My results
Details of running races (e.g., 5K, 10K, 10M and half marathon),
both road races and multi-terrain,
in North East England:
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear,
County Durham,
Teesside, North Yorkshire, ...
Generated on Wed 10 Mar at 00:01:16 GMT
I took up running in March 2001 and ran until November 2004 when I developed a knee injury. During three and a half years, I completed 149 races. Because of the knee injury, I decided to stop training. However, I started again in December 2007, and did my first race after the break in May 2008.
Here are the details of the races that I've completed. The latest race is given first.
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 206 | Mar 2010 | 07 | Sun 1100 | Southbourne 10K | 48m40s 2m25s 4m51s 7m49s 33m40s 1.45 1.23 |
| "Southbourne Fast and Flat 10K"; Southbourne is between Christchurch and Bournemouth. This 10K is along an out and back course starting with 0.8K along a road that goes to the promenade and then it's 4K along the prom as far as Boscombe Pier where you turn round. On the way out, the pier looked such a long way away: I could hardly see it to begin with. Although the sun was shining in a cloudless blue sky, there was a cold Easterly wind: so after going round the roundabout outside the pier, the return trip from 4.8K to 9.5K was a battle into this headwind as is clearly demonstrated by my 0.5K splits. So the "Southbourne Fast and Flat 10K" was flat but not very fast. Although there were no cars along the prom, there were a lot of walkers, some cyclists, some stray dogs and some stray children: you had to manoeuvre a way through this lot! | 2m04s, 2m11s, 2m16s, 2m23s, 2m21s, 2m22s, 2m24s, 2m24s, 2m21s, 2m26s, 2m33s, 2m40s, 2m37s, 2m33s, 2m35s, 2m34s, 2m30s, 2m36s, 2m32s, 2m13s, 0m07s (0.03K) | |||||||||||
| 205 | Feb 2010 | 28 | Sun 1030 | Bourton-on-the-Water 10K | 47m05s 2m21s 4m42s 7m34s 30m33s 1.54 1.12 |
| "Bourton-on-the-Water 10K"; This 10K has two laps around the centre of Bourton followed by an out-and-back course along the road that goes towards Great Rissington and then another 1.75 laps around the centre. After last year's race, they decided that the turn-round point was too early: so this year they re-measured and it was definitely 10K. Drizzle, cold and a slight wind made it less enjoyable. The publicity says that it's an "ideal course for a PB". I didn't aim for one and didn't realise I was close to one until I crossed the line: I finished in 47m05s which is 21s slower than my post 2007 10K PB. If only I'd known. This was despite the overcrowding in places and a lot of puddle-avoiding. Although my time was 1.54 times the winner's time, I got a 1.43 against the second place as the winner had a lead of over 2 minutes. | 2m01s, 2m08s, 2m13s, 2m16s, 2m20s, 2m21s, 2m22s, 2m24s, 2m16s, 2m18s, 2m22s, 2m22s, 2m29s, 2m22s, 2m26s, 2m25s, 2m23s, 2m17s, 2m15s, 2m15s, 0m41s (0.17K) | |||||||||||
| 204 | Feb 2010 | 21 | Sun 1030 | Winslow 10K | 49m24s 2m28s 4m56s 7m57s 34m21s 1.44 1.26 |
| "Lions Club of Winslow 10K Road Race"; After not racing for 3 weeks because of various excuses (cold and sore throat, bad weather, lack of fitness, lazyness), today I did the Winslow 10K. Winslow is in Bucks between Aylesbury and Buckingham and this 10K is organised by the Lions Club of Winslow. This year it was held on a cold morning and, although the overnight slight scattering of snow was still lingering when I drove round the course before the start of the race, it had melted by time we ran it. Besides the puddles that this caused, the roads also had quite a few pot holes which was one of the points made by the race organiser before the race. Curiously, it drizzled very slightly from when we were just about to start until just after I finished. Although my map of the route says it varys from about 85m to 113m, it felt fairly flat when I drove it. However, when I ran it, I found a long gentle incline lasting from 3.5K to 5K and another short one at 5.5K. But the cruel bit was at the end: there was a steep hill from 9K to 9.5K. Needless to say this is where the official photographer was positioned to catch all the grimaces. This hill is noticeable in my last four 0.5K splits: 2m34s, 2m30s, 2m48s, 2m22s.My Garmin said that the K markers were accurately positioned apart from the 1K marker which was a little early. All the markers apart from the 3K marker were on the left. The route was well marshalled: there had to be quite a few of them as there were several winding sections and a few junctions. The route twice goes under the railway line from Bicester to Bletchley (currently freight only) and through Verney Junction which was once an important railway junction. So when we ran pass Station Kennels I was looking out for a pretty disused railway station but found a horrible electricity substation! Last year's winner's time was 32m32s and because I was lacking in fitness and was still suffering from a cold, I aimed for 1.5 times that time, i.e., 48m48s. I was initially disappointed with my 49m23s. However, this year's winner took 34m21s and so I got a 1.44 which is very good. Once more this demonstrates the silliness of aiming for a time based on last year's winner's time. | 2m04s, 2m09s, 2m20s, 2m22s, 2m24s, 2m29s, 2m32s, 2m37s, 2m37s, 2m33s, 2m30s, 2m28s, 2m19s, 2m27s, 2m33s, 2m32s, 2m34s, 2m30s, 2m48s, 2m22s, 0m12s (0.05K) | |||||||||||
| 203 | Jan 2010 | 31 | Sun 1100 | Newport 8M | 65m29s 2m32s 5m05s 8m11s 42m33s 1.54 |
| "Lliswerry 8"; Because of the recent bad weather and some lazyiness on my part, this was my first race for a month. The Lliswerry 8 is a flat 8 mile race to the East of Newport in the coastal plain of the Bristol Channel. I forgot the strange anachronism of having to pay £5.50 to drive across the Severn. Because of "cuts", the school at the start/finish was not available and so there was a 0.5K walk/run from the Race HQ (in Newport Stadium) to the start/finish. This was beneficial as it provided the runners with a compulsory warm-up/down. I found this to be a well organised and well marshalled race and there was an atmosphere of friendliness. Maybe this was brought on by having to share the weather: although it was sunny, this was not very noticeable as the temperature was only just above freezing. Of course, most of the runners were from Wales and the Severn Valley although there were about 20 or so from Eastleigh: I found out that they always do this race. During the first 2K, I was passed by a runner who on reading my HRR vest asked me whether I was from Oxford. He told me that his daughter goes to University here and that he had just bought some shoes from Headington's "Up and Running". Even though I was a foreigner, during the last K, there were a couple of cries of "Well done Headington". Back at the Race HQ, I was approached by someone who used to be with HRR. I didn't know him as he left several years ago: it was Chris Nellins who now runs with Penarth and Dinas Runners. Because I hadn't done any racing for a month, I hadn't done my homework and so I didn't have a time to aim for. So, as it was a bit of a long race, I just aimed to get round. It was only two thirds into the race I wondered what time I should be aiming for, but I couldn't do the mental arithmetic. My time was 65m31s which was 1.54 times the winner's time (42m33s). He took over a minute longer last year which would have given me 1.49. If you look at the splits, you can see where I stopped to have a piss! | 2m15s, 2m23s, 2m23s, 2m29s, 2m29s, 2m30s, 2m33s, 2m32s, 2m32s, 2m33s, 2m34s, 2m36s, 2m34s, 2m38s, 2m39s, 2m37s, 2m34s, 3m22s, 2m30s, 2m31s, 2m31s, 2m34s, 2m25s, 2m23s, 2m24s, 1m57s (0.92K) | |||||||||||
| 202 | Dec 2009 | 31 | Thu 1730 | Barcelona 10K | 48m58s 2m26s 4m53s 7m52s 28m41s 1.71 1.05 |
| "Cursa dels Nassos - Sant Silvestre de Barcelona"; The San Silvestre 10K is a chip-timed race that takes place in the main streets of Barcelona on New Year's Eve at 5.30p.m. It starts just as it's about to get dark. The race is also known as the "Cursa dels Nassos" which is Catalan meaning the "Race of Noses". One web page says that the name "comes from the fact that the date coincides with the last day in the life of the Man of Many Noses, a popular character in Catalan folklore". It was a hard race to run as it was very crowded: space was difficult to find and it was difficult to achieve a constant running pace. I and a few others spent a lot of time being naughty by running along the pavements and even behind spectators in places. This was more hard work because the pavements were sometimes uneven and there are many roads to cross, but I could concentrate on running rather than space-finding. In some ways, this aspect of the race reminded me of the Great North Run. Throughout the race, people were overtaking me at a much greater pace and I was in turn overtaking those who were gently ambling along. This was happening throughout the race, even within the last couple of Ks. They have divided the video of the runners finishing into one minute segments (but I haven't found one of me). Anyway, you can easily see how crowded the race was by looking at one of these videos. | 2m28s, 2m20s, 2m22s, 2m29s, 2m22s, 2m25s, 2m24s, 2m26s, 2m29s, 2m27s, 2m31s, 2m29s, 2m35s, 2m27s, 2m26s, 2m29s, 2m22s, 2m25s, 2m22s, 2m16s, 0m13s (0.05K) | |||||||||||
| 201 | Dec 2009 | 13 | Sun 1100 | Chesterton 10K | 47m52s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s 32m31s 1.47 1.19 |
| "Andy Reading 10K"; This is "a fast, flat course through the village of Chesterton and around the airfield at Weston-on-the-Green". For the first time, chips were used. Last year, I did this race in 49m10s. This year, I aimed for 48m00s which is 1.45 times last year's winner's time. That's 2m24s per 0.5K. But, stupidly, I started running without getting my watch sorted out. As I hadn't crossed the chip, I should had stopped. But I didn't. So I started my watch at the 1K marker and guessed I had run the first 1K in 4m30s and worked with aiming for 43m30s. When I crossed the line my watch said 43m25s. For some reason I thought I was aiming for 42m30s and so I was unhappy with this. BUT <cue-fanfare/> my official chip time was 47m52s and so even with all this faffing I managed to beat my target by 8s. Needless to say, this year's winner was faster than last year's and so I only got a 1.47. It was a chilly day (about 3 or 4 degrees) and I wore an extra layer but regretted that later. | 2m14s+2m13s (4m27s), 2m19s, 2m20s, 2m26s, 2m24s, 2m22s, 2m28s, 2m24s, 2m22s, 2m20s, 2m27s, 2m28s, 2m28s, 2m31s, 2m32s, 2m23s, 2m26s, 2m24s, 2m04s, 0m17s (0.07K) | |||||||||||
| 200 | Nov 2009 | 29 | Sun 1030 | Eynsham 10K | 48m29s 2m25s 4m50s 7m48s 33m16s 1.46 1.22 |
| "Eynsham 10K"; This 10K is a two lap race which uses a mix of Eynsham's main streets and the roads that bypass Eynsham. It was timed using gun-to-chip. The race requires a lot of marshals and they did their job well. It is advertised as "flat and fast" but I found it difficult to get a good time partly because the terrain was a mix of road and thin footpaths with a few grass verges. Although I aimed to beat my best Oxfordshire 10K time, I came nowhere near this: I just got under 1.5 times last year's winner's time. | 2m03s, 2m11s, 2m14s, 2m24s, 2m29s, 2m28s, 2m24s, 2m27s, 2m34s, 2m26s, 2m23s, 2m14s, 2m24s, 2m30s, 2m31s, 2m31s, 2m30s, 2m31s, 2m27s, 2m16s, 0m33s (0.15K) | |||||||||||
| 199 | Nov 2009 | 08 | Sun 1000 | Leatherhead 10K | 48m21s 2m25s 4m50s 7m46s 34m42s 1.39 1.27 |
| "Leatherhead Fire Station Charity 10K"; This race is organised by Red Watch of Leatherhead Fire Station to raise money for a local charity. The race is reasonably flat for the first 1.5K but then during the course of about 2.5K there is a gentle climb from 50m to 120m. Over the next 2K, you loose all that height and the remaining 4K is flat. About 2.5K is off-road on gravel tracks through a wooded area called Norbury Park, about 3K is on a cycle path whereas the rest of the course is on roads. Presumably because the race was being timed by chips, the results were being put up almost immediately. I aimed for 1.45 times last year's winner's time (34m33s). That means I was aiming for 50m06s. But, when coming down the hill (from 4K to 6K), I pushed myself with 0.5K splits of 2m11s, 2m14s, 2m08s and 2m18s. Then, on the flat, I rested a bit by slowing down for the next K, but, even though I was tired, I kept pushing myself during the next 3K. In the end, I got 48m21s which is a 1.39. I was delighted with this. As the start and finish was at the Fire Station, I was amused to see the fire engines being moved several times during the course of the morning out of the way of the runners presumably just in case they had to attend a fire. The scenery was good, the signage was good, the organisation was good, the post-race refreshments were good: I'll be back next year. | 2m06s, 2m33s, 2m27s, 2m50s, 2m39s, 2m19s, 2m36s, 3m06s, 2m11s, 2m14s, 2m08s, 2m18s, 2m32s, 2m39s, 2m25s, 2m24s, 2m18s, 2m25s, 2m20s, 1m53s (0.4K). | |||||||||||
| 198 | Nov 2009 | 01 | Sun 0930 | Marlow half marathon | 118m38s 2m48s 5m37s 9m02s 75m30s 1.57 |
| "Marlow Half Marathon"; A return visit to the Chilterns: a fortnight ago I was here on a bright chilly dry Sunday morning for the Frieth 10K; today it rained most of the time for the Marlow Half Marathon which has a "challenging and undulating scenic route over quiet country lanes through the Chiltern Hills". Meaning that the first 2K is up a hill, and that there are four other uphills at 3K, 5K, 13K and 17.5K. Of course every uphill has a downhill, and as usual I didn't know whether to take these gently or to gain a few seconds by charging down them. Besides being very wet, it was also windy. We tried to avoid puddles and splashing each other but on several occasions we got wet as there were mini lakes to run through. I had driven round the course yesterday afternoon and so I knew where all the uphills and downhills are. I knew it was going to be tough. Before the race I had looked at last year's winner's time (1h14m42s). Multiplying this by 1.5 gives 1h52m03s. As I thought it was unlikely I would get anywhere near this time, I didn't try: I just wanted to get round. As I've already mentioned, the first 2K is all uphill (where my 0.5K splits were 2m48s, 3m00s, 2m46s and 2m44s). During this 2K, I was beginning to feel a pain in two familiar places: my right knee and the top of my left hamstring. This didn't bode well and it depressed me for several Ks. When I looked at my watch at just after halfway, I saw that I'd done that half in about one hour. So I wondered whether I could finish in under two hours. However, there were still two uphills to come. But there had been uphills in the first half. The most significant remaining uphill was between about 12.5K and 13.5K where my 0.5K splits were 3m36s and 4m39s. I did some more sums at the two thirds point. These suggested I would finish in 2h03m. This spurred me in adopting a faster pace for the level and downhill sections from 15K to 17K (2m21s, 2m34s, 2m36s, 2m28s). The final hill then appeared and like others I walked a bit of it (3m26s, 3m05s). After that it was flat for 1K and then downhill for 2K: so there was no stopping me trying to get in under 2 hours. My splits for the final 2K were 2m33s, 2m26s, 2m12s, 2m03s. In the end, I finished in about 1h58m. I'm pleased with this: it is 3m slower than the Half I did in Rovaniemi but that was on a flat course. However, it is 2m faster than my appalling Half on a flat course at Krems. The race was well marshalled and marshalled with enthusiasm which was nice given they had to stand around for about 4 hours in the rain. Several of them said "well done Headington" which I liked. There were several water stations also being cheerfully and efficiently manned, often by kids. But unlike some races they knew what to do. And probably because it was often pouring with rain I said more thank yous to these people and to the marshals than usual. | 2m48s, 3m00s, 2m46s, 2m44s, 2m39s, 2m30s, 3m28s, 2m28s, 2m53s, 3m00s, 3m06s, 3m07s, 2m55s, 2m55s, 2m51s, 2m37s, 2m47s, 2m43s, 2m31, 2m45s, 2m50s, 2m36s, 2m47s, 2m44s, 2m41s, 3m36s, 4m39s, 2m51s, 2m51s, 2m48s, 2m21s, 2m34s, 2m36s, 2m28s, 3m26s, 3m05s, 2m38s, 2m42s, 2m33s, 2m26s, 2m12s, 2m03s, 0m43s (about 0.2K) | |||||||||||
