Phew! That's a relief!

I thought that I couldn't run any more!  I was starting to get really rather distressed about this!   I've had a tough few weeks, physically and mentally.  I ended up going to the doctor for some medicine that really didn't agree with me, although it took me a while to realise that it was the medicine that was causing the problem.

Running, for me, is a great source of relaxation.  A time to get outside and think things over, or not think of anything at all apart from the rhythm of my feet as they hit the ground and the beat of my heart as it pumps the blood around my body.  In times of stress my first instinct is to grab my running shoes and hit the road.  So, having hit a rough patch this is just what I did.  Only to find that I could only stagger about half a mile before needing to stop, catch my breath and recover before ploughing slowly on.  Every breath felts as though I were breathing through a marshmallow, and my legs just refused to respond.  2.5 miles into a 3 mile run (and I had to get to 3 miles to pick up the car to come home) I stood by the road feeling absolutely shredded.  I have run half marathons at a much faster pace and felt better after them.  I had no idea what was going on, but was almost in tears about the whole thing!

I'd stopped taking the drugs the previous day, but obviously they were still whizzing round my system. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to complete a 5km parkrun yesterday morning, so when I remembered that a friend was coming along, and that her 5k time was slower than mine I jumped at the chance to run with her.  She may think that I was encouraging her along, but she was my life line and kept me going.

As it was, the weather was cold and bright - lovely running conditions if a little slippery underfoot.  I was still nervous as the run director completed his briefing and led us all to the start line.  Once we set off the nerves dissipated somewhat, helped by the gentle downward slope for the first kilometer.  I told my friend that she was in charge of the pace and I would run at her speed (all the time thinking "I hope she doesn't go off too fast, I won't keep up and will look a right twit!") but I needn't have worried.  We set off at a nice steady pace.  We hadn't seen each for months, so there was lots to catch up on and, as those who know me will testify, I can talk for NATO!  At the back of my mind I was thinking 'I'm running!  My legs work!  My chest feels fine!'  I could have run the whole way easily!

With only 66 runners I can see how it might be discouraging for slower runners if they were there on there own.  At the first Alice Holt parkrun there were over 150 runners, so that feeling of running alone (and wondering just how close to the back of the pack you were) wouldn't happen.  I am sure that as this parkrun grows in popularity this will cease to be an issue.  As for my friend, when she turned up she told me that her 5k time was around 33minutes, well, she smashed that one yesterday, coming in with a time of just over 31 minutes on a challenging course.  I see a sub 30 minute time in the very near future for her.  She really did dig deep yesterday, pushing herself round.

This morning, the nerves returned a wee bit as I had planned a 9 mile run to meet Husbando and No.1 Son for breakfast.  It was very icy and as I started out I began to notice that my chest was tight.  I also realised I was thinking about work, that I'd spent a lot of recent runs thinking about work.  I decided to consciously think of other things (upcoming films, the amount of Chinese food eaten last night, the content of Seb Coe's autobiography) and the tight chested feeling passed!  It was never going to be a fast run, the road was too slippery to take risks, but it was a beautiful, frosty morning.  A chance to remember that I run because I enjoy running.  That should be reason enough!

(Thanks to Mark Cornwell for the photograph)

Alice Holt inaugural parkrun

About six months ago I answered a request for people to help set up a new parkrun.  It was all very exciting, planning new routes, meeting new people, setting up new Facebook pages and so on.  Sadly, due to work and home commitments, I couldn't play as active a part in the event team as I would have liked, but I still kept up to date with what was going on (as I have admin rights on the Facebook page!) and was thrilled to hear that the event was starting today.  

I'd run a couple of the proposed routes with Martin Bushell (event director) and other members of the team back in June, but I hadn't even looked to see where the official route would take us.  Alice Holt is far from flat, so I knew we would be in for an interesting run.  

This is now my nearest parkrun, being about 4 miles up the road from me, this meant that I could have a little bit of a lie in this morning, getting up at ten past seven rather than seven o'clock!  I chivied the two younger boys into their shorts and trainers, drank a quick cup of tea, transferred my Alice Holt parking ticket from one car to another, checked I had all the barcodes and bundled the children into the car.  Finding a parking place at 8.30am is not going to be a problem at this venue - there are vast pay and display car parks.  Canny locals tell me that there are free car parks a short walk away, but I'm far too lazy for that!

