Running On A Raisin

Dangerous Complacency

2016-06-17T06:47:00.003+01:00

This is a blog that is generally about running exploits.

This post though is not about running ........ or then again, maybe it is. Either way it is a message that is very relevant to runners as a generic grouping.

The Surprise

On 25th May I got the news that I had a pretty rare form of lethal skin cancer on my scalp, or at least the test came back with 'a 99% probability of a sebaceous carcinoma'. The date is easy to remember because it was two days after my 50th and the visit to clinic for the results was on the way to see the very impressive performance by 66 year old Bruce Springsteen at Manchester.

Apparently the prognosis is much improved if diagnosed within 6 months. Erm, that didn't sound too good considering that it was probably twice that time, and possibly a lot longer, since it first appeared.

Regardless of how long it had been it now needed to be removed with as little delay as possible.

That surgery to remove it has just happened this morning, during which they removed a significant chunky piece of scalp. It is now a case of fingers crossed that that is the end of the story and that there is no recurrence or spreading. Ironically the surgery was carried out to 30 minutes worth of Brucie tracks :)

After the surgery:

How was it found?

This is the main reason for this blog post. Left to my own devices it still wouldn't have been looked at to this day.

It is on the scalp, it doesn't hurt and is very small..... to the extent that I had to point it out to the consultant on the first visit because he couldn't find it. At it's maximum size it was 9mm in diameter, that's all, not some humongous unsightly carbuncle.

Hannah mentioned that it looked a bit odd several months ago, possibly even a year ago, but it took several mentions and nudges before I finally had it looked at by the GP in October last year. So if it wasn't for her persistence who knows how embedded it would have become before any action was taken?

There was no concern from the GP, probably a harmless mole but might as well have it checked out properly by a consultant.

Fast forward to late April this year before finally getting a first consultant appointment, it doesn't normally take this long but multiple appointment mix ups dragged out the waiting time. Again, no particular concern from the consultant, probably harmless but might as well have a biopsy to make sure.

Of course that biopsy came back with unwanted results.

Complacency

I know a lot of people are very diligent about reducing the risk of skin cancer by wearing caps and using high SPF sun creams, after all it is very common knowledge that we should do this stuff, right?

Maybe it is but I suspect plenty people are also as complacent about this as I have been. After all we live in the UK and although we get plenty warnings that damaging UV rays are still hitting us on cloudy days do we mentally quantify the risk as significant on a personal basis? I didn't that's for sure. I don't recall getting sunburnt to the point of significant soreness very often and that is what I thought was damaging to the skin and therefore the big risk factor.

However, as runners we spend a lot of time outdoors and often during the riskiest hours of 10am to 3pm, so cumulatively we probably get a disproportionate exposure to the damaging UV rays as compared to the general population.

Pre Diagnosis :

So, a big wake up call has been delivered as can be seen from recent race photos pre- and post- diagnosis:

Leeds Half Marathon - 8th May (No cap)

Riga Marathon - 15th May (one sensible runner, one not so sensible):

Post Diagnosis :

Derry Marathon - 5th June (That's more like it!) :

Catforth 10K - 12th June (2 sensible (ish) runners for once) :

Apparently I look like a naughty schoolboy in a baseball cap..... I think I can live with that ;)

What Next?

Regular checks are now required but the size of the piece of scalp removed was designed to get it all out once and for all. We will see........

Shifting The Wake Up Call

I wouldn't normally post about stuff like this but the incidences of skin cancer are growing pretty rapidly apparently so if posting about this makes the risk 'more real' and helps shift one or two peoples' wake up calls to before anything develops then that will be a good result all round.

British Championship 50k, Perth

2016-03-28T22:16:00.001+01:00

Sunday 26th March 2016 - Self Trancendence 50k, North Inch Park, Perth

50k? Why???

Well it wasn't my idea.

But having tried to do one very unsuccessfully in this same event 2 years ago at Gravesend Cyclopark there was still the intriguing thought of whether the distance could actually be conquered.

So when Hannah suggested that it might be a reasonable idea 3 weeks out from the race a reluctant 'go on then' was the response.

In that race 2 years ago a DNF at about 17 miles was the result while Hannah struggled on and completed it, albeit with a couple of sit downs en route, in 3:56. So our 50k pedigree was nothing to write home about to say the least.

The Taper

The taper wasn't the most traditional in that we ran everyday midweek and then raced the Salford 10K on Friday.

Considering the 50k was only 48 hours away the idea was to not push too hard. I'm not sure how long that idea lasted but Hannah proceeded to come 1st in 36:40, just 10 secs shy of her PB and I just about kept her in sight to record a 37:10.

The rest of the 'taper' involved a lengthy evening at Saltaire Brewery Beer Festival on Friday, a volunteering stint at Horton parkrun on Saturday followed by the trip up to Perth.

The Course

The course consisted of 21 laps of a 2.389km course around North Inch Park in Perth on the banks of the River Tay.

The following series of photos show the entire course:

This was the huge hill we had to encounter on each lap:

A little souvenir that was still lying around the day after the race:

The Pacing

So what was the plan?

None really, the only aim was to settle into what seemed like a natural pace, whatever that may turn out to be. From the previous effort it was clear that you don't run it like a marathon with a bit on the end, 50k is a different animal.

After the race settled down on the 2nd lap I joined Christina Singleton, whose husband Chris had already been out there for 3 hours in the 100k. As we started chatting away we were shortly joined by Hannah.

Our paces just seemed to synch quite nicely so the three of us just chatted away for a while and before you knew it 15 miles had passed by without drama. The fact that Christina and Hannah were lying 1-2 in the British Championship was irrelevant, staying together was the best strategy especially with a strong headwind on the back straight.

Halfway (15.5 miles) was reached in 1:49:20.

The home straight on each lap was very pleasant whereas the back straight alongside the river was a real struggle into the wind. Nonetheless the overall lap times were staying remarkably consistent.

(Pic courtesy of Barry Davie)

Before the start I had a vague idea that something around 3:45 might be possible if the finish line was actually reached but there was loads of potential for variability on that, mainly on the downside.

It was therefore a pleasant feeling after 15 laps (22.5 miles) to be still going well and realising that sub 3:40 was now entirely reasonable.

As we approached the end of lap 16 (24 miles) it felt that mine and Hannah's paces were not quite in synch anymore. I was quite happy maintaining current pace whereas Hannah was subconsciously lifting the pace. With just over 5 laps to go we had got rid of the majority of the mileage so decided to get our heads down and do our own thing in the closing stages.

The Finish

After the first half of 1:49:20 I was delighted to see the second half come in at 1:49:49 for an overall 3:39:09. That felt like the distance had actually been conquered.

However, one thing you don't really want at the end of 31 miles is to be challenged to a sprint finish .... but that is exactly what I ended up with. Thankfully the fast twitchy things responded pretty well and the resulting 4 secs covering three places shows just how tight it was:

Meanwhile, Hannah had really cracked on to record a second half of 1:47:13 for an overall 3:36:33 and a negative split of 2:07. That was a world away from the first attempt at 50k at Gravesend which involved a lot of pain and a time of 3:56.

It became apparent shortly after the finish that the time of 3:36:33 was actually quite good. In fact it represented a new Scottish All Comers Record and was also inside the 3:40 qualifying time for the World Championships in Doha. It was also faster than any British female in the whole of 2015 and 2016 so far. On top of that the title of British 50K Champion was part of the package, which I think Hannah found quite surreal.

Christina had also held together very well indeed, especially with it being her first attempt at anything longer than a marathon. A time of 3:43:44 is around 7:12/mile for 31 miles and 2nd place in the British Championship. Quite a debut.

These are the lap by lap splits for the entire race:

Conditions

Although the course was about as good as you could hope for, the conditions were far from ideal.

In the first half we had the strange situation of it raining on one side of the course whilst being sunny on the other side, the two sides being no more than 200 metres apart!

Also, as previously mentioned, the wind on the back straight was very significant and got stronger as the race progressed.

The Race Doctor

This was Hannah chatting with the race doctor, Joasia Zakrzewski, post race. Were they talking about injuries? Post race recovery? Post race nutrition?

Nope, I can reveal that this serious looking discussion was actually about easter eggs!

Of course, it isn't the first appearance in the blog for this particular race doctor. This was last October, relaxing prior to the Yorkshire Marathon, a race that the doc went on to win. Jo is also 5th on the 50K UK All Time rankings with a PB of 3:26 run in the World Championships in 2011 :

Rankings

So, as mentioned above, Jo sits 5th in the All Time rankings but look who has now appeared at 11th after Sunday's run:

I was quite pleased with the consistency of my lap times until I saw Hannah's:

Just finished and ready for the finish line celebratory Guinness. It was then off for a chat with 1st vet Ian J Berry who had just recorded a superb 3:31, going through the marathon point in 2:55. It just shows that his 17 sub 3 marathon performances in 2015 didn't do much harm.

Ian J Berry on his way to a clocking of 3:31 and 1st vet in the 50K:

(pic courtesy of Barry Davie)

Christina Singleton dealing with the closing stages well to land an impressive debut time of 3:43 and 2nd place:

(pic courtesy of Barry Davie)

Meanwhile, this was the other half of the gutsy Singleton couple, Chris.

Chris had never raced beyond 35 miles previously but found deep reserves to wear the England vest with pride for 100K in 7:28:47 to take 6th overall and be part of the victorious England team:

The Prize Giving

Hannah delighted with her easter egg acquisition:

Gavin Harvie collecting his Scottish Vets medal:

The 50K British Championship 1-2, Hannah and Christina:

The Recovery

So what is the advisable recovery strategy after racing 10K followed by 50K two days later?

Well it probably isn't to run three Scottish parkrun courses, Camperdown, St Andrews and Dunfermline, followed by lining up to race again all within the next two days. Ah well....

So off to Ravenscraig Park in Kirkcaldy it was for their hilly 2 mile race on Tuesday evening. A cracking event hosted by Fife AC and ably organised by Daniel Newman.

(Pic courtesy of Gordon Donnachie)

The legs seemed fine given the circumstances but I was once again watching from a distance as Hannah carried the Udder Madness vest around in a time of 11:12 to record a new course record and 1st female.

(Pic courtesy of Gordon Donnachie)

But at least I did put some effort into my 11:30 by the looks of it :)

(Pic courtesy of Dave Morton)

It was lovely to chat to Melanie Sinclair post race who had also been bonkers enough to enter both the 50K and 2 miles within 2 days!

(Pic courtesy of Gordon Donnachie)

2015 Review

2015-12-28T16:25:00.002+00:00

2015 will go down as a year of surprising destinations, unexpectedly good results from marathon experimentation and a brief glimpse into the usually unseen world of post race drugs testing....

Although the year ended up with both myself and Hannah running a sequence of 10 successive sub 3 hour marathons (both of us averaging 2:54) there was no intention at the start of the year to attempt anything like that sort of number.

So what happened?

Well, it kind of just became fun experimenting -

1. Experimenting with the time interval between successive marathons.

2. Experimenting with the build ups, ie race a lot, race sparsely, race short, race long?

3. Experimenting with diet and fuelling.

What was a two person experiment for the first half of the year became more of a three person experiment as we became aware that a certain Ian J Berry was on a very similar mission of experimentation.

In the picture below at the Kent Roadrunner Marathon (Ian in the middle as race director that day) on 30th May a total of 17 sub 3 hour marathons had been completed (Hannah 5, Ian 7, Steve 5).

By the end of the year a further 20 had been added to give a final tally of 37 sub 3:00 marathons (Hannah 10, Ian 17, Steve 10).

The following summaries for each individual were artistically produced by Ian:

Steve Darby - Average 2:54:19

Hannah Oldroyd - Average 2:54:55 (New British Record for female sub 3s in a calendar year *)

And just in case 10 seems lazy:

Ian J Berry - Average 2:50:05 (New British Record for male sub 3s in a calendar year *)

(* as advised by Tim Grose based on the Power of 10 database of performances)

The year in pictures and stats:

March - Wrexham Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 18 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 1066 (weekly avg. 59)

Longest training run - 13 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 10k, 5k, 5k, 10 miles, 5k, HM, 5k, 10 miles, 5k, 10 miles, 5k, 1 mile, 5k, 7.5 mileXC, 10 miles, 5k, 5k, 6 miles, 5k, 5k, 10k, 5k, 5k, 5k, 5k, HM, 5k, 10k, 5k, 5k, 10k, 5k, 10k, 5k, 5k, 30k, 5k, 10 miles, 5k, HM, 5k

The year of marathons started in Wrexham in March.

This was the first marathon for over 4 months. In terms of the build up the main thing of note was that were no training runs longer than 10 miles but there was plentiful racing at a wide range of distances from 1 mile to 30k.

In the blog at the time I rated this as the best marathon performance to date at 2:48:12, so coupled with Hannah's 2:52:41 there were plenty positives from this one.

April - Canberra Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 5 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 298 (weekly avg. 60)

Longest training run - 10 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 5k, 20 miles, 5k, 15.5k, 5k, HM, 5k, 5k

One week after Wrexham we disappeared to have a superb 5 week jaunt to Australia.

Besides taking in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth on the trip we also went to Canberra and had the opportunity to compete in the marathon during our brief stay.

Canberra was 5 weeks after Wrexham. In the intervening period there had been no training runs in double figures and just two races longer than 10 miles, Locke Park 20 miles at Redcar and an 11.2 miles abbreviated half marathon at Murray Bridge near Adelaide.

It is also worth noting that there had been lots of walking in the lead up to this one as we explored some amazing places and some of the terrain had been quite challenging.

The outcome, again, was pretty positive with a 2:52:10 for myself and a gradual climb through the field for Hannah to go from 7th at 10k to earn a podium position by the finish.

April - London Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 2 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 112 (weekly avg. 56)

Longest training run - 12 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 10k, 5k

Just two weeks after Canberra it was time for the 2015 London Marathon. The main memory of this race was how incredibly cold it was. Nonetheless, for the most part it went pretty smoothly to record 2:50:55. Hannah had to go one better though and is seen in the picture below just about to overtake me with a mile to go and then go on to record a sparkling new PB of 2:50:07 just two weeks after the previous marathon.

This wasn't the first time that she had run an unexpected PB within a week or two of a previous marathon - an interesting point of note!

May - Belfast City Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 1 week

Mileage since previous marathon - 30 (weekly avg. 30)

Longest training run - 6 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k

One week later, and therefore the 3rd marathon in a 3 week period, it was time for Belfast.

This was a tough event with a continual eight mile climb from miles 6-14. If any course could be expected to find out tired legs it would be this one but it felt strong throughout, especially during the climbing. The final times of 2:54:54 and 2:57:08 were more than pleasing.

May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 4 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 255 (weekly avg. 64)

Longest training run - 10 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 5k, HM, 5k, 5k, HM, 5k, 5k, 1 mile

On 30th May it was time for Ian J Berry's own creation, the 17 lap Kent Roadrunner marathon at Gravesend Cyclopark.

It isn't a flat course by any means but as it is exactly the same course that gave rise to Steve Way's 100k British Record it isn't as slow as it first appears.

Despite Hannah running in full cow regalia and stopping mid race to perform a cartwheel in the showboating competition it couldn't have been closer as we crossed the line in 2:53:34 and 2:53:44.

Hannah and our good friend Simon Newton displaying their very shiny winners' trophies:

July - Potteries Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 5 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 305 (weekly avg. 61)

Longest training run - 6 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, HM, 10 miles, 5k, HM, 5k, 5k, 10k, 10 miles, HM, 5k, 10k, 10k, 1 mile

Into July and the born again Potteries Marathon proved an irresistable draw as I had taken part in the previous incarnation of this event 22 years earlier.

Despite the previous version being tough it was nothing compared to the relentless hills of the 2015 course.

The build up to this one was about as anti-text book as it is possible to get. In the last 10 days leading up to the Potteries Marathon we raced hard no less than 6 times - 10 miles, HM, 5k, 10k, 10k, 1 mile

No coach would ever advise a runner to do that kind of thing in the immediate lead up to a marathon if they wanted to perform half decently but, to confound all notions of logic and common sense, it became the best marathon performance I've ever experienced.

The time of 2:52:40 doesn't look overly fast but when the severity of the course is taken into account this easily surpassed the 2:47:34 at Yorkshire in 2014.

To prove this was no fluke, Hannah also did reasonably well off the same silly build up :)

September - Carrickmore Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 10 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 643 (weekly avg. 64)

Longest training run - 8 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 5k, 5k, 5k, 10k, HM, 2.75 mile trail, 100k, 5k, 5k, 10k, HM, 5k, 5k, 5 miles, 5k, 10 miles, 5k, 10 miles, HM, 1 mile, 10k, 48 miles

A sizeable break of 10 weeks then passed before the next marathon, the inaugural Carrickmore Marathon in County Tyrone.

There were 23 races of various kinds in that 10 weeks including, for the first time, two events venturing beyond marathon distance:

Thunder Run - A 24 hour event completing 62.1 miles each.

St Albans Stampede - A 12 hour event completing 48 miles each.

I suffered towards the end of this one due to expectations of the course profile being a little kinder than it turned out to be. The final few miles were all about managing remaining resources against the time left to squeeze under 3 hours.

Meanwhile Hannah was using the stunning scenery to motivate herself to a perfectly paced victory over the challenging course:

October - Yorkshire Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 4 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 230 (weekly avg. 58)

Longest training run - 6 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, HM, 5k, 5k, 10k, 5k, 10 miles, 5k

Four weeks later it was time to return to the PB course at York.

There was nothing unusual in the build up except a couple of races where calf issues had been experienced, probably due to dehydration. There was probably some residual damage from those experiences as this marathon fell apart when strange cramping started around 19 miles. I actually dropped out to all intents and purposes after walking for the best part of 2 miles but gradually got going again and managed to just dip under 3 hours.

This was a bemusing pre-race incident as, somehow, I was mistaken for a minor celebrity :p

A 2:53:37 for 4th place was a good result for Hannah before the day took an unexpected turn as the glass in the pic below exploded just as the picture was being taken resulting in a slashed wrist and lots of blood.

October - Leicester Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 2 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 106 (weekly avg. 53)

Longest training run - 4 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 5 miles, 5k

Two weeks on and, from my point of view, it was good to get another chance at a marathon so quickly to try to establish that the calf cramping at Yorkshire was a one-off.

Sure enough by the end it was great to have finished with no recurrence and to have actually felt strong enough to push over the final few miles for a 2:55:11 clocking.

A very well paced effort resulted in a victory for Hannah in Victoria Park:

November - San Sebastian Marathon

Time since previous marathon - 5 weeks

Mileage since previous marathon - 243 (weekly avg. 48)

Longest training run - 8 miles

Races since last marathon - 5k, 10 miles, 5k, 10k, 5k, HM

With 9 out of 9 sub 3 marathons each so far in 2015 we now quite fancied extending that to a nice round 10.

Unlike the rest of the year, where courses of all sorts of severities had been tackled, San Sebastian in the Basque Country was specifically chosen because it looked like a decent event to load the dice a bit in our favour for an attempt to notch up the 10th.

Despite being a very hilly region the 2 lap course around San Sebastian was as good as you could hope for.

Again I had the pleasure of being overtaken by the young Oldroyd, this time at the 34k point, as she went on to clinch 2nd place by a mere 5 seconds after a final 400m head to head battle on the track within the stadium of Real Sociedad.

The times of 2:54:20 and 2:57:03 nicely rounded off the 10/10 sequence that had become a bit of a target part way through the year.

What followed after the finish at San Sebastian was certainly a first though as Hannah was allocated a chaperone and escorted off to be drugs tested. I'm sure this procedure is very straightforward if you're used to being involved in this sort of thing but for Hannah this became over an hour of confusion with the language barrier making the whole thing a bit unfathomable. Her utternces of "I'm just a pleb not an elite" didn't seem to have much effect!

So what was learned from all the experimentation?

This is not an easy question to answer.

If one overall lesson can be taken from this year it would be that there really is many different ways to prepare for a marathon and, as is usually the case at shorter distances, the best results often come at the most unexpected times off the most unusual preparations.

a) Optimal time between marathons? - No idea! With the fastest times of the year being 18 weeks and 2 weeks after the previous marathons and the best feeling performance being 5 weeks after the previous marathon it is difficult to draw any conclusions on that one.

b) Optimal racing build up? Again, more confused than ever. After starting the year thinking that anything faster than marathon pace in the final 10 days leads to a struggle in the closing stages of a marathon that thinking went up in smoke at Potteries after having a great run off 6 hard races in 10 days.

c) Diet and fuelling - At least this was one area where definitive answers were found for marathon performance. Without question, eating lots more protein and much less in the way of carbs is a major step forward, as is limiting carb intake pre-race to ordinarly levels.

With his larger sample size of 17 sub 3 marathons in the last 50 weeks or so you would expect that Ian Berry would have some more profound and useful conclusions from all the experimentation......but I think he is just as confused as we are!

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

2015 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:59:30 (Age 49)

2015 October - Leicester Marathon 2:55:11 (Age 49) (11th)

2015 November - Donostia San Sebastian Marathon 2:57:03 (Age 49)

2015 December - Spiejkenisse Marathon 3:01:10 (Age 49)

2016

No specific plans for 2016 except to get to new locations and try out as many different and interesting events as possible.

Donostia San Sebastian Marathon 2015

2015-12-03T21:55:00.004+00:00

Sunday 30th November 2015

The 5 weeks since the last marathon at Leicester have been a pretty quiet time on the running front.

Sun 1st Nov - Guy Fawkes 10 - 65:23 (19th) [Hannah 67:27 (1st) ]

Sun 23rd Nov - Maravan HM - 1:29:31 (1st) [Hannah 1:31:30 (1st) ]

Sun 23rd November - Maravan Half Marathon

This is the brainchild of Darren Rowe and utilises the roads of a deserted caravan park in Cleethorpes. An excellent well marked out course but that didn't prevent me getting lost twice despite big huge arrows pointing the correct way!

With Rachel Parker getting ready for the start:

We saw a good few caravans that day:

But the biggest challenge of all was the 'steep hill' on each lap. This is Hannah with her magnifying glass still searching for it post race:

An excellent low key race which we would highly recommend :)

Sunday 30th November - Donostia San Sebastian Marathon

So just 2 races plus 3 parkruns and the usual short (4 miles) slow runs in between filled those 5 weeks leading up to last Sunday's San Sebastian Marathon in the Basque country.

Expectations were therefore low and the idea of extending the run of 9 sub 3 marathons each in 2015 had pretty much gone out of the window.

Nevertheless it was a superb setting so we were going to enjoy the tour of the city no matter how long it took.

