Well, I managed it. Official time is 3hrs 56mins and 28 secs - so I scraped in under the 4 hours mark - which I'm relatively pleased with, given it was my first time and given it was very warm indeed. Also feel I could have run a lot quicker if it hadn't been so damned busy! Mile 16 or 17 before it cleared enough to actually get into a comfortable stride.
Surprisingly enough, for me anyway, I really enjoyed it. The crowds are fantastic and the whole trip passed in a kind of blur. None of the usual mundane gripes that make training runs occasionally tedious like sore arms, dicky tummies, tedium or uncomfy socks. Only war wound I have for my efforts is a black toenail.
Also suitably impressed by the amount of 70 year olds who were in front of me at the finish as well as the number of people clearly not naturally designed for running who still kicked my ass.
But I'll do another one and probably this year. Ideally a quieter one where I can run at my comfy pace for the whole trip and maybe knock 20 minutes off my time. Hooked. Really felt like crying the second after I crossed the line, but stopped myself and have been wishing I hadn't ever since.
So thanks to everyone who sponsored me and thanks to everyone who helped get me into running in the first place and enjoying it in the second, principally Cara and Newell.
Cheers for this time round!
Antony
Tuesday 19 April 2011
Monday 21 February 2011
Progress! (And not before time...)
There's something miserably deflating about pursuing a single objective for a long, long time (in this instance at least a year) and not really feeling like you're getting anywhere. Which is kind of how I felt about my running, before I had the sense to step back and look at my progress a bit more sensibly.
It was only when I sat back at the weekend and analysed my times over various distances (using a GPS watch thingy that tracks all that stuff) that I realised that I have in fact progressed quite well. It's just been that the improvements have been coming in little increments. Another lesson learned through the medium of running: there's no such thing as a shortcut or a quick fix. All improvements are hard earned.
So after analysing my times I realised that I'm a good 2 minutes a mile quicker than I was, say, a year ago. Doesn't sound like much but over a marathon distance that's about an hour's difference. Then, pleased with myself about the progress I'd made, I decided to go out and have a right old tear-up with my Sunday run. (In running circles, Sunday is traditionally the day you go out for your 'long' run.)
I did 13 miles last Sunday, 18 the one before that and 17 the one before that. So I decided to cut it back to about 11 miles around a looped run that I've done several times before so that I could run it hard.
My intention was to hammer it as hard as I could within reason for as long as I possibly could and only slow when I literally couldn't maintain the pace. After a fairly unpleasant first 3 miles, whuich are mostly uphill, I settled into a fast but just-about-manageable pace, right to the end, even managing a final half mile sprint of sorts. I knew it was a quick loop but when I checked my time against my previous times on that loop, I felt a wee surge of satisfaction that made me realise that all the grief has been worthwhile.
The result: 11 miles in a pace that would see me around a marathon in about 3hrs and 15mins. Granted I only ran 11 miles, so there's virtually no chance of me maintaining that same pace for 26 miles but I did feel strong at the end of the 11. I still have a couple of months to go too, so I'm feeling more positive than ever.
It was only when I sat back at the weekend and analysed my times over various distances (using a GPS watch thingy that tracks all that stuff) that I realised that I have in fact progressed quite well. It's just been that the improvements have been coming in little increments. Another lesson learned through the medium of running: there's no such thing as a shortcut or a quick fix. All improvements are hard earned.
So after analysing my times I realised that I'm a good 2 minutes a mile quicker than I was, say, a year ago. Doesn't sound like much but over a marathon distance that's about an hour's difference. Then, pleased with myself about the progress I'd made, I decided to go out and have a right old tear-up with my Sunday run. (In running circles, Sunday is traditionally the day you go out for your 'long' run.)
I did 13 miles last Sunday, 18 the one before that and 17 the one before that. So I decided to cut it back to about 11 miles around a looped run that I've done several times before so that I could run it hard.
My intention was to hammer it as hard as I could within reason for as long as I possibly could and only slow when I literally couldn't maintain the pace. After a fairly unpleasant first 3 miles, whuich are mostly uphill, I settled into a fast but just-about-manageable pace, right to the end, even managing a final half mile sprint of sorts. I knew it was a quick loop but when I checked my time against my previous times on that loop, I felt a wee surge of satisfaction that made me realise that all the grief has been worthwhile.
The result: 11 miles in a pace that would see me around a marathon in about 3hrs and 15mins. Granted I only ran 11 miles, so there's virtually no chance of me maintaining that same pace for 26 miles but I did feel strong at the end of the 11. I still have a couple of months to go too, so I'm feeling more positive than ever.
Thursday 20 January 2011
Swings and roundabouts
Having survived 39 and a half years with virtually no sports-related injuries of any description that I can recall, it's frustrating to lose the last two weeks of training time to a couple of injuries. Firstly, having completed a 17 mile run one Sunday night and feeling like a burst ball but otherwise OK, I was a bit dismayed to have to pull up after just a few miles the following day with my right knee feeling like it was ready to explode across Great Western Road. Fortunately a few days off and I was back in the saddle and making up for lost time quite nicely, thank you very much.
Then last Saturday morning, while pulling a training bag out from under the bed, I felt something go ping in my back and quite literally couldn't stand up. Took me 10 minutes to get upright and then I couldn't walk properly. Twice during the day my back and left hip locked up, sending shooting pains up my spine and leaving me doubled over in public places, unable to stand up straight or move from the spot for 2 or 3 minutes. Much to the bemusement of my fellow Co-op shoppers.
It's now Thursday and while the pain has largely gone, I'm still feeling a tightness and soreness as the day goes by. Running not an option and I'm starting to get concerned at how many more days I'm going to lose.
Somewhat more existentially, it's been another unwelcome reminder to me that I'm not getting any younger and I'm going to have to deal with the fact that my body isn't what it used to be - the situation no doubt exacerbated by the fact that I'm asking it do more than it has ever done before.
I should probably just be grateful that I haven't had more injuries before now, but it is frustrating to lose valuable days to a niggling pain.
Having said that, it was only this week that I realised that the marathon is on April 17, not March 17 as I'd been working to. Bingo. I've won a month. You'd think I'd have checked a little detail like that before now, wouldn't you? So even taking into account the couple of weeks of training I've just lost, I'm still net 2 weeks to the good. Swings and roundabouts.
Then last Saturday morning, while pulling a training bag out from under the bed, I felt something go ping in my back and quite literally couldn't stand up. Took me 10 minutes to get upright and then I couldn't walk properly. Twice during the day my back and left hip locked up, sending shooting pains up my spine and leaving me doubled over in public places, unable to stand up straight or move from the spot for 2 or 3 minutes. Much to the bemusement of my fellow Co-op shoppers.
It's now Thursday and while the pain has largely gone, I'm still feeling a tightness and soreness as the day goes by. Running not an option and I'm starting to get concerned at how many more days I'm going to lose.
Somewhat more existentially, it's been another unwelcome reminder to me that I'm not getting any younger and I'm going to have to deal with the fact that my body isn't what it used to be - the situation no doubt exacerbated by the fact that I'm asking it do more than it has ever done before.
I should probably just be grateful that I haven't had more injuries before now, but it is frustrating to lose valuable days to a niggling pain.
Having said that, it was only this week that I realised that the marathon is on April 17, not March 17 as I'd been working to. Bingo. I've won a month. You'd think I'd have checked a little detail like that before now, wouldn't you? So even taking into account the couple of weeks of training I've just lost, I'm still net 2 weeks to the good. Swings and roundabouts.
Monday 17 January 2011
Fave running quotes #675
"Only gringo run when he got nowhere to go."
Lovely little observation brought to my attention by one David Leishman, a friend of mine who'd been reading this blog and recalled something a former flatmate had once told him. Jim Fanjoy, the flatmate in question, was an American who'd spent a couple of years in Guatamala and used to go running to keep fit.
The rye observation above was made to him by one of the locals.
Lovely little observation brought to my attention by one David Leishman, a friend of mine who'd been reading this blog and recalled something a former flatmate had once told him. Jim Fanjoy, the flatmate in question, was an American who'd spent a couple of years in Guatamala and used to go running to keep fit.
The rye observation above was made to him by one of the locals.
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Excuses, excuses
Only 15 weeks or so to go till the big day and I'm having to face up to the fact that I'm having to make excuses for not being as well advanced in my training as I'd hoped. I was going really well up until about a month ago - then the shitty weather and Christmas shenanigans ganged up on me to put a dampener on my training.
I did put in quite a few snowy miles, running home from work up the very middle of Sauchiehall Street at 7pm because there was not a single car on the snow-covered road (which I admit did feel rather jolly) but for about 3 weeks I basically didn't put in a single session. Appallng. Now I'm going at it with the fervour of a born-again believer.
My plan is to run 6 days a week from now till the marathon in March, and 2011 is already conspiring to test my resolve. Jan 1st run was fine then on the 2nd it was horizontal sleet in my face for 40 minutes then the following day, after waiting for 3 hours for the rain to stop, I had to just grit my teeth, get into my running gear, open the door and get out and grin and bear it - an hour in torrential rain. Horrible.
Not only that, I'm really feeling the 3 weeks off, even though I lived life pretty low for those 3 weeks.
Yup, running definitely keeps you honest.
I did put in quite a few snowy miles, running home from work up the very middle of Sauchiehall Street at 7pm because there was not a single car on the snow-covered road (which I admit did feel rather jolly) but for about 3 weeks I basically didn't put in a single session. Appallng. Now I'm going at it with the fervour of a born-again believer.
My plan is to run 6 days a week from now till the marathon in March, and 2011 is already conspiring to test my resolve. Jan 1st run was fine then on the 2nd it was horizontal sleet in my face for 40 minutes then the following day, after waiting for 3 hours for the rain to stop, I had to just grit my teeth, get into my running gear, open the door and get out and grin and bear it - an hour in torrential rain. Horrible.
Not only that, I'm really feeling the 3 weeks off, even though I lived life pretty low for those 3 weeks.
Yup, running definitely keeps you honest.
Monday 13 December 2010
If
Having read Kipling's famous poem on many occasions over the last 30 years or so, it's surprising that I never consciously noted the somewhat unmissable running reference in the final 4 lines:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Friday 26 November 2010
Nowhere to hide
One of the fascinating aspects of running for me is that there is absolutely no room whatsoever for bullshit, ego and self-delusion. Unlike life, it's impossible to hide from the truth. You either did the miles you set yourself to do, or you didn't. No grey areas. It's impossible to delude yourself about your capabilities half way through a ten mile run on a cold night with miles to go and every fibre of your body hurting: you either stop, or you carry on. No gray areas.
Humility also comes quick. It's strangely vivifying to be overtaken during what you think is a decent paced run by a vastly overweight 50 year old, a skinny little rake of a 17 year old girl or a 6ft 4" monster bloke with the most horrendous running gait - and I've been overtaken by all of these and more. You just learn to live with yourself and your abilities, and you get a little closer to being happy in your skin, accepting your limits.
And what I'm finding out about myself is interesting to me. My mind and as a result my body have evolved a lot in only a few months of comparitively hard running. When I first set out on this whole running thing a couple of years ago, I struggled to continue moving forward after just a few minutes, the urge to stop almost over-powering. Chest thumping, legs shaking, sweat blinding me. By mentally forcing myself to keep going, my body has apparently learned over time that putting up huge resistance is futile. So now it doesn't complain nearly so much and is learning to work with me rather than against me. Or at least that's how it feels.
In fact, having done a 10 mile run on two separate occcasions within a few days this week, at no point did I feel under pressure to simply stop.The massive, almost irrestistible urge to just stop running I once felt no longer crops up. Now I can feel tired (and frequently do), listless sometimes and just plain beat up now and again but I experience very little mental or physical pressure to stop.
It's an odd thing to almost stand back and objectively watch my body deal with the increasingly strenous demands I'm making on it - and see it take them all in its stride, quite literally. My resting heart rate is lower, the time it takes my heart to recover after a run is shortening rapidly, I'm running longer, faster and more comfortably and I no longer get sore knees or hips, even after long runs. (Well, sometimes my knees get a bit creaky after a very long run but only for half an hour.)
I have a new found respect for this remarkable little body we all have.
Humility also comes quick. It's strangely vivifying to be overtaken during what you think is a decent paced run by a vastly overweight 50 year old, a skinny little rake of a 17 year old girl or a 6ft 4" monster bloke with the most horrendous running gait - and I've been overtaken by all of these and more. You just learn to live with yourself and your abilities, and you get a little closer to being happy in your skin, accepting your limits.
And what I'm finding out about myself is interesting to me. My mind and as a result my body have evolved a lot in only a few months of comparitively hard running. When I first set out on this whole running thing a couple of years ago, I struggled to continue moving forward after just a few minutes, the urge to stop almost over-powering. Chest thumping, legs shaking, sweat blinding me. By mentally forcing myself to keep going, my body has apparently learned over time that putting up huge resistance is futile. So now it doesn't complain nearly so much and is learning to work with me rather than against me. Or at least that's how it feels.
In fact, having done a 10 mile run on two separate occcasions within a few days this week, at no point did I feel under pressure to simply stop.The massive, almost irrestistible urge to just stop running I once felt no longer crops up. Now I can feel tired (and frequently do), listless sometimes and just plain beat up now and again but I experience very little mental or physical pressure to stop.
It's an odd thing to almost stand back and objectively watch my body deal with the increasingly strenous demands I'm making on it - and see it take them all in its stride, quite literally. My resting heart rate is lower, the time it takes my heart to recover after a run is shortening rapidly, I'm running longer, faster and more comfortably and I no longer get sore knees or hips, even after long runs. (Well, sometimes my knees get a bit creaky after a very long run but only for half an hour.)
I have a new found respect for this remarkable little body we all have.
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