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Charlie.. hope your feet are well on their way to recovery, seems strange in a shoe you thought you knew.
TT.. no harm in winding it down for a while (which is what I've done recently) though 269 for May is a healthy enough total.
OO.. some fine training in the hills.
Padams.. all the best for the half this weekend, hope it's not too hot.
My best wishes also to the Yeovil trio. I assume CRAB's engine will be on it's way out of the sidings so hopefully it will be bigger than his eyes. I do hope LMH and TR will be treated as first class passengers rather than the buffet or guard's van. All of your combined training will be a solid platform for success, just the ticket (officer) infact. Can't see any of you going off the rails unless it's the wrong kind of weather or you fail to keep the handbrake on early doors.
If you're all on track at 20m then full steam ahead, look out for the signals and don't get derailed. If you all achieve a marathon beginning with a '2' there could even be a low commotion here on Sunday afternoon.
I'm about done on railway puns except to say I will be suitably chuffed if you all succeed.
I'll get me coach.
As you were.
Just adding my best wishes to the Yoevil mob and other racers this weekend.
TR, CRAB and LMH, hope you smash it and the that the weather is a little cooler than forecast.
TR - I was in the same boat back in April, no marathon for 3 years, compromised training etc. However, you have some quality training to look back on so are in a different place to were I was. Hope that niggle doesn't affect your race mate, all the best.
Haven't had much time to look in as new job has kept me busy, running has taken a back seat too atm. Those HM I had pencilled in for end of June are most likely going to be tough races, if I even tow the line with such a naff last few weeks.
Keep on keeping on everyone, the consistency is relentless, as always.
Wardi - I liked it myself.
Thanks for all the good wishes, I must be taking this seriously as I still havnt had a beer, and I only intend upon going to the most local of my two's matches for a while today. My leg isn't happy, but if it was long run day I'd give it a bash. There's only one way to find out if it'll hold up, hopefully it's mostly taperchondria.
LMH and myself just have to make the start line, Crab will sort the rest out. Could be a warm one, but the blurb says it's water bottles rather than cups so that's good news.
Glad you’re taking it easy today TR. I’m mostly hydrating and carb loading. Just ran 3 miles this morning, nowhere near MP but the fastest this week so maybe it will all come good - hopefully for all three of us.
Good luck to any other racers too.
Thoroughly enjoyed the pun-laden prose Wardi.
Did my 5th Man v Horse today. Nice steady effort & hamstring/calf survived the hills with some judicial walking. Fortunately the sun stayed hidden til 20M in too so all in all a good training run & just the reassurance I needed before next Saturday's TriX.
Can't believe the Yeovil marathon doesn't have a live athlete tracker.
Can't find it on Eurosport either. Even the BBC red button just has some northern multisport race on. What's going on?
I was just behind them both at 6m, I was on 2.55pace. By 7m I was wslking/jogging with a broken hammy. Good job it is a 2 lapper. Respect to the folks that do marathons at 10mm pace.
Crap ROI for 6 months of running.
I'm off to greet the train.
LMH is a machine.
Great to meet up with both, and run together even if it was t for very long.
I need to take a break now, it's been a long (and fruitless) campaign. Not sure what it means for my intended New Forest and Abo numbers.
Jooligan - nice man v nag race. Did you beat them?
The Yeovil 3
TR; gutted for you. Not much more to add.
LMH - that's brilliant. Congrats.
CRAB - Reasonable.
I did the Race to the Tower 52 mile race along the Cotswolds Way yesterday. Tbh, I still seething with anger over the farce it descended into towards the end of the race. For those interested, my race report on what happened is below.
The race started out quick. One guy went off the front, and a group of about eight of us went through the first checkpoint a few mins behind after 6 miles. By the 2nd checkpoint (14 miles), it was just me and the lead woman (Mary) in pursuit and got there together 5 mins behind the leader. Same at CP3 (18.5 miles) and the halfway CP4 (26.2) in 3.48 still 5 behind the leader.
Mary was super strong and got the drop on me after that (I had to nip to the bushes with a few gut issues), but I got to CP5 (32 miles) only 5 mins down, and again still in 3rd at CP6 (38.4 miles). Long slog in the heat of the day to the last CP7 at 47 miles and was passed by 4th at mile 42, but still all good and running strong up to 46 miles in 4th. Then it all went wrong.
The whole course was brilliant marked with directional arrows at every turn, and every gate (kissing or regular) was numbered from 1-160. At 46 miles and only one mile from CP7 there was a fork, with a big “Not this way – no entry” sign to the right, and the arrows pointing left via a gate numbered 133. 50 yards on and another directional arrow, so all good. I went down this hill, to presumably the last CP at the bottom, but passed through three consecutive gates with no markings or numbers, and ended up 10 mins later in a village at the bottom again with no signs at all.
