Portsmouth Marathon

Portsmouth Marathon on 21st December this year was my 8th marathon and my second time at this one.  It's mostly flat and you would have thought fast, but you have to factor in how busy it is, the single track paths, the sections of muddy or shingle beach to negotiate, the cold windy wet weather and.... AND... the mulled wine at the water stops!

Last year it was lashing with rain at the start and there were wet and muddy puddles along much of the route, but apart from that it was quite pleasant.  OK it was windy but the sun was shining for much of the time and the out and back course meant you got to see lots of runners and friends on the Hayling Island section.  There was the issue for some of having to wade knee deep through the sea at 24 miles where the tide had covered the beach, but a bit of bulldog spirit saw us through.  This year problems with the tide coming in have been solved by changing the route to avoid having to cross the last beach on the return to the Esplanenade.

Not Training Again?
Preparation for this race had not been focussed on distance as I had another objective which was to do well in the last club handicap run of the year.  You can read about that here.  That club handicap run went really well, so it was well worth training for, but it only left me time for a couple of 15 mile long runs and medium club runs in the 2 weeks before Portsmouth.  In terms of overall fitness I thought I was in pretty good shape, maybe about the same level as I was going in to Abingdon, which was 2 months ago in mid-October.  My only worry was that I had been suffering with sore and stiff calves recently, partly as a result of not being able to do any foam rolling as I had had a hand injury.  Anyway, I thought I ought to give a PB a try and just see what happened, so my plan going into the race was to go out at 8:30min/mile pace aiming for a 3:45 time.

Race Prep
The day before I thought I was doing really well having done Frimley Lodge parkrun with the family, running with Elinor in a gentle 28 minutes, then having a nice big breakfast at the cafe, finishing off the Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, baking flapjack and sorting out my race bag before having an early dinner.

There were due to be 11 or 12 Sandhurst Joggers going down to Portsmouth and I had a lift with Chris Lambourne and Emma Lewis with a pick up time of 6:15.  I slept OK but struggled out of bed at 5:45 and didn't quite manage to finish my porridge before Chris and Emma arrived.  We were already on the M3 before I realised I hadn't put my contact lenses in.  That was a real problem for me because I hate running in glasses, getting steamed up or rained on and not being able to see.  Fortunately after digging through my bag I managed to find a spare set and after finishing off a large piece of flapjack I was back to feeling positive about the race.

We managed to get parked close to the Pyramid Centre by Southsea with over an hour to go before the 8:45 start time, got our race numbers met up with some folks from the club (Max and Sacha Woods and Leon Hicks) and Kelvin from Cove Joggers. I went to find the loos, but unfortunately the organisers had not managed to provide loos with toilet paper!  This was sorted out eventually, but that's another thing to remember to put in the race bag along with spare contact lenses.  Whilst waiting in the queue for the loos I saw another couple of Sandhurst runners, Vicky Horne and Tina Acock, heading off to get an early start.

A little before the 8:45 start we gathered outside the Pyramid Centre on the Esplanade and were led down to Southsea Pier and the new start line by a pipe band (yes, bagpipes).  The weather was chilly and windy but not that cold, so I had decided to run in a t-shirt with my Sandhurst Joggers vest on top , a cap and gloves but bare arms.  I also took 6 Hi-Five gels and a few blocks of dark chocolate in my marathon belt.

Off We Go!
As soon as we got to to the pier, I looked ahead and saw that people had already started running, though I hadn't heard any gun or hooter.  I had already got my watch set up for the 8:30/mile pace and hit the Go button as I went over the timing mats.  The strong breeze was at our backs as we set off down the Esplanade and it was easy to get straight on to pace.  After 2 miles the first beach section caused a bit of a delay as we queued up to get down a narrow path.  This bit of beach was slow going as we were picking our way through seaweed and muddy patches and I was trying to keep my feet dry to avoid possible blisters.

Vicky and Tina on Hayling Island*

Going up the west side of Langstone Harbour was reasonably sheltered and the first 4 miles flew by.  At 5 miles I caught up with Vicky and Tina and gave Vicky a friendly butt-slap as I passed (payback for her stinging encouragement at the last aid station on Surrey Half earlier in the year).  Just beyond 5 miles you get to run alongside the main A27, a busy noisy road and my least favourite part of the
course.  Still, if you look to the right the views across the harbour are very nice.

