I recently completed the Long Tour of Bradwell, a 33 mile race in and around the Hope Valley. This was my second race in the RunFurther series of races, and was in the "Short" category. It is odd to think that I have gotten to the stage where 33 miles is considered a short run, but it is funny to see that my friends have become completely desensitized to these things. When informed that I was "off up a mountain running a 33 mile race" by my fiancee Jen, her friend responded "oh right, so just a quick run then?". However, whilst the distance was short, the elevation most definitely wasn't. Whilst only a third of the length of the South Downs Way from a few weeks ago, the elevation was almost half that of SDW (~7,000 feet). And SDW was pretty darn hilly. I guess that's why they call it the Peak District...
Whilst I live in Cambridge (sooooo flat!), I was quite surprised at how close the Peak District actually was. I headed up on the Friday evening and crashed at a friend's house who, fortuitously, lives only 20 minutes away from the start of the race. My friend, Colin, was unfortunately away but was kind enough to hide a key for me to use. I hope that my fumbling around in the back garden under the cover of darkness didn't attract too much attention from the neighbours...
I woke up early on Saturday morning and headed towards Bradwell Sports Pavillion, where the organisers from Dark and White were in the process of setting up. The weather was not looking favourable. A heavy downpour had hit on the short journey, so heavy that it was difficult to see the road. When I arrived, I seemed to have outrun the rain, but the clouds were not looking promising. The forecast was suggesting that the rain would hit at about 9am and would last through the day until about 4pm - pretty much exactly the time that I was likely to be running. Things were looking like they were going to get wet! To avoid carrying too much equipment, I decided to wear a warmer top and a winter hat so that I could stay warm whilst up the hills.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Monday, 1 August 2011
It's An Ultra-Marathon, Not a Marathon
My fantastic friends Dan, Pete, Dave and Zoe, and my wonderful long-suffering fiance (soon to be wife) Jen followed me through the night, driving from village to village and making sure I wasn't eaten by bears on my travels. Pete is an avid film-maker, and spent a lot of time filming proceedings. This is a short version of the film that he has put together, which is frankly fantastic (cinematographically speaking - the running leaves a lot to be desired!).
It was really interesting for me to see events from their point of view. I can't help but feel that they had a worse time of it than I did!
Monday, 11 July 2011
South Downs Way Race - July 2011
This weekend, I ran the South Downs Way race - what a fantastic day! I originally grew up in Portsmouth, and often It's only been 3 months since my last big run, but I felt that I had been back on form recently so I figured I would go for it. The beauty of this race as well is that it is about as well sign-posted as any trail there is, so the chances of getting lost along the way were reduced! My only real plan for this race was that I wanted to beat 24 hours. I came up with a "perfect race" scenario, looking at 10 mins/mile for the first third of the race, 11 mins/mile for the second third, and 12 mins/mile for the final third, with 15 minutes at each checkpoint to get me in at 4:30am the following day. The big unknown here was how the hills would affect me - I knew it was hilly, but had no frame of reference for how hilly. I also wasn't sure how self-sufficient the race was so I picked up a front pack to store some extra food. Plus this has the added benefit of making it easy to get to equipment without having to take the bag off. As it happens, the race was really well catered for, with outstanding food choices available at each of the 7 checkpoints along the way. I ended up carrying way too much stuff, but at least I know for next time! I also finally decided on a pair of trail shoes, picking up a pair of Salomon Speedcross 2 shoes, after umming and awing between these and the Inov8 Roclite 285s.
Friday, 17 June 2011
Well I'm officially an ultramarathoner - just with no sense of direction
Well there we go. I finally broke my cherry and ran my first official ultramarathon. I woke up very excited in the early morning of Sunday 5th June, wolfed down a bowl of porridge, collected my gear, and drove to Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire to take part in my first ultramarathon; a 35 mile jaunt around the grounds and surrounding area of the country park. This event was run by Go Beyond, and is one of the races in the Run Further series of races that make up the UK ultrarunning championships. I have managed to sign up for enough of these races to get a qualifying position, so it will be interesting to see where I stand.
Anyway, I was very excited when I arrived, and was able to chat to lots of other runners. Some were old hands who gave me some good advice, and had some great stories about their race experiences. Others were, like me, running this as their first race, and were as excited as I was.
It was a very different experience than any other races I had been involved with. The start, as seen in the photo, was much more subtle for one thing! About 120 people gathered together ready for the start, clutching their route maps, and waiting for the off. I spotted Andy Mouncey, the ultrarunner that I saw speak at the London Running Show earlier in the year and whose talk helped me make the leap towards long distance running. Before I could say hello however, the shout went up to go (no gun necessary) and we were off!
Anyway, I was very excited when I arrived, and was able to chat to lots of other runners. Some were old hands who gave me some good advice, and had some great stories about their race experiences. Others were, like me, running this as their first race, and were as excited as I was.
