The hangover runs are the worst

I was very silly last night. It was Stephanie Boyle, PR manager at Visit Britain’s leaving do and I’d said I’d pop in for a couple after my course as I had to be up early to go again.

Best laid plans and all that… I ended up leaving at 11pm, a mixture of red wine and strong lager coursing through my veins. 5am, this morning and it was me cursing… my stupidity.

My head ached, I felt sick, had to go for a run and be in some kind of shape to not look stupid on the course. I ended up stumbling around Streatham like an idiot and turning up at the course feeling even worse.

One of the things we have been learning are nutrition guidelines: one of the main ones is no CRAP (caffeine, refined, alcohol and additives, processed). Of course, for me it all went out of the window.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 3
Target: 1020
Miles to date: 1,421.68

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Today should have gone smoothly…

… but it didn’t

Today was meant to be a nice easy run – just a three miler after yesterday’s 14 miler and associated fuel tank problem.

The idea, as I was on the PT course in Southwark was to knock off there at 5pm and head to Hyde Park for a 6pm meet and run with Andy who is taking over the challenge and Damo, his pal, who will be joining him on some of the runs and trying to do 1095miles in the year but as a cummulative total rather than an every day challenge.

All well and good until about 4.45 – we’d even been doing some stretching techniques on the course and I was more than happy to let most of the group get in some pracitice on my hamstrings.

Then, just before we left, I noticed the Garmin was at about 5 per cent charge…. I was about to go on a run with nothing in place to record the fact I’d done it.

iphone in hand, I Google mapped the nearest running shop, London City Runner on Ludgate Circus, over the Bridge from where I was. I decided to run over, switch the watch on to get some mileage under the belt and pray they had a Garmin charger in stock.

A mile – or eight minutes later and I was in the shop. Great, a charger was found and I stumped up an extra £16 – only to discover it was a USB charger with no plug.

“Please tell me you have the adaptor,” I begged. The Aussie girl behind the counter started to root around… “I’m not sure we do she replied,” before finally locating one. Another tenner thank you very much.

Then I was off to the local Starbucks for a cuppa and some charge. At 30 per cent, I thought I was good to go and went for a pre-run number 2… only to find half way through there were only two sheets of loo roll in the john that necessitated me using them before heading out for some more tissues and back in.

Great – 30 minutes to get across London to meet the boys – jump on a bus I thought, failing to take into account rush hour traffic.

Ten minutes later and we had crawled a few hundred yards and so it was out of the bus and on another run… I was doing all this by the way with my backpack with normal clothes and school books in. It weighed a ton and running with it through rush hour commuters was no fun.

By the time I got to Hyde Park, I already had 2.5miles on the clock.

Thankfully, meeting the boys was a great idea – despite the fact I still had to run three miles with them. They’ve both got some great ideas for where we can take the site when Andy takes over in September…

More to be revealed in the coming days and weeks.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 6.18
Target: 1014
Miles to date: 1,415.68

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

14 miles, 1,400 miles and running out of gas

As part of my training for the Athens Marathon, I had to do a 14 miler today… No problem I thought, after doing just over a half marathon last week.

With more DIY and some paid-for writing work to complete, I decided to set off early and was out of the house for 7.30am, fuelling up with a banana and some Maxifuel Viper to give me an energy boost.

When I first set off, it was sprinkling with rain which got a little heavier about four miles in when I hit Wandsworth Common.

At this point, I was doing okay, congratulating myself on passing the 1,400 mile mark for the year and feeling pretty chipper and full of beans thanks to the carbs and the cooler weather.

Six and a half miles and I crossed Battersea bridge to get on the north side of the Thames and after running down the Embankment in Chelsea for a while, crossing back at Chelsea Bridge.

I slowed a little here, it must have been 7.5 miles to grab an energy sachet from my shorts and pulled my iphone out at the same time.

Alex Kyprianou, who I mentioned yesterday was saying how much he missed the chance to run in London since he has been living in Oz, so I decided to take a snap to show him what he’s really missing

Cold and wet on the Thames

Yes Alex, it’s still the height of summer!

On the other side of the bridge, some idiot passed in a car and flicked a fag butt out of the window that hit me on the hand, sticking momentarily to the expanding gap filler I got on my hands in yesterday’s DIY fest.

After cursing him to high heaven, through Battersea and Clapham I trekked, feeling pretty good and going at around 8 minutes a mile and thinking I was doing well on a long training run for the second week running.

By the time I got back to Tooting though, two miles from home, every bit of energy in me decided to bugger off and I hit a bigger wall than I ever have, even in the marathon.

