FLM 09 - 3.45ers!

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  • Am going to dive in here - my FLM application went in a couple of weeks ago. I only started running a year ago, and this would be my first ever marathon (if I get a place, unlikely, but you never know!), so maybe I should be aiming for a more conservative time. My 10k PB (I've only done 2!) is 46.30, and I've done one half marathon (Windsor) in 1.47.40. Velociraptor I think we must have pretty much crossed the line together on that one! My best possible imagined time for a marathon would be 3.59.59, though the sensible side of me says I should be just aiming to finish.

    Anyway, have another half mara in 2.5 weeks. Then will wait and see what happens with the applications ....
  • That would be fab V-rap, will bookmark the date for next year :)

    Must think about a costume for FLM, yes!
  • Hi Pidge :o)

    If you looked back when you'd just finished at Windsor and saw a couple of skeletons crossing the line behind you, you weren't hallucinating from the heat - that was eL Bee and me trying out our Trailwalker team kit for next year. I was the one who looked on the verge of extinction, having just been dragged for over a mile at 7mm pace.

    Which half are you doing next?

    With that sort of speed already in your legs, you'll have no trouble doing more than "just finishing" your first marathon :o)
  • Hi Pidge, Sub 4 looks good to me with those times. Just need to put in a few long runs before April :-)
  • How exciting Velociraptor - I did indeed see you on the way round - round about 9-10 miles if I remember correctly. If only I'd known at the time, I'd have said hello! I must say the sight of the skeletons cheered me up no end, as my legs were getting a bit tired at that point. I also remember hearing some kid shouting "Mum, look, how cool, two skeletons!" so you were a definite hit with the non-runners too!

    My next half is barns green ... will see what happens ...

    Thanks for the vote of confidence HRR - at around the 10 mile mark in Windsor, I did say to myself 'what kind of nutter would do a marathon, when 13.1 miles feels this bad!'.
  • Gulp!! Less than 2 days to go........
  • Hey R.D. I'll send you some calm vibes...I can only imagine the anticipation of running 26 miles ! . Also some calm vibes to you V'rap.. Made any flapjack today ??

    Hi Pidge Hi Tiger...

    I'm still taking it easy.. have only run 12 miles this week and suspect fitness is ebbing away Still have knee niggles which kind of takes the excitement out of training as not sure whether it will lead to more problems. Ho Hum.. perhaps I should join an injury thread.

    Meanwhile hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys their races.. I'll be thinking of you Sunday !
  • Rest and carboload mightily and have a cracking race, RD :o) I look forward to reading your report afterwards.

    ((((((((QQ)))))))) Hope your knee settles. Are you doing anything about it?

    I'm not making flapjack but I made a rather gorgeous experimental orange and hazelnut cake last night and am about to make a batch of chocolate chip brownies. Since my teenage daughter moved back in I never have any overripe bananas to make banana cake because she eats them as quickly as I can buy them.

    I went out for my last pre-Abingdon 10-miler this afternoon and got my first taperniggle. It's just a silly calf cramp and I've fed it a big dose of carbohydrate. The taper really does start physically now, though mentally I've been tapering all week.
  • Good luck everyone with your runs this weekend.
  • Hey, got to tell you all this story. I have been on a course this week in Birmingham. A colleague of mine told me about a story that happened to him.

    He had to do a house visit to a complainant. An elderly lady. It was raining hard and the guy was stuck out in the wet waiting for the lady to answer the door. When she checked his ID, a huge Alsatian came from nowhere and barged past him into the house. The dog left a big wet slimey mark on his trousers! Anyway, they both sit down in the lounge to discuss the ladies complaint.

    During the interview, the dog is going nuts. Barking at the top of its voice, growling, running upstairs dragging things off this ladies bed.

    My colleague is finding it hard to concentrate with all the noise. Then the dog does a dump on the ladies carpet. She just ignores it and carries on talking. Eventually she goes to the kitchen to fetch paper to clean the mess up.

    Eventually, business over, my colleague decides its time to go. He apologises that in this instance he can do nothing about the problem the lady has complained of.

