Runners World x ViFit #missionmarathon Selection Day
So fresh back from a long weekend with my Mum in Dubai celebrating her belated birthday (managed to do one sweaty run around the palm while I was there too)
I made the trek and it really was from Croydon all the way to Lee Valley Athletics Centre for the Runners World x ViFit Sport Selection Day with the hope of wining a place in the London Marathon 2018.
I nervously walked into the huge sports centre to already see all kinds of camera/photo moments being set up. (That didn't help the nerves)
I had a feeling as it was for Runner World UK and they'd of course what content for their online/social channels along with their partner Vifit Sport so I put a full face of make up on at 5am, to make full use of my fresh tanned face. One lady in another group admired my blue mascara which was nice that she noticed! (I probably made more effort for this outfit than I do for work)
OOTD
Nike Black Vest (Swapped for Mission Marathon Long Sleeve top)
Sweaty Betty Blossom Print Zero Gravity Run Leggings
Nike Black socks
Saucony Guide 10 trainers
Nike Tom Tom watch
As we were waiting for everything to be set up and a few more arrivals we started chatting naturally I think everyone was a bit apprehensive of the unknown agenda for the day. We were told to bring our sports wear to be ready to run! There were 3 groups as mentioned in my other post:
Speed Demons, sub 3 hour
Breaking 4, sub 4 hour
Finish liners, getting it done!
We were given name labels (felt like school again) with our groups on and then even more awkwardly everyone is then eyeing up each others chests to work out who our direct competition was!
Then after a little breakfast - I was too nervous to eat and worried I would get a stitch but they put on a good spread for us anyway, we rotated into our groups for the day.
RECOVER Ironically our first session was called 'Recovery', a super informative hour with Andy Vincent, Elite PT at Thirdspace Soho (which is actually my gym too although tend to use Marylebone more often)
Biggest lessons learnt is to stretch your big toes and when foam rolling BREATHE into it, takes the edge of ever so slightly, something I'm trying to do more of!
RUN We then went into the athletics 'Run' session with the Olympian Jane Vongvorachoti @janeruns4life, who for the lucky winners would be creating a 16 week bespoke training plan - pretty amazing!
Jane, showed us some great warm up drills which I've used since too. We then did a 2 lap warm up of the track together and at this point I knew my group were going to be speedy, just had that feeling.
After the warm up it was time to get to it! A 2 mile run at our best form/speed which was 8 laps of the track. We were told by Jane and the lovely Joe Mackie from RW's that its not a race etc etc. However I felt like the group bolted off, I knew I was going to be the slowest and had to just get over that and do my best or i'd be walking by the end if I did there speeds.
First mile Jane informed me I was at 7.32min mile pace - which I think was a PB and considering I've never ran on a track before I was pretty chuffed, then comes the next lap where the stitch creeps in on me and I can feel everyone slipping further away. And then it happens I get lapped but it my head I figured if they want someone who is working towards a sub 4 hour marathon time, they would look at someone who needs to be coached etc and can improve etc. I think the other guys also ran PB's of 6.34 min miles which is incredible and something I can only work hard towards! AMAZING though.
REPEAT I was relived to have the track session done as it was pretty scary having your running form on display for Jane and Joe to make notes on. Next up was the 'Repeat' session with the Runner's World team and Ben Green from Run Through events.
It was a little moment to test the protein bars and drinks from Vifit Sport and then we all sat down to discuss our previous race history, what distances we'd ran etc and how they went. This was a really informal chat but pretty interesting and was a confident boast too.
I came away from the day feeling super hyped and pumped for whatever the result was. It was so nice to meet the other participants who I'm all now following on Insta so its great to see their running journeys continue and hope to see some of them at races in the not so distance future.
RESULTS It felt like a painfully long wait for the email to ping in, and was really quite funny in the 3 week lead up to Runners World UK announcing the three winners it seemed like the all of the other participants including myself where upping the anti on social with running. I remember one Sunday seeing that all my group had been for a run and I hadn't yet that weekend, I was home in Bristol for a friends birthday and then had to travel back up to London hungover, the last thing I wanted to do was to go for a run but the fact they all had and we still hadn't heard who had won I was like ohhh right better get out there, in case this was some kind of test. I mean theres worse conspiracy theories to think as it was improving my fitness!
I actually got a message first from one of the boys in the group on Insta to say had I received my email yet with the new. I hadn't actually seen it but had been obsessed with checking and refreshing it all the time - all my friends, work friends, family kept asking me have you heard yet, I'd really got everyone interested/think they just wanted me to stop talking about it.
So when I clicked onto gmail my heart was pumping so fast to see the news I hadn't won I was obviously gutted but what they had offered as a runners up (literally) prize was a place in the Manchester Marathon also in April which I accepted but did have some hesitation about.
When I ran my first and last marathon in Edinburgh Marathon 2015, mentally it was so much harder than expected, super unlucky that it was hail stones and 40mph head winds. Due to the bad weather the crowd support was low (I mean I wouldn't want to stand outside in that weather for 4/5hours but thank you to my friend Olivia who did for me) and the route doubles back on itself so was actually a little boring.
Manchester although a city that I love and have been to many times as my oldest school friends went to uni there and my great friend Jill from my ski season lived there for years, it wasn't a bucket list moment for me, and wasn't what I really wanted. If I was going to put the time and dedication over the freezing winter. I wanted it to be for London.
I had previously decided to run for St Peters hospice in Bristol in memory of a friend and everyone was so kind and supportive with their donations. I had reservations about being able to raise the high among of money you need to pledge for the London Marathon to be worthy of a place. Of course I've always entered the ballot and had no luck.
I looked up as it was late in the charity bond places which charities were still taking applications and have been kindly given a place by Guide Dogs UK - read here why I picked this charity to run my first London Marathon -
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/abi-ashman
Thank you to the Runners World X ViFit teams for a fantastic experience and to be apart of the #missionmarathon journey.
Best of luck to my breaking 4 crew and the other teams who are pretty much all doing Spring Marathons now accept for Nicole who's on another exciting journey of having a baby!
An extra special good luck to the winners, I know @Jo.runs.n.stuff is already smashing PB's just in training!! I know they will certainly smash their sub 4 goal, as for me now its all systems go with training and thinking of fun ways to FUNraise!
There’s some great training plans and a recap of the day is in the current issue of Runner’s World UK if you’d like to find out more.
https://www.runnersworld.co.uk/training/your-missionmarathon-16-week-marathon-training-guides
You can keep track of my journey on Instagram @absweet and on Strava at Abigayle Ashman.