Running Up That Hill

I have just run my slowest 10k race in a number of years. And you know what? I am actually pretty happy. Happy with the effort, and happy that, on the day, in the circumstances, that was about as good a time as I could achieve. Running is more about doing your best, rather than running your best time.

The race was a local one, at a small village called Chapelton south of Aberdeen. The race is called the Chapelton of Elsick 10k as it passes through the Elsick estate on the route – and more on the route later. Local races are really great in which to participate, as they are very often a great focal point for the community, encouraging a lot of involvement for those who stay in the area, particularly for chidren with kids’ races. They are also not too big, with only a few hundred runners as opposed to the larger town or city races. it gives them a different feel.

The biggest concern prior to the race was what the weather was going to be like. Not as if I can do anything about it, of course, but when one of the forecasts is predicting thunder and lightning during the race, it does tend to add a bit of focus when checking out what it is going to be like. As we waited for the start, there was a heavy shower, and the temperatures had been cool, so much so that we had jackets on in the half hour or so before we got going.

A lot of friends from the JogScotland Bridge of Don group were taking part in the race – adding to the lovely community feel – and I was there with my friends Susan and Maxine for the event. As we headed to the start, the rain eased off.

With Susan and Maxine before the rain started

Now on to the course. The race has gained a bit of a reputation for being tough. Hilly in places, very hilly in others, and with a killer hill around the 8km mark, just when you are pretty smoked from the effort to get there. Nice. But, you know, how tough could it be. We were about to find out.

The first few hundred metres were downhill and actually quite slippy on the village streets, but after those few hundred metres we turned, and then the hills began. I had gone into the race hoping to run about nine minute miles – this would have been slower than my most recent 10k race a few weeks back, but based on what I had heard of the course elevation, I thought this would be achievable.

In reality, I was ahead of that pace for quite a bit of the race, even going through the very undulating first 5k. It felt that, after you had had a bit of a downhill section to recover from the previous hill, another hill would emerge round the corner just to test you once again. And it was testing, no doubt about that, really not helped by the fact that the weather had decided to distinctly improve and that shower before the start felt a very long time ago as the sun came out and things heated up after about the first ten or fifteen minutes of the run.

“it is that challenge to yourself”

Things were hard, but then running IS hard, I think that is one of the reasons why we do it, to prove that we can do hard things. It is that challenge to yourself to take on the distance itself; the battle is not against the other runners, it is you against the course.

But while I was winning that battle over the first half of the race, the hardest battle lay ahead. The hill at 8km. It is worth mentioning that the course was mixed terrain – mostly tarmac, bits of trail and one part (one particularly grim part) was a short, steep uphill section on grass. All of this adds to the colour of the event of course, but when it came to THAT hill at 8k, it was a trail section. And that made what would have been hard on tarmac even harder (in my view anyway).

So here is the elevation chart for the race, which, frankly, underplays how grim the hill was!!

The chart of pain

There may have been a piper at the top of it, playing the theme for Chariots of Fire to encourage, but frankly that had little influence on encouraging me up the slope! And so, I walked. Now, some folk might think that walking in a race is sacrilege, but it was the right thing to do. I was power walking, to the extent that I was overtaking others who were walking as well, but I was certainly not running. Kudos to everyone who did run up it, but I was not one of them. I ran, I walked, I ran, I walked, I ran, particuarly when I saw there was a photographer standing right at the top. But it was pretty grim.

Even at what I thought was the top of the hill, there was another little bit more to enjoy before we were heading downhill thankfully and heading for the last kilometre, which, just to add to the fun, was also uphill. This was nowhere near as steep though so while it was tough, it was ok, though I felt like I was plodding through treacle at this point.

Into the final few hundred metres there were spectators to encourage the runners to the line, and there is always a big boost when you can finally see the finish line – even if it is at the top of a slope!

The finish line in sight

Final push to the line

A few seconds later it was all over, and all the effort and pain begins to drift into your memory banks when you get the medal (and buff in this case) and a drink of water to begin to cool down. Susan and Maxine did brilliantly, both finishing ahead of me as did our other clubmate Sally, and it is always great to see friendly faces at the finish line and you can then compare your horror stories with them about just how horrific those hills had been. And how hot the whole thing was!!

With our well earned medals at the end

And this is really what really matters in a race – friends, camaraderie, enjoyment – and a bit of a laugh together once it is all out of the way. It certainly matters a lot more than the time does, though I recognise that time is something which is uniquely important to each runner. It is the validation of that test I mentioned earlier on, the test for you.

So what about the time then? Well here are the details. It was actually sub nine minute miles, despite everything.

The facts and figures from the race

Now for some, fifty five minutes would be like them walking backwards around the course, for others fifty five minutes is only something they could dream of. As I mentioned earlier. time is a unique thing for every runner. For me, this was fifty five minutes and five seconds of pure effort and that is all that counts. It was what I had in me today. Would it have made any difference if I had run a bit further up that big hill at 8k? Yes, a little, but so what? When it came to it, I needed to walk. That was my choice. And I am happy with it. Nothing else matters.

