The Eden Project Half Marathon

A lot of events took place this weekend, but the biggest TRC turnout was unmistakably at the Eden Project for the half marathon, with 12 of us at the start-line (a significant number of us under some sort of plastic bin bag supplied by Debbie!).  We were also represented in the full marathon by Isobel Wykes and Steve Rawson who both did an incredible job of coming in under 4 hours, Steve in 87th place overall in 03:53:27 and Izzy 23rd overall and 2nd female in a jaw-dropping 03:24:12! There will be a full report on the marathon from Izzy a bit later in the week, so make sure you come back soon.

In the mean time we should congratulate both Lizzy Irvine and Dave Turner in the Half for both being 5th home for the club (women and men respectively!). Dave was also 5th in the open competition, romping home in just 01:25:12, an incredible achievement on such a tough course (on any course if you ask me!!). Amongst the nervous faces at the start area was Rebecca Brockenshire who thought she’d be pleased to finish in under 3 hours for this her first half marathon. Hopefully she’s over the moon with her personal best of 02:14:28, and hopefully even more over the moon that she beat some famous bloke ‘off the radio’ called Scott Mills! She tells us she celebrated her victory with a plate of cheesy chips…

Just before I hand over to Hana for another of her vibrant reports, please bear with me re the TRC results: the results have been published in pdf format, which means it’ll take me substantially longer than usual to extrapolate our team results. Watch this space!

9 10 11 it must be Eden

I’m sat at the computer, it’s almost 5pm and at my side is my Boconnoc race mug  full of steaming freshly brewed coffee and I’m feeling warm and snug in my Marazion 2011 Hoody. The Eden Half marathon medal is hung around my neck but it is too cold to sit here in the very nice T-Shirt I’ve come home with from the race.

Anyway, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, sadly in the TRC/Hana’s race diary that appears to not be an option for some. The alarm sounded at 6:30am and it was dark and wet outside. I could have easily turned over and gone back to sleep.

I didn’t though, I just made myself the only breakfast that sits well on a race day, of a Glass of water, then a bowl of muesli and fresh fruit. No coffee and croissants today!!

Julie arrived at 8am, and into the mist and drizzle we went on our journey to Eden. (almost sounds biblical)

As we entered the main gates at 8:45 there was already a slow moving queue for the car park, but in truth that didn’t delay us by much. Then onto a bus for the short journey to the Ticket office.

I had remembered to print off the bar code for my Free year’s Eden membership so no holds up here, and then we walked to the core to locate the changing facilities and bag drop.

It wasn’t long before we were joined by Steph and Debbie, who had kindly brought with her, some designer black bin bags for us girls……..More later on that subject.

The dilemma for me was, should I run in the TRC vest with or without a running top under it? Would I be too cold with one or too hot without one? No good asking the other girls as they are all hot blooded creatures, but I had to be brave and just wear the TRC vest. Now this is where the bin bag comes in.

Outside it was damp and mizzly, so it felt cold and there was a slight breeze blowing to cool us further. So:

1. take one bin bag (the designer variety, aka Tesco’s value bin bag in soft black with slightly gathered bottom)
2. Make a hole in the bottom to fit your head
3. Place bag over head as if to suffocate yourself, and then pull down gently

This forms a nice cosy sheath over the upper body to keep you toasty and dry at the start of a race.

Now if you are of the Obese sizing, this maybe a little awkward with this variety of bag, but I’m sure a more expensive one may have XL in their range. Luckily we all fitted into the ones Debbie brought for us.  I have to say the arty ladies with a bit of panache, wore them very fetchingly around their necks to start with. As for myself, I went for the minimalist sheath style. They always say that black is slimming, sadly I have no pictures to disprove this. Next club night do make sure you ask Steph to give you all a demonstration!

Off we marched to the starting area, only to be told that both the marathon and half Marathon were delayed by 10 minutes, due to the queue of traffic still trying to get into Eden….more like Hell if you ask me. This gave us time to have a chat, catch up with some runners we hadn’t seen in a while and then watch as the exhibitionists amongst the male species, stood on top of the grassed bank alongside us and pee for England. Men, please, we females are of a delicate nature and should be protected from such sights, especially as there wasn’t one “male in Lycra” amongst them to please the eye.

Time for the off. Belated birthday Garmin primed….ah yes, I have now managed to work out how to do this, but still can’t download the bl—dy info onto the computer!

A tad congested at the start, but I managed to weave around the groups of runners chatting and generally moving too slowly for me. Then it was a long down hill, which is a nice way to start a race, but sadly this only means one thing in Cornwall, a long climb back up was going to happen sooner or later. Left turn at the bottom and we are now on a not too muddy path along the flat. This was also very congested, but allowed me to find a pace that suited this race and before long we were onto wider tracks.

