The Wales Marathon

What a fantastic event!

A little hillier than I was expecting, especially the long tough hill at mile 20ish.

This was a training run for me, with 10 miles on Friday and another 15 on Saturday, the aim was to follow my body and finish feeling good, possibly ready to run again on Monday. So I guessed that would mean a finish time of around 5 hours.

The day didn't start particularly well. I went to the wrong registration place to find it was closed, then managed to fall over a curb once I'd found the right place. I jumped up quick, and pretended I hadn't fallen over, whilst cursing myself inside as my knees were banged, and a bit painful. A swift hobble round the corner confirmed there was nothing too wrong with them though, thank goodness.

The start was small only 200 runners, but in the gorgeous if chilly sun, with the drum band and cheering crowds it was very exciting and atmospheric. Two flat or downhill miles led us out of Tenby until we hit the first hill, and boy what a hill. It just seemed to go on for ever and ever, and it was steep. Once on top of the ridge it undulated towards Pembroke. The route really was very pretty, and the support fantastic. As the field had spread out pretty well by half way I ran down Pembroke high street to cheers and claps, almost completely on my own, so I felt like an Olympian.

The second half was warmer, with a tail wind, and had 2 nasty climbs, but plenty of views still and more runners as the half runners had now joined us.

I felt comfortable and chatty all the way round, nothing hurt and my breathing was fine, so when I looked at my watch in the last 2 miles to realise the time, I was very suprised. I managed 4.38 without seeming to try too hard, and the legs are a little achy but fine. Last year I struggled to manage 4.50 in Snowdonia. This year I can pull 4.38 out of the bag in amongst 51 miles over 3 days. I think I may be getting fitter.

I am hoping that as I am up and down stairs ok, and nothing is aching too much, that after a massage first thing tomorrow morning I may be ok to run tomorrow evening with club, but we shall see.

Oh yes, I also found out on Friday that I have passed the interview and I have been selected as a UK Athletics Coach Education Tutor, so that's 2 whole weekends away in October. I'm already planning when I can squeeze in the running!

An Easy week

A step back week this week, so just 46 miles.

Had an interview in Solihull yesterday for a tutoring position with UK Athletics, and the 6 hours driving over 2 days and sitting around, plus the stress of the interview has left me absolutely exhausted, more tired than 82 miles!

This week it's 73 miles with the Wales Marathon on Sunday. Oh and I've lost 4 pounds in weight this week, not quite sure why this week, but I'm thinking my body has finally caught up with the mileage I'm asking it to do, and dropped some excess fat. I reckon I have another half stone of weight that I could lose without being scrawny, we will see if I lose any more next week, and then worry about my food intake. I am eating very well, not stinting on anything, but maybe I need to look at higher protein foods, and eat more often.

Anyway, I need a nice relaxing afternoon, shame I have 5 pairs of school trousers to take down instead!

Running with Chris Moon MBE and other stories

What a week!

82 miles in 7 days, and still in one piece. 69 of the 74 miles I had planned to do since last Monday.

This week I had the opportunity to run with Chris Moon, a double amputee and amazing ultra athlete on his Post Office 1000 mile challenge . That's 36 miles every day for 30 days. Having read a small article on his arrival in Swansea on Thursday I googled him and managed to get in contact with his business. Through them I was able to contact his support team and arranged to meet Chris at Wetlands at 7.30am on the Thursday. We ran along the coastal path towards Loughor, getting wet feet in the exceptionally high tide, through Gowerton and down the cycle track to the front, where it was straight along Swansea Bay and into town.

He is an amazingly determined man, with extreme mental strength, and of course he's quite fit too. We ran for a couple of hours together, chatting mostly about running. We stopped on the way for him to do a radio interview and a bit of filming before arriving at Swansea Post Office. I then dashed to work, and he went on to run another 22 miles!

The run with Chris allowed me to see that ultra endurance is as much about determination and the will to succeed as it is about physical fitness. For a man who lost his arm and leg clearing mines in Mozambique he can run blinking fast! It also showed me what it might actually be like to run across Wales. The constant focus you need to do something that challenging, and how you have to involve as many people as possible to help make it a success. It was an incredibly inspiring run, and an extremely interesting one, but above all it made me realise how Chris Moon, and other endurance athletes are not superhuman, just ordinary people who work very hard at doing extraordinary things, quite awe inspiring. I hope to have some photos and maybe video from the run for the blog soon.

