The Other Side of the Marathon - Race Recovery

Good Advice

It's been a couple of weeks since Milton Keynes Marathon and recovery seems to be going reasonably well.  I have got a few tips from other marathon and ultra runners over the last couple of years and so I have some recovery strategies lined up for immediately post race, the rest of race day and then the following week.

I have these gems from experienced runners that I know:

Dennis Devey (80 years old and in his heyday ran 30minutes in 10k road races) says: "After a marathon, the worst thing you can do is just sit down.  You've got to keep moving. Get a bacon sandwich and a beer inside you if you like, but keep the legs moving."

Greg Ward (Sandhurst and Windlesham runner and well on his way to 100 marathons): "Flat coke and peanuts, then get a good feed and some more drink, get the compression leggings on and sleep in them."

Paula Fudge (Commonwealth gold medallist, 5000m world record holder and Frimley Lodge parkrunner): "After a marathon I recommend my athletes spend two weeks doing other exercise like swimming or cycling and then have 2 easy weeks doing gentle runs before getting back to training."

In race fuelling - you can run a long way
on malt loaf and jaffa cakes.

Kelvin Gower (Marathon and ultra runner and Cove Jogger's equivalent of Bear Grylls - and a style fan*): "Crisps, banana and milkshake as soon as possible after the run, then feed well and sleep in your compression leggings." 

(*The kind you climb over, not a dedicated follower of fashion)

Both Kelvin and Greg are looking at recovery from the point of view of running marathons or ultras on consecutive days, sometimes 3 or 4 in a row, Paula from, say doing a single spring marathon and then progressing into training for the summer track season and probably Dennis would be the same - occasional marathon, but mostly 5 and 10k and cross-country.

Men in Tights :-/

You may notice that neither Dennis or Paula mention compression clothing, but Kelvin and Greg do.  This could be down to build - Dennis and Paula are both stick thin "born" distance athletes, while Kelvin and Greg have the more meaty calves and thighs of regular folk - something you can actually compress without having to resort to using arm warmers or crepe bandages.

But do they work? Multiple studies in sports science have found decreases in muscle soreness and perceived fatigue from wearing compression clothing during and post race. Some possible increases in blood flow and lymph removal during the recovery period have also been found – though other studies found that wearing the socks after workouts had no greater recovery effect than taking an ice bath.  Given the choice between an ice bath and slipping on a pair leggings, I know what I prefer and compression socks do seem to work for me, at least in post race recovery.  I used to get cramp in the night after a hard or long run, and I don't when sleeping with compression socks on. It means I get to have a decent night's sleep without waking up in the middle of the night crying in pain.  I always use them now, both in a race and especially for recovery.

What does your body need just after a long race?

Well, you have used up lots of glycogen, your body's prime energy source (even a half marathon will have used up most of what your body can store); you have caused loads of micro tears to your leg muscles and you are dehydrated and have depleted your body's stores of mineral salts (sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in particular).  So you need to replace protein, carbs, water and salts.  Where do you get them from?

Post run recovery at the Basingstoke Canal Cafe
Full English breakfast, tea and cake - it's why we run!

Spices, nuts, cereals, coffee, tea, cocoa and vegetables are rich sources of magnesium.  Foods rich in potassium include dried apricots, dried milk, chocolate, various nuts (especially almonds and pistachios), potatoes and bananas.  For calcium look to milk and other dairy products, but also nuts.  For sodium, of course anything salty will do.  For a quick easily digestible protein fix, milk is good and chocolate, milk and bananas are good sources of carbs.

As you will notice chocolate ticks quite a few boxes (yay!), as does milk, so popping into Starbucks with a banana in your shorts and ordering a full fat mocha latte and a packet of pistachios would do nicely, especially if you wanted to look like a complete knob!  I tend to make do with a bottle of water, another of chocolate milkshake, a banana and a packet of peanuts followed not long after by a walk to the nearest pub or fast food joint for a burger or gammon, egg and chips.  

In the days after a marathon, just eating normal healthy meals is fine and there's no need to be adding supplements to your diet. It is easy, however, to overdo it and completely pig out and this could lead to you putting on weight while you should not be doing much running in your recovery period.

