Every Second Counts

Pipped to the post by 1 second!

Stewards enquiry!! 

Three Hours Earlier

Arriving by train, Birmingham stood before us, grand and majestic (the floosy is off to the right of the pic).

The station and city packed with runners and their support teams was a comforting sight as we made our way to the start, briefly being accosted by someone from BRMB to have our photo taken (see the gallery here ). Helicopters buzzed around the cloudy but bright sky as the first wave of runners was about to set off. Birmingham was well and truly packed.

As is our tradition we stopped for the pre-run photo tweet:





Being unconfident of our times we found ourselves in the Pink wave, the last wave to go. Not only in the last wave, but we also found ourselves towards the back. In retrospect this was quite good as it is good for the soul/ego to be passing lots of people rather than being passed.

So, we made our way to the Pink Wave start area.

By this time our support team had split up. Our father had caught the train to catch up with us as we staggered through Bournville and @julietims, having seen us to the start and carrying the bags, was now filming and taking photos from the start/finish.

And we’re….almost off!

The Pink Wave amassed, waiting to go through the start line.

And we’re….still almost off!

This picture sees us minutes before the start of the run. @jazzlegs looks up momentarily from playing Words with Friends, both of us prepping the running apps on our phones. There were a lot people, though at 15,000 runners it was by no means the biggest. We were surrounded though by a lot of people. All ages, all shapes and sizes and many in fancy dress. The atmosphere was great and the sun was shining….only 13 miles to go.

 

The Run

I would like to say that we had a relaxing run and were able to take in all the sights of Birmingham, but come on, we were running a half marathon!

I do know that Pershore Road is bloody long, dual carriageways in Birmingham go up as well as down and the gradient map of the course did not do the last three miles justice at all!

We saw our father twice around Bournville (he was able to cut through the station to catch us the second time) and he took some action photos and video.

@julietims was waiting at the finish (with our father) poised and ready for action to capture our triumphant arrival. As the beginning of the post attests, this was done perfectly.

13 Miles Later…

The Finish!

We did it. We ran all the way and even managed a sprint at the end.

This was a distance that neither @jazzlegs or myself had previously done and I think we are quite rightly pleased with ourselves for this achievement.

As tradition dictates, the post-run photo was tweeted:

Support

Huge thanks have to go to our support team: @julietims and our father.

It’s always good to have people on the ground to help with bags, take action photos and meet you at the end.

Also, a huge thanks to the people of Birmingham who lined the course giving support, encouragement and High-5s to all the runners. It was much appreciated.

And finally a thank you to the organisers of this year’s Great Birmingham Run who did a fantastic job.

Great Birmingham Run 2012

Here it is for all foolish enough to take part:

http://www.greatrun.org/Events/Event.aspx?id=14

Needless to say I have already signed up for next year!

Sunshine on a Rainy Day (The Fradley 10K)

It was a dark and stormy morning….

Well actually, not dark and not stormy, but it was raining.

Anyway, it was not looking like a good start to the day.

Luckily the BBC were wrong about the strength of the rain, or perhaps the fact that our forecast is actually taken from about 15 miles away accounted for this because the rain was quite light.

It had been raining on a couple of our training runs but we had avoided rain for an actual race event. My optimistic side was telling me it would clear up but my eyes were still seeing rain drops falling from the heavens.

Getting There

Fradley is about 10 miles from here so no need to rush things. The race was starting at 10:30 so a quick stop to pick up Julie (and son) and then we were all parked up by about 10am.

The car parking facilities at Fradley really are well organised. They use a field close to the start and there are plenty of event staff to guide you round. Due to rain the entrance to the field was a bit muddy causing cars to slip and slide but for the most part it worked well despite the wet conditions.

Our father had arrived around the same time and parked close by so we were all set.

Support Team

We’re pretty lucky that for all the runs we’ve done we have had family there to support us. They can not only cheer us along the way but they can also carry clothes and bags etc for us and take action photos. For this run we had our father, my wife and Julie’s son as our Support Team.

The start of the run is pretty informal therefore we able to hand over coats, hats and gloves at the last minute.

The Course

Fradley is one of those runs that does 2 laps of the same route. These types of run can be psychologically hard as you see all the bits you’re going to have to do again! Luckily for us the Fradley route is relatively flat, but still, seeing the 6km sign around the same time as the 1km sign does dampen the spirits a little.

Timing Chips

Nearly all runs these days have timing “chips” (little RFID tags). These little things signal you crossing the start and finish lines and provide a more accurate time (the time does not include the slow shuffle to the start line).

