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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Royal Parks Half Marathon - 10/10/10

Training going well and I’d taken this race seriously unlike last year when I’d trained up to about 8 miles and no more. That said, given the “bigger picture” (VLM) I said I’d run round with a friend who hadn’t run much recently due to wedding, honeymoon, new house and new job. Pretty good excuses.Met a neighbour whose wife was going to drive up to town. She did. We left at 8 and arrived at 8.15 (for a 9.30 start). Nearly punched someone in the car who said to a mate of his “Why did you put 2.30+ on the form? You could do that going backwards” Grrrr.







I’ve been late for a couple of races and it’s mega stressful so I’d much rather be early. Gave me a chance to wander round and chatted to David (school dad who’s run with a few Fetchies before – this was his first half), Chris (ex school dad), Nick (another school dad, he commentates on rugby and was doing the warm up introductions on the stage), Siamese Pete (definitely met him before but where?) and finally met up with ocean at about 9.25. By then I’d realised that I was garmin-less. I’d left it in my bag which had been handed in about half an hour ago. Oh well – might be quite liberating to run without it.
After some banter which involved David’s friends admitting that they thought the Fetch Everyone on my shirt meant that I was running for a dog rescue charity, we were off. Taking it slowly. Very slowly. At mile 1 I asked ocean what the first split was and she said 11.42. Whoops. How did that happen? That should have given me an indicator of what was to come. Saw Running Beer and NBFS at three different places along the route. Waved to lully, pete and shouted at gojosiego who was ultra focussed and ignoring/didn’t hear me. This was my race to try Lucozade (think of the share price) jelly beans just before the water stations. Don’t think they had an effect on me either way to be honest. Couldn’t quite stomach the Percy Pigs and chewy snakes they were handing out later though.

At about halfway I “dumped” ocean and strided off into the distance. I felt good. I had energy. It must have been the energy I’d saved in the first half. It lasted half a mile. Then I slowed down. And down. And down. My final splits were 1.12.58 and 1.21.11.Becky and the girls said they’d meet me by the Percy Pig station at 11.5m. They didn’t. Bus problems. Amazingly met them in the home straight. By accident. That cheered me up as did RunningBeer demanding a sprint finish. Not today. Normally but not today



So finished in 2.34.09. Despite claiming to all that I wasn’t interested in PBs it was disheartening to finish so far out. Got some lovely suppotive texts though. Much appreciated.


Here are my 5 half times for comparison:

Royal Parks Half Marathon, 10 Oct 10 2:34:09, 11:46/m
Royal Parks Half Marathon, 11 Oct 09 2:29:13, 11:23/m
** Reading Half Marathon, 2 Mar 08 2:17:02, 10:28/m **
Ranelagh Richmond Half Marathon, 13 May 07 2:20:05, 10:42/m
Reading Half Marathon, 25 Mar 07 2:22:57, 10:55/m

Got my bag and walked to meet Bex, the girls and some friends at the Diana playground. Lay down. Couldn’t get up again. I’ve possibly done something to my right leg/hip but we’ll see. Got a “non sporting” physio tonight.I was talking about VLM 2011 with David and Bex and repeating the same spiel “Not worrying about time but would like to get between 5 and 6 hours”. To which Becky replied “6 hours – hardly worth doing if you’re going to take 6 hours”

I won’t tell you what she said about walking through the water stations!Anyhow – that was a FLAT half and I’ve got a HILLY one on the 31st. Eeeeek. RunningBeer is doing it with me and we’ll see who comes last.It’s all hours on your feet and in preparation for a bigger event next year. Oh yes.






Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Virgin London Marathon 2011

I'm in!!


First I've got to do the Royal Parks Half Marathon on 10th October 2010 and then I'm doing the Barns Green Half Marathon on 31st October 2010.

I also need a target or two to keep me going until the middle of December which is when the training proper starts for 17th April 2011.

I'm going with the F.I.R.S.T. marathon beginners program which concentrates on speedwork AND long runs

Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone.

Going to definitely update this more often in 2008 which in turn will make me get off my bum and do some more running.

Other New Years resolutions to follow.

New Year's Day 10k in Hyde Park tomorrow and not going to worry about getting a PB - just going to have a good run and then watch Fulham v Chelsea after the game.

Happy New Year

John

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A brief update


It's October and I've not updated this site since March. Very remiss of me.

All I can say is that since I started running soon after my 40th birthday in January 2006 I've done:



5k race x 5
5.6k race x 1
10k race x 4
8.2m race x 1
10m race x 5
Half marathon x 2

Lined up in the next 6 months are:
8m race x 1
10k race x 2
10m race x 1
Half marathon x 1
16m race x 1

PLUS

I've applied (2nd time) for the Flora London Marathon - eeek

A more interesting update to follow soon - probably