Asics 26.2 Bootcamp

As I mentioned I my last post, I made it through to the bootcamp stage of the Asics 26.2 target experience and that happened yesterday! After hearing the news I got through to bootcamp I have spent all week reading up on previous bootcamp experiences from blogs, Twitter and the Runners World forum and the excitement just grew and grew with every read. I also spent the week talking to other bootcampers and hearing their stories and excitement too which was really great as everyone has been super friendly and equally as excited as me.

As the bootcamp day grew closer I decided to book a hotel, drive up after work on Thursday and stay over night which would save the super early morning drive I’d be facing if I drive up on Friday morning. I’m not sure it saved me much time as I didn’t end up getting to the hotel until gone midnight! The room was great, I had a 6ft wide bed all to myself! Not that it did me any good as I woke up every hour fearing I’d overslept and feeling excited. It felt a bit like I was waking up on Christmas morning!

The hotel was a short drive away from the Alexander Stadium so I arrived nice and early and joined the other bootcampers that had already arrived. Everyone was friendly and welcoming and it wasn’t long before the room was full of excited runners. I then queued up to register and receive my bootcamp shirt, I was bootcamper number 33. If I get through then 33 may very well become my new lucky number! After a quick individual photo it was time for introduction where we met the Asics Pro Team and watched the video of last years final 5’s journey to the Paris Marathon. I had already watched the video online a couple times. The runners are so inspiring, thinking that could be me next year was so exciting!

Then it was on to the first of today’s sessions which there were 4 of and we would do these in groups. I was in group 4, the sub 4:30 marathon time Andy a few first timers. The first session was a Q&A with Holly Rush who is a very inspiring ultra runner. I have just finished reading ‘Eat and Run’ by Scott Jurek, another ultra runner who’s story is incredible so I was very excited to meet Holly. Ultra runners push their body’s to the extreme and getting to ask questions and hear a female runners story, tips and advice was absolutely awesome. I felt very privileged to have this opportunity.

Next up was gait analysis. I felt pretty confident that I was in the right trainers as I’ve had my gait looked at twice over the past 2 years and both times I’ve been told I over pronate. The Asics Pro team confirmed this again but recommended the next shoe up in my range. Will definitely be trying them out when I next need a new pair which I’m sure won’t be long! As this session could only be done one at a time it gave everyone else in the group a good chance to mingle and also to talk to Sarah and Malcs, who were part of the final 5 from the past 2 years. It was great speaking to them and hearing their experiences. It was good to pick their brains about the running and got some really good insights about the competition.

It was then time for a bit of lunch before heading out for a group photo shoot on the track. We then went to our third session, physio with Sarah Conners. She talked to us about common injuries and how to do our best to prevent them. I do a bit of stretching but after this session I’ll be adding a lot more stretching to my routine. I’ve just switched gyms so I’ll be going to the yoga and Pilates classes from now on!

Next it was time for the fourth and final session: the track. This was the session I was most nervous about as it’s been 6 weeks since my marathon, 4 of those weeks I only ran twice (read my other posts for why) and the last two weeks I haven’t been running that great (well, that fast anyway). I’ve never run on a track before so I was quite excited about it, even though I’m not a huge fan of running loops. After a couple warm up laps it was time for test 1, run a mile at marathon pace which for us was 10:15 minutes per mile. We set off and I was running with the front of the pack at a fairly decent pace, it didn’t feel that fast, I didn’t think I’d be running to fast a pace as my runs recently had been around 10:15-10:30 and this felt like the same speed. maybe it was the excitement or the nerves, or the ease of the track but I ended up doing a 9:40 something mile, a lot faster than marathon pace. Bit disappointed about it as I bought I was running ok and was on pace. Next up was the 5k time trail, another nervous run as my PB is just under 26 minutes (which I put on the form) but this was back in my peak running period during marathon training. I knew I could run a decent time but didn’t think it would be that close to my PB. The 5k was split into 400m (1 lap) fast pace followed by a 200m (half a lap) slow/recovery pace and then repeated followed by a 200m sprint. I think I set out a bit fast but after the disappointing first task I wanted to run a good time. I really pushed myself during the fast parts and tried to not to slow down too much during the recovery. I pushed really hard for the last 200m sprint and my watched told me I completed the 5k in 27 minutes exactly. Not too bad! Fairly happy with that run. We the. Had to run another half mile at marathon pace. After going out to fast last time I knew I needed to slow my pace but after running a fast 5k I didn’t think I’d run it fast anyway! We all ended up doing a slower than marathon pace but the coaches seemed ok with that! All in all I know I did the best I could in this run and although I failed on a couple points I hope I’ve done enough to get through to the next stage.

After the final session we then had a debrief and collected our goody bags. Sadly the day had come to an end and it was time to head home. As soon as I got to the car I opened up the Asics bag to discover a lot of great stuff, the snacks I ate on the way home but the rest is all shown in the photo below.

