London Marathon 2015

Getting to London
Wow, talk about sore legs!  Before this year's London Marathon, I had never run two long races within 4 weeks and here I was facing my third marathon in 2 weeks and second in just 3 days.  Considering my so called recovery from Brighton didn't go well (I think I caused more issues by running too soon) and I finished St George's Day with sore feet and legs, I was a bit worried.  However, I had to tell myself that this was actually another training run on the way to Endure 24 with no PB target to go for.  The aim for London was to recover as best as possible and then finish in a reasonable time. I had set myself a target of a course PB, aiming to get under 4:30:00.  10 minute mile pace should do it.

I spent Friday at work, taking every opportunity to get up on my feet, then left early to go for a walk, foam roll my legs and then pick up daughter Elinor from school.  When my wife Julia and son Alfred got back from school athletics club, we went out for dinner.  I had been advised by Abby (physio) to get as much protein as possible after the St George's Day marathon to help get my legs repaired, so I pigged out on a mixed grill and tucked in to the kids' left over puddings.

Saturday was parkrunday again at Frimley Lodge and my run no. 247.  The big 250 run milestone is fast approaching.  Today's run was just a recovery effort starting at the back and volunteering as sweeper.  I had a nice chat for a lap with a woman who was coming back from a major operation, and when she dropped out I jogged ahead to catch up with Dennis Devey (Cove Joggers) and we chatted to the end of the run.  All very nice with no aches or pains.

I got my kit together in the afternoon, filling a small rucksack with the essentials of dry clothing and things to eat post-race.  The whole lot would eventually fit into the plastic sack required by London Marathon for your kit. I find this better than trying to carry the bag itself, which is awkward to sling over a shoulder.

Race Day

Taking shelter with Leon, Sarah and Sacha

Sunday morning I was up at 5:30 for breakfast of ReadyBrek (I had run out of porridge so had to steal the kids' breakfast), then set off to catch the Sandhurst Jogger's (SJ) team bus which set off at 6:30. Weather reports from earlier in the week were terrible with possible thundery showers and heavy rain for the race, but it turned out to be dry but cool.  Getting towards Blackheath there was a bit of drizzle in the air when the coach stopped to let us off and we split up into red and blue/green starters.

Relieved that the loos were so efficient (at least for the men)

I thought it would be good to run with someone for this marathon and found out SJ Leon Hicks was aiming for a sub 4:30 time, which would be ideal for me.  We headed off to find shelter from the cold and drizzle in a large marquee and sat chatting with Leon's brother Justin and other Sandhurst Joggers Sacha and Sarah Alexander. Then with about 45 minutes to go we headed off to the bag drop, then the queues for the urinals, which moved quite quickly.  With about 15 minutes to go Leon and I got into our no.5 start pen which was busy but not packed full, and at 10:10 the race started to a cheer from all the runners around us, but of course no actual running.

We're Off!

Red Start in Pen 5.  Rather optimistic placing in front of the 4:00
hour pacer

It took about 7 minutes to get across the start line, shuffling forward on the Red Start through the gates to Greenwich Park and the left turn to the start line.  I had my watch set up for a 9:30/mile pace and we were straight away running at about the right pace, keeping to 9:20/mile or slower.  I felt I was doing a lot of Garmin watching to begin with, not wanting to go out too fast, particularly as I had decided to run with Leon and didn't want to ruin his race.  We were getting passed by loads of people who were either much faster than their start pens should have them or were going out fast to bank some time ahead of their target (usually a dangerous tactic).

The first few miles from the Red Start undulate along local roads with good support, though here people are mostly just applauding, as it's a bit early to start shouting "looking good" or "keep going".  At 5 km we came to the first timing mat, where I saw Abby Fudge (my physio) who called out "How are your legs?"  So far, so good. The pace was OK and I felt like I was comfortably within myself and not dragging Leon along too fast.  I had allowed myself to go a bit quicker over the first 3 miles as there were a lot of downhill sections from the top of Greenwich Park back down to Greenwich and the Naval College.  However, once on the flat I tried to ease the pace back.

Landmarks
The turn to the Cutty Sark (6 miles) was quite congested and we went through a huge wall of noise with the crowds very densely packed and all cheering madly.  Miles 6 to 12 pass through Deptford and Bermondsey with wide roads and packed crowds. Every pub had something going on with live bands or music playing and it felt like a great party.  Our pace through 10k and 15k was still consistent and just after 12 miles we made the turn onto Tower Bridge where the crowds seemed to be even louder.  Tower Bridge is a fantastic part of the course with the iconic bridge providing a great backdrop to the river of runners crossing over.  It also comes close to the halfway point and I felt a mental lift because of it.

