Jack's Marathons - October and November 2012

My 298th marathon was on 30 September 2012 leaving me just Preston Marathon to complete on 28 October before heading out to the USA for marathon number 300. This left me an ideal opportunity to squeeze in some races at various different distances. A suitable challenge for October seemed to be to see if I could complete a 10k, a 10 mile race, a half marathon, a marathon and a cross country league race in a month. 

I started with the Standalone 10k on 7 October (40:58) and then ran the Oxford Half Marathon on the 14 pacing a friend round in 2:08:25. Next were the RAF Henlow 10 mile race on 17 October (1:22:30) and the Chiltern League 9k cross country race at Oxford on the 21 (where I was surprised to come 3rd out of 8 in the vet 60 group). 

Preston Guild Marathon: 28 October 2012: Every 20 years Preston holds its Guild Celebrations and for 2012 the city introduced a marathon to coincide with these. This was to be my 299th marathon and, as with most new marathons, I was slightly apprehensive about how well organised the event would be. It turned out that the only thing I should have been worried about was the Lancashire weather. 

Every aspect of the race had been carefully pre-planned with efficient and fast registration and baggage facilities, a warm and commodious race HQ building, ample toilet facilities with very short queues and tremendous drink stations with huge supplies of gels available just at the right locations. It was raining at the start and the downpour continued throughout the race. In addition there was a strong northerly wind and in one spot the leaves being blown from the trees hit us like bullets. Throughout all of this the marshals and drink station volunteers (who must have been frozen) remained cheerful and supportive and it was amazing that so many members of the public braved the weather to support runners along the course. 

The route was undulating, but mainly traffic free and once we left Preston we ran over the River Ribble and through some pretty countryside before returning to the finish outside Preston Guild Hall. I had a good run finishing 361st out of 1132 and 4th out of 20 in the 60-64 age group. I returned to St Albans to news that many flights to the USA were being cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy, which didn’t bode well for my scheduled flight out via Washington DC on the Thursday. 

300 up!

City of Oaks Marathon, Raleigh, North Carolina: 4 November 2012: Thankfully my flight out was not cancelled and Raleigh had not been affected at all by the hurricane. The race organisers had promised to let me have running bib number 300 to celebrate my 300th marathon and I had remembered to pack the convict outfit that I was intending to run in. I’d run this race two years previously and whilst the race director had advised that he had altered the route to cut out some of the worse hills local runners were telling me that there weren’t any flat stretches anywhere (which proved to be true). However, my main concern was that I had not done any practice runs in my outfit and that on the day the trousers seemed quite loose. I had visions of me ending up with them around my ankles. As it turned out the main problem I encountered was being too warm and by half way I found myself wishing that I’d not worn a t-shirt under my costume. 

Once we got going, my anxiety vanished and my attention was diverted early in the race to a model cow half way through the showroom window in the Wells Fargo offices in downtown Raleigh. I then started to notice spectators at regular intervals holding signs proclaiming ‘Run like you stole something’. I was indeed trying although one lady succeeded in apprehending me at around the 24 mile point so that I could be photographed with her kids beside their sign. She thanked me profusely as I assured her that this time she had convincingly apprehended her man. 

Over the weekend we’d had a policeman from NYPD staying with us and at a turnaround point close to the finish I noticed that he was catching me up quite quickly. Consequently we had a real ‘cops and robbers’ style finish to the race. My time was 4:06:52 and I won an award for being 3rd in the 60-64 age group. 

At the end we had a group photograph taken of me with three of my most eccentric friends. These were (1) Matt Jenkins, who runs all his marathons barefoot (2) Peter, the NYPD man who had almost caught me at the finish and (3) Rich Holmes, who had run his 200th marathon at the same marathon in Nashville where I had run mine. 

Jack and friends

I had a great time during the race and the encouragement I got from both spectators and fellow runners was unbelievable. However, the convict outfit is now safely packed away and I have no plans to race in it again.

Richmond Marathon, Virginia: 10 November 2012: After a week of sightseeing around Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown we made our way to Richmond. Richmond Marathon was a well organised, but busy race as they’d increased their permitted numbers by around 1500 to allow entrants from the cancelled New York Marathon to compete. The course was gently undulating, but it did start getting warm quite early on and I made the mistake of setting off with the 3.45 pace group. I stayed with them until 17.5 miles, but then had to let them go as the heat got to me. I struggled over the last few miles and finally crossed the line in 4:01:41. Curiously all 4 of us who were in the previous week’s group photo ran faster times at Richmond than at City of Oaks and Matt, Peter and I crossed the finish line within 2 minutes of each other. 

Jack Brooks

Chiltern League XC 1, Oxford - I'd been here before…

Cross country is back

Shotover Park, November 1981. Oxford vs Cambridge second team, tortoises versus spartans. I was too rubbish to make the first team. The first teams raced in Richmond Park, we lesser mortals had to battle it out at Shotover, a hill a few miles to the east of Oxford. Back in ‘81 we had to start at the top of the hill, hurtle downhill, wade through a muddy bog, then struggle back up the hill. We did this three times, seven and half miles in all. Great fun. I cannot even remember if we won or lost. That probably means we lost. 

Shotover Park, October 2012. St Albans Striders versus the rest of the Chiltern League. Probably our strongest team yet in the Chiltern League? Certainly the best turnout since the St Albans fixture last December. How would we fare? 

The course was more challenging than Verulamium Park. Granted the Start and Finish were something out of a school sports day: a pancake-flat field with not a hint of mud. Even the grass where we dumped our bags was mud-free, a welcome change from some of the alfresco changing areas, aka quagmires, I have sunk into (Hillingdon, Alexandra Palace, Parliament Hill). There were changing rooms indoors, but the weather was too nice for those. 

After a lap of the nice flat sports field we had to exit the field via a ditch, 10 foot wide, two foot deep with a foot of water in it. There was a bridge about the width of a railway sleeper to help cross this, but it had sensibly been roped off to prevent the race being too easy. 

The ditch

The ditch itself was jumpable, I managed this three times in the warm-up without getting my feet wet, but the ditch was sufficiently wide to interrupt your running rhythm, i.e. you came to an abrupt stop whilst you regained your balance on landing. Surrounded by other runners in a race, you would not have much time or opportunity to choose the best landing spot, so I decided in the race I would take the alternative route through the ditch on the right hand side, where you could take two steps shin-deep in the water and keep running through and out the other side. Two wet feet, but momentum preserved. 

It was a good plan: I did not lose any time at the ditch in the race and could look forward now to the joys of the rest of the race. Unlike 1981, when we started at the top and ran downhill, in 2012 we started at the foot of the hill and made our way upwards, a long twisting climb, slightly reminiscent of the Ridgeway Run. At the top of the hill, it flattened out nicely into a broadish plain, with plenty of opportunities for overtaking. To my surprise, I caught a couple of slightly younger Striders here and then embarked on the descent. 

The descent was a blast. A twisty, muddy, rutted, quite steep path down through deciduous woodland. For some reason, I suddenly seemed to have no fear and started overtaking the sensible, timid people, who had started faster than I had and who did not fancy a reckless charge downhill. One wrong step and it would be a twisted ankle. At the bottom of the slope we took a sharp left into more woodland, which had a generous carpet of mud throughout. At this point, I surprisingly caught up with Ed, who I later learned did not have his spiked shoes with him. 

I was also gaining on the guy who has run every London Marathon in less than three hours. Did I dare catch him? Could I catch him? It would have to wait until lap two, which we were soon getting almost literally stuck into. Once more uphill. Several of the people I had overtaken on the downhill caught up with me again, Ed included. But I was just biding my time, getting ready for another bout of downhill madness. Four miles done with a mile and a half to go we hit the downhill again. I caught Ed and Mr 30+ Sub-3 marathons on the helter-skelter descent. I was not going to get caught again if I could help it. 

Dodging an impatient motorist at the foot of the hill, I turned left into the muddy woods for the second and last time. A few more bogs to negotiate, then it was a dash for the finish. School sports day all over again. Well, it felt something like it. 

I had just scraped in as eighth scoring Strider. The fast guys had had a good race, taking us to top of Division Two, and ahead of many Division One clubs. A great start to the season. Definitely more memorable than 1981. 

Colin Braybrook

Race Report: Windsor Half Marathon – 7 October 2012

I only did this race to beat my brother-in-law (occasional Strider, Matt Humphreys) and he beat me by 70 seconds. Bugger! 

Having said that it wasn’t a complete waste of time, Windsor Half Marathon is a great course on the traffic free roads inside Windsor Great Park. The course comprises of a mile up the Long Walk, a first lap of 4 miles, a second lap of 7 miles and finally a mile back down the Long Walk towards Windsor Castle. 

I last ran the course in 2001, when I ran 1:42:19, so I was intrigued to see what affect 11 years had had on my fitness, turns out not a lot as I finished in 1:41:40. 

So I guess with an improvement of 39 seconds over 11 years that’s the 'Most Improved Strider' trophy lost for another year. Humph! All this celebrating improvement gets a little wearing after a while. 

So how did I manage this incredible feat of consistency? Well running with the Striders of course! 

Training-wise from a reasonable base fitness I did a couple of months of three runs a week all with the Striders. Tuesday speed sessions; Thursday race pace tempo session; Saturday long slow sessions. I didn’t do any other training. I know we all talk about recovery runs, core strength, and cross training, but for me and for this race I found three sessions a week was a good balance of increasing my fitness and giving myself enough recovery time. 

I used the Thursday session to work out my race pace, I found I could do the 8 min mile group okay but struggled to keep up with the 7:30 min mile group. So at Windsor I already knew I needed to keep my pace to between 7:45 and 8:00 to last the race. 

For the race itself I broke it down into 3x4 mile sections (maths not being my strong point). I took a time check at 4 miles (30:40) feeling pretty fresh. This gave me confidence that I was running at the right pace so I targeted to get to 8 miles in 62 minutes, took a gel and focused on relaxed running for another half an hour. I was at 8 miles (61:20) feeling pretty tired but pleased that I had finished 2 of my 3 race 'sections'. This helped me focus on the next 4 mile section. I did drift a bit on this one, I reached 12 miles (93:10) but still it left me with a fighting chance of a PB in the last mile, if no idea where Matt was. 

