Padams: dog was attached via a harness & they've been running together for at least 5 years. Most of the records at our parkrun are "assisted" as it's through the woods & we've a local cani-X multiple world champ.
CD - I suggested that dog/buggy arrangement to Mrs Padams but she didn't seem impressed with the idea.
Track last night was 3k, 3min recovery, 2k, 2min recovery, 1k. I was on my own at the front and quite a bit of time in lane 2 (or 3 sometimes), but managed 9:53, 6:30 and 3:06 fairly comfortably. Not super-fast, around 10k pace for the longer ones and 5k pace for the 1k, but nice to save a bit so my legs don't feel too battered this morning - did 4M with the dog and got soaked, she wasn't impressed!
parkruns with dogs........ How long before Nike brand dogs appear for the next sub-2 attempt?
RJ - 6:40 would be a stonking debut (20+ minutes inside the Irish record I think).
LS21 - I'm sure I've said it before too, but I second RJ' chiro recommendation. Keeps me in one relatively straight piece.
Padams - nice reps!
Was a bit tired yesterday (not sure if the 15m the day before or being up at 3am to bring Jr to school for a trip), but stuck to plan with 8m steady, and then 6 x 200m on grass (ran at best relaxed effort, averaging 37s) to add to the very easy morning 4. 4 this morning at 6:28 and I actually felt decent. I've just had a look and I'm averaging ~ current MP + 40s for the week so far.... (I'm assuming I could probably dip under 2:40 at the moment). So far I'm certainly enjoying it more than longer and slower, but the crunch will be results when I'm fit I guess.
One nice bonus is that my back mobility is improving massively on the lower mileage/quicker running. I've always had a tight lower back, which I'm now thinking was most likely down to the pounding of the higher mileage.
LS -- genius! I've always fancied myself as a twisted evil professor, err I mean sports coach... be careful what you wish for though, I'll be in Keswick in August. Can't find my scalpel but I have a Swiss Army knife if that's OK -- was it for your shoes or your sciatic nerve? Whatever, should be fine. (To be fair I have been influenced a lot by my clubmate Christof Schwiening, Google him.)
LMH -- I had a lot of Snickers and Nature valley crunchy bars on my Bob Graham round, but that wasn't proper running; I did fine on 5 gels in Wings for Life (dropped one, part motivating the shorts upgrade). However, I might well avail myself of other snacks, and will leave some bottles of sports drink to pick up. (CD is absolutely right, I reallywill distribute my 2 kinds of gel symmetrically so I maintain waistband balance as I get through them!) And gosh I should have been eating Meridian nut butter given it's the Meridian Ultra I'm racing. Karma in pieces now.
Last low(ish) carb day today, and doing little tune-up runs at about marathon effort each morning.
Dan - cheers. I think that's where I am really. Prob just need to stop and see. I've not really ran at all since VLM so that's almost 4 weeks of nothing. It would help re this if I could see a bit of progress, but sadly I can't! Still, finances dictate that's probably my only option at the mo, so just crack on.
wardi - cheers. That's the fella at Wetherby isn't it? Wayne Morton (I think?) Yorkshire CCC's physio? One to bear in mind certainly.
RJ/TT - cheers for that. Not seen a chiro for this no. Seen a couple of physios, an osteo and I've become a psycho, but no chiro. I have seen the chiro at Penrith (nearest one to me) once about 18 months ago. But that place really isn't an option. He charged me £35 (I think) for 10 mins. He then wanted me to make 3 further appointments for that very same week. No chance I could afford that. I'm not exaggerating there either. I was in there 10 mins absolute max. I'd def consider going somewhere else though. Problem is next nearest one is in Kendal - best part of 3 hours round trip. Had a look on their website though, and their prices and appointment times are in line with what I'd expect to pay. So I dunno! Out of interest how many adjustments did you need to fix your issue? I know we're all different etc - just trying to get an idea of how many sessions it *might* take. I can work out how many more Cumberland sausages I need to sell then! Actually we sell Meridian Peanut Butter (and Almond Butter). So Charlie - pre-order (and pay for) 1,000 jars now and I'll drop em off in August. That'll sort your karma issue. You're welcome
CW - Looking forward to seeing pictures of your shorts innovation. 5 mile dog/ beach run this evening with a few 400m sharper segments whilst musing how to brooch the 'Can I run the Munich marathon' conversation. In the end, played a blinder as my OH also had a few requests, yes, yes and yes, saw my chance, just asked and nailed it! So October 7-9th first ever visit to Munich and the "Munich Tango Marathon".