In the past these have been little tags that you attach to your ankle or through your shoe laces, but for this run they were attached to the back of the race number and they didn’t want them back.

Hopefully this new system will be employed elsewhere because it makes the whole process much simpler to work with.

Let the Run Begin

The rain had mercifully stopped.

We had planted ourselves towards the back of the group of runners. There is nothing more demoralising than having loads of people overtaking you at the start of the race.

This is us looking fed up because the start of the race has been delayed for some reason. Luckily there is a woman in front of me saving everyone from a view of my bare legs (not a sight for the weak of heart).



The run started about 15 minutes late, no idea why, but the hooter sounded at about 10:45 and we were off!
We started the slow shuffle over the start line and as the field cleared we started running.

I had intended to keep Julie company through the race. Both of us had not really done nearly enough training so I was aiming to take it easy, but as always seems to happen on these races I ended up leaving Julie behind. I am sure she did not mind.

The rain held off, the clouds cleared to allow the sun to shine and with no wind to speak of they really were ideal running conditions.

Being a two lap run the inevitable being lapped by the elite runners happened. The lead car with the clock on the roof beeped past us with the eventual winner of the run following not far behind.

But, there were plenty of runners running at my pace so I had plenty of company and pacemakers so despite the lack of training the run went remarkably well.

The Finish

You can see me in this picture in the orange top coming down the final straight. The gentleman in foreground is guiding us through to the finish which is a left turn off the road. My wife and Julie’s son where there just to his right to cheer me through. My father had been further back near that roundabout taking some photos.



So, over the finish line (and time sensor) and join the queue to pick up the goody bag. This time containing just a small carton of fruit (courtesy of the sponsors Florette) and the medal. A useful bag, nice fruit and it’s always good to get a medal!

So here we are at finish with our medals (and wild hair)!!!

Final Thoughts

I did this run last year and surprisingly despite the poor training it felt better, although my time was slightly better last year.

I do find two lap runs to be more challenging but the Fradley 10K is a nice run to ease us into the new year of running.

Will I be running this next year? Of course I will!

Will I be doing more training? I really hope so!

Finally a huge thank you to our Support Team and also to the organiser of the run who have once again done a great job.

Veni, vidi, vici (The Yule Yomp @ Tatton Park)

Signing up for the Tatton Yule Yomp seemed like a good idea at the time. When you sign up for a run you never know what the weather will be (especially in the UK), but we should have foreseen the likelihood of freezing temperatures. Never mind, a run is a run, right? There is nothing like a 10km run to warm you up!

TeamTims was one man down (or rather one woman down) but we were still determined to go through with this but the warning of it being “wet and slippery” had me slightly worried although not entirely surprised.

Getting There

The drive to Knutsford (or as the SatNav pronounced Canootsford) was as uneventful as a jaunt up the M6 usually is and after a quick stop at Sandbach services (which I imagined would be bigger somehow) we arrived in Knutsford to be welcomed by free Sunday parking! To be honest, I was expecting more parking problems with there being 1000 runners but there were plenty of spaces.

So, down to register then back up to the start fortuitously meeting up with missing member of TeamTims who graciously offered to provide team support duties (carrying the bags).

The Run

And we were off!

The temperature was below zero therefore the ground was cold and hard but the “off-road” terrain made it easy enough to run on, although we did see one person slip and fall. The grounds of Tatton Park are I am told very nice but there was blanket of fog so not much to see, I imagine a summer run at Tatton would be very good.

The first half the run was easy enough. At the 5km mark one of the stewards helpfully informed me that it was “..all down hill from here.”. That heartened me and I pressed on realising later that he was being metaphorical, the second half of the run contained many up-hills. It was good to receive encouragement from both stewards and spectators, especially when I realised I should have done more training, I needed all the encouragement I could get!

The last leg of the run was on the road which was thankfully not icy. Unfortunately it was all up hill and around corners. This mixed with the fog meant it was difficult to see how much road was left until the finish.

But the welcome site of the finish appeared slowly through the fog and I realised I had some energy left so I managed a sprint finish!



Many people in fancy dress provided a welcome distraction, I would particularly like to thank a reindeer and a fairy who help me get into the zone. Obviously Santa costumes were prevalent and I think it was a Santa who came first…I think.



All in all a great day out. We all very much enjoyed it and will definitely be signing up for this event next year. Well done and thanks to the organisers for doing a brilliant job.