Realised with horror that I must have missed a turn (I hadn’t), and knew instantly that my race was in ruins. Had run out of water too as I’d been managing it to this point. Had to turn round and schlep back up the hill for another mile, about 15 more mins and was nearly at the top when 5th place was coming down, about 25 mins behind me. Back at the gate 133 and we’d followed the arrows correctly but a race steward had come up the hill and confirmed that the arrows were pointing down the wrong path.
Turns out that some utter bastard farmer, had moved the signs around to stop the race going through his poxy field, not just moving them about but re-cable tying them to point the wrong way so they looked genuine enough. Whilst the steward was phoning the RD trying to work out where we should be going, the 5th place guy decided to gamble and ran off past the No Entry sign, which turned out to be the right way after all. I was sat on the ground as positions 6 through 12 all came down the path and we were all standing around not knowing where to go. It had been 40-45 minutes since I was first at this 46 mile point.
Turns out that the leader had gone down that way too and got similarly lost, but he was a local who knew where he should be going for CP7. He turned back and came across Mary (2nd) and the 3rd place guy just behind and told them they were on the wrong track. So rather than retrace to the top, they bushwhacked through fields, bushes, barbed wire fences etc, to get back on route. The all day leader ended up 4th, 3rd place guy got to the finish line 1st but waited to let Mary cross first knowing she was ahead when the cock up occurred. 5th place guy who was 25 mins behind me, and 40 mins behind the leader with 6 miles to go came in 3rd, having been warned by me not to take the wrong turn, then gambling on the right route.
I was so fckd off and demoralised that I wanted to drop out when I finally got to CP7. But decided to half-heartedly jog the last 5 miles to the finish. I ended up 9th, Having lost that unassailable 4th place and losing almost an hour.
Not the organisers fault but I was so pissed off at the end, I just got in my car and drove 2.5 hours home and went to bed. Only 4 of us actually did the extra mileage and got lost, and we would/should have finished in that order. Leader must have been more livid than me to end up 4th. I am going to go back soon and burn down the farmer’s bun. Selfish miserable fckr!!
Beat half the horses btw & the winner was only 23s behind the horse after the full 22.3M!! Because of the staggered start he got in well ahead but then had to wait as the clock ticked down. That 23s means he lost out on the £3K prize & the kudos of being only the 3rd person to manage it.
TR.. bad luck fella, rotten luck indeed after all the hard training. The body does become less resilient at 50+ and we rarely know when we're going to break, when to back off from a niggle or run through it. My mara at Barca last year was like running through treacle from 10m and I couldn't understand why so I know how you feel about lack of ROI.
Jooligan.. that's a long way to chase horses! Top effort that.
12.2m for me today, glad I got out on a slightly cool and cloudy morning as it's beer & burger weather now.
Dan - chins up. Could be worse...you could live with a Nimby attitude like that! The fckn state of some people.
Game of two unequal halves. Proper cruising for 22miles and having to hold back, HR well under budget. If it wasn't for LMH probably would have pushed on. As it turns out may have dodged a bullet there. Next couple of miles same effort returned a little less pace but fully expected to hold it to the end. Was never in the plan to ruin myself. Then at Mile 24 the shipment of garlic elclairs took their toll. Had a squat in a bush and anything other than walking had me dry heaving. Damage limitation mode. Got jogging again. Managed to make it to make the final turn towards the track. Then I was down on all fours exactly where the most spectators were. Finally got a shuffle on and thought sub3 was gone but I'd be pretty knobbed off if I didn't at least break into a trot. Glad I did when I stopped my watch at 2:59:59. So the cheeky little fckr who said I didn't belong here might want to have a rethink.
Shame about Eyeore...I was fearing he was gonna come breezing past near the end and then I heard 'Oh someone's having a tough time of it.' just as I was staggering onto the track and there he was in his civvies. Your day must surely be out there soon.
Top bombing from LMH who lowered the lesser spotted record by the best part of 20mins. Apart from the first mile that she covered appreciably quicker than my 6:25 she ran a really intelligent race and finished strong.
Now in France for a bit of RnR.
As you were.
Not sure if one of these would be of interest TR: http://www.time2runevents.co.uk/info2.cfm?info_id=224964
Dan - I would be absolutely livid. What a total arse the farmer is - and I suspect denying access to a public footpath is some kind of offence too.
Dan - That sounds such an impressive run and you showed great resilence carrying onto the finish. I hope the RD contacts the local media and shames the farmer, what an arse. Bodes really well for the 90K MdMB.
LMH - PB Boom - fantastic time and run in what must have been pretty warm conditions which must have taken some time out of you. Congratulations too on first placed woman and by some margin.
CRAB - 2.59.59 - that's fantastic, welcome back!. Withstanding the scooby doo troubles that's a helluva improvement over 6 weeks since VLM.
Jooligan - Sounds a cracking run for you, feel for the winner, 23 seconds.
TR - Hope the hamstring improves quickly. As Wardi said.
Back in tapering mode, so 13m for me yesterday.