I should start by explaining the basics of the Helsinki result. A massive PB of 1:54:54, two minutes & twenty one seconds chiseled off of my previous best. And yet I find myself being both happy & disappointed with the result. Hopefully over the next few paragraphs I can explain why.
Pre Race
The week before Helsinki I completed by 48th parkrun. Returning to Chelmsford, now my home parkrun event to introduce Paula to the event & my brother in law Alec to parkrun in general. To pick up where my last blog left, I'd been taking it easy the week before, managing my aches & pains with time counting down to Helsinki. It was pacer day though & as I felt in decent form I chose to line up with Mark, the 24:00 man & see how long I could hang for.
It turns out I could hold on for the entire distance & with a group sprint finish crossed the line in 23:55. 31 seconds off of the Chelmsford PB, you'd think I'd be happy right? Yes & no would be the appropriate answer. It completed my run of 7 successive parkrun weeks & I was faster at Chelmsford than I've ever been before. Yet I couldn't help but think why I couldn't find another 4 seconds. A 23:51 would be a new lifetime PB, surely a great way to sign off the Helsinki training. The pacing was excellent, so maybe I should have been bolder, making more of a move with 500m to go for example. Next time I run at Chelmsford I'll be collecting my 50 shirt, perhaps I can mark that occasion with a PB.
Alec appeared to enjoy his first parkrun outing. A great effort of 25:58 suggests there is plenty of pace to come from him. Paula kept the 30 minute pacers in check & got home in 29:27.
Post run I fell off my low carb wagon as we visited Dunkin Donuts. I tried the intriguing Pastrami Croistini. A one time only experience unfortunately, luckily the donut that followed was far better.
Sunday brought my first appearance on a cricket field since August & due to circumstances I was on wicket keeping duties. I would say this is a skill I picked up a few years back, but skill would be overselling my ability! Essentially I was behind the stumps due to no one else being available. Normally I'd be elsewhere in the field, perhaps even bowling some dross. The problem with keeping is that it kills your quads. Though our team won & I played relatively well behind the stumps (including what was possibly my first stumping), I was aware of the consequences.
Monday morning was meant to be a visit to Ashdon & the 10k event. Instead I was hobbling down the stairs, stretching & generally walking like the big alien from the first Men in Black film. Two DNS in 8 days! In truth, my quads didn't fully recover until the Saturday of the run. In order to rest I kept myself off the pavements, no morning runs for me & away from swimming class. Even as we landed in Helsinki on Thursday I was being troubled by by right quad in particular.
Pre Race in Finland
This brings us to the reason we were in Helsinki. Our third Nordic event, Helsinki City Run 2014. Paula & I landed on Thursday & were joined on Friday by Sean & Emily. As with our previous trips, one of us sat out the running festivities. This time Paula was taking on the photographer / support role where as Emily was to be making her half marathon debut.
We'd cashed in some hotels.com loyalty nights & opted for the Crowne Plaza hotel. Though it was a km from the city centre, it was a mere five minutes from the expo & the race hub. We had no idea what weather to expect for the race. The rainfall was ominous as we picked up our race kit, soaking the city in a deluge. The race expo was well though out, a sports hall that had been configured in a horse shoe manner so that you picked up your number, bag & shirt first & then followed a route around the hall to look at products & pick up freebies.
And what a bag of free stuff it was! At this point in proceedings Paula was miffed that she'd missed out on the best bag of free crap we'd seen so far at a race. The selection included the electric salmon race shirt, lens cleaner, coffee, porridge, magnesium tablets, cereal, butter, bananas, pre race blocker & post race laxative!!!!! I'd never considered a pre race imodium before!
Once the expo was done & dusted we jumped on a tram into the city centre & found a nice Italian in the top floor of the Forum shopping centre to get some pre race pasta. Though I'm trying to avoid heavy carbs, I felt it would be wise to still indulge in some lobster spaghetti to fuel me for the race. We went our separate ways & I indulged in a bath to try & ease my quads a little bit before the big day.
