12 Days to go!

12 Days to go!

TWELVE DAYS!!!  OMG!!!

12 days until I’m running the Boston Marathon.

When I started this blog 3 and a half years ago, I’m sure there were many doubters.  4:33 marathon pb, and you want to run under 3:35 in 2.5 years time?  Yeah right!  Good luck with that one!

I’m quite frustrated at the moment.  I really care about people’s health, and that includes mental health and self esteem.  It frustrates me when I hear ‘reasons’ for why they can’t be happy.  Or excuses for why they can’t do stuff.

I’ve set 2 major goals in running.

#1 When I lived in Sydney, working for APS growth, I set the goal to run the London Marathon before I was 25.  I was 22 at the time, I lived in Sydney, I had only done one half marathon before and I had to walk regularly from about 8 miles in.

#2 With the start of this blog, I set the goal to qualify to run the Boston Marathon before my 30th Birthday.

I’m 12 days away from ticking off both.

Here are my excuses:

• I live in Sydney

• I’ve just moved back to London

• I’ve started a new job

• Raising £2500 is too hard (that’s how much I had to raise for my charity place in the London Marathon.

• My dad was diagnosed with cancer

• I’ve just bought a flat

• I’ve changed jobs

• My boyfriend broke up with me

• I want to be promoted (and was)

• I’ve got a new boyfriend

• My dad died

• I’ve just gotten engaged

• I’m planning a wedding

• I’m retraining to be a PT

• I lost my job

• I’ve started a new job

• We’ve just gotten married

• I’ve started a business

Some of these were absolutely devastating, some of these were intensely joyful, and some were a bit, eh?  But despite all of them, I still hit my goals.  And you know what, I think it is predominantly down to running, and working toward these goals that I was able to cope with all these changes in my life.

So, some lessons I’ve learnt along the way:

• Happiness is a choice

• If you are struggling with something, seek help - 6 months after my dad died, I was struggling with believing that I shouldn’t still be crying everytime I thought of him, I found commuting to work and doing the work almost impossible, and actually ran myself into injury - its probably the rest I took that meant I hit a block, but eventually I spoke to my boss about how I wasn’t coping, and he recommended I seek counselling, which I did, and in about 3 sessions, I made huge leaps.  It actually gave me some great skills to handle stuff that’s come up since as well.

• Do the work, like seriously, if you want to be, do or have something, do the work to get you there.  Small actions repeated daily is pretty much all it takes

• Listen to your body - I created a pretty awful string of injuries from running too much when I was an emotional wreck - I didn’t have the strength and so parts of me broke

• Be grateful.  Always be grateful for the blessings that you do have…

And to that end, my gratitude extends far and wide.  On this running journey, I’ve met many people along the way, but also in my non-running journey, I’ve met wonderful people too.

Too many to name them all but I will try to mention some of the really important ones!

• Elle!  My friend from CCHS who is very kindly putting David and I up when we’re in Boston.  I am eternally grateful that we haven’t had to pay for accommodation.  It really did take the pressure off the trip.  2 months ago I was considering not going because our previous plans fell through and it would have cost too much to stay at a hotel with this short notice.

• My Parkrun buddies - its so nice to be able to runchat every Saturday, and be met with encouragement and support :-)

• My RW forum buddies- I’ve been absent lately, but some of these folk have given me such valuable advice over the years

• The Running Community in and around Colchester- Like seriously, I feel like the whole of Colchester is behind me in this!

• 4Networking - a networking group I have been part of for the last 18 months - they have provided an important support network, and again, they are so excited for me to be achieving my dreams of running in Boston

• My Colleagues at Playgolf - Each of the Personal Trainers at YourGym has their own specialty, and they are all exceptional.  They all support me in my running, even though for many of them, running isn’t their thing!

• My wonderful clients.  Your dedication to training and bettering yourselves despite all the things that happen in your lives (see above) inspires me each day.  Added to which, you have shared in my excitement about reaching this goal, and even understand (as many won’t) that running this event is of similar importance to me as my wedding day was - and in fact, its taken far longer to prepare for!

  My friends - you've shared the joys, you've empathised with the disappointments and you were all rooting for me last year at London marathon when I had to run the BQ.

• My family - for putting up with my talking about running, and sponsoring me for events when I did fundraise for them, for example, my first marathon.

• My parents - they taught me that anything could be possible for me, and I truly believe that.  Anytime I think of can’t, I also beat myself up to get out of my own way.  If anything I’m super fragile at the moment, because I so want to tell Dad about my excitement - even though he wasn’t a runner, I know he’d have taken an interest, and probably come to watch as well.  BUT, my mum is taking an interest now, and has even bought me a lucky elephant charm to wear for the race.

• My husband!  Again, for putting up with me.  He’s gotten a bit bored of watching marathons now, but he doesn’t stop me from doing my training.  This goal tool 3.5 years of dedication, and he has let me get on with it, and not gotten in my way (except for asking me to marry him!!)

So, come on Boston.  BRING IT ON!

Soggy

So, yesterday was a key date. 16 weeks until the Boston Marathon. 

I'm not going to lie, my training has been a bit haphazard since the Norwich half.

I spent some time working on my training plan up until the great bentley half marathon in February. The plan is to work on speed together with increasing overall fitness with some time on the rowing machine. And of course plenty of strength work.

Strength work is crucial.  I feel soggy.  I've noticeably lost muscle tone- down to eating as well as haphazard training.

Today, I feel doubly soggy, and in fact sweated through my pjs in the night due to this nasty flu.  Luckily, it does seem like I've had the worst of the symptoms.  Still, it did floor me, so unfortunately, the first few days of my training plan are not going to contain ticks and smiley faces!

Hopefully 2016 will be a less soggy year, both in muscle tone, and in pyjamas! 😷

For anyone interested in what my training week was going to look like:

Monday : core

Tuesday: 6 mile easy, and strength work for legs, chest and arms

Wednesday: 20 min row in morning.  3x300m @10k pace in evening

Thursday: 6 miles steady and strength work for posterior chain and core

Friday: 12 miles easy

Saturday: parkrun 

Sunday: rest

Slightly unorthodox weekend as I'm hosting a running technique workshop on Saturday and a Marathon preparation seminar on Sunday.

Who's started their marathon training already? Hopefully you've had a better start than me...

