Marathon #75: Broken Witch and Not so Broken Me

Here I am again, doing something I said I wouldn't do - entering a marathon because I was suckered into it because of some fancy bling. Having said that, it was relatively cheap to enter, being a group discount of races races spread over the year. Phoenix Riverside Marathon is the 3rd out of 4 in the Phoenix Icebird series (same as last year's Firebird, but a different coloured medal at the end). You do the first 3 marathons and get plain old medals for them, then the 4th is an enormous Phoenix with places to hang your other three medals on. 

Thankfully this series of events is reasonably close to home and only requires getting out of bed at 6:30. The weather was set to be sunny and cold, but I still struggled to get out of bed due to a load of aches and pains around my hips, glutes and hamstring. 

I arrived on time, got my number and then started looking out for friends in the crowd who I might run with. Club-mate Leon didn't turn up so it was looking like it was going to be a lonely trial of just coping with the pain, but things started looking up when I noticed someone in a FetchEveryone t-shirt. The wearer goes by the Fetch name MovingAlong and we spent a few minutes chatting before the briefing. At least there would be someone to cheer back to as we passed on each of our 4 laps. 

Setting off, I quickly felt overdressed and got rid of the hat, but kept gloves on. The course by the Thames near Walton down to Hampton Court is almost completely flat, not even a little bridge to break the gradient, but I was struggling for the first few miles with tight glutes, hamstring and hips. Time to start badgering other people with running chat to take my mind off the pain. 

So I ran for a while with Jagjit Singh until I had finished about 4 miles and I had warmed up a bit, then kept the pace up around 10min/mile. On the second of the 4 laps David Lewis, chairman of the 100 Marathon Club, caught me up. We have met on several marathons this year and we had an interesting chat about being club chairmen. This turns out to be a far easier job for me than for him, what with members and committee of the 100 Marathon Club being spread all over and also having to deal with the odd few members with very strong opinions voiced on Facebook on what should constitute a marathon, membership of the club, club kit, the shape of medals, the effort or lack of if you happen to be very slow.....It seems there's always something vexing someone. 

For me, it's basically "Everybody happy? OK. Let's run!" 

It is so nice having a great committee who are enthusiastic about their roles and club members who just get on with running and having a nice time. Makes my job so much easier. 

Half way through lap 2 I caught up with Judy, the "Broken Witch", who I think had decided to do a last minute marathon just to keep the legs ticking over, but only found out she was in this one at 10pm last night at a party. Great prep! We chatted about her job - an equine vet, so generally brilliant work, but stressful at the moment - and her marathon challenges. She had been running marathons in Antarctica, North Pole, Falkland Islands, Christmas Island, Faroes and had more exotic, hard to get to places to run while raising money for breast cancer research. Fascinating stuff and nice to while away a couple of hours along the way to the finish. We finished together about 45 minutes quicker than I had expected I would do (maybe I'm not as broken as I thought). Thanks to the people I met it was a very pleasant day out. 

This running journey is so much enhanced by who you meet along the way. 

More details about Judy's current 7 Seas Challenge can be found here: 
justgiving.com

Crunchy or Smooth? Plain or Milk? Fruit or Straight?

The really important questions that should be answered on anyone's online dating profile? Obviously yes. I mean why do they even make smooth peanut butter? Chocolate? Ok you got me. Plain for me, but you wouldn't have to twist my arm much to get me to eat a few chunks of Cadburys Dairy Milk. 

Fruit or straight? Now we're getting personal. But before you spit your tea out over your laptop, I am talking flapjack. My favourite pre-marathon snack - especially those runs that start early and involve a 2 hour drive away from home, when I struggle to get out of bed for 5am and get my stuff together on time for the drive. I can at least be having some wholesome full fat, oaty, syruppy carbful brekky on the road. 

So fruit or straight? Fruit - and then some. Preserved peel, sultanas, orange juice, layered with apricot jam and finished off with chocolate ganache. 

You need to be a bit careful how many chunks* of this you consume per hour. It goes something like: 

1 = 'at's miyshe! (stop talking with your mouth full!) 
2 = Ooooh, that will probably get me through the first 10 miles. 
3 = I think my heart is getting palpitations now. 
4 = Hello, Mr Boese? Can you tell me where you are? 

This is just before the ganache goes on. Lovely chewy jammy bits bubbled up at the edges.

Recipe: 
Sultanas/mixed peel - couple of handfuls 
Enough orange juice to cover the fruit in a pan, warm this for 10 mins. 
300g butter goes in the pan with the fruit to melt 
Add 6tbsp golden syrup and 150g brown sugar. 

Mix 350-400g cheap oats and 150g pain flour in a big bowl 
Chuck all the wet stuff in and mix it all up. 
Spoon half the mix into a deep lined baking tray so it's 1/2 inch thick. 
Warm up some of your favourite jam and spread over the mix, make it fruity. 
Spread the rest of the mix over with a fork 
160degC oven for 25 mins or so till it's nice and brown. 

Take out to cool 
Add ganache if you like 

* a chunk is a decent sized gobful, not a dainty nibble.

10 Runs that Made Me #10 Prospect parkrun 20/10/18

Early autum and Prospect park on the west side of Reading is starting to come in to its best. It is a big park of mostly grass but with big beach, oak and plane trees all around, leaves starting to turn, a heavy dew on the grass sparkling in the morning sunshine. Looking at the finish time gives no clue to what made this run so special, but everything just clicked and came together so well. 

Going back to starting parkrun in 2009 and then again in 2010, it seemed completley natural to offer to help out and just muck in with the rest of the guys setting up and tidying away. Over the years, I've given most things a go on the parkrun volunteer roster and this easily led to leading runs with my running club, joining the club committee responsible for one of our run nights, then stepping in to the club secretary role and finally chairman. 

