What a weekend! If you’re a British runner then this weekend gone was bloody fantastic. Nothing makes me smile like the London marathon. Truly love being part of such an awesome community.
But winding back first to Saturday morning and my usual parkrun fun at Netley Abbey. I’d decided to take it somewhat easier (medium effort I’d say) as I knew I had a lot going on the next day with the Southampton Half Marathon and running there to make it a total of 18.5 miles (more on that later). This meant I was quite chilled beforehand.
The handy tree where everyone hangs their stuff
That was until I headed off for a warm-up with my running club friend, Mike, and his daughter, Kelci who was running her first ever parkrun at nine years old, and we didn’t realise the time until we saw everyone heading over to the start. But we were still all the way across the other side of the park! We had to properly sprint over, ripping off our jackets as we went and tossing them under a random tree to meet the line-up just in time for the start. My heart was thumping before we’d even begun!
I decided to rock out my new Adidas Boosts that I’d won as being parkrunner of the month for Netley (saving myself an incredible £130!!)
They are so pretty! They’re slightly less cushioned than my regular Mizunos and Brooks so I’ll only be wearing these for short runs and ideally when I’m not running on concrete roads – so parkrun is ideal.
This also handily meant I was matching!
Small things, eh!
What was funny about the parkrun was how many volunteers we had. Because obviously it was the London marathon the next day and we had the Southampton half and 10k it meant lots of people were saving their legs. This also helped with a very quick clear down!
Anyway, my parkrun time was 22:05 which I was happy with. My running this week has gone really well. Honestly, who the hell am I!? The only hard things I’m finding are my gym sessions which are a) boring and b) hard. Running seems to be the easy part funnily enough. The gym sessions I truly believe are keeping me in good shape and injury-free so stay they must, though I might drop to one session a week as the weeks continue and mileage climbs. I can always pick it back up again full throttle post-marathon.
Mike’s daughter did very well but was pretty shattered after her first ever three mile run. She had a great finish though and the look in her face was one of sheer determination. Well done Kelci!
The rest of the day was same old same old, apart from having a little trip to West Quay shopping centre with my dad. My mum is away so I was suspicious when he invited me out shopping with him. What? Shopping? You don’t like shopping? Is how I responded. Ahh yes, the new Apple Watch was out…he wanted to have a look and feel.
Personally, I’m not won over by the Apple Watch. I have far too many watches now to need another one (my Vivofit, my Garmin, Polar watch and normal watches!) Plus my iPhone does everything I want it to and the Apple Watch doesn’t have GPS so I couldn’t even swap it for my Garmin (assuming of course I could even afford one of these – ha!) But my dad loves his gadgets so was in his element.
As it was the Southampton Half the next day a few of us from my club had arranged to go out for some carb loading that evening but due to several reasons it just ended up being Mike and me. It was lovely and chilled and a far better way to get a good dinner in than me being on my own at home (and let’s be honest, I’d have probably just gotten an Indian take away…).
I went for the chicken Caesar flatbread which was perfect. I didn’t feel overstuffed (which is always the temptation) and it was delicious (Caesar never lets me down!).
I was feeling very relaxed about the half marathon the next day because I wasn’t racing it. I’d planned to make it into a long run after discovering it was 5.5 miles from my house. This was perfect considering I ran 17 miles last weekend and all the roads were going to be closed anyway to get into Southampton. Mike (yep, him again!) graciously offered to take my bag with him the day before so I had a spare set of running clothes, warm clothes, my bib, food and drink when I got there. He also works at Southampton Solent university which is all of five minutes from the start and said I could use their facilities to get changed in. I mean, seriously how perfect! He was doing the race too and I had planned to run with him and some other friends from my running club so it worked out very well.
Except I did get stressed the night before because I was running a route that I’d never run before (and I’m notoriously bad at navigating anywhere), it was a hilly route and I had a set time to get there. This meant a rubbish night sleep. I gave myself plenty of time and left at 7.30am on Sunday morning having checked my route a zillion times, but felt very ‘naked’ without any of my race things.
But the route went perfectly, the hills weren’t half as bad as I’d imagined and I got there in plenty of time to meet Mike and co. I was instantly de-stressed and got myself ready in real toilets in Solent University. It was a cold morning so I was grateful to have somewhere warm to get sorted. I’ve never felt so relaxed before a half!
I hadn’t had breakfast before I left but had decided that because I had an hour and a half to wait until the half began that I’d need something easy beforehand. I found I had a High5 Energy Bar and went with that. It was chocolate orange flavour, which isn’t a flavour I’m big on, but it went down well and I felt good. I also had some water with a nuun tablet in.
I’ll do a full race recap in another post so I’ll leave it there. After the race I got a lift back, got myself into a lovely hot shower and ready to meet my dad for lunch. Both of us are meat-lovers so the obvious choice was Ranchos Steak House which would cater to his love of steak and my obsession love of ribs.
