Wednesday 30 October 2013

Great South Run race recap 27/10/13

I love the Great Run series – they are very popular, well organised, and a lot of fun.  This time I did the Great South Run, in Portsmouth – 10 miles.  I had signed up for it a year ago – the date entries opened if I recall that far back.  I think I planned to do a decent PB at that time, but little did I know that I would have later signed up for and run the Eden Marathon a week beforehand.

Went down to on the coach transfer to Portsmouth on the morning of the race – a 4.30am start!!  It felt like we were going to be late as the traffic was really bad from as soon we left the motorway, but we still got there in good time.  It had been pouring with rain that morning when I drove to the coach pick up, and didn’t look all that much better.  I left it as long as I could to drop off my baggage in the store.  Luckily, we got really lucky with the rain holding off, and got blue skies for part of it.  The down side was the gale-force wind!

I thought the race would go one of 3 ways – very well (a PB having got super fit from 2 marathons), average (trotting round at marathon pace i.e. slow and steady) or really badly (cramping up, hitting the wall at mile 3 etc.).  Average was mostly likely, but option 3 was also a very real possibility!

It’s a big race, but soon our wave crossed the start line.  Set off really slowly (probably should have been in a later wave, but I went to the side to allow faster “white wave” runners to pass).  Legs felt like lead!!  I had done a really gentle Parkrun the previous day to loosen them off which probably helped, but was still tough.  I decided to go round at just under a 12 min mile pace if I could, and hopefully finish in under 2 hours (my 10 mile PB is 1.38 so quite a difference!).

The course was really nice – plenty of stretches along the sea front and saw some of the good sights.  Was great running past Spinnaker Tower.  It was very flat and on wide, closed roads, and although there were thousands of runners, it did not feel too crowded.  The spectators were great too – plenty of them out and about to make the most of the rain stopping.  There were several feed stations giving bottles of water and one giving out Powerade.  I had taken my hydration pack so didn’t bother, and had 2 of my own gels.

Was really feeling it by about 6 miles, but was well on pace and knew I would easily get in under 2 hours if all went ok.  There were a few out-and-back points where you doubled back on runners on the other side.  Hard on the “out” but makes you feel good on the “in”!  The final 2 miles were very hard – although a nice part of the course along the sea front, it was into a very strong headwind!  Think everyone slowed down a lot here and think people who were previously running quite hard has come to a very slow jog or walk.  The crowds were still good though and the radio station was out to cheer us on and give out jelly babies.  The finish line was on this last stretch – and thankfully rather sheltered for the final 500 meters!!

Good finish – managed a bit of a sprint – and finished in 1.56.04.  Given the timing of this one I am pretty pleased with that.

After the race I collected my bag and quickly got changed into warmer clothing as with that wind I was cooling down really quickly.  Got a tee-shirt, medal and plenty of food in the goody bag including a chocolate bar!!  Excellent!  Food is always good but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to lug the bottle of Powerade around with me as I only tend to drink the stuff at circuits class or cycling.  I was hoping to head to the shopping centre and/or go up Spinnaker Tower but I realised there wasn’t time, as the coach left at 3pm and time was getting on.  Instead I popped into the Alzheimer’s Society charity tent as I had made a donation to them on behalf of this race – they were very hospitable and gave me a cup of hot soup and another chocolate bar.   Also got a free sports massage courtesy of Bupa – a nice gentle one, rather than a horrible tortuous massage!  Was quite chuffed when the lady said she could not believe I had just run 2 marathons in the last month as had virtually no tension in my muscles (well it sure felt like they did!).  Was quite blissful to get a massage, need to treat myself to more of these!


Was late getting back, due to taking a long time to get out of Portsmouth and then slow traffic on the motorways but once I got home I was able to relax and have my post-run ice cream and a hot bath.

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