The time is now

Well... 

Today, I did it!

Today, I entered the Boston Marathon.  

Two and a Half years of work, and it all came down to filling in an online form and paying an entry fee.

Simple right?

WRONG.

It turns out that entries are up on last year.  There are only 5000 places left for us remaining competitors.  At the same stage last year, there were 8000 places left, and 10,000 applied for the spots.  If you were less than 62 seconds quicker than the qualifying standard you didn't make it.

I have 4 minutes 13 seconds leeway- perfect, if I had had that time last year.

Scared!!!

Ah well. If I make it, and even if I don't, I'm in training now.  And the stretch goal I'm training toward is 3:15.... 

This far out its impossible to know how it will go, but my next goal is a London Marathon Championhsip place.  And that means a sub 90 half, or a sub 3:15 marathon...

A little update

Hello all!

I've had a very varied summer of racing, with many highs and lows.  The highs were most definitely coming First Lady in Mersea round the island half marathon, a local multi-terrain race, and coming 3rd overall in the female pairs category at Thunder run 24.  The lows were my 2 triathlons.  Gosfield lake Olympic, and the vitruvian half iron, which both reminded me exactly what it feels like to be chronically undertrained for a race.

anyway, the reason for this blog post isn't to talk about that, but to talk about the Boston Marathon.

Lots of people have been asking me when I'll know if I have a place.  The short answe is not yet, the long answer is to explain the process.

There is a multi-stage entry system, and achieving a qualification time is not a guarantee of a place in the Boston marathon.

Today at 10am EST, entries opened for those who have run a time 20 minutes or more faster than their qualifying time.

On Wednesday, if space remains, entries open for those who have run a time 10 minutes or more faster than their qualifying time.

On Friday, you get to enter if you're 5 minute or more quicker.  Registration then closes on Saturday night.

The following Monday, 21st September, all runners with a qualifying time can enter, and entry closes again on Wednesday [THIS IS MY WINDOW] 

All these windows are about getting the fastest runners in each category, so it's not 'first come, first served', but fastest come, fastest served.

Add to this that BAA must verify your qualifying marathon time for every applicant, we are told that it could be 3 weeks from application to finding out if you have a place.

Having read the FAQs I'm fairly confident.  My qualification standard was sub 3:35, and my marathon time is 3:30:47, so 4 minutes and 13 seconds leeway.   In 2014, you needed 98 seconds leeway, in 2015, you needed 62 seconds leeway.  2014 would have been very popular to show #bostonstrong following the bombings in 2013.

Nonetheless, still, wish me luck :-). And, send me a reminder next Monday!!! ;-)

London Marathon 2015 - did she get a BQ?

It was race morning and the conditions were perfect.  Overcast, grey and drizzly, nice and cool.  Too cold for standing around but not too cold for running.  My husband drove me to Deptford bridge station, and I took the dlr a couple of stops to meet Malcs and Nick at Lewisham.  From here it was a walk to the bench on Blackheath where we were planning to meet some friends from the Runner's world forums.  Unfortunately we were there a bit later than we'd said, so only Sean, Mr P and Helen remained.  We had a quick photo, and then Malcs walked me to the green start.

From being fairly relaxed on the morning, as soon as I reached the green start I stopped being relaxed. Announcements said we must put our baggage on the lorries now, or else, and as soon as I'd done that I joined an incredibly long queue for the toilets.  The green start being smaller than the others seemed the worst provisioned- I never had an issue going to the toilet on the blue or red starts in previous years.  In the queue, my friend Hannah caught up with me and we were waiting together for about 20 minutes, and getting closer to the toilet, but not close enough.  At 5 to 10 we gave up and found somewhere to go discretely.  This was awful for me... I'm terrible at peeing  when people can see me, no matter how much I want to go, and as a result, I don't think I fully emptied my bladder.

Nonetheless we walked over to pen 3 to get ready to start.  Hannah put her headphones in, we hugged each other and wished each other luck.  This experience in the start area really seemed to bother me.  I was annoyed that I had been on my feet for almost 2 hours - usually pre-marathon I sit down as much as possible and stay calm.  When we got going I was surprised that I still felt my pace was being held up by the crowds, especially when the green and blue starts merged.  It certainly warmed up with the greater volume of people.  I knew mile 3 and 4 were supposed to be a bit quicker as they are net downhill, so was looking forward to them to stretch out a bit.  Some people still seemed to brake a bit on the downhills, and then others were using them like me, so still a bit of a feeling of congestion, however, I was pretty pleased that I went through 5k in 24:12, a little quick, but if I kept it up 3:25 would be possible.

I thought once the congestion eased I would start to feel better, but around 8 miles, my left quads started to tighten.  Not quite as severe as cramp, but I had to kick up to my butt a few times and hit my thigh with my hand to ease it.  I wondered about stopping to stretch it, but thought that would start a dangerous downward spiral, so pushed through.  I eased my pace to a sensible 7:55, and tried to hold it here.  Every time the crowds were loud, this spurred me on quite a bit, and I pushed too hard at these times, only to ease off when it was quieter.  Between miles 9 and 11 I looked out for Malcs with his infamous Swiss flag but didn't spot him.  I already knew that today was not a great day for my marathon, so it disappointed me that I didn't get to see him as I could have done with the boost.

I really enjoyed going across tower bridge and shortly before half way I saw a friend, who called out my name! This was brilliant, as I really didn't think I would spot anyone on the course at all now I'd missed Malcs.  I crossed halfway in 1:43, so a couple of minutes quicker than target pace, but I thought that was just about enough time in hand to account for the inevitable slow down in the later stages of the race.  The band was playing YMCA and I joined in with the arm movements... Every time I did, the twinge in my thigh came back again, and I knew that I would have to play it safe for the rest of the race, keep a strong mind and make sure I was on top of my fuelling for the rest of the race.

Mile 15 and Sarah, David and Bernadette gave me a cheer- again a lovely surprise as I didn't know where they were going to be.  There seemed to be less support than usual around the docklands and the route change was a bit more direct, but I wasn't a fan of the uphill ramp at mile 19.  Despite the little niggele in my thigh I started to feel a bit more confident that this was going to be ok, then bang, my right calf cramped, such that it totally messed up my gait.  It was like those videos you see of people getting cramp toward the end of the marathon, and I was only on mile 19.  Time wise I was right on target with 7.2 miles to complete in an hour to get 3:30, however, I had already done 0.2 miles more than the markers at this point.  I didn't factor this into my calculations and I was sure that even if I maintained a 9 minute mile from here, I was still on target.  Herein lies the risk of trying to do these calculations during a marathon, as I was clearly wrong!