Some might say that is a lot of giving back to the running community and well done me for doing it. Thanks. But that's not how I see it at all. There is no duty here, no thought of guilt about getting something for free and needing to pay my dues and no "giving back" to the community. 

Volunteering is a great privilage and a great opportunity where I get to meet and make friends who share my love of running. I get to talk to new people every week who are happy to see me. I get to learn new skills and develop others. I get to help people achieve their goals, to gain confidence and realise they can do great things. But outside of volunteering, just talking to someone who is struggling on a run, a kind word, a bit of advice and the reward is special. I've had lots of peole meet me after a marathon and thank me for getting them through it when they were ready to give up. 

Looking for new running experiences and new things to learn led me to try guide running for visually impared runners. I started by going to an England Athletics training course on VI awareness and guide running, although you don't have to do this. I learnt about different forms of visual imparement, techniques for guide running and a bit of practical training leading a blindfolded runner and being blindfolded myself and trying to run - very unsettling. 

A few weeks later, having joined the Basingstoke Guide Runners facebook page, I got an opportunity to guide Tony at Basingstoke parkrun. It was fun; a very slow jog round an easy course with a nice chat with Tony. A couple of weeks later and I was back at Basingstoke guiding Sandra, this time walking. 

Come to October this year and Prospect parkrun had been going for a couple of months and there was a VI runner, Lisa, who wanted to run there. I booked myself in the roster for guiding and got some advice from the volunteer coordinator about what kind of runner Lisa was. Apparently, quite new to running and running in a park, but getting close to 30 minutes for a 5k, didn't want to run with a tether or be in contact with a guide runner. Interesting. How was I going to manage this? 

I got to Prospect park on time, met the volunteers and met Lisa a few minutes later. We discussed her visual imparement, what she could and couldn't see in different light conditions - bright sunshine and sparkling dew resulted in complete white out - and how she wanted to run, slow and chatty or shut up and go for it. It was somewhere in between, although as a guide you have to keep talking, describing the terrain, the dips and rises, cross falls, changes in surface and avoiding potholes, roots and other runners. 

The course is all on grass and gently undulating. We set off near the back of the pack rising up hill to get to a huge oak tree then left along a gentle downslope around the perimeter of the main park, detoured around a bog, a football pitch and turned through the centre of the park, running in step matching her right foot to my left. As a guide there is work to do on this run, lots of sharp turns you count down in to, dips and rises, tree roots, rutted paths. You run over the hazard yourself and guide your runner to the smoothest path. 

It's not up to me to push the pace but I could hear Lisa was breathing hard uphill so I try and keep the effort constant and recover a bit on the downhills. We try and leave something for the climb to the great big oak tree at the top of the course and the turn to the finish. The time? Well the time was just right. 

Blue sky and whispy clouds, diamond dew, swishing through leaves, crunching acorns, in step. Beautful. Running. Joy. 

10 Runs that Made Me #9 Surrey Tops 50 9/2017

Surrey Tops is a 50 mile event run by LDWA mostly for walkers, but that allows runners to take part. It's self navigated too with a start time that is aimed at forcing you to be navigating in the dark. This one also forms part of a Triple Challenge that includes the Kent White Cliffs Challenge and Sussex Stride, all 50 mile events. 

This was my first 50 mile event. I had done several 30 mile LDWA challenge events before and even run 60 miles at Endure 24 the year before, but that was laps and was a pretty relaxed affair and more like back to back marathons with a big sleep in between. I had also run over 50 marathons or ultras so I had learned a lot aboout how to get myself through this kind of event. So here is some knowledge: 

Feet - I get blisters easily between my toes, probably from too narrow shoes for when my feet swell up a bit from hours of pounding. Wide fitting shoes and two pairs of socks with one being a thin toe sock liner works for me. 

Well cushioned trail shoes are like the Holy Grail. Anything beyond about 20 miles and feeling every stone poking me in the foot is seriously annoying. Hoka Mafate Speed 2 work for me and I have done over 700 miles in my current pair. 

Take it easy on descents or expect your knees and quads to be completely mashed. It also helps to avoid falls. 

Drink often and eat often, right from the beginning. Gels are OK for a marathon, but you need real food for an ultra and if you eat real food, you need to be able to digest it, so you have to go slower so your stomach works. If you sweat a lot, then take salt tablets, as your stomach also shuts down when dehydrated and salt helps proper hydration, as well as avoiding muscle cramps. 

Work out what the weather is going to do and wear comfortable clothes that don't chafe. Add to that Sudafed nappy rash cream for those bits of skin not separated by lycra. 

So that is all the physical side covered. I was also used to the route instructions so there should be no problems with just going 20 miles further than usual. All OK then? 

Wrong! Obviously, or why would this be worth telling? The event took place on a plesaant day in September; sunny, warm, nice views from the hills. I got to Elstead Common, somewhere I know and I knew where the next aid station was, but couldn't figure out the route instructions at one point and spent 20 minutes running in circles until I got back on track. This distracted me, made me feel like I was behind schedule a bit. 

This got worse when I lost the route again on Puttenham Common, again somewhere I know and also only a few miles from the next check point, which I also knew. These distractions built up in my mind and that was all I was focussed on and I wasn't eating or drinking as much as I needed to. With tiredness and lack of energy, my mind works against me to make me feel even worse. 

