Plan C - Return to Highbury

It has taken an age to get this blog post finished. We cover a parkrun over a week ago, another parkrun that didn't happen & a parkrun that is just about to happen for the first time!

parkrun #51 - Highbury & Islington

My Friday night was spent working overnight in London. These Friday nights can be short, they can also drag and kill your weekend. I generally view 4am as a natural cut off. Once you work past that the rest of the day is likely to be a write off.
I caught a couple of hours sleep between the end of my normal working day and the double up, waking to see the Dutch score a 5th against Spain in the world cup. I should have known at that point that the weekend might provide more twists and turns.
Whenever I have an overnighter in London I start scanning the parkrun map to see what events I could visit, keen to keep trying new events. My Plan A for Saturday was to head east and pay a visit to the Beckton event. Unfortunately TFL upgrade work put that plan to bed straight away, no Jubilee eastbound would make it implausible to get there.
Another consultation of the map provided a Plan B, head north west to the Hampstead Heath event. The journey was manageable & I was pleasantly surprised with how little effort would be required to get there.
With a second plan in place I got my head down for a bit of sleep between the working days and had to check I wasn't still asleep when I saw the Holland vs Spain score in the World Cup! On the overnights we order takeaway and this usually comes down to Chinese or pizza. Either wouldn't be ideal for me, I opted for a thin Romana base pizza from Pizza Express. This would be my first in over a month, a test to see how my body would handle a less doughy pizza. As someone that loves a good pizza ideas eager to not have an instant bad reaction as it would be nice to still indulge occasionally.
The good news was that I enjoyed the pizza and didn't suffer too much as a result. Opting for something thin and without much dough was a good decision.
Unfortunately the work side of things didn't go quite as well. Our role on some overnighters is to provide services assurance after other people have made changes, essentially babysitting the systems we look after. This meant our night was filled with Chile vs Australia, the first Bottom live show and then I introduced my colleague to some strong style New Japan Pro Wrestling. We didn't wrap up until past my deadline so as I got back to the hotel I decided against Hampstead Heath.
I set my alarm as late as feasibly possible to still make a parkrun, showered, checked out and headed north to Highbury & Islington. It wouldn't be a new event, but the Highbury Fields parkrun was at least on my way home and easy to get to.

The Run

My previous appearance at the event was at the start of 2013, where my lack of conditioning combined with a snow and ice covered route resulted in my worst ever parkrun result, 28:59. I'd fared better on my debut with a 24:47 and was hoping for a repeat performance if my sleep deprived body was capable.
The event has grown since my last visit and a field of around 100 lined up to be greeted by the event director. I started reasonably well, appeared to be around the 5:00/km pace or just above, every lap being just shy of a km. The course makes for an intriguing race. First you have to count your laps to make sure you don't go short. Essentially 30% of the lap is flat, at the top and bottom of the lap. There is then an equal split between ascend and descend, with the climb ending the lap.
The intrigue was brought by seeing how other people run, this kine of lap exposes everyone's various strengths and weaknesses. I tend to climb relatively strongly and use the downhill to relax and recharge for the next climb. Others struggled with the climb but sprinted downhill, making the most of the favourable angle. If I try too hard downhill I lose my shape and rhythm, better to run normally and naturally gain time for me.
The countdown nature of the event meant that my weary mind had a goal for finishing. My pace felt like it was slowing, not that I could do much about that and I realised my streak of sub 25 parkruns might be finished.
I had noticed that the course might be measuring short or that a lap of wasn't quite a full kilometre so kept this in mind. At the start of the final climb it looked like I was going to be ok, still within the 24th minute so time to spare on the target. As I finished the hill the course turns left as you head across the field to the finish funnel. I thought there was someone chasing me done so I attempted to kick and got myself across the line in 24:34.
I got my barcode scanned, picked up my bag and headed straight home via a mini Waitrose to pick up a post run snack.