9am and off we went:

This is the home of Real Socieadad which would not only be the finishing venue but also the halfway point of the race:

This section along the scenic shoreline of San Sebastian was run in both directions on each of the two laps. Very pleasant:

The Race

The splits taken from the official site are at some odd distances but nevertheless tell the story of the race pretty well.

My own race felt pretty well paced with a positive split of just a few seconds and unexpectedly comfortably within the 3 hour mark.

However the story of the race was Hannah's move through the field with a negative split of -3:13. With both halves being pretty much the same course and the entire run being pancake flat this run was a great example of patience paying off, moving through from 12th at 5km to 2nd by the finish.

As there was also a half marathon combined with the marathon Hannah had no idea of her position as there were probably at least 30-40 women ahead in the first 10km.

5km 20:58 [Hannah 21:57 (12th) ]

10km 42:16 [Hannah 42:46 (10th) ]

14km 58:48 [Hannah 59:20 (9th) ]

21km 1:27:15 [Hannah 1:28:04 (8th) ]

Halfway 1:28:14 [Hannah 1:29:00 (8th) ]

30km 2:05:30 [Hannah 2:05:50 (5th) ]

31km 2:10:01 [Hannah 2:10:17 (5th) ]

35km 2:26:37 [Hannah 2:26:27 (3rd) ]

42km 2:56:28 [Hannah 2:53:59 (2nd) ]

Finish 2:57:03 [Hannah 2:54:47 (2nd) ]

It was at 34km that the Union jack Kent Roadrunner vest pulled up alongside and then started easing into the distance. This photo below was at about halfway but I think Ian Berry would be happy with how the vest he designed was easy to spot in the next morning's paper:

The Finish

Reaching the finish a couple of minutes after Hannah I expected her to be already adorning a new medal with a broad grin from ear to ear.

However, instead I was greeted by a scene of puzzlement and confusion as she had acquired a chaperone and was being told not to leave the finish area as she had to report to doping control. This was a first!

But first she was beckoned towards the podium. What? She was nowhere near the top end of the field or at least we didnt think so! As it turns out the battle that she had had from 38k to the end with the Spaniard, Nere Sagasta, had resulted in her taking 2nd place by 5 seconds in a high quality field, something they like to highlight:

So after the podium presentations it was then a case of being escorted under the stands to a doping control room.

We were a bit flummoxed as the language barrier meant that we couldn't get a grip on what they were wanting. So we sat and waited...........and waited some more. We didn't know what we were waiting for but we waited anyway. Perhaps the testing person was coming soon?

As it happens the testers were standing around also waiting for some action. A good half an hour later it dawned that they were just waiting to supervise the production of a sample, which could have been produced at the outset.

Then the next issue arose when it became apparent that Hannah couldn't leave until she had produced some official ID! Uh? Who carries ID with them while running a marathon? For the actual elite entries this wasn't a problem as they knew the routine and their bags had been moved to the finish area. Ours, however, were in a different stadium over at the velodrome. I could leave and go and get the ID but would I be able to get back into a stadium past all the marshalls and into the most secure area bearing in mind the aforementioned language mismatch?

After much exaggerated pointing and gesturing and flashing of passports I got an 'ah, ok' from the burly security guard and allowed back in. I have no idea what he thought I had said but it was nothing coherent.

All in all it took a good hour to get through the doping processing. This whole carry on does raise an interesting question though. It is fair to say that elite athletes should know what substances they need to avoid in everyday products and should keep a close eye on such things. However, how can an ordinary run of the mill runner who happens to blunder into the scope of the doping regime by getting an unexpected result be expected to have the same knowledge? You could end up banned because you took a paracetomol earlier in the week for instance?

A very interesting experience.

A few scenes from the very attractive area around San Sebastian:

2015 Marathons

So after both completing the 10th sub 3 of 2015 how are the overall average times comparing in the 'experiment of two'?

Well, remarkably, over the 10 marathons our average times are now 2:54:19 and 2:54:55, it couldn't be much closer.

Too many marathons?

As another interesting set of stats knocked together by Hannah the spreadsheets below show the annual average times for each of us (mine first) along with the number of marathons run in that particular year. It would seem that the combination of getting older and running more marathons isn't avalid excuse for getting slower after all ;)

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

2015 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:59:30 (Age 49)

2015 October - Leicester Marathon 2:55:11 (Age 49) (11th)

2015 November - Donostia San Sebastian Marathon 2:57:03 (Age 49)

Leicester Marathon 2015

2015-10-26T11:03:00.003+00:00

Week 1 of 2

Mon 12/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:48/mile

Tues 13/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:52/mile

Weds 14/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:41/mile

Weds 14/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:28/mile

Thurs 15/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:41/mile

Thurs 15/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:32/mile

Fri 16/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:28/mile

Sat 17/10: 4.0 miles incl. Sth Manchester parkrun 17:56 (7th) (3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile) [Hannah 18:33 (2nd)]

Sun 18/10: 6.0 miles incl. Green Drive 5 29:08 (5 miles @ 5:50/mile). [Hannah 30:11 (2nd)]

Total Weekly Mileage: 38.00 Miles

Week 2 of 2

Mon 19/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:17/mile

Tues 20/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:52/mile

Weds 21/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:29/mile

Thurs 22/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:38/mile

Fri 23/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Sat 24/10: 4.0 miles incl. Brueton parkrun 20:29 (41st) (3.1 miles @ 6:35/mile) [Hannah 20:29 (2nd)]

Sun 25/10: Leicester Marathon 2:55:11 (11th) (26.21 miles @ 6:42/mile). [Hannah 2:57:51 (1st)]

Total Weekly Mileage: 51.0 Miles

Sun 25th October : Leicester Marathon 2015 - 2:55:11 (11th) [Hannah 2:57:51 (1st)]

Leicester wasn't even on the agenda until last week but in the days after the Yorkshire Marathon on 11th October it appeared that we had both come out of that race reasonably intact.

Therefore, the idea of another quickfire marathon seemed like a good idea, that doesn't mean that it was a good idea ...... but we entered anyway :)

7 days after Yorkshire the Green Drive 5 at Lytham St Annes in Lancashire had provided an opportunity to see just how unscathed the legs were. The resulting 29:08 (recent PB) for me and 30:11 (all time PB) for Hannah was a very positive outcome. It is fair to say that 5 miles is not a very common distance and therefore PBs don't mean a great deal but nonetheless we were very happy with those times as a sign that marathon recovery was going well.

The Race:

Brrrrrrr is about the only way to sum up the pre-race conditions.

It therefore became the first glove wearing race of the season. Thankfully the organisation for this race was pretty slick and it was easy to leave the baggage depositing until the last minute. That was an enormous help as I could feel the teeth clattering when attempting to have a conversation with Helen Hood in the warm up area.

0-10 Miles (1:06:37)

It was a relief to get underway to start getting warmed up.

With a Marathon, Half Marathon and relay event combined into a single start it was more important than ever to switch off in the opening stages and ignore all the inevitable barging and jostling that goes on in these mixed events.

The events split at about 6 miles at which point all the bustle disappeared and wide empty roads became the norm.

My only aim for this race was to look after the calves to see if the shooting pains at Yorkshire were simply a one off due to excessive dehydration. At Yorkshire the problems occurred between 18-20 miles so the aim here was to ease through the race and past 20 miles with everything still working.

The first 10 miles were pretty flat with the odd undulation. The 6:40/mile average pace felt comfortable enough with not a squeak from the calves ....... yet!

10-20 Miles (2:12:57)

By this point of the race things were feeling very pleasant, the sun was out, the course was uncomplicated and the legs were feeling good. There was certainly scope to push the pace along a bit more swiftly but the wariness about what might happen around 18 miles served to keep a lid on things.

At around 12 or 13 miles following a string of generic 'well done, guys' type comments there then followed two successive comments from spectators saying 'well done, 2nd lady' just after I passed.

A quick look over the shoulder confirmed 2nd place lady was a certain Miss Oldroyd a mere 15-20 metres behind looking pretty comfortable.

Because of the events being mixed in the early stages there was no way of knowing what positions anyone was in without this feedback from the spectators.

On we went enjoying the Leicestershire countryside. Approaching 15 miles was the first point at which the leading lady came into view. Hannah was still in close proximity so the race was now on with 1st place being a realistic target.

At 16.5 miles there was one single slight twinge from the right calf. Oh shit, was this going to be a repeat of Yorkshire? As a result of that twinge even more wariness ensued over the next 3 or 4 miles.

But keeping the metaphorical fingers crossed 17 miles, 18 miles, 19 miles and then 20 miles passed by thankfully without incident.

20 Miles - Finish (2:55:11)

It felt good to get to 20 miles still moving smoothly but the thinking at this stage was to give it another mile of caution and then start pushing over the last 5 miles.

By 21 miles everything felt great and it really didn't feel like the 21 mile stage of a marathon, the wariness to this stage was now paying dividends. It wasn't going to be an amazing overall time but you can't beat the feeling of being strong and in control over the last few miles of a marathon.

Even knowing that there was an uphill last mile didn't stop the feeling of wanting to push along the miles leading up to it.

The Finish (2:55:11)

Over the line in what turned out to be an even paced marathon and feeling as good, if not better, in the last 10k as any previous marathon. It was also good for the first time in 3 races to not be watching the 3 hour countdown looming ever closer.

There was some decent progression through the field as a result of the even pacing and being wary in the early stages:

Looking back up the finishing straight it was quickly confirmed that Hannah had gone on to take the lead and build a comfortable margin over the last 10-11 miles.

The Ladies Podium:

1. Hannah Oldroyd 2:57:51

2. Sarah Davis-Foxon 3:05:23

3. Alison Matthews 3:07:23

Looking quite pleased with her morning in Leicester:

From left: Alison Matthews (3rd), Hannah Oldroyd (1st), Sarah Davis-Foxon (2nd) :

The first place for Matthew Lalor was even more impressive considering that it was only his 2nd marathon, the previous one being a 3:30 four years ago:

This is Sean Duffy who narrowly missed his sub 3 target by seconds at Yorkshire two weeks ago as a result of a natural break stop. On this occassion he performed a perfect execution of 'Run Your Number' by clocking 3:03 while wearing number 303!

It was nice of the leaders to wait for us slower runners to arrive but their wait took it's toll ;)

Good friends, Mark and Julie Thompson, who fared a wee bit better than the chap above in waiting for the runners to arrive. As parkrun ambassadors they will be bringing a new parkrun to this very park in the next few weeks:

With a string of 18 consecutive sub 3 marathons since Oct 2013 it must surely now be time for a rest? Then again....................????????????????

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

13th Sept: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

19th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

20th Sept: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:59/mile

27th Sept: 6.21 miles @ 5:51/mile

2nd Oct: 3.1 miles @ 5:47/mile

2nd Oct: 10.0 miles @ 6:10/mile

10th Oct: 3.1 miles @ 6:46/mile

11th Oct: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

17th Oct: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

18th Oct: 5.0 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th Oct: 26.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

2015 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:59:30 (Age 49)

2015 October - Leicester Marathon 2:55:11 (Age 49) (11th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 12 of 12)

2015-10-12T14:33:00.002+01:00

Week 12 (Race Week)

Mon 5/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:37/mile

Tues 6/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:52/mile

Weds 7/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:22/mile

Thurs 8/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:38/mile

Fri 9/10: 4.0 miles @ 8:24/mile

Sat 10/10: 4.0 miles incl. Fountains Abbey parkrun 20:58 (33rd) (3.1 miles @ 6:46/mile) [Hannah 20:58 (2nd)]

Sun 11/10: Yorkshire Marathon 2:59:30 (26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile). [Hannah 2:53:23 (4th)]

Total Weekly Mileage: 50.21 Miles

Saturday 10th October - Fountains Abbey parkrun (20:58) [Hannah 20:58]

The pre-marathon parkrun choice this time was Fountains Abbey in North Yorks.

We were looking for a run to get the blood flowing and to keep things supple but at the same time avoiding pushing too much and causing stiffness the next day. Around 21 minutes seems to fit the bill, so job done on that front.

Most of the run was in the company of the Comrades completing tough cookie, Helen Williams, who is well on her way back to sub 20 fitness.

It was great to see Adam Prentis, the ED at Fountains, still glowing from his first sub 3 marathon performance in Berlin 2 weeks ago.

As is often the case, along with Tom and Helen Williams and Jamie and Debbie Dillasser, we were probably the last to leave the cafe as post run chatter kept chattering!

Sunday 11th October - Yorkshire Marathon 2015 2:59:30 [Hannah 2:53:23 (4th)]

So race day arrived and conditions were looking absolutely perfect as we pulled into York.

Walking out of the car park the first person we bumped into was Steve Chapman (left in the pic below). We were chatting away and then a chap walking behind us carrying a cake joined in the conversation. It was a very familiar sounding voice, as it would be to anyone vaguely connected to Yorkshire, none other than Mr Harry Gration, the evergreen presenter of Look North and a vast array of sporting events.

It wasn't going to be the only instance of being photographed with Mr Gration but more of that later:

Relaxing pre race with race winner Joasia Zakrzewski and comparing optimal fuelling strategies:

After a bit of striding out in the warm up area and the usual pre race banter with the familiar faces lining up ready for the start I was approached by an official who asked the question "Are you Steve?"

Well, there really is only one answer to that question so I gave it, "Yes".

Little did I know that that particular answer meant that I qualified to be classed as a 'famous celebrity' and was ushered along to be lined up with my fellow famous celebs:

Keith Senior - ex Leeds Rhino rugby league player, considered by some to be the greatest player of the Super League era.

Nicola Rees - BBC Look North presenter.

Harry Gration - BBC Look North presenter.

Mr Burton - Star of Educating Yorkshire.

Emily Freeman - UK 200m Champion 2008 & 2009, Beijing Olympics 200m runner.

Steve Darby - Erm, who????? Don't know but he must be quite famous cos he's in this pic:

I don't know who I was supposed to be but as I went back to the starting pen I remember saying to Hannah in a state of bewilderment ...... 'I have no idea what just happened'.

Maybe half the problem was that I was wearing a gold 'VIP' wristband and since I clearly wasn't an elite athlete then I must be a minor celebrity of some sort, right? That might be the case if I had earned the wristband in my own right but I only had it as a '+1' to Hannah.

An amusing start to the day :)

Harry getting into the swing of things in the 10 mile race:

0-10k - 40:26 [Hannah 41:03]

The early part of the race was just a matter of ignoring whats going on around and just settling into a nice relaxed rhythm through the centre of York and then out into the surrounding country lanes.

It is pretty much flat throughout so a time of 40:26 was comfortable and established a good foundation for the rest of the race.

10-20k - 39:45 [Hannah 40:46]

The 2nd 10k was unproblematic consisting of a flowing run through country lanes taking in one or two villages along the way.

In 2014 it was at this stage, approaching halfway, that a sense of 'this is going to be a good one' was starting to emerge and, as it turned out, that was correct that day with a final 2:47:34 PB being the result.

This year it was feeling equally as promising, if not better, than last year so there was no need to push too hard at this stage but just to be patient and let the effort build gradually over the second half.

20-30k - 40:55 [Hannah 40:58]

There is a turnround point at about 14 miles and then there is a long straight 4 mile run to another turnround point at 18 miles. Hannah was looking very smiley at the 14 mile point as I let her know she was in 4th. As she had been given conflicting information about her position up to that point, kniwing she was in 4th probably proved useful.

This section is really enjoyable as you start it in the formative stages of the race and by the time you get to the other end you are firmly focussed on getting ready for the finishing stages.

The picture below was coming up to the end of this section at 18 miles.

Just in front was Tori Green (currently in 2nd), hence the presence of the Channel 4 camera bike, with Simon Newton acting as pacemaker.

Momentum was building nicely and thoughts of pushing on to have a go at the 2:47 PB were seeming very realistic.

However, there was one fly in the ointment. In the mile leading up to this point there had been two instances of a momentary strange feeling in the right calf. It felt like a cold marble shooting down and around the calf, something never experienced before. It had affected one stride and then disappeared each time resulting in no loss of momentum.

As I joined Simon and Tori I mentioned that everything was feeling great apart from something strange in the calf:

(Photo courtesy of Anne Akers)

Just after the turnround point came a defining point which felt like being shot in the right calf which caused a sudden and involuntary coming to a halt.

My first thought was not to trip Tori and affect her race. As can be seen below my demise was probably caught on Ch.4 but hopefully it won't make it into the highlights ;)

This time it felt much more serious and although the shooting pain disappeared as soon as I stopped each attempt to get going again with a slow jog lasted no more than about 20 strides or so.

After 8-10 such attempts I pretty much accepted the inevitable and started to look for a way of getting a lift back to the finish. I kept walking hoping that I would see someone familiar or at least get some help from a marshal.

Every now and again I tried another jog with a bit of a different emphasis on how the foot was striking the ground to see if that would help me get a bit further. Hannah passed as a bit of calf self massaging was taking place at the side of the road. Well, it was worth a try. Then several other familiar faces passed by on both sides of the road as runners were going in both directions at this point.

30-40k - 47:52 [Hannah 41:32]

Martin Hall came by on his way to 1st place V55 just before the 20 mile mark. I was still walking as he passed but thought I'd give it another go to at least shorten the time to the university, walking would take about 90 minutes so any bouts of jogging would shorten that.

With an attempt to strike more with the heel and the outside of the foot a continuous jog of more than 200m was achieved for the first time in 2 miles. Ok, a bit of an improvement then ....... but will it last.

On passing the 20 mile mark a quick glance at the watch showed 2:14 had elapsed. This was surprising as time was being lost hand over fist between 18-20 miles.

So now that a continuous running motion had been reestablished and there was still 46 minutes left to cover the final 10k could a sub 3 still be possible? Might as well give it a go.

It was slow and deliberate but at 22 miles there was still 32 minutes left. Thoughts now were along the lines of just maintaining this pace and mentally having 2 x 1 minute walk breaks held in reserve should the calves start to struggle. The sub 3 was still doable, which was something of a surprise.

There was still 18 minutes left at the 24 mile mark and this was the point where it felt like the odds were on my side. The current rhythm seemed maintainable without aggravating whatever the problem was.

Finish - 2:59:30 [Hannah 2:53:37]

Just after 25 miles and I heard the reassuring and motivational shout from the crowd of 'You've had yer arse whooped today, Darby'. That was Caz Hall, my ex-friend ;)

Half way up the final hill and Mark Hetherington advised that there was 3 minutes of running to go.

I had a gut feeling that the sub 3 was now pretty much in the bag ......... until the finish line clock came into view. It was displaying a time of 3:02:xx. Bearing in mind that wangling a start up with the elites left no chip time adjustment to fall back on, so it came as something of a relief when Martin Yelling announced that the current finishers should still be well within 3 hours.

It turned out that the clock had been started for the wheelchair race and was showing their elapsed time.

Meanwhile, Hannah was sailing along delivering another materclass in pacing - 1st half 1:26:50, 2nd half 1:26:47. Does it get much better than a 3 secs negative split? 4th place overall in 2:53:23 with the podium finishers as follows:

1. Joasia Zakrzewski 2:48:48

2. Rose Nicholson 2:49:45

3. Tori Green 2:50:32

(Pic courtesy of Anne Akers)

How about this for a classic shot as Tony Aimon is captured having a whale of a time just ahead of Kelvin Dickinson's Sub 3 pacing group:

(Pic courtesy of Noel Akers)

The Finish straight where many a story unfolded throughout the day:

The Sue Gregson pre-race hug was unfortunately missed this year .......... but a post race replacement made up for it :)

2015 Marathon Summary

Between us we've had a few ebbs and flows this year on the marathon front but these are nice looking summaries that Hannah dug out with 8 sub 3s each and an average time only 44 secs apart.

It is fair to say that the sub 3 sequence has been living a bit of a charmed life on my part for the last couple of races - but a sub 3 is a sub 3, they all count :)

30 Years Between First and Last Sub-3 Marathons

As mentioned last week there was a special incentive to land a sub 3 this week as it took the time elapsed since the first sub 3 marathon, at Brussels on 30th Sept 1985 (2:52), to 30 years and 14 days.

Is that the last sub 3 or might it be extended a little further? Time will tell.....

The House of Trembling Madness, York

Post marathon celebrations moments before the glass in Hannah's hand shattered and gashed her wrist. Quite nasty but could have been worse!

From left - ex-friend Caz Hall ;) , Kelvin Dickinson (sub 3 pacer extraordinaire), Hannah and Ian Ward, who after looking very unlikely to make the start line completed successfully in 3:35.

Next:

There may be another marathon shortly ..............

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

13th Sept: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

19th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

20th Sept: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:59/mile

27th Sept: 6.21 miles @ 5:51/mile

2nd Oct: 3.1 miles @ 5:47/mile

2nd Oct: 10.0 miles @ 6:10/mile

10th Oct: 3.1 miles @ 6:46/mile

11th Oct: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

2015 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:59:30 (Age 49)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 11 of 12)

2015-10-05T09:38:00.002+01:00

Week 11

Mon 28/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:41/mile

Mon 28/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:58/mile

Tues 29/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:50/mile

Tues 29/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:35/mile

Weds 30/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:10/mile

Thurs 1/10: (am) 3.0 miles @ 8:41/mile

Thurs 1/10: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:35/mile

Fri 2/10: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:24/mile

Sat 3/10: 4.0 miles incl. Antrim parkrun 18:00 (3rd) (3.1 miles @ 5:47/mile) [Hannah 18:03 (1st)]

Sat 3/10: Run For Autism 10 Miles 1:01:47 (1st) (10 miles @ 6:10/mile) [Hannah 1:05:42 (1st)]

Sun 4/10: 5.5 miles @ 8:30/mile [Hannah Titanic RunHer 10K 38:05 (2nd)]

Total Weekly Mileage: 50.50 Miles

The penultimate week in the build up to Yorkshire comprised of dropping the mileage back and having some more racing fun in Northern Ireland.

Sat 3rd Oct - Antrim parkrun 18:00 (3rd) [Hannah 18:03 (1st) ]

It was the 100th event at Antrim parkrun on Saturday which coincided with International parkrun day, ie the anniversary of the very first parkrun at Bushy 11 years earlier.

We have visited the venue several times before but the last official run there was back at event no. 2, which coincidentally was also International parkrun day 2 years ago.

We were reminded of this fact by Ollie Cook during the race briefing. Ollie first got involved with parkrunning up at Durham under the influence of the legends that are Alister and Jacquie Robson. But on this day he was on marshalling duties saving his legs for the NI and Ulster Road Relays in Victoria Park, Belfast, later in the day. It turned out to be a very wise move as he clocked 11:05 for his 2.1 mile leg in that event. Very speedy.

