The route

I have mapped the route for the day out using Google Earth, which you can view by looking here. The route consists of the London Marathon route, followed by the return journey split onto 10 sections spanning between the intervening villages (where I will meet up with Jen to replenish my pack). I have worked out approximate timings (which should be an overestimate if anything), and they look something like this (the pages correspond to Book 2 of the Greenwich Meridian Trail book by Graham and Helda Heap):

Time	Section	Dist	Pages
06:00 - 07:00	Drive from St. Ives to Redbridge tube station
07:00 - 08:00	Tube from Redbridge to Greenwich Park
08:00 - 09:45	Marathon preparation
09:45 - 13:45	Run the marathon!	26.2
13:45 - 16:00	Walk/run through London to join the GMT	31.1
16:00 - 19:30	Run through London to Waltham Abbey	48.9	4 - 21
19:30 - 22:00	Run to Stanstead Abbot	58.1	24 - 31
22:00 - 00:30	Run to Standon	67.1	31 - 37
00:30 - 03:00	Run to Wyddial	75.7	38 - 41
03:00 - 05:00	Run to Royston	82.9	42 - 47
05:00 - 07:30	Run to Orwell	91.6	48 - 53
07:30 - 09:30	Run to Hardwick	99.2	54 - 57
09:30 - 11:30	Run to the guided busway	106.6
11:30 - 12:30	Home straight into St. Ives	112.3
12:30 - 14:00	Celebrate and fundraise in town

100 Mile Playlist

Training for the run has been comparatively easy when compared to organising a fund-raising gig. Running I can do. It's juts putting one leg in front of the other over and over again. Organisation? Now that's a real challenge! I arranged this little soiree to boost donations, promote the charity, and get the word out about the run in April. Being a drummer myself, I have been in many gigs over the years. But being a drummer, my job is usually to turn up, keep my mouth shut, and hit things in something approximating "time". I'm very good at turning up at least... But never have I been involved in the ins and outs of setting up and organising a gig. Still, there's a first time for everything!

Arranging the details was actually much easier than I had feared, helped a lot by the fantastic response that I got from the people that I contacted. First of all, we were offered the music room at the Portland Arms in Cambridge for free by the owners Hayley and Steve, and the bands that I contacted were very quick in showing their support. I was worried that I would need to use my charm to sway them into playing, so who knows what I would have done if that had happened! I was incredibly pleased with the line-up that I was able to put together, with three big local acts and a band from back in my University town of Leamington Spa featuring the brass section from my old band; Stupid, Stupid, Stupid and Steve. All in all it was a nicely eclectic mix, with (if you'll pardon the cliche) something for everyone.

The night was kicked off in style by Cambridge-based singer and song-writer Aidy playing a semi-acoustic set with his backing group. Aidy has written so many songs that it is difficult to pigeon hole him into any one genre. Last year he wrote, recorded, and released a song a week for the whole year, and they all have their own unique sound (check out his website to listen to all 53 of them, along with the rest of his extensive back catalogue!). I would say that he falls into the Indie/Alt-rock category, with a voice very similar to Billy Corgan (of Smashing Pumpkins fame). It was a great opening to the night, with songs like the haunting sounds of Not Your Day, and "love ballad" (I can only assume...) Washing Machine being particular favourites.

Following on from Aidy were The Titanics, a 9-piece funk and soul outfit hailing from my old haunting ground of Leamington Spa. I was really looking forward to seeing what my old band-mates Matt and Tim had been up to - and boy was I not disappointed! Coming to the stage in matching 20's speakeasy-era attire, the audience were treated to a three song opening segue that well and truly brought the promised Mighty Funk and Soul to the Portland Arms. With a 3-piece brass section, keyboard player, guitar, bass, drums, decks and singer, they were forced to spread out off of the stage to give themselves the room they needed to bring all of their energy to the performance! They played a combination of classics, bringing their own flavour to the whole experience, as well as one or two of their own songs. Singer, Ruth Taylor, owned the stage with an absolutely incredible voice, and the band were incredibly tight and clearly all having a lot of fun playing.

