It seems obligatory, so here's my take on yesterday's Great South Run, without the HU group photo you've already seen at least half-a-dozen times ....
I wasn't feeling at all confident this time around, as my last training run of any distance (11 days ago) saw me hitting the wall just after 11k - a proper crash from "Ooh, this is going well" to "I can't run another step" in 150 metres! Add that to a very sociable pre-race carb-loading supper with said group (not that much wine, but definitely too much garlic bread) and I walked to the race village feeling very flat, in sad need of an injection of cheekychipmunks ' excitement. Dexy5 was following along later, as she was in a later wave. So I had to keep my "why am I doing this" thoughts to myself ..... luckily they disappeared once I got to the hubbub of the start area.
Rather to my surprise, I was in the first wave this year (along with Katnap , though there was no sign of him at this stage), with my forecast time equal to the slowest pacer in the wave (1 hr 30). Even more to my surprise, despite thinking I was way too far forward in the queue for the start, I found myself within a few feet of said pacer (Luis) - and remained within a few feet of him from that point to the 15k marker, thus avoiding my usual too fast start and subsequent difficulties.
For some reason, nobody else attached themselves to us permanently, though a few others came and went. So with no-one else to talk to, we discovered early on that I'd used Luis as my pacer in the second wave two years ago, and a bit later that he is a parkrun RD just round the corner in Southampton - and as I've just started filling that role at Southsea, that conversation passed a few miles. A further boost came from a cheer from Mr and Mrs Coddfish just before the 10k point. The result was that it was pretty much an armchair ride, with a bit of a bad patch coming up to the gremlin sitting on that wall at 11k. But having beaten him off for a couple of k, all went well thereafter, and we got to 15k just over a minute ahead of schedule, meaning Luis had to slow down to hit his target, leaving me to my own devices for the last k. I managed to resist too fast too soon, and Garmin tells me I built up steadily from 5'30" to 4'40"/k - the coloured trace (see pic) shows an acceleration over the last 400m that is really quite pleasing!
And then the sun came out, and the wait with Oldgirlruns (but didn't yesterday) and Katnap to cheer on TailChaser , Sandie1961 , JonathanP , Cheeky, Dexy and David_G past the 6 mile point and then again at the finish was really rather pleasant, until everybody's legs started to seize up around the time of the photoshoot. So it was time to split up and stagger home, and for almost everybody else, to sign on for next year - but I think I'm (probably) cured now.
Oh, for the record - 1:28:19 (32 secs slower than two years ago (but my Garmin thinks I ran 90m further this time), 3486th overall, and 16th in my age group (70-74). That'll do, I think .
Onwards and upwards!!
Written by
UpTheStanley
Half Marathon
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Congratulations on completing your Great South Run UTS, you hoped to get a sub 90 minutes run and you certainly did at 1:18:19, that was a interesting conversation you had with that pacer, especially talking about you new role as Parkrun Run Director.
What a great race, are you sure you are cured? for that race anyway, what speed and time I enjoyed reading your report, it sounds interesting talking to Luis on the way round. Oh and the map, how it goes from blue to green to yellow orange then red at the end, that must have been so satisfying to see
That’s still under an hour and a half which is great, takes me longer than that to run 10k which is why I don’t run further, it’s just too long to be out
I so wanted to do a HM but it was the hours of training and then how slow i am i might not have made the cut off time, I’m hoping to work next year but after that i will retire and have more time, if i could run your speeds i’d run further
Absolutely fantastic what a great post and really well done you... you got there, with all your organisation and strategies... and I think that time was excellent ! x
Brilliant UTS! How you can run that fast and chat is beyond me. I’m glad your wall didn’t revisit this time round. It knew better than to mess with a Stanley on a Mission!
So good to see you this weekend. And yes, have you signed up for next year yet? Have you ……… (you know you want to ….. 😈)
Shaking my head in amazement! Your speed, the number of runners and how come you are 'only' 16th in your age group. There must certainly be some super, turbo charged gentlemen around! Your are a running star to me! Many congratulations! 😊🏃🏻♂️👏🎉💥🏁🏅
Yes mine said 16.38, but I certainly didn’t follow the mid-line or the shortest line. Glad you enjoyed it - Pompey people are great at supporting it every year.
Brilliant run for you UTS and in a fantastic time! Interesting to hear that your previous long run had you crashing at 11k - I developed legs like lead at about the 10/11k mark yesterday which is very unusual for me. Boy, it makes the last part of a run hard - and I took a couple of walk breaks which I never usually do! Glad you all had a great day - a fab event as ever!🙂
It's happened to me twice Sandra - the first time (two years ago) I had to abandon completely and stumble home. This time I was able to resume at something close to the pace I had been running, after a couple of minutes slumped on a bench. But it really made me doubt how the race would go .... all's well that ends well. Glad you came through it OK yesterday.
Congratulations on the run, it’s lovely to read all the different reports and what it means and how it was achieved by each person, you even put the 11k gremlin back in the box! Well done all round 👏👍🏅🎉
I thought you looked in really good shape when you passed us at the 10k marker and also when we saw you at the end. Despite the effects of the garlic bread - which had done something similar to me. Welcome to the ‘never again’ step, at least for now. For me that itch has been well and truly scratched but I suspect your resolve may shift as you get nearer to the time.
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Smashed that 10 Mile Run 🌟 By a Whopping 7 minutes faster than my last!! 😁🏃♀️
New Forest Half Marathon. Got the T shirt.