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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.
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!
Or that’s what it feels like anyway… my calves, particularly the left one, are still stiff after Sunday’s Portsmouth Coastal Half Marathon, and the blisters on my feet rub with every step of the run, sending shooting pains through my feet. I have no idea how I will be able to run in the day’s after the Brighton Marathon.
All that said, it’s worth the pain to still be glowing in the pride of a fairly decent time on Sunday. I actually looked up the full results yesterday… 207th from 800 runner and in the top 30 of my age group!
In the excitement of finishing the Porstmouth Coastal Half Marathon yesterday, I totally failed to notice I have now run more than 600 miles in the last five months!
Today was pretty tough – Im shifting at a private jet company, working on their customer and staff mags and so had to be up early… My legs, particularly the left, were stiff, my blisters hurt and it was chucking it down with really nasty rain.
I dragged myself out of bed though, had a banana, some water and a couple of Ibuprofen and went out in in. The first steps were agony but, by the end of the road, I started to feel a little looser.
As the rain drove down, I trundled no… ages slower than yesterday. By the middle mile though, I was feeling pretty good. The cold was numbing my legs against the pain and I was back in my old worn in trainers to combat the blisters. Even the rain didn’t seem to matter… in fact, I actually like running in rain, there’s something about it that makes you feel like you are really pushing yourself.
Hopefully the rest of the week, if I take it slow, will be easier
For Laura (for getting up early to come with me) for David B, David W, Michael G, Steve S, Johan O, Kate P, Alice L, Andy J and Ben M for suggesting the tunes and for the men and women of the RNLI for whom the race raised cash.
So I was like those kids from the Disney advert this morning: ‘Muuum, I can’t sleep’ and was bright eyed at 6am – even though we didn’t have to set off for the race until 8am. I spent part of that time reading the excellent Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire in bed and another part of it reading it in the bath, which I thought would relax me.
All laid out and ready to go
Last night I’d laid out most of the things I needed to take: kit, new trainers, Jelly Beans, carb gel, water, Lucazade Sport, iPhone and arm band, Garmin Forerunner 405 and associated heart rate monitor, Vaseline, race number, safety pins… so there wasn’t much to do except take a picture and load it into my kit bag. I also took a clean tee shirt, hoody, underpants, socks and another pair of trainers as I fancied a change of clothes might make the two-hour drive back to London more pleasant for both Laura and myself.
I finally managed to get the missus out of bed around 7.15 and she dashed in the shower as I wolfed down a banana and a bowl of porridge with honey. I also made sure I went to the loo for number 2s – twice… there was no way I wanted to be caught short on the race.
The trip to Portsmouth was mercifully traffic free – who else is on the road at 8am right? But it pissed it down all the way making me think the race wasn’t going to be much fun… and I was nervous enough as it was. This was my first official race since I did the Athens half, back when I was a skinny little 17-year-old who still bought size 28 Levis…
We made it down to the race start in good time, around 35 minutes before the off but were faced with queues about 20 minutes long for the portaloos. I still managed to go, collect my chip and smother myself in Vaseline with about five minutes to spare though.
As we waited to go, I chatted to a mother and son who have both signed up for London, this was his second half and her first, both really lovely people… I had a look around the starting line up, I was about 3/4 of the way down the 800 people who were running and noticed a couple of things about runners.
And he's off...
What struck me was the average age of people who were there… I’d say around 30+. Sure there were some younger people, mainly students but most were of an age. The other thing is that the older people were all perfectly kitted out in brand name running gear, while the studenty types were all wearing bits and bobs kit. One particularly young bloke near me was running in board shorts!
A nervous five minutes followed until we were off. I decided to pace myself depending on what was going on around me but by about half a mile, you could see some of the fun runners in my personal space were beginning to drop back and by a mile, I was slowly working my way through some of the field.
At three miles, I looked at my watch – 25 minutes – and I realised I was running at a relatively decent pace for me; on training runs I normally do 27mins tops for three miles.
About four miles in, there was a huge loop around a park and I was quite surprised to find people passing me – on their way back! When I looped it, at around five miles, I started to count the people I was passing that still had to do the loop – 85 with a huge number still looping behind me… I reckoned I had to be somewhere around half way down the 800.
I was running with a bottle of Lucazade Sport in hand, had already munched on some Jelly Babies that were laid at some of the stations and started to take on liquid just past half way. And at this point, I regretted running in trainers that only had 6miles on the clock from my previous two days training – my arches were rubbing raw and I could feel the pain of new blisters.
