I'm a Marathon Runner

The Marathon Question

I have been a Sandhurst Joggers member for over three years and I’ve been running for only just over 4 years.  I never really had an ambition to do a marathon until last year, when I had done the Wokingham and Reading half marathons and actually had a really good time while at the same time hitting my target of a sub-2 hour time.  Those results were achieved without training properly for them, so after watching VLM2012 on the telly I thought I really could have a go at doing a marathon if I actually trained for it.

My thought was that I would do my first (possibly only) marathon for myself, thinking I didn’t want to have to commit to running for a charity and raising a lot of money at the same time as putting the hours in for training (as it was I did raise over £200 for Christopher's Smile). I put my name down for the ballot as soon as it opened.  I thought I probably wouldn’t get a place at London, but if I still felt like doing a marathon in the spring maybe I could enter Abingdon, or the Farnham Pilgrim in September. 

I then forgot about marathons but decided to do more running with the club and started to turn up at Friday track sessions with my two children when the kids track started in April.  After a few sessions I started to see improvements in my Frimley parkrun times and I was really enjoying my running.  I entered the Yateley 10k series and Woodland 5s and went through a bit of a purple patch getting my first PB at Frimley in over 18months and, having set a goal of a sub-50 10k, managing to do it at the first Yateley 10k race.

Aaah Achilles!

Then disaster struck. I was doing all this running and not paying any attention to warming up or down, stretching or massage and the second Yateley 10k race saw me pulling out half way with an Achilles injury.  This probably came about as a result of tight calf muscles and I got some massage sessions, but they didn’t really fix the problem.  So, when the Elvis magazine came out in October and I still hadn’t sorted out my injury, I thought at first that wasn’t such a bad thing.  Then I thought “Bloody hell, I’ve been rejected.” 

That didn’t feel good at all, so to make me feel better, I entered some spring half marathons – Wokingham (because it’s in February), Fleet (I’d never done it before) and Bracknell (as near to a home half marathon as I could get). Having committed to this little lot I sought out some proper physiotherapy and went to see Elrina-Mistress of Pain in Elvetham Heath.       This is her:

  

                       

                                                  

And this is what she did to me:

A combination of deep massage (ouch) and electro-acupuncture (really ouch!) started to make a difference and by early December 2012 I was on the mend. So, as I had been given the go ahead to get back to running and Christmas was approaching I decided I would go along on the Christmas Lights run and skittles after.  I had a last minute panic before setting off trying to find my proof of entry to the London marathon, and was late setting off with the runners as I was waiting for a friend to turn up. I caught up with the SJ runners and had a nice pain free easy run around Yateley, just without my friend David from Cove Joggers.  After the warm down and stretch in the car park at Frogmore I called David and we had a debate about whether we would go to the skittles, but he relented when I offered to drive us both there. 

Shock and Awe

Come the time of the Marathon Draw, I thought “I never win anything, so I’ll just keep eating my curry and see about second helpings after it’s calmed down”.  I had a bit of a shock though when the first name out of the hat was RICHARD …somebody else. Then the last name out was ME! I stood up, waved, smiled a bit, looked a bit embarrassed and thought “Damn, I really have to start training now!” I think I spent the rest of the evening still looking a bit shocked as I kept getting reassuring comments from our experienced marathon runners, things like “You’re a runner, you can get round a marathon already” and “Training is just about achieving your time.”

Christmas was a really good time as far as running went. I did 5 parkruns including Christmas Day and New Years Day with my daughter Elinor (7) as she wanted to get her 10 runs T-shirt.  Those runs were all in the 32 to 35 minute range, so nice and gentle.  The real confidence booster was going on the Mince Pie run at a very muddy and quite hilly Lightwater and coming out pain free. Unfortunately I missed the message that said bring trail shoes.

January saw my last physio session and the start of training proper with a 16 week programme aiming for a time around 4:15 to 4:30 or around 10minute mile pace.  If I was fit to start with I could be on for a sub 4 hour time (dream on!), but from where I started I have to be realistic and have a target based on where I was then, not where I think I should have been in a perfect world. 

Training Hard

So my long runs started at 8 to 10 miles and gradually increased over 13 weeks to 20 miles.  It’s was all pretty smooth going considering my monthly mileage in the few months before Christmas was less than 40miles followed by 101 miles for January, 116 for February and 150 for March – all record breaking months for me.  Along the way I did Wokingham Half (2:02), Surrey Spitfire 20 (3:26) and Fleet Half (1:55 and a PB) with weekly parkruns and interval sessions in the mix mostly done in the rain or snow, but at least I managed to keep smiling through them. 