Who's With Me?

Emma trying to dodge a timing mat

Up until now Leon and I had been running together, grabbing a water bottle and sharing drinks and gels as they came on the course. At 13 miles we saw Sarah Alexander who was just ahead.  She must have passed us without realising and when she looked back she seemed to speed up a bit - she was on for a sub 4 hour time.  At around 14 miles I glanced back to see if Leon had picked up a water bottle to see him waving at me 5 paces behind. I think this was where Leon said he started to get knee problems and so he had slowed down a bit.  Though I was running on my own now, I still had people to look out for and managed to see SJ club runners Dick at 18 miles and Greg Ward and Janet Foran at around 19 miles.  At 22 miles I saw SJ's Vicky Horne and Tina Acock coming the other way at their 13 mile point and we stopped for a few seconds, a hug and hello.

Tina and Vicky in Canary Wharf

I was feeling OK at this point, but it had been a different story a mile before.  Tired legs, lack of energy and maybe lack of salt too was causing my left leg to seize up with tight glutes and hamstrings and worryingly, shooting pains down each leg.  I stopped to a walk for a few seconds to get a gel and a couple of salt tablets and washed them down with some water from a bottle I had picked up.  I got a few strange looks from some in the crowd for taking performance enhancing drugs mid-race and explained it was just salt before running off.

The tightness in my legs soon eased off and I was back running OK, but not completely comfortably. I still had painful hip flexors and lower abs, but this pain had been the same since 10 miles.  I had told myself that I would make sure I got to 20 miles before any jog/walking, but when I got that far, the hip pain had just been the same as ever for 10 miles, not worse and I told myself the more running I did, the sooner I would finish and it would all be better.  There, there, just keep running.

At around mile 23 there is a long stretch of tunnel to go through.  The Garmin went a bit haywire and beeped at me in the same way it does when a mile has passed, but this time just to let me know it had lost signal.  You come out of this tunnel just after 24 miles to a wall of noise from the crowds and now knowing there are less than 2 miles to go.  All sorts of "It's nearly over" mantras were coming into my head, "less than a parkrun", "just a few more minutes".  I came up to SJ's Royston Crandley who was jog/walking and he waved me on.  By now I was slowing a bit and, though I tried to pick the pace up, my legs were having none of that and got a bit wobbly when I tried.  I stuck to what I could do and tried to keep some kind of running form going for the last mile from Westminster.  Down Birdcage Walk there were signs up counting down each 200m from 800m and then you make the turn in front of Buckingham Palace and pass under the 26 mile gantry and the sign saying 385 yards to go.

In amongst the SJ medal hangers

From here, the only thing for a Sandhurst Jogger to remember is to keep right, as that's where all our
club volunteers are stationed as ushers and medal hangers.  I was heading for the right lane when, with just 10 metres to go, a very small lady grabbed me by the hand to cross the finish line with (thanks Liz MacIntyre (GBR) F55-59-unattached).  Then I was straight into the arms of Gemma Potter and Ian Watson, for a finish line hug. I nearly collapsed with relief and had to hold on to the photographer's gantry  and get passed from one hug to another before making a wobbly walk to get my medal from the SJ volunteers (and even more hugs!).  My finish time was 4:10:13, a course PB by over 25 minutes and beating my St George's Day time of 3 days ago by 24 minutes as well. A very good result and one I'll call a negative split.

Royston at the finish, looking far better than at mile 25.

Royston came in not long afterwards and we had our photo taken before taking a very slow walk to collect a goody bag and head for the baggage trucks.  I stopped near the steps up to Pall Mall to get out of my running top, put on my finisher's T shirt and get some milkshake to drink.  I then thought it would be a good idea to get changed into dry clothes, but although there were signs to changing rooms, nobody seemed to know where they were and I was directed up and down the steps to Pall Mall 3 times before I found them! After that I went to see who I could find back out at the meet and greet areas and bumped into Hannah, Kelvin, Alison and Amanda of Cove Joggers and found all to have had good runs.

