The Knole run is possibly not a course that I think about with hundreds of positive thoughts but I was actually excited for it this year. Last year I raced in the Knole run and you can read all about it here. Last year I came 17th and I was pleased with this at the time but this year I had higher hopes and was aiming top ten. My week before this race hasn't calmed down that much and with the addition of starting school on Wednesday that added to some tiredness. My Friday night pre race routine was similar to normal with pasta and a banana, however the Saturday morning was slightly different because I had to go to school... arggggg. The race started off fast and I felt I was in a good position going into the first hard hill. I was sat in the top six but the hill was tough, I tried to keep it calm. The race pretty much consists of uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill. I find this tough but I was able to keep in a good position but I felt the last hill was one ask too many and I lost a few places, crossing the line in tenth. My first thought was how had the rest of my team done. There were two Sevenoaks girls just in front which was promising and some were coming in a bit behind, so I was hopeful! Sevenoaks won and I was thrilled, I couldn't have asked for much more. After a tough race, I was delighted! A big bonus was there was some great cake at the end which was exactly the sugar hit I needed. I hope everyone who was racing had good weekends. I feel like I am back into the swing of school again now after starting next week, however the count down to half term has already began. I feel I am at the point now that I am ready to finish school and take my exams.
Love G x
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As I am writing this title, the idea that I have just written 2018 does scare me a little... anyway on to the more important aspect of this blog post, the actual race. Firstly if you want to check out my blog post from this same race last year - Kent Champs 2017 you can read it here. I had been excited and nervous for Kent champs for a long time now, however I have never felt the way I did on Friday night... I was nervous. First of all, this is a very new experience for me, but I tried switching this anxious energy into something more positive. So, as I settle down for the night on Friday I decide to start reading Kelly Holmes autobiography and this worked a treat, as soon as I stopped reading I was off asleep. In the morning, I was struggling through my porridge I just felt a bit sick eating it... again I think a bit nervous. Soon enough we were in the car and on our way to Brands Hatch. On arrival all my nerves disappeared and I felt actually full of energy and excited to race. After a quick walk of the course which was quick because it was the same course as the year before. The temperatures were pretty low as I was warming up, honestly I could not move my toes... I am not joking!!! Putting my spikes on was quite the mission but once they were on I was ready for business. The gun went and I was off. The course was two small laps and one large lap. The first two laps went by quickly and I was glad to get them over with. The last lap was more challenging, my legs started to hurt but I felt concentrated and was happy with my position in the field currently so didn't want to let it drop. When I got to the bottom of the final hill, I knew I just had to get up this hill quick enough not to get caught up... this was tough (shown by my expression in the photos below). I crossed the line as 4th u20 and I was thrilled, this is possibly my best race to date. I was chuffed to also have got automatic selection for the inter-counties in March, which last year I had missed out on and this was a big goal for me in 2018. I hope everyone who had county champs or any other races or training, that it went well! This is only the first race of the New Year so it has been a nice confidence to get a good start to it, but there is still a lot of work to be done and many more races to come.
Love G x This long weekend over New Year I have been lucky enough to be staying in Bath for a few nights. This is also great because I’m considering going to Bath uni so I can get to know the city more, to give me a better idea of what it would be like. With lots of races approaching in January, there was no pause in running on Saturday, so I headed to parkrun. I had looked on the parkruns website to try and give me an idea of what the course will be like. After navigating my way to the course... and having to tackle one huge hill to get there, I had a quick jog to look at what I could see of the course. Soon enough we were off and the course was pretty muddy and windy! The start began with a steep downhill then a big flight of steep steps. The rest was overall flat but much more muddy and I am ashamed to say, as I was going around the corner, splash... that’s me slipped into a puddle. Luckily I wasn’t that soaked all over, just two very very soggy feet! It was nice to come in with a steady time, to mix the parkrun in with my session. I did really enjoy having a navigate around Bath getting to parkrun and also the area around where the parkrun was. This weekend has consisted of lots of walking around Bath and shopping. Bath is possibly the most beautiful place and I’m certainly falling in love with it more each day! Next week I will be doing a bit of a post about 2017 and going into 2018. And of course my blogs birthday, the 12th January will mark two years of Race With Grace!!!