  

Above: Wokingham HM and Fleet HM, both in the cold and rain!

Aaah Plantar Fascia! (Maybe)

Then – my worst nightmare struck! Having done my last 20 mile long run and started into my first week of tapering I had entered the Bolt Round the Holt 21k.  I did this with Kelvin from Cove Joggers and I started the morning with a steady parkrun at Frimley followed by a dash down to Alice Holt to find the start delayed.  The run was tough but I ran it as a steady training run at about 9:30/mile pace and finished in 2:05 in good condition, moving fine and with no pain.  My training plan had me doing 15 miles, but I did 16 miles with a 45 minute break after the first 3.  After the run I was walking OK, did my warm down, stretching, hot chocolate and then home to a hot bath and lunch.  Three hours later my left foot was all swollen under the toes and I could hardly walk!



Fat Foot - It's all Alice Holt's Fault



I spent all day Sunday on the sofa, holding on to the furniture when I had to walk and eventually crawling upstairs to bed thinking that the marathon was over for me just when I had done all the hard work. Monday I was slightly better – still limping but I could walk the 50m from the car park to the entrance to work.  I saw my physio in the evening and had some serious foot massage which was torture (I have really ticklish feet!) and I was diagnosed with a possible plantar fascia injury.  I say possible because she had difficulty getting any reaction to her poking and prodding around the bottom of my foot. My treatment was to rest and ice it, with the neat trick of using a frozen orange instead of a tennis ball to roll around the arch of my foot.  By Wednesday I was walking normally and I cycled to work completely pain free.  Thursday my first post-injury jog was 4.5miles from Sandhurst to Crowthorne and through Wellington College, all completed pain free at marathon pace.  I did a gentle parkun at Frimley on Saturday and then on Sunday jogged from Sandhurst to the Lookout with another 3 miles while there, making 8.5 hilly miles.  I was feeling pretty much fixed.

Let’s Do This!

The last week before the marathon I hadn’t completely convinced myself that I would be at the start line, but I got back to the training plan with runs on Wednesday and Thursday completed without incident and on Friday I went to the Expo to get my number.  That’s when I thought “I really am doing this!” and the excitement started to build.  Saturday after a very gentle parkrun, cake, breakfast at the Basingstoke Canal Centre café I got back home and started to sort out my kit.  I probably should have done this earlier, but I hadn’t sorted out whether I was wearing baggy or tight shorts, long or short socks, which shoes or even which underpants!  I did know that I was wearing my Sandhurst Joggers vest, though. I wouldn’t be running the marathon in the first place if it wasn’t for SJ so duty and loyalty to the club had to be recognised.

 

Left – last minute test run on Saturday evening - the new shoes with orange laces won out but only because they were most comfortable (honest).

Race Day

Saturday night finally I had all my kit ready and went to bed early, then woke up on Marathon Morning before the five alarms I had set went off. Got my porridge, banana and golden syrup breakfast made, dressed, went to the loo for the third time and set off to catch the coach. 

The atmosphere on the coach was great, like going on holiday, and we got to Blackheath with no trouble just after 8am.  There was a great feeling amongst everybody in the start area, I found a few friends to try and chill with, had a coffee went to the loo, then the urinals standing next to a 6ft tall cockroach, who was looking nervously up at the blazing sunshine.  Finally it was time to get changed, get rid of my bag and make my way over to the start. 

I was in blue start Pen 9, edging towards Pen 8.  10am and the planned whistle to mark to 30seconds silence for the victims of the Boston bombings couldn’t be heard, but a minute later I could see past the hot air balloons in the distance there were people running, so I shouted out “I see people running! We’re away!” and a big cheer went up around me. We stayed standing for a few minutes more, then began with a march of the penguins shuffle, then walk and then jog to the start at just over 12minutes.

My plan was to get under 4:30 and I set off comfortably at 10min/mile pace.  The sun beat down, the crowds cheered, the bands played and I was having a great time chatting to runners and waving to people who shouted my name.  I met Janet Ford at about 10 miles and ran with her for a mile or so. At 14miles I heard an extra loud shout and saw my wife Julia and kids Alfred and Elinor so stopped for a chat for half a minute.  So far so good. I was fuelling and drinking OK, possibly overdoing the drink, but I saw a portaloo without a queue, stopped for a loo break managing a 1min pit stop.

