Marathon #11: Birmingham Canal Canter Marathon

Number 11 is done! What a great day, one of the best so far. I hadn't really done too much training this week as have been a bit distracted by other things, and hadn't really thought too much about the run either (other than the well advertised cake refreshments, of course), I was more looking forward to seeing my Mum and Dad and Andrew.  Once I got home though, and my parents had printed all the information and directions for the route and we started talking about it, I soon got focused and excited!

The event is organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association, and I've never done one of their events before. So the routes are organised for walkers, but often they let you run them as well if you want, and there are different distances you can do, so today there was 18 miles (which my Mum and Dad walked, and Andrew ran) or 26.2 miles (me), which was the 18 mile route (a big loop), with a few extra loops added on. I was a bit worried that most people would be walking and not many running, and as the route isn't really marked you need to navigate it yourself, although you do get given instructions, so I was worried that considering I have got lost on a couple of (well!) marked runs already, that this might not end well!

My fears were unfounded though, as there were loads of people running, hurrah! So at 9.30 am we all set off. For the first few miles it was quite busy and it was a great group of people to run with, a lot of camaraderie and joking going on. The first few miles were also pretty complicated, navigating wise, so it was good to be in a big group together to figure it out!

After a few miles the 18 mile and 26 mile routes split, and as I was at the front, we mostly ended up going in the wrong direction for our distance, oops. After turning around and successfully making it through the next couple more miles we finally made it onto the canal towpath for an easy few miles. Checkpoint 1 was at about 7 miles and I ran into (literally) my parents just before it! Checkpoint 1 was also in a pub, I've never been IN a pub on a race before! It improves it, I have to say.

There was porridge and cereal and all manner of breakfast goodies to be had, but I wasn't hungry so grabbed some squash and sweets and headed off apprehensively on my own. After a mile or so I saw a familiar looking figure in the distance. It was a guy called Brian Mills, who I have spotted on a few of my runs this year. He is a bit of a legend in the running world; he is going for the record of the first person from the UK to run 1000 (!!!) marathons. I think this was his 926^th and he’d already run over 40 this year so  I felt a bit stupid telling him about my 13, which he’d probably done by the end of January, but he was very nice about it, and a really interesting guy.

Checkpoint 2 at 13 miles (halfway!) was sandwiches and pineapple. Then I saw on the instructions that it was only 4 more miles to Checkpoint 3 which was the cake competition, so decided to push on again by myself. Feeling a bit more confident about running by myself, having made it to half way without any major navigational errors.  

The next part was more through the middle of Birmingham, through the Gas Street Basin, which felt a bit precarious on my own, but there were some walkers about which gave me confidence and I made it through! 

My Dad, near the Gas Street Basin

The next part confused me as there were runners coming in the opposite direction, but it turned out they were just a lot better than me, and were heading back from the part I was about to do. Sigh. The next part, around the Soho Loop, was completely terrifying and I thought I was actually going to die like in a horror film at any point, running along the back of creepy derelict warehouses, complete with a cast of weird people at various points. Then Checkpoint 3 appeared; wooop, cake time! I decided to go for a double hit of sugar and caffeine with a chocolate and coffee cake, nom nom!

The next part went back to the Gas Street Basin and through some more dodgy parts through tunnels, but then I caught up with another runner and we ran the rest of the way together. Two more checkpoints to go, one including trifle. Trifle!!!

The sun came out for the last few miles, and I finished in 4:44 in the sunshine :-)  Dead pleased with that. I really enjoyed it a lot, very different to the big city runs, but I enjoyed it even more. Really felt like I’d achieved something by navigating it myself, and as I wasn't at all bothered about what time I did, I just chilled out really and stopped at the checkpoints and if I was unsure where I was, and I met some really lovely people along the way and had some interesting conversations which have made me think about what I'm going to do after 13 in 2013 is over....

Afterwards there were baked potatoes, tea, bananas and custard. I will definitely do some more of these, great fun!

Andrew did the 18 miles in 2:35 and my parents in 5:40. Bravo!

One more sleep till marathon # 11.....

....eeek, how did that happen?!

What a week! I have moved to Leeds and started my dietetics course. I'm still feeling slightly dazed and confused about everything, but I think it's all good so far!

I have joined a new running club in Leeds, so have met some new people there and am learning some new routes around and about the city. The tennis club where it's based has a sauna which I am quite excited about, seems like a good way to warm up after a winter run!

This week I have just done two runs, a 10km on Wednesday and a 5km today. I accidentally broke a record on my watch today by running my fastest mile, 7.25min/mile.... not sure if that's a good idea the day before a marathon or not, but never mind! I also realized today that tomorrow isn't a marathon distance, but is longer at just over 27 miles. So, it will be my first ultra event! It's also a mostly self navigated route, so has big potential to be longer than is should be, as I am navigating, and can't. If I'm not back by evening, send help.

