Filed under: GRIM Challenge, running | Tags: Aldershot, GRIM Challenge, Hellrunner, running
I spoke to a few people after the GRIM Challenge 8 on Sunday, namely my brother, various bods from British Military Fitness and a couple of other friends who did either the Saturday or Sunday event – and they were all buzzing, absolutely loved it. This was totally at odds with my own perception of the event, and I haven’t quite worked out why.
In actual fact, the course was more fun than last year in many ways – the rain over the past few weeks added more variety to what is essentially a flat-ish slog around an MOD vehicle testing facility. There was lots of splish-splashing around, as we tore through the puddles. The course also had mile markers, though I use the term “mile” in the loosest possible sense of the word – the total distance was nearer to nine miles and the last two miles actually measured 1.4 and 1.5 miles according to my brother’s Garmin.
I just felt the whole thing lacked a bit of atmosphere, perhaps partly to do with the downpour just before the scheduled start time. Everyone sat huddled in their cars until the very last minute, when the sun deemed it possible to make a brief appearance. However, it remained dry for the run which was a blessing.
According to the official website, it took me 1:31:56 – nearly five minutes longer than last year, though there’s no telling whether the course was the same. It certainly felt longer this year!
The finish was a complete anti-climax, though this may have been because I was helping a lady to limp over the line after tripping over a few metres from the line. Still, no goody bags whatsoever – just one of those nasty School bars, which looked and tasted like a vaguely artificial strawberry-flavoured sheep turd. Oh, and a big square cotton t-shirt along the lines of the one we got last year. At the risk of sounding like one of the old codgers on the Runner’s World forums, I’d expect more for the £26 entry fee.
Perhaps it’s just muddy run fatigue – I have done a few similar events this year. All in all, it wasn’t a patch on Hellrunner a few weeks back – great atmosphere, more varied and challenging course, fabulous goody bag and a nice girlie fitted t-shirt that I can actually wear with jeans without being reminded of being an awkward 13-year-old.
This is the one and only shot taken of me during the race. I think my face says it all…
Not very happy...
More amusingly, check out the family resemblance here to my brother. And he says he loved every minute of it…
...but neither is mini-me
Filed under: GRIM Challenge, running | Tags: BBC, GRIM Challenge, weather forecast
Thought I’d check out the weather forecast for Sunday’s GRIM Challenge.
Rather wish I hadn’t; it looks…well…pretty grim.
Four-day forecast for Aldershot(www.bbc.co.uk)
Still, let’s look on the bright side, at least it’s not likely to be as cold as last year’s race.
Available here.
This is what I looked like when I hit the water. Yes, it was as cold as the look on my face would suggest. The girl next to me must have been possessed of thicker blood.
Filed under: GRIM Challenge, half marathon training, running | Tags: GRIM Challenge, running
“Expect to get very wet,” the race pack said. “-2.0 degrees”, my car said when I got into it on Sunday morning to drive to Aldershot for the GRIM Challenge. Oh good.
Arrived in plenty of time, met my brother and his two mates – one of whom was about seven when I last saw him. He is now about 6’7″. (I didn’t think he looked that amused when I said “oooh, you’ve grown since I last saw you”. Realised that statement made me sound about 45). We ambled unenthusiastically over to the start area, witnessing a passing motorist stop, lean out and chunder all over the path.
The start was delayed by half an hour, so we spent an hour in total hanging around asking ourselves why we weren’t tucked up in bed with a cup of tea. Then decided to get some tea from the fast-food vans to warm up a bit. I seriously considered a hot dog too, but was distracted by some hippies playing drums on tin bins, like something out of Stomp. That was very entertaining.
All of a sudden, we were off. Dan, Olly and Lawrence jogged off looking all fit, while me and P bobbed along at the back, trying to work out why three blokes were dressed as a bride and bridesmaids, and another team were wearing bermuda shorts and armbands and carrying inflatables.
