Back to back races - with a few girls allowed..
Doing two races in one weekend is not something many runners would consider, or recommend to a relative neophyte, such as myself. The idea in a race is to give your all, which means you always need a day or two (sometimes several) to recover.
Two races in two days is exactly what I did, however, on what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year so far. And while I'm suffering today, I'm glad I did.
The first was the Keevil airfield 10k. This was probably the race I was looking forward to the least. It was known to be completely flat, and I felt under some pressure to get a good time. Anthony said in the week it would be nice to get a sub-50 minute 10k out of me. Yes mate, I thought, it would be nice if Jessica Alba came round for a martini as well, but sadly that won't happen either. As it turned out, he wasn't being quite so unrealistic.
Not having a glass or four of wine on Friday night was torture. I can quite happily go without alcohol on any other night of the week but it seems obligatory to partake of a few drinks while watching Jonathan Ross.
It didn't stop me getting a good night's sleep though, and I arrived at Keevil feeling fresh. Not bad bearing in mind I'd only had one rest day before the event. I had a little jog round the airstrip and had a good stretch, making sure I was loose.
My brother-in-law was taking part as well, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that he had brought along my sister Fiona, their daughter Holly and foster child Stephen. They commented on my weight loss, which was good to hear, and something I'm getting a lot at the moment - the long runs and the improved diet must be doing the trick!
It seemed a pretty competitive event - mostly club runners and seasoned athletes. All going for that PB, no doubt. I set off strongly, looking to push myself hard all the way. I had kind of made up my mind I was going for a good time at Keevil and use the race the next day as a training run, for reasons I'll go into later.
It was hard work in the heat, and I found myself breathing hard. There were distance markers on the two-lap course and I was looking to set myself a pace of 5 mins per kilometre (8 minute miles). For the first half, I did better than that - someone called out a time of 24:41 as I crossed the half way marker.
Unfortunately I couldn't maintain it. Whilst my breathing settled down after about 6km, the heat took it's toll and I really started to tire. But I knew I was on target to beat my PB of 52:44 so I kept going as best I could, upping the ante in the last kilometre and crossed the finish line in 50minutes 34 seconds (according to my watch). As I said to someone later, I think I finished first in the fat b*stard category!
Joking aside, this result proves to me what a difference the weight loss makes. I really think if I can shed the lot I could be running this distance in 40 minutes - and believe me, that takes some doing.
After the race I hung around with the Newman clan - Holly later took part in one of the kids' races - I like to think she was inspired by seeing her Dad and her Uncle running - and Rich very kindly treated me to a sports massage and an ice cream. He seemed amused by my comments to the young girls giving treatments: "So instead of fighting over me you decided to share me and do one leg each. I like that". I was feeling so confident after the race I think I'd probably have tried chatting up Anna Kournikova!
As always at these events, I witnessed something that makes me feel very humble. This time it was a young man (actually he was about my age) pushing a girl in a wheelchair. That must have really hurt on a hot day, and he still managed to beat a few people only pushing themselves. Fair play. It must have been great fun for the girl in the wheelchair, too - everyone's a winner at these events, which is what I like.
I then had to shoot back to Swindon as I was catching a train to London - something to do with a date with five fab females! Yep, you guessed it; I went to see Girls Aloud at Wembley! When you've stopped laughing, carry on reading!
Bit of a last minute decision this - I only booked my ticket after I had read a very positive review in The Times. I ran the idea past Suzie first and what a good thing too. I think someone less cool would have laughed at me and told me to act my bloody age. Not our Suzie, God bless her. I owe her for telling me to go and enjoy myself.
Bit of a scare in the week - I was expecting the ticket to come in the post but by Friday it still hadn't arrived. I contacted lastminute.com and they said it would be at the box office, which it was.
What can I say about the show - absolutely bloody amazing!! Honestly, it was by far the best concert I've been to, and that even includes Christina Aguilera. Everything about it was great, the singing, the dancing (no wonder those girls are so svelte, they must practise for hours), the outfits (oh yes, those were important in this case!) and the set changes. I liked the mixture of the tracks, mostly from their last (and best) album, with some older ones thrown in and a few impressive covers - an excellent version of "I predict a riot" as well as "Fame", "Flashdance - what a feeling" and "Footloose" - maybe they knew I was coming so did some 80s stuff to keep me happy!
It was great and the best night I've had in ages. Strange to think I didn't book a ticket until the last minute, I wouldn't have missed it for the world and would have gone again had it not been the last gig of the tour. Bit of a shame I didn't have anyone to share it with, but as I say, it was a last minute decision.