| 197 | Oct 2009 | 25 | Sun 1030 | Blenheim Palace 10K | 51m43s 2m35s 5m10s 8m19s 35m37s 1.45 1.30 |
| "Blenheim 10K"; In my 4.5 years in Oxfordshire, I'd not been to Blenheim Palace before and today I managed to see a lot of its grounds in this 10K race organised by the Rotary Club of Woodstock. The race had a new route this year. Although some runners afterwards described the new route as hilly, I thought the ascents were reasonably gentle, the whole course only varying in height from 75m to 120m. Foolishly, I'd not done my homework and so I didn't know last year's winner's time and so had no time to aim for. And in the early part of the race, I moaned to myself about having two beers the night before as my body didn't feel like racing. Although the surrounding countryside was beautiful, the route was on a wide tarmac path throughout except for a few short off-road sections. At about 6.5K I was running at the same pace as another much younger runner and we swopped positions a few times and it seemed to me he didn't like this. At one point I feel a bit of "road rage" occurred as "we" jostled for position (with no other runners about on this wide path). Just before 8K, on a downhill section I went with some other runners ahead of him and then forgot about him but I see from the results he was only 5 seconds behind me. It meant my splits for that section were faster than they would have been: 2m21s, 2m27s, 2m25s. It was getting near to the end of the race where I usually go faster. At 8.5K my mind was on someone else: a member of my running club who I usually beat had surprisingly overtaken me a lot earlier but he was not far in front. I overtook him with 0.5K to go. It sounds competitive; I see I finished up with a 1.45 (times the winner's time) which surprised me and pleases me a lot. | 2m18s, 2m30s, 2m30s, 2m22s, 2m32s, 2m42s, 2m40s, 2m21s, 2m52s, 2m40s, 2m56s, 3m14s, 2m38s, 2m21s, 2m27s, 2m25s, 2m46s, 2m35s, 2m14s, 2m16s, 0m25s (0.1K) | |||||||||||
| 196 | Oct 2009 | 18 | Sun 1000 | Frieth 10K | 52m52s 2m38s 5m17s 8m30s 35m00s 1.51 1.28 |
| "Frieth Hilly 10K"; This 10K race takes place in the Chilterns and consequently the route was wonderful with beautiful scenery. The organisers say the race "involves sections on road, trails and footpaths through woods and fields, including challenging off-road descents and ascents". Very accurate! The race starts in the village of Frieth (which is about 5 miles from Marlow). The route is gently undulating for the first 1.5K first along a lane but then along a path through a wood. In a short break in the wood, there is stupendous view across to the other side of the valley. The Chilterns look wonderful in their Autumn colours. During the next 0.5K, the route throws you down from 160m to 90m. Then the route is reasonably flat along a 1.5K lane from the village of Fingest to the village of Skirmett. And then there is a long hard climb. Although the contours on the ascent are not so close as they were for the descent, it's hard work: in 0.3K you go from 80m to 110m. This is on a footpath that then flattens out for a bit (in Hatchet Wood) before another push in all taking you from 80m to 160m in about 2K. From 6K to 9.5K the route is mainly along country lanes but there is about 1K that is along the side of a field. Although it is mainly undulating, you do gradually drop from 170m to 140m. However, there is a final sting to the race; the last 0.5K is a climb back up to Frieth, from 140m to 175m. If that isn't enough detail for you,here is a link to a map of the route. Throughout the race, there was wonderful atmosphere. Before the start, the Rev John Wigram gaves us his "runners" version of Psalm 23 followed by a blessing. And there were people clapping, shouting and cheering almost anywhere where the route hit a road junction. Following feedback from the inaugural race held last year, this year there were K markers. According to my Garmin, these were accurately positioned. Because of the changeable terrain, I didn't attempt to pace myself. However, before the start I decided to try to aim for 52m54s which is 1.5 times last year's winner's time (35m16s). I did run all the way, resisting the temptation to walk the steep ascents! It was only at 7.5K that I looked at my watch to decide whether it was possible to complete in 52m54s. It looked possible but when I got to the bottom of the 0.5K uphill climb to the finish I wasn't so confident. But when I crossed the line I was jubilant as my watch said 52m52s! A bacon roll, a hot dog, a piece of cake and excellent coffee then followed. What a tremendous morning! So make a date in your diary for the third installment of this race: it's on Sunday 17th October 2010. | 2m16s, 2m14s, 2m22s, 2m20s, 2m23s, 2m28s, 2m29s, 3m09s, 3m16s, 2m50s, 3m26s, 2m54s, 2m46s, 2m27s, 2m22s, 2m28s, 2m44s, 2m19s, 2m25s, 3m08s, 0m07s (0.3K) | |||||||||||
| 195 | Oct 2009 | 11 | Sun 1100 | Hanney 5M | 38m31s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s 26m24s 1.46 |
| "Hanney 5"; HRR-RC; This was a very flat, rural course (lots of pheasants and two coots) that is 5M along country lanes starting outside the Village Hall in East Hanney and finishing with a loop around the sports field behind the Village Hall. As I hadn't done much training recently, I wasn't expecting much. I just needed to get round to come second in the Age 60 category of the HRR Road Championship. Against last year's winner's time (26m04s), 1.45 is 37m48s and 1.5 is 38m06s. Although I aimed for 37m20s (2m20s per 0.5K), this was not on, and I got 38m31s (which turned out to be 1.46 times today's winner's time). My watch made the course 8.11K (5.07M) which is curious as there was little hindrance to satellite reception. Very light drizzle with a slight head wind for most of the course. | 2m04s, 2m20s, 2m24s, 2m26s, 2m27s, 2m25s, 2m23s, 2m28s, 2m29s, 2m28s, 2m28s, 2m29s, 2m24s, 2m24s, 2m19s, 2m12s, 0m25s (0.11K) | |||||||||||
| 194 | Sep 2009 | 20 | Sun 1000 | Krems half marathon | 119m48s 2m50s 5m40s 9m08s 65m03s 1.84 |
| "Wachau Halbmarathon"; This half marathon from the village of Spitz to Krems is alongside the River Danube for the whole distance. On the same morning, there is also a full marathon and a quarter marathon which also start in other villages on the Danube. On the day before race, I had walked the last 3K of the route of the race, and had found white paint marks on the ground for the 19K, 20K and 21K markers. On the morning of the race I had to get a bus from outside Krems railway station to the start of the race. There's a choice of a ship at 8am (which takes 90 minutes) and 20 buses at 8am and another 20 buses at 9am. I have booked a seat on the 9am bus. I do a 2K warm up by running from my hotel first to the 20K marker, then to the finish and then back to the railway station. I'm in plenty of time for the bus. It's very crowded in Spitz, there being about 4 thousand runners. About 6 weeks ago in Finland, I'd done a flat half marathon in 1h55m55s, that's a pace of 5m27s per K. That day, I was aiming for an average pace of 5m20s per K, but failed to achieve that pace because it had been so hot. I try for that pace again today. But again I don't achieve it. However, today it's not very sunny and, although it's warm, it's not too hot, and so it's ideal to get a good time but I don't feel motivated. The course is again flat but it feels long. Because the Danube doesn't twist much, the route has long straights. The only thing that motivates me are the crowds alongside the route as we run through the villages of Woesendorf, Weissenkirchen, Duernstein, Unterloiben, Oberloiben and Stein before reaching lots of support through the streets of Krems. In the early stages of the race, I see a runner that has no feet. His legs end in stubs to which are attached some weirdly shaped, artificial legs/feet. It's impressive and some times he's ahead of me and some times behind. I don't know whether he beat me. Although my 0.5K splits don't change much, they gradually get slower: at 5K I'm doing 2m45s, at 10K it's 2m47s, at 15K it's 3m00s. Aside: at about 10.9K, my Garmin watch goes AWOL as we go through a 0.9K tunnel and it thinks I do an extra 0.11K. At 16K, with 5.1K to go, I work on how I can get in under 2h. I keep working out whether it's achievable to do this if I average 3m00s per 0.5K (which I can do without too much effort). It keeps looking that it's on. When I get to the 19K marker (which I saw yesterday), I start to speed up. I'm encouraged by passing several runners and by knowing these streets. I get to the 20K marker which is where I warmed up earlier. As I enter the long straight finish in Ringstrasse I look ahead. Because I've done my homework I know where in the distance the finish is and I get my 0.5K pace down to 2m30s. Foolishly, in the last few seconds of the race, I keep glancing down to my watch. I really want to finish in under 2 hours. The watch is only showing hours and minutes and not seconds; each time I look it says 1h59s, and it still says 1h59s as I cross the line. Yippee. I made it 1h59m46s. The winning time was 1h05m03s which gives me a ratio of 1.84 which is not impressive. The first seven finishers in the Half Marathon were from Kenya and Ethopia. The first woman was 10th overall. Although I should have done a better time, I came 17th out of 41 finishers in my age category. The races are very well organised with lots of details truely thought out. There is a free early morning train service from Vienna and a free bus shuttle from car parks in Krems to the railway station where there is free transport (bus, train, ship) to the starts of the three main races. The race is chip-timed from start to finish. And after the race, the competitors pass through a large funnel containing water, isotonic drinks, bananas, energy bars, apples, cakes. There is then a park where you can buy lunch (such as bratwurst) and beer/coffee. Two criticisms: although there were numerous refreshment stations en route (where you could get water, isotonic drinks, banana, gels), there were insufficient people manning the drinks and so you would have to wait to get a drink. You could purchase a chip or pay a deposit for a daily hire of a chip, and, although there were lots of signage for various things after the refreshment tunnel, I didn't see any for getting your chip deposit back. Being shattered, I nearly forgot to get my deposit back, and when I did remember I didn't know where to go. In the end, it was obvious: it was where I had got the chip in the first place. | 2m31s, 2m37s, 2m35s, 2m44s, 2m35s, 2m42s, 2m41s, 2m42s, 2m43s, 2m45s, 2m43s, 2m54s, 2m46s, 2m43s, 2m47s, 2m48s, 2m44s, 2m50s, 2m45s, 2m47s, 2m48s, 2m52s, 2m57s (0.39K), 2m51s, 2m49s, 2m54s, 3m00s, 2m55s, 3m01s, 3m00s, 3m05s, 3m06s, 3m03s, 3m06s, 3m04s, 3m06s, 2m57s, 2m58s, 2m45s, 2m48s, 2m33s, 2m30s, 1m15s (0.30K). | |||||||||||
| 193 | Sep 2009 | 13 | Sun 1030 | Witney 10M | 92m46s 2m52s 5m45s 9m16s 58m42s 1.58 |
| "Cotswold Classic 10"; HRR-RC; This is advertised as "a tough 10 mile one lap road race in the picturesque Cotswold countryside": it lived up to that description. The race was well marshalled and marshalled with enthusiasm! I'm currently 3rd in the age 60 category of the Headington RoadRunners Road Championship. The guy who's 2nd is Kit. I need to compete in both today's race and a 5 mile race on October 11th. Normally it'll be a doddle to beat Kit but with the injury to the top of my hamstring I'm worried about even being able to do 10 miles. I've done the sums: today I just need to finish. If I don't beat him today, I need to beat him at the Hanney 5 which should be easy enough to do. Last year he did today's race in 1h29m30s which sounds like a good time for this course. The only 10 mile I've done recently I did in 1h26m21s and that was on a reasonably flat course. I decide to aim for 1h28m which means 2m45s per 0.5K. I drove round the course beforehand and lost track of the number of hills: there were a lot of sharp descents and ascents. Even so, when I was running I found the difficult bit was the endlessly long but gentle climb of 90m: a gentle hill lasting for 4K from Crawley to Leafield. I decide to take it reasonably gently but trying to keep to some thing like 2m45s per 0.5K. However, because it's so undulating/hilly, it's difficult to judge whether I'm doing this. At about 7.5K, Kit overtakes me. This is a bit of an upset to the plan! I decide the best idea is to sit on his tail. I run behind him for about 0.5K but he slows down when we get to a hill and so I overtake him. This is probably a silly move as for the remainder of the race (8K) I'm worrying about how far behind me he is. In the end, I finish 50 seconds in front of him. So if I've really done the sums right, I just need to get round the Hanney 5 to finish 2nd in the Road Championship: I could even walk it in just over an hour! | 2m29s, 2m31s, 2m48s, 2m57s, 2m42s, 2m55s, 2m59s, 2m55s, 3m04s, 3m02s, 3m09s, 3m02s, 2m48s, 2m47s, 2m30s, 2m41s, 2m56s, 2m49s, 2m37s, 2m34s, 3m08s, 2m39s, 2m57s, 2m46s, 3m16s, 2m50s, 3m04s, 2m42s, 3m40s, 2m47s, 2m49s, 2m36s, 1m19s (0.23K) | |||||||||||
| 192 | Sep 2009 | 03 | Thu 1900 | Oxford 6.6K | 33m14s 2m31s 5m02s 8m06s 21m21s 1.56 |
| "Oxford Mota-vation Run"; HRR-RC; I had done no running since August 9th because of a strain at the top of my hamstring. So I just coasted along. It was really great to be running again. | 2m12s, 2m27s, 2m26s, 2m41s, 2m35s, 2m38s, 2m34s, 2m39s, 2m34s, 2m30s, 2m39s, 2m27s, 2m26s, 0m39s (0.1K) | |||||||||||
| 191 | Aug 2009 | 09 | Sun 1000 | Aylesbury 10K | 50m42s 2m32s 5m04s 8m09s 31m22s 1.62 1.15 |
| "Bearbrook 10K"; "memento"; "K markers"; "course is mostly flat with a long hill on the A4011 from Wendover to the Halton Airfield turn, the remainder of the course being a slow downhill to the finish at the Rugby club"; As I got some injury to the top of my hamstring last Sunday at the Hooky 6, I took it easy today. It was also very hot, about 22 degrees. I did whatever speed I felt like, rather than using my watch to pace me until the last K which I did in 4m11s. I partly blame the injury on needing some new shoes. I got some yesterday and ran in them for the first time today. In the last few years, the winning time has been somewhere between 31m37s and 33m31s. Today, the course record was broke by 15s by a member of a local running club. He finished in 31m22s with the 2nd person home in 33m30s. I got 1.62 compared with the winner and 1.51 compared with 2nd person. Much of the course was on footpaths or cycle paths which were very uneven. The final section of the course was around the field. The race was well organised and well marshalled. | 2m20s, 2m25s, 2m34s, 2m29s, 2m38s, 2m40s, 2m33s, 2m37s, 2m42s, 2m43s, 2m46s, 2m51s, 2m42s, 2m26s, 2m32s, 2m31s, 2m39s, 2m24s, 2m08s, 2m03, 0m04s (0.02K) | |||||||||||