Just setting off now to stay at a hotel nearer the race tonight. Weather is looking good for tomorrow. Mum Dad and Andrew all coming along too. I've made some team biscuits (we'll need the energy, right):

Trainers packed, so let's go! 

Change of plan....

....my relocation to Leeds has resulted in a last minute change to the line-up of the final 3 marathons!

My next race was next weekend, the New Forest Marathon, which I've wanted to do for years and was very much looking forward to.

But it takes about 7 hours (?!) to get from Leeds to the New Forest on a train and costs a fortune, which doesn't fit in with my new student ( :-( ) budget (still adjusting to this!)....

...but fear not! My Mum got on the case and had two plan Bs before I had even noticed there was a problem, and so Marathon #11 will now be (drum-roll).....The Birmingham Canal Canter!

This looks very exciting I have to say. It's organised by the Long Distance Walkers Association, who if I may say so, seem to be a group of people with their priorities in the right order. The focus most definitely seems to be on the refreshment side of the day, I have been instructed to bring a mug (for tea stops) and at Checkpoint 3 there is a BAKING COMPETITION! This sounds altogether a splendid 'race'.

Be prepared for a Personal Worst on the time-front. I've factored in an extra half hour for Checkpoint 3 alone. 

Exciting!

The last two races will stay the same - Chester and The Spooky Halloween Challenge as they are both oop north :-)

Marathon #10: The Thames Meander Marathon: the one in the RAIN

Well, first of all, apologies for the lack of blogs for the last couple of weeks! Things got a bit mental following the last marathon......went away for Andrew's birthday, moved house (sort of twice!) and finished my job!

So, I am now sitting down taking a deep breath and taking it all in :-)

The Thames Meander Marathon was brilliant, everything I was expecting it to be! Been looking forward to it all year, but was feeling quite worried after my last (terrible) performance in Salisbury! The day began with a gentle patter of rain against the window, which threw me a bit as the forecast a few days ago had said it would be really hot, but I obviously should have checked back, oops.

Andrew came to do the half which was great! We started off together, but he ran off straight away to run an awesome 1:44:25!

I really enjoyed the route, it’s one I’m used to and I felt comfortable running there. The other runners were really friendly, I’ve never had so many comments on my running top before (which says what I’m doing), and I met several people doing similar things, and even one lady also doing 13 in 2013!

The rain was pretty light for the start as we headed through Richmond Park down to the river. Had a little mishap at mile 3 when I ran into a post, and for a moment thought I might have cracked a rib, but seemed alright, so carried on!

The river looked like a rainforest with the misty warm rain rising off the river in the trees. Held back a bit for the first half along the river back to Putney (very tempting to stop and go back home at half way!). Had some drinks and sweets at the checkpoints to keep the petrol tank full. Half way was at Putney Bridge, so we ran over the bridge to the half way checkpoint and got entangled with the football crowd going to the match at Fulham FC. Half way flapjack celebration, then decided I actually felt pretty good so decided to go for it on the way back.

Felt brilliant on the way back. As we left the river to go back into Richmond Park about 4 miles from the end, the sky went yellow, and then it went dark, and then the rain began lashing down with a terrifying fury. Wowza! It was quite a dramatic atmosphere and coupled with the fact I knew I has almost made it I really enjoyed it! As I ran up the final hill to come out of the park, a huge stag was stood at the top reaching up to eat the branch of a vast old tree, and the rain lashing down and the strange yellow darkness behind him, it was one of those moments when you fully appreciate how beauty and power nature can be.

So, back for the last mile to the finish line, which resembled a river by this point, and across the line in 3:55:11.

Off for a shower (a proper one), spaghetti bolognese and then off for a weekend in the van for Andrew’s birthday.....to Wings and Wheels and a van birthday cake...

Marathon #9: The Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 - the tough one

I am afraid to say that this post is likely to turn out to be one long indulgent passage of feeling sorry for myself. In short, I had a bad, maybe even my worst, marathon! So if you would like to be spared the gory details, that's all you need to know, basically. 

Gosh, how dramatic. Yes indeed. And so unexpected! I was looking forward to it, and I seemed to feel on form beforehand....

We drove to the New Forest on Saturday, and the campsite seemed to be nice, it even had separate areas for 'couples' and 'families' so well, I thought it might be quite quiet and relaxing. Only the tents were all very close together so the couples area was separated from the family area and the nosiest family in the world by only 20 feet of clear noise-conducting air. Also, my alarm clock on my phone is birds singing (an attempt to wake up in a relaxed mood each day), which turns out to be actually a very accurate reproduction of a real bird singing, and even more, of an actual bird living in the hedge by the campsite. And so, I woke with a start at 4am, confused as to why I could hear my alarm, but it wasn’t going off. Sigh.