And if Kimberley Walsh is reading this - Kimberley, you're beautiful and you rock my world, I love you and want to marry you. xxx
Ok, I'll stop being scary. The concert finished a bit late and I would probably have missed the last train home if there hadn't been a tube train waiting at Wembley Park. But to be honest I was having so much fun I didn't care. Plan B was to find a bar that would be open until the first train home in the morning left Paddington! But I caught it with a few minutes to spare and got to bed late (about 1.30am), tired and nicely drunk (I had a few beers during the concert - why not, I thought).
Despite this I woke up around the right time on Sunday feeling strangely fresh. I had breakfast, a litre of water, and headed to Fairford where the second 10k of the weekend was taking place. I was immediately impressed by the organisation - I was marshalled into a field reserved for the runners to park in.
I soon found a few friendly faces - members of the running club at my gym. It was nice to be able to tell them about the previous day's result and I sensed they were genuinely pleased for me. I'm sure they recognise that it was just reward for the effort I put into my training.
I didn't bother too much with a warm-up. I think I'd decided that there was no way I could match my effort at Keevil so I might as well go out and just enjoy it.
And enjoy it I did. It was a lot more scenic than running round an airfield (twice), and probably one of the nicest routes I have done. I really struggle to understand why more runners don't do these races - they always make such a nice change from the usual routes and this was only half an hour from home, if that.
I did feel slightly fatigued during the race and the heat didn't help either. No hangover, though - thank God for small mercies. At the half way point I tried to help a young girl who was struggling and had started walking. A cynic would tell you I only helping her because she was so good-looking, but that's really not true - I hate to see people struggling, and on this occasion I wasn't bothered about my time so tried to do something to help someone else. Before I left her I told her to compose herself, regain her energy and then carry on. Maybe it worked because she only came in a few minutes after me.
Despite everything I still crossed the line in less than 55 minutes, which I would have struggled to do on a good day a few months ago. I liked the award of a medal, bottle of water, cereal bar and sports bottle - there was diddly squat at Keevil.
Before I made my way home I visited Trish, our HR manager at work, who was holding a car boot sale to raise money for the 3-peak challenge, for which I have nominated myself as a walker. We're raising money for the Mitchemp trust, and I'm really looking forward to it. But I'll stop there and write a separate article on it later. But I did buy a few books from her - always my money weakness!
My other money weakness is good beer and wine, and needless to say I had a fair bit of that on Sunday afternoon. But if you can't celebrate back to back races, a PB and a fantastic evening at a concert, when can you?
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, June 2006
Two races in two days is exactly what I did, however, on what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year so far. And while I'm suffering today, I'm glad I did.
The first was the Keevil airfield 10k. This was probably the race I was looking forward to the least. It was known to be completely flat, and I felt under some pressure to get a good time. Anthony said in the week it would be nice to get a sub-50 minute 10k out of me. Yes mate, I thought, it would be nice if Jessica Alba came round for a martini as well, but sadly that won't happen either. As it turned out, he wasn't being quite so unrealistic.
Not having a glass or four of wine on Friday night was torture. I can quite happily go without alcohol on any other night of the week but it seems obligatory to partake of a few drinks while watching Jonathan Ross.
It didn't stop me getting a good night's sleep though, and I arrived at Keevil feeling fresh. Not bad bearing in mind I'd only had one rest day before the event. I had a little jog round the airstrip and had a good stretch, making sure I was loose.
My brother-in-law was taking part as well, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that he had brought along my sister Fiona, their daughter Holly and foster child Stephen. They commented on my weight loss, which was good to hear, and something I'm getting a lot at the moment - the long runs and the improved diet must be doing the trick!
It seemed a pretty competitive event - mostly club runners and seasoned athletes. All going for that PB, no doubt. I set off strongly, looking to push myself hard all the way. I had kind of made up my mind I was going for a good time at Keevil and use the race the next day as a training run, for reasons I'll go into later.
It was hard work in the heat, and I found myself breathing hard. There were distance markers on the two-lap course and I was looking to set myself a pace of 5 mins per kilometre (8 minute miles). For the first half, I did better than that - someone called out a time of 24:41 as I crossed the half way marker.
Unfortunately I couldn't maintain it. Whilst my breathing settled down after about 6km, the heat took it's toll and I really started to tire. But I knew I was on target to beat my PB of 52:44 so I kept going as best I could, upping the ante in the last kilometre and crossed the finish line in 50minutes 34 seconds (according to my watch). As I said to someone later, I think I finished first in the fat b*stard category!
Joking aside, this result proves to me what a difference the weight loss makes. I really think if I can shed the lot I could be running this distance in 40 minutes - and believe me, that takes some doing.
