Loch Ness: Second Week's Training

This week seems to have been a week of things not going quite to plan.

My first run was on Tuesday, where I went on my usual workday route, expecting my phone to shout at me to do some parts of the run faster and some parts slower. It was threshold training, and was meant to be 5 x (5+1) (that is, five sets of five minutes at 80% exertion followed by a minute of recovery time).

But for some reason, my phone wasn't talking to me. It wasn't that the volume wasn't turned up, for it counted me in to start, but it just refused to sing out the distances or the threshold intervals. So I ended up with a recovery run... which was actually quite nice!

Thursday saw the Biggart Baillie Giffnock Festival of Running, in which I was down for the 10k. I have already blogged about this here, suffice to say I ran hard, achieved a good time (for me) of 47:45, and came away happy but exhausted in spite of terrible weather.
On Saturday I had planned a parkrun, but when a plea for volunteers went out I opted to help out instead. So I spent a chunk of the morning as Funnel Marshal, followed by a trip to the Stables tearoom for a chat and some coffee.

Then home, and out for my Long Slow Run (I'm going to be otherwise occupied tomorrow). I must have procrastinated for at least two hours before eventually getting out. The weather was more like October than June - strong wind, rain and dark grey sky.
On the run, however, I discovered that it was warmer than I had realised, and my running jacket was much too warm. More importantly, I discovered that I was still knackered after Thursday night.

I got round my twelve-mile route, though I did have to walk for the final thirty or so yards of Wallace Stone Brae. The pace was lower than it should have been, and while I can blame some of that on the wind the truth was that I wasn't good for much more.

With fortuitous timing, this coming week is going to be something of a cut-back week anyway. I need to travel to Stevenage for work on Thursday; the weekend is going to be spent moving my parents' caravan around and I'll have precious little time to manage any running. Maybe a rest will do me some good anyway, I'm feeling pretty tired just now.

1,000 miles in 2012

Good week, with 26 miles being above the weekly average required

18-14 Jun 2012

Number of runs	Three
Links	- Tusesday - 5.99 miles (775 cal) - Thursday - 6.14 miles (731 cal) - Saturday - 12.49 miles (1624 cal)
Total mileage this week	24.62 miles
Calories burned this week	3,130
Total mileage Loch Ness training	44.75 miles
Calories burned Loch Ness training	5,643
Total mileage this year	480.60 miles
Calories burned this year	50,419

Biggart Baillie Giffnock 10k Race report

The Biggart Baillie Giffnock AAC 10k was my first race in my training for the Loch Ness marathon.  Held almost at the summer solstice, the event was far more than a simple 10k.  It was billed as a "Festival Of Running", the event had a 1k race, a 5k race and a 10k.  It was held in the beautiful Rouken Glen park, and was clearly intended to be a great family event.  I could easily imagine families picnicking in the park, being entertained by the pipe band and proudly watching those family members who were runners running through the park, cheering as they reached the finish line.

The weather as I left the office

Sadly, the weather wasn't playing along.  At the risk if using a colloquialism, it was... widdling down!  All day, the rain had been falling and it certainly wasn't letting up as the evening approached.  If anything, it just got heavier and heavier.

I had a bit of a drive from Fife in the East of Scotland over to the south west side of Glasgow, and so was a bit late in arriving.  I wasn't able to take part in the "aerobic warmup" that had been billed.  Instead, I got to the park and rushed to the pavilion to collect my race number.  Then I dashed back to the car where I changed for the race.  Well, by "changed" I mean that I took off my jacket.  There was no way that my running tights were coming off - I was much too cosy!

Talking of the car, there was ample parking space in the park, something that I much appreciated.

Having pinned my number to my vest with the pins provided by the race organisers, I rushed back to the pavilion for a visit to the gents, then joined the throngs walking to the start.

Scott Sport Photography's photo of me

There was a pretty decent turnout (according to the result page, 324 finishers), and we were started by a klaxon.  We ran a loop of paths within the park, back under the "start" arch and then took a different path, which led us out onto the streets.  All this way I realised that I was being swept along far too quickly by the crowd, and I struggled to "screw the nut" a bit and reduce my pace.  For heavens sake, it was 7:45pm - fifteen minutes to wine o'clock - and I was having real trouble getting myself tuned in to running at this time of night.  I think that the aerobic warmup that I missed would really have helped me get into the right frame of mind, but after the first mile or so I began to get my head into the right place.

Mile markers - or rather, kilometre markers - were provided by helium-filled balloons that struggled to stay "up" as the rain tried to push them "down".  But I must say that I like kilometre markers - they come around so much more quickly than mile markers!

The race continued along roads that had one lane closed off for running.  Soon we turned off Rouken Glen Road and on to Stewarton Road, and at this point the climb started.  Over two miles we climbed about three hundred feet.  During this time, I found I had a reaction I've never had before - a gagging in my throat.  I stopped and almost was sick, but then it passed and I was able to run again.

By the time we got to mile four we were at the top of the hill, and we turned on to Ayr Road.  From this point on my pace never dropped below eight minutes / mile, and I was able to enjoy the downhill almost all of the way to the end.

Finally we reached the finish.  As well as the 10k Dri-Fit t-shirt, I was given a 5k t-short because there were some left over from that race.  A banana to help provide some energy, and we were done.  I walked back to the park, shouting encouragement to those approaching the finish line, and drove home for a well-deserved shower.

This was such a lovely event, I do feel sorry for the organisers.  It should have been the wonderful family event I described; the organisation was impeccable, the roads cleared for us to run on and a beautiful park to start and finish in.  But the weather just didn't play ball.  Shame.

On finding the results, I came in in 47:45, a PB for me for a 10k.  I came in chip position 87 out of 324 finishers.

So, thank you to the organisers - it was a great race.  What a shame the weather let you down.  My thanks also to Scott Sports Photography for allowing me to use the picture above.

GPS track is at http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/65618908

Loch Ness: First Week's training

Good grief, I just cannot believe that we're back into this already!

Falkirk Parkrun In The Rain

Training started badly this week when I missed my Tuesday lunchtime run because a meeting over-ran.  But on Thursday I went for my usual six mile run out to Aberdour and back.  It was meant to be four five-minute threshold sessions with a minute recovery between times, but I misjudged the pace at the start, and blew up a bit.  So I managed three "over threshold" sessions, and an elongated cooldown!

On Saturday at Parkrun, "cool" was the word.  In fact, "Bloomin' cold" was more appropriate.  And it was wet.  And windy.  So in fact, maybe "miserable" was the summary.  But huge credit and thanks to the organisers and the volunteers, they were there braving the weather and the run went ahead.

Ally Mckay's photo of me from Parkrun

When I got up in the morning I decided to wear nice cosy running tights over my shorts, and a waterproof jacket over my vest, just to wear until the moments before the start of the run; I would take them off and run in vest and shorts.  Well, I managed to get the jacket off but changed my mind about baring my legs, which stayed cosy, warm and covered!


As for the time, well I forgot my barcode (idiot!), but my Garmin time was 23:49 - which is a touch faster than average, so I was happy!

Today we moved on to my first Long Slow Run of the new session.  This was a route that was one I had done many times before, but with an extra tweak at the end to get the distance up a bit.  Eleven miles, just enough to get me over twenty miles for the week.  And why did I care about my weekly total?  Well...

Which part is towpath, which canal?

1,000 miles in 2012

Apart from the "run a marathon" thing, another challenge that a lot of distance runners seem to set themselves is to run 1,000 miles in a year.  And no, I still don't quite have the confidence to call myself a distance runner, but it might be worth going for the 1,000 miles.

As of today, I stand at 455.98 miles for the year.  And it's mid-June.  So I reckon I'm pretty much on-target, and if I manage the distances I'm hoping to achieve in the next few weeks I should be able to get ahead of the game

So, it's time to reset the statistics, and start the tables afresh:

11-17 Jun 2012

Number of runs	Three
Links	- Thursday - 6.01 miles (706 cal) - Saturday - 3.07 miles (367 cal) - Sunday - 11.05 miles (1440 cal)
Total mileage this week	20.13 miles
Calories burned this week	2,513
Total mileage Loch Ness training	20.13 miles
Calories burned Loch Ness training	2,513
Total mileage this year	455.98 miles
Calories burned this year	47,289

Bad training run

Having contrived to miss my very first training run of the new training plan due to an unexpected meeting, I was determined to get out today for a run.

The run I had missed was a threshold run - ten minutes of warm-up, four sets of "five minutes at threshold followed by one minute of recovery".

Well, I managed to get out, so that was a good start.

I had recently bought myself a pair of Mizuno long running tights, which I thought might be good for the marathon itself.  So I decided to try them today.  But it was warm, so I was wearing a vest - I must have looked pretty strange in a summer-weather top and winter-weight bottom half!

I set off a bit quickly.  And within the first half mile or so I realised that the running tights I was wearing had a considerably shorter "rise" than I was used to.  So every few hundred yards I was howking them up, and then for the next few minutes worrying that I was showing off my jacksie to the world!

Eventually, though, I forgot about that and started thinking about the running.  After the warmup, my first threshold interval.  To be honest, I think I went at it a bit too enthusiastically.  I was dying on my feet at the end of five minutes, and one minute of recovery was just not enough.

Gamely, I struggled through two more threshold intervals - you can pretty much see them in the "Pace" plot from Endomondo.



But there was no way I was going to manage a third.  So I had three threshold intervals...  Oh well, it's a start I suppose

Training Plan For Loch Ness

Last time I started marathon training, I started a blog and posted my training plan on it.

This wasn't (just) self-aggrandisement or self-publicity.  It was an attempt to have some form of public conscience.  If I didn't stick to the training, I would need to come to the blog and explain why - so I'd better have a pretty good excuse!

That part seemed to work, so I'm going to do the same again.

This is my training plan, which I hope will lead me to a four hour marathon at the end of September.

In the interest of brevity I have not listed all the warm-up and cool-down phases of my planned runs, rather I have listed the main "target" or "activity" part of the run. Most of the weekday runs will probably be run on the same 6 mile course that I often run, all that will change is the "how" of the run.
Parkruns are generally expected to be the "fast" run of the week - though my "fast" may be a lot less fast than other people's "fast"!

#	W/B	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Miles (approx)
1	11-Jun	Rest	4 x (5+1) threshold	Rest	1 x 10min threshold	Rest	Parkrun	90 minute LSR	25
2	18-Jun	Rest	5 x (5+1) threshold	Rest	Giffnock 10k	Rest	Parkrun	120 minute LSR	28
3	25-Jun	Rest	3 x (8+1.5) threshold	Rest	1 x 15 min threshold	Rest	Parkrun	90 minute LSR	25
4	02-Jul	Rest	3 x (10+1.5) threshold	Rest	3 x (6+1.5) Kenyan Hills	Rest	Parkrun (run to & from)	120 minute LSR	34
5	09-Jul	Rest	45 min recovery	Rest	1 x 20min threshold	Rest	Parkrun	135 minute	30
6	16-Jul	Rest	45 minute recovery	Rest	3 x (10+1.5) Kenyan Hills	Rest	Parkrun (run to & from)	90 minute LSR	31
7	23-Jul	Rest	45 minute reovery with hills	Rest	3 x (10+1) Kenyan Hills	Rest	Parkrun at recovery pace	Dundee Half Marathon	27
8	30-Jul	Rest	45 minute recovery	Rest	3 x (12+1) Kenyan Hills	Rest	135 minute LSR (in Manchester)	Rest	28
9	06-Aug	NODA Summer School	NODA Summer School	NODA Summer School	NODA Summer School	NODA Summer School	NODA Summer School	135 minute LSR (in Lancaster)	15
10	13-Aug	Rest	45 minute recovery	Rest	2 x (10+1.5) threshold	Rest	Parkrun	180 minute LSR	35
11	20-Aug	Rest	45 minute recovery	Rest	1 x 20 min threshold	Rest	Parkrun (run to & from)	90 minute LSR	31
12	27-Aug	Rest	4 x (5+1) threshold	Rest	5 x (5+1) threshold	Rest	2 mile recovery	Glasgow Half Marathon	27
13	03-Sep	Rest	40 minute recovery	Rest	3 x (5+1) threshold	Rest	Parkrun at recovery pace	22 mile LSR	37
14	10-Sep	Rest	40 minute recover	Rest	3 x (5+2) Kenyan hills	Rest	Parkrun at recovery pace	90 minute LSR	20
15	17-Sep	Rest	30 minute recovery	Rest	30 minute recovery	Rest	Parkrun at recovery pace	60 minute LSR	15
16	24-Sep	Rest	2 x (5+1.5) threshold	Rest	30 minute recovery	Rest	20 minute recovery	Race Day!	34

So... this gives me a planned grand total of something like 448 miles of training throughout the sixteen weeks. as compared to the 419 that I actually achieved last time... Let's see what comes of it all!

First Run Since The Marathon

I went out for a run today!

I felt heavy, ungainly and knackered.  And I only ran 2.6 miles!

I drove - yes, I drove - to where the A801 meets the Union Canal, and ran along the canal to the Muiravonside aqeuduct and back.  A grand total of 2.6 miles.  And I felt every pounding, jarring step along the way.

Maybe I'm not fully recovered from the marathon yet.

Actually, the most annoying thing was my right oxter ("oxter" is Scots for "armpit").  I seem to have rubbed it raw in the marathon; I guess that I keep my arms close to my sides and the skin of my torso and arm rubbing together has caused a series of lesions on my torso, just below my right oxter.

Union Canal Picnic Area

Even a liberal application of Vaseline before I left didn't help.  It was sore from very early in the run, as the sweat poured into the open wound and my arm continued to rub against my body - I guess I'm going to be wearing short sleeves until it heals up.

There are lots of things going on just now, so I probably ran faster than I should, not really giving this first run the time it needed.  I felt heavy, and as if I was plodding even though I was at times running at better than 8 minutes/mile.

Still, I was able to run, even if I did feel that I was making heavy weather of it.

Now, that was 2.6.  My current training plan has something north of 430 miles on it... just 427.4 to go!

A side note on the Union Canal: it is a contour canal, that is it is built such that it is always the same height above sea level.  So in spite of what GPS says, the towpath doesn't go up and doesn't go down - it's great for running on!

Time to hang up my running shoes?

So, I've survived the Edinburgh Marathon.  That's the one I said I would do, and I've done it.  I should be hanging up my running shoes now?

Apparently something went wrong.  I must have clicked on the wrong link, or something - I don't know quite what - but it seems that I have signed up for the 2012 Baxter's Loch Ness Marathon.

No idea how that happened!

Edinburgh Marathon 2012 Race Report

After sixteen weeks and more of preparation, the 27th of May 2012 dawned and it was time for the marathon.

Polmont Station - I wonder where the normal people went?

To say I was nervous would be something of an understatement.  In spite of promises of mist and fog, the sun was splitting the sky as I had my breakfast of Weetabix and Cheerios.  A glass of water, and it was time to go.

Marie drove me to the railway station, and as she dropped me off I wondered if there would be any other runners on the train.  That turned out to be a foolish question - the real question was wheter there were any non-runners on the train!

On the platform, it was quite clear that there were loads of people who were going to Edinburgh to take part in the marathon.  I started chatting with a lady who was also doing her first marathon, and seemed almost as nervous as I was.  She was hoping to meet some friends on the train, but when it arrived we realised that just getting onto the train was going to be challenge enough by itself!

Busy Train

I don't know how busy the 0750 from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh normally is, but I'll bet it seldom requires six carriages and is still standing room only by the time it reaches Polmont!

Those who were obviously regular users looked on aghast as their train was filled with people in strange running costumes, talking about gels and race timing, race strategy and just how long a distance of twenty-six point two miles was beginning to look!

On the train, as I chatted to a few others, I realised to my horror that I had left my Garmin at home.  I had left it charging on top of the PC, and it was undoubtedly still there.  Not a great start, but not the end of the world.

The train got into Edinburgh, and we all departed.  I walked towards the starting area, and found the toilet block.  It wasn't hard to do, you just looked for the queue of several hundred people.  Luckily, I had prepared for this, so I walked back to Waverley station, fished 30p out of my racing bag and paid to use the facilities in the station.  They were busy, but nothing like as busy as the toilets at the start looked!

East end of Princes St

I went back to the bag drop-off area, put my label on my bag and deposited it on one of the trucks that would take the bags to the end.

The next area you came to as you walked towards the start was a kind of preparation area.  There were runners and well-wishers, all wandering around somewhat aimlessly trying to work out what to do next.  People milled around, but already we were very well aware of the heat.  The promised mist was nowhere to be seen, and the hot sun was a harbinger of more to come.

Preparation Area

I walked through this area, up the hill and on to Regents Terrace.

When you sign up to take part in an event like this, the organisers of the race ask you to predict your finish time.  This allows them to put you into a "pen" with others who are expecting a similar time.  The aim is to avoid putting fast runners in with slower ones, and the fast ones having to slow down and force themselves past the plodders.

I had put down a predicted time of 3:50.  This was as a result of my time for the Alloa half marathon (1:44:00).  The Runners World Performance calculator said that I could expect something like a 3:35 marathon time, and so I added something on to that time and submitted it.  It wasn't until I started running some long runs that I realised how stupidly optimistic that was... but by then it was too late to change it.

The Orange Pen

So I walked past pen after pen of people who had put more realistic predicted times.  They were named after colours, and I must have walked past an entire rainbow before I got to my pen - the orange one.  There were two starting points, but the orange pen was the very front of this start point.  Too late to change anything now, I entered my pen and started listening to the Radio Forth outside broadcast that was being relayed to us all.

We learned that over 12,600 runners were taking part today, that a 72 year old lady was doing her first ever marathon, and that a 101 year old gentleman was taking part in the relay marathon.  And we learned that it was really, really hot.  That latter part wasn't from the radio!

Soon we were told that the élite runners had started, and we had ten minutes to our start time.  A couple more motivating songs (e.g. Eye Of The Tiger), and we were off!

The Race

We started off running downhill towards Holyrood Park, through the park (it's very pretty - I've never been there before), then towards Leith Links.  I was running very easily here, relying on the once-a-mile shout of pace from Endomondo on my old phone.  Things were going well, and I had to hold myself back as at one point I heard my back pocket telling me I did a mile in 8:20.

Eventually we crested the small rise at Seafield Road and got our first view of the water.  It looked lovely... but there was still none of the promised haar and the temperatures were steadily rising.  Even at the six mile point I saw several runners who looked as if they were going to have to apply loads of after-sun cream when they got home.

There were loads of water stations - every 5km or so - and loos at all of them.  I succumbed at mile nine and went to one, which was the first break in a run of sub nine minute miles.  However, I was able to restart and pick up my former pace.

The support along the way was tremendous, with people lining the streets, cheering us on, shouting our names and encouraging us to keep going.  We went through Musselburgh and Prestonpans, but I began to realise around this time that I was losing pace.  Mile 11 - 8:48.  Mile 12 - 8:55.  Mile 13 - 09:00.

It must have been around mile 14 that a ripple of applause broke out amongst the runners.  As we were running east, the élite runners were passing us, going the other way.  They didn't even look tired!

I kept going through Cockenzie and Port Seton, but between mile 17 I found myself walking.  I was by no means the first - I had passed people walking since about mile six - but I was still disappointed in myself.  I started back to running, to pass the huge Macmillan cheer point in the grounds of Gosford House, but from this point on I struggled.  I alternately walked and ran, never stopping but not keeping up anything like the pace I had hoped for.

Not that I was the only one walking.  Far from it.  Every time I walked, I recognised about half the people that passed me.  And when I started running, I passed many of them walking too.

As we ran on, the number of people at the roadside being tended to by first aiders was quite alarming.  When we later got to Marie's car, it told us that the temperature in the shade was 24°C - out on the road it was considerably higher.  Once or twice we were ushered in to the side of the road to allow an ambulance to pass - I hope that everyone was okay.

Having said that, I cannot fault the organisers at all on the level of water available to us.  Every 5km or so, a water station with no shortage of water for us to drink.  Energy gels were widely available too, there were occasional water showers for us to run through, and members of the public were out spraying us down and handing out sugary sweets.

My pocket stopped talking to me after mile twenty, so I have no idea what my actual pace was.  That may be a good thing.  But as we got towards the bigger mile numbers, the periods of running began to get longer.  As we approached the twenty-five mile mark, the crowds were swelling and the noise increasing.  People kept shouting "Keep going, Alan", and I couldn't stop.

From somewhere I found the energy to run again, and I was catching people.  I was looking for people in front that I could recognise - a brightly coloured top, or something similar - and I was making them a target. I was catching them.

I heard a shout and someone waved to me.  It was my wife Marie, my kids and my mum cheering me on!  I probably should have spotted them, but I was just focused on getting to the line now.  I caught up with one target, then the next... and then it was a left turn into the finishing straight.  I was really running fast for me, and... I was through!

I had completed 26.2 miles.  Not, perhaps, as I had wanted to, but I had completed it none the less, and in pretty torrid conditions.

Once through, I was given a large bottle of water, I collected my goody bag, found a space on the Astroturf and sat down.  I wasn't quite sure if I would be able to get back up, but that could be handled later.  I put the electrolyte tablet we were given into my bottle of water, shook it up and drank.  I have no idea what it tasted like!

Soon a steward apologetically asked us to move on, out of the runners finish area into the general reunion area.

Reunion

Finished!

My supporters had come through to the reunion area, so we met up and had a chat and some hugs.  We found a place to sit, and I drank some water that they had brought for me.

I was told that they had been standing for about an hour and a half at the roundabout just near the finish.  The kids had been great, cheering everyone on, shouting out the names they saw on shirts, and doing their best to encourage as many runners as possible.

After a little while, we went to the Macmillan tent. This was an area set up for people who had been raising funds for Macmillan cancer support, and it was really well organised.

Leg massage - heaven!

I took them up on their offer of a leg massage - it was lovely - and also took some of the food and drink they had on offer.  They even had a group of cheerleaders cheering on everyone who came through.  It was somewhere between lovely and embarrassing - but the amount of effort that was being expended on making the runners feel special was clear to see.

We hung around for a while, enjoying the atmosphere, but decided to leave and head for home.  I guess it was here that the only minor "nit" about the organisation came in; it was a walk of over a mile to get the shuttle bus, and the queues for the Edinburgh buses were huge.  But that aside, I have nothing but praise for the organisers of the marathon - everything went smoothly and I had a great time.

Conclusion

Me With My Bling

My official time was 4 hours, 17 minutes and 36 seconds.  I am now officially a marathon finisher.  In the process, I have burned over 47,000 calories, run for over 66 hours and covered more than 420 miles.

The process has not been easy, especially for Marie and the kids.  It has taken a lot of time when I should have been helping out around the house, or going out and doing fun stuff with the family.  Thank you to them for their forbearance.

Right now, I don't think that I will be doing another marathon.  But that's the way I feel now.  I might well change my mind!

Final preparations

With only one full day left, I thought it might be interesting to go back and look at the training plan.

Training Plan, as printed in February

Splodges in pink are sessions that I missed.  Splodges in green are sessions where I ran, although the exact style and distance may not be exactly as written in the plan.

So how did I do?

Overall I reckon I did fairly well.  I didn't achieve every session, and I missed a few back at the end of April when I was travelling.

So, that just leaves tomorrow (Saturday).  My exercise tomorrow will be a walk to the barber's, followed by the railway station, and then a walk back home.  I'm not going to run, I'm not going to be in running gear.  It's just going to be a gentle walk to keep my muscles moving.

Apart from that, there's not really any preparation left to do.  I have my running kit all set out, hanging up on a hanger in my wardrobe.  I'm as prepared as I'm going to be, whether that's good enough or not!

Sunday

metoffice.gov.uk weather map for Sunday

On Sunday, I plan to get the 08:16 train from Polmont to Edinburgh.  I reckon that train is going to be full of marathon runners!  It is timetabled to get to Waverley at 08:49 - time enough to get my clothes packed into a bag and the bag labelled with my race number.  Then I'll ditch the bag and try to find a loo.  And stay there until the start!

The weather is beginning to look just a little unpleasantly warm!  The Met Office's picture shows 16°C, with forecasts showing 18°C.  Given that all my training has been in the winter months, that's going to be a bit of a shock to the system.

So, that's about it - here goes!

Week Fifteen Of Training

This is all starting to become rather real now.  Just look at the counter on the right-hand side of the page.  In a week from now, it will all be over.

If everything goes to plan, I shall be a member of that élite group - a Marathon Finisher!

Yet even as that goal looms large, everything could so easily go wrong.  I could fall off the pavement and twist my ankle.  I could be in a car accident - any number of random things could prevent me from taking part.  I just have to hope that everything goes smoothly, and I can face the 26.2 miles on my own terms next week.

My Race Number

Some exciting things happened last week - the most significant of course being that my race pack arrived!  This contained a couple of tablets you can use to turn water into an energy drink, a set of safety pins for pinning my race number onto my vest and - most importantly - my race number.

Now, this race number is in fact a remarkably high-tech thing.  The paper from which it is made is very light, yet water tolerant and tear-resistant.  It has clearly been printed just for me, because as well as the number it has my name, my wife's name and her emergency contact number.  Just in case of any medical emergencies on the day.  Let's not dwell on that!

The race number shows where I start (there are two separate starting points) and the colour of the background shows which "pen" I shall be starting in.

Wearing my MacMillan Polythene race top

When I was asked to predict my time, I went to the Runners' World Time Predictor and typed in my time from the Alloa Half Marathon.  The predictor gave me a ludicrously optimistic time, to which I added a bit and gave that as my predicted time.  And today, I think that that time is still hopelessly optimistic... but it means I am starting with a bunch of others who think that they can run in that time!

On the back of the race number is a chip that is detected by the timing equipment.  This will be used to calculate my time from when I cross the start line to (hopefully) the finish line.

Finally, a tear-off slip at the bottom of the number will be my luggage label - used to let me load stuff onto a van at the start of the race and collect it when I finish.

All in all, a complex piece of paper!

I have also received my final race pack from Macmillan, including my polythene bag running top - something that can be worn to keep me warm until the race starts, and discarded at the start.  Like it?

At the risk of being over-prepared, I now have my race attire on a hanger.  I know exactly what I am going to wear.  On Saturday I am going to buy a railway ticket, I already know which train I want to get.

I don't think I've ever been this prepared for anything in my life.

Now, how about training this week?

A solid week, four runs including a Parkrun yesterday.  I wore vest and shorts, and I froze!  Yet today, on my ten-mile marathon pace run, I cursed the heat.  Och well, it's Scotland.  What can you expect?

14-20 May 2012

Number of runs	Four
Links	- Tuesday - 5.80 miles (699 cal) - Thursday - 4.13 miles (498 cal) - Saturday - 3.11 miles (367 cal) - Sunday - 9.61 miles (1137 cal)
Total mileage this week	22.65 miles
Calories burned this week	2, 701
Total mileage since start	393.02 miles
Calories burned since start	44,776

Week Fourteen Of Training

Week fourteen, and the first week of "taper".  I've been waiting for these desperate pangs within me, the feeling that I really, really have to run lots more than I'm allowed... they haven't started yet!

I managed three runs this week, the fourth disappearing in a maze of meetings on Thursday.

Tuesday saw the usual run from the office to Aberdour and back.  Nothin much to say about that.

Parkrun (photo by Leslie Stoddart)

After missing Thursday, Saturday saw me at the Falkirk Parkrun.  I arrived determined to stick to 9 minutes / mile.  But I found that I was running at about 8:10... and so I gave in and let myself run as I wanted.  I ended up at 24:00 for the 5km, clearly not keeping myself to marathon pace.

What was really nice about this was the folk from Life Fit Physiotherapy were also there.  They are a great bunch, very supportive of local running and giving free advice and help at Parkrun.  I asked about a niggle in my achilles tendons, and was given a quick check, a couple of stretches and some words of advice that make me feel much more confident about facing the upcoming marathon.  I am planning to  visit them for a deep tissue massage the day after the marathon; I suspect that I shall not be saying such nice things during the massage!

Today (Sunday) arrived and yesterday's sunshine became nothing but a fond memory.  Yesterday it was vest and short shorts.  Today?  Full-length leggings and windproof jacket.  And the wind... as I said on facebook "If the weather is like this on marathon day, I'll be sitting on the road crying!"

Me being stretched by Life-Fit Physiotherapy
 (photo by Leslie Stoddart)

But, it was only a ten mile run.

There's something I don't think I would have said before this training started.  But it's actually fairly true - it's not a long run right now.  Six months ago, it was long.  Six months hence, it will be long.  But for now, it's not... and nobody is more amazed about that than I am!

As an interesting aside, I looked up the definition of a "calorie" in terms of energy in food.  According to Wikipedia, it's the energy required to raise the temperature of a kilogramme of water by 1°C.  As of last week, I had burned just over 40,000 calories in this training... which means that the energy I have burned could raise the temperature of one tonne of water by 40 °C!

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me - so far we are at the amazing total of £316.20!

07 - 13 May 2012

Number of runs	Three
Links	- Tuesday - 5.93 miles (701 cal) - Saturday - 3.09 miles (366 cal) - Sunday - 10.01 miles (990 cal)
Total mileage this week	19.03 miles
Calories burned this week	2,057
Total mileage since start	370.37 miles
Calories burned since start	42,075

Sponsorship

From the start, this marathon has been about me.  I've never pretended anything else.

But early on in the training, I asked whether I should use the event to try to raise some money for a charity, and the people I asked said that that was a good idea.

Macmillan Cancer Support

So, that's what I am doing.

I have chosen MacMillan Cancer Support as the charity.  They do a great job in helping people through those aspects of cancer treatment that may not relate directly to the actual treatment itself - taking the time to explain what's happening, answering the questions that occur to folk days after they've seen the doctor, helping people get to their treatment and know what's happening to them, and so forth.

In a time when everything is heartache and confusion, they provide a solid point of reference that patients can use to rebuild their lives.

I posted a JustGiving link in the photograph where I said I was pausing the "Photo of The Day", and the response has already been overwhelming.  I'm now going to publish the link officially:

http://justgiving.com/hamrunning

If you are in a position to make a donation, and would like to do so, then I would be most appreciative of any donation you can make.

But please do not feel under any pressure to do so - as I said at the very top, this is about me and has always been about me.

Week Thirteen Of Training

In all of the training plans I have seen, week thirteen is a critical week in the training process. It is the last week where the distance increases, and the start of the "taper" - the lead-in to the marathon itself.

A hiatus in the Photo Per Day

I started this week feeling very tired after spending week in the US and having my time zones all messed up.  One of the first things I did was to suspend my "Photo Per Day" project, that has been running since August 2010.  This project is just as its name implies, a photo taken each day and posted online.  But it takes about half an hour per day to process and post the pictures, and that's time that I can't afford if I'm going to do a marathon.  So reluctantly I decided to put it on hiatus for a few weeks, until the marathon is over.

After that, I got out for a couple of runs at lunchtimes, and covered a decent distance.

And then yesterday came the last long run.  Sadly, it wasn't a 100% success.

The idea was that we would all go to visit friends who live near the village of Kirknewton, just outside Edinburgh.  Marie and the kids would go in the car; I would run.

Things started okay.  It was a lovely day - perhaps slightly warmer than I would have chosen, but pretty calm.  I was wearing the clothes I am planning to wear for the marathon, and I set out with high hopes.

Down Nicolton Road, and onto the canal (first mile done).  And from there, just continue eastwards along the Union Canal.

For that part of the run, things went really well.  I was probably running too quickly, but I was enjoying myself.

It was when I had to turn off the canal that things started to go wrong.

As I left the canal, I was at 125m.  Then it was straight into an unrelenting one-mile climb that went up fifty metres.  A sharp downhill through the country park to the bridge over the River Almond, and then straight back into a climb to 186m.

I managed to keep going through this section, but I knew I was tired.  I got out of the country park, and turned left.  I knew I had to turn right onto the B7031, but couldn't see a signpost.  As I hit 18 miles, and realised that the street names suggested I had gone further than I should have, I realised I was in trouble.  I kept going for a little while, then doubled back on myself through an industrial estate, but I had already stopped a couple of times to try to make sense of my location using Google Maps on my phone.

When I stopped for the third time, I realised that all was lost, and I phoned up Marie to ask her to pick me up as she passed on her way to Kirknewton.

So... what do I take from this?

I am undoubtedly disappointed.  I got to the wall and found myself lacking.  Yet I ran a damned good nineteen miles.  Well, eighteen, anyway.  I had no crowd to cheer me on, no race-day adrenaline, and I had hills that won't be present at Edinburgh.  I am probably not over the effects of last week's travel, either.

I did some silly things on the run, too.  I mostly ran around 8:30/mile, where 8:50 would do just fine and not be quite so tiring.

All I can do now is follow the rules of the taper and build up my strength.  I have every determination I am going to run this Edinburgh marathon!

30-Apr - 06-May 2012

Number of runs	Three
Links	- Tuesday -5.88 miles (710 cal) - Thursday - 8.47 miles (994 cal) - Saturday - 19.40 miles (2339 cal)
Total mileage this week	33.75 miles
Calories burned this week	4,043
Total mileage since start	351.34 miles
Calories burned since start	40,018

Week Twelve Of Training

Oh dear, work has rather out a dent into my training regime...

I only managed one run this week, an almost-seven miler that I ran four minutes slower than the previous time I did it.  Oh well, no help for it.

Back to my training plan this week...

23-29 Apr 2012

Number of runs	One (*blush*)
Links	- Wednesday - 4.27 miles (894 cal)
Total mileage this week	6.86 miles
Calories burned this week	894
Total mileage since start	3107.59 miles
Calories burned since start	35,975

Week Eleven Of Training

Week Eleven, eh?  Wow, this is getting close...

The most significant thing this week is that I am writing this journal from San Diego, California.  Which means that I have spent rather a lot of time on aeroplanes, and shall be doing the same next weekend... which in turn has had a bit of a knock-on effect on my training.

To be fair, that has gone better than I had expected.

I managed two runs at home during the week, on Tuesday and Thursday.  Nothing terribly special there.  Then Friday was spent flying.

On Saturday I went for a six mile run here in San Diego.  The weather was pretty overcast and dull - not cold exactly, but not too warm either.

On Sunday, I went for a drive and found a place called Lake Miramar, an attractive place where lots of people were running, walking, cycling or roller-blading round the lake.  I decided to try a couple of laps round the track myself (each lap being 5 miles)

I started out well in the overcast conditions.  Then suddenly the sun burned through the cloud and the temperature soared... By mile three I had to stop and walk!

Then the temperature dropped a bit, thank goodness.  It was still very warm, but not insanely so.  I managed to complete the first lap and run a second, but I was not going to try for a third.  Not in those temperatures.

Let's hope it's windless and quite cool when the marathon comes!

16 - 22 Apr 2012

Number of runs	Four
Links	- Tuesday - 4.27 miles (502 cal) - Thursday - 5.90 miles (696 cal) - Saturday - 6.86 miles (827 cal) - Sunday - 10.05 miles (1302 cal)
Total mileage this week	27.08 miles
Calories burned this week	3,327
Total mileage since start	310.73 miles
Calories burned since start	35,081

Week Ten Of Training

After last week's bad organisation and insufficient quantity of runs, this time I got things right, right?

Well... almost.  After all, last week I only managed two tuns.  This week I turned in... well... erm... two runs.

Blush.

Wigwam at Strathfillan

This time, it was family holidays that got in the way of things, and since I enjoyed the holiday so much I am not going to apologise.  We spent a couple of evenings in the latter part of the week at the Strathfillan Wigwams campsite near Tyndrum, and that was once again not conducive to running.

However, at least this time I did manage my Tuesday run.  This was a slightly extended version of my normal run from my office to Aberdour and back, where I went for a detour through Dalgety Bay when I got back to the village.  It turned out that it was a little more of a detour than I had planned, too, as I managed to get lost on the way back!

West Highland Way view

And then we went away.  During our time away, we went for a wander along a part of the West Highland Way, an have decided that we want to "do" the full length of the walk.  I don't quite know what the logistics will be, but rest assured that there is a project to come after the marathon is complete.

If I ever learn to walk again.

We arrived back from Strathfillan fairly late on Saturday.  A frantic evening of unpacking and feeding the washing machine followed, with very little thought from me about what the following day - Sunday - was to bring.

What it was to bring was of course a long, slow run (LSR).  Except - arrogant fool that I was - I thought that that wasn't quite good enough for me.  I wanted to give myself confidence that I was going to be able to sustain a sub 9 minutes/mile pace for a marathon, and my plan was that I would do that by doing 20 miles at that pace today.  So I would run to the canal as a warm-up, then run ten miles eastwards to Winchburgh.  I would turn round and run ten miles back, then I would ask the long-suffering Mrs Ham to collect me from the canal.

Hmm... so, I was careful about what I ate last night, and drank lots to ensure I was well hydrated?

Sadly, no.

The LSR started okay, and I even put my GPS tracker on for the warm-up mile to the canal.  I ran at a sub-nine minute pace to Winchburgh, except for a mile where I stopped twice, once to remove some leaves that had gotten into my sock and once to take a photograph.

I reached the bridge at Winchburgh, and turned round.  Still I felt okay, and kept running, though the weather was becoming very warm.  I drank from the little hand-carry bottle I had, and started wondering if I should have had more to drink before leaving the house this morning (I had had very little because I didn't want to have to stop to pee on the route!)

Saltface

I was able to carry on at a decent pace for the sixteen miles.  But miles seventeen, eighteen and nineteen all came in a full minute slower than the previous sixteen.  And then things really started going bad.

Miles twenty and twenty-one were hellish.  I was knackered, I was walking as much as running and wondering why the hell I was trying to do a marathon.  At least I managed to get back to running for the final half mile or so, but I was knackered.