It was a very different experience than any other races I had been involved with. The start, as seen in the photo, was much more subtle for one thing! About 120 people gathered together ready for the start, clutching their route maps, and waiting for the off. I spotted Andy Mouncey, the ultrarunner that I saw speak at the London Running Show earlier in the year and whose talk helped me make the leap towards long distance running. Before I could say hello however, the shout went up to go (no gun necessary) and we were off!
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Now to get stuck in for real
Well, it looks like things have finally settled down so I can get back to running for the sake of running. There are still a few donations trickling in, but the final total (including Gift Aid) appears to be somewhere in the region of £5,200 which is quite frankly astonishing. Thankyou again to everybody for all of your support and donations. It has gone to an amazing cause and I am incredibly proud to have been able to help the Epilepsy Society in their amazing work. There is one final interview coming out as well, which should be in the August edition of the American version of Runners World. How the American version picked it up I have no idea!
Right. Everybody is probably sick of me talking about that run. So onto a different subject; more races!
First up, I have been back to full training for the past few weeks. Running through the middle of nowhere has given me a bit of a taste for it, so I have now gotten into the habit of exploring a bit more. For the past few weeks, I have been exploring the local countryside and found some great trails to run which are a little more exciting than my usual run along the Cambridge guided bus way. Since it looks like they are actually doing some work on it now, this is quite fortuitous timing for me! It does mean that my route to and from work is off limits for the next month or so while they tarmac the cycle path, but once it's done it should make cycling to work a lot easier and less likely to kill me. I usually ride down the bus track, which is very narrow with quite a drop - very difficult to negotiate particularly in the dark and with crazy crosswinds! But now I will have a proper cycle track to cruise down which will be nice! In the meantime, exploring is a lot of fun, and there are a lot of open fields and things around which make it easy to disappear off for a few hours and get a good run in.
Last weekend, I ran my first race since London. This was the Sawston Fun Run, a little ~5 miler in the village that we lived in until moving to St. Ives last year. It has been an oddly long time since I ran such a "short" distance (I realise my perception of distance may be a little skewed...), so I was interested to see what my speed was like. I don't really do much speed work, as I very rarely run less than 12 miles at a time. The weather was pretty much perfect, sunny but with a light breeze. I lined up with the other runners, positioning myself near the front, but nervous to position myself with the "elite" runners. As it turns out, this was a slight mistake as I had to negotiate through a small crowd of people to get into my stride which slowed me down a little bit. As we came out of the college where the start line was held, I found myself in a small pack of runners at the front of the race. The pace was pretty good, at around 6 minutes a mile. I wasn't really sure on pacing for this - it felt like I could push it further but I wasn't sure what I could maintain for 5 miles. Plus the fact that I had run about 42 miles over the previous 2 days made me a bit nervous about pushing it too much... I kept this pace throughout the race, running past my old house (which was a little odd), and along the high street with lots of cheering faces spurring everybody on. I kicked in towards the end, and pushed for a faster finish as we approached the line. I overtook a couple of people, and felt a pang of guilt as I shot past a young kid who had been ahead of me through much of the race. My sprint finish wasn't quite enough to take the final guy, and I crossed the line slightly behind him in a time of 30:03 - not quite the sub 30 mins that I had hoped for, but about 2 minutes faster than last year's efforts. I found out I had actually come 11th overall, so was doubly annoyed that I could have been in the top 10 if I had been a couple of seconds faster. I definitely felt that I could have pushed the pace, so I know now for next time. I had a chat to the guy that won, in a fantastic time of just over 25 minutes. I can safely say that there is no chance of me pushing to this pace! But it is nice to know that I have the speed in me if I need it.
The next week, I started to add a bit of speedwork to my runs, finding a small hill nearby to my house and running a 10 miler followed by 20 minutes of hill sprints. It's probably a good idea to make this a regular thing, so I can push for that top 10 place next time! Jen told me off for being so negative about the race, but I prefer to think of it as planning ahead to do better on my next race!
Speaking of which, my race calendar is looking very full right now! On top of the various marathons, half-marathons and 10 Ks I am signed up for, I have just signed up to a whole heap of ultras as well. My first will be the Shires and Spires 35 miler in Northants in two weeks time, which I am really looking forward to. This will be my first opportunity to test myself against other like minded people. I am really looking forward to taking part in my first official ultra. This race is part of the Run Further UK Ultrarunning Championships, which is a series of 12 races throughout the year of various distances. You run as many as you want, and your top 4 scores (1 from each of the three distance classes, plus 1 more) are used to give you a placing in the championship table. I am signed up to four of these, which is just enough to get a placing. I'm not expecting to be placed particularly highly but I am quite excited to see how I do! The nice thing about this series is that it is organised by ultrarunners for ultrarunners, which is a real testament to the ethos behind the sport. These guys don't do it for fame or for the money, they do it for love of the sport. I had a small taste of fame - and I didn't like it much! Give me running in anonymity with other like-minded nutters, thankyou very much!
Right. Everybody is probably sick of me talking about that run. So onto a different subject; more races!
