Testing, Testing

I can run 10km. I run 10km a lot. At least once a week, usually a few times more than that. So why then am I quite so nervous about the 10km I have to run this weekend? It is because it is a race. And I just realised this week that the last time I raced a 10km was in October 2019!!

2019 was the year I set all my fastest times – from 5km all the way up to marathon – not a bad way to mark turning 50 I guess. Of course, since then, a heck of a lot has happened to get in the way of any 10km races, but having done two marathons and two half marathons since that race I was a bit taken aback when I worked out that the run on a very wet day in Culloden was the last time I raced the distance.

Running up what felt like a never ending hill with corned beef legs

I did not set a PB that day, I never was given the conditions, but it was a solid run and a good reflection of where I thought I was in terms of my fitness at that stage. Two and half years on, I feel nowhere near as fit as I did when I ran that day.

I know I am still pretty fit – far fitter than I was for a lot of my mid thirties to late forties – but definitely not as fit I have been. I do think Covid has taken a bit out of me, though thankfully the effects have been mild, but I think it is more that I feel a bit less motivated this year. I do not know directly why. I am enjoying my running, I love going out with all my running friends and leading the JogScotland groups, but I am not doing much beyond that. Running four times a week should be enough, I know, but I have this nagging doubt that I should be doing more.

“Take running a bit less seriously”

Perhaps it is because I have not signed up to the big one this year – running a marathon – that means I have been able to take it a bit easier over the recent months. Just as well as I was injured twice and had Covid over the winter. And maybe I also need to view this period a bit more positively. Maybe it has given my body a bit more of a chance to recover, to take off the crazy miles you can rack up in marathon training and also to enjoy myself a bit more. To take running a bit less seriously. To just do it for the enjoyment.

And in terms of being fit, that was put a bit to the test last week when a friend, who HAS signed up for a marathon, asked if I would join her for a 15/16 mile run last weekend. Amy is running the Edinburgh Marathon at the end of May so is approaching the peak mileage of her training. Now this was complicated for a couple of reasons – one was it was on Saturday morning, the other was she asked me on Friday and on Friday night I had already lined up a whisky tasting!!

The six whiskies all lined up

Now I am not a big whisky drinker – in fact I am not a whisky drinker at all – but it was a great social thing (done over Zoom with friends in other parts of Scotland) so while I did taste all the drams, I also made sure I drank a ton of water afterwards to ensure I was in some kind of fit state to take on the challenge.

And part of the reason I did it was simply because it would be a challenge. Of course, I wanted to help Amy out – we had run half marathon distance a few weeks back – but I also wanted to test out myself. I had not run further than a half in a few months, so this would be a big test for me, basically to run that distance with no real preparation beyond my usual weekly running schedule.

It was hard, of course it was hard, but then running is hard. But we got through it. Amy planned the route, and it took me out to places where I had never run before, so that was really great. It is brilliant when you get the opportunity to run somewhere new, especially when you think you have run so many routes in your home city that there are few new places to explore. If things work out, then perhaps I will join Amy on her twenty mile run next weekend. Running long distances is a state of mind, and if you can convince yourself you can do it, then you can be amazed at what you can achieve.

Any and I at about eleven miles in to the run

I also got a nice boost this week when I received through a nice memento of my recent New York Half Marathon. When I went to the expo I filled out details to get sent a peronsalised map of the course with my time. When I did it, I fully expected to be emailed something which I could print off myself, but no, through the door this week dropped this. A really nice touch, which I will be hanging on my home office wall.

A nice reminder of a great weekend

Returning to the 10k race this weekend, the event I am doing is the Forth Bridges 10km race, which is an event which starts in the small town of North Queensferry near Edinburgh then takes you on an out and back course over the Forth Road Bridge. This is one of the most iconic places in Scotland, with the Road Bridge now flanked by the Forth Rail Bridge -a UNESCO World Heritage site – and the new Queensferry Crossing. Even if I am in agony in the race, at least I can enjoy the view.

The Forth Road Bridge is the one in the middle of the three

Now this is probably not the time to admit that I am not a huge fan of heights but at least I can focus on the pavement ahead if I do not feel brave enough to peer over the side when I am out over the bridge itself. In truth, the prospect of running over the bridge really appeals to me, I think the views will be positively amazing and the weather forecast is ok too. I fully expect it to be pretty breezy over the main span of the bridge itself – indeed the race organisers have said that high winds would probably be the only reason why the race might get called off – but as the forecast looks like the winds will be quite light so it will be a great spectacle.