It was a jolly affair, and we had a lot of laughs around the muddy, wet course. We decided against ploughing through the first few puddles, on the basis that there was nothing to be gained from getting too wet too early on and concentrated on trying to find a rhythm – a bit tricky when the pack kept bunching up around the puddles. After four miles, some camouflage netting and a pee stop among some Christmas trees, we were rewarded with a bottle of water ice at the half-way point. After that, there was no tip-toeing around the water: it was time to wade in. And f*ck, was it cold – even if it only came up to your knees. A very odd sensation to be quite hot underneath all the layers of clothing, but have feet so cold you couldn’t feel them. The mud bog was a relief, with its comparative warmth. Miles five to seven were fairly uneventful – felt a bit weak for part of that – then recovered enough to attack a few gentle hills, before jogging round the start area to wade through another generously proportioned puddle to the finish line.
Billed as an eight-mile race, a running acquaintance registered 8.7 miles on his GPS watch. The distance and time didn’t really matter that much to be honest – but, for the record, I came in at 1:36:30.
All in all, a surprisingly enjoyable race – great atmosphere, reasonably well organised with a hot dog at the end. Glad I got out of bed after all.
Filed under: circuits, GRIM Challenge, running | Tags: circuit training, GRIM Challenge, running
Phil’s ankle was sore this morning, so a run was out of the question in order for him to be in with a chance of running GRIM Challenge next weekend. I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t too disappointed not to be doing the uphill slog for two miles to the Heath.
However, after a lush meal at tapas-style Indian Imli last night – and to be in with any kind of chance of squeezing into the glam little black number I’ve bought for the Christmas party – I had to do something today. So we did a gentle jog up to the park and then a DIY circuits session. We used trees, benches and lampposts as stations, and took turns to dictate the exercise – which we then did for a minute before moving onto the next one.
We did tricep dips, press-ups, sit-ups, burpees, lunges, squats, the plank, spotty dogs, back raises, horrid press-ups with feet up on the bench, a bit of sparring and ran backwards round the park. A man out for a jog said “well done” to us as we embarked on another set of sit-ups and some middle-aged people on their way to church looked at us as if we were insane. We managed to avoid any dog poo.
Filed under: British Military Fitness, cycling, GRIM Challenge, gym, running, spinning | Tags: British Military Fitness, GRIM Challenge, hampstead heath, muffins, running, spinning, St Albans
Headed up to Snorbs to meet my little brother for a British Military Fitness class on Saturday morning as planned. Dad came along too – out of genuine interest rather than a desire to embarrass his two sproglets – and luckily the camera was playing up so the episode was not recorded for posterity.
It was a really tough class – much more running sprinting than my normal class and fewer press-ups, sit-ups and burpees which tend to be relentless in Reading. It was a bigger group in general, so I went straight into a group of all reds, meaning there were no blues to keep me company when I was lagging. I struggled to keep up for much of the session, and when it came to trying to carry anther girl the length of a football pitch in a fireman’s lift, I felt like crying.
It strikes me as rather odd that I’ve been running for more than eight years yet this is definitely the weakest link in my BMF classes. And – despite the title of this blog – I do go off running periodically, which is why I take up other things from time to time. The gym, circuits, spinning, cycling, swimming (rarely) and BMF add variety.
Nonetheless, I’ve got the eight-mile GRIM Challenge coming up in two weeks’ time, so I did need to get out on Sunday. Phil and I headed up to Hampstead Heath for a six-miler. My legs were already pretty sore after the über-difficult BMF class the previous day, though I was happy enough for the first couple of miles which is all uphill. That’s progress I can put down to the strength training – a couple of months ago, I struggled to do that without stopping to catch my breath.
But, my newfound power did not last long, and before long I was throwing a bit of a tantrum because I was struggling again. Firstly, I was annoyed because I’d expected to feel much much better having been doing the BMF classes (despite actually not doing a lot of distance running recently); but secondly, I was irrationally pee’d off because Phil didn’t appear to be in the slightest bit uncomfortable and claims to have done hardly any exercise recently. Hmmm – I wonder if he’s been putting in secret hours at the gym.
The reality, of course, is that I just need to rack up a few more miles, and will enter a few more races in the New Year to force myself out to put one foot in front of the other.
In the meantime, I’m going to make some muffins.