First up, I have been back to full training for the past few weeks. Running through the middle of nowhere has given me a bit of a taste for it, so I have now gotten into the habit of exploring a bit more. For the past few weeks, I have been exploring the local countryside and found some great trails to run which are a little more exciting than my usual run along the Cambridge guided bus way. Since it looks like they are actually doing some work on it now, this is quite fortuitous timing for me! It does mean that my route to and from work is off limits for the next month or so while they tarmac the cycle path, but once it's done it should make cycling to work a lot easier and less likely to kill me. I usually ride down the bus track, which is very narrow with quite a drop - very difficult to negotiate particularly in the dark and with crazy crosswinds! But now I will have a proper cycle track to cruise down which will be nice! In the meantime, exploring is a lot of fun, and there are a lot of open fields and things around which make it easy to disappear off for a few hours and get a good run in.
Last weekend, I ran my first race since London. This was the Sawston Fun Run, a little ~5 miler in the village that we lived in until moving to St. Ives last year. It has been an oddly long time since I ran such a "short" distance (I realise my perception of distance may be a little skewed...), so I was interested to see what my speed was like. I don't really do much speed work, as I very rarely run less than 12 miles at a time. The weather was pretty much perfect, sunny but with a light breeze. I lined up with the other runners, positioning myself near the front, but nervous to position myself with the "elite" runners. As it turns out, this was a slight mistake as I had to negotiate through a small crowd of people to get into my stride which slowed me down a little bit. As we came out of the college where the start line was held, I found myself in a small pack of runners at the front of the race. The pace was pretty good, at around 6 minutes a mile. I wasn't really sure on pacing for this - it felt like I could push it further but I wasn't sure what I could maintain for 5 miles. Plus the fact that I had run about 42 miles over the previous 2 days made me a bit nervous about pushing it too much... I kept this pace throughout the race, running past my old house (which was a little odd), and along the high street with lots of cheering faces spurring everybody on. I kicked in towards the end, and pushed for a faster finish as we approached the line. I overtook a couple of people, and felt a pang of guilt as I shot past a young kid who had been ahead of me through much of the race. My sprint finish wasn't quite enough to take the final guy, and I crossed the line slightly behind him in a time of 30:03 - not quite the sub 30 mins that I had hoped for, but about 2 minutes faster than last year's efforts. I found out I had actually come 11th overall, so was doubly annoyed that I could have been in the top 10 if I had been a couple of seconds faster. I definitely felt that I could have pushed the pace, so I know now for next time. I had a chat to the guy that won, in a fantastic time of just over 25 minutes. I can safely say that there is no chance of me pushing to this pace! But it is nice to know that I have the speed in me if I need it.
The next week, I started to add a bit of speedwork to my runs, finding a small hill nearby to my house and running a 10 miler followed by 20 minutes of hill sprints. It's probably a good idea to make this a regular thing, so I can push for that top 10 place next time! Jen told me off for being so negative about the race, but I prefer to think of it as planning ahead to do better on my next race!
Speaking of which, my race calendar is looking very full right now! On top of the various marathons, half-marathons and 10 Ks I am signed up for, I have just signed up to a whole heap of ultras as well. My first will be the Shires and Spires 35 miler in Northants in two weeks time, which I am really looking forward to. This will be my first opportunity to test myself against other like minded people. I am really looking forward to taking part in my first official ultra. This race is part of the Run Further UK Ultrarunning Championships, which is a series of 12 races throughout the year of various distances. You run as many as you want, and your top 4 scores (1 from each of the three distance classes, plus 1 more) are used to give you a placing in the championship table. I am signed up to four of these, which is just enough to get a placing. I'm not expecting to be placed particularly highly but I am quite excited to see how I do! The nice thing about this series is that it is organised by ultrarunners for ultrarunners, which is a real testament to the ethos behind the sport. These guys don't do it for fame or for the money, they do it for love of the sport. I had a small taste of fame - and I didn't like it much! Give me running in anonymity with other like-minded nutters, thankyou very much!
Sunday, 24 April 2011
The route - A bird's eye-view
Just a quick post to show you the route that I took home. This is the map that I had with me (thanks to the wonders of the iPhone and Google Maps!), and apart from one or two last minute changes (read: "going the wrong way...") is pretty much spot on with how I got home. As you can see, it's not by any means the most direct route! But it does avoid having to run down the M1...
End of the marathon in St. James' Park to join the Greenwich Meridian Trail.
Basically follows the A10, gradually becoming less and less busy until I made it out of central London. Met up with Dave and Pete at Mile End, Forest Rise, and another place that I can't remember...
The Greenwich Meridian Trail through London, up over the M25 to Waltham Abbey
Waltham Abbey to Stansted Abbets
Stansted Abbets to Standon
Standon to Wyddial
Wyddial to Royston
Royston to Orwell
Orwell to Hardwick
Hardwick to the Guided Busway (via Bar Hill)
Home straight - Guided Busway into St. Ives
End of the marathon in St. James' Park to join the Greenwich Meridian Trail.
