When I entered the VLM ballot in 2010 I remember thinking ‘I know people who applied for 5 years and not got in, so, as it’s something I might like to do in the next 5 years I suppose I better start applying now’. Well in my defence there is nothing inherently wrong with this logic….it just doesn’t account for luck and looking back now, that is what I had. Mum called and said “Nicola-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! There’s a VLM magazine here for you” and that was the first I knew of it. I hadn’t really thought about being ‘lucky’ and it didn’t really occur to me that other people wanted my place until I had a conversation with the Lucozade representative at Leeds parkrun. I decided that (after almost fainting from hunger at the Leeds Half!) I needed some advice on nutrition. What should I eat before, what should I have during etc? I sulkily explained my situation something along the lines of “which of these do you recommend that I try-I’ve gone and got a bloody place in the VLM” to which the lady replied that she had applied for the past 3 years and was yet to be successful, I felt terrible! At least now I knew though and I started treating my place with a little more respect.
I didn’t have a training plan (or anything that resembled one!) but after training for a half marathon alone, I had just assumed that this would be my tactic; just keep on running. In December we spent 2 weeks in Kenya KENYA
Christmas saw more eating than running so I knew I needed to get a wriggle on, although I did run the Bungay Groggy Doggy on Boxing Day. Around 5 miles of cross country but not a hill in sight (my kind of xc!) and luckily the ground was frozen so I didn’t get muddy at all (although I would like to confess I queued for over two minutes to get across the plank of wood traversing the river. A river which most people were RUNNING STRAIGHT THROUGH-madness! I would like to admit at this point that I may have used poetic licence with the term ‘river’). I ran it in 48.31. The Norwich Half had been cancelled in November and rearranged for the 13th March so I entered that too-it was a start.
After my holiday and Christmas were over I knew I needed to enter more races and more importantly I was desperate for a positive mental association of running in crowds. Ben and I had run the London 10km (11/07/10) to raise money for Brain Tumour UK
So….off I went pelting along (I actually ran a sub 26min 5km which I have yet to achieve at parkrun…or any 5km for that matter!) so halfway round I knew I should reach my goal of sub 1 hour. Ben was running with me as (at this time) he wasn’t a runner either, he’d done no training and had never run 10km. Kilometers 6-9 were tough, I couldn’t maintain my speed and struggled a bit, but the final kilometer was great as I knew I was going to make it. Now, if you’ve ever run with me then you’ll know I love a good sprint finish (it’s the only bit of running I enjoy!) so coming up to the finish I let my legs do their thing and off I went and sprinted across the finish line. So where did my negative experience come from? Well, right there; at the finish line!
All I remember is sprinting across the line, a few seconds of flying (no I hadn’t got that fast running!) and then skidding on my front across the road. As I lay on the floor bleeding with three paramedics round me I remember hearing Ben saying “she’s fine, she’s fine” and I remember thinking (as I wildly hyperventilated having gone from full sprint to smack, down onto the tarmac) “I’M NOT FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Of course….I was fine! The only place I had really hurt was my hands which were bleeding, and the blood didn’t help the hyperventilating although I somehow managed to wheeze out “it’s….O….K……I’m……just……hyper….....ventilating”. I was helped away from the finish line; half carried, half attempting to walk, and sat on the pavement sipping water for about 10 minutes surveying the damage. Apart from the ripped clothing and the cut hands I was fine.