| 190 | Aug 2009 | 02 | Sun 1030 | Hook Norton 6M | 47m06s 2m26s 4m52s 7m51s 33m20s 1.41 |
| "Hooky 6"; journey there: 31M, 0h52m; "goody bag, and T-shirt"; "undulating"; HRR-RC; Once again, there's a sea of yellow and blue: a big turnout from HRR (my running club) because it's one of the races of our road championships. Last year, for some reason, I did the first lap of this two lap course badly, and finished in 52m12s. This is 1.57 times last year's winner's time (33m16s). Today, I aimed for 1.45 times that time, i.e., 48m14s. That requires a pace of 2m30s per 0.5K. About 1M into the race I find myself running alongside F1 Fan, another fetchie who I recognise as I'd been looking at his page on www.fetcheveryone.com earlier today. I say hello and tell him some of this. I'd learnt from the web pages that he's raising money for the Willow Foundation. At about the same point on the second lap, the person in front of me throws up whilst he's running: not a pretty site and I try not to look! With most of my splits from the first lap being faster than 2m30s, I start to think I would finish in 46m, but I tire a little and finish in 47m06s which is 1.41 times this year's winner's time (33m20s). I'm very pleased with this. The sun was quite hot and it reached about 18 degrees C. I couldn't resist a half of Hooky (and two bacon rolls, two pieces of cake and two coffees)! People from HRR come away with 5 prizes and the Women's Team Prize. | 2m10s, 2m22s, 2m28s, 2m19s, 2m32s, 2m28s, 2m32s, 2m21s, 2m26s, 2m20s, 2m30s, 2m38s, 2m31s, 2m41s, 2m32s, 2m39s, 2m17s, 2m21s, 2m13s, 0m46s (0.19K) | |||||||||||
| 189 | Jul 2009 | 26 | Sun 1000 | Winsley 8.38M | 71m40s 2m39s 5m18s 8m33s 49m05s 1.46 |
| "The Conkwell Killer"; journey there: 76.3M, 1h38m; This race took place at Winsley near Bradford-on-Avon. Described as "approximately 8M", it turned out to be about 8.4M. The first 3M of the race is along lanes to the west of Winsley. The lanes have thick, tall hedges; the road is just wide enough for one vehicle; and they just twist, twist and twist: yes, there are few straight bits. There are a couple of undulations. After that, you go along the side of a main road as it plummets its way down 100m during the course of 1K. I tried not to go too fast down the hill but got 0.5K splits of 2m11s and 2m13s. The race then joins the towpath of the Kennet and Avon Canal not far from Limpley Stoke and not far from where some scenes of the film "The Titfield Thunderbolt" were shot. After about 1M, we ran across the Dundas Aqueduct, used a bridge to cross the Somersetshire Coal Canal, used another bridge to cross the Kennet and Avon, and then ran across the Aqueduct again this time on the other side of the canal. The hill that immediately follows is the reason this race is called the Conkwell Killer: the route is up through Conkwell Wood going up 100m in 0.6K. Hence the 7m14s and 3m24s in the splits. Here are two photos of Dundas Aqueduct with Conkwell Wood behind. The final section of the race takes a slightly different route around the lanes to the west of Winsley. Whilst running along the towpath, I was delighted to see a boat that I'd seen when I walked the Kennet and Avon Canal two years ago. The boat is called the "Laura B"; two years ago I took a photo of it because someone at work is called "Laura B". The race was well organised and well marshalled. There were refreshments (coffee, tea, real ale, bacon rolls) and the results were printed out and the prize-giving done promptly. Although I knew this was going to be a difficult course, I thought I would be ambitious and aim for 1.45 times last year's winner's time (49m48s). That means I aimed for 1h12m13s. I entered this time in fetcheveryone before the race. I worked out that if I did an average pace of 2m40s per 0.5K that would get me round in 1h08m41s and that would give me time to walk up the hill. Even though the route was 0.7K longer than I expected, I got 1h11m40s which was 1.46 times this year's winner's time (49m05s). | 2m16s, 2m32s, 2m31s, 2m40s, 2m45s, 2m39s, 2m42s, 2m19s, 2m18s, 2m11s, 2m13s, 2m24s, 2m31s, 2m32s, 2m34s, 7m14s, 3m24s, 2m32s, 2m23s, 2m22s, 2m23s, 2m16s, 2m17s, 2m25s, 2m30s, 2m25s, 2m18s | |||||||||||
| 188 | Jul 2009 | 18 | Sat 1900 | Hornton (Banbury) 6M | 47m41s 2m28s 4m56s 7m56s 33m09s 1.44 |
| "Hornton 6"; HRR-RC; "virtually traffic-free course over a scenic and undulating race route"; "bar, barbecue and free camping!"; It started raining just before the start of the race and continued for half of the race. A hill start, then down, then up, then flat for some time, then down into Horley and a slow gentle climb out, followed by a flat, a quick down and up, a flat, and then a steep drop down into Hornton. The race was well marshalled and there was a good atmosphere. I aimed for 48m52s, 1.5 times last year's winning time (32m35s) but got 47m41s and the winner got 33m09s giving me a 1.44 which was very good considering it was hilly. The 0.5K splits for the last K are 2m16s and 1m56s which is a pace of 6m46s per M. I came 4th in the MV60 category, GN beating me for the bottle-of-wine prize by 27s. | 2m38s, 2m17s, 2m30s, 2m39s, 2m21s, 2m24s, 2m27s, 2m27s, 2m26s, 2m24s, 2m42s, 2m49s, 2m39s, 2m29s, 2m29s, 2m22s, 2m30s, 2m16s, 1m56s, 0m56s (0.24K) | |||||||||||
| 187 | Jul 2009 | 11 | Sat 1500 | Rovaniemi (Finland) half marathon | 115m15s 2m43s 5m27s 8m47s 77m33s 1.49 |
| "Rovaniemi Half Marathon"; Rovaniemi is in Finland a few Ks South of the Arctic Circle. A 10K takes place earlier in the afternoon, and this takes a nice route whereas the Half is the route of the 10K plus 5K down one side of a straight dual-carriageway and then 5K back again. I found the dual-carriageway bit boring and hard work in 22 degrees Centigrade. There's also a full marathon that does the Half twice. As last year's winner's time was 1h15m27s, I aimed for 1.5 times that time, i.e., 1h53m11s, which is 2m40s per 0.5K. As my 0.5K splits show, I managed to achieve that for 7.5K but my attempt for 1h53m11s didn't allow for the 22 degrees Centigrade. Maybe this was was the reason why this year's winner's time was 2m06s slower than last year's. My time was 2m04s slower than the 1h53m11s. I got a 1.49 which pleased me. The change from one split to the next was 5s or less in 75% of the changes. | 2m17s, 2m26s, 2m33s, 2m44s, 2m39s, 2m42s, 2m41s, 2m41s, 2m37s, 2m36s, 2m39s, 2m39s, 2m38s, 2m37s, 2m38s, 2m42s, 2m44s, 2m46s, 2m44s, 2m49s, 2m45s, 2m49s, 2m43s, 2m45s, 2m45s, 2m41s, 2m42s, 2m50s, 2m56s, 2m46s, 2m47s, 2m52s, 2m47s, 2m50s, 2m53s, 3m00s, 3m02s, 2m51s, 2m47s, 2m45s, 2m35s, 2m35s, 0m59s (0.27K) | |||||||||||
| 186 | Jul 2009 | 04 | Sat 1400 | Sonka (Finland) 11.3K | 55m36s 2m27s 4m55s 7m55s 38m02s 1.46 |
| "Songan ympärijuoksu"; In Finnish, ympäri means around and juoksu is the word for running. So this was a race around the lake at Sonka, which is about 30K from Rovaniemi in Finland. Sonka is just inside the Arctic Circle. The run was on a mix of rough footpaths through woods, gravel roads and tarmac. There were two gentle hills at 2.3K and 7.0K each lasting for about 0.6K. It was about 8 degrees C which was a shock after leaving England basking in 30 degrees. I was the only competitor from outside Finland. I came 4th out of the 7 M50 runners. The race commentator mentioned Headington RoadRunners (my running club) on three occasions, but as he was speaking Finnish I didn't know what he was talking about! | 2m04s, 2m25s, 2m33s, 2m27s, 2m44s, 2m33s, 2m19s, 2m33s, 2m37s, 2m29s, 2m24s, 2m35s, 2m35s, 2m31s, 2m48s, 2m45s, 2m23s, 2m13s, 2m18s, 2m23s, 2m26s, 2m17s, 1m13s (0.29K) | |||||||||||
| 185 | Jun 2009 | 28 | Sun 0930 | Thame 10K | 50m11s 2m30s 5m01s 8m04s 33m53s 1.48 1.24 |
| "Thame CPM 10K"; journey there: 19.4M, 0h33m; HRR-RC; "chips"; "T-shirt"; "spot prizes"; fun run as well; I didn't enjoy this, mainly because it was very hot (23 degrees) with little shade and also because of the 0930 start. As there were over 900 runners, some parts of the route were crowded. Because it was crowded, at one point I found myself running at the speed of the pack instead of my planned pace (2m20s per 0.5K). At a few places on the Phoenix Trail and also on the path at 9K, it was difficult to overtake because it was crowded. It was well marshalled and there were a lot of enthusiastic spectators along several sections of the route. Generous goody bag as well as a T-shirt. | 2m12s, 2m17s, 2m26s, 2m30s, 2m24s, 2m28s, 2m30s, 2m27s, 2m36s, 2m30s, 2m42s, 2m24s, 2m36s, 2m33s, 2m37s, 2m39s, 2m35s, 2m32s, 2m30s, 2m29s, 0m15s (0.08K) | |||||||||||
| 184 | Jun 2009 | 21 | Sun 0900 | Princes Risborough 9.4M | 83m05s 2m44s 5m29s 8m50s 56m57s 1.46 |
| "Ridgeway Relay - Stage 3"; The Ridgeway Relay is 86.5 miles done in 10 stages. The first stage starts at Ivinghoe Beacon in Bucks at 0730 and it ends in Marlborough (in Wiltshire) at about 1930. There were 41 teams (each with 10 runners). Headington RoadRunners (my running club) had entered 3 teams. I was doing Stage 3 (9.4M or 15.2K) as part of the HRR Over 50s Team. It was the first time I've been involved in a relay. Adrienne (HRR) had produced a rough time schedule and Kit (who was doing Stage 2) arrived a minute early. After a brief touch of hands, off I went. It is really weird being in a race where you are on your own for most of 9.4M. I had just four encounters with other runners, where they caught me up and sailed straight passed or I did the same to them. I saw more walkers, dogs and cyclists than runners. Very weird. My stage has a "steep downhill at the start, a significant hill to climb and descend in the middle, but otherwise it is fairly flat". It's easy to see where the hill is from my splits. There were numerous kissing gates, several road/lane crossings and one railway line crossing. Some parts were along footpaths alongside fields or across fields whereas other parts were along broad, rutted, straight, level paths that are common on the Ridgeway. As the first 5 miles were "navigationally tricky", I had recce-ed this section last Friday night. That was worthwhile as I found a few places where I had to ponder for a moment wondering which way to go, which is not too good if you are in a race. HRR's time schedule had me down to do this in 1h29m. Last year, the fastest time for this stage was 58m22s and if I were to achieve 1.5 I would have to complete in 1h27m22s. Although I had suggested that 1h35m might be more realistic, I managed to achieve 1h23m04s which is 6m ahead of HRR's time schedule! And I got 1.46 against this year's fastest time for Stage 3. I was very pleased. | 2m50s, 2m31s, 2m29s, 2m24s, 2m30s, 2m49s, 2m48s, 2m52s, 2m59s, 2m58s, 4m45s, 2m35s, 2m30s, 3m24s, 2m36s, 3m03s, 2m34s, 2m31s, 2m35s, 2m28s, 2m29s, 2m41s, 2m32s, 2m31s, 2m27s, 2m40s, 2m43s, 2m49s, 2m45s, 2m30s, 0m46s (0.19K) | |||||||||||
| 183 | Jun 2009 | 18 | Thu 1930 | Oxford 6.36K | 29m37s 2m19s 4m39s 7m29s 23m04s 1.28 |
| "HRR Time Trial"; handicap; too much on my mind to beat my previous time; I even forgot to stop my watch; however, it turns out I was just 16s slower than last time; I'm afraid I don't enjoy the route | 2m21s, 2m25s, 2m21s, 2m24s, 2m31s, 2m23s, 2m17s, 2m21s, 2m21s, 2m16s, 2m20s, 2m15s, 2m02s (0.36K) | |||||||||||
| 182 | Jun 2009 | 14 | Sun 1000 | Wargrave 10K | 48m52s 2m26s 4m53s 7m51s 34m05s 1.43 1.25 |
| "Wargrave 10K"; journey there: 26.6M, 0h55m; This 10K is at Wargrave (which is between Reading and Maidenhead). It takes place on undulating rural lanes. As there were 628 finishers, these narrow lanes were a bit crowded for the first 3K (at least they were where I was). There is a hill between 3.6K and 4K, but it's mainly downhill or flat from about 5K onwards. The hardest parts are the straight and flat mile just before 8K and the last 0.4K which are on grass going three sides round the recreation ground. This is especially so when it's hot as there's no shade. The race was well marshalled and there were three water stations. Chips were used for timing. 20 runners were from the Teignbridge Trotters running club which is in Devon. Querying a few of them before the race as to why they'd travelled so far, I learnt that they were suffering from a stag day the day before! However, lots of them finished in front of me even though I'd only had one beer the day before: their first two finishers were at 15th and 17th. I also saw some runners with T-shirts saying 'wide fitting "briefs"'. I asked one of them, during the race, an obvious question to which he giggled and replied '38 inches'. Given last year's winning time of 34m40s I was aiming for somewhere between 48m32s (1.4) and 52m00s (1.5). I was well pleased with 48m52s which is 1.43 against this year's winning time. It was very hot (23 degrees?). | 2m11s, 2m24s, 2m27s, 2m26s, 2m34s, 2m30s, 2m47s, 2m43s, 2m29s, 2m21s, 2m24s, 2m26s, 2m31s, 2m33s, 2m20s, 2m28s, 2m23s, 2m11s, 2m12s, 2m16s, 0m21s (0.10K) | |||||||||||
| 181 | Jun 2009 | 06 | Sat 1400 | Horton-cum-Studley half marathon | 118m50s 2m48s 5m37s 9m03s 75m01s 1.58 |
| "Otmoor Challenge"; I enjoyed this: it was along footpaths and roads around the Otmoor. Pouring with rain before the race which eased off as we started to race and was only drizzly from then on. There were two long sections of mud and one short section. As this was my first Half since November 2004 and I've done no training at this distance, I just aimed to get round and hoped to finish within 2h. Although some have claimed this is more than a Half my watch made this 20.99K which is pretty close to 21.0975K. It's mainly off-road for the first 4K and this explains the 3m23s 0.5K split: it is for a mud section. Then for the next 6K it's along a road where I repeatedly did times close to 2m46s per 0.5K. The over 3m splits are another mud section. The long hill in and steep hill out of Beckley accounts for the 3m16s and 3m27s. I managed to achieve some fast times in the last 2K. Here's where we went in Google Maps and in WheresThePath. I saw runners from Oxford Hash stop for beers on three occasions! | 2m31s, 2m41s, 3m23s, 2m44s, 2m38s, 2m41s, 2m49s, 2m47s, 2m46s, 2m48s, 2m45s, 2m47s, 2m44s, 2m49s, 2m51s, 2m46s, 2m42s, 2m49s, 2m52s, 2m52s, 3m12s, 3m31s, 3m06s, 2m50s, 2m54s, 2m58s, 2m59s, 2m56s, 2m36s, 2m44s, 2m58s, 3m05s, 2m54s, 3m16s, 3m27s, 2m37s, 2m41s, 2m42s, 2m25s, 2m28s, 2m32s, 2m17s (0.485K) | |||||||||||
| 180 | Jun 2009 | 04 | Thu 1930 | Bletchingdon 4.25625M | 32m48s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s 22m19s 1.47 |
| "Bletchingdon Mota-vation Run"; "closing date for postal entries for the series is Wednesday Apr29"; undulating; sunny but not too hot; I got stitch at about 1.8M which did not go away; I aimed for 31m21s which was just under 7m30s per M but I got 32m48s which is 7m42s per M; I used the stopwatch on my watch as my Garmin had a flat battery; beforehand I identified 0.5M points using the car's mileometer but my 0.5M splits revealed these as badly measured or wrongly remembered | 7m10s, 7m51s, 8m09s, 7m42s+1m56s (9m38s) | |||||||||||