OO.. haven't done the marathon but Munich is a fascinating city. Much more traditional than Berlin or Frankfurt - lots of locals wandering around in lederhosen and shops selling it! Not sure if there's such a thing as a smoking jacket in Germany though.
A serving of pork knuckle and a few enormous beers in the Hofbrauhaus post-race, what's not to like? The pretzels in there are delicious too.
LS21.. yes that's the fella, he's sorted me out a few times now.
Wardi - That's good to hear, looks a very attractive city with an interesting c20 and beyond history (best pass over the 20th century bit!). Due to a rather unfortunate episode with a pig on a farm in Cornwall many moons ago will pass on the pork knuckle element of the local cuisine but compensate with the beers and pretzels. There maybe lots of lederhosen as there is a costume race category - Joe?! Hope RJ/ CW are also enjoying the carbo-load?
Hello all, its been a while but I read most of your
stuff on here.
Jus popping
in to wish LS21 all the best. I've had
sciatic issues too mate. Muscle spasms,
cramps in right leg down the hammy and notably in the calf which forced me out
of VLM. Still not 1005 but back to slow running. Best thing for me was stretching as I had
partial disc bulge L4/L5 (lower back) which meant I sometimes I’d spontaneously
bust out a few Shakin Stevens moves, more often than not in a queue for petrol.
.I’m having nhs physio which had some good exercises to do. Nerves take time to heal mate. best ones are to
pull the leg up to chest and lie on front pushing up to an arch. Get the old
Twister out too and incorporate some family playtime whilst at it.
OO -- dang, I nearly did take a picture when my shorts were tooled up with 11 gels... maybe when they're stocked on race day! Enjoy Munich (Tango??). And yes I'm carbo-loading like a trooper -- I make it my "turn" to bring in cake here at work on such pre-race Fridays, with a selection of high carb/low fat junk for everyone to share.
I'll be off-air until after the race weekend now probably (have Monday off too), but good luck to everyone else who's racing!
Exeter marathon : 2:57:03 Big positives: 3rd sub 3 of the year. 3rd today out of 400 or so.
Running negative splits are hard. On plan at 1.27 half way but second half warmer and windier and my central governor saying Peter your a bit knackered take it easier so 1.30. Most slowed in the second half and I overtook 3 runners in last 4 miles (who normally beat me) and another 200m and would have caught second. Tricky multi terrain 3 lapper to navigate. Overall really pleased and relieved.
Very well done OuchOuch -- as you will see, your splits were enviably even compared to mine... here's a copy & paste of my indulgent Facebook write-up, then I'll post again with a few more technical thoughts for this forum and just for you, a picture of those shorts!
Well that felt surprisingly easy -- for the first 5 hours. The last 3, not so much...
It was the national 100km ultramarathon championships near Hull, a bit
of an experimental mid-life crisis adventure for me, and a rare
opportunity to clock an official time for the UK databases on a flat,
certified road course, in what proved to be pretty kind conditions.
Splendidly organised too. Absolutely no excuses to hide behind. For the
first 42 miles, I held a steady 7:30/M pace, which I naively hoped I
could hold for the whole 62 miles to clock around 7hr45. But then the
wheels came off big-time, so I quickly reverted to plan B (finish the
damn thing, ideally without walking). Once I thus resigned myself to the
Mother Of All Blow-ups I had to drop my pace excruciatingly to keep
going. The final insult came from ripples of threatening cramp in my
left calf that threatened to hobble me in the last 5K – by running
peg-leg style mainly on my R leg and keeping the left kind of rigid, I
just about got away with continuing.