The Conclusion

Perhaps a lack of sleep is the answer! I appeared to perform well despite the lack of energy and a genuine need for more sleep. The result was very satisfying, to be returning mid 24's without doing much training of late suggests I have a good base to start from for a summer of running. Once I finally get round to putting my Richmond Half plan together I will ensure it has two focuses, speed work and bringing that parkrun PB down further, then improving my second hour stamina so that I can do myself justice at half marathon level.

The Eat

I returned home to share yum yum cronut treats with Paula, definitely worth checking out if you have a Waitrose nearby. We spent the afternoon building bits of our kitchen alongside my mum and step dad, the sense of achievement when you do something yourself is something that I hadn't always appreciated with DIY!

parkrun DNS - Southsea

What was meant to be my 52nd parkrun didn't happen. In fact the whole of last weekend was close to a write off. I'd booked a half day on the Friday & spent the morning working from home in preparation for a visit to the south coast to visit friends. We were also due to take in some T20 Blast action at the Rose Bowl. I wasn't feeling great in the morning, presuming I'd eaten something dodgy the night before & put it down to our frozen food being a bit funky.

After passing through the in laws house to feed the cats we left Essex at 13:30, plenty of time for what is at most a three hour trek to Hayling Island. At half four we made it off of the M25, which was a complete crawl & with me feeling even worse. Stopping at some A3 services to swap over, I found myself hugging the Royal Doulton in the Little Chef, no so pleasant. Once I'd sorted myself out we were on the road again, only to come to a complete stop just north of Liss as the road closed all of 100 yards in front of us due to an accident.

By this stage it was just past 5pm and we were arranging to meet our friends en route to the Rose Bowl. We didn't make it to Hayling until past 7pm & gave up all hope of seeing the T20, abandoning plans & writing off the cash paid out for the tickets.

We ordered some take away & I opted for some plain chips in the hope I'd hold them down. I managed one chip & two bites of a prawn cracker before I was bounding up the stairs in our friend's house to hug their toilet! I was in bed shortly after with the shakes, not pleasant at all.

Saturday morning arrived & I felt better but very aware that a parkrun would be foolish. Even an easy plod would be hard work & with nothing in my season I felt it would be too much of a risk to even bother with the run. We'll visit again so I'll make it to the Southsea Common event one day.

Out prior arrangement to meet friends at the excellent Tenth Hole Tea Rooms in Southsea still stood so we headed across to look at the extensive range of cakes. Though I felt better, I had some toast before even attempting a cake to ensure I had some confidence in keeping it down! Our friends were equally impressed with the cake selection & we all enjoyed our choices, though a cream and jam topped Pavlova was perhaps a bit over ambitious!

After some crazy golf we made it back to our friends place in Hayling for some BBQ food that I successfully negotiated before we headed back up the motorway for a much nicer trip hope.

On Sunday morning I still didn't feel fully recovered so didn't make it to the start line for the inaugural Hoohah Hatfield Forest 10k. I'll make it there for next year, better to be healthy than collapse even if my DNS count has rocketed recently!

In all the illness took nearly 3lbs off of my weight, for once some pound loss I'm not happy with. By Sunday morning I was buying a loaf of Tiger Bread just to give myself some lining, Tuesday even brought a takeaway pizza in an attempt to put some load back on!

parkrun #52 - Great Notley inaugural

This Saturday sees a debut event in my home town. If you'd asked me in my formative years in Braintree whether I'd have willingly run a 5k I would have laughed. What will make it even more special is that I'll be receiving my 50 shirt & my mother will be in attendance to watch me run for the first time. Having never volunteered in my parkrun journey so far I'll soon be making visits to Braintree solely to cheer, time, point, do whatever required to support what is now my home event.

They even have a hill that looks a bit like the hill of doom from Wimpole.......

The 50th parkrun

Rarely has a blog post been 4 years in the making. When I took up running in May 2010 I had no idea where it would take me. I just wanted to ward off my increased mass as a result of working from home & having no will power! I was good at two things; eating biscuits & putting on weight.

