Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Pot-hunting? Never even crossed my mind

After a few weeks of hard training, I had scheduled in a lower-mileage weekend. Sonic was running the Scottish National Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon in Falkirk, so I had the morning slot. I had been meaning to try out the Parkrun in Strathclyde Park since it started, but didn't want to "waste" a whole day just running 5K.

The timing fitted perfectly and I wanted to use a shorter distance race to gauge where my fitness is at. I have been really disciplined (and most chuffed with the results!) with my speed sessions this year. I've been training alongside the boys with the jet-propelled legs at lunchtimes. I've been following Mark Johnston's training schedule (loosely) for over a year, but generally did the sessions by myself. My New Year's resolution was to stop wimping out. Granted, those jet-propelled legs are dots in the horizon shortly after kick-off, but I can hang on to the stragglers.

By mid-week the forecast predicted snow and 50mph winds, so I started to back track on my 5K race decision. After a visit to Sweatshop for new road shoes, the lovely Gavin managed to find a pair of last season's super-zippy Adidas Tempos for much cheapness. So I saw that as a sign.

At the start line, I knew it wasn't competitive race when I was the most naked runner there. During the winter months I expose very little flesh in my Burka-style ensembles, but this time I was bravely sporting a vest and capri tights. Despite the freezing conditions I was still expecting a gal, who weighs less than my three-year-old son, to appear beside me in nothing more than a bikini. But, no, the whippets were all limbering up for the Nationals. Result.

I can't really say much about the race. Given the short distance, 5Ks are pretty uneventful. In short, it was great. I loved it. I finished in 21.25 (average pace 6:53m/m) and the best bit was I was first lady! I was certainly as pleased as punch. I put it down to bikini-clad being Falkirk bound, but hey ho. A win is a win :-) First and foremost, I was really pleased to get a PB.

Here's a little video by the mad Andrew Scott. Something tells me he wasn't taking the race as serious as I was.



Just for the sake of balance, I did a steady 20-miler on Sunday.

6 comments:

Thomas said...

Congrats on your PB. Good to see that you have not lost your speed over those 24 hour races and 100 miles per week training. :-)
How says ultra running slows you down?

btw commenting is becoming really difficult. those word verification challenges are quite a challenge ;-)
Almost gave up

Debs M-C said...

I noticed that yesterday when I was leaving comments on other blogs. The word verifcation was longer than my comment!

John Kynaston said...

Congrats Debs on yet another pb.

It looks like 2012 will be a continuation of 2011!!

Enjoyed the video too.

Lee Maclean said...

Andrew is indeed MAD....but lovely....just like you xx

Caroline said...

Well done! You're still inspiring me with every post!
Caroline x

Furrii said...

Great blog, I enjoyed reading it