Jack’s marathons: April–June 2013

Canberra Marathon, Australia: 14 April 2013: I stayed with former Striders, Graham and Jo Ridley for most of my 3 weeks in Australia. They live in North Avoca on the Central Coast and I had an early introduction to their local running club (Terrigal Trotters) when we did a short run with them on the first Saturday before we drove down to Canberra. We enjoyed an Italian meal on the Saturday evening with those Trotters who had travelled down for the marathon and half marathon.

I was relieved that the race started at 7am as the forecast was for temperatures of around 26 degrees. The undulating marathon route comprised a 10k loop through the Parliamentary Triangle followed by two loops along the southern and then the northern shores of Lake Burley Griffin with crossings over King’s Avenue Bridge on the outward section and Commonwealth Avenue Bridge on the return stretch. Jo provided much appreciated support at several points around the course and then I got some very vocal support from former Strider Anne-Marie Wilkes during the second half of the race. My pace was 5:07 per k for the first lap, 5:17 for the second lap and 5:26 for the third lap, which roughly reflected how much warmer it was getting as the race progressed. I was pleased with my time of 3:43:55, which was my fastest time since 2010. Graham continued to complete the 50k race in 4:38:55 (not bad for someone who’d been advised over 13 years ago that he’d have trouble walking within a year if he continued running!). Anne-Marie, the Ridleys and I celebrated afterwards in a local hostelry with the other Terrigal Trotters.

On the Monday Anne-Marie took a day off work to show me the sights of Canberra and in the evening we joined the Ridleys and Peter and Angela Wilkes for a drink and an Indian meal. It was great to meet up with Anne-Marie and I still find it hard to believe that she left St Albans over 5 years ago.

I did a number of runs with the Trotters during my holiday including their Anzac Day breakfast run and a hilly 10k time trial. Unfortunately, on my last run with them, which was meant to be a 47k run in the bush, I twisted my ankle and bruised a rib after only about 10k and had to cadge a lift back to base. However, they were an extremely friendly and welcoming club and I felt privileged to have got to know so many of them. It is good to know that Graham and Jo have found such a great club so close to where they live.

Orpington Half Marathon: 11 May 2013: I quickly discovered that my rib and ankle were far from healed and dropped down from the marathon to the half marathon distance. My time was 2:06:08 and it was very painful even once I’d consumed a fistful of painkillers. However, on checking my race records I noted that this was my 100th half marathon so there was a sort of silver lining to this event.

Leiden Marathon: 26 May 2013: Having not run for nearly 2 weeks I was apprehensive as to whether my injuries were healed enough to permit me to run. Fortunately the rib was fine and my ankle seemed substantially better than it was at Orpington. The course was flat and rural, but it was very windy. I managed to stick with the 4 hour pace group up to about 29k, but struggled for the last 13k mainly due to how little training I’d managed while injured. My finish time was 4:12:43.

Luxembourg Marathon: 8 June 2013: This race started at 7pm on a very humid Saturday evening. The organisers appeared to have gone out of their way to incorporate every hill in Luxembourg into the marathon route and the second half of the course was particularly tortuous. Large numbers of half marathon and relay runners also meant that there was considerable congestion at the start and at all of the relay changeover points. Right from the start I felt as though I wasn’t firing on all cylinders and I really suffered during the second half of the race. Nevertheless, the support that all runners received when the race went through the centre of the town and when it finished inside the Luxexpo building was tremendous and the race was generally very friendly and well organised. My time was 4:13:45.

Dodging midges....

Trail Marathon Wales: 22 June 2013: This race started from Coed y Brenin visitor centre in the Snowdonia National Park with a long hill and we soon discovered that the only variations on the course would be the steepness of each successive hill. The wind was really strong throughout the day, but when we found sheltered locations the midges were out in force and they particularly seemed to favour Lucy Stern and me. 

All smiles.....

While Abby Reilly, Fiona Snailham, Melanie Orchard and Peter Rogers disappeared into the distance Lucy, Carol Ransom, Mandy Attree, Luke Hart and I proceeded at a more leisurely pace having decided that most of the hills were too steep for anything but a mountain goat to run up. Some of the descents were also challenging with rocks and tree roots in abundance and we were all happy to cross the finish line in 6:40:03, especially as Abby, Fiona, Mel, Claire Sharp and Alison Ryan were waiting there to cheer us in. On the plus side the views were fantastic and the company was great, but this was a truly gruelling event.

Jack Brooks

Training blog (April-May): Race day – beware the speed bump!

By the beginning of April, I’d been following my training plan for just over four months, and I realised I only had about six weeks to go until my target race: the Edinburgh Half Marathon. 

In essence, I’ve been doing four sessions a week, building interval training (mainly the Striders track session), hills, ‘race pace’ running, parkruns, and long slow runs. This has largely been building up – further, or more quickly – though with regular weeks in which I took it more easily, or licked my wounds.

Best thing to do six weeks before an A race? Quit my job and go on holiday! Running in Chicago and New Orleans made a refreshing change from the streets and fields of St Albans. In Chicago, we ran alongside Lake Michigan, which was beautiful although it’s clearly not called the ‘Windy City’ for nothing. Ever run towards skyscrapers? They’re much further away than you think!