After the 20 mile checkpoint, I was followed out by the tail walkers and I then needed to keep ahead of them and push on. Half way up St Marth's Hill near Guildford I was feeling awful, phoned my wife and had a conversation that went something like: 
"I feel terrible, I want to quit." 
"So you want me to come and get you? Where are you? 
"St Martha's Hill, near Guildford" 
"But I'm watching Strictly with the kids" 
"Oh, well I suppose I could get to the next checkpoint. That's 8.5 miles away" 
"Great, I'm sure you'll be OK. 'Bye!" 

It was getting dark, so I needed a head torch to see the instructions and my way through the woods. I found that and also spotted a bag of sweets, saw that the next 4 or 5 miles was all on the North Downs Way, so just looked out for the marker posts and made my way up the hill, eating and drinking as I went. 

By the time I was on the descent about a mile later the sugar was kicking in and I was feeling a lot better and recovering. Maybe only an hour and a half to the check point and I could quit. When I got there, I didn't quit immediately, but sat down for a hot meal of beef stew and potatoes and apple pie and custard, a cup of tea. That checkpoint saved me. I felt so much better to have food inside me, and this was mostly mental. 

It also helped that I had started to catch other walkers and I wasn't last. The checkpoint cut off times were starting to recede and the pressure to keep pushing was off. Now it was 10pm and there was still a long way to go, but it was only 18.5 miles - being less than 20 miles also helped.

I spent the night part of the race gradually catching up with other walkers and runners, but much of it on trails by myself. I haven't ever used headphones in an event to distract me, I talk to myself.

"This is hard, it hurts. That's not news, get on with it. What's good about this? Look where you are! It's dark. How dark is it really? Turn your light off and see. Wow, pitch black in the woods, rustling leaves, stars through the canopy. Keep going, bats in the headlight, a silent owl, deer shining eyes. Actually this doesn't hurt any more than it did an hour ago - keep going." 

What was nearly a miserable failure, turned out to be a successful finish and a great learning experience about how severly I could fall apart mentally if I don't manage to fuel myself properly. It's true what they say about ultras - they are an eating competition with some running thrown in. It's also true what they say about running in general - a lot of performance is down to your mental state. It's hard work, but there is beauty all around out on the trails and there's more just around the next corner. Just keep going. 

10 Runs that Made Me: #8 Sandhurst Joggers Training Run December 2012

Hands up all those people who have entered the London Marathon ballot and not got in? I'm up to 8 consecutive entries since 2012 and not once have I got in. I even have 2 Rejection Jackets that I never wear. Fortunately I am a member of a running club and England Athletics registered. For the 2013 race I had entered the ballot, not got in, then heard about my running club's draw for a chance to get one of 3 guaranteed places. 

I had my rejection letter and met the criteria for entry, so decided I might give it a go. I got to the club run on a Wednesday night I think, met up with a load of Sandhurst Joggers and got ready to go on a run, that was to be followed later by a curry, skittles and marathon draw in a pub. I had invited a friend from parkrun to come along, but he was late, so I waited while my SJ colleagues ran off to Yateley. Dave turned up and we set of in the general direction of where the others had gone, but never found them. After about 6 miles we got back to Dave's house, then I went home to shower. 

Having missed the club run I nearly didn't bother to go out again, but went anyway and just made it as Thai green curry was served and handed in my rejection letter. After curry and skittles, it was time for the draw. First name out of the bag "Richard (shit that's me!) McCready (oh, no it isn't. So it won't be me then), second name out of the bag was not me either, then "Richard - yes you this time!" I think I said both Yay! and Shit! at the same time. 

Late 2012 I was having treatment on an achilles injury and was due my last appointment a week after the draw, making it mid-December. I had been running only 20 to 35 miles per month around that time. Then I got the go ahead to resume "light training", got myself a 16 week marathon training plan and the next 3 months saw 101, 113 and 151 miles run. Lightly, obviously. 

I was on for my first marathon with a target time of 4:30 and with 2 weeks to go I did a trail half marathon with some quick descents and the next day my foot was really swollen. What the PF!? I managed to get to the start line but with very little running in the taper. My foot was pretty sore for the last 8 miles of the marathon, but then everything was sore not much later. I missed my target finishing in 4:35:55. 

There! Another failure that I kind of beat myself up about. I mean, 4:35 for a relatively new runner in their first marathon is OK, but it didn't feel like it to me. 

If I had beaten 4:30 I might never have done another marathon, but I had a target that I had missed and now knew that I could do a marathon. 

Your life can change on a whim or a chance, like "Oh alright then, I'll go for that curry." Look what that led to: London done, then next marathon in September - Farnham Pilgrim (hilly trail), then Portsmouth in December - flat, windy, raining, had to wade across a beach knee deep with the incoming tide but finished in 4:13:52. Then someone said "You could definitely go below 4 hours." 

And that, Dear Readers, is where my grip on reality was lost. 

I did 5 marathons the next year and 14 the year after that. Marathon/ultra No.75 is just around the corner. Good grief! 

10 Runs that Made Me #7 Frimley parkrun 23/6/2012

Another parkrun and another at Frimley Lodge. One of my slowest, but one of the most impressive runs I have seen. I came last, there were no tail walkers, just me and my daughter, 6 and a half years old. About 2 weeks before she had said that she wanted to come along to parkrun and run with me. We managed one lap, then she stopped and I finished the run trying to catch up with other runners - a nice work out! 

On this day in June 2012, Elinor had wanted to come along again, but this time at half way, she said she wanted to do the whole thing. We continued to jog and walk with no moaning about how hard it was, she just took hold of my hand when she wanted to slow down a bit and we finished in 42:39. 

As you can see from the parkrun results above she has continued to run most parkrundays over the the last few years and has over 200 runs. My son also started to run at parkrun not much later and is also on his way to 250 runs and this is along with loads of fun run medals.