Love G x It has been a few weeks since my last blog post and cross-country race, last weekend’s race I was particularly excited for, why?… because I was representing Kent at the Southern Inter counties for the first time. My usually Friday night before the race was the same as normal, with a big bowl of pesto pasta (I’ve converted from carbonara). I also came straight home from school on the Friday, which is always a nice treat when I have nothing after school. After a relaxed evening my alarm was set and I was all packed for my race. My alarm wasn’t crazy early which was nice as I was leaving at 9:40am which meant I didn’t go into school in the morning, which is always a bonus. We headed off to Oxford with a car full of layers and footwear ready for the elements that we were expected to be facing in Oxford. When we arrived, we had slightly less time than planned following some nightmare traffic getting into Oxford. I picked up my number and headed out to walk the course. The course consisted of two 3km laps which were actually relatively flat apart from one mound at the beginning of each lap, so I was quite happy about that. Before I knew it, I was already standing on the start line amongst a large number of u17s and u20s. The start was physical with people in 3 or 4 rows on the line, luckily I found myself only the second line back. There were a few initial tight corners which meant lots of people ended up fighting for positions. It was a relief for the initial km to be over and then suddenly the u17 and u20 split off on their separate paths and we were now just running with our own age groups. From then on, the field spread out a lot and I actually found myself mainly running with other Kent runners; four of us seemed pretty huddled together in the same part of the field. The ground throughout the course was so variable, parts were rock hard, frozen by the seriously low temperatures. However, others had really churned up by the time it came to our u20 race. Ideally, I think I should have gone for 12mm spikes and not 9mm as I was losing grip in a lot of places (I should have listen to dad with his advice to go for the 12mm). The final stretch was 600m around a field and my legs were giving up and I really lacked some speed at the end and was over taken in the last 200m. This is definitely an area which I need to improve on before the new year when I have lots of important races coming up. I think I finished in the middle of the field and was the 6th Kent scorer which I was happy about. The official results have all gone a bit wrong for the organisers but hopefully somehow, I’ll be able to see how I did officially. I hope everyone who was racing this weekend had good races and enjoyed this rather overdue blog post, but I’m sure you can imagine in my last year of school, work is pretty heavy at the moment. I am now on my Christmas holidays so there should certainly be more going on, on my blog and social media!!
Love G x These last two weeks have flown by and that is no surprise considering I have been on half term and thankfully I didn't have loads of work to do, so I could also rest and relax for a bit. Leading up to this race I was a little nervous of how the course would go as it is known for being very hilly. Last year I was in the u17 age group (last years blog post here) and this year I was running in the seniors race so the course is longer. This week it was 4.9km to deal with but with about a million hills in it too !!! After my usual warm up, I did my last few drills and made my way to the start line. The gun went and I found myself in the mix of the race pretty instantly, the beginning of the course was relatively flat but it didn't last long before we started climbing and then soon after we were descending... up and down, up and down, we went. The course was made up by two laps, one 2km lap and another 3km lap. The second lap was certainly the hillier one, so it was key not to go off too quickly as I had visions of me pretty much crawling up the hills in the end if I did. The last lap of the course was painful, my legs were full of lactic and felt heavy, I was desperately just trying to hang onto my position but this was tough. The final 500m was hard because it was all pretty much down hill but following some killer hills, it was hard to let your legs go and have a final strong finish. There was several of us all close to each other and we kept over taking each other but then the last one hundred metres we all gave our final sprint... and this was painful !! I over took one girl, but then got overtaken by another and I crossed the line in 16th senior women and 8th u20. I crossed the line and my initial feelings were of disappointment however after having some time to reflect and look back, yes it wasn't my best race but it wasn't horrendous. I think my good result in the previous Kent league is what made me feel initially disappointed but I had to look at the bigger picture and there were more people in the race this weekend. It feels great to be solidly into cross country season now and although the conditions haven't exactly been tough yet, I am really enjoying it. I am now back at school, hence the slight delay in post but I hope you all had a good week. I have had some very exciting news in the week because I came an auntie to the beautiful Florence and I can't wait to spend lots of time with her in the future.
