Post by MartinD on Nov 5, 2012 17:31:02 GMT
(This is a copy of the report that I posted on my blog - link is in my signature at the bottom of the post.)
This was one of those races that I wouldn't have entered if I hadn't been part of a club... The club championship for Portobello runs over the year, with your results from selected events being counted towards your score - in each category (senior/veteran/super-vet, separately for male/female), the first finisher from the club gets 10 points, the second finisher gets 9, and so on. I've had a decent year, but am not in contention to win the championship as the fast guys have taken part in enough events to put them out of my reach (Gareth and Johnny both had maximum points going into the race, and had agreed that today's race would be the tiebreaker) - even so, I have a chance of finishing third in the male senior category, so decided to enter the Templeton 10-mile race once my legs started working somewhere approaching normally after Loch Ness. Even so, it was always likely that I wouldn't be able to prepare properly for the race, with a suitable taper leading into race day, as I feel that it's more important for me to get ready for the Seattle Marathon at the end of the month rather than try to run a big PB in a 10-miler.
I'll admit to not feeling particularly good about the race when I was getting ready this morning - I had put in a solid few days of training earlier in the week, with a 19-mile long run last Sunday, a couple of good swim sessions (along with some time on the bike) on Monday and Tuesday, then two hard run days on Wednesday (tempo intervals at running club) and Thursday (moved this week's long run up a few days to allow for the race on Sunday). The 17-miler on Thursday was tough at the end, to the point where I was still feeling it on Saturday, so I had a day off on Friday and a recovery day yesterday (4 miles on the treadmill).
The race starts and finishes on the northern outskirts of Dundee - almost 80 miles away by road, but a pretty easy drive (in that it's dual carriageway and motorway almost the whole way - add in Sunday morning traffic, and it was a pretty uneventful journey). It was one of those clear but cold days that you get at this time of year - I had to scrape the car before I started out, and the car thermometer didn't get above 4° during the journey. It wasn't any warmer when I got to Dundee - the road leading to registration had a thin layer of ice on it, which made the footing a bit tricky (and didn't exactly inspire confidience in the surfaces that we were going to be running on...)
I didn't know too much about the race before I entered, and there isn't much information available online, but the nature of the challenge became pretty obvious on heading towards the start. The runners were congregating near the edge of a wooded area at the top of a hill, with the road leading down into the valley and up towards a pretty significant hill on the other side - very pretty, particularly in the early winter sunshine, but also suggesting that the route might be a bit up and down... That initial impression was confirmed pretty quickly after the start - a quick downhill section to start, then a series of climbs with some short respites of flat and downhill running that allowed the runners to get their hopes up before rounding a corner to see the runners up ahead toiling up another hill.
Given that I hadn't really given myself enough time to recover from my recent training, I tried not to go out too hard - started alongside a clubmate (Yana, who runs at a similar pace to me and is usually there or thereabouts for the ladies' prizes in this sort of race), but she gradually opened out a decent lead over me in the first few miles. Even though my heart rate was at the low end of the range that I was expecting, I wasn't feeling particularly good through the early miles of the race - I find that there's usually a point in every race that I run where I don't want to keep pushing, and I need to make the decision if I really want it on that day, but it doesn't usually come quite as early as it did today (less than four miles in!) It doesn't help that I'm not particularly good on hills, particularly uphill - I try to run at an even effort level if I can, but find it difficult to get the pacing right. I managed to get through the rough patch, though, and (thankfully) the road started to level off then head back downhill as we reached the drinks station just after 4 miles.
While running downhill does make it easier to run fast, it's also a lot tougher on the legs (as I found out at Loch Ness, where I pushed a bit too hard on the many downhill sections early in the race, and suffered all the way through the second half), and there were some awkward and relatively steep downhill sections between miles 5 and 8. I've noticed in previous races that I have a tendency to be slower than the people running around me on the uphill sections, but faster when the road heads downwards (one advantage of having relatively long legs for my height!), and that proved to be the case again today, as I passed and was passed by quite a few runners - think that I saw a Wee County Harriers runner something like four or five times through this stretch. The road eventually levelled off, though - not sure why, but I was feeling a lot better by this point.
My thoughts at this point turned to what I knew was coming - the return journey back up the long downhill straight that we had started on. The route is a clockwise loop, so I knew that we would make a left turn and see that hill ahead of us - after a long straight section that took us past 8 miles, I saw a left turn coming, and thought 'this must be it', only to see a short climb before a right turn and another straight. Another left turn at the end of that straight - no, there's another short climb and a right turn. Third time lucky, as we approached another left turn? Yes, I was back in familiar territiory now (for the first time since the start). I had been gradually pulling Yana back over the last mile or so, and was about 100 yards back as we took that left turn back past the start, but started closing the gap more quickly up the hill, and caught her as we turned off the road for the last section through the trees.