Next to take to the stage was Lexie Green, a Cambridge-based singer/songwriter who is incredibly well known in the area, and is a regular on BBC Radio Cambridge. She has an absolutely amazing voice, and her own brand of bluesy Americana (which she calls Tex-Lex) is a fantastic combination of catchy rock numbers and more vocal-led bluesy numbers. What's more, she is an absolutely lovely person, and kept the atmosphere fun and friendly, engaging with the audience throughout. I had been listening to her fantastic album, Twenty Ten (available on iTunes), all morning whilst out running and had Leave Me Sleep and Fast Cars and Big Guitars stuck in my head. Hearing them live did nothing to dislodge them, and I'm still humming them today! Lexie is currently in the running for the Best Female Vocals at the British Blues Awards, so please check out her music and vote for her!

Headlining the event were local Cambridge-based Indie band Isaac's Aircraft, who are one of the top acts in the area at the moment, and are (I suspect) about to break out into the mainstream Indie scene. They are already making big waves on the scene. Their first single, Friends and Foes, went straight into the BBC Indie Top 30 when it was released, they have supported bands like the Zutons and Amy Winehouse, and they are currently sitting at number 1 in the People's Music Awards Indie/Rock vote (please vote for them if you haven't already!). Surprisingly this was their first time playing at the Portland Arms, and they took to the stage to a great reaction from the crowd. Lead singer Zak Thomas had a great rapport with the crowd, at one point jokingly describing himself as "Richard Ashcroft on acid" (isn't that just Richard Ashcroft?!). However, the tone of the band is much more upbeat than The Verve, with piano-fuelled tunes like Steady On and My Baby Did Me Wrong. They have a new album coming out in May, so keep your eyes open!

Overall the gig was a huge success. It was great to meet all of the bands - thanks to them the whole evening ran incredibly smoothly despite the potential logistical nightmares. The crowd was amazing and were genuinely supportive for my fundraising efforts, and overall we raised a total of £350 towards the Epilepsy Society! This puts me up to £1,580 in total, which is utterly astonishing, so thankyou so much to everybody that came along and supported me! I had a fantastic night, and I hope that everybody else did too. Now that the hard work of organising the gig is done, it's just the small matter of the run to go now...

The grand plan

Just a quick post which I meant to put up last week regarding my final plans for my run in April. I had originally planned to cover the distance in two legs, taking a well deserved sleep on Saturday night. The main reason for this is that Jen, my long-suffering other half, is acting as my support crew on the day and her idea of a good time does not include 24 hours of following her idiot hubby-to-be around in the car. However, with a little bit of rearranging, I have managed to sort things out so that my parents can take me into London and keep hold of my first set of supplies, leaving Jen to meet me outside of the dreaded M25 and do the night-time part. So I am free to do the whole thing in one continuous go. Yay?!?

So, the plan is to run the London marathon on the Sunday morning, then slowly make my way through the backwoods of the South East home to St. Ives overnight. I'm aiming for a sub 4-hour marathon, which should be quite comfortable and give me an opportunity to really enjoy the race and take in the sights. Makes a change from gritting my teeth, blocking everything out but the metal, and headbanging my way through the finishing line like usual! I figure by the time I'm done, collected my hydration pack and supplies from my parents, and made it through the various crowds to join the Greenwich Meridian Trail about 6 miles away, it will be about 4pm. It's then an 18 mile run to the outside of the M25 where I will be meeting up with Jen for the first time for my first equipment check. The plan is then to run the remaining 60 odd miles in about 10 mile segments, meeting up at the various villages on the way just to make sure that I am still alive. I just have to hope I don't scare the villagers...

I will work out an official itinerary closer to the time, but I should get into St. Ives by 10am the following day. I figure if I call it midday, that gives me a buffer zone in case anything goes wrong (touch wood!). I am in the process of organising to do some fundraising in town on the Monday lunchtime when I arrive, and I will hopefully have a little finishing line to break through as well - sad I know, but it should make a good photo! If you happen to be off work on Monday 18th April, AND you happen to be in the small village of St. Ives, Cambridge, AND it is lunchtime - come and say hi!

