Boston Marathon

I've just seen the pictures coming in from Boston - this is horrific.

My thoughts are with all the victims, their families, the Police, fire and medical staff... everyone involved.

Edinburgh Rock and Roll Half Marathon 2013 Race Report

I knew that the weather was going to be a significant player in the Rock And Roll Edinburgh Half Marathon 2013 when the noise of bins being blown around the street made it hard to sleep the night before.  Inevitably, I managed to drop off to sleep just a few seconds before it was time to wake up again!

Princes St - view from the bus

The race was scheduled to start at 0920, and train times were such that I wasn't sure I could make it on time. So instead, I followed a friend's suggestion to drive to Edinburgh Airport and get the Airlink bus into the town centre.  I parked in the Short Term car park at the airport, which made the day rather pricey - it was £16.90 for a half-day of parking.  I did not notice whether this bus stops at the "park and ride" car park near the airport, but the price was the only complaint - everything else went smoothly.

Before boarding the bus, I popped into the terminal building for a quick pee.  It was quite fun to walk around in full running gear and see the looks you got.  Some time I definitely want to fly in an "unallocated seating" flight dressed in a bright vest and running tights.  Bet the seat beside mine is the last to be filled :-)

Runners heading towards Holyrood Park

Onwards into the town centre, and the weather was miserable.  The bus made good time to Waverley, and I got out.  My geography of Edinburgh town centre isn't great, but there were enough runners to follow that I got to the park pretty easily.  Plus a large collection of folk dressed as Elvis...

The start area was being continually lashed with strong wind and cold rain, and so most folk ended up trying to huddle behind things.  Things like buildings, walls, tents, etc.  We ended up being much more spread-out than the organisers had planned, and so we had difficulty hearing the PA system.  Suddenly word spread that it was five minutes to go, and we were to assemble at the starting line.  I stuffed my gear into my bag, wrapped the thoughtfully-provided cable tie around the counterfoil part of my race number, and joined the bag check queue.  As I did, a lovely rainbow showed over the Queen's house.  The queue disspated, I dropped my bag, and went to the start area.

Honestly - not waiting for a pee!  Just standing in the rain!

The start area was a funnel enforced by crush barriers at the sides.  There were flags to indicate the different corrals, but there seemed to be only one entrace, with everyone pushing to get it.  It was hard to make your way to your own corral, so most people ended up huddled wherever they could get in.  And when I say "huddled", it's not that far off the mark.  Normally, there is plenty of space at a start and space between folk... this time I reckon that people were standing as close together as they could for warmth!

In the starting area, I noticed a few people wearing yellow patches with "1:45" on them.  I asked what that was about, and was told it was to identify the pace group they were in.  There was a gentleman with bright yellow balloon tied to his waist - he was the pacer.

Just before the start

The race started, and we ran out of the park and headed downhill and generally north-east.  It was lovely - the sun even came out.  Just after mile three we hit the waterside, and had a lovely run along the river.  I had left the 1:45 pacer behind, frustrated by his slow pace.  I was running fluidly and easily, and I was invincible!  The race was extremely well-organised and marshalled, with water, energy drinks and gels available at various points of the course.

Just before mile 5, we turned away from the waterfront and started going round the houses a bit as we made our way towards Duddingston.  That was uphill and into a bit of a headwind, and suddenly I wasn't quite so invincible any more.  From 4.5 to 7.5 was uninterrupted uphill, and the stretch at the back of Arthur's Seat - uphill and with a strong headwind - was misery.  The 1:45 pace man passed me, and I was ready to throw in the towel.  I was thinking of nine minute miles, or maybe ten, or maybe just walking for a little while!

Bag reclaim queue

We turned a corner in the park and had a full half mile of downhill.  It was glorious!  At the bottom of the hill, a glance to the right showed the finishing line - but there were still four and a half miles to go!

We climbed up to the Cowgate and continued through the Grassmarket, before cutting south and running along Melville Drive and through The Meadows.  Then we turned into Buccleuch Street, Lothian Street and the George IV Bridge.  This brought us to the top of the Mound, and it was pretty much all downhill from here on.  Through Princes St Gardens, right down the side of Waverley Station, along Market St and then joining the Canongate.  Down, down and down to Holyrood Park and that glorious finish line!

My friend Suzanne at the finish!

After the finish, there were various people handing out water, medals, fruit and bananas.

Sadly, that was the point at which problems started.  The weather had badly affected the planning, and I could see teams of workers hammering in massive tent pegs to hold down the marquees.  The baggage check tent had to have its frontage shut down because of the wind, and so the volunteers getting bags from the tent had to go all the way round to the back of the tent to get them.  Everything slowed down, in spite of the valiant efforts of the volunteers.  I had to wait over fifty minutes to get my bag - to be fair to the organisers, they did have people coming round giving out foil blankets, and that made a huge difference.  The weather had closed in again, and it was cold and wet.  There were a lot of grumpy runners.

I feel sorry for the organisers here; you plan for a certain level of disruption but this was

beyond what they expected.  There is scope for improvement, I am sure they will try to get these problems resolved in future years.

Race bling!

The times were posted in the later part of the afternoon - I was delighted to have completed in 1:45:18.  Not my PB, but my second-best time.  And in these conditions, I was delighted!  The bling was nice too - a big, heavy medal and a rather nice t-shirt!

A huge "thank you" to all of the volunteers and helpers who forced themselves to turn up in these awful conditions!

Where Have I Been?

I've not been doing well here recently, have I?

Truth is that after the Edinburgh marathon, I started having sore ankles.  It took me a lot longer than it should have for me to get to the Physio, and during that time I wasn't running.

Once the pain was overcome, I realised just how quickly and how completely fitness disappears... and it has really taken me until recently to get back into any kind of shape.

So, with any luck, I may be back!

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