Race - AnnaTheApple

March 5, 2014

Inspiring runners and lots of food

Good morning! Well I’m nice and recovered from Sunday’s half marathon and feeling strong thankfully.

This past weekend was all of a bit of a whirlwind. I do love weekends where lots goes on, but it can be a bit stressful because you have to cram everything you need to do around everything you want to do.

On the Saturday Ben and me got up less early than usual as we weren’t helping set up Parkrun. My plan for the run was to just run a nice easy run without pushing it so I would be fresh for Sunday. Because it was the five laps around the cricket pitch again, they’d decided to do it in reverse to mix things up a bit. This blew my mind a bit 😉

Anyway it was nice to just take it easy and not worry about paces and times. Though I did get a little bored with the five laps. But I was running near one of the younger guys at our running club who was desperate for a PB so we were all encouraging him and pushing him on as we ran so that was nice. He got his PB in the end which was brilliant – and with such a great sprint finish.

A few posts ago I mentioned that my lovely pregnant running friend (Karen) was still running. She really is an inspiration.

Twenty-six weeks pregnant (I think – I’m not very good at remembering these sorts of things, sorry Karen if I’m wrong!!) and smashing out very respectable times.

I was very cheeky and got her to stand sideways because in the above photo (^^) she doesn’t look pregnant at all!

Honestly, when I’m pregnant (not for a few years) then I really hope I can follow her example. She has a very healthy attitude towards running as well in that she is listening to her body and will only continue running if she feels she can without causing herself or her baby issues.

After getting home and doing the boring housework bits and pieces I then headed off to see another pregnant friend. It was her baby shower. She had no idea about it and we were all at her sister’s house ready to surprise her. Her sister got her over and honestly her face was a picture. She was so shocked.

We played lots of games (like guess how many sweets in the bottle) and ate lots of cake. I really wish I hadn’t but you know what my will power is like around cake. In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have eaten two cupcakes, a slice of lemon meringue and a lot of chocolate fondue. I don’t think this helped particularly well for the next day’s race. Duly noted for Paris 😉

Then I had to eat a pizza in the evening before the race. Jeeze I did not fancy it.

Hey ho. I ate it regardless.

Anyway so the race happened on Sunday. Check my recap out HERE.

After running the half marathon, Ben, my parents, Ben’s mum and me stumbled back to car in that ‘post-race walk’ (the parents were stiff themselves from walking out a few miles and then standing in the cold). After getting changed we headed off to Jamie’s Italian – exactly the same thing we did last year.

It was a little bit of a nightmare as I have a Gold members card for Jamie’s (I go there so often…) and as a Gold member I get certain benefits. I once got £10 off the bill! However, I’d left my card in the car and the waitress needed the number on it in order for us to qualify for the perks.

So I had to trek back to the car to get it. To be fair, everyone did offer to go for me but it was my fault I left it so I felt I was the one to retrieve it. The multi-storey car park was very close but the car was on floor three and I optimistically took the stairs. After getting to the first level I then waited for the lift. My legs basically just said “no, Anna. Just no”.

Finally after getting back to Jamie’s I fully enjoyed my peppermint tea as I was so cold and tired by this point. For my Gold membership, we each got a free little courgette thing that had been rolled in some tasty breadcrumb thing with a zesty dip (top right-hand picture).

We also got a cocktail each – Prosecco and some berry fizz thing. I opted for a non-alcoholic one as my stomach wasn’t feeling great. Obviously I got my Turkey Milanese meal which was HUGE. I swear it was never that big before. And I got a side of cabbage with prosciutto and parmesan breadcrumbs. Like I said, my stomach didn’t feel good though. I ate the turkey but Ben got my egg and I took the cabbage home with me.

I think the cakes the day before really didn’t do good things to me. I felt rough when we got home. I was fine the next day thankfully. I just think sometimes a race can hit you badly and mess things up a bit.

But there we go, apart from the dodgy tummy, it was a great weekend! Next race for me is the Paris marathon…

Have you ever felt a bit ‘off’ after a race?

Do you know any inspiring runners?

If you’re female and considering (or have had) children, will you/did you exercise during pregnancy?

March 3, 2014March 4, 2014

Reading Half Marathon

Hello lovelies. Well, I am shattered! Ben and me completed the Reading half marathon yesterday and it was great. We survived! Hurrah! Here’s my recap of the race.