Post Marathon Exercise

Probably the last thing you want to do after a marathon is run.  Even if that is what you intend to do, because you have another marathon to run the next day, you're legs will tend to take some convincing over the first few miles that you are not completely insane.  However, keeping moving is essential if you don't want to spend the whole of the next week seized up and in agony every time you get up.  I was lucky that after my recent Milton Keynes marathon, I was waiting for friends to finish.  I actually had nearly 2 hours from when I finished to when the last of our group came in. Plenty of time to get cleaned up, changed into fresh clothes, eat and drink and cheer on the runners, all the while staying on my feet, walking around and doing some gentle stretching.  I kept this going for the rest of the day as well.

Over the next few days I didn't do any running, but went for walks away from my desk at work as often as I could, a longer walk in the evening and then cycled to work as well.  All low impact stuff.  I did my first gentle jog 4 days after the marathon and had a massage - I figured by this time a massage wouldn't be too painful and I was almost right.  The next day I was back to parkrun with the kids (below race pace) with a few light training runs during the next week, just about following Paula's advice to have a very gentle 2 weeks in the post-marathon period.  It seems to have worked, as following the last few marathons and half marathons I have done, I have not managed to pick up any injuries and have got back to running well within a couple of weeks and using the marathon training to post PB times in 5k and 10k in the month after.

Conditioning and Recovery

How you actually recover will depend on a number of other factors, not just what you eat after the race.

How your base training was going into the race, how hard you ran, what the course was like and how long you have been running long distances all play a part.

After my first marathon, I was wrecked.  Sore feet, ankles and hips, stiff muscles and this didn't ease off for most of the week. I ran a half marathon the next weekend and basically suffered with the same niggles as I had done in the marathon and I was lucky not to have done some serious damage.

An hour after MK Marathon with Greg Ward: changed, fed and
watered and staying on my feet to help recovery

Now, after my 5th marathon, I finished being able to walk slowly but normally, could walk normally by the end of the day and could jog a little the next day.  A lot of this comes down to toughening up the skeleton and tendons having done many more long runs.  This also tallies with a course on marathon training that I went on last year, where the speaker said that it could easily take 2 to 3 years before your body was really ready and strong enough to run a marathon.  Making changes to your muscular-skeletal system takes time.  However, it is still the case that being generally fitter, actually ready for your marathon and paying more attention to preparation, race fuelling and recovery helps too.

Go Long - You know you can do it....

I'm still learning about running marathons and every new one is an education in how my body and mind copes with long distance running. At least now I know I can do it, and I can also recover well enough and get running again without causing myself long term injuries. 

My next marathon will be the Farnham Pilgrim trail marathon in September, followed a month later by Abingdon marathon which will hopefully be another PB run.  For the summer, while it's too hot to be going very long, I'm going to be concentrating on improving speed for fast 5k and 10k races.

Milton Keynes Marathon

Milton Keynes Marathon, my target race for the spring season and my 5th marathon.  I had intended to be doing this with my friend Adam from work, but his training had been ruined by a combination of beer and illness (mostly illness to be fair) so he was in no fit state to run or to drive me there.  By lucky chance Friday 2nd May saw 2 events - an engagement party for Sandhurst Joggers' Vicky Horne and John Tzanetis and the London Marathon finish crew party.  I nipped down to see Vicky and John and met Greg Ward and Emma Lewis who were also doing MK marathon and Emma offered to give me a lift.  Then on to the marshal's do and the draw for marshals places in next year's London Marathon.  There were 86 names in the draw for a possible 30 places.  Sandhurst came out well in the draw with 10 out of 30 guaranteed places with my name coming out no.36.  That pretty much means I will be running London next year as people usually get in up to around 50th place, what with people dropping out of the draw or getting in to the marathon by other means.

Over the weekend before the marathon and I had been eating a bit extra for some carb loading, but keeping it light and not eating late the day before the run, then getting a reasonably early night for a decent sleep.  My bag was packed the day before and all my running and post-run clothes sorted out.  I decided to run in my brand new Brooks Ravenna 4s instead of my old Ravenna 3s.  For some this could be a mistake, running in new shoes, but I get on well with the Ravennas and the new ones just felt more comfortable.  Breakfasted on porridge and raisins, apple juice and made up hi-5 energy/electrolyte drink to sip through the journey to MK.