Crossing on to Hayling Island at 9 miles you are very exposed and the wind was almost whipping my cap off, but it wasn't long before we got on to the Hayling Billy Trail down to the turn around near half way.  Last year I didn't quite manage to get to 10 miles before the leaders appeared coming the other way, but this year I was comfortably past the 10 mile marker when I saw the leader come cruising past with a smile on his face and almost a 6 mile lead on me!  In the mile before the turn I saw Lisa Hale and then Chris Lambourne and then on my way back between miles 13 and 15 most of the rest of the SJ team (Sacha, Leon, Emma, Vicky and Tina and Lance King).  It was great seeing all the guys and a good mental boost too.

Hoever, it was about this time that I started to hit problems.  I was doing well up to about 14 miles staying between about 8:20/mile and 8:50/mile depending on the terrain (beaches or muddy paths slowing me a bit), but from 14 miles my left knee began to hurt with what I thought was an ITB problem.  It felt just like at the Pilgrim back in September when that knee pain caused me to walk most of the last 4 miles and I couldn't run downhill.  I struggled on slowing from 8:40/mile to 9:30/mile.

Cruising along at about 12 miles*

This was really getting me down and I was thinking that if it got any worse I was probably going to have to stop.  If I ended up slowing below 10min miles there was a risk with the wind chill that I would get very cold.  However, at around 19 miles I went through a mental check of how I was feeling and realised that my knee actually wasn't hurting much and in fact it only hurt a bit when I was running on a side slope.  Once I had figured this out I felt a lot more positive and I knew I was going to finish.

The cold windy weather was having its toll though and with the muddy slippy paths and shingle beach section I wasn't setting a fast pace.  I was stopping at each aid station to get squash and jaffa cakes and the odd shot of mulled wine and whereas last year my pace might have dropped beyond 11 minute miles, this time I managed to keep knocking out the miles no slower than 9:30.  I needed to keep it going like this to keep warm.  I was also thinking "The faster you go now, the sooner it will be finished!"

Emma, Greg Ward and Ed Mills near the finish*

At 23 miles, we got to the new diversion to avoid the now tide flooded last beach section.  This was a run along some quiet back streets and through Bransbury Park before coming back to the Esplanade with 2 miles to go.  The last 2 miles seemed to go on forever, battling into the cold wind.  I was looking out for the Pyramid Centre but couldn't see it with a mile to go; the pier was in the way.  As soon as I had passed the pier, though, I could see the blue pyramid roof mercifully only a few hundred metres away with crowds of people forming a tunnel of noise for the last 100m.

I hadn't looked at my watch for the last 4 or 5 miles so it was great to see I had finished in 3:54:28.  My second sub-4 hour time and only 2 minutes away from a PB having overcome some quite challenging conditions.  All in all a very good result.

Splits for this marathon were a bit all over the place:

8:21 9:01 8:21 8:29 8:36 8:25 8:39 8:37 8:48 8:47 8:32 8:42 8:52 8:44 9:08 9:29 9:18 9:19 9:29 8:52 9:06 9:26 9:12 9:14 9:28 9:25 2:07

Afters

All the SJ and Cove runners got home safely - Well done all.

Max Woods 03:33:28; Lisa Hale 03:34:16; Stuart Overhill 03:51:10; Chris Lambourn 03:53:15; Richard Boese 03:54:28; Sacha Kendall Woods 04:25:12; Leon Hicks 04:42:32; Lance King 05:14:52; Greg ward 5:21:17; Emma Lewis 05:22:21; Tina Acock 06:50:17; Vicky Horne 06:50:17.

Kelvin Gower 04:35:11 (comfortably making his Comrades Marathon qualifying time)

Post race recovery was found in the very decent Crown and Cushion near Minley Barracks.  The Thai curry chicken and pint of Spitfire went down a treat.

Now I'm looking forward to the Christmas parkrun season with the family (including wife Julia's 50th run) and possibly another attempt at the Winter Tanners 30 mile challenge event in early January.

*Thanks to Janet Foran for the race photos.

