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Nice miles Leslie! And hello again to FINgers. Speedy park running OO although I expect nothing less from you as it seems to be in your genes to be fast.
Right. I ran a marathon today. So pull up a chair. Or turn off your screen. Here goes.
Thames Meander Winter Marathon 2014 Part 1
1/11/14
After spending a seemingly endless time on the bench following an Achilles injury in 2012 and much time in the Wrong Trousers (aka the Alter G treadmill), it was like a dream to be able to start marathon training this summer, more than three years since my last marathon. (Running! The wind in my hair! Outdoors! A happy dog! Regular bowel movements! Easier parenting! Happy wife!)
Having realised I wasn't out of the woods yet when my other Achilles decIded to join the party with its sibling, I decided to use the Hansons Marathon Plan for Beginners on the basis the long run doesn't exceed 16 miles. The plan has some speedwork which can aggravate my Achilles but I thought I could interpret this loosely and run based on effort keeping an ear out for any complaints from my Achilles.
It was all going swimmingly until I tested the engine and chassis several weeks out from my original goal marathon (Abingdon) at the Bristol Half Marathon. Ditching the Garmin I ran by feel to better gauge how my body would react to faster running on Tarmac and soon found out that the answer was not terribly well. Although I PBed in 1:27, I hobbled home from halfway and had to take two weeks off to let things settle down. Training resumed two weeks later without any speedwork and much tentative running (which went awfully, frankly).
I knew Abingdon was off the cards and entered the Thames Meander Winter Marathon which fell two weeks later and offered a gentler alternative to Tarmac with a route along the Thames towpaths between Kingston Bridge and Putney Bridge. The fact it would be slower than a road race was also a good thing to avoid sending me back to the bench.
Hmmm. Four paragraphs and I've not yet got to the race. Take a break, folks, I am. You should think yourselves lucky I don't go for these reports often.
Thames Meander Winter Marathon 2014 Part 2
On race morning I woke up absolutely shattered at 5:45am having been exposed to my (delightful) 4 children (4! Why did we choose to have 4? What were we thinking?) for the two weeks that is half term. MrE had gone to New York for the week leaving me and my fast departing sanity to myself. And those 4 children. And dog. And Halloween (cake pop making, trip to Claire's for scary outfits, homemade piñatas, party chauffeur duties, bye bye sanity).
The lovely babysitter arrived creeping into the house in the dark and after forcing down a slice of gluten free toast with Manuka honey and a top up of Lucozade (me not the babysitter), I jumped into the car and headed to the Hawker Centre in Kingston.
Thames Meander Winter Marathon 2014 Part 3
Miles 1, 2, 3
This is fun. Hmmm. Why am I puffing already? Better take a gel at mile 2 and start this fuelling business early (thanks for the advice Rachel). I can see the other ladies up ahead. Not that I care. The objective is to finish strong and injury free. Oh yes it is.
Miles 4, 5, 6
OK, I'm in my stride now. No more puffing. Crikey, L can shift quickly from the go for an older geezer. Oh good. Fewer people around me. Ooooh, those ladies are just up ahead. Not that I care.
Miles 7, 8, 9
Ahh, thanks Garmin - mile 8 and time to take gel 2. Am liking the new Garmin. It's telling me I'm running 7:20s as planned. Hurray! Hmm. So are those other remaining two ladies. Not that I care.
Miles 10, 11, 12
Dodge the dogs. Dodge the children and people without peripheral vision. Yes! 7:20s and faster (rein it in rein it in)
Miles 13, 14, 15
Dodge the rowers. Dodge the dogs. Dodge the children and people without peripheral vision. Another gel at mile 14. Pacing bang on. Try speeding up a tad?
Miles 16, 17, 18
Oh dear. Can't seem to go much faster actually. What's wrong with my legs? But, ooooh. First lady. Stay in the mile. Stay in the mile. Stay in the mile.