6:40am and Emma arrived and we had a trouble free journey up to Stadium MK arriving just before 8am leaving plenty of time for a stroll around the stadium and then back to the car to get into race kit.  The weather early on was bright and sunny and forecast to get up to 18⁰C, but with cloud cover from 10am. At 9:30 I went with Emma to drop my bag off in the stadium and make our way to the start.  The race was being held at the same time as Milton Keynes Half marathon so it was quite crowded with both races mixed together with obviously slower runners squeezed in near the front with the faster club runners.  I caught site of the 4 hour pacer who was trailing a large blue balloon and lined up nearby.

The start came at 10am and we shuffled forward to the line and got into running. I checked my pace aiming to do a couple of miles at 9:10/mile, then moving up to 9:00/mile for as long as I could.  I kept the 4hour balloon in sight and no further away than about 50m.  The route goes from the stadium to the centre of MK along a gently rising main road around several roundabouts (it is roundabout city after all) before getting to the centre, which is laid out like an American city on a grid pattern.  You then make your way up a steady climb with a series of 90⁰ left turns on out and back diversions for a few hundred metres on side streets, all the while hugging the centre of the tree-lined boulevards for a bit if extra shade. (See the bits in blue on the route plan).  Getting back out of the centre of town is the same, but with a long gentle downhill section to get back to sweeping main roads and roundabouts to the 10 mile mark where the half and full marathons separate.

The profile says about 100m of climb, but the
Garmin has it at 265m. I believe Garmin on this one.

Then its on to cycle tracks, or "redways" around the suburbs of MK.  For those who don't know MK but are local to me, it's a bit like Bracknell Half with wide footpaths and cycle lanes dipping into underpasses with some quite steep little climbs back out to road level.  From about 17 miles the course starts to climb up a series of short hills one after the other to 21 miles, then with some more sharp undulations to just past 23 miles where the route starts to drop gently back to the finish.  You run on or past 25 roundabouts (Yay!), but disappointingly no concrete cows (Sad face on that MK organisers!)

I managed to hang on to the 4 hour pacer to just beyond 19 miles passing through half distance at 1:56:40 and 20 miles at 2:59:15 (which beat my previous PB for 20 miles by 6:42).  At about 18 miles I came across a runner who was staggering drunk-like and obviously in need of medical attention, but the marshal who was just 30m away was just looking at him. I shouted at the marshall to get up and help the runner and call for first aid.  The heat was taking its toll on a lot of runners and I passed a few more laid out being attended to and a lot of people walking in the last 6 miles. I also heard people talking about other issues with some marshals not being pro-active enough in aiding runners in distress - they needed to be better trained to recognise when medical attention was needed.

From 19 miles I slowed from around 9 minute miles to around 9:30/mile for the next 3-4 miles when disaster hit in a rapid series of cramps in my right leg, starting with a piece of my upper calf, then hamstring, then inner thigh. I had been taking gels at regular 4mile intervals, water at every stop-usually about 200ml-and some energy drink at the 2 drink stations that had them.  Even with all this the skin on my face was like sandpaper with all the salt dried on it. I was obviously dehydrated and seriously lacking in salts!

The cramps stopped me dead for a minute while I stretched out my hamstring, but I got going again walking for the next few minutes before trying to jog.  I came up to another runner (Graham Holland from Ealing Eagles) with cramp problems and we teamed up to jog/walk up the climbs and jog the downhills.  He even gave me a little extra water in the last mile, so I must have looked bad, even though I was OK mentally.

I had accepted that my Plan A of a sub-4 hour time had been blown away, but it was still a bit of an emotional sight to see 4 hours tick by with the stadium in sight just half a mile away.  Time to grit my teeth and not give up - there was still a decent PB to get.  Plan B was still on and we made it to the stadium approach sweeping (OK, fast shuffling!) past KFC and McDonalds and round the car park to go down a ramp to the pitchside track.  There were a few hundred people in the stadium still waiting to cheer the finishers on and you could see your own finish happening live on the big stadium screens.  I managed to at least look like I was running when I crossed the line arms raised and looking like a salty ghost, before grinding to a halt, hands on knees.