20 miles was when problems started.  Pain in my left foot, inside of my right ankle and right knee all seemed to come at once.  The foot pain gradually worsened and my pace slowed from rock steady 10min miles to 11:30/mile over the last 6 miles.  The run along The Embankment was agony and Big Ben seemed to take forever to pass.  I was being overtaken by so many runners, but then I noticed many people hanging on to the barriers with cramp and I just kept telling myself “You’re still running and you’re not stopping.” The turn by Buckingham Palace, the “385 Yards to Go” banner and then the finish was in sight. 

I crossed the line with a huge smile on my face to hugs and handshakes from I don’t know who, but they were obviously Sandhurst Joggers. Got into the right hand lane for tag snip and medal from Vicky Rice(I think). Coming down the ramp I kissed my medal and for a moment I was nearly in tears. Now, I am a marathon runner. And that is all that matters.

 

Medal Winners after the finish: with Alison, Kelvin and David of Cove Joggers:   Result 4:35:55



Into London and Spring Half Marathons - Race Prep

I've done a few half marathons now and I'm in training for my first marathon which will be the London Marathon in April. Now, I got my place through a prize draw with my running club Sandhurst Joggers just before Christmas 2012. At the time I was doing very little running, just a mid week 10k and a parkrun, so less than 10 miles a week.  The reason was yet another Achilles injury (the left this time) picked up in July.  I had finally got round to getting proper physio and was nearing the end of treatment when the running gods smiled on me and I got my place. When I found out it was a moment of both elation and worry.  Time to start training.

Pre-Christmas my monthly mileage was only 25 to 35 miles. I had a final physio session in the first week of January and was cleared to ease back into running.  Thanks to Alison I had a training plan and thanks to all my other Frimley Lodge parkrun friends I had loads of training partners, most of whom are doing half, full or even ultra marathons thorughout the spring season.  My plan, starting from such a low point in fitness, is to do London at 10min/mile pace and get in under 4:30.  The plan shows me gradually building up a weekly long run from 8miles to 20miles before the race over 16 weeks.  January saw 101 running miles, February 116miles and I'll be breaking another mileage record in March. The plan appears to be working.

As I didn't know until quite late on that I wad doing London, I had decided to enter every local half marathon that I could - Wokingham (10Feb), Fleet (17Mar), Bolt Round the Holt (6Apr trail) and Bracknell (28Apr).  Fitting London into this little lot seems almost madness, but actually Wokingham came on a day when my long run was 13miles anyway, Fleet comes between weeks when the long run is 18miles and is race practice and Bolt Round the Holt is in the first week of tapering.  The only mildly daft one then is Bracknell which comes a week after London - so that's a loosener then!? The icing on this training cake was then entering the Surrey Spitfire 20 mile race (3Mar). It's great having a big social get together for a race come training run with the added benefit of not having to carry your own water and getting a medal for it.

I know a few people who are tackling their first half marathon.  Training for them has been going quite smoothly with only minor blips for illness and maybe the odd niggle, not actual injury. Long runs have been up to 10 miles or for a real confidence boost a full 13 miles. However, I'm pretty sure that nobody's half marathon training has included taking on fluids or other nutrition while running and I've heard people say they were dead on their feet after 10 or 11 miles - just the point when you should be picking up the pace for the run in to the finish. 

Before this year I had done three half marathons with times of 2:07, 1:58 and 1:57.  The difference wasn't training as in all cases my training was pretty poor. So that leaves race preparation and nutrition.  Basically I was 10 minutes quicker and vastly more comfortable and happy just because I carb loaded and hydrated well before the race, and took on carbs and water during it.

Carb loading for a half marathon usually means eating more than you would normally during training for 2 days before the race. For a 70kg male that could mean going from 400-500g per day to 600-700g per day of carbs.  Obviously it's best if your carbs are generally from whole grains rather than processed sugars or chips, but you can do your carb loading by adding healthy snacks between normal meals - take 4 pieces and fruit to work for mid-morning and mid-afternoon, maybe some flapjack too.

Race prep should be about keeping hydrated the day befoe and on race morning and getting all your kit ready well ahead of time so you don't waste energy panicking about not being able to find your race number.  Race morning I like to get up and have an early breakfast of a regular sized bowl of porridge at least 2 1/2 to 3hours before the race with fruit juice and water. By the time you go for your second pee of the day it should be pale straw colour, not dark yellow.

For during the race I usually take 4 energy gels and have 1 just before the start with a sip of water.  Then I have one about every 30mins or 3 miles.  This usually fits in well with water stations which are often at around 3mile intervals.  I find the gels give me both a mental and physical boost and it helps break down the race into small chunks with a reward for completing each one.  Remember also that getting to 10miles and taking your first gel when you are tired won't give you much benefit - start taking them early.