Basically follows the A10, gradually becoming less and less busy until I made it out of central London. Met up with Dave and Pete at Mile End, Forest Rise, and another place that I can't remember...
The Greenwich Meridian Trail through London, up over the M25 to Waltham Abbey
Waltham Abbey to Stansted Abbets
Stansted Abbets to Standon
Standon to Wyddial
Wyddial to Royston
Royston to Orwell
Orwell to Hardwick
Hardwick to the Guided Busway (via Bar Hill)
Home straight - Guided Busway into St. Ives
Thursday, 21 April 2011
15 minutes of fame
Well cor blimey luv a duck guvnor! Yesterday was quite an interesting day as you may have noticed. I was woken up at about 5:30 am by a very excited Jen (I have no idea how long she had been up for!) to tell me my story had been picked up by the Daily Mirror. I think that I may have been more excited a few hours later, and it occurs to me I have been up before 6 every day since I got back! Oh well, who needs sleep eh?
Things kind of continued in this vein for the rest of the day. Texts to tell me I had been talked about on BBC breakfast by Bill and Sian, a phone call from a very excited mother to tell me I had been one of the stories on Head-to-Headlines on Chris Evans' Radio 2 breakfast show (winning Johnny a slam dunk against Moira no less!), messages from friends in London to tell me I was in the Metro, and a quick search to also find stories in the Sun and the Daily Star (alongside Susan Boyle no less... ahem). By the evening, the story had been picked up by Fox News (making me a corporate sellout as my friend Alex pointed out) and Eurosport, as well as being discussed in various forums and blogs (my favourite one assigning me the honorary title of the Emperor of the Land of Baddassery - I'm keeping that one!). And that's not counting the local coverage, including a video in the Cambridge News (starring my beautiful fiancee Jen), and articles in the Cambridge News and Hunts Post.
I've been frankly staggered by all of this. I'm not under any delusion that running home after a marathon is a "normal" thing to do, but I honestly didn't think that it was that impressive. Especially since I have been trying to get people interested in it for the past few months and, other than the local press who have been fantastic, people just didn't seem interested. I suspect that maybe people thought it was all talk - clearly they don't know me!
Depending on where you read about things, I have noticed that the numbers are different. Just to be entirely transparent, I have just clarified a few things below. Hope this clears a few things up!
Things kind of continued in this vein for the rest of the day. Texts to tell me I had been talked about on BBC breakfast by Bill and Sian, a phone call from a very excited mother to tell me I had been one of the stories on Head-to-Headlines on Chris Evans' Radio 2 breakfast show (winning Johnny a slam dunk against Moira no less!), messages from friends in London to tell me I was in the Metro, and a quick search to also find stories in the Sun and the Daily Star (alongside Susan Boyle no less... ahem). By the evening, the story had been picked up by Fox News (making me a corporate sellout as my friend Alex pointed out) and Eurosport, as well as being discussed in various forums and blogs (my favourite one assigning me the honorary title of the Emperor of the Land of Baddassery - I'm keeping that one!). And that's not counting the local coverage, including a video in the Cambridge News (starring my beautiful fiancee Jen), and articles in the Cambridge News and Hunts Post.
I've been frankly staggered by all of this. I'm not under any delusion that running home after a marathon is a "normal" thing to do, but I honestly didn't think that it was that impressive. Especially since I have been trying to get people interested in it for the past few months and, other than the local press who have been fantastic, people just didn't seem interested. I suspect that maybe people thought it was all talk - clearly they don't know me!
Depending on where you read about things, I have noticed that the numbers are different. Just to be entirely transparent, I have just clarified a few things below. Hope this clears a few things up!
- The official marathon time was 3:47:45. At the time of the interviews, the official chip times hadn't been published so I had to rely on the time shown by my Garmin. Since I didn't stop the watch when I went through the line (still had a way to go...), I only got a glance that it was about 3:45, which is where this time came from. I'm sure you can forgive me a couple of minutes!
- The total distance covered was actually about 120 miles, not 125. Not sure where that number came from (and thus the magical "99 miles home"), but again I hope that you will forgive me for a few miles.
- When I planned things I used Google Earth to measure the distance, which came to 112 miles. Obviously this was never going to be exactly accurate. The extra 8 miles are a combination of taking wrong turns and back-tracking, and also I was never going to take the exact route as measured so weaving around had an effect (for instance, the marathon was actually 26.58 miles from start to finish for me due to weaving around the racing line).
- The total time, from the gun going at the London marathon to crossing the finish at St. Ives, was pretty much 29 hours dead (give or take a couple of minutes). This averages as 14.5 mins/mile, but actually this isn't accurate. After finishing the marathon, it took longer than I expected to get going through London again, due to having to collect everybody I was meeting, change my running gear, restock, etc, then actually negotiating the foot traffic around the finishing line was a nightmare! We probably lost at least an hour here. Also, the checkpoints ended up taking longer than anticipated, due to having to change socks more often than anticipated (due to dew... heh), blogging, finding it difficult to force food down my throat, chatting, doing bits to the camera, etc. So I probably lost about 20 - 30 minutes at each checkpoint, and since there were about 12 this was a pretty significant chunk of time. Don't forget, this wasn't a race! When I was actually moving, I was generally going at about 11.5 mins/mile, and only really walked the hills. I'll be interested to see what happens in my first real ultra-marathon, but I think I can probably get a good time. Now I know I can do the distance, I can concentrate on an actual time for my next attempt.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
120 miles in 29 hours... Phew!