Scores on the doors: 8hr11, 12th
place and 2nd V40. But what the hell, that's not bad as a first crack at
it – and doing 3 big races (London, Wings for Life and today) in 4
weeks was probably a bit silly. So quickly forgetting the 20 miles of
pain, I'm pretty happy!
Plus points: I discovered I could run
literally non-stop for 8 hours (pausing only fleetingly to scavenge some
discarded part-used drink bottles from the roadside when I got a bit
desperate). No pit-stops required, incredibly -- let us give thanks to
Imodium. My recent shorts modifications to carry 10 gels worked like a
charm. And my feet are surprisingly undamaged having run in my
super-light, cut-down racing shoes. OK two toes are kind of welded
together with enormous blisters on top where they flapped against the
upper, but as soon as I've anaesthetised myself a bit some DIY surgery
will sort those out. My swanky caravan even provides a talking Homer
Simpson bottle opener to help me do that...
So why did I blow up so badly? My HR started a bit high, from stress -- my caravan was only 50 metres from the start, so I couldn't resist a final-final loo trip but ended up having to sprint over just before the off! But then it dropped to a nice low to mid-120s at 7:30/M. With time though, it climbed towards marathon levels (mid 140s) at the same pace until I started to fade a touch at 40M, which must indicate something physiologically -- maybe just the increasing use of fat rather than glycogen, and it was getting a little warm too (but I kept my head and vest well watered). I probably should have paid more attention to that climbing HR and backed off earlier, even though I still felt good. While the incipient cramping near the end I guess just reflects muscle exhaustion. Obviously my pace guess overall was too optimistic (based on getting about 82-83% WAVA as in Wings for Life). And I'm 3-4lb heavier than I was for VLM, which won't have helped.
And for OO, here are my custom shorts loaded with 10 gels, and my emergency phone pack that goes in a special drawstring pocket I also have in there:
Glad you can see the positives Charlie. FWIW I think that you are probably underestimating the effects of cumulative fatigue. You would probably have been in a good place to do the 100k justice after London - but not with a hard effort at WfL too. I'd also have a look at your fuelling if you want to go long again - I really don't think that sing only gels for that length of time is a good thing. I have never managed to eat anything like as much as I think I should during IM/ultras but I do include some bananas, bagels, sweets etc. Second V40 is a good result - any bling?
If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
Well done CW, good time and 2nd V40 is a great first go at the distance. LMH is right I think - you probably know that if you'd wanted an optimum result then it was either WfL or this one. Finishing both in consecutive weekends would be beyond most of us, let alone getting the results you did. Time for some proper rest now I suspect!
Chapeau CW - What an amazing month of running you've had! That is such a good performance, given as LMH says the amount of quality racing you've had over the past 4/5 weeks. Congratulations on the V40 second. Incredible mental and physical resilence. Thanks for your pic - I am having those shorts made-up in China as we speak and a photo of my own (minus the £50 voucher coming my way) which I cannot get to the bottom of this post. I feel very chipper today, I will try a negative split strategy again next marathon, when hopefully more pacey runners to run with, and more slowing runners drpping back to give you the mojo boost. Look forward to hearing from TT and RJ.
Sounds like a good run to me CW; well done & don't over analyse it. Also, don't underestimate how hard it is to run 100k non-stop on a flat track. Suspect you should take a month of easy running to fully recover.
I did the Richmond Park marathon yesterday as a training run. Was my third 3 hour run of the week (well, Sunday/Tuesday/Sunday). All off road and hilly, but I run round the park most days so I at least know where I'm going. Last few miles were a bit tough (they usually are), but finished about 7 mins quicker than last year in 3.07 for 8th place. Was just cruising in before two guys caught me with about 800m to go, which resulted in a needless sprint finish. I ended up in the middle of them, as we all crossed about 6 seconds apart. Might be why it took me so long to walk to the car park afterwards.
Well done DanA thats a great performance @ Richmond Park and improvement on last year- I used to live in Richmond and run daily around the park - running nirvana. Didn't know they had a marathon, so on the list for next year. Cheers CD.
OO - great run and love the trophy, very impressive. The negative split will happen, keep the faith.