    At this news she explodes. "Do nothing for me?" "I cant believe it" etc etc. The officer explains his reasons why he cant help, then asks her if there is anything else she would like to add.

    "Just one thing, you are a very rude man. Not only do you not offer to take your shoes off before entering my house, but why did you have to bring your dog in here with you as well..............."
  • Interesting, RD :o)

    That particular misfortune has allegedly happened to one of the practice partners of every GP in Birmingham, except that it happened on a housecall to a chav family. Or else it's an urban myth ;o)

  • I did wonder V. Rap!

    Strange, since I have come home I have told that story to anyone who will sit still long enough! I guess it's the type of story that spreads very quickly! Good though!!!!

    How you feeling? Nervous? Excited?
  • I'm OK, RD :o) This weekend I'll be too busy rounding up kids, cooking up cauldrons of food and taking people running-shoe-shopping to wibble. Which is good. I think I was a military quartermaster in a previous incarnation.

    How about you? Is Cardiff close enough to be a day-trip?
  • Yes, about 26 miles away from where I live funnily enough.

    Excited now. This is a stepping stone to Snowdonia at the end of October and that is going to be so special.

    Good luck with the weekend and dont do too much!
  • Snowdonia! Now, that one is on my to-do-sometime list :o) I love that part of the country.
  • Morning all !
    Slept in on Friday, so set off at 6.15 today to do my second solo half marathon of the week. Its incredible how once you've done a run a few times, negative thoughts about completing it can be banished forever, and times can only improve through the positive thinking leading to better running. Thats what I feel anyway, and todays time of 1 hour 43 mins 30 secs was 4 mins faster than Mondays run, and 10 mins faster than the Dundee half I did in June. The target now is definitely to get under 100 mins. The route I do is a very hilly one so on a flat course I should manage that.
    Why do I only get joggers nipple on my left nip ?
    Applied to run the Glen Clova half next month.
    Mr Dap, good luck with your run. No matter how poor you feel your time may be, remember you are MILES ahead of the rest of us with your training schedule and should feel very proud when you finish.
    Shame I'm up here in the land of milk and honey and can't join the rest of you on all thes organised races, but fingers crossed we can see each other before the FLM, all fit and ready to smash our latest PB's !
  • Thanks LS!

    With half times like yours I really do think you should be following a sub 3.45 schedule at the very least when you do start to crank up your FLM training.

    I have never run sub 1.45 for the half solo. My pb is 1.41. What I am trying to say is that when the adrenaline etc is flowing during a race, 100 minutes is definately under threat.

    By the way, if we all get into FLM, we could always arrange to grab a coffee together at the EXPO. Couldn't we chaps?!?

    Failing that, if I don't get into FLM I think I am going to do Lochaber the same day. Fort William sounds a stunning course, flat & scenic.

    Good luck everyone this weekend. I will report back tomorrow evening!

    BTW, all the men on this thread seem to be 37. I am 37 also. Is this weird? Are all the ladies the same age too? Just my abstract thought for the day!
  • Great run LS. I think RD is right; once you are in a race the 100 min target will be no problem. I also agree that a sub 3.45 marathon is a realistic goal.

    I speak as the grand old man of the thread (49) so my words must be full of wisdom LOL ;-)
  • Whether we all get into FLM or not I'll be trying to round you all up for some carbo-loading practice long before then ;o)

    I don't know about the ladies, but all the dinosaurs currently on the thread are 42 but allegedly Look Too Young To Be A Doctor. Being scale-model sized has its advantages.
  • Sadly not 37 either! Add one year to a dinosaur and you get a tiger ..


    Just back from my last 10 mile outing. Right over the top of the North Downs courtesy of Snoop, lovely sunny day out there though, I'd be quite happy if it was like that next Sunday!

    Good luck at Cardiff, RD :)
  • Thanks Tiger! In fact thanks to everyone, I am off to bury my head in a bucket of pasta.