Okay, so in case you hadn't already heard, I have survived my run! I had meant to update the blog yesterday, but unfortunately the lack of sleep finally caught up with me...
I met up with Team Awesome in the car park of Tescos in Bar Hill, ready for the final 9 mile stretch of my journey. I changed back into my marathon running clothes (running number and all). The final section to St. Ives involved running on some relatively busy roads, and I wasn't sure how I would be feeling at this stage, so Dan's job was to make sure that I didn't veer off into oncoming traffic. As it happens, I was feeling pretty good, so instead we just used the time to chat and catch up.
This section was probably the worst of all, because I knew how close we were. Unfortunately my hip started to act up which made these few miles quite grueling. I suspect that people were, in a weird way, glad to see that this was having some effect on my body - Dan's comment was "you are human after all"!
Our conversation turned into a scene from Rocky, with Dan shouting inspirational comments at me ("You're a wrecking ball!"). We took a wrong turn, so ended up joining the guided bus way at Swavesey instead of Longstanton. As it happens this was probably for the best; I know that route like the back of my hand, so unfortunately I know exactly how far there is to go. It seemed at this point that we weren't moving any closer, and Dan's shouts of "nearly there" were ringing a little hollow, so I just put my head down and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
We made it to St. Ives town center, and I spied everybody waving at me from near the Oliver Cromwell statue. I ran past some bemused looking market traders towards the finishing line that had been set up for me (purple for the Epilepsy Society, natch!). A sudden burst of adrenalin hit me, and I sprinted through the line, much to the surprise of everybody there!
I was greeted by David Hodge (the St. Ives town mayor), the members of my crew, some friends from work, lots of well-wishers, Nick Addy from the Epilepsy Society (last seen dressed as a giant seahorse at the charity cheering post at the London Marathon), and a number of photographers. It was a fantastic feeling to be cheered on through the line! I did feel bad that I was so late, but nobody seemed to mind!
I ran through the line at about 2.45pm - 29 hours after setting off on the London marathon the day before! I still need to get the final numbers from the GPS devices that I used, but the grand total was about 120 miles. Also, I now have my official time for the marathon, which was 3:47:45. Not bad, and far enough away from the Good For Age time of 3:10:00 (which would have given me guaranteed entry next year) that I don't feel like if I had gone a little faster I could have made it...
After everything had calmed down, the cracks started to show. The weirdest thing was that I started to shiver a lot, which was probably due to a massive come-down off of the sugar and adrenalin high that I had been on! Also, everything was seizing up very quickly, and the ache in my hip was still bad. Jen drove me home and threw me straight into an ice batch, I got some warm clothes on, and Dan and Zoe turned up with KFC - perfect for replenishing protein! I was finding it very difficult to keep awake, and dozed for a couple of hours on the sofa.
Chelsea stopped by in the evening (after a long day at work I might add) to perform some emergency physio to make sure things were okay. Obviously everything was pretty tight, and my right shin and left hip were particularly so. After poking my sore bits for a while (I am assured this was for my own good :p ), I was helped upstairs and put to bed.
I woke up this morning at 5am feeling nice and refreshed. I felt good, but wasn't sure if this was like the feeling you get after a heavy night's drinking, where you feel great until you stand up... But get up I did, and... nothing. Things felt good. I still have an ache in my hip, but other than that I don't feel any worse than after any other run! Jen was particularly surprised to see my come down the stairs on my own. I'm not going to get ahead of myself though, and I know that things could change over the next couple of days, but with such amazing care what could go wrong!
This morning has been a bit crazy, and my phone has been going non-stop since 7.30 am. So far today, I have had a live interview on BBC radio, an interview with the Hunts Post, been on the front page of the Cambridge News, had a photo shoot for a media company who supply stories to national newspapers (so keep your eyes open tomorrow!), and I am currently waiting to hear from ITV about an interview with them! Hopefully this will all help to bring in some more donations for the Epilepsy Society, and in fact has already attracted a couple of people I see!
Once again, the reaction from people has been incredible. Currently, we have raised over £3,000 online, plus Jen, Dan, Zoe and Pete probably collected over £200 yesterday. If we add in the Gift Aid, I think that we should be sending about £4,000 to the charity - twice as much as I set out to raise! Amazing, and it's all thanks to the generosity of you all, so thankyou once again.