The Handicap Cup

I had a really good run at the December running of the Sandhurst Joggers Club Handicap.  This year was one where I wanted to make an effort to join in a lot more club events and I have managed to do 10 of the handicaps this year after never having done them before.  The course runs around the hilly side of Crowthorne - two laps making four miles, two BIG hills, two short steep hills and some descents to fly down – it’s a good challenging run to do at speed. 

Going into the last run, I was top of the points leader board (based on points from best 7 runs) having managed to steadily improve my PB from 33mins to 29:12 over the year.  However, there were at least two people in with a very good chance of overtaking me in the last event, Steve Sims and Gabriel Bassett.  Unfortunately Gabby couldn't make it on the night, though Steve was going to be there and I needed to be at least 3 places ahead of Steve to hang on to the lead.

Tactics?  Like every time I have run this time trial it's just a case of going as fast as possible and the only tactic I have is to try and make the two laps as even as possible. I thought Steve was going to go for a sub 28min time, so needed a 20sec PB.  To beat that I would have to go for a 30sec PB and hope 2 people placed in between us.  That meant aiming for about 28:45 and just over 7:11/mile pace.  

So I set the Garmin pacer up for that and once under way checked my watch on the first 400m to get used to the effort needed to maintain that pace.  I tried to keep that same effort going up the hills make up time on the descents and also try and keep someone ahead of me in site, but I was really gasping going over the last hill.  I hadn’t looked at my watch since the start, but I felt that I must have a lot of time to make up over the last half mile, so really pushed hard all the way home. I finished in 28:42, beating my handicap time by 32secs and feeling like I could not have gone any quicker.

The results looked like this:

That was a tight race and in the end there was only 4 seconds between 5th and 8th places in the results, but I just did enough to hang on to the overall first place position.  

It has been a really good year of running for me.  I have managed to improve at all distances I have run and have really tried to learn about training and what I can do to get faster.  Being able to test myself on our club handicap route has been really rewarding and coming away with the win in the overall competition was a great feeling.  

Now to get back down to sea level and Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon.

Can you run a marathon without it taking over your life?

Have you ever done a marathon?  Got to the end of your 20 mile training run and thought "Thank God for that! I never have to do 20 miles in training again. Ever!"  Then what happens after your one and only London Marathon?  A week later finds you up at midnight putting your name down for the ballot for next year's race.  Somehow you forgot all the time, effort and pain and you are on the road (and trail) to having a bit of an addiction.  I think that's where I am now.  Except that when I put my name down for London 2014 just after the 2013 race, I thought I probably wouldn't get in through the main ballot, so went and entered the Farnham Pilgrim and Portsmouth marathons just to be sure.

So, Portsmouth marathon approaches again and after telling my work mates that I was doing this race, which comes a few days before Christmas, the comments I got were along the lines of "Bloody idiot", and "Don't you know why people invented the internal combustion engine?" or even the eyebrow raising "So, Portsmouth marathon...how long is that one then?"  Seriously? Anyway, when I entered this one last year I thought that, as it was the flattest marathon I was likely to find this side of Amsterdam, it must be a quick one.  Even though the organisers have a video up showing a speeded up cycle ride along the whole course I didn't factor in how much harder it would make it to run on beach sections, narrow muddy paths, wide paths full of puddles, wading through the freezing cold sea at 24 miles and then slogging along into the teeth of a gale on the Southsea promenade for the last 2 miles.  It turns out even a pan flat marathon can throw up significant challenges besides the long miles.

This is going to be marathon number 8 for me in less than 2 years and like a lot of people who are keen on both their running and their family life, I have worried about how much time out from my family the training could take.  After all I have a fairly busy job as well that keeps me out of the house for over 10 hours a day.  Maybe in a few years this won't be a problem as the kids will be teenagers who would be totally bored by what their old man is doing and barely prepared to grunt to acknowledge my presence.  However, right now they welcome me home with enthusiasm; well, they do as long as I make sure I get home after The Simpsons has finished.

After having done London marathon in 2013 and religiously followed a training plan, gradually building up my mileage over a 16 week period to 20 miles and then tapering to the big day, I knew how much time a full and focussed training programme could take.  To then repeat this over 3 or 4 marathons a year seems like a huge and all consuming task.  So, to avoid my wife and kids having to reintroduce themselves to me like strangers after each event, I have not put in lots of long runs in the lead up to the marathons that followed London.