It feels crazy that it was only last year I ran this half marathon and it was my first proper race. I trained for like 12 weeks for it. Now it’s part of my marathon training. Honestly, I would never have believed you a year ago if you’d told me that.

Saturday evening we both had a pizza to carb it up and had a nice early night.

My standard chicken, veg and BBQ sauce – hold the cheese

The alarm went off at 6.15am. I quickly walked Alfie, got ready, had breakfast (porridge) and a coffee. My parents and Ben’s mum arrived and we were off to Reading.

I decided to go with my shorts and compression socks again as I felt so comfortable in them and liked the extra support that I find the socks give. But I was a bit chilly and thankful for my parents so I could wear my jacket and then hand it over to them at the last minute.

The race village was cool with a huge inflatable shoe. It was very busy. We saw Tony the Fridge (top right picture) who was running the half marathon with a fridge on his back for charity. What an inspiration!

Then we said goodbye to the parents and headed to our waves. By this point I had had three pees and I would then queue up for another pee in our wave (we had a lot of time). That’s got to be a record for me.

Oh we were so cold waiting to start. It was also fairly late starting. We did the group warm-up and then we waited for another five or so minutes, by which time we were cold again.

Then we were off. I have to say mile one to mile three weren’t great for me. I felt they were a slog. It was very busy with the amount of people but this kept my speed down so I didn’t shoot off which I was pleased about. There’s a huge temptation in the big races to let the excitement get to you but luckily this was not the case. There were a few inclines and I just felt that it was a lot of hard work so soon.

We got into Reading University and I started to get into it. My paces were coming down and I felt comfortable and strong. I grabbed a water from the water station. It might be because I’m a bit slow but I serious issues with these water things. I say ‘things’ because they’re not bottles, they’re like pouches of water. I didn’t really know how to get the water out so squeezed it in my mouth and then got choked by a gush of water. I spent the next 30 seconds almost dying.

I’d say miles four to eight I was happy. I was enjoying the crowds, my music, the bands, the atmosphere. It felt comfortably hard but I was in the racing zone.

I saw the parents at mile seven which was lovely.

Miles nine to the end were when I had to put my head down and push on. I had had a gel at mile eight and was now counting down the miles.

The stretch at mile 11 down the dual carriageway was hard going. The wind was in our faces.

Hilarious side story: a man (I say man because he was at youngest 18, but potentially early twenties) was running alongside me. His family were ahead and cheered him on. His mother (probably in her late 50s) starts running alongside him yelling encouragement at him. This continues for about 30 seconds to a minute. The guy just looks like he wants to die. It was hilarious. I think everyone around thought it was somewhat amusing.

Then that horrible incline into the Madejski Stadium and a great finish into the crowds cheering.

My official time was 1:39:35, 2275th. I’m quite happy with that. My two goals were to beat last year’s time and hopefully to get a sub 1:40. There was no way I could get a PB at my current fitness level and also Reading was never a goal race.

Ben got 1:46:12, 3847th – a PB by six minutes. That boy is on fire!

We went to the lovely Jamie’s Italian for lunch (more on that in another post) after getting changed. Ahh the great joy of getting changed in the back of a car…

Then when we got home I had a lovely hot shower (nothing quite like it after a hard race where you’re freezing afterwards). And then a horrific ice bath.

But with a cup of tea and good reading material it wasn’t so bad…ha.

I think I’m done with Reading now. I’d like to do Silverstone or Bath next year I think. I’ve enjoyed running Reading but it’s not that scenic and when you’ve done it a couple of times it’s sort of done and dusted. I’d definitely recommend it though: great crowd support pretty much all round, very popular so you’re never running alone, brilliant finish in the stadium, nice goodie bag (snacks and cotton T-shirt) and the best medal I’ve had in a while!

Thank you Reading, it’s been great 😉

What did you get up to this weekend?

What’s your favourite half marathon (or race)?

How do you recover from a race? It’s all about food for me, then showering, then ice bathing. Then NOTHING.

February 17, 2014April 12, 2017

Brighton Half Marathon Recap

Hey everyone! This weekend was almost a perfect weekend. Parkrun, cake, a race, seeing friends, good food and lots of chilling.

