Birmingham Great Run 2012

Afternoon all, so I am spending today recovering from yesterdays GNR.  I had already signed up for the Birmingham Great Run, so my focus is now on training for this one.  I am generally a slow runner and really fairly new to it all.

I really struggled with the hills yesterday and know this is my weak area so will be doing more hill and strength training.  Does anyone have any other advice for me?  What is this run like, is it flatter than GNR, at what point are the difficult bits, and any ideas whether you think 5 weeks is enough to shave 10 mins off my HM time?

Thanks for any advice, once of these days I will get good at running

Jo

I did it last year, and yesterday was my first GNR. I recall there is a loooooong flat run out & return on the same road, but then at about mile 10 there is a hill, which knocked the stuffing out of me at the time. As to time to taek 10 mins off, sorry, no idea - Keen to get myself under 2 hours but failing!

I was on Nike at the time - I can tweet you a link if you on Twitter, or if you're on NIke add me as a friend and you can see my runs (I think) I'm Robbidoiux there too. Or, I'll try posting this URL, http://nikeplus.nike.com/plus/activity/running/Robbiedoux/detail/767916919

Ha - Got me user name wrong - Its Robbiedoux.

I did it last year and found it enjoyable, however there are quite a lot of places after about 4 miles where it goes quiet and you are on your own for long periods. The scenery is not as good as GNR and no way near as busy but this is a new event and it will take a lot of time to get to get the same status.

I have just got back from doing yesterdays GNR and am contemplating this run as its a week before Great south run and will be a good run out before that. I think if I do it I will take it easy but I can't decide yet. Might wait for a few more days to see how my legs are

Thanks both, Robbiedoux can't seem to open your Nike link yet but will keep trying.  What is it with these HM and hills at 10 miles???  I better get training!

Birmingham half/Great Brum run is my home event and as Robbie said, it's pretty much flat for the first 9 miles or so (there is a downhill section at the beginning) then there's an decline into a dual carriageway underpass with a steady incline, followed shortly afterwards by Beaumont hill at mile 10, which has a steep incline followed by a more steady climb. There's a final decline just after mile 12 into another dual carriageway underpass with a short incline to take you on to the home straight on Broad Street for the finish.

As long as you take the hills steadily, you should be able to see it through.

LambesLady wrote (see)

What is it with these HM and hills at 10 miles???  I better get training!

It's to punish all those people who see the 7-mile mark, think "Ooh, over halfway!" and suddenly up the pace 

You're right. I am going to give it another go this year i think. Did it last year and was a good run but want to get a better time. Think I may hang around for a while too this time as last time I went straight back home

Andrew I think you should!  I'm quite looking forward to it now, had a sports massage tonight so feel ready to get back into training!

I'm a little sore from sunday but I should be good for a 5 miler tomorrow. I have the great south the week after but that should be good training for me the week before

Two in a row thats impressive!!

Well I've always wanted to do the great run series and this is the only year i have had the chance to do it. I haven't done all of them this time around but I've got much closer.

Just entered Birmingham so now down to the training of it. Should be fun

I did the Bham HM last year it was my first one since then i've done 4 more and will be doing another HM this sunday 

what I would say about Bham HM is that save yourself for mile 10, there are 3 hills and they can be quite taxing, as they just seem to continue for a long time ( there is also another hill about mile 7 but not as bad as the mile 10 hills ) 

I havent run the GNR but my friend has and it is quite flat in comparison to the end bit of Bham so just see if you can do abit of hill training before then and you should be fine, if you have run one HM you should have no problems doing another one I had done 2 HM a week apart and i'm a plodder so if i can do it anyone can cos i'm really not a fit person at all

good luck to everyone who do it, hopefully we can have a runners world meet up ( always good I find before a race ) in centenary square or something w hich we can arrange nearer the time 

Thanks for all the advice, definately going to do lots of hill and strength traning.  Feeling good today so going for my first run tomorrow after GNR.

A meet up sounds good!

good to hear your doing your recovery run after GNR what time did u do it in ( you probably said but cant be bothered to scroll back up lol ) 

yes we could defintely do a meet up, i love RW meet ups they are great to meet up with ppl before the run

usually bham gives times to people to set off in waves ( this is what they did last year ) from about 9.30 onwards, last year my wave started at 11 but i think i'd put down 3hours to run it now i know i can do a half in 2 half hours so whether that will make any difference I dont know

we can meet in centenery square somewhere, weather dependant as there are undercover places we can meet so we can sort something out nearre the day when we know what the weather is going to be like

I'd be up for a meet up with the Runners World folk.

They've added an extra 4,000 places for this year and are down to less than 1,000 available now so will probably end up at just shy of 18,000 racing on the day so I reckon there'll be another 2 colour groups. The waves are normally about 10 - 15 minutes apart; last year I was towards the back of white (elite, orange, white, green, pink) and the faster green runners had caught up with us after 3 miles or so.

also doing this run, which will be my first HM. Nevous reading some of the reviews about the hills around Mile 10, but excited about the challenge too, just hiting around 10-11 miles in my training now, which im doing in around 1Hr22 [10.1 miles] so hoping the hills dont impact me enough to take me too much over 2 hours for the whole run