By now it was 4pm and time to head back for the coach home where I found Emma Lewis, Sarah Alexander, Paula Vine, Dave Breslin and Graham Meek, all happy and smiling with their news of good runs also.  Simon Gibbon had just made it back to the bus after spending an hour with the first aiders at the finish line after struggling over the last 6 miles. He was tired but OK.  Leon made it through the finish in 4:30 and was happy with that considering the knee issues he was having.

Considering the relatively poor shape I was in just 3 days ago, I was very pleased with my run at London Marathon.  I managed to keep running at a very even pace and didn't fall away much near the end and, though it was a bit of a struggle to keep going at times, I seemed to cope with the issues I had by eating and drinking well enough. Splits for this London Marathon were:

9:23 9:16 9:19 9:16 9:28 9:32 9:31 9:16 9:24 9:24 9:17 9:18 9:24 9:26 9:35 10:31 9:29 9:32 9:51 9:18 9:43 9:45 9:26 9:20 9:08 8:47 4:42 (0.54m @ 8:42/m)

Here's a list of the Sandhurst Joggers finishers:

Thanks to the Sandhurst Joggers Finish Line Crew

St George's Day Marathon

Brighton Aftermath
The "run up" to this event was more like a painful shuffle.  Having got it into my head that I needed to try running on tired legs after Brighton marathon and also finishing that race so well, I was out on the Tuesday and Thursday for steady club runs and quickly found that I should have been doing a lot more rehab (massage, stretching) to get over the effects of that run.  Tuesday had me glad of other people's injuries so I could drop back and jog/walk with them nursing my own hip flexor and knee issues and then Thursday I felt some developing achy pain at the top of my right Achilles, which came from having very tight calf muscles and then going out for a hilly jog.  Time to panic!

I spent Thursday evening foam rolling and massaging my calves and booked a treatment session at Reform and Renew Osteopathy, vowing to spend every bit of free time between now and St George's Day doing rehab exercises and getting my calves back in shape. At least on Friday I managed to get out of bed without pain in my Achilles, just very tight right calf muscles.  It was starting to feel like a retrievable situation, but I knew I had to do a lot of work to get my legs right or I could end up putting the rest of the year's events in jeopardy.

My treatment at R and R Osteopathy with Abby resulted in a lot of needles going in to relieve tension in various bits of calf muscles, particularly the offending piece of the right calf that was pulling most on my Achilles.  I then got taped up on both my right calf and left hamstring (I had forgotten about that injury, but Abby found it again!) with blue tape, which slightly compromised my St George's Day colour scheme.

St George's Day
This year St George's Day, the 23rd of April, was on a Thursday and I took the day off work to do the marathon.  It was going to be another 5am start as the marathon was due to start at 8am and the trip down to the venue in Walmer in Kent would take about 2 hours.  I needed to be on the road before 5:30am to give myself a chance of getting there on time.  As I was also planning to make a detour on the way home to go to the London Marathon expo to pick up my race number and then head straight on to Abby's for a massage, I was going to have a very busy day.  This was a mission needing expert planning and precision timing!

I loaded up the motorbike the night before, so it was ready to roll and laid out my race gear so I could wear it all under my motorbike gear. Then I could just step out James Bond fashion ready to run.  The journey down (round the M25, down to Dover, then heading north towards Deal) went reasonably smoothly.  I arrived in the car park on Walmer sea front at 7:15 in time to get my kit sorted and have a loo break.

Kit for the day had to include lots of red and white, being St George's Day, which turns out to be quite easy for a Sandhurst Jogger. So, SJ race vest, newly purchased red/white cap, old London Marathon jacket to keep warm in case of inclement weather and red calf guards.  I was back in the Hokas since they had worked so well at Brighton, but left the quick-draw laces on, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake.

74 patriotic people at the start

This event is organised by SVN Marathons, run by Traviss Wilcox (also chairman of the 100 Marathon Club).  The event had 74 people taking part, so about as far away from a big city marathon as you can get, with just a few friends and family as official spectators and volunteers manning the one aid station at the start/finish.  We all gathered together at 7:50 for a briefing and announcements for Ed mills, who was running his 100th marathon and Elaine Dean who was doing her 99th and was presented with a Flake to go with an ice cream after the run (99! get it?).  Then, after a hearty attempt at singing Jerusalem, we were off.