After I'd been running for a couple of months, Sean suggested I tried a parkrun event. My runs at the time were generally only 3-4km, but the events were inclusive & there was no pressure to run the full distance. Back in 2010 the parkrun map was a lot less populated than what you see these days so we opted for the Greenwich event as it was en route to Eastbourne for a family visit & easily reachable for us & Sean. My time four years ago was a decent 27:39. I stopped several times to walk & it would be a while before I managed to complete a 5km without walking & almost a year before I bettered the time & then started showing some improvement.

Surveying the landscape

My appearances at parkrun events would generally be sporadic for the first couple of years. They were nice to visit, but most were a distance away so I never thought the 50 shirt would be achievable. The distance & time of events made forgoing a lie in a tough sell. In 2013 this changed as I started to compete on a more regular basis. I targeted one parkrun visit a month as I gave myself the task of recovering my pace & fitness following a bout of PF.
More events started popping up as well, increasing the possibility for visits to different places. The once a month mantra continued until August, where a visit to Oak Hill alerted me to another target to aim for. Though I now had 26 events completed, I knew based on my current rate that I wouldn't get my hands on a red shirt until 2017! Fergie mentioned something else I could aim for. Apparently there was a league table for event attendance based on number of different & inaugural events rather than total number. To get onto this league table you needed to attend 20 different events & despite my relatively low number of events, I had been to 14 different venues across the country. Suddenly I had some more motivation. Combine that with a decent PB at the Copenhagen Half & I was doubly inspired to start increasing my pace & break a near two year 5km PB.
I finished 2013 with 7 events over the course of 10 weeks & by the end of January I had my place on the parkrun league table with a 20th different event courtesy of a visit to Colchester. I'd timed it perfectly as within a couple of months parkrun HQ had updated their qualification requirements based on the increased number of events to 30 different events or 10 inaugurals.
Since the turn of the year I've completed 15 parkruns, despite a target of one every three weeks I've been far more prolific. In the run up to the Helsinki City Run I all but abandoned any other tempo training & got myself to 7 consecutive events & got not only a parkrun PB for it, but a great PB performance in Helsinki to match.
I went to Helsinki with 48 parkruns & since then have carefully stage managed my attendance. Once I knew I'd be clocking my 50th, I wanted it to be even more significant. I'd already set a date of June 7th to head down to Eastbourne to visit my now 99 year old Grandmother, so it made sense to combine this with Greenwich parkrun once more.

The Run

Driving one hour to run for less than half of that time would be of questionable worth. Driving a total of five hours, even more so! Yet as we pulled into Avery Hill Park it was nice to be reminded of where my parkrun oddessy started. Despite an absence of 4 years the location was instantly recognisable & we'd left ourselves with plenty of time to get warm & hopefully avoid the rain.

Really not 100% healthy

This would be my first run in 12 days so I went into the event without any visions of grandure. My aim was to at least continue my sub 25:00 streak, though wasn't convinced that would be possible. The extended break was partly by design, partly due to circumstance. I'd intended to give myself a week off as a reward for getting to the end of my previous training plan & scoring new PBs at every distance attempted along the way. The break got extended though as the head cold I developed over the London 10000 weekend was being persistent. I suspect the dusty building site conditions at home combined with some stress were some contributing factors to the amount of time the illness was taking to shift. It was that bad that I even had to take a day off from work, ending a four year streak of 100% attendance.

The tone of the shirt should be sufficient to help warming up

The good news was that my health was starting to improve so I lined up with everyone ahead of the race brief. The race director did start to mention runners on their landmark runs, but luckily being a tourist meant I could fly under the radar here & concentrate on just getting round.

And we're off!

The course was a simple lap of the park, repeated for a total of three laps that starts downhill, stays flat & then climbs towards the end. I settled into a 5:00/km ish pace, trying to push and clawing back places on the uphill stretches.

