Racing heaven!

In the space of 4 days I have now 'competed' in 2 races, having not participated in one for over 7 months (and pulling out of 4 due to injury). These were the Bupa Great Manchester 10k and Knowsley 5k.

I owe a lot to the Manchester 10k; it was my first race (back in 2011) and training for it is when i caught 'the bug'. Lucky for me it's a lifer ;)

For the Manchester 10k I was in the wave of runners after the elites. Unfortunately there was never any danger of me getting anywhere near Haile Gebrselassie and co. (!) My race start time was 10:33, but due to the sheer density of runners it was a good 5 minutes after this before I crossed the start line.

My target for the run was to try and run faster than my training runs this year; which so far has been 42 - 43 minutes. I did harbour thoughts of maybe getting back to a sub 40 minute 10k, but after the 2km mark I knew this wasn't going to happen. Due to the numbers who participate in the Manchester 10k, 40,000 signed up this year, (yes, that's 5 zeros after the 4!) the course was extremely congested and I spent a lot of the time slowing down and speeding up.

It was very difficult to maintain a pace and get into a rhythm. Having said that, the pace I was managing as I passed the 3km mark, 12:25 (roughly 4:08/km), I was pleased with. I was on target for a sub 42 minute 10k on a course which, whilst fairly flat, was testing due to the stop - start nature.

Hitting the 5km mark my time was a very respectable 20:43 and I was feeling good - my running form was collected, and my breathing was as comfortable as you would expect it to be!

One of the reasons the Manchester 10k is so enjoyable is due to the many sights you see on the way - and this includes not just the scenery, but the fellow runners! The best-dressed this year had to go the rhino, talk about having the horn!!!! I didn't put much effort in to picking up the pace as I knew there would be pockets of space for me to speed up in as and when; I passed the 8km mark at 33:17.

The ninth kilometre was probably the hardest; fatigue started to set in as I've only really had one run longer than 10km this year so was lacking some stamina. Fortunately this was a dip and in the last kilometre I was able to produce a sprint finish, happy to run past the cameras -I'm a sucker for race photos!

My official time was 41:26, a time I am very happy with – 650^th out of close to 40,000. The normal aches ensued after the race with a slight tightness in the left thigh, but fortunately no bad case of DOMS the day after!

The second race, the ‘Knowsley Active 5k’ is a race which took place at Knowsley Hall – a very grand estate owned by Lord Derby and situated next to Knowsley Safari Park.

It was very cheap to enter (£7) and there was a medal for completing (I do like a big of racing bling!). I turned up without knowing how competitive the race would be – only that there would be around 500 runners going off my number.

When I arrived and went to get my timing chip there were a lot of club runners – more than 10, and from 3 different clubs. Whilst this may have been the norm (and something I’m used to in bigger races) for a fairly small race it seemed a bit daunting.

The race, taking place on a Wednesday evening, started at 7.30. It had been a warm day but come race time it was fairly chilly – good for when running – not so much beforehand!

The race started at a very ferocious pace with the club runners dashing off. I stayed just behind this (fairly large!) pack and tried to keep up whilst settling into a good rhythm. I completed the first kilometre in 3:45, a pace I normally reserve for the final one!

After this my pace settled down nicely, with 2 consecutive 4 minute kilometres – the kind of speed I’d been aiming for the whole course, with a push at the end depending on how I felt.

The 4^th kilometre is often my slowest/downfall. I don’t know if it’s a physcological thing, where I start to feel a little tired and ease off a bit for fear of burning out, but I recorded a 4:08 kilometre. There was a fairly long uphill section so perhaps it was in part due to that.

During the race I’d managed to pass about 5 people, which I was very happy with, and there were two ahead who I thought I had a good chance of catching. I caught the first up and tried to put on a little burst of speed to pull away from him, but he stayed with me. For a short while we were both running at a fairly quick pace, neither wanting to back down. Eventually I did, knowing that we were catching the next runner up, and confident I could drop them both on a sprint finish if I needed to.

With roughly 300m to go I was neck and neck with the two runners I’d aimed to pass. The guy who was the furthest ahead come the last km was flagging, and I passed him, but couldn’t shake off the other bloke. A final turn in the course gave a straight 100m path to the finish and I got up on my toes to stride out and finish ahead of my very determined running companion!

Final kilometre, 3:40, giving a total time of 19:33; my fastest this year, something I was happy about, even though I wish I’d pushed a little harder in the 4^th kilometre.

Overall position was 17/259 – not bad considering the top two places were sub 17 minute 5ks!!

G’bye mate!

Computer Science & Electrical Engineering… That mouthful and jumble of words is the name of the degree course I completed at The University of Liverpool. While I was there I made 3 really good friends; Vassos, and 'the two Craigs'. Since we graduated, some 6 years ago, Vassos has moved back to his homeland – Greece, which, whilst gutting, was always expected. He stuck around and had a job over here for a couple of years, but me and the Craigs always knew he’d head home one day.