For about a mile, I had to grit teeth, slow down and just push on as best as I could… I knew if I stopped i would not start again and the psychological blow would have been massive.

In the end, I stumbled back to Streatham, a little short on mileage, so I had to do a round of Sainsbury’s car park to make up.

For next week’s long one, I need to take more gels with me.

Tomorrow, I’m back on the PT course for a week… wish me luck.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 14
Target: 1011
Miles to date: 1,409.50

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Mums always think you’re the best

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

I swear there was a time, maybe ten or 15 years ago, where doing any kind of exercise, never mind a big challenge was kind of frowned upon. It seems like it used to be that instead of counting the miles you ran, the number of pints you drank was your badge of honour.

I’m not sure where the change came from – these days it seems everyone is at the gym or racing a 5k or half marathon – but I suspect it came over from the States. While the Midwest may still have its fair share of dumplings, New York and LA have always been terribly body conscious. And over the past few years, people have taken it one further by raising cash for charity at the same time.

Whatever the reason, Greece, where I was brought up and where my mum still lives, is still pretty much behind the UK when it comes to this kind of thing. Sure people go to the gym and they don’t drink loads but you hardly ever see anyone out just pounding the streets simply because they enjoy running. And no one does extreme events for charity.

I was telling George, my Greek brother-in-law about the Portsmouth Half Marathon the other day and how some runners had mates located around the race who would pass them a bottle of water or a banana. He said: ‘In Greece, your mates would be passing you a cup of espresso and a fag’ – and he was only half joking.

So trying to explain to my mum what I’ve been doing for the last six months has all been a bit of challenge. She’s 75 bless her and not lived in England for more than 35 years so the idea of running for fun, running loads and raising money for charity by running are alien ideas.

She gets that I’m running a lot… but that’s about it. I was telling her about Sunday’s half-marathon yesterday and the conversation went something like this:

‘So mum, I ran this half marathon.’
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s a race, like a marathon but half the distance.’
‘So it’s not a marathon?’
‘No mum, that’s why it’s called a half marathon.’
‘So did you win?’
‘No, I came 174th’
‘It sounds like you had no chance of winning.’
‘I didn’t’
‘So why do it?’
‘For fun, to take part, to see how good I am.’
‘Trelos.’ (it means crazy)

A bit of silence followed where I think neither of us knew where to take the running conversation. And then she came back with:

‘So, with all this running, will you be training for the London Olympics?’

Bless her, she really did think I had a chance of running in the Olympics, despite the fact I’m 42, have been running seriously for less than a year and have knackered legs.’

You’ve got to love mums, they always think their kids are the best.

Miles today: 3
Target: 564
Miles to date: 741.07

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

The make or break run

Well that was interesting… a supposed 17mile run that ended up being 18.5 thanks to my map reading going out the window somewhere around Wimbledon Common, a relatively stiff and not a little painful first three miles, a great middle section around the Common and a last couple of miles where I stumbled from step to step like someone who’s just had a night on Lagavunin single malt (which I did by the way).

Laura had me a freezing bath on for when I got back. I lasted two minutes in two different goes of one each and followed it with a hot bath to try and warm myself up. Now Im in front of the fire, with a hot water bottle, cup of tea, ice pack on legs and, despite just having a double helping of porridge, am still starving – not unreasonable given Garmin Connect estimates I’ve spent nearly 3,000 calories running this morning.

My feet, by the way, are becoming like proper runner’s feet, the blisters from the Portsmouth Half Marathon have now turned into hard skin and the hard skin has blisters on it… one of them a nice juicy one full of blood I’m contemplating popping. Around the rest of my feet, particularly on the heels, the skin is getting all gnarly and worn – I wonder if a toe nail might go at some point.

Tomorrow is the acid test though, how I react to today’s run will determine a lot about my future endeavours.

Oh, I forgot to say… today was the furthest I have ever ran in my life!

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 18.5
Target: 507
Miles to date: 655.9

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Split to the gym and back

Still a little tight today so another fairly easy run that I actually split in two.

I’d not made it the gym at all this week so decided to run there and back, happily, in another case of running serendipity, it’s about 1.47 miles to the gym…

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 477
Miles to date: 615.19

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Signed up for the disney Marathon

Very excited yesterday to find out Disney actually hosts a marathon around Walt Disney World in Orlando every January that runs through the four parks – I’ve already put my name down to come back next year and run it.

This morning’s run was another dark one as we have another early start but I managed to just run a straight and back instead of going around the lakes as I have done the other days I’ve been here.