Saturday we went to Parkrun. It was a bit chilly, very windy but the rain held off…for a little bit. We were on the cricket pitch course which is very flat but very boring (5 laps!). Also a bit precarious underfoot at the moment as it’s quite wet and muddy. In the summer it’s excellent for PB potential. At the moment it’s better than the other more hilly course but you still need to mind your step a fair bit, especially round the corners!

I decided just to see how I felt for this run. In the end one of my running friends from a different run club ran with me. At first I felt a bit pressured as he’s normally quite speedy (we used to be fairly evenly matched but since my injury I’m definitely slower than him) but it was nice as it pushed me harder. I didn’t want to hold him up too much! 2nd female with 22:30. I just couldn’t catch the first female!

Then we rushed home, did the housework, showered and headed out for…yep, afternoon tea – again!

That’s Ben’s “I hate you taking photos” face

It was, as always, lovely. Ham and mustard sandwiches, fruit scones (with ginger and rhubarb jam) and butterscotch banana cake with chocolate chips.

If you’re ever in Botley check out Elsie’s Tea Rooms – it’s lovely and very reasonably priced.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing after a drizzly walk with Alfie. And in bed fairly early because we had a delightful 5.20am start the next day.

Ah yes…I may not have mentioned this on the blog. I had a bit of a change of mind. Ben and me decided to do the Brighton Half (despite deciding against it a few weeks ago). We reasoned that if we survived the very tough 11 miler the weekend before without issue, 13 very flat miles would be OK. I promised myself I wouldn’t go faster than 8-8.30mins/mile and would see it as a training run – a lovely route with thousands of other people.

So we left at 6am. Ouch. On route to Brighton

I ate my porridge and drank a coffee as we drove over. It was about an hour and some to get there. We parked in the Park and Ride and then got the bus down to the race village. Feeling lovely and warm in the bus, but dreading standing the cold!

Through Twitter I managed to find someone to run with who was in a similar situation. Cathy (check her blog out HERE) kindly offered to run with me and we agreed it’d be way more fun to run together slowly than on our own!

So we met up in our optimistically fast pen. The race was like no other half marathon I’ve ever done in that I was quite relaxed, didn’t care about pace and was able to chat someone the whole time.

The weather was fantastic. Cold, but clear, sunny and no wind! Perfect running conditions.

It was a fairly flat course (though there were some minor sneaky gradual inclines). The views were great of the seafront and surroundings. But I just found it a little dull running all the way up the seafront and then running all the way back.

But the company was lovely. We chatted about races, running and life in general. It was great! We both were a bit miffed at not being anywhere near a PB but reflected it was for the best at the moment.

The pace felt very comfortable and chatting was easy so I feel in a good place about that 🙂 We had a little sprint finish (to pick off some females…just couldn’t help it) and then finished. 1:49:01 official time, 2,126th.

Thank you Cathy!

My knee was OK during the run. At times it felt slightly uncomfortable in that it felt tired. Not painful, nothing like before…just hard done by. But this was intermittent and nothing I’m worried about. No pain on finishing and afterwards either. Well, my whole body ached but that’s to be expected!

Ben got himself a cheeky PB as well, despite saying he was going to take it easy (1:52:30).

We then met up with some friends who live in Brighton for a lovely roast.

I had roast venison with the largest Yorkshire pudding known to man and lots of veggies and roast potatoes. Food never tasted so good.

Then we headed home and I fell asleep in the car! I did lots of stretching, foam rolling and icing while just chilling on the sofa, before promptly heading to bed at 9pm shattered.

Brighton Half was a great race, definitely PB potential, well organised, beautiful scenery and great crowd support. The goodie bag not too shabby either.

Ben picked up quite a few Lucozade drinks as he loves them

So that, my friends, is what a great weekend in my eyes looks like. I wish I could have smashed a PB out to make things perfect but I have a bigger goal in mind to jeopardise anything at the moment. Slowly, gradually, I’ll hopefully get there.

How was your weekend?

Did anyone run any races? Eat cake?

Has anyone done Brighton half/marathon before? Thoughts?

February 6, 2014

Marathon Talk Weekend and Windy Days

I’m in a bit of a quandary. I am trying really hard to take things slowly and ease gently back into running…but at the same time I have an impending marathon approaching (Paris 6th April). So the mileage obviously has to increase.

