Piece of advice no. 1 - don't..
but if you're super stubborn and refuse to waste your money here's how it turned out for me.
First of all lets get my symptoms clear. I hadn't been to a doctor to confirm I had flu, but compared to just a cold, this came on pretty rapidly and I had a fever 2 days before the run, which to me says flu.
To get into the gory details my nose had been streaming for 3 days, my sinuses were very sore and on the day of the race my chest just hurt when I woke up with a feeling of constant compression and acheyness.
Despite this I woke up knowing I probably shouldn't run but knowing I still would. That's just who I am unfortunately and often won't give up, even though that's definitely what would be good for me.
I started making sure I was hydrated the day before the race as this is crucial when you're healthy and running and even more so if you're a bit under the weather.
So pre-race, around an hour and a half before running, I had around 600ml of smoothie consisting of banana, mango, berries, two handfuls of spinach and some water. I also necked a double espresso before hopping in the car to get to the race.
When I woke up I had a couple of ibuprofen and around half an hour before the run I took some cold and flu caps with some water (again I know you shouldn't take pain killers before a run but needs must).
So to the race : Reading Road Runners Bramley 20/10
The race was held on Sunday 19th Feb 2017 and is a road race around the small village of Bramley in Hampshire. The race is a 10 mile loop and has two distance options for the race; the single loop at 10 miles, or you can opt for two loops for 20.
The longest race for me before this was a 10k and I had regularly been running 10 miles for over a month prior to this race but no further, so I signed up for the 10 mile. Here's me at the beginning - smiling but inside just super anxious genuinely thinking I might not make it around a run for the first time.
Arriving at the event was really straight forward. Directions to the parking was very easy, we pulled into the parking area handed an attendant £2 and were directed to pull into our spot. We arrived just after 9 and had no problem getting a space but I imagine it was pretty packed when everyone had finished arriving.
From the parking area it was a gentle 10 minute walk to the race village and we just followed the steady stream of runners already on the way over. The atmosphere on arriving to the race HQ was friendly with what seemed to be a large amount of club runners. I thought I would find this a little intimidating as I'm not affiliated to a club but felt none of this on the day.
Tip 1: get in the queue for the toilets early.
There was a really good number of porter loos for the amount of people around but the queue still took around 10 mins to get through before the start.
The entire run was around narrow picturesque country roads with the odd busier road. Although not closed to traffic the amount of cars was really small and management was great when there were any crossings or cars trying to get past. The mass of runners was so dense that for most of the race I don't think any cars would have got through anyway. For the 20 milers the field reduced significantly so I imagine for the second lap cars may have become more of an issue.
The drink stations were a good distance apart for me. There were three water stations at 3, 5 and 8 miles with an option of an isotonic drink at 5 miles (which I gladly took as by mile 5 I was definitely starting to feel light headed). There was also another water station with isotonic drinks just after 10 miles for the 20 milers. The water & isotonic drink were served in cups which I still haven't mastered drinking from while running which resulted in my throwing a lot of water over myself... but lets put that down to experience :P.
There were inclines at around 6 & 8 miles on the course. I wouldn't call them considerable inclines but I imagine for the second loop the second hill at 8 feels a lot bigger than it does the first time around. I was slightly concerned the inclines were going to be a killer, but weren't really anything to get too upset about. You can find the Strava segment for the Bramley 10 here for more details.
There was an official photographer there on the day but also an additional photographer who provided free photos for the race. This snap was taken at 8.5 miles, just after throwing my 3rd cup of water over myself. Definitely a good look. I knew at this point that I could finish the race so almost even mustered up a smile ;)!
I started making sure I was hydrated the day before the race as this is crucial when you're healthy and running and even more so if you're a bit under the weather.
So pre-race, around an hour and a half before running, I had around 600ml of smoothie consisting of banana, mango, berries, two handfuls of spinach and some water. I also necked a double espresso before hopping in the car to get to the race.
When I woke up I had a couple of ibuprofen and around half an hour before the run I took some cold and flu caps with some water (again I know you shouldn't take pain killers before a run but needs must).
So to the race : Reading Road Runners Bramley 20/10
The race was held on Sunday 19th Feb 2017 and is a road race around the small village of Bramley in Hampshire. The race is a 10 mile loop and has two distance options for the race; the single loop at 10 miles, or you can opt for two loops for 20.
The longest race for me before this was a 10k and I had regularly been running 10 miles for over a month prior to this race but no further, so I signed up for the 10 mile. Here's me at the beginning - smiling but inside just super anxious genuinely thinking I might not make it around a run for the first time.
From the parking area it was a gentle 10 minute walk to the race village and we just followed the steady stream of runners already on the way over. The atmosphere on arriving to the race HQ was friendly with what seemed to be a large amount of club runners. I thought I would find this a little intimidating as I'm not affiliated to a club but felt none of this on the day.
Tip 1: get in the queue for the toilets early.
There was a really good number of porter loos for the amount of people around but the queue still took around 10 mins to get through before the start.