Chasing the Dragon

At the pier, about a mile to go to the turn point

The course is a simple completely flat set of 5 laps of an out and back course, briefly heading west from the start to Walmer Castle about 200m away, then turning and heading along the seafront path to Deal, past the Lifeboat Station, the old Regent cinema, the pier and out to the turn-around point at a set of steps on the sea wall.  I set off with my watch set at 9:30/mile pace, which should have been quite comfortable, and found myself trotting along at 9:15/mile pace for the first lap.

I first met Karen Summerville just after she had fallen and
broken her shoulder at Thames Meander marathon in March.
She finished that race in a sling. Amazing woman!

Back at the aid station, I stopped for a drink, piece of cake and nutty fudge and to adjust my laces, as the right shoe was coming loose again. My pace continued like this for the next 2 laps, doing about 9:20/mile for 4 miles, then having a break at the aid station to eat and drink.  By the 4th lap, my loose shoe was becoming the same annoying issue as at Brighton and I was really regretting not sorting this out and changing the laces.  Even though my right leg and heel was taped up I could feel a blister starting to form on my heel and little toe.  I tried tightening the laces up again, but the discomfort in my right foot was starting to give me issues with calf muscle pain, which
worked up to my hips and pelvis too.

End of lap 2 coming in for more cake and squash

At the start of the last lap, I decided that I would jog/walk the last 5 miles and try to avoid doing any more serious damage - I had London Marathon to consider and that was only 3 days away.  The last lap was a fairly painful and slow trot and walk.  I had spent some time running with Jonathan Burton from Norfolk, but with me slowing down and a possible 4:20 PB on offer he had pulled away.  Just before I reached the turn I saw Jon walking slowly towards me, staggering a bit.  He sounded OK, just completely lacking energy and I handed him my bottle of squash.  After the turn I caught back up to him to check how he was and he was fine to continue the walk back for the last 2 miles, so I jogged on eventually making it to the finish for a time of

                                                                                   4:34:04.

At the finish with Janet (Greg Ward's better half),
Jonathan Burton (right) recovered to finish just 5 minutes after me 

I got a massive medal hung around my neck by Traviss, a well stocked goody bag and had some photos taken with Janet Foran in her medieval gown. I then spent an hour eating as many scones as I could while drinking squash and fizzy wine and cheering in the remaining runners.  Unfortunately I couldn't stay for Greg Ward and Ed Mills' finish and Ed's 100th marathon celebrations, as I was on a strict schedule and needed to load up the bike to head up to the ExCel in London to pick up my London Marathon race number.

London Marathon Expo

With my main rival at any big marathon,
the only runner I actually try to beat!

The bike ride up through London turned out to be another great way to get hot and even more
dehydrated, so once I had my number I made straight for the Fullers stand to get some free beer samples.  My St George's Day marathon medal was a great talking point for many people around the expo and was really useful in getting a few more free samples of protein recovery bars.  I managed to see Katy Mead and Emma Lewis, then at 4:30 I left the expo to head across town and Abby's treatment table for a post race check up and massage.  Either I am getting used to the pain, or Abby was being very gentle - I suspect the latter.

So, St George's Day Marathon, proved hard work.  The course was a bit dull, but the other runners were a really good friendly crowd and the aid station, volunteers, medal and goody bag were great.  I have already decided to sign up for next year at the bargain price of £30.  Next year it will be on a Saturday which I think will put it on the day before London, so it could be my first double marathon weekend!

Very impressive medal and a steady and sensible finish time

Contents of the well stocked
goody bag also included an England cap

(PS: just found out that SVN are holding another Wonderland Caucus Run (6 hour challenge) the day before St George's - so this could turn out to be a triple!)

Brighton Marathon 2015 - Race Report

Before Race Day
The lead up to this marathon saw me in possibly the best condition ever, with no injures and having got a lot of training miles in before what was supposed to be a short two week taper, but actually resulted in me doing more miles in a week than I have ever done before (52m including the marathon).  At least with my "anti-taper" I didn't have time to go stir crazy with not running much and didn't feel like I had to wrap myself in cotton wool to survive till the race.  I also didn't have to worry about putting on weight with a drop off in mileage during a taper and I got to the start still at a good race weight.

Kelvin, me, Ben, Phil, Abby, Jenni and Sarah at the expo.
Numbers ready - now for some serious carb loading! (photo Phil Jelly)

This year Brighton was a week after Easter and I had the week off, so I had the added benefit of not spending the whole week sitting at a desk but getting out doing all sorts of activities with the family including Go Ape and swimming (both good cross training) and Frimley parkrun followed by massive full English breakfast the day before. I'd also spent some time in the week carb loading by making and eating plenty of my nutty flapjack energy bars (recipe in another post!)