Miles 19, 20, 21
Final gel at mile 20. Thank goodness for caffeinated Gu. I'm feeling tired now. Maybe Hansons long runs do have their limitations stopping at 16. Perhaps I should do more miles in training... Must stop this negative thinking. Oh! The Gu has kicked in, I'm back at 7:20s. Yay!
Miles 22, 23, 24
Gaaaaaaah! 7:3x. Nooooooooooo! Right. Catch that runner up ahead.
Miles 25, 26 and a bit
Stay in the mile. Stay in the mile. Stay in the mile. Good. This chap is helpful whom I keep passing and then overtakes me again. Looks like 7:2x and 7:3x is going to get me there for a small PB .
3:13:06 chip time. it felt a comfortable race and I was able to do a little cool down jog and stretch afterwards. But I definitely lacked the speed endurance when my legs wouldn't respond to my very polite request to hurry up a bit in the final half. I suspect only running 16 milers has it's limitations when weekly average is relatively low for marathon training as the cumulative fatigue effect that Hansons focuses on is minimal. But I couldn't be happier that my Achilles felt fine on the course and I am glad I opted out of Abingdon even if it meant foregoing a potentially faster time. It was lovely to run with Lorenzo again and I'm not bothered that the jammy git ran practically the same time as me on no specific training. Oh no I'm not.
MsE - Brilliantly done and what a comeback! One thing you omitted though was your time! Please post it, in all it's glory. What a great journey for you and your family. Isn't this the reason we run? That has made my weekend. Thanks.
Lorenzo - Well played. Great report and mainly even pace. Sounds like you had more than the usual marathon difficulties, dodging dogs and boats. Nice Comrades seeding. Recover well.
MsE - Great comeback from a long injury lay-off. Very inspiring to PB too. I've been sidelined for only a couple of weeks and am already going crazy. I read the Hanson book whilst on holiday (what a running bore!). I particularly liked the chapters on shoes and fuelling.
00-51 - I'd love to run 18:27, whilst taking it easy - good luck for tomorrow.
GM - Hope tomorrow's running helps you recover from your saturday office ultra.
Just over an hour on the bike this morning - windy and wet.
MsE - Xpost. Great time. Well done and surely more improvement to come.
Gerard - not much to report. Continuing with the swimming, biking and a bit of running. Did a brick session of biking and running today. My thoughts are increasingly turning to tri... I can't believe this has happened!!
Shopping and eating/drinking you mean?
Minni - All the same, lovely to hear from you. Good luck with the tri training. It's great that you are doing this and I reckon you'll be good. One of my work colleagues who was a great track runner and did the road running too cannot run at all now. He has immersed himself in other things and is getting on with it and doing really well. That's not to say that you won't run again like you have done but it's healthy to have options and interests in other things. I admire that.
MsE -
!!!
Now then, where did I put my slippers?
Speaking as an old biddy Lorenzo
! Well done today and especially to Mrs L.
And nice work Lorenzo, Comrades pen B is the place to be. Should be over the line in less than a minute. Then only a mere 56m to run & 7,000 feet to climb. What's to worry about?
Hey MsE, well done and a just reward for you patience on the comeback trail. I wouldn't be surprised to see you run quite a bit faster too if you can get another consistent campaign in the bank.
Welcome to the dark side Minni!
Great report, MsE. So delighted for you! It sounds like your body coped well and onwards and upwards for the next race. Surely with a 1.27 in your bag you're tempted to apply for a Champs start for 2015?
Been awake since 4am couldn't switch my brain off. Was almost tempted to post something Gul style but I couldn't quite get vertical. Weather is atrocious. Very strong wind and pouring with rain. Was 22c on Friday and no wind. Humph.
MsE - Of course! The best parts of the sport - apart from the running that is!
Minni - Keep the faith. Train like a triathlete, then run races.
A bit more progress this morning. 10k; 2 min walking, 2 min running in just over an hour. So that's 30+ mins of running, about 4 miles. Knee aching at end, but some stretching and exercises seem to have put it right.
2.5 mile recovery run for me this morning. Legs are feeling a bit stiff, but that's probably down to old age.