| 179 | May 2009 | 31 | Sun 1030 | Wallingford 10K | 51m20s 2m34s 5m08s 8m15s 36m35s 1.40 1.34 |
| "Wallingford Thames Run"; journey there: 13.8M, 0h31m; "multi-terrain course of wide river paths, field tracks and road along beautiful stretches of the River Thames and its lovely Oxfordshire countryside"; "starts and finishes in the grounds of Howbery Park where a number of attractions will be available"; last year's winning time of 32m36s on a course which was less than 10K (I didn't know how much less) made me aim for somewhere between 45m38s (1.4) and 48m54s (1.5); it was very hot (22 degrees?), and I got 51m20s; this slow pace worried me when I was doing the race; however, this year's winning time was 36:35 which means that I got 1.40 which pleases me a lot; the terrain was a mix of tarmac, cart tracks, paths through grass and paths through fields; the route involved crossing fields, some with cows, negotiating recent cow pats, at least five kissing gates and one stile (which caused a queue as indicated by the 3m02s in my splits); other people have said they got held up by 2 minutes and 6 minutes at this point | 2m08s, 2m18s, 2m23s, 2m33s, 2m37s, 3m02s, 2m34s, 2m35s, 2m34s, 2m38s, 2m49s, 2m36s, 2m32s, 2m37s, 2m38s, 2m34s, 2m39s, 2m44s, 2m40s, 2m17s | |||||||||||
| 178 | May 2009 | 25 | Mon 1030 | Kintbury 5M | 38m50s 2m24s 4m49s 7m46s 26m15s 1.48 |
| "Ollie Johnson Memorial 5 Mile Run"; journey there: 27.7M, 0h43m; "run on quiet roads and tracks around Inkpen and Kintbury"; "accurate mile markers"; "choice of medal or T-shirt"; this starts with a run round a football field and then it's uphill for 1M as my splits demonstrate; they also indicate the race ends with a slight uphill; mainly tarmac or concrete but there were a few small, loose gravel, uneven paths; curiously my official result was 37m53s and my guess is that that should be 38m53s; I aimed for 39m which is about 1.45 times last year's winner's time but because this year's winner's time was a minute faster I got 1.48 | 2m05s, 2m42s, 2m41s, 2m26s, 2m30s, 2m30s, 2m31s, 2m24s, 2m19s, 2m15s, 2m17s, 2m12s, 2m22s, 2m16s, 2m22s, 2m59s | |||||||||||
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 177 | May 2009 | 23 | Sat 1400 | Shaw 5.7M | 47m30s 2m35s 5m10s 8m20s 34m33s 1.37 |
| "Shaw & Whitley Stampede"; journey there: 69.6M, 1h25m; "challenging run over fields, woodland, road, mud and gravel tracks"; "village fete"; there is a 3K family fun run as well; given last year's winner's time of 32m40s I was aiming for somewhere between 45m45s (1.4) and 49m00s (1.5); I got 47m30s which is 1.37 against this year's winner's time (34m33s); there was a long gentle up hill between 1M and 2M and much of the race was off-road including running along a track through a broad-bean field, kissing gates, stiles; so it was a difficult race to pace; well signed and marshalled; car park was a long way from the start/finish which meant I was too tired to return for a hot dog; it was very hot (22 degreees) | 2m09s, 2m20s, 2m32s, 2m35s, 2m51s, 2m48s, 2m44s, 2m39s, 2m39s, 2m23s, 2m33s, 2m32s, 2m36s, 2m39s, 2m35s, 2m46s, 2m44s, 2m41s, 0m47s (0.18K) | |||||||||||
| 176 | May 2009 | 19 | Tue 1930 | Charndon 5K | 22m40s 2m15s 4m31s 7m17s 15m01s 1.51 |
| "Charndon 5K"; HRR-RC; "course is a flat 5K on local roads around the village of Charndon which is 4 miles outside Bicester near the larger village of Marsh Gibbon"; "the Race starts and finishes at Charndon Village Hall"; although it was threatening to rain, it turned out to be a nice sunny evening; the winner was Anuradha Cooray who broke the course record by 33 seconds; hence my 1.51 (instead of say 1.46) versus the winner's time; I think there were 252 finishers most of whom seem to be attached to clubs; I did a 3.5K warm-up for this 5K race; I was aiming for 23m20s but got 22m40s (with a pace of 7m17s) but I'm not used to running short distances; once again my 0.5K splits only varied from 2m01s to 2m22s; for a change my watch accurately agreed with all the K markers on the course; a slight hamstring twinge | 2m01s, 2m16s, 2m18s, 2m22s, 2m19s, 2m17s, 2m22s, 2m22s, 2m15s, 2m09s | |||||||||||
| 175 | May 2009 | 17 | Sun 1000 | Oxford 10K | 46m44s 2m20s 4m40s 7m31s 32m23s 1.44 1.18 |
| "Oxford Town and Gown 10K"; This was a different route from last year and I preferred this year's. The only problem was at the end of the race when people leaving the park collided with late runners. There were thousands of runners; there was good support and it was well marshalled. Although the rain kept off before the race, it rained quite a bit for the first half of the race (which was refreshing). I got a hamstring twinge at 3K which hurt more at 6.5K. Even so, I ran this race to my plan. I was aiming for 1K splits of 4m39s. My actual times for each 0.5K were very consistent: they varied from 2m07s to 2m25s and didn't change from one 0.5K to the next by more than 10s. My watch made this 10.17K but I think that was because of a loss of signal. | 2m07s, 2m09s, 2m14s, 2m13s, 2m23s, 2m14s, 2m22s, 2m20s, 2m15s, 2m19s, 2m23s, 2m22s, 2m14s, 2m23s, 2m19s, 2m25s, 2m22s, 2m24s, 2m22s, 2m12s, 0m45s (0.17K) | |||||||||||
| 174 | May 2009 | 14 | Thu 1930 | Oxford 6.33K | 29m21s 2m19s 4m38s 7m27s 21m47s 1.35 |
| "HRR Time Trial"; handicap; I suggested 30m00s but I was given 29m50s and so started at 19:30:10; my official time was 29m23s; so I finished at 19:59:53 which was 7s too early! | 2m07s, 2m19s, 2m13s, 2m19s, 2m25s, 2m25s, 2m17s, 2m25s, 2m21s, 2m23s, 2m22s, 2m20s, 1m25s (0.33K) | |||||||||||
| 173 | May 2009 | 10 | Sun 1000 | St Albans 10.07K | 49m07s 2m26s 4m52s 7m50s 33m26s 1.47 |
| "St Albans 10K"; journey there: 61M, 1h13m; the race is described as "undulating, rural" and it lives up to that description: it is undulating throughout and is along country lanes; the route is a figure P where the first and last 2.5K are the same; very hot; uneven footpath/grass for the first and last 0.5K; the 8K and 9K markers were 0.1K late; well marshalled; given last year's winner's time of 34m54s I thought I'd be lucky to do 5m00s per K but did a lot better than that (4m53s); my time for the 10K was 0m48s slower than last year's Town and Gown which is good given today's terrain; use this link to get the route recorded by my watch | 4m46s, 4m52s, 5m01s, 4m40s, 5m01s, 5m01s, 5m10s, 4m56s, 4m48s, 4m35s, 0m18s (0.07K) | |||||||||||
| 172 | May 2009 | 07 | Thu 1930 | Charlton-on-Otmoor 4.09545M | 31m04s 2m21s 4m42s 7m35s 21m22s 1.45 |
| "Charlton-on-Otmoor Mota-vation Run"; HRR-RC; after last Monday's disaster I just wanted to get round without injury; I aimed for just under 32m00s and got a little better than that; my watch made it 6.66K and that's a pace of 7m30s per M; crowded at the start; flat; refeshing drizzle for most of the way; no injuries to speak of so far; my first race in a HRR vest! | 4m13s, 4m43s, 4m59s, 5m00s, 4m41s, 4m40s, 2m40s (0.66K) | |||||||||||
| 171 | May 2009 | 04 | Mon 1030 | Shinfield (Reading) 10K | 48m42s 2m26s 4m52s 7m50s 32m22s 1.50 1.18 |
| "Shinfield 10K"; new route for 2009; "race starts and finishes in Shinfield and passes through the villages of Shinfield and Spencers Wood"; "generally flat and fast"; "medal"; "mayday fete including a bouncy castle and a barbeque"; got a calf twinge before the race; felt sluggish in the second half with some pain in my shins; to begin with I could hardly walk afterwards; disappointed at my time; relative to the winner, I got 1.50 which is disappointing; my watch made the race 9.88K with most of the problem being a short last 1K; so I make that a 10K time of 49m17s with a pace of 7m56s | 4m30s, 4m47s, 4m54s, 4m50s, 5m14s, 5m23s, 4m54s, 5m11s, 5m06s, 3m55s (0.88K) | |||||||||||
| 170 | Apr 2009 | 26 | Sun 1015 | Houghton (Hampshire) 11K | 57m45s 2m37s 5m15s 8m26s 41m43s 1.38 |
| "Houghton 11K Trail Run"; my watch made it 11.35K; its route is shown here; mainly off-road on wide bridleways, grassy footpaths through fields, beside a bluebell wood, beside a magificent, disused railway station, a narrow footpath up through a wood and several bridges across the River Test; a comment on RW says "there is a slow climb at the start which is a bit rutted and at 3 miles, watch out for tree roots along the path - after that, it's plain sailing (one or two stiles..) - beautiful setting"; very hot; very pleased with my performance which gave me 1.38 against the winner's time | 5m13s, 5m10s, 4m55s, 5m19s, 5m58s, 4m35s, 4m51s, 4m58s, 5m24s, 4m56s, 4m47s, 1m38s (0.35K) | |||||||||||
| 169 | Apr 2009 | 19 | Sun 0900 | Genoa 11.5K | 54m39s 2m22s 4m45s 7m38s 40m37s 1.35 |
| "Corri con L'Esercito"; only saw markers at 7K to 10K and a marker at 6K facing the wrong way and a red painted 4K; in the first 2K it was slightly uphill into city centre where there were cobbled streets and there were some slight ascents onto flyovers after 9.5K; half marathon as well; I started with the half marathon runners and when I got back to the UK I discovered from video clips on the web that there was a separate start for the 11.5K runners; how come my chip time was 4m20s less than my watch time; my Garmin was bust and so I used an old stop watch; I only hope that I got my time right as the pace was 5s per M faster than any race since I restarted running and so I was very pleased | 19m27s (4m55s, 4m51s, 4m51s, 4m50s), 14m41s (4m50s, 4m50s, 4m51s), 4m57s, 4m36s, 4m45s, 6m23s (4m16s, 2m07s) | |||||||||||
| 168 | Mar 2009 | 22 | Sun 1030 | Marwell Zoo 10K | 50m02s 2m30s 5m00s 8m03s 33m00s 1.52 1.21 |
| "Marwell Zoo 10K"; I hate zoos, and the first 2K of this race was around the footpaths of the zoo; the rest of the race was along quiet country lanes; it was undulating with four hills; virtually downhill from 6.5K; well marshalled with two drinks stations; these were useful as it was hot; it was a difficult race to pace; at about 6K I decided to aim for 50m and my 10K time was 49m41s; I got 1.52 which is disappointing | 4m56s, 4m48s, 5m24s, 5m19s, 5m56s, 4m38s, 4m55s, 4m41s, 4m47s, 4m16s, 0m21s (0.08K) | |||||||||||
| 167 | Mar 2009 | 15 | Sun 1000 | Exbury Gardens 10K | 48m52s 2m26s 4m53s 7m51s 36m07s 1.35 1.32 |
| "Exbury Gardens 10K"; limit of 350; journey: 74.3M, 1h46m; "flat and fast circular course run over country lanes which starts and finishes in Exbury Gardens, taking in spectacular views of the Solent and includes approx 500m of beach front running on shingle foreshore path at Lepe beach"; 3K marker was too early: it was where the white paint on the ground was but that differs from the printed map; I wasn't very hydrated and it was a very sunny, hot day; even so, I started fast and although each K was getting slower I maintained a face pace to get me my third faster pace since restarting racing in 2008 and a 1.35; very well pleased; I should easily beat last year's Town and Gown 10K time in two month's time | 4m28s, 4m35s, 4m45s, 4m49s, 4m49s, 5m01s, 5m06s, 5m12s, 5m02s, 4m45s, 0m20s (0.08K) | |||||||||||
| 166 | Mar 2009 | 08 | Sun 1100 | Salisbury 10M | 86m21s 2m40s 5m21s 8m38s 51m10s 1.69 |
| "Salisbury 10"; journey time: 64.5M, 1h21m; chips; excellent run from Salisbury NNW along rural roads up the valley of the River Avon to visit the villages of Little Woodford and Middle Woodford. In Upper Woodford, the route turns east for 0.5M before going due South down the other side of the valley through Salterton and Little Durnford; the route is undulating throughout with the only significant hill being at 6.5M; there were water stations at 2M, 3.5M, 5.5M and 8M, and as the sun was making it hot I grabbed water at each of these; there was a bit of a cold head wind at times during the last couple of miles; although the race was marked with mile markers, I chose to get feedback from my watch at every 0.5K; my watch created a map of the route | 5m07s, 5m10s, 5m30s, 5m35s, 5m34s, 5m30s, 5m30s, 5m46s, 5m24s, 5m28s, 5m36s, 5m21s, 5m10s, 5m11s, 4m58s, 4m45s, 0m58s | |||||||||||
| 165 | Mar 2009 | 01 | Sun 1100 | Goring 10K | 50m48s 2m32s 5m04s 8m10s 33m48s 1.50 1.24 |
| "Goring 10K"; undulating rural lanes and footpaths with three hills including a hill for the first 1.5K; lots of runners (1200?); I made the route 10.15K and I don't think the markers were accurately placed; was hoping to do the 10K in under 50m but got 50m05s; the last three 0.5Ks were done in 2m15s, 2m01s and 2m10s but 1K of this was downhill; I got 1.50 times the winner's time | 5m18s, 4m26s, 5m06s, 4m57s, 5m04s, 5m30s, 5m12s, 5m34s, 4m59s, 4m11s, 0m43s | |||||||||||
| 164 | Feb 2009 | 15 | Sun 1000 | Salisbury 10K | 52m23s 2m37s 5m14s 8m25s 36m37s 1.43 1.34 |
| "Salisbury City 10K"; starts and finishes at the Raymond McEnhill Football Stadium; "medal"; route includes a run round Old Sarum; 10K walk, 5K run and 5K walk as well; disappointingly, we finished and started in a field adjacent to the stadium; the route was a mix of tarmac and off-road; there were slippery patches, a kissing gate and a stile whilst running round Old Sarum; the 1K marker seemd to be 0.15K too early; there were three places where they needed another marshal; a couple of tough inclines | 4m33, 5m09, 4m48s, 5m12s, 6m14s, 6m09s, 5m06s, 5m07s, 5m16s, 4m50s | |||||||||||
| 163 | Jan 2009 | 25 | Sun 1030 | Epsom Downs 9.9K | 54m30s 2m45s 5m30s 8m51s 37m31s 1.45 |
| "Epsom Oddballs Perch X"; "a scenic and challenging course over the famous Epsom Downs"; "traffic free, multi-terrain route on tarmac, tracks and grass"; "start and finish at 'The Rubbing House' on Epsom Downs (10 minutes from Jct 8,M25)"; "long sleeve T-shirt"; I found this hard work and spent most of the time looking at the ground to see where it was best to go next; not much tarmac, mainly muddy and puddly footpaths with some treacherous muddy bits but not deep and some large puddles; crossing the Epsom Racecourse a few times; some grassy bits; undulating with three uphills; although described as being 2000 perch, i.e., 6.25M or 10.05K, curiously my watch made it 9.90K; I was pleased to get a me/win ratio of 1.45; ITV took some pictures | 5m17s, 5m11s, 5m23s, 5m37s, 5m55s, 5m34s, 4m57s, 5m48s, 6m02s, 4m48s (for 0.9K = 5m20s per K) | |||||||||||
| 162 | Jan 2009 | 18 | Sun 1100 | Tiddington (Stratford-upon-Avon) 12K | 61m58s 2m34s 5m09s 8m18s 40m57s 1.51 |
| "Not the Roman IX"; "a 12K Road Race over the old Roman 9 course"; strangely within the first 3K I didn't feel like running; then from 4K to 4.5K there was a slight hill which I didn't spot when recceing the route by car! between 5K and 5.5K there was a significant hill; after that I felt like running; the parking-raceHQ-start was very sprawled out and there were not enough loos; very well marshalled; bummer, against last year's winning time I would have got 1.48 but today's winner was a lot faster and so I got 1.51 | 5m01s, 5m19s, 5m24s, 5m34s, 5m43s, 5m31s, 4m50s, 4m36s, 5m15s, 5m13s, 5m11s, 4m22s | |||||||||||
| 161 | Jan 2009 | 11 | Sun 1030 | Woodcote 10K | 53m39s 2m40s 5m21s 8m38s 35m26s 1.51 1.30 |
| "Goring, Woodcote and District Lions 10K"; "undulating by-roads, kilometre marked"; "free hot drinks"; "medal"; elsewhere on the web it says "tough road race, 5K downhill followed by 5K uphill" | 4m41s, 4m48s, 4m52s, 5m03s, 5m10s, 6m19s, 5m15s, 6m00s, 6m24s, 5m06s | |||||||||||
| 160 | Dec 2008 | 14 | Sun 1100 | Chesterton 10K | 49m10s 2m27s 4m54s 7m54s 33m06s 1.49 1.21 |