Ideally I’d love to ramp up fast and heavy: four or five runs a week with big long runs at the weekend. But I can’t. Number one rule of returning to your sport post-injury: take things slow. You can’t take time off, get all healed and then jump back into 30 miles a week. Well I can’t anyway.

Being all sensible and boring means I’m not running Brighton half marathon the weekend after next. Part of me harboured this optimism that I could do it, take it slowly, use it as a training run. But however slowly I do it, it’s still 13.1miles pounding away on my knees. And it’s quite a jump from my current long run mileage. Sure I’ve run nine miles and I plan to do 10 this weekend…but jumping up three when I’m still getting back into it and my knee is still feeling delicate…Recipe for disaster.

Onto more exciting news…This weekend Ben and me are off to the Marathon Talk spring running weekend.

Basically we’re going to Sandy Balls (actually it’s real name) in the New Forest with 50 or so other runners to have a three day running-filled jolly. We get to do to the Brockenhurst Parkrun on the Saturday with everyone, then a few talks, training stuff, then a fun Saturday night in the local pub (I hear there’s a quiz – I do love a good quiz) and then Sunday a nice long run with everyone. There are several options (all the way to 20 miles) but I will be sticking to approximately 10 miles. Then a big fat roast dinner afterwards.

Happy days! I’m so excited. I love the Marathon Talk podcast. But I’m hoping I won’t turn into one of those weirdo fans…you never know how you’re going to react. They’re not massively famous, but I just love the show!

And on a quick note to “what the hell is going on with the weather”…I hope everyone in the UK (and elsewhere as well) aren’t struggling too much with flooding or the stormy weather. It’s become a bit of a joke on our road. It’s a new build development and there’s still lots of work going on. The builders are working on the actual road and they’ve put these bollard things up. I was driving along and suddenly a huge gust of wind swept them across the road at rocket speed.

Five seconds later and they’d have rammed into my car! Scary stuff. Annoyingly I had to jump out in the rain and wind and put them upright again. They weigh a bloody tonne!

Anyway, it’s almost Friday. Thank God for that.

Have you ever been on a fitness-related holiday? I’d love to go to one of those yoga resorts in the middle of some hot beautiful country…

Have you been affected by the crazy weather?

What’s your next race? Mine is Reading half marathon 2nd March.

October 28, 2013October 28, 2013

The Great South Run

Hello! Well clearly I can’t start this post without saying it’s been a bit mad with the wind here of late! In the UK there’s been a good old gale blowing and weather warnings have been flying about all over the place this weekend.

Clearly not exactly ideal for the 10 mile Great South Run race Ben and me were doing on Sunday. Hey ho! The show must go on.

Sunday morning Ben and me got up, got ready, had breakfast and then Ben’s mum arrived and we drove to my parent’s house to pick them up. We were all lovely and cosy crammed in the car and then headed to Portsmouth for the race. It wasn’t far for us at all and we know Portsmouth well so we parked in nearish car park and walked 15 minutes-ish to the start area.

Gunwharf Quays: There’s the Spinnaker Tower in the distance

Portsmouth has a lot of history based around the naval docks. There are lots of museums, old ships, naval buildings…things like that. I’ve lived around the Portsmouth area most of my life so it’s all very familiar to my family and me which is nice for a change!

As we got along the sea front in Southsea (where the race begins) it quickly became apparent just how windy it was.

Nothing like being slapped in the face with your own pony tail!!

We got to the race start with plenty of time. We met up with some of the guys from our running club and then moseyed about for a bit. It was cold. Not the wintery bitterly cold, but the very windy cold. The sun was out intermittently but that wind was relentless.

I attempted a warm up run but I was so cold and my body was all cramped up from hunching over.

The long stretch of the start before everyone has begun lining up

This race was huge. There were just under 30,000 people doing it. So there were, I think, about four different waves. I was in the orange wave which meant I was the first wave to go after the elites. Ben was in the wave behind that one. So we said goodbye to the parents, then each other and I headed to the start.

My original plan for this race had been to run with a guy who’s around the same speed as me. We were aiming for the now laughable time (for me) of 1 hour 10mins. So 7 minute miles all the way. In retrospect this was stupid. I’ve lost a bit of speed in the recent weeks due to my stupid, stupid niggles. I haven’t done any speed work. There was no way I was going to hit those times.