We find out on Tuesday if we have made it through to the next stage. I’m not feeling overly confident but I know I gave my best shot; running the best I could, being involved in conversations with the Pro team and other runners and trying to get my personality as well as trying to show my enthusiasm, love and passion of running. I don’t know what the team are looking for, I hope it’s someone like me but if it’s not then I know that I’ve been very fortunate and fell privileged to have got to this stage of the competition. Over 3,700 applicants applied and I managed to be one of the lucky 50 bootcampers, I never once thought I would be lucky enough to get noticed! I had a fantastic day, I doubt I will ever experience something so special again in running and no doubt I will be talking about it for weeks, months and years to come!

Asics Target 26.2

A few weeks ago Runners World posted a competition to be one of the five runners in the ASICS target 26.2 experience. What is this exactly? Well it’s this:

The ASICS Target 26.2 experience
Training for a marathon is never easy, but imagine if you could train like a pro with your very own coach, bespoke training plan, plus all the guidance you could possibly need from a physio, nutritionist and sports psychologist. ASICS Target 26.2 gives five runners just that – it’s a taster of what it’s like to train like an elite. After 16 weeks of coaching, we’ll challenge our final five to run their best ever marathon at the Paris Marathon on 12 April 2015.

What’s on offer
VIP entry to the Paris Marathon
One-to-one coaching and a bespoke training plan from coach Sam Murphy or Steve Smythe
Nutrition, physio & sports psychology guidance from the ASICS Pro Team
Two training days with the ASICS Pro Team
Entry to one of a selection of ASICS Spring half marathons
2 x head-to-toe ASICS kit plus a VIP experience at the ASICS store in Oxford Street, London
A year’s subscription to RW magazine

Now how awesome does that sound?! Pretty darn awesome if you ask me! I’d get to train with the best, get my marathon time to under 4 and a half hours, run a race in Paris (PARIS!) and learn to be a better, faster and more efficient runner.

So after about 3 attempts of filling in entry form and blurb I felt reflected my feelings and history of running I finally sent off my application.

I didn’t really think anything of it until I had an message on my answer phone from Runners World stating it was ‘Good news’ so I excitedly rang them back and they confirmed I had got one of the 50 spots at bootcamp! I was beyond happy and excited!

I then started researching about bootcamp, the competition and previous runners in the competition. I only started reading Runners World magazine this year and so I had no idea that this was a yearly competition and how prestigious it was to other runners, and how do many have applied each year and have been unlucky. It was then I realised how fortunate I was to be selected as one of the 50 bootcampers! I couldn’t believe that such an awesome magazine and website had chosen little me to be a part of it!

I am super excited about going to Bootcamp in Birmingham on Friday, even just what I will learn and gain from speaking to the experts involved in the campaign and from the other runners will be invaluable. Plus il be getting to run on a track which I’ve never done before!

I really hope I make it through to the next round where it gets whittled down to about 20 and then the final five selected. I would love to be a part of the full experience!

Brooks 10k

A few of us from work had decided to sign up for the Brighton Brooks 10k, a nice flat seafront run with 3000 other runners. I knew this wasn’t going to be a race for a PB because it was a few weeks after my marathon and I hadn’t been running due to the house move and giving my legs a break. Although I cycle 14 miles a day my legs only had a couple runs in the. Before the race, however I was going to be running with a few friends so I was more looking forward to running with them. My fastest 10k is 53:35 which was a few months back during the peak of my training but my latest runs had been much slower so was aiming for about an hour for this 10k.

One of the people running from work was Jemma, who had recently run her first 10k in training and had managed to do it in just under an hour. Both Jemma and I started running with Alex and Oli but they had speed past and we’re off up ahead. Jemma and I continued on and were passing km points on track to finish just over an hour. For someone how has only run 10k once before she was doing amazingly well but I knew I wanted to make it in under 1 hour so for the last k I increased speed a little and right towards the end I knew I could make the finish in just under an hour so I sprinted the last few hundred yards to the finish to come in at a time of 59:59, I did it!

Although this wasn’t my fasted 10k by far, I was happy given the circumstances. The next 10k race I do I would like to have a new PB butfor now I’ll just work on my time and speed during my normal runs.

Eden Project Marathon 2014

I know this post is about a month late but straight after the marathon I moved house and it’s been a crazy few weeks getting all sorted and settled. Also because of the move I haven’t had a chance to run much and I gave my legs a well deserved break (boy did they need it!)

