2014 - Where Now? And Happy Families

I love running in races, and there is a certain magic about the longer distances.  The marathon.  Just the word evokes a sense of history and epic achievement and it's the ultimate distance in many runner's minds.  Having done London marathon, I could quite reasonably have said "That's it. I've done the ultimate road marathon; I don't need to do any more than that." Then I could have gone on to have a very happy life running parkruns, 10ks and the occasional half and happily enjoying the post-run bacon sandwich with friends.

But then, what if...?  What if I hadn't been recovering from an Achilles injury before starting training for London and been starting at such a low base? What if I hadn't got ankle and foot injuries in the weeks before the marathon? What if I hadn't fallen apart at 20 miles.  Would I have hit my target time and would I be capable of going sub-4?  

So that meant doing Portsmouth (flat meant quick in my mind) and then The Pilgrim (got talked into it by one of the organisers who I happen to work with).  Unfortunately with Portsmouth, I wasn't banking on some course congestion on the narrow sections and the wet and muddy conditions.  That left me thinking about more marathons for 2014 and maybe, eventually a sub-4 hour time.

The problem about all this focus on long distances and entering races is it can mean a lot of time away from the family both in training and doing events and can cost quite a lot of money.  Solutions then: Make a plan for the whole year so you can recognise when you are doing too much, get creative with training, enter cheap races and, if you can, get the rest of the family into running.

My plan for the year centres around doing a marathon in the spring and another in the autumn.  I didn't get into London, so I was thinking Brighton or Milton Keynes. Turns out a friend from work is doing Milton Keynes so that made my mind up for spring. Then I went for Abingdon as a reasonably flat PB attempt for the autumn - I imagine it will be full of quick runners who will clear off out of my way.   Having got 2 serious target races, the rest should be down to whatever fun events I can fill the calendar with: This is what I booked:

February: Wokingham Half, Bramley 20

March: Surrey Half, Fleet Half

April: Bracknell Half

May: Milton Keynes Marathon, Hook 10

June: Endure 24

July: Elstead Marathon, Thunder Run

September: Farnham Pilgrim Marathon

October: Abingdon Marathon, Halloween 5 Nite run (probably)

To that little lot you can add marshaling at London Marathon and running a few shorter races in the summer like the Yateley 10k series (I'll probably marshal at 1 or 2 of these and run 1) and then a couple of the Woodland 5 series.

That looks like quite a lot (could be 18 races!) and haven't I just broken one of my rules for a happy running family, you might ask.  Well, there are no more than 2 races a month, and I figured I could bribe the family to come along to at least one a month with the promise of a decent post run pub lunch.  And Wokingham, Fleet, Bracknell, Hook, Elstead and the Pilgrim are relatively cheap being run by running clubs, councils or charitable ventures who aren't looking for big profit margins.  Then Milton Keynes and Abingdon are both very reasonably priced compared to say Brighton.

Still, that left a bit of a gap in January, August and November/December.  I have to leave a gap in August to fit in a family holiday and it's too hot to run far anyway. November/December can be left to do some club cross country runs, but I decided to do something about January which turned out to be quite reckless... enter a trail ultramarathon!

So, scanning around for cheap events lead me to the pages of the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) and their Challenge events. Run, jog or walk distances from 20miles to 30miles and even 50miles along hiking trails finding your own way using several pages of coded instructions.  I entered the Surrey LDWA group's Winter Tanner event - a 30 mile very hilly, very muddy mostly trail run.  It cost an embarrassingly low £6 to enter or £4 for members, so I joined LDWA for £13. Still bloody cheap for an event like this.  I'll leave a description of the event and my blooding as an ultramarathon runner till later, but for an excellent write up of the event see my friend and mentor Mr K's running blog .

