My 2nd and Final Marathon!

Hi and this week it’s back to The Journey to 100m.  I hope some of you did a runsome in the last week?  I did my first full marathon yesterday taking me to 48 official fulls.  Almost halfway to 100 marathons. Official ones of course as I’ve already done 100!  In terms of a 100 mile ultra, that is the big target for next year.

Anyway, lets pick up from where we left off 2 weeks ago.  If this is the first blog, you’re reading of mine you don’t have to have read any of the previous ones.  But if you want to know how not to prepare for a marathon then you will find it useful, I assure you!

So, 2007 London marathon done, fundraising for Oxfam smashed but nowhere near the time I thought I might be able to do.  Admittedly my anticipated time was based on just one-half marathon and little else.  Back in those days, it’s only 15 years ago but how old do I feel writing those 4 words?  In 2007 when Flora were the main sponsors the ballot was open for 1 day only.  Not the 1 week like now.  So, when the ballot opened there was absolutely nothing in me that wanted to enter, so I didn’t.  It took me about a week to be able to walk properly after that marathon.  I’d got a couple of blisters, both on my left foot and it took a few days for my knee pain to ease off. 

Come July though, and bear in mind, I did no outside running after that London marathon (apart from going back to playing 5-a-side), I applied for some charity places.  I had decided I need to have a 2^nd go at my only attempt to do a marathon!  I wasn’t happy about the way it had gone. In reality I could have no complaints.  A combination of naivety, arrogance, over-confidence and most crucially not investing in the right shoes and under training always meant that it would end in tears.  And I did shed a tear or two.  Whether they were tears of relief, joy, pain or pride is one I will leave for everyone else to decide.  I change my mind about what those tears were, but I err to the side of pain and relief.

It got to October 2007, and I was offered a place by 2 of the charities.  I decided to go with British Heart Foundation (BHF).  There was a history of heart disease in my family and apart from cancer, it was the condition I heard most about.  So, this is where you’re thinking that I must have started my training as soon as I found out I had the charity place.  Well, you’d be wrong.  Well almost.  From October to December, I did a lot of treadmill running and some cardio work in the local gym. No running outside.  My plan was the same as the first attempt.  Start training in December but make sure that this time I did do the all important long runs.

There was one thing I did do.  I signed up for a half marathon to build up towards London.  My knowledge of running races and the local running scene was still nonexistent at this point.  I knew running clubs existed, but I believed you had to a really good runner to be part of one and someone like myself who really wasn’t cut out for running wasn’t someone any club would want.  Social media, especially Facebook, was becoming more popular but it didn’t have the groups and pages we know so well now.  So, Runners World magazine was still my go to for running advice.  Not necessarily a bad thing, after all it was written my passionate runners, but as we all know it’s good to have alternative points of view.

Actually, come to think of it there was another 2 things I did that I hoped would help.  I invested in a Garmin 305 Frontrunner.  You know the ones, quite square looking.  No Garmin apps at this time and certainly no Strava. So, when the watch was getting ‘full’ you could connect it to your PC and download all your run data.  I also had a running analysis done and found out I was an overpronator.  I won’t go into the details now, but the person who did the analysis said this was one of the reasons my knees had been playing up. So, I bought my first pair of proper running shoes. An odd thing to say considering I had done a half and a full by this point. Saucony was the make I went for, can’t remember the exact model.

So, I started my training in December 2007 so that went to plan.  In Feb 2008, BHF had arranged a training day and get together on the outskirts of London.  It was being led by Nick Anderson who I’m sure quite a few runners may be familiar with as he is one of the top endurance running coaches that are UK based.  Also talking was his namesake, but no relation, Keith Anderson.  Keith is an incredible runner who came into running when he was 30, much like me.  However, he became so good at it he represented England at the Commonwealth Games at the age of 41, so good did he become and ran Boston is 2 hrs. 17 prior to that.  The day was very useful.  I learnt about all the types of stretches I should be doing, the warmups, how to get nutrition right and so much more. 

I went away and before and after every run for the rest of that year I would do those stretches, the warm downs, the breathing exercises. If you know me well, you know I don’t do any of this anymore, rightly, or wrongly. The day energized me and 4 week later I headed to the adidas London half marathon at Silverstone.  I went there hoping for about 2 hrs. 30.  I felt I’d trained well for it, and I did have a long run of 16 miles already under my belt.  The gap between Silverstone and London was 5 weeks and I thought I was well placed for both races.

The half did not go according to plan.  A really bad pain in my left knee from mile 8 onwards saw me hobble home in just under 2 hrs. 55.  This was a real hammer blow for me.  It was a minute a mile slower than the GNR of 2006 and I thought I’d trained for this one better.  The conditions were not ideal.  Wind and rain made it tough, but still, I expected better from myself.  I look back and realise that instead of just putting it down to experience I dwelled on it too much and didn’t train for the next 5 weeks like I should have.  The long run of 20 miles that I meant to do the week after never happened.  Between Silverstone and London 10 miles was longest run I would muster.  So, I was heading to London on a training plan that had started will, but I’d allowed a bad race to affect me and affect the rest of my training.