Top Bombing by Elinor

Getting my kids to make parkrun a habit as normal as sitting down to Sunday lunch together feels like a great achievement. It makes exercise for them in general so much more fun and opens up opportunities for lots of other activities that they might shy away from if they felt it would be too much effort, or they might look uncool in front of their friends. 

I try to impress on both of them just how good their running is and how unusual it is these days when so much of our lives can be filled with sceen time. Then they go and prove it for themselves - Elinor, best in her year at a recent bleep test and Alfred just got a new PB at Frimley parkrun of 20:04. 

10 Runs that Made Me #6 Reading Half Marathon

Lightbulb! It's taken me a while to figure out that beyond starting running and actually continuing running and making it a habit, that is, being born or born again as a runner, what makes a person as a runner is those character building moments, be they failures or successes. 

OK, so mostly failures. In fact does anyone really remember that much a run that was so successful that they had to file away the good things that went together to make it so? More likely you had that success built on the experience of several previous failures. 

My first half marathon was at Reading. I had a few 10k races under my belt and thought I should be able to get under 2 hours. Again training is a bit of a blur as I didn't have a garmin watch and wasn't logging my training runs, but I think I got up to about 10 miles running and was still occasionally cycling to work, cycling to parkrun and running round in about 25 minutes. Given that evidence maybe I wasn't far off the 2 hour mark fitness-wise - 4 x 25 minute parkruns with 20 minutes left over for slowing down. 

I don't think I ate much in the morning of the race, didn't know anything about energy gels and just assumed there would be enough to drink on the course. In fact there was plenty to drink on the course, the atmosphere of a city race was all there, with loads of people out on the streets cheering us on, bands playing, a beer stop at the Nags Head just before the last significant hill, energy drink and jelly babies being handed out. 

Only problem is, I was undertrained and had no idea how to pace a race and didn't know anything about fuelling myself before the run. I had just gradually increased my long run distance to a point my body could easily cope with (about 10 miles) and had no experience of what lay beyond; I hadn't had much of a breakfast to give me some energy and then during the race I just went along with the flow of faster runners until I was tired and then miserable and my mind was telling me to give up. 

I think I could have survived and ran all the way, possibly hitting my target time as well, if I had paced better and then had a gel or energy drink on the course for a mental boost, but with 3 miles to go I had taken nothing but water. With about 2 miles to go there is an interminable long straight to get you back to Reading FC's Madejski Stadium, but when you get there you turn off into a business park with no supporters around and do an out and back loop before running up to and then around the outside of the stadium. All torture. I could almost have just collapsed over the central reserve and cut half a mile out of the course, but I stuck with it, walking, getting my breath back, jogging, then at last, getting in to the stadium with crowds of noise and staggering across the line. 

2 hours and 7 minutes. At least a mile walking in the last 2 miles to the finish. A great event let down by terrible execution. 

Today I could run the whole of a road half marathon in pretty much any conditions without stopping, with no food and just a drink or two to freshen up. I would have trained running up to that distance and have no fear of what lay ahead, done speed work, cross training and stretching, be wearing comfortable clothing, eaten a decent breakfast, made sure I was adequately hydrated and taken some drinks on the course and then run at a reasonably even pace up to about 2 or 3 miles to go before hopefully having something left in the tank to push on the pace, emerging into the roaring crowds of the stadium feeling as tall, fast and graceful as Steve Cram breaking the mile world record in Bislet 1985. 

Watching Steve Cram and that peformance just gives me goosebumps. Of course, if you want to experience something of that thrill you could have a look at my upcoming events and wait to see me at the finish line.  

Or you could watch the video below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX9FoKoo-wI

10 Runs That Made Me #5: Mortimer 10k Sept 2010

Mortimer 10k was the run I set myself as a goal on my comeback to running. As a lonely long distance runner (long distance = 5k and above according to IAAF) I thought that I needed a target to aim for. Back then that was true, but now I could kid myself and say that I don't need a target to get out for a run, just a bit of time available for a club run, an event or a bimble in the woods. I say "kid" myself, as I have set myself a goal to get to 100 marathons, so that is always there in the background, but as I get nearer to it, that goal seems less important than having good experiences along the way. I have been booking races because they are great fun in beautiful locations or have an occasion linked to them.  For that reason I have races booked well in to next year and only aim to do my 100th marathon sometime in 2020, possibly at the Farnham Pilgrim - no rush then. 

Back in 2009 I had an objective of getting fitter, doing couch to 5k, then booked a 5k event and didn't book anything more and running fell by the wayside. 2010 I decided another event would be good to motivate me and thought about 3 months training might be a good idea. That decision led to going to Reading and then Frimley parkruns as a way of running in events and possibly meeting some people who I could run with. 

I'm not clear about how the training went. I think it just consisted of gradually increasing the mileage a bit, but I don't think I ever got to 10k. I new nothing of the course and had only driven through the small town a few times. The start finish is in a completely flat grassy park. They had a load of stalls set up, fairground rides and a classic car show going on there as well, so lots to do for the family who came along to cheer me on. They even had a kids race, about 2k on the roads around the park, which I did with the kids as a warm up. 

The route is a rough figure 8, firstly out and round the back of the park, then out to the north, back into the town and past the park again at about 4k - all relatively flat. Then it gets interesting as the next 2k are all downhill out of the town to the south, before turning north and hitting a long, long hill. I had to walk a bit, several times, got passed by a much older man who called out "Come on young man, you can't get beaten by me!" I gave him a cheery "Piss off ya bastard!" and struggled on up the hill with a couple of "God, really!" and "Not again!" exclamations at false flats in the hill. 

The last 2k is back in the town on level ground. There were people on the streets and marshals cheering us on, so I had to run the whole way back to the park and the finish. 

