Running in the Real World

Friday, June 12: 50 min easy
5.1 mi @ 9:50/mi; 8.2 Km @ 6:07/km

Tried hard to keep this slow, afternoon sea front run. It felt warm and humid on the way back, I found myself missing the wind! Note to self: don't eat scallions for lunch if running in the afternoon.

Saturday, June 13: St. Anne's Parkrun
Went out last night, had too much vino and didn't get much sleep, so I decided this morning was not the day for attempting the sub-25 5k. However, there was significant peer pressure from the fairview crew on the way out to St Anne's... Aquinn insisted on being my pacer, Bungy Girl and Hillside Runner accepted no excuses, pointing out that sometimes a hangover is required for a PB. We got to St. Anne's in good time (thanks BG!) said hello to a few fellow parkrunners and did a bit of a warm-up.

BG and HR were both looking for PB's or close to it today too... Bungy's last race for some time, she assures us. The sun was coming out, the park was looking lovely and before I could come up with any more excuses, Aquinn was beside me at the start line, already very chirpy.

Yaboya was doing 23 minute pacing duty so HR was keeping an eye on him and BG was way ahead of all of us, as usual.

Aquinn had her watch in miles, mine in Km and off we went... first Km felt good, second was quite consistent too... 4:53, 4:57... started to wonder if I could hold this pace for another 3. A was beside me going, how are the legs, you're grand... etc. etc. etc.

I know myself that I always flag in the 3rd km, and I know this route so well that it's almost pre-programmed where it's going to happen... "i need to slow down,' I gasped, 'no you don't, you're grand,' A says. I didn't have any extra energy to argue with her.

I checked myself for pain... no pain anywhere, except in breathing and feeling puffed... 'in through your nose, deep breath' , came the instructions from A. After 2 slower KM (5:05, 5:07), we finally turned on to the avenue for the home stretch -- always my favourite part and I know I can always pick it up here. And bloody hell, I didn't have a choice today... 'you can hate me afterwards,' A says, 'just keep running.' A man in front of us, listening to her patter, says to her... 'you're going to kill her.' :eek: My sentiments exactly at this point...

And then we crossed the 400m line and I knew we had the sub-25 in the bag... I think it was a strong finish but it was a bit of a blur! Fell into the finishing funnel and stopped the watch... at 24:24!!!!! Last Km: 4:30!

My legs were like jelly and I wanted to just lie down on the grass, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back up again... my personal pacer/wand/torturer handed me some water... and I slowly started to recover enough to find my barcode and get scanned.

Bungy and Hilly both had great races too, so we all enjoyed a celebratory cup of coffee. Yaboya outlined his beer mile strategy for us

A beautiful morning in St Anne's, big crowd again and a Scotland v Ireland theme... some of the regulars ran in tutus... not quite sure how that related to the football, but definitely not PB gear

Absolutely thrilled now with that morning's work -- fair play to aquinn for being the most annoying enthusiastic pacer ever, she was brilliant! I would have been happy to sneak under 25 mins, but this is almost a 30-second pb over jingle bells in December... yaay. Haven't seen the official time yet, but I believe in the Garmin god.

edit: official time now in at 24:22, 20th woman, 2nd in age category

libelula wrote: »

Brilliant!
I agree with the hangover pb theory, it's happened for me a few times.
Nice running, 23:59 isn't far at all at all now

Bungy Girl wrote: »

What a team! Well done Anna and AQ. There was no way you were getting out of that arrangment without a PB Anna! That's a big chunk off, especially a Jingle Bells time. Agree sub 24 not too far away.

... ah here, allow me to bask in the sub-25 for a day at least before raising the bar

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Super stuff Anna so maybe I need to have more vino on Friday night !!!! No bp for me today but I'm blaming the Orange tu tu !!!! But a lovely day out in St Annes all the same. Well done !

yaboya1 wrote: »

In fairness, it's always difficult to record a bp Mrs Mac :P

Thanks A... how's the tutu chafing?

P... a bp is a 'best personal' of course.

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Am I allowed to swear??' That was chuffing fecking brilliant! Well done aquinn I mean Anna!! It's not that long that you have restarted structured training this year and you really are reaping the rewards. Said it before, Murph, she'll get ya

Haha thanks. I was swearing at aquinn myself at the end. I'm still pinching myself, it's pretty cool. The difference now is I don't give up as easily (although I would have today if I didn't have jiminy cricket beside me) and I was able to take a mini recovery during it and pick it up again... Those interval sessions really have helped.

Saturday, June 13 PM... Beer mile timekeeper

Possibly the most high-pressure volunteer role I've ever done... with a national championship at stake, there was no room for error. Bungy was responsible for the scoring sheet, with runners identified by a mix of boards names, real names and tshirt colours (who needs chips). Dubgal provided the prosecco, which did not affect our concentration or precision. I can attest that the first beer was knocked back in an astonishing 8 seconds!

After recording the sprint finish, with only a second between two runners beating the Irish record, we had a momentary wobble when some irate runners accused us (correctly) of recording the finish times at the wrong line. Apparently a mile is a lap of the track plus 10 meters... who knew? Not me anyway, since I never ran on a track in my life.

The kerfuffle caused BG some consternation but she quickly recovered and the race director and most of the runners were beyond caring at this point Except for the 3 or 4 whose names got separated from their times, but they were all 10 mins+ so there was little at stake. Once the guy in the moose suit finished it was all over for another year. Runners and spectators dispersed in varying degrees of inebriation. Very enjoyable event.

Sunday, June 14: One hour easy (61 mins)
6.26 miles @ 9:47/mi; 10.1K @ 6:05/k

Lovely run up the canal with Murph as far as Broombridge and back. I couldn't even be disapproving of the beer drinkers we passed, having been doing similar myself in Kilbogget park last night

Home in time to watch Donegal crush Armagh... less satisfying than it should have been because Armagh didn't really show up... McGeeney's biceps were a sight to behold though, he really should not wear short sleeves.

Only 35k/22 miles for the week, but a good week nonetheless. Time to up the miles again I think.