In the end I never saw the guy. We had attempted to meet up but it just didn’t happen. I was actually very relieved. Even before starting I knew deep down it wasn’t going to happen for me. I went into this race feeling very unconfident and terrified of that wind.

Mile 1: Bit of bottlenecking to begin with and dodging around people. I tried to huddle into groups of people to avoid the wind (7.19mins/mile).

Miles 2-3: Still busy but now able to pick up speed. Nice route through the old naval docks area with the old ships, like the Victory and the Mary Rose museum. Then at the end of mile 3 we ran past Portsmouth Cathedral (7.06mins/mile for both).

I took this photo as we walked past it beforehand, not during!

Miles 4-6: I started finding the run quite tough. My pace dropped down and I got myself into a bit of a bad mood (stupid I know). Everything started annoying me. My hair slapping me and the loose tendrils were getting stuck on my face. I was stupidly hot; the sun had come out and I was in a long-sleeved top and running club vest. I also saw the water station and when I ran over no one gave me a water and I had to wait for them to get one out of the plastic. Nightmare. (7.20-25miles/min).

Mile 6: My darkest hour. I just wasn’t happy. I know this sounds quite stupid (and believe me I know it is) but I wasn’t enjoying it. I didn’t feel like I was in control. I felt like everything was against me. I realised quite a few miles back that my target was never in a million years going to happen. And nor was my second target, and the rate I was running nor was my third. This hugely got me down.

But, just as mile 7 approached, I saw a girl from my running club ahead. She’s a little bit slower than me normally but was running a good pace. I was fed up of being all down on myself so I caught up with her. I told her I was having a bad race and could I run with her and she was lovely and happily said yes. She said her target was to get under 1:20. Well, there’s a target I was happy with finally! (7.25mins/mile)

Miles 7-8: It’s amazing how a race can suddenly improve when you drop the pressure off yourself. Suddenly this wasn’t my race at all anymore. It was her race and I was merely joining her. I no longer beat myself up about the pace we were running. I stopped worrying about trying to ‘gain back’ the seconds I’d lost. I just ran alongside her trying to keep an even pace, telling her I was happy to slow down at any point if she was struggling (7.19-7.27mins/mile).

Miles 8-10: Hello hell. This was along the front and it was TOUGH.

It felt like running in slow motion. My running buddy and I were struggling through but we kept each other going which was brilliant (7.54-8.01mins/mile).

And we made it. I hit none of my targets apart from my absolute lowest one: beat the New Forest 10 (that was 1:18 something). Well, I did! Official time 1:15:13 (1148th overall, 552nd in age category, 82nd female, 43rd in age/gender category).

But the best part for me was my running buddy rushing over to me in tears and grabbing me in a huge hug and saying “I’ve taken 3 minutes off my PB. I couldn’t have done it without you”.

That made everything worth while.

And Ben finished in a brilliant time of 1:26:20 – a huge PB for him! He was grinning from ear to ear when I met up with him. He was buzzing.

Sensibly this time I’d packed some chocolate milk in my bag as I never normally eat anything after a race until I get home a few hours later and have lunch (I’m genuinely not hungry and never fancy eating in the hours after). It went down nicely! I noticed later on I felt much better in myself.

This was my bag (though the Protein Plus bar came from Ben’s – we both got one PowerBar product)

The goodie bag at the end was quite good. We got a free t-shirt as well (cotton, boo!). There was a Chobani stall handing out free yogurts and a Powerade stand handing out free drinks so that was cool as well.

And after getting home and devouring a huge lunch I was ready to chill.

Hot shower? Check. Medal? Check. Free t-shirt? Check. Compression socks? Check.

Then we relaxed on the sofa with our furry friend watching the live coverage of the Great South Run on TV that we’d recorded. Reliving the magic – ha! As terrible as this sounds, it was nice to see some of the elites struggle against the wind as well. They’re only human!

I did enjoy this race but it was tough and it almost brought me down. But you can’t always have a brilliant race and hit your goals. That’s just life! I helped a friend get her goal and her happiness at the end made all my moodiness a thing of the past and seem so silly.

When was your last bad race? How did you come back from it?

How do you relax after a race or hard workout? You better believe I enjoyed a slice of cake last night!

What’s the best thing you’ve got in a race goodie bag? It’s always the medal for me!