I had thought that I could persuade the family to come to this one for a weekend away in Brighton, but then rather dropped the ball by not booking up a hotel months in advance like 10,000 other people did. So, with no room at the inn anywhere within a marathon distance of Brighton, we had to make do with a day out at the Expo then leaving me to make my own way to Brighton on race day.

Race Day and Plan of Attack

All the important stuff.

I had sorted my kit for the day the night before as usual: SJ running vest, short tights, RedVenom calf guards (really tight!), Nike toe socks and the new Hoka 1-1 Bondi 3s - or the "Brothel Creepers" as they are now known.

I was up at 5am, dressed, breakfasted on porridge and out of the door by 5:30 to go and pick up Emma Lewis for the drive down to Brighton.  There were no traffic issues and, apart from a stop on the A23 at "The"Most"Disgusting"Toilets"in"East"Sussex", which we abandoned, all went smoothly.  I had a park and ride place at the Moulsecoomb campus of Brighton Uni, which we found despite a complete lack of signposts and, after catching the shuttle bus, we got to the start area at Preston Park by about 7:30.  First job was to get to the loos while there were no queues, which was just as well as just half an hour later and we would have been at the tail end of 50m long lines to all of the toilets.  These queues lasted until moments before the start when most people just gave up and started running.  Definitely not enough loos for an event of this size! By the way, have you noticed how everyone coming out of a portaloo is rubbing their hands like they just thought of an evil plan?

Looks of triumph and relief! We made it to the loos
without having to queue!

My not-so-evil-plan was to meet and run with a friend of mine from Frimley parkrun, Simon Burfield.  We found each other by the time we needed to get in our start pens, but Simon had a pink number, two pens behind my red one, so I dropped back.  I met Dick and Erol from SJ
briefly before they went to drop bags off and then Emma and I went to get in our start pens.

The Race 
The start time was 9:15.  Back in the pink pen we waited and waited for the red and blue runners to get under way and then we watched as the elite and faster red bib runners went by as they came through their first mile on the road next to us.  There was a slight delay after the final blue runners had left to provide a small gap between us before we were released, crossing the start line at 9:30am.  Luckily I was on the right side of the road so I got to high five Jo Pavey just past the start.

My plan was to set out at 8:50/mile pace and keep that going for as long as possible.  As usual, I had my Garmin virtual pacer set up to just tell me how many seconds ahead or behind plan I was so I didn't have to do any complicated mental arithmetic.  Starting with slower runners wasn't too bad, though we did have to do a bit of weaving to get past some people and the congestion held us up every now and then.  However, if you are not too anxious about pacing and can spare a few seconds to chat, there are some interesting stories to be had talking to some people running for charity.  The first 4 or 5 miles passed by fairly quickly like this.  The congestion didn't ease off until we got out of the town centre and on the run up the hill above the marina, where the roads were straighter and wider.

The route. The profile looks more hilly than it feels and it's quite a quick course.

Still breezing along at mile 18,
Simon just behind me. (photo Bob Fudge)

Conditions for the race stayed sunny and breezy for the whole time and the heat gradually built up from a chilly sub 10⁰C to about 15⁰C by the finish.  The air quality was fine after the previous few day's smog scares, but I was glad I had decided to apply some Factor 50 (if you want to stay cool and not overheat when marathon running, then control your skin temperature - burnt skin doesn't sweat so well and stays hot, so it's best to either cover up or apply sunscreen).  There were plenty of water stations with both water and Gatorade and the cups were not a problem - I walked a few paces whenever I wanted a drink and the paper cups didn't cause a tripping hazard like half full bottles can.

I didn't really have any problems with injuries out on the course - a little tightness in my left hamstring got me running with a bit of an exaggerated knee lift for 5 minutes on a couple of occasions and my only real issue was with the laces on my right shoe. These came loose around 8miles and later at 15miles and I stopped to tighten them up both times. Unfortunately I didn't stop early enough and my foot moving around in a loose shoe caused blisters on my little toe and heel.  Once my foot was secure, the little pain I had from the blisters mostly went away.  Oddly, the left shoe was absolutely fine.  Lessons learned - if you have a problem, don't wait to sort it out, no matter how small it seems and change the Hokas to regular laces.