All in all, the fundraising is going really well at the moment. Thankyou so much everybody that has sponsored me already, it really is going towards a fantastic cause! I have raised over £900 already, and have my charity gig this Saturday (12th March) at the Portland Arms, Cambridge which I am hoping will raise another £500. Plus whatever we take on the day from passers by will all add up, and it really feels fantastic to be helping out, if only in my small way. It has been amazing to hear the stories of the other runners who are doing the marathon for the Epilepsy Society, and terrible to hear the toll that epilepsy can take on some people's lives. It really cements how lucky I should consider myself. I wish everybody running in April the best of luck, and hope that their training is going really, really well! I'll see you in 6 weeks!

50 miles down, many more to go... 28.02.11 - 06.03.11

So it has been a relatively relaxed week this week - but for good reason. First of all, I was on holiday at the start of the week and was busy with postering, interviews, and writing a paper. Secondly, this week was my last really long run before the actual event. The plan was to head out in the middle of the night and get half the distance under my belt to practice night-time running with no sleep and covering much longer distances than I am used to. Up until now, my longest run has been about 33 miles which I did last year. This was the run that was responsible for my knee problems that put me out of the game for 4 months, but my recent training has seen me running this once or twice a week with no issues. This is mostly due to the stretching and strengthening advice of my physio, Chelsea (thanks Chelsea!).

It's funny, but I never really prepare for things anymore. I probably should have shoveling pasta into my body all day Saturday, but instead I started the day with a fry up at a greasy spoon cafe with my fiance Jen, and had beef stew for dinner. And that was it really - I just didn't really think! For the main run I think that I will be a bit more careful to plan my food for the few days leading up to it, but I do like the fact that I don't need to think too much to do these things - my brain just can't think that far ahead!

We finally went to bed Saturday night - only to be woken up 3 hours later to begin my ordeal. I was surprisingly wide awake when my alarm went off. I wonder if it's a throwback from my PhD days, when 3 hours sleep was a weekend lie in! I snuck out of the bedroom, past a rather confused looking dog, and began to get ready. I was testing some new gear today - a new set of trainers, new socks, and some nice tight base layers to reduce chafing. It's a bit unpleasant to talk about, but if you have ever suffered from this problem you will know exactly what I am talking about. Now imagine that over a 50 mile run... My Salamon hydration pack is fantastic in that regard, and I have yet to suffer any problems unlike my Camelbak, which I often get issues from over long distances. I filled up the 1.5 L water bladder and a couple of bottles of carb drinks, stuck on my headtorch, pulled on the brand new trainers, and headed out into the night.

As you may imagine, it was pretty quiet out there. It was lovely! 50 miles is a bit difficult to plan out for a new run, so I had decided to just do my usual route down the guided busway. It may not be terribly interesting after the hundredth time (don't get me wrong, it's very pretty down there), but it's a nice clear 28 mile round trip that I know very well, has nice clear points to judge distances, and I have no chance of getting lost down it. So the plan was to run the full distance, stop off to change into a new set of clothes (practicing for the main run) and replenish my supplies, then head out for a further 23 miles.

I had originally planned to do this in a walk/run fashion, walking for 25 minutes, walking for 5 minutes, to make sure that my legs didn't die on me. But I changed my mind and decided to run the first section in one go (but at a slightly slower pace than normal) to get used to my plan on the day to run the marathon properly before the more tactical run home. This actually went very well, and I made it back to the house in about four and a half hours with no issues. It was very strange to see the sun rise as I finished running almost 30 miles... A quick stretch, a refill of my carb drinks, a change of socks and base layers, and I was out of the door again for the next leg.