The calf didn't feel right.  I felt strong enough to push on, but each time I did my calf cramped up, sometimes for 4-5 steps and I had to consciously point my toes up to stop it so that I could keep on running.  At 21 miles I made the decision to stop and give it a proper stretch.  I didn't want to wallow for too long, but figured this would give me an opportunity to continue.  In truth it didn't last and I couldn't run much quicker than 8:30 without the calf cramping up.  I was so disappointed as I knew that I was fit enough to go a bit faster but because I haven't been doing strength work recently, my calf just couldn't handle the full marathon yesterday.

I knew I was still on target for 3:30 (and in my mind could slow to 9mm still), but the calf cramp was coming more frequently and more severe, such that I might fall over from a strong cramp.  Just after mile 24, I heard my sister call out, I was so glad that she and my husband, brother in law and new nephew had come out to watch and I waved at them but knew if I stopped, this could be it, so I just kept running.  One foot in front of the other.  When they saw me later they said I didn't look good.

I was quite surprised when the blue 3:30 pacer passed me just past Big Ben, and I tried to keep up with him.  At this stage, I had lost the fight and looking at my pace on the watch I still thought I was on for a sub 3:30.  With  400 metres to go my watch said 3:29 and I thought I was just going to make it, but as I passed under the 385 yards to go sign the time flicked over to 3:30. I was crushed!  I had just missed it.  I could have stopped right there, I was so disappointed.

When I crossed the finish line, I was a bit numb.  I had really battled during those last 7 miles and in fact no part of that race felt easy.  I had gotten my BQ, but I had not got my gold or silver goals.

It took my talking to a few friends after to see the positive in this result.  The fact that I have indeed got a Boston Qualifier, and a 9 minute marathon pb.  I know that a few things could have really made a difference on the day, and I will remember these for future goals:

- strength training- I backed off this mid feb in favour of more long runs, but I think more resistance training in the legs was more important than some midweek easy long runs

- trainers- my trainers were really due replacement, and I wonder whether the wear on them caused a bit too much work for my calves 

- on the day, I should have gotten to the start earlier and sat down- kept off my legs

- also the Friday and Saturday I spent a lot of time on my feet which I wouldn't usually in the run up to the marathon

Maybe I'll have more to add in the next few days, but for now... I DID IT!  I achieved my goal and got my Boston Qualifier.  Above, I've been quite critical of myself, but that's exactly how I got the BQ, a belief that I am in control of my results and belief that I could get better.  When I started this blog I had run 2 marathons with a pb of 4:33:57.  Now my pb is 3:30:47 and it only took 2.5 years to get here

Next stop, A half iron triathlon in August, and Of course, Boston next year!

And here are the splits, as you can see, my pace was sub 3:30 pace, I just ran a bit further than a marathon though:

Looking how far I've come

This time of year is really tough for me.  The Boat Races on Saturday were a reminder of what was an incredibly emotional week.  Highs of spending time with family we don’t see very often followed by the lows of the end of a terminal illness.

We watched the boatraces with my Aunty and Uncle who had visited from the States when my Mum was in Nigeria for the 1 year anniversary of her mother’s death.  It was that one that had to be stopped as that chap jumped in the river ahead of the racing crews.  Mum returned home on the Tuesday, and on the Wednesday night, Dad had to be taken into hospital.  I was told when I was already at work on Thursday 12th April, so rushed back home to Colchester knowing this could be the end.  April 13th 2012 was the last day I spent with my dad.  He died on April 14th.

As such, I’m having a pretty shit day!  It doesn’t help that where I’ve worked to build myself up in a completely new industry for the past year has had an unfair card dealt such that our premises will be shutting down at the end of the month, so strangely, running has not been a priority.

The emotion and stress of it all have made all my runs in the last 10 days feel awful.  I’ve had tightness in my glute which seems to be impinging my running form - amazingly that disappeared yesterday after a massage from my hubby.  I’ve been out for runs, and had to stop and walk after only a couple of miles.  Yesterday I ran 8 miles with 3 or 4 quite lengthy walking breaks.  It was quite windy and my paces were ok, but it felt awful.  One person who saw me running said I looked strong, and a customer of my gym told me she saw me looking strong out running yesterday, which further confirms that a lot of this might be in my head.

I’ve decided to write this down for its therapeutic effect.  With less than 2 weeks to go until the London Marathon, the race that is hopefully going to be the realisation of my dreams that I started this blog with, I know that I need to be in a much better head space.

When my clients are feeling low, or disappointed with themselves, I always try to help them look back to see the progress they’ve made, so I’m doing the same for myself.

So, here goes.

When I started the blog, my fastest marathon was 4:33 in Berlin in 2011 - I had an awful year of running after my Dad’s death in 2012, so my next marathon wasn’t until spring 2013 - I ran 4:18 in Halstead, just 3 minutes slower than my goal at the time.  A year later, after applying all I’d learnt by studying nutrition and to being a Personal Trainer, I ran 3:39 in Manchester.  This was a perfect race, where everything went right.  It was the first and only marathon I’ve ever run without stopping to walk at all.

Other race times - my half marathon pb has come down from 1:59 when the blog started to 1:36 a few weeks ago.  10k was 52 (although more like 56 at the start of the blog) and is now 44:06, and my 5k is now 20:52 - it was 24:01.

I’m starting to win awards in races, and was even 4th lady in the Saltmarsh 75- a 75mile ultra marathon.

Weight- my weight has never been a key focus in my training, as I’ve always viewed exercise as a way to stay healthy.  My work in the gym has always been about training to be better at a sport, whether its Rowing, as it was at university, or Running, which I took up when I started working in London, as 12 hour + working days weren’t conducive to team sport, but I wanted to stay healthy.  My personal trainer then was a marathon runner and was fab at prescribing me exercises that would aid my strength in running, which is how I got a 52 minute 10k in my first ever running race.  A PT I had more recently, however, didn’t listen to my goals and assumed weight loss was my goal when it wasn’t - this was the start of my injury problems in 2012 as I was doing way too much high impact and intensity work for the volume of mileage I needed to run for marathon preparation.