Starting well

 
By the second climb I was more than aware that my stamina was shot from the time off & I found myself really just wanting to walk. Thankfully unlike on my first visit, I didn't succumb to this urge. The intervening four years have taught me that I don't need to walk, especially when I can maintain a decent pace. It wasn't as if my splits were spiralling uphill, everything was consistent. Sometimes I just need to kick myself up the arse & as the final climb approached I focused on what was just another two minutes of running. Get myself up the hill & then it was all downhill to the finish.

A pack starts to emerge

This was definitely helpful as I finished in 24:58, just scraping under my sub 25 target. Admittedly if I'd concentrated on running rather than 5-0 poses whenever I saw Paula with the camera then I might have got the time with a bit more comfort!

Lap 2

The Conclusion

Of course this event was not about the time at all. It was respectable enough but that wasn't the aim. Saturday was all about completing the journey to a parkrun 50 shirt that started in my formative months of running back in 2010.

Cheeky check of the watch as the finish approaches

In the past year I've truly embraced the parkrun format & have found it the perfect way to increase my speed. Although I'd started to settle in to the Chelmsford event, the recent announcement that my home town of Braintree has an event starting on June 28th with the Great Notley parkrun has given me a new home event & the most likely venue when I start giving back & volunteering. Keeping up the variety of events has been fun as well though. My total of 50 parkrun has been spread across 26 different venues & by the time the month ends that will become either 28 or 29 depending on what my schedule allows.

50 Completed

The social aspect of parkrun is also something I've enjoyed. Be it interacting with events on Twitter or Facebook, or meeting up with friends & family at events, there is added fun to the running side of things.

Starting to resemble the shirt colour

The Eat

Of course no good parkrun story can end without the corresponding eat story. As planned we made our way to the Wimpy in Eastbourne. Paula had to stop me walking out as the moment I ordered a thick shake I was told that the machine wasn't working! Luckily for them I was feeling hungry & the half pounder (in a healthy wholemeal bap) with chips was an emphatic way to fall off of the no carb wagon.

Beautiful day in Eastbourne

Thankfully these cheat days are few & far between. The last positive to report is that since the end of April when I decided to drop out bread, chips & potatoes my weight has dropped significantly. Salads or sushi for lunch at work have also helped & I'm down to 14st 8lbs & 6 at present (190.6lbs). After stalling weight wise since Christmas, the last six weeks have seen me drop half a stone & I'm closing in on being at my lowest weight since taking up running.

Mrs H gets to enjoy the amusements

Officially a 50 club member now!

Of course that's by no means the end of the journey, but I'm also finding myself feeling at lot more comfortable since giving up the heavy carbs. I only need to grab some pizza or load up on bread to be reminded just how bloated & awkward they make me feel.

A double PB weekend

As I take a slight break from running I can reflect on what was an awesome weekend of running. The bank holiday weekend provided the culmination of a six month training plan that has taken me to the form of my life. This might turn into an even longer post if I also look back on the training plan & how best to improve on it for future races. Perhaps that should be saved for another day.

The weekend brought my most ambitious weekend of activity to date, two 10k events starting 25 hours apart. One a huge event in London, the other one of highlights of my running calendar. My aim was to PB at least one of the events & remove the two and a half year PB that has been like a monkey on my back for the 10k distance. The problem I faced was what event to attempt the PB at. Would the London 10000 be sufficiently managed to allow for space on the route? If I failed in London would I have the energy to attempt it all again a mere day later? Would I even make it to the start line in Hatfield Broad Oak?

Bupa London 10000

A major race weekend, so it figures that I contract some kind of ailment. In similar circumstances to Copenhagen I found myself with a major head cold & heavily reliant on Lemsip, Berocca & vapour rub. I pulled on my orange Xempo shirt as a reminder to myself that I could be fast & we headed to Redbridge & into central London. Once we were underground I found myself feeling worse, experiencing a build up of gunk & pressure, with only a menthol inhaler to relieve the situation. Thankfully when we left Green Park station I was able to take on some fresh air, but a no stage did I feel that I'd cleared everything out of my system.