So, to start answering my question, obviously I haven't given up training for marathons altogether.  What I mean is that having trained properly and got the requisite miles in for the first marathon, the next three road marathons have shown a gradual improvement, even though I didn't ever get up to the usual 20 mile run or take 16 weeks doing it. And this has happened even though the races have been quite far apart.  London and Portsmouth were in April and December 2013, while MK and Abingdon were in May and October 2014.

Looking at the 6 weeks before each of London, Portsmouth, MK and Abingdon the weekly mileage and long runs went like this:

London 4:35:55	Weekly	35	37	32	33	15	38
	Long run	17	18	20	16	8	26.2
Portsmouth 4:14:32	Weekly	35	3	29	15	9	36
	Long run	16	3	13	5	6	26.2
M.K. 4:06:37	Weekly	9	18	12	19	34	34
	Long run	6	11	4	15	13	26.2
Abingdon 3:52:23	Weekly	31	30	17	21	33	38
	Long run	16	26.2*	9	8	15	26.2
Portsmouth 2014	Weekly	17	11	28	?	?	?
	Long run	6	6	14	?	?	26.2

*Alright, you got me. I did another marathon - jog/walking the trails of the Farnham Pilgrim.

So, how come I can show steady improvement in each marathon and yet have not very good preparation?  I think that the physiological changes that you are trying to develop through a programme of steadily increasing mileage have largely taken effect having strictly followed the plan for the first marathon.  Having done that, and followed it up with 3 or 4 marathons per year, that physiological improvement - how your body copes with the marathon miles - has obviously not disappeared in the few months between each one.  However, I must be a bit fitter overall and, if I look at other race times, I see a definite improvement across a range of distances.

My parkrun times gradually improved from around 23:50 pre-London to under 21:20 prior to the Pilgrim and Abingdon.  Similarly 10k times went from 48mins to 45mins and half marathons from 1:55 to 1:47 over the same period.  This general improvement in speed has come about by not just focussing on plodding along for very long runs at a slow pace, but specifically working on speed training.  I've kept that going from the summer and into the autumn and winter this year, even though I don't have any 10k races and Frimley parkrun is getting slower as it gets more muddy.  So, in the lead up to Portsmouth, by using my current best parkrun time as a measure of overall fitness, a recent time of 21:25 on a muddy course tells me I'm in pretty good shape.

The really big advantage of making speed sessions a key part of my training is it doesn't take very long.  I can do a range of different sessions on the streets outside my house that take no more than 30 minutes.  The other advantage is I can sometimes include the rest of the family as well.  One of my sessions is hill sprints where after a slow jog to warm up and maybe a few drills, we do sets of sprints where I run to a point 120m away up the hill and when I turn to run back so does everyone else.  We then all get back to the bottom of the hill at the same time.  Everyone puts in the same amount of effort and has the same rest and I also feel like I get a good hard session.  With a parkrun a week this also means that 2 out of 4 training runs can be with family.

To answer my original question, then.  Does marathon training have to take over your life?  Well, to begin with I would have to say yes.  At least for the first one and probably it still does if you just do one each year or every other year.  But if you feel you want to do two or even three a year, I think that the importance of hitting the long mile targets of traditional training plans diminishes.  If you are lucky enough to involve your family in some of your training, then the time out running the longer runs maybe just 2 to 3 hours a week and you might even be able to get away with doing those for just 4 to 6 weeks.  I think for me fitness for running a marathon doesn't have to be all about long miles and in fact, keeping it interesting, setting and achieving goals at shorter distances, working on form, strength and flexibility will all help you get across your chosen finish line in better shape than last time.

Turn On, Tune In, Run Out

Do you listen to music when out for a run?
For some people this is a serious issue.  I know people who will never go out for a run without them. They are so used to doing all their training with just their motivational App for company that even in a group run or race the earphones have to go in.  For them it's as necessary and automatic as tying their shoelaces.  For anyone else who regularly runs with a club or trains with friends, you are probably like me and you wouldn't dream of shutting yourself off from your running buddies.

If I'm out for a run with friends, on a club run or in any kind of group running situation, then no I don't use earphones.  If it's going out with friends or club, then I'm there to run AND chat.  Even if it's a non-serious event, like a parkrun, I want to hear what's going on around me so I don't get in the way of someone wanting to overtake me and I don't want to pass up the opportunity to chat to people I haven't met before as I run.  If it's an organised race, the parkrun principle still applies (I'll chat to people whenever possible, especially in halfs and marathons) and I don't want to get in the way of faster runners or not hear what course marshals need to tell me.  Of course in many races it's also the rule that earphones are not allowed.