Saturday morning presented its own problems, namely trying to find an adequate runner's breakfast to last until the 3pm race start. We'd opted to stay away from our hotel's generic 23 euro breakfast buffet, but soon learnt that Helsinki is a city of late risers & late brunches. We thought we'd found a place, only to be told they had no tables until 1pm (it was 10am)! I realised we were round the corner from Cafe Ekberg, a renowned bakery with a brunch offering.
They had one table left & a quick scan of the breakfast bar confirmed they had the two things most of us wanted; scrambled eggs & toast. If only we weren't running! I could have stayed there all morning filling up on the smoked salmon, various breads (yes, carbs I know) & the scrambled eggs. I found it rather bizarre that the brunch scene was quite developed, but a-la carte breakfast menus were not available. it was brunch buffet or nothing!
Soon it was time to make our way to the race area. An early morning visit up the Olympic tower had given me an opportunity to do one important thing, scout for toilet locations!
Bag drop was very well organised & well spread out. The start was a ten minute walk from the bag drop. My usual pre race routine of toilet stops was kicking in, more on that later though.
The Race
The organisers were excellent with the start. The field of 10,000+ runners was split into time based groups that were due to start at ten minute intervals. Normally with these races you have folks trying to get into the group in front, the marshals were diligent & made sure that the coloured groups were adhered to.
I realised as I lined up that I'd forgotten to research what pace I would need to run at to get a 1:55. I spent nearly ten minutes in the starting pen faffing about on my phone trying to load various running websites. In the end some rudimentary maths on my calculator got me a 5:28/km pace to aim for. With that in mind I rounded down to 5:20/km with an attempt to go through 10km at 53:20 & 11km well under an hour.
The first big flaw in my plan was apparent the moment I crossed the start line & started running, needing a wee! I'd probably left my last pre race toilet break a bit too far away from the start & nervous energy had got the better of me. I decided to keep on running for the first few kilometres to see if it was just nerves or a genuine need to find a toilet.
What the need for pee wasn't doing was helping me focused. I managed to settle into a decent on target pace but kept finding my body complaining & my mind wandering as a result. Namely should I grit my teeth & bear it, soak my shorts or stop at an available portaloo. This mental battle carried on round the city centre lake (just what I needed) & up and down some hills. Instead of lessening I was becoming more uncomfortable & realised that holding it in would mean I'd not take on water & affect my performance later.
I bit the bullet just after 5km when a couple of portaloos appeared. I think I lost up to a minute in the toilet, wasn't in the habit of checking my watch beforehand!
With the crisis averted I tried to get back to a decent pace & if possible recoup some of the lost time. It was shortly after this stop that I was surprised to see Paula on the side of the course to offer a brief moment of encouragement. I got my head down & just tried to maintain pace.
The route undulated more than I expected but I managed to keep every kilometre between 5:13 - 5:33 for the majority of this portion of the run. I went through 10km in 54:19, 5:26/km pace overall & with that toilet stop included. This bode well for the rest of the race. I took on two energy gels & tried to get the monotony of endless parks & trails out of my mind, this would be a big PB & should be an easy sub 1:55 if I could hold my form. For a couple of kilometres I paced nicely alongside a local lady who was also aiming for the same kind of time.
A decision that I regretted in hindsight was not taking on a third energy gel at the 16km mark. My 17th km was a 5:38 & this was followed by the 19th at 5:45 & 20th at 5:52 as the undulations started to take their toll. It was around the 16th km that I lost contact with the lady I appeared to be pacing with & felt myself slipping back. In reality I should have downed another energy gel to assist the final steps but fatigue & hills were starting to bite.
Despite the slow penultimate kilometres I appeared to be making progress back through the field. It was a surprise at the end of the km that I'd been slow as I'd been overtaking plenty of people through the narrow trails. There was no doubt that the climb back to stadium was starting to bite. I even overtook the lady that was until that point pacing nicely for a 1:55. The 2nd 10 kilometres were completed in 55:10, despite the toilet stop I was on for a positive split. Luckily I saw how slow the penultimate kilometre had been & combined with the prospect of finishing I was able to kick to the finish with a 5:16 last km.
Throughout the last 5km I was reminding myself it was just a parkrun to go. Inside the last km it was down to just minutes. One last hill nearly killed me off but I managed to gain back some pace downhill as we were lead into the Olympic Stadium. This would be my third race finish within an Olympic Stadium & I attempted to speed up towards the line as the 1:55 mark was approaching fast.
I crossed the line, stopped my watch & was satisfied to see 1:54:54. I then looked up & could see Paula was right there for the finish & gave her the thumbs up.
After negotiating the vast finish area & goody bag area (even more swag!) I got to pose for some photos & made my way to the stands to join Paula & see Emily finish. Sean soon located us, a PB had eluded him by 3 seconds as GPS watch & clothing issues had cost him time on the way to a 1:45:02. Emily crossed the line in 2:16:18, a great start to a half marathon career.
The Eat
Paula wanted to head to the amusement park before dinner so we went our separate ways, Sean & Emily to indulge in room service, Paula & I back to the hotel for a quick shower before heading straight out. The walk up hill & up many steps to the amusement park was probably a good idea but it certainly didn't feel it at the time! The rides cost a steep 8 Euro each so we limited ourselves to the Ferris Wheel for a view of the city & a 60 year old wooden rollercoaster.
It was then definitely time for steak. My legs were becoming less compliant so we headed into the city via the trams to source some much needed post run refuelling. Our indecisiveness nearly got the better for us, I would have been happy with either bundles of sushi or a slab of cow. We settled on a French restaurant, Fransmanni. I ordered from the special Asparagus seasonal menu, a beautiful chunk of tenderloin, cooked perfectly medium to rare. The steak sat on a raft of Asparagus spears & was accompanied by a truffle & mushroom sauce.
The reward was definitely worth the exertion. I don't think I've had a more satisfactory post run eat since my first 10k in 2010 where I indulged in a belly of pork. Paula's steak was also perfect & we washed it down with some local Cider (Mrs H very much a fan of the Finnish cider industry).
After a stroll & a tram we were back at the Crowne Plaza. This allowed me to run another bath to soothe everything before sleep. It also gave me a chance to enjoy another Finnish Long Drink, a combination of gin & grapefruit juice first introduced for the 1952 Olympic Games to provide refreshment for the athletes! I combined the gin with an excellent slice of Carrot Cake purchased earlier from Cafe Ekberg.
On the Sunday morning we were hoping to enjoy a post run swim in the hotel pool. Unfortunately the pool wasn't open until 10:00, far too late for us. Instead we stuck to our previous plans, meeting Sean & Emily for a low impact but bitterly cold canal boat cruise around the various islands & waterways that surround Helsinki.
To warm up I led us to Kaartin Hodari Ja Hummeri where a guidebook had suggested a Sunday Brunch consisting of hotdogs & lobster. We managed to grab the last tables in the tiny restaurant & found out that the brunch menu had stopped. They did however have some Mother's Day specials which we all opted for. My choice, a Mommi dog replaced the hot dog itself with an Aspargus spear (they do embrace this special month), covered with prawns, spring onions, other greens & smothered in marie rose cocktail sauce. Alongside sides of fresh slaw & parmesan topped homemade fries, it made for an excellent meal.
We had an hour and a half to kill until heading to the airport so we walked off the hot dog towards the flagship Fazer cafe for ice cream. We passed the world's worst Darth Vader impersonator & took our choices into the sunshine to watch his increasingly forlorn interactions with bemused tourists. I went for a safe option of Rum & Raisin, combining it with a scoop of Licorice. If there is one thing you can guarantee in Scandinavia it is that they love licorice, it's the perfect place for me to visit!
The Conclusion - The Run
Taking over two minutes off of my PB should leave me very satisfied with the result. The toilet stop cost me nearly a minute & had I taken on another energy gel I'd like to think I'd have not faded so much towards the end of the race. Three slow kilometres in my last five also added around 45 seconds to the run, so better management of my energy is needed. I need to remember that just because at 15km I feel ok, doesn't mean I don't need another gel for the final half hour.
Back in October I set goals to be down to 13st, run at 1:50, run a stronger second hour. All three of these aims were missed, yet none were beyond me with a bit more work. Having dropped some carbs out of my diet I've started to feel more energetic & the weight has started to come down again after plateauing all year. The stronger second hour comes from more long runs & more meaningful long runs, I missed too many of these in the run up to Helsinki. Partly this was down to circumstance & timing, an over ambitious training schedule didn't help. I was also more sensible approaching Helsinki, taking time off to allow recovery & not banking meaningless runs if I didn't feel physically up to it.
That said, there are also plenty of positives to look back on. Running wise I'm in the form of my life. Since the end of March I completed seven successive parkrun events, all under 25:00 & shading another 0:07 off of my PB to 23:52. Mentally I have the most confidence in my running, knowing that I'm capable of both pace & distance. Towards the back end of the HCR I was struggling, really wanting to just walk. The confidence that I could coast & still PB was great & drove me on to carry on driving to the line.
I know there is even more pace available to me, plenty more potential to unlock. My 10k PB has stood since December 2011, that is something that will come under serious scrutiny at the end of May. I also know that with every pound I shed, the quicker I can become. This result was achieved with me still hauling a considerable bulk around with me. My pace training since Brentwood has been solely parkrun events, bringing tempos, fartleks & hills back to my regime will just help both my pace & my weight.
So positives & negatives. Great to smash a PB, great to know that I could have done even better.
The Conclusion - The event & city
Firstly the positives. Helsinki is a really nice city, perfect for a three or four day visit, plenty of sights to visit, good airport, good public transport. The food in the city is also good, lots of choice & varying price points. I didn't get a chance to take in some local sushi, but everything else we tried was good. If you're considering future HCR events then the Crowne Plaza is an ideal hotel, just minute from the start / finish area.
The HCR event itself ran really smoothly. Number pickup was very easy, the expo carefully thought out. The amount of freebies both pre & post race was impressive. The price was reasonable & also included a free t-shirt. In Stockholm you had to buy one on top of a high race fee where as nothing was offered at all Copenhagen.
Finishing in an Olympic Stadium was very cool & allowed for a stress free post race, plenty of space for everyone. The start was well managed, they appeared to have used the Stockholm model, lots of phased, well spaced starting pens.
Now sadly some negatives. The start time of the race was too late in the day. A morning run would make so much more sense. As a tourist you find yourself trying to take in the city without doing too much, lots of treading water time.
The name of the event was the Helsinki City Run, yet this wasn't a city event. You could have been in the centre & not known this major event with 15,000 entrants was taking place. This was a tour of three parks that surround the city & some of the roads & paths that connect them. At no point did it feel like you were running in a major city. The event felt low key. Hardly any spectators along the route & those that were there didn't seem overly enthused. In one of the parks (no idea which one) there was a group that were trying to cheer & high five people, but they were in the minority.
It was like the event was designed to inconvenience the city as little as possible. As a result we took on park after uninspiring park along routes that were narrower than you'd expect at a major event, the probable reason for the staggered starts.
My only disappointment with the city was the lack of breakfast to be found on a Saturday morning. It's brunch or nothing in Helsinki at weekends. We gave up trying to find anything ala carte, just scrambled eggs on toast would have been great, instead we had to opt for buffets.
My last disappointment is one that will ring true with many runners that love the souvenirs they pick up throughout their running careers. The medal felt incomplete. At the finish we were given a medal, but it wasn't attached to anything. No lanyard, no ribbon. No chance to wear it around your neck. I've ordered a Finland lanyard from ebay so that I can retrofit it to my medal. A real shame to miss that finishing touch.
Overall, what I'll take from the HCR is a PB. If you want a city run then I'd recommend Stockholm, Copenhagen, Barcelona or London's Royal Parks over this event.
Next stop for me, London 10000 & Hatfield Broad Oak 10k, two 10k in two days at the end of May
