Keswick AC Christmas Handicap Race

Yesterday, I competed in our club's traditional Christmas handicap race. We start and finish at the cricket pavilion in Fitz Park, doing a loop up into the woods on the lower slopes of Latrigg Fell. I set myself the same targets as last week; never faster than 10 mins/mile and walk all the hills. This did make my handicap rather difficult to work out, but I slotted in fairly near the front of the field.

It was a beautiful morning and I was just so excited to be in a "race" again. My previous competitive outing was in March and I've been so looking forward to this moment. It was a rather inauspicious start as the runners in front steadily ran into the distance and those behind slowly but surely caught and passed me, but I was loving it!

As we got on to the muddier and rougher ground, I was better able to keep up, though, stopping to keep filming did ruin my chances of a comeback win. Towards the end, I felt like I could have pushed the pace a bit, but forced myself to stick to the plan, using the video camera as an excuse to walk.

I eventually toddled over the line having been passed or outrun by the entire field, bar one, to claim second last place. Never has such a lowly placing felt so good.

In the last week I have been out running four times and each one has felt a bit more comfortable than the previous one and I have suffered less and less from soreness and stiffness in the evening. I feel very close to the point where I might be able to start a more structured training programme but have decided to keep this ad lib training going for the time being. The problem at present is the strain that hills put on the tendon, but even this is getting easier. During the last week of term, I got back into the habit of running from school after work and it felt really good to get back into that routine.

I received a few entries for the photo competition from last week, thank you to those that entered and I hope you enjoyed working out where the shots were taken and how far along the route each site is. Most seemed to comment that Photo 3 was the most difficult to pin-point. For those that had a look, here are the actual answers;
   Photo 1 - Crossroads in path at Arlehaven, just after crossing B821 (4.49 miles)
   Photo 2 - WHW marker post in last field before Drymen checkpoint (11.76 miles)
   Photo 3 - Ruin in Mugdock Woods, just as path swings to the left (1.43 miles)
   Photo 4 - Sharp left turn just before Gartness (9.55 miles)

Results

			Photo 1	Photo 2	Photo 3	Photo 4		Total
		Distance	4.49	11.76	1.43	9.55
Ian Wallace		Guess	4.4	11.9	1.5	9.8
		Error	0.09	0.14	0.07	0.25		0.55
Thomas		Guess	4.65	11.8	2	9.94
		Error	0.16	0.04	0.57	0.39		1.16
Tim		Guess	4.56	11.8	1.54	9.53
		Error	0.07	0.04	0.11	0.02		0.24
Debs M-C		Guess	4.7	11.9	1.5	9.1
		Error	0.21	0.14	0.07	0.45		0.87
John Kynaston		Guess	4.81	11.82	1.25	9.77
		Error	0.32	0.06	0.18	0.22		0.78

Congratulations Tim, less than a quarter of a mile out overall. First name in the Hall of Fame!

At last! A run on The Way

In the early stages of my recovery, I set a target to have an outing on the West Highland Way before Christmas. Initially, I hoped to get as far as Balmaha but over the last month I have had a sensible head on and realised that would be a bridge too far for now. Instead, I thought the relatively flat 12 miles from Milngavie to Drymen would be a more realistic target.

I set myself a couple of ground rules before I set off; firstly, I would walk every uphill section regardless of how small and secondly, I would not run quicker than 10 mins/mile at any point. Following these rules would ensure I did not put any strain on the tendon and I could really enjoy just being out there.

It was a fantastic day, with a light dusting of snow but nothing to cause concern or risk slipping. Once settled in to the run I tried to run as smoothly as possible, but I am aware that at times I am perhaps not as balanced as I would normally be, trying to inflict as little pounding on my tendon as possible. It sounds so easy to try and run normally, but as soon as you start thinking about your running gait, it changes. I think running is best left to the sub-conscious.

It is moments like these that remind you why we do this - what a small number of people get to experience what we do - how few people see the vistas we see!

I got to Drymen in about 2:30 hours which was suitably slow but gave the tendon a good controlled workout. More importantly, I felt that buzz again. Getting all the kit together, packing for a weekend away, zooming up to Glasgow on Friday night, it's all part of my running regime and something I've missed.

I was a little sore and stiff in the evening but no more so than if I do a 3 mile run, so I guess things are going in the right direction. I feel a little more confident about the next few months now, so much so that on Sunday I spent a couple of hours with John Kynaston planning our training runs round The Lakeland 100 route. We are aiming to cover the route in 4 stages, each approx. 35 miles, once a month between March and June. This suits us both as we have generally kept to that kind of plan with our individual training over the last few years. I think it's safe to say we are both a little bit excited about this adventure!

As I ran along the WHW on Saturday, taking in the view and snapping away with the camera, I came up with the idea for a little competition. This one is for those of you with a knowledge of the WHW route (or who are especially good with maps/Google Earth). I have taken 4 photos along the route along with an exact distance for each via my GPS watch. I started the watch at the WHW post in the middle of Milngavie and took a split at each photo. What you have to do is estimate the distance travelled to my standing position for each photo from the start (in miles to 2 decimal places). The person with the least cumulative error over the 4 photos wins. The photos are NOT in the correct order!

If you send an entry via the comments box, I will not publish your comments until after the closing date which I'll set at midday on Sunday 19th December.

Hope it gets you thinking and looking at some maps - enjoy!


Photo 1



Photo 2



Photo 3

 

Photo 4



Also got thinking about some other ideas for competitions, so we will see how those develop in the future.