A final note on making for a happy running family. Try and get them all running.  Well, this has been a huge success and I have my involvement with Frimley Lodge parkrun to thank for that.  Both Elinor (8) and Alfred (10) have given up Saturday morning swimming lessons and are now regular parkrunners and my wife Julia, not wanting to be left out, followed a couch to 5k training plan and is now also a regular runner and parkrunner. It's amazing what the offer of a post run bacon sandwich can do!

After London, Now what...? Catch up to 2014

I've not posted for a long while - shame on me!  2013 turned out to be a really good running year.  After London marathon (my first) I went on to run two more in the autumn and winter and got a PB in every distance I ran from 100m to marathon.  I just didn't run a mile race, otherwise I would have had a full set.  So here are the highlights:

Marathons:

On St Marth's Hill 

The Farnham Pilgrim - 4:59:10 A little bit longer than a marathon, partly due to it being long and partly due to me taking a wrong turning at about 15miles.  Nearly all on trails following or parallel to the Pilgrim's Way path from The Sands rec southeast of Farnham to St Marth's hill, which is southeast of Guildford, and then back again.  Reasonable weather, hilly trail run which I did the first 12 miles with my work friend Adam Brossler until the lower slopes of St Marth's hill.


I waited 5 minutes at the aid station at the top trying all their squash and all the different kinds of biscuit that they had before heading off.  The last 2 miles were really tough with a good mile uphill to the finish, desperately trying to get under 5 hours.  Highlights - great views, getting spooked by witches in the woods, very good marshals and aid stops and nice goody bag.

Chris, Pam, me, Emma and Vicky from Sandhurst Joggers

Portsmouth Coastal Waterside - 4:14:32 I thought I would do a flat marathon to try and get a good time and this one is as flat a marathon as you can get being at sea level all the way.  The weather was foul in the days before which made the trail sections muddy or full of puddles and the race started in a howling gale and lashing with rain. 30minutes in and the rain eased off and the weather was fine but cold and windy the rest of the day. The out and back course meant I saw loads of Sandhurst Joggers folks on the way, which was good, but the onshore winds made the tide come in higher and quicker which meant the beach section at 24 miles was flooded and we had to wade through the icy sea.  It took me a mile more to warm back up and get running again. The finish was after a 2 mile slog all along the sea front into the cold howling wind.  Highlights - running with so many friends from SJ, wading through the sea (one to tell the grandkids) and coming away with a decent PB.

Half Marathons:

Bracknell Half with James and Duncan Ball 1 week after London.
The one and only time the Ball brothers said they
wanted pacing and actually stuck with me, instead of
blasting off into the distance when the gun went.

Bracknell 1:53:43:  One week after London at the end of April! What was I thinking? Certainly not "resting a day per mile raced", but I booked this one before I got my place at London and, as I was able to run I went for it. A course of 2 halves: the first being generally downhill on cycle lanes and underpasses through housing estates, the second half hilly with more main roads to go along. The finish is in Southill Park near the arts centre and is perfect for a post race drink. A funny little HM with a nice finish and a great goody bag - a kit bag with towel, drink and snack. Finished with some of the London foot and ankle injuries playing up a bit, but a PB all the same.

Burnham Beeches - 1:49:53:
A HM in mid-August? The potential for it to be a hot race had apparently been realized with a vengeance the previous year, and the field was down a lot this time.  It was quite warm, so why I picked a hilly, hot HM for a PB attempt, in fact a sub-1:50 attempt, I don't know.  That meant taking over 3 minutes off my previous best.  I must have thought that doing a marathon had got my mind used to the idea of coping with pain so why not aim high?  The course is 2 laps gaining height in steps up to 3miles, then a downhill mile followed by a couple more hills to the end of the lap. I had a plan to start steady and then pick up the pace on the second lap. The hills were hard and I was 20 or 30 secs down on plan going into the last 2 miles. The finish is in school grounds with a wicked drop from the croquet pitch to the rugby field (that kind of school) but I arrived there with no target runner to chase down. Fortunately Alfred and Elinor (my kids) were waiting for me and Alf ran round ahead on the infield shouting encouragement. I crossed the line hit the stop button, saw 1:49:59 on the timer and nearly collapsed. A very tough race - apparently I looked like a very salty sea dog afterwards - but nice countryside, finish area and stuff to do for the waiting family (they went swimming, lucky things). Only problem was a long walk back to the car park.