Even if not very well rested, I none the less got up with the excited feeling of anticipation I always get before a race. Which is good on the one hand, because a bit of nerves/excitement helps with your running, but on the other doesn't help so much with managing to eat very much at your last carb loading opportunity. 

The race started at Salisbury Fire Station and is held to raise money for the Fire Fighters Charity. After picking up our running numbers, we saw the ultra race start (50km!) and then we had a bit of time to get ready and head to the start....

It all started off very well. The first hill wasn't long in coming, Old Sarum where the old castle used to stand, and as we ran up it some parachutists were floating in the sky above.

I remember I enjoyed the first 11 miles. It was fun counting the 5-4-3-2-1, especially the hills, to start with, until we counted 4 within the first few miles, then I was hopeful for a while that we might have done them all already. But then as we kept going up more and more I gave up on the counting. Better not to know these things. Realised at this point that have started far too quickly for a course like this, but too late to do anything about it now. The 5 rivers part was lovely, so pretty, still waters with green fronds of weeds beneath the surface looking like the silky hair of a green river monster. 3 country estates were very nice!  One especially had a huge archway of tall trees framing a lane through the estate. Just like in a picture! 2 castles were very exciting. 1 cathedral was right at the end and a bit of a let-down, but more on that later.

After around 11 miles, we climbed over a barbed wire fence (not sure what happened to the path there) and into a field of cows. Horror!! You may or may not know I have had some close run-ins running past cows in the past. Well, everyone else is running past them so I can’t very well turn back. Deep breath. Ugh, cow poo air. Phew. They are so uninterested. Having made it through the cow field, we came out into a huge, and I believe ‘rolling’ is the term used, field. I glanced at my watch (it’s a bad sign to start glancing at your watch at 11 miles) and the ensuing ‘rolling’ lasted a whole mile. This I noted was the definitive point at which I started to lose it. I think, this field reminded me very much of a field that used to be in a race that I did every year when I ran with Southampton Running Club. The clubs were quite competitive in that series of races, and everyone was encouraged to run their best every time, and this particular race I had never liked and always used to get worked up over it. And as my feet hit the ploughed soil over and over, upwards and upwards, the sun beating down, all my old demons and doubts reappeared. As well as a blister on the ball of each foot. Nice.

At the top of the hill and the next checkpoint at about 13 miles, there was flapjack! Joy! This buoyed my spirits for a whole 3 miles, before I sank into an almost depression like state again at around 16 miles which lasted for the rest of the race.

I really found it the toughest yet. I was just all over the place, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t remember why I was doing it, and I has no desire to finish which is a feeling which I have honestly never had before. Every time my feet hit the ground it felt like my feet were on fire, all I wanted was to take off my shoes and sit down...

...Then came the thirst. I hadn’t taken any water with me, as there were plenty of checkpoints along the way. But, as in most smallish races, water is provided in cups not bottles, so you can really only drink as much as you can once at the checkpoint, can’t carry it with you. I knew this, and should have taken some with me as well, but of course I’m an idiot and didn’t. After all of my work on getting my hydration right in the last race and feeling so much better, I am very annoyed with myself!

The last 4 miles went on and on and on.....literally. Coming back into Salisbury there was only 1 mile on my watch left to go. And I felt so bad that I couldn’t even comprehend how I could run a mile, I literally felt that I wouldn’t be able to do it. The run through Salisbury wasn’t too enjoyable, the signposts were pretty poor, and there was no one else in front of me or behind, and running past the cathedral it sounds a bit silly but I almost had a panic attack because there were crowds and crowds of tourists and I couldn’t see where to go, and I was having trouble concentrating on what was going on. One way or another I made it through the crowds and back onto the river path, and Andrew came up behind me (as we had got separated a few miles back, but he had recently had some Powerade to power a sprint finish), so then a relaxed a bit. So we kept going on and on, and finally we finished.....

26.7 miles! 4:20:14, 4^thlady and 37/187 overall.

Big thanks to Norma’s friends who came to cheer us on at the end, really nice surprise!