| "Andy Reading 10K"; This is a 10K race at Chesterton which is a few miles South of Bicester. It is a reasonably flat course, but it's a bit boring as about 4K is on a straight old Roman Road called Akeman Street and another 4K goes round the perimeter road of a disused airfield. Disconcertingly, whilst on the airfield, you can just about see the lead car on the other side of the airfield about 2.5K ahead! This was the first time I had done a race with my new watch, a Garmin Forerunner 305. I had set it to beep at every 0.5K and so I was getting feedback every 2.5 minutes on how fast I was running. This was so cool. And I can get a .kml file from it without much effort. Here's how my race looks in Google Maps. At 8K, I did some mental arithmetic and decided that if I pushed it I could get in under 50m. This proved to be hard work, and I kept pusshing myself as the splits show: I did the last 0.5K at a pace of 6m52s per M. I got a me/win factor of 1.49 which I am very pleased with. Lots and lots of marshals. The race was very well organised. | 4m37s, 4m53s, 5m04s, 5m05s, 4m59s, 4m56s, 5m07s, 5m06s, 4m49s, 4m27s | |||||||||||
| 159 | Dec 2008 | 07 | Sun 1100 | Bromham 10K | 50m39s 2m31s 5m03s 8m09s 34m08s 1.48 1.25 |
| "Bromham Pudding Run"; Last week's 40m32s at the Wolverton 5 gave me a pace of 8m06s per M which is 5m02s per K. That was for 5M. So today I thought of doing that pace for 10K which would give 50m18s. However, I had too much beer last night and so early this morning I thought Id be happy to get round! According to the car's thermometer, it was -6 when I left home and -2 when I got to the car park. So long johns, two layers up top and I decided to wear a hat. It was a 20 minute walk from the car park to the race route. I then ran back to the 9K marker and then ran to the finish and then walked to the start which was about 0.5K from the finish. What a lot of warm-up. Although it was foggy when I got to Bromham, the sun started shining and warming the place up. When running, I only got one icy patch. The Bromham 10K is a two lap race which means you can easily suss out the end. | 4m55s, 5m00s, 5m10s, 5m11s, 5m11s, 5m22s, 4m57s, 5m12s, 4m57s, 4m44s | |||||||||||
| 158 | Nov 2008 | 29 | Sat 1400 | Wolverton 5M | 40m32s 2m31s 5m02s 8m06s 23m40s 1.71 |
| "Wolverton 5"; This 5M race is on the cycle paths surrounding Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. The first lap goes round the lake North of the A509 and the second lap goes round the lake South as well as that North. The route is marked with mile markers. Before the start, I ran the last 0.5M of the route in order to recce the finish. It was a very cold day (about 2 degrees C) and there was a Northerly wind which would be noticeable on the Eastern side of the lakes. The funnel at the start made it a crowded start and so I positioned myself well ahead of where I should be in order not to get crowded and had worked out which side had firm grass if I needed to run off-path. That worked well. Last week, I had managed to do about 5m05s per K for those Ks that were flat and so today I was aiming for this pace, i.e., 8m11s per M, which would mean 41m. This is what I predicted on fetcheveryone.com. I found it difficult to establish a pace. I did the first mile in 7m46s and was feeling a bit exhausted. So I slowed down to do the next in 8m19s. The next two miles I did in 8m05s and 8m33s. So I had achieved the first 4M in 32m44s which was spot on, and it looked likely I would finish in 41m. In the first lap of the lake, I had established where I thought 0.5M from the end was. So I got another indicator of my final time at 4.5M. I pushed it in the last M to do the final mile in 7m48s. My time for the race was 40m32s. My official time (using a chip) was 40m38s. The winning time was 23m40s which gives a me/win factor of 1.71. That time was a minute faster than the fastest times of the last three years. | 7m46s, 8m19s, 8m05s, 8m33s, 7m48s | |||||||||||
| 157 | Nov 2008 | 23 | Sun 1100 | Boscombe (Bournemouth) 10K | 53m28s 2m40s 5m20s 8m36s 32m53s 1.63 |
| "Boscombe 10K"; I had hoped to do this in 55m and so aimed for 5m30s per K. My splits were 4m54s, 5m00s, 5m31s, 5m56s, 5m03s, 6m09s, 5m03s, 5m41s, 5m07s, 5m05s. The race starts with a lap of the stadium which was windy. The course is undulating. I set off fast. It goes under Wessex Way twice which means descending a ramp and going round barriers. Hence, the 5m56s and the 5m41s. There's also a 0.5K hill just after 5K. Hence the 6m09s. Torrential rain until 20 minutes before start meant I didn't get to warmup the last K. The rain ceased for the start and the first 5K but started again when we did the hill. It was windy at times and cold. I didn't have much left when we returned to do another lap of the stadium but pushed it to get under 54m. The race was well marshalled and they were a cheery lot which given the weather was nice. | 4m54s, 5m00s, 5m31s, 5m56s, 5m03s, 6m09s, 5m03s, 5m41s, 5m07s, 5m05s | |||||||||||
| 156 | Nov 2008 | 16 | Sun 1100 | Chesham 10.5K | 68m50s 3m16s 6m33s 10m33s 39m14s 1.75 |
| "Herbert's Hole Challenge"; "challenging multi-terrain"; "T-shirt"; I'd done two training runs (3.9M and 5.8M) since July and so this was ambitious. This was about 10.5K marked with K markers. It had an uphill start and was undulating with three main hills. Although there were two short sections on tarmac, the route was mainly on footpaths which were very muddy in places: it was difficult to walk let alone run! Damp with a little drizzle at times and a more continuous drizzle for the last 0.5K. Given the conditions and my lack of training, I was pleased with my time. I found a photo of the start and so you can now enter a "spot the barry" competition. I found me but I wouldn't bother if I were you! Just not to help you I'm looking at the ground. Here I am turning a sharp corner at the top of the first hill and here's a photo of me coming up the final hill and here I am nearing the top. But the photographer's camera was getting wet by then! | 6m09s, 6m18s, 6m43s, 6m43s, 6m12s, 6m31s, 6m29s, 6m16s, 6m22s, 7m21s, 2m55s | |||||||||||
| 155 | Aug 2008 | 03 | Sun 1030 | Hook Norton 6M | 52m12s 2m42s 5m24s 8m42s 33m16s 1.57 |
| "Hooky 6"; "flat/undulating"; "goody bag and T-shirt" | ||||||||||||
| 154 | Jun 2008 | 10 | Tue 1945 | Banbury 5M | 39m36s 2m27s 4m55s 7m55s 25m25s 1.56 |
| "Banbury 5"; slight hill just after 1M marker and big hill before 3M marker; slight dip at 3.6M; flat from 4M onwards | 7m16s, 8m20s, 8m26s, 8m06s, 7m28s | |||||||||||
| 153 | Jun 2008 | 01 | Sun 1000 | Fairford 10K | 48m14s 2m24s 4m49s 7m45s 32m00s 1.51 1.17 |
| "Fairford 10K"; gentle rain; undulating with a hill between 4.8K and 5.8K; unusuallly, I started to push for home at 6K; was pleased with the times for the last 4K except I got a strange time for the last 1K; although my time for Fairford was 13s slower than the Town and Gown, Fairford is harder as it's undulating (but the winning time was only 7s slower) | 4m31s, 4m58s, 5m04s, 4m55s, 4m47s, 5m23s, 4m50s, 4m34s, 4m29s, 4m47s | |||||||||||
| 152 | May 2008 | 26 | Mon 1100 | Upper Boddington (Banbury) 10K | 49m26s 2m28s 4m56s 7m57s 34m06s 1.45 1.25 |
| "Upper Boddington 10K"; managed the first 4M in 31m00s which is 7m45s per M but there was a strong head wind for most of the last 2M; last 0.25M was around a grassy playing field; strong gusty winds and rain throughout the race; really pleased with the 1.45 against the winner's time which is good given the course; and I got a trophy for being 3rd in my category; junior race as well (at 1230) | 6m54s, 7m36s, 8m16s, 8m15s, 8m35s, 8m14s, 1m37s | |||||||||||
| 151 | May 2008 | 18 | Sun 1000 | Oxford 10K | 48m01s 2m24s 4m48s 7m43s 31m53s 1.51 1.17 |
| "Town and Gown 10K"; | 4m29s, 4m31s, 4m51s, 5m00s, 4m53s, 4m59s, 5m07s, 4m57s, 4m52s, 4m22s | |||||||||||
| 150 | May 2008 | 05 | Mon 1030 | Shinfield (Reading) 10K | 49m16s 2m27s 4m55s 7m55s 32m25s 1.52 1.19 |
| "Shinfield 10K"; | 4m50s, 4m58s, 4m43s, 5m14s, 5m11s, 4m58s+4m57s (9m55s), 5m06s, 4m46s, 4m35s | |||||||||||
| 149 | Nov 2004 | 14 | Sun 0730 | Havana (Cuba) half marathon | 117m14s 2m46s 5m33s 8m56s 66m10s 1.77 |
| humid; mainly flat with 4 slight hills between 8K and 13K; aimed for 6m per K but at 15K thought 2h was on and was pleased to achieve this; 5K, 10K, 15K and a marathon as well; developed knee problem after 2K and although this seemed not to affect my race I haven't been able to do any running since | 5m28s+5m28s (10m56s), 5m51s, 5m47s+5m47s (11m34s), 5m41s, 5m39s, 5m35s (6m35s inc loo break), 5m56s, 5m50s, 5m42s, 5m26s+5m26s+5m27s (17m19s), 5m52s, 5m33s, 5m02s, 5m33s, 4m56s, 5m15s, 4m32s+0m27s (4m59s) | |||||||||||
| 148 | Oct 2004 | 30 | Sat | Durham 6.25K | 30m31s 2m26s 4m52s 7m51s 21m27s 1.42 |
| "Durham University Past vs Present"; officially 6K; excellent course in excellent conditions: cool with slight drizzle and very muddy in places; probably came first (and last!) in the M55s; Men do 6K at 1130 whereas women do 4K at 1030; registration at 0930 | 11m30s [2.39K,7m45s], 3m03s [3.11K,6m49s], 0m38s [3.23K,8m30s], 2m56s [3.83K,7m52s], 2m55s [4.11K,16m46s!], 3m03s [4.83K,6m49s], 0m38s [4.94K,9m16s], 1m36s [5.32K,6m47s], 4m16s [6.25K,7m23s] | |||||||||||
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 147 | Oct 2004 | 24 | Sun 1100 | Pickering 10K | 51m33s 2m34s 5m09s 8m17s 36m27s 1.41 1.33 |
| humid, quite hot; long drag with one hill during first 4K, undulating and off-road (muddy) until 7K, downhill for 2K with a flat final K; collect numbers on the day | 5m06s, 5m27s, 4m16s, 5m51s, 6m05s, 4m31s, 4m53s, 4m13s, 5m33s, 5m40s | |||||||||||
| 146 | Oct 2004 | 17 | Sun 1030 | Bramham Park (Wetherby) 10K | 47m57s 2m23s 4m47s 7m43s 36m32s 1.31 1.34 |
| bright with some drizzle: excellent running weather; muddy; multi-terrain, undulating; 5K run and 5K walk as well | 4m19s, 4m30s, 4m55s, 5m24s, 4m22s, 5m09s, 4m59s, 5m01s, 4m42s, 4m38s | |||||||||||
| 145 | Oct 2004 | 10 | Sun 1100 | Tunstall Reservoir (Wolsingham) 5.5M | 46m19s 2m36s 5m13s 8m25s 30m40s 1.51 |
| "INOV8 Trail Race"; "field, moorland and woodland paths, tracks and trails"; excellent, but nowhere near the advertised distance of 8M: I estimate it to be 5.5M; here is a link to Gilbert's video; I saw this outsider (from Bingley) at the start and nearly spoke to him: he won; amazingly there was 2 minutes between 1st and 2nd and also between 2nd and 3rd, and I'm not sure where the first NE runner came | pace in square brackets: 7m28s (top of hill) [12m47s], 10m54s (V turn) [7m22s], 14m02s (Salters Gate) [8m08s], 5m39s (start) [7m59s], 6m37s (T junction) [8m41s], 1m51s (finish) [7m20s] | |||||||||||
| 144 | Oct 2004 | 03 | Sun 1200 | Norham 10K | 47m03s 2m21s 4m42s 7m34s 31m44s 1.48 1.16 |
| LesV writes: "Started to rain as race started. Quite damp throughout, and fairly windy. Sun came out when race was completed"; .it rained just for the 10K; got drenched by 3M; there was also a strong headwind for the first 3M; excellent atmosphere; across the Tweed to Scotland and back; the 2nd M has a significant hill, the other incline is in the 5th M; collect numbers on the day | 7m19s, 8m14s, 7m33s, 7m39s, 7m58s, 6m57s, 1m24s | |||||||||||
| 143 | Sep 2004 | 26 | Sun 1040 | Great North Run half marathon | 106m32s 2m31s 5m02s 8m07s 59m37s 1.79 |
| officially 109m40s but took about 3m to get to the start; what a lot of people! bright and cool but with a head-wind for the last M; was pleased with my result even though it's not my best GNR | 7m11s, 7m28s, 7m43s, 8m28s, 8m17s, 8m14s, 7m51s, 8m03s, 8m20s, 8m18s, 8m56s, 8m37s, 7m58s, 0m48s | |||||||||||
| 142 | Sep 2004 | 05 | Sun 1100 | Billingham 10K | 48m14s 2m24s 4m49s 7m45s 32m03s 1.50 1.17 |
| "Ray Harrison Memorial"; very very hot; first run after holiday and little training | 4m15s, 4m30s, 4m51s, 4m26s, 5m09s, 4m48s, 5m07s, 5m10s, 5m14s, 4m47s | |||||||||||
| 141 | Aug 2004 | 17 | Tue 1930 | Jarrow and Hebburn 6M | 44m45s 2m19s 4m38s 7m27s 32m00s 1.40 |
| outward route didn't go along the riverside due to path closure and so the route was about 160 metres short of 6M; lots of runners; like last year, there was a 3M marker and some rough K white paint markers: I wish there were proper markers | reached halfway at 22m04s; rough splits: 4m33s, 4m39s, 4m37s+4m36s (4m51s+4m22s), 4m55s, 4m50s, 4m41s+4m41s (4m55s+4m27s), 4m30s+2m42s [0.6K] (7m12s) | |||||||||||
| 140 | Aug 2004 | 15 | Sun 0930 | Bishop Auckland 10K | 47m01s 2m21s 4m42s 7m33s 28m56s 1.63 1.06 |
| hot; enjoyable; 1.52 against the best NE runner (Mark Hudspeth in 31m01s) | 4m42s, 4m17s, 4m30s, 4m19s, 5m22s, 5m05s, 5m03s, 4m35s, 4m41s, 4m30s | |||||||||||
| 139 | Aug 2004 | 08 | Sun 1030 | Darlington 10K | 48m21s 2m25s 4m50s 7m46s 31m55s 1.51 1.17 |
| very, very hot; enjoyable; today's splits are very consistent, but overall my pace was 35s per M slower than last year (which is similar to the drop in performance in recent races); the team from the University's CEM Centre ("Cem 6") got the non-athletic club team prize and ITS Club 9 came second | 4m30s, 4m39s, 5m00s, 5m01s, 4m59s, 5m03s, 5m03s, 4m59s, 4m58s, 4m19s | |||||||||||
| 138 | Aug 2004 | 01 | Sun 1030 | Harrogate 10K | 48m12s 2m24s 4m49s 7m45s 31m00s 1.55 1.13 |
| very different course from 2003; just as hilly; cool | 7m07s, 7m54s, 7m32s, 8m15s, 7m50s, 8m32s, 1m04s | |||||||||||
| 137 | Jul 2004 | 25 | Sun 1430 | Burton Leonard 10K | 50m47s 2m32s 5m04s 8m10s 36m40s 1.39 1.34 |
| hot with a strong headwind; looks more like 6.7M to me; mainly off-road; seemed to more up than down! part of the Black Sheep Brewery Race Series; 2M fun run as well | 7m01s, 8m15s, 8m58s+8m59s (17m57s), 7m19s, 8m10s, 2m05s | |||||||||||
| 136 | Jul 2004 | 18 | Sun 1030 | Beadnell to Alnmouth 13.1M | 116m17s 2m45s 5m30s 8m52s 78m52s 1.47 |
| the Northumberland Coastal Run was hot with a strong head wind at times; didn't know what time to aim for but beat two of my usual "companions"; enjoyable; although you can choose route, most people went same way (except N and Scott who said it was quicker via Dun.Castle!); as the tide was out, it went along the beach on several occasions; got my feet wet numerous times; Alan Purvis' description and map is here | no markers; although advertised as 14M, I made it 13.1M; very rough mile points: 8m59s, 7m59s, 9m33s, 6m35s, 10m48s, 8m38s, 10m16s, 7m59s, 9m37s, 9m04s, 9m26s, 7m42s, 9m29s | |||||||||||
| 135 | Jul 2004 | 14 | Wed 1930 | Croft Circuit (Darlington) 10K | 45m41s 2m17s 4m34s 7m21s 29m52s 1.53 1.09 |
| "Darlington Pit Stop 10K"; 3 laps of the Croft motor racing circuit; 2K fun run and wheelchair race as well; warm; ITS Club 9 won the Corporate Team prize for the 2nd year running; I was 53s slower than 2003; Martin Scaife beat the course record with the 2nd person 3m32s behind; I got a 1.53 against Martin's time and a 1.37 against the 2nd person! I was disappointed by a lack of markers (which I found stressing); support from Gilbert and his Puttnam friend | 4m24s+4m24s+4m25s+4m25s (17m38s), 4m50s+4m51s (9m41s), 4m44s+4m44s+4m43s (14m11s), 4m12s | |||||||||||
| 134 | Jul 2004 | 11 | Sun 1100 | Kielder WR 10.9K | 56m21s 2m35s 5m10s 8m19s 41m16s 1.37 |
| enjoyable run; it's a hard start climbing until about 4K and then it's down hill but undulating; worked hard from 4K to the line; found out afterwards I should have done it 32s faster to beat last time (2002); lots of midges as usual | no markers, splits at approximate K points: 6m19s+6m19s (8m02s+4m36s), 6m27s, 4m29s+4m28s (8m57s), 4m50s, 4m59s, 4m59s, 4m28s+4m29s (3m17s+5m40s), 4m33s | |||||||||||
