520.34 - 540.38KM: Forging Towards The Sunset (Summer Solstice 10K & Underwood 10K)

Fresh off the back of last weekend's milestone reaching race, this week I kept the momentum going with another two races. With little over 30 seconds between the times recorded at both races you could be mistaken for thinking that my performances were reasonably identical. This would be far from the truth, the races couldn't have gone any more differently.

520.34 - 530.38KM: Summer Solstice 10k

First up was Friday's Summer Solstice 10k in Long Bennington. I spent the majority of the day keeping an eye on the weather as the consistent threat of rain looked to signal a rather damp race. I need not have worried however, as by the time race came the majority of the clouds had disappeared and made way for glorious, hot sunshine. In hindsight, I was perhaps a little too eager for the sun as the conditions bared a startling resemblance to my last Friday evening race, the Notts 10 Mile Road Race. Although at least this time I didn't throw up.

Definitely not raining

There is always slight trepidation when reading the runners' information pack before a race that my eyes will come across the following:

THE USE OF MP3PLAYERS/IPOD/IPHONES OR ANY DEVICE USING HEADPHONES IS NOT PERMITTED DURING THIS RACE. IF A RUNNER IS FOUND TO BE WEARING HEADPHONES THEY WILL BE DISQUALIFIED AND THEIR TIME WILL NOT BE RECORDED.

Unfortunately this past weekend this happened on both occasions.

I'm not sure on the science behind it, but there is no doubt that I am able to perform much better when running with music than I am without, if for no reason other than it acts as a distraction from how much I may or may not be hurting. I am in no doubt that if Rob Halford's screams wouldn't have come through my ears in the last mile at Silverstone, that I wouldn't have got as strong a PB as I did. There is also a certain level of fear that if I don't run as fast as I can that I might be letting Dave Hunt down personally.

Sorry Dave

As for the race, I have no one to blame but myself for how much of a struggle it was. I had spent the majority of the week running to and from work, without giving my body chance to rest. Furthermore I had spent the majority of the evenings organising various 500km milestone related celebrations so by the time that I was ready to go to sleep I was too tired to properly stretch out or use my foam roller.

If I had an ounce of common sense or the ability to listen to my body I would have taken the run steady. Instead I saw the opportunity on what was a relatively flat course to try and set a decent time, why not, I thought. Why not? Because it was too hot and I was too tired is why not. By the time this year is over I might finally realise that occasionally I should listen to my body and not push myself as hard as I can when I really shouldn't. In the mean time though it means I get to pull beautiful faces like the one below.

The pain quite clearly written across my face

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Distance: 10.04km | 6.24 miles
Time: 00:43:58
Official Time: 
Average Pace: 04:23 min/km | 08:03 min/mi
Playlist: N/A
Goody Bag: Bottle of Beer, Glass, Crisps, Snickers & Bananas.

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530.38 - 540.38KM: Underwood 10k

If Friday's run was too hot, then I would have no complaints about Sunday's Underwood 10k. As I walked up the Late Entries table the wind caught the gazebo and it flew backwards and the rain poured onto the unsuspecting volunteers beneath. A sign of things to come?

Not quite, but the rain certainly didn't let up. As yet another first time race I knew very little of what to expect with the course. On the way down to the start line I heard runners talk amongst themselves about 'hills' and the race organiser at the beginning referred to the fact that there were a couple of hills, which was met with a knowing chuckle from previous participants. Having ran the St. Valentines 30k and Newton's Fraction Half earlier in the year, the talk of hills doesn't phase me, but the ones I ended up facing were a little tougher than I anticipated.

After Friday's reasonably disappointing race I was eager to put it behind me and record a strong time. I lined up at towards the front of the relatively small crowd and set off keeping reasonable pace with the front group and ran the first mile in 5:59. This was very much the peak of my race and my legs soon began to feel Friday's hard run and as the hills started to turn up I could feel myself getting much slower.

