Vale Royal AC Runners

Hi All,

Bit of a report about todays race while im sat chilling in the hotel (Dads having a nap seems as he has had such a tough morning..)

So my day started at 3am when my alarm went off...breakfast, ready and out of the hotel on a shuttle to the course at 4:15.  obviously pitch black, and VERY cold.

My race actually started at 5:55am, not 6:15.  i found out yesterday that there was going to be an elite womens start instead of mixed with the men, pretty disappointing as part of the reason i chose vegas was so i could run in a mixed race to avoid the likelihood of getting stuck in no mans land.  instead a field of 12 of us started 20mins before the men...because they set a challenge, the battle of the sexes...whoever crosses the line first out of the 1st man and woman gets $10k bonus. 

so anyway, 5.55am (still dark and cold) and we were off.  i wont bore you with too many details...but basically first 10miles were decent, then between about 11 and 18 i didnt feel too great...pushing on on my own took its toll a bit especially on that section with a few undulations and a head wind to contend with in some places.  by the last U turn at about 19.5miles i was feeling good again and the last 6 or so miles were a little stronger. 

a little disappointed not to go under 2:40 yes (seems as i was aiming for 2:38) but i cant complain about a 2:42 which was basically a time trial...me against the clock.  and an 11minute PB isnt too shabby either!  so although theres obviously a hint of disappointment, in general im happy (and in decent shape post race...moving better than dad thats for sure!!!!).

thats it for now...thanks for all the well wishes via facebook or through dad.

see you all in a few weeks over xmas!

Nic

Hello All!

Wow its been a long time since I sent an update (thanks for passing ahint along James!)...I forget that not everyone lives in the facebookworld to see the updates on there!!!

Anyway....lots has been happening here since I got back, some good,some not so good.  When I first got back I found out that my ferritin(iron) had gone low again, so my build up to full training was slowerthan planned.  It just meant that although I could still put in a lotof miles, I couldnt do too much in the way of sessions.  But after 3weeks another blood test showed that it had recovered to a good enoughlevel for me to hit the training 'properly' again. 

On the brighter side, I now have a new best friend called Hank.  He isa white Saturn L200, and he takes me to lots of fun places to run :o)unfortunately Dad has passed on his obsessive streak of having a cleancar...everyone tells me im obsessed as I think Im about the only personin America who washes their car with a bucket and sponge!!!  Hank looksgood though!

As most of you know I am training for a marathon in earlydecember...Las Vegas!  So Ive been racking up the miles over the pastmonth.  Im up to 18miles for my long run now, and I nailed that in 2:01today so things are starting to look up.  That rounded out a 108 mileweek for me!

Race wise I have only run 1 so far...down in southern New Mexico.  Itwas a low key race, and I had to combine it with 3x10mins of temporunning afterwards to put in a decent marathon training day.  the racedidnt go too well, but I wasnt in race shape at that point.  I stilldont think Im in great race form (at least not over 5k anyway!) but itsearly in the season and with 10 weeks til my marathon i dont want to besuper fit just yet.  Next race is this coming friday in Notre Dame,IN.  A flat, fast 5k round a golf course...definitely not ready forthis speedy one but will see what happens!!!

Only other exciting story I have for you is my first rattlesnakeencounter!  I was running in the foothills with one of the othergirls...I was in front as it was a narrow single file path...I stoppedsuddenly with an "Oh s**t"...as this 'stick' (that was only about 3ftaway from me treading on it) moved, lifted its head to look atme...hissed and rattled.  we promptly turned and ran the otherdirection.  not too sure who was least happy to see who, but I dontthink I would have won a fight with that guy.

Right, thats it for now...pretty long update this time as I hadntposted one for so long.  Will try and make it more regular if I can!

Hope all is good back home and your all training hard (and trying to keep my old man in check!)

TTFN :o)

Hi Gang

Once again, I'm killing time in a hotel so figured its as good a time as any to update my blog!  I'm in Oklahoma for our regional track meet...

I ran the 5k yesterday and finished 8th in 16:40...was a busy race and I spent pretty much the first km running in lane 3!  fairly pleased with the placing but kicking myself a bit for not running a smarter race...step in the right direction though. 

Now I just have to wait to find out if I have made it in to the Nationals 10k...27 go and I am ranked 29th so I just need 2 people to scratch which is very likely as several have qualified for the 5 and 10 but no one really runs both.  So all being well, next stop is Nationals in Arkansas in 10 days.

Will keep you all posted...then will see you when I get home at the beginning of July.

Hope all is well in sunny England...

Nic

Hi Gang,

Im currently lying on my bed in a hotel in LA...its 12noon and i have another 9 and a half hours before my race!!!  So figured I would update my blog while i have so much time on my hands. 

Ok well the latest news on the shin.....good news is my MRI showed that there is no stress fracture...bad news is i somehow managed to partially tear both of the muscles that run down the front outside of shin.  Apparently an impressive feat as its something the doc has only ever seen from an impact injury.  But the other good news is that seems as I can run relatively painfree if i strap it they have said I can keep running providing it gets no worse.  Obviously on very reduced mileage though...wont be seeing a 90-100mile week again for a little while!!!

So here I am in LA getting ready to run a 5k tonight.  I was meant to be running the 10k which was yesterday, but after everything that has happened with the injury the coach axed me down to the 5k instead.  No-one even knows how the shin will react to a 5k, so a 10k would probably have been too big an ask this soon. 

Anyway enough shin talk.....

I hope everyone running London next week is ready and raring to go.  Hopefully you are well rested and have your feet up for most of this week!  Take it easy, all the hard work is done (or as my coach out here loves to say 'the hay is in the barn'!).  Fingers crossed the weather will be kind and you all have a great day.  I'll be watching online if I can, otherwise I'll eagerly await the results and reports!

Good luck marathoners!

Nic :o)

http://www.golobos.com/sports/c-track/recaps/032809aaa.html

Hi All

Goffy reprimanded me on tuesday for not having updated my blog in a while...so here I am!

Not much good news to report at the moment I'm afraid.  As you may have heard I ran a 10k on the track in Stanford, CA last friday (27th March) but ran it on what was already a bad shin, and Ive not been able to run since.  The good news is the docs have pretty much ruled out a stress fracture, and think it is bad tendonitis like I had a few years back after the marathon.  Docs are doing what they can to get me back running in time for my next scheduled race which is a week on thursday.  Crossing my fingers and toes that it can happen but we will see!

Hope things are going well back with you all...and anyone training for london is almost ready to start tapering for the race!!!  I'm hoping I can get the finish line online so I can watch out for you all (if anyone knows how I can, let me know!)

Look forward to hearing from you all soon :o)

6 March 2009

Results of Nicky's 5000m race can be seen on the link below -

Clearly getting 'back' to her best in Notre Dame!

http://www.und.com/sports/c-track/stats/2008-2009/alexwilsonfinalresults.html

http://golobos.cstv.com/sports/c-track/recaps/020709aad.html
 
Also...Click on Lee Emmanuals name to go to flotrack for an amazing mens mile...

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=44488&BIB=31957&S=230&PWD

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/2009/01/18/20090118spt-halfmarathon.html