My recollection of where we went after than blurs a little, but at about mile 4 I recognised from the rear, one of our other clubs team members, who reads our blog’s. Dave, it’s good to see you back running, but you’ve had too much of a good time whilst off, so I was able to pass you. Nice scenery though!

Any way I digress. The scenery was lovely. Woodland paths, quiet traffic free lanes and MUD by the cart full. My cleanish white running shoes were not so white now, just a dirty grey. The backs of runners legs were plastered in the stuff. Thank god for wet wipes!

I Know it is nice to chat to people when you are out for a run, but one chap was reliving the entire “Harry Potter” style nightmare he had had last night right down to the fact that Mother of the Ginger haired Twins looked like Gweneth Paltrow! He then went on to say that he had put this nightmare on “Face Book” this morning and wondered what others would make of it…………….Get a life mate, and this is no way to pull a girl whilst out running! At least he didn’t divulge any medical problems or recent surgery!

So, more hills, more mud and loads of drink stations followed. I did grab 3 Jelly Babies at one, then wrapped them up in my “security hanky” for later. I asked if they did Gin and Tonic, and the answer was no, so I had to forgo the liquid that was being provided so efficiently. You could have drowned on the amount that was available. There was even a huge bowl of sliced up Mars bars at one. Chocolate wow, but sadly this would have melted if I has stored it alongside the Jelly Babies. However much I love chocolate, I still can’t eat or drink whilst out running.

The sponge station was interesting. If you got there early you would have had a nice fresh sponge dipped in clean water. These sponges you then discard, most ended up in the road. Some nice young lads were given the task of picking them up. Ah………these boys then returned to the vats of water and placed now muddy sponges into the vats of water only for them to be handed out to the runners behind. I suppose it is a bit like a type of eco spa, but I decided it wasn’t for me. Did any of you say yes to one? Oops!

I think we had some flat sections of the race. There was more off road and before long it was mile 11 and we were back into the grounds of the Eden Project.

Down Hill to the finish….well one very small incline appeared when you least expected it, but it didn’t last long. Down hill was a tad painful for me, as the outer part of my left knee felt like it had been kicked by a mule. It was in danger of giving out. “Man up mother” sprung to mind, and I just got on with the task in hand……..finishing.

I crossed the line with a smile for the camera….so that shot won’t be printed, grabbed some water and Belated Birthday Garmin registered 1hr 54:55, a pace of 8:44 and I had burnt 1408 calories. Bring on the Free Pasty and a pint!

Lizzy had stormed in ahead of me and was in fact the 5^th lady to cross the line….Wow. Julie came in a little after me, but not by much. Then it was off to do battle with the mud I was covered in. Wet wipes worked miracles, clean clothes put on and off to find the promised pasty.

Both Julie and I decanted our beer into our empty water bottles for “Husbands at Home”  purchased a large mug of tea soaked up with my Bara Brith (see recipe ). We were joined by Lizzy and the rest of the girls and Isobel arrived having come 2^nd lady in the Eden Marathon………..Fantastic and a huge well done to you and Lizzy!

Would I do this race again……….

1. without a doubt and I would have the same pre race week’s rest, as my legs felt great throughout other than the knee blip at mile 11.
2. Parking …..Loads, but queuing to get in if you arrived after 9:30 was a problem.
3. Toilets….Loads and they were clean even if it looked as if the last person hadn’t flushed…….They use “grey water” the stuff that comes off the roof etc..
4. Showers…..None, so wet wipes it was.
5. Goodie bag……not bad really, T-shirt (cotton), Medal, Gel, some running mag, free entry into Eden for a year and the Pasty and Pint.

It’s all in the detail

I had a plan. It wasn’t my usual sort of ‘get round the course and enjoy it’ kind of plan either. Something strange has been happening to me lately: I’ve been running better. And with better running comes more defined goals. And ambition.This race would mark the end of my first year of racing (from ‘key race’ to key race’) and I was damned if I was going to run it in as shameful a time as last year. See what I mean about ambition? Last year my goal was ‘get round and don’t be last’, which I achieved admirably – so when did it become “shameful”?! Ahem, when I began comparing myself to others…  (If you lean in close I’ll whisper the shameful time to you…2:41:59 – shhhh!)

I remember the pain and the exhaustion from last year, but I decided to run it again because I loved it; not the pain and exhaustion bit, but the route (woodlands, tracks, quiet lanes and some impressive lactate inducing hills) and the subsequent elation bit definitely.

