100k Challenge - First Stage

 

As promised I said that I would keep my blog up to speed with progress against my 100k challenge.  If you want to know more about the challenge you can read it here, but in short I've pledged to run 100k in timed runs and races between now and the end of 2012.  I started in March, training to do some kind of sponsored run for the Ectopic Trust and couldn't run a mile without stopping at that point!

Today was the first stage of my challenge with my first local timed 5k, the Huddersfield Parkrun.  Prior to this official timed run, I'd been slowly improving my times over 5k/3m from a 12 minute mile pace down to the best pace that I'd recorded at 10:36 minutes a mile (yes I know but I did say I'd not be breaking any Olympic records)!

I turned up for my first-timer briefing and after a short walk in the rain to the start I was poised, ready for the off at 9am.  Not surprisingly it was a wet and windy morning (it is the British Summer after all) but that suited me fine as it's better than running in the sunshine.  The run is around Greenhead Park in Huddersfield and is undulating but without any of the major hills typical for Calderdale.  The atmosphere is lovely with lots of supporters cheering you on and keeping you going.  The route comprised of one small loop around the start then twice round a wiggly figure of 8 type of route through the park.

I set of at probably too fast a pace (how hard is it not to get swept along by everyone's crazy dash at the start) but soon settled into a comfortably challenging (for me) pace that I'd hoped would at least be on par with my training runs.The first lap wasn't too bad but the repetition of the 2nd lap proved a little more challenging and it's fair to say I was glad to see the finish line!  As the run is timed I'd decided to just focus on the run today and not time myself strictly, so I had an idea that I'd obviously not been sub 30 minutes but hoped within 35 minutes.  After a short wait at home, punctuated by me asking every 30 minutes 'are the results there yet?' they finally arrived.........................

I came in at at time of 30:25 which when I searched online puts me at a pace of 9:47 a mile!  Woo Hoo! I have wanted to break the 10 minute mile mark for ages. so it's great to do it on the first run of my challenge and it's a good start to try to further improve on with the 5ks.

Next week is the 2nd run of my challenge and is my first 10K (I'm not expecting to break 10min miles there)!  It's in a village called Staveley near Knaresborough so that will be a lovely little adventure for us all and I'll update you once I have some results.

I'll leave you with the 'embarrassing photo' as promised in my previous post - this is the after shot just as further proof that I did do it (and that it is possible to have a face as red as a beetroot!)

Keri