Love G x The time had finally arrived for my first official cross country race of the season and was my first Kent league of the season. It took place at Stanhill farm... one of my favourite locations because it's a pumpkin farm, so whats not to love. This time last year I was doing this kent league and it was my first cross country race for Tonbridge AC ever and the blog post is here. This year, I was going into this race with a season of experience but also as an age group older, this time I was running as an u20 in the senior women race! Having prepared for this race suitably with my usual pasta in the evening... however not carbonara, why? Well I think I'm becoming lactose intolerant so I have just been trying to avoid it recently and see if it helps in any way, so this time is was pesto... who knows this might become my old carbonara in future. The senior women's race was not until 2:15 which allowed me to have a suitable lie in on my first day of half term which was very much needed after possibly the most stressful last two weeks of term. I am now off for the next two weeks which is great, although I have a lot of work but I will also have time to relax and chill. Soon enough I was on the start line and the gun went, a bit to my surprise. I jumped into action and I found myself near the front of the crowd which I was pleased with as usually I get caught in a big bunch of people. I kept myself calm and just went with the initial pace and was happy with my positioning. The field soon started to split but I found myself in a little group of three early on which made it much easier, because we got the first lap done with not too much energy exerted. However I say this but going into the beginning of my second lap, my legs start to burn and they feel exhausted and I suddenly think... 'argggg, I've gone off too quick.' The thought of this I think actually motivated me to keep running fast because I knew I wouldn't forgive myself if I went off too quickly because then I knew it would be all my fault. I kept pushing hard around the course and one of the girls in our little group of three soon broke away from us and I was unable to keep up with her pace so the group turned to two. With the finish line in sight, I was still side by side with this other girls and I knew it was going to be down to the last few hundred metres. I tried to push on with the pace and was at the front and just tried to keep progressing strongly, I had no idea where she was at this point and knew I better not turn around. What I didn't know at the time was I had a comfortable lead on her but I kept pushing hard until I crossed the line in 7th. I was so pleased with 7th in the senior women race and even more pleased with 3rd in the u20 race, a huge improvement from my 13th last year in the u17 age group. I finally started to feel all my hard training paying off. The exhaustion I felt as I crossed the line was like no other. I was D E A D! I was on the floor for about 5 minutes before I was able to get back up and I knew that was the most I had pushed myself I think ever and it has given me the confidence that I can push myself to near my limits if I really put my mind to it. Yes, that was probably one of the most painful races I have raced, but it was so worth it for the result! Now I must say a quick apology for the lack of blog posts, but I have realised that I am sure you would much rather quality over quantity. There is no point me writing a rushed blog post, which I done on a forced topic. My favourite thing is posting about how my races have gone, whether they went good, bad or ugly. I have another race in a few weeks time so I am sure that will be featuring very soon. Also I have some very exciting news that my sister is pregnant and is due in just over a weeks time now, so it is all very exciting at home and I have now become obsessed with baby clothes instead of sports wear... I guess this is probably a good thing. Also on Sunday we had a baby shower which consisted of lots of food (particularly cake) and was just generally such a great afternoon. I hope you have all had a good weekend and if you had any races that they went well.
Love G x Wow, finally I have found the time to get back to what I love... blogging. Ever since starting school on the 1st September, I have been overwhelmed by work. I currently have about five course works on the go and it has just been a little bit stressful these last few weeks. So with the finish line in sight with all my course work and having raced on Sunday, I have at last made it to my laptop to get a blog post out. Last Sunday, I had southern road relays. This was my first experience of road relays and also racing as a senior so there were lots of new things for me to experience this weekend. But I have to admit my lead up to this race was far from ideal, after getting a pretty rough cold on Wednesday, I spent the rest of the week desperately trying to get rid of it and drinking my own body weight in lemon and honey tea, to try and help with the recovery. It came to Sunday and the cold was on its way out but I still wasn't feeling quite 100%. This really annoyed me because I haven't raced in over two months and so I was pretty keen to get racing again after such a long break and especially because I knew I couldn't let my team down. I was the second leg of the relay, which I was happy with because I just needed to go out there and give it my best shot. As Phoebe was running in, to finish the first leg of the relay, the excitement started to kick in and I was eager and ready to go off and race. The course was said to be 4.5k so I knew it would be essential not to go off too quickly, especially because I knew I was around some strong senior women, compared to me as a first year u20. The race started off fast, and the first km was all uphill. Struggling to hang onto the person in front, I settled into racing my own race. The pace stayed fast and I was worrying perhaps I had gone off too quickly but at about halfway I formed a small group of three, and this dragged me around for about a km. When the finish line was insight, with about 500m to go, by legs started to go and so did my breathing. It felt like my wind pipe was really tight. I was determined just to push it and give it my all and get to the line. The last 300m was around the track and this was my hardest part of the race and I really really struggled. I crossed the line and was happy with how I had done, but I was not feeling good. The course turned out to in fact be only 3.6km though. After sitting on the floor for quite a while, I finally got myself up and felt pretty dizzy. I think this was down to a mixture of my cold and just giving it my all. I had such a fun day and our seriously young senior women team came away with 11th. It was a great day out and a great way to kick off my racing for the season. I hope to be a bit more active on my blog in the coming months, especially as I have half term coming up in two weeks. Even though I will have lots of work, I should have some free time too.