So how did my marathon go? Well it was awesome! Awesome but very tough, oh man those hills, so many hills! The race was on the Sunday and after a few days of rain the skies had cleared and thankfully the day was nice and dry, although those few days of rain had left the ground a bit wet and muddy. We arrived at the Eden Project nice and early, my nightmares had given me fears of getting there late and forgetting things so I wanted to make sure I got there ok and with everything! The start line didn’t have much of an atmosphere to start with but with only a few hundred runners there wouldn’t be. Things picked up when we were told to go to the start line. As it was such a small marathon there were no time pens so I decided to stand in the middle towards the back. After a brief talk from the race organiser who told us about a few issues only the trails and wished us good luck, we were off! The first mile was downhill and I knew not to start off too fast but there were plenty of runners speedily over taking me. As we reached the bottom of the first hill we turned to run along the river, it was here that my feet started hurting a bit. I sometimes have issues with my shoes so I loosened the laces but it didn’t help, I stopped a few times over the next half mile or so to fix my laces which was a bit disheartening as I was only a tiny bit in to the run and had hours left to go, I really didn’t want to have pains all the way around. Luckily the pain subsided and I managed to get back on track.

As it was an early Sunday morning and we were running through woods and a few villages there weren’t many supporters about, just a few morning dog walkers. Luckily I knew about 5 miles in we would reach Luxulyn and there would be villages out in support there. It was there I saw my sister cheering me on. It was great seeing her but it was sad that she had to pull out of the marathon due to health issues. It would have been awesome to run it with her. A few minutes after I hit mile 5 the first of the fast half marathons sped past. As they came flying by most all ran past saying ‘well done’ or ‘good work’ which was really nice. The half marathoners had started half an hour after us and there were over a thousand of them running half of the marathon route. They broke off about 7 miles in, a few marathon runners also turned off here but I knew there was no bailing out here for me. The roads got a bit quieter again and us runners were a bit more sparse, I normally had 1 runner in my sight up ahead which was good to keep my pace up.

Along the route there was signs with funny running quotes on, all were really helpful and encouraging, even the ones that tricked you about the hill you were about to be running up! I knew there was going to be a climb up Helman Tor which was a big rocky hill and before the path up the hill came in to sight there was one of the purple signs saying ‘chair lift ahead’ and then one right before the climb that said ‘coming 2015’ so cruel! I wanted to try and keep my running rhythm up the hill climb but it was impossible, it was so steep and rocky, I felt like I was bouldering at one point! At the top I took a breather and a panorama photo, the view was amazing! Now it was time to run down the other side and back to a trail.

About 14 miles in I was running up a road and was keeping to the right whilst cars overtook me however I noticed that there was this one car behind that just wouldn’t go past. It took me a few minutes and for the people in the car to shout at me before I realised it was my dad and boyfriend! They had spent the past two hours trying to find me along the route and they finally had! It was great although a bit odd having them follow me for a couple miles. I was laughing to the other runners and volunteers at check points saying ‘don’t worry, it’s just me Dad!’ The road followed a path in to the woods and it was here I lost them. The path through the woods was beautiful but quite tricky to run through, lots of fallen trees!

After running in the woods for about half an hour I reached the bottom of the routes where there was a nice flat bit of the trail running alongside the river. It was here that my Dad and boyfriend had found the car park at the entry to the woods and were there cheering me on again. So good to see their faces once more!

My soles of my feet were starting to ache and I was getting a bit tired but I plodded along! After the woods we were then running along part of the route ran a few miles earlier. The marathon route had done a bit of loop and had to run about 5 miles of the first section of the route. It wasn’t great seeing signs for 7,8 miles etc but at least I could ignore them and pay attention to the larger numbers! The second time I ran through Luxulyn the crowds had died down quite a bit but it was good still having the local support. Again my Dad and boyfriend found me along the route but I was slightly worried they wouldn’t have time to make it back,park and walk down in to Eden to see me at the finish line so I waved them on and said I’d see them in about an hour.

Finally I reached the top of the hill where the half marathon runners had turned off 2 hours earlier! There really weren’t many other runners about, there was a couple who kept running then walking and we were playing some sort of tag game (minus the tagging!) for about 5 miles of the race but they had managed to push on and were no longer in sight. I then made another runner friend, I would over take him on the up hills but he would over take my on the down hills. The road was still a bit wet and there were a lot of mushed leaves on the road so I had the fear of falling and sliding which stopped me running so fast downhill. About mile 24 i St him but I was on the home stretch and knew the end was near. As I reached the entrance to the Eden Project I thought it was all down hill, but I was wrong, there were some little hills to come. That and the fact this last mile felt like 10 made it quite tough. Other finishers were walking back up the hill to their cars, I was wishing I was one of them! At last I aw the finish line but as much as I wanted to speed up I had nothing left in my legs to give. As I came towards the finish line most of the crowd was my family cheering me on and the guy on the microphone said my name, which all made me feel like I was a winner. I finished in a time of 5:12, slower than my goal of 4:45-5 hours but I couldn’t have predicted how tough and hilly the route was.

From running up hills, climbing up moors, running through muddy puddles, over old train tracks, up through trails, along rivers, through woods, little villages and around the Eden Project, I was done. I claimed my past and pint and enjoyed!