Very scenic starting area on the banks of Lough Neagh:

Hannah with Antrim parkrun ED Anne Smith in front of the dual celebration banners, Antrim's 100th event and parkrun's 11th birthday:

The run itself was encouraging but did involve the first 'early morning cold air on the lungs' type run for a few months. I'm sure that acclimitisation to those types of conditions will swiftly follow in the next few weeks.

After the run it was time for coffee and scones with Ollie before swiftly setting off to get down to South Armagh for the Run For Autism H.A.N.D 10 Mile race from Newtownhamilton to Lissummon.

Saturday 3rd October (pm) - Run For Autism H.A.N.D. 10 Miles 1:01:47 (1st) [Hannah 1:05:42 (1st)]

After thoroughly enjoying this event 2 years ago we really wanted to go back and give it another go. Consisting of 10 mile and half marathon runs along with a 10 mile walk option we opted for the 10 miler with next week's marathon in mind.

Run over the tough country lanes of South Armagh from Newtownhamilton to Lissummon this is no race for being concerned about times. Just as well really as my £6 Argos stopwatch finally fell apart just before the off :p

About 3 miles in and the hills are already proving challenging:

(pics courtesy of Colm O'Brien)

This type of course can easily result in a legacy of sore calves for the next few days so the race was run with a bit of caution on the (many) uphill sections.

Not having a watch meant that the pace was unknown until after the finish line. A time of 1:01:47 was about two minutes quicker than I was expecting taking into account the course profile and the cautious approach to the hills, so I'm taking that as a sign that fitness levels are in reasonable nick going into next week's marathon :)

Besides taking account of the hills, Hannah also had to bear in mind that she was also racing a 10k in Belfast the next day.

Not often that I get on a podium:

And the wonderful organisers of this Run For Autism H.A.N.D. event always ensure that you get well fed afterwards:

Our starter for the day displaying a host of Paralympic Dressage medals:

The Newry Reporter decided to scare their readers :

Sunday 4th October - Titanic Runher 10K (Hannah 38:05 2nd)

On to Sunday and the Titanic Quarter in Belfast was the venue for the latest Runher events.

Approx 1600 runners took part, split evenly between the 5k and 10k events.

Just after the off in the 10k:

And a couple of hundred metres later with Hannah settling in about 5th position. Note the filming studios for Game of Thrones in the background:

Out on the open roads and there was plenty of nice flat tarmac to get stuck into. Hannah now in 2nd:

An unusual sight at the 2k mark, two deep sea oil platforms in for servicing. You really do get a sense of the sheer scale of these things when you get this close:

The podium finishers in the 10k Julie Balmer (3rd), Laura Graham (1st), Hannah Oldroyd (2nd)

Greg McClure, Hannah and an unusual looking Max McRoberts:

A small selection out of the 79 Ormeau runners that took part at Runher. This group is going from strength to strength, always competing in the right spirit and enjoying every minute:

Post race they dragged us kicking and screaming to the oldest building in Belfast, McHughs next to Custom House Square:

Thank goodness they did! On arrival we were greeted with the news that there was a FREE Guinness promotion for the Rugby World Cup. Oh, go on then :)

Next Week:

As this was week 11 of 12 it would be reasonable to assume that there is probably a marathon next week.......

There are the makings of a cracking day out in York next Sunday. Good luck to Jackson Biwott, who may well be featuring prominently in the closing stages. I think he is finding it a bit chilly around Bingley compared to his hometown of Iten in Kenya so he needs to run pretty swiftly just to keep warm ;)

It will also be interesting to see the metronome that is Kelvin Dickinson performing Sub 3 pacing duties, just 7 days after delivering the same duties, along with Rich Spooner, at the Chester Marathon. In that race every 10k split was delivered in a time of 42:xx by the Pacer Extraordinaire.

The approach from my point of view will be to get to 18 miles as smoothly as possible, allowing the pace to ebb and flow with the course undulations. It will then be time to start thinking about finishing times and mentally breaking down the remaining distance into manageable chunks.

What time will result from this will become clear on Sunday but there is a special incentive to record a sub 3 time as it will be 30 years and 14 days since the first sub 3 (2:52) was run in the Brussels Marathon on 30th September 1985. 30 year spans between first and most recent sub 3s are not that common apparently!

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

13th Sept: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

19th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

20th Sept: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:59/mile

27th Sept: 6.21 miles @ 5:51/mile

2nd Oct: 3.1 miles @ 5:47/mile

2nd Oct: 10.0 miles @ 6:10/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 10 of 12)

2015-09-28T10:53:00.002+01:00

Week 10

Mon 21/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:23/mile

Mon 21/9: (pm) 6.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Tues 22/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:42/mile

Tues 22/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:55/mile

Weds 23/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:54/mile

Thurs 24/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:56/mile

Thurs 24/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:31/mile

Thurs 24/9: (pm) 5.7 miles @ 9:20/mile

Fri 25/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:54/mile

Fri 25/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:32/mile

Sat 26/9: 4.0 miles incl. Halifax parkrun 18:02 (2nd) (3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile) [Hannah 18:51 (1st)]

Sat 26/9: 4.0 miles incl. Ron Hill's 77th 5k 18:38 (3rd) (3.1 miles @ 5:59/mile) [Hannah 18:45 (1st)]

Sat 26/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:16/mile

Sun 27/9: 7.0 miles incl Bradford 10K 36:26 (24th) (6.21 miles @ 5:51/mile) [Hannah 36:33 (1st)]

Sun 27/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:29/mile

Total Weekly Mileage: 66.70 Miles

Week 10 wasn't high mileage but it did contain 15 runs, the pattern of a high volume of short runs seems to work well compared to a lower volume of longer runs. It may be counter intuitive and contrary to nearly all marathon training advice but It seems to work for us.

As outlined a couple of weeks ago, with Yorkshire now getting close it is time for some shorter racing to get the legs turning over. With that in mind week 10 worked out well :

Sat 26th Sept - Halifax parkrun 18:02 (2nd) [Hannah 18:51 (1st)]

As with last week our intended target was Birkenhead parkrun. Last week we missed our target by about 3 miles ending up at Princes parkrun, this week we excelled ourselves and missed the target by about 80 miles. If we try again next week we'll probably end up on the continent somewhere!

Anyway, it was a thoroughly enjoyable visit to Shroggs Park in Halifax, a parkrun consisting of 3.5 laps of quite stiff undulations. As there was a 180 degrees, come to a standstill, turnaround point on each lap it was quite a testing course all in all.

Sat 26th Sept (2pm) - Ron Hill's 77th Birthday 5K 18:38 (3rd) [Hannah 18:45 (1st)]

It was over to Brownhouse Wham reservoir on the dark side of the Pennines on Saturday afternoon to have a bash at Ron Hill's birthday 5K.

This was a 5k course with no redeeming features, it was a fell race in all but name - hilly, rocky, muddy and 'orrible. In summary I concur with Ron's own view of 'not my type of course'.

However, putting the course to one side it was a superb event run with a really good atmosphere. It started in a residential cul-de-sac outside someone's house and ended at a pub ready for sunny beer garden Guinness swilling :)

Ron Hill crossing the finish sporting an appropriate race number:

As for the race itself, considering the type of course I was surprised to get up into 3rd place in the 2nd mile. It was only in the last 400m or so that there appeared to be someone closing from behind to try to nick the podium finish. I'll let you guess who it was ...........

Here she is receiving her prize for 1st lady (4th overall) from the ex marathon world record holder himself:

If only there was a speech bubble above Arth's head here - 'Yes, I know Mr Hill is very, very famous but what's that there that he's giving to Steve, is it food?'

(Pic courtesy of Andy O'sullivan MBE, race supremo)

For once I felt reasonably tall :)

It is probably worth a quick reminder at this stage of the achievements of Ron Hill:

1969 European Marathon - Gold

1971 European Marathon - Bronze

1970 Commonwealth Games Marathon - Gold

1970 Boston Marathon - Winner (new course record by 3 minutes in 2:10:30)

In 1968 he twice set stunning new world records for 10 miles - 47:02.2 and then lowered to 46:44.0 later in the year. Imagine 1 solitary mile in 4:40, Ron ran 10 back to back.

In the 1970 Commonwealth Games Marathon in Edinburgh he became only the 2nd man in history to break 2:10 and in the process set a new World Record of 2:09:28.

He is, of course, very well known for his running longevity and in total ran 115 marathons. Of these,

112 sub 2:50

29 sub 2:20

There are plenty more highlights to his career including National XC titles but as he will be reading this I won't embarrass him further ;)

Despite all the achievements though in my early days of running he always struck me as someone who raced because he enjoyed racing, regardless of the level. There was just the same determination to nick a place at the end of a local 10k as there was when he was winning major championships or at least it appeared that way.

Most elite athletes announce their retirement from competitive running, the scribes are still waiting for Ron Hill's announcement!

For anyone who thinks that similar achievements in the modern era would swiftly lead to a knighthood I believe a campaign to get Ron a knighthood is gathering a head of steam. Watch out for any petitions doing the rounds in the near future.

This was the pre-race number plate smackdown with Dr Hill :

As a momento of the event we all received a mug depicting the last time we crossed paths at Heaton Park in December for Ron's 50 years of daily running streak. I may even have taken this photo but there were a few of us gathered around at the time to capture the iconic moment.

Pictured from the left in blue is Paul Sinton-Hewitt, a little known chap who started a little known 5k run series, Paul Smith, Ron Hill and in the black on the right is Bruce Green.

This was Bruce Green post finish on Saturday still basking in his newly discovered mug fame :)

Sun 27th Sept - Bradford 10k 36:26 (24th) [Hannah 36:33 (1st)]

Having last run this race in 2009 in a time of 39:17 it was going to be interesting to compare how the 49 year old version would do against the 43 year old version back then.

Conditions were perfect as the Mayor of Bradford got things underway at 9am. Frank Beresford (716, eventual 3rd) and Tom Adams (451, winner) already in prominent positions:

Just after 4k, hard at work but feeling pretty good:

(Pic courtesy of Ian Watson)

And literally a handful of seconds behind an airborne Hannah, sporting the purple gloves for the first time in months, very much in touch with PB pace:

(Pic courtesy of Ian Watson)

Just after 5k and this is the turnaround point showing just how short the gap was with Martin Fillingham in between having a strong run. From this point it was a straightforward 4.5km run back into the centre of Bradford to the finish:

For the whole run back into the city there was what seemed like a continuous stream of 'Come on Hannah' type comments. Clearly she was very close, it was a case of deja vu from the Ron Hill race the previous afternoon and, coincidentally, by the time we got back to City Hall the margin was exactly the same, ie a wafer thin 7 seconds:

The Ladies Podium:

1. Hannah Oldroyd 36:35

2. Jane McCarthy (Ilkley) 38:42

3. Kirsty Allen (Baildon) 39:15

Elsewhere on Sunday there seemed to be impressive performances all over the place. Of particular note:

Berlin Marathon

Adam Prentis (2:59:00)

Delighted to see that Adam Prentis has bagged his first sub 3 marathon at 52 years old after being on a continuous improvement cycle for the last 5 or 6 years.

His previous PB was 3:04 earlier in 2015 taking the total improvement to 11 minutes for the year.

Al Chapman (2:59:13)

Another excellently judged first time sub 3 performance although with a gun time of 3:00:01 there may well have been a moment or two where he thought it had been missed until realisation set in and a little prayer of thanks was offered to the God of chip timing :)

Jason Cherriman (left) and Phil Sanders (right)

Obviously the faster you get the harder it becomes to run PBs so it is fair to say that Jason had done himself no favours by running 2:22:49 at the Yorkshire Marathon last year and then 2:22:12 at London this year, running PBs at that kind of level must become exponentially more difficult.

Nonetheless the boy did good and timed yet another PB to perfection by clocking 2:21:51 in Berlin. That is quite a series of marathon performances!

As for Phil Sanders, well he's too old to be running really fast marathon times. The only problem is that nobody seems to have told him! At 42 a time of 2:30:30 speaks for itself.....

Matt Pyatt (2:36:59)

A massive achievement also for Matt Pyatt who yesterday achieved one of the big marathon running milestones, the sub 6:00/mile marathon!

From a first marathon of 3:44 as recently as 2012 this is a phenomenal achievement. Congratulations Matt.

Nottingham Marathon

Dave Crossley (3:01)

Not quite Dave's A target but a whopping 14 minute improvement on the previous PB of 3:15 from 2012. Sub 3 is inevitable in time .......

Causeway Coastal Ultra 40 Miles - Mark Ramsey

Last, and a long, long way from least our good friend Mark Ramsey completed his first Ultra at the weekend running 40 miles in 26Extreme's Causeway Coastal event in Northern Ireland.

There's no stopping the progress and determination of this chap along with Janine Ramsey. Between them they are inspiring a whole gang of new runners in Northern Ireland to achieve things they never thought possible.

I'm sure they won't mind me sharing this but this was Mark and Janine around 2010-11 :

And this is the same two trouble makers more recently :)

As a summary of the weekend it would be difficult to sum it up better than Hannah's post yesterday evening :)

Next Week:

As the next week is the penultimate week before Yorkshire it should probably involve lots of resting ;)

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

13th Sept: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

19th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

20th Sept: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

26th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:59/mile

27th Sept: 6.21 miles @ 5:51/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 9 of 12)

2015-09-20T22:20:00.003+01:00

Week 9

Mon 14/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Mon 14/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:02/mile

Tues 15/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:50/mile

Tues 15/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:21/mile

Weds 16/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Thurs 17/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:49/mile

Thurs 17/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Fri 18/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:55/mile

Fri 18/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:45/mile

Sat 19/9: 4.0 miles incl. Princes parkrun 17:58 (4th) (3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile) [Hannah 18:19 (1st)]

Sat 19/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:16/mile

Sun 20/9: 14.0 miles incl Vale of York HM 1:19:19 (22nd) (13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile) [Hannah 1:21:31 (3rd)]

Sun 20/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:54/mile

Total Weekly Mileage: 62.00 Miles

The end of week 9 was about trying to get a bit of faster leg turnover going.

Leading up to Saturday's parkrun the previous 33 runs spread over 20 days had seen no fast running at all, in fact the fastest run during this period was last Sunday's marathon which had averaged a pace of 6:51/mile. Everything else had been slower or much slower.

So sluggishness was expected.

Sat 19th Sept - Princes parkrun 17:58 (4th) [Hannah 18:19 (1st)]

This was the the first parkrun for 4 weeks but the venue wasn't actually chosen until about 8:40am.

Birkenhead parkrun had been the intended destination but we arrived to discover some very large event taking place. A quick check online, which for once we hadn't done before setting off, and confirmation that the parkrun had been cancelled was discovered.

It was now getting a bit late to find another parkrun but Princes looked to be just about doable if we got our skates on,

At 9am we were actually standing on the start line of Princes parkrun #233. Having run at event #30 some 4 years ago it wasn't a completely unknown course but nonetheless I had forgotten just how much of a lung busting route it was.

To finish with a sub 18 time was surprising given the lack of fast runs mentioned previously and the nature of the course, so good news all round. Hannah had pretty much the same experience and got round at an average pace of 5:53/mile.

The Henge, a recent addition to Princes Park:

And the Arth seal of approval was readily granted :)

And an even more dog friendly park was visited for breakfast, nearby Calderstones Park:

Sunday 20th Sept - Vale of York HM 1:19:19 (22nd) [Hannah 1:21:31 (3rd) ]

Having really enjoyed the inaugural Vale of York HM course last year this was going to be a good event to give an indication of fitness levels 3 weeks out from the York Marathon.

The route is as flat as you could want and with conditions on the day being absolutely perfect whatever came out as the final result would be a genuine reflection of current capabilities.

Mark Hetherington has created a superb event which will fill any capacity made available, in it's 2nd year the field had grown to something like 1200 finishers.

Based at Sherburn-In-Elmet airfield all the facilities work really well:

The unmistakable vests of St Theresa's, also known as STAC, warming up on the former RAF runway.

John Robson (in the shades) had completed the newly established Hull Marathon 7 days ago, so we weren't the only ones with a very recent marathon in the legs:

After a few minutes delay the field was primed for the off:

About 1 mile into the race and it was already clear that it was going to be a hot one. Here, shoulder to shoulder with the eventual 2nd placer, Sharon Barlow, as she settled into her reliably metronomic pacing. The last time we were shoulder to shoulder in a race was 16 weeks ago in the centre of Belfast at mile 23 of The Deep River Rock Belfast Marathon.

Miles 0-5 (30:11) (6:02/mile)

The reason that I really like this race is that it is all about getting into a sustainable rhythm and then switching off, there are no momentum breakers such as sharp corners or turnaround points. If I do lose momentum I'm worse than an oil tanker in the time taken to get back up to pace.

Going through 5 miles at an average of 6:02/mile was right up there with the best half marathon pace of the year at Swansea, which ended up at 1:19:04. Were the legs fresh enough to maintain that pace after the marathon and 48 miler in the previous 14 days?

Miles 5-10 (30:06) (6:01/mile)

The next 5 miles were uneventful and trouble free. To see that the pace had been maintained almost identical to the first 5 miles meant that there was now a good chance of dipping inside 80 minutes, which wasn't expected at the start of the day.

Would it hold together over the last 5k?

Miles 10-13.1 (19:01) (6:07/mile)

Going through 10 miles is where the 'switched off' sustainable pace comes to an end and the real work starts.

Increasingly more effort is required to maintain pace or, more usually, to limit slowing. It is usually a good idea to try to get involved in something at this stage, whether it is focussing on chasing someone down or getting involved in a head to head of some sort.

With that in mind, I was fortunate to be in a group of 3 at 10 miles with STAC's Richard Herrington and Horsforth's Neil Burton.

We were moving along at a pace that felt a little faster than what would be maintainable to the end but that fitted the bill nicely. The reckoning was that if we could cover the 11th mile in something close to 6:00 minutes then the sub 80 would just about be secure. It would then be a case of digging in and finding out what the legs really had in them.

And that is how it turned out, the other two eased away just after 11 miles and my legs gave their first indication of the day that they'd rather be somewhere else.

Through the finish in 1:19:19 for the 5th sub 80 of 2015 was a huge plus and an unexpectedly good indication of how well the recovery from the long stuff was going.

That time was 11 secs quicker than last year's 1:19:30 and, very similarly, Hannah bettered last year's 1:22:05 with 1:21:31 this year, an improvement of 34 seconds to land 3rd place on a high quality podium:

1st Susan Partridge 1:16:00

2nd Sharon Barlow 1:20:40

3rd Hannah Oldroyd 1:21:31

So where was the expected sluggishness?

Who knows how these things work? Every time you come up with a theory there seems to be a contradictory theory just around the corner.

However, we do at least have a theory :)

As a result of residual muscle tiredness from the 48 miles at St Albans 2 weeks ago it felt as though the effort level at last week's marathon was being tempered somewhat. Because of that it may well be that not much damage was done and therefore recovery from the marathon was swift.

At the same time, since the fast twitch muscles have barely been used for 3 weeks they were probably at full strength?

The Elite

The ladies winner, none other than the UK's current No.1 marathon runner, Susan Partridge who completed the race in 1:16:00 and Andy May, back on form to finish 6th in 1:14:19.

The post race lawn area outside the aero club:

The results:

Plenty good results in amongst these with strong runs from Mark Havenhand and John Robson, who also didn't seem to show much ill effect from his marathon 7 days earlier:

We may not have been in Ireland this weekend but on the way home we accidentally stumbled across some live Irish music being played by a group called Blimey O'Reilly as part of the Otley festival.

Someone certainly seemed to enjoy himself:

Next Week:

With just 2 weekends between now and Yorkshire there will be a focus on some shorter stuff to get a bit of zip into the legs. A flat fast 10k will be next Sunday's target along Canal Road in Bradford.

Sub 3 Stats:

After completing his 11th Sub 3 marathon of 2015 on Sunday our friend (and Kent Roadrunner Marathon supremo) Ian Berry prompted the powers that be at Power of 10 to do some trawling of their records to have a look at sub 3s in a calendar year.

It turns out that Mr Berry is now right up there at No.2 on the all time Po10 list. Bear in mind that Po10 records are incomplete prior to 2005 but all the same an impressive stat.

This was the discussion that ensued that also threw up some more statistically interesting stuff:

In particular, this caught the eye. Not a bad selection of names to be mentioned amongst :)

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

13th Sept: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

19th Sept: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

20th Sept: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 8 of 12)

2015-09-14T18:48:00.004+01:00

Week 8

Mon 7/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:47/mile

Mon 7/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:04/mile

Tues 8/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:55/mile

Tues 8/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:37/mile

Weds 9/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:57/mile

Weds 9/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:50/mile

Thurs 10/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:45/mile

Thurs 10/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:33/mile

Fri 11/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:43/mile

Sat 12/9: 3.1 miles @ 9:20/mile

Sun 13/9: Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (6:51/mile)(7th) [Hannah 2:57:50 (6:48/mile)(1st)]

Total Weekly Mileage: 65.31 Miles

Week 8 started with the interesting question of just how long does it take to recover from running 48 miles in a 12 hour period?

There was a little bit more heaviness than that experienced after a more 'normal' distance but not as much as might be expected, so that was good news.

The week consisted of the normal relaxed running followed by the best way to gauge marathon fitness - by running a marathon.

Saturday 12th September - Shore 10k, Killough, Co Down

A new record was set on Saturday morning as a sequence of three consecutive Saturday mornings without running a parkrun was completed, the longest such sequence since that first barcode was printed many moons ago.

After Run Directing at Bramley parkrun and last week's St Albans Enduro the third Saturday in the sequence took us to a lovely spot on the County Down coast, a place called Killough, for the Shore 10K.

Being sensible for once we didn't run this one but instead got trusted with the timekeeping duties:

As Hannah and myself did the button pressing we were expertly supervised by chief button pressing overseer, Lil Arth, from his elevated vantage point:

An enthusiastic start to the junior race:

Killough is a place of breathtaking scenery and provided the setting for the 2012 Academy Award winning film The Shore:

Some of the scenes were filmed in the local pub, The Anchor Bar, so there was only one place to go to recuperate from all that button pressing:

Race Director Mags Mathieson is a devout officianado of Prosecco so it took a wee while to convince her that the local speciality was a special creation called Black Prosecco :)

The scene for a gentle 5k run later in the day near Newcastle and overlooked by the Mourne Mountains:

Sunday 13th September - The Mary Anderson Colour Marathon, Carrickmore 2:59:17 (7th), Hannah 2:57:50 (1st)

Sunday involved a trip to the small village of Carrickmore in County Tyrone. The first thing to say about this village, and the surrounding area, is just how welcoming and friendly everyone is.

