Brighton & Hove Park Run

Following another week of tough training for the Berlin marathon , Martin and I headed off for West Sussex last weekend for a little fun and relaxation - a 5k race and an 18 mile training run.

This was our second time at the Brighton and Hove Park Run - a 5k time trial held every Saturday throughout the year, brilliantly organised and free to enter. A pre race jog round the park confirmed that my legs were way too tired to be racing but reminding myself that it's all good training I joined Martin on the start line.

The race does two and a half loops of the park with a bit of a hill being run three times so my expectation was that I would not be able to match my last Yeovilton time. Last time here Martin paced me around the race but having seen the previous winning times and in view of his current form this time he was going with the leaders and I was on my own.

For me the race was a huge disappointment and really hard work, making me doubt that the marathon training is doing any good. However it was really exciting, having completed the half lap and plodding up the hill on the first full lap, to see Martin racing along the other side of the park....in 4th place!! As my race went from bad to worse, Martin's race went from great to fantastic! Plodding up the hill on the final loop I once again saw him sprinting along the bottom of the park....and he now appeared to be in 2nd place, although I couldn't be sure as the leaders were lapping the back markers.

I'm ashamed to admit that knowing my time was going to be poor I more or less gave up on the last half km and crossed the line in 6th place in the ladies race with a time that I'd prefer not to mention.

Meanwhile Maiden Newton's super sprinter had indeed finished the race in 2nd place in a time of 18.20 and was now lamenting that he hadn't tried a bit harder and come in first! He was only 6 seconds behind the winner who had a 20 year age advantage and could clearly have been beaten into 2nd place with a little more effort. I am so proud of him, just got to say that again - 2nd place out of 168 runners, fantastic!

The following day saw us out on the South Downs doing an 18 mile hilly training run across some fantastic countryside, and purely by coincidence we saw the start and finish of a 30 mile ultra which we didn't even know existed, the Downland Challenge....so no prizes for guessing what we will be doing on the last weekend of July in 2010!!