Wednesday 14 January 2009

The Brooks / Run Geordie Run partnership gets off to a flyer!

Brooks today announced their support of Run Geordie Run with a news article on their website (www.brooksrunning.co.uk) stating "Brooks have teamed up with local hero Mark Allison......". It's a great bit of publicity for the cause and adds a nice touch to yesterday's presentation.

Some of the new kit was put to the test today on a 5 mile run as I decided to try the Brooks Gossamer Quarter Socks that I had been given yesterday. This might sound like a load of old tosh but after 1/4 mile my feet felt unbelievably comfortable. They do anyway in my Glycerin 6 trainers, but these socks took comfort to a whole new level. I can't imagine how it'll feel when I get to try them with the new Glycerin 7 trainers in February. I'm turning into a right old running geek!

Anyway, back to one of the most comfortable 5 mile runs in history ever! I started off with John Brettell who was doing 10.5 miles today as part of his marathon training. We had a bit of banter and I left him after 3/4 mile as he does this run/walk break thing. The first mile was a quite slow (for me these days) at 00:09:02. I soon quickened things up a bit and before I knew it I was posting an average of 00:08:30 minutes per mile. Now it was only last week when I set a PB of 00:42:43 for this route up to Newcastle Race Course and back. But not one to rest on my laurels, I smashed that record with a final time of 00:42:30. I'm pleased I dawdled a bit on that first mile as it gives me a chance of setting a new PB soon!

The split times were as follows:

Mile 1 - 09:02
Mile 2 - 08:23
Mile 3 - 08:21
Mile 4 - 08:29
Mile 5 - 08:15

I put the PB of 00:42:30 down to the new socks! I'm not getting carried away though (Aye right!). My training isn't really about running as fast as I possibly can. It's about putting my body through as much stress over as many miles as I can and learning how to recover from it in order to do it all again the next day (and the day after etc etc). This is how I prepared for the 874 mile run from John O'Groats to Lands End in 2007. The USA run is 3.5 times the distance however! Mind you with the new kit from Brooks anything is possible!