Attire for the weekend

We'd arrived in plenty of time so I was able to wander round the runner's village to try & clear my head. As a regular big event runner I was pleased to see the effort made by the organisers with respect to the toilets. Plentiful & arranged in horseshoes so that they could take up a relatively small area & yet allow queues to flow quickly. It was only as the start time approached that things felt slightly pressured, but even then the wait time was under 10 minutes. Quite why so many felt they didn't need to queue & just relieve themselves against the back of the portaloos is beyond me.
 

With the near mandatory three toilet stops completed (no risks after Helsinki) I made my way to the start area where I experienced another excellent example of organisation. The event had plenty of starting pens, decided by the times provided by runners ahead of time. These starting blocks were divided into four colours & then four letters within each colour. To ensure no one ended up in the wrong pen (unless going backwards to run with a friend), each area was marshalled to allow in only those with the corresponding bib. This made the starting experiencing very easy. There was no need to shuffle forward as you knew everyone in your pen was in theory aiming for the same time.

The Run

With my menthol inhaler being used & safely stored in my shorts pocket I decided to aim for a PB & just run as hard as I could for as long as I could until my illness got the better of me. After all my emergency info was on the back of my race number & Paula wouldn't be far away.
 

Rather than aim to just scrape a new PB of just under 51:12, my aim was to get as close to 50 minutes as was physically possible. If I could maintain a pace close to 5:00/km then I'd have plenty in the bank should my condition worsen towards the end of the race.
 

The start was another example of how events should be organised, every 2 minutes a wave of 1000 relatively pace matched runners were released onto the streets of London! I made a perfect start, first two kilometres both clocked at 5:00 on the Garmin, though I was aware straight away that the course was measuring on the long side so I'd need to take that into account to ensure a PB.
 

The route started on the north side of St James' Park, travelled down towards Trafalgar Square, back up Millbank & then east along Embankment. My fears of an overly busy course ala the British 10k were quickly overcome as space was plentiful & the need to weave was minimal. After passing Blackfriars we headed north into the square mile.

Sprint finish to end the London 10000

Fast kilometres for the third & fifth had me cross the 5km in 25:15, putting me on track for a sub 51:00 time if I could maintain the pace. As our journey around the city ended I enjoyed the mist facility outside of Cannon Street station as the day turned out to be far hotter than expected. Despite my fastest km being the sixth in 4:39 I was noticing the distance on my watch was now quite a bit shorter than the kilometre markers alongside the course. With this in mind I continued to push, surprising myself at how the head cold wasn't overly restricting me. The next two km were both under 5:00 & after checking my watch when I officially passed the 8km marker I knew that a PB was in my hands if I could just get home.
 

I had time for a high five with long time twitter running pal Karen who was on cheering duty for Mind & despite a slight slowdown of 5:02 for the 9th km the finish & a great time were still in sight. The final kilometre saw us leave Embankment, pass Parliament & head back along the south side of St James' Park along Birdcage Walk, the iconic finish for the London Marathon course. With 300m to go, the Garmin let me know I'd already completed 10km in just shy of 49 minutes. Sadly I knew the truth was another minute of running & I pushed home at a pace of 4:41/km to finish in an unofficial 50:22.

The Conclusion

The result was even better when the official results came through, 50:18. Rather than be disappointed at missing out on a sub 50, I was ecstatic at achieving a new PB. To take 54 seconds off of my 10k PB that had stood for so long was a great achievement. To do so when not feeling in perfect health made me even more satisfied with the time. On the tube across to the event I was given serious consideration to not running. A few days later, with a heavy cold still consuming me I do wonder whether it was the wisest choice, yet the medal & PB make it all worth it.

Slightly washed out at the end of the race

When I analysed the official results I was also heartened by another first for me. With a first 5k of 25:15 & a second of 25:03 I'd managed my first negative split in a race. This made the achievement even more special. At longer distances such as half marathon I'm still struggling to perform in the 2nd hour, yet to manage a negative split in a 10k really makes the experience even more special.

