Race Day preview - Bryn Bach 6 mile / Lap the lake Fun Run

I've been quiet, mainly as I've been busy but like the bad smell which flows from me, I haven't gone away!

More posts to come on the small subject of Merthyr parkrun (note the correct capitalisation), which launched this very day (assuming I finish this post in the next 15 minutes) with a pleasing degree of success.

But back to me putting one foot infront of the other. Tomorrow I visit Tredegar to take part in the Bryn Bach 6 mile race, also running the fun run with the oldest. I've let the training slip big style, so I'm not expecting much tomorrow, but it'll be nice to get a few miles in.

Bryn Bach Park is pretty flat, but I'm not overly familiar beyond the parkrun course, so we'll see.

So... targets:

Baseline:0:52:00 (8:40 min/ml)

Achievable:0:50:00 (8:20 min/ml)

Would be nice, but maybe beyond me this time:
0:47:00 (7:50ish min/ml) 

This is also my first race out of club kit... Oooooh choices.

I'm not bothered about time, so the targets are loose, but it's good to have a plan after all. Be nice to get a few miles in and see if I all apart, the motivation is there but bus busy of late.

Llanelli marathon, is down as a maybe, I've not trained anywhere near enough, so may go for a trot round and get the tshirt etc anyway. Paid now after all!

Mainly because it's a challenge, a challenge for me and a challenge for the coracle

No coracles were used in the writing of this post...

A fairly easy thing to do while running would be too slip into a rut. There's some argument that I'm most the way there. I tend to run the same routes, participate in the same races... this kind of does my head in.

Back when I first started running, one of my driving factors (we well as the health benefits etc, see I said there were more) was the challenge. The first, injury strewn, fat(ter) boy half marathon was torturous at times (more for the guy running with me - Hi Brad), but I achieved something I never had. I  got a slight buzz out of it and a large box of Ibuprofen following it.

Look at the size of that thing!

I also learned what not to do to train for something, which was everything I did.

 

Last year, I fulfilled a long long held desire and completed a full marathon on the streets of Manchester. Another new achievement, another goal ticked off.

Smug... worry about time next one...

But the question is... where now? I see some of the challenges people set themselves and I'm part thinking, wow, now that's a challenge, but I'm also part thinking (at least some of the time), I'd love a go at something like that. Borderline jealousy.

I'll always have time goals to push myself on in the more traditional races (I'd like a sub 4 marathon (best is 4:09), a sub 1:50 half (best is 1:50)... not necessarily in the same event). But new is probably more exciting.

There's the writer/runner running the length of Wales, there's people running back to back daily marathons, there are Ultra Marathons (Although I'm a pretty poor trail runner) which would push my distance much further, there's cross country map reading n the dark races (many of which are also Ultras), I've always wanted to do the 24 hour three peaks challenge... alas, this year I've not even booked a marathon til Snowdon. Damn things are so expensive, I've not got the cash!!

Oh and the Crystal maze, always wanted to go on that.

 

Oh and there was the crazy idea I had about completing a triathlon, just a super sprint one, just to see if I could do it. I even bought a bike! That's been put onto the back burner though as, I'm a lousy swimmer... and a lousy cyclist... and not the worlds greatest runner to be honest! Maybe next year.

 

However, the plan is to continue to try and go faster and longer (once again not necessarily in the same event).

 

On a side point I'm considering getting a domain for the blog so the address isn't somename.somewebsite.somethingelse.googlestuff.blah, catchy as that is. I'm thinking:

 

ItsThatRunningGuy.<whateverICanGet/Afford>

or

ThatRunningGuy.<same> but I'm pretty sure the.com is gone there.

 

Any thoughts?