However, I know that I was about 65kg (for my height =overweight) when I started this blog and am now about 54kg (for my height a healthy weight -bmi of 21.4).  Whilst weight loss was a focus ahead of my wedding last year, its not a constant focus.  A lot of the change has come from a change in lifestyle - I no longer work a desk job, so I don’t buy a coffee and a muffin every morning followed by lunch out and a snack on the train home to get me through to dinner, and then wine.  (I still have wine!).  I’m much more mindful of what I’m eating and how it will impact on my running.

Training - in general, my training has been much better, until the last 2 months.  It was near on perfect last year as I was focussed solely on running marathons, so I ran and I strength trained for running.  Now I’ve got a half iron triathlon at the end of August, I had been trying to fit in cycling and swimming too, which on top of strength training and running pushed me into symptoms of overtraining syndrome in February, so I’ve cut right back and focussed purely on running again, which is probably why this glute issue developed as I have not been doing enough strength work.

That said, I have achieved some great things in this training campaign.  I’m most proud of my run at Tarpley 20, where I managed to run 4 miles easy/ 4 miles marathon pace, alternating, with the last 4 miles as 2 miles easy and 2 miles race to the end.  I nailed it, with my marathon pace miles being 7:50mm, and my easy miles being 8:30s.  Runs in the last two weeks would make me question whether than was actually me running!

Speedwork has gone well too, with 1ks under 4 minutes, and yasso 800s under 3:15.

Work- well, I’m not working in finance anymore - I’m in charge of my own time and started my own business as a personal trainer.  This is scary and challenging all at the same time.  Whereas I was bored out of my mind working in the City, I don’t find spending time with people, who want to improve their lives in some way, boring at all.  I get a lot out of training people, and rarely struggle to get out of bed in the morning, even at 5:30am!  When I was planning my exit from the City a couple of years ago, I wrote down in a book what I would like out of a different path and what things I wanted to do with my Personal Training and Run Coaching qualifications.  One of them was to have an online run coaching business.  I could see how the things I was learning were benefiting me, and I wanted to help others.  There’s much more to marathon running than just the training plan, and thats what this online coaching business was about.  Well, you guessed it, my dream is a reality: irunsuccess.co.uk

So, with all this down, I feel less like crying than I did when I started writing.  The question I have to ask myself to bring some sanity, is, does it really matter if I don’t achieve my goal at London?  In all honesty, no.  The only thing I can do now to change the outcome is to change my attitude.  If I don’t buck up soon, I’m sure to fail, but if I can remember how far I’ve come, and the good lessons about fuelling appropriately and pacing, as well as making sensible adjustments in case of adverse weather conditions (Heatwave anyone) then I will have done my best, and that’s all I can do.

So, in light of this, the gold, silver and bronze targets….

When I started this training campaign, I was training toward sub 3:20, however, a few hiccups along the way mean I’m sure this is unrealistic, however, I do think 3:25 is achievable, so that’s gold.

Silver is the BQ = sub 3:35  (If its super hot, this is where I need to focus)

Bronze = a pb - so sub 3:39

The quicker you are under the BQ, the more chance you have of actually doing the race as they open up the entries to quicker qualifiers first, which is why I’m not just taking the easy (well its a marathon so never easy) option of pacing conservative for the 3:35.  I want to do my best, and that means quicker than 3:35.

Phew - so this was all about me.  It is my blog, so I’m allowed.  But what can YOU take from it?

Sometimes life is shit.  That doesn’t mean you have to be.  Trust in the training and don’t be shit.

Pacing the Colchester Half Marathon

By now your training is done, you’re into the taper and possibly considering your carb-loading strategy toward the end of this week.  See post http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/fuelling-long-run.html  for tips.

This post is about how to pace the Colchester half marathon.  I’ve done this race twice before, once to race it to full potential, and another running it at Marathon pace in preparation for the Greater Manchester Marathon last year where I achieved my London Good For Age Qualification.  As I live in Colchester, very close to the race start, I’m very familiar with the route and do a decent amount of my training on that route too.  

It is described as a fast undulating course: http://www.colchesterhalfmarathon.co.uk/the-race/the-course/

Because of the route’s unique elevation profile, pacing is not just as simple as pick a pace and stick to it until the end, and here’s why:

Part 1: - A slight incline leaving the stadium into a left turn that takes you down the very steep Mile End Road to the North Station Roundabout.

You are full of energy; its the start of the race; GRAVITY is on your side.  Its a long downhill, and everyone around you is flying.

Use the downhill, but not too much - the danger is you run so fast and put an awful lot of impact through your quadriceps as a result of the downhill running.  Try to relax in your hips, run with the hill, but you don’t need to feel like your foot is on the accelerator here.  Perhaps allow yourself up to 30s per mile quicker than your overall target race pace here.  If you are going at your 5k pace or quicker, you are probably going too fast.

Part 2: - Short sharp uphill of North hill.

I’ve seen another blogger suggest walking this section, however, I really don’t think there is any need for that unless you overcooked it during part 1.  This hill is over before you know it.  Your pace will slow.  If you are able to see current pace, it may be 20-30s per mile slower than your average race pace.  This means you have had a 1 min/mile drop in pace.  This is quite extreme, but its over quickly.

Part 3: The High Street and East Hill

After North hill, the flat High street where people may be cheering- this might encourage you to go faster than you should but bear in mind you are still less than 4 miles into the race.  Use the High Street to take stock and settle into a realistic race pace for the remaining 10 miles.

At the end of the High Street, yet another steep descent of East Hill.  You will really feel this if you overdid it on Mile End Road.  Try to keep the same control as suggested on Mile End Road, but its not as long and not as steep so possibly 10-15s per mile quicker than goal pace.

Part 4: Ipswich Road

The Long one- A Lot of people talking about the Colchester Half Marathon will debate which hill is worse, North Hill or Ipswich Road (they seem to forget that little one in Langham).  Truth is, if you’ve been training in Colchester, you are probably quite used to inclines of the nature of Ipswich Road.  That said, its still an uphill, and it will still affect your race pace.  Its important to keep a level head in this section.  It will feel like hard work, but its sustainable.  Focus on keeping your pace constant for the length of Ipswich road.  There are quite a few sections where it levels off, and rather than pushing the pace on these, you would do better to use those short sections to recover before the next uphill.  I would recommend only a small drop in pace from your average race pace here, perhaps 10-15s per mile.