Medal & some rather horrific chocolate coconut milk

There is no right or wrong way to run a race, but to achieve a PB with a negative makes me feel that bit more like a runner. The event was also the first time I'd raced in the Saucony Kinvara 5's. They're certainly a lot lighter than the Adidas Supernova Sequence 5's I've just retired, a nice bounce to them.
 

The result also vindicated the training plan for the past half a year. Though I've not been strict with it, the tempo training & increased parkrun attendance have definitely had a positive affect on my running. I was able to approach the event knowing that at no point would I be running faster than I would on a Saturday morning, the confidence my recent parkrun form has given me just made the experience that much easier.
 

I could be slightly disappointed, after all wasn't a sub 50:00 a possibility? Perhaps it was, perhaps the course measuring long took that away from me? By being under the weather & still producing an excellent result I know I can improve on this performance even further. My ultimate goal is to drop under 48:00 & get myself a Xempo green shirt. That is probably something that is some distance away from me at present, but why not have something to aspire to?

The Eat

Normally after a big event we'd head somewhere & just load up on some big comfort food. With a health kick & a carb reduction currently my flavour of the month I'd decided that I wanted sushi. The only problem with a health kick is that good food costs more & the amount I've spent on raw fish recently seems to be rising!
 

As I'd finished the race around 11:00 we decided to hop on the Jubilee line & get to Westfield in Stratford for lunchtime before we escaped London & headed home. We were tempted to head to Wahaca, though felt that might be starting a pattern of always eating Mexican after 10k events in town!
 

When we approached the food court we could see Yo Sushi was well stocked so grabbed a table & started tucking in. A plethora of sashimi, nigiri and pumpkin korroke filled a hole, a fitting reward for the PB.

Post London 10000 sushi, Mrs H photo bombing!

Hatfield Broad Oak 10k

Quite how my legs & body in general would react to a 2nd 10k would make for an interesting start to the day. I was unable to reap the benefits of a recuperating bath on Sunday evening as although our bath is in situ, it is still not connected to anything!

Mr & Mrs Um Bongo

My cold & general bunged up nature wasn't any better, so this time I ensured the vapour rub was packed into my race bag. I was pleased to note that although I ached a bit, there were no major issues following on from the London 10000 efforts.
 

We made our way across to HBO resplendent in our new Um Bungo race tops. Joel was disappointed that he'd have to wait another race to debut his, so it was just me & Paula, Mr & Mrs Um Bungo donning the silliness. I even got a hello from a fellow instagrammer who had seen me tagging the HBO event.

Team BBQ before the race

This was the fourth time I'd be running the HBO 10k & for the fourth year in a row our team grew. In 2011 I ran on my own, 2012 saw four of us partake, 2013 there was 6 of us & this year there would be seven as myself, Paula, Alec, Joel, Emily, Paul & Fran all joined to run under the Team BBQ banner. This will be our last race as Team BBQ, we're adopting the Team Um Bungo moniker moving forwards.
 

I had no plan for how I wanted to run the race, no aspirations for a second PB attempt as I felt that would be foolish. I spoke briefly with Joel to gauge what his aims were & offered to pace 60 minutes for him, but he felt that would be too ambitious. I didn't want to run completely without an aim so when Emily mentioned she'd like to run a 52 something having PB's in training recently I offered to pace. 52:00 wasn't exactly a massive slow down from 50:18 the day previously, but I figured that if I could pace at 5:12 for a while then I'd be able to let Emily go & slow once I'd got her to a decent rhythm, allowing me to coast the final kilometres.

The Race

With everyone expecting different times we wished each other luck, picked a tree to meet by at the end & started filing into the starting positions. This year Paul made sure he was correctly placed having previously lined up around the 55:00 mark in 2013 only to run a 45:00 in the race!
 

The start was pretty much to time & we were soon crossing the line ourselves & heading up hill for the first three kilometres. Having raced the course several times now I was well aware of it's profile. Up hill for three kilometres, slowly downhill for two, steady downhill for the sixth, gradual uphill between six & eight then a downhill final kilometre that is rudely interrupted at 400m for a slight climb before a downhill sprint finish.
 