It was lovely to see so many friendly faces at the start.  There were regulars there from Basingstoke and Frimley Lodge parkruns, Chineham Park Running Club had a huge presence on the day, and I spotted several people from the online running community that is Fetcheveryone.  parkrun royalty was represented by Paul Sinton-Hewitt (it is his fault we are all up early running round parks in the first place) and Danny Norman (of 'The parkrun show' fame).   Event director Martin welcomed us all to the forest and did the first of many very successful pre-run briefings.  If he was nervous it didn't show!  

And then we were off!  The start is nice and wide, with a gentle downhill slope for the first couple of hundred metres.  'Not so fast Freddy' and I fell into step (for a little while) beside a lady with a 50 club t shirt on and we ran and chatted for a while.  We talked about various things running related, and she mentioned that she runs round marathons counting them out in parkruns.  'That's odd,' I said, 'There was a lady on the parkrun show the week before last who said the same thing!'  'That's because that lady was me!' said Louise Ayling! 

The two lap course is lovely, very up and down, but the hills are quite short so you don't notice them too much!  It is a beautiful place to run and I reckon the changing seasons will provide plenty of wonderful scenery.    

It was wet and quite slippery today, Freddy went flying at one point fairly early on, covering his 10 club t-shirt in thick mud.  Strangely (!) he was quite grumpy about the whole thing after that and I really had to cajole/bully/threaten/bribe him round.  On the plus side this did give me time to chat with the wonderful marshals and to take photos!  Another advantage is that if I run it on my own I will easily get a PB!  My other son had run on ahead of us.  

We were only lapped by one person, I do hate being lapped, but was gracious and cheered Danny on!  Danny in turn encouraged Freddy as he passed us (again) on his warm down lap!  I don't think this will ever be a very fast 5k course, even in dry conditions as it is quite undulating with a lot of uneven ground (which was quite 'challenging' for my dodgy foot), but is it a fun course with lots of twists and turns.

Coffee afterwards at The Cafe on The Green was very welcome on a chilly morning.  Lots of chance to socialise, eat cake, discuss the route, eat cake, talk about other parkruns and eat cake.  Actually, the boys both had the 'woodsman breakfast' which was good value at £4.95 each and looked delicious.  The coffee was good too!  

My middle child is planning to do his ESB exam talk about parkrun this year, and was keen to get pictures of all four club T-shirts (and their wearers!) in one place.  Danny (250), Nicola (100),Freddy (10) and an as yet unknown member of the 100 club obliged.  I am very grateful, as is he! 

So, will I change my home parkrun?  Probably not, but I will try to run my local parkrun on a regular basis.  I have one son who loved Alice Holt and one who swears he will never run it again (that'll be because he fell over!) but will happily volunteer!  So to keep everyone, including me, happy (I like a shopping fix after my B'stoke parkrun as well as a gossip with my B'stoke parkrun family) it looks as though we will be visiting Alice Holt occasionally.    If any of my running buddies wants to visit Alice Holt parkrun I am more than happy to meet you there!  

Night running

Last night I went for my first properly dark run of the autumn.  By the time I got home from work it wasn't dusk or twilight anymore, it was just dark. 

I don't like running in the dark, it means that I can't run my normal routes along single track country lanes because there is absolutely no street lighting out there and many potholes!  I am rather fond of having two ankles that function reasonably well most of the time and see no reason to increase the chances of breaking one, or both of them.  Winter evening running means a change of route, I have to turn left, not right, as I leave my road and towards town.  This at least guarantees me pavements and street lighting for most of the route. 

But I still want to be seen.  I'd rather not become a hood ornament on a 4x4, so I make sure that I am wearing a neon yellow top with reflective stripes and that I have a head torch.  My new one is rather clever in that it has a red light at the back as well as an exceedingly bright white one at the front.  I don't like wearing a head torch - it feels odd, and my field of vision is constricted to the illuminated beam directly in front of me, but I'd rather be safe. 