That all happened on the Thursday, so I managed 14 miles with Chris. On the Friday I had 16 miles to do, which was tough. Towards the end of the run when I was just about to leave the cycle track and head uphill and home I bumped into Lowri Morgan the S4C presenter who ran the Jungle Marathon in Brazil last year. I had watched the S4C coverage of her run with interest, and had emailed her to ask if she would support the RunWales. So bumping into her was a godsend, she introduced herself and declared she'd love to support the run!! Which is fantastic news.

I'm ecstatic to have Lowri and Chris on board and willing to support the RunWales challenge, their support will be a huge boost to the event, and a huge boost to my confidence knowing there are other endurance athletes out there who believe I can do it!!

Today I did another 18 miles, helped along by the WRN long slow run group. I couldn't persuade myself to do the extra 4 miles needed for the 22 I had planned, it was getting late and I felt I had added to my training by upping my 3 day total from 45 miles 2 weeks ago to 48 today. My legs were also still sore from the sports massage I had yesterday which was quite definitely the most painful massage I've ever had. I came very close to screaming abuse at Wayne my masseur and for a few moments I most definitely hated him! However, my knee was fine for 48 miles in 3 days, which given the problems I had last week, I'm very pleased with.

Next week I only have 45 miles to do. What used to be a peak week in marathon training now feels like a rest. Then the Wales Marathon the following Sunday. I'm stiff, sore and tired, but happy!

It nearly went all pear shaped...

When I said last time that I felt much better for taking it easy, that didn't include how I felt running a day later. Certainly getting up and down stairs and carrying on normal life was easier, but then having taken Monday off from running after 45 miles in 3 days, I ran on Tuesday and for the first time in years I was in pain. A specific, knee centred pain. It was, quite frankly horrible.

For the first half mile of the run the inside of my left knee just below the kneecap was painful, not achy, but sharp pain. After the first half mile it loosened and it was just uncomfortable, but the whole of the rest of my legs felt "wrong", achy tired and all out of kilter.

So what did I do? Well of course, I did what any self respecting neurotic runner would do, I panicked!

This panicking involved several short run/walks riven with doubt and worry, constant running up and down my hall and dining room trying to convince myself I'd recovered overnight, and huge dollops of self doubt. I ran twice on Wednesday, then decided I couldn't cope with the stress and took to my bike until I saw Wayne on Friday, my fantastic sports massage therapist. Just hearing from Wayne that a hamstring had tightened and was pulling at the insertion point, and that no knee ligaments were involved was a huge relief.

One excruciatingly painful sports massage later and I was back running. Looking back on the last 6 weeks of the school holidays, the camping, kayaking, and body surfing hadn't done my muscles any good, add to that pretty high mileage, and only 2 sports massages, and minimal strength work and my muscles had tightened up to painful levels. I have learnt my lesson, the shcool holidays are hard, and I need to look after myself a bit better.

So having run a couple of 3 milers on Friday and Saturday I ran Bristol Half Marathon today with Lynne who has spent the last year recovering from a brain haemorrhage. It was fantastic, Lynne was fantastic, and my knee held up. We took it easy and got Lynne across the line in 2.23, with a strong last couple of miles and a sprint finish, so job done. My knee was complaining a bit from mile 11, and for a couple of hours after the race the muscles around the knee spasmed quite painfully making me look like the Ministry of Funny Walks, but it feels much better now, just a bit stiff. So with another sports massage booked for Friday I am far more confident that I can run the planned 74 miles this week. Mind you, just typing 74 makes me panic, and I instantly want to qualify it by saying I may only do 20 this week if the knee falls apart, ah well........ maybe panic is part of a runner's life?

And....

The day after 3 long runs in a row is much better if you've run the long runs fairly slowly. Feel fine today, just a bit tired, no extra aches or pains.......... all good!

45 miles in 3 days - done!

68 miles for the week, 45 of which were done in the last 3 days. I actually think I may be able to run 3 marathons in 3 days now!