CW - what a great result, like others have said, there has to be some fatigue in your legs so all things considered a fantastic performance. Like LMH said though, not sure how you do it purely on gels! Hope you've got a bit of time to recover now.
DanA - I'll have to do that one soon, I do so much of my running in the park anyway, one of my favourite places. The sprint finish sounds fun, did you hear them coming or did it just come as a complete surprise?
I guided our 3 teams around the Green Belt relay this weekend (220 mile, 22 stage relay race). Thankfully we didn't manage to lose anyone and everyone has said they had an awesome time so I've been given the green light to organise again next year, which I'm happy about as I really enjoy stuff like that.
Stage 10 (6pm, 9 miles, Epping Forest to Toot Hill) for me on the Saturday, 2nd place, although 1st was in a league of his own.
Stage 22 (12.30pm, 10 miles, Tatsfield to Merstham) on the Sunday, legs grumbling away in the warm up, sat in the lead group of 5 until half-way and then suddenly had a small gap. Spent 4 miles convinced I kept making wrong turns (it's all self navigated with limited route markings), turned around with a mile a go and started running the other way only to run head first into 2nd place - that'll be my 12 seconds lead gone then.
Turned back around and rejoined the road from the NDW for the final 0.75 miles on road. As chance would have it one of our club minibuses cruised past on the way to the stage finish, so cue windows down and abuse hurled at me to run faster which was all great fun. Managed to hold on and get the win by 8 seconds, alongside a highly-coveted stage winner t-shirt.
Anyone else done Green Belt before? It was my first one and would thoroughly recommend as a good weekend outing.
Great stuff CW. Nice to see you and once again well battled out to the finish!
Me on the other hand. All was going brilliantly well until about 60k when my body decided I couldn't eat any more. It was very frustrating as the legs felt ok and I was running very strongly and had a big lead (possibly c4minutes at one point in front of the eventual winner Lee Grantham who ran a genuinely world class 6:42) but knew it was only a matter of time before the lack of calories would catch up with me. I got to about 83k before being reduced to a walk. Called it a day at 85k very wobbly and woozy. A great learning experience though and I will defo do another as I think I've got something decent in me, maybe c6:30 with a bit more prep, more wisdom and better fuelling next time. The main goals for me were 1) to win and get the World Champs qualifying time (6:55) and 2) to make sure I learned something. I knew 1 was out once I got in trouble but for 2 I liken it to my first marathon which gave me so much feedback into how to run such events. I have no doubt that I could have got the qualifying standard had I gone easier but 2 was still very important to me so I'm glad I gave it a good go. Absolutely no regrets.
OO - that is very impressive to knock out consecutive good marathons like that.
Joe - Not sure if I'd recommend the park as a good place to do a marathon unless it was just as a training run. It's just so busy in the park on a Sunday when the weather's good that it's a constant battle between runner and walker/cyclist/driver. There was no priority for us, so the frequent road crossings were a bit of a nightmare. There were marshals, but they weren't very assertive or attentive, and I saw several near misses, and had to dodge quite a few cars myself. Wouldn't be surprised if there were any accidents, as it's not always easy to concentrate on the traffic when you're 20+ miles into a race.
As for the sprint finish, I wasn't going for any particular time (in fact it was my 5th consecutive marathon without a watch, so I had absolutely no idea what the time was until I crossed the line), so when a guy went past me with about 1/3rd of a mile to go, I wasn't bothered about chasing him and he went about 40m ahead. But then shortly after another chap came up behind, and I didn't want to be overtaken twice so close to the end, so I put my foot down and almost caught the first guy. Think I crossed with the clock on 03:06:59 but they haven't produced any results. May also have been first V40 but no idea!
OO - that's a great run, bearing in mind you were alone for so long which makes a huge difference.
CW - great effort, and as others have said (including yourself), you probably would have run a bit quicker without the WfL run. You also mentioned wanting to run the whole way - in my experience once you get 6+ hours into a race, it actually might be quicker to take some short walk breaks. I've done that when struggling in an IM and my average pace actually picked up once I was running slower than about 7:30m/m.