The course has a few hills, but nothing too strenuous. What it does have are lots of out and back sections.  This could be seen by some as a bit of a drag and the section from 14 to 18 miles along Church Road parallel to the seafront did seem to go on forever, as did the section out to the power station. However, much like at Portsmouth marathon, the out and back sections give you a chance to see supporters and runners several times.  I saw Emma, Madeleine, Pam and Vicky H, Lisa Hale, Gemma Potter, Dick and Erol from Sandhurst Joggers, Kelvin from Cove Joggers and a few Windle Valley runners who I didn't know but gave a shout out to anyway. I also managed to get my picture taken while still looking fit at about 18 miles (thanks Bob Fudge!)

Crowd Support
The crowds are what really make Brighton a good marathon and throughout most of the route, there are hoards of cheering onlookers.  There are only two sections where the crowds are a bit thin - out to the marina and back and then down to the power station.  At least the marina section happens when you are reasonably fresh and the views are nice from miles 7 to 11, but the drag out to the power station is dull industrial estate with not much going on from 20 to 23 miles. I took quite a mental dip on this section and felt some tightness in my left hamstring for a while and I ended up doing my slowest miles along here.  With 4 miles to go I realised I had dropped my mate Simon and it was time to push on if I had anything left in the tank.

Getting off the power station road was like a breath of fresh air, as the crowds were back to full strength and kept cheering all the way to the finish.  With just 3 miles to go I got back in my stride and felt better for picking up the pace and running more naturally.  As each of the final miles was ticked off I felt I could push harder, building up to near 7min mile pace as I went through the last mile.  The run in to the finish line seemed to take forever to appear and wasn't even in sight as my Garmin announced 26miles, but eventually I could see the finish gantry and crossed the line running flat out to finish in 3:51:19.  That was an amazing finish for me - it is the only time in 11 marathons that I have finished with enough energy and with legs that work to actually run to the finish instead of slowing to a painful shuffle.  

All the Sandhurst finishers - Well done!

Afters
I was a bit wobbly after crossing the line, just taking baby steps to get to my medal. I then waited for Simon to come in and he crossed the line 8 minutes behind me, just below 4 hours.  We then shuffled along with the finishers to collect a cotton T-shirt, bottle of water, Gatorade recovery drink (ew!), banana and melted chocolate biscuit.  After collecting my bag from the bag trucks, I left Simon getting a massage at the NSPCC tent and wandered round to the beach area where I met up with Erol and Dick at the S-for-Sandhurst meeting flag for some recovery food (milk and BBQ Hoola Hoops) and we sat around checking the Marathon App for updates on SJ and Frimley parkrunner's progress.  After meeting Emma and comparing feet, we headed off for the shuttle buses and the drive home.

This was a new PB for me by 1 minute and there were lots of good performances by Sandhurst runners, as you can see in the table.  Well done to our 15 runners who made it to the start line; everybody finished.  Extra special mention must go to SJ's Madeleine Duncan-Booth for smashing her previous best by over an hour!  And for real heroism (and doing it for charity) Abby Fudge and Ben Curtis who managed to get round on the back of injuries and illness leaving them with almost no training in a very respectable 4:39!  

Simon waiting for his post-race
massage (photo: Simon's dad)

A total of 9426 people started the race and 9200 finished. I came in somewhere in the top 30% overall and top 25% in age category (v for vintage or something like that).  This was the one marathon of the spring season where I was going to push for a good time, so I was very pleased to come away with a PB.  It almost felt like I had trained properly for this one!

My next race is in just 11 days at the St George's Day marathon in Kent, followed only 3 days later by London Marathon on 26th April.  That's a key block of training on my way to my solo attempt at Endure 24 in June.  So far recovery from Brighton has gone very well and I'll be out for a 6 or 7 mile jog with the club just 2 days after the marathon. Running on tired legs and back to back long runs are what I need and so far the sensible progression in increasing the mileage is working well.  My next go at a "fast" marathon will wait till the autumn when I have another go at Abingdon.

Ever onwards!

Shoe Review: Hoka Bondi 3

A Perfect Fit?
My search for the Holy Grail of running shoes, the ones that perfectly suit me and stay endlessly comfortable, is a quest that I am yet to fulfil.  I have no real brand loyalty when it comes to shoes and I have tried pretty much everything. Maybe I just haven't tried the right pair on, but when I do, I expect my feet to be bathed in an ethereal golden glow and the shop to fill with the sound of choirs of angels.