Emma, me, Vicky, Greg and Vicky's daughter all proudly
showing off our medals (Photo: Janet Foran)

My fellow Sandhurst runners finished like this: Greg War 4:48:50, Emma Lewis 5:43:20, Vicky Horne 5:55:47.  Both Vicky and Greg had run a marathon the previous day.


My official finish time was 4:06:37.
Here are my splits:8:55 9:09 9:00 8:47 8:57 8:54 9:12 8:41 8:39 9:00 8:51 8:58 8:50 8:57 8:55 9:06 9:10 9:17 9:40 9:35 9:24 10:28 11:30 12:21 10:39 2:58  

Cramp set in near the end of mile 23 and the finish distance was 26.34miles according to Garmin.  Without the cramp, I may well have been able to dip under 4 hours, as I lost 6:20 over a 9:40/mile pace over the last 4 miles, but that leads to...

Lessons Learned:

1. I could really do with doing more warm weather training at distance and managing my hydration better.  Have another go at an 15 to 18 mile run and weighing myself before and after.  I drank quite a lot compared to other runners that I saw on the course, but maybe I need to do more?
2. I am a salty sweater and I am going to look into taking salt tablets along with water for my next 20 mile or marathon.  Hopefully that will keep the cramps at bay.  I might also try looking at what ultra runners eat - protein as well as carbs, so peanuts or mini pizzas might be the order of the day!
3. Hi-5 gels are my favourite - nice natural flavour and easy to drink. I think Gatorade upsets my stomach a bit and blue drink is just wrong in so many ways.
4. My foot care is sorted.  I used toe socks with compression socks over and came away with comfortable, blister free feet.  Wearing new shoes worked out fine for me as well - but they were another pair of a shoe that I knew worked for me.
5. I have a new personal superstition - I always do well in a race with a green medal.  Bramley 20 (PB by 20 mins), Bracknell Half (PB by 2:30) and MK Marathon (PB by nearly 8 mins).  All had green medals. 
6. Any PB is a success and any marathon finished is an achievement.

Now my marathon has been run, my summer goals will be to lose some weight, get closer to a 21 minute parkrun and run at least one of the Yateley 10k races.  I've just got to see which one is going to have the lucky green ribbon on this year.

Bracknell Half - Tapering?

Bracknell Half Marathon this year comes one week before Milton Keynes marathon, so you would normally call it a tapering run.  However, it is more likely that you would have to call it a race - a proper Balls out, Peddle to the metal race - being as it features the usual Duncan and James Ball vs Dave and Chris Peddle amateur smackdown, with me in the front row, usually shaking my head at what passes for race tactics.  But, like watching kids run, it can be fun.  For a view of the front of the Balls vs Peddles race you can see Duncan's blog post - it's a thrilling read!

I did this race for the first time last year, the week after London marathon and I suffered in the last 3 miles from the injuries that slowed me down in the marathon.  This time I was fit and in good form coming off the back of a parkrun PB and a near PB 10k training run in the week.  The weather turned out to be perfect as well, with rain easing off before the start and staying cool and cloudy until the finish.

The plan for Bracknell was to go out for a 1:48:00 finish.  That means an average 8:15/mile pace and because I like to try and run a negative split I would try to start at 8:25/mile for the first 2 miles to warm up, then up it to 8:15 pace until the last couple of miles, before pushing for the finish line. Well that works OK if it's a pan flat course, which Bracknell isn't, so it's more of a guide.  

For this run I had James Ball and Dave Peddle with me, James saying he wanted to stick with my pace as long as he could.  Dave Peddle was taking the race with James seriously and he pulled away from James and me at 5 miles looking strong and running with good style, though he was still in sight on the main hill at 8miles.  James stuck with the pace all the way to the big hill on Harvest Ride, when he started to drop back a little.  I figured the elastic between me and James had broken on the hill and didn't look back on the mile long descent down Long Hill Road until I turned into the next underpass to find James only 30m behind. A great effort by James to keep in touch.

Post run medal shot

From here the course goes through a lot of wooded cycle ways through houses and it's only a little undulating until closing in on the 12 mile mark when you get into a tarmac path through woodland and a steep drop down towards Southill Park and the finish.  I flew down the hill feeling really good and caught up with Dave who was a bit panicked to see me, calling out "Where's James?" I said 100m back, but I don't think he heard me.  Pushing on to the line I made sure not to reach for the Garmin until after I'd crossed the finish. The official finish time was 1:47:03, a minute ahead of plan I think due to the fast run in and a PB by 2.5minutes.  To top it all, the rest of the guys had great races too, with Duncan coming in a couple of seconds ahead of Chris and Dave a minute or two ahead of James with Chris, Dave and James all setting new PB times.