As for drinking water, it's obviously really important. I take a drink at every water station. If they have little bottles (like at Reading) great, you can grab and go. If it's just cups, then I know if I try to run and drink I'll spill most of it, so for 5 or 6 paces I walk and drink and if the cups are only half full I take 2. Walking for that amount of time takes hardly any time and if it means you stay better hydrated you'll gain it all back and more in the last 3 miles. Again, don't wait until you're thirsty, take a drink at every opportunity.

After the race, when you've come in nicely below your target time, you need to start your recovery.  I don't intend to give up running for weeks afterwards - I've got to be back training in a couple of days after all. I like to take a banana (replaces carbs and potassium), crisps or nuts (more salt and some protein) and also a bottle of milkshake (carbs and really good for protein).  Your body needs to replace fluids and salts and to repair the damage you've just done to your muscles and it's best to start the process by getting in your recovery food and drink in the half hour immediately after the race.

Try and leave a bit of room for a pub lunch afterwards to celebrate your achievement.

The Road to Recovery

Getting to the end of my first half marathon was an achievement. It damn well felt so the next day and for a few days after as well. I could barely walk.  This was all muscle pain, so not much to worry about, but the underlying achilles problem was still there and pretty much every morning I woke up with stiff and sore ankles. 

So, off to the doctor's or the physio? Nope.  I got a sports injury book for my birthday and read the chapter on foot and ankle injuries and even did a little bit of physio, but not much.  I gave up doing hash runs as they moved from Sunday mornings to Monday evenings.  I could manage a steady parkrun or a 10k training run and even some not very impressive times at local 10k events and thought the achilles injury would just get better of its own accord.  Actually that sounds like I put some thought into the issue, but it wasn't that at all.  The injury didn't hurt that much, just for a few minutes in the morning and meant I couldn't push hard in any run. Having not set myself any goals for hitting PBs or greater distances there was no real incentive to do anything about it.

It wasn't until I got to the end of the autumn that I did anything about it.  For no real reason I started doing some heel dips (good calf stretch) at home, stretching after runs, lateral massage on the tendon and heeding the advice of fellow runners about rehab.  Then I started to see some real improvement, jumping out of bed on a morning and not feeling any pain on landing and being able to push on in a run especially up hills.

My parkrun times slowly improved and I managed a 24:30 in mid-December.  OK so now I was back to about where I was at the same time the previous year I decided to enter Reading Half Marathon again.  I had the unfinished business of a sub-2 hour target to reach. Over the next month I did excatly the same training as before, just doing a parkrun and a 10k midweek run and cycling to work a couple of times each week.  The only difference this time was a spur of the moment entry into Wokingham Half Marathon. 

About a week before Wokingham I did the usual one run home from work (about 10 miles) more as a mental boost than for any real benefit to fitness.  I also thought a bit more about what went wrong at Reading the year before - a lack of energy, dehydration and hitting a wall of fatigue at just over 10 miles.  To try something new I got a running belt and some energy gels and vowed to take a proper drink at each water station.  I also got myself a Garmin gps watch to keep track of my pace.

Wokingham HM takes place a week or two into February and it can suffer from awful weather.  It has been postponed for snow and ice, but this 19th February 2012 turned out to be bright and occasionally sunny, but really cold.  I went with Brian Holden and his friend Lyn and we got there just on time.  I don't really know Lyn, but my impression is that she's a lover of the great outdoors as I've never known any woman be so keen to go for a pee in public! She always seems to be in the bushes on race mornings.

The course is mostly pretty flat with some undulations near the biginning and end where the first and last couple of miles are run on the same roads. The only other hills are actually just bridges over the A329(M) and M4 motorways.  The route seems to have been chosen  to have as little impact on the good folk of Wokingham as possible as it goes nowhere near the town centre and the crowds are few and far between.  It  starts on the northern edge of town and heads out to the countryside and outlying villages.  You see a few spectators in the first and last mile and a few more in the few villages that you pass through, so you need a bit of mental toughness to keep it going without anyone to cheer you on.  The one good thing is it is well attended by local club runners so you often come across club mates or rivals to chat to.

After about 3 miles I had been keeping a steady 9min/mile pace, I had an energy gel and a drink at the water station.  It was water in cups and I slowed to a walk and made sure I drank the whole cup.  This was the tactic for the whole run and it really seemed to help.  I got a proper drink and a little reward and mental boost of a gel every 3 miles or so.  I also got chatting to a lad called Tim who was doing the run as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award and had decided I was just at the right pace for him.  It all helped to distract my mind away from thoughts of any aches, pains or tiredness.