Definitely raining

To a non runner the following may sound strange, but Sunday's run felt like a PB performance even if it wasn't a PB time. The hills took a lot out of me, but the first mile was my fastest yet and on a flat surface I'm confident I could have built on that and at least come close to my time at Lincoln. Having checked my 5k split for both races, I was only 40 seconds or so behind Lincoln, a much flatter course.

Forty seconds is of course a lot over a relatively short distance, but after Friday's race it gives me some hope that the sub 40 challenge this year is still very much achievable. So achievable in fact that I have bet my hair on it.

I may live to regret this...

Finally, I recently recorded a video recently after reaching the 500km mark as a thank you message to those that have sponsored me so far and to give a recap of the year so far and a look ahead to what's to come.

Check it out.

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Distance: 10.00km | 6.2 miles
Time: 00:43:26
Official Time: 00:43:19
Average Pace: 04:21 min/km | 08:05 min/mi
Playlist: N/A
Goody Bag: Bag & Bottle of Water

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160.97 - 182.36KM: Faster than a bullet (Silverstone Half Marathon)

I was in two minds at the beginning of this race as to how I was going to run it. Last week I ran my worst race of the 1000km challenge so far, but still managed to knock a massive seven minutes off my PB and finish in under 1:40:00. I was also aware that the majority of my races from now until the London Marathon are 10ks, so I would benefit from running today's race at Marathon pace. Ultimately I let curiosity get the better of me, if I could run as fast as I could last week despite all the issues, how fast would I be able to run on a course almost designed for PBs?

Silverstone Half Marathon 2012

The Silverstone Half Marathon is becoming is familiar ground for me and my family, this year was my fourth time running the race but my 6th time there in total, having missed two years due to injury but going along to support family members who were running. At one point or another my Mum, Dad, both my brothers, my brother's girlfriend and myself have all ran the 13.1 miles around the famous Silverstone track. This year however, I had just my Dad for company.

It was an early start on Sunday morning despite the 12 o'clock race time, organisers warned that all cars should be in the Car Park by 10:30, so alarms were set for 6am, porridge eaten and by half 7 we were on our way. I foolishly didn't fuel my body sufficiently before the race, only eating a banana between my bowl of porridge at half 6 and the start of the race at 12. Aside from a handful of jelly babies and some gels this was to be all I ate until 6pm, which was to have its effects on me later on.

Last year I had tried and failed to achieve a sub 1:45 Half Marathon time at Silverstone. My preparation leading in the race last year wasn't the best, I was running through a hip and knee injury and was attempting to knock almost 10 minutes off my current PB. A couple of days before the race this year I found an old playlist I had created for the Silverstone Half Marathon last year, I had hand picked songs which would help me keep the required pace and chose Accept's 'Fast as a Shark' as my song to cross the finishing line to. However, last year it didn't go to plan and with a mile and a half to go to the finish I heard this song play and felt defeated.

Last year's misery was this year's victory

This year however, things were different. I had decided before the race that if I felt fresh enough I would go all out, take advantage of the flat course and see how fast I could run. I was able to keep my average pace down to 7:00 min miles for the first 5/6 miles so knew I was on target for another PB. Unfortunately around this time I also started to need the toilet and had to make the decision whether to stop and hope that any time lost would be made up, or keep running and hope any discomfort wouldn't slow me down. I opted for the latter. This decision had an effect on my average pace, although probably less than time that would have been lost if I stopped.

As I entered the last mile Judas Priest's 'Painkiller' started playing on my MP3 player, not only an awesome song to run to but a song that has a big personal attachment to this challenge as it is one of Jenny's favourites. The euphoria I felt crossing this finishing line to the sound of Rob Halford screaming in my ears may explain the massive smile on my face, that and the two and half minutes I knocked of my PB that I had set only last week.

How fast? That fast!

Distance: 21.39 km | 13.29 miles
Time: 01:37:06
Official Time: 01:37:03
Average Pace: 04:32 min/km | 07:18 min/mi
Goodie Bag: T-Shirt, Medal, Eat Natural Bar, Bottle of Water and Bottle of Lucozade.

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