Not knowing the course caused a couple of problems over the last stretch. There was a bit of a gap to the next runner once I passed Yana, so I didn't have anyone in front of me to follow - thankfully, the trail was fairly straightforwards, and I managed to pick the right route (although I did have a couple of moments where I wasn't sure if I had taken the right turn...) The other part was that I had assumed that this part of the course would be relatively flat, only to get an unpleasant surprise when the trail kicked up for a few hundred yards - not what you want to see at this point in the race! I survived that last uphill section, though, and saw the signs indicating a couple of hundred yards to go - off the trail, through a tight twisty section and onto the final straight. I went through the finish with just over 1:08 on the clock (1:08.19 on my Garmin), which I was pretty happy with, given what I had done and how I was feeling going into the race.
I caught up with my clubmates after the race - Johnny had won the head-to-head with Gareth for the senior men's club championship, and the guys had finished high enough to win the men's team prize (on countback after a tie, with our fourth runner just finishing ahead of the third counter for the team that finished second!) Yana came in close behind me, and finished as third lady - there were also some very good runs from the other Portobello runners. The post-race service was good - a decent goody bag (including a snood rather than the traditional t-shirt), and a good selection of food to choose from. (I got a bit lucky - went back in after the presentations to pick up something to keep me going for the drive home, and was told to just take what I wanted, so ended up with 8 Lucozade cereal bars...)
Looking back, I probably shouldn't have been surprised at feeling as bad as I did early on - it's something that I've experienced quite a few times in training runs when I'm either still recovering from a hard run or I'm a bit short on energy, and it does tend to pass over if I stick with it. I was also a little bit surprised at how low my heart rate stayed through the race (maxed out at 168bpm, where I usually get decently into the 170s), but it does tend to stay a bit lower in cold weather.
Quite a few of my clubmates were saying that they found the race tough (and it was a tough route, particularly that last uphill stretch), but I quite liked it - not a race that you can go into looking for a fast time, but a good challenging route with some very decent views.
Elevation chart:
This was one of those races that I wouldn't have entered if I hadn't been part of a club... The club championship for Portobello runs over the year, with your results from selected events being counted towards your score - in each category (senior/veteran/super-vet, separately for male/female), the first finisher from the club gets 10 points, the second finisher gets 9, and so on. I've had a decent year, but am not in contention to win the championship as the fast guys have taken part in enough events to put them out of my reach (Gareth and Johnny both had maximum points going into the race, and had agreed that today's race would be the tiebreaker) - even so, I have a chance of finishing third in the male senior category, so decided to enter the Templeton 10-mile race once my legs started working somewhere approaching normally after Loch Ness. Even so, it was always likely that I wouldn't be able to prepare properly for the race, with a suitable taper leading into race day, as I feel that it's more important for me to get ready for the Seattle Marathon at the end of the month rather than try to run a big PB in a 10-miler.
I'll admit to not feeling particularly good about the race when I was getting ready this morning - I had put in a solid few days of training earlier in the week, with a 19-mile long run last Sunday, a couple of good swim sessions (along with some time on the bike) on Monday and Tuesday, then two hard run days on Wednesday (tempo intervals at running club) and Thursday (moved this week's long run up a few days to allow for the race on Sunday). The 17-miler on Thursday was tough at the end, to the point where I was still feeling it on Saturday, so I had a day off on Friday and a recovery day yesterday (4 miles on the treadmill).
The race starts and finishes on the northern outskirts of Dundee - almost 80 miles away by road, but a pretty easy drive (in that it's dual carriageway and motorway almost the whole way - add in Sunday morning traffic, and it was a pretty uneventful journey). It was one of those clear but cold days that you get at this time of year - I had to scrape the car before I started out, and the car thermometer didn't get above 4° during the journey. It wasn't any warmer when I got to Dundee - the road leading to registration had a thin layer of ice on it, which made the footing a bit tricky (and didn't exactly inspire confidience in the surfaces that we were going to be running on...)