| 133 | Jul 2004 | 07 | Wed 1930 | Tynedale 10K | 45m55s 2m17s 4m35s 7m23s 30m56s 1.48 1.13 |
| cool with a strong Ely wind; very enjoyable; support from Hetty and Gavin; "flat rural 10K along minor roads and tracks"; collect numbers on the night | 6m33s, 7m20s, 7m40s, 7m36s, 7m50s, 7m18s, 1m30s | |||||||||||
| 132 | Jul 2004 | 03 | Sat 1400 | Burn Valley half marathon | 122m09s 2m53s 5m47s 9m19s 81m03s 1.51 |
| big disaster: stitch at 8M, I just wished there had been a bus back; hot with a strong cool breeze; good water and sponge stations and a good tea afterwards; photos of the runners are here, e.g., here's one of me; part of the Black Sheep Brewery Race Series; 3M fun run as well | 7m10s, 8m39s, 7m51s, 9m00s, 10m00s, 9m42s, 9m18s, 9m47s, 9m45s, 10m25s, 9m51s, 11m14s, 8m37s+0m52s (9m29s) | |||||||||||
| 131 | Jun 2004 | 27 | Sun 1145 | Rainton 10K | 47m36s 2m22s 4m45s 7m39s 32m58s 1.44 1.21 |
| strong breeze for small part of race; hot; disappointing performance; not surprising (nt, np, tmb); in 2003 5th M was bad: so this year I did a split at 4.5M and this improved my time for the 5th M; good photos of the runners are here, e.g., here's one of me; part of the Black Sheep Brewery Race Series | difference from 2003 in brackets: 6m54s [+08s], 7m32s [+27s], 7m38s [+27s], 8m23s [+29s], 8m07s [-5s], 7m35s [+24s], 1m26s [+10s] | |||||||||||
| 130 | Jun 2004 | 20 | Sun 1100 | Eden Valley WR 15K | 110m46s 3m41s 7m23s 11m53s 69m51s 1.59 |
| I made my time 112m21s (which is 1m35s slower); beat my 2003 time by 4m25s (or 2m50s) but it was not hot like last year; about 15K going S from Bowderdale, up W side of Bowderdale Beck, then up hill to SD675975, and back via Hazelgill Knott and West Fell | 9m32s (junction), 10m14s (SheepPen), 15m07s (YalesideSpur), 5m54s (BotHill), 10m52s (OppValley), 12m00s (TurnRound), 7m02s (col), 5m36s (YalesideSpur), 2m05s (HazelgillK), 15m35s (WestFell), 9m38s (junction), 8m44s | |||||||||||
| 129 | Jun 2004 | 13 | Sun 1100 | Ripon 10M | 81m09s 2m31s 5m02s 8m06s 61m06s 1.33 |
| baking hot; 21s faster than my 2004 Fountains 10M; drag from start to 4M with some respites; long steep hill between 5M and 6M; I think the 3M and subsequent markers were too late recovering at the 9M marker; well marshalled; two water stations at 4.5M and 7.5M; got confused by swing gate at 9.5M; only 83 finishers; hot dogs were good; more enjoyable than I thought it would be but I preferred the Wed 10K | 7m56s, 8m08s, 9m01s, 8m03s, 7m45s, 8m53s, 8m19s, 8m07s, 7m07s, 7m54s | |||||||||||
| 128 | Jun 2004 | 09 | Wed 1900 | Blaydon 5.7M | 44m01s 2m23s 4m47s 7m43s 27m15s 1.62 |
| officially 44m20s; disaster: I chatted to someone at 1.8M and got terrible stitch which I could not get rid of | 6m47s, 7m13s, 8m39s, 7m41s+7m40s (15m21s), 6m00s | |||||||||||
| 127 | Jun 2004 | 05 | Sat 1400 | Kirkby Malzeard 10K | 46m39s 2m19s 4m39s 7m30s 33m10s 1.41 1.21 |
| 3 water stations which was good as it was very humid (with a breeze at times); disappointed there were no 1M, 4M or 6M markers, maybe there was white paint; part of the Black Sheep Brewery Race Series; fun run as well | 7m28s (cemetery), 6m51s, 8m18s, 7m09s (Warren Farm), 8m12s, 7m10s+1m30s (8m40s) | |||||||||||
| 126 | Jun 2004 | 02 | Wed 1900 | Durham 5M | 38m25s 2m23s 4m46s 7m40s 30m11s 1.27 |
| "Court Inn Clamber"; two lap circuit through woods and along a lane; excellent run with lots of local runners; buffet afterwards; very enjoyable; runners also inc nd, dm, kg and je; M, S and kg got spot prizes | start 4m50s woods 5m29s (1K) ravine 4m41s (1K) stile 4m32s (1K) phr 4m03s (0.8K) woods 5m14s (1K) ravine 4m44s (1K) stile 4m17s (1K) phr 0m24s | |||||||||||
| 125 | May 2004 | 30 | Sun 1130 | Melmerby 10K | 45m55s 2m17s 4m35s 7m23s 33m14s 1.38 1.22 |
| very hot; lots of sponge (and water) stations: thanks; undulating; had a cold which didn't help me beat last year's time; incredibly, at each K I kept within 7s of my 2003's times except lost 12s in each of the last 3 Ks; part of the Black Sheep Brewery Race Series | 2003 splits in brackets: 4m01s [4m00s], 4m34s [4m30s], 4m27s [4m31s], 5m00s [4m59s], 4m31s [4m38s], 4m47s [4m45s], 4m48s [4m45s], 4m54s [4m42s], 4m38s [4m24s], 4m16s [4m04s] | |||||||||||
| 124 | May 2004 | 26 | Wed 1915 | Whitley Bay 10K | 45m03s 2m15s 4m30s 7m15s 32m41s 1.38 1.20 |
| "Clive Cookson Race formerly the WoW Race"; "T-shirt"; "barbecue" (not free); 2 lap course | 4m09s, 4m39s, 4m41s, 4m15s, 4m26s, 4m35s, 4m55s, 4m50s, 4m18s, 4m14s | |||||||||||
| 123 | May 2004 | 23 | Sun 1000 | South Shields 7.5M | 53m30s 2m12s 4m25s 7m07s 38m10s 1.40 |
| officially 54m17s (which would give me 1.42); hot; finishers got a sports holdall or backpack; SS Pier to Roker Pier; bus from Roker to SS; previous winning times: 1999 39m09s, 2000 39m30s, 2001 36m44s, 2002 38m59s, 2003 39m27s; maybe I should aim for 54m36s (39ms00s times 1.4) | GPS made it 7M; rough splits: 8m40s (top of hill), 7m07s (2M), 7m03s (3M), 6m53s (4M), 7m42s (5M), 9m17s (6M), 6m48s (finish) | |||||||||||
| 122 | May 2004 | 16 | Sun 1200 | Killhope WR 11.5K | 68m11s 2m57s 5m55s 9m32s 46m20s 1.47 |
| hot; reverse of 2003 route; forgot to take a split at the turn; won a spot prize | 5m19s (1K point), 5m24s (top split), 2m17s (bot split), 1m45s (turn right), 2m18s ("3K point"), 7m06s (green cabin), 4m25s (stream), 6m06 (turn), 2m52s (stream), 4m52s (green cabin), 4m47s ("3K point"), 2m01s (turn left), 2m29s (bot split), 8m06s (top split), 4m39s (1K point|), 4m03s | |||||||||||
| 121 | May 2004 | 09 | Sun 1100 | Fountains 10M | 81m30s 2m31s 5m03s 8m09s 59m54s 1.36 |
| part of the Black Sheep Brewery Race Series; there are 5 hills in the last 6K of the route and the earlier moorland section (2K long) was boggy with deepish puddles; humid, but cool; burned out by 7.5M; the winner's time was 4m42s slower than in 2003 and so I got a 1.36 but I would have only got 1.48 with the 55m12s of 2003; disappointed there was no burger stall | 7m18, 9m10s, 6m52s, 7m50s, 8m03s, 7m42s, 7m53s, 8m37s, 9m39s, 8m27s | |||||||||||
| 120 | Apr 2004 | 18 | Sun 1000 | Barcelona 10K | 45m58s 2m17s 4m35s 7m23s 28m32s 1.61 1.04 |
| "Cursa Bombers" (race of the firemen) ; hot; became exhausted; too much wine?; 6411 runners | 4m14s, 4m28s, 4m34s, 4m27s, 4m35s, 4m35s, 4m47s, 5m01s, 4m52s, 4m26s | |||||||||||
| 119 | Apr 2004 | 11 | Sun 1030 | Guiseley (Leeds) 10K | 50m17s 2m30s 5m01s 8m05s 36m16s 1.39 1.33 |
| "Guiseley Gallop"; part of the Airedale Triple; bottle of beer; no markers: on the map I made it 9.3K; different route at the end of the first wood; greasy through the woods; two hills in last 2K; I made my time 48m45s which would give me a 1.34: don't understand the discrepancy; crowded? | rough splits: 5m06s, 4m41s, 4m30s, 4m05s, 5m15s, 5m05s, 4m44s, 7m59s, 6m02s, 1m17s | |||||||||||
| 118 | Apr 2004 | 09 | Fri 1030 | New Marske 10M | 75m48s 2m21s 4m42s 7m34s 52m20s 1.45 |
| 1M circuit followed by 3 x 3M ||gram with mile markers and water every 3M; flat; warm and windy; my 5th fastest 10M | 6m59s, 7m30s, 7m52s, 7m23s, 8m01s, 8m09s, 7m29s, 7m32s, 7m53s, 6m59s | |||||||||||
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 117 | Apr 2004 | 04 | Sun 1200 | Grizedale Forest (Hawkshead) 10M | 77m49s 2m25s 4m50s 7m46s 57m40s 1.35 |
| sunny at first but sleety rain during last 4M; hard-core trail through forests with views; green cycling route clockwise; first 2M is hilly; although described as "undulating" the course had a tendency to hill in many places; I did well as my time was a 1.35 (and 1.31 times 2003's winning time 59m24s) | cumulative splits: bottom 329926 7m01s, zigzag 326930 10m30s, FP to L 318943 20m04s, FP to R 326954 27m28s, top 332983 44m13s, carpark 342965 60m00s | |||||||||||
| 116 | Mar 2004 | 28 | Sun 1200 | Hamsterley WR 10K | 50m49s 2m32s 5m04s 8m10s 38m20s 1.33 1.40 |
| usual slog to Doctor's Gate as shown in this photo by John Bright; got a 1.33; did it in 2m04s less than last year: that's 20s less on each M; enjoyable; randomly allocated prizes which was good | 4m32s, 2m55s, 6m41s, 2m12s, 3m26s, 2m10s, 6m37s, 7m35s, 0m38s, 1m29s, 2m07s, 1m27s, 6m18s, 3m02s | |||||||||||
| 115 | Feb 2004 | 29 | Sun 1115 | Huddersfield 10K | 47m57s 2m23s 4m47s 7m43s 33m45s 1.42 1.23 |
| enjoyable; bright but chilly; scenic; described as "undulating" but it's hilly; fast finish; beat last year's time by 13s; officially 48m01s but took 4s to start as the start was very crowded | 7m21s, 8m53s, 7m23s, 8m20s, 7m39s, 6m59s, 1m23s | |||||||||||
| 114 | Jan 2004 | 25 | Sun 1000 | York half marathon | 102m22s 2m25s 4m51s 7m48s 68m26s 1.50 |
| officially 102m31s but it took 9s to start; first race in Nike Air Pegasus 2002; when I bought them I didn't know they are 395g; blue skies, strong warming sun, a gentle cold wind and a flat course: except for about 3 icy patches this was PB country; enjoyable; I did better than a fortnight ago (MtoN) but still not close to a PB; race limit reached on Oct 16 | 7m13s, 7m21s, 7m37s, 7m53s, 7m12s, 8m03s, 8m08s, 7m58s, 8m15s+8m16s (16m31s), 8m12s, 7m48s, 7m42s, 0m45s | |||||||||||
| 113 | Jan 2004 | 11 | Sun 1030 | Morpeth to Newcastle half marathon | 104m47s 2m28s 4m57s 7m59s 67m23s 1.56 |
| officially 104m51s; didn't do well; slower than 2003 MtoN, 2003 Burn Valley (hilly), 2002 MtoN; some excuses: (a) strong SW wind which was head-on at times, (b) bright sunshine which was head-on most of the time, (c) got stitch after 4M; slight change to route because of roadworks; more supporters and more crowded: number of finishers up from 612 (2002) and 726 (2003) to 1020 (2004) | 7m24s, 8m02s, 7m29s, 7m41s, 8m13s, 8m12s, 8m18s, 8m09s, 8m00s, 8m29s, 8m11s, 8m19s, 7m37s, 0m42s | |||||||||||
| 112 | Jan 2004 | 03 | Sat 1230 | Great Winter Run 4M | 32m05s 2m29s 4m59s 8m01s 20m50s 1.54 |
| officially 32m32s; cold; difficult run after doing no training for 3 weeks; a mix of cross-country and narrow tarmac paths; lots of runners which meant running off-path on the sections with paths; many grass sections were muddy or very muddy; so difficult to make progress at times; lot of fun runners and started long way back: I overtook a lot of people; two hills in the first 1.1M but flat after 1.5M | 9m30s, 7m54s, 7m21s, 7m21s | |||||||||||
| 111 | Nov 2003 | 30 | Sun 0930 | Leeds Abbey Dash 10K | 43m31s 2m10s 4m21s 7m00s 29m24s 1.48 1.08 |
| officially 43m46s but took some time to get to the start and the finish look chaotic; winner was 36s faster than in 2002; dry with bright sunshine making markers difficult to detect on return route; seemed to be more runners where I was but only a 6% increase in finishers; disappointed not to get a PB: got a third PB; they'd change the finish: it was narrower and crowded which made it difficult to do a last minute sprint; was good to leave at 0700 | 3m50s, 4m29s, 4m22s, 4m22s, 4m45s, 4m09s, 4m21s, 4m33s, 4m24s, 4m17s | |||||||||||
| 110 | Nov 2003 | 23 | Sun 1030 | Maltby (near Thornaby) 7.7M | 56m20s 2m16s 4m32s 7m18s 43m56s 1.28 |
| it was my birthday: I'm now in the same category as Mike Walker (Gosf): watch out Mike! cold but bright sunshine; 6M marker was too early; I did well: finished 43s behind MickyC; after 3M I was 54s behind him but I did the rest (4.7M) 4s faster than him; got a 1.28 but 2002's winning time (Martin Scaife in 39m02s) would give 1.44; thanks to Carole and Gilbert for support | 7m01s, 7m26s, 7m43s, 7m26s, 6m45s, 7m00s+7m00s (6m30s+7m30s), 6m01s | |||||||||||
| 109 | Nov 2003 | 15 | Sat 1230 | Brampton to Carlisle 10M | 77m13s 2m23s 4m47s 7m43s 50m23s 1.53 |
| strong NWly headwind; did not feel like running; 35% more crowded than last year: 385 in 2001, 364 in 2002, 493 in 2003; Carlisle car park was 2 UKP, bus from C to B was 1 UKP; mainly flat course with a downhill finish; Elvet Striders' map of the course is here | 6m32s, 7m37s, 7m26s, 7m24s, 7m42s, 8m04s, 8m02s, 8m16s, 8m38s, 7m38s | |||||||||||
| 108 | Nov 2003 | 09 | Sun 1102 | Newcastle Town Moor 10K | 45m05s 2m15s 4m30s 7m15s 31m04s 1.45 1.14 |
| dry, with a headwind from the SE; uneven tarmac paths; I beat last year's time by just 8s; the course went the opposite way round to last year's; 8K marker was 0.2K too early; 5 runners from DU CC club did well | 4m15s, 4m29s, 4m29s, 4m35s, 4m38s, 4m37s, 4m41s, 4m27s+4m27s (3m33s+5m21s), 4m28s | |||||||||||
| 107 | Nov 2003 | 02 | Sun 1000 | Gibside Chapel 7M | 55m32s 2m27s 4m55s 7m55s 40m21s 1.38 |
| a Wild-Race-like race; "not flat"; bright, but "greasy" underfoot; took me 10s longer than last year; Gavin shouted at me for my poor hill-work! | 6m54s, 9m20s, 7m00s, 7m08s, 10m51s, 7m20s, 6m58s | |||||||||||
| 106 | Oct 2003 | 26 | Sun 1100 | Jedburgh (Borders) half marathon | 97m32s 2m18s 4m37s 7m26s 72m48s 1.34 |
| a little chilly with a slight drizzle at times; mainly flat; some uninteresting long straight roads; I made it a PB beating my Turin time by 5s but officially it was 97m39s which is 2s slower than my Turin time or 24s faster than the chip Turin time! | 6m46s, 7m34s, 7m13s, 7m01s, 7m43s, 7m31s, 7m31s, 7m50s, 7m52s, 7m31s, 7m53s, 7m12s, 7m12s+0m43s (7m55s) | |||||||||||
| 105 | Oct 2003 | 19 | Sun 1030 | Bramham Park (Wetherby) 10K | 45m42s 2m17s 4m34s 7m21s 32m46s 1.39 1.20 |
| multi-terrain, undulating; lack of water at end; bad that 10K started at same time as 5K and later got mixed up with 5K walkers; need a consistent approach to cattle grids; however, very enjoyable | 4m21s, 4m21s, 4m28s, 5m03s, 4m23s, 5m05s, 4m46s, 4m35s, 4m29s, 4m13s | |||||||||||
| 104 | Oct 2003 | 12 | Sun 1030 | Stanley 10M | 78m30s 2m26s 4m52s 7m51s 55m50s 1.41 |
| dry, slightly chilly with gentle breeze; long hill bet 1M and 2M, two hills bet 3M and 4M, same two hills again bet 6.5M and 7.5M; took off 5s for near collision with car! | 6m30s, 8m42s, 7m29s, 9m05s, 7m51s, 7m14s, 8m14s, 8m33s, 7m27s (7m32s), 7m17s | |||||||||||
| 103 | Sep 2003 | 21 | Sun 0930 | Turin half marathon | 97m37s 2m18s 4m37s 7m26s 63m52s 1.53 |
| hot, with a gentle wind; officially (using a chip) my time was 98m03s: I can't explain the discrepancy; 1247 runners; I came first out of the 5 UK runners; chip time for first 10K was 47m11s | 4m41s, 4m34s+4m34s (9m08s), 4m48s, 4m42s, 4m38s, 4m43s, 4m36s, 4m45s, 4m44s, 4m14s, 4m51s+4m50s (9m41s), 4m38s, 4m37s, 4m37s, 4m33s, 4m38s, 4m53s, 4m28s, 4m09s+0m25s (4m34s) | |||||||||||
| 102 | Sep 2003 | 13 | Sat 1330 | Castleton, Guisborough 10K | 48m17s 2m24s 4m49s 7m46s 35m28s 1.36 1.30 |
| took 1h20m to get there; part of the Castleton Show; a bird's eye view of the route is here; scenic with about 6 uphill sections; no markers; very hot with warm head wind; beat last year's time by 1m21s which was good since it was hot but last year I didn't "create" M markers; so well pleased with performance especially during last 3.21M over undulating terrain; just 22 runners; I came 16th | no markers; roughly 8m09s, 8m42s, 8m22s, 7m29s, 6m56s, 6m56s+1m42s (8m38s) | |||||||||||
| 101 | Sep 2003 | 07 | Sun 1030 | Catterick 10M | 75m20s 2m20s 4m40s 7m31s 58m01s 1.30 |
| hot; think the 8M marker was 0.2M early and the last mile is only 0.8M; enjoyable; went to plan; came 17th (out of about 54); 4th fastest 10M; 1m01s faster than last year and same (good) me/win (1.30) as last year | 7m19s, 7m59s, 7m28s, 8m48s, 7m29s, 7m20s, 8m00s, 6m17s, 9m05s, 5m39s | |||||||||||
| 100 | Sep 2003 | 03 | Wed 1830 | Lobley Hill (Gateshead) 5K | 21m27s 2m08s 4m17s 6m54s 15m12s 1.41 |
