As you can see from the screenshot massive GPS fail - more on that later.
A race in both my Club Championship and the Sussex Grand Prix, Crowborough 10k is a two lap affair. It is a challenging course featuring a ford and what one member of my club described as a "slight incline" and we all know what that means!
I arrived in plenty of time to collect my number and warm up. I even made the the team photo - I'm usually in the loo queue. Although it had been raining when we left Hastings the weather had cleared by the start of the race and I felt a tad overdressed. I'd borrowed my son's old football under top as I thought I'd be too cold in just my club vest. The first mile or so was downhill and I started to worry that I was going to be way too warm but luckily my body temperature seemed to regulate itself and I didn't get any hotter. I was careful at the start not to go too fast as I knew what was coming - what goes down must go up and boy did it go up! At the bottom of the climb we came to the ford and the marshal shouted at us to keep left to run through it or right to use the bridge. I had every intention of keeping to the racing line and going through it until I saw how deep it was - I'm pretty short and it would have come up to my shins! So I moved to the right and took the very muddy, slippery path across the bridge. Then we started to climb - when we got to the steepest part almost everyone was walking. I really wanted to run the whole race so I shortened my stride and kept going.
There was the option of a 5k and when they peeled off to finish I noticed my watch was already a little way past that distance. I didn't really think too much of it - I was running at my target pace and I knew we had the downhill coming so I could recover before attempting the hill again. I started to realise something was very amiss when my watch beeped for 5 miles just as we went past the 7km marker. I wasn't going nearly as fast as my watch was telling me and by the time we reached the steep bit for the second time I gave up and walked. I did manage to get going again but as my watch beeped for 6 miles at the 9km marker I was feeling pretty despondent. By this point I was totally knackered and knew the finish was up another steep hill so I wouldn't even have a sprint to look forward to.
As I turned into the finish I could hear those from my club that had already finished cheering for me but all I wanted to do was get to the end and I didn't even acknowledge them. I crossed the line in 58:14 chip time and did go and join everyone to cheer in our other runners and thank them for supporting me. I doubt it's a race I'll do again as it's been taken off our race calendar as not many people are keen to do it so I think that time may well stand as my one and only attempt. If anyone does get the chance to do it it is very well organised and definitely a challenge.
The main thing I'll take away from this run is my overreliance on technology. I don't look at my watch much when racing but I do check it, particularly in the first few km, to make sure I'm not going too fast. In this case the GPS error meant I was going way too slowly on the easier parts of the course to achieve my goal time. I'd hoped to break 55mins for 10k this year but as that was my last race of 2019 that will have to wait.
PS does anyone know how to delete records from Strava? I've managed to delete them from my watch and Garmin Connect but can't for the life of me work out how to do it in Strava 😂
Written by
pianoteacher
Marathon
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That sounds like a really tough course and a fantastic time! Tech can be so annoying! It's why I started making my own pace bands for the half marathons I ran. I felt the only piece of info I could rely on from my garmin was the time, and when the distance was different to markers my head would go into a virtual meltdown trying to calculate where I was at! So I started making pace bands Blue Peter style (with paper and sticky backed plastic); then all my head had to do was decide if I was ahead or behind and by how many minutes. I have to say they really calmed the noises in my head in my last three events.
Not sure how you can delete records in Strava, but there is an option to adjust the distance in the web version (based on routes strava knows about, and the option to revert back if it makes it worse!), but I'm not sure if that would retrospectively update records.
I think the technology helps and hinders me in equal measure. When I ran my 5k PB back in the summer I convinced myself I was going too fast because of what my watch was telling me when I probably would have been fine to go faster. My friend at running club runs with a wrist watch only and managed her first sub25 in very windy conditions at parkrun last week. She never has any idea of her time until the results get published! My ex husband also runs tech free (although he does have a watch with a stop watch now) and has had great success just running to feel - his first parkrun was around 33 mins and his current PB is 23:40 - he doesn't even really train either which is just annoying 😂
Re Strava - I found the adjustment thingy bit it only took about 100m off. Think maybe I'll just delete the whole run and re-enter it manually x
Oooeerrrr .... not ready to give my watch up just yet, although since restarting this past few weeks I haven't been checking pace at all - just using it for distance. All it has proved so far is that I have little or no idea whether I'm going fast or slow
😂🤣 I like the stats too much to do without it completely but I've been trying to do much more running to feel in the past 6 months or so. The weirdest thing is my heart rate which always seems to go into zone 4 no matter whether I'm pootling round chatting or going race pace 🤷♀️
Thanks Abi - I'm thinking I might just have to delete it!
I have distance, time elapsed and pace displayed on the first screen and heart rate zone, heart rate and calories on the second page although I never look at that during the run. As I said to Linda I think it's sometimes not helpful to me. I've weaned myself off looking at it during training runs but still probably use it a bit too much during races x
That 55min 10k will be waiting for you next year when you'll have better race conditions, and in a race you're likely to run again - which you'll probably prefer anyway.
Thanks Dave! It might help if I tried a flat course - the 3 I've done so far have all been pretty hilly. My favourite of those, Hellingly, was also my fastest so I'm definitely having another go in 2020 x
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