Splits:  8:15 8:22 8:21 8:19 8:09 8:32 8:25 8:27 8:04 8:14 8:19 8:08 7:29 3

Ups and Downs - Running and Illness

At Last - a Plan
Following on with this Spring running season's theme of joyful chaos instead of a training plan, the end of April will find me at Bracknell Half Marathon.  This comes 1 week before my target race for the Spring season - Milton Keynes Marathon - so would normally be a tapering run in any sensible training plan.

With a month to go before the marathon and having not had any structure to training, I decided to plan a couple of long runs (15 and 18 miles), hill sessions (4 to 5 miles) and a quick parkrun to get me into race trim before tackling Bracknell Half.  Fortunately this fitted into the Easter half term holidays when I had a long week off.  On the Monday before Easter I did the 15 mile run from Sandhurst, south along the Blackwater Valley path until it meets the Basingstoke Canal, then along the canal to Frimley Lodge park followed by a lap and a half of the parkrun course to make the distance to a nice round 15miles.  Perfect. I felt great at the end of the run, met the family in the park and, after a picnic lunch and recovery icecream, had a kick around playing footy with Julia and the kids.

More bike riding, swimming and playing footy in the park with the kids over the next few days (aka cross-training) and then a hill session on the Sandhurst Joggers handicap course in Crowthorne and, with a day off on Friday, I was feeling fresh for a go at a quick run at Frimley Lodge parkrun.  Most of my parkruns this year have been run with Elinor (8) and it has been great to see her enjoying her running and improving.  However, since January I have attempted only 3 quick parkruns and managed to struggle round in a best time of 24:10, two minutes off my best from last October.  So, I did a deal with the kids and told them I would run once a month by myself, once with Alfred and twice with Elinor.

Smashing parkrun
The Saturday of the Easter weekend was cool and sunny and the course was in perfect condition.  I took up my usual start position wide on the left and near the front so I can get across the start line quickly but keep out of the way of the faster runners for the first right hander around the field before the canal section.  Everyone's tactic for Frimley is to go like the clappers round this first field then settle into your race pace on the canal, hopefully not being blocked in by slower runners.

On the canal I could see Duncan Ball and Chris Peddle 30m ahead of me and decided to try and keep them in sight, which I managed all the way on to the 2nd lap, when I caught up to Duncan at about 4k and he urged me on with a call of "Go for it coach!"  With 500m to go I could just see Chris 100m in front so tried to pick up the pace - he was still a target.  All this time I hadn't once looked at my time, just concentrating on my breathing and trying to keep the pace even all the way round and I decided I wasn't going to make a grab for my watch until after crossing the finish line.  When I did hit the Garmin it read 21:46 and I nearly hit the floor in shock - a PB by nearly 30 seconds and one of my goals for the year achieved (a sub-22 parkrun).

Not very long after Alfred and Elinor came in within a minute of Elinor's PB after running together, with Alfred saying how well little sister had run (will the aliens who abducted our son please give us the real one back?!) and then saying how proud he was of Dad's new PB.  Brilliant, and topped off with Julia getting a new PB, taking another 30 seconds of her best time.

Heart Worries?
Banging out a PB like that is a great indication of form and fitness, I think, so it was a real boost to my confidence with a marathon coming up soon.  Two days later and I was setting off for an 18 mile run and eventually learning an important lesson.  18 miles is a long way and you have prepare for a training run like that just as well as if it was a race. So a day or two carb loading, then a good night's sleep and up 3 hours before the run for a decent breakfast and drinks to get properly hydrated. Not this time - no carb loading, didn't sleep well and had a drink and a banana before setting off.  Also, after my parkrun heroics, I felt like I had an allergy or flu, with sneezing and a runny nose for the rest of Saturday.  I felt a bit weird and unbalanced for the first 3 miles of the run, then OK up to 10miles then completely drained for the next 3, so I baled out and called for a lift home - better doing that than trying to go another 5 miles and doing some damage.