With 2 miles to go I was feeling reasonable and could push on a bit more and I at least looked like I was finishing strongly as I crossed the line.  My target was to do Reading in under 2 hours.  My time at Wokingham was 1:58:14 and I was really happy with the result.

Next Time: Reading Half Marathon and more Highs and Lows

Big Town Half Marathon and Joining the Club

A great incentive for me is finding a training partner to share the pain and alleviate the boredom of running by myself.  Having someone to run with is a great distraction, especially for a long run where instead of concentrating your mind on every little ache, pain and niggle and potentially baling out part way through, you forget about how it feels and chat your way through a good steady run.  I always run better with friends, further and at a better pace too.

Another great incentive is to have something I've never done before to look forward to.  What can you do as a runner?  The answer, easily, is you can always go further or faster or enter a race you haven't done before.  I entered the Reading Half Marathon in December 2010 giving me 3 months to train for it.

Sandhurst Joggers
So to get some running in with other people mid-week I joined both Sandhurst Joggers and Berkshire Hash House Harriers.  Sandhurst run every day of the week except Saturday and I chose to start running with them on their beginners and improvers Tuesday night run.  In the winter months the run routes are around the roads of Sandhurst and neighbouring Crowthorne, Yateley and Blackwater with groups doing 4, 5 or 6 miles. It seems to be mostly ladies running on a Tuesday, so us male running geeks can practice social interaction with the fairer sex without too much risk of boring them to tears talking about injuries, trainers and diets.  Hardly any women on the Tuesday night runs took to sprinting off in to the distance when I had been running next to them.

Hashing
Berkshire Hash run on Sunday mornings in the winter always ending up at a good pub.  As they say, and this is probably a cliché that all hashes bring out, they are "a drinking club with a running problem".  The runs they do are all about 10k and nearly all cross-country with the exception of the run nearest Valentine's Day which is the Red Dress Run where everyone (men and women) has to run wearing a red dress.  For this run the aim is to go for maximum embarrassment and have it set in the middle of Reading.  They are a decent bunch of people, and if you have worked overseas you will recognise the characters in any hash as I think a lot of hashers got their first taste of it as ex-pats.

So, doing these runs I was at least getting some longer distance in, and getting out with a friendly bunch of people.  Still the distance was no more than abut 6 or 7 miles.  Not having a training plan I decided one day to jog home from work, which was just under 10 miles and mostly up hill.  I managed that OK just feeling tired near the end, but pleased that I had run further than I ever had done before with just over 2 weeks to go before Reading HM.  

Disaster
With exactly 2 weeks to go disaster struck. I was out on a hash run in woods around Barkham near Wokingham.  It was a tricky run with lots of stopping and starting and tight twisty paths among fallen trees.  Jumping over a tree trunk near the end of the run I felt a sharp pain behind my right ankle.  The final 2k back to the pub was really uncomfortable.  By the time I had sat down for an hour to have lunch, I could barely walk.  I had my first Achilles injury.

For the next 2 weeks I did no running at all.  I rested, strapped, iced and tried stretching a bit after a few days. Then I got back to cycling to work and on the weekend before Reading HM, cycled 50 miles to and from a friend in Tadley for a barbeque. 

Reading Half Marathon 2011
I made it to the start line having not run at all for 2 weeks, not knowing if I would last the first mile, out of condition and never having run the distance before.  I placed myself just between the 1:50 and 2 hour pacers and set off. The first mile I was not thinking at all about pace, just what was my Achilles feeling like?  A little ache, but nothing too serious and I managed to get up the first of the 2 hills on the course before the 3mile mark with no ill effects.

I tried to keep it steady and managed a pace just around 9:00/mile until about 5 miles in when the 2:00 hour pacer went past me.  I decided that finishing was better than keeping up with him.  I picked up a sickly sweet Lucozade just after 3 miles and had a bit of it but didn’t like the sticky taste and probably had the equivalent of 2 more small cups of water and no food over the first 10 miles.  

I had never run more than 10 miles and I now know that that is just about as far as I can go with little water and no extra energy intake.  I think that lack of experience and lack of training did for me because with 3 miles to go I really started to suffer with pains in my hips and upper thighs.  I just couldn’t lift my legs and had no energy.  The stretch from mile 10 to the Madejsky Stadium where the finish is seems interminable – one enormous long straight that never seems to end. Then when you get to the stadium, you turn off right and run for nearly a mile round behind the stadium before turning back to arrive where you left off at the last little rise into the stadium.  People who are on that last mile are just 2 steps away across the central verge and I started to play out in my mind how I might stop at the verge and then just join the flow with the runners on the other side of the road. 