What the rules say

This sort of footwear is of course banned from your local
 athletics meeting

UKAthletics don't have any official rules on wearing earphones or use of mobile phones, but the IAAF do. Under the section of the IAAF rulebook covering "assistance" the use of any audio or visual device including mobile phones or similar is considered assistance and is therefore not allowed.  I think where they are coming from is that you could actually have a race plan recorded by your coach with a lot of instructions and motivation for key parts of the race and that could be considered similar to having your coach in the competition area telling you what to do, which, like having springs in your shoes, is also not allowed.*  However, there is no actual rule that says that runners are not allowed to wear earphones for safety reasons.

UK Athletics do however state that race promoters should look at the safety of their event and judge the risk of having runners not being able to hear marshal's instructions and, if they think necessary, then ban earphones.  That means that the official race rules of most road and trail races do ban earphones, but in practice most races let people get away with using them.  The one time I have been in a race where the organisers actually enforced this rule was Abingdon marathon.

If you have a look at this year's results for Abingdon you will find at the bottom a list naming all those disqualified.  This year there was one runner DQ'd for running with someone else's number and 6 DQ'd for wearing earphones.  I can fully understand Abingdon's strict stance on this.  They have maybe four partial road closures on the course and they are all manned by several marshals with traffic control lights or stop/go signs.  As you approach the crossing point, they stop the traffic for you and you cross when you are told, hopefully without breaking stride.  In this case you have to be able to hear what they are telling you clearly for your own safety. So "Earphones - Nein Danke!" as they say in Abingdon. Or they would if Abingdon happened to be in Germany (Eh!? - Ed).

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
The only time I do wear earphones is if I am out on a long run by myself.  After an hour or so in my own company I kind of get fed up with the sound of the lone voice in my head that keeps asking silly questions like "How's that knee feeling?" "What about that ankle niggle you had last week, is it coming back again?" and the classic "Look at the size of that hill! Are you quite mad?"

I don't get a lot of time to listen to music that I enjoy, as there are always competing tastes when driving with the family, TV on at home and my journey to work is usually by bicycle or motorbike. Even when I travel for work by train I'm either doing something to prepare for the meeting I'm heading for or just reading in the Quiet Carriage.  So, the long run is when I get to listen to music and it has become an extra boost to get me out the door - something to make what could be a 2 or 3 hour steady slog something to look forward to.

As for what I listen to, it's a mixed bag.  I started out with a compilation of what I thought would be good running tunes, so my running playlists include such things as Canned Heat "Going Up the Country", Big Audio Dynamite "Union, Jack", Dandy Warhols "Bohemian Like You", Gomez "Silence", Lemon Jelly "The Staunton Lick" - all of them up tempo, uplifting songs to keep your mind in a happy place. I even found some running related tunes: Bow Wow Wow "I Want Candy", The Clash "Train in Vain", Hefner's "Pull Yourself Together", James's "Sit Down" and "Come Home", the Alt Country classic by Smog "Hit the Ground Running" as well as Rock Steady classics like "A Message to You, Rudy" with it's salutary message to "Stop your running around, got to think of your future" which is just right for when you can feel that calf cramp starting to set in.

The only problem with the playlist is, I can't be bothered to wade through 1500+ songs beyond the few albums I know well to add different tunes to it and so I have listened to the same stuff over and over again.  No matter how jaunty a tune is I'm getting a bit fed up with it by the time I have heard it for the third time on the same run.  So the cure for this has been to just set my Walkman to play all songs on shuffle.  Now I have been out several times running for an hour or more before I've even heard a song that I've played more than once in the last 2 or 3 years and, although not every one is rocking along at a fast pace, I have been listening to some awesome music.  It has certainly been keeping my mind fresh, interested and positive and it's something that I will seriously have to consider using when I come to running the lonely small hours of Endure 24 next year.

What to Wear on a Long Run
So, this is turning out to be the blog post that has everything. A mildly controversial topic, a couple of points on racing rules, headline grabbing stats from Abingdon, some super advice on how you too can impress the opposite sex with your new found great taste in music, and now a product review too!