Part 5 - Severalls Lane out to Langham

The long one is done and its flat until the end.  The thing is, your legs will be tired from Ipswich road, so you may notice the very slight incline over the A12 Road Bridge as you head toward Langham.  This is where some effective self talk is going to help.  You are over half way and this 3rd quarter of the race is where you can finally settle into even pacing.  No need to account for inclines, just focus on putting one foot in front of the other and running at your average race pace.  These roads are not closed, and the country lanes, you either love their tranquility, or hate their repetitiveness.  You have to be alert here, and this is where you may start to notice you’re tired, but still have a long way to go.  All you need to do is tick off the miles.  This is where fast finish long runs during your training will help you to dig deep.

Part 6 - That little hill in Langham, around mile 10

With all the chat about North Hill and Ipswich road, I’m amazed that everyone seems to forget this little hill in Langham.  The change in incline will probably help give your leg muscles something different to do, but I have seen many people stop to walk here, and at this late stage in the race, that could make it really difficult to start and keep running again.  Added to which, there is a downhill first with lots of potholes, which can make the increased speed of downhill running on tired legs incredibly dangerous.  Take it easy, its a short downhill and a short uphill.  No point in worrying about it, as its over before you have thought about worrying.  In terms of pacing, any increase you make on the down will be evened out on the up, so I would just keep to the same effort you have been running the last 3 miles and not worry about changing pace here.

Part 7- Boxted to the end

Not long after that little hill, you are back onto Boxted Straight Road.  You know that the Stadium is just a turn off this road, however, with no more turns to take, this could feel like the longest 2 miles you’ve ever run.  Added to which, there is often a headwind running this section.

If you’ve got something left, now is the time to start pushing the pace.  If you haven’t got much left, use other runners to protect you from the wind  - drafting, so you can maintain your pace.  If you’re running with a friend, take it in turns to run in front to give the other one shelter.  If you’re running on your own (as it is a race), then find someone taller and wider than you, if you can, to get behind and get some protection from the wind.  This only works if they are going at your pace and you are quite close behind them, but it can really take away some of the effort, and allow you to recuperate for a fast finish.

Part 8- The Finish

You’ve run a half marathon!  You crossed the finish line with a sprint finish, and now you’re exhausted, with a great big temptation to just stop moving.  Problem is, someone behind you is sprinting over the line.  Keep moving with a brisk walk, get your medal and goody bag, and get out of the way.

http://youtu.be/YRkvKti3jy8

A little note:

The Pacing guidelines I have given are based on likely finishing times of between 1hr 40 and 2hrs 10.  If you are likely to finish quicker, the deviation from average pace is going to be smaller to run your best.  If you are likely to finish slower, the deviation from average pace is likely to be more.  If you have questions about my suggestions for your own predicted race time, then just message me on facebook or twitter @IRunSuccess and I’d be happy to help.

Finally, good luck, and have a great race!

Brass Monkey Half Marathon Race Report

I have not had a very good start to my running year.  A 20 miler all on road just before the turn of the year seems to have given me an overuse injury in my right ankle.  It's nothing too serious but enough to have stopped me doing any speed work for 3 weeks and have had a fair few extra rest days because of it as well.  Both my sports massage therapist and my sister, a GP have assessed it for anything more serious, but it is simply a case of RICE or MICE until it goes away.

However, I had a half marathon booked in York on the 18th January, and decided the extra rest could be considered tapering for this.  Having not had a good run for a few weeks, I was sorely lacking confidence in the few days running up to the Brass Monkey half, but it was a dual purpose trip of visiting our friends Sarah and Chris- Sarah would be marshalling at the race as it was her club, the York Knavesmire Harriers race.  http://www.yorkknavesmireharriers.co.uk/brass-monkey/

It started a few months ago with a rather swanky race entry system from resultsbase.  This meant waking up to get online at 6am on a Saturday morning to try and get a place.  When I logged in, I had 700+ people ahead of me in the queue!  Unlike some other oversubscribed races, the entry system didn't crash and I was able to pay for and confirm my place in a matter of minutes.  

For those who forget about races they enter it was exciting to then receive my race number and timing chip in the post.  A Facebook post featured, and I hoped that the ankle would heal in time.

Saturday morning arrived and we started to make our way to York, via Oxford as I had a boat club society meeting to attend.  It had been an incredibly heavy frost and the temp guage on my car said -5degC. Luckily I had gone out early to defrost the windows and windscreen, not that it helped much by the time we were ready to drive.  We had quite a slow drive toward Oxford and somewhere on the m25 I realised I hadn't packed my race number!  Face palm.

It's been so long since I'd done a race where the number is sent to you, or a race away from home that the idea of packing the race number didn't cross my mind.  Although painting my nails on Friday night did!

Frantic Facebook messages to the organisers and I got a message to email the results base company who never replied.  I text Sarah and she contacted the race director.  They each gave me some reassurance but no guarantee that there would be some spare numbers in the morning.  I was sure that there would be a solution.

As we continued our drive up to York, the expectation that the temperature would rise diminished, as we drove through several snow flurries.  On arrival at Sarah's the boys watched a football match whilst Sarah and I walked the dog.  We discussed my goals for the race, and I told Sarah that I'd be disappointed if I didn't manage sub 1:40, but in my mind I was really aiming for sub 1:38. Neither of which I was overly confident about as I had struggled to pick my pace up to sub 8mm in my last few runs.

Even with two layers of gloves on for this short walk, my fingertips started to tingle, and when we returned home, my hands and feet were plastered to the radiator desperately trying to reward them whilst Sarah prepared a lovely dinner of spag Bol - perfect pre-half marathon food.  I even broke my dry January for a couple of glasses of red wine with my meal, which went straight to my head!

We all settled down to watch TV and then a movie, but I went up to bed shortly after the movie started to get my pre-race sleep.