Back in Blighty, I went to cheer on friends at the London Marathon, and was properly inspired by their awesome efforts to keep pushing on.

But with a week or so to go, I began to feel a little niggle. No need for too much detail, but let’s just say it was a pain in the backside. I found it quite tricky to distinguish between slight niggles and actual injuries. Which did I have? I would soon find out.

at mile 13.1...

And so to race day. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and the course shows it off to great effect, as long as you’ve got time to look up. Starting near the centre, we rounded Arthur’s Seat before heading east along the coast. It was a beautiful day. For much of the race, I had Gill for company, and we were boosted by the support of our spouses in at least three locations (to be clear: we each only have the one spouse).

My target was 100 minutes, and we set off at a fair lick. Along the way, I came close to beating both my parkrun and 10k PBs. And I went through halfway in almost exactly 50 minutes.

Ironically, it was a speed bump that slowed me down. I tripped slightly over one after a few miles, and it was at this point that my niggle turned towards injury. I slowed a bit thereafter, and then achieved the remarkable feat of running every single mile slightly more slowly than the previous one!

I finished in 1:46:09, a time I’m really proud of, and while I know I could maybe have gone faster without the niggle-cum-injury, I also know that my many weeks of training gave me the strength to push through the pain.

And my advice to all readers thinking of taking up a training plan? Go for it. It really helps. Just beware of the bumps along the way.

Richard Sved

Colin's report: Milton Keynes Marathon – 6 May 2013

I am following on from my last blog post about the London Marathon. I said it might be time to find a new marathon. I did not have to wait long to find one. But maybe I ought to have waited a bit longer than I actually did.

The Milton Keynes marathon this year was exactly two weeks and a day after the London Marathon. It was also exactly fifty-two years after I was born. What better way to celebrate pre-senile decay than to spend a morning running round a town several years younger than I am?

The good news: even though the MK marathon was two weeks and a day after the London Marathon, I did not have to get out of bed for MK until two weeks, one day and two hours later than I got out of bed for the London Marathon; i.e. 7am instead of 5am. Very good news.

The bad news: gone are the days where I can run two marathons with a gap of two weeks in between and get away with it! But I had to find that out the hard way. 

Birthdays nowadays can make me look back at what I have not achieved in life rather than celebrating the achievements. So I decided to annihilate such nostalgic regrets with strenuous activity to take my mind off the non-achievements. 

It was a risky decision. If I were not careful, I could end up with another non-achievement to look back on in future years. So really I would have no option but to complete the marathon.

Originally I had entered the MK marathon as a backup plan in case my London Marathon finishing time was not good enough. To be honest, I was reasonably pleased with my 3:11 at London, even if it had been a bit of a struggle (it always is). As a result I would not need to do another marathon for the next two years under 3:20 to get a ‘Good For Age’ time.

So I can say that it was probably just vanity, fear of growing old or an insane belief that I might magic a good finishing time out of thin air that made me do Milton Keynes. Well, I had paid for the place, hadn’t I? And I was not expecting great things. Just to get round really. It might take about three and a half hours, on the other hand I might inexplicably get an undeservedly good time for no reason, a sort of unexpected birthday present. That had to be worth the risk. I had even given myself the option of turning over in bed and going back to sleep on the day if I did not feel like doing it. 

Race day morning arrived, happy birthday to me. It took next to no time to roll out of bed and get to Milton Keynes. There was a bit of an anxious moment, when I discovered they had closed some of the roads near the start. For a few confused minutes I drove in circles around a block of flats. But once out of that little dead-end, I miraculously found the industrial estate with free parking close to the football stadium that was the start and finish of the race. 

A few minutes later I was walking towards the stadium past a 24-hour McDonalds. It had to be worth dropping in there for a pre-race lavatory stop. Miraculously again there was no queue. I need not have worried. Inside the football stadium there were lavatories a-plenty with no real queues to speak of. Likewise the baggage drop had no real queue. So with half an hour still to go till the start of the race I was pretty well ready to go. There were several other Striders there too! 

So there was time for some quick sunbathing while waiting for the start. It was going to be quite a warm day. But there is only so much water you can take on board before the start so I just tried to relax and enjoy the sunshine. 

The race start was in zones with faster runners at the front. It all seemed pretty-well organised really. Before long we were on our way. The first few miles were along dual-carriageways that had been closed to traffic. These took us through the centre of MK before doubling back towards the start, then on a huge loop round the town. After a while the roads gave way to cycle paths but by then the field had thinned out so there was no real congestion on the route. There were plenty of drinks, energy drinks and gels on offer round the course, so even though the weather was hot, there was never a shortage of refreshments. 

After 11 miles I had the feeling of slowing down, that I normally get around 18 miles. Thoughts of dropping out or walking went through my head. I could feel myself slowing down, but in the end I decided it was probably better to slow down and get a finish time than to drop out completely.

