A day at the seaside

[andygates]

On Sunday I ran the Weston AC Christmas Cracker 10km run. 

The conditions were perfect: cool, bright and still - yes, no wind at Weston, the Southwest's prime kitebuggy beach, a miracle.  It must have been all the Little Baby Jesuses or something: this was a fancy-dress event so the serious club runners were in a single bit of tinsel, and the serious charity runners were going as entire Nativity scenes (there were two!) or mobs of Wise Men and Sexy Santas.  I donned some angel wings and a tinsel halo and hit the beach. 

The plan was that ehutch and I would pace around for a 55:00 finish, leaving despaer up ahead to mount an assault on a serious time. The beach was a little harder-going than we'd like (but easier than at Burnham, man, everything is easier than Burnham - Ice Cold In Alex was easier than Burnham).  After 7k of tougher-than-expected-for-so-flat running we split and I had a good old gurn to the finish before my hips seized up completely, then it was off to enjoy the finishers' mince pie and be surprised at how good I felt. 

Time?  I finished in 57:10, which is a PB for that distance by well over two minutes.  (I'll let the others post-mortem their own runs)  The pacing alarm on the Suunto worked a treat, though I'll have to calibrate it with a GPS-measured klick as it said I did 10.25km.  Certainly it's easy to pick up the pace when the thing's beeping "beep-beep-beep, pick-it-up!".  The 55:00 target was a tad optimistic given the lack of training ;)  Apparently I was putting out an average 161BPM, so about 5-10 over my usual run - which was what I wanted to do and was the sustainable max I could manage.  And the new shoes came right on the day, which eases my worry about having hurled a ton of cash at the wrong bling.  Generally happy with my performance and confident that I can keep working at that distance for the Olympic. 

Photos and official times when the club get them online...

Comments

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Well done!

Did you find the cooler air suited you better?

What are the new shoes?

[andygates.livejournal.com]

The cool air was nice - I was in a Helly longsleeve base, buff, gloves and sexy compression running tights, and that was just right balanced against my output.

The new shoes are Brooks Beasts. Horendibly expensive but they're a nice motion-control sole and *gasp* a wide square toe-box so no little-toe pinching. The issue I was having was just setting the tension of the elastic laces right; looser than I thought, ultimately.

[skean.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it. I like Brooks, but had some Beasts a few years back and they did NOT agree with me. They were just too stiff for me, forcing my feet into a style I didn't like. I run like a duck though, so maybe they can't cope with that :-)

Nice time - beating your PB by 2 mins on sand? I'd say it sounds like you're starting to get used to this running thing you know.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Thanks - as you well know, happy shoes are a match between feet and footwear, so I can't really be a brand whore. I'd have stayed with the Saucony Grids if I hadn't changed to a forefoot strike, and lost enough weight to recover some of my arches!

[splinister.livejournal.com]

Fantastic Andy! That's a very good time too. :)

Which Sunnto are you using?

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

It's the T3 and I want one!

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and it is indeed the T3 with a footpod (which adds pace, average pace, distance covered, etc to the usual HRM funtionality).

[arabis.livejournal.com]

That sounds like good going. So, when you say 'Weston' do you mean that you ran along the beach at Weston-Super-Mare? Running on sand sounds like it'd be very hard work.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's about 3k down the beach, 4k around the South end of town and 3k back up the beach. Sand is a moveable feast; I think it should be harder but the way to test would be to run a flat kilo in a set pace on tarmac and the same on sand, and then see what a HRM says about effort. Which I was too knackered to do after a race :)

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

So you'll be entering the Marathon Des Sable this year then?

[andygates.livejournal.com]

The only marathon on my list (other than the putative ClassicMan) is the Marathon du Medoc - which is basically a pub crawl as it rolls past vineyards and there's fine wine at every drinks station. Like it said in Runner's World, to rush the race is like rushing a good wine: unthinkable.

(ClassicMan, for what it's worth, is an idea I keep bouncing around involving swimming the Hellespont and running a marathon into Marathon itself, with a connecting bike leg over some suitably mythic terrain.)

[skean.livejournal.com]

Bike leg: Go vist the Oracle at Delphi. Or better, the Gods atop Mount Olympus.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Hmm, we need a map...

[skean.livejournal.com]

So, we swim the Hellespont, bike the, what, 700km? to Mount Olympus which is only about a 2,900m climb, then cruise on down to Marathon for the final stroll into town.

I think Classic is an understatement. "Epic" might be better.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

5km swim (allowing for currents); 650km bike; 250km run - assuming that you run from the top of Olympus to Marathon. It's the run that would kill, but yeah, that's epic. All you need is some incest and a monster or two to round that off a treat.

Though it has highlighted the beautiful, self-contained bowl that is the Aegean. Maybe as an extreme holiday tour than as a race?

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I'm in!

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Loon!

Actually lets ride down Olympus at all. It would be simply cruel to deny participants the descent...

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I run on sand when I do either of the beach loops from my parents' house.

There's sand and there's sand. It's always hard work, but not as hard as, say, thick mud (also a feature of my local off road routes). Packed wet sand is okay to run on and provides some cushioning, so is better for the joints even if it's slower. Dry, loose sand, however, is a bugger.

[jonnycowbells.livejournal.com]

Good effort. I hate running on sand, so this sounds like quite a result.

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who would be hard-pressed to finish a 10K at all and would probably keel over after a hundred yards running on fucking sand, I say unto you: well done.

Hm. Looking over that sentence, a "well done" from me isn't worth the spin on the electrons bringing it to you.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless, like quantum baubles, I relish the spin :)

Anyway, I can't squat for toffee any more...

[inkyann.livejournal.com]

Again with the scary fit person comments - nice work :)