We all ended up with the same medal – a really nice one too – and we all enjoyed the savouries, the cakes and the coffees and teas afterwards.

Nice bling

We came away with our own memories of the event. We came away with our own views of the course. We came away with our own sense of satisfaction at what we had achieved, regardless of the time we ran, and we came away with our own views on whether or not we would take on the challenge again, either at this race or at any other 10k event.

Every race delivers us an unique memory. I cherish them.

The Road to Paris

Well, it might sound unusual, but trust me when I say it. I am in the process of trying to qualify for a marathon at the Paris Olympics. Not something you expect an average runner aged fifty four to say is it? Some may have thought my best days were behind me, but no, I really am trying to qualify to run the marathon at Paris during the Olympics.

Now you have picked yourself up off the floor, I can come clean. I am not trying to qualify to line up alongside Eliud Kipchoge and the rest of the boys toeing the line for the ACTUAL marathon at the Paris Olympics, but I have begun the quest to run the marathon course in Paris during the Olympics next year. But like a lot of French things (and apologies to my French friends and any other French person reading this) it is a bit complex.

“a mass marathon event”

First, the straightforward stuff. The organisers of the Paris Olympics had the idea of having a mass marathon event, with 20,024 participants (50% men, 50% women) during the games itself. They also had the idea of a 10km event as well, to be even more inclusive and open up the challenge to even more – again 20,024 participants. That is the easy part.

The marathon race will take place on the night of August 10, starting at 9pm – the day of the men’s marathon and the night before the women’s marathon- and will follow the same route which the athletes will take on their medal quest. It starts and finishes in Central Paris, with the course heading out to Versailles before making the route back. The 10km race takes place on the same night, starting at 11.30pm.

The marathon route

So far, so straightforward. Now comes the complicated bit. How to actually qualify for the event itself. Usually, large races like this would be decided by a random ballot of course – ironically enough, the ballot results for the London Marathon in April next year are due to come out at the end of this week, so we shall anticipate the annual kick in the teeth and rejection from them come Friday – but this time round, there is a bit of a ballot,which I will explain in a second, but to get in you have to earn your way in. And you can do that in a variety of different ways, which is where it all gets a bit confusing. I mean, I am all in, and even I am pretty confused about what is going on.

The first thing you need to do is to register, so you can do that on the Paris 2024 website (which you can find via this link). Once you have done that, then you need to go through a process of setting up (or linking to an existing) account with Sport Heroes. Now I already had an account with them, which I believe I set up a few years ago when I went to run the Paris Half Marathon (the race which was canceled at the last minute at the start of Covid, but we ran anyway and this is still one of my favourite running pictures).

Jan, David, Rob and me

Then once you have done that, and linked your running app to your account (I have linked my Fitbit, note that Strava is not supported), then you can download the Marathon Pour Tous app from either the Apple app store or Google Play (this is the link to the Apple app) and link all of your accounts to that. (I did mention at the start that things are a little complex).

“new challenges pop up”

Now that all that is in place, this is where you can begin to try and win your place in the race. On the app, there are then a series of running challenges to complete. New challenges pop up every so often – for example, one challenge was to run 23km in two goes, another was to run for a combined total of two hours in one week – and by completing the challenge, you then go into a draw and a certain number of people who complete the challenges can get entered into the race. Depending on the challenge, a hundred or so places per challenge.

In addition to this, these activities also earn you points in your main Paris 2024 account, and these count towards other challenges which can also potentially win you entry into the 10km event.

Now if all of this seems like a hell of a lot of effort then you are not wrong, but in reality once it is set up, then it is just like any other challenge – like the ones you get on Strava every month to run a 5km or to run 100km in the course of a month. You have a dashboard on the app, and in the Paris 2024 account and you can track your progress against any of the challenges which have been set up.

“What are my chances? Pretty slim…”

If you are lucky enough to win a place, you will receive an email and you need to respond to that in order to secure the place at the event. What are my chances of getting in? Pretty slim to be honest, but hey, now that I have gone through all the flipping effort to set up the account, link the account, download the app and set everything up, then what is the harm of trying? If nothing else, it is another piece of motivation to keep me going through the course of the summer and you never know how things might work out.

One thing I should also say, is that at the moment I feel like a million miles away from running a marathon distance! Last weekend, when it was pretty hot, I ran a half marathon with my friend Susan and those last couple of miles were such a slog, I truly questioned my sanity about even downloading the app, but hey, I have done the distance six times before, so I am sure if I got in, I could get up to do it one more time – even though Paris in August, even at night, does pose the possibility of being a hell of a lot hotter than Aberdeen in late June.

With Susan at around the halfway mark of our half marathon run

In the short term, I am planning to run a half every month for the rest of the year anyway, as a good challenge to have every four weeks, and I have another 10km race planned for a couple of weeks’ time. Every time I run, there is the prospect of that Paris place – even though it feels like a very remote possibility – but for now, at least, I can say that I am running to be in the Marathon during the Paris Olympics, and how cool would that be? And perhaps in a week’s time, I will have a place in the London Marathon too? One can but dream.