Given that you have decide you need some audio assistance to get you through that long run, what to wear?  I have tried 3 different earphones with my current Sony Experia phone: the phone manufacturer's supplied earbuds, "hook on" running earphones from JVC and "clip in" running earphones from Monster.

Earbuds

My Sony earbuds. OK for sitting very still on a train,
but rubbish everywhere else.

OK, the cheapest of the cheap, effectively free earphones.  The sound is pretty good as they do a good job of blocking out room noise and, as they are meant to be used for listening to music on your Walkman App, Sony have made these with a reasonable bass and clear mid and top range.  The problem for me comes when I start to move around.  It's not just these ones, I have never been able to get a pair of earbuds to stay in place no matter what size they are.  Maybe I have the wrong shape ear canal or something, but I can't go more than 100m before I have to push them back in place.  I have even tried taping them on, but that only lasted a couple of miles until sweat caused them to come unstuck.  They even get a bit messy with sweat and earwax and are not that easy to clean.  So, these are not even a last resort.  If I had a choice of running with these or without, then I would just have no music.

Hook Ons

JVC HA-EB75 sports earphones. Cheap but effective.

I have been using these JVC HA-EB75 sports earphones for a couple of years and they have been very good for the price.  I think they cost me about £15 when I got them, but you can pick these up for about £10 now.  They are pretty basic and have no phone or volume controls. The part that hooks over your ear slides along the lower body giving them some size adjustment and the speaker part sits against your ear canal.  The wires are quite long so you can put your player on a belt or in a pocket, but I usually use them with my phone on an arm band so I have to wind up the wires and stuff them into the strap.  This is OK, but the wires do tend to get tangled up.  They have a small screw on the inside face and as this is not stainless steel it has rusted a bit from being regularly dowsed in sweat, but nothing has broken in about a hundred uses on long runs, so they seem well made and robust enough.

The sound is reasonable and they have never come off.  The minor problem I have with them is that they tend to sit more loosely against your ear after a while which lets in more outside noise and reduces the volume of the music.  This is slightly annoying when running alongside a busy road if you can't hear the music any more, so you might find yourself wanting to turn up the volume and having to stop running to do so.  The fact that I am not completely cut off from the outside world is a good thing for me, as I want to be able to hear the traffic around me even if I am taking special care to stop and look at road crossings.  I have given them an occasional clean with a baby wipe and that seems to be fine to keep them looking clean enough.

Clip Ins

Monster iSport Strive. Much more expensive,
but the quality shows.

I have recently acquired a pair of Monster iSport Strive earphones as the free gift after I got a subscription to Runner's World magazine.  These were advertised as being worth £60 and that may have been the case at one time a year or two ago, but you can get these for £40 now. Again these are the basic end of the range from Monster and have no phone or volume controls, so if you want these features or more funky colours you have to pay an extra £20.  Again these come with a quite long cable so I wind this up to jam it into my phone armband, but the flat shaped cable seems to unravel itself and doesn't get tangled.

I was a bit dubious about whether these would stay in place.  They hook in to the inner part of your ear in a ridge a little above your ear canal and take a bit of getting used to, jamming them in just the right place, but once in they have been completely secure.  So far they have stayed clean no matter how sweaty I have got, but even if they got mucky they are waterproof and washable so you could give them a wipe down, scrub with an old toothbrush or even put them through the washing machine. Maybe tie them into a sock if you were to do this or the cables could get pulled off.

On the go they have been really good.  They stay securely in place and haven't moved around at all so the sound level that you can hear stays the same throughout your run.  They are designed to allow some surrounding noise in, so you can hear car traffic around you and if an approaching cyclist calls out.  I think this is preferable to being completely cut off from your surroundings and is at least a bit safer.  The sound is a bit of a revelation compared to my usual JVC 'hook ons' and maybe this is something to do with the better and more secure fit.  They have a nice full punchy bass sound and clear mid and top range and I don't feel I have to turn the volume way up to get decent quality sound even with traffic around.  I'm really glad these have worked out so well for me, as I have a lot of miles coming up with training for next summer's ultra and a few marathons in between.


*Seriously, UKA and IAAF rules actually say you are not allowed to have springs in your shoes.