It would be easy for anyone in mainland UK to do a bit of Googling, discovering that Carrickmore was cetainly no stranger to paramilitary activity in the past and be very wary of ever visiting the place. But that really would be a shame as the reality is that this is a great part of the world to visit, which is why we keep going back to do some more exploring :)

The one thing that is clear from the background of the photo below is that this area is not flat. We had seen a course profile of the route beforehand that gave the impression that it was going to be a relatively gentle, undulating course - it wasn't, it was tough!

The event had a very relaxed feel to it, especially with an element of James Campbell (The Monaghan 10 organiser) tomfoolery on the start line:

This may look like focussed contemplation of the race ahead just like what proper athletes do. However, in actuality Delfim Pimentel and myself were watching the impressive sight of a car being picked up and shifted by brute force to clear the race route:

All ready for the uphill start in Carrickmore Main Street outside the Patrician Hall :

In the early stages, Hannah settling into a steady rhythm:

......... and then quite enjoying her little self as things progressed:

Halfway - 1:25:31 (Hannah 1:28:39)

The first half of the race was all about seeing what the legs wanted to do. A consistent 6:30/mile seemed ok but it didn't really feel as though it was flowing as would normally be the case in the first half of a marathon. Hannah had a similar experience so it was readily explained by a bit of lingering muscle fatigue from the 12 hour effort 8 days earlier.

The halfway mat was crossed in 4th place although there was no way of knowing that at the time as there were relay runners mixed in with the full distance runners.

The three leaders were still in sight just up ahead but there was sure to be some later acceleration with a recent 2:22 runner and a recent 2:31 runner in there somewhere.

However, anything can happen in a marathon and if one of the leaders ran into a bit of trouble then there would be a £200 cheque for 3rd place up for grabs.

Hannah went though halfway in a more conservative 1:28:39 and 10th place, which as things turned out was just about perfectly judged.

The 2nd Half

As the race progressed into the second half it became a bit clearer why the leaders had approached the first half cautiously, there was no flat road to be found.

The flattest bits were as we passed through the villages of Loughmacrory and Sixmilecross:

As the hills kept rolling I could feel the pace gradually ebbing away, nothing dramatic but the sustainable pace for the remainder of the race was clearly going to be a bit slower than what had gone before. The legs still felt strong so there were no great concerns but it would still be nice to keep the overall time to sub 3 if possible.

At 22 miles I had slipped back to 7th place overall but was just eyeing up regaining 6th when a familiar voice appeared from behind. Appearing to be in a very jaunty mood for this stage of the race, Hannah came up alongside and then, after a brief swapping of notes, she eased off up the road to take that 6th place that I'd been eyeing up!

Over the next couple of miles she looked very relaxed as she opened up a good 200m gap. She usually holds together pretty well in the closing stages so things were looking good for a potential win.

For my part there seemed to be enough time to keep the final time under 3 hours but it wasn't a given as the 24 mile marker was passed. To try to make sure that the pace didn't drift too much the best approach in the circumstances was to pick a fight!

There was a relay runner just ahead who was currently in 5th place in that event. He had no idea that I wasn't also in that race so he rose to the challenge and inadvertently provided me with a perfect pacemaker for the next mile and a bit. He then faded but we were now in the closing stages and Hannah was about 300m up ahead just turning into the GAA club to enter the finish area.

Another photo, another smile - had she been smiling the whole way round? This was the final few metres coming into the finish to land the spoils:

And a minute and a bit later I eventually joined the party :)

As can be seen from the results below, Hannah's splits were well judged with just a 33 secs positive split. On the other hand, mine look as though I had a horrendous experience which really wasn't the case, it was just a case of letting the legs dictate their pace.

A slower first half would have produced a better overall time but that is purely hindsight and in general terms it felt like a very positive experience on the road to York.

The medal was an impressively chunky offering, almost (but not quite) on a par with the Kent Roadrunner medal for it's part in the recent upsurge in A & E referrals for neck injuries :

The Ladies podium (from left) - Natalie Hall, Hannah, Tara Malone

Team Ormeau Runners bringing it home in the relay race in a time of 4:21:41, an impressive performance especially considering that most of the team are recent recruits to this running lark after becoming involved through a beginners running group linked to Ormeau parkrun and enthusiastically encouraged and cajoled by our good friends, Janine and Mark Ramsey.

Ormeau Runners - Nora Gilbody, Aine Ni, Lynzi Kinnear, Janine Ramsey:

Not up to the standard of the Kent Roadrunner Marathon where marathon running and cartwheeling were a combined event :

The race report as presented on NIRunning.com:

Next Week:

With 4 weeks to go to Yorkshire it feels like we've got plenty of the long stuff in the legs with the last 10 weeks having included two sub-3 marathons (Potteries and Mary Anderson Colour Marathon), a 48 mile effort (St Albans Enduro) and a 62.1 mile event (Thunder Run).

The remaining time will be for shorter races starting next week with a swiftish parkrun followed by the 2nd running of the excellent Vale of York Half Marathon on Sunday.

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

13th Sept: 26.21 miles @ 6:51/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 September - Mary Anderson Colour Marathon 2:59:17 (Age 49) (7th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 7 of 12)

2015-09-07T09:02:00.001+01:00

Week 7

Mon 31/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:56/mile

Mon 31/8: (pm) 8.0 miles @ 8:36/mile

Tues 1/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:02/mile

Tues 1/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:46/mile

Weds 2/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:27/mile

Weds 2/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:15/mile

Thurs 3/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:09/mile

Thurs 3/9: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 7:57/mile

Fri 4/9: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:31/mile

Sat 5/9: 48.0 miles St Albans Stampede 12 Hours - 96.0 miles 11:28:53 (7:11/mile) 1st Pair

Sun 6/9: 4.0 miles @ 9:47/mile

Total Weekly Mileage: 92.0 miles

The simple principle employed in our marathon build ups is to race lots and to ensure that racing covers a wide range of distances.

With that in mind, the last couple of weeks have involved going from one end of the scale, last Saturday's Leeds Golden Mile, to the complete opposite end this week with the inaugural St Albans Stampede 12 Hours Enduro.

We had never entered a 12 hour event before but did at least have the experience of the Adidas Thunder Run six weeks ago to call upon.

Saturday 5th Sept 2015 (9am) - St Albans Stampede Enduro

This was an inaugural event hosted by St Albans Striders and was therefore a relatively small event to get the fixture established. Nick Bradley and the team got the arrangements spot on with the race HQ, and camping space, being no more than a minute's walk from the Start/Finish area.

The course was a 4 mile loop set in the picturesque surroundings of Heartwood Forest, a Woodlands Trust site.This was coming up to the mile point on the course:

........ and this was in the woods at about the half way mark:

It was an undulating course split roughly 50/50 between grass and firm paths but for an off road course seemed to flow really well:

The changeover point which would be seen many times during the day:

The Approach

From our experience at Thunder Run we felt that when competing as a pair a course of only 4 miles was too short to employ a single lap strategy for too much of the event.

It is a trade off between not wanting the individual stints to be too long but, at the same time, not wanting the breaks to be too short when trying to refuel.

So we had an outline plan to complete a single lap each at the start to familiarise ourselves with the course and thereafter switch to doubles (8 miles) for the bulk of the event. We would then probably switch back to singles right at the end to round the event off.

Expectations were that lap times of 31-32 minutes would be doable and that we should be able to complete 22 laps with a possible bonus one at the end if things went well.

The Race

The first 6 Hours:

At Thunder Run we covered 14 x 10k laps (86.8 miles) in 11:46 in the first half of the event so there was at least some basis to set expectations against. The pace at Thunder Run had been consistent at around 8:00/mile and didn't fall away as the hours ticked by so it seemed reasonable to expect that something around that pace was where we needed to be here at St Albans too.

The first and last half mile sections of each lap were uphill, which of course meant that on a double lap there would be a continuous 1 mile uphill climb, but nonetheless the course was more free flowing than that at Thunder Run.

At the end of the first lap the clock showed 26:27!

6:38/mile, or 2:53 marathon pace, certainly wasn't going to be sustainable for 12 hours but we settled into a sustainable rhythm pretty quickly once the double laps started.

After a few laps our average lap was being displayed on the race laptop at about 28:30-28:40 and although it looked a bit quick we were feeling in control through the first few hours. Interestingly, every double lap had a quicker 2nd lap than 1st as muscles warmed back up which confirmed the double lap strategy.

After 2 laps in 56:21 the leaderboard was showing us with a 7 minute lead which could of course mean one of two things, we could be doing well or we could have overcooked it in the early stages. The chances are that it was the latter considering it was still below 3:10 marathon pace.

On we went though ignoring the leaderboard and completed the first 12 laps in 5:43:16 (7:09/mile).

A check on the leaderboard now showed that the lead had grown a bit to 17 minutes. That sounds like a lot but can disintegrate so quickly if the going gets tough.

Apparently I was quite enjoying myself :)

The second 6 hours:

It is surprising how quickly the hours pass by once settled into a routine.

There were ebbs and flows for both of us in terms of energy levels but the pace remained consistent in the same narrow band of lap times as the next 3-4 hours ticked away.

There was a friendly face (and waggy tail) waiting to greet us on the completion of each lap:

Because the laps were mostly below 30 minutes our target was slowly moving upwards from the initial 22 laps to more like 24 laps. It even seemed like 25 laps was possible if we needed to add another one on the end.

However, once we had completed 22 laps the lead had grown enough to be comfortable to set the stall out for one final single lap each (to keep things nice and even) and then enjoy a celebratory Guinness on the Finish line regardless of whether there was plenty time left.

My final lap, the 23rd, was still in daylight but by the time Hannah started the final 24th lap it was pitch black and unfortunately the headtorch malfunctioned. How she still ran a similar time is a mystery!

By 11 hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds we were done with 96 miles in the bag and quite surprised at how well it had all gone.

The 2nd batch of 12 laps had taken 5:45:37 compared to 5:43:16 for the first 12 laps and it would have been even closer if it hadn't been for that headtorch issue on the final lap.

The overall pace for the 96 miles was around 3:07 marathon pace give or take, which is a good bit swifter than the 3:30 ish pace that we were expecting.

A good day all round :)

If anyone fancies it for next year we would highly recommend it.

The Stats

The raw stats were as follows:

1. 26:27 Steve

2. 28:54 Hannah

3. 28:57 Steve

4. 28:04 Steve

5. 29:35 Hannah

6. 28:26 Hannah

7. 28:52 Steve

8. 27:42 Steve

9. 29:58 Hannah

10. 28:39 Hannah

11. 29:03 Steve

12. 27:39 Steve

13. 28:56 Hannah

14. 27:40 Hannah

15. 29:13 Steve

16. 28:27 Steve

17. 28:29 Hannah

18. 27:36 Hannah

19. 30:17 Steve

20. 28:53 Steve

21. 28:48 Hannah

22. 28:28 Hannah

23. 28:06 Steve

24. 30:44 Hannah

1st 48 miles (12 laps) - 5:43:16 (7:09/mile)

2nd 48 miles (12 laps) - 5:45:37 (7:12/mile)

The Run Report

This was the run report by Race Director, Nick Bradley, a very complimentary chap :)

The very appropriate bottle opener presented on the Finish line:

The race HQ:

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

5th Sept: 48.0 miles @ 7:11/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 5 of 12 and week 6 of 12)

2015-08-31T13:04:00.003+01:00

Weeks 5

Mon 17/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:29/mile

Mon 17/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:18/mile

Tues 18/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:45/mile

Tues 18/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:17/mile

Weds 19/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:22/mile

Weds 19/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:31/mile

Thurs 20/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:42/mile

Thurs 20/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:42/mile

Fri 21/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:49/mile

Sat 22/8: (am) 4.0 miles (inc Northallerton parkrun (2nd 18:14 (3.1 miles @5:52/mile) [Hannah (1st) 18:54]

Sat 22/8: (pm) 10.0 miles (Burnsall 10 1:02:29 (9th) (10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile) [Hannah (1st) 1:04:18]

Sun 23/8: 7.0 miles @ 6:19/mile Rochdale HM (DNF) [Hannah (3rd) 1:26:51]

Total Weekly Mileage: 57.0 Miles

Week 6

Mon 24/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:31/mile

Mon 24/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:48/mile

Tues 25/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:30/mile

Weds 26/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:16/mile

Weds 26/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:03/mile

Thurs 27/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:45/mile

Thurs 27/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:27/mile

Fri 28/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:37/mile

Fri 28/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:27/mile

Sat 29/8: 2.0 miles incl Leeds Golden Mile 5:05.0 (6th) [Hannah (1st) 5:07.8]

Sun 30/8: 7.0 miles @ 5:58/mile Jim Dingwall 10K (7th) 37:11 [Hannah (1st) 37:09]

Total Weekly Mileage: 52.21 miles

A couple of weeks in one go this time, which marks the half way mark towards the Yorkshire Marathon.

Both weeks 5 and 6 had Mon to Fri consisting of nine slow 4 mile runs as the base for the week and then the weekends became a bit more interesting:

Sat 22nd Aug - Northallerton parkrun 18:14 (2nd) [Hannah 18:54 (1st)]

Saturday morning saw our first visit to the newly formed Northallerton parkrun.

After a very accomplished run briefing by Steve Middleton we set off around what is a very flat course. Flat it may be but it still felt relatively tough going due to being largely on grass and quite twisty.

This was at about halfway. The picture gives a good clue as to who was working hardest at this point and it wasn't Rob Scott, who from this point on sauntered off to break the course record!

Sat 22nd Aug - Burnsall 10 Miles 1:02:29 (9th) [Hannah 1:04:18 (1st) ]

The Burnsall Fell Running festival in the Yorkshire Dales was the setting for Saturday afternoon.

Despite it's title the organisers also include a 10 mile road race to accommodate those of us more mindful of self preservation! A very hilly course with it's worst section being served up around the 8 mile point.

On the whole the race went well except for a short period just after halfway when a couple of uphill sections caused the calves to cramp up, something which I rarely experience. It was probably explained by the extremely hot and humid conditions but care was needed over the closing stages, especially knowing what was coming at 8 miles.

Nonetheless 6:15/mile around a course like that was a good result.

From mile 2 onwards Hannah had what she described as 'a proper head to head battle' with Sarah Cumber.

Eight miles of trying to break each other and then it came down to the last downhill mile into the village.

The combatants entering the final 400 metres:

Hannah finally got away by 14 seconds and finished with a broad smile on her face proclaiming 'that's what racing is all about'.

1st and 2nd are pictured below with Burnsall schoolboy Andy Hodge, a rower with the pedigree of European Champion, 4 times World Champion and twice Olympic Champion:

Watching the fell race afterwards just served to reiterate that lovely smooth tarmac is the place to be.

Sun 23rd Aug - Rochdale Half Marathon (DNF) [Hannah 1:26:51 (3rd)]

The next morning saw the inaugural Rochdale Half Marathon, organised by Cannonball Events in conjunction with Rochdale Council. John Lloyd, Matthew Kelly and the rest of the Cannonball team did a great job of getting this off the ground.

Another hot and humid day but plenty of water had been taken on beforehand in preparation.

The course was a 2 lapper, so the start/finish banner was also passed under at exactly the halfway point. In a nutshell, the first half of each loop was uphill and the return to the town centre was, you've guessed it, downhill.

Bearing in mind the calf problems the previous afternoon it felt as though they had loosened up enough in the meantime to not be at risk of any significant damage.

Despite that, the aim was to be cautious for the first uphill 3 miles. It was flowing quite nicely up to the turnaround point and on the way back into town until around the 5 mile mark. However, the next downhill mile produced significant tightening of both calves, which created question marks about whether it was worth setting off on the 2nd lap.

Having just worked through into the top 10, the position would have been the only reason to continue but it couldn't justify potentially doing significant damage, which might lead to 2-3 weeks of soreness ...... so a rare DNF became the best decision on the day.

Up front there was a cracking race as the leading three contenders entered the final 400m shoulder to shoulder.

After having the hard battle over the hills around Burnsall just a few hours earlier it would have been understandable if Hannah had wanted a more controlled run in this race.

That may well have been her intention but having worked through the field to get into the top 3 she wasn't going to give up that 3rd position without a fight in the closing stages. Joanne Nelson in 4th was no more than 5 metres behind and closing coming into the last 400 metres but, unfortunately for her, one of her teammates shouted 'Go Jo, 3rd is yours!'.

That alerted Hannah to what was going on behind and lit the touch paper. As a result, a 5 second cushion was pulled out by the end. The second really good battle in less than 24 hours :)

As can be seen from the winning times from the likes of Dave Archer and Dave Norman the times reflected a tough event and, as such, one of the performances of the day was landed by Martin Hall with 1:23:03 in 10th place.

Sat 29th Aug - Leeds Golden Mile (6th) 5:05.0 [Hannah 5:07.8 (1st)]

With the last event being the DNF at Rochdale and just a series of slow 8+ min/mile stuff in the meantime it may not have been the wisest move to test out the calves by hurtling around a track in a mile race but at least it was flat.

This has become a firm fixture on the calendar now thanks to the efforts of Mark Hetherington and caters for all abilities, giving rare access to track mile racing for a lot of us.

Thankfully there wasn't even a hint of any tightness or soreness, which validated the DNF to some extent, and a very enjoyable evenly paced mile effort was the result. It was actually the fastest mile for a couple of years at 5:05. A time 10 seconds slower would have been about the pre-race expectation.

It was difficult to know where Hannah was during the race but she was bound to be close and knowing the final kick she was going to unleash it had to be a full on effort all the way though the line to claim a slim advantage.

Revenge for the defeat at the Westminster Mile where we both clocked 5:07 :)

Sun 30th Aug - Jim Dingwall Memorial 10k 37:11 (7th) [Hannah 37:09 (1st) ]

After giving the fast twitch muscles a rare workout the afternoon before it was going to be interesting to see how things would hold together over a flat 10k.

This was a memorial race for Jim Dingwall. For those that don't know the background, Jim was a bit of a running legend who ran for Falkirk before moving to Hull with his job. With a marathon PB of 2:11 he had a very uncomplicated approach to running which involved racing plenty races and running consistently throughout the year, he wasn't particularly interested in 'seasons' or 'peaking' as such. A good example was when he ran two hard 10,000m races, including a PB of 28:55, in the same week that he won the Scottish Marathon championship in 2:16.

Uncomplicated approaches can get decent results :)

Some people cut it fine by entering races on the day but this was a case where we took the phrase 'entering at the last minute' a bit too literally.

We actually arrived in plenty of time but due to queues and a bit of confusion in the registration administration we only got entered at 8:58am for a 9am race. That would be tight enough - but the start was a full km away.

We half expected to meet the race coming in the opposite direction but thankfully they were a little late with the starters orders and we made it in time. Phew!

An enjoyable sunny race unfolded without feeling too much in the way of after effects from the Saturday mile race. After working through into 4th place at 6k, the 7th k was spent monitoring the gap to 3rd to decide whether it was worth a chase over the closing stages. As the gap had closed slightly it was time to up the effort level to have a go at closing it down. However, the mind was willing but the legs seemed to put the achors on and stated in no uncertain terms that there were no more gears to be had.

So getting ready to chase down a podium place had quickly become a case of being a sitting duck for anyone chasing from behind.

Sure enough 5th came past at 8km and then 6th at 9.5km.

Very shortly afterwards 7th also came past, the leading lady! Was she going to get revenge for the day before so quickly? No matter how much I asked, the legs would not respond, or at least not until it was too late.

Across the line in 37:11 to Hannah's 37:09.

So a 2 second victory on Saturday and a 2 second defeat on Sunday means honours even for the weekend, right?

Not so quick - very unusually for a 10k the results were published to 0.1 seconds:

37:09.1 and 37:11.7 - a 2.6 second victory to Hannah.

The mile results were also published to 0.1 seconds:

5:05.0 and 5:07.8 - a 2.8 second victory to me.

So, an unquestionable resounding victory for yours truly across the weekend. Must try harder, Oldroyd ;)

Next Week:

The last couple of weeks have been relatively low mileage but that has been intentional knowing what is lined up for the next couple of weeks - next Saturday will see an attempt at the inaugural St Albans Stampede 12 hour race, which we have entered as a pair.

With a little more insight about what to expect after taking part in Thunder Run it is another event where the main aim is to get plenty miles completed without incurring injury and then anything else will be a bonus.

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

22nd Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:52/mile

22nd Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:15/mile

23rd Aug: 6.5 miles @ 6:19/mile

29th Aug: 1.0 miles @ 5:05/mile

30th Aug: 6.21 miles @ 5:58/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 4 of 12)

2015-08-17T13:51:00.000+01:00

Week 4

Mon 10/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:01/mile

Mon 10/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:28/mile

Tues 11/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:37/mile

Tues 11/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Weds 12/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:49/mile

Weds 12/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:40/mile

Thurs 13/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:38/mile

Thurs 13/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:49/mile

Fri 14/8: (pm) 6.21 miles @ 8:40/mile

Sat 15/8: (am) 5.0 miles (incl Waterworks parkrun (1st) 17:41 (3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile) [Hannah (1st) 18:03]

Sat 15/8: (pm) 3.1 miles @ 8:40/mile Valley parkrun Freedom

Sun 16/8: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile Monaghan 10 (14th) 1:00:03 [Hannah (2nd) 1:01:43]

Total Weekly Mileage - 56.31 Miles

Week 4 completed, so that means that we're already a third of the way along the journey towards the Yorkshire Marathon. Time is flying!

This week was still relatively low mileage but it consisted of 12 runs and a couple of pretty encouraging weekend runs so not bad at all as a consolidation type week.

It was another quick hop over to Northern Ireland on Saturday for more fun and games ......

Sat 15th Aug - Waterworks parkrun 17:41 (1st), [Hannah 18:03 (1st)]

We've been to Waterworks a few times now and there is always a warm welcome waiting on arrival, especially from Matt and Ruth Shields, Gregg McClure and John Murphy.

For those not familar with the venue it is in the North West part of Belfast, a couple of miles outside the city centre:

And for somewhere so close to a city centre it offers some surprisingly scenic views:

(Pic courtesy of Jenni Reilly)

The run itself went very well with a 17:41 clocking, comfortably inside the only other official run at this venue of 17:59.

Hannah had a good head to head battle with Matt Shields for 18:03 and 18:05 respectively and that 18:05 for Matt represented the highest age grading ever recorded at Waterworks out of the 39,790 runs completed there in the last 5 years.