Have a good weekend, G x This week I have a very exciting workout video to share with you which I filmed with Ellen (teen runner blog, check out her blog as she is a great friend and has a running blog too) the other day. This blog post I'll also give you a bit of an over view of what I've been up to this week, but the main thing I have had this week was school... yes sadly I started school on Friday and its been pretty full on ever since then really. Fortunately I have had a chance to edit this video for you, which I have really enjoyed making and I hope you will all enjoy it. The music to the video is not the best but it's pretty hard finding good youtube legal musi so I hope you don't mind it too much ;) So here is my WORKOUT VIDEO which I'm really pleased with so let me know what you think! Here is also a written plan of the workout in the video: 1 minute plank 20x toe touches 20x alternate elbow knee 12x renegade row 15x half sits 20x single leg extensions 12x commandos And repeat Take 10 seconds rest between exercises and 30 seconds rest between sets! ENJOY!!! Other than filming a this workout video I have also been doing a lot of training this week as I continue to build towards cross country season, which I am really excited for. I have been trying to particularly work on areas which are my weaknesses so hopefully by the time I get to my first proper cross country in October I should have strengthened these weaknesses. This week has been tough I have found, after some solid training which I have enjoyed, I am a bit tired and school on Friday didn't help this much. On Monday though I feel like I will be back into the swing of school and happy to be back into the routine. For me I am a huge routine person and helps me almost stay focused so as much as I am not a fan of going back to school, secretly I quite like it.
I hope you have all had a great week, Love G x This is a blog post that I have been thinking on doing for a few months, as lots of people have asked me about whether I'll be doing any tri's this season. As you know last year I participated in lots of triathlons and was keen to try and improve all three disciplines, although running has always been my favourite and I had always heavily prioritised it training wise, but I was enjoying the diversity of triathlon. After going on the England trial weekend (link to my blog post from it) a lot of things went through my head afterwards. Something that was clear to me, was that my swimming and cycling were far too slow but my running was the only thing that pulled me back into contention in the triathlons. The decision had to be made where I needed to go down one route or the other, because I just wasn't getting the all around training I needed for triathlon or benefits of committing to running fully. After thinking about everything there was a clear path that would be best for me to take... and that was the running one, and I haven't looked back since. As much as I enjoyed swimming and cycling it didn't fill me with joy, half as much as running did. I still swim and cycle now, but as cross training to help me with my running fitness and I really enjoy doing this. Don't get me wrong I still don't enjoy the 5:30am wake up for early morning swimming, but I just like to think about how I feel at 8:00am when I have achieved so much in my day, before most people have got to school. In addition to just preferring running over swimming and cycling, there was also the small... okay maybe not so small, issue of time. I am heading into my last year of school, where time is slightly tight and even writing blog posts is often something which is squeezed into an hour or two of free time, on a Friday or Saturday evening, but I certainly wouldn't change it for the world, because I love it. I was managing to fit in most of my swimming, however cycling I needed another 100km each week and I just had no where to fit this in. Cycling is my least favourite out of the three and there is something about being on a bike which makes me feel vulnerable. I think if there were cycle highways everywhere and if you didn't hurt yourself when you fall off, I would love it, but unfortunately it does not work like that. So, my bike remains in the garage and comes out for a slow cycle at quiet times of day, and I love that. Since making this big move to commit to running more, my love for running has grown and grown. I would now say I am definitely obsessed and striving to be better ever day. Some goals I make are realistic for each season and others seem crazy, so now I feel it is appropriate for some of my favourite quotes.