Bloody hell that was hard. I got a medal, yay! Time 56:30. I don't think I was that impressed with that at the time, but for a first 10k that was pretty good.

Beachy Head Marathon 2018

Early pick-up for this one, but fortunately I had a good sleep in the spare room under two summer duvets and woke 5 minutes before the alarm in pitch darkness. Then I lay in bed for 10 minutes thinking about what I should be doing before getting up and getting my shit together and having to rush (shakes head). Donned my winter marathon gear as it was going to be a bit parky and, having scofed banana porridge with golden syrup waited for a lift from the lovely Alison of Sandhurst Joggers. I had baked the night before and had a box of flapjack - actually layered flapjack with homemade blackberry jam/grape jelly filling and topped with chocolate ganache. I had a piece on the way down to Eastbourne and it was so calorie dense it nearly made me feint. 

At Eastbourne there was much faffing tryng to park and then find a pay machine that worked, then we were off up to St Bede's School to find more club-mates and see if there were any Fecthies around. We got our numbers from Andrea who had come down the day before and hung around waiting for another of our runners to turn up. I saw Fleecy, Carp(?) and Plodding Hippo then went to hang out in the warmth of the bag drop in the sorts hall until 5 minutes before the off.

We queued to get up the Green Wall at he start and it was quite congested for the first few miles, so lots of pauses for chat before crossing roads and through pinch points. This was massively busier than when I last did it, but the big change this time was HALLELUJA! I CAN SEE! Last time from about 2 to 17 miles was all thick fog, massive hills and no view. Today was all chilly-bright and glorious.

I set off with Andrea and Alison and stayed with them for 3 miles, met up with SJ John Tovell and we somehow lost our SJ ladies by the first checkpoint. John and I sort of stayed together, but around mile 5 I got hailed by a chap called Daniel who was also wearing a parkrun tourists' cow cowl, so we chatted parkrun tourism and recalcitrant teenagers for a few miles until I caught up with John again just before half way. Then we found another SJ runner Richard, who was gamely battling on with his first marathon since starting dialysis. We chatted for a bit while John ran off, but Rich would rather suffer in solitude so off I went and found Rich's partner Jane, also banished from running with him, at the next checkpoint. 

I was pretty tired by here, Checkpoint 4, 16 miles, but relatively pain free. However, that soon changed going over the second of two sets of stairs as my right calf really tightened up to the point of cramping.

Getting to the Seven Sisters I was reduced to walking only with 6 miles to go, which was a bit disappointing. Still the weather was still OK and the views fine so there was no need to grumble. A few stops for massages, photos and a cup of tea at the last aid station and I managed to hobble back down the Green Wall to finish just under 6 hours. 

I really enjoyed the run and the chat with fellow SJ runners and random strangers; it was all run in a great atmosphere. Even with my calf cramping up over the Seven Sisters I was in better shape than the last time I did this event and managed to finish in sunshine and get a nice recovery beer along with the free hot food in the school canteen. A lovely day out.

10 Runs that Made Me #4 - Frimley parkrun 26/6/2010

Wow, there was a big gap between September 2009 and June 2010 when I didn't run. No parkruns, no events. I don't really know why. Now, I couldn't imagine not running, but then I always have a goal - look at my list of future races and I have stuff planned or even bought and paid for right up to October next year. 

So, I wasn't fit enough for a 10k and couldn't get to a parkrun due to transport issues. I think I spent time cycling to work and didn't see the need to run and kind of had the attitude that, though I may not be fit looking on the outside, there was definitely a fit person on the inside just waiting to get out. I was what I liked to call "latently fit". 

So, mid-June 2010. I think there was just a day when the running shoes that had been sitting by the front door unused for months had worn me down with guilty looks. I didn't have a running goal and thought that was what I needed, so I looked around for a local run to do and booked Mortimer 10k in September. That mid-June Saturday I had a car available. I looked up the parkrun website, found that there was one at Reading, by the Thames and decided to give it a go. No training, just turned up and ran round in 27:56. Under 30 minutes, I can still do this! 

The next weekend, no car available, but I found Frimley Lodge parkrun had started up and that was under 6 miles away, just a gentle cycle ride. So I arrived at about 8:30 in the park, found where the start was going to be and the briefing, then lined up and did the run. It's a two lap course partly round a few football pitches, but also along a canal towpath and some twisty sections through woods. A lovely course with only a shallow gradual rise round the first field to contend with for a hill. I finished in 27:50. 

After the run I offered to help tidy up, take down the finish funnel and the start line tape. I met the Event Director at the time Steve Osbourne and a few of the other volunteers and offered to come back next week and help set up the finish funnel. That turned out to be a key event in my running life. From making good friends with the core volunteer team, to being introduced to my local running club and local races, it all stemmed from running and volunteering at Frimley parkrun.

10 Runs that Made Me #3 Basingstoke parkrun 15/08/09

Having done one event, I was looking around for another, but didn't know where to look. There wasn't another suitable (i.e. short) 2:09 event coming up, but searching for 5k events I stumbled across Basingstoke parkrun. At the time there were only 15 parkruns in existence - that's in the world. So no Frimley or Reading which could have been a bike ride to. I had to wait until school holidays until I had a car available to go. 

It was a fine morning. I had registered, set off and arrived early so people were just setting up when I arrived. I helped stake out the finish funnel, listened to the briefing and then we headed off to the start. It's a two lap course, largely tarmac paths on the wooded perimeter of the park, gently undulating with a short section on grass. The gentle rise behind the tennis courts seemed like an interminable hill and I felt like I struggled round finally getting to the twisty path through the woods and the finish straight to be passed by one Richard Hammer on the run in. 