Last night's run won't go down as one of my best ever.  I am pretty sure that one shouldn't wheeze while running, but the remnants of the 'flu are obviously still with me.  Still, I'd had a stressful day at work and mentally felt far better after my run than before.

I ran 4 miles and in that time saw four people riding bicycles without lights.  I know that a lot of cyclists complain about inconsiderate drivers, but these four (who were all adults) really do give cyclists a bad name!  I am sure they would be most upset if they were hit by a car.  I was moving a lot slower than a car and almost ran into a cyclist stopped at a junction.  I thought lights on a bicycle were a legal requirement after dark, but maybe I am wrong.  If they aren't required by law then common sense says it is pretty obvious that they are sensible!  Mind you, none of these people were wearing cycling helmets either....

Running free?

You may or may not have noticed that I quite like running.  I've been through periods where I've not been running well (I'm going through one of those at the moment) but even when this happens I hate not running more than I hate running.  In the 4 years since I started running I seem to have taken the blame for a fair few other people getting the running bug.  I quite often wax lyrical about the fact that running is a cheap activity.  Most of us own a pair of trainers and some sports wear.  All you need to do is lace up the trainers and step out of your front door.  No gym subscription vanishing via direct debit every month (whether you manage to make it to the gym or not) - what could be simpler than that?

But it isn't quite that simple is it?

Once you start getting more involved, dare I say obsessive, about running, you suddenly decide that you can't possibly manage without at least a couple of running outfits.  If you're lucky, you've hit this phase in the summer, and you can pick up a pair of shorts and a tech t-shirt for about £20 each, which makes 'running socks' at £10-£12 look really quite expensive, but you throw them into your shopping cart anyway.  If it is winter, you are probably going to end up with long running tights, long sleeved tops, maybe a running jacket, possibly a hat and definitely some gloves (I have been know to cry tears of pure misery if I've left my gloves at home in the winter).  The cost mounts up and up.

Then there's running shoes.  I've just bought a new pair and it only feels like a couple of weeks since my current pair were shiny and new.  Running shoes last for about 500 miles, and if you run 30 - 40 miles a week, well, you can do the maths as well as I can, the shoes don't last very long at all.  Like most people who run a lot, I don't ever want to find myself in the situation where I have to go on a long run, possibly a race, in new shoes, so I tend to buy a new pair about three quarters of the way through the life of the old pair.  And running shoes tend to be pricey.  Especially if you need shoes that stop you pronating as I do.  I had a voucher for 20% off running shoes today - and still ended up spending £80.  (They are lovely - I can't wait to wear them, but eighty quid for glorified plimsoles....)  Oh, and then someone mentions trail running and trail shoes, so you end up buying another pair of trainers that are destined to be covered in mud in perpetuity, never, ever fully drying out between puddle ridden (but great fun) runs.

Oh, and I almost forgot gadgets.  I do love a gadget!  This could range from a few pence for an add free version of an app on your smart phone to a couple of hundred pounds for a GPS watch and/or heart rate monitor.  If you are running you may as well know where you have been and how fast you were!  It all adds up....

.... and that's before you decide to enter races!  I try to forget how much these races cost to enter as soon as I have submitted my application.  I do know that the Reading Half for next year is £31.50 (for UKAA members) and the Great South Run is £41 (for just 10 miles).  The more high profile the race the greater the cost!  I don't even want to think how much I have spent on entering races in the last few years.

I'd like to apologise to the children and partners of anyone I have encouraged to run for any economies they have been forced to make just so the runner in their family can acquire a must have item (this week's must have item for me was a head torch), you know that running makes them happy don't you? You wouldn't really want them being cranky at home without a nice new {insert currently lusted after running item here} so that you can get the latest X-Box game would you?  Of course not!!

Thankfully parkrun is free!  A weekly running fix that cost nothing (although volunteering at events ins encouraged).  It is also a great way to get some experience of running with other people (in some cases a lot of other people - Bushy Park parkrun has over 800 runners every week), and challenging yourself against the clock and other people!

You live and learn

(Or to quote the late, great Douglas Adams; 'You live and learn.  At any rate you live.')