"Set a goal that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning" "It always seems impossible until it's done" "It's going to be hard, but hard is not impossible" I am now looking forward to cross country season, having come through summer with lots of pbs on track and I hope to improve my season this year from last year. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and answered lots of your questions. Also I hope you like my new design of my blog, after trying lots of different themes I have settled with this one. Love G x Wow, what a fun first track season I have had, even though I have only clocked 6 races, 3 in each event 1500 and 3000, I'm happy with how my first track season went. Previously before this season I had raced one 1500m before and that was about a year ago, and wrote a blog post on it, and my previous 3000m was from over two years ago so not much to go from. Every race I managed to squeeze a pb (minus kent 3km champs when it was the hottest day in 40 years...). In this blog post I am going to look back at each race and evaluate what I thought of it, and I'll also put the link to my blog posts on each race too, so you can look back for more detail if you fancy. TONBRIDGE 1500M OPEN MEETING This was my first race of the season and I didn't have huge expectation and just wanted to kick my track season off well. I got a huge pb from my one and only other 1500m I did... however more importantly it made me realise that the sub 5 minute 1500m was definitely something on the cards this season. LUTON 3000M YDL This was certainly not my most enjoyable race, with such a tiny field and windy conditions, it wasn't in my favour. In addition the long day of hanging around and long bus journey didn't do my legs any favours either. Lap after lap my legs felt just as rubbish as the previous lap, however miraculously I came across the line with a half decent time and a pb of over 1 minute form my previous 3000m two years ago, so I was actually really happy with the outcome and was just keen to see what more I could bring to the 3000m in the rest of the season. KENT CHAMPS 1500M This was an exciting race for me and I had been looking forward to it for a long time. However timing of it wasn't in my favour. It sat right in the middle of my exam week and also a couple of days after my birthday. I stood on the start line worried about what the outcome will be considering I recognised everyone to have beaten me all through xc season, but I pushed that out of my head and raced with everything I could. After pushing myself to my limits on my final lap I just missed out on a podium finish and a sub 5 minute 1500m, although I was still pleased to come away with a pb and definitely come higher up the field than anticipationg. MILTON KEYNES BMC 3000M This time it was off up to Milton Keynes for me to race my first BMC and a good quality 3000m and I was keen to improve my time from before. After the race being brought forward ten minutes than expected, it didn't have the ideal start for me. With not the best warm up, I was still feeling a bit tight before we started. After staying on my target for the first 1km I was soon loosing seconds on each lap and falling away from my target time, but my legs just couldn't give it anymore. I crossed the line with a new pb, which I couldn't complain about but I was hoping for more. KENT 3KM CHAMPS After holding a slight injury for a week or two, I had to miss the south of England track champs unfortunately, so I was hoping to make up for it at the Kent 3km champs. However again there was a slight issue. It was the hottest day in 40 years with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees and peaking at 5pm with my race start at 7pm... Anyway after chasing down second place for the entirety of the race I just lost her in the last 800m and had to settle with third. Surprisingly I was actually only about 5 seconds away from my pb in the heat... and my first Kent medal! WATFORD 1500M Watford was a new experience for me, having heard so much about their open meetings I was keen to try this one out and make use of their large competitive fields in search of a pb and to get the big sub 5, which I had set out most season to get. The field was large and I was anxious having put a fairly low target time down to chase. The first 2 laps I felt if I was just clinging onto the pack for dear life, being right at the back, this continued throughout however what happened on the last lap I was not expecting. My legs felt fresh still and I gave the last 400m one last push and I went from the back to the front of the pack on a painful sprint for the line. I'm not sure how quick my last lap was, but it certainly felt painfully fast. At the finish line my legs had nothing in them and all I could do was just sit down for a bit. I was chuffed though to have seen my time and taken 11 seconds off my pb from just 4 weeks ago and to finish the season on a time of 4:50, way below my sub 5 target. My season finished earlier than expected but with a holiday and school finishing, I became pretty tired quickly so just needed a rest. I felt I wouldn't perform to my best if I continued my season on any longer so it was appropriate to ease down. Now I am looking forward to xc season, which still seems far off but an exciting prospect for me as I head into this season with more experience under my belt, from my first xc season last year. I am really excited for what this season has to bring and I am hoping to improve on last season and I have a couple of clear targets I am hoping to meet. I hope you have enjoyed my season summary and I would also like to say I have some exciting blog posts to be sharing with you in the next few weeks.
Love G x |
HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
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