Running round-up (Getting serious now!)

[rich_jacko]

"Remember where you were when Eliud Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles in 1h:59m:40.2s!" they are saying.

I'll remember. When he was crossing the finish line, I was just about to start my final lap of my own personal record-beating run. Okay, I didn't exactly make human history, but it feels like a big personal achievement nontheless. I finally broke through that 20-minute barrier that I've been struggling against for the last 2 years! :o)

Not only that, but a few weeks ago I completed a double milestone by running my 100th Parkrun and completing my 25th Parkrun volunteering on the same morning. I also baked! Here's how Hillsborough Parkrun reported it on that Facebook:



"Thank you very much to Richard Jackson (pictured) who brought along 10kg of delicious flapjacks for all the runners & volunteers to enjoy this morning. This was a lovely gesture from Richard who today celebrated running his 100th parkrun as well as volunteering for the 25th time – 2 t-shirts in one day !! Thank you again Richard."

Parkrun achievements aside, my next big running challenge is almost here. There's only one week to go until I attempt my first marathon and I've been training hard - 10-15K runs during the week (either to Ooty and back, along Rivelin Valley or laps of the park), Parkruns on Saturdays and longer runs on Sundays.

All this training has obviously been paying off. As well as that PB, as I've had a good (park)run of times on Saturdays lately:

Date	My Parkruns	Time	Position overall	Position males	Position VM 40-44	Age-graded score
17th Aug	97th	21:34	13th/288	13th	3rd	63.76%
24th Aug	98th	21:28	17th/323	16th	6th	64.05%
7th Sept	99th	20:56	17th/407	16th	4th	65.68%
14th Sept	100th	20:54	28th/426	24th	3rd	65.79%
21st Sept	101st	20:39	18th/319	18th	1st!	66.59%
28th Sept	102nd	24:06	91st/426	84th	6th	57.05%
5th Oct	103rd	20:47	25th/431	24th	2nd	66.16%
12th Oct	104th	19:59	18th/461	15th	3rd	68.81%

Bold indicates a PBs, italics an ususual run - touring at Bury St Edmunds on 21st September and pacing 24 minutes on 28th September. Volunteer-wise, I was on time-keeping duty on 31st August, close-down on 7th September, set-up on 14th September and the aforementioned pacing on 28th September.

(And, just so I remember my PB lap split - 06:35 at the end of lap 1; 13:15 at the end of lap 2; 19:59 at the finish.)

I was a few weeks late starting longer runs, but I've more-or-less stuck to my training plan since. I've run in sunshine, the wind and the rain, although I haven't braved torrential downpours and I'm hoping to avoid them on the day! For the last couple of weeks, I've been tapering down for the big day. My Sunday run diary has looked like this:

• 18th August - 26.3 km/16.3 miles, Meadowhall and back via the Five Weirs Walk and the canal path. 62% of a marathon in 2h23m00s, 59.6% of my 4-hour target time.


• 25th August - 32.2 km/20.0 miles, Rivelin Valley and Crosspool, out to Forge Dam and back via the University. 76.3% of a marathon run in 3h2m52s, 76.2% of my target time.


• 1st September - 28.2 km/17.5 miles, Meadowhall via Firth Park and Concord Park, then back again via the canal path. 66.8% of a marathon in 2h29m08s, 62.1% of my 4-hour target time.


• 8th September - 22.1 km/13.7 miles, out to Damflask, two laps around the reservoir and back. 52.4% of a marathon in 1h59m06s, 49.6% of my target time.


• 15th September - 28.2 km/17.5 miles, an Ooty loop followed by Rivelin Valley/Crosspool/Eccy Road via the Botanical Gardens. 66.8% of a marathon in 2h30m51s, 62.9% of my target time.


• 22nd September - No run this week owing to my long weekend away in Suffolk/Cambridgeshire.


• 28th September - A Saturday rather than Sunday run. 34.1K or 21.1 miles, out along the canal path to Rotherham and back via the Five Weirs Walk. 80.7% of a marathon in 3h05m50s, 77.4% of my target time.


• 6th October - 30.4 km/18.9 miles, Forge Dam and back via the University and Botanical Gardens, plus an Ooty loop at the end. 72.0% of a marathon in 2h45m00s, 68.8% of my target time.


• 13th October -21.1 km/13.1 miles, Damflask and back, Rivelin and back, then 3 laps of the park. 50.0% of a marathon in 1h46m54s, 44.5% of my target time.

Lots of people have sponsored me for the Yorkshire Marathon already - Thank you so much! I'm already raising more than a penny for every metre (!) and I'm very close to my £500 target. If you haven't sponsored me yet and would like to, you can do so here.

I'd also love to see you at the finish line if you fancy a trip to York next weekend. All going well, I should hopefully be crossing the line sometime between 1:15pm and 2:15pm. (4 hours would be 1:30pm but I'm not confident enough to be any more precise than an hour-long window!)

Wish me luck!

Comments

[grok_mctanys]

Good luck!

Also, one thing that glitterybint pointed out to me is that a sub-20:00 5k means that you should now be able to enter some running events as an "elite" athlete!