Somewhere around 8 miles we went around some sports fields… the grass muddy from the constant rain, the trainers were well and truly Christened but the cold puddles at least gave the arches some relief.
The final four miles or so were awesome, yet tough – along a shingle beach with the tide out, the sun had started to shine and I could see right across the Solent as my feet squelched in and out of the sand making my aching calves feel even heavier.
... and he's done
Despite this, I was still picking up places… I reckon I was only passed by about 10 people once past the three mile mark, while I probably gained and overtook at least 50 or so during the whole race.
At around 12 miles and back on pavement, I got a text message that somehow conspired to send my iPhone all over the place, so I ripped the headphones out and took my gloves off as it was starting to get seriously warm.
A marshall shouting ‘Just half a mile more’ gave me a last five-minute boost to the finish line where a disbelieving Laura couldn’t believe I got in so quick – and I even passed the young chap in board shorts just before the finish.
My Garmin said 12.87 miles and 1hr 49, the race organisers said 13.1 miles and 1hr 48mins and 40secs… I wasn’t going to argue but I didn’t bother checking what position I came in – it didn’t matter, I’d completed the race, funnily enough, only a minute slower than that Athens race 25 years ago!
The post-race rub down
Great post-race camerarderie – I bumped into the chap from the start, he finished a minute ahead of me, his mum was still going round, bless. The RNLI staff at Portsmouth were awesome… post race sports massages for £5, which I took advantage of and making sure all racers were warm, watered and fed. Excellent organisational skills and a huge thanks are in order.
Thanks to David Whitely, Steve Swift and Kate Popham for suggesting tracks for my playlist for tomorrow’s Portsmouth Coastal Marathon: Manics, New Order and Eminem all added…
If anyone has any more suggestions, please leave a comment below or email me by clicking here.
For this morning’s run I did a nice easy amble on London Road through Norbury – the first time I’ve had energy for a run all week and the least my legs have ached. I can only conclude that running 15 miles last Sunday less than 18 hours after getting off a flight from America can’t have been that good an idea.
I’m getting quite excited about tomorrow now… my first big race since I did the Athens half marathon at 17 – that’s 25 years! Now get me inspired! Suggest a song.
So as part of my training for the Brighton Marathon I have my first proper race this Sunday, the Portsmouth Coastal Half Marathon raising money for the RNLI.
For 13.2miles or around 2-2.5 hours, I’m going to need some inspiration for my iPod playlist, so please, if you have a great suggestion, leave a comment below or email me by clicking here.
In order to look smart, I’ve gone and got some new kit ready for the race and tried it out today. Aside from the worrying fact that my legs are still tight from Sunday’s 15 miler, I can conclude the following.
1. New Adidas running shirt – absolutely fine, no problems at all – made with Climalite materials to cool you down.
2. New Asics GT 2150 trainers – these have inbuilt support to stop by ankles from turning when I run. My old trainers (GT 2140) did a good 550 miles and its around this point the support tends to go… a return to turning in the old trainers could be the cause of my leg ache this week. The GT2150 are simply the new generation GT2140s so there was not much difference. the
3. Given it’ll probably be cold at the weekend by sea, I decided to invest in a new base layer by Skins. Despite getting a large size, I almost felt like I was being asphyxiated. I’ll probably revert to my old Adidas one to keep warm (which, despite being a medium, is much more comfortable).
4. New New Balance shorts. Again fine, although they bunch a little around the privates which could lead to chafing. Extra vaseline or old shorts could be in order.
Finally I also tried a carb gel for the first time. These are supposed to give you energy as you go but as you have to drink half a litre of water with them, you still end up running with a bottle. I think I’ll stick to a bottle of Lucazade Sport when I run Sunday. They tasted bloody awful anyway, so I’m not too fussed with not using them.
At least three miles a day, every day, for a year - the streak running challenge I've set my self since taking voluntary redundancy in September 2009.
It’s also this running blog where you can read about the travails of my daily run and follow my progress thanks to my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch.
By clicking on the link at the end of each blog entry, you can see exactly where I ran, how fast I did it, what my heart was doing at the same time and even do a little replay of the run with a very cool 'player' feature. Check it out on the top right of each linked page.
Click the logo below for treadmill running machines