I signed up for the Great South Run about this time last year, just after I'd run it.  Looking back I don't seem to have had a good time then, and I'd been ill when I'd run it the year before that in 2010.  It seems that I can do the living bit but not the learning!

Of course, when I signed up for this, and forked over my hard earned cash, I hadn't also signed up for a marathon and a half marathon in the same month.  A sensible person would have looked at her calendar, worked out which races she really didn't want to miss and given a place in one race away.  But I've never really been accused of being sensible.

Having decided to go ahead with all three races a sensible person would have factored in some rest time.  I did taper for the marathon, as in my mind my first marathon was very much the 'A' race, but I did not rest afterwards.  Admittedly I did not run on the Monday after the marathon (I tend not to run on a Monday) and I had a sports massage instead, but I did run on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, clocking up 13 miles in total.   This was a mistake.  I would normally take it easy before any race, and while 13 miles in a week is 'light mileage' compared to recent months it was far too much on the back of a marathon!

I was very glad of the extra hour in bed this morning - even if I did have to faff around with the clock in the car - and even though I had seriously contemplated rolling over and going back to sleep when the alarm went, I decided I had to run this race.  I'd been sponsored to do it for UNICEF and so I had no choice!  The forecast was for cold, wet weather, so I grabbed a t-shirt and capri length tights rather than my usual vest and shorts, ate some porridge, drank some tea and jumped into the car to set off for Portsmouth.  I got there early, because I don't know Portsmouth and hate getting stuck in traffic and panicking about where to park!  Soon after I arrived, armed with some marking to pass the time, I got a call from friends saying there were there too and suggesting we met up.  Much more fun to chat and gossip in the back of the CPRC minibus than mark year 11 biology papers on my own!

It was cold at the start, and we suffered the madness of an organised warm-up session.  When you have over 22,000 people crowded together in the road getting them to jump about is a bit comical!   Luckily I was in the orange wave, so didn't have to wait too long to start.

The race was as crowded as last year, with bottlenecks close to the beginning.  I think I lost my timing chip around this time.  Someone stepped on my foot - it hurt - and I think the chip came off then.  I didn't notice it was missing until much later, around the 8 mile mark so I can't be sure.  I started slow, and stayed slow!  Hitting the perfect pace that would have seen my do much better at the marathon last week!  I knew that this was not going to be a PB race for me, but I was disappointed at just how slowly I was running.  I couldn't run faster, or rather I was very aware that I could run faster but that if I did I was really going to pay for it, either in the later stages of the race or later this week.  And it is half term - I don't want to be suffering during my holiday!  It did seem nice and short.  Once I'd settled into a pace the miles seemed to slip by relatively quickly.  I was at the 5 mile marker before I felt we'd really got going, it was a relief to know I wasn't going to have to run for hours and hours with my tired legs!

The support was amazing!  I hi-fived every child I could manage, almost falling into the crowd as I jumped to hi-5 as toddler on her daddy's shoulders!  Such a difference from last week - there I was running on my own for miles at a time, this week I was dodging other runners for the entire ten miles.

We were lucky with the weather.  The threatened rain held off and it was warm enough once we got going.  Even as we came onto the seafront for the last 1.75 miles it was alright.  This is the third time I've done this race and I've been very lucky.  Seasoned Great South Runners talk about the 'icy blast' that comes off the sea, but I've not noticed it!  I'd noticed by now that my chip was gone, and was a bit cross, this meant that I would be marked DNF (did not finish) in the results, and I wouldn't get an official time.  I must have looked a bit despondent, at around 800m a supporter of the Chase Hospice team shouted 'Come on UNICEF!' and that gave me the boost I needed to pick up the pace for the last few hundred metres.

As I crossed the line I looked up and saw that the time was 1hr 35mins (and some seconds), I think it had taken me a good couple of minutes to get across the line at the start, so my time should be about 1hr 33mins.  Spookily, I do have a chip time recorded.  Someone must have picked it up and carried it across the line for me - it crossed the line in 1hr 34 min 04 seconds!