Dan - very nice, love that you felt the need to do a sprint finish for no particular reason other than being competitive (I would have done the same)!
JoeB - I was walking back home from the track on Saturday afternoon and I saw some Green Belt runners - looks like the course came within about 100m of my house! Sounds like you ran well. I would love to do it but the logistics of it sound like a nightmare!
RJ - sorry to hear you didn't finish but still a very impressive 60k+ and you learned a lot as you say. I've no doubt you'll smash it next time. It's interesting that for a marathon or even up to maybe 35M-40M you can "blag" the nutrition with some gels and fluids, but much beyond that and things seem to change. You just need to find out what works for you.
3,000m for me in Saturday in a fairly low standard league. Recognised one reasonably fast guy on the start line who beat me at the county XC in January, but he's a V50 so thought I'd probably be able to take him over a shorter distance. I led the first km in 3:12 (wanted someone else to lead but no one would come past), then the V50 came past for one lap. With just over 4 laps to go I went back past and put in a quicker lap (still only about 73s), got a gap and then pulled away fairly comfortably for the rest of the race (about 3:06 for kms 2 and 3).
Yesterday was just under 60M on the bike with the usual group, averaged just over 20mph. The last 45 mins were pretty painful as it was constantly up and down and people were pushing on/getting dropped all over the place!
Nice stage winning and club participating Joe. Sounds as though you enjoyed it.
Nice understated (as ever) win Padams.
Sorry to hear that things didn't go to plan RJ - have you tried flat coke? When I did IM or ultras I would have one flask of water in my vest and one of flat coke, it's great for when you can't eat.
Nice winnings OuchOuch.
Sounds as though you're enjoying your running Dan.
My knees aren't enjoying Cornwall as much as the rest of me but I managed four miles before breakfast and then sixteen more out and back along the Camel Trail whilst Mark went out on his bike so not a bad day.
If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
Comments
Track last night was 3k, 3min recovery, 2k, 2min recovery, 1k. I was on my own at the front and quite a bit of time in lane 2 (or 3 sometimes), but managed 9:53, 6:30 and 3:06 fairly comfortably. Not super-fast, around 10k pace for the longer ones and 5k pace for the 1k, but nice to save a bit so my legs don't feel too battered this morning - did 4M with the dog and got soaked, she wasn't impressed!
parkruns with dogs........ How long before Nike brand dogs appear for the next sub-2 attempt?
RJ - 6:40 would be a stonking debut (20+ minutes inside the Irish record I think).
LS21 - I'm sure I've said it before too, but I second RJ' chiro recommendation. Keeps me in one relatively straight piece.
Padams - nice reps!
Was a bit tired yesterday (not sure if the 15m the day before or being up at 3am to bring Jr to school for a trip), but stuck to plan with 8m steady, and then 6 x 200m on grass (ran at best relaxed effort, averaging 37s) to add to the very easy morning 4. 4 this morning at 6:28 and I actually felt decent.
I've just had a look and I'm averaging ~ current MP + 40s for the week so far.... (I'm assuming I could probably dip under 2:40 at the moment). So far I'm certainly enjoying it more than longer and slower, but the crunch will be results when I'm fit I guess.
One nice bonus is that my back mobility is improving massively on the lower mileage/quicker running. I've always had a tight lower back, which I'm now thinking was most likely down to the pounding of the higher mileage.
LMH -- I had a lot of Snickers and Nature valley crunchy bars on my Bob Graham round, but that wasn't proper running; I did fine on 5 gels in Wings for Life (dropped one, part motivating the shorts upgrade). However, I might well avail myself of other snacks, and will leave some bottles of sports drink to pick up. (CD is absolutely right, I reallywill distribute my 2 kinds of gel symmetrically so I maintain waistband balance as I get through them!) And gosh I should have been eating Meridian nut butter given it's the Meridian Ultra I'm racing. Karma in pieces now.
Last low(ish) carb day today, and doing little tune-up runs at about marathon effort each morning.
Posting on t'phone so hopefully this works!