At the finish I was given a little metal token with a number stamped on it, then went over to Euan Bowman, who had a laptop open to tell him my name and hand in my finish token. No barcodes. After the run I helped tidy away the kit and got credited with being a volunteer. Finish position 59 in 26:29. 

I looked at the results. I ran 6 times at Basingstoke over the summer but only finished 4 of them, twice pulling out after a lap because I was just too tired! What the hell was I thinking!? I think I pushed too hard at the start, blew up and couldn't face going round in a time way off my PB. It didn't occur to me to slow down and just enjoy the run, tick off another run on the way to a 50 shirt or even just pace the run differently and finish stronger. Come the end of the summer and on Saturdays the kids were back doing swimming lessons in the morning and I couldn't get to Basingstoke for a run. In fact after that summer I just about gave up running altogether until the following June. 

Looking at who else was running at my first parkrun, there was Richard Hammer, a Chineham Park runner, who for a long time was my nemesis - I was always about the same pace and trying to beat him in parkruns and local races. I think he had a lot of knee injuries around 2012 and he's a bit slower now, but a proper parkrun tourist. Fetchies Corona and Excitabubble (Colin and Elaine Brassington) were there, and Sandhurst Joggers club mates Lisa, Trish and James were way up the results table. I still thought you had to be an elite runner to join an running club. 

How times change - now I think nothing of just going out and enjoying a run for the sake of it. And running clubs? - they let anyone in these days. 

Richard Boese
Sandhurst Joggers - Chairman

10 runs that made me #2: Now what do you do?

So having completed a couch to 5k plan and knowing nothing about running events, clubs, never heard of parkrun, what do you do next? Couch to 5k had a goal, to get to jogging for 30 minutes without stopping, hopefully going at least 5k in the process, but what next now I'd got off the couch? I thought I would dip my toe in to the tepid bath of running events and looked for something not too far away from home and not too distant in time. 

The event I chose was a 5k fun run organised by 2:09 Events alongside one of their summer trail 10k events in Swinley Forest near Bracknell. It must have been June 2009, a sunny Sunday morning and I cycled the 5 or so miles to get to the event. The fun run started after the 10k set off and from a different location. I lined up with about 30 other kids and a few adults and as soon as the gun went, all the kids dashed off ahead at a sprint. 

I jogged along on the course gradually catching up with wheezing kids with stitches and struggled up the few small hills in the first 3 or 4k. This is where things started to get a bit confusing. With 4k done I was pretty sure we hadn't turned back towards the finish at any point and we were supposed to be only 1k away. We were still occasionally coming across marshals, so we must have been on the course, but I was looking at my stopwatch thinking "I'm sure I'm not that slow, we should have finished by now." 

Eventually at about 40 minutes in we got back on a trail I recognised as being near the start. I finished in about 10th place and everyone in front of me was under 12 years old. It turned out that we had been directed on to part of the 10k course and had done about 8k instead of 5. When I crossed the line I got given a prize - a blue 2:09 events t-shirt - because I was the first person across the line who was big enough for it to fit! I didin't stop to chat with anyone, I was probably still too shy to do that. I just hung around for a bit with some worried looking parents as their very tired kids and spouses trailed in and then cycled home. 

My first event, first trail run and first prize for anything I can remember ever, since my Cycling Proficiency Test or 33yards swimming certificate. I was really happy to get that t-shirt, not that I had actually won anything or particularly deserved it, but it still had a positive effect. When I got home, I got on line on "the information superhighway" (I think that's what they called it back then) and started looking for another event to enter.

10 Runs That Made Me - #1 Epiphany

I'd have to say that despite appearances to the contrary, I am not really a runner. Up until 2009 I had never run for exercise. Cycling, football, a bit of cricket. So I would say I have more of a cyclists body, strong quads and not much upper body and I never ran at school. I think the last time I ran for the sake of running was once in 1984. Back to this century and we'd moved house in late 2006 and got it plumbed and rewired in 2007 and I spent most of the rest of the year redecorating the whole place and rebuilding the bathroom and shower room. I got out of the habit of cycling to work - I was knackered most of the time. 

Come to the end of 2008 and I was struggling to fit in 34" jeans and had bought my first pair of elasticated waist chinos from M&S. Any time I rode to work I got that disconcerting feeling as I leant over the handlebars of my gut forcing my cycling shorts to roll down in surrender. 

My son Alfred was in to playing football, but had no interest in watching or supporting a team, so I couldn't interest him in watching a Boxing Day match. Off to the Memorial Park we went. A typical grey, damp December day, found a patch of grass on the football field not full of puddles and, rather than just stand still and kick the ball back and forth, we jogged up and down the pitch passing the ball between us. 

Five minutes, maybe 400m and I was blowing hard and having to stop. Ridiculous! I couldn't keep up with a 5 year old. I always thought I was fit as I did a bit of gentle cycling to work, but how wrong I was. 

Alf was born when I was 37. Then into my 40s I find I can't kick a ball around with him. That was embarrassing and serious, I could be a heart attack waiting to happen, or at the very least not be able to enjoy being a dad with him. 

New Year's resolution - get a pair of running shoes, start running. I figured if I went out and spent £80 on shoes I was damn well going to get decent use out of them (Yorkshire upbringing). Found a couch to 5k training plan and went out running by myself. 9 Weeks later I could jog for 30 minutes without stopping. It was bloody hard, but I could do it. It freaked me out that I gained weight when I started running, I guess I needed to add some leg muscle, but eventually some came off and I was feeling much better. 

That's where all this started - 400m, blew up, had to stop.