After the race and the collection of medals and goodie bags I met up briefly with friends before heading back to the car with its lovely warm heater!

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Lots of good running by my friends to day, well done to you all!  Will I run this race again?  Probably, although I haven't signed up for it yet......

I am a marathon runner!

This morning I had a lie in, compared to last week, but I was still out of bed  by 6am.  A quick cup of tea and a bowl of porridge while checking emails  before I collected my carefully organised kit and jumped into the car.  I'd left my race number on the keyboard last night so that there was no way I'd forget it, which is logical, until I moved it to send an email.  I'd only got 5 miles from home before I remembered and headed back.  No matter, I arrived at my friend's house at the right time, and was welcomed by his gorgeous little boy who had made us paper flowers for luck!

The Abingdon Marathon starts (and finishes) on a track.  It is a smallish race, with only about 1,000 runners.  I had a couple of hopes for the race, one was to finish in a higher position than my race number.  Looking around the assembling runners I began to doubt that this would be possible.  Very fit and fast looking people were running around the track to warm up, while I huddled under my space blanket!  

The race started promptly and we were off.  My aim was to run 10 minute miles, in the hope of coming in at around 4 hours and 20 minutes.  As this was my first marathon, I also accepted that things might not go to plan, and that four and a half hours would be acceptable and, if I'm honest, I'd be happy to finish before the course cut off of 5 hours.

Running conditions were lovely.  Cool and cloudy.  I had only done one short run since last weekend, and I was raring to go.  10 minute miles were proving impossible to maintain.  At about 1 mile in, Rohan came up behind me and told me that I was running at 8.40 minute mile pace.  I knew this, but I couldn't make my legs go any slower.  I needed a hill or something to slow me down.  I ran the first 5k in a respectable parkrun pace, and the first 10k was a season's best time for me.  Oops.  This was not the plan!  I walked through all the water stations in an attempt to slow myself down, and fall back down the field a bit to be running with slower runners.  It worked a bit. 

Around 10 miles I started to get very bored and wondered whether I could be bothered to finish, my foot was sore, but no more so than normal.  With a few notable exceptions (the Fetcheveryone fetchpoint being one of them) there was very little on course support.  The marshals were plentiful and excellent, but compared to big London races, it was lonely out there!  I ran 3 or 4 mile stretches on my own.  As the roads weren't closed MP3 players weren't allowed so I sang a bit in my head to keep myself going.  I also did some tricky maths problems to pass the time.  

The fetchpoint at mile 12 was a huge boost.  I still felt great, but bored, bored, bored!  Here though I got to meet people I've only chatted to online, and two lovely people I don't see often enough!  I was so thrilled to see Colin that I ran across the road to give him a hug. He lifted me clean off the ground!  I also dallied a bit to chat to the lovely Elaine.  You'd be hard pushed to find two nicer people to bump into during a marathon.   I carried on invigorated, and remotivated, but slower.  Which was no bad thing.  

I don't really remember when it started to feel like hard work.  I do know that I was getting slower and slower, looking forward to the water stations as an excuse to slow down, but it was progressively harder to get going again.  At one point I was desperate for a loo.  There were no loos.  I was on an industrial estate, so had to look around for a suitable bush!  Not the high point of my day, especially when I suddenly thought that the industrial park might have more CCTV cameras than the leafy lanes of Hampshire!  The marshals were excellent, encouraging us every step of the way.  Even if they did say, at 22 miles, the finish was 'just around the corner!'

At 25 miles my Garmin battery died.  It was fully charged at the start.  Clearly I need to run faster or get my Garmin serviced.  I hadn't checked my watch for a while so I had no clear idea of what sort of time I was on for.  All I could do was listen to my legs - which were screaming!   My feet had been perfectly dry until I came into the park, where we had to run through a big muddy puddle!  The cold water felt lovely after the initial shock.  

The race ended with a partial lap round the track.  As I passed the '200m to go' sign I decided that I was not content to shuffle over the line and pushed hard for home - a moment that was caught on camera by Colin: 

I finished in 4hrs 23 minutes and 8 seconds, which I am reasonably happy with.  Definite room for improvement, but I feel I can run better and faster if I do this again. 