My current road shoes are Brooks Ghost 7 and Adidas Glide Boost 6 for general road training and Brooks Ravenna 4, currently reserved for half and full marathon races.  I have done about 50 miles in the Glides, 100 miles in the Ghosts and 120 in the Ravennas, so they are all relatively young.  Yes, I keep a track of the mileage I do in each pair of shoes that I have, which may sound massively anal, but is really easy to do by choosing the shoes I ran in when I log my runs on Fetcheveryone.  I also know how many miles a month I have been doing and it runs at 120 to 150 miles at the moment. That's over 1400 miles a year and, if you go by the usual 400 to 600mile replacement rate, about 3 pairs of shoes.

So, as I'll be buying at least two pairs of shoes a year I want them to last and I also want them to be reasonably priced.  You could buy shoes at lower prices from the web, but it's a bit of a risk not trying a shoe on first and it's usually only worth doing if you're replacing a shoe with the same model. Good advice, but not what I did with my latest shoes, the Hoka 1-1 Bondi 3.


I have a mid to forefoot strike with a running style marrying a shorter stride with a quick cadence.  I'm not so interested in what is going on in the heel area of a shoe as I don't feel it affects my running or foot comfort much.  What I really look for in a shoe is something that has a lot of forefoot cushioning and above all is comfortable - after all, I'm going to spend a lot of time in these shoes.

What's in the big blue box?

The Hoka brand have become quite popular with some marathon and ultra runners, especially those doing multiple events in a year, but you don't see them much elsewhere.  They aren't that easy to find in running stores, so I bought mine on-line at SportsShoes.com for £99.95, which was a decent price - Hokas range of shoes are anywhere from £80 to £140 in the shops and they do a range of road and trail shoes.

Out of the Box

Extras! - a nice surprise.

So, what do you get for your money?  To start with, a big box.  The shoes have a large stack height to accommodate all that cushioning. Inside you get a pair of laces and an additional pair of thin insoles so you can adjust the fit, either leaving the thicker insoles that are already fitted in the shoes, or combining the two.  The laces aren't spares, they are there to replace the fitted quick draw lacing system (similar to Salomon trail shoes) if you want to.

Insoles to adjust the fit of the shoe and regular laces if you
don't get on with the quick draw laces fitted.

I went for a quiet looking pair of shoes in subtle greys and white, mostly because I was a bit unsure about drawing attention to myself in these slightly odd looking shoes.  The Bondi 3s come in reasonably tasteful blue and lime, but also red, grey and yellow, which were a bit Ronald McDonald for my taste.  Maybe if I like these shoes a lot, I'll go for something a bit louder in my next pair.

Smart but understated colourcheme, at least for Hoka

Compared to my other marathon running shoe, the Brooks Ravenna 4, the Hokas really make you stand out from the crowd.  Having said that, they don't have a much different heel height - 33mm to the Ravenna's 35.1mm, but the forefoot cushioning is bigger with 29mm for the Bondi 3 and 25.8mm for the Ravenna. This also gives you a reduced heel drop of just 4mm compared to 9.3mm for the Ravenna and actually puts the Hokas in the realm of minimalist shoes as far as heel drop is concerned. It's what you might expect for a racing flat, not a high mileage shoe.

The weigh-in before the big fight!

You might think that the Hokas would be much heavier than a conventional shoe, but that is not the case.  The claimed weight of a Bondi 3 is about 310g compared to the Ravenna's 315g.  I checked the weight of my shoes and found that my Bondi 3s were a bit heavier (bigger size?) at 352g compared to my Ravennas at 339g.  This puts the Hokas into the realms of most conventional looking shoes, with a very similar weight to my others.

Not so heavy, considering I had worn off some rubber from
the Ravennas in 120miles of running marathons.

Fitting
Putting the shoes on you don't really notice anything different from any other shoe.  The quick draw lacing works well and there are a couple of loops you can use to tuck the end of the lace loop into.  They have quite a thin looking tongue above the laces, but it's more cushioned under the laces. I went for a UK size 9.5 (EU 44), which is the size I need for Brooks and Mizuno shoes and the fit was a little smaller than the Brooks Ravennas in this comparison.  The Bondi 3s are Hoka's widest shoe type, what they call a "generous" fit on their website and they didn't feel any tighter than the Ravennas.  Hoka appear not to use just one last, with other shoes in their range described as medium or medium to narrow fit.

