Adidas Women's 5k Challenge

What an amazing day! This is my favourite race of the year; possibly because it's the first race I ever ran way back in 2007! This is where I caught the running bug; back then the race was sponsored by Lucozade and I made it through by running 3km twice a week and a half marathon wasn't even a pipe dream!

I always aim to do better than I did the previous year at this race and normally succeed by setting a new PB for the year. This year, however, I had already set a new 5k PB back in February at the Milton Keynes parkrun of 26:05. Whilst my ultimate goal for 2010 was to get a sub 25:00 5k, and I really wanted to do it at this race, I wasn't hopeful as my training had been lax and I was and am seriously stressed at the moment!

I met up with my bff in the park before the race and we headed down to the start together. She had the bright idea of getting into the sub 25min section (for club runners, which I am lol). Something I probably wouldn't have done, even though that was what I was hoping, I was realistic and hoping to just do a sub 26min race; I would be happy with 25:xx! We didn't have a lot of time before the start and soon after we got into the pen they closed the gates and told newcomers to go to the back to run the race. I didn't get to warm up properly so just stretched and bounced around in the pen, my anxiety was enough of a warm up! My hero Jessica Ennis was on the podium and I was torn between taking a pic of her and getting my music started. When I checked my watch is was 10:59 so, sorry Jess, but the music won out and before I knew it the gun went off! I didn't even have a chance to say good luck to my bff before heading off with the crowd. Luckily we had already decided where to meet after the race before heading off to meet our other halves!


I didn't rush off as the gun went, but took my time walking to the line and making sure my watch matched exactly the start line. Setting off I decided not to distract myself by check my watch at every km marker. I needed to check that my watch matched up with the markers on the course, but not check my time. I know the course off by heart now and mapped out in my head the start with the 1st left bend then the part where you double back on yourself where, for the first time in four years I was fast to see the elites running ahead! After that you hit the first km and it's pretty much like any other course until you hit the police station towards the end with the little elevation which really takes it out of you if your not expecting it, but after you turn the corner the finish line is there and that is pretty much that! For the life of me I couldn't figure out if I was on track for my target time or not. I tried to pick someone out in the crowd to match on speed, but couldn't; there were a lot of club runners as expected and whilst I was maintaining speed with them I couldn't out run them and kind of fell in the middle to back of the pack. At the 3km I allowed myself a look at my watch; 15:01. At first I couldn't work out what that meant I was so shocked! But I was on target to get 25:00mins! I just needed to maintain my pace and hoped that my watch and the course continued to match at every marker! 


There were a few moments when I really didn't think I could keep the momentum up, but I kept my usual mantra in my head; just 10 mins and it will all be over, and if you don't collapse at the finish line, you're not running hard enough! As the finish line came in sight I checked the time; 24:xx; I was under 25mins! That really pushed me, I wanted to sprint to the finish, but as hard as I pushed I couldn't sprint, but I hope my speed picked up a little! As I crossed the finish line I pushed the stop button on my watch and felt it buzz. I didn't look at it, I just concentrated on the time on the clock, I didn't cross the line at the gun (the elites did), but it still read 24:25 as I crossed; I'd made it in under 25 minutes; I'd made it in under 24:30 and under 24:25! I was amazed! Luckily I did not collapse at the finish line, I started walking through the funnel and checked the time on my watch realising it hadn't stopped when I hit the button; the vibration I had felt was it clocking 5km, duh! I hit the button at 25:50 and  soon heard my bff calling my name. My bff managed 25:07 a PB for her too so it was a good day all round. We finished up with some time in the park chilling out, checking out the adidas tent and I even saw Jessica Ennis up close and was too star struck to speak to her!


My splits were:
1km - 4:35.56
2km - 4:57.15
3km - 5:06.29
4km - 4:59.34
5km - 4:39.45
Total for 5km: 24:17.79

Back Up & Running!

I feel good! Denenenenene. I knew that I would. Denenenenene. I feeeeeel good! Denenenenene. I knew that I would. Denenenenene. So good! Dun dun. So good! Dun dun, cos I can run. Dun dun dun dun...

Today I completed the British Heart Foundation London Jog Trilogy; Part 1 Hyde Park. I had this in my diary as a planned last 10km race before the London Marathon. But that was before my injury of course. The jogs are actually well thought out in order to appeal to all walks of people. You can do anything from 1km on some races to 10km. Hyde Park today offered a choice of 5km or 10km and they didn't care what you did. Which actually worked well for me, had I not been injured I would have really enjoyed it. Actually who am I kidding? Had I not been injured it would have annoyed the hell out of me! It was a jog; most people were walking or meandering along which is fine and exactly what I needed today, but had I been really training hard I would have pushed to the front at the start in order to avoid the walkers and been really annoyed if I'd ended up behind any of them! The whole race would have been me weaving in and out trying to run around people lol. I noticed the people that were doing just that!

I decided part way down the course to only do 5km. My ankle felt ok, but I didn't think ok was good enough and my fitness levels have really plummeted. I knew I could go 10k if I wanted to, but I also knew it would still be a gentle 10km jog, rather than a great race. So at the 5km point where runners were being directed to go around again for a second lap I turned right and run to the finish to collect my medal, water, stretch and check my bags were still in the unmanned, dump it all here bag area!

It's scary to think how my fitness levels have completely dropped since being injured. I guess I should have been swimming a lot more to fill in, but I couldn't swim the first two weeks as me ankle was strapped up and in the last week I knew I was only days away from running so didn't bother! I guess 10km would be about my max run at the moment, with 5km being a fair distance to build from. So for me from here it's gonna be back to basics. I think London is out of the window from this point, I still have another six half marathons to run in 2010 and I'll add another full marathon in at the end of the year, when hopefully my ankle will be more up for it!

I now have an appointment booked in with a specialist to look at my ankle; at the very least I think I'll need to be fitted with orthontics as my right ankle joint seems to fall inwards as I run  in the area where my ligaments are damaged and I'm not having that problem on my left ankle. The specialist wanted to remove my steel plate and give me an MRI scan last time, but decided not to so I could run the marathon, or maybe just so he didn't have another patient in his list. The funny this is one session of physio with Zoe and she said "it (the joint) feels very creaky", exactly the problem I'd been to the specialist with. My ankle had been 'clicking' in and out of place for years, but running, no wearing high heels after running heightened the problem. I once walked around gingerly all day, as my joint had slipped out of place and I just couldn't get it to go back as much as I tried - normally I flex my ankle and it goes 'pop'; job done. My appointment is in 4 weeks which gives me some time to start training again and getting back into a pattern, especially as it will be two days after my next half marathon! Before that though I have the second part of the BHF London Jog Trilogy - Tower Of London where I'm hoping to get 10km down. Right now though I'm just taking one day at a time and one run at a time. I need to get my fitness levels back up, with less focus on the running and maybe spending more time spinning, swimming or out on my bike. One day at a time, one run at a time here I go; back up and running!