So this was it. I was in unfamiliar territory at this stage. I was a bit stiff getting going, but actually once I picked up momentum things felt good. I am using a different gait for these long runs than I have done previously for half marathons and the like. I don't pick my knees up quite so much, and it's more of a high cadence/low impact run. This works nicely and protects the knees from all of the jostling that might otherwise occur. Once I was going, I was pretty happy at a fairly speedy pace (~ 9.5 mins/mile). I was a bit more careful this time out to walk some sections, so at every road along the pathway (about every 2 miles) I took a short walk before getting going again. As before, there was a definite stiffness to shifting from walking to running, but once the momentum was there it felt absolutely fine. I found it very hard to hold back my natural competitive nature (which I know is stupid...) when I was overtaken by another runner on the track. It's pathetic of me, I know, but I have always had that streak in me. I blame my father! Instead I merely enjoyed the lovely sunny weather (although it was bitterly cold and I regretted leaving my hat and gloves at the house), and saying hello to the myriad friendly runners and dog walkers that populate the path on a weekend morning.

I made it into St. Ives at about 11:30 to meet up with Jen and our dog Max, and we walked back home together as a warm day (although, given the temperature, I use the term loosely!). The whole distance (~51 miles) took a total of less than 8.5 hours (not counting the half hour change over half way). So pretty much bang on 10 mins/mile, which I am very happy with! I did my usual stretch, making sure to stretch out my IT band to avoid any knee problems, and had a nice manly lavender scented bath.

And I felt surprisingly good! No blisters, no chafing, no niggles, my legs felt good to go again. I even had a run with the dog the following morning and cycled to work. Given that in 6 weeks I need to do the same again... twice... plus a bit... it's maybe lucky that I feel like I could keep going! I'm really happy to have found a forte like this. I never would have considered long distance running to be something Now let's see how I feel after 112 miles...

And things look good with the new gear, which is great! I think that I have sorted out my equipment for the day now. Although, as Jen pointed out, I have now put the new trainers through an eighth of their lives... It's an expensive hobby running!

Monday:
Holiday

Tuesday:
Holiday

Wednesday:
Cycle 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work)
Climbing
Squash
Cycle 16.5 miles (work to home)

Thursday:
Run 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work)
Run 16.5 miles (work to home)

Friday:
Cycle 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work)
Cycle 16.5 miles (work to home)

Saturday:
Rest day

Sunday:
Running 51 miles

Total:
Cycling 38 miles
Running 70 miles

That's better! 21/02/11 - 27/02/11

Well that's been much better! It's been a pretty full on week this week, with a couple of work runs, a full on 50 something miles this weekend, and a random middle of the night run in the week.

And most of this was in my brand spanking new trainers (Mizuno Wave Inspire 7). I've used the same shoes since I started running - if it ain't broke and all that. I'm nothing if not a creature of habit! The new model 7 feels a bit tighter around the midfoot, so I'm just making sure it doesnt affect things. Got some elastic laces as well, in preparation for triathloning in the future, and they work very nicely. All of this was kindly donated by Vivienne at Trisportsplus.

I just couldn't wait to try them out, so when Jen went to bed on Thursday, I disappeared out into the night for an 18 mile run. At 2 in the morning. It was great fun! Lovely and clear night with nobody around. Well, apart from the random police car that I bumped into halfway down the guided busway. I'm not sure who was more surprised - me or them! Jen was worried about murderers, but I figured there are better places to wait for victims than in the middle of nowhere down an unused bus path... My main concern was werewolves.

This weekend has been a full on mileathon, with 28 miles Saturday and 22 miles today. Plus a couple of miles walking on the beach with Jen and Max (and Dan, Zoe and Poppy). Now home for a lazy afternoon! Would you believe I'm on holiday at the moment? Not everybody's idea of a good time I agree! the pace has been pretty good, faster than 9 minutes a mile over those 50 miles, so I'm looking good for the sub-4 hour marathon. I figure 4 hours is a good time to aim for given the warm sown afterwards... I'll wait until Loch Ness in October to go full on for a proper PB.

