It had dawned on me late in the summer that I only ever trained on the road and never raced on that surface any more. Had already decided that 2011 was time for another road marathon (enough time has lapsed for me to forget the pain of these) and when Niall McAlinden put out his "Big 8" email, I saw a wee bit of a new project.
It seemed appropriate that the Ayr Turkey Trot would be a good benchmark to see how things were since it was two years since going as fast as I could on the tarmac.
It had looked like the race might have been on the beach but fair play to the organisers for letting runners be grown ups and had the race on the usual pavement / roads (I am sure we can all decide how fast to go based on conditions and look out for the slippy bits).
Started off a bit quick with a first 1km time of 3:36 but thereafter things settled down to a more sustainable pace keeping under around 3:50 per/km(ish). Had a bit of a hissy fit around the 5km mark when I thought I was going to spew but shouts of encouragement from my cousin who was spectating restored morale.
Happy to cross the line in 38:27 (that is one of the "Big 8" ticked).
Big shout out to fellow Westies Neil and Elizabeth Adams. Nearly didn't recognise Elizabeth since we was running as Santa and a great result from Neil who finished 4th in the 5km event.
As an aside, due to the possibility of the beach run, I decided to race in a very worn out old pair on inov8 mudrocs - they worked well as pseudo minimalist road shoes!
just catching up with your posts. looks like a brilliant list ticking year. happy new year and all that, hope to see on the hill :)
ReplyDeleteCheers Kate - aye last year was a good one for the lists. Managed 50 days on the Scottish hills and seriously loved every one of them. Look forward to seeing you on a hill this year !
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