Race for Life – Milton Keynes

Today was the annual Race for Life event in Milton Keynes. It is part of a national set of events held in late spring across the UK where women of all ages put on as much pink clothing as they can find and get round a 5km course however they want to. Many run, a lot walk, some push buggies and others carry their children but they all do it for the same reason. To raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Most participants wear a pink sign on their backs with names of those they want to dedicate their run to.

I’ve run in this event nearly every year for at least the last 10 years, initially in memory of my grandfather and it has now become a bit of a yearly ritual where I am joined at a race by many friends and family who all have their own reasons for taking part.

This year was a bit different as it was a day of two halves. I ran the 5km in the morning, and was very pleased with my time (about a minute off my PB) and I came second :-). There was fantastic support on the way round, mainly because my running club, DLRR supplied most of the marshals! Then, in the afternoon I took my turn and marshalled on the 10km race they also held. It was great to be able to give something back as I’ve been running for years and I hate to think of the number of marshals I’ve passed in that time out in all weathers supporting runners they (for the most part) probably don’t know. So, this year I decided to help out a bit more if I could. MK marathon and now Race for Life – hopefully I’ll get a few more in before the year is out.

Watching the runners pass by today was great and made me proud to be part of something special – roll on next year! And if you do fancy helping out at your local Race for Life, just check out their website – there’s always a job for someone! But, the best bit? Getting a radio and headset for the afternoon – “Buzz Lightyear to Star Command! Come in Star Command!”

 

Good things come to those who wait!

Well, it was a nervous few minutes at 11am but I got in, got my four tickets and was out by 11:02 – not bad. I hear others were not so lucky…

The Chips family will be attending the final athletics session on 11th August to see Mo Farrah in the 5000m, the 4x100m final and a whole host of finals and ceremonies – I can’t wait!

It’s T day!

Today is ‘T’ day, the day that a very small number of people, 20,000 get a chance to buy up to four Olympic tickets from the 900,000 still available. Apparently all sports have some tickets left….

I was unsuccessful in the first ballot and again in the second chance sales – so the relatively small number of us who were unlucky on both occasions get first dibs on what’s left for a 31 hour time-frame. It turns out my youngest sister is also in this group – we’re not unlucky as a family as a rule, and I think our odds of getting tickets that we want this way are vastly greater than they have been in the previous two rounds.

So, wish me luck, at 11am I’ll be logging on hoping that the site wont fall over and I get what I want….we’ll see!!

Related articles

• Olympics bosses predict ‘golden ticket’ sell-out (thisislondon.co.uk)
• One million Olympic Games seats up for grabs in last-chance ticket sale (thisislondon.co.uk)
• London 2012 Olympic ticket sales – Q&A (guardian.co.uk)

I have a plan…I think!

I think I have finally settled on a plan for the rest of the year. In short it’s:

• Half marathon in July
• Olympic triathlon in August (not the real Olympic one, they’re not that desperate!)
• Marathon in October

This is a bit of a change from my original plan, where I thought I’d have a bash at the Cowman which is a half-ironman (note the small ‘i’!). Although I’ve done several Olympic distance tri’s and the Cowman seems a natural progression it’s still a major undertaking. I initially thought with my marathon training that it would be simple step up as it was the run at the end that had always put me off. But now, due to the focus run training, I’m seriously lacking in bike and swim training. I can blag the swim, it’s only 1900m which is not too far at all in the scheme of things, but I’ve spent very little time on the bike since the new year. I did a few long weekend rides but the weather in the UK turned nasty in early February and after breaking my shoulder on the ice last year, I wasn’t about to do that again so the bike went back into hibernation. With VLM at stake I didn’t want to jeopardise that for the sake of a few miles on the bike – bigger picture and all that.

So, I’ve decided that the Cowman can wait another year. There’s no point doing it unless I’ve got a good base of training behind it and apart from the run, I think I’d be taking on too much too soon – it’s only 10 weeks away which might be enough to get ready for an Olympic tri but not for a middle distance tri which will probably have around 6+ hours of competition. Four hours of the London Marathon was hard enough!

I’m really enjoying my running at the moment and to make up for my London disappointment I want to make the most of the form I am in. If I can carry it to a half marathon in July I think a PB is on the cards. This will then be the perfect springboard to get back into marathon training ready for an autumn marathon in the Autumn. With the lighter nights and nicer (ahem!) weather the whole experience should be a lot more pleasant than this spring. I’m hoping I can stay injury free and avoid the dreaded lurgy that plagued me throughout my London training and the race itself. I’ve a bit of unfinished business with marathons – not sure if it’s London specifically or the distance in general but I’m hoping a marathon later this year will let me see what I can really do as I don’t feel I’ve done myself justice yet.

First stop Wednesday night and the Silverstone 10km where we get to run two laps of the famous Grand Prix track.

I’ve been tagged! Got my best running shoes on so best get to work looking for some peeps to tag!

catslondonmarathon

I’ve been tagged by ‘Happy Runner’ (http://inspiringandhealthyrunninginlondon.wordpress.com) – thanks for the mention, and I hope I can answer your question and do this tagging lark justice! Sorry it’s taken me a while to reply, but I’ve been struggling to think who to ‘tag’ and questions to ask them….. Here goes!

“Cat just finished the London Marathon, Congratulations, Cat! My question to you: How long did it take you after the race from “I never ever run a marathon again” until you started planning your next race? (It took me about 7 days after my first marathon…)”

In all honesty, up until about a week before the London Marathon, I’d been saying repeatedly ‘never again’, especially with the injuries, lonely long runs, and trouble with motivation later in my training schedule. However, the week before the race, I logged on to the VLM website, and noticed the banner advertising…

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Post marathon blues…

Well, it’s been over nearly a week and although full of ideas for posts and things to do next I just can’t quite get myself together to move any of it forward!

Aerial view of Silverstone's Grand Prix Circuit (taken at the 2010 AirAsia British Grand Prix - MotoGP) (Photo credit: Silverstone Circuits Limited)

So, this is a bit of a short post just to left you know I’m still here but summoning up the motivation toget going again. I’ve started running again, a slow run on Thursday and quite a quick run last night (things started to ache after 5 miles so I slowed down) just to get the blood going again. I’ve entered another race, the Silverstone 10km a week on Wednesday and am looking towards future  races and challenges. But, deep down London is still playing on my mind – I’ll save the details for another post and in truth I’m struggling to work out what to do next.

I’m now at a bit of a cross roads – I’ve really enjoyed the running training, and I mean really enjoyed it. I’ve joined a club (David Lloyd Redway Runners) and have a new group to run with which can only help my running improve, but I’m also missing the variety of triathlon training. I know there’s nothing stopping me doing both, but I’m a bit of a perfectionist in that I don’t like to dabble, if I do something, I want to focus on it and the danger is concentrating on my running will mean my bike and swim will suffer – and to be honest my biking has always been the poor relation to the other two! By concentrating on swim/bike I know my running will suffer and I’ve just really started to enjoy running again.

I guess I need to find a new goal and that will determine my next course of action. There’s the Cowman (Half Ironman) coming up – but only about 11 weeks away and due to London training done next to nothing on the bike or in the pool, plus there’s the MK Half on the same day, plus I also need to think longer term…decisions decisions!

Anyway, this wasn’t actually a very short post at all but I think it has helped me get some sort of plan going in my head.  I will report back soon…;-)