Three Days To Go - Packing

Packing The Suitcase And A Word On The Weather...


Off to a bad start today when I opened my case and a massive greeny-brown spider scuttled out, leaving me to get rid of its web before I could start packing.

It's amazing how much stuff you need to run a marathon, at the bottom left you can see all my pills and gels and energy tablets, then two pairs of trainers, 2 outfits, warm clothes to wear pre-race and throw away. This shot doesn't even include non-marathon stuff.

Everyone talks about the bit of the NYC marathon where you have to line up for hours at the start line before the race gets underway. It's because they shut the bridges so everyone has to be bussed over before that. To keep warm, most people wear an outfit they are going to discard.

Paula Radcliffe has shared some gems of wisdom on this and the other difficulties of the NYC marathon here:

"New York is a difficult one in terms of the start because everybody has to get out to Staten Island and people doing it for the first time don't realise how early you have to get out there and how long you're out there," Radcliffe said.

"The other thing is that the road surface is very different in New York to London. "Where London is pretty good tarmac most of the way, in New York there's a lot of concrete and a lot of potholes! So when you're running with a lot of people you have to keep your eyes down and be very aware - a lot of people twist ankles.

"There's a bridge when you go into the Bronx - around 18/20 miles - and that's metal grid. That's pretty hard on your feet at that stage as well."

Weather forecast for Sunday not looking so hot:

Edinburgh Marathon Take Two - Ninja Turtles

Monday 1 June, 2009

And so to my second running of the Edinburgh marathon.










And *news flash* I have decided that I like the city and the course and the atmosphere so much that I will run it ever year. But only as part of a relay team!

One year ago, having dinner to celebrate my completion of the marathon, my university friends and I dreamt up a plan to run the Edinburgh Marathon Relay dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fast-forward 12 months and we were faced with the prospect of running the race as part of a very green and very silly-looking quartet...














The 'Hairy Haggis' Team Relay - its official name - splits the marathon's 26.2 miles between four runners and is designed to make race running more fun and more accessible.

Leg One is 8.1 miles, from the course start to Musselburgh, Leg Two is 5.4 miles, to Port Seton Links, Leg Three is 8.0 miles, up to Gosford House and back and the final leg is 4.7 miles and runs from Port Seton Links to the finish at Musselburgh Race Course.

Having entered, we devoted our entire weekend to to costume making and running. We carbo-loaded by eating pizza - in true Ninja Turtle style - and fashioned costumes from Peacock's Size 20 T-shirts... On the morning of the race we donned lime green footless tights and a lot of green body paint.

I was up for the first leg. At the start I was reminded of my longer run a year ago and what a massive achievement it was. I don't think that really sunk in at the time.

The start of the race is beautiful and goes down past the Parliament building, out toward the Edinburgh coast and along through the beach resort of Portobello.

The heat was really draining, even for just eight miles, temperatures were as high as 22 degrees Celsius with hardly any breeze. Ten people were taken to hospital and 160 were treated for heat-related illness on the scene, according to local newspaper The Scotsman.


I finished my eight miles in 1 hr 14 mins. The others notched up great times too, giving us a total time of 04 hours, 09 mins and 14 seconds. Only slightly faster than my solo effort a year earlier.

1st Leg (Me, Leonardo): 1h 14m 28s (01:14:28)

2nd Leg (Caz, Donatello): 55m 55s (02:10:23)

3rd Leg (Anna, Raphael): 1h 19m 11s (03:29:34)

4th Leg (Miller, Michelangelo): 39m 40s (04:09:14)


Well done team! See you next year.



We raised over £700 for Medecins Sans Frontieres

To donate!! Click here:
www.justgiving.com/ninjasgo

Flagey 6k

24th May 2009

Exactly one year on from my triumph in the Edinburgh marathon, I signed up to run a 6k run in my new hometown, Brussels.

Walking down to the race, alone in the sunshine, I felt strangely nostalgic, remembering all the races and the preparation that I did last year and how great the Marathon Day had been.

The Flagey 6k race started in Brussels' famous Place Flagey, home to a very cool arts centre and cinema and also to Cafe Belga, a hang out for cool kids and one of the only places I have encountered in the city that doesn't have table service.

Before the start there was a great carnival atmosphere and a group warm up which involved a lot of jumping up and down, making me pretty sweaty before the race had even started...

A whistle sounded and off we went, through the blow up start line and around the Ixelles Ponds. The route comprised of two 3k loops.