The fact that Matt did this on his 61st birthday and on his 100th run at Waterworks was very neat all round. However, at 89.49% there is a little unfinished business with 90% being so tantalisingly close ;)

Sun 16th Aug - Monaghan 10 Miler 1:00:03 (14th), [Hannah 1:01:43 (2nd)]

For Sunday's adventure we went into the republic to Monaghan for a 'flat' 10 miler.

For a small town there was a cracking turnout of 500+ runners, boosted by strong contingents from Derry, Newry and Belfast.

Although not what could be described as hilly, the course was also a bit too undulating to be called flat.

As we lined up at the start there were serious question marks about whether the huge chinese from the night before was going to behave for the next hour or so or whether it was going to decorate the streets of Monaghan!

It felt like a bit of a slog for most of the race but that very much turned into a positive when seeing that 6:00 miles were being maintained despite the sluggishness. Halfway in 29:27 was probably a little too quick with a few testing inclines to come but the second half held together ok and felt marginally less sluggish than the first half.

Coming up to the finish I hadn't realised just how close to the hour it was but to be 3 seconds over is near enough.

Hannah paced it much more evenly to finish strongly for 1:01:43 and 2nd place.

As is usually the case in Ireland, you don't go home hungry :)

And nor do you go home thirsty as what seemed like most of the participants made their way to the Squealing Pig for the 'after party'.

Apparently 'Vitamin G' is good for you. We didn't need any convincing ;)

The one and only Bootsie (Colm Fearon), the man behind Running Blind at Stormont a couple of weeks ago, fully embracing whatever he could find to embrace :)

Nuala Collins and Jennifer McAteer very happy with their well deserved bling :)

Would we go back to do Monaghan 10 again? Hell, yeah :)

Next Week:

Next week has still to take shape so at the moment is something of a blank sheet of paper.

Marathon Building Blocks (getting a bit long now but this is the year in a nutshell once all the slow short runs are removed) :

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

15th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

16th Aug: 10.0 miles @ 6:00/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 3 of 12)

2015-08-09T20:50:00.003+01:00

Week 3

Mon 3/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:15/mile

Tues 4/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:18/mile

Tues 4/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:53/mile

Weds 5/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:36/mile

Thurs 6/8: (pm) 5.0 miles (incl. Todmorden 5k (9th) 18:05 (3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile) [Hannah (1st) 17:56]

Fri 7/8: (am) 4.0 miles @ 8:35/mile

Fri 7/8: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:29/mile

Sat 8/8: (am) 4.0 miles (incl Goole parkrun (2nd) 17:54 (3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile) [Hannah (1st) 18:03]

Sat 8/8: (pm) 6.21 miles @ 8:40/mile

Sun 9/8: (am) 6.0 miles (incl. West Yorks 5 (7th) 29:46 (5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile) [Hannah (1st) 31:12]

Sun 9/8: (pm) 6.21 miles @ 8:38/mile

Total Weekly Mileage - 51.42 Miles

After the last two weekends this week had to be a bit quieter to let the legs catch up and regain a bit of strength.

It was therefore a week of lower mileage and shorter races but nonetheless the last 3 weeks cumulatively have totalled 225 miles and 9 very varied races/events.

So what did this week entail?

Thurs 6th Aug - Todmorden 5k 18:05 (9th) [Hannah 17:56 (1st) ]

Thursday saw a return to Todmorden for the last in the 5k series at Centre Vale Park.

We ran an earlier race in the series on 9th July where Hannah clocked 18:07 (course record at the time) to my 18:10 so it was going to be interesting to see how close to this we could get on very tired legs.

The course is 5 laps of exactly 1km with splits provided at the end of each lap.

After the first steady lap it started flowing quite nicely for the next couple of laps. Surprisingly it was looking like a 17:45-17:50 ish with a consistent effort level or a bit quicker by pushing on in the closing stages.

All well and good until at the end of the 3rd lap the tell tale sign of a loosening left shoe appeared. After trying to ignore it for half a lap it got to the point of imminently flying off into the distance. There was no option but to stop and relace.

Suddenly stopping and bending over when flat out in a 5k can create some strange bloodflow wooziness issues I can tell you :p

Eventually back up and running, Hannah had now disappeared into the distance to record 17:56 (11 secs quicker than previously) and I got there in 18:05. So despite the shenanigans both times were faster than the previous visit, which we definitely weren't expecting.

Sat 8th Aug - Goole parkrun 17:54 (2nd) [Hannah 18:03 (1st) ]

Saturday saw a trip to glorious Goole!

Not two words that are generally used in the same sentence it has to be said but they really have done a good job with a £1m revamp of West Park.

The parkrun course is multi terrain with 60% grass/40% tarmac and very flat.

This is the start of the final large lap. It looked like an even contest at this stage but Ben Spilman had a good bit extra in the tank to pull away for a 17:31 clocking. I was more than happy with 17:54 though as the legs were feeling heavy on the grass sections:

Hannah was closing towards the end to record 18:03, which led to a possible challenge for the claim of 'shortest time to hold a parkrun record for'. A grand total of 9 secs! I thought these age graded leagues were supposed to help us vets, what's a youngster doing sticking her nose in? :p

Arth certainly approved of the revamped West Park, he didn't want to leave:

Sun 9th Aug - West Yorks 5 29:46 (7th) [Hannah 31:12 (1st) ]

From glorious Goole on Saturday it was then onto beautiful Birkenshaw on Sunday!

The destination was the West Yorkshire Fire HQ for the West Yorks 5 miler, an event that we last tackled in 2013. To say that this is a tough course is no understatement as the event's own description is keen to point out:

The weather was nice enough but more appropriate for sitting in a pub beer garden than tackling this course:

Meanwhile Arth seemed to be suggesting that we ought to get a fire engine for future travelling after seeing how much rear seat space there was compared to his normal mode of transport:

So how did the actual race go?

After a very cautious start to keep plenty in reserve for the later stages it turned out a good bit better than expected.

Because of the nature of the course the only valid comparison was with the last run there in 2013. The 2015 and 2013 results are below. There is a nice parallel in that in the 2 intervening years myself and Hannah have pretty much done exactly the same racing and training and the outcome in the West Yorks 5 comparison has been a 1:50 and 1:53 improvement respectively.

Nothing too amazing there but interesting nonetheless :)

A good week all in all, feeling surprisingly strong when the expectation was that it would be just a week for recovering from previous efforts. Chances are that we are already seeing the benefits coming from Thunder Run two weeks ago. Very enjoyable week anyway :)

A bit tiring for some though :

Next Week:

Probably a bit more mileage next week with an NI parkrun on Saturday and then a trip over the border on Sunday for the Monaghan 10 miler, where we hope to see a few of the usual suspects :)

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

6th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:49/mile

8th Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

9th Aug: 5.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 2 of 12)

2015-08-04T17:07:00.003+01:00

Week 2

Mon 27/7: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:28/mile

Mon 27/7: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:15/mile

Tues 28/7: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:29/mile

Tues 28/7: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:24/mile

Weds 29/7: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:11/mile

Weds 29/7: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 9:26/mile

Thurs 30/7: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:08/mile

Thurs 30/7: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:49/mile

Fri 31/7: 4.0 miles @ 8:32/mile

Sat 1/8: (am) 4.0 miles (incl Falls parkrun (1st) 18:22 (3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile) [Hannah (1st) 18:39]

Sat 1/8: (pm) 4.0 miles (incl Running Blind, Stormont (1st) 21:04 (3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile) [Hannah (1st) 21:04]

Sat 1/8: (eve) 7.0 miles (incl Rathfriland 10k 39:09 (6.21 miles @ 6:18/mile) [Hannah (1st) 37:22]

Sun 2/8: 16.0 miles (incl. Dublin Rock N Roll HM 1:25:57 (13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile) [Hannah (6th) 1:23:40]

Total Mileage - 67.0 Miles

After the 100k each at Thunder Run last weekend and a tough series of hilly events this weekend a series of slow 4 mile runs during the week fitted the bill perfectly.

And then it was over to Belfast on Saturday morning for 4 varied events in not much more than 24 hours.

Sat 1/8 - (9:30am) Falls parkrun 18:22

We have run around Falls Park a couple of times before but this was the first attempt at the actual parkrun.

Our hosts for the weekend, the ever enthusiastic Janine and Mark Ramsey, had all the logistics under control. We would be back at this same venue the following evening for a Human League/Marc Almond concert but not before taking in trips to Stormont, Rathfriland and Dublin in the meantime.

Not an easy course but an enjoyable setting and it was good to bump into a few familiar faces, Eileen and Dan Jack as well as ED Stuart Kennedy.

Mark Ramsey (in yellow) running a course PB at Falls:

Sat 1/8 (1pm) - Running Blind 5K, Stormont

This was the brainchild of Colm Fearon aka Bootsie in conjunction with The Pathfinder Guide Dogs charity.

The idea was to gain some appreciation of both running without sight and also what it takes to guide a blind or partially sighted runner.

It was going to be fascinating to take part but also a little scary. One runner was blindfolded for the first lap, which took in the main driveway at Stormont and then across the top road in front of the Parliament buildings and then back down the driveway to the start before roles were switched for a second lap.

We were all covering up our trepidation in this pre-event pic:

111 pairs of runners lined up to take on the challenge.

These were the nervous early stages on lap 1 as we approached the hill for the first time:

Still upright with no mishaps so far:

Exactly 1 lap later at the same point but now with roles reversed:

A very relieved bunch of runners after completing the challenge - Myself, Hannah, Bootsie aka Colm Fearon, Jennifer McAteer, Karen McElroy:

If you want to see how everyone coped take a look at Bootsie's excellent video of the event:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LeUO0F6BEP0&feature=youtu.be

Bootsie getting a taste of his own medicine as Hannah relieves him of his camera and films his finishing stages:

So what was learnt?

From the description of the event beforehand we didn't expect to be able to go much quicker than walking pace without risking cuts and bruises.

However, as can be seen from the results, we actually got round pretty well without any injuries being sustained BUT, and it is a big BUT, it quickly became apparent that the venue was absoloutely perfect for this kind of thing. As can be seen from the photos the driveways are smooth with no cambers, no potholes, no speed bumps or any of the other numerous obstacles you could expect to ordinarily encounter.

It actually felt safe enough to run relatively freely once over the initial nervousness. A couple of things to note though:

1. Running uphill while blindfolded is tough - without the visual feedback of steepness and length of hill there is no way of judging effort level.

2. The role of the guide is critical but instead of the guide constantly trying to describe what is going on, we moved more towards waiting for the blind runner to ask questions. In that way the information was exactly geared to what info was wanted. Obviously the guide runner is still describing obstacles and steering as well.

So, although we coped far better than we expected to it still makes you realise just how difficult this must be on open roads with uneven surfaces and unexpected hazards. It was noticably more mentally tiring being the blind runner.

It was an enlightening experience so should the opportunity arise to take part in something like this, give it a go.

Great idea, Bootsie, thanks for the opportunity!

What a great setting:

Sat 1/8 (7pm) - Rathfriland 10k 39:09 (7th) [Hannah 37:22 (1st) ]

A few hours, and a few Guinness, later it was time for a trip down from Belfast to a village called Rathfriland near Newry.

This place was hilly and the race itself had probably the craziest downhill start that I can remember in a race.

Being the 3rd event of the day on a hilly course it came as no surprise that it started feeling quite tough as halfway was approached. In 6th place at this point I was soon demoted to 7th by Hannah, who looked to be sauntering along.

She proceeded up through the field to firstly take the lead in the ladies race and then worked through to as high as 2nd overall before just losing that position by 9 seconds at the end. 37:22 on a tough course as the 3rd event of the day!

The start:

A low key finish from the shy and retiring Mark Ramsey:

A bunch of smiley people at the finish - Janine Ramsey, Hannah, Myself, Jennifer McAteer :

It may be August but we were very grateful that the Rathfriland pub had a roaring log fire on the go:

Sun 2/8 - Dublin Rock N Roll Half Marathon 1:25:57 [Hannah 1:23:40 6th]

It was a very early start to get down from Belfast to Dublin for an 8:30am start on Sunday.

Several thousand people lined up alongside the River Liffey as we did the best we could to loosen the legs up from the previous day's efforts.

There certainly wasn't going to be any looking for sub 80s on this day but it was still going to be interesting to see just how well things would hold together.

After settling down the pace seemed to be hovering around 6:30/mile, 1:25 overall would be a pretty good outcome if this was maintained to the end .... but there was a long way to go yet.

After about 3 miles, there was a bit of deja vu from a race 12 hours earlier as Hannah popped up alongside and then eased away into the distance and eventually out of sight.

Her recovery between races was certainly going well as she went on to finish 6th in 1:23:40.

Over 2 minutes behind, my 1:25:57 was pleasing enough as it showed that very tired legs could still maintain a decent pace without falling apart unduly. All good signs.

Phew - so that was an action packed 24 hrs (24hrs 25 minutes to be precise) expertly coordinated by this dynamic duo. Thanks Janine and Mark :)

Next Week:

Next week will certainly be quieter.

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

1st Aug: 3.1 miles @ 6:47/mile

1st Aug: 6.21 miles @ 6:24/mile

2nd Aug: 13.1 miles @ 6:34/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

Yorkshire Marathon 2015 (Week 1 of 12) - Adidas Thunder Run

2015-07-30T09:25:00.000+01:00

Yorkshire Marathon - Week 1 of 12

Mon 20/7: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:10/mile

Mon 20/7: (pm) 4.0 miles @ 8:58/mile

Tues 21/7: 4.0 miles @ 8:41/mile

Weds 22/7: (am) 4.0 miles @ 9:02/mile

Weds 22/7: (pm) 4.0 miles incl Golden Acre Relays (2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile)

Thurs 23/7: 4.0 miles @ 8:32/mile

Fri 24/7: 4.0 miles @ 9:36/mile

Sat 25/7: Adidas Thunder Run (62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile - 3rd Mixed Pair)

Sun 26/7:

Total Mileage - 90.10 Miles

Time for another 12 week marathon build up :)

With The Yorkshire Marathon delivering my all time PB of 2:47:34 in 2014 it is a course with pleasant memories, so hopefully 2015 will also be kind with the weather conditions and then, who knows, there could be a chance of something similar resulting from this year's event.

The Plan

As would be expected by now, the plan as such is very light on detail - Lots of racing at lots of distances and backed up by a base of short 8:00+ min/mile runs.

A plan summed up in one short sentence wouldn't sell many magazines!

Sat 25th/Sun 26th July - Adidas Thunder Run 24hours, Catton Park (3rd Mixed Pair, 20 laps, 200km)

There are certain things that neither Hannah nor myself are very keen on:

1. We don't like mud.

2. We don't like off road.

3. We're not interested in ultras.

So how on earth did we end up last weekend taking part in a muddy, off road 24 hour relay event?

There was certainly no intention to, in fact the idea was to enter the Wimbledon Half Marathon last Sunday. However, a few days before Thunder Run we noticed a post from Clapham Chasers stating that they had a spare team entry.

As usual, when the question was posed by Hannah my successive answers were no, no, no, no, no, what is it anyway?

A few days later we were lined up at Catton Park as a Mixed Pair with the team name Deli's Dawdlers.

What's in a name?

Deli was an ex racehorse (not a very good one by all accounts) who for the last few years has been Hannah's equine pal.

However, at 24 years old it sadly became inevitable that his innings was coming to a close. The picture below was a couple of weeks ago while he was enjoying his last treats of Polo Mints and apples and looking very happy into the bargain:

With two relay events in a week coming up, Golden Acre Relays and Thunder Run, requiring team names, Deli's Dawdlers was chosen as being very appropriate.

The Race

When we turned up at Catton Park on Friday evening it felt like we were blundering into something we really didn't understand but everyone else knew exactly what they were doing.

Our thinking was that we would at least get some decent mileage in over the 24 hours. We reckoned that we should be ok to get 5 laps each of the 10k course completed giving a team total of 62.1 miles and 31 miles each.

Anything after that would be a real journey into the unknown. After having a quick glance at last year's results it seemed that almost without exception lap times really fell away as the event progressed. With this in mind our main objective was to not get broken and if it started to become a real struggle we would just call it a day.

Unlike most races the one thing that wasn't going to be in short supply was time - there was tons of the stuff, 1,440 minutes to be precise. We rarely run for more than 200 minutes so we were unlikely to utilise 720 minutes each without undue suffering. In other words, there was no rush - we just decided to run to feel at about the same effort level as our training during the week and just see what happens.

The scene was set:

(Pic courtesy of Ian Schofield)

The Airedale Dodgers were definitely ready (Alun Griffiths, Chris Healey, Moi, Hannah, Tracey Healey, Grampus) :

And at 12:00 pm on Saturday the event got under way:

Even though it was sunny and hot the course was muddy and slippy for the first couple of laps before gradually drying out as the laps passed by. Hannah steadily working her way around the twisty hilly course in the early stages :

24 hours 14 minutes (and 200km) later :

So what happened in between?

We didn't attempt any double laps, although it was contemplated at one point, so it was a case of alternating single laps throughout.

Laps 1-10

After the first two laps finding our feet so to speak we were surprised to see how consistently the laps were ticking over. The first 10 laps (100k) passed pretty smoothly but this was the point when things were expected to start getting tough.

Laps 11-14

After 10 laps we were advised that we were actually in the lead by 18 minutes. Although that was interesting news it seemed likely to be a very temporary state of affairs considering that we were nowhere near halfway yet and we had no idea what we were going to do from here on in.

Nevertheless we ploughed on quite happily and by 11:46 pm 14 laps had been completed and the lead had grown to an hour. Laps 13 and 14 had been a bit slower as it was now darkness and we had little experience of tip toeing through tricky tree roots and such like with just head torches to light the way.

During lap 13 Hannah had started to struggle with stomach issues, the legs were fine but fuelling was always going to be a bit of guesswork.

Since we had no intention of suffering unduly and the fact that we didn't think we would be able to use the full 24 hours anyway we decided to have a break during the hours of darkness.

Laps 15-20

We didn't set an alarm, just slept until we woke up. 7 hours later we woke up with the intention of doing a lap each to round the event off.

Hannah went off and knocked off lap 15 in 49:50, clearly rejuvenated after a good night's kip.

Waiting for the changeover the news came that we were now in 8th position. That didn't seem too bad after taking the best part of 8 hours off!

Enquiring whether Hannah had now had enough I got the response 'there's 4 hours left yet'.

Ok, on we go then :)

After the 5 laps from 15-19 had all taken 49:xx, the last lap was begun at 11:25 am.

Apparently we were still showing as 7th on the leaderboard (although Hannah's last lap wouldn't yet have been accounted for) so it was just a case of enjoying the last lap to round off a nice round 100 km each, the highest mileage either of us would have managed in 24 hours. The thing we felt most chuffed about though was that the legs still felt fine for both of us.

The 20th lap also took 49:xx to finish off a very consistent morning of 60km.

Feeling very happy with our efforts, after finishing I got an urge for a big fat burger (obviously not before the celebratory Guinness though). As the results screen was next to the burger queue we had a glance to see if we had improved on our 7th position at all.

There and then there was one of those 'blimey' moments. Somehow during the last 2 laps 7th had become 3rd and we ended up getting to stand on a pallet in a muddy field :)

For a proper blundering, naive approach we probably did ok :)

The whole process was made much easier by these guys, being a team of 6 I think they felt sorry for us and ensured that coffee and snacks were on tap when needed between legs. It really helped :)

Chris Healey, Sue Gregson, Rachel Parker, Alun Griffiths

Which meant that between legs we got to do this :) :

Congratulations go to Claire Spencer (Female Doubles - 22 laps) and Chris and Christina Singleton of Team Fastrax (Mixed 8 - 36 laps (new record)) for podium topping performances:

Congratulations also to John Robson and Terry Midgley ( team name John Terry) who also completed 20 laps on their first effort as a duo but managed to complete their 20 laps some 4 hours earlier than we did.

Would we do it again?

We probably wouldn't rush to do Thunder Run again but the concept certainly became slightly more appealing after last weekend. Maybe a 12 hour event next time?

Next Week:

Next week will probably involve parkrunning at Falls Park in Belfast, followed by 'Running Blind' at Stormont on Saturday afternoon (Me running blindfolded, can you imagine? :p ) and then the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon in Dublin on Sunday.

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

9th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

11th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

12th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

18th Jul: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

18th Jul: 6.21 miles @ 5:43/mile

19th Jul: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

22nd Jul: 2.75 miles @ 5:50/mile

25th/26th Jul: 62.1 miles @ 8:00/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

Potteries Marathon 2016 - From Limavady to Stoke in 10 crazy days!

2015-07-07T13:17:00.002+01:00

Potteries Marathon 2016

One potential use of a blog is to use it to show the results of experimentation, others can then avoid making the same mistakes themselves or, if they so wish, employing any positive snippets to their own advantage.

And in that vein the 10 days leading up to the born again Potteries Marathon were anything but conventional and produced some surprising results!

Those 10 days involved competing no less than 7 times over the following distances:

1 Mile

10k (twice)

10 Miles

Half Marathon

Marathon

A recipe for disaster perhaps? Or at the very least a weary trudge around the Potteries Marathon at the end of the sequence?

Thurs 25th Jun: Around the Bridges 10 Miles (Limavady NI) 59:31 (4th)

Fri 26th Jun: Ards Half Marathon NI 1:21:02 (6th)

Sat 27th Jun: Enniskillen parkrun 18:30 (1st)

Sat 27th Jun: Dromore 10k NI 38:50 (6th)

Sun 28th Jun: Run For Paul 10k 41:34 (4th)

Weds 1st Jul: HPH Summer Mile (Leeds) 5:11.1 (6th Ht12)

Sun 5th Jul: Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (6th)

Hannah -

Thurs 25th Jun: Around the Bridges 10 Miles (Limavady NI) 1:02:36 (1st)

Fri 26th Jun: Ards Half Marathon NI 1:23:19 (1st)

Sat 27th Jun: Enniskillen parkrun 18:53 (1st)

Sat 27th Jun: Dromore 10k NI 39:55 (1st)

Sun 28th Jun: Run For Paul 10k 40:40 (1st)

Weds 1st Jul: HPH Summer Mile (Leeds) 5:12.5 (1st)

Sun 5th Jul: Potteries Marathon 2:57:27 (1st)

Our good friends over in Belfast, Mark and Janine Ramsey, had suggested a few races that fitted together quite nicely to make a fun filled 4 day visit to Northern Ireland. It just happened that it was the week before our next marathon, ie Potteries, but that was no reason to miss out on some new exploring opportunities.

Thurs 25th June - Around The Bridges 10 Miles, Limavady (59:31 4th) (Hannah 1:02:36 1st)

I could not have even have had a wild guess as to where Limavady was before this race appeared but we were certainly glad we found it after having a brilliant evening thanks to the Springwell Running Club.

Conditions were perfect and the course was nothing worse than mildly undulating so it felt like there might be an outside chance of a sub 60 in the old legs if the early stages felt ok.

29:20 at halfway and then, despite a bit of a sting in the tail in the 10th mile, a finishing time of 59:31 justified that initial optimism :)

Gary Keenan (far left), president of Athletics Northern Ireland, had nothing but praise for this event ..... and quite rightly so.

Nobody left this race feeling hungry:

Friday 26th June - Ards Half Marathon (1:21:02 6th) (Hannah 1:23:19 1st)

This promised to be a real struggle around the hills of Newtownards after having run a hard 10 miler 24 hours earlier.

In reality though the concern about a potentially messy second half just served to make the approach towards the first half more cautious than usual. A bit achey on the early climbs but slowly but surely the legs started to respond and the final outcome of 1:21:02 was about as good as could have been expected even if there hadn't been the race the night before. This was not an easy course!

Hannah bringing it home to secure back to back wins over 24 hours:

The evening was topped off nicely with a spot of rehydration in the delightful company of (from left): Karen McElroy, Janine Ramsey, Your truly, Jennifer McAteer, Mark Ramsey, Martin Brady

Saturday 27th Jun (9am) - Enniskillen parkrun (18:30 1st) (Hannah 18:53 1st)

At 9am the next morning we were treated to a very scenic Enniskillen parkrun. Another testing course but the setting and the post run coffee venue were well worth a visit:

Saturday 27th June (12 noon) - Dromore 10k (38:50 6th) (Hannah 39:55 1st)

A quick trip up to Dromore and it was time for the 4th event of the weekend just a day and a half after the 1st.

Very much a repeat story here in the sense that a very cautious start allowed the legs to come strong in the later stages. They were tired now but for the 4th event surprisingly intact :)

Sunday 28th June - 'Run For Paul' 10k, Delamont Country Park, Downpatrick (41:34 4th) (Hannah 40:40 1st)

This was a masterpiece in race organisation by the legendary Mags Mathieson.

With just 2 weeks from idea to race day this event brought the NI running community together in double quick time to raise much needed urgent medical funds for Paul Brannigan.

It was an undoubted success and a cracking day all round.

The inspirational duo that is Mark and Janine Ramsey:

(From left) Mags Mathieson, Hannah, Paul Brannigan and Max Mcroberts:

Finally we got Mags to the pub to reflect on a job well done :)

And the reason why Mags is rather well known, and hugely popular, in NI running circles:

https://www.joininuk.org/mags-volunteering-journey/

Wednesday 1st July - Hyde Park Summer Mile, Leeds (5:11.1 6th Ht12) (Hannah 5:12.5)

The Hyde Park Summer Mile is now in it's 5th year and just keeps getting bigger and better. This year was a sell out with 13 heats of 15 runners tackling the 2 lap course around Woodhouse Moor.

Over the 5 years it has also been noticeable just how much Hyde Park Harriers has grown as a club. So much so that in Heat 12 John Robson (just visible in the shades) and myself were caught up in the middle of a proper club burn up. Hannah is also in the mix too but just out of shot running wide.

A thoroughly enjoyable event with the one and only Sam Dooley at the helm, supported by an army of HPH volunteers.

The race itself was very surprising, delivering the fastest time of all the 5 years. After the weekend in Northern Ireland that certainly wasn't expected but it provided a good indication that recovery between races was coming along ok. Hannah also pulled off her fastest run at this event with 5:12.5.

Sun 5th July - The Potteries Marathon 2016 (2:52:40 6th) (Hannah 2:57:27 1st)

So now for the 7th event in 10 days. We knew it was going to be lumpy but what we experienced has got to be the hilliest road marathon that I've experienced out of the 50 or so completed.

It was pretty hot and humid too by the second half so, all in all, a challenging set of circumstances.

So did it turn out to be as much of a struggle as it might be reasonable to expect given the build up? Absolutely not, it was one of those days where the legs just seemed to lap it up but, as Hannah neatly summed it up, you could never take the handbrake fully off because running the course blind and knowing there were numerous hills ahead required an element of holding something in reserve.

Talking of hills, it was mentioned in one course description that there were 28 'significant hills' and the overwhelming response to that from those that ran was that that sounded like an understatement.

It would be easy to assume from Ben Fish's winning time of 2:26 that the course was relatively easy but Ben was quick to point out that he felt his performance was right up there with his 2:19 PB.

It isn't totally clear where these photos were taken of Hannah (2:57 1st lady), Kelvin Dickinson (2:57 1st V40) and myself (2:52 1st V45) but I think they nicely sum up the spirit in which this event was approached - nice and relaxed with a real feel good factor:

And just for amusement, the photo above in the 2015 Potteries Marathon was of the same chap as the one below in the Potteries Marathon 22 years earlier. That day produced a time of 2:48:58 on a kinder course than the new incarnation. If only 4 minutes is lost in the next 22 years........... :)

This was the approach to the finish at the Brittania Stadium clearly showing the enthusiasm for bringing back this event. We were all quite surprised at just how much support there was all the way around the course, a factor which will probably go a long way to making sure this race is back for good.

There were lots of twists and turns lots of ups and downs and lots of reasons why this should have gone horribly wrong.

But all those ingredients served to make the finishing time of 2:52:40 and 6th place overall all the more sweet ....... and incredibly surprising!

As for Hannah's eventual result :)

The feel good factor of this event continued well into the afternoon and evening, (from left) Mark Ramsey, Janine Ramsey, Hannah, Myself, Kelvin Dickinson, Caz Hall

It was interesting that Mark had what was undoubtedly his best ever marathon performance (3:46), just 1 minute outside his PB run at Manchester earlier in the year, a course touted as the flattest in the country.

The interesting aspect of this is that Mark also competed in most of the NI races with us last weekend and yet bounced around the Potteries hills with a broad grin on his face.

2015 Marathons:

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

2015 Marathons (Hannah):

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:52:40 (1st)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:54:26 (2nd)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:07 (26th)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:57:08 (5th)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:44 (1st)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:57:27 (1st)

Discussion Points:

Considering normally accepted marathon training principles, this last 12 months (and especially the last 6 months) have been a revelation about how thoroughly enjoyable marathon running can be by looking at things a little bit differently.

2015 has consisted of:

1. No LSRs at all - in fact there have only been a couple of occasions of training runs in double figures. In the past, 5-7 x 20-22 milers in a build up have often resulted in miserable falling apart experiences.

2. The 7:00-8:00 pace range has been avoided completely, both in training and racing. Obviously this would be relative to individuals but this equates to avoiding, say, marathon pace + 30s to marathon pace + 90s. The difference that I have noticed is that this has really improved recovery between races and also eliminated a lot of the little niggles that I used to experience.

3. The last 5 weeks between Kent Roadrunner Marathon and Potteries Marathon have consisted of nothing other than 4 mile training runs at 8:00/mile+. There have usually been 2 per day but all at 4 miles. Obviously this isn't suggesting that you can just run 4 milers and then have an enjoyable marathon but that is what we have used as the filling around the marathon building blocks below.

There's always something to learn :)

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

6th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:58/mile

7th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:05/mile

10th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 6:20/mile

13th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

14th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:02/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:54/mile

20th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

21st Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:31/mile

25th Jun: 10.0 miles @ 5:57/mile

26th Jun: 13.1 miles @ 6:11/mile

27th Jun: 3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile

27th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:15/mile

28th Jun: 6.21 miles @ 6:42/mile

1st Jul: 1.0 miles @ 5:11/mile

5th Jul: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

2015 July - Potteries Marathon 2:52:40 (Age 49) (6th)

When this blog started, which was about the comeback in 2008, it was fully expected that by 2015 it would all have been about how much time was being lost each year as the ageing process took hold.

But since that doesn't seem to have been the case just yet a new target has emerged. While looking for races the table below was stumbled upon. It lists the longest time spans between first and last sub 3 marathons.

The first reaction was to go 'wow' at the thought of someone running sub 3s 39 years apart. But then it started to become even more interesting to see that only 48 people are known to have surpassed 30 years.

The first provable sub 3 for myself was Brussels Marathon (2:52) in October 1985 and it therefore came as something of a shock to realise that Potteries (2:52) last Sunday was 29 years 9 months after the first one.

You never know what might happen from here on but hopefully the last sub 3 hasn't been run just yet and so it will be interesting to see if, firstly, I could get on that table and then, secondly, to see how far up it can be achieved.

It looks like the British record stands at 35 years 182 days and is held by the highly respected prolific runner, and Runner's World coach, Steve Smythe.

As for 39 years - that's a long long way into the future :p

Longest Time Spans Between First and Last Sub-X Marathons

Men

Sub-3:00

39y188d  15 Apr 1974 => 20 Oct 2013   Doug Kurtis (12 Mar 1952,USA)

38y271d  02 Jul 1972 => 20 Mar 2011   Dave Elger (29 Aug 1953,USA)

37y122d  17 Jun 1973 => 17 Oct 2010   Mark Lohman (18 Apr 1958,USA)

 37y101d  25 Nov 1973 => 06 Mar 2011   Rich Walker (09 Apr 1956,USA)

36y305d  16 Jan 1977 => 17 Nov 2013   Terry Permar (09 Jun 1954,USA)

36y269d  05 Dec 1976 => 31 Aug 2013   Antonio Arreola (24 Aug 1959,USA)

36y158d  07 Nov 1976 => 15 Apr 2013   Reno Stirrat (19 Apr 1954,USA)

36y110d  10 Jan 1976 => 29 Apr 2012   Don Demetriades (19 Dec 1960,USA)

36y 48d  26 Feb 1977 => 15 Apr 2013   Doug Jacobson (08 Apr 1956,USA)

36y 25d  03 Feb 1974 => 28 Feb 2010   Hideko Kita (28 Sep 1952,JPN)

35y327d  05 Nov 1978 => 28 Sep 2014   James Garcia (30 Jun 1958,USA)

35y280d  15 Jul 1978 => 21 Apr 2014   Gary Allen (29 Jan 1957,USA)

35y182d  23 Oct 1976 => 22 Apr 2012   Steve Smythe (18 Mar 1958,GBR)

35y175d  26 Oct 1974 => 19 Apr 2010   Kerry Green (05 Apr 1954,USA)

35y 90d  25 Feb 1978 => 26 May 2013   Roger Wyllie (22 Oct 1959,CAN)

34y363d  21 Apr 1975 => 19 Apr 2010   Dennis Kurtis (01 Nov 1953,USA)

34y133d  23 Apr 1966 => 03 Sep 2000   Don Ritchie (06 Jul 1944,SCO)

33y351d  05 May 1979 => 21 Apr 2013   Chris Finill (31 Dec 1958,ENG)

33y330d  19 Oct 1980 => 14 Sep 2014   Bob VanLangenhoven (14 Apr 1962,USA)

33y232d  20 Apr 1980 => 08 Dec 2013   Kirk Mueller (29 May 1961,USA)

33y190d  10 Sep 1977 => 19 Mar 2011   Terrence Stanley (05 Sep 1952,USA)

33y189d  29 Jul 1979 => 03 Feb 2013   Vladimir Kotov (21 Feb 1958,BLR)

33y137d  19 Apr 1934 => 03 Sep 1967   Johnny A Kelley (06 Sep 1907,USA)

33y 51d  14 Jan 1979 => 05 Mar 2012   Steven Schuman (18 Jul 1962,USA)

32y364d  19 Apr 1910 => 18 Apr 1943   Clarence DeMar (07 Jun 1888,USA)

32y363d  19 Apr 1967 => 17 Apr 2000   Laurence Olsen (14 Nov 1946,USA)

32y234d  25 Mar 1973 => 14 Nov 2010   Heung-Ju Moon (14 Feb 1949,KOR)

32y191d  30 Apr 1978 => 07 Nov 2010   Orlando Pizzolato (30 Jul 1958,ITA)

32y149d  08 Jul 1979 => 04 Dec 2011   Mark Murray (1962,USA)

32y113d  25 Feb 1979 => 18 Jun 2011   Dennis Wallach (19 Jul 1957,USA)

32y 95d  13 Jan 1979 => 18 Apr 2011   Budd Coates (06 Apr 1957,USA)

32y 92d  06 Dec 1959 => 07 Mar 1992   Barry Magee (06 Feb 1934,NZL)

32y 67d  12 Feb 1977 => 20 Apr 2009   Rob French (14 Jul 1958,USA)

32y 51d  20 Aug 1978 => 10 Oct 2010   Lee Pollock (07 Sep 1952,USA)

32y 11d  04 Apr 1981 => 15 Apr 2013   John Loftus (USA)

32y  9d  04 Dec 1949 => 13 Dec 1982   Keizo Yamada (30 Nov 1927,JPN)

32y  8d  02 Dec 1979 => 10 Dec 2011   Brian Baker (27 Jan 1962,USA)

31y339d  05 Nov 1978 => 10 Oct 2010   Greg Skopec (18 Nov 1961,USA)

31y329d  04 Nov 1979 => 09 Oct 2011   Peter LaGoy (21 Jul 1959,USA)

31y270d  14 Mar 1976 => 09 Dec 2007   Kaneo Hikima (11 Sep 1954,JPN)

31y268d  04 Mar 1979 => 27 Nov 2010   Bob Schwelm (03 Jan 1959,USA)

31y242d  22 Sep 1979 => 22 May 2011   Kevin Hesketh (05 Apr 1954,WAL)

31y172d  27 Oct 1979 => 17 Apr 2011   Nick Sirs (04 Jan 1957,ENG)

31y 16d  19 Apr 1971 => 05 May 2002   Don Slusser (31 Oct 1951,USA)

30y362d  20 Apr 1953 => 20 Apr 1984   John J Kelley (24 Dec 1930,USA)

30y244d  16 Aug 1980 => 17 Apr 2011   Mick McGeoch (15 Aug 1955,WAL)

30y129d  07 Nov 1982 => 16 Mar 2013   David Haaga (25 Jul 1961,USA)

30y 76d  12 Jul 1969 => 26 Sep 1999   Colin Youngson (27 Oct 1947,SCO)

Kent Roadrunner Marathon - Race Week (Week 4 of 4)

2015-06-02T11:00:00.001+01:00

Week 4 - Race Week

Mon 25/5: 6.21 miles @ 8:53/mile

Tues 26/5: 3.1 miles @ 9:42/mile

Weds 27/5: 6.21 miles @ 8:43/mile

Thurs 28/5: 4.0 miles @ 9:00/mile

Fri 29/5: 4.0 miles @ 9:00/mile

Sat 30/5: 27.0 miles incl Kent Roadrunner Marathon (4th) 2:53:34 (26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile)

Sun 31/5: 4.5 miles @ 9:01/mile

Total Mileage - 55.02 miles

So race day arrived for what promised to be a race with an abundance of eccentricity - cow themed, mid race showboating arena, free beer, the hugest medals in history and a record field of 400+, half of whom were wearing the eye catching Roadrunner vests.

Sat 30th May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 - 4th (Hannah 2:53:44 - 5th )

The scene was set - 17 laps (minus a little bit) of the 2.49km Gravesend Cyclopark was the mission:

All tense and nervous awaiting the start :

At 9am on Saturday morning, otherwise known as parkrun time, off we went:

The early pacesetters included Simon Newton in about 4th resplendent in his Union Jack Roadrunner vest:

The Race

In terms of pacing this marathon the benchmark was that 10 minute laps (9:30 for the slightly shorter first lap) would lead to an overall time of 2:49:30. The idea was to use the clock at the end of each lap primarily as a lap counter but also to compare against the benchmark of 9:30, 19:30, 29:30, 39:30 etc to get a rough idea of likely finishing time.

This was Radio 2/Radio 5Live's Vassos Alexandra who was very complimentary about my cow head :)

The course is a game of two halves, one side of the Cyclopark being downhill and the other, yep you've guessed it, all uphill. It is probably an 800 metre or so climb on each lap and is not an insignificant climb at that. For some reason though it seems to flow quite well.

The laps ticked away at just over 10 minutes for the first ten laps and then drifted a little towards 10:25-10:30 as the heat noticeably increased in the later laps, giving a finishing time of 2:53:34.

The unique nature of this event though is that there is always something of interest going on around you, from Elaine Brassngton's attempt to complete her first marathon to Simon Newton attempting to win his first marathon (both of whom were successful by the way).

Meanwhile I spent the race being chased by a fast cow:

Simon bringing it home for the sweet taste of marathon victory in 2:40:42 and setting a new course record into the bargain:

The unusual nature of this event meant that you had no idea of what position you were in and it really didn't matter. As many said on the day, it is just one big social outing with a bit of a mad professor type Race Director :)

From lap 2 onwards the 400 or so runners are spread all the way round the 2.49km circuit and it is very difficult to know who is on which lap. This probably is the feature that goes a long way to giving this event it's 'inclusive' tag. It doesn't matter what your aim/target you will feel just as much an integral part of the race as anyone else.

My own gut feeling was that my finishing position was maybe 7th or 8th but it turned out to be a pleasantly surprising 4th. Because of the sea of Union Jack Roadrunner vests and the equally ubiquitous cow themed silliness/nonsense I had no idea where Hannah was on the course.

But yet again it couldn't have been closer, a mere 10 seconds in it as she crossed the line in a new course record of 2:53:45 - and that is despite her doing a cartwheel in the showboating zone mid race.

I'm not sure that she quite gets the concepts of 'efficient running form' and 'racing line' :p

(Evidence supplied by Ian Berry):

A cartwheel in the 2nd half of a marathon? I ask you! If only she'd take this game seriously ;) :p

Class photobombing of the Ladies' Winner :)

Hannah and Simon with their huuuuge trophies and heavy bling:

Here we are with Race Director Ian Berry who couldn't take the smile of his face all day long, even when grovelling around on the course picking up discarded rubber bands :p

Two interesting things about this pic -

1. By far the most interesting of course is the amazing randomly generated numbers ;)

2. In the first 5 months of this year the 3 bods in the pic below have already completed a combined 16 marathons, all of which have been sub 3 -

Hannah (5) 2:50-2:57

Ian (6) 2:44-2:52

Steve (5) 2:48-2:54

There may just be something in this regular marathons idea, something I would have dismissed out of hand a couple of years ago!

Is this an event to be recommended?

Absolutely not! It's rubbish from start to finish and the race director is a miserable sod into the bargain.

More to the point, all the discounted first 100 entries have already been snapped up for 2016 ..... and I haven't entered yet! So if you're half tempted to enter next year's event - don't! Well, not just yet anyway ;)

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

30th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:37/mile

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

2015 May - Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2:53:34 (Age 49) (4th)

Next:

The next marathon will be the Potteries Marathon in 5 weeks, followed by the Yorkshire Marathon in 19 weeks. There will probably be another one in the meantime but they will be a bit more spaced out than the recent ones.

As the next build up will be pretty much a re-run of this build up to Roadrunner it probably won't be blogged but will resume for Yorkshire.

Kent Roadrunner Marathon (Week 3 of 4)

2015-05-26T12:39:00.003+01:00

Week 3

Week 3 of 4

Mon 18/5: 4.0 Miles @ 8:46/mile

Mon 18/5: 6.21 Miles @ 8:44/mile

Tues 19/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:21/mile

Tues 19/5: 8.0 Miles @ 8:54/mile

Weds 20/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:32/mile

Weds 20/5: 4.0 Miles incl John Carr 5k 17:31 (3.1 Miles @ 5:37/mile)

Thurs 21/5: 6.21 Miles @ 8:57/mile

Fri 22/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:08/mile

Fri 22/5: 6.21 Miles @ 8:44/mile

Sat 23/5: 4.0 Miles incl Market Harborough parkrun 17:54 (3.1 Miles @ 5:45/mile)

Sat 23/5: 3.5 Miles @ 8:38/mile

Sun 24/5: 2.0 Miles incl Bupa Westminster Mile 5:07

Total Mileage - 56.13 Miles

The penultimate week before Kent Roadrunner was very much about getting stuck into some slightly quicker stuff.

With 2 half marathons and 3 marathons in the previous 6 weeks a bit of leg sharpening wasn't going to be any bad thing, that is as long as nothing broke or fell off in the process of course!

First up was the final race in the 3-part John Carr 5k series:

Wednesday 20th June - John Carr 5k Race 3 17:31 (Hannah 18:04)

As can be seen from the start line below, a pair of well sharpened elbows don't go amiss in the frantic early stages of the John Carr races.

Standing on the start line this week it didn't feel as though there was much chance of getting anywhere near the 17:27 clockings of the first two races, so to see 17:31 at the end was a pleasant surprise.

Hannah's 18:04 took the overall series win but the First Lady on the night was none other than Susan Partridge, the UK's No.1 marathon runner in both 2013 and 2014.

The best thing about the John Carr races is that Guinness is served at very competitive rates no more than 20 metres from the finishing line :)

But just to ensure that full rehydration is achieved speedily the nice people at Saltaire Striders also give you one of these :

Saturday 23rd June - Market Harborough parkrun 17:54 (Hannah 18:33)

Saturday saw a return to Market Harborough parkrun, last visited on the way down to the London Marathon 4 weeks ago.

17:54 on what is a tight, twisty course felt like a good effort.

And here was Hannah pulling out all the stops in an effort to win the least coordinated outfit award:

Sunday 24th June - Bupa Westminster Mile 5:07 and a bit (Hannah 5:07 and an ever so slightly smaller bit)

The big event of the week this week was the Bupa Westminster Mile, which starts in The Mall, roughly at the same point as the London Marathon finishing line, and finishes in front of Buckingham Palace.

The start line:

..... and an eager bunch of parkrunners waiting to get under way:

We haven't done anything shorter than 5k for months but past experience has often led to very, very close finishes between Hannah and myself over a mile.

Of course it could be considered that she blatantly cheats by the very fact of being younger, oh and quicker, but I'd hate to be accused of making excuses ;)

The Race -

600 metres to go:

Up until this point I had no idea who was sitting right behind me but it soon became clear when Hannah made her first kick for home.

So the gauntlet was thrown down.

The best tactics now must surely be to sit and wait and go for a mad surge at the end, right? Erm, but I'm sure I had promised myself some time ago never to get into a closing stages battle against the Oldroyd kick again! Oh well, in for a penny and all that ............

