HM 9/12 - Takeley 10k: Justified indignation?

Final month of the half marathon training and I can't decide whether to be happy or annoyed. Perhaps frustrated is a more appropriate emotion after a week that promised a lot, but delivered less than planned.

The Run #1

I'd earmarked the bank holiday Monday as the perfect time to head out and bank a solid two hours of running. We had no firm plans and if I could get out early, even a long run wouldn't impede us from doing anything. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. Were I to have ventured out a boat might have been necessary. I'm less of a fair weather runner than I used to be, but the consequences of two hours in driving rain outweigh any potential benefits. So I spent the day hoping it would clear up.
By Tuesday I was itching to get out. I had a day of Cisco training at home planned so a pre work run would be the perfect way to start. Unfortunately the rainfall was still horrendous, perhaps lunchtime might offer an opportunity?
I kept an eye on the window throughout the late morning, checking my phone's weather app to see if they'd be a break at any stage. By 3pm conditions were still miserable, so I ploughed further into study, promising myself a brief outing at 5pm.
Thankfully by then the clouds had started to pass, so I closed down the laptop and got myself ready for what could potentially be a wet run.
Unfortunately my this time of day my window for running had greatly reduced. I needed to get Topper to the vets for half six as he'd not been well over the weekend. This afforded me the chance to run one lap of my regular loop. Without much rhythm and long stops for traffic or to navigate dog walkers I found myself yearning for the quiet of a 6am outing!
The time was nothing special, but the opportunity to at least get some kilometres banked and fresh air into the lungs was a welcome one.

The Run #2

I didn't manage to get another run in during the working week. A competitive squash game on Thursday provided a good intense workout though (especially when I didn't take a racquet to the face). On Saturday we had plans to visit our friends on Hayling Island so I was keen to make a parkrun visit en route.
The original plan was to join Maldon for their first year celebrations, but that would take us in completely the wrong direction so I'll make a visit there some other time. We'd arranged to share lifts with some friends in West London, a strangely sparse area for events when you consider the amount of work London put into establishing parkrun in 2012.
This meant I could visit Black Park. Our attempts to visit just two weeks prior were thwarted by the women's cricket heading to a result quicker than planned. Once we'd got over Google Maps trying to take us to the centre of the park through Pinewood Studios we found the car park. At twenty to it was already busy, I noticed one course map stating no marshals on the course. My would be Event Director attention was piqued, how could you not marshal an entire course, I was certainly interested.

All was explained at the pre run briefing, the course was a simple, kind of figure of 8 & included only a few turns. Follow the signs and you'll get back & finish. This certainly gave me ideas for how to run an event with minimal on course direction!

I'd been overly conservative at the start & found myself getting off to a slow start with plenty of weaving involved. Being without music has been an evolution of my running this summer, though I was wishing the iPod was with me this time as there were some particularly chatty folk behind me that I couldn't establish a decent lead on!

Black Park parkrun. Got beaten by a dog!

The course was wide throughout & the course mainly compacted gravel, with some puddles. After a kilometre I found myself in a decent rhythm, getting quicker with every passing km. I certainly didn't feel this way though and being a busier event meant there was plenty of overtaking so I wasn't entirely sure of my pace. The only time puddles crossed the course entirely was as we approached the finish line & with that in sight no one was avoiding the mud!

I crossed the line in 24:09, ruing the slow start but moderately happy with the result. I didn't find the course too challenging, nothing like the conditions a Wimpole or Great Notley could through down so I wasn't sure just how decent that effort would be.

The Run #3

The Takeley 10k was a deviation from my designed plan, but I'd missed out on previous years so felt it would be good to take in a local event and see how I fared. Four of us were running, Paula & I, Alec & Paul. Alec fancied targeting a sub 50 as his parkrun times were now into the high 22's so he felt capable. Despite only running once under this time myself I offered to try to pace him, Paul was also considering a relaxed race so would start along side us.

At the race briefing the prospect of a Hatfield Forest parkrun was mentioned, all very intriguing! We were walked down to the start line, at the site of the old Takeley railway station on the Flitch Way. The course would be simple, 2.5km down the Flitch, 5km around Hatfield Forest & 2.5km back on the Flitch.

There was no chip timing so I noted that we were 17 seconds in when crossing the line. Despite there being signed off timing areas beforehand we found ourselves passing plenty of people early on. At this stage we lost Paul as he managed to get ahead of a number of people when we couldn't, he went on his way & clocked another sub 45.

Our initial pace was good, around the 5:00 mark despite all the weaving. A second kilometre on pace had us settled nicely but I wasn't feeling it. Just before we left the Flitch I told Alec to go on without me as I felt I was now holding him back. I didn't want a slowing of my pace to stop him from achieving his goal and soon he was breaking open a nice gap. 

Despite what felt like a slowing down my third click was under target pace & even the fourth was there for thereabouts. Once we were into the Forest the underfoot conditions got interesting & a slow 5th kilometre as I weaved around muddy ditches led me to believe that you've have to be insane to bring a parkrun here! The 6th offered some gravel tracks & again my pace recovered, but I was feeling more weary. By the time we were into the Flitch once more the gap to Alec looked to be over a minute, where as by the end of the 6th I'd got it down to 30 seconds. I went through the water station & chucked some over me, something I only tend to do when struggling.

Alec the first to finish in Um Bungo garb

On several occasions I considered slowing right down or stopping to wait for Paula, this race felt like there was nothing to be gained from it.

The people I'd been running with started to break away from me & I had nothing to answer it with. At one point I was punching my left quad to try and get some feeling back into it & recharge for the final couple of kilometres. Although the path was covered & scenic I found myself hating being on an old railway line. It was disheartening to see just a straight line ahead. No end in sight for when we'd get off the track & people just moving ever further away. Bizarrely no one was passing me, so all I saw were runners in the distance, leaving me feeling like I was running through treacle.

Not the happiest looking finisher

My quads ached & my achilles were both tightening up as we entered the final kilometre. A climb of 20 metres didn't help matters and when we emerged from the track into a cul de sac I started to wave people through that still had sprint finishes in them.

I crossed the line in a gun time of 51:54, so effectively a 51:37, absolutely knackered & not overly impressed with myself, The doubling up of effort over the weekend hadn't produced a worthy result and wasn't happy with it. I caught up with Paul who'd eased to a sub 45 & Alec, who was just over the 50 mark & claiming a well deserved PB. We waited to cheer Paula across the line & discussed the merits of the course, the guys eager to give me some straws to clutch to!

Paula finishing

Paula came across around the 1:06 mark & we were able to reflect on the lack of an ice cream van, might have at least put a silver lining on the cloud!

The Conclusion

Firstly I must apologise, complete lack of eat this week. Must rectify this, can't all be running stuff! Secondly, the parkrun effort was put into my top 5 performances in terms of handicap by Run Britain. Perhaps the weekend was a success after all?

In hindsight, a mid 51 is my best result by a long way on a non tarmac course. Because I'd been so quick at Pride a few weeks previously I'd put too greater level of expectation on my shoulders & rather than take the positives, once I'd told Alec to go I basically had 40 minutes of negativity to brood over. I'm glad I didn't stop, especially as it would have been an act of petulance rather than needing to. I still delivered a very decent result & gained experience of trail running.