After the race we collected goodie bags, t-shirts and medals (see below) and had to walk up stairs to exit the track.  At the top of the stairs we were given tea and biscuits, which were very welcome.  The next task was to walk down stairs, carrying a polystyrene cup of tea, biscuit, bag, t-shirt, medal and (in my case) a water bottle!  I think running a marathon was easier than that!  

Meeting up with super speedy friends afterwards, it was reassuring to see the that they too were walking strangely!  We managed to navigate our way to a Pizza Express we had passed during our run where we discussed our war stories and demolished pizzas!

So now I can say that I have run a marathon.  Would I do it again?  Yes!  But I would do it differently. I need to work on getting the pacing right so that I can enjoy the latter stages more.  I am so glad I did do it though!  If anyone wants to sponsor me retrospectively for this (I am fundraising for UNICEF) please follow this link!

Sunday in the park with Toria

There was frost on the car when number one son and I left the house just before 7am this morning, but the clear skies boded well for a pleasant day ahead.  We had a clear run up to London, with the music being supplied by my son.  He has excellent taste in music, so we had an eclectic mix of old favourites and up to the minute music I hadn't heard before.  We were only driving because trains on Sunday don't start early enough to get into London, rather than try to find a parking space near Hyde Park we dumped the car at Hammersmith and took the tube in to Knightsbridge.

The park was heaving!  It seemed far busier than last year and despite the fact that it was raining last year and sunny this, it was very muddy in the race village.  Despite this, and horrendous queues for the loos, the organisation was great.  We checked our bags, arranged where we would meet up and I toddled off to the start of the half while my son went to wait for the start of the Pulse 3K.

My aim was to treat this as a training run with the added benefit of a medal and a goody bag (and the Royal Parks Half do the best goody bag I've ever had). I should have moved back a starting pen and not started with the 1hr 50min pace runner!  I ran the first 3 miles faster than any parkrun I have run since injuring my foot!

Then disaster struck.  My stomach started to cramp - I needed to find a loo, and I needed to find one pretty fast!  Luckily there were some convenient public loos on the Embankment with the coin operated barriers left open for the day.  There was the inevitable queue, but these loos were much nicer than the port-a-loos at the start of the race.  Sadly this was not the last comfort break I would need to make.  As we turned into The Mall I ducked into the Mall Galleries and cheekily asked to use their facilities, and there were two more stops needed in the park.

The running itself was tough.  My splits weren't great, I'd gone off far too fast and that dodgy tummy wasn't helping.  I was breaking in new(ish) trainers for the marathon and my feet did feel a bit odd.  They are the same make and model as last time, but it felt as though there was a seam across the ball of my foot.   Support on this run is generally great.  Lots of charities and lots of relatives cheering like mad, but there is a 'dead zone' in miles 9 through 11, which is made up of several, long, straight paths through the park.  This was tough last year, but was soul destroying this year.  To try to overcome my misery, I decided to talk to other people who looked like they were struggling even more than I was.  It worked, a bit!  After the race another UNICEF runner came up to me and said that me saying, as we went down a slight incline 'Let the hill do the work, you haven't got far to go!' really spurred him on when he was about to start walking.

My son, having completed his race 'in about 12 minutes', used the Royal Parks Half App to find out where I was and managed to see me in the final 800m.  With the end in sight, I did manage to up the pace a bit, running the final 450m in 8.12 minute mile pace.  My overall time was 2hrs 02mins and 57 secs - nearly 10 minutes slower than last year!

UNICEF, as ever, put on a great spread for their runners.  The massage was very welcome and much snacking was done by both of us!

I don't feel too achey this evening.  I think the many miles put in over the summer have helped.  Not sure whether it will be enough for the marathon.   I do know that if I have a dodgy tummy it will be impossible!  I don't think I'd even want to start!  I am gutted about my poor performance, while trying hard to be properly pleased (and not just a wee bit jealous) of all my local friends who ran the Basingstoke Half Marathon - they have all achieved FANTASTIC times on a really tough course!

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me via my UNICEF fundraising page.  In two weeks time I will, hopefully, be tucked up in bed having completed my first marathon!