An Absence of Cats and Dogs - Cabbage Patch 10

What the hell am I doing here? Lining up with a load of sinewy whippets, the scent of Ralgex* heavy in the air on a cool Sunday morning in Twickenham. Well, I figured I hadn't done many classic local races and the autumn this year is about adressing that, with Farnham Pilgrim, Clarendon and Beachy Head marathons (all big hills and trails in the country) and the odd one out, the Cabbage Patch 10 - just 10 miles of flat roads around Twickenham, Kingston and Richmond. (I wish I could fit in the Hog's Back Road Race and Knacker Cracker too, but I have other runs to do). 

I was quite worried about this run. I had a decent run at Clarendon marathon the week before, but still had knee trouble (patella tendonitis) that made me pull out of a Friday track session and walk part of Frimley parkrun the day before. Sunday morning my knee felt OK, so I put a strap on it, donned my most cushioned Hokas and decided to take it easy. 

The weather forcast was not wrong on Sunday morning - pissing down all morning and all the way from Sandhurst to the race start near the Cabbage Patch pub in Twickenham. I got a lift there and met more Sandhurst Joggers club mates in a nearby Cafe Nero. A quirk of this run, not much room at bag drop in the pub, so use your own cars and park nearby and there are no portaloos, so all the local coffee shops and pubs are open to use loos and get a pre-race drink in. With the weather they were all rammed and doing brisk business.

10 minutes before the start the rain had eased off and we went out to the holding area in a side road off the High Street. 10:00 ticked by and the start line marshals stopped the traffic and walked us out to the street and a line of flour on the tarmac - no timing mat, this is gun to chip timed. The hooter sounded and we were off. 

The running gods must have been looking out for us, as the torrential rain of the morning stayed away for the whole of my run, though it was back 5 minutes after the finish, so there were plenty of people who got drenched. I had lined up with SJ clubmate Dave about 30m from the front and watched him disappear off as soon as the hooter sounded, while I set off at a steady pace. Three more club mates passed me in the first mile, but I kept one of them, Jon, in sight and caught up with him again just after 3 miles and we ran a steady pace together until 8 miles. A bit of chat seemed to take my mind off my knee and it just wasn't troubling me. 

The course south of the river isn't actually within sight of the Thames for most of this section and winds its way past flats and houses and alongside some parkland and it's only after 7 miles that the river comes back into view. It is pretty flat though, so some speedy times are on offer if you want to push. 

On Richmond Bridge I went past a Runnymede runner who had passed me at 2 miles and called out some encouragement "Come on Runnymede, you've got this!" Then just just after the bridge I got a challenge in return "Look out Sandhurst! You're getting beat by a fat Runnymede runner!" Just the encouragement I needed and I picked up the pace to see who I could catch over the last mile. I finished in 1:26:28 and, even better, had no knee trouble at all. 

The finish area looked a bit chaotic, with lots of people milling about at different tables. I got my medal and then an empty bag and joined the throngs of runners picking up what they wanted to fill a goody bag - bananas, cereal bars, cans of beer, bottle of water and finally the all important Cabbage Patch 10 long sleeved shirt. 

Five minutes later and the heavens opened, so it was a quick dash to Dave's car to get my gear, get changed and then back to the cafe for coffee and chat. Great race and a great result for me in terms of the knee trouble - it seems like rest makes it worse, gently jogging round makes it worse, but hammering it over a hilly marathon or a 10 mile race makes it better! Go figure.

Clarendon Marathon

It seems like ages since I actually did any running, having bailed out of White Cliffs (terrible weather and a fall) and dropped to the half at the Pilgrim (illness). So, although I was still getting back into training after illness, had some treatment on a long term hamstring injury and also had a bit of a patella tendonitis niggle too, I had at least done a couple of decent 10 mile runs and survived the Sandhurst Joggers Running Weekend training camp, so I decided to give Clarendon marathon a go. 

It's been a couple of years since I last did this race and I previously managed to get round in about 5 hours, with enough time to spare to catch the bus back to the car park. The race is similar to the Farnham Pilgrim in that it is organised by the local Rotary Club as a charity fund raising event, but Clarendon is a point to point race rather than a loop. The logistical issue of transport, getting to the start and getting bags back to the finish is well organised. You can park at south Winchester park and ride, take a bus to the start, dump your bag back on the bus when you are ready, then it is taken to the finish for you, where you can get another bus back to your car. All this is laid on for a very reasonable price. You can also do a half marathon, a relay marathon of 4 legs or the 5 mile "mini marathon" over the last leg. 

I arrived at the park and ride near Winchester and got the second of three buses to the start at Wyvern School, arriving with an hour to go, picked up my race number and sorted my kit, had a last trip to the loo (there were loads of portaloos as well as those at the school gym) and dropped my bag back on the bus. The start was in playing fields behind the school and we were treated to bright sunshine and a cool start to the day.

The main marathon start was at 10:30, but there was an option for slower runners to start earlier. The organisers really want everyone finished by 4pm and are quite strict on cut off times, so if you think you couldn't manage a 5:30 hilly trail marathon, then go for an early start. 

The run mainly follows the Clarendon Way setting off through the Clarendon Estate and then on through the villages of Pitton, Winterslow and Broughton. Broughton is the midway point where the Half Marathon runners join the course. From here the route takes you through to Houghton and then across the River Test to Kings Somborne, then on up to Farley Mount, the biggest hill of the day, then down through the woods and eventually on to the finish at Kings' School, Winchester. 

The route is mostly off-road on mixed trails and tracks with about 3 miles on tarmac. It is tough and challenging but very scenic when the weather is good. Interestingly, for a trail marathon, there are mile markers showing you how far you have left to go all along the course. These proved to be quite accurate, all except the 5 miles to go marker which seemed to be placed at about 4.5 miles to go - I cheered up a lot when I saw the next marker was back matching my Garmin for distance!