After 18.5 miles I was sooo ready for food! Because I’m that obsessed I went for a half a rack of ribs to start and then ribs for my main. Go big or go home 😉 It’s just what I really fancied so I went with it.
And chocolate fudge cake for dessert. I was stuffed, but hugely satisfied. My dad enjoyed his meal too and it was a lovely dad-daughter lunch outing.
When I got home and I just immersed myself into my recorded London marathon coverage and two separate Paula Radcliffe programmes. One from ITV and one from the BBC. The BBC was more of a celebration and was a lot happier, but the ITV was gritty at times and more of an unblinking look into Paula’s ups and downs. I had no idea about the relationship with her husband being under such scrutiny and the media attention surrounding it.
I also didn’t realise they’d show that unfortunate moment in the London marathon where she had to stop at the side of the course because of tummy issues. Despite those tummy issues though she still finished the marathon in a time that tops all the latest female times today (2:17:42). Seriously, that is hardcore. What I admired most was how she spoke about that unfortunate incident. She was so down to earth about it and not fazed at all. It was just one of those things that happened and she had to deal with it. Massive respect.
I’m very sad I didn’t get to run it this year but honestly 2016 I am ready for you!!!
Have you ever run the London marathon?
Who’s your sporting idol?
What do you love about being British (or whatever nationality you are!)
Glad the weekend of running went well for you 🙂 I didn’t get to do parkrun because we were driving down (early football kick off) but I was in West Quay while the football was on- Saturday shopping is very busy!
I watched the BBC Paula show- I think she is amazing and it’s fantastic that her world record has stood for so long- I wonder if any record has been held for longer. I taped the London marathon footage but didn’t watch it in the end a I saw bits in between the run and having a shower. I am not tempted though- the running club were trying to encourage people to sign up for the ballot but it looks so stressful to me, with getting there, and so many people running, and the huge crowds- I like crowds to a point but it looks crazy to me.
What I do find strange is how american the London marathon “Love in” seems to be- you know in America they are always saying “this is why this is the greatest country on earth…”- in England we never seem to sell ourselves in this way, but the London marathon just goes on and on about how it is the most amazing sporting event in the world etc, which isn’t very British!
Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…Southampton 10K- don’t think about the bridge
West Quay is great for the amount of shops and variety, but it is an absolute nightmare in terms of how busy it is. Pretty much by the end of November I won’t go near it – it’s madness!
I hope to do London next year (I’ve deferred my place and as long as I’m not injured I will run it). But I agree it does seem very stressful. I doubt I’ll have any PB intentions for it because it’s so crowded – plus I just want to enjoy it and experience the incredible sights and sounds of the day.
It is funny how much the London marathon gets bigged up by everyone. But I quite like that. I think it’s something we can be very proud of and really shows Britain at its best. I don’t want it to become *too* full of itself though (so many American marathons are like this and it’s a little cringey for us Brits!)
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Southampton Half Marathon recap
Great running. I loved watching London and seeing Paula was amazing. I need to watch that bbc doc.
Lauren (@PoweredbyPB) recently posted…London Marathon Weekend
I am so jealous you saw her live – what an experience!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Southampton Half Marathon recap
I was working so missed the marathon coverage which was such a shame! Those Paula pieces sound amazing.
Claire @ Flake and Cake recently posted…Eating mindfully: Getting those fruits and veggies in!
Ahh tha’s such a shame. But hey, always next year! 😉
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Southampton Half Marathon recap
Your picture of the parkrun tree made me smile. What a good idea!
Glad it isn’t just me who doubles up on meal choices! All the time I have caprese salad as a starter and then have the mains variant of it as well! Or, not quite the same, but I will often have a salad of some form as a starter and then another salad as my main. I just love salad! Your chicken caesar flatbread looks delicious!
It was great to see Paula out on Sunday and I’m glad that she ran a good race. I was slightly concerned that she would end up disappointed or the media would end up slating her as they did Mo last year. I caught up with the BBC program yesterday but didn’t realise there was one on ITV as well. I shall have to check that out on catchup tonight!
Mary recently posted…VMLM this year as a spectator
Haha yes I’m a double salad girl too. Can’t beat up (OK maybe ribs can…).
I think Paula is a far better athlete than Mo. I do like Mo, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think he’s proved himself quite as much as Paula. Paula is very reserved whereas Mo is a bit too full of himself (that whole Andy Vernon argument on Twitter tuned me right off him).
The ITV one was a lot more interesting I found, but both programmes were good.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Southampton Half Marathon recap
Great blog! The things that are mentioned in this are really awesome but I like the apple watch because it comes with amazing features. I also have one and had nice experience with it.