After a while I could not take any more water on board, and it was just a case of digging in and getting round the course. There were some annoying bits: arched footbridges over the canal felt an effort to negotiate; a couple of hills after 20 miles needed some will-power to get over. But the stadium finish made up for this, although I could not muster the same sprint finish that some of my fellow runners conjoured up. En route there was some great support from several Striders and local residents, including former Striders’ Chairman Andy Wasdell. 

My 3:30 was somewhat slower than London, but it was a warm day and my legs did not feel fresh. I would definitely consider this as an ‘A’ race next year and maybe do London in fancy dress, depending on how the winter’s training and weather go. I think MK is going to be on the May Day Bank Holiday again in 2014 so, you never know, I may be there again! I can recommend it.

Colin Braybrook

Mid Week Road Race League 2013 – on your marks.....

As the nights get longer and the spring marathons become memories, it’s time to look forward to the mid week road race league. These are the 10k summer races for everyone - young, old, fast and not so fast! As league champions last year, there is a title for Striders to defend, but, just as importantly, there’s also some summer running fun to be had. 

New to this? Here’s what you need to know: 

What’s the MWRRL? The league is a series of five evening 10k races across Herts and Essex for local clubs. Striders are in the top league with five other clubs. Since it's a closed event for six clubs, the races are great for socialising and friendly rivalry with other runners from local clubs. Points are allocated to the top 12 men and top six ladies (and vets). The club with the best points score over the first four races wins the league. 

MWRRL, 2012: will we beat this spectacular Strider turnout in 2013?

Who takes part? There can be up to 500 runners in each race. The races are suitable for all standards and everyone's contribution to the team score helps. Lots of last year’s success was down to new members. 

Where and when? This year’s league starts on Thursday 23 May at Welwyn Garden City, with races at Royston, Stevenage, St Albans and Trent Park, Enfield in June and July . 

Why take part? Why not!? MWRRL has something for everyone. We asked a few Striders  what they enjoyed when they took part for the first time in 2012: 

• It’s a great way to run with friends in new places 
• There’s the chance to chart your progress and hopefully bag a 10K PB or two 
• It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet new people, and cheer and be cheered on by your team mates 
• You get club championship points for taking part, and this year there are more on offer at Royston on 4 June, as a ‘scoring race’ 
• There’s cake at the end! 

Want to know more? Richard wrote about the 2012 races for the blog here.  

Interested? Good! To take part you need to be a fully paid up member of Striders and have a club vest. Watch the forum for details of individual races and for opportunities to car share, and see you on the start line! 

Virgin London Marathon 2013 - Colin's report

This was my 9th London Marathon in a row, and my tenth ever London Marathon. 

The novelty has long since worn off. So too has the speed. So why keep doing it? The current reason is to do 10 in a row. I must admit it is not really that enjoyable for me, but 10 is a nice round number and there are probably not that many people who have done 10 in a row, although I know there are 30 or so people who have run every single London Marathon, one of them having finished all of them in under 3 hours. That I find truly incredible. One of the St Albans Striders, Mike Starr, a former chairman, got to about 20 in a row before succumbing to marathon inertia or incapacity. 

For a few years the challenge of trying to achieve a time faster than the Good For Age threshold of 3:14:59 has been a target. This assures me a London Marathon place for a further two years. Now I am nearly 52 it is getting harder to achieve. I can still just about knock out the miles in training, but trying to achieve the speed is hurting more now. 2012 saw one of my ankles balloon out like an old man’s ankle (thanks for your lack of sympathy, you know who you are!); 2013 saw both legs swelling up like an elephant’s! It was still possible to run on them, but rather slowly: 9 or 10 minute-miling. Quite how I managed seven and a bit miling in the Finchley 20 and the marathon I don’t know. Well actually I do know: I kept my weight down then ran through a bit more tiredness and pain than I used to. Boo hoo. Still, it was never meant to be easy, was it? 

Colin, at a previous VLM

In 2012 I missed the Good For Age threshold by about 30 seconds. Fortunately I achieved it a couple of times later in the year. And I also achieved it in the 2013 London Marathon with about three and a half minutes to spare. I am beginning to think the autumn marathon may actually be a better bet than the spring one. Training great distances in the cold is frankly becoming unpleasant and I am not convinced it is an unpleasantness I want to keep subjecting myself to. So the tenth London Marathon in a row, if I achieve it may well be the last! 

Getting up at 5.15 am for a 10am marathon start is a bit mad really. Maybe I should try to get a hotel near the start next year? 

I would now love to wax lyrical about the festive atmosphere, great crowd support (which there was, especially at mile 24, thank you Striders!) but to be brutally honest the fresh air and nice views at the Kent Coastal Marathon in 2012 were a lot more uplifting to my soul than the treeless desert called Docklands, the dark, dank tunnel on Upper Thames Street, the long toilet queues at the start, the throng of people in Horse Guards Parade, the long wait for the Underground station barrier to open, the packed FCC train home! 

It’s a great event, but maybe I need to find a different one?

Colin Braybrook

(Ed's note: the Good For Age thresholds relaxed since Colin wrote this.....)