Race morning and an early start to get my kit on and eat some porridge.  Another Knavesmire harrier gave us a lift to the race hq, and since they were both marshalling we had to be there extra early, which meant I was the first to arrive to claim a spare number.  All I had to do was give my name, age and a few other details and these would be assigned to my new number.  At least that worry could go away now.

I left it as late as I could to drop my bag and in doing so bumped into Becks, who used to be a regular at Colchester parkrun, but now lives up north.  So funny how small the running world is sometimes.  When you travel so far for a club run road race, you don't expect to see people you know, but I saw another in the starting pen; Caroline, who had been on the 2nd placed Ladies team at TR24 and has a championship place for the London marathon.  She was going for 1:29 and told me off that my target of 1:40 was too conservative.  I agreed but knew my fitness had dipped in the last few weeks.  I knew I wanted to target a 7:30 pace, but ultimately I was going to set off slow in mile 1 and see where my pace settled when I got into the swing of things.

In fact it did settle around 7:30 and my breathing was fine.  I felt like this was a conservative pace but I would stick with it as everything felt comfortable, I wasn't getting too hot with all my layers, but I also didn't feel too cold.  I knew that painful fingers would really ruin it for me, so I was glad of that.  I settled into the pace and at about 3.5 miles the first water station came up.  I was trying my torq energy gels out and so had a rhubarb and custard one to sip on for the next mile.  Unfortunately, shortly after the water station there was quite an icy stretch.  The combination of not being able to get traction and trying to take on fuel meant that my pace slowed quite a bit, but i got it back.  Unfortunately the icy sections came back and there was at least 2 miles where I just couldn't get into a rhythm because of this.  With 1700 runners on the course, I thought they would have been able to grit, but unfortunately not.

I decided to get my head down and make the best of it, but by the second water station Just after half way I was a bit pissed off by it all to be honest.  I took my water cup and walked with it whilst trying a guarana torq gel.  I don't usually get on with the flavour of caffeinated gels, and this was no exception, so the gel pack went down with my water cup.  Luckily, beyond this the road was runnable, and where I saw people slipping and sliding, there was enough mud on the road bank that I could run on this, and get my pace back.  I felt nice and strong, but was passing people all the time and struggling to find anyone going at the right pace that I could stick with.  I suppose the ice affected people unevenly, and looking at other peoples splits and reports of the race this is definitely true.

At 10 miles I still felt really strong, which tells me I took the first part too slow.  When I race a half marathon well I'm usually just trying to hold on from this point on, but it all felt a bit too comfortable.  Of course I didn't want to take my mind off what I was trying to achieve either, and I thought that a 1:38:xx time was still achievable here and if I could ramp it up I may even sneak that sub 1:38 I was looking for.  As I was ramping up, I got bunched in a couple of times, and in the last mile and a half there was quite a big (relative to the rest of the race) hill up over the bridge.  My hill running legs weren't packed so this didn't help my ramp up, and as I tried to speed up for the last mile, my injury decided to say hello by tightening my calf.  It felt like it could have gone into a very aggressive cramp, so I took my foot right off the gas.  Unfortunately, this meant that I didn't achieve my real target, but still managed the sub 1:40.  1:39:22 to be precise, and a pb.

Incredibly impressed that despite my race number faux pas. The result was still texted to me within a minute of crossing the finish line:

After finishing I bumped into Sharon who had an amazing sub 1:35 time! She's running really well at the moment, and when I saw Caroline stretching off, she had achieved a pb as well! 1:28:xx. She certainly deserves her championship place.

I booked in for a quick sports massage as I was quite worried about my calf and ankle, but other than a particularly tight, painful trigger point in the calf, there is nothing serious, so I just need to keep managing it with RICE and MICE.

Having looked at my splits for the race, there is definitely room for improvement.  When I race well, splits stay even unless elevation means they shouldn't.  This was a flat enough course that the splits should have been even Stevens, but they weren't:

1: 7:34

2: 7:29

3: 7:30

4: 7:46 ice

5: 7:43 ice 

6: 7:39 baby

7: 7:40

8: 7:23

9: 7:35

10: 7:28

11: 7:37

12: 7:22

13: 7:30 darn hill and cramp

0.2!!  7:11

Looking back, I also could probably have gotten away without stopping for water.  If I had known it would be cups, I would have worn my ultra vest so I could drink water effectively!  And for a first try in a race, torq gels don't seem to work for me; I think I'm better off sticking with something isotonic, and I will save the torq ones for the bike where I know I can carry a decent amount of water.  A shame as they taste so much nicer and have more natural ingredients.

Me having a pic with the monkey :)

5 mile pb and stabby fingers

Christmas was wonderful, a day of eating and drinking, and the joy that Boxing day would be a lie in!  The Witham Boxing Day 5 didn't start until 11am, so we didn't need to leave the in-laws until 9:50, which meant an 8:30 alarm clock.  Bliss after having awoken at 5 to cook the turkey before church and letting it rest in the car whilst I acoltyed (is that a word?).  But for some reason there were vibrations on the floor, and VERY LOUD MUSIC, like a rave.  WHY??? My one lie in of the year!  My brother-in-law had not un-set his work alarm, so it was 7am wake up instead, and I couldn't get back to sleep for needing the toilet, as much as I tried.

I went downstairs for porridge (not the usual rich breakfast of the Christmas period) and then the left overs were divided between us, so we could all enjoy the fruits of my day's cooking.  We set off on our way to Witham, and I received some good luck texts on the way.  I'm not sure luck was needed, as having never run a 5 mile race, this would be a guaranteed PB.  Race predictors suggested 35 min dead on which I must say I felt was rather closer to my 5k pace (20:53) than 10k pace (44:06) so wasn't sure about that especially with no short distance specific training.  I decided to go for it anyway and started not too far from the start line but got caught behind people who were going at a 9mm fairly quickly.  

I managed to catch up time and eventually finished the first mile on 7:01- it felt neither too fast nor too slow but I wasn't sure quite where to push.  I figured I would just aim for even pacing until about 3.5 miles and used a chap in blue to keep in my sights.  At about halfway I could see a girl I knew, Kate,  she has very recently started running and already managed a 45 min 10k on the day I got that 44min time.  I didn't think I would catch her as she was at least 50m ahead but thought I would try anyway.  There was also another lady in red between me and her so this could give me a chance of upping my placing.

I passed the lady in red at around 3.5 miles and started increasing my cadence to see if I could catch Kate, which I did-  she was fading but I knew she had it in her to keep pushing so I offered her some encouragement and ran in step with her- luckily the course started going downhill so our mile pace was about 6:30.

We were running in step with each other and I told her when it was only 800m to go.  She managed to overtake a chap in front and an oncoming car meant I didn't/couldnt go with her.  Plus I know I have no kick so didn't think it worth trying (what a defeatist attitude!?!).

We had been told not to bring the garmin across our chest as we crossed the finish so I didn't know my exact time.  Later publishing of the results showed 34:09 and 7th lady.  Quite pleased with that- my garmin also recorded a 5k pb (by 1 second) of 20:52 and has given me some quite juicy new race predictions!! 

The lady in red came up to me at the finish and congratulated me on my racing and asked if I was a marathon runner, and I said I was.  And that I was training for London.  She asked me my time and what I was aiming for, and then told me that she ran 3:21 last year, so if I race like that I'm in great shape for the marathon goal I've set.

On the down side, I've started to experience Reynauds syndrome in the last few months and during the race, my fingers really did go numb, even with gloves.  I had arranged for David to have the heaters on in the car for me to put some kit on top when I finished and as my fingers regained feeling from warming up it hurt so much it felt like someone was stabbing my fingers with daggers!!! It hurt so much I actually started crying .

I asked on a forum if anyone had any experience with this, and I was directed to this fab blog post by @intrepidsarah Raynauds and Running

I've found since the race that doubling up on the gloves and keeping wrapped up completely seems to help, so I won't be starting another winter race in shorts an a tee-shirt any time soon!

Talking of tee-shirts, look at the one I got for the race: 

Saltmarsh 75 day 2

"Cock a doodle do,  cock a doodle dooooo."  What a strange alarm clock I thought, and I knew ultra runners were keen, but this did seem a bit early.  I checked my phone, and yes, 5:33 seemed a bit stupid since we weren't due to set off until 8am.  I couldn't hear anybody moving around, and remembered we were in the countryside.  It wasn't an alarm clock, it was a cockerel crowing!  "Cock a doodle do".

At least my alarm clock was set and I could relax into going back to sleep, which I did.  Despite an awful nights sleep, by the time my alarm went (at 6:30).  Still, I didn't want to miss the start, and I thought I would finally get to go to the toilet.  I got up and went to breakfast in my pyjamas.  Despite being quite hungry, there wasn't much there I could stomach, so I opted for some cereal and tea and coffee.  Again I was quite disappointed by the lack of fruit, not even fruit juice available at breakfast.  I definitely couldn't face the eggs, mushrooms and beans that were available and there seemed to be a permanent queue for toast, so didn't bother with that.

Sarah and Kevin joined me for breakfast which was helpful as I didn't realise we needed to check in for day 2 and we were fast approaching the deadline with 45 minutes to go.  I then went to get into my running kit, and retrieve Sarah's race number from our car.  By the time I had done this the race briefing was starting and I wondered where Sarah was.  She appeared and then disappeared, so I went to find her.... Her tent was still up! And it was 5 to 8!! Eeeeek.  She was really stressing, and we had to remember that with 37 miles to go a few minutes wouldn't matter.  However when the race briefing had stopped I started to worry.  We ended up asking David to finish taking her tent down, as she would be staying with us later anyway.  Then Sarah and I rushed out to join the rest of the field.   We started behind the walkers.

We were of course in the wrong spot and spent a lot of time overtaking, but we felt it was worth it as we didn't want to get too stuck at the first style.  The scenery from this morning was far more beautiful than day 1, and there was even frost on the field!  It had been a cold night.  Stage 7 was just 3 miles from steeple to Mayland.  Just enough to get warmed up, and apparently lost.  We bunched up with a couple of other runners and took a wrong turn which had the fortuitous result of us seeing a few peacocks wondering around, however, this was not the right way.  A few switch backs got us back on track only there was a huge puddle.  Sarah and the others went the long way, I tried to skirt the puddle, which Resulted in several puncture wounds to my left thigh from the bramble.  Luckily they were superficial and my first injury of the day.  I wondered if they would bleed more though since I was exercising to make me look hardcore, but they didn't.

At CP 7 we had quite a long stop as we needed to do all those things we didn't do before the race start, like fill our water bladders, empty our actual bladders, put on plasters, ask embarrassingly for Vaseline (those last 3 weren't me... Just sayin').  I text David for Vaseline as I didn't want to listen to Sarah moaning about her chaffing all day!  Karma got me back, and after a few more miles I started to feel pain in my right Achilles.  The uneven rutted ground of the sea wall between Mayland and Maldon was relentless, plus this was a part I had run before and really not enjoyed.  Sarah was enjoying seeing other runners snaking the sea wall in the distance both ahead and behind us, but I just wanted to keep my eyes on the ground so I didn't take a stumble.  I was wanting to walk more and more and was going to text David to bring some K tape to the next checkpoint.  Luckily, Sarah had some on her, so cue me, taking my shoe and sock off to try and tape my Achilles.  It didn't make the pain go away, but it reduced it significantly, so it was bearable to run.  After a couple more miles it was in both sides though.  My speed really struggled, and by the next check point i wasn't a happy bunny.  It had been 8 miles to Maldon, officially hitting the 50 mile mark for the weekend, but I could have stopped there.  

Laura and Soraya had come out to see me, and ran me into the CP, to David and elephant.  I was far less happy than on day 1 when the same had happened with Lorraine and rob in sideways rain, and had a long cuddle with David.  Everything hurt.  I really appreciated Laura and Soraya coming and they took a few photos of us.  Laura said she wanted to see me at the finish so I better be on time because she had other things to do.  This was so sweet for her to come all the way to Maldon, and then to come out again later in the day.  I better run well for her!

The next section was apparently all concrete and I wasn't looking forward to this.  Having gotten used to off road running in training for this, I dread running on harder surfaces as I feel the impact effects.  Still it was only 3 miles, and we did most of it with or in sight of a chap called Mark from Tiptree road runners who often runs these parts, so we relied on him for navigation.  It was also on this section that I started using an eating schedule again.  This actually helped dramatically with my state of mind and is a stark reminder of why I use the nutritional strategy I do.  The carb load and race fuel, whilst partly about fuelling working muscles, is mainly about fuelling the brain with glucose.  When brain sees access to glucose go down it sends all sorts of signals to stop you running.  I felt a million times better once I started eating, and was full of beans again by the next checkpoint.  Here we met Lucy, who Sarah recognised as second lady at the Stour valley marathon.  We spent most of stages 9 and 10 of day 2 over taking each other, and another female runner, and given Lucy had been so high at SVM, I did start wondering how high up the field we may be.

The weather and the scenery of stage 10 was beautiful, and Sarah and I were both quite enjoying the running.  I was also quite excited as I knew that getting to CP10 meant I was finishing this thing!  There was no way I would give up with only a couple of stages to go, and we had about 9 hours left to cover 18 miles.  But we both needed the toilet and I wanted a coffee too.  We took our toilet break and I had my coffee, although when Sarah sipped it she realised it was just black tea.  And here we met Lucy again.  She didn't look happy and said she was seriously considering pulling out here.  I told her that Sarah and I were taking a decent break here and were definitely run/walking the next section, and would she come with us.  I really didn't want her to finish here when she had come so far, especially as there was no apparent injury.  I knew if it were me, I would have felt incredibly disappointed to have gotten so far and not finished.

We sat down here for quite a while taking in some salty snacks and I was having a cuddle with my elephant.  Eventually we got ourselves up, and the 3 of us, the 3 musketeers. (Ok, I'll think of a better name) started running for 12 minutes and walking for 3.   As I had a functioning garmin I was doing both mileage check and telling the others when to run and walk.  This was quite a mental challenge for somebody who had run in the region of 60 miles the last two days, plus the temperature was starting to soar.  The stiles along this section were evil, and sometimes forced us to take a walk break a bit too soon, but none the less, each 12/3 section equated to about a mile covered.  Halfway through this 10 mile section from Goldhanger to Tollesbury, I had picked up a little stone in my shoe, so sat down to take it out, and also asked that we walk for 5 rather than 3 minutes this time.  All seemed to agree on that, and it broke up that section nicely.  By the end of this section I was struggling again but it was fatigue in my muscles, as quite frankly, having never done a 75 mile ultra before, they were going to reach a point where it got very tough.  

We arrived at CP 11- Sarah and Lucy ran ahead to it as they both needed the toilet and I walked into it and refuelled and got lots more water, and was happy to see Laura again!  How lovely of her to come see me here, but she wouldn't be coming to the finish as I was taking too long ;). David was there too and he seemed very happy with his pint of ale.  I could have downed that for him.  The heat of the day was getting high and definitely thirst was rising.  Luckily Sarah had a spare hydration tablet, as I had run out.  She had to be the one to get us going again.  We know the other lady that we had passed during the previous stage wasn't very far behind.  I asked the girls if they minded us switching the ratio to 10 run / 3 walk, and they agreed.  Sarah said it was extraordinary that we were still talking about running at 68 miles into a 75 mile ultra, and she had a point.  Most people we had passed in the last section had been mainly walking.

Stage 12 was really remote, like seriously really remote.  There was quite a severe warning on the instructions not to start the stage if you had any doubt of finishing it, such was the remoteness that they didn't think they would be able to rescue you.  That said, there was a water drop a couple of miles out from the last CP.  There were more stiles on this section and they were REALLY evil.  About half way through this section we passed Kevin.  He later said how he was surprised it had taken us so long to pass him but we were going at a really good pace.  When I could be bothered to look at the garmin during a running section we were probably doing somewhere between 9:30-10mm pace, although obviously averaged dramatically slower due to the walking.  My dream of finishing day 2 in 8 hours as well was long gone though.  Eventually when we thought we had about 2 miles to go, Lucy saw some people in the distance she thought were her children.  We decided if they were that Sarah and I would go off ahead and leave her to run in with them.  They were, together with her husband who had started day 1.  I asked him how much further and he said about a mile.  Phew, I've got this.  I was feeling really grumpy when Sarah didn't want us to have our last walk break with so little left to go, and I think that is because I stopped taking on food a bit early- in a marathon I don't take on any more if I figure there is less than 30 minutes to go, but here, I should have kept eating regardless, just in case.  Still, the sea wall became a muddy field, which became a road with some lovely people telling us 'not far to go now' and other such things.  Sarah sprinted for the finish and I saw my car in the car park so knew it wasn't too far away.  The emotions were already welling up and when I saw David at the finish I ran to him, threw my arms around him and cried and cried.  Overwhelmed with the emotion of completing it, but also because of what I was doing it for, in memory of my dad, who would have loved to walk some of the parts we ran.

Lucy wasn't far behind us and we all exchanged hugs and congratulations.  Next was food.  David had brought me chocolate milk, and there was also jacket potatos being served.  The three of us ate and exchanged contact details, and were generally chatting away.  I think I was quite shocked by the whole experience.  After about 45 minutes, we decided to get on our way home- Sarah still had to retrieve her car from the start but was promised a meal when she got back to mine.

In the car, David presented me with a gift from Laura, a new elephant called Saltmarsh Nelly.  How fun, and way better than a medal:

In the following few days I received another elephant from my mum together with a beautiful card that reminded me of one of my favourite poems.  The gifts:

And the poem; Footprints in the Sand- please look it up and have a read.  As I was struggling through day 2 of SM75 with Sarah, one of my best friends whom I've only known a relatively short time, I was thinking how lucky I was to have a friend like her who would say yes to all these crazy challenges.  And I really felt like she was carrying me on day two.  How lucky I am as well to have all those people come out and support me, and a special mention must also go to Sarah Attwood who took me on some lovely long runs around York in training for this, and Rob and Lorraine who said yes to another hairbrained crazy idea of running from Colchester to Harwich, again to help me with my training.

Thanks to mum and Laura for the lovely elephantine presents, and lastly thanks to the wonderful husband who gave up his entire weekend to be support crew for Sarah and I!  When we got home he was the first one to crawl in to bed!

On Monday evening, I saw a missed call from Sarah and picked up the voicemail.  Not only had we completed this epic challenge, but we were 3rd and 4th lady!  4th lady in my first ever ultra, which was actually two back to back.  Wow!  (Maybe I will do another one but don't tell David) 

And, a week later the celebrations with fizz, the pin and the medal: