Well its been just over 2 weeks since the race and my legs are still as sore as they have ever been after a race. I've only ran 3 times since and never felt good so I guess its true what they say about taking around 3 weeks to fully recover from a marathon.
As far as the race is concerned I ran 3.04.08 to take 31st place (of around 1100 finishers) which is a massive PB and under the 3.10 I needed for a London good for age entry so I'm well pleased with that.
The day itself was sunny and warm (a little too warm for marathon running but no-where near as bad as Edinburgh in 2010), so I arrived with my friend John at the start in plenty time & quite relaxed. I hadn't done much running in the 2 weeks leading up to the race because of a few niggles in my left calf & right thigh which seemed to still be there during the warm up which worried me a little.
Before I knew it the gun was going and I was off and I hit my first problem - after about 200 metres my Nike+ decided I had already ran a mile (and not surprisingly a PB) so I had to uncomfortably fiddle on with it to restart it - great timing!!
I felt pretty good for the first 10k and went through it in 39.33 which in retrospect may have been a little quick. My goal was to break 3-10, but I still harboured a slight hope of breaking 3 hours and I that point I was on course (although I knew I would inevitably slow down as the race progressed).
By the time halfway came though I started to feel the pace and had slightly slowed down, going through in 1.28.18. In previous marathons it has been around the 18-20 mile mark that I have really started to really feel the fatigue kick in, but this time it really started to come on after halfway - probably a result of my earlier pace. By the time I got to around 16 miles I was more exhausted than I have ever felt in a race and my legs felt like lead weights. There was more than one occasion that I contemplated stopping and walking even just for a few minutes, but somehow I managed to keep going.
The course is very twisty and turny & because of this there were a few points that I passed the race leaders in the opposite direction which judging by the looks on their faces appeared that they were suffering as much as me. I also saw John and few Saltwell Harriers pass the other way.
After about 19 miles the course loops back past the Stadium of Light and then goes up the coast to Seaburn and back down again. It was nice to have the support of the crowds at this point but I was really suffering and my legs were in agony. I had noticeably slowed down and knew by now I wasn't going to break 3 hours, but I was still on course to get under 3-10 and this was the main motivation that kept me going.
At around 23 miles the dreaded cramp flared up and I had to stop for a few seconds. I hoped that it wouldn't be a repeat of the problems that really slowed me down in the last few miles of Kielder last year but luckily it was a one off.
The last few miles were some of the toughest I have ever ran, but I finally managed to get across the finish line in 3.04.08. The pain in my legs was so bad it took me twice as long to get back to the car, but I came back to the to watch John finish in just under 4 hours 30 in his first marathon.
I've learned something different in every marathon I've ran do far. In this one I really pushed hard at the start and this definitely affected me later in the race. Could I have achieved a quicker time if I had not set off as fast, and pushed harder later in the race? I'll never know, but I do know that if I want to try and maintain that sort of pace for the entire race then I need to do more training (in the build up to Sunderland on average I ran 4 times a week with a max weekly mileage of 43 miles). I feel confident now that I will be able to run under 3 hours which I will try and do next year in London, and maybe later this year if I do another road marathon (I don't think I'll manage it as Kielder).
The biggest positive I took from this race was how hard I was able to push myself in the 2nd half of the race despite the agony in my legs and being absolutely exhausted.
Next up Chevy Chase....
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Sunderland training
Just thought id collect my thoughts as to how my training for the marathon of the north is going. Past 2 weeks i have managed to get an 18 mile run in, and I'm currently averaging around 40 miles a week. The numbers aren't massive, but I have been doing more speed work than ever before and the longer distance I have to travel to work now means more walking and riding so I'm getting the benefits of cross training which I think is defo helping me.
With 2 full weeks of training to go before my taper I'm aiming to get to at least 20 miles, maybe 22 at a push for my longest run and my goal is still to go sub 3 hours, although I don't know if I've done enough training to get there. I guess time will tell.
On the positive side, I'm injury free, however the last couple of long runs I've done I have suffered from stomach issues (tecchy term - gi distress).
I'm using a different energy drink (asda's own brand because that is what they are going to be dishing out at the marathon of the north) so I don't know if it is that, or my food intake beforehand. On a positive note, because of this my on my 18 miler last week I only drank half a bottle, and this week only a quarter of a bottle without hitting the wall so I guess indirectly I'm training my body to use its energy stores well. As long as race day isn't too hot I'm pretty sure I can get round in water and energy gels alone so hopefully it's not a big problem.
