Chase the Train

A nine mile run along the Bure Valley Railway line from Aylsham to Wroxham - the same route my school's annual sponsored walk used to take. The steam train gives you about twenty minutes head start before it heads off, taking about 40 minutes to get there so really you have to try and get there in an hour if you have any chance of "beating" it.

It was a small field of 66 which was lucky as it was a single track path the whole way so there was not much scope for overtaking. I went off a bit too quickly again - and got a pretty harsh stitch after about 3 miles, also the ground was uneven and rocky so my eyes were planted firmly on the floor in front of me - especially after seeing the man in front of me come down with a THUD in the first mile. However as soon as I got rid of the stitch and got used to the rocky, grassy path I actually started enjoying myself. In fact I may have even burst out into a line or two of the train song from Dumbo although for the last mile it was a bit more like the "i think I can I think I can I think I can... I knew I could" bit.

Unfortunately the train caught me in the last 2 miles (I may have done a comedy slow motion James Bond style "Noooooooooooooooo" as it did) but I was very happy with my time of 1 hour 10 minutes and it was a bonus to have my parents making their debut in the race support role (Mum on photos and snickers purchasing, Dad on driving, running tips and stressing me out about how quick he/other people would run it).

Time : 01:10:26

Position : 32nd out of 66

Broadland Half Marathon

I entered this race at the last minute as my training schedule said I should have been running 13 miles this weekend anyway. It was also going to be my last practice of a proper race day before Stockholm - though I did allow myself a few pints of Wherry the night before so wasn't quite a full on dress rehearsal. It was a lovely sunny morning, a very scenic course run on undulating country lanes (although the two times we passed the Woodforde's brewery did seem a little like torture) and I was happy with my time, especially as I definitely did it at "long run" rather than "race" pace. I think I am getting the hang of my pacing and feel that my legs and lungs are learning that they can go as far as I tell them to. I also managed to beat my personal best by one whole second after feeling like I hadn't really tried.

My personal race support team (Pippa and Daisy) were brilliant as ever with excellent cheering, driving, energising snack buying and a brilliant post race bacon sandwich and leg massage (Daisy was not part of this).

yes that is actually vaseline on my lense - mmmmm pornographic sandwiches

I think they are going to have to practice their race day photography though (you are just going to have to imagine me just to the right of this photo giving it the cheesy peace signs - let's pretend I look great).

Time : 1:48:01

Position : 110th out of 242

Full results (pdf)