Am I going in with a time in mind? I am, but I am being very realistic. It is a long time since I have really tried on a 10km run – that run in Culloden likely being the last time I really went for it – so I am much more interested in enjoying the run, remembering the sights and simply bagging another bit of bling to add to the collection. Never forget, the only person who cares about your time is you. If you take the pressure off from trying to crunch out a PB every race, then trust me, racing becomes much more enjoyable. And in the end, is that not what we all want?

At a loss

I run down a road and then I turn up to the left and start running up a hill. I am looking for a hotel that I had seen as I thought that from there I could get a nice view looking across the bay. As I head up the hill I begin to realise that I have taken a wrong turning. I keep running on and I head down a side street. I see a path leading through the houses. Then it strikes me. I am on a run. And I am lost. And it is the most glorious feeling.

Why? Getting lost on a run was a bit of an occupational hazard for me. In my job I was lucky enough to travel regularly so I would often run in the places where I was staying. And very often I would get a bit lost. Not totally lost, you understand, not quite Mark Thatcher in the desert lost (ask your parents) but lost enough for me to have to dig out my phone and try and work out how to get to where I was going.

There was, of course, that one occasion in Paris where my phone ran out of battery when I was about 10k into a run and I thought I was in a bit of trouble for a while before I suddenly recognised the street I was on and managed to make it back to the bright lights of the Hotel Mercure which was, thankfully, not too far away.

But here I was, in Portree on the Isle of Skye, a bit confused about where I was and how I was going to get back to where I needed to be, and it felt fabulous. Because it is a feeling that I have not experienced for so long.

The view I was aiming to get, before I got a bit lost

Travel was such a big part of my life it was the norm for me to be away, not quite every week, but not far from it. This gave me amazing opportunities to run and experience other places, but travel has become almost non-existent for the past couple of years, therefore the chance of even getting lost was even slimmer, far less get lost somewhere new.

The reason I was in Skye was I was on holiday with my wife, spending a week around the West Coast of Scotland. As I wrote last time round, I always take my running stuff when I go away, not because I am not going to go and enjoy myself and eat and drink loads, but as a way of adding more to my trip. A chance to explore a bit and to perhaps work off a bit of the excesses along the way.

We started with a stop in Inverness, where I had run only a few weeks previously in the half marathon there, so this was a chance for a short 5km around the banks of the River Ness on a gloriously quiet Sunday morning. When I travel, I much prefer to run in the morning. When I was working it was the only part of the day when you could guarantee you had the opportunity to do it. Leaving a run until the evening meant it could be scuppered if work ran late or you ended up going out for dinner with customers. It is pretty much the same on holiday. Get out early and get it done.

The view from the River Ness

Ironically, I should not have even been in Portree on the day I did get lost, but circumstances conspired so that our trip to the Western Isles got cancelled due to problems with the ferry to take us to North Uist and that gave me the chance to explore a bit of the small town. The main thing I did discover is that it is a lot hillier than I thought it was! But it was great – again first thing in the morning – to experience the freshness of the cool air, a bit of rain on the wind and some glorious views of the town and its surroundings.

Looking down on Portree Harbour

When I am away, I am not looking to run particularly far. 5km in the morning is enough to just keep things ticking over, to get some miles in and then be back in plenty of time for breakfast (remember what I said about making sure I enjoyed myself when I was away?).

Also on Skye, while not running, my wife and I walked up the Old Man of Storr. This is a famous rock formation on the island that has also been used in films such as Prometheus and The Wicker Man (again, ask your parents). It is not a particularly long distance from the car park up to the Old Man of Storr – it is around one mile – but it is about one thousand feet up, so it is a fair trek. Thankfully the weather was good and it was so worth it for the views looking across to the Scottish mainland and the wild scenery around Applecross.

After Skye, we moved on to Fort William to enjoy the scenery of Lochaber, Glenfinnan, Glencoe and Ben Nevis for a few days before we drove down to visit our daughter in Dundee. Fort William was mercifully flat to run in after Portree, with lovely views across the hills on the shores of Loch Linnhe in the early morning mist.

Loch Linnhe on a misty morning

And then in Dundee I ran what must be the flattest track in the country right along the riverside area, past the new V and A museum and the RRS Discovery right out to the Tay Rail Bridge and beyond. Mist was the common theme of the week of running as it was a bit of a peasouper that morning, but on that day I did push out to 10km for the first time in a couple of weeks as I had a bit more time on my hands.

Looking out on the River Tay

Now I recognise that you might think that this is all a bit of an effort to make while on holiday when I should have my feet up and relax, but then that is not me on holiday. We are not beach people who just want to lounge around on the beach (not that there is anything wrong with that) but we would rather be doing something, visiting something, experiencing something when we are travelling. What better way to do that than to get out when things are quiet, before the town, village or city wakes up, and run?