The Étangs d'Ixelles are two long, skinny ponds separated by a narrow strip of road. It was hot and running down one side of the lakes we were going up hill and directly in to the sun. Not good, especially on the second lap.

At the base of the lakes, the run took us through the grounds of the Cistercian Abbey de le Cambre, founded in 1196. The gardens are immaculately manicured and part of the building now housees a visual arts school, while some of the other bits are used by the Belgian Geographical Society.

The finish was great, running through the blow up arch, directly on to the Place Flagey. There was a live band playing covers of The Beatles' Back In The USSR and a stand selling beer for Eur1.50. I was tired, but I got to thinking I could get used to running in Brussels...

Ran: 6km in thirty minutes and 41 seconds

Loot: VERY IMPRESSIVE: Pink rose (gotta love The Continent), running magazine (useful for future races), Vivaqua sports water (new to me), Eur15 voucher for Brussels running shop, microfibre headband

Visit the web page of the event

You can see my time, by clicking here

The Edinburgh Marathon - 26.2 miles

Sunday 25th May - D-DAY

And so it's over. I can't really believe it. But I do have the medal, scars and achey muscles to prove that I did run 26.2 miles on Sunday.

The start was fantastic. I'd walked to the pens with my friends and I felt really excited. The first few miles are through the centre of Edinburgh, down past the now-iconic parliament building with a fabulous view of Arthur's Seat - the peak of a group of hills which sit in Holyrood Park on Edinburgh's fringe.

The route then winds out of the city centre towards seaside resort Portobello and down the coast through a number of small towns before reaching the beautiful Gosford House where it turns back on itself for the last eight miles or so, to finish at Musselburgh Race Course.

At the half marathon stage in a town called Prestonpans I felt pretty good. I'd paced myself properly and I was running well.

The going got tough somewhere between miles 16 and 17. I ate 2 paracetamol, anticipating the pain to come.

That was wise. I started to feel the burn around mile 19. It was getting hotter, I was tired and my legs were aching. But I knew I had less than ten miles to go.

From mile 21 onward it's pretty much a blur -- I can't really remember much other than really, really wanting to get to the end and not allowing myself to stop running. All around me people were walking, stooping over and vomming in the road. My legs felt as heavy as lead.

As the Musselborough Racecourse came into view I picked up a little bit. The crowds thickened, knowing that soon I'd be able to stop. Crossing the line felt funny. I stopped moving and my legs turned to jelly. It didn't seem real. I'd finished in 4 hours 10 minutes, a time that made me very very happy.

My legs have been stiff for the past few days and I've got a little bit of rubbing around where my sports top was, but all in a escaped relatively unscathed.

A man dressed as spiderman broke his own world record, for the fastest costumed Marathon, finishing in an incredible 02:49:50.

Ran: 26.2 miles

Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes, 21 seconds

Ate: A lot of jelly babies, one disgusting gel, 2 paracetamol

Drank: Ridiculous amounts of water and lucozade sport

Felt: Hideous for 2 full days afterwards

Finally: A huge huge thank you to all my friends and family who came to watch, I really wouldn't have made it round without you there, you were incredible.

The London Marathon - Blood, Vaseline and Blisters

Sunday 13th April

The London Marathon


Watching the London Marathon was at once inspirational and frightening. The reality of what your body goes through was striking, as was the obvious difference between the people that were well prepared and those who really, really weren’t…

Our first stop was between Miles Eleven and Twelve, at Bermondsey. Torrential rain notwithstanding most people were looking fairly chipper. There were a few good costumes, a few bad ones and some crazy folk who'd chosen not only to run more than 26 miles but to do so pretty much in the nude.

Freshness left us at our next stop: Mile Twenty-Four. This was marathon running laid bare. Probably one of the most gruesome points you can stand at. Sodden, tired, bloody: the runners were really feeling it. Attendants handed out Vaseline and Lucozade, dignity didn't play a massive role.

Gordon Ramsay sailed by looking fresh as a daisy. He was running the marathon for an impressive ninth-straight time. We also spotted Castaway has-been and Atlantic rower Ben Fogle, a giant Cornish pasty and a group of six Maasai warriors from a village in northern Tanzania, who were running in jangley flip flops.

Kenyan-speedster Martin Lel set a new course record this year, completing the course in a staggering 2 hours, 5 mins and 16 seconds and chalking up a pace that's waaaay under a five minute mile.

My friends completed in times ranging from 3 hours and 42 minutes to 5 hours and 7 minutes. WELL DONE EVERYONE.