Dan - cheers. I think that's where I am really. Prob just need to stop and see. I've not really ran at all since VLM so that's almost 4 weeks of nothing. It would help re this if I could see a bit of progress, but sadly I can't! Still, finances dictate that's probably my only option at the mo, so just crack on.
wardi - cheers. That's the fella at Wetherby isn't it? Wayne Morton (I think?) Yorkshire CCC's physio? One to bear in mind certainly.
RJ/TT - cheers for that. Not seen a chiro for this no. Seen a couple of physios, an osteo and I've become a psycho, but no chiro. I have seen the chiro at Penrith (nearest one to me) once about 18 months ago. But that place really isn't an option. He charged me £35 (I think) for 10 mins. He then wanted me to make 3 further appointments for that very same week. No chance I could afford that. I'm not exaggerating there either. I was in there 10 mins absolute max. I'd def consider going somewhere else though. Problem is next nearest one is in Kendal - best part of 3 hours round trip. Had a look on their website though, and their prices and appointment times are in line with what I'd expect to pay. So I dunno! Out of interest how many adjustments did you need to fix your issue? I know we're all different etc - just trying to get an idea of how many sessions it *might* take. I can work out how many more Cumberland sausages I need to sell then! Actually we sell Meridian Peanut Butter (and Almond Butter). So Charlie - pre-order (and pay for) 1,000 jars now and I'll drop em off in August. That'll sort your karma issue. You're welcome
5 mile dog/ beach run this evening with a few 400m sharper segments whilst musing how to brooch the 'Can I run the Munich marathon' conversation. In the end, played a blinder as my OH also had a few requests, yes, yes and yes, saw my chance, just asked and nailed it! So October 7-9th first ever visit to Munich and the "Munich Tango Marathon".
OO.. haven't done the marathon but Munich is a fascinating city. Much more traditional than Berlin or Frankfurt - lots of locals wandering around in lederhosen and shops selling it! Not sure if there's such a thing as a smoking jacket in Germany though.
A serving of pork knuckle and a few enormous beers in the Hofbrauhaus post-race, what's not to like? The pretzels in there are delicious too.
LS21.. yes that's the fella, he's sorted me out a few times now.
Hope RJ/ CW are also enjoying the carbo-load?
Hello all, its been a while but I read most of your stuff on here.
Jus popping in to wish LS21 all the best. I've had sciatic issues too mate. Muscle spasms, cramps in right leg down the hammy and notably in the calf which forced me out of VLM. Still not 1005 but back to slow running. Best thing for me was stretching as I had partial disc bulge L4/L5 (lower back) which meant I sometimes I’d spontaneously bust out a few Shakin Stevens moves, more often than not in a queue for petrol. .I’m having nhs physio which had some good exercises to do. Nerves take time to heal mate. best ones are to pull the leg up to chest and lie on front pushing up to an arch. Get the old Twister out too and incorporate some family playtime whilst at it.
OO -- dang, I nearly did take a picture when my shorts were tooled up with 11 gels... maybe when they're stocked on race day! Enjoy Munich (Tango??). And yes I'm carbo-loading like a trooper -- I make it my "turn" to bring in cake here at work on such pre-race Fridays, with a selection of high carb/low fat junk for everyone to share.
I'll be off-air until after the race weekend now probably (have Monday off too), but good luck to everyone else who's racing!
Big positives: 3rd sub 3 of the year. 3rd today out of 400 or so.
Running negative splits are hard. On plan at 1.27 half way but second half warmer and windier and my central governor saying Peter your a bit knackered take it easier so 1.30. Most slowed in the second half and I overtook 3 runners in last 4 miles (who normally beat me) and another 200m and would have caught second. Tricky multi terrain 3 lapper to navigate. Overall really pleased and relieved.
Well that felt surprisingly easy -- for the first 5 hours. The last 3, not so much...