| my 100th race! and I got a T-shirt commemorating this from Jason; 2 lap course on tracks in Watergate Park; no markers; I was aiming (rightly or wrongly) for 21m20s and got 21m27s; nearly equals pace of my 10K PB but this was an off-road 5K | rough 1.25K splits are: 5m09s, 5m12s, 5m27s, 5m40s | |||||||||||
| 99 | Aug 2003 | 31 | Sun 1100 | Tholthorpe York 10K | 44m59s 2m14s 4m29s 7m14s 31m03s 1.45 1.14 |
| warm; good atmosphere; 364 finishers; tried but failed to do negative splits on made-up K markers; hard to go slow at start; last year's winner did 32m45s, multiply that by 1.40 gives 45m52s, so I aimed for 5K of 4m40s followed by 5K of 4m30s to give 45m50s but got 44m50s! | mile markers; rough Ks were 4m25s, 4m36s+4m36s (5m15s+3m57s), 4m42s, 4m26s, 4m44s, 4m50s+4m50s (5m34s+4m06s), 4m18s, 3m25s | |||||||||||
| 98 | Aug 2003 | 24 | Sun 0930 | Bishop Auckland 10K | 46m40s 2m19s 4m39s 7m30s 29m13s 1.60 1.07 |
| hot; early; hadn't done any training (because of a knee problem); walked four times | 4m24s, 4m06s, 4m26s, 4m38s + 4m51s (5m38s + 3m51s), 5m02s, 5m11s, 4m43s, 4m40s, 4m40s | |||||||||||
| 97 | Aug 2003 | 19 | Tue 1930 | Jarrow and Hebburn 6M | 43m39s 2m15s 4m31s 7m16s 31m25s 1.39 |
| marker at 3M which I did in 21m54s (which is a 7m18s pace); also white paint K markers on the ground if you can find them, but maybe inaccurate; enjoyable; birdseye photos of the route are here; good scran at M's afterwards | roughly 4m24s, 4m34s, 4m39s, 4m47s, 4m47s, 3m41s, 4m39s, 4m36s, 4m17s, 3m15s | |||||||||||
| 96 | Aug 2003 | 10 | Sun 1030 | Darlington 10K | 44m43s 2m14s 4m28s 7m11s 31m01s 1.44 1.13 |
| before the start, we applied sunblock because of the strong sun; however, the weather suddenly changed: we started in complete darkness which developed into a thunderstorm with torrential rain, strong cross-winds, 6 foot wide rivers and enormous pools some of which (5" deep) could not be avoided; disappointed at my time but, if you take 40s off for the conditions, it was my 4th fastest 10K; ran with HangedUp's kinetic work looping in my head; Peter Grime (Durham University) came second and ITS Club 9 won the male non-athletic club team prize | 3m57s, 5m28s, 3m36s, 4m41s, 4m22s, 4m45s, 4m43s, 4m31s, 4m39s, 4m02s | |||||||||||
| 95 | Aug 2003 | 05 | Tue 1930 | Morpeth 10K | 44m17s 2m12s 4m25s 7m07s 31m27s 1.41 1.15 |
| humid; enjoyable; covered the last 1.21M in 7m34s which seems to be a 6m15s pace (!) or 14m54s for last 2.21M which is a 6m45s pace; this is my 5th fastest 10K | 6m48s, 7m39s, 6m43s, 8m13s, 7m20s, 6m15s+1m19s (7m34s) | |||||||||||
| 94 | Aug 2003 | 03 | Sun 1030 | Harrogate 10K | 44m43s 2m14s 4m28s 7m11s 30m37s 1.46 1.12 |
| hot; nice course: two laps, with small hills at 1.5K, 4.8K and 7K, a 2K downhill from 3K and 8K; too much traffic; lots of entries from the AFC | 4m23s, 4m23s, 4m36s, 4m03s, 4m11s, 4m57s, 4m39s, 5m26s, 4m02s, 4m04s | |||||||||||
| 93 | Jul 2003 | 27 | Sun 1430 | Burton Leonard 10K | 47m56s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s 35m46s 1.34 1.31 |
| warm with a light breeze; "30% road and 70% tracks and country, undulating"; J beat me by 5s but he took a (permitted) shortcut through a 5" deep ford; markers didn't seem to be accurately placed; info about BSBRS is here | 6m47s, 7m41s, 7m59s, 8m42s, 7m11s, 7m33s, 2m06s | |||||||||||
| 92 | Jul 2003 | 19 | Sat 1000 | Bishop Wilton half marathon | 114m15s 2m42s 5m24s 8m42s |
| hot again; I was aiming for 104m but instead I got almost my slowest 13.1M; tougher than Burn Valley or Baildon but not so scenic; long hill (170 metre climb) between 3M and 6.5M including 135metres climb in 1.5M, then the nicest bit: an off road downhill (down 130 metres) to 8M, a steep hill (30 metres) just after 9M and a 75 metre climb between 11M and 12M, down down down (90 metres) from 12M to end; my guess is that the me/win will be something like 2.00! | 7m17s, 8m20s, 7m45s, 10m04s, 10m33s, 9m25s, 7m16s, 8m37s, 8m37s, 9m26s, 7m57s, 11m25s, 7m03s, 0m36s | |||||||||||
| 91 | Jul 2003 | 16 | Wed 1915 | High Hesleden (Hartlepool) 6M | 47m57s 2m28s 4m57s 7m59s 35m14s 1.36 |
| another 1.36 like Wed Jul 09 and Wed Jun 18; didn't enjoy it as we did not know route and there were no markers; sultry; a bit like a wild race in places; got a spot prize (woolly hat) | 9m42s, 3m33s, 12m54s, 1m03s, 5m44s, 5m46s, 1m52, 7m24s | |||||||||||
| 90 | Jul 2003 | 13 | Sun 1130 | Kilburn 7.19943M | 56m11s 2m25s 4m50s 7m48s 39m50s 1.41 |
| undulating with several long gentle hills; although there was a slight SE breeze at times, it was very, very hot; because of this it was difficult to run fast; nevertheless enjoyable; managed to do the last 1.2M at under 7m00s pace; however 7m48s for 7.2M doesn't compare well with 7m57s for last weekend's 13.1M; would need to have done 55m46s to get a 1.40; scenic (houses from 1662, abbey, white horse) | 7m07s, 8m00s, 7m03s, 8m19s, 8m40s, 8m40s, 7m12s, 1m08s | |||||||||||
| 89 | Jul 2003 | 09 | Wed 1930 | Croft Circuit (Darlington) 10K | 44m50s 2m14s 4m28s 7m12s 33m03s 1.36 1.21 |
| 3 laps of the Croft motor racing circuit; boring but flat; muggy; ITS Club 9 won the Corporate Team prize (a silver plate each for M, L and me) | 4m18s + 4m18s (3m16s + 5m20s), 4m43s, 4m34s, 4m24s, 4m25s, 4m43s, 4m21s, 4m49s, 4m18s | |||||||||||
| 88 | Jul 2003 | 05 | Sat 1400 | Burn Valley half marathon | 104m25s 2m28s 4m56s 7m57s 74m34s 1.40 |
| before race I decided on 8m10s but got 7m57s; well pleased; still feeling good in last 3rd of race as shown by splits; lots of water and sponge stations; good atmosphere; mainly road, hilly and scenic; warm but mainly overcast; free "post race tea"; info about BSBRS is here | 7m15s, 8m13s, 7m26s, 7m53s, 8m21s (8m51s), 9m17s (8m47s), 8m14s, 8m11s, 8m01s, 7m59s, 7m32s, 8m03s, 7m17s+0m54s (8m01s) | |||||||||||
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87 | Jul 2003 | 02 | Wed 1930 | Tynedale 10K | 43m33s 2m10s 4m21s 7m00s 29m48s 1.46 1.09 |
| need to leave work earlier than 1735; "flat rural 10K along minor roads and tracks"; very slight drizzle; 2nd fastest 10K (29m48s) I've entered; I was lazy during 3rd M; the 6M marker was too early and this caused me to burn out in the final straight; pleased with my time; good atmosphere; support from Karl and Fiona; skipped the pie and peas 'cos of long queue; went to Boathouse afterwards with D, O, K and F | 6m33s, 6m58s, 7m22s, 6m58s, 7m19s, 6m13s, 2m07s | |||||||||||
| 86 | Jun 2003 | 29 | Sun 1145 | Rainton 10K | 45m36s 2m16s 4m33s 7m20s 33m20s 1.37 1.22 |
| "70% road and 30% tracks"; flat; very hot; think I ran out of energy 'cos of the heat; overtook JE on final straight but he raced me to the line and beat me; good village atmosphere; info about BSBRS is here | 6m46s, 7m05s, 7m11s, 7m54s, 8m12s, 7m11s, 1m16s | |||||||||||
| 85 | Jun 2003 | 22 | Sun 1030 | Croxdale 10M | 74m31s 2m18s 4m37s 7m27s 52m52s 1.41 |
| 4 laps of 2.5M which meant 0.5M markers; warm, refreshing wind; didn't beat 2nd PB by 5s, however 1.41 for me/win is good; got lapped by 2 people, first one at about 6.1M whereas 7.4x=5.3y, y=x+2.5n gives 6.3M | 6m54s (3m26+3m28), 7m36s (3m51+3m45), 7m30s (3m50+3m40), 7m26s (3m28+3m58), 7m37s (3m47+3m50), 7m21s (3m47+3m34), 7m57s (4m02+3m55), 7m28s (3m45+3m43), 7m19s (3m30+3m49), 7m23s (3m54+3m29) | |||||||||||
| 84 | Jun 2003 | 18 | Wed 1930 | Ripon 10K | 45m41s 2m17s 4m34s 7m21s 33m41s 1.36 1.23 |
| two long drags in first 2M; steep hill in 4th M; 5M marker was probably too late; nice sausages; good atmosphere; warm | 7m15s, 8m06s, 6m41s, 8m21s, 6m43s + 6m43s (8m16s + 5m10s); 1m52s | |||||||||||
| 83 | Jun 2003 | 15 | Sun 1030 | Newton Aycliffe 10K | 45m42s 2m17s 4m34s 7m21s 32m14s 1.42 1.18 |
| 2.5 laps; very hot | 4m13s, 4m16s, 4m25s, 4m50s, 4m37s, 4m35s, 4m52s, 4m47s, 4m55s, 4m13s | |||||||||||
| 82 | Jun 2003 | 09 | Mon 1900 | Blaydon 5.7M | 39m40s 2m09s 4m19s 6m57s 26m24s 1.50 |
| sultry; took 24s off stopwatch time as it took this to get to the start; officially 40m38s; much better start thanks to MickyC who beat me by 12s; 2M marker was too early; not sure why 7m52s | 6m57s, 5m52s, 7m58s, 6m59s, 7m52s, 4m27s | |||||||||||
| 81 | Jun 2003 | 07 | Sat 1400 | Kirkby Malzeard 10K | 45m53s 2m17s 4m35s 7m23s 34m08s 1.34 1.25 |
| hot and sultry; used suntan lotion; reasonably hilly; may have been short of 10K; well pleased with my time which was only 34% more than the winning time; got 2 points in the BSBRS for this race; info about BSBRS is here | 7m43s, 7m30s, 8m03s, 7m29s, 7m29s, 6m51s, 0m47s | |||||||||||
| 80 | Jun 2003 | 01 | Sun 1100 | Eden Valley WR 15K | 115m11s 3m50s 7m40s 12m21s 70m05s 1.64 |
| this was at Bowderdale (GR 678046); very sunny and hot: got sunburnt; tough course; first outing for my new trail shoes (Nike Tupu) | 21m02s (SheepPen), 16m50s (YarlsideSpur), 5m47s (BotOfHill), 10m30s (OppValley), 9m09s (TurnRound), 3m49s (Col), 12m45s (YarlsideSpur), 2m07s (HazelgillK), 15m45s (WestFell), 17m29s (finish) | |||||||||||
| 79 | May 2003 | 25 | Sun 1130 | Melmerby 10K | 45m16s 2m15s 4m31s 7m17s 31m48s 1.42 1.16 |
| undulating; got drenched for 5m after 1K; gave new shoes (Air Span Triax) a christening; big puddles on country lanes; undulating; difficult-to-find K markers; info about BSBRS is here | 4m00s, 4m30s, 4m31s, 4m59s, 4m38s, 4m45s + 4m45s (9m30s), 4m42s, 4m24s, 4m04s | |||||||||||
| 78 | May 2003 | 21 | Wed 1915 | Whitley Bay 10K | 45m38s 2m16s 4m33s 7m20s 31m22s 1.45 1.15 |
| drizzle; 2 laps; some uneven surfaces and a slight headwind at times; felt good and pleased with time especially last 2K; too late for the barbecue | 4m04s, 4m52s, 4m50s, 4m20s, 4m26s, 4m34s, 5m06s, 5m03s, 4m11s, 4m12s | |||||||||||
| 77 | May 2003 | 18 | Sun 1030 | Sandal Castle (Wakefield) 10K | 47m28s 2m22s 4m44s 7m38s 32m43s 1.45 1.20 |
| hot; 95% off-road; puddly; musical marshal stations; crowded especially for first 2M; still got a knee injury | 6m54s, 8m02s + 8m02s (11m58s, 4m06s), 8m43s, 7m11s, 6m50 + 1m43s (8m33s) | |||||||||||
| 76 | May 2003 | 11 | Sun 1100 | Fountains 10M | 85m14s 2m38s 5m17s 8m31s 55m12s 1.54 |
| at Grantley; only done 3M of training in last fortnight because of knee injury; took it gently and was pleased to have got round; across moorland from 1M point to 2.5M; undulating plus 4 hills in last 4M; strong headwind at times; hail at times; well organised; excellent burgers and good pint of BS; info about BSBRS is here | 7m48s, 8m59s, 7m47s, 8m11s, 8m21s, 8m20s, 8m57s, 9m05s, 9m27s, 8m06s (3m53s, 2m27s, 1m46s) | |||||||||||
| 75 | Apr 2003 | 27 | Sun 1200 | Killhope WR 11K | 67m48s 3m04s 6m09s 9m55s 46m35s 1.46 |
| drizzly; hilly; tough course; strong headwind for 2K; Jason beat me by about 4m; I think I'm still recovering from flu; I walked several times, and even got overtaken by walkers! | 5m32s (1K point), 11m09s (turn left), 2m34s (3K point), 12m46s (stream), 5m16s (turn), 2m42s (stream), 9m29s (3K point), 2m07s (turn left), 12m18s (1K point), 4m07s | |||||||||||
| 74 | Apr 2003 | 20 | Sun 1030 | Guiseley Gallop 10K | 53m52s 2m41s 5m23s 8m40s 34m05s 1.58 1.25 |
| disaster; I'd done no training 'cos I'd had flu all week; spent most of the race doing mucus control! was tired after 3.5K; later I even walked on the level; Diane (who I beat by 8s and 55s in the previous two races of the Airedale Triple) beat me by 5m today; after the race, she commiserated; I was very disappointed not to have a fair go at the Triple; the results of the Triple are here; I came first (and last) in the M50 U/A category and so I won in this category! | no markers; roughly 4m08s, 4m20s, 5m12s, 6m17s, 5m02s, 6m01s, 3m51s, 7m31s, 7m40s, 4m05s | |||||||||||
| 73 | Apr 2003 | 12 | Sat 1030 | Meanwood Valley 8M | 59m40s 2m19s 4m38s 7m27s 42m11s 1.41 |
| hot; tough; spent most of time looking at ground; no M/K markers; well marshalled; second race of the Airedale Triple | 21m13s (tunnel), 11m41s (bottom), 8m56s (tunnel), 17m50s (finish) | |||||||||||
| 72 | Apr 2003 | 06 | Sun 1030 | Baildon half marathon | 111m23s 2m38s 5m16s 8m29s 79m29s 1.40 |
| dry, with slight wind; Baildon Boundary Way is excellent being multi-terrain, rural, undulating/hilly; well organised; too many other walkers/cyclists; first race of the Airedale Triple | 7m00s, 7m14s, 8m54s, 8m15s, 8m37s, 7m22s, 8m14s, 7m09s, 9m18s, 12m27s, 10m01s, 7m27s, 8m11s, 1m02s | |||||||||||
| 71 | Mar 2003 | 30 | Sun 1300 | Hamsterley WR 10K | 52m53s 2m38s 5m17s 8m30s 38m18s 1.38 1.40 |
| hot; the hills in the first 4K are killers; better course than last year; GR 093313 | 4m30s, 2m03s, 6m24s, 2m35s, 6m56s, 5m51s, 7m28s, 0m40s, 1m20s, 2m17s, 3m05s, 4m01s, 5m47s | |||||||||||
| 70 | Mar 2003 | 23 | Sun | Ackworth Pontefract half marathon | 102m33s 2m25s 4m51s 7m49s 65m18s 1.57 |
| officially 102m38s but took 5s to get to the start; reasonably hot and sunny; undulating; lots of runners which made the first 2 minutes crowded; good atmosphere and countryside | 7m06s, 7m43s, 7m29s, 8m47s, 7m25s, 8m08s, 8m06s, 8m01s, 7m40s, 8m09s, 8m00s, 7m44s, 7m33s, 0m36s (0.1M) | |||||||||||
| 69 | Mar 2003 | 04 | Tue | Tsada (Cyprus) 7.5K | 35m53s 2m23s 4m47s 7m41s 27m35s 1.30 |
| undulating; great village atmosphere | 4m29s, 4m57s, 4m37s, 4m53s, 4m47s, 5m26s, 4m41s, 2m10s | |||||||||||
| 68 | Mar 2003 | 02 | Sun | Pafos Cyprus 18.752K | 89m53s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s 69m03s 1.30 |
| meant to be half marathon but runners were misdirected and so about 2.3K short; hence 15th split is for 0.7K and last is for 1.1K; strong headwind for half the course; estimate of 100m33s for half marathon | 4m29s, 4m51s, 4m53s, 5m03s, 5m01s, 4m56s, 4m54s, 5m32s, 4m42s, 4m51s, 4m55s, 5m04s, 4m38s, 4m45s, 3m09s, 4m56s, 4m29s, 4m44s, 4m34s | |||||||||||
| 67 | Feb 2003 | 23 | Sun | Huddersfield 10K | 48m10s 2m24s 4m48s 7m45s 34m12s 1.41 1.25 |
| dry and sunny; several significant hills with a downhill fast finish | 7m06s, 9m24s, 7m22s, 8m19s, 7m26s, 7m16s, 1m16s | |||||||||||
| 66 | Feb 2003 | 02 | Sun | Roundhay Park (Leeds) 10K | 47m30s 2m22s 4m45s 7m38s 35m52s 1.32 1.31 |
| 2 lap 5K course with muddy and puddly footpaths except for 1st K and last K which were mainly on tarmac; undulating, with one small hill; strong headwind at times; Sir Jimmy Saville OBE gave me my medal | 3m38s, 5m50s, 3m58s, 5m40s, 4m00s, 4m20s, 6m09s, 4m03, 5m49s, 4m05s | |||||||||||
| 65 | Jan 2003 | 26 | Sun | Knavesmire Brass Monkey half marathon | 98m05s 2m19s 4m38s 7m28s 67m56s 1.44 |
| limit reached on Nov 7th 2002; officially 98m18s but took 13s to start; strong headwind (15mph?) at times | 7m03s, 7m28s, 7m51s, 7m41s, 7m11s, 7m36s, 7m49s, 7m38s, 7m39s, 7m36s, 7m41s, 7m07s, 7m01s?, 0m44s? | |||||||||||
| 64 | Jan 2003 | 19 | Sun | Woodkirk (Leeds) 10K | 47m35s 2m22s 4m45s 7m39s 33m47s 1.41 1.24 |
| sore throat; no map; drag bet 1M and 3M; steep downhill at 3.5M; 5m00s hill bet 4M and 5M; missed 5M marker | 7m30s, 7m36s, 7m12s, 6m48s. 9m32s?, 7m25s?, 1m34s | |||||||||||
| 63 | Jan 2003 | 12 | Sun | Morpeth to Newcastle half marathon | 98m42s 2m20s 4m40s 7m31s 67m48s 1.46 |
| dry, cold; officially 98m56s but took 14s to start | 7m50s, 7m10s, 7m11s, 7m10s, 8m05s, 8m10s, 7m44s, 7m29s, 7m18s, 7m40s, 7m30s, 7m59s, 6m57s, 0m43s | |||||||||||
| 62 | Dec 2002 | 07 | Sat | Gosforth Park (Newcastle) 6M | 41m30s 2m08s 4m17s 6m55s 28m33s 1.45 |
| no markers; splits are for specific points of the route; wet underfoot; headwind for half of the course; Nev's first race; he did it in 46m35s | 2m13s, 2m35s, 3m32s, 2m33s, 3m38s, 3m30s, 2m28s, 4m02s, 3m51s, 2m43s, 3m37s, 3m33s, 2m12s | |||||||||||