Lay down in the campervan and felt sorry for myself for a while. Then headed off to have a shower, which was like some miracle cure and I felt like normal again afterwards. Andrew threw-up L Lay down and felt sorry for self for a bit longer. Then found bacon butties which cheered me up no end! And Andrew too J

Better enough after 3 hours to head back to the New Forest for tea in the nicest pub in the world, scampi and chips and New Forest ice cream, and everyone was asking about our medals J

I felt OK until Monday night, but then I guess by being stupid and running too quickly in the heat, up hills and getting dehydrated and not eating anything, I am going to have to pay for it by feeling rubbish for a few days. Sigh. My blisters are getting better and I’m not tired anymore, but I have some weird new symptom of a burning pain in my chest/stomach. After some Google research which freaked me out, it seems the most likely and least scary explanation is heartburn/stomach acid, but I don’t know how that managed to happen! I’m slightly concerned that all the usual things that I was expecting to go wrong this year by running a lot haven’t, no joint problems or pulled muscles, but I am accumulating a collection of other unusual ailments, I’ve trapped a nerve in my shoulder, burst a blood vessel in my eye, and now I’ve done something to my stomach. I’m just going to sit down for a few days I think.

One sleep till Marathon #9!

Blister healed! New trainers excellent. Running in them is like running on clouds :-) And they are white and pink and purple. I like them much more than my old ones which were black. When I first started running a long way, the man in the running shop I used to go to was helping me find a good pair of trainers, and we had narrowed it down to two pairs. I finally made a decision (which is always an effort), and he asked my why I'd gone for the pair I had, and I said well they both feel as good as the other, and I like the colour of this pair better. And I got told off for choosing them for that reason! Ooops. Well, I think it is important to like how they look as well, I spend a lot of time in them! And, I am pleased to say that my decision was right, because I still wear the same type now!

Easy rest week this week with some small local runs in the park:
Mon: rest
Tues: rest
Wed: 5 miles 
Thurs: rest
Fri: 4 miles
Sat: 2 miles

Feeling good and looking forward to the Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 tomorrow....
5 rivers
4 hills
3 big country estates
2 castles
1 cathedral

Camping on the New Forest tonight! Have made some granola for breakfast and have pasta supplies for tonight, so all set......

I bought some sunflowers from the flower man this morning. My Auntie loved them, and we all took them to her funeral, and then she wanted us to keep the seeds and then scatter them wherever we liked, so that there would be lots of new sunflowers growing in new places. I had an accident with my sunflower when I was trying to dry it's seeds on top of the fridge, and it fell behind the back and the seeds exploded all over the floor and got lost under the fridge. Sigh. So now I have 3 new ones :-) I'm looking at the seeds in the middle of the flowers though, and they don't look like sunflower seeds that you buy in shops that you can eat. But maybe they're from a different type of sunflower. Anyway, I'm sure it will be fine. 

Blisters...

...so much for the new trainers! This had better be a breaking in period. 

Wed: nice run home after a rubbish day reviewing accountability logs. Am going to miss running home through London past all the famous landmarks. But then I suppose I won't miss the commute on the tube for all the days I don't run home! 9.6 miles, done.

Thurs: 5 miles before work. Felt really awake that early which is unusual! Wanted to keep running, in the general away direction of work, but, got to be done I guess. And wine tasting tonight with Becca and Hilary! I think red wine is good for your heart. Well, a bit is maybe. Nice to relax and catch up :-) Am inspired by the general fitness enthusiasm of out little group - Becca has joined a gym and Hilary has just done the 'Welsh 3000s' - 15 peaks in 24 hours! Amazing! Looks completely impossible and mad and I want to do it too. Interesting, I'm pretty sure that I must feel a bit awful for some parts of some runs, but even if I remember there being some bad bits, I don't think I remember how bad, and my overall memory never involves and discomfort. Hilary said that the same happened for her challenge. And  I remembered a book I read once about running, and our brains are sort of wired forget any discomfort experienced from exercise. When our ancestors were living out in the open and they would have to travel continuously sometimes for days and days on end to hunt and gather food, it wouldn't be a survival advantage to remember the next day the discomfort experienced the day before. So our brain protects us from it, so we could carry on. 

Fri: Rest. Not sure about the red wine hypothesis. I've found that drinking even a little bit makes me feel so tired if I run the next day. Travel to Hurley Riverside Park campsite for the weekend!

Sat: morning 5 miles run along the river before granola breakfast in the van

with a friendly Robin!

I really love you River Thames! I am sure that not all of it is really this beautiful, but so much of it is so idyllic, and even the bit through central London is great to run along, so much going on, easy to see why a city was built around it. Wind in the Willows is set around here! Mr Toad, hello! The perfect place to mess around in boats.

Sun: 2 hour run along the river again, past Marlow, when I'm rich I'll buy a second house here definitely. Maybe Toad Hall. BBQ lunch at the Flower Pot Hotel, which is very pretty, full of stuffed animals, but is a proper little country pub with it's own fat little dog :-)