Happy New Year! Events for 2021

As we roll into 2021 (hi, from Tier 4) there's not a lot of in-person running going on, so along with the rest of the world I've adopted the "virtual event" lifestyle. "Health in mind and body" is my theme for 2021, which means aiming for consistency.

I found a virtual Lands End to John O'Groats challenge last year, from End to End events. I signed up for a bit of motivation, there's a year to complete it which for me is 27th September 2021 - I'm currently about 200 miles into the 874 mile distance. There are several events running concurrently, so if you fancy joining the challenge you can still sign up to start on January 1st.

I went back to the site looking for something interesting for 2021. I found the End to End virtual Everest challenge, complete enough ascent to have made your way from base camp to the summit - a total of 19,696 feet, or 6,003m. The challenge started in October but I only came across it late December so I'll have a go at completing it during January (final date to complete is February 25th). Only two days in so far (and 658m out of 6,003m completed) so a bit early to have an opinion on achievability.

Next is a distance challenge. I just about cleared 1,000km last year (after injuring my calf mid-year and needing to start from literally zero again with C25k!) so that seems a good place to start for 2021.

At the start of 2020 I entered the Virtual Runner 1,000km challenge to show solidarity with some workmates; that seemed like a good baseline for 2021 so I've entered that again. I need a bit more of a challenge for this year, so entered the 1,000 mile version too. I'm holding a place in my mind for a 2,021km stretch objective - but I'm keeping that on the back burner for now.

Who knows what 2021 will bring - I'm staying optimistic for some in-person races in the last third of the year, so Mrs and I signed up this morning for the Bedford Running Festival - I wrote about that in 2019. We're going for the 5k and Twilight 10k on Saturday, and then the half marathon on Sunday. I'm cautious about entering anything earlier int he year, we'll just have to see what happens.

I'm looking forward to a year of running, and, yes, even doing a bit more writing about it.

Race Report: South Lakes 10k and 5 other races (all at the same time)

Contining the tradition of races whilst away on holiday/business, I entered the South Lakes 10k on a whim last night. Race HQ is South Lakes School in Reston, Fairfax County, Virginia. It's a beautiful area, full of large houses buried in the forest. As with most organised races in the US (in my experience at least) it was pretty expensive - $59.50 including fees and a voluntary $10 donation to the Track & Field team.

In its 7th year

When I was looking for races I found a load of "virtual" races that seem to be vehicles for squeezing a few quid out of people plus some charitable donations. But you get a medal. I'm a sucker for the bling. Before entering the 10k I was going to run 10k anyway, having already entered the  2018 World Chocolate Day 5k & 10k virtual event (run whenever you like in August, submit your time, and they'll mail you a medal). So I was up for a two-medal run! I wonder how many others I could get?

Milling about, ready to go - flags on the right with mile pacing to encourage self-seeding

So toeing the start line this morning I was ready to run the 2018 South Lakes 10k real life event, the 2018 World Chocolate Day 5k & 10k virtual event, the 2018 Dash for the Donuts 5k & 10k virtual event, the Potato Day 5k & 10k virtual event, the Smile run virtual event (with 2017 medal because they had some supplies left and are clearly sweating their assets), and the 2018 WHO Wants to Race for Autism 5k & 10k virtual event (featuring a really cool K9-shaped medal).

There were three other virtual events I found, but their medals were rubbish and 1+8 events all at once would just have been silly (1+5 is perfectly sensible).

All lined up, can we go now?

The school is beautiful, clearly in an affluent leafy area. I arrived by taxi at 6:45 to pick up my number (the DC Metro doesn't start running until 8am on Sunday). I was oddly nervous, it's a while since I've run a 10k at effort. I picked up number 247 and ran. up and down in the car park to warm up a bit.

Selfies are not my forté

We started bang on time at 7:30am, a nice short downhill out of the school and left out onto the perfectly finished wide local roads. The whole route was on tarmac, very little of it was flat. There were no big climbs or flat out descents, but the continual undulations were quite draining.

Lumpy - no massive climbs or descents, but nothing on the level

I felt a bit weak at around 7.5km to go, but picked it up from 8.5km onwards. The final 300m was on the running track - I rarely run on tracks, they're so springy! Must do a track session one day...

The only photo I stopped to take - I couldn't help it, so beautiful here!

The field sorted itself out quickly, pacing overall seemed to be remarkable good - after the first couple of km of sorting ourselves out I only gained and lost a handful of places for the rest of the event. All the intersections were staffed by police controlling the traffic, with cars parked up with their blues on. I don't know if the school get charged for the police engagement, but with closed roads all the way round I wouldn't be surprised.

Trying a bit hard for the finish

It was an enjoyable run and I enjoyed running 10km hard (well, as hard as I can at the moment!). I came in 14th of 30 in my age group, and 120th of 364 overall. Clock time was 55:39 which translates to 5:34/km (8:58/mile) - or it would if it was precisely 10km, I measured it a little long at 10.2km and going through 10km in 54:49 (which I'm happy with as I thought I'd come in at around 55 minutes, give or take a few seconds).

A big loop around the neighbourhood 

Here's the one you get on the day, photos of all the others to follow

I enjoyed the run, but it's a little bit tough to swallow given I ran my 10k personal best just 18 months ago, and I was over 10 minutes faster! Still, I'm getting better at working exercise into my work routine now, so we'll see what happens in the future.

Making a brief appearance on the parkrun.us most events table

Bonus news: I ran Kensington parkrun in Washington DC yesterday, which means I'm now 5/5 on DC parkruns, but more importantly I've made it onto the US most events table! I'm informed it won't last long, parkrun is gaining in popularity here and with a few more events the entry criteria will raise to 15 events.

Challenge accepted.

Update from September 5th: The virtual race medals turned up!