Vaynol 10k
Well, with all my good intentions of doing some training having flown straight out of the window and my fitness level pretty low, I ran the Vaynol 10k last night.
In true climber style, several beers were drank the night before, lots of coffee and not much else on the day of the race, and it was boiling hot on the race night itself – excellent.
I came in at a fairly respectable 42.36 – which was not bad for my first race for over 8 years I think. I made a big tactical error at the start, being at the back of the pack on the start line and spending the first 2k frantically weaving around people, working my way forward.
It’s said that climbing is 1 third skill, 1 third mental strength and 1 third physical ability – I think I pretty much agree with that, except some trad climbing would score higher on the ’skill’ front.
I guess running is about half physical, a quarter mental and a quarter skill (tactics, knowledge etc), so perhaps I could knock a couple of minutes off that time without any increase in physical ability. Interesting.
This split of different areas of demands for sport is quite important when trying to improve at climbing I think. It’s easy to get stuck in to thinking that training for climbing involves dangling on a fingerboard. That’s not always the case.
Anyway, here’s to the Vaynol 10k next year. I’ll do some training, I promise!
Sorry if i held you up at all! You may remember me, the giant running butterfly!
I ran the vaynol 10k for my sons charity, DebRA .
If you are interested we would welcome you to run for DebRA in next years 10k