So many people have been involved in this run, and I want to thank everybody that has helped out, everybody that has sponsored me, and everybody that has been so supportive throughout. I promise I will shut up about it after this! In particular, I want to thank; Jen, my lovely fiancee, who has had to put up with me all these years, and was even forced to give a few interviews!; Dave, Pete, Jen and Dan who stayed up as long as I did and followed me through the night to support me; Zoe for looking after Max overnight; Chelsea (and everybody at Cambridge Sports Physio and Back Care) for keeping my legs in check so that I can carry on doing stupid things like this; my mum and dad for being there to support me at the marathon and for raising me to be so stubborn (I blame my dad in particular); all of my friends and family who supported me over night (although I am only just getting around to all of the texts and emails - 128 emails!); Deb for lending us his flat in London the night before the marathon (saved travelling in from ST. Ives Sunday morning!); Vivienne at TriSports Plus who sponsored me for the event with some of the equipment that I used; everybody at the Epilepsy Society, who work so hard for people with epilepsy; and of course everybody that has helped by donating towards the charity.
I am now finally sitting with me feet up, watching TV and trying to catch up with everything. I burnt over 15,000 calories yesterday, so I have a lot to catch up on! Luckily I have plenty of sweets and biscuits to help! I have the week off with nothing much to do, except for eat, watch TV, spend some quality time together with Jen (including landscaping the garden - which kind of makes me wish I wasn't able to walk...), and play on my computer. It's going to be a very lazy week!
So what's next? Well, I don't think that I'll be doing anything like this any time soon, as much to give you guys a rest as me! Once I have the all clear from Chelsea, I'll be back to running and cycling stupid amounts (although maybe not quite so stupid), so that isn't going to change. I have a couple of ideas of ways to top this, but it's probably best to keep them under wraps for the time being! I have a few races later this year, including two 10 Ks, three marathons, two half marathons, and potentially a couple of triathlons.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog, and I hope that it's been interesting. I will probably keep using this blog to keep track of my running, but won't be updating quite so often. But please do check back to see if I am doing any other stupid things any time soon!
All that remains is for me to say thankyou once again. It makes me so proud to have such fantastic friends and family, and the generosity of people has been unbelievable. I hope that I can do more in the future to help the Epilepsy Society. But for now, it's time to put my feet up and get down to a real marathon - watching season 1 of The Sopranos!
Very finally, here are a couple of things that have cropped up in the media, and I will pop a few more photos up when I get them:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Video-I-survived-my-first-marathon-and-I-ran-straight-home.htm
http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/st_ives_man_s_120_mile_marathon_1_869717
I met up with Team Awesome in the car park of Tescos in Bar Hill, ready for the final 9 mile stretch of my journey. I changed back into my marathon running clothes (running number and all). The final section to St. Ives involved running on some relatively busy roads, and I wasn't sure how I would be feeling at this stage, so Dan's job was to make sure that I didn't veer off into oncoming traffic. As it happens, I was feeling pretty good, so instead we just used the time to chat and catch up.
This section was probably the worst of all, because I knew how close we were. Unfortunately my hip started to act up which made these few miles quite grueling. I suspect that people were, in a weird way, glad to see that this was having some effect on my body - Dan's comment was "you are human after all"!
Our conversation turned into a scene from Rocky, with Dan shouting inspirational comments at me ("You're a wrecking ball!"). We took a wrong turn, so ended up joining the guided bus way at Swavesey instead of Longstanton. As it happens this was probably for the best; I know that route like the back of my hand, so unfortunately I know exactly how far there is to go. It seemed at this point that we weren't moving any closer, and Dan's shouts of "nearly there" were ringing a little hollow, so I just put my head down and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
We made it to St. Ives town center, and I spied everybody waving at me from near the Oliver Cromwell statue. I ran past some bemused looking market traders towards the finishing line that had been set up for me (purple for the Epilepsy Society, natch!). A sudden burst of adrenalin hit me, and I sprinted through the line, much to the surprise of everybody there!
I was greeted by David Hodge (the St. Ives town mayor), the members of my crew, some friends from work, lots of well-wishers, Nick Addy from the Epilepsy Society (last seen dressed as a giant seahorse at the charity cheering post at the London Marathon), and a number of photographers. It was a fantastic feeling to be cheered on through the line! I did feel bad that I was so late, but nobody seemed to mind!
I ran through the line at about 2.45pm - 29 hours after setting off on the London marathon the day before! I still need to get the final numbers from the GPS devices that I used, but the grand total was about 120 miles. Also, I now have my official time for the marathon, which was 3:47:45. Not bad, and far enough away from the Good For Age time of 3:10:00 (which would have given me guaranteed entry next year) that I don't feel like if I had gone a little faster I could have made it...
After everything had calmed down, the cracks started to show. The weirdest thing was that I started to shiver a lot, which was probably due to a massive come-down off of the sugar and adrenalin high that I had been on! Also, everything was seizing up very quickly, and the ache in my hip was still bad. Jen drove me home and threw me straight into an ice batch, I got some warm clothes on, and Dan and Zoe turned up with KFC - perfect for replenishing protein! I was finding it very difficult to keep awake, and dozed for a couple of hours on the sofa.