So what happened? Well, Ben had been running with me and he had thought ‘we’re running together it’d be nice to cross the finish line together’, I thought Ben was just using me for pace, he could sprint or not but I was focused on my sub 1 hour rather than on holding hands across the finish line. Ben did decide to sprint and was following my line as I weaved through all the people as I overtook them, which was fine until I slowed just across the finish line with Ben still in full sprint; he caught my back leg and took it clear out from under me! Ben said that because there was such a big crowd of spectators that you could hear a massive gasp as I hit the deck! I like to think that it must have looked quite impressive; because I had been sprinting I travelled a few meters in the air before I made contact with the ground again! Anyway Ben felt terrible, and I would like to point out that he didn’t do it on purpose; he has no vision in his lower left quadrant and it was a miscommunication so he was not entirely to blame (although I’m not sure the girl that he took down in a similar fashion at this years Great North Run when she was 200 meters from the finish line would agree!). Anyway I came in under the hour and finished in 58.44. My favourite running word was back; PB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, where was I, OK so I need some positive race experiences as well as increasing my distance to about 18 miles before 17/04/11. I didn’t know where to find race information but I knew where to find people that would know; I decided to try out a running club. Thanks to Google I’d identified two running clubs nearby; the Kirkstall Harriers and the Hyde Park Harriers. On a dark and cold Wednesday night I went and completed my first ever run with a running club. It was all a bit scary, I was a bit intimidated by being asked what ‘minute miles’ I ran; “what minute miles do you run, about 7 or 8, or more 9 or 10?” I had NO IDEA! Firstly I had only ever run in kilometers (and not considering myself a runner I had no idea what the km‑to‑mile conversion was!) and secondly I’d never really worried too much about my pace. So I said “um……I’m not sure……I’m slow”. The run was OK but I didn’t really make any connections with anyone and all the runners seemed….a bit serious….like real runners, there was nobody I considered to be ‘like me’! Maybe the Kirkstall Harriers weren’t for me (I’ve since met loads of lovely Kirkstall Harriers and wonder where they were this night!).
On Tuesday 25th January (the day before my PhD viva) I went down to The Edge to give the Hyde Park Harriers a go. We were split into groups and I wasn’t asked the dreaded “what minute miles do you run?” This was a much bigger running club and in our group there were several people who were also new, including a lovely girl called Vicky (Vicky Houghton) who I chatted to for most of the run. The group leader was one of the lovely parkrun ladies I kind of knew, Kay Jefferies, and she was FANTASTIC; so welcoming and friendly that I knew I had found my running club.
I immediately got what I needed; information about what races to enter. I was told about a ‘lovely little half marathon’ coming up in just over two weeks so I entered it. It was a tiny event called the Liversedge Half Marathon (now if you have run this you will quickly realise that Liversedge is far from a ‘lovely little half’. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end!). This race was a BEAST! OK I thought, it’s a great time to try a run-walk strategy, ‘I’ll run it and when I struggle I’ll walk’. Now this would be great to try anywhere else but at Liversedge you meet a near vertical hill about half a mile in! It was too soon and I wasn’t ready to walk but the beasty hill left me no choice! Anyway I got round in 2.22.32 (I would have run 10 seconds faster if I’d have known!) and I had learnt that what I hated more than running was run‑walking, this was a very important lesson. The other thing I learnt that day was that 20 mile races existed (I remember thinking ‘what a good idea’) and that was that, I’d entered East Hull 20.
The following month involved a week of skiing, two weeks cruising in the Caribbean and not a great deal of running! Good job I didn’t have a training plan or it would be looking very sad indeed (but don’t give up on me-I was about to get a bit serious about running). In the next month I stepped up my training, I ran the Norwich Half (Another PB!!!! This was much more like it, there was that PB word that I like so much and it was 12 minutes faster than Liversedge!).
I ran the East Hull 20 in 3.30.18. (if I’d have known I would have waited at the finish line for 12 seconds!) I quite enjoyed this race; part of this was because I ran the first hour with a lovely man called Ives (who I’ve since seen at Roundhay parkrun). It was a bit embarrassing, I asked him to hold my drink while I did up my sports bra, ha ha! He helped with my motivation as friend had signed him up and the furthest he had previously run was 10km AND he had an injured ankle, now having recently run a half marathon and with happy ankles I felt quite prepared. We were a similar pace and he was good company for the first 8 miles. Overall I have mixed feelings about the East Hull 20. It was a good run for me, I was pleased with my time but I later found out that Anna Hollingworth (who is now one of my lovely running friends) was in tears at the end, Ben got blisters and had to walk 8 miles of it (finishing an hour after me), and Ives hadn’t been able to completed the race. On top of this there was no medal or T-shirt just a crappy Parker pen! I didn’t run 20 miles for a pen, I NEED a medal! Still for me the run itself was OK and I would do it again, the best thing was that it was exactly 4 weeks before London
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