However, we didn’t expect that one of the ‘remaining’ three would end up emigrating to Australia!! That is the prospect and reality which I now face. Craig is leaving this week, taking with him his pregnant wife and 8 month old daughter. I live in Liverpool, Australia bound Craig lives in Salford, and the other Craig lives in Warrington. Whilst we don’t live many moons apart, since graduating we haven’t seen each other as much or as intensively as we did in university where we would see each other every day.

Given that we only really saw each other 3 - 4 times a year since university you would think I wouldn’t be altogether that bothered about him upping sticks. I’ve got to tell you, I’m absolutely gutted! It feels like a huge part of my life is being ripped out and made inaccessible. I pretty much grew up in university, and did that with my friends, and had such an amazing time.

Craig will be working for the same company, so he can have a welcome to Australia email waiting for him, and doubtless he will visit due to his fiancé’s family living here (he’s planning to come back to England once a year), but that does little to quell the feelings I’ve got.

Below is a picture of us three amigos from my 21^st birthday night out. Craig Australia (well that’s how he’ll be known from now on!!) is on the left, Craig (England?!) on the right. I’m gonna miss the big guy! Honestly, make the most of your family and friends, because you don’t know how long they’re going to be around for.

So there you have it, my most emotional (and hopefully only – I can’t handle all this deep and meaningful stuff) blog. Sorry if I’ve bored you, or maybe induced a bit of mouth vomit (!) but I just wanted to put this story out there…

Speed, strength, endurance… Animals!

I feel a bit rude... I didn't  really introduce myself in my first blog; my name is David, I'm a Senior Intelligence Analyst working for the NHS, from Liverpool... The job title may sound pretty cool and Mi5-esque, but it's not! Ok, so formal introductions done, I can carry on where I left off!

In my last blog I said that I was working my way back to full fitness. I’ve been back running now ‘properly’ for about 6 weeks, though I’ve been running in some form for just under 3 months. The time has flown by, and it’s crazy to think I wasn’t running for 6 long, horrible months!

My focus has been on 5km and 10km distances as I’m running the Bupa Manchester 10k a week tomorrow (Sunday 20^th), and a lesser known Knowsley 5k the Wednesday after (23^rd). Dreaded speed sessions as well as increasing the distance of my weekly long slow runs are par for the course at the moment.

This work has reduced my 5km time down to sub 20min for the first time since before injury, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to manage a sub 40min 10km for Manchester just yet!

Today I managed my furthest long run this year; a 10 mile jaunt covering a bit of the Liverpool-Leeds canal and the local roads. All was going great until just after 2.5 miles when I tried my best at completing a full on face plant as I went over on my ankle. Fortunately I didn't hit the deck and after a couple of seconds to make sure I was alright off I trotted again. That was the only bit of trouble I had, but the real test will be overnight; I'll be crossing everything when going to bed tonight hoping that my knee doesn't flare up!

I should probably mention, not to make you jealous or anything, that I’ve got the week off work next week. Unfortunately I’m not venturing to some far off sun kissed land, or for a brief city break – as much as I’d like to! My dad was 60 on Friday, so he and my mum have gone on a cruise; hence I’ve taken the week off to look after the animals…

…Animals? Now is a good time to tell you that my mum and dad live on a small holding. A small holding (in case you didn’t know) is a house with a small plot of land; in this instance, just over 3 acres. There are quite a few animals – 4 horses, 7 chickens, 4 dogs and 3 cats, suffice to say I’ll be shovelling $hit pretty much non-stop, joy! I don't mind - I lived there for the best part of 14 years and it gave me some of the most funny, heart-warming, and heart breaking times (I'm getting all mushy!!).

If I've done this right, there should be a photo below from the window of my old room showing the... Back garden!

The land runs all the way down the left of the picture, to the trees at the back, and over to the right ending at the hedge.

I'll update after the Manchester 10k, good or bad race...

New beginnings...

Welcome to my blog! I’ve decided to give blogging a go given a lot of fellow runners do, and I find myself having the time to do so at the moment. I’m hoping that my enthusiasm to blog continues, and I plan(!) to blog once a week.

So… Pint Sized Runner; where does this come from? Well, I currently follow Charlie Purdue on twitter, who is a British long-distance runner. She has nicknamed herself ‘Pocket Rocket’ which I think is quite clever given her speed and small stature.

As I’m also quite short (5’7”) I decided a quirky nickname would make me endearing to the reader ! I came up with ‘Pint Sized Torpedo’. Pint Sized for my size, and Torpedo for my relative speediness. I don’t ever presume to be exceptionally fast, so went with ‘Pint Size Runner’ for the title of this blog.

My goal is to run a sub 3 hour marathon before I’m 30; I’m *cough* 27 *cough* at the moment, so I have just under 3 years to get there having run my first marathon last year in a time of 3 hours 56 minutes. However, this marathon was run with runner’s knee, and I consequently knackered myself for 6 months. In which time I had physio, ultrasound, and MRI scans to try and ‘fix’ me! I’m now back running and trying to get back up to speed with my fitness.

I’ll no doubt go over this marathon experience in one of my later blogs. In the meantime, thanks for reading!