50 metres to go:

Here we were after turning the final corner and not an inch was being given :

..... and with 25m to go:

........ and across the line not having a clue who had got there first!

But looking a bit more closely one numpty made the schoolboy error of putting the chip on the wrong shoe ...... and therein the seeds of my defeat were sown :p

Just look at those shorts:

What is amazing is that some bloke in another heat managed to get a time that that placed him between the two of us!

Anyway, times of 5:07 and 5:07 represented road mile PBs for both of us, so the battle to the finish line delivered the goods :)

And considering the fact that the Female British Championship Mile was won in 4:39 by Rachel Bamford on the same course a few minutes later, 5:07 for a Guinness Swilling, marathon running, Alfette Tupperware is not too shabby at all :)

All happy, smiling faces after the finish (pic courtesy of James Lampert) - James Lampert, Hannah Oldroyd, Steve Darby, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, Danny Norman, Matt Lambourne

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

20th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:37/mile

23rd May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

24th May: 1.0 mile @ 5:07/mile

Next Week:

With such a short build up for this one, we are already into the taper week, and with Kent Roadrunner being at 9am on Saturday morning quite a short taper week it is too.

It will simply be a week of alternating 5ks and 10ks at the usual 8:00/mile +, a very relaxed week and then 17 laps of the Gravesend Cyclopark, which is not at all flat. In fact, it is decidedly lumpy so getting the pacing right will be as important as ever.

Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2015 (Week 2 of 4)

2015-05-18T10:22:00.003+01:00

Week 2 of 4

Mon 11/5: 4.0 Miles @ 8:46/mile

Mon 11/5: 4.0 Miles @ 8:38/mile

Tues 12/5: 4.0 Miles @ 8:39/mile

Tues 12/5: 6.21 Miles @ 8:27/mile

Weds 13/5: 4.0 Miles @ 8:57/mile

Weds 13/5: 4.0 Miles incl John Carr 5k 17:27 (3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile)

Thurs 14/5: 4.0 Miles @ 8:53/mile

Thurs 14/5: 10.0 Miles @ 8:32/mile

Fri 15/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:00/mile

Fri 15/5: 6.21 Miles @ 8:25/mile

Sat 16/5: 4.0 Miles incl Perry Hall parkrun 17:53 (3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile)

Sun 17/5: 14.0 Miles incl Chester Half Marathon 1:19:21 (13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile)

Sun 17/5: 3.1 Miles @ 8:31/mile

Total Mileage - 71.52 Miles

With this week being only the second week post Belfast marathon it was going to be interesting to see how things would hold together during what would be the nearest thing to a 'normal' week, ie 70+ miles with 3 decent efforts in the mix.

Weds 13th May - John Carr 5K Race 2 17:27 (Hannah 17:46)

It was good to see another 17:27 clocking in race 2, exactly the same time as race 1.

The Race 1 effort has since been declared invalid due to a short course, so this represented a bit of an improvement on the week before and certainly felt better, so good news all round on the marathon recovery front.

As it is only a couple of weeks to the Kent Roadrunner marathon, Hannah took the opportunity to give the rather noticeable Roadrunner marathon vest an airing:

The Roadrunner supremo, Ian Berry, saw this and commented that the vest made Hannah look taller than usual so someone decided that it may be a good idea for me to have one too to elongate my appearance.

All well and good but how was I to know that this package was for me when it arrived? :

Sat 16th May - Perry Hall parkrun 17:53 (Hannah 18:10)

Another encouraging effort came out of the visit to Perry Hall parkrun on Saturday, the venue for this year's parkrun ambassadors get together:

Sunday 17th May - Chester Half Marathon 1:19:21 (Hannah 1:20:20)

As usual with the ambassador's event, Saturday evening rolls into Sunday morning. On this occasion the last Guinness was being consumed close to 2am.

As a result, there were no great expectations for the Chester Half Marathon starting at 9am.

0-10 miles 1:00:34 (Hannah 1:01:55)

It took a little bit of effort to get going in the early stages due to the previous evening's shenanigans but slowly but surely the race started to flow quite nicely.

1:00:34 at 10 miles compared to 1:02:01 a week earlier in the Leeds HM. Even taking into account the easier terrain this still felt a lot stronger reflecting the difference between being 13 days post-marathon to being just 6 days post-marathon at Leeds.

But how would the final 5k hold up?

10-13.1 Miles 1:19:21 (Hannah 1:20:20)

At Leeds the final 5K took 19:52 and felt like wearing lead boots.

One week on and the legs were happy to get stuck into this last section with a fair degree of enthusiasm. The result was 18:47 despite a stiff climb in the final mile and an improvement in placing from 43rd to 33rd.

This meant that the first 10 miles had averaged 6:03/mile and the final 5K had also averaged 6:03/mile.

First thoughts were that there couldn't be much, if any, residual marathon effect left if the legs could bounce along like that for 13 miles. Happy days :)

Further confirmation of those thoughts came very swiftly!

Hannah's Race

Hannah went through 5 miles and 10 miles (1:01:55) quicker than her previous PBs for those distances, an average of 6:11/mile for those first 10 miles.

It would have been no surprise if the last 5K had been something of a struggle after that. However, there was now a race on and an attempt to chase down Rachel Cave in 2nd.

The Checkpoint Standings:

10K:

Hannah 38:09 (81st/4th female)

Rachel 37:00 (52nd/2nd female)

10 Miles:

Hannah 1:01:55 (71st/3rd female)

Rachel 1:01:21 (59th/2nd female)

Finish:

Hannah 1:20:20 (52nd/2nd female)

Rachel 1:20:35 (57th/3rd female)

Rachel had a strong finish to cover the last 5k in 19:14 (6:11/mile).

But Hannah had a target in front of her and somehow pulled out an uphill final 5k of 18:25! In other words she had accelerated to 5:56/mile or 1:17:xx half marathon pace.

Where was the marathon fatigue?

Tracking Data:

1	Teresiah Omosa	Unattached	1:15:37
2	Hannah Oldroyd	UKnetrunner.co.UK	1:20:23
3	Rachel Cave	Higham Harriers AC	1:20:35

The ladies podium - Rachel Cave, Teresiah Omosa, Hannah Oldroyd:

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

13th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

16th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

17th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:03/mile

Next Week :

As the penultimate week before Kent Roadrunner Marathon the aim will be to get another 70+ mile week in with 3 shorter efforts -

1. John Carr 5k Race 3

2. A parkrun

3. The Westminster Mile on Sunday.

It is always an interesting experience to shock the body with a flat out mile. Hopefully it will be marginally quicker than when running much of the same route at the end of this year's London Marathon!

Kent Roadrunner Marathon 2015 (Week 1 of 4)

2015-05-11T11:00:00.003+01:00

The intention was to blog for the 12 weeks up to London and then give it a rest for a while on the basis that you can only post 'more of the same' type stuff for so long before eye lids start to droop.

However, with the next marathon build up being a very short one, it might provide a bit of interest to see how well things can bounce back, or otherwise, after the 3 marathons in 4 weeks.

So this is what the next one is all about, the Kent Roadrunner medal. This was the medal on display at the London Marathon Expo, it is large and chunky so a few neck strengthening exercises may have to be built into this next 4 weeks.

Week 1 of 4

Mon 4/5: 27.0 Miles incl Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (28th) (26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile)

Tues 5/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:31/mile

Weds 6/5: 4.0 Miles incl John Carr 5k 17:27 (3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile)

Thurs 7/5: 8.0 Miles @ 9:01/mile

Fri 8/5: 8.0 Miles @ 9:04/mile

Sat 9/5: 4.0 Miles incl Bradford parkrun 18:29 (3.1 miles @ 5:57/mile)

Sat 9/5: 4.0 Miles @ 9:31/mile

Sun 10/5: 14.0 Miles incl. Leeds Half Marathon 1:21:53 (13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile)

Total Mileage - 73.0 Miles

Monday 4th April - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (28th)

This event was covered in the last post so the question now turns to how hard is it going to be to recover from the combination of Canberra, London and Belfast marathons in the last 4 weeks?

(Thanks to Terry Lonergan for the photographic artwork)

Wednesday 6th May - John Carr 5k Race 1 (17:27)

The John Carr 5k races are a series of 3 events in successive weeks organised by Saltaire Striders at Esholt (where the original Emmerdale Farm was filmed).

With the first race falling just 2 days after Belfast Marathon it promised to be quite an ouchey affair. It had to be approached cautiously, at least early on, just in case.

But, surprisingly, it felt pretty much untroubled from the start and resulted in an equalling of the road 5k PB of 17:27, exactly the same as the time at Podium 5k a few weeks ago.

Was this a fluke of some sort? Well, Hannah also had the same experience and clocked a new PB of 17:34.

Clearly if you were actually targeting a 5k PB you wouldn't plan to run a marathon 2 days before, or 3 in the 4 weeks before, so what happened here? It isn't as if 5k is a rarely run distance, we race loads of them. Maybe, just maybe, it is actually the perfect build up for attempting a 5k PB but not many people are daft enough to try racing a 5k just two days after a marathon to find out?

Who knows?

It was a pleasant surprise anyway so a celebratory pint of Guinness was had with Tony Streams of Reading Road Runners:

Sunday 10th May - Leeds Half Marathon (1:21:53)

There was no intention to run this race until Wednesday, ie after we had seen how the legs had coped with the John Carr 5k.

As entries were still open we joined the other 9,000 or so entrants for this challenging course:

From the elevation profile, the approach had to be similar to Belfast six days earlier, ie a very cautious first half followed by a push in the second half. However, even with a cautious start there was no expectation of much of a push being available towards the end.

0-10 miles (1:02:01)

All the main lumpiness was in the first 10 miles so to see a time of 62 minutes was good. A time like that for a flat 10 miler in perfect conditions in the same week as a marathon would have been pleasing enough, so this was a good sign that marathon recovery was progressing pretty well.

10-13.1 miles (1:21:53)

It was always going to be this last 5k that was likely to be a struggle and, sure enough, that is how it turned out. There wasn't too much in the way of falling apart but there was just no ability to push on, a case of letting the remaining distance pass by rather than attacking it.

It felt heavy legged, so to see that the time for the last 5k was 19:52 was not bad at all.

Turning around after finishing, I first saw this (a rather exuberant John Robson enjoying his day :) ) :

..... and then this:

So, not only had Hannah held together ok after a very unconventional week, she had actually won the 2015 Leeds Half Marathon in a time of 1:23:13 :)

This was Roslyn Holmes (Eadie), Hannah, Lord Mayor David Congreve and Nicola Gleadall:

As Hannah credits the fact that she is running at all to Chris and Tracey Healey and the Airedale Dodgers, a hospital based running group at Airedale General, it was good to see the vest getting plenty publicity on Sunday.

And here they were post race leading us astray again ;)

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

26th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile

4th May: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile

6th May: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

10th May: 13.1 miles @ 6:15/mile

Next Week:

As things stand at the moment the week is likely to include the 2nd race in the John Carr 5k series on Wednesday, Perry Hall parkrun on Saturday and Chester Half Marathon on Sunday.

Hopefully a total of 70+ miles with the rest being made up of the usual lazy stuff :)

Belfast City Marathon 2015

2015-05-05T11:53:00.000+01:00

After completing London it seemed like a nice time gap to the next marathon, ie 5 weeks before Kent Roadrunner. That sort of gap gives time to recover, get another 2-3 weeks of good mileage in and regain full strength again before lining up to face 26.2 miles once more.

Great in theory. The fly in the ointment came when at some point on Monday it was mentioned that Belfast City Marathon was only 7 days away and it was on a Bank Holiday. Hmmmm. The usual sense check of 'if it still seems like a good idea in the morning then ...... ' was put in place.

It still seemed like a really bad idea the next morning so I have no idea how we ended up entered and on our way to Belfast.

Week 1 of 1

Mon 27/4: 3.1 miles (no time) Dulwich parkun Freedom

Tues 28/4: 3.1 miles @ 9:43/mile

Tues 28/4: 6.21 miles @ 8:23/mile

Weds 29/4: 6.21 miles @ 9:33/mile

Thurs 30/4: 3.1 miles @ 9:25/mile

Fri 1/5: 5.6 miles @ 8:31/mile

Sat 2/5: 4.0 miles incl Wilmslow parkrun (3.1 miles @ 6:45/mile)

Sun 3/5: 3.1 miles @ 8:52/mile Bangor parkrun Freedom

Total Mileage - 30.42 miles

Mon 4/5: 26.21 miles @ 6:40/mile Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (28th/2nd V45)

Mon 27th April:

First things first and a trip to Dulwich Park to start working the London Marathon out of the legs.

We were joined by Dean Allaway and Kerri French, still basking in the afterglow of her first marathon completion.

The rest of the week was the usual running at whatever pace felt comfortable.

The only aim was to get some blood flow going to promote any repair work without straining too much. By consuming plenty of protein as well, hopefully a week would be enough to get the majority of any lost muscle strength back. Time would tell ......

Sat 2nd May - Wilmslow parkrun (20:58)

Even though the parkrun was two days before Belfast rather than the usual day before situation it was still important to keep the effort level to no higher than the equivalent of what the first 5k at Belfast was going to be.

This was a lesson learnt last October when putting a full effort in at Castlebar parkrun two days before Dublin Marathon, the price was paid in the closing stages of the marathon.

Mon 4th May - Belfast City Marathon (2:54:54)

On the Saturday evening we had stayed in Cushendall, which is about 35 miles north of Belfast. That evening in Cushendall had winds reaching 40mph so it is was great to wake up on marathon morning and see that the forecasts had been correct, sunny with just a mild breeze.

The scene around City Hall in the centre of Belfast a few minutes before the 9am start:

As can be seen from the route map, the course has been designed to take in most areas around Belfast. Previous years have seen the route changed to something flatter but apparently this hillier version was reinstated by popular request as it was deemed to give the race more character.

Roughly speaking it was going to be generally uphill to 15 miles and then any headwinds would be encountered on the way back into the city after 17 miles. We had a rough idea of the area already but decided to have a drive around the course on Sunday evening. This turned out to be a very good move.

The Race:

0-10 miles (1:07:06)

There was going to be no heroics trying to push the pace along in the first 10 miles knowing the course layout.

An undulating 5 mile loop took us out to the City Airport and then back into the city centre before heading up the Falls Road and around the various residential areas.

Around the Crumlin Road area at 8.5 miles the course goes through what is now referred to as the Peace Line. A large explosive device was discovered around this point on Friday night but such is the resolve of the Belfast people that you would never know, it was strictly business as usual.

A sign of just how welcoming people were was summed up by a sign outside one house saying 'Marathon Runners - You are most welcome to come in and use our bathroom facilities'. Nice touch.

This picture was just after running through the Peace Line taken by Mark Ramsey. I was really enjoying myself here but mindful that there was probably 6 miles of climbing still to do:

And this was Hannah smiling along at the same point:

10 Miles - Halfway (1:27:47)

20:40 for the 5k between 10 miles and halfway felt like a real confidence booster.

Usually a good solid mid marathon 5k is around the 20:00 mark but this section had been mostly up the incline of Antrim Road while trying to be cautious so 20:40 while regularly gaining places seemed pretty good.

Halfway - 20 Miles (2:13:13)

The second 10 miles had been roughly 4 miles uphill, 1.5 miles downhill and then 4.5 miles flat along the banks of the River Lagan into a variable headwind.

The first 10 had taken 1:07:06, followed by the second 10 in 1:06:07.

Considering that all the tough stuff (terrain wise) was now out of the way and the legs and energy levels were feeling pretty perky, I was quite looking forward to tackling the last 10k to see if it was all going to hold together better than last week.

20 Miles - The Finish (2:54:54)

With the way things were feeling at 20 miles it felt reasonable to have a go at running the last 10k in 40:00 (ie 2:48 marathon pace).

This may have been on the cards if, as expected, the final section was flat. However, a mile long uphill drag up to 25 miles took the edge off the finishing pace. It didn't matter though, feeling strong and still gaining places was quite a surprise 7 days after London. And it was sunny so there was a real feel good factor to the closing stages.

A negative split of 1:27:47, 1:27:07 was definitely a direct result of the drive around the course on Sunday evening and turned 52nd place at halfway into 28th place by the finish line.

It was an unexpected pleasure to be immediately greeted, and be presented with the finisher's medal, by the lovely Mags Mathieson:

And ever the multi tasker, Mags also doubled up as finish line photographer:

For the first time in several marathons the course had no switchback points and therefore I had no idea how Hannah had been getting on.

Three elite women had already finished and shortly after crossing the line it looked like there were several women in the the short finishing straight all together. This could be very entertaining as each place was worth quite a bit of prize money.

First in was Sharon Barlow competing in her first marathon to record 2:56:57 for 4th place:

Then, just 17 seconds behind Sharon there was an eyeballs out sprint taking place between Hannah and Teresa McCluskey-Duffy, a battle that Hannah finally won by 2 seconds to take 5th place.

Little did we know at the time but Teresa was the former Northern Ireland record holder and Commonwealth Games marathoner, narrowly missing out on a medal at the Manchester Commonwealth Games :

The 7th place lady was just a mere 8 seconds further back, followed shortly afterwards by the 2014 Yorkshire Marathon Winner Shona Fletcher.

This image of Shona and Hannah was captured by the BBC and used as one of their selected images in their news coverage of the event:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-32573187

The amazing thing about the outcome of this race, considering it hadn't even been on the radar 6 days earlier, is that it looks like both of us have ended up with the biggest prizes ever won from running. For my part that is more a reflection that I've never won 'owt .... but still welcome :)

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

2015 May - Belfast City Marathon 2:54:54 (Age 48)

Next .............

The next marathon will be Kent Roadrunner in 4 weeks time. There is Zero, zilch, 0% chance of any other marathon just happening to get squeezed in in the meantime !!!!

London Marathon (Week 12 of 12) - Race Week

2015-04-29T09:01:00.002+01:00

London Marathon Race Week

The final week of the 2015 London Marathon build up started with us still 15,000km away in Perth enjoying 30c temperatures. Since most London Marathons are a bit of a struggle due to a sudden unexpected heatwave on marathon weekend then we might just be at an advantage this time around, already being acclimatised to such conditions. Or then again .......

Week 12

Mon 20/4: 3.1 miles @ 8:50/mile Joondalup parkrun

Mon 20/4: 3.1 miles @ 8:51/mile Carine Glades parkrun

Tues 21/4: Rest Day - Flight from Oz

Weds 22/4: 6.6 miles @ 8:59/mile Bingley

Thurs 23/4: 3.1 miles @ 9:07/mile Bngley

Fri 24/4: 6.21 miles @ 9:06/mile Leeds Liverpool Canal

Sat 25/4: 4.0 miles incl. Market Harborough parkrun 20:42 (3.1 miles @ 6:41/mile)

Sun 26/4: 26.21 miles London Marathon 2:50:55 (26.21 miles @ 6:32/mile)

Total Mileage - 52.3 miles

Mon 20th April - Joondalup parkrun, Neil Hawkins Park

As the flights home were on Monday evening there was still time for another couple of new parkrun courses (making a total of 24 Australian parkrun courses visited over the 5 weeks).

About 12 miles north of Perth, Joondalup was first up. By this stage of the holiday it had become almost an expectation that the next venue would be set in breathtaking scenery, and sure enough Joondalup also delivered the goods:

After a second Freedom parkrun at Carine Glades it was time to set off for home.

Following a stop over in Doha, the final leg took a surprising route up the Arabian Gulf and into Iraq, flying over Baghdad and Mosul. Apparently Virgin, Air France and Emirates, amongst others, view flying over Iraq as too dangerous.

Apparently this is due a belief that ISIS militants in Iraq have possession of Syrian supplied weapons capable of reaching planes at 30,000ft+, so it was an interesting choice of route to say the least!

Saturday 25th April - Market Harborough inaugural parkrun (20:42)

The choice of pre-marathon parkrun venue wasn't made until we were nearly there but it turned out to be a very good choice. Wellands Park is quite small but works really well as a parkrun venue.

Unfortunately events were overshadowed by a medical emergency shortly into the run but the response of the new team at Market Harborough, the parkrun ambassadors Julie and Mark Thompson and the emergency services was exemplary.

Saturday 25th April - Carb Time

For the pre-race meal we met up with the remarkably calm Kerri French about to tackle her first marathon, Dean Allaway and Stu Wallace fresh from his 3:05:04 PB at Manchester last week.

Just to put that in context, since 2010 Stu's marathon times have progressed as follows :

6:01:30, 5:05:48, 3:57:39, 3:17:02, 3:10:25 and now 3:05:04.

VMLM 2015 - The Race

As can be seen from below, our preparations for warm weather conditions were not fully utilised:

VMLM 2015 - The Race

The first priority as the race got under way was to get warmed up. It wasn't clear whether it was just down to being a shock to the system after the last 5 weeks or simply that it was actually bloody freezing but in the minutes before the start uncontrolled teeth clattering set in!

0-10k (39:59) (Hannah 40:48)

Anyway, after getting some initial warmth going it was a case of just relaxing into the early stages and ignoring the ridiculous frantic barging and jostling at unsustainable speeds that goes on at VMLM.

The roll out down to Cutty Sark at 10K is an easy start to a marathon and is a chance to get everything warmed up without straining anything.

By now the 'tick over' speed had been established and gave an indication of how well recovered the legs were from Canberra 14 days ago.

Anything around 4:00/km was fine as that is 2:48:xx pace and would provide a solid base for launching a PB attempt later in proceedings. 39:59 couldn't be much closer to 4:00/km.

10k-20k (39:58) (Hannah 40:08)

20k is in the middle of Tower Bridge. Constant effort through this section will generally lead to going backwards a good few places as the Tower Bridge Surge takes effect.

This is where the overwhelming wall of noise and encouragement on the bridge can easily lead runners, especially first timers, into subconsciously lifting the tempo and getting carried away with the atmosphere.

It is still relatively early days so keeping it all nice and calm was the aim. Again, 4:00/km seemed to be bang on the default pace.

20k-30k (39:49) (Hannah 39:53)

The next 10k section loops around Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs.

It was feeling a good bit more relaxed than previous years through this section with emptier roads. It made sense once that I had realised that, although the pace was in line with the last few marathons, it was actually a good bit quicker than any of the previous runs around London.

Being about 10 mins ahead of previous London efforts makes a very big difference to the density of runners and so I was really enjoying being able to flow through this section relatively unobstructed compared to previous years.

30k-40k (41:19) (Hannah 40:20)

30k is usually the point where an initial sense of some kind of finishing time is established.