Forewarned was fore-armed I decided. I found a course hill-profile on line. I spent time converting the km into miles so that it made sense. I worked out splits roughly based on the shape of the hills (knowing how crap I am at hills) and my hoped for finish time (which was ‘in-the-region-of 2:15 – 2:30’ / ‘If-I-can’t beat-last-year’s-time-I’ll-kill-myself’). Looking at it on paper I was very dubious, my goal felt a little like pie in the sky, I mean I’ve had calf pain and shin splints for months and I’d looked at the weather forecast: windy. Urgh.

I knew I wouldn’t remember the splits so I printed off a teeny tiny crib sheet, which I pinned under my race number. Pointless: it was raining. It lasted precisely 10 seconds before it self-destructed and became papier-mache. Strategy no. 2: I’d made up a weird little ‘song’ to remind me of the profile by mile. It went like this: down, down, sharp, sharp, sharp, up, up, up, flat, flat, flat, down, down. This was an excellent strategy, even if I say so myself!

People were probably wondering what it was I was counting on my fingers and mumbling to myself, but as I was running, struggling to try and work out which mile correlated with which part of the song, I forgot about the distance and any pain and the miles just disappeared. Other runners must’ve thought I’d gone out miles too fast as they passed me on the first of the big hills, but it was all in the plan: a couple of 9-ish minute miles to make up for the precious time I knew I’d lose on the hills. (Note to self: do some regular hill training.)  It worked. By the time I got to mile 9 I wondered what I’d been worrying about. At mile 10 I saw Terry (STARC) taking photos and remembered that it was his fault I’d got into this running club lark in the first place! By the time I got to mile 11 I remembered  exactly what I’d been worried about: being completely spent miles before the finish line. I geed myself up with the thought that I had more stamina left than I did at this point last year and that even if the next 2 miles took half an hour I’d still beat my ‘shame-time’!

With about half a mile to go I suddenly felt nauseous and regretted the half cup of isotonic drink I’d had at one of the many (much appreciated) drinks stations a few miles back. I thought it was going to come up and bite me but I fended it off and plodded on until I got to the magical descent that takes you into the arena. I could hear the cheering. I could see the finish, and once again I could hear the sage words of Dave Angelly from Tuesday track sessions “Right over the line Steph, well done!”. I’d get right over the bloody line alright, even if it killed me. That last mile felt three times longer than any of the others but somehow I’d managed to pick up the pace to a lightening speed of, wait for it… 00:09:24!!!!!!  Well the previous mile took 00:12:31 so don’t laugh!!! I crossed to the other side with no clear idea of my time and a desperate need to collapse. There were people everywhere and I couldn’t find any grass to collapse on, so I had to STAND UP!!! Shocking.

After fiddling about with my watch I knew I’d finished around the 02:20 / 02:21 mark. I think they call that ‘smashing a personal best’ don’t they?! (The official chip time was 02:21:44.) I was a bit pleased.

I deserved cake. And true to her word Hana had brought along her Bara Brith. OMG, the smell was almost as heavenly as the mist hanging in the Luxulyan woods! It was utterly delicious and obviously full of the goodness she promised, with all that fruit and virtually no fat. It was surprisingly light and definitely one to add to the baking repertoire. You can probably tell, but I needed cake (I decided to take advantage of another perk offered to us runners too: a leg massage (not by Hana though, it has to be said!!!!!). In a word: heaven. Thank you Mrs Sports Massage Therapist. More please.)

And finally some apologies. I find it really difficult to talk when I’m running, even if I’m not out of breath. I tend to shut other people out and focus inward, so I apologise to anyone unfortunate enough to receive no more than a grunt from me en route. I’d also like to apologise to the lovely TRC ladies that suffered my verbal diarrhea after the event and my war wound ‘show-and-tell’ whilst they were still eating Hana’s BB! The war wound? A blood blister on my heel about the size of a 10 pence piece (evidence in the gallery below!). The St John’s Ambulance were dead impressed of course. I’d also like to apologise to you if you managed to get to the end of this ‘essay’, but it was such a great experience it had to come out somewhere didn’t it?! I’ve already ‘signed up‘ for next year, and 2:21 is just not going to cut it!

Stephie

Results

Open Competition

Men

1. Andrew Moreton, Kent AC: 01:20:29
2. Dan Rodgers, Launceston RR: 01:20:44
3. Daryl Tarquin Milford, Teignbridge Trotters: 01:22:50

Women

1. Jo Haley, unaffiliated: 01:30:26 (new course record)
2. Rachel Elkins, CLC Striders: 01:33:18
3. Alice Murray-Gourlay, Yeovil Olympiads: 01:33:42

(chip times)

Overall Results

• 2011 Eden Half Marathon Results .pdf
• 2011 Eden Marathon Results .pdf

TRC Results

Coming soon!

Gallery

Many thanks to Hana for the great photos of the ladies team for the half and the full marathon – what happened to the men?!