I'm really looking forward to race day now and enjoying my running in general - plenty more racing to be had this year :-)
On a more sombre note i was saddened to hear of the passing of caballo blanco aka Micah true aka white horse, star of Chris mcdougals great book born to run. He was a great inspiration and will be sorely missed.
With 2 full weeks of training to go before my taper I'm aiming to get to at least 20 miles, maybe 22 at a push for my longest run and my goal is still to go sub 3 hours, although I don't know if I've done enough training to get there. I guess time will tell.
On the positive side, I'm injury free, however the last couple of long runs I've done I have suffered from stomach issues (tecchy term - gi distress).
I'm using a different energy drink (asda's own brand because that is what they are going to be dishing out at the marathon of the north) so I don't know if it is that, or my food intake beforehand. On a positive note, because of this my on my 18 miler last week I only drank half a bottle, and this week only a quarter of a bottle without hitting the wall so I guess indirectly I'm training my body to use its energy stores well. As long as race day isn't too hot I'm pretty sure I can get round in water and energy gels alone so hopefully it's not a big problem.
I'm really looking forward to race day now and enjoying my running in general - plenty more racing to be had this year :-)
On a more sombre note i was saddened to hear of the passing of caballo blanco aka Micah true aka white horse, star of Chris mcdougals great book born to run. He was a great inspiration and will be sorely missed.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Prudhoe cross country race report
My second cross country race of the season, and in fact my second ever. I'd heard about the hill at prudhoe but hadn't really thought about it too much before today - soon I would find out how bad it was.
Got chatting to another runner on the walk up to the start line who also informed me there was also a stream to cross followed by another sharp hill and a tricky tree to negotiate. I was beginning to realize why prudhoe is considered to be the toughest of the cross country races.
With temperatures hitting 18 degrees it wasn't typical cross country weather but I certainly wasn't complaining as it also made for a lovely drive up and relaxing walk up to the start line.
Since joining the saltwell harriers I haven't been able to make any of the training sessions yet so didn't really know any of the other members yet, but I was made very welcome beforehand and had a good chat with a few of them.
As I'm training for the marathon of the north I've came off a pretty full on training week, running 9.5 miles at dinnertime and cycling to work and back (14 miles) yesterday but I felt pretty good at the start and confident that I could put in a good effort.
As the gun went off there were about 10 runners immediately off before me but I knew from wrekenton that this wouldn't last and I wouldn't be able to hold this position for the whole race, but even so for the first 10 minutes or so of the race I felt pretty strong .
Because of the hot weather the ground was pretty firm and my newly bought fell shoes were easily capable of coping with it, although I will probable invest in a pair of spikes for the new season.
After the initial small rise from the start line it's pretty much all downhill which is good for getting up a bit of speed (as long as you can keep on your feet) but as its a 2 lap course I knew that the further downhill I went the more I would have to climb again. Twice.
When the stream came it wasn't as bad as I thought and my feet got barely wet (unlike the Stanhope fell race where you go in almost up to your waist), and I still felt pretty good at this point.
Then shortly after came the hill.
I've ran up steeper and longer hills before but never in a race ( well maybe apart from stanhope but that's a different kettle of fish). On the positive side there was a lot of support with many people cheering and clapping which definitely helped the slog to the top which at times seemed like it was never ending.
Once I got to the top though it didn't take long to recover which I think is probably due to some of the intervals and speed work I've been doing over the past few weeks. I knew though that I had it to face again on the second lap.
By now I had been passed by a fair few runners and I had no idea what position I was in but still felt a lot better than I did at around the point at wrekenton.
The second lap went pretty much the same as the first with the additional dread of having to face the hill a second time. The only consolation I had was seeing other runners around me also struggling (apart from the odd runner from the fast/medium pack racing past like a mountain goat).
Almost at the Finish I was passed by Jim from saltwell who I had been talking too before the start who ran from the medium pack, and I finnished one place behind him. After the race he told me I had finnished in 31st place - one off getting into the medium pack aaargh!
Cross country is a difficult type of race to measure your progress. Because all of the courses are different you can't rely on times along so although I was about a minute faster than wrekenton this doesn't take into consideration the distance, terrain and on the day conditions. Even so I felt I had a much better race than wrekenton and felt a lot stronger throughout.
I still need to work on my pacing strategy - I'm pretty sure I couldn't have went up the hill any faster, but having run the course now I would like to think I could push myself a bit harder next time.
Roll on next season!!!!!
