Colchester Harriers here I come

Well I've had a lovely Few days of reeping the benefits of being a runner. I now have 73 miles to go of my 1000 mile challenge.

Those that follow me on Facebook and Twitter will know that I was First Lady in Colchester castle Parkrun on Saturday.  This was quite surprising.  I hadn't decided to race it until about 20 minutes before.  I had 5 miles at marathon pace in my plan and i figured I would be able to do that from home, incorporating the Parkrun as part of it.  For those overseas who don't know, parkrun is a free timed 5km run every Saturday morning in your local park.  I'm very involved in the Colchester Castle one, as one of the run directors there, however, I haven't run it as many times as I would like to, as I've had so much going on this year.  There are events in Australia, South Africa and Norway amongst others.  It really is a fantastic opportunity for all types of runners.  Usually many of the Colcheter Harriers run the parkrun, and so my best finish position has been about 7th lady.  I've noticed when volunteering that not so many of them have been around, so that I might be able to sneak in a top 3 finish.  

So, on Saturday morning, when I got out to run, I was just jogging a warm up before I would ramp up to 8:30 pace, but I saw a woman up ahead running dressed in bright pink and guessed she was going to Parkrun also.  She stopped to stretch and I caught up to her and we decided to run together.  We had a chat, running in at a very easy pace, so of course I was going to race the Parkrun now.  Smaller numbers for Colchester this week, and again I made the mistake of staring a bit too far back in the field which meant I was slowed down at the start.  I was running at what I thought was controlled pace, but I was actually at a 7min mile and feeling very strong.  If I kept this pace up, I was on track for a really big 5k pb, which given no speedwork since the summer was probably unlikely, however, a pb on the Colchester course should be within my reach.  The previous time was 23:08, so I wanted under 23.

As I went out along the river stretch, the pace began to settle around 7:06- there was no need to push it here as I didn't want to blow up on the hill.  My strategy was to keep it steady on the flat, but overtake both on the up and downhills.  I had my eyes on John, our event director, most of the way around.  He's usually about a minute faster than me, so I didn't want to go past him too quickly, but I passed him on the second long down hill and he gave me an encouraging "Well done Angela".  I could see a girl up ahead, but I didn't want to pass her too soon, as I didn't want a tiring fight on the hill.  I quite enjoyed the last uphill on this day as I had paced the course well, and I managed to overtake her, but I had that fear that she'd fight on the uphill and tire me out.  I overtook a couple of guys too.  I really struggle at the top of this hill the second time around as with half a mile to go, it's where I want to wind up the pace, but the effort of the uphill always means I'm a bit stifled for getting extra speed at this point. However, I seemed to recover it better than I usually do, and managed a really strong sprint (for me) finish.  That chap behind me has kicked me on the finish before, so really happy to stay ahead this time:

I thank the excellent race conditions and the extra resistance work I've been doing lately :). 22:41, a pb for the Colchester course by 27 seconds.

After the run, the lady I overtook congratulated me, and encouraged me to come along and train with the Colchester harriers.

On Sunday, I helped out at the Santa run in The park.  Very festive, but very cold standing around outside waiting for everyone to finish.  As such, I couldn't face staying outside any longer to do my run.  I did it on Monday instead.

10 miles LSR- this was to be uneventful as I took my usual route on the Wivenhoe trail.  I couldn't mange to keep the pace as slow as I was supposed to.  Since I'm going for an 8:30 marathon pace, I really should be doing my long runs at 10-10:30mm, or even slower, but my legs wanted to run at 9:30 today.  Maybe because I was listening to music?  I only saw 1 other runner going in the other direction, and he was flying!  Once I was sure he wouldn't see me, I stopped to walk for a bit as I was experiencing stomach cramps.  But shortly after he caught up to me!  He must have turned around!!  We had some run chat.. Turned out he was a sub 3 marathoner and that he used to run with the Harriers... Encouraged me to join and said based on my running he reckons my GFA goal in Manchester should be achievable.., but what is it with these Harriers?? Are they sending stalkers out to find me now ;). Haha.  The mile or so I ran with that chap was sub 9mm I did manage to keep the conversation going, but this is certainly faster than I would usually run on a LSR.  

I do believe the universe is trying to tell me something, so I'm going to go along to their training session tomorrow evening and give it a go!  Wish me luck! :-D