Jools - rest assured that MsE is planning to apply for a Champs start. At least that's what she said yesterday!
MsE - great report BTW. Was very impressive by your metronomic pacing and as others have said, now that you've got the comeback marathon under your belt and (hopefully) all the injuries out of the way, faster times will surely follow. Still not too late to get your Comrades entry in!
Fine work, MsE - I take it you were 1st female - in which case doubly fine work !
Jools -definitely planning to enter VLM as soon as I get a British Athletics registration number from my club. Then try some training Pfitz style which will hopefully build a better base and speed endurance. In fact, I think there is just a few weeks recovery before I can launch into an 18 week program - hurrah!
I am so relieved to have got this comeback marathon out of the way and still be walking today. Both Achilles are feeling fine and looking quite good if I do say so myself. For years I have wondered whether I would run another marathon having only just started in 2011 and I am keeping fingers crossed this is the start of many more campaigns to come. I read somewhere you have 7 years until you reach your peak so that'll be when I am 48!
Minni - if you do need some tri gear (size: mini) I have the whole lot and am not planning on doing a tri anytime soon and you are very welcome to borrow it.
Lorenzo - comrades placing sorted well done of no specific training !
MSE- nice comback and great report won't be long till you are looking for a sub 3
It's 7 years from you start training properly so loads of pb's to come yet especially if you ran a 1:27 half while injured 
Birch - nice 12
Fishy- 4 in 30 mins is good running
10 miles this morn 2 guys running at my heels from the (slow) start until my knee wakened up but the pace kept rising and rising as they closed in they must have been using me as a pacer so I gave it some pace
and was running just sub 7 at mile 10 
40:07!
report to follow later.
Well that was not a particularly pleasant experience if I must say. Got there early for 9am start and could see that the weather Gods were not on our side today. 25-30mph headwind for the 1st 4k or so meant all the runners would suffer. The profile of the course is downhill start for about 200m or so then pancake flat 3.8k winding around the bay. I settled in behind a group of runners but could not stay with them. Was working way too hard and knew I would struggle in the 2nd half of the race which is quite hilly. Overtook two runners at 3k and one runner tagged alongside me and we raced for about 7k. He got the better of me on the hills and I was having to force the pace to reel him in. Got overtaken by a young triathlete about 2k to go but managed to salvage a few fast k's in the 2nd half. Splits tell the story as I did 20:34 & 19:33 for the second half. I literally could not have run any quicker and although it's a fail it's not a bad comeback race and my 1st since June. The last 400m is a sharp decent and as I was coming down I thought I may sneak under 40 by a few seconds but it never seemed to end and I was very tired afterwards. 3 hours sleep didn't hlep either. Least I did all my housework in the early hours this am so free to chill today with my boy. Winner won in 35 mins and he runs 33 most 10ks, so times were generally sower today. That's what I am telling myself anyway!
Gerard- 40:07 ain't no fail
, sounds like you would have been easily sub 40 on a less windy day especially as you were faster on the hillier second half . Think 40:07 is my pb too 
Housework before the race though is just not on where's your priorities man ! 
00-51 - how did you fare?
GM - don't be downhearted. Sounds as though it was a tough course in difficult conditions so 40.07 is nothing to be sneezed at, especially with such as massive negative split. Sub 40 will be yours on a better day.
GM - Very good I reckon; sub-40 is there for the taking on the right course, on the right day.
68:26 for me on a windy 10 miler today. My training partner has been beating me lately, but I got the better of her today which was my main focus to be honest. The racing imperative resulted in some mad splits (she often starts too fast!) but I was pleased to pull out a strong finishing mile.
40 minutes.. Sounds like a good motivator, and like she may be back to bite you.
Well done Lorenzo you old fart! And well done Mrs L (did she know she was in for a big PB?).
GM - try again soon?
MsE! Good work! I liked the report too. See you on the champs start.
There is no BUCS marathon championship this year. Apparently they canned it because too few people did it.