Chelsea stopped by in the evening (after a long day at work I might add) to perform some emergency physio to make sure things were okay. Obviously everything was pretty tight, and my right shin and left hip were particularly so. After poking my sore bits for a while (I am assured this was for my own good :p ), I was helped upstairs and put to bed.
I woke up this morning at 5am feeling nice and refreshed. I felt good, but wasn't sure if this was like the feeling you get after a heavy night's drinking, where you feel great until you stand up... But get up I did, and... nothing. Things felt good. I still have an ache in my hip, but other than that I don't feel any worse than after any other run! Jen was particularly surprised to see my come down the stairs on my own. I'm not going to get ahead of myself though, and I know that things could change over the next couple of days, but with such amazing care what could go wrong!
This morning has been a bit crazy, and my phone has been going non-stop since 7.30 am. So far today, I have had a live interview on BBC radio, an interview with the Hunts Post, been on the front page of the Cambridge News, had a photo shoot for a media company who supply stories to national newspapers (so keep your eyes open tomorrow!), and I am currently waiting to hear from ITV about an interview with them! Hopefully this will all help to bring in some more donations for the Epilepsy Society, and in fact has already attracted a couple of people I see!
Once again, the reaction from people has been incredible. Currently, we have raised over £3,000 online, plus Jen, Dan, Zoe and Pete probably collected over £200 yesterday. If we add in the Gift Aid, I think that we should be sending about £4,000 to the charity - twice as much as I set out to raise! Amazing, and it's all thanks to the generosity of you all, so thankyou once again.
So many people have been involved in this run, and I want to thank everybody that has helped out, everybody that has sponsored me, and everybody that has been so supportive throughout. I promise I will shut up about it after this! In particular, I want to thank; Jen, my lovely fiancee, who has had to put up with me all these years, and was even forced to give a few interviews!; Dave, Pete, Jen and Dan who stayed up as long as I did and followed me through the night to support me; Zoe for looking after Max overnight; Chelsea (and everybody at Cambridge Sports Physio and Back Care) for keeping my legs in check so that I can carry on doing stupid things like this; my mum and dad for being there to support me at the marathon and for raising me to be so stubborn (I blame my dad in particular); all of my friends and family who supported me over night (although I am only just getting around to all of the texts and emails - 128 emails!); Deb for lending us his flat in London the night before the marathon (saved travelling in from ST. Ives Sunday morning!); Vivienne at TriSports Plus who sponsored me for the event with some of the equipment that I used; everybody at the Epilepsy Society, who work so hard for people with epilepsy; and of course everybody that has helped by donating towards the charity.
I am now finally sitting with me feet up, watching TV and trying to catch up with everything. I burnt over 15,000 calories yesterday, so I have a lot to catch up on! Luckily I have plenty of sweets and biscuits to help! I have the week off with nothing much to do, except for eat, watch TV, spend some quality time together with Jen (including landscaping the garden - which kind of makes me wish I wasn't able to walk...), and play on my computer. It's going to be a very lazy week!
So what's next? Well, I don't think that I'll be doing anything like this any time soon, as much to give you guys a rest as me! Once I have the all clear from Chelsea, I'll be back to running and cycling stupid amounts (although maybe not quite so stupid), so that isn't going to change. I have a couple of ideas of ways to top this, but it's probably best to keep them under wraps for the time being! I have a few races later this year, including two 10 Ks, three marathons, two half marathons, and potentially a couple of triathlons.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog, and I hope that it's been interesting. I will probably keep using this blog to keep track of my running, but won't be updating quite so often. But please do check back to see if I am doing any other stupid things any time soon!
All that remains is for me to say thankyou once again. It makes me so proud to have such fantastic friends and family, and the generosity of people has been unbelievable. I hope that I can do more in the future to help the Epilepsy Society. But for now, it's time to put my feet up and get down to a real marathon - watching season 1 of The Sopranos!
Very finally, here are a couple of things that have cropped up in the media, and I will pop a few more photos up when I get them:
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Video-I-survived-my-first-marathon-and-I-ran-straight-home.htm
http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/st_ives_man_s_120_mile_marathon_1_869717
Monday, 18 April 2011
The final countdown!
Just leaving Bar Hill - this is it! The last stretch to St Ives. Going to be a couple of hours late, but sure you can forgive me! It's been epic...
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
So close...
Just got into Hardwick and I'm definitely feeling it. Just restocking before heading to Bar Hill, then it's off on the final stretch!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Mountains out of mole hills
Just on my way to Hardwick, so getting very close now. Annoyingly my knee has started to play up a bit, which isn't helped by the hills on this portion of the route...
They're not really that big, but it this stage they look massive!
They're not really that big, but it this stage they look massive!
Just one marathon left!
I've made it to Royston, so getting close now. The dew last night has led to wet feet and some pretty bad blisters. There's also a fair bit of chaffage going on. But I've patched myself upas best I can and I'm off again. I'll probably be about an hour late which is a shame but I will make it!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Morning!