Maybe I had had a 24 hour flu thing and this was nothing to worry about?  The problem was that I felt strange the rest of the day and also back at work the next day.  Even though I had been drinking and eating well, I felt a bit dizzy and off balance with a noticeably high pulse.  Worryingly, every few minutes I was getting a strange "missed a beat" feeling followed by good old thump in my heart.  That was something I've never felt before, so I decided to book a doctor's appointment to get checked out. The earliest appointment I could get was the next Tuesday (a week away!) and after a planned 10k training run at race pace followed by Bracknell Half.

Well, the 10k run on the Frimley Hospital route went well, as did Bracknell Half (more on that next time) and I went to the doc's feeling fine.  I went through the symptoms and mentioned doing Bracknell Half and his first question was did I run a quick time? I suppose that would have to be a good sign that I had got over any illness and hadn't done any damage by running while ill.  Blood pressure and pulse checked out OK and I learned some interesting things.

If you are ill and you are feeling aches in joints and muscles, then definitely DO NOT RUN.  This seems obvious, but runners are not normal people and will do almost anything to get their running fix.  The aches in your muscles are due to damage that the virus is doing and, as the heart is a muscle, it can be affected the same way. Stressing your heart by going for a run can lead to much more serious and possibly permanent damage to the heart muscle.  Try knitting or parkrun volunteering instead!

Your heart does not beat completely regularly and misses a beat and resets itself on to its regular rhythm and this happens often, maybe a few times a minute.  Also, while the heart is not beating it is filling with blood, so if it misses a beat it fills up even more and the next beat back will be extra strong.  Most of the time you never feel this, however, if you are an endurance athlete, you will have a larger heart than the average idle layabout and one that beats slower too, so these missed beats and reset pulses can be much more noticeable.  This can be even more pronounced if you are ill or have been over-training when the extra stress your body is feeling raises your pulse.

So, the weird heart feelings were just normal.  More importantly I know I haven't done any damage by training hard in the week and racing at Bracknell and I can go into my next marathon without worrying about keeling over in the last mile.  Things are definitely looking up.

How Not to Train for a Spring Marathon

Jumping straight into this one, let's compare January to April in both 2013 and 2014.  December 2013 I found out I had a place in London marathon, I got a plan together care of Alison Lenaghan and then followed it obsessively, fitting in key races along the way:

• Wokingham Half fell on the day I needed to do a 13 mile long run.
• Surrey Spitfire 20 was just at the right time to a long training run in early March.
• Bolt Round the Holt 21k trail run was just right for a longish run during my taper.

Jump to 2014 and I had done Portsmouth Coastal Waterside marathon just before Christmas taking 20 minutes off my previous best in 4:14, then entered Milton Keynes marathon and did the following:

• Jan 12 - Winter Tanners 30mile trail ultramarathon - did this because I didn't have much on in January.
• Feb 9 - Wokingham Half Marathon (cancelled) so ran a 14mile training run with Alison (who did 20miles)
• Feb 16 - Bramley 20 miles road race - did this because it's a local race, I'd not done it before and I was sure lots of people I know would be doing it.
• Mar 9 - Surrey Half Marathon - the first running of this event, so I just had to do it.
• Mar 16 - Fleet Half Marathon - another local run that lots of friends would be doing.
• Mar 23 - Sandhurst Joggers Canal Run 20miles - a good long group training run timed perfectly for those running London (so not me then).

In between this lot has been a mix of parkruns (mostly steady runs with the kids), club handicap runs (mostly tough hilly and fast as I possibly can) and a few mid-week training runs with friends and family.  So no plan or structure and just running events because it's fun or I haven't done them before, or both. Here's a quick run down of the events and how things went.

Typical terrain on this year's Tanners. Glorious Mud!
Photo: Kelvin Gower

Winter Tanners 31 miles trail ultramarathon 8:30 (yes, 8 hours and 30 minutes! with 1hour standing still reading route instructions).
OK, it actually says 30miles on the course description, but there is a reasonable chance of getting lost trying to follow the route instructions.  As I said in my last post, Kelvin, who I ran this with, has a blog post about this race (see Mr K's running blog ) so I won't repeat his race description.

