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Tom.. I still have a pair of retired Ekidens, also one of my all time faves. I go to the pub in them now, they also make decent casual shoes for hols as they are so light!
Dids.. I was no angel with dubious race tactics as a young lad - I once glued the egg to the spoon.
Race Report - South Downs Marathon.
Got a mail on Wednesday saying our star runner got confused (he assumed it was on Sunday) and now couldn't run this one. Having run just 51 miles since the VLM in April, and put on a bit of weight, initial response was "ha ha of course not!", then "well, spose I could" then on Thursday "oh go on then".
Up at 5am, club mates picked me up at 6, then to the finish and a bus journey to the start, with an amusingy clueless driver who needed help from a handy Ipod enthusiast to find it. Then a delightful 2-hour wait at the start, a little picturesque school with startlingly glorious views towards the distant coast, as the organisers (Mike Gratton - said hello) set off the relay runners and then the slower runners and eventually us. Was fun to pick up back markers almost all the way and the staggering worked well.
A 5-mile gentle climb up to the South Downs Way and then a course which basically plunges down into valleys at convenient 10K intervals and then climbs back up, with views so good I slowed down a couple of times just to take them in. Plenty of enjoyable banter with off road ultra nutters too, especially as the only way I was going to finish this one was really slowly. Picked up a bit at 6m, again a bit at half way, and had the uniquely pleasant experience of thinking I hadn't passed 20 and then passing 21. A slightly tougher second half but suspect I may well have run negative splits, and a nicely benign descent over the last mile and a bit to the finish, although suspect the 25m marker was a bit early.
Finished in 3:48 with only a few twinges of hamstring cramp in the last mile, otherwise felt quite strong throughout. Broke my rules by having not only a small bottle of water but also two gels, as was feeling quite peckish at half way.
Quite pleased. Nicely organised event, good medal, good logistics, faultless route marking, good start waves, poor t-shirt, but I suppose people gotta make money. Will do it again.
I'm mulling over crossing to orienteering myself. Looking forward to boring the pants of everyone with details of what order I hit the control points in my latest outing.
Could kill off the thread stone dead.
Gobi how did Rach do in her 25 mile time trial last weekend? Tried to lurk it but failed.
Dull
It's your thread mate, if anyone has the right to assasinate it, it's you.
Perhaps you could idle away a few hours by compiling a procedures manual:
Eg:
No more Poker (Selbs)
No more Fly Fishing (Home Run?)
No more bikes (almost everyone)
No more rants (thingy from Manchester)
No more when I were a Lad (Tom)
No more inpenetratable metaphors (TR)
No more knob jokes (Wardi)
No more surrealism (CRAB)
On second thoughts don't....as it would be very boring without all that nonsense.
the fishing was me, sorry. I ordered some new flies ("buzzers"). They look to me like they couldn't possibly be mistaken for anything other than a lethal hook, but apparently they look like insect larvae in the water (presumably an insect larva that's swallowed a big steel hook though).
One more thing to add to my race report - perfect weather too. Clear, cool, and near the end just when I was getting hot a brief light shower. A very slight cooling headwind. Rain yesterday which had softened the ground pleasantly, but no surface water (and generally a hard chalky surface). Magic.
Didn't do the Battersea Park 10km as originally planned due to change of plan about being in London for the weekend. Eventually got out for my LSR this afternoon - now up to 22km (woohoo!) so at least over HM distance... A nice easy 12km tomorrow will see me hit 80km for the week. Nearly respectable, even in miles.
Nice report, Tmap; sounds like a lovely event.
Did a good hard 19 miles this afternoon. Best run for three months.
Dull - Rach was 7th in the national 25 and today she won her first open 25.
Never made it to Bedford but stopped off at Abingdon where I ran 17.05. The course was totally flat which was excellent but it was 90% plus off road and rutted with a number of tight turns and gates. Ran the last 3 minutes back at low 5 min pace(on road) and crossed the line at sub 5 min pace. I need a flat road course!!!!!!!
Gobi - smashing running, find that flat road course soon....!
TMap - I also greatly enjoyed your report. Sounds like a lovely run. Having lived near the S.Downs for 24 yrs I do miss that part of the world.
I see an occasional poster on here ran sub 14:20 for 5,000 at Watford last night. Not too shabby.
Supposed to be on the bike now but it is pissing down. I may go running but that sucks in the rain as well.
Very fast running from that foreign English bloke
I find it depends on the degree of rain:
No rain = running
Light rain = cycling
Heavy rain = running
Something about light rain that pisses me off. Havy rain makes me happy, you get honestly wet, but light rain is just a pisser, maybe it is my glasses, if it is heavy I run without glasses and light just means I am forever wiping my glasses.
Dear fellow gay cyclists, yesterday I had the misfortune to fit proper pedals, get some cycling shoes with cleats etc.
I'm probably not the first person that crashed on the pavement outside my house, but convinced myself that I'd get the hang of it.
Set off for a 90 mile test run, but the more I practiced the worse I got. It was taking 3-4 secs to struggle to twist my foot free - which is completely crap as it meant I was having to free myself up 100 yards before every junction, and having to anticipate traffic flow in a permanent cold sweat.
Amazing that I only fell off 3 times, although once was particularly bad (onto hard cobbles) bending my handlebars (well, bending the break/gear thingy). My hip being massively sore, cut knee.
