Not an ‘A’ race, but this one did still feel important.

I wanted a significant PB of about five minutes. I got a 1:55 at the GNR last year, tried for a hugely ambitious 1:45 at the Edinburgh half this spring (and failed with a 1:56) and decided to aim for 1:50ish this time round. My main aim for this autumn is a sub-4 at Amsterdam Marathon, and I felt I needed closer to 1:50 than 1:55 in order to give myself some confidence for that.

Geth was happy to run 1:50ish, as it was just a little faster than marathon goal pace for him (he’s going for 3:45), and so we agreed that he’d pace me. I told him not to slow down for me if I was struggling to match the pace, as I hoped to be able to catch up if that happened.

As it was clear that the start area would be organised similarly to last year (which was pretty chaotic), we arrived in plenty of time, with the aim being to get into our pen an hour before the cutoff time. We had time to chat to friends in the baggage bus area, which was great and made me a lot more relaxed, and then made our way down to the orange pen entrances. Being so early meant that we were right at the front of our wave, which was also a good thing – I found during the race that I was exactly where I should be, as I wasn’t needing to overtake lots of people or being overtaken myself.

Once the race gets started, being in one of the faster waves means you don’t have to wait too long to get going (I remember my pink wave days… that long hour of shuffling was not fun!) I felt a lot better once we started and felt comfortable at the planned pace for the first few miles. Our friend Andy ran with us over the Tyne Bridge and I was able to chat happily without getting out of breath.

Once we approached three or four miles, though, Geth was pulling away from me, and while my perceived effort remained the same, I couldn’t catch him. By that I mean: I tried to make my legs go faster and they wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter that I can run at a much faster pace during a shorter effort. If my subconscious knows there is energy that needs to be conserved, it will not allow my legs to go at a pace that might result in burnout. This is frustrating, but it’s not something that I’ve worked out how to overcome yet, and it makes me nervous about the marathon – because if that part of my brain decides on the day that I’m not capable of the goal pace, then I won’t be capable.

I carried on alone at the same level of effort. Close to halfway, I started to feel sick. I’m aware now that this was a combination of (a) the aftertaste of Active Root gel mix, which is something that always makes my throat feel a bit gassy and unpleasant and thus affects my breathing, and (b) the fact that this particular flavour of Active Root gel mix had caffeine in. Annoyingly, this caffeine in the gel mix had provided a really useful boost during my slower long run the week before, but now that I was running at a fast race pace, it was making me nauseous. As such, I couldn’t face taking on any more gel during the second half, and stuck to water instead.

While my pace did start to feel a bit ploddy, I stayed as strong as I could for the rest of the race. I didn’t look at my watch, because I didn’t want to start panicking about the pace. While I knew 1:50ish was out the window, I hoped I would at least get a PB – but it wasn’t to be. I finished in 1:56:00 bang on, the same time as the Edinburgh half. Consistent, but not what I wanted. However, I am pleased that my mile splits were pretty even in general and I didn’t suffer a slow fade like I had in Edinburgh.

I’m not sure how to feel post-race, especially now it’s been another couple of weeks and I’ve done another couple of long runs that haven’t quite gone to plan. I know Amsterdam is much, much flatter than Tyneside, I know I’ll be tapered (although being tapered hasn’t always worked for me in the past, so…), I know that I’ll be starting out at a pace that’s a whole minute per mile slower than I started the GNR… but there are still far too many unknowns for my liking. I’ve not cracked my fuelling yet (i.e. found a strategy that gives me enough energy while also not making me sick). I know now after the GNR that it’s not as simple as just sticking with a pacer through hell and high water. I don’t know if I can drown out the part of my brain that insists I can’t possibly run so fast for such a long way.

One month to go. I’ll soon find out!

I automatically typed ‘2015’ first. This race has always been associated with that year for me, because it was my first ever race, ten years ago this month. I’ve thought for some years that I would do it again to celebrate the anniversary.

Ten years ago, the Great North 5k was part of the weekend’s Saturday events, along with the kids’ races, the CityGames and the pasta party. These days it’s just the kids’ races on the Saturday, and the pasta party is no longer in existence (a shame – we used to go and claim about eight bowls’ worth with our GNR tokens!). There’s no more CityGames either, but they do host a couple of elite races on the Friday night before the mass 5k starts, so it’s fun to go along early and spectate on the elites.

The course this year was exactly the same as in 2015 – something I was delighted about, as so many races have drastically changed their courses over the years – though friends who have run it in the interim tell me that it has differed slightly from time to time.

One of the special waves in this race nowadays is in association with Northumbria University, who provide special t-shirts for their team running in this wave. Several Benchies were running in the Northumbria wave this year, as well as a couple of us running independently, so it was a good club turnout!

As it was ‘only’ a 5k (not how I would have described the distance ten years ago!) and not a goal race, I felt comfortable breaking the ‘nothing new on race day’ rule by trying out my new Vaporfly 3s prior to their big test on the Sunday. I didn’t notice I was wearing them during the race, which is exactly what I want from race day shoes (the speed boost from the carbon plates is nice, but the comfort is the real reason I wear Vaporflys).

I ran at about 90-95% effort and sneaked in just under 25 minutes – nowhere near my PB, but I’m not in 5k PB shape at the moment (hopefully next year). That’s more than ten minutes faster than in 2015, which is not bad for ten years older 😀

I’m really glad I ran this race – not just to celebrate my anniversary, and not just because I had such a lovely time with so many friends running and spectating, but also because I had very deliberately taken the summer off racing in order to give myself a break from it – and so I was out of the habit and felt nervous about the logistics again! Easing back into it with the 5k meant I was much more relaxed going into the GNR proper on the Sunday.

But that’s another blog 😊