Got chatting to another runner on the walk up to the start line who also informed me there was also a stream to cross followed by another sharp hill and a tricky tree to negotiate. I was beginning to realize why prudhoe is considered to be the toughest of the cross country races.
With temperatures hitting 18 degrees it wasn't typical cross country weather but I certainly wasn't complaining as it also made for a lovely drive up and relaxing walk up to the start line.
Since joining the saltwell harriers I haven't been able to make any of the training sessions yet so didn't really know any of the other members yet, but I was made very welcome beforehand and had a good chat with a few of them.
As I'm training for the marathon of the north I've came off a pretty full on training week, running 9.5 miles at dinnertime and cycling to work and back (14 miles) yesterday but I felt pretty good at the start and confident that I could put in a good effort.
As the gun went off there were about 10 runners immediately off before me but I knew from wrekenton that this wouldn't last and I wouldn't be able to hold this position for the whole race, but even so for the first 10 minutes or so of the race I felt pretty strong .
Because of the hot weather the ground was pretty firm and my newly bought fell shoes were easily capable of coping with it, although I will probable invest in a pair of spikes for the new season.
After the initial small rise from the start line it's pretty much all downhill which is good for getting up a bit of speed (as long as you can keep on your feet) but as its a 2 lap course I knew that the further downhill I went the more I would have to climb again. Twice.
When the stream came it wasn't as bad as I thought and my feet got barely wet (unlike the Stanhope fell race where you go in almost up to your waist), and I still felt pretty good at this point.
Then shortly after came the hill.
I've ran up steeper and longer hills before but never in a race ( well maybe apart from stanhope but that's a different kettle of fish). On the positive side there was a lot of support with many people cheering and clapping which definitely helped the slog to the top which at times seemed like it was never ending.
Once I got to the top though it didn't take long to recover which I think is probably due to some of the intervals and speed work I've been doing over the past few weeks. I knew though that I had it to face again on the second lap.
By now I had been passed by a fair few runners and I had no idea what position I was in but still felt a lot better than I did at around the point at wrekenton.
The second lap went pretty much the same as the first with the additional dread of having to face the hill a second time. The only consolation I had was seeing other runners around me also struggling (apart from the odd runner from the fast/medium pack racing past like a mountain goat).
Almost at the Finish I was passed by Jim from saltwell who I had been talking too before the start who ran from the medium pack, and I finnished one place behind him. After the race he told me I had finnished in 31st place - one off getting into the medium pack aaargh!
Cross country is a difficult type of race to measure your progress. Because all of the courses are different you can't rely on times along so although I was about a minute faster than wrekenton this doesn't take into consideration the distance, terrain and on the day conditions. Even so I felt I had a much better race than wrekenton and felt a lot stronger throughout.
I still need to work on my pacing strategy - I'm pretty sure I couldn't have went up the hill any faster, but having run the course now I would like to think I could push myself a bit harder next time.
Roll on next season!!!!!
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Feet in the clouds
Just finnished reading this fantastic book about fell running by Richard askwith. Fell running is an area I haven't really got into much in the past, although I have done a fair amount of fell walking. My fell running career so far has consisted of running the stanhope fell race for the last 2 years (around 6 miles), but it's something I have enjoyed and want to do more of and I have entered the Chevy chase this year as a first step.
The book is partly a history of fell running including biographies of giants such as joss naylor, billy bland and Kenny Stuart and partly a story of the authors battle and final success on his 4th attempt to achieve arguably one of the toughest endurance events in the world - the bob graham round.
This isn't an organized event, but rather an invidually arranged traverse of 42 of the highest peaks in the lake district over a distance of 72 miles which has to be achieved in 24 hours.
One thing I have learnt from the book and from my own experiences in fell running is that is is a very different beast to any other type of running. Although the uphill sections are undoubtably tough I think that the key to succesfull fell running is the ability to run quickly downhill, frequently over unstable terrain such as peat bog, ankle snapping grassy tufts and rocky ground.
Basically there are 2 options:
1. Cautious style - hold back on the descent to reduce the risk of falling arse over tit or snapping your ankles in half.
2. Kamikaze style - a headlong descent into the abyss with no regard to personal safety as fast as is physically possible (which according to some stories in the book led to some almost 3 minute miles being achieved)
The most successful fell runners undoubtably adopt the 2nd approach despite the risk of serious injury and this is also one of the appealing aspects of the sport.
The bob graham round is something that has been in the back of my mind for around a year now and is definitely one of my longer term goals. Definitely not this year, prob not next but hopefully before I'm 40.
I was massively inspired by Some of the stories in the book such as the fastest traverse (billy bland 13 hours 53 mins), most number of peaks in 24 hours (77 mark hartnell) and for me the most impressive joss naylor 70 peaks in 21 hours covering over 50 miles and 25,000 feet of ascent. At the age of 70.
I love running and will always continue do so as long as I am physically capable, and stories such as those described in this book give me so much encouragement of what the human body is capable of achieving, and also for how long it can continue to do so.
A cracking read and highly recommended.
The book is partly a history of fell running including biographies of giants such as joss naylor, billy bland and Kenny Stuart and partly a story of the authors battle and final success on his 4th attempt to achieve arguably one of the toughest endurance events in the world - the bob graham round.
This isn't an organized event, but rather an invidually arranged traverse of 42 of the highest peaks in the lake district over a distance of 72 miles which has to be achieved in 24 hours.
One thing I have learnt from the book and from my own experiences in fell running is that is is a very different beast to any other type of running. Although the uphill sections are undoubtably tough I think that the key to succesfull fell running is the ability to run quickly downhill, frequently over unstable terrain such as peat bog, ankle snapping grassy tufts and rocky ground.
Basically there are 2 options:
1. Cautious style - hold back on the descent to reduce the risk of falling arse over tit or snapping your ankles in half.
2. Kamikaze style - a headlong descent into the abyss with no regard to personal safety as fast as is physically possible (which according to some stories in the book led to some almost 3 minute miles being achieved)
The most successful fell runners undoubtably adopt the 2nd approach despite the risk of serious injury and this is also one of the appealing aspects of the sport.
The bob graham round is something that has been in the back of my mind for around a year now and is definitely one of my longer term goals. Definitely not this year, prob not next but hopefully before I'm 40.
I was massively inspired by Some of the stories in the book such as the fastest traverse (billy bland 13 hours 53 mins), most number of peaks in 24 hours (77 mark hartnell) and for me the most impressive joss naylor 70 peaks in 21 hours covering over 50 miles and 25,000 feet of ascent. At the age of 70.
I love running and will always continue do so as long as I am physically capable, and stories such as those described in this book give me so much encouragement of what the human body is capable of achieving, and also for how long it can continue to do so.
A cracking read and highly recommended.
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Gateshead park run
First Gateshead park run today, and my second after Newcastle a few weeks back.
Ran down to the start as my warm up, although given the wind and rain on the way down I can't say I was that warm by the time I got there.
Was good to see Tom Williams make the effort to come down to the inaugural event and he gave a few words of encouragement before the start which was good to hear.
I was at the start of the field and when the gun went off was surprised to find myself in the lead for the first hundred meters or so. I'm still relatively inexperienced in racing and am not used to being in this position, so was expecting to be overtaken by a good few people at least.
This did happen as one lad ran past and I decided to try and hang in behind him and see how things panned out.
After the first lap of the top field I couldn't quite hang on and found myself drifting off the lead a touch, but on the positive side a few glances back revealed that there didn't appear to be anyone challenging me from behind.
After another lap round the lake I hadn't gained any ground on the lead, but I hadn't lost any more either, and had plenty encouraging shouts from the marshalls telling me that the lead was catchable and urging me to push on. A good few of them were from fellow saltwell harriers, despite me not really knowing any of them yet which I really appreciated and spurred me on.
In the end I just didn't have enough in me to push for the win, but was still well chuffed to get second place 23 seconds behind the lead with a parkrun and 5k pb of 18.49.
In reflection I wondered if I could have pushed harder for the win but I have concluded that once I let him build such a lead I was never going to regain that ground. In future races if I am going to try for the win I need to stay closer to the lead and find the strength to push on when the time comes.
Since I've decided to race more often this year I'm learning so much already and have another goal to for this year now:
8: win a parkrun
Ran down to the start as my warm up, although given the wind and rain on the way down I can't say I was that warm by the time I got there.
Was good to see Tom Williams make the effort to come down to the inaugural event and he gave a few words of encouragement before the start which was good to hear.
I was at the start of the field and when the gun went off was surprised to find myself in the lead for the first hundred meters or so. I'm still relatively inexperienced in racing and am not used to being in this position, so was expecting to be overtaken by a good few people at least.
This did happen as one lad ran past and I decided to try and hang in behind him and see how things panned out.
After the first lap of the top field I couldn't quite hang on and found myself drifting off the lead a touch, but on the positive side a few glances back revealed that there didn't appear to be anyone challenging me from behind.