    Talk to you all soon
  • 8th September 1969, if you want to establish who is the youngest 37 year old !
    Also, no feedback at all on the single bleedin' nipple ?
    If I dont get into the FLM or through a charity place Mr Dap, I'll join you up Fort William. It looks very flat even though its all in the shadow of Ben Nevis...climbed it once when I did the 3 Peaks Challenge of the Ben, Scaffell Pike, and Snowdon inside 24 hours, making it with half an hour to spare, 3 years ago.
    I was thinking on my run today that I may run better on my own without others to cock up my pace by dragging me along at 30 secs a mile too quickly, but then if I had a bleepy thing, then that could all be kept constant I guess. Does anyone have a spare, state of the art bleepy thing I can have for free ?
    Stay positive all the way around Mr Dap, and think of lots of stuff, anything, to distract you from thinking of boring stuff like lungs bursting, legs wobbling, etc
    Ha! Ha!

    Good luck, and notch up yet another marathon.
  • I'll say a little prayer to Her Up There to grant you a good run tomorrow, RD :o)

    LS, without having seen you running or examined your nipples I don't know why one bleeds and the other doesn't.

    I should have a FLM place in 2007 courtesy of the five-rejections-and-you're-in rule, but would do Lochaber otherwise.
  • Hi

    24/2/69.... so yes I am also 37..... also on the small side and (oddly)also told I look too young to be a doctor ( despite feeling about ninety after a busy day !)Conversely after an argument with my daughter I find myself wondering who is the five year old !! .

    Hope R.D. and Vrap that you are both optimally loaded and that you have great races tomorrow.. also anyone else that is racing...
    Can't wait to hear your reports.

    L.S. do you carry a bottle or anything when running ? just wondering about the nipple thing ..

    Thanks ++++ for the hug Vrap.. and in answer to your question , yes I had some physio last week and will have a follow up this week. So hoping things will just settle if I do everything "right" - stretch, warm up, cool down, avoid hills etc etc

    with that I'll say good night and GOOD LUCK
  • I'm not racing tomorrow, QQ. Just hoping my taperniggle allows me a little gentle 5-miler, otherwise my training will be limited to using my good leg to propel eL Bee out the door for a run in the morning.

  • Ah.. so Abingdon's next week.. enjoy your 5 miler !..
  • Any runs over about 16 miles I always cover both nipples with plasters. I have a slightly hairy chest so it's a bit painful removing them after.

    11.25 miles this morning. Tried to run slowly particularly at fist. Felt quite comfortable and I had some fuel left in the tank at the end. 1.43.39 which is 9.13 pace. It was a lovely day out on Wimbledon Common, loads of runners. Very few smile or say hello which I think is appalling. I've lived in London 26 years now so I should know what to expect!
  • Well done, HRR :o) Nice pace, and reassuring to know that you weren't all run out by the end of it.

    I shall avoid Wimbledon Common when I go out running while visiting friends in that corner of London! In Brum it's almost the opposite - if you make eye contact with a passer-by, they invite you in for a cup of tea.

    Not done my run yet. We went climbing this morning, then our plans for the afternoon were nudged slightly off-course by the oldest Buzzlet taking a flying leap off the garden swing (I think he was doing a daredevil-show-off thing to impress the girls) and landing on his right hand with a force which has resulted in his father having to take him to A&E.

    But the niggle is almost gone and I shall go out later.
  • Hello. I have just found this thread, am a 42 yr old GP who certainly used to look too young to be a doctor (now patients say 'you were away so I saw the young lady doctor') and have entered the ballot for London, hoping for 3:45 - 4 hrs. 1/2 pb of 1:45, never done a marathon. This morning I ran my first ever 15 miles, always previously having stopped at 13, so at last I am through that barrier.
    I would like to join in this thread, and benefit from advice about getting the long runs longer. This morning I experimented with diluted fruit juice and chocolate - I do not like the gels.
  • My son had a cross country race on Wimbledon Common last week, very tough he said! Even though it wasn't too boggy up there he managed to get himself covered in mud ... a definite mud magnet :o)
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