I struggled on still in much pain, made the turn realising that there were no short cuts anymore and I just had to go for another 10 or 15 minutes to finish.  A bit of a mental cloud lifted then and I managed to pick up the pace a bit, made it to the rise onto Hoops Way and ground to a halt again.  This was getting desperate, but I managed to get into the stadium at least looking like I was running OK.  Finished in 2:07.

I met the wife and kids, wrapped them up like superheroes in space blankets and went for a massage. Damn that was painful.  But at least it wasn’t Achilles pain.  I was a bit disappointed with my time and the state I found myself in at the end.  I had really wanted to cruise into the stadium with a smile on my face well inside 2 hours having enjoyed the race and the atmosphere, which is what marks Reading out as such a great race.  I spent the whole time either in pain or thinking about it, waiting for my Achilles to give way.  I suppose just finishing my first half marathon was achievement enough.

Next time The Road to Recovery

Frimley Lodge parkrun and the Joy of Six

The week after my first Reading parkrun I was car-less again and, searching for another run, found a parkrun just 6 miles away from home and an easy cycle ride away.  So, Saturday 26^th June 2010, I arrived at Frimley Lodge Park to be greeted by Steve Osbourne who, because I was early, assumed I was a volunteer and dumped a load of stakes in my arms to go set out the finish funnel.

Steve is a bit of a single minded character with a very hands on (or fingers in everyone's pie) style of managing things.  At the time even I thought FLP was moulded in his image of what the event should be.  The fact that that clashed with what the parkrun organisation wanted it to look like eventually saw the end of Steve’s involvement with parkrun.  I have to say though it was Steve who encouraged me to try other events, go on hash runs and look at what local running clubs had to offer.  So he had a positive influence on my developing running hobby.

Frimley Lodge parkrun is set in an attractive park alongside the Basingstoke canal with a real mixture of surfaces including grass, gravel and forest trail along the canal towpath, through woodland, grassland and round football pitches.  In winter it can get really muddy and becomes a proper winter cross country course.  It’s now my home parkrun and I love running here with all the friends that I have made.

The first time I ran the course was in a time of 27:50 and then over the next four weeks had consecutive PBs to take my time down to 25:13.  Keeping up a midweek run and cycling to work and parkrun was keeping my improvement going.  I had my first sub-25minute run while on holiday in the New Forest with a 24:59 at Eastleigh parkrun’s old course and then returned to FLP to smash my PB there with a decent 24:24.  That was a good day and I put a special effort in after getting a great surprise in the pre-run briefing by being nominated as Sweatshop runner of the month for setting 4 PBs in a month while also cycling to the event and volunteering as well.  I still run in the free pair of trainers that got me.

I turned to improving my 10k times and entered Mortimer again and the Julian Farrell for the first time.  Neither of these are what you would call good PB courses though as they both include huge hills in them.  Mortimer was held on a hot day in September and I got round about a minute quicker than last year (53:46) and had the minor achievement of running the whole course with no walking up the big hill. 

The Julian Farrell 10k is named after a past president of the Camberley & District Athletics Club and is held in early October.  It's run on roads between Camberley and Frimley, starts with a few km on undulating housing estate roads before climbing up the mountainous Portsmouth Road past Frimley Park Hospital. You get to the top at about 6k and then drop on a long downhill for another 2km before that last run round the local houses with the finish in the grounds of King's International College.  Felt crap going up the hill going solo with no-one around me that I knew and got round in a time of 54:17. I struggled with that one, but other people I know coped pretty well with the cool wet conditions of the day, in particular Louise Brooks who beat me by a good 45s).

After this I set myself what I thought was an ambitious target of getting under 24 minutes at FLP by Christmas.  For a couple of weeks I was nowhere near it, then blasted a 23:50 on a cool day in mid-October.  I was elated and kind of concerned at the same time - where to from here?  I thought about a sub 23 minutes 5k target, but as it turned out I wouldn't get another PB at Frimley for another 18months. I also thought about stepping up to a half marathon.

I had plateaued and on the back of a 6 or 7k mid-week run, a parkrun and a bit of cycling to work week in week out I wasn't going to be able to just run faster 5k or 10k times on a whim. The only variable was what I did on a Friday or Saturday night as one beer and a late night would put me in a mental trough on race morning with loads of negative thoughts before I had even got to the start line.  I took a long time to get out of this situation.  I now classed myself as a runner, but what little I was doing was becoming a chore.  Something would have to change.