After the race I hung around with the Newman clan - Holly later took part in one of the kids' races - I like to think she was inspired by seeing her Dad and her Uncle running - and Rich very kindly treated me to a sports massage and an ice cream. He seemed amused by my comments to the young girls giving treatments: "So instead of fighting over me you decided to share me and do one leg each. I like that". I was feeling so confident after the race I think I'd probably have tried chatting up Anna Kournikova!
As always at these events, I witnessed something that makes me feel very humble. This time it was a young man (actually he was about my age) pushing a girl in a wheelchair. That must have really hurt on a hot day, and he still managed to beat a few people only pushing themselves. Fair play. It must have been great fun for the girl in the wheelchair, too - everyone's a winner at these events, which is what I like.
I then had to shoot back to Swindon as I was catching a train to London - something to do with a date with five fab females! Yep, you guessed it; I went to see Girls Aloud at Wembley! When you've stopped laughing, carry on reading!
Bit of a last minute decision this - I only booked my ticket after I had read a very positive review in The Times. I ran the idea past Suzie first and what a good thing too. I think someone less cool would have laughed at me and told me to act my bloody age. Not our Suzie, God bless her. I owe her for telling me to go and enjoy myself.
Bit of a scare in the week - I was expecting the ticket to come in the post but by Friday it still hadn't arrived. I contacted lastminute.com and they said it would be at the box office, which it was.
What can I say about the show - absolutely bloody amazing!! Honestly, it was by far the best concert I've been to, and that even includes Christina Aguilera. Everything about it was great, the singing, the dancing (no wonder those girls are so svelte, they must practise for hours), the outfits (oh yes, those were important in this case!) and the set changes. I liked the mixture of the tracks, mostly from their last (and best) album, with some older ones thrown in and a few impressive covers - an excellent version of "I predict a riot" as well as "Fame", "Flashdance - what a feeling" and "Footloose" - maybe they knew I was coming so did some 80s stuff to keep me happy!
It was great and the best night I've had in ages. Strange to think I didn't book a ticket until the last minute, I wouldn't have missed it for the world and would have gone again had it not been the last gig of the tour. Bit of a shame I didn't have anyone to share it with, but as I say, it was a last minute decision.
And if Kimberley Walsh is reading this - Kimberley, you're beautiful and you rock my world, I love you and want to marry you. xxx
Ok, I'll stop being scary. The concert finished a bit late and I would probably have missed the last train home if there hadn't been a tube train waiting at Wembley Park. But to be honest I was having so much fun I didn't care. Plan B was to find a bar that would be open until the first train home in the morning left Paddington! But I caught it with a few minutes to spare and got to bed late (about 1.30am), tired and nicely drunk (I had a few beers during the concert - why not, I thought).
Despite this I woke up around the right time on Sunday feeling strangely fresh. I had breakfast, a litre of water, and headed to Fairford where the second 10k of the weekend was taking place. I was immediately impressed by the organisation - I was marshalled into a field reserved for the runners to park in.
I soon found a few friendly faces - members of the running club at my gym. It was nice to be able to tell them about the previous day's result and I sensed they were genuinely pleased for me. I'm sure they recognise that it was just reward for the effort I put into my training.
I didn't bother too much with a warm-up. I think I'd decided that there was no way I could match my effort at Keevil so I might as well go out and just enjoy it.
And enjoy it I did. It was a lot more scenic than running round an airfield (twice), and probably one of the nicest routes I have done. I really struggle to understand why more runners don't do these races - they always make such a nice change from the usual routes and this was only half an hour from home, if that.
I did feel slightly fatigued during the race and the heat didn't help either. No hangover, though - thank God for small mercies. At the half way point I tried to help a young girl who was struggling and had started walking. A cynic would tell you I only helping her because she was so good-looking, but that's really not true - I hate to see people struggling, and on this occasion I wasn't bothered about my time so tried to do something to help someone else. Before I left her I told her to compose herself, regain her energy and then carry on. Maybe it worked because she only came in a few minutes after me.
Despite everything I still crossed the line in less than 55 minutes, which I would have struggled to do on a good day a few months ago. I liked the award of a medal, bottle of water, cereal bar and sports bottle - there was diddly squat at Keevil.
Before I made my way home I visited Trish, our HR manager at work, who was holding a car boot sale to raise money for the 3-peak challenge, for which I have nominated myself as a walker. We're raising money for the Mitchemp trust, and I'm really looking forward to it. But I'll stop there and write a separate article on it later. But I did buy a few books from her - always my money weakness!
My other money weakness is good beer and wine, and needless to say I had a fair bit of that on Sunday afternoon. But if you can't celebrate back to back races, a PB and a fantastic evening at a concert, when can you?
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, June 2006
posted by Jon | 8:13 pm
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