As it happened he was a minute or so up the road looking over his shoulder a lot. Oh well! I’ll have to invite him over to Watford in January.

Steve Alexander

Strider in the Spotlight – Colin Braybrook

As he steps down from the Exec Committee, Colin steps into the spotlight... 

1. How long have you been running and when did you join Striders? 

I started running at secondary school, when I was about 15. So that’s over 35 years ago. We had to play rugby before that. When cross-country was offered as an option, I discovered that the sooner you completed the course, the sooner you could go home, so that was an incentive to improve! I also discovered that with some of your own training, it was easy to progress far faster than those who did not train. 

Colin, in the London Marathon

2. What’s been your best moment as a Strider? 

No single moment really, but a lot of good experiences (and a few bad ones!). In a race, possibly winning the Veteran’s prize with a PB in the Watford Half Marathon. Going sub-3 for the first time in Paris in 2004 was pretty special too, as was getting 3 hours in the Snowdonia Marathon. 

Outside of that, being awarded the Strider’s ‘athlete of the year’ in 2003 was a big surprise. I was always glad when the MWRRL fixture I organised for five years was finished without mishap. 

3. What’s your pre-race ritual? 

No big ritual really. The hardest part is getting out of bed in the first place. After that mind and body know pretty well what to do. I normally eat an apple, a banana and maybe some other fruit and drink as much as I can. Plus there is the usual queueing ritual to be performed! I once did not eat my apple before the Gade Valley 17 and felt quite lost towards the end of the run. I tend to get nervous the day before a race rather than on race day. 

4. What’s the most useful piece of running advice you’ve been given? 

Listen to your body. (But do not give in to all of its complaints!) 

5. Who is your sporting hero? 

The Ugandan hurdler John Akii Bua is hard to beat. He achieved Olympic Gold and a world record 400 metre hurdles in the 1972 Olympics pretty much by obsessive hard work. It is a shame he could not capitalise on his success. The Puma shoe company rescued him from a refugee camp after Idi Amin went off the rails. 

Let’s not forget our own Strider heroes. Mike Jubb, Deborah Steer, Zoe Lowe, the ladies marathon team, Caroline Walsh, Paul Adams and Jack Brooks – they have all achieved great things in their time. 

6. Where do you keep your race medals? 

I am sorry to say that most of them have been consigned to a bottom drawer! For a while I was winning veteran 40 trophies and kept an array of them on top of the lavatory cistern. But the dusting was too much hassle. The Watford Half and Snowdonia trophies plus the eight consecutive London Marathon medals are the only ones on show in the living room now. 

7. What’s your favourite local running route? 

Across the fields and the A414 to Tyttenhanger lakes, then over to Colney Heath and back via the Alban Way is a nice escape. The path from the A414 over Hedges Farm and back by the Ver is a nice little escape route too! I quite enjoy running to the Pub Run, doing the Pub run then running home. This brings me close to 19 miles without really thinking about it. Running to the parkrun and doing the parkrun beforehand makes it nearly a marathon! I tend to train quite slowly these days, and rely on the adrenaline of doing races for my speed rather than doing speed sessions midweek. 

8. What’s your next target? 

I need to do a crazy ultra some time soon. I have been feeling very claustrophobic working in a basement for the past year or so. I think it got to me recently – I ran 98 not particularly fast miles in a week without planning to. It just happened thanks to a spell of nice weather!

Jack's Marathons - September 2012

The Mooathon Marathon, County Donegal: 30th September 2012 (Marathon No. 298): Because I was ill on the day of Milton Keynes Marathon I had to find another marathon to keep me on target for running my 300th marathon in North Carolina on 4th November. The Mooathon seemed like a fun event and I happily registered for the Full Moo (the half marathon is called the Semi-Skimmed). The guidelines for the race are that competitors should only wear black and white clothing and that ideally clothing should relate to cows in one way or another. While some runners took this to extremes I borrowed a black t-shirt with a picture of a cow on it and the words 'I ran with the herd' emblazoned across the front. 

Unfortunately, once the gun went off runners started to appreciate that this would be an extremely demanding race. I don’t think that anywhere in Donegal is flat, but this course from Kilmacrenan Town to Downings plus a loop round the coast contained an awful lot of very steep climbs, which were certainly a lot tougher than any of the hills in Snowdonia. I think that I can safely say that, whilst the scenery was spectacular, this was the toughest marathon I’ve run since Liechtenstein Marathon in 2001. In the event 5 out of the 39 starters failed to complete the race and I was much relieved to finish 25th in a time of 4:38:01. 

The rest of the trip to Ireland was not without its odd quirks. Our hotel’s address was Lower Main Street, Letterkenny. Having driven the full length of Lower Main Street we discovered that the hotel was actually located on a completely different road. Subsequently on the way to Arran Island we came across 2 speed signs facing us on either side of the road. One of these stated that the speed limit was 50 and the other that it was 60.

Jack Brooks