Just very, very, very annoying. Standard Shimano road pedals, and shoes (Specialised) from Evans. I stopped loads of times to work out the best technique, adjusted the springs, but it's just shit and a bit dangerous I reckon. Think the normal pedals are going back on when I take the bike for repair/moan about the pedals.
Thank god running is not like this.
Good news: checked my bank account and discovered that £101 went out to london 2012 on Wednesday. Allowing for the admin fee it means I've got one evening session of athletics
I decided not to do the Audax today. 130 miles in the rain getting lost, wet and cold and getting home at 6pm didn't seem a good plan. Instead I got out early for a long ride from home. Rode to Saffron Walden and back. Shared some miles with a 25 mile TT course. Caught one guy and was caught by two but they had disc wheels. Bike computer playing up - kept showing 0mph while I was doing over 20. 5.5 hours Inc breaks - I'll have to check the route on gmap for distance - computer says 88 but it was a fair bit more than that. Bonked quite badly 30 miles from home but found a garage for coke and chocolate. Rain held off until 10am when I was turning for home.
edit: gmaps confirms the route as 96 miles. Planned for 100, but a combination of the bike computer and bonking meant I took a slightly shorter way home.
And to keep Tom happy - ran on Friday and for just over 2 hours yesterday. Slow and steady but good to get some miles in.
It's a bit easier with my right foot, but no way on gods earth am I going to ever rely on putting my right foot down, since I'd rather not end up under the wheels of a truck.
I will try swapping cleats over, oiling them, asking them nicely to behave....
I'd find it staggeringly hard to believe it's possible that they are allowed to sell something that can cause injury without rigorous QA control.
I must have done something stupid, just can't think what, since it doesn't seem like rocket science. Three screws, one spring adjustment???
Tmap: the fishing stuff goes over my head -,haven't fished since I was a teenager catching brown trout to cook over a campfire. I do see a lot of people fishing on the river lea - although why some if them choose to set up underneath the north circular always puzzles me. Its a grim bit of the path - dark and in an industrial wasteland and the road is noisy above.
You marathon report on the other hand was excellent. I really enjoyed the off road marathons I did in 2009. They are more relaxed and the scenery can be tremendous.
LD, re above ...wonderful description, reminded me of when I tried to convert to wearing contact lenses.
Jools - hope there's no reaction to your tumble.
PMJ - I also enjoy running in the rain, though like you I struggle through wearing spectacles. I did once consider contact lenses
Ran 12.8M at 8:03 pace this morning.....will be asleep on the sofa, catching flies, in a few minutes.
In the end I went outside and rode as I couldn't face the Turbo for more than 15 mins. Lost my crank at 25 miles and will refit it soon I hope. Got WET !!!!!!
I am hoping for a break in the weather so I can pop out and run.
Cripes Gobi, how did you get home after loss of crank? Many congrats to Rach BTW.
LD.. I agree with Gobi, something sounds wrongly adjusted. I use Crank Bros. pedals, they take a bit of practice to clip into at first but are easy to get out of.
Nice long ride MTR, did it rain all the way?
Jools.. really pleased to hear that you've got some tickets. I remember how brassed off you were when you thought you had none.
Tom.. nice miles you are amassing..
Good to see one of our pointy enders bashing out fast a 5k.
40m on the bike for me. 20m dry then 20m fairly soggy. Really hammering it down now.
Tmap - I also really enjoyed your report.
Gobi - not sure whether I've quite understood your posts but Hackney Marshes is a fast parkrun if you're looking for one. Absolutely flat, out and back, all on tarmac or similar paths apart from first and last 50m and another 20m stretch on grass, paths very good apart from a few extremely short patches (a few yards) with poor surfacing. But there must be faster ones.
MtR - yes, why do so many people choose that delightful spot to go fishing?
Southend Half Marathon for me today. The temperature was perfect, but there was a bit of a breeze affecting much of the course to some degree or other. Got a PB with 1.17.38-ish so happy enough, but I'd like to see what I can do without the wind. Nice to see and chat briefly to another sub 3-er there, since we chatted I've put two and two together. My pre-race running yesterday was 4 miles easy, but other people seem to take a different approach. Awesome.
Touch wood the knee feels fine - walked to work and back to pick up some papers I need to read for tomorrow and no adverse effects. I'm probably over cautious about it just at the mo, having lost so much training time in April/May.
FR: Nice PB - Southend is often weather affected. 2007 it was a heatwave, 2008 (or 09 - I forget) there was a gale blowing.
LD some are tighter than others. Might be they will loosen as you use them. Keep trying. You will soon be shaving your leg
Nice marathon there Tmap. Really says something about your fitness when you can decided 2 days before hand to run a hilly marathon and still come home comfortably faster than many achieve at London.
He's made it into the UKA champs 10,000m race - with a little extra training it will be interesting to see which side of 29 he ends up.
Meanwhile a sub 3hr woman joined our Sunday run group today... nothing unusal, except it was at the end of a 9hr24 ironman. Apparently that's quite useful?
As for me, I'm struggling to get back into 'proper' training. Managed 272 miles for May - wanted 350ish but a mixture of travel and a (very welcome) back-to-back promotion at work (the main cause of travel) has been keeping me off the trails. Hope to see where I am on Wednesday with another stab at 3000m, trying to get in the region of Marders 10km pace.
FR - anything is possible but that is a little out of my way
BEJ - very impressive from him indeed. Will be interesting to see where you are at.
9.24 is a good time for Ironman and a sub 3 marathon is top drawer male or female