It was the national 100km ultramarathon championships near Hull, a bit of an experimental mid-life crisis adventure for me, and a rare opportunity to clock an official time for the UK databases on a flat, certified road course, in what proved to be pretty kind conditions. Splendidly organised too. Absolutely no excuses to hide behind. For the first 42 miles, I held a steady 7:30/M pace, which I naively hoped I could hold for the whole 62 miles to clock around 7hr45. But then the wheels came off big-time, so I quickly reverted to plan B (finish the damn thing, ideally without walking). Once I thus resigned myself to the Mother Of All Blow-ups I had to drop my pace excruciatingly to keep going. The final insult came from ripples of threatening cramp in my left calf that threatened to hobble me in the last 5K – by running peg-leg style mainly on my R leg and keeping the left kind of rigid, I just about got away with continuing.
Scores on the doors: 8hr11, 12th place and 2nd V40. But what the hell, that's not bad as a first crack at it – and doing 3 big races (London, Wings for Life and today) in 4 weeks was probably a bit silly. So quickly forgetting the 20 miles of pain, I'm pretty happy!
Plus points: I discovered I could run literally non-stop for 8 hours (pausing only fleetingly to scavenge some discarded part-used drink bottles from the roadside when I got a bit desperate). No pit-stops required, incredibly -- let us give thanks to Imodium. My recent shorts modifications to carry 10 gels worked like a charm. And my feet are surprisingly undamaged having run in my super-light, cut-down racing shoes. OK two toes are kind of welded together with enormous blisters on top where they flapped against the upper, but as soon as I've anaesthetised myself a bit some DIY surgery will sort those out. My swanky caravan even provides a talking Homer Simpson bottle opener to help me do that...
And for OO, here are my custom shorts loaded with 10 gels, and my emergency phone pack that goes in a special drawstring pocket I also have in there:
Thanks for your pic - I am having those shorts made-up in China as we speak and a photo of my own (minus the £50 voucher coming my way) which I cannot get to the bottom of this post.
I feel very chipper today, I will try a negative split strategy again next marathon, when hopefully more pacey runners to run with, and more slowing runners drpping back to give you the mojo boost.
Look forward to hearing from TT and RJ.
Looking at the results though CW, strictly speaking you were 3rd V40 ;-)
That's a great run over what sounds like a tricky course, OO. Nice trophy too.
I did the Richmond Park marathon yesterday as a training run. Was my third 3 hour run of the week (well, Sunday/Tuesday/Sunday). All off road and hilly, but I run round the park most days so I at least know where I'm going. Last few miles were a bit tough (they usually are), but finished about 7 mins quicker than last year in 3.07 for 8th place. Was just cruising in before two guys caught me with about 800m to go, which resulted in a needless sprint finish. I ended up in the middle of them, as we all crossed about 6 seconds apart. Might be why it took me so long to walk to the car park afterwards.
Cheers CD.
CW - what a great result, like others have said, there has to be some fatigue in your legs so all things considered a fantastic performance. Like LMH said though, not sure how you do it purely on gels! Hope you've got a bit of time to recover now.
DanA - I'll have to do that one soon, I do so much of my running in the park anyway, one of my favourite places. The sprint finish sounds fun, did you hear them coming or did it just come as a complete surprise?
I guided our 3 teams around the Green Belt relay this weekend (220 mile, 22 stage relay race). Thankfully we didn't manage to lose anyone and everyone has said they had an awesome time so I've been given the green light to organise again next year, which I'm happy about as I really enjoy stuff like that.
Stage 10 (6pm, 9 miles, Epping Forest to Toot Hill) for me on the Saturday, 2nd place, although 1st was in a league of his own.
Stage 22 (12.30pm, 10 miles, Tatsfield to Merstham) on the Sunday, legs grumbling away in the warm up, sat in the lead group of 5 until half-way and then suddenly had a small gap. Spent 4 miles convinced I kept making wrong turns (it's all self navigated with limited route markings), turned around with a mile a go and started running the other way only to run head first into 2nd place - that'll be my 12 seconds lead gone then.
Turned back around and rejoined the road from the NDW for the final 0.75 miles on road. As chance would have it one of our club minibuses cruised past on the way to the stage finish, so cue windows down and abuse hurled at me to run faster which was all great fun. Managed to hold on and get the win by 8 seconds, alongside a highly-coveted stage winner t-shirt.
Anyone else done Green Belt before? It was my first one and would thoroughly recommend as a good weekend outing.