Inspired I ran just over four miles in the evening: around Battersea Park and along the river a little bit.

Fact: London's marathon course is the only one in the world to take in both the east and west hemispheres, crossing the Prime Meridian in Greenwich.

ASICS Kingston 8.2 Mile Race

EIGHT WEEKS TO GO

Sunday 30th March

A mile is longer than a kilometre.

Not rocket science I know, but something I became acutely aware of this morning.

Most of my training thus far has been done in kilometre denominated races: You run, every so often a sign pops up telling you which kilometre you're at. Psychologically it's quite comforting and - when you're running in kilometres - it's never too far until the next sign.

Cut to rainy Kingston at 7am on a depressingly-grey Sunday morning. In real terms it was 6am because the clocks went forward last night. Eighty-percent recovered from a knock-out bout of Winter Vomiting Illness, and after five straight days without running, I had - perhaps foolishly - decided to get back in the game at a 8.2 mile "breakfast run" in south west London.

Got off to a slow start in a bottle neck. Forced to dodge way too many obstacles in Kingston town centre (Not cool, Mr. Race Organiser). Became distressed at lack of distance sign posts. Realised a mile is a lot further to run than a kilometre, hence lack of signage. Splashed about in some mud. Ran along the river (pretty), then along the road (not so pretty). Handed free lucozade. Finished. Handed more free lucozade. Became stuck in long queue to give in bar code (Again, not cool.) And another to pickup bag (Ditto).

Maybe it was the weather or the rude early start or perhaps it was my mood or lack of health, but I didn't enjoy the Kingston run as much as I'd hoped. Granted, part of the course goes along the river and past Hampton Court Palace which is pretty, but the thrill of that is soon eroded by the drudge of running the final two-thirds of the race along major roads. Not good for the lungs or the knees. And the organisation could be better: there's no accurate timing, no clocks along the way and at the finish you're required to rip off a bar code and queue up in a funnel system so that your place in the race can be recorded. Which seemed to take forever. Bah humbug. Overtired. Going to bed.

Ran: 8.2 miles in one hour and fourteen minutes

Loot: Novelty Mug (much respect), ASICS Branded Pen, Organic Dark Chocolate, Banana, Honey and Oat Snack, LOADS of Lucozade

Really Dreadful Pictures:

www.sportcam.net/photos/0804010747/0/pv_BRE08_5193x015604.JPG

www.sportcam.net/photos/0804010747/0/pv_BRE08_5193cx013216.JPG

www.sportcam.net/photos/0804010747/0/pv_BRE08_5193x002182.JPG

Highs: Running along the river, Finishing.

Lows: Queuing to finish, grim porter loos, moody women in the bag drop, lack of proper time checks.

Ate:
Porridge with banana
Honey and oat bar (in race goody bag)
Hot cross bun
Chicken and avocado sandwich (yum)
Mint choc chip ice cream cone
Hot chocolate
Pineapple chunks
Pasta with courgette, tomato and bacon sauce

Stanwick 10K Road Race - Easter Monday

9 WEEKS AND COUNTING

Monday 24th March

Madness is... getting out of bed at 7am on a Bank Holiday Monday.

Utter madness is getting out of bed at 7am on a Bank Holiday Monday in sub-zero temperatures, dragging your entire family an hour in the car to a village you've never heard of and completing a 10K race over undulating terrain.

And so my marathon journey took me to Northamptonshire village, Stanwick, and its annual Easter run. It was cold. Numb feet and blue arms at the start line. Much debate over whether or not to wear jumper.

Started as well as could be expected on an incline. Spurred on by sighting of Grandpa at 1K. Mental strength left me at 1.5K when it dawned on me that there was likely to be more than one hill... pretty sure I'd been overtaken by at least 50 other runners by then. Got into stride behind seriously old dude with pale grey mullet, matching sweatbands and tiny shorts. Internalized thoughts. Lots of hills. Sharp incline about three quarters in = upsetting. Downhill finish = serious killer.

Ran: 10K undulating road race in 50 mins and 37 seconds.

Loot: Medal, orange squash, glory.

Highs: Spotting Gramps at 1K, regaining the feeling in my toes at 2K

Lows: Turning blue, getting overtaken by a geriatric

Ate:
Shredded wheat with skimmed milk and banana
Baked potato with beans and cheese
1 slice Cadbury's Easter Cake
Pint of shandy
1.5 glasses of rose
Unorthodox spaghetti carbonara (chicken as well as bacon).