When I got home, I did keep wondering why my daughter was looking at me so strangely.  It was only when I got to the bathroom for a post-race bath that I realised I had acquired a "salt face", from the sweat evaporating from my cheeks.

So... lessons?

1. I'm not smarter than the training plan.  I should just have faith in it, and not try to measure my abilities before the race itself
2. I should be properly hydrated and properly nutrited, erm nutritioned, erm... fed before I go out
3. This is my first marathon; I should not be aiming for a time.  Completion will be enough!

Unfortunately, now is when things go horribly wrong.  I shall be travelling for work at the end of this week, and will miss two full weekends of training.  This is going to be damned inconvenient, but all I can do is make the best of it...

09 - 15 Apr 2012

Number of runs	Two
Links	- Tuesday - 6.10 miles (718 cal) - Sunday - 21.79 miles (2628 cal)
Total mileage this week	27.89 miles
Calories burned this week	3,346
Total mileage since start	283.65 miles
Calories burned since start	31,754

Week Nine Of Training

Last week's weather

Firstly I will apologise that this blog is late... a week late to be precise.   I just don't seem to be getting my act together quite as I should.  Honestly, I'm not trying to hide the fact that my runs didn't quite come together the way they should!

Last week, the weather was quite beautiful - the warmest March weather ever recorded in Scotland.  This week, things had changed.


By Tuesday, when I was meant to be out doing my first run of the week, the snow was falling and the wind was hammering in from the east, and it was  utterly freezing!

This week's weather

So, on Tuesday, I have to confess, I didn't go for my lunchtime run.

On Wednesday, I was crazy busy at work, and then on Thursday I was at a wedding.  Now, don't get me wrong; the wedding was lovely and I was delighted to be there, but sadly it wasn't the kind of event where you could just change into some running kit and slip in a quick six miles without being spotted!

So, eventually I did manage to get out on the Friday. 5.22 miles, so not a huge run, but it did include Wallace Stone Brae which is never an easy run.

My next run was Sunday, where I would the distance back just a touch, as planned.  This was a 15.6 mile run, combining some road work with some canal running, ending up with a nice combination of the two.

Hopefully I'll do a little better next week!

02 - 08 Apr 2012

Number of runs	Two
Links	- Friday - 5.22 miles (615 cal) - Sunday - 15.64 miles (1887 cal)
Total mileage this week	20.86 miles
Calories burned this week	2,502
Total mileage since start	255.76 miles
Calories burned since start	28,408

Week Eight Of Training

Week Eight!  Finished!  That's the official training programme half way through.

I'm really relcutant to admit this, but the truth is: I'm getting a little bored with this.  Honestly.  Not "I'm going to quit" bored, but just a little... bored.

Trying to run four times a week is a commitment far greater than any show I've ever done, and I can't imagine that the post-run feelings are going to be anything like the adrenaline rush and sudden massive low of a show.

Maybe I'm wrong... whatever may happen, I've committed too much effort to this whole project to stop now.  Eight weeks tonight it will all be over... whether I finish the marathon or not, whether I make a time or not, it will all be done.  I shall (I hope) be resting at home, recovery compression gear on and enjoying a glass or two of red wine...

Union Canal at Philipstoun

Anyway, what happened this week?  We had a fairly gentle five mile run on Tuesday as a recovery run after the 17½ mile run last weekend.  We had a threshold run where I tried my best to maintain three eight-minute threshold sessions with two minutes in between.

And then we had a brainstorm on Saturday.  Driving home from a photo session, I realised that I had enough time to do the long, slow run on Saturday and leave Sunday for family stuff... and I went on a 20.3 mile run.

Was this wise?  No.  In the training plan?  No.  But it was very interesting.

From the start I ran at what I hope to be my marathon pace.  There were a couple of occasions where I had to stop for a moment: once for a photograph and once for... another reason.  Anyway, that lasted until mile 16.

Mile 16 saw the long climb out of Linlithgow.  From there, it was essentially uphill all the way home.  A gradual 85m climb over about three and a half miles.  What worries me is that even in those moments where the climb levelled off, I still wasn't able to get back to the pace I had been at earlier in the run.

On the plus side, today (Sunday) I am actually feeling pretty well, and am sure that I shall be back in the saddle on Tuesday, and hope to be doing some more threshold work on Thursday.

Future LSR plans:

08-Apr	13 miles (not sure about doing Heaven and Hell half)
15-Apr	16 miles
22-Apr	19 miles
29-Apr	20 miles
06-May	22 miles? 20 miles? See how I feel...

26 Mar - 01 Apr 2012

Number of runs	Three
Links	- Tuesday - 5.25 miles (618 cal) - Thursday - 5.15 miles (621 cal) - Saturday - 20.31 miles (2449 cal)
Total mileage this week	30.71 miles
Calories burned this week	3,688
Total mileage since start	234.9 miles
Calories burned since start	25,906

Week Seven Of Training

Week seven of training saw my first week breaching thirty miles in one week, with a Long Slow Run that was considerably longer than I had planned.  It also saw much too much in the way of recovery runs and "junk miles" and too little threshold training.

First run was Tuesday, when I ran some recovery miles after the Alloa Half Marathon.  That was a fairly unexciting recovery run round Dalgety Bay, with a short detour off the road and onto the coastal path.

That should have been followed up by a threshold session on Thursday, but I realised that I hadn't brought my towel with me.  Running is fine and well, but spending the afternoon in an office without having washed properly is hardly the way to win friends and influence colleagues.

So I went out on Friday instead.  This was a simple run out to Aberdour and back - no threshold work - but with the wind in my face on the way, the first few miles were hard work.

Saturday dawned bright and early, and I went to the Falkirk Parkrun.  I had previously said that I was going to avoid Parkrun for the remainder of my training, but it's very easy to go to and lots of fun.  However, the problem was that I said I was going to have a leisurely run... but when there are all those others around it's hard to stick to a gentle pace.  I ended up doing the 5km in 23:56 - a good minute and a quarter slower than last time, but still better than my previous PB.  Maybe that counts as gentle.

What was nice about that was getting to run in short shorts - it's lovely when the weather is good enough for that - but the problem was that they keep getting caught between my legs, and I end up having to pull loads of fabric out from between my legs while running.  Elegant, it ain't!

And so then came Sunday.  I was planning a sixteen mile run, but by the time I took the wrong exit from the canal and tried to find my way home, it ended up as being almost seventeen and a half miles.  To my surprise, I feel okay this evening, but it started to give me a feeling for what the real deal is going to be like...

