Race Report - Merthyr parkrun #22 and Merthyr Muddy 5 miler

Well wasn't that a busy weekend!

As it was my weekend off volunteering, I thought it'd be the best use of the time to go to exactly the same place only with my running head on! Now, let's be honest here, my running head is a pretty poor place, but generally speaking it work s enough to get me round.

My confidence and concentration in the middle of a race, as I may have mentioned before, is one of my biggest failings. It'll come, eventually.

Anyway, let's start at that very venue, Merthyr parkrun. My 5k PB is there (21:11 at my only real attempt at the course) so I thought I'd have a decent swing at it. I generally speaking followed my usual pattern, decent, comfortable (for 5k) first mile, second mile convinced myself I was going to blow up/pull up injured/catch fire and mentally fought myself for it, then the last bit... smell the finish line and go.

<I'll embed the strava here, doesn't appear to be working at the mo>

I got over the line, looked at my watch and swore loudly (sorry kids) at the 21:05 that was before me. 5 seconds off target... I'll get there. 5th place is reasonable, but still want a little faster.

So, the kids were running Sunday at the pre race bit of the Merthyr Muddy 5 Miler so after some umming and ahhing I decided to enter the adult race too. 5 miles, after looking at the course about 2.2 on concrete then rest on potentially boggy mud, the 2.2 means I went for road shoes of course or I'd have no knees left by the trail.

The route was nice, familiar and enjoyable, nice easy 2 miles (which I attacked knowing I'd lose 100 places on the mud). I felt I ran well enough, coming in 7th in 36:41. Good event this, only about 40 runners which is a shame, but equally the trail is narrow, so many more could cause congestion. Tough one to call.

<More Strava woes!>

Photo's nicked of the event page!

Race Report - Roman Run

Seems like I'm picking the tough ones this year, this reminded me of Tenby!

The roman run as a scenic, 16 mile, hilly(!), run from Silver Street in Brecon to Cyfartha Park in sunny Merthyr. On route it takes in the roman road between the two, hence the name...

The start is hilly, more hilly than I thought, so my moderate/aggressive start was a bad plan and I believe I suffered later on... Mile 3-6 was... hilly! Well the next thing to a mountain, much walking was done. The downhill side was far more successful, steady rhythm, maybe faster than I should have gone, but all good.

Once you hit the reservoir area, it gets a little more up/down, and it was here issues were experienced. First off I needed a pee, easy to fix, then I had a couple of tweaks in the old hamstring and I ran sore for a while. But nothing that was going to do much other than slow me slightly on the hills, which it did.

Starting to smell the end in Pontscill, this was put to the back of my mind and I hit the majority downhill last few miles. One last climb up (most of) Sanatorium Hill was slow, but I took on some water and ran towards the finish. Then left calf... cramp, nasty too, followed by right calf cramp... The way I was running must have looked properly special at this point!

Determined not to stop I tried to run it off and by the time I hit the long downhill to the park I was ok!

Quick trip up the exit route of the park and bingo. Done. I was glad to see the end!

It was a tricky run and I did kick on a bit too much early on, it also highlighted I need to add more longer runs into my training. It also pretty much confirmed I'm in no shape to even attempt the Merthyr Marathon, so let's leave that for at least this year.

I didn't run well, there was too much sore this, cramp that, tired the other, walking climbs... but it wasn't a write off either

So how did I do?

Targets were:

So targets, pretty much licking my finger and putting it in the air here:

Baseline:  2:50

Achievable: 2:35

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time: 2:20

B target hit, and that's fine!

And I did:

Race Day Preview - Roman Run (Brecon - Merthyr)

This is an odd one. I know what to expect as I'm not crazy so looked up the course a bit first, I've also ran parts of it before... but it's an odd distance, over mixed terrain and hilly. It's also point to point which is also something I've not done before.

The Roman Run is a 16 mile the-things-I-said-above race between Scenic Brecon and The Sky-News-Famous Merthyr (Cyfartha Park to be exact). There appear to be several nasty hills, but in the main I think it'll be ok, but I'm not expecting much of a performance.

This is due to:

• The distance, 16 miles is odd, do I go half pace and hang on, or marathon pace (lol) and kick on? 
• Lack of longer training runs of late, will I blow up regardless
• The underfoot, I'm the worst trail runner you've ever met, I believe I've mentioned this before, I will end up in a ditch bleeding at some point.

But I'm told the shirt is awesome.

So targets, pretty much licking my finger and putting it in the air here:

Baseline:  2:50? - Yeah, that feels like numbers, in a sequence

Achievable: 2:35 - Pushing on the targets a bit as I'm too easy on myself sometimes

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time: 2:20, no chance, but it's there to aim for!

I just accidentally put them in at 15 minute intervals!

Race day pick up for the number, so if you like that kind of thing watch instagram / facebook for a picture and what not.

It'll be an experience, then next year I'll know arse from elbow and will go for time.