Recent Races

A few weeks ago I had the Cardiff Half Marathon which was also the British Champs.  After running really well at the Lake Vyrnwy Half after several weeks of hard training and feeling like there was a fair bit more to give, I was looking forward to this one and had high hopes of a good pb.  

A week before I was out running and my right glute and hamstring started to tighten up.  I managed to get an appointment on Monday morning (after it was still very tight on Monday mornings run) with my sports masseur.  I opted to miss my second run to try and let it settle.  I did a longish run on Tuesday morning and it was fine until the last 20 minutes when it really tightened up again, so back to my masseur and a physio appointment on Wednesday.  I then gave Thursday's track session a miss.  By the time the race came around it had settled but it was on my mind.  

I started off at a good pace and decided I wouldn't keep time checking and felt like I was holding the pace.  I mostly ran with another girl and apart from a bit of a bad patch mostly down to a loss of concentration I then picked off a few girls in the last couple of kilometres.  I crossed the line in 13th (10th Brit) but really disappointed with my time.  It was 1 min 30 slower than at Lake Vyrnwy.  I probably had my tight hamstring in my mind as although I wanted to do well it wasn't at the cost of ending up injured and risking my marathon which is my main aim next month.  I also think that perhaps I took it for granted I would get a pb after my last half!  

I had decided on one more race before I do my marathon now.  A nice local 10k race which Dan was timing anyway.  My hamstring had still been causing me problems in the lead up but nowhere near as bad as it had been.  I ran really within myself and finished 1st.  What was really pleasing was that a few athletes I've been coaching did really well too.  Liz finished 2nd and Carol who I'm just about to start coaching finished 3rd with Rob finishing just behind them in a solid run.  I also got a lovely bouquet of flowers from Paul Burrell (yes - the former butler to Lady Di) as he has a local flower shop!!

A few weeks of hard training now before I start easing back for my marathon!