Road Test

Face Off done. Time to go running.

For this review, I just did a quick back to back run of 1km on local roads, which included flat and hilly sections on wet tarmac - it was raining. I'll put a couple of medium training runs
in later in the week, followed by Brighton
Marathon and will update the review after that.
First impressions were quite a revelation.  The forefoot cushioning gives a very plush feel to the shoe.  There is no chunky feel to them to go along with their looks and pick up is just the same as the Ravennas.  The huge difference comes in foot strike, which is a bit of an odd squishy feeling to begin with. However, given just a few minutes at sub-marathon pace, I quickly began to enjoy the gentle impact and the roll through to a springy push off that the Hokas give you.  The grip on the wet ground was good and I had no issues with fast downhill turns on the smooth wet tarmac.

Getting back into my Ravennas really showed up the effect of the extra cushioning of the Hokas.  In the Ravennas I was back to feeling every little bump, ripple and loose stone in the tarmac, but the Hokas insulated my feet from that. Now, I know some people like to feel "connected" to the ground they are running on and there is something to be said for that, especially if you are running shorter races on uneven ground where you might want to feel like you have a more stable platform. However, having recently done the Thames Meander Spring marathon along the Thames towpath, much of it on stony ground, I was starting to get seriously cheesed off after 20 miles of feeling every little stone and cobble digging into my feet. I think that for what I want these shoes for - running 4 to 5 hours at a time on roads and fairly flat dry trails - the extra cushioning could be a great benefit.

Verdict
Initial thoughts are that the fit and feel of the Hokas are quite conventional, belying their chunky looks and they do feel similar to my regular shoes.  The cushioning is far greater than anything I have ever worn, but after the initially odd squishiness, I quickly got used to the feeling of the soft landing and roll through to toe off and ended my first short run smiling.  I think for longer distances, these shoes could really suit me.

Hoka also make some bold sounding claims regarding impact reduction and injury prevention for their "Oversize Concept" shoes, supposedly providing benefits for 80% of runners: Energy expenditure reduced by 3.3%, tibialis anterior effort reduced by 15%, impacts on the body reduced by 25% leading to longer runs injury free and potentially faster recovery.  That could be good news for people who suffer from impact and overuse injuries.

We shall see in the near future whether any of these claims in any way hold up for me, as I come into an important training phase on the way to Endure 24. In the next 3 weeks I'll be doing maintenance and recovery mileage, with marathons at Brighton (12 April), Walmer in Kent (23 April) and London (26 April).

Update following some marathon running.
I did Brighton marathon wearing the Hokas and they generally performed well.  The good things were that they felt comfortable all the way round and I felt in good enough shape to pick up the pace in the last 4 miles from 9 to 7 minute mile pace.  Afterwards I felt knackered but not sore in my lower legs and ankles, which I usually do.  My only issue was with the quick draw laces to the right shoe which loosened during the race and even though I stopped three times to tighten them up I ended up with a small blister on my heel and little toe.

I ran St George's Day Marathon in Kent with the same laces and had the same issue (doh!) and had to tighten the laces up a couple of times. Eventually I tried tying a knot behind the toggle to stop it coming undone and this seemed to work.  I went to the Hoka stand at the London Marathon expo and they suggested replacing the laces.

For London marathon I ran with normal laces and had no issues with the shoe getting loose.  I did notice that, later on in the race, when I was running on more heavily cambered roads, the sides of the shoes were digging into my ankles a bit. The sides of the Hokas do seem a bit firmer than my other running shoes.  However, I was wearing my thinnest Injinji toe socks and having something thicker around the ankle might have prevented this discomfort.  I think these socks are meant as a liner with something going over them, so next time I'll try something thicker.

I did get a bit of a blister on the outside of my little toe and on the end of my second toe on marathon runs, which sounds a bit like they are a little bit small, but could also have been down to the lacing.  Moving to regular laces has helped, but I think I will still go for half a size bigger to give me more room in the toe box.  Having done 10 marathons in these shoes, they appear to have firmed up a little bit but are still very well cushioned. The uppers have lasted well, but there is significant wear in the soles.  There is only hard rubber in the heel and end of toe area and not the mid-foot area, which just gets a different colour of the midsole foam.  This isn't a particular problem for road and flat/dry trail use and I can say that they work really well for me and I will definitely get another pair.