Anyway, here is the breakdown of the week:

Monday
Cycling 3 miles (park and ride to work)
Cycling 16.5 miles (work to home)

Tuesday
Running 3 miles (park and ride to work)
Running 16.5 miles (work to home)

Wednesday
Cycling 3 miles (park and ride to work)
Cycling 16.5 miles (work to home)

Thursday
Running 18 miles (middle of the night run!)

Friday
Attempted to run with dog but failed miserably, so let's call it a rest day!

Saturday
Running 28 miles

Sunday
Running 22 miles

Total
Cycling 39 miles
Running 87.5 miles

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Training 14/02/11 - 20/02/11

Well the last week has been kind of lazy. In my defence, it has been pretty hectic, with interviews, photo-shoots, and traveling halfway across the country for a fantastic night celebrating my mum's 50th Birthday. Despite all this, I managed to keep my eye in and get some miles on the legs, and things are looking pretty clear in the diary for the next few weeks - so no excuses now! I'm not counting dealing with our little monster (of the doggy variety) Max as exercise! Anyway, here is the training for the week beginning 14/02/11:

Monday:
Cycling 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work)
Cycling 16.5 miles (work to home)

Tuesday:
Running 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work) 
Running 2.5 miles (work to Park and Ride)


Wednesday:
Cycling 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work) 
Climbing (1 hour)
Squash (1 hour)
Cycling 16.5 miles (work to home)

Thursday:
Cycling 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work)
Running 16.5 miles (work to home)

Friday:
Running 2.5 miles (Park and Ride to work)
Cycling 2.5 miles (work to Park and Ride)

Saturday:
Running 22 miles (guided busway)

Sunday:
Golf (9 holes - doesn't really count as exercise I know!)

Total:
Cycling 43 miles
Running 46 miles

So not awful, but about half of the previous week. Oh well, it pays to avoid overtraining I guess. Just have to work harder this week!

Publicity avalanche!

There's definitely no going back now! What started off as somewhat of a joke has now become more of a reality. The local media that I contacted when I first planned this crazy event have all suddenly got back to me all at the same time - must be a slow news week!

I have now had an interview with the Hunts Post (which should be in next weeks edition), an interview and photo shoot with the Cambridge News, an interview on Cambridge 105 radio. There is also an article in the Hunts News gigs section for the 100 Mile Playlist on March 12th, which I am really looking forward to! There's also an interview with BBC Radio Cambridge tonight, and with Star 107 next week. And more to come I hope! Of course, me being the shy retiring type, I obviously find talking about this very difficult... But I seriously love that this has taken off so well, and I really hope that it helps in some way with the work that the Epilepsy Society do.

112.3 miles or bust (hopefully the former...)

Right, it's probably time that I started actually using this blog for its intended purpose - to document the run up to the London Marathon (that pun still isn't funny...). I think what I will do is have a weekly post about my training for that week (probably not terribly interesting, but it should help me keep track of how I'm getting on), as well as a couple of random posts about other things as and when they come up.

Anyway; training. How does one go about preparing to run 112.3 miles (thanks Google Earth!)? Well, oddly enough, the answer is to run. And run. Then run some more! So that's what I'm doing. I'm currently trying to walk a very fine line between putting the miles on my legs, whilst not causing any permanent damage or suffering from over training, and trying to make sure that I actually see my lovely fiancee Jen (who has been amazing through this whole thing, even though she thinks I'm mad!). The problem with long distance running is that it can make a serious dent in your free time...

Salomon XT Advanced Skin S-Lab

I recently bit the bullet and purchased the Salomon XT Advanced Skin S-Lab hydration pack. For those not in the know, this is the latest hydration pack to be released by Salomon for fell running and ultra-marathon running, and has been designed by runners; for runners. It looks very good (much better than my little Camelpak, although there are some snazzier ones available):

The first step is always the hardest

Okay. I've done it. I have started a blog. I now join the other luminaries of the blogosphere, such as the entire universe. But anyway, last to the party I may be, but I am no means the least. Luckily the bar seems to have been set nice and low for me. Let's hope this isn't a limbo contest - I'm not sure my knees could take the strain.