Virtual Great North Run

Thanks to my phone dying (and other not-nice factors), the Virtual Great North Run became the most dramatic race of my life. But I did it. Because that's what I do.

The backpack is an important part of the story.

Why Virtual Great North Run 

I was lucky enough to get a place to run the Great North Run back in February. Then this stupid pandemic came.

So I deferred my place to next year, but the organizers put on a virtual race for 2020.

What I was most excited about for this race was that everyone would be running at the same time. Well, one of two start times, but still. It wasn't a run-whenever type of race.

You had to download an app which tracked your mileage, so you would be virtually 'competing' with other racers in real time. 

The race

The route

I was aiming to get a PB for this race (seems laughable in retrospect). I thought the way to do this would be to avoid having to finish running up the massive hill I live on top of, which always slows me down.

So, I decided to run my usual 10k route, followed by my two usual 5k routes, and then I'd just make up any extra distance I need to get me to 13.1 miles.

This didn't (fully) end up being the route I ran though...(this is me starting to build up to the drama).

The trio of apps

The race app you had to download had a soundtrack to it where every half mile a Geordie voice would pop on and say something encouraging and that the race was 'a bit different' this year.

I usually run using both Strava to track my distance and Spotify to play my running playlist. Now there was a third app in the mix, and it was making everything a bit funky.

Normally, Strava dims my music to tell me my pace, but not this time. I had to keep pausing my music to hear Strava.

And because Strava tell me my pace every half mile, this meant it was happening at the same time that Geordie voices were popping on.

It was a bit of an audio overload. 

It was also apparently draining my battery...but we're not at that part of the story yet.

Wind and an unhappy tummy

One of the downsides of a run-at-specific-time virtual race is that you don't get to choose what weather you run in.

I would not have picked a day with south-west winds blowing over 20mph to be my day to run my monthly half marathon. 

It was also incredibly windy and rainy overnight to the point where it kept waking my up. So my sleep was already negatively impacting going into this race.

Even though the first 2.5 miles of my route were heading west (and up the only bad hill), I didn't change up my route. I thought it would be better to get the worst of it done at the start.

Not the case. The first 2.5 miles were awful. I was pushing against the wind, and from probably a half mile in, my stomach was in pain.

I seriously questioned whether I would be able to finish the race. But I was 2.5+ miles from home, so I had to keep running to get back anyway.

I found breathing out while saying 'shhh' calmed my tummy down.

My pace was already over 10 minutes per mile from mile 2, so I had to let go pretty early of any hope for a PB.

Thankfully, I had a nice long eastward stretch along Braid Hills Drive to get away from the wind for awhile. 

My stock photo of the view from Braid Hills Drive. Nowhere near as blue for GNR race day.

But you can't avoid the wind forever...

The stitch 

With my stomach feeling better, I was heading into the wind again after my first 10k wrapped up. 

It was in that wind, at mile 7, I got a stitch. Super. It didn't last more than a mile, but once again, my pace was getting even slower.

Little did I know I was about to experience the most dramatic turn of this race yet...

The death of the phone battery

8.4 miles. That's how many miles I was in when my phone battery died. I had not been looking at my battery levels at all, so I was incredibly shocked when it happened.

And of course upset. What did this mean for the race app? Would my time just be completely erased? Like all those miles never happened?!

I also felt very stupid because the race app instructions said to bring a portable battery pack for distances over 7k. I thought I knew better than these instructions because I have never run out of power on any of my other half marathons.

I really did not account for how much power this race app would eat up. 

I was less than a mile from home, so I raced back to get my portable battery pack. I ran into my house shouting every expletive I could think of, searching for the battery pack and my running backpack I could carry it in.

Except I couldn't find my running backpack, so I had to opt for the next best thing I could find: my mini floral backpack. Not designed to be used during exercise, but it was light and small enough to do the job.

Not my running backpack, but the brand is called LeSPORTsac...

All in all, I was probably in my house no more than 5 minutes. When I plugged my phone into the charger, it didn't take long for me to be able to log in.

Weirdly, the race app had accounted for the distanced I covered while my phone was off and the time was still running. I'm not sure how it did that.

I was also able to resume my Strava activity, but the distance stopped when my phone died. So the race app and Strava were .7 miles different from each other.

This meant I'd complete 13.1 miles on the race app, but Strava would have my distance as 12.4 miles.

As the adage goes, if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen. How to rectify this situation...

The fallout

The stressful stop home absolutely killed my pace. Once I got back running, I massively slowed down. All my final miles were over 12 minutes, and this was on relatively flat roads.

I also had to scramble to think of extra roads I could get some mileage on because batterygate had taken .5 miles off that first 5k route I had planned on.

Plus the soundtrack on the app was no longer working. No more Geordies whispering words of encouragement into my ears.

It was a tough battle to the end. I got to 13.1 miles on the race app. Thankfully, the soundtrack started playing for the finish, so I got to hear the congratulations. 

My official finish time according to the app was 2:28:24, which includes the pit stop.

I didn't like that Strava said I was only at 12.4 miles, so even though I had just run a half marathon, I wasn't going to stop until Strava reflected that as well.

Gosh, I really hate my ego sometimes.

Off I went to run another .7 miles, which ended up being .8, you know, just because.

What this means is I actually ran 13.9 miles in all. So even though this was my slowest race (and even run) by far, it's also the farthest I've ever run. So there's that.

Lesson learned: when instructions say take a battery pack, take it.

I did get a good story out of all this mess, though.

The first photo I took post-finish. Thought I looked too sad and tired for it to be my feature photo.

Next race

I honestly don't know. I don't have anything booked. My next pandemic-rescheduled race isn't until March 2021.

I've still got my monthly half marathons, though, and I plan on getting creative with my last 3 routes of the year.