Next time: Big Town Half Marathon and Joining the Club



 

The Wilderness Months and Running Bug Pt 2

What happened after Mortimer? I looked back at my parkrun stats recently and I didn’t do another parkrun between the end of September 09 and June 2010.  The kids went back to school and back to swimming lessons on Saturday mornings and I went back to cycling to work and playing midweek football.  Basingstoke and Reading parkrun were too far away to cycle to and Frimley Lodge hadn’t started up yet and, as we are a 1-car-family, I couldn’t get to a parkrun.  So I spent Saturday mornings being one of the few dads who went to watch their kids taking lessons at Bracknell leisure centre.  Running slipped into the background.

Forward to May 2010 and I think I was getting a bit tired of having lumps kicked out of me playing football and I realised I hadn’t really got good value from the purchase of my trainers.  As a rule of thumb I like to think of good value on anything I buy as getting at least as many uses out of it as it cost in pounds to buy.  Spend £100 on a cheap suit for a funeral and never use it again = poor value.  Spend £500 on a really nice suit and wear it to work every day for a couple of years = good value. I don’t think I had quite got there with my £80 shoes in the 6 months since I bought them so it was worth me getting out on the roads and trails again.

I usually like to plan things and know what I’m going to do ahead of time, saving frustration and accidents.  That works pretty well when you’re doing a plumbing job or changing the brake pads on your car.  Like many people who run, however, as soon as you put on a pair of trainers all sensibility leaves you.  How many people have finished a race in pain and injured, but you just had to finish coz you damn well spent money to enter!  You know everyone would be sympathetic to you pulling out injured and applauding your good sense in doing so why put yourself through that much pain?  Sometimes running is more like an addiction or a mental illness.

I had the use of the car for a Saturday morning so I decided to go to Reading parkrun.  I had done no running in nearly 8 months except trotting around the 5-a-side pitch once a week, but still just went for it.  8am Saturday 19 June 2010, I put my trainers on to the sound of a chorus of angels and an ethereal glow coming from around my feet. 

It was sunny but not too warm by the side of the Thames.  Reading parkrun is a nice flat and picturesque course by river and woodland along grass and gravel paths.  It has a long straight by the river before crossing a narrow bridge and sweeping round a bend and into woodland trails.  I was a bit caught up in the thrill of it all and set off a bit quick and by the time I had got into the woods was being passed by a few people.  I hung on, resisted the urge to walk a bit when I felt totally spent and tried to at least look good crossing the finish line: 79^th out of a field of 118 runners in 27:56.  The running bug had bitten again and I was born again as a runner.

Next time: Frimley Lodge parkrun and the Joy of Six (miles that is).

Discovering parkrun and The Road to Mortimer

I have learnt that I need an incentive to keep running. Just plodding up and down streets for the sake of getting fit is a dull and lonely experience.  Back in 2009 this is just what I was doing and it was no fun and really had no point to it.  I had done my couch to 5k, got a medal and a Tshirt and to give me a challenge I started looking for another race around 5k to have a go at. I couldn't find any, only fun runs for kids while the grown ups were doing a 10k or 10mile.  I chose the Mortimer 10k road race (organised by Reading Road Runners).  I had about 2 months to prepare for it.

Googling 5k run in the Berkshire/ Hampshire area returned parkrun with the nearest to me being Basingstoke.  So, after registering I turned up on 15^th August 2009 at my first ever parkrun about 45minutes early and helped out setting up flags, course markers and finish funnel.  We had the pre-race briefing during which I was cheered for being a new runner. What a great feeling and what a happy place to go for a run. 

Basingstoke is a course that is part tarmac, gravel paths and grassy field and undulating.  I managed a sprint to the finish line suffering in the heat panting, a Niagara of sweat streaming down my face, which was red as a beetroot.  At least I stayed on my feet to get a finish number token and didn’t vomit on anyone. So I had turned up, ran and didn’t die: Success! Time 26:29.

Now, anyone who knows about parkrun is familiar with the usually slick operation of registering your run.  It’s all about barcodes – print and bring your runner’s barcode, run, collect a finish number token with a barcode on it and go get them scanned. All done without fuss.  Back then barcodes were just a twinkle in Paul Sinton-Hewitt’s eye.  You got a metal token with a number stamped on it then queued up to drip sweat on the poor volunteer who’s responsibility it was to log your name and finish position on to a laptop.  Sometime later in the morning, after visiting the local café, the runner’s finish places would be combined with the finish times using a fiendish piece of software before being uploaded to parkrun central.  You might get your result mid-afternoon or the next morning.  Now, with the barcode system and new software, all the results can be assembled, checked and uploaded within half an hour of the last runner crossing the line with results texts winging their way to runners before 10:30. Amazing.