| 61 | Dec 2002 | 01 | Sun | Leeds Abbey Dash 10K | 42m52s 2m08s 4m17s 6m53s 30m00s 1.43 1.10 |
| officially 43m02s; foolishly forgot to eat and drink on journey to Leeds; drizzle; hemmed in at the start; didn't see 6K and the 3m56s looks odd; 16 runners from DU CC Club took part | 4m08s, 4m14s, 4m15s, 4m20s, 4m26s, 4m40s, 4m40s, 3m56s, 4m12s, 4m02s | |||||||||||
| 60 | Nov 2002 | 16 | Sat | Brampton to Carlisle 10M | 72m43s 2m15s 4m31s 7m16s 48m35s 1.50 |
| dry; no wind; excellent race giving me a 10M PB and the first 10K was my 3rd fastest; did the 10M at same pace as last week's 10K! would have got even better time if I did not have stitch after 4M and slight right calf twinge after 6M; 2 pounds car park and 1 pound bus | 6m12s, 7m10s, 7m05s, 7m02s, 7m16s, 7m44s, 7m40s, 7m50s, 7m44s, 7m03s | |||||||||||
| 59 | Nov 2002 | 10 | Sun | Newcastle Town Moor 10K | 45m13s 2m15s 4m31s 7m16s 31m06s 1.45 1.14 |
| three laps; flat, tarmac, puddles; dry with a headwind for half the course; problem with watch so last two splits are made up | 4m20s, 4m25s, 4m23s, 4m35s, 4m52s, 4m36s, 4m32s, 4m33s, 4m30s, 4m27s | |||||||||||
| 58 | Nov 2002 | 03 | Sun | Guy Fawkes 10 (Harrogate) 10M | 79m35s 2m28s 4m56s 7m57s 53m48s 1.48 |
| excellent running weather: sunny but reasonably cold with wet surfaces; start and finish on trail bridle ways; gradual rise during first 3M; uphills at 4.5M, 6.5M, 8.1M; Ripley Castle | 7m10s, 9m01s, 8m57s, 6m18s, 9m43s, 6m41s, 8m43s, 7m28s, 8m22s, 7m11s | |||||||||||
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 | Oct 2002 | 27 | Sun | Gibside Fruit Bowl 7M | 55m22s 2m27s 4m54s 7m54s |
| another Wild Race-like race; "greasy" again; slightly different course from last year; the 2nd mile included a 5m0s hill; the 4M marker was too early; the 5th mile included another long hill; support from Ian MacPhee and Gilbert | 6m40s, 9m27s, 7m03s, 6m05s, 11m37s, 7m29s, 7m02s | |||||||||||
| 56 | Oct 2002 | 20 | Sun | Richmond Castle 6.05M | 46m13s 2m22s 4m44s 7m38s 33m48s 1.37 |
| freezing; 4 uphills; MickyC did well (43m27s); support from Hetty | 6m58s, 8m34s, 7m25s, 7m23s, 7m54s, 8m00s | |||||||||||
| 55 | Oct 2002 | 13 | Sun | Harewood Trail Race 10M | 79m00s 2m27s 4m54s 7m54s 54m46s 1.44 |
| path in first mile is narrow and so it's best to start towards the front; officially 79m47s but got delayed at stile by woman with 2 dogs; sunny, but cold so ideal for running; mostly off-road, with many Wild Race-like sections but fast around reservoir; "greasy" (Phil Liggett); undulating with 2 horrible uphills in the last mile | 7m30s, 7m20s, 8m29s, 8m29s, 7m24s, 7m45s, 8m55s, 7m48s, 7m35s, 8m36s | |||||||||||
| 54 | Oct 2002 | 06 | Sun | Great North Run half marathon | 100m06s 2m22s 4m44s 7m38s 59m58s 1.67 |
| hot; very crowded; passed Frank Bruno at 6M; officially 104m02s but took about 4m to get to start; probably would be well under my target of 100m if it were a real race; support from Dave and Gilbert | 8m14s,7m35s, 7m34s, 7m38s, 7m46s, 7m24s, 7m11s, 7m25s, 8m12s, 7m41s, 8m09s, 7m40s, 7m00s, 0m42s | |||||||||||
| 53 | Sep 2002 | 22 | Sun | Catterick 10M | 76m21s 2m22s 4m44s 7m38s 58m49s 1.30 |
| enjoyable; hilly for 5M, undulating for rest; new shoes (Asics 2070) and watch (Timex Ironman Flix); last two splits are strange; good time considering the hillyness | 7m05s, 7m45s, 7m28s, 8m38s, 7m31s, 7m40s, 7m45s, 7m57s, 8m26s, 6m02s | |||||||||||
| 52 | Sep 2002 | 14 | Sat | Castleton, Guisborough 10K | 49m37s 2m28s 4m57s 7m59s 35m41s 1.39 1.31 |
| drizzly mist; no markers; scenic; 6 serious uphill sections; only 37 runners; part of the Castleton Show;bird's eye photo of the route is here | ||||||||||||
| 51 | Sep 2002 | 08 | Sun | Berwick Walls Race 10K | 50m15s 2m30s 5m01s 8m05s 34m44s 1.45 1.27 |
| very scenic course; well organised; M markers; very hot; there were four uphills; went to good pub (Barrels Alehouse) | 7m18s, 7m20s, 9m22s, 8m00s, 7m55s, 8m30s, 1m52s | |||||||||||
| 50 | Sep 2002 | 01 | Sun | Tholthorpe (York) 10K | 46m17s 2m18s 4m37s 7m26s 32m45s 1.41 1.20 |
| no training; very hot; well organised; drinks at 4M | 6m52s, 7m18s, 7m41s, 7m53s, 7m39s, 7m07s, 1m47s | |||||||||||
| 49 | Aug 2002 | 25 | Sun | Bishop Auckland 10K | 45m23s 2m16s 4m32s 7m18s 28m59s 1.57 1.06 |
| dry; K markers; two laps around BA; hilly in places; well organised; too early (0930); lots of Kenyans fastest being Kimtai (28m59s); MickyC did it in 44m04s; I kept up with him for 4K | ||||||||||||
| 48 | Aug 2002 | 20 | Tue | Jarrow and Hebburn 6M | 43m39s 2m15s 4m31s 7m16s 31m11s 1.40 |
| dry, pleasant Summer's evening; white paint K markers on the ground if you could find them; overtook Stuey at 3K (13m10s); MickyC did well (42m15s); birdseye photos of the route are here | ||||||||||||
| 47 | Aug 2002 | 11 | Sun | Darlington 10K | 44m20s 2m12s 4m25s 7m08s 30m21s 1.46 1.11 |
| dry and cool; k markers; ran with MickyC for first 6K in 26m00s, he then stayed with the pace to complete in 43m25s whereas I did 4m40s, 4m40s, 4m55s and 4m02s; ITS Club 9 came 2nd in male non-athletic team which is better than last year when we were 3rd; support from Gilbert and Kieran | ||||||||||||
| 46 | Aug 2002 | 06 | Tue | Morpeth 10K | 46m37s 2m19s 4m39s 7m30s 31m14s 1.49 1.14 |
| mile markers; humid; not done much training; a bit lazy during race; suffering from achilles problem | ||||||||||||
| 45 | Jul 2002 | 21 | Sun | Kielder WR 6.5M | 55m49s 2m40s 5m20s 8m35s 41m58s 1.33 |
| easier than last year because I knew the course; about 7.25% better than last year; dry, but wet underfoot; lot of midges at the start/finish | ||||||||||||
| 44 | Jul 2002 | 14 | Sun | Wooler 10K | 47m52s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s |
| humid; officially 48m12s but spent 20s tying up my laces; Paul won the prize for the first man to the top of Cheviot Street Hill; Lisa won a prize for being the second woman to finish | ||||||||||||
| 43 | Jul 2002 | 06 | Sat | Burn Valley (Masham) half marathon | 117m23s 2m46s 5m33s 8m57s 71m35s 1.64 |
| buffet tea; dry; half-marathon over fairly hilly countryside; lots of water and sponge stations; well organised and friendly; over 300 entrants; did first 5M at 8m00s but became tired after 7M; Black Sheep Series | ||||||||||||
| 42 | Jul 2002 | 03 | Wed | Tynedale 10K | 44m30s 2m13s 4m27s 7m09s 30m15s 1.47 1.11 |
| about 7% better than last year; support from Gilbert, Karl and Fiona | ||||||||||||
| 41 | Jun 2002 | 30 | Sun | Hulne Park (Alnwick) 10K | 47m10s 2m21s 4m42s 7m35s |
| nice; traffic-free; beautiful countryside; humid with refreshing light drizzle; wasn't awake enough; hill between 1.5K and 3K; road between 2K and 5K; gravel path elsewhere | ||||||||||||
| 40 | Jun 2002 | 23 | Sun | Haweswater WR 20K | 138m52s 3m28s 6m56s 11m10s 86m34s 1.60 |
| no markers; dry; fell over 3 times; spent all my time looking as to where I could put my feet; madness as a sprain or worst was seconds away for over 2 hours; J, L and P enjoyed it: are they stupid or is this an age-thing? found little opportunity to do any running! | ||||||||||||
| 39 | Jun 2002 | 15 | Sat | Tromso half marathon | 100m30s 2m22s 4m45s 7m39s |
| 2200hrs; "midnight sun"; the 2nd K was 1.4K long and this threw out my mental arithmetic; my official time was 102m24s for what I claim was 21.4975K; so this made 30s over my target of 100m for a half marathon; grr! | ||||||||||||
| 38 | Jun 2002 | 09 | Sun | Blaydon Race 5.7M | 39m24s 2m08s 4m17s 6m54s 26m19s 1.50 |
| not as wet as last year; second under 7m race; officially 40m45s; that beats last year's official time by 5m31s which is about 12% better; support from Gilbert | ||||||||||||
| 37 | Jun 2002 | 02 | Sun | Hamsterley 10K | 45m33s 2m16s 4m33s 7m19s 36m57s 1.23 1.35 |
| muggy; about 40% off road; some overlap with WR course; K markers; aimed for 4m40s and achieved 4m33s; Butterwick Hospice | ||||||||||||
| 36 | May 2002 | 26 | Sun | Nenthead WR 7.6M | 67m38s 2m45s 5m31s 8m53s 48m36s 1.39 |
| no markers; wet; gruelling; same course as last Sep; beat last Sep's time by 8m31s; more than 11% better | ||||||||||||
| 35 | May 2002 | 19 | Sun | Thirsk 10M | 77m02s 2m23s 4m47s 7m42s 50m12s 1.53 |
| hot; hopes shattered in last mile; did 9M at about 7m30s and then did last 1M in 9m30s as I was in agony from a stomach pain; I even walked in the last 1M! even so, this beats previous 2nd 10M PB by 0m32s; did first 1M in 6m16s | ||||||||||||
| 34 | May 2002 | 12 | Sun | Grantley (Ripon) 10K | 47m44s 2m23s 4m46s 7m40s |
| very hot; undulating; 2K of moorland; 0.5M hill at end; scenic; nice day; Black Sheep Series; bottle of BS | ||||||||||||
| 33 | May 2002 | 05 | Sun | Coxhoe 10K | 48m40s 2m25s 4m51s 7m49s |
| no markers; hot; multi-terrain with a hill; only 1m35s faster than Sep 09; first 7K at 7m32s; next 1K up hill at 11m12s; final 2K at 6m55s; support from Gilbert | ||||||||||||
| 32 | Apr 2002 | 28 | Sun | Blyth Valley 10M | 74m26s 2m18s 4m37s 7m26s 51m19s 1.45 |
| dry and overcast; I aimed for 75m00s and so I was pleased | ||||||||||||
| 31 | Apr 2002 | 21 | Sun | Hamsterley WR 10.5K | 59m20s 2m49s 5m39s 9m05s 40m08s 1.48 |
| no markers; drizzle; some signs were missing; people did at least 3 different routes; my group had to backtrack at one point; at 2 other junctions there were discussions as to which way to go next; the pace slowed down at several places but from about 7K I led away from my group; at the finish I found out we had done the proper route; and I may have been the first runner of the race that did! | ||||||||||||
| 30 | Apr 2002 | 07 | Sun | Wakefield Hospice City 10K | 43m29s 2m10s 4m20s 6m59s 31m35s 1.38 1.16 |
| first under 7 minute race; very pleased; dry; bright; sunny, but cold; a few gentle hills | ||||||||||||
| 29 | Mar 2002 | 31 | Sun | Guiseley Gallop Trail (Leeds) 10K | 51m44s 2m35s 5m10s 8m19s 36m27s 1.42 1.33 |
| excellent; dry; no markers; undulating; paths through woods and alongside canal; bottle of beer | ||||||||||||
| 28 | Mar 2002 | 29 | Fri | Marske 10M | 78m29s 2m26s 4m52s 7m50s 53m28s 1.47 |
| very sunny and bright; 1m circuit + 3 x 3M ||gram; mile markers; water every 3M | ||||||||||||
| date |
day
time |
location
distance |
my time
0.5K pace K pace M pace win time me/win win/wor |
who ran links |
comments, comments, comments | splits | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | Mar 2002 | 23 | Sat | Coniston 14 13.875M | 115m08s 2m34s 5m09s 8m17s 74m12s 1.55 |
| officially 115m44s; undulating; a pleasant tour around the lake on a nice day with over 1200 runners | ||||||||||||
| 26 | Mar 2002 | 03 | Sun | Pafos (Cyprus) half marathon | 110m22s 2m36s 5m13s 8m25s 77m33s 1.42 |
| very hot; bumpy, dusty roads; well organised water, sponges and K markers | ||||||||||||
| 25 | Feb 2002 | 17 | Sun | Liversedge (Roberttown) half marathon | 107m27s 2m32s 5m05s 8m11s 73m38s 1.46 |
| officially 107m38s but took 0m11s to get to the start; hilly; well organised race; I got a spot prize: a bottle of locally produced sparkling wine! | ||||||||||||
| 24 | Feb 2002 | 10 | Sun | Pennypot (Harrogate) 10K | 45m36s 2m16s 4m33s 7m20s 32m17s 1.41 1.18 |
| boring; headwind out (24m00s) and tailwind back (21m36s); markers only at 5K and 9K; no training | ||||||||||||
| 23 | Feb 2002 | 03 | Sun | Dewsbury 10K | 44m50s 2m14s 4m28s 7m12s 29m41s 1.51 1.09 |
| as boring as Leeds; too early (0930); headwind; some K markers (people!) | ||||||||||||
| 22 | Jan 2002 | 27 | Sun | Moorside (Huddersfield) 10K | 48m07s 2m24s 4m48s 7m44s 34m24s 1.40 1.26 |
| many many hills; undulating, i.e., little flat; photo of me on results page | ||||||||||||
| 21 | Jan 2002 | 13 | Sun | Morpeth to Newcastle half marathon | 103m20s 2m26s 4m53s 7m52s 67m24s 1.53 |
| drizzle; slight headwind; officially 103m40s but took 0m20s to get to the start; ran with L for 7M; support from Dave and Gilbert | ||||||||||||
| 20 | Dec 2001 | 28 | Fri | Funchal Madeira 6.5K | 29m01s 2m13s 4m27s 7m11s 18m20s 1.58 |
| whilst on holiday I did a race around cobbled streets in Funchal with top international athletes | ||||||||||||
| 19 | Dec 2001 | 16 | Sun | Loftus 12.66K | 62m37s 2m28s 4m56s 7m57s 42m18s 1.48 |
| no markers; nice race; sunny; very undulating with hills; two slippery and muddy footpaths | ||||||||||||
| 18 | Dec 2001 | 09 | Sun | Scarborough Xmas Cracker 10K | 44m08s 2m12s 4m24s 7m06s |
| cold; foggy; two laps of a housing estate; support from Gilbert | ||||||||||||
| 17 | Dec 2001 | 02 | Sun | Leeds Abbey Dash 10K | 45m08s 2m15s 4m30s 7m15s |
| officially 45m28s but took 0m20s to get to the start; lots of fun runners; too early (0930); cold; drab; boring | ||||||||||||
| 16 | Nov 2001 | 25 | Sun | Yorkshire Dragoon 7.7M | 58m21s 2m21s 4m42s 7m34s |
| kept up with J; headwind after 4M; nice course; support from Hetty and MickyC | ||||||||||||
| 15 | Nov 2001 | 17 | Sat | Brampton to Carlisle 10M | 77m34s 2m24s 4m49s 7m45s 53m20s 1.45 |
| dry; no wind; excellent race; 5 cows (no race nos) ran down lane with us | ||||||||||||
| 14 | Nov 2001 | 11 | Sun | Gibside Fruit Bowl 7M | 59m24s 2m38s 5m16s 8m29s |
| sunny; undulating with hills; long finishing straight; enjoyable; Lisa got a prize | ||||||||||||
| 13 | Nov 2001 | 04 | Sun | Kielder Castle WR 6.5M | 60m11s 2m52s 5m45s 9m15s |
| no markers; drizzle and a wind; walked too much; Paul came 4th in series | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Oct 2001 | 21 | Sun | Richmond Castle 6M | 48m57s 2m32s 5m04s 8m09s |
| drizzle; nice scenery; lots of hills; support from Hetty, Dave, Pam and Tom | ||||||||||||
| 11 | Oct 2001 | 14 | Sun | Nenthead WR 7.6M | 76m09s 3m06s 6m13s 10m01s |
| no markers; they said 14K; 2 climbs of about 150m and 110m; support from Gilbert; sprinted past 2 at the finish to cheers | ||||||||||||
| 10 | Oct 2001 | 07 | Sun | Norham 10K | 49m02s 2m27s 4m54s 7m53s |
| undulating, 1 hill, to scotland and back, no pipes nor half drinks | ||||||||||||
| 9 | Sep 2001 | 30 | Sun | Tynedale 10M | 82m10s 2m33s 5m06s 8m13s 53m20s 1.54 |
| Lisa in 75m35s, smiling Karl at finish, used new cold gear, jelly tea | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Sep 2001 | 16 | Sun | Great North Run half marathon | 112m00s 2m39s 5m18s 8m32s 60m30s 1.85 |
| too crowded to run properly, hot, headwind for last 1.2M, enthusiastic crowd, official time of 118m23s but took over 6m00s to get to the start | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Sep 2001 | 09 | Sun | Coxhoe 10K | 50m15s 2m30s 5m01s 8m05s |
| no markers, cloudy, sunny, windy | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Aug 2001 | 12 | Sun | Darlington 10K | 46m53s 2m20s 4m41s 7m32s 30m57s 1.51 1.13 |
| sunny, ITS Club 9 wins 3rd unaffilated team prize | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Aug 2001 | 07 | Tue | Morpeth 10K | 46m43s 2m20s 4m40s 7m31s |
| pouring with rain; no markers | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Aug 2001 | 05 | Sun | Milland (Surrey) 20K | 129m36s 3m14s 6m28s 10m25s 83m16s 1.56 |
| few markers; sunny, lots of ups and downs, muddy | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Jul 2001 | 04 | Wed | Tynedale 10K | 47m45s 2m23s 4m46s 7m41s 30m39s 1.56 1.12 |
| sunny periods | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Jun 2001 | 17 | Sun | Newton Aycliffe 10K | 46m44s 2m20s 4m40s 7m31s 30m38s 1.53 1.12 |
| some sun | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Jun 2001 | 09 | Sat | Blaydon Race 5.7M | 46m16s 2m31s 5m02s 8m07s 26m51s 1.72 |
| pouring with rain | ||||||||||||