The sun is up I'm just making my way to Royston. Font want to be late! Apparently the location tracker is playing up, but I can assure you I'm still going!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Mmm... Pizza!
I suspect that most people will be asleep now but we're still going! The last section was pretty tough, but locating an open public convenience was a big bonus!
Arrived to the find the guys had had a pizza delivered, so stuffed my face and drank some pepsi, which should hopefully wake me up!
The next section is about 10 miles, then it should be a bit shorter from there. It's going well, but I'm definitely starting to feel it!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Arrived to the find the guys had had a pizza delivered, so stuffed my face and drank some pepsi, which should hopefully wake me up!
The next section is about 10 miles, then it should be a bit shorter from there. It's going well, but I'm definitely starting to feel it!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Sunday, 17 April 2011
So long M25!
Okay. I'm out. Made it over the M25.
Could have gone better. I'm running faster than I anticipated, but navigating proved an issue. It got dark before I made it to Waltham Abbey so had a little unexpected night running. But I'm all kitted out for the night time now, and I know the route from here so should make up some time.
But again I'm feeling good, perhaps better than I should given what I've put my poor legs through already, but now comes the fun part! But Team Awesome are looking on damn fine form!
See you soon!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Could have gone better. I'm running faster than I anticipated, but navigating proved an issue. It got dark before I made it to Waltham Abbey so had a little unexpected night running. But I'm all kitted out for the night time now, and I know the route from here so should make up some time.
But again I'm feeling good, perhaps better than I should given what I've put my poor legs through already, but now comes the fun part! But Team Awesome are looking on damn fine form!
See you soon!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Team Liability is dead. Long live Team Awesome
In a lovely surprise, Jen and Dan turned up at the last meeting point within the M25. Jen's first comment was that I wasn't nearly out of breath enough, and Dan told me I had to slow down as my 9 minute a mile pace is making him look bad...
So Dave has headed off and Pete has joined the car. They'll be heading to the various villages on my route to wait for me to head past. I've warned the local police so that they don't get attested for soliciting!
I'm definitely out of London now (you can just about make out central London in this photo), and the marathon already feels a distant memory. Very strange...
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
So Dave has headed off and Pete has joined the car. They'll be heading to the various villages on my route to wait for me to head past. I've warned the local police so that they don't get attested for soliciting!
I'm definitely out of London now (you can just about make out central London in this photo), and the marathon already feels a distant memory. Very strange...
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Team Liability do it again
Just caught up with Pete and Dave, who had pepsi and pasta waiting for me. Yum!
Pete is doing anything to get a good shot! Maybe I look better from above... We can only hope!
40 miles down now (I refuse to focus on how many are left!) and I'm on my way to the next waypoint, which should be a bit closer. I was running ahead of time, but unfortunately orientation has slowed me down a bit! Any - onwards!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Pete is doing anything to get a good shot! Maybe I look better from above... We can only hope!
40 miles down now (I refuse to focus on how many are left!) and I'm on my way to the next waypoint, which should be a bit closer. I was running ahead of time, but unfortunately orientation has slowed me down a bit! Any - onwards!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Woo trees!
Yay! I've now made it out of central London, and I am now surrounded by greenery!
36.66 miles on the clock now, and getting closer to my meeting point. Feeling good, and still got s pretty good pace going. Once I get out of London, I'll move to a walk/run pacing. But for now - onwards!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
36.66 miles on the clock now, and getting closer to my meeting point. Feeling good, and still got s pretty good pace going. Once I get out of London, I'll move to a walk/run pacing. But for now - onwards!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Mile end
Well it's going well. Going at a nice relaxing 9 mins 30 a mile - almost beat the boys here on the tube! Another 6 miles to go until we meet again! Just stocking up on jelly beams and I'll be off again!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Finished! Well, kind of...
Right. Step one complete. Finished the marathon in about 3:45. Probably should have actually looked qt my watch when I finished but hey ho! My racing number is 43884 if you want to check what my actual time was, but I'll post it when I know.
Team Liabilty failed to live up to their name, and in fact turned up with nourishment and juice! So having a bit of a breather, a stretch, a sandwich and a mars bar, then I'll probably have a bit of a baby-wipe shower, and get ready for the next stage!
But I'm feeling happy. Legs are a bit tired, bit hardly surprising. It'll be a LOT more chilled out from here though, and I won't have to weave in and out of people. All in all a good start to the day though!
See you soon!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Team Liabilty failed to live up to their name, and in fact turned up with nourishment and juice! So having a bit of a breather, a stretch, a sandwich and a mars bar, then I'll probably have a bit of a baby-wipe shower, and get ready for the next stage!
But I'm feeling happy. Legs are a bit tired, bit hardly surprising. It'll be a LOT more chilled out from here though, and I won't have to weave in and out of people. All in all a good start to the day though!
See you soon!
Currently running 112 miles to raise money for the Epilepsy Society (www.epilepsysociety.org.uk). Please donate at the top of the page!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)