After another lap round the lake I hadn't gained any ground on the lead, but I hadn't lost any more either, and had plenty encouraging shouts from the marshalls telling me that the lead was catchable and urging me to push on. A good few of them were from fellow saltwell harriers, despite me not really knowing any of them yet which I really appreciated and spurred me on.
In the end I just didn't have enough in me to push for the win, but was still well chuffed to get second place 23 seconds behind the lead with a parkrun and 5k pb of 18.49.
In reflection I wondered if I could have pushed harder for the win but I have concluded that once I let him build such a lead I was never going to regain that ground. In future races if I am going to try for the win I need to stay closer to the lead and find the strength to push on when the time comes.
Since I've decided to race more often this year I'm learning so much already and have another goal to for this year now:
8: win a parkrun
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Wrekka fell race
Finally took the plunge yesterday and joined the saltwell harriers. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now but just never got round to it.
This meant I was able to compete in the wrekenton fixture of the nehl which seeing as its on my doorstep would have been a shame to miss it.
As it was my first cross country race I didn't really know what to expect, all I knew was that I would be starting in the slow pack with it being my first race.
After the gun went off it was immediately apparent that there was nothing slow about this pack as the leaders flew off into the distance.
The track is 3 laps of a roughly 2 mile course on the fields between wrekenton, Springfield estate and lean lane including 6 grueling ascents of the pit heap.
As it was just below zero the ground was pretty solid (although slightly churned up in places), which meant that my choice to wear my fell shoes instead of buying a pair of spikes worked out ok, although I had the usual heel blister on my right foot by the end of the race.
I felt like I started off ok, but didn't have the energy to really push on much after the first lap and was overtaken by more people than I was overtaking which was pretty demoralizing as I normally like to start further back and try and overtake people.
I did manage a final sprint for the finish line, but ultimately this only meant I prevented the runners behind from overtaking me and didn't quite manage to catch the few runners I front of me.
Overall I enjoyed the race and according to my nike+ I went round in 38:04 on a 5:68 mile course overall. Not sure about my position yet but Donna reckons I was about 40th out of a few hundred runners which sounds about right.
Things I take away from the race are:
1. At the minute I think I'm probably a better road runner than cross country runner.
2. I want to get better at cross country, and to do so I need to work on my technique (running downhill and pacing myself for starters) and do more training on rough terrain.
Next race is beginning of march in alnwick.....
This meant I was able to compete in the wrekenton fixture of the nehl which seeing as its on my doorstep would have been a shame to miss it.
As it was my first cross country race I didn't really know what to expect, all I knew was that I would be starting in the slow pack with it being my first race.
After the gun went off it was immediately apparent that there was nothing slow about this pack as the leaders flew off into the distance.
The track is 3 laps of a roughly 2 mile course on the fields between wrekenton, Springfield estate and lean lane including 6 grueling ascents of the pit heap.
As it was just below zero the ground was pretty solid (although slightly churned up in places), which meant that my choice to wear my fell shoes instead of buying a pair of spikes worked out ok, although I had the usual heel blister on my right foot by the end of the race.
I felt like I started off ok, but didn't have the energy to really push on much after the first lap and was overtaken by more people than I was overtaking which was pretty demoralizing as I normally like to start further back and try and overtake people.
I did manage a final sprint for the finish line, but ultimately this only meant I prevented the runners behind from overtaking me and didn't quite manage to catch the few runners I front of me.
Overall I enjoyed the race and according to my nike+ I went round in 38:04 on a 5:68 mile course overall. Not sure about my position yet but Donna reckons I was about 40th out of a few hundred runners which sounds about right.
Things I take away from the race are:
1. At the minute I think I'm probably a better road runner than cross country runner.
2. I want to get better at cross country, and to do so I need to work on my technique (running downhill and pacing myself for starters) and do more training on rough terrain.
Next race is beginning of march in alnwick.....
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Goals for 2012
Been thinking about these for a while and I think it's always good to write these down do here's my running goals for 2012:
1. Run a marathon in under 3 hours
2. Run great north run in under 1 hour 15 mins
3. Try and get my 10k time down as far as I can
4. Do another ultra
5. Do a lot more racing than I did last year
6. Join a running club (prob saltwell harriers)
7. Enjoy my running and stay injury free!
1. Run a marathon in under 3 hours
2. Run great north run in under 1 hour 15 mins
3. Try and get my 10k time down as far as I can
4. Do another ultra
5. Do a lot more racing than I did last year
6. Join a running club (prob saltwell harriers)
7. Enjoy my running and stay injury free!
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