 This was by far the hardest run/jog/walk that I have ever done. 31 miles of mud and big hills. By the time we got to 10 miles I was thinking "I feel as tired as I did when I was 24miles into Portsmouth marathon, and I still have 20 miles of hills to go!" Desperate and negative thoughts then. If I hadn't been running with Kelvin then at best I would have baled out on to the 20mile course or maybe even quit.  Just goes to show how much running performance is down to mental toughness, but it's runs like these where you learn about yourself and what you are capable of. If you finish, then no run is a failure.


Bramley 20 - 3:05:57.
This is an undulating/hilly 2 lap course mostly out in the countryside to the north of Bramley near Reading.  It was a sunny cool morning and the plan was to do 9min miles all the way round.  I set off with Alison and a couple of her friends who were running the same plan, but they pulled away after only 3 miles leaving me to run by myself.  I was on pace until the start of the second lap when I slowed a bit.

I was gradually hauling in runners ahead of me until about 15 miles when I came up to a woman called Polly who stopped in tears just as I passed her. I wasn't so desperate for a PB that I had to run on so I walked with her for a few 10s of metres and got chatting, then jogging. She said it was the furthest that she had run, but she hadn't taken on much water or any gels and the friend that she had been running with had left her on the first lap.  Fortunately the next water stop was just round the corner and it had energy drinks also.  That gave us both a boost and soon we were back to running close to 9min mile pace.  Going up the next hill at about 16miles, we picked up another couple of runners and had a group going, chatting and running and keeping our spirits up.

Bramley 20, looking fresh, so must be the first lap.
Photo: Colin Brassington

At 17 miles Polly said she was going to have to slow a bit and urged me to carry on. I finished at a good pace and not far off the 3 hour time I was looking for.  Polly finished about 10 minutes later.  Next day she sent a very nice message of thanks through to Sandhurst Joggers' chairman, saying how grateful she was for the company and that she was sorry to mess up my race. I think I got just as much benefit from running with Polly and the others we picked up on route.  I was quicker over the last 5 miles than miles 10 to 15 and got a new 20mile PB by nearly 20 minutes. A very good result all round.

Surrey Half Marathon - 1:49:55. It was the first running of this event on an undulating out and back course from the Spectrum sports centre on the north side of Guildford to Woking town centre and back.  I met up with the usual crowd of friends form Frimley parkrun. I think the plan was that I would run with James and Duncan Ball at about 1:50:00 pace, but after dropping my bag off I couldn't find them at the start so I ran the whole race by myself.  To start with it was a cool but sunny day. Nice conditions but could be getting hot later in the day.

The route starts off with a slight rise from the sports centre, then gets into a long steady downhill section over the next 1.5miles. At 3miles there is a hill then an undulating course out in the country lanes to Woking.  I was hoping to get to 5 miles before being passed by the leaders coming back the other way, but i had only got to 4.5miles when they breezed by. Still, just the site of them got everyone around us running a bit quicker. Around Woking I spotted several Sandhurst Joggers who were out marshalling and on the route back, the out and back course came into its own, as I saw loads of other Sandhurst runners that I wouldn't have.

Surrey Half: Post run Frimley Crew team photo

Approaching 10 miles you get back to the Mile 3 hill and the last water stop, again manned by Sandhurst runners and after a smacked bum from Vicky Horne (?!) I was on the run-in with just a 1.5mile hill to go.  I was feeling really good after what I thought was a steady run so far and pushed on for the finish with the last 3 miles passing in 8:13, 8:00 and 7:33.  Soon after the last hill you drop down towards the sports centre and turn off the main road onto a sandy track, which was a little tight and awkward to run on, before arriving on the athletics track for the last 300m to the finish line. My time 1:49:55 was a real surprise as I was aiming for about 1:52:00 and the only slight disappointment was I was just 2 seconds outside a PB.

Caught in the act. Running for the line.
Photo: Rachel Davis

For a new event, I thought Surrey did a decent job.  Parking was OK, race village had plenty of toilets and an efficient bag drop.  The course was a challenge, but quite scenic in the countryside and with good support in Guildford and Woking.  Next year it's run in reverse and I've already entered.  Check out the video of Surrey Half, with a great scene with Duncan Ball finishing and collapsing on the ground in agony after (about 2:30 in). A dead cert for a BAFTA darling!