It’s something I’d not done previously as I had no idea where the road that goes right from our hotel goes, but we drove it yesterday (it heads to Epcot park) and so, even though I knew it was dark, I kind of knew where I was going…

I’m not sure if I ended up somewhere in one of the back lots at one point, but I did pass a building called Disney University – I’m sure they give Mickey Mouse degrees.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 435
Miles to date: 548.78

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Walt Disney World Orlando, the second run

I set out a little later today than yesterday and could actually see where I was running to!

Our hotel, the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World looks over Bay Lake which joins with neighbouring Seven Seas Lagoon (where we zipped around on Sea Raycers yesterday, see Worldofjames.com) and there’s a path that leads someway around the latter and so I headed that way, running almost as far as the Grand Floridian resort before having to turn back.

At the road that splits the two resorts (and lakes for that matter), I was a little short on distance but zipping up and down the queue lines, separated by chain, for the ferry boat service that starts later in the day and goes between the Contemporary and the Floridian made up for it.

Normally, I’d hate winding around them, this morning they were  a godsend.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 429
Miles to date: 542.78

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First run at Disneyworld Orlando

Absolutely gutted that thanks to jetlag I missed the shuttle launch at 4.15 am this morning here in Orlando.

The shuttle launch pad could be seen from my room in the Disneyworld Contemporary Resort in the dark night sky and a combination of the excitement of seeing it and jetlag saw me waking up every 45 minutes or so… predictably, I set the alarm wrong and just managed to leap out of bed to see the end of the tail as she went up.

I’ve been up working since then and just went for my first run here. At first, it was annoyingly dark and I had no idea whether I could get around Bay Lake that the resort is on or not. I figured though that some of it at least would be fenced off and it wasnt wise to run around it in the dark anyway so I headed to the highway nearby, rounded that and as it lightened up, came round the back of the resort.

The sight of the lake as the sun was coming up behind it, palm trees swaying in the breeze with the sky a deep scarlet was amazing… I ended up having to do the same route twice to get the three miles in but it was worth it to come back to that view.

On the body front, 2 miles in, my knee seemed to seize up a bit… I’ll be keeping an eye on that tomorrow and going pretty slow.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the days’ run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 426
Miles to date: 539.78

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Going for longer than ever before

Today is day 140 – just the 225 to go! – and I’m upping my running distance at weekends in anticipation of the Brighton Marathon in April and starting to break new territory by running further than I ever have before.

Normally my long run would be on a Sunday but even I’m not mad enough to try and run for two hours before having to get to Gatwick for 8.30am so I shifted it to Saturday this week.

I was up at 6.15 trying to plan a route on Walk Jog Run that would see me do a round trip and also browsing Runner’s World magazine which has an article this month on how important race nutrition is.

It’s something I need to pay attention to after my run in with the runs on a run two weeks ago, so I made sure I was ready for anything when I went out.

I had a banana and two glasses of water when I got up, made sure I went to the loo, waited about 20minutes to see how the banana was sitting and when satisfied I didn’t need another visit, I decided to set off around 7am.

I took with me a bottle of Lucazade Sport with caffeine, put some coins alongside the keys in my shorts pocket in case they were needed for a public loo and tucked a bit of loo roll into my shorts, just in case I needed some at any point. The Who’s Quadrophenia album went on the iPod (we’re going to see them next month and they are playing the whole album live as a concept gig) and off I went.

At first, I was pacing myself, looking to do about 10.5 mins a mile, keen not to overdo it with 13 hard miles ahead of me but as I left Streatham and headed into Tooting (about a mile down), I glanced at my Garmin and saw I was actually doing much closer to 9 minutes a mile, it felt good and so I carried on. (Long live Lillian’ sports massage from yesterday’s entry).

At about 6miles, I went passed a Travelodge with  tramp sitting outside who cheered me on (!!!), glanced in a shop window and was surprised at my reflection… I actually looked like a runner. My stride was good, my arms were pumping and my breath wasn’t ragged.

At 6.5 miles, crossing the Thames to Chelsea Embankment, I had my first sip of the Lucazade… the sugar and caffeine giving me an almost instant rush so I gulped half and saved the rest to sip through the rest of the run.

There were times during the second half of the 13 where I started to feel a little ragged but by the time I got back to Streatham, I was still relatively flying towards home, that’s despite having to go up Bedford Hill in Balham which is not massively steep but may as well be Everest when you have 12 miles on your legs.

I made it home with no loo stops, no upset tummy from the Lucazade and got back well within two hours (1hr 59mins as you ask). Double that and I’ll be doing Brighton in four hours… too much to ask for?

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 13.01
Target: 420
Miles to date: 533.77

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here