There were lots of people to chat to on the way round the course, especially slower runners on the relay race who were finding some of the hills tough, especially on the third leg, which takes you up Farley Mount. This starts with an aid station at 19miles then a mile of climbing to gain about 90metres altitude. The views are worth appreciating on the way up.

As with the Pilgrim, the marshals are all marvellous and manage the aid stations and road crossings to perfection. There was only one minor problem with congestion just under a mile from the start where peple had to filter into a single track path. The aid stations were reasonably well stocked if you like jelly beans, bananas and squash, but only a couple had home made flap jack, which I would have liked earlier in the run, as just a small piece had huge clarorific vallue. 

I managed my knee trouble by taking it easy on steep descents and my hamstring didn't play up at all. After all those hills the final few miles were hard work, but I managed to get in under 5 hours, and in a time that beat my previous best on this course by a couple of minutes. A very pleasing result.

You can see that they give you a tiny medal and I was also too late to get a t-shirt of my size, as more people had picked up medium sized shirts that actually ordered them - I had to go for a rather ambitious Small. The medal is similar in size as for the Pilgrim and I think it's acceptable for a run like this, raising money for charity, to keep costs down on medals. It also goes along with Richard's Rule of marathon medals - the size of the medal is inversly proportional to the diffculty of the marathon - you tend to get big snazzy medals on easy, flat lapped marathons and little ones where the hills are huge.

VI Guide Running - Training and First Run

I've had guide running on my mind for a while and more recently when I saw Mr.K had been out with a VI runner at local 10k events. So, I looked in to how to get some training, assuming this is what everybody does if they want to be a VI running guide. The obvious place to look was the England Athletics website as I have also quite recently done their LiRF course, which was paid for by my running club.

EA run some courses in areas where they think there is a shortage of guide runners, so, if you live in an area with lots of registered guides you might find courses are thin on the ground or you have to travel to find one. Luckily I managed to book myself on a VI Awareness and Guide Running course in Oxford on a Friday in June.

The course was at Magdalen College School in what looked like a small drama classroom, with some practical work outside in tennis courts. The course lasted 2 hours and consisted of learning about visual impairment in all its forms, how to talk to visually impaired people, watching a video on guide running and how to guide a runner. To learn about visual impairment we were given lots of different kinds of goggles painted, marked or screened off to give an impression of different kinds of VI. I tried some that were shaded white so I could see big changes in light - I could tell if I was near the window or in a dark corner of the room, but little else - and another which gave me tunnel vision, which I could work around, but needed a lot of scanning around to see my surroundings. As far as talking to visually impaired people is concerned, it was basically about talking to your VI runner about what they could see and how they wanted to go about running with you and also not being worried about the language you use. So it's not politically incorrect to use the word "see". 

We then went outside to pair up to have a go at guiding a runner around the tennis courts. They had spread bins around the courts as obstacles and left gates open for us to negotiate. Guiding was hard to begin with, especially getting into a rhythm with my partner, but we were soon jogging around the courts. Still, it was easy to forget to keep talking and describing every detail of the terrain, from changes in surface and gradient, as well as turns and obstacles. Being guided, wearing a blindfold, was also very disorientating, possibly worse for a sighted person to be suddenly made blind, in the sense that I found myself feeling a bit dizzy and I couldn't run in a straight line and needed to be pulled back on course. After a while we managed to get in step and run in a more natural way, matching my right footfall to my partner's left.

So, having done the course I am now an EA licensed Guide Runner and insured to go out and trip over/run with visually impaired runners. I've also been signed up to the Basingstoke Guide Runners facebook group. It wasn't long after signing up that I had my first opportunity to guide a VI runner. Now, it would be usual to shadow a guide and runner to get some more experience of how it's done, but when I signed up there was just me available. 

I got to Basingstoke parkrun early and met Tony at his taxi by the event car park, helped get him ready and stored his bag away safely, before heading over to the event briefing. I had done Basingstoke parkrun before, so I knew the course a little, but it had changed quite a bit since I last did it in 2011. With increasing numbers, it now starts on an open grass field, rather than a much narrower path. I fact all the narrow twisty paths they used to run on have been taken out to leave wide tarmac paths or open grass fields over the first half of a lap, which is ideal for letting the runners spread out.

We set off near the back of the field and immediately had a few walkers to get by, but were soon jogging along at a steady 12 minute/mile pace. The wide smooth paths meant we could mostly chat rather than have me describe the terrain all the time and for the most part even the transitions between grass and tarmac were easy and we only had one slight wobble coming off the path at the end of lap 1. Tony is very well known at Basingstoke, so there were lots of shouts from people around the course including all the volunteers, faster runners overtaking us near the end of our first lap, and people just out in the park. 

We gradually picked the pace up over the second lap finishing in 38:15 and like a proper sprint guide I made sure Tony crossed the line just ahead of me and, after scanning barcodes we stayed near finish to cheer in the last runners and chat with some of the volunteers before heading home.

Basingstoke parkrun was the perfect gentle introduction to guide running, it being such a hazard free course, so my pre-run nerves weren't really necessary. Tony is a nice guy and quite chatty as well so it was nice to have such an easy course to run. I'm looking forward to some more guide running and might get to do Yateley 10k in August with Tony and possibly more parkruns with him and other runners as another group of guide runners is planning to set up at Prospect parkrun. As it's only been a couple of weeks since being on the EA course my email asking to sign up on the Find a Guide database hasn't come through yet, but I'm happy to have had my first opportunity to guide a VI runner so soon. Even better, we didn't fall over or run into a tree!