Fleet Half Marathon - 1:49:28
After nearly getting an unintended PB at Surrey Half, 1 week later it was time for a proper attempt.  Again, the Ball brothers had a plan that involved running with me as a pacer along with Chris Peddle and Abby Fudge. My plan was to do a progressive race in 3 sections with a target time of 1:49:00.

We set off as a group but that didn't last for long.  Abby was feeling good for this race so quickly got bored of being in the crowds and picked up her pace. Duncan Ball and Chris decided to go with her and disappeared as well and so it was just up to me and James Ball to maintain a sensible pace.  On about the first mile mark we came up to Ian Watson (a fellow Sandhurst Jogger) and we chatted for a while. Very soon after I got a shooting pain in my right calf that had me hobbling for a few paces. That eased off for a few minutes, then a different part of my calf got a similar shooting pain.  I thought my race was over inside 2 miles, but I kept going for a bit longer to see if the pain would ease or worsen.

With the Fleet course you do a small loop around the town for about 3 miles before returning to near the start, which would be a good place to bale out.  However, keeping up the chat with Ian and James took my mind off the calf pain, so by 3 or 4 miles it was a dull ache that I could keep running on.  This seemed to help Ian keep a decent pace as well who was suffering from neck and shoulder pain.  At 5 miles James had to slow down a bit, and by 6 I had left Ian as well as I went from my 8:20/mile to 8:10/mile pace sections.  At about 8 miles I came up to Chris Peddle who was suffering in the heat and then at about 10miles found Duncan again and just ahead was Will Thrower (another Frimley Lodge parkrunner).  We ran together for a while, but by now I was trying to step up the pace for the run in to the finish.

At 12 miles I came up to Richard Fyvie, a sub-21minute Frimley parkrunner, who was running his first half marathon, but was walking his way to the last hill. We ran together for a few hundred metres until we were most of the way up the last kicker of a hill.  The run in to the finish sweeps downhill until turning left into the sports field with a new finish on a tarmac road instead of a grassy field (which was a sea of mud last year). The road is narrow and twisty so it's hard to see the finish until you are on top of it, but I managed to keep my final sprint going to the line for a new PB by about 20 seconds.  As soon as I crossed the line my calf seized up and I could barely walk.  Still, a very good result considering the injury, which turned out to be minor.

Canal Run 20 miles - 3:06:40
This is Sandhurst Joggers' annual canal run, set up to coincide with most runner's final long run before London Marathon. It's along Basingstoke canal and people get dropped off at 10, 15, 18, 20 or 23 miles away from Frimley Lodge park and run back, with a drink and feed stop at Fleet 10miles from the finish.  I think there were around 50 of us running and it's a fun event, helped by the perfect cool weather.  I planned to run this at close to marathon pace and the first 10 miles went by at a steady 9:00 to 9:10/mile pace. The countryside was pleasant to run in and the route all flat apart from the diversion around a landslip which took us down and back up a steady hill for 1 1/2 miles or so.  I stopped for 5 minutes at Fleet for a piece of my (now famous!) flapjack and a top up of the drink bottle.

The next 7 miles I ran at about 10min/mile pace with Gabby Bassett who at 20 miles was on her longest ever run, just testing the waters to see if she has a marathon in her. She definitely has on this performance.  For the last 3 miles I decided to pick up the pace and got back to 9min miles for 2 miles, finishing strongly at below 8:30 pace and a time close to a 20mile PB.  Even better, I had no calf pain at all, just slightly aching feet from running on the stony canal towpaths.  The next day was even better, not even stiff legs and I was out playing football in the park with Alf in the evening. The good recovery possibly had something to do with the post run gammon egg and chips with a bit of extra salt. Definitely recommended.

2014 - Where Now? And Happy Families

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

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

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

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

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

February: Wokingham Half, Bramley 20

March: Surrey Half, Fleet Half

April: Bracknell Half

May: Milton Keynes Marathon, Hook 10

June: Endure 24

July: Elstead Marathon, Thunder Run

September: Farnham Pilgrim Marathon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marathons:

On St Marth's Hill 

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


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

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

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

Half Marathons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Medal haul up to the Farnham Pilgrim

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

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