#clickyourclock five weeks in..

With five weeks of the #clickyourclock weekly competition behind us and five winners who are now the delighted owners of an FT4 polar heart rate monitor, we caught up with two of them.

Steve Auton (handicap score 6.1) - #clickyourclock winner 18 - 24 March. 7.93% improvement.

Steve (pictured) claimed his handicap a few hours after he ran the B & Q Eastleigh 10k whilst he was looking at the runbritain website, checking out his boss’s running performances as he intends to upstage him in the rankings!

Steve told us, “I was surprised as I've never won anything before! I was surprised that my time had improved so much but a little disappointed it wasn't by more. I had a stinking head and chest cold holding me back!”

Steve told us that he got into running nine months ago, when a friend dared him to do the Great South Run. Eventually he agreed and started training and fell in love with running. He describes himself as having an “addictive and competitive personality” and attributes this to the reason he looked for ways to get a London Marathon place. He managed to secure a charity place with 'Save the Rhino' and so has been training for London since December.

Steve said, “The training is going well and I feel fitter than ever, I can't wait for the marathon and will be
trying to get a sub 3 hour time but will still be over the moon with a sub 3.30 for my first”.

Natasha Baker ( handicap 12.0) - #clickyourclock winner 4 - 10 March -  11.49% improvement.

Natasha is currently training for the Milton Keynes Marathon in May. Her initial goal, set in October 2014, was to complete her first sub 4 marathon but, after finishing the Milton Keynes Winter Half Marathon in December in around 1:35, she decided to have a look at what the Good for Age is for the London Marathon.  When she saw it was 3:45 a new goal of 3:45 was set! Natasha said, “Running the London Marathon has been a life long dream, but I have never been lucky enough to secure a ballot place. My time at MK Marathon will hopefully secure that place for me in 2016”.

Natasha used the Bramley 20 as a training run in preparation for the Marathon and told us  “it was meant to be one of those long slow runs that we all do as part of training. I was itching to run faster the whole time but kept saying to myself this is meant to be a long slow run. Feeling so good, off the back of my first 20 mile run, I decided that I wouldn’t hold back at Milton Keynes 20 miles and find out what I was capable of. I achieved a new 20 mile pb of over 9 minutes and that contributed to my new handicap. This has now led me to looking at my Marathon goal again and I am now planning on running Milton Keynes Marathon in sub 3:30.

“I have always loved sport but especially running and have always found myself stopping and starting. Last year was different however and I will never look back! In January 2014 I decided that it was going to be my year to get fit. Never did I expect to achieve what I now have. I bought a road bike and started cycling to work and running twice a week. Being more active lead to me losing 14kg and, as a result, running became more enjoyable as I could see in the improvements week by week. I have gone from running 9 minute miles in training to 7 minute miles. My success in recent races has inspired me to train smarter, stay focused and improve my diet even more, as I don’t feel my potential has been reached yet.”

Natasha told us that she became aware of the #clickyourclock  about six months ago when her partner was googling her name and found her runbritain handicap score. She said, “Whenever I finish a race now I like to log on to see where I am compared to others. After completing Milton Keynes 20 miles a pop up box came up with the  #clickyourclock option so I entered the competition. Never in a million years did I think I would win, but a few days later I was contacted by runbritain to inform me that I had won”.

With her new Polar FT4 heart rate monitor, Natasha said that she is going to focus on using heart rate zones to take her training forward.

With four days of racing available this weekend you have even more opportunity to reduce your handicap score! Make sure you #clickyourclock after your race this Easter and discover your % improvement!