Other Highlights:
The Elstead Marathon - About 5.5miles cross country run around the village of Elstead near Farnham on a balmy Friday evening in July. The race takes in sandy trails, lovely views across heathland, woodland and included extra hazards in the form of a horse, a gate to climb, a ploughed field and a river to cross. An absolute gem of a run and with a finish area with a good barbecue, a WI cake stall and a decent pub this all makes for the perfect running experience. Forget the race time - you get the results "eventually" and they might look something like what your Garmin said you got, but then again they might not.

The Cabbage Patch 10 - 1:19:03. I wanted to do this race as I had never done a 10miler and it was one that Paula Fudge (our greatest female runner at Frimley Lodge parkrun) had won in her heyday as an elite GB runner. So, a run with good history. You run each side of the river Thames between Twickenham and Richmond. The bits alongside the river are really nice, the bits in housing estates not so much. It's pretty flat of course, with the Hampton Wick and Richmond bridges being the only "hills". I went out with a plan to do sub-80mins and just managed it with a dash over the last mile to get 1:19.

FLP Rio Moment - Getting photo-bombed by
little old lady in the Canal Cafe

Frimley Lodge parkrun - 5th October  A PB at 22:14 after recovering from the Pilgrim marathon.  Hills make you stronger and marathons make you mentally tough.  This was one of those runs where I decided I was going to go out quick, keep going fast enough to make it hurt and then keep going.

Mortimer 10k and Julian Farrell 10k - I did the usual Yateley 10k series and Woodland 5 cross country runs over the summer and had a couple of autumn 10ks booked to take advantage of the after-effects of marathon training.  Mortimer was 2 weeks after the Pilgrim and I did the children's 3k run with Alf and Elinor before running the 10k. Mortimer is a really well run event with a lot of entertainment for the family, good parking and a nice hilly route - actually a monster hill from 7.5 to 8.5k. Still got a 10k PB, so the kids run must have been a good warm up.  Julian Farrell 10k is run by Camberley Athletics club and basically consists of one enormous hill with a few undulations at he start and end. I got to the top with Ray from SJ and we stuck together for the descent and most of the run in, but I managed to stretch away over the last 1km. A good challenging local road race with good support from the local clubs.  Brought my 10k PB down to 47:38.

Here are the Lowlights of 2013:
You would expect that any list of lowlights for a runner would just be a list of injuries and you would be mostly right.  This year it wasn't Achilles strains, but left plantar fascia (just prior to London) and a right calf strain (just after Portsmouth) that set me back a bit. But neither really stopped me from running for more than a week.  I have to lay praise at the door of Abby Fudge's treatment room at Reform and Renew Osteopathy for keeping me going as I stepped up to greater distances. I am sure I must have the tightest, knottiest calf muscles she has ever seen. She has the thumbs of an angel and works miracles with them.

Medal haul up to the Farnham Pilgrim

The only bad run of the year was the Olympic Park Anniversary Run - 5 miles around the Olympic park finishing in the Olympic stadium sounds fabulous, but apart from the stadium, everything about the run was crap.  It was expensive, there were no trains running (usual for a Sunday), parking was a lottery (dump car in a back street a mile away), the bag drop was difficult to find, the route was crowded all the way round and you were basically running through a building site.  Now, I know I can't run a PB in every race, but I at least want the option and so that, along with the cost and transport problems, makes this race, along with all other central London races like the Bupa 10k, a non-starter for me.  Give me a trail with a view any day.

Of course, I don't include the London Marathon in this list, as it is just about the greatest road race experience you can ever have. On that last positive note, we say goodbye to a great 2013 and catch up next time with 2014.  Onwards and Upwards.....