It’s been a few weeks since my last blog (sorry about
that – I don’t know where the time goes!), but quite a lot has happened in that
time.
Firstly, I had some rather exciting news when I received
a phone call from British Athletics advising me I’d been selected for the Great
Britain & NI team for the IAU World 100km Championships in the Netherlands,
on September 12th. At first I
wondered if I’d dreamt it, but when the confirmation letter dropped through my
door the following day I knew it was real!
I’m absolutely delighted about the prospect of running in
another World Championship, and extremely proud and honoured to be given the
chance of representing my country again.
I feel very fortunate that, after being forced to withdraw from last
year’s World Champs. team through injury, I now have another chance and I’m
extremely grateful to the selectors for showing faith in me. They have set me one proviso, however - as
it’s been two years since I last ran an ultra I’ve been asked to ‘prove my
fitness’ in a race longer than a marathon - so I immediately sat down with my
coach, Les, to plan a racing schedule that would allow for this.
The 100km World Championship will take place in the town
of Winschoten, which is where I ran my first 100km, again for GB&NI in the
World Champs., back in 2011. I learnt an
awful lot in that race, which I put into practice when I won bronze in the 2013
European 100km Championships and which I hope to build on again this year.
So it’s now down to just over two months of really hard
work and, so far, my training is progressing well and my mileage is steadily
building. My long training runs have
been increasing in length, taking in the canal towpaths and lanes of rural
Warwickshire. I’ve been loving wearing
my new X-Bionic Effektor Powershirt and The Trick shorts – they’re so
comfortable, no chafing and great temperature regulation - and, of course, my
trusty X-Bionic Effektor compression socks which really seem to help my calves
recover better. My runs have been pretty
uneventful really, although the other day I did have an encounter with a swan
which was being very protective of its young.
I come across them regularly on the canal towpath and normally I’m very
wary of them. This time however, as the
adult was only just climbing out of the water onto the path, I thought I could
quickly dodge it by running up a grassy bank to the side. I just about got past as it started to lunge
for me, but in the process very nearly ended up in the canal for a swim as my
momentum carried me back down the bank rather too quickly! Luckily I just about managed to avoid testing
out the buoyancy of X-Bionic kit! Other
wildlife encounters over the last few weeks have included hares and a couple of
fabulous close-up views of buzzards gliding right in front of me. It’s hard to imagine that these magnificent
birds were in decline until as recently as the 1990s as hardly a run goes by
now without me seeing or hearing one.
My artistic side has also been stimulated on some of my
recent runs too, as one of Antony Gormley’s latest sculptures has sprung up on
one of my canal routes. It’s one of five
sculptures commissioned from him by The Landmark Trust to celebrate their 50th
anniversary. I think it’s great that
such a prestigious sculptor chose a small village in rural Warwickshire, albeit
with a historically important canal-side building, to site one of his
pieces. The sculpture is quite
unassuming but fits its location perfectly – you can just imagine the
lengthsman standing there inspecting ‘his’ stretch of the canal in days gone
by!
Running past Antony Gormley's sculpture
As well as long runs my training has also included a
couple of recent low-key local road races which I’ve used as tempo runs. The first of these was the Banbury 5m on a
cool and blustery Tuesday evening. This
proved to be a really good race between the top 4 women at the front end of the
field, with the lead changing several times.
After a “sprint” finish (well, OK, maybe more of a quickish spurt than a
sprint) I eventually ended up 3rd, which I was happy enough with,
especially as I was over half a minute quicker than last year. I must admit though, it did feel far too
short and I only started to get into my running at around 4 miles – not ideal
when the race was only 5 miles! The race
is part of the East Midlands Grand Prix series and I’ve run it more often than
any other race, having now done it 11 times.
It makes a great mid-week tempo run on an undulating course and there’s
always a good turn-out of my fellow Leamington C&AC club-mates and so is a
great chance to catch up with friends.
I then followed up Banbury with 2nd place in
the Arden 9m race last Sunday, where again I was more than satisfied with my
run. Having been leading the women’s
race until the last mile, I didn’t quite have the legs to hold off the eventual
winner as we climbed the final hill towards the finish. But, putting it into perspective, I had done
a long run the day before and had my biggest week’s mileage for some time, so I
can’t really complain! It’s a shame that
such a well organised race took four days to get the results on their website
though – especially in this day and age of computer technology!
Approaching the finish of the Arden 9
So that’s a quick round-up of the last few weeks; watch
this space for the next instalment!