I followed the same weekend plans for 2008 as I did in 2007.  I booked a room at the Holiday Inn by the M4 near Heathrow airport.  I drove to the Excel arena to pick up my number.  This time though I went in with my running T-shirt and got it personalized at the Excel.  Not Usingh Bolt.  That alter ego was still over 3 years away!  Barry.  My Catholic name!  Seriously.  I went to a Catholic school.  My Sikh name is too long to print and most people to struggle to pronounce it when they a bit of time, never mind trying to read it and say it as I’m jeffing past!  I took in the pasta party at the arena, I listened to a couple of the speakers, mainly about getting pacing right and bought a Lucozade race package.  I needed my bottle of Lucozade Sport! I’ll talk about why I always had that drink after every run at a later date.

So, the morning of Sunday 13^th April 2008.  Same as the year before.  Had a decent breakfast.  Beans on Toast, breakfast of champions!  Got on the coach feeling nervous, got off the coach near the start feeling even more nervous.  Found a toilet as I needed a pre-race dump quite badly.  The only race I remember where I really needed to unload like that before a race!  I appreciate that’s more detail than you may have expected but when nerves make you want to go that much it’s not pleasant.  So, I was more nervous than the year before when I hadn’t experienced this issue.  2008 was a hot one.  Not as hot as 2018 or 2018 but bloody hot.

The race starts. We don’t move.  We shuffle forward. I’m wearing my Garmin watch so this time I won’t go off too fast.  I know if I pace myself like I did at Silverstone for 8 miles a 5hr 30 time is on the cards.  I crossed the start line and did the first mile in 10 minutes.  Same mistake as last year. This time though, I applied the breaks and dropped to 12-minute mile pace and settled in.  And it was pretty good until mile 12 at which point my left knee decided to start playing up.  I remember mixing up the walking and jeffing; I really can’t say running as I don’t think after mile 12, I did any running.  I kept telling myself I could get through this again.  I revised my expected time to 5 hrs. 45 and then to 6 hrs. by the time I had 18 miles done.  I look back at 2008 and I realise that I started to feel too sorry for myself.  I let the race drift and then at about mile 22 I switched on again.  I decided that it was better to finish as quickly as possible, whatever that pace was than feeling sorry for myself.  One clear memory I have from mile 25 was a rhino going past me!  I’m sure it happened in 2007 but this was very clear and so for the last mile or so my focus was to beat the rhino to the finish line.  I didn’t.  But I wasn’t far off, and it probably helped me finish.

So, another painful finish. 17 minutes quicker than the previous year though.  That did bring me some joy.  It was still an hour off that very over optimistic time I’d targeted a year earlier.  And given how Silverstone half had gone my finishing time as I should have expected so I had a few more positives to hang on to.

I did have one scary moment on my way back to my hotel.  I was on the tube and suddenly felt very faint.  Even though I had hydrated often during the race I’d lost quite a bit of salt.  My face was a layer of dried salt.  I felt really faint on the tube but thankfully another runner who was with me spotted the signs, got me sat down and got me to eat some crisps from the finishers pack as well as some food I’d packed.  I chugged down the bottle of Lucozade sport I had as well and by the time he had to get off, I assured him I felt much better.  I never got his name, but it showed me how runners look out for each other.

I got to the hotel OK and after a shower and a balanced meal I had an early night.  I had to drive to work the next day!  I hadn’t booked the day off this time.  On my way in, I bought some Crispy Crème doughnuts; they were starting to become popular here and polished off 10 on my own.  Not a great idea!  But it was to celebrate a better run, a better time and my 2^nd and final marathon of the 1 I planned to ever do!  This time though despite it not being a great day I entered the ballot.  I’m not sure why but I thought, why not?

I didn’t get a place before you ask.  So, 2 races in 1 year.  That was never part of the plan.  But 2008 would see me do 1 more race.  It had been announced that there would be a Birmingham half marathon in 2008.  Sponsored by EDF and at this time it was not part of the Great Run series.  I remember thinking why not do it. The inaugural one and it fell on 26^th October, well after the ballot results of London.  If by a fluke I got a ballot place I could use Birmingham half to kickstart marathon training much earlier than the 2 previous years.  If I didn’t get a place, I had a race to look forward to; and to be honest I felt at this point half marathon was the right distance for me.  I’d made a mess of 2 marathons, fundamentally through lack of training, so maybe the half was better for me.  I didn’t get into London via the ballot, but I started my training for Birmingham half in July.  That’s right between London 2008 and July, I stopped running again!  I didn’t run for charity at Birmingham.  My aim was to beat my GNR time of 2006 and see how close I could get to 2 hrs. 30. 

Anyone that has is in and around Brum will know that the route for this race changes every year.  I don’t think it has had 2 identical routes.  In 2008, it started on the main road near the Alexandra Stadium which meant a very undulating run into Birmingham city centre which knackered me out! The finish was on Broad Street after taking on what would be referred to as ‘that hill’ for a number of years until the Broad St finish was no more.  I was one of just under 10k runners that did that inaugural Birmingham half.  My time as OK, 2 hrs. 48.  Not quite what I wanted but it was relatively pain free.  I was just knackered by mile 5!  And so that was it.

I didn’t have a place in London 2009, and I was not going to go for another charity place as I’d found fundraising harder the 2^nd time round.  I remember thinking that I’d definitely do Birmingham half again but no marathons in 2009. When the London rejection magazine came, there was a flyer for Edinburgh marathon.  It was a tempter, but did I really want to? 

As it would turn out, after doing 3 races in 2008 I upped the ante in 2009 to 4 races.  Two half marathons and two fulls.  Which ones?  That’s for next week.

Final Note – I have no photos from any of the 3 races in 2008!  So, I’ve just gone for a couple of stock photos.