The race started off really promptly at 10:30, for some reason taking me by surprise as I thought 'what was that noise?!' swiftly followed by 'aaaah.. I'm meant to be running!'.
The entire run was around narrow picturesque country roads with the odd busier road. Although not closed to traffic the amount of cars was really small and management was great when there were any crossings or cars trying to get past. The mass of runners was so dense that for most of the race I don't think any cars would have got through anyway. For the 20 milers the field reduced significantly so I imagine for the second lap cars may have become more of an issue.
The drink stations were a good distance apart for me. There were three water stations at 3, 5 and 8 miles with an option of an isotonic drink at 5 miles (which I gladly took as by mile 5 I was definitely starting to feel light headed). There was also another water station with isotonic drinks just after 10 miles for the 20 milers. The water & isotonic drink were served in cups which I still haven't mastered drinking from while running which resulted in my throwing a lot of water over myself... but lets put that down to experience :P.
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| Bramley 10 route |
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| Bramley 10 elevation profile |
There were inclines at around 6 & 8 miles on the course. I wouldn't call them considerable inclines but I imagine for the second loop the second hill at 8 feels a lot bigger than it does the first time around. I was slightly concerned the inclines were going to be a killer, but weren't really anything to get too upset about. You can find the Strava segment for the Bramley 10 here for more details.
There was an official photographer there on the day but also an additional photographer who provided free photos for the race. This snap was taken at 8.5 miles, just after throwing my 3rd cup of water over myself. Definitely a good look. I knew at this point that I could finish the race so almost even mustered up a smile ;)!
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| photo credit: Barry Cornelius |
Tip 2: Don't wear too much.
On the day it ended up being a bit chillier than I had expected so opted to run in a thin hoody. This was a big mistake and I felt like I was over heating from around 2 miles. Although it was chilly waiting at the start line I think the mass of bodies running closely together means when we set off it warmed up considerably more than on normal runs by myself (and I'm a living radiator).
The last mile seemed to drag a lot, but I imagine if I had been 100% that it wouldn't have felt quite so bad. There were markers every 1/4 of a mile for that last mile, and for me I think that made it worse, not a criticism as I'm sure it's good for some people, but every time it marked another 1/4mi I just felt like I should be further than that. Coming into the finish there was a nice crowd and two funnels, one to the left for the 10 milers finishing and the 20 milers keeping to the right and going off on their second lap.
Chip timing was provided by reusable chips secured either to your shoe or around your ankle with velcro that had been provided with the chip. These were handed back immediately to people waiting at the race finish. Provisional chip results were up the same evening.
After handing back the chip I went to pick up my race memento & medal. We were handed a draw string Bramley 20/10 cotton bag which contained the medal and just a load of snacks including pistachios and a mars bar - the perfect post race pack for me! I was really pleased with the additional bag too - a bit different to a T-shirt or other memento.
Despite feeling my worst ever during a run I still completed the race in 1:28:46 which I was happy with considering how I felt on the day. It was my slowest 10 mile and I was hoping for 1:25:00 but in all honesty I was just happy to complete it. During the race I knew I was running slower than my normal pace and tried to push it a bit back to my normal 10 mile pace but when I tried this I immediately became light headed and just couldn't do it. This was a completely new sensation for me as I normally just run at my comfortable pace and have never felt that kind of barrier before.
All in all I think this was a great race - I wish I had been concentrating less on finishing and had taken in the scenery a bit more as it really was a nice village to run around. It's quite a calm, remote run that seemed very friendly.
So after running with flu how was I feeling post race?
Initially when I stopped I felt pretty faint and went straight over to the water table to have a couple of glasses. After cooling down a bit I felt a bit better but probably just from the adrenaline of the race. I then went into Reading to have lunch, at which point I just rubbed my neck and realised my glands were huge - I mean you could see a ball sticking out of my neck from across the table.
While sitting at lunch I felt fine but around half an hour after leaving the restaurant started feeling really, really, really rough (around 2 hours post race). I felt like I was going to pass out and felt very queasy and like I was going to have to run to a bathroom AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. I quickly got my hands on a lucosade and some flu caps and shortly afterwards started to feel a bit better, luckily with none of the above happening.
For the rest of the day I was just very tired and still felt worse for wear for about 48 hours after the race. A week on though the flu has now passed apart from a slight cough. I have to admit that I definitely think recovery took a lot longer than it would have had I not raced but in the long run I don't think I've done any long term damage.
In summary, I ran the race with flu symptoms, it was significantly harder than normal, I was slower than normal and I definitely couldn't enjoy the run as much as usual, but I still completed the race and my overall time was not drastically worse than I was hoping for.
My advice would be to really assess how you're feeling on the day of the race if you're concerned you're not well enough. If you have any sort of fever don't run. If the symptoms are above the chest I think you're probably fine to run, but take it all in your stride and don't hesitate to drop out if you need to.
I hope this review was helpful for someone and please come back for more :).
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