The RRS Discovery next to the V and A in Dundee

Having returned home, I have to say that I have gone through a bit of the post holiday blues at being back at work in my home office. It always takes a few days to get back into the swing of things after a break I find, but my mood was lifted when I got my number through for my next race.

In the first weekend of May, I am going to be running the Forth Bridge 10k, something which I have wanted to do for a very long time. I grew up not far from the Forth Bridges and I always wanted to walk over them but never got round to it. Now I get the opportunity. I am not in the best shape to really push myself in the race – that is a blog for another day – but I will do my best and get it done. After all, I have those holiday miles in my legs to help me get to the finish line and at least in the race, there is little chance of me getting lost. Fingers crossed…

Variety

Running the same routes over and over again can, quite frankly, get very boring, very quickly. While there can be good things about familiarity – pushing yourself to beat your previous time, knowing that you are never going to get lost – there is also the prospect that this kind of routine can actually dissuade you from going out.

But over the past two and a bit years, for long periods, running the same familiar routes was the only realistic option for many of us. Restrictions about how far we could go from our house, restrictions on whether or not we could travel to other parts of our country due to local lockdowns and certainly restrictions on whether we could travel to other countries all played their part in ensuring that for most of us, for most of the time, were limited to where we could run and enjoy that variety so many of us crave.

“a great tribute”

In recent months, of course, things have eased, but I do think it is a great tribute to everyone who has persevered with running since March 2020 that we are now at a stage where, once again, we can run pretty much where we want, when we want to, and race as well.

With work, I used to travel regularly. Not quite every week, but not far off it and so I was incredibly fortunate to have variety in my running routes almost all of the time. This week, I made my first trip back to our corporate HQ just outside Boston in almost three years. Of course it was great to see colleagues whom I had not seen in person for that length of time, but it was also really nice to just run somewhere else.

Outside the Avid HQ in Burlington, Mass

Now it was not that it was a particularly exciting route, nor was it particularly long, nor was it a particularly nice day, but it was just good to be somewhere else. The route took me from my hotel, down along a dual carriageway and then up and around the office development where we are located. It was hillier than I remembered – isn’t every route? – and it was quite chilly, hence the two shirt combo. However, I also got to enjoy the early morning sunrise due to the joys of jet lag.

Early morning skies

It was an opportunity to recognise how incredibly fortunate I have been – both in terms of my previous traveling life and running in many great locations and also about just getting through things since all of our world’s were turned upside down by Covid. I have still got a job. While I have had Covid, I was not seriously ill and have no long-term effects from it. Perhaps this week marks the beginning of a return to more normal times and a bit more travel in the future.

“more than one hundred flights a year”

That is not to say that I want to return to the relentless grind of a life on the road. Having done it for thirteen years prior to March 2020, the last couple of years has been a reset. Working from home has become the norm (and will continue to be so, though I do now work one day a week from a shared office in the city centre which provides a much needed break from my own four walls) and I do not believe that I will ever do the amount of travel which I used to do. As an example, I would average more than one hundred flights a year. The advances in remote communication technology and a change in expectations from our customers will limit travel for the foreseeable future. And to be frank, that is no bad thing.

But back to the running, and what this week did remind me was that when I do go away, it is always worth getting out and exploring the area around you. There has been a bit of development in Burlington since I was last there and the place felt a bit more alive than when I was there back in 2019.

New additions to the Burlington landscape

Having returned from Burlington – and had a sharp reminder of the downsides of travel with an overnight transatlantic flight in economy, massive queues to get through passport control after my attempt to go through the automated gates ended in epic failure, and then the joys of Heathrow security – at least this week coming up gives me a chance to recharge a bit.

I am off on holiday and will be traveling in Scotland with my wife this week and yes, my running gear will be coming with me. T0 have not really gone away much in recent times, it is too much of a good opportunity to explore new places to throw away. Now I know some may think that why not have a rest when on holiday, but I will not run particularly far when I am out, just enough to keep things ticking over. My next race is a 10k in three weeks, so I need to keep up some work in order to be in reasonable shape for it.

So back to what I began with – variety. It is not just about going away that enables me to vary my runs. At weekends, rather than just running from my front door, I often go down to the beach area of the city to run or to go from a local park, just something to change the scene, to break up the routine and attempt to keep things fresh.

But if you do get the opportunity to go away, don’t take your gear with you then let it stay in the suitcase for the week. Enjoy yourself, of course, go out and eat and drink and party with friends and family, that has to be a priority after all we have been through. However, also get out for a few miles or kms. Trust me, it will all just add more enjoyment to your trip.