Having spent a week in France running fairly easily, I had it all saved for my return. Mind you I shouldn't be let out alone. Yet again whilst on holiday I managed to fall over bashing the same knee as in Pembrokeshire, which this time bled profusely having not fully healed from the last fall, and ended up pretty bruised too. It was another early morning run, just 6 miles, I fell over a bump in the road. Had the usual horrible slow motion thing, fell heavily on both knees, and saved myself with the heels of my hands, both of which are still scarred! Whilst lying on the ground at the top of the Normandy hills above the sea, and wondering how badly I was hurt, I did wonder whether I should start wearing kneepads to run in (but later decided that might be tempting fate). I managed to finish the run, with lovely bloody tracks from both knees, the locals must have wondered if I'd escaped from somewhere. The knee was stiff the following day, but pretty much recovered in 2 days. It is stiff again now after 45 miles, but I guess that's not really surprising.

I did a little aquajogging in the sea whilst in France too to save my legs from the constant pounding. Although it was scenic and kinder to the legs, swirling around in the sea can get a bit dull after 30 minutes or so, so I was pretty pleased that I managed about 45 minutes. It also allowed me to go to the beach with the rest of the family rather than dashing off into the hills on my own. That is a real issue now I am doing more miles, the amount of time I spend away from the family. I hate to miss anything. My husband is very understanding, and I try to time my runs so that everyone is still in bed, or not doing anything too exciting, but it does mean I get less sleep, and housework has had to take a bit of a backseat lately!

Anyway getting back to my miles this weekend. I managed 10 miles on Friday afternoon having returned from France that lunchtime. I forgot to charge my Garmin in time, and so ran by time, so have no idea how fast I ran. I suspect it was a little on the fast side, closer to 10 min miling than 11. Mentally it was hard, particularly leaving the house. Once the decision was made, it was more manageable, but a constant effort to keep on putting one foot in front of the other. I then did 20 miles on my own over the Gower on Saturday morning. That was tough, I mean really tough. I threw in 30 second walk breaks every 2 miles from 6 miles in. Not that I think I really needed them physically, but they broke up a seemingly endless run, and gave me something to aim for. The pace was slow, 11.18mm overall, with hills and walk breaks, and moments of moaning. I survived, but the balls of my feet were tender in the afternoon, and playing on my mind was the 15 miles I had to do the following day.

Today I really acheived something. I managed to find a Women's Running Network long run group to join for 7.5 miles of my long run. I did 3.5 very slow very achy miles before I met them, then they dragged me along for an hour and a half. If I had been more organised I would have done all my extra miles before the group, but I couldn't face getting up at 6am. It was fantastic having such good company. The pace was slow 12mm+, but it was absolutely perfect for me today. I will definitely be joining the group again to help with the miles later in the year, I just wish there was a group both days of the weekend.

So a little easy running on holiday, and some big miles this weekend, and I am another step closer to my goal. I can't think about the whole run across Wales at the moment, the 3 marathons in 3 days is enough. But after a tough weekend I am still in one piece, if a little sore and tired, and I really believe I can do this running thing!

Another weekend, another long run (or two...)

Managed my 20 miler today, with some excellent company, thanks Mandy. That's after a 15 miler yesterday done over 5 hours with clubs, clients and a bit on my own. That's 65 miles in total for the week, and I feel much better! Confidence is now well on it's way to being fully restored.

I felt much more positive and less achy after my 15 miles yesterday. I am sure that was helped by my first sports massage in nearly a month, which turned out to be pretty painful. It was of course a good kind of pain, and sorted out all the niggles and issues I have had in the last few weeks. Running with someone else really does make the miles go faster. I took regular 30 second walk breaks from about 9 miles in, mainly to see how it worked with regards to my overall pace, and whether it helped. It did help mentally, having an easy bit to aim for. Mandy refused to let me take one at 19 miles, and it has to be said, I'm glad she wouldn't let me, I didn't need it. However, there was only a 20 second per mile difference between mine and Mandy's averages, as she ran when I walked. My aim is to finish in one piece, and if taking walk breaks makes that plan more doable, then I will be walking.

A week off hard training next week, and then the following week it's the first of the 3 hard days in a row. 10, 15 and 20, one week followed by 12, 20 and Bristol Half the next week. I now feel like I could actually do that and survive.

This time next month I will be running 74 miles a week, a first............ new territory all the way from here on in, yippee!