Plans for the Long Slow Run in the coming few weeks are:

01-Apr	10 miles
08-Apr	13 miles (maybe Heaven And Hell half marathon)
15-Apr	16 miles
22-Apr	13 miles
29-Apr	17 miles
06-May	20 miles

and then we're into the taper... which is actually quite frightening...

19 - 25-Mar 2012

Number of runs	Four
Links	- Tuesday - 4.87 miles (644 cal) - Friday - 5.20 miles (628 cal) - Saturday - 3.08 miles (360 cal) - Sunday - 17.44 miles (2054 cal)
Total mileage this week	30.59 miles
Calories burned this week	3,686
Total mileage since start	204.19 miles
Calories burned since start	22,218

Week Six Of Training

Crumbs... week six!

This week was intended to be a bit of a cut-back week, as I had knackered myself last Sunday.  I ended up with just one midweek run and today's Alloa half-marathon (a full report on which can be found here).  In some ways that was okay, a good week of taper gave me a quite astonishingly good time of 1:44:00 in the half (well, for me at any rate!).  But now we need to start getting seriously back into the plan...

12 - 18-Mar 2012

Number of runs	Two
Links	- Friday - 3.75 miles (444 cal) - Sunday - 13.20 miles (1592 cal)
Total mileage this week	16.95 miles
Calories burned this week	2,036
Total mileage since start	173.60 miles
Calories burned since start	18,532
Sunday morning weight	didn't check

Alloa Half Marathon Race Report

This was to be one of the high points of the training regimen for the marathon - a half marathon race, with all the excitement and razzmatazz that it entailed.  Perhaps a chance to use the "double it and add twenty" formula to predict a marathon time?  Who knows...

This Journey's End

Alloa is a town just north of the River Forth, in Central Scotland.  It used to house a major Scottish brewery, but that has sadly closed down, to be replaced by a large Asda store.  Yet there do seem to be signs of rejuvenation and confidence around the town, perhaps symbolised by the town's decision to commission a series of wonderful metal plate statues by sculptor Andy Scott.  One, called "This Journey's End", undoubtedly make a first-class welcome to the town as you approach it from the East.

The town's popular half-marathon was today celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, though it was my first attempt at the race.  Many people had told me that the race could be a very fast race if it wasn't windy.  But five miles of this race are run along the foot of the Ochil hills.  If there is a wind coming from the south west (the prevailing wind direction) then it would swirl around the base of the hills, creating a long and very tiring run, with poor times.  I have been watching the weather forecast anxiously for a few days...

Pipe Band At The Start

We shall avoid too much discussion of the fact that the organisers had asked people to turn up in fancy dress to celebrate the race's thirtieth anniversary.  We shall not note that in my search to end up with a costume that would not impede my race time, I ended up looking like a cross between Mr Motivator and Borat.  And we shall certainly not observe the fact that I was possibly the only runner in the entire damned race in fancy dress!

Queueing up for the loo, I noted the Garmin on the wrist of a person beside me.  "I've got one of those," I thought.  "I wonder where it is.... oh damn!".  I had left the Garmin at home, and while I knew that my phone could faithfully log the route I was going to be left with minimal pace updates through the race, just one every mile.  Not much I could do about it now, except curse my mistakes.

Giant Hand sculture

As the race started, I deliberately moved into the centre of a large group of runners, to avoid being too visible to the "normals" in my fancy dress.  I was chatting with one of the other runners when the large crowd started to move forward.  Looking over some of the other runners, I could see that the heads of those in front were bobbing up and down, just as if they were running.  It seems the race had started (the organisers later apologised that the Public Address system had failed, so the start wasn't as obvious as it would normally have been).

We started off by running around the houses in Alloa.  The one-mile mark came up, and my running belt announced to me that the pace was 7:31 minutes per mile.  I knew that I had to slow down; I couldn't last that pace for thirteen miles.  But I kept going, anyway.

Tillicoultry Mill Lade

That first mile took us more or less back to where we started, then we lighted off for the hills - climbing from Alloa to Fishcross then down through Benview to Tillicoultry.  The route from Alloa to Fishcross took us across a roundabout where another Andy Scott sculpture could be seen - a giant hand that represented the support that the emergency serices provide.

By the time we reached Tillicoultry,  we were five miles into the race, I only had had one mile over 8min/mile pace and I was feeling good.  But now we would turn left to go through the Hillfoots, and we would know whether the wind would be a killer.

Perhaps I should explain.  There is a collection of villages at the bottom of the Ochill Hills, that were formed as mill towns.  The run-off from the hills was enough to power the mills, and the area became wealthy making fabrics. That particular source of income is no more, and now the area is a haven for day trippers - walkers, cyclists, motor cyclists and so on.  To the south, the land is remarkably flat.  To the north, the Ochills rise sharply and with no warning, climbing to over 2,000 feet.

The Hillfoots Road

The weather today was simply gorgeous - cool enough, barely any wind and beautifully sunny.  The hills looked wonderful as we ran through Tillicoultry, Alva and then Menstrie.  When we got to Menstrie, we were at ten miles - we turned left and headed up the dreaded Menstrie Brae.

I'm sorry to say this again.  The very last thing I want to sound is arrogant, but seriously, you must put hills into your training.  Menstrie Brae is spoken of in tones of fear and reverence, but it is not a big hill.  It's a fairly gentle incline, and while it's true it goes on for around a mile it is barely fifty metres from bottom to top. To listen to the folk-lore, you could be running up Ben Nevis!

We reached the top of the hill around mile twelve, and I knew it was downhill or flat from here on.  I also heard my belt announcing the time, and I realised that I could just - possibly - have a chance of making 1:45.  Given that my target was "something under two hours" I was delighted, and started running considerably harder than I had been doing.

Near the finish, I saw one chap lying on the pavement, being attended to by medical staff... hope he was all right.

Finishers' Medal

As we ran through Alloa to get back to the starting point I wondered whether the road would ever end.  A turn to the left, and there was the finish line.  I ran even harder, determined to have my moment of glory... and then I was through, and the RAF cadets were very kindly offering to cut my shoes off... I mean, cut the timing chip off my shoes.

After that the organisers provided a T-shirt, water, a banana and a medal.  And that long wait to find out my time...

1:44:00 - I felt absolutely wonderful about that!  The more so since I don't actually feel excessively tired or sore!

So, thank you very much to the Round Table and all others involved in organising this thoroughly enjoyable half marathon - and well done on a splendid race!