.1 best! Also the elevation is higher than the one in Merthyr (but more gradual), I'm not sure that's right...

The onebloodydrop thing was an attempt to set a record for the most T1 diabetics in a race, which I believe was achieved, well done everyone. Was a pleasure to be a part of it.

Race Day Preview - Swansea Half Marathon

Delayed this while I was watching the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl playing until... well... still going now... is not good the night before a half!

Anyway, the 2017 roadshow moves to Abertawe tomorrow for my second time around their half marathon, which is apparently the best half marathon! I think...

I have no idea what Pink, or B or my name mean... I'll find out I suppose.

Feeling positive I think, last half was Merthyr which is a much harder course... and I PB'd it with a chest infection.

So tomorrow, targets are:

Baseline:
1:50:00 I think even on a meh day now I should be sub 110 mins

Achievable:1:45:00, it's 'flat and fast' so lets find a pacer and say Hi!

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:1:44:00 would be a big PB, I'll try...

I'm also part of a record attempt for the most T1 diabetics in a half marathon, so that'll be fun! Foos are still going, so I'm off to finish watching them... then maybe just not sleep.

Race Report - Caerphilly 10k

Hot... I could do this report with a single word... HOT.

But I'm vaguely professional so I won't!

So yesterday, it was time for my short notice entry into the wonderful Caerphilly 10k, twice the elevation of Treforest! Due to the late entry for both me and my oldest we had to pick up numbers on the day... I don't that often go into pre-race organisational stuff, but today I am. It was horrendous!

Long queues, unhelpful  marshals (and also some super-helpful one who pretty much fixed the whole situation) ensured the junior race was late going. I queued along with daughter right up until the start and just about got her turned around and pinned up. She had teh worlds shortest warm up and was off. On the plus side she ran well considering the pre race stress and heat taking 4 minutes of her time from last year. Bravo girl.

Then it was my turn to queue, the wife did most of it, me taking over once the juniors finished and I'd located the child. I get to the front, give my name (keenly aware of less than 15 minutes til the start), to be told they've not got me as the print outs start at the end of D (after Driscoll!) so they need the laptop... which is broken...

I stand there and wait, hearing the announcer trying to get people to start getting in the pens, until they give up trying to fix said laptop and give me a brand new number, I grabbed and ran (no warm up for me!) but got to the start on time, if a little further back than I'd have liked.

So the race...

I thought it was too hot at the start... as soon as we were off, I knew it. This combined with the course having very little flat on it... joy! 

It starts with a climb, there's a climb in the final k and there's a climb at half way I didn't even remember from last year. The route is fine apart from that, all closed or part closed roads and well marshaled. 2 water stations were very welcome but I shot myself in the foot losing my energy gel in the frantic run around before the start.

Cheers for the photo Sian!

At 7k (the above is at about 9) I honestly contemplated giving up, but I appear to have grown some determination from somewhere!

Also god bless the people out with hoses!!

I didn't do a prview for this and that's a good thing as my targets moved when I realised how hot it was. They were: A: 46 (which I moved in my head to 48) B: 50 (beat last years 50:50) C: 52.

So how did I do:


I'll take that. I really will, 2 mins off last year and lost 32 stone of fluid based body weight on the way round...

Did I mention it was hot?

On to Swansea Half next weekend where I will pay cash if someone can arrange some cloud cover...

Me and the gym we got issues

Of late I believe that, by my standards at least and ignoring the Llanelli 'incident', I've been running quite well. The 2nd improvement of he year on my 10k time, on a harder course, kinda backs me up.

I do feel some percentage of this is down to the time I was spending on lunch in the gym. Strength work has helped and pushing fast on a treadmill is good and gives me a bit on confidence to do it on the road.

However, no more gym for me. Moving offices (same job) leaves me too far away from the place to keep going. Bad times. As I'm also clubless (anyone training on a Tuesday or Wednesday incorporating technical sessions hit me up), it's pretty likely form will start heading down pretty swiftly.

Me in 3 weeks

So, the solution... I'm not sure! Maybe hit up the YouTube and try core exercises from there? I doubt it'll be as effective but may slow the decline.

There's far too much going on with kids etc to go after work without hardly ever running again. 

On the plus side, despite forcing myself to choose between Caerphilly and Treforest 10ks this year, and choosing Treforest one (46:02, PB), I've entered Caerphilly (and the oldest in the 2km race) anyway. 

Self control is not my thing.

#VolunteersWeek

So apparently it's Volunteers Week. This is a good thing and ironically on the week I'm not volunteering anywhere for anything as I'm on holibobs.

You may know this if you read here regularly (does anyone??) but I volunteer. I'm a member of the core team for Merthyr parkrun and I've helped out over in Penallta Junior parkrun. It's not a great amount, adding up to 10 sessions, but that's almost getting to half way to my tshirt!

It's good fun, there's a variety of roles (I've been Run Director (2), Timer (4), Marshal (2), Barcode scanner, Tail Runner as well as helping process the results) so you hopefully won't get bored doing the same thing, unless that's your bag, I'm not judging.

Plus you get to wear a cool yellow... thing!

It's rewarding and it's essential to remember, volunteers make the race. Not only in parkrun too, but any race needs volunteers, from London Marathon to a local 5k, no helpers, no runners. So maybe, just occasionally offer a helping hand and give back a little to help maintain the things you enjoy.

If the rest of the world is like Merthyr parkrun (and it's really isn't) you'll have a good day/hour/however long.

When you think about it, they're that essential, every week is really volunteers week.