Me on the other hand. All was going brilliantly well until about 60k when my body decided I couldn't eat any more. It was very frustrating as the legs felt ok and I was running very strongly and had a big lead (possibly c4minutes at one point in front of the eventual winner Lee Grantham who ran a genuinely world class 6:42) but knew it was only a matter of time before the lack of calories would catch up with me. I got to about 83k before being reduced to a walk. Called it a day at 85k very wobbly and woozy. A great learning experience though and I will defo do another as I think I've got something decent in me, maybe c6:30 with a bit more prep, more wisdom and better fuelling next time. The main goals for me were 1) to win and get the World Champs qualifying time (6:55) and 2) to make sure I learned something. I knew 1 was out once I got in trouble but for 2 I liken it to my first marathon which gave me so much feedback into how to run such events. I have no doubt that I could have got the qualifying standard had I gone easier but 2 was still very important to me so I'm glad I gave it a good go. Absolutely no regrets.
Joe - Not sure if I'd recommend the park as a good place to do a marathon unless it was just as a training run. It's just so busy in the park on a Sunday when the weather's good that it's a constant battle between runner and walker/cyclist/driver. There was no priority for us, so the frequent road crossings were a bit of a nightmare. There were marshals, but they weren't very assertive or attentive, and I saw several near misses, and had to dodge quite a few cars myself. Wouldn't be surprised if there were any accidents, as it's not always easy to concentrate on the traffic when you're 20+ miles into a race.
As for the sprint finish, I wasn't going for any particular time (in fact it was my 5th consecutive marathon without a watch, so I had absolutely no idea what the time was until I crossed the line), so when a guy went past me with about 1/3rd of a mile to go, I wasn't bothered about chasing him and he went about 40m ahead. But then shortly after another chap came up behind, and I didn't want to be overtaken twice so close to the end, so I put my foot down and almost caught the first guy. Think I crossed with the clock on 03:06:59 but they haven't produced any results. May also have been first V40 but no idea!
CW - great effort, and as others have said (including yourself), you probably would have run a bit quicker without the WfL run. You also mentioned wanting to run the whole way - in my experience once you get 6+ hours into a race, it actually might be quicker to take some short walk breaks. I've done that when struggling in an IM and my average pace actually picked up once I was running slower than about 7:30m/m.
Dan - very nice, love that you felt the need to do a sprint finish for no particular reason other than being competitive (I would have done the same)!
JoeB - I was walking back home from the track on Saturday afternoon and I saw some Green Belt runners - looks like the course came within about 100m of my house! Sounds like you ran well. I would love to do it but the logistics of it sound like a nightmare!
RJ - sorry to hear you didn't finish but still a very impressive 60k+ and you learned a lot as you say. I've no doubt you'll smash it next time. It's interesting that for a marathon or even up to maybe 35M-40M you can "blag" the nutrition with some gels and fluids, but much beyond that and things seem to change. You just need to find out what works for you.
3,000m for me in Saturday in a fairly low standard league. Recognised one reasonably fast guy on the start line who beat me at the county XC in January, but he's a V50 so thought I'd probably be able to take him over a shorter distance. I led the first km in 3:12 (wanted someone else to lead but no one would come past), then the V50 came past for one lap. With just over 4 laps to go I went back past and put in a quicker lap (still only about 73s), got a gap and then pulled away fairly comfortably for the rest of the race (about 3:06 for kms 2 and 3).
Yesterday was just under 60M on the bike with the usual group, averaged just over 20mph. The last 45 mins were pretty painful as it was constantly up and down and people were pushing on/getting dropped all over the place!
Nice understated (as ever) win Padams.
Sorry to hear that things didn't go to plan RJ - have you tried flat coke? When I did IM or ultras I would have one flask of water in my vest and one of flat coke, it's great for when you can't eat.
Nice winnings OuchOuch.
Sounds as though you're enjoying your running Dan.
My knees aren't enjoying Cornwall as much as the rest of me but I managed four miles before breakfast and then sixteen more out and back along the Camel Trail whilst Mark went out on his bike so not a bad day.