Based on the very stable 2:48:xx pace up to this point there seemed like a good chance of pushing that into 2:47 or possibly 2:46 territory. Obviously, things can still change dramatically but those were the general thoughts going into the last 12k.

Through the next 5k, ie 18.6-21.7 miles, it was good to feel how strong the legs were feeling as this was likely to be where any lingering effects from Canberra were going to show up.

All was well until between 23-24 miles a general feeling of queasiness started to appear. It wasn't that bad and felt like something which would just pass but it needed a bit of easing back to help it sort itself out.

By 25 miles it hadn't got any worse but nor had it sorted itself out. This meant that even if it did now clear up, the chances of pushing on to a time in PB territory had now gone. Nonetheless, a controlled run down Birdcage Walk and into the Mall was still going to give a pretty decent time for the 3rd marathon in 7 weeks.

The picture below is at about 25 miles (in black to the right of the pic) and shows a face concentrating on trying to stop things getting messy :p

Over to the left of the picture in the red, white and blue Hannah is just about to come up alongside. A quick calculation suggested that even though I had slowed a bit over the last couple of miles, it was only by a minute or so and as such Hannah was probably going well into PB territory, 2:52:10 being the target.

40k-42.2k (9:50) (Hannah 8:58)

Hannah was able to push on well over the final 2.2k to land a 2:50:07 PB and 26th place. Not bad at all :)

Meanwhile, 2:50:55 for myself represented a triumph over the queasiness. However, when a finish line marshall immediately came over and squeezed around my stomach he got quite a frosty reception. Luckily Hannah was on hand to apologise on my behalf as I skulked off to recover in a corner.

Finish (2:50:55) (Hannah 2:50:07)

The Splits:

Other selected performances:

Julia Belyavin had a superb run to crack 2:50 for the first time with 2:49:39. After spending what seemed like an eternity doing battle with, before finally conquering, the 3 hour barrier she has now leapt forward a further 10 minutes with confidence:

This was Julia and Hannah in the same picture at about 25 miles:

Possibly the performance of the day goes to Lee Smith. After being hit by a car midweek he must have been doubtful even to make the start line.

However, after being rebuilt in true Steve Austen style he went on to smash his PB from Abingdon last year by 4 minutes with 2:43:39.

Here he is in the orange of Barnsley Harriers almost looking like an athlete ;)

And how did Kerri French get on with her first attempt at conquering the marathon? I'll let her tell you herself:

https://kezzabumpkinscanrun.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/well-i-only-went-and-did-it/

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon 2:50:55 (Age 48)

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

Discussion Points:

Jumping back to the start of the 12 week blog, this was 'The Plan':

The Plan

As with previous build ups the plan is to keep things simple and relaxed. This means a good volume of slow mileage with no particular interest in what the actual pace is, just that it is relaxed. In practice this usually means that the bulk of mileage will be somewhere in the range 8:00-9:00/mile.

The other main ingredient is to race regularly with the emphasis on varying the distances from 5k - Marathon. So, even though this is a 12 week build up to London there will be another marathon, and possibly two, in the meantime along with races at 20 miles, 30k, 2 x HMs, 2 x 10 miles and plenty shorter races/parkruns.

The basic principle of 'run plenty miles and run a few of them a bit quicker' is complicated enough for me and has provided some brilliantly enjoyable experiences over the last couple of years.

Some people may think that this is very unscientific and probably sub optimal. They may well be correct but it really doesn't matter, what does matter is that it is a thoroughly enjoyable way to get a lot of varied and memorable experiences from this running lark :)

The Results:

'We are all an experiment of one' is an oft quoted, and very true, maxim.

However, as Hannah and myself are usually pretty closely matched and have the same training inputs that old maxim can justifiably be changed to 'an experiment of two'.

So, the last 12 weeks have produced the following marathons:

Hannah- 2:52:40 (1st), 2:54:26 (2nd), 2:50:07

Me- 2:48:10 (5th), 2:52:10 (15th), 2:50:55

The fascinating thing is that I couldn't have dreamt of running three marathons at those sort of times within a 7 week period training as per conventional training plans.

The Training

To summarise the last 12 weeks:

1. LSRs - 0

2. Interval Sessions - 0

3. Midweek runs faster than 8:00/mile - 0

The simple approach of slow, shortish runs midweek coupled with lots of racing at all distances has produced much more controlled marathon performances.

Also, racing marathons more regularly has been a revelation in terms of how the body recovers. Twelve successive sub 3s in the last 18 months is way beyond what I thought was possible in such a short period. Going into a marathon now two weeks after the previous one feels more comfortable than previously when it may have been 6 months since the last one.

50 or so marathons gone and still lots to learn :)

Next

The next marathon lined up is in 5 weeks time, The Kent Roadrunner Marathon ........ that is unless something else comes up in the meantime!

London Marathon 2015 (Week 11 of 12)

2015-04-20T09:24:00.003+01:00

Week 11

Week 11 was the penultimate week before the London Marathon but it was also, of course, a marathon recovery week after Canberra last Sunday.

This actually made things quite straightforward with the emphasis on getting as much protein into the diet as was practicable whilst at the same time keeping runs short and slow to give the muscles and connective tissues a fighting chance of recovering full strength relatively quickly.

This was also our last full week in Australia so there was still plenty exploring still to do, especially after flying over to Perth on Monday, providing a whole new playground to run amok in :)

After 8 relatively short and easy mid week runs, the weekend consisted of a parkrun at Dawesville, about 40-50 miles south of Perth, on Saturday and a Gallipoli Remembrance 10k at King's Park in the centre of Perth on Sunday. The combination of the two would give a good idea how the muscles were coming along.

Mon 13/4: 3.1 miles @ 9:02/mile 28:01 Bowral parkrun Freedom (Bong Bong Common)

Tues 14/4: 6.21 miles @ 9:13/mile incl Claisbroke Cove parkrun Freedom

Weds 15/4: 4.0 miles @ 8:16/mile Heirrison Island parkrun Freedom

Weds 15/4 7.0 miles @ 8:30/mile Kings Park, Perth

Thurs 16/4 4.0 miles @ 8:47/mile incl Claisbroke Cove parkrun Freedom

Thurs 16/4 12.0 miles @ 9:00/mile Caversham to Perth

Fri 17/4 3.1 miles @ 8:57/mile Bibra Lakes parkrun Freedom

Fri 17/4 3.1 miles @ 8:40/mile Rockingham parkrun Freedom

Sat 18/4 4.0 miles incl Dawesville parkrun 17:39 (3.1 miles @5:40/mile)

Sat 18/4 3.1 miles @ 8:18/mile Canning River parkrun Freedom

Sun 19/4 7.0 incl Bankwest Gallipoli 10k 35:15 (5.8 miles @6:04/mile)

Sun 19/4 3.1 miles @ 8:32/mile Cottisloe parkrun Freedom

Total Mileage - 59.7 miles

Monday 13th April - Bowral parkrun Freedom (Bong Bong Common)

The first post marathon run was a visit to Bong Bong Common on the trip up from Canberra to Sydney to have a look at the Bowral parkrun course. To be fair, even if there hadn't been a parkrun course there we would probably have been unable to resist running around a place with a name like that:

Wednesday 15th April - Heirrison Island parkrun Freedom

Wednesday morning involved a short run out to Heirrison Island, a parkrun venue with a difference.

Just across the road from the famous WACA cricket ground, Heirrison Island offers a chance to run a parkrun with an audience of kangaroos. There's not much chance of them joining in though, 5k is far too energetic for their liking:

Wednesday 15th April - King's Park, Perth

Later in the day a 7 mile run around King's Park next to the city centre convinced us that we wanted to enter the 10k Gallipoli run that was due to be held here on Sunday. The phrase 'stunning setting' has been much used in the last few weeks but it would be difficult for anyone to argue that this wasn't one:

Thursday 16th April - Caversham to Perth

Thursday involved a bus trip out to Caversham Nature Reserve and then running the 12 miles back into Perth.

The main discovery of the day was that kangaroos and Labradors have plenty in common. 'Please tickle my chest, Mr Human ........'

Friday 17th April - Rockingham parkrun Freedom

Rockingham must provide the ultimate in parkrun PB potential!

A flat, fast out and back course with the added bonus of snakes loitering on either side of the path. What more incentive could you need to get a shift on? :p

Saturday 18th April - Dawesville parkrun (17:39)

So, 6 days after the Canberra Marathon and the first opportunity to give the legs a bit of a test.

Surprise, surprise .... out pops the fastest parkrun of the year with a 5:40/mile 17:39 clocking. Then again, it may not be as much of a surprise as it first appears since the previous fastest parkrun of the year was a 17:54 at Melton Mowbray, which was 6 days after Wrexham Marathon.

This tends to suggest that upping the frequency of marathons has dramatically improved the recovery rate, especially of fast twitch fibres. In years gone by the next parkrun following a marathon tended to be a real struggle and a good minute or more slower than usual.....

In terms of unique features, Dawesville had dolphins in the bay next to the start/finish line breakfasting on the local fish stocks. Where else do you get that?

Sunday 18th April - Bank West Gallipoli 10K Run, King's Park, Perth (35:14 (13th))

ANZAC day is the biggest national day of the year in Australia, a day with commemorates the landings at Gallipoli in the WW1 and this year it is going to be bigger than ever due to being the 100th anniversary.

There will be no parkruns in Australia next Saturday (25th) to make way for all the early morning events taking place.

The 10k run in King's Park on Sunday was also part of the ANZAC remembrance events. It turned out to be a tough hilly course and was undoubtedly short, being about 5.8 miles, but that was of little interest once we started to learn of the background of the young man in the picture below with Hannah.

This is John Gilmour, a 96 year old ex POW, held by the Japanese for three years before returning to Fremantle after the war severely malnourished, blind and weighing about 40kg.

Despite the punishment his body had been through he became a legendary distance runner in Australia. He currently holds numerous age group world records including running a 1:17 half marathon as a V65. A bit of Googling and his story keeps getting more fascinating ....

Sunday 18th April - Cottisloe parkrun Freedom

As the Gallipoli 10k event kicked off at 7am, it was all over by 8am.

So another spot of Freedom parkrunning down the coast at Cottisloe, which held it's inaugural the day before, before an afternoon soaking up the sun down on the beach and then a spot of Mancester Marathon tracking down in Fremantle. At least that was the plan but the tracker seemed to get all it's bits and bytes in a bit of a knot and spewed out a pile of nonsense for most of the race.

Nonetheless, big congratulations go to stand out performances for:

Kelvin Dickinson 2:43:08

Steve Middleton 2:42:54

Ben Hartley 2:58:06

Keith Littlewood 2:50:02

Tony Aimon 2:52:27

Mark Ramsey 3:45:43

Chris Singleton 2:33:15

Christina Singleton 2:58:46

PBs all round except Kelvin who was a mere minute or so off :)

London Marathon next week ..........

So, how are things shaping up for London? With a near enough 24 hour flight between now and then it is difficult to tell.

On the plus side, the marathon building blocks below look solid enough and the recovery from Canberra seems to have been pretty swift from the evidence so far but it won't really become too clear how well recovered until somewhere around the Isle Of Dogs next Sunday.

The Red Lion awaits .........

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

18th April: 3.1 miles @ 5:40/mile

19th April: 5.8 miles @ 6:04/mile

London Marathon 2015 (Week 10 of 12)

2015-04-11T08:12:00.001+01:00

Week 10

The 10th week certainly goes down as another memorable one, both in terms of running locations and for the little race that we took part in as our final run of the week, The Canberra ACT Marathon.

The midweek runs were mainly Freedom parkruns at some stunning locations around New South Wales apart from Monday's 6 miler around Centennial Park and Sydney Cricket Ground, little did we know at the time that this venue was going to be at the forefront of world attention a couple of days later.

Although the week looks like a planned parkrun tour, it was more a case of parkrun courses happening to be nearby as we went about our exploring of Australia. It really does hit home just how parkrun has caught the imagination just as enthusiastically in Oz has it has back in the UK.

Week 10 of 12 (Mon 6/4 - Sun 12/4)

Mon 6/4 : 6.0 miles @ 8:45mile (Centennial Park and Sydney Cricket Ground)

Tues 7/4 : 3.1 miles @ 8:36/mile (Parramatta parkrun Freedom)

Tues 7/4 : 3.1 miles @ 8:34/mile (Penrith Lakes parkrun Freedom)

Weds 8/4 : 3.1 miles @ 9:28/mile (Blackheath, Blue Mountains)

Thurs 9/4 : 3.1 miles @ 8:53/mile (Lawson parkrun Freedom)

Thurs 9/4 : 3.1 miles @ 8:47/mile (Campbelltown parkrun Freedom)

Fri 10/4 : 3.1 miles @ 9:00/mile (Shellharbour parkrun Freedom)

Sat 11/4 : 4.0 miles incl Ginninderra parkrun 20:00 (3.1 miles @ 6:27/mile)

Sun 12/4 : 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile Canberra Marathon 2:52:10 (15th)

Total Mileage - 54.8 miles

Mon 6th April - Centennial Park & Sydney Cricket Ground :

The famous Sydney Cricket Ground was taken in on our final run in Sydney before heading off for a couple of days in the Blue Mountains:

Tues 7th April - Parramatta parkrun :

On the way to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains there was an opportunity to take in a couple of parkrun venues with an Olympic connection.

Firstly, Parramatta parkrun is directly on the other side of the Parramatta river to the Olympic Park for Sydney 2000. It may not be too apparent from this photo but trust me there is a fully fledged Olympic park hiding behind those trees:

Tuesday 7th April - Penrith Lakes parkrun :

A couple of hours later the venue was Penrith Lakes, which was the event centre for the rowing events at Sydney 2000.

Now this is my kind of parkrun course - a 2km long course which provides a full 5k by running one loop. A parkrun where it is impossible to get lost, nirvana :) :)

Wednesday 8th April - Jenolah Caves :

While in the Black Mountains, it is a must to visit the underground cave network at Jenolah. This is nothing to do with running but is included here simply because the two tours that we undertook involved approx 950 steps according to the guides.

This may have either a negative or positive effect on a marathon 3-4 days later so is worth noting for future reference:

Sat 11th April - Ginninderra parkrun (20:00)

After another three Freedom parkruns at Lawson, Campbelltown and Shellharbour on Thursday and Friday it was then on to Canberra for the official parkrun at Ginninderra, a course set in breathtaking scenery. The photos don't really do it justice but this was one parkrun you just didn't want to end.

A time of 20:00 was in line with the kind of time run in other recent pre marathon parkruns, ie approx a dress rehearsal of the first 5k of the marathon the next day.

Sun 12th April - 2015 Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (15th)

As we hadn't run a marathon since Wrexham on 8th March, a whole 5 weeks ago, a ready made opportunity to enjoy a 26.2 mile tour of the Australian capital was too hard to resist. London may be only 2 weeks away but, from recent experience, quirky build ups can often be more informative than the text book alternative.

So onto the race and the earliest I've ever had to get my carcass to the start line of a marathon- 6:25am!

At least that was the aim but at 6:22am there were still 3 people ahead in the loo queue. Was I really in the Australian capital early on a Sunday morning trying desperately to calculate the average time of a runners pre-race poo?

Starting between the old parliament building, a very impressive place to have a look around, and the Aboriginal tent embassy this promised to be a marathon course with plenty of interest.

The course

The course had been changed from previous years to make it more interesting:

However, as a result of these changes there was now a pretty testing second half and both Hannah and myself found the road surface to be hard going in comparison with other road marathons.

There were also a whole host of turnaround points, which ordinarily would be bad news for me but thankfully most of them were actually large roundabouts which were fine for accommodating my oil tankeresque turning techniques.

When you get views like this mid run though the changes were probably worth it:

(Photo courtesy of Becky Chant)

The race

So off we went at 6:25am in perfect conditions, still and about 8c, but with the prospect of mid 20s temperatures by the time the finishing line was reached.

It was hard to know what kind of shape the legs were in as we haven't raced for two weeks and there has been a lot of walking around exploring for the last 4 weeks, which may or may not have helped.

As such, it was reassuring when the early kms were ticking over at around 4:00/km or just under.

With around 1,000 runners there was plenty space on the course and by 10km it was well strung out but the various turnaround points provided lots of opportunities to see how the race was developing both at the front and a bit further back.

0-10k (39:41) (Hannah 41:06)

The first 10k was untroubled and a bit downhill overall so provided a good roll out to get the event under way. The first chance to see how the ladies race was getting on was at the turnaround point at about 10k.

There were 4 ladies in front of me at this point and Hannah was 1:25 back in about 8th position. It was early days though and it was quite tightly packed at the front with all the leading ten moving along at between 2:50-2:55 pace.

10k-20k (40:12) (Hannah 40:41)

This section was a long dual carriageway which would have been fine except for the previously mentioned surface, which seemed harder and more energy sapping than usual. It gave the perception that you were moving a lot slower than you actually were. Still, it was the same for everyone so head down and concentrate on the rhythm.

The next turnaround point was at 19k. I had just overtaken the lady in 2nd place before the turnaround so was encouraged to see Hannah coming the other way not long after. If my counting was right, she was now up to 4th.

This was getting interesting as if Hannah could gain one more place over the second half of the race then there was a $500 prize (about £260) for 3rd place, although she herself was totally unaware of this during the race.

20k-30k (40:02) (Hannah 41:04)

The third 10k was starting to go up and down a bit more than had been bargained for. It was feeling tough compared to the same stage at Wrexham but despite the increased course severity the pace was holding up and positions were being gained, so there wasn't much to be concerned about really.

There was a turnaround point at about 23.5k just after I'd overtaken the leading lady. Hannah now seemed to be a bit closer to the leader and possibly in 3rd but at this particular turn point it was quite difficult to tell.

30k-42.2k (52:12) (Hannah 51:32)

Now for the final 12k and it was becoming a grind on some of the climbs. Nevertheless there was still reassurance coming from the fact that on sections that were relatively level for a while the legs were coming back to life and re establishing a comfortable rhythm, so I was happy that there wasn't a major falling apart type death march coming, just a course induced leg wearying grind.

37k offered the next view of the ladies race and it looked from my viewpoint that Hannah was now in 2nd place and nowhere near as far behind the leader as the last time I saw them. It was hard to estimate but possibly a minute gap now, which was a lot smaller then previously but still a huge gap to close over just 5k.

It was extremely unlikely but if the leader did run into a bit of trouble you never know.....

The Finish

Unlike the parkrun the previous day I was counting down the last few kms of this one and was going to be quite happy to see the finish line after the graft of the second half.

The 42km marker is usually quite close to the finish line, 200m would be about right. Not on this occasion though, the finish line was nowhere to be seen. There was a good 300m before turning into the finishing straight which was itself another 200m or so.

2:52:10 was better than expected after feeling so slow on the unforgiving road sections. When the results came through, they showed that the position had improved from 20th at halfway to 15th at the finish. And all done before 9:30am :)

After crossing the line I then proceeded to incur the wrath of the funnel managers by loitering alongside the photographers and TV crews to see the end of the ladies race. It wasn't going to be more than a minute or two after all.

The announcer started building the crescendo towards the first female finisher and as she appeared with about 50m to go I could already see Hannah in the finishing straight behind her. Not close enough but that gap had really closed over the closing stages to a mere 32 seconds.

2nd place was rewarded with $1,000 (about £520), which as Hannah's biggest ever prize just about trumps my biggest ever cash prize of £20 in the 2013 Spencer's Arms series in Barnsley :p

32 seconds is 32 seconds and you can't just find that sort of time at the end of a marathon if the legs say no but I think Hannah is still asking herself some what if type questions - if only she had known that she was in 2nd earlier, known where the leader was and actually known that the 32secs was worth another $1,000. Good questions to ask but this Canberra performance can go down as nothing other than a hard fought for success story :)

On Saturday we had breakfast with Becky Chant, a parkrunner from Queensland.

After driving 1200km to get to Canberra this was to be her first ever marathon. We all know what can happen in first marathons and how everything you have ever read can turn to absolute nothingness once the reality of what happens at 20 miles and beyond sets in.

But it appeared to me that Becky didn't seem overly apprehensive about the task. Her apparent confidence was well placed as can be seen from the results below. For a first marathon that consistency of pacing is brilliant. It took me about 30 marathons to get one anywhere near that consistent. Congratulations Becky and good luck with the next effort at the Gold Coast Marathon :)

This is now the updated list of marathons on the comeback trail:

Recent Marathon Record

2009 April - Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17 (Age 42)

2009 September - Fleetwood Marathon DNF (Age 43)
2010 October - Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27 (Age 44)
2010 November - Milton Keynes Track Marathon DNF (Age 44)

2011 April - London Marathon 3:18:30 (Age 44)

2012 April - London Marathon 2:57:04 (Age 45)

2012 October - Chester 2:55:36 (Age 46)

2013 April - London Marathon 3:11:29 (Age 46)

2013 June - Cork Marathon 3:06:19 (Age 47)

2013 October - Budapest Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 47)

2013 December - Lancaster Marathon 2:54:17 (Age 47) (1st)

2013 December - Pisa Marathon 2:54:09 (Age 47)

2014 April - Manchester Marathon 2:51:52 (Age 47)

2014 April - London Marathon 2:57:52 (Age 47)

2014 June - Rhyl Marathon 2:58:24 (Age 48)

2014 October - Yorkshire Marathon 2:47:34 (Age 48)

2014 October - Dublin Marathon 2:58:53 (Age 48)

2014 November - Town Moor Marathon 2:54:56 (Age 48) (1st)

2015 March - Wrexham Marathon 2:48:12 (Age 48) (5th)

2015 April - Canberra ACT Marathon 2:52:10 (Age 48) (15th)

2015 April - London Marathon ??:??:?? (Age 48)

Marathon Building Blocks:

15th Feb: 18.6 miles @ 6:16/mile

22nd Feb: 10.0 miles @ 6:04/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:48/mile

28th Feb: 3.1 miles @ 5:50/mile

1st March: 13.1 miles @ 6:24/mile

8th March: 26.21 miles @ 6:23/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:46/mile

14th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:36/mile

15th March: 20.0 miles @ 6:25/mile

21st March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

22nd March: 9.65 miles @ 6:18/mile

28th March: 3.1 miles @ 5:45/mile

29th March: 11.2 miles @ 6:08/mile)

4th April: 3.1 miles @ 6:00/mile

12th April: 26.21 miles @ 6:35/mile

Just two weeks to go now before 35,000 line up on Blackheath common. There won't be much training as such between the two marathons but there will be some sort of running every day to keep everything working.

First of all though there will be a week in Perth followed by an attempt to unjetlag in time for VMLM.