Our pace to start with wasn't great. Once of the things lacking at HBO is more definitive starting pens. The race field might only be 1500 participants but you get a lot of people that are over ambitious & get too close to the front at the start. This leaves the first kilometre or two quite crowded & slow. A 5:34 didn't send us into panic though, neither did a faster but still off target 5:16 in the second.
 

The pace was starting to increase and we'd found a nice rhythm which was more important and we started weaving our way through the field, despite never running together we had a good understanding of when to make a move past someone and never got too far apart.
 

The third uphill kilometre got us on track, 5:09 being under the target pace and shaving back our deficit to 23 seconds. The course then started to flow downhill and gave us the opportunity to pick up the pace. We went through 4km with a 4:57 and the deficit reduced to 8 seconds. This was followed by an even faster 4:52 as we entered the village and streets lined with support. We'd completed the first half of the race in 25:48, on track for a 52:00 and with seconds in the bank.
 

A slight slow down for water just past 5km and then through Hatfield Broad Oak and down the hill to race HQ to complete the 6th kilometre in 5:03. It was nice this year to not see the winners finishing as we headed out of the village.
 

It was at this point that I encouraged Emily to go on without me. My achilles we sore from the near 3km of downhill and I felt I was getting slower. I didn't want my slow down to stop Emily from achieving her goal so she continued whilst in my head I slowed.
 

Despite this theoretical slow down my 7th kilometre was 5:13 and with plenty of seconds in surplus I would still be able to achieve a decent time. To my surprise, Emily was still within sight, slightly ahead but by no means out of reach.

In past HBO events I've struggled with the 6-8km stretch as you head uphill out of the village and into the wilderness away from all of the support. In contrast, this time I appeared to be getting stronger with the 8th completed in 5:06. From the 8km marker the course is generally flat, then downhill for the first half of the final km, a brief but cruel climb before a final 200m sprint finish downhill. A surprising 4:59 for the penultimate kilometre kept we well under the original 52:00 target. During the final kilometre it was unnerving to pass paramedics going the opposite way, something I've now seen twice at the end of HBO events. I couldn't speed up at all downhill and with the bite of an uphill stretch my final km was a 5:03, beaten by a couple of awesome sprint finishes.

The Conclusion

I crossed the line in 51:26 and caught up with Emily who'd finished in an incredible 51:12. That meant we'd both run excellent negative splits. I was astounded by what I'd achieved, there is no way I should have been capable of this result given the exertion of the day before combined with my condition.
This was a course PB for me, beating my 2012 effort of 51:36. If I'd have not run in London the day before then this would have been another PB opportunity. 

Team BBQ post run

The event remains one of the highlights in my racing calendar. They've improved their organisation of the finish area to make everything flow much better. Finish line, water bottle, slice of orange, chip off, t-shirt and out you go, away from the post race area. The start could still do with more pacing pens, but overall the event is excellent. This year's t-shirt was a delightful canary yellow effort (or Australian Gold for any Billy Birmingham fans). I now have four HBO finisher shirts and see no reason not to carry on collecting one every year.

Team BBQ 2013 results

Team BBQ 2014 results

Everyone in Team BBQ had a decent race. Alec returned a great time on his 10k debut, whilst Joel got revenge for our last Oakhill parkrun visit by mugging Paula with a sprint finish to beat her by one second!
 

The Eat
 

Our annual bank holiday post HBO bbq was a more understated effort than previous years. Having no kitchen makes hosting rather difficult!! We had decent weather for the first two rounds of food so no one went hungry. Nothing special for the bbq though, once I have a kitchen again I'll be able to put some time into homemade burgers, pulled pork and salads.

An extra bonus for the weekend, two races not ideal to break in new shoes

I did at least manage to complete my other HBO 10k tradition, a visit to the ice cream van for a post race 99! Sadly Paula was less than lucky on the tombola, no alcohol to add to the bbq stash!

Mandatory post race 99's. Sprinkles for Mrs H