I ran there three more times over the next six weeks as training for Mortimer.  I think we actually had a summer that year and I suffer in the heat and, as I was probably carrying 5 or 6kg of extra insulation than I am now, I only managed to improve my time by 2 seconds in those four runs. 

As I had found out from looking up some training plans, you don’t need to run a marathon when training for a marathon and I thought I could apply the same logic to a 10k.  That’s novice runner thinking at its most optimistic. As I could manage an 8k run I thought I was reasonably well prepared for Mortimer.  Actually all that meant is I would be able to finish the run.

Mortimer is a really well run nice family event.  There’s loads to do for spectators with stalls and rides set up on the fairground on the edge of town.  Race day for me didn’t start well.  I decided to bring the family along to witness my great achievement, but the excitement, or just the twisty roads, were too much for Alfie’s breakfast to cope with so it decided to jump ship.  I got dumped at the venue with my kit while Julia and the kids went home for a clean up.  They did get back before the start though. 

The race had 460 runners of all abilities, so a good happy crowd set off in sunny warm conditions.  I knew nothing about the course, which was probably just as well.  It starts off flat doing a lap of the fairground and local houses then heads north along undulating roads before looping back and passing the fairground again at 5k.  You then start going downhill for about 2k. At first I thought this was great, a welcome bit of relief, but after 10 minutes of this I thought “Bugger, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to get back up all this before we finish.”  There was about 1.5k uphill.  The kind of uphill that kids you into thinking it’s over before revealing another stretch of hill just round the next corner. I found myself jogging and walking and being overtaken by 70 year old ladies. At last the hill was over and I managed to stagger over the last mile to the line in 54:34.  

At the time I thought that wasn’t great, I was placed 232 out of 460 and just into the lower half of the table, but looking back at that run now, it turns out to be quite a reasonable time.  First 10k completed and something to be proud of.  I have the medal pinned up at my desk at work.

Next: The Wilderness Months and Running Bug pt 2 

Getting the Running Bug pt1

When it all started?  February 2009, running around the local park, feeling the belly and back flab jiggling around me and getting out of breath after 5 minutes trying to run a football round with number-one-son.  Being outrun by 5yr old Alfie was a sobering experience.  Now, at the time I knew no runners at all and didn’t think to look up local running clubs, so after some online research found Sweatshop in Reading and went to buy some running pumps.  

I spent £80 on some bland looking Adidas Sequence shoes and then rushed home, put them on and went out for a 7km walk with a couple of minutes jogging thrown in.  Came home with a big blister on my heel which you can still see a scar from today! 

That could have been it for running, but as I am from tight arsed northern stock I thought there's no way I'm letting 80 quid go to waste, there must be a better way than this and I found a couch to 5k training plan.  Looking back at that time I’m amazed at how little I knew about running and that there was so much information out there from clubs and websites that could help build you into a decent runner with the minimum of pain and not a little enjoyment. Obviously I just thought you would get some shoes, put on shorts and a T-shirt and go. Well, I went, got about 500m from my front door and nearly collapsed, red faced, blowing, with a stitch and hammering heart.  

Having got the plan, I stuck with it; a series of gradually increasing intervals working up from 5 minutes to 25 minutes of continual jogging, running up and down the hills between Sandhurst and Crowthorne.  Most of the first 3 weeks I had to cunningly time the intervals so I was walking up the hills and jogging down the other side.

About this time I was thinking that just plodding up and down the same piece of road was getting rather dull.  I needed more motivation and found it in a fun run in Swinley Forest run by 3:09 Events.  I entered the 2.5mile run and made sure I could at least do a continuous 3miles in about 30minutes by race day.  

Come the race I found myself on the line with a dozen kids, their parents and a few other novice runners like myself.  We set off on the hilly course through the forest with the kids blazing a trail out front. After 25minutes I had passed only a few of the kids and I was thinking “Where the hell’s the finish, I must have taken a wrong turn!”  When I eventually crossed the line in 5^th place behind 4 lads all under 12, I heard the commentator saying “Let’s have a big cheer for the first adult over the line! We said it was 2.5miles, actually it was more like 4miles. Well done!”

We got finishers’ medals and a goody bag and after everyone had crossed the line we had presentations for the male and female winners.  Then I got a prize too – a T-shirt for coming in 5^th place overall and being the first person across the line big enough to fit the shirt!  I was a little embarrassed about taking the shirt, but got over it soon enough.

Next: Discovering parkrun and the Road to Mortimer