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