I didn't know too much about the race before I entered, and there isn't much information available online, but the nature of the challenge became pretty obvious on heading towards the start. The runners were congregating near the edge of a wooded area at the top of a hill, with the road leading down into the valley and up towards a pretty significant hill on the other side - very pretty, particularly in the early winter sunshine, but also suggesting that the route might be a bit up and down... That initial impression was confirmed pretty quickly after the start - a quick downhill section to start, then a series of climbs with some short respites of flat and downhill running that allowed the runners to get their hopes up before rounding a corner to see the runners up ahead toiling up another hill.
Given that I hadn't really given myself enough time to recover from my recent training, I tried not to go out too hard - started alongside a clubmate (Yana, who runs at a similar pace to me and is usually there or thereabouts for the ladies' prizes in this sort of race), but she gradually opened out a decent lead over me in the first few miles. Even though my heart rate was at the low end of the range that I was expecting, I wasn't feeling particularly good through the early miles of the race - I find that there's usually a point in every race that I run where I don't want to keep pushing, and I need to make the decision if I really want it on that day, but it doesn't usually come quite as early as it did today (less than four miles in!) It doesn't help that I'm not particularly good on hills, particularly uphill - I try to run at an even effort level if I can, but find it difficult to get the pacing right. I managed to get through the rough patch, though, and (thankfully) the road started to level off then head back downhill as we reached the drinks station just after 4 miles.
While running downhill does make it easier to run fast, it's also a lot tougher on the legs (as I found out at Loch Ness, where I pushed a bit too hard on the many downhill sections early in the race, and suffered all the way through the second half), and there were some awkward and relatively steep downhill sections between miles 5 and 8. I've noticed in previous races that I have a tendency to be slower than the people running around me on the uphill sections, but faster when the road heads downwards (one advantage of having relatively long legs for my height!), and that proved to be the case again today, as I passed and was passed by quite a few runners - think that I saw a Wee County Harriers runner something like four or five times through this stretch. The road eventually levelled off, though - not sure why, but I was feeling a lot better by this point.
My thoughts at this point turned to what I knew was coming - the return journey back up the long downhill straight that we had started on. The route is a clockwise loop, so I knew that we would make a left turn and see that hill ahead of us - after a long straight section that took us past 8 miles, I saw a left turn coming, and thought 'this must be it', only to see a short climb before a right turn and another straight. Another left turn at the end of that straight - no, there's another short climb and a right turn. Third time lucky, as we approached another left turn? Yes, I was back in familiar territiory now (for the first time since the start). I had been gradually pulling Yana back over the last mile or so, and was about 100 yards back as we took that left turn back past the start, but started closing the gap more quickly up the hill, and caught her as we turned off the road for the last section through the trees.
Not knowing the course caused a couple of problems over the last stretch. There was a bit of a gap to the next runner once I passed Yana, so I didn't have anyone in front of me to follow - thankfully, the trail was fairly straightforwards, and I managed to pick the right route (although I did have a couple of moments where I wasn't sure if I had taken the right turn...) The other part was that I had assumed that this part of the course would be relatively flat, only to get an unpleasant surprise when the trail kicked up for a few hundred yards - not what you want to see at this point in the race! I survived that last uphill section, though, and saw the signs indicating a couple of hundred yards to go - off the trail, through a tight twisty section and onto the final straight. I went through the finish with just over 1:08 on the clock (1:08.19 on my Garmin), which I was pretty happy with, given what I had done and how I was feeling going into the race.
I caught up with my clubmates after the race - Johnny had won the head-to-head with Gareth for the senior men's club championship, and the guys had finished high enough to win the men's team prize (on countback after a tie, with our fourth runner just finishing ahead of the third counter for the team that finished second!) Yana came in close behind me, and finished as third lady - there were also some very good runs from the other Portobello runners. The post-race service was good - a decent goody bag (including a snood rather than the traditional t-shirt), and a good selection of food to choose from. (I got a bit lucky - went back in after the presentations to pick up something to keep me going for the drive home, and was told to just take what I wanted, so ended up with 8 Lucozade cereal bars...)
Looking back, I probably shouldn't have been surprised at feeling as bad as I did early on - it's something that I've experienced quite a few times in training runs when I'm either still recovering from a hard run or I'm a bit short on energy, and it does tend to pass over if I stick with it. I was also a little bit surprised at how low my heart rate stayed through the race (maxed out at 168bpm, where I usually get decently into the 170s), but it does tend to stay a bit lower in cold weather.
Quite a few of my clubmates were saying that they found the race tough (and it was a tough route, particularly that last uphill stretch), but I quite liked it - not a race that you can go into looking for a fast time, but a good challenging route with some very decent views.
Elevation chart:
