Having moaned about running over the ranges in the dark the other day, you’d think I’d have learned my lesson. No, obviously not, I ran straight up to the ranges again! It got dark, I left the ranges by the road down near Ash Vale station and headed out towards the army town. I have to say, the fatigue was really starting to show, I couldn’t hold even an eight minute mile this evening. I was struggling to run to be honest.

I decided to have a bit of a review of the last year, the fun moments, the tough bits and took my mind of it all quite effectively. Highlights and interesting events of the year I managed to recall include of course meeting Mo yesterday, but also finishing the Brighton Marathon and hour and quarter faster than last year, running in 12 inches of snow in Cardiff, determinedly hobbling for three miles on the sprained ankle, torrential rain in Barcelona during the half marathon, a strong finish at Wilmslow in 1h36, running up and down a pitch black dual carriageway at Beamsley during my Sense holiday and finally, day 1 where a load of people and plenty of my friends turned out to wish me well on my way to 1095miles, despite thinking I was a lunatic! It seems so long ago

I arrived home completely knackered but having completed my target of 16 miles and with a good idea of what the post 1095miles/365days blog post should be like.

Okay, two days of the absolute minimum 3 miles now, hopefully giving the legs a little time to rest before Sunday. I’ve overdone it, I know that, but at least I should be able to post a reasonable time and I’m sure to beat my PB for the GNR, being that it’s only 1h59m20s!

[A little] more tomorrow!

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Blue and White Kayano 17s
Miles today: 16.05
Target: 1080
Miles to date: 1659.00
“Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals.”
Henry Ford

I say easy, I mean I didn’t really, by the end. I sort of aimed for breaking 24 minutes. I held a roughly 8 min/mile pace throughout. As I approached 2.8 miles, I noticed the time was coming up to 23:20, wow how did I lose so much time? I ran for it. 2.90 miles, 23:45… 2.97 miles… 22:59… What? Fool! I’d misread the time in my bleary eyed state and finished in a few seconds over 23 minutes. I should probably go back to bed!

Damian kindly sent me a link to this image last night. It’s in response to the fact I told him I dashed behind a garage off a side road last year during the Brighton marathon…

I'm sorry, ok?!?!

…And yes, that is a Virgin London Marathon Logo in the corner I particularly like the fact that the flowers are drooping. Maybe they need watering?!?

Whilst we’re on the subject of marathons, and it is the subject of the moment after all… The statistician in me found that 3450 people crossed the line of a certain big marathon yesterday in a time equal to or better than mine last weekend, out of a field of approximately 35,000. That’s about 10% and much better than I expected. In brighton I was just outside the top 5% (5.1% IIRC!).

And finally, I think James has totally lost the plot. In his unending quest to punish himself to within a nanometre of his own existence, he emailed to share his latest harebrained idea. He sent Damian and I this link and asked if we were interested.

Anyone else? I’m somehow not so keen

Enjoy the qotd marathon runners!

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s (~135 miles)
Miles today: 3.00
Target: 630
Miles to date: 815.56
“Some people endure pain better than others. All things considered, the ability to withstand—or even deny—pain would seem to be a valuable ally for the long distance runner in search of significant improvement. In truth, it is probably a double-edged sword, since medical experts tell us that pain is the body’s warning signal to back off, and that to ignore such schedules is to roll the dice with both body and mind.”
Mark Will-Weber, The Quotable Runner

I was reminded this morning that I also forgot to mention I’m a legend apparently. After I finished Brighton last week and was wandering back to the hotel, a rather drunken man patted me on the back and said well done for running the marathon. Then he asked me how long it took. 3 hours 25 minutes I replied. “3 hours 25? You legend” was his reply!

Well done to everyone who managed to dodge the giant nurse, race the man with the tiger on his back and streak ahead of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble to complete this year’s London marathon. When you finally realise you’ve got the running bug and want to run another marathon, try Brighton, it’s not such a fancy dress parade and certainly not as crowded!

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s (~135 miles)
Miles today: 3.00
Target: 627
Miles to date: 812.56
“When the guy says go, you start to suffer — or you might as well not be out there. It’s a small piece of your life, make it hurt.”
Aaron Cox, Winner of US Mountain Biking Championship

In all the fanfare and fuss over Sunday’s marathon time, I’ve forgotten to congratulate everyone who ran their first marathon on Sunday, including our very own Damian. Well done one and all. It’s a massive achievement and you should be very proud of yourself indeed!

I was watching a video earlier of Lance Armstrong, a true inspirational figure for someone who is really into their cycling like me. He said he was told, whilst he was working to qualify for the Boston marathon, that “20 miles is half way”. It’s an interesting concept and I get it. When I ran my first marathon, I’d happily have agreed. But not this time round. The last few miles were tough and the legs ached, but not anywhere near as tough as the first time! Maybe I’m not running hard enough…

I’ve had a few interesting days lately as word gets around about my marathon time. I seem to have become an authority on running for a few people. I don’t really know very much, just what I’ve experienced in my own running. I suppose I’ve had a hell of a lot of injuries and problems though!

I had an interesting chat with a colleague today who’d asked about the marathon and how often I trained for it. I told him the story, the mad challenge, I’m an idiot, da de da de da. He asked me if changing his three to four runs a week to three miles a day would get him a 3:30 marathon. I promptly said no and explained the list of injuries I’ve had through the sheer bloodymindedness of running every day and never giving up. It isn’t good for the body and the rest days make all the difference in my opinion. Running should be something you enjoy and doing it every day doesn’t help with that

I’ve also been asked for advice on shin splints by another colleague. I found this RunnersWorld article on the subject. I generally find runnersworld to be a useful and reliable source of advice so had no problem with sending it on. However I was thinking about the advice given in there whilst I was out for a run this evening. I smell a rat. Read this…

“Make sure you wear the correct running shoes for your foot type specifically, overpronators should wear motion-control shoes. Severe overpronators may need orthotics. Have two pairs of shoes and alternate wearing them to vary the stresses on your legs.”

Now, ‘wear the right shoes for your foot type’, yes, big tick. I agree, you’re right. But ‘Have two pairs of shoes to vary the stresses on your legs’? No. Wrong. Big time.

By implication the two shoes would be different types or at least models/manufacturers of shoes. In order to vary the stresses as they suggest, they would need to be significantly different shoes, surely, the difference being in the support offered. If they are significantly different, they cannot both be offering the correct degree of support, or they would be applying the same “stresses” to your legs. I’m merely applying logic here. If anyone knows of a decent argument to the contrary, please do share it, but it seems quite wrong to me!

Anyway, have a read of Damian’s race report and congratulate him on being yet another new marathoner. Well done mate!

Rambling over. Back tomorrow…

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s (~120 miles)
Miles today: 3.03
Target: 615
Miles to date: 800.56
“Even if you fall flat on your face·at least you are moving forward.”
Sue Luke

Last night I woke up every two hours, doubled up with abdominal pain. No doubt that was the result of the preventative medicine I’d had to take in the morning just before the marathon and I had a thoroughly terrible night’s sleep. I’m still suffering now, 36 hours later. Being this worn out and then getting very little sleep leaves you in a horrible state the next day and I feel truly shocking today! Add to this the neck and shoulder are still not right, I still feel stiff and they ache constantly, my stomach is tied in knots, the abdominal pain persists and you have the recipe for a terrible run.

Today’s run was really tough. My legs weren’t up for it and it hurt all the way to three miles. I managed to keep just over a nine min/mile pace somehow, but not without pushing through some serious pain. Even the act of stopping myself running to walk after I’d hit 3 miles hurt in my thighs, but I was pleased to find that the stiffness in my calves and thighs had eased a little in the post run shower.

And now for the full Brighton Marathon race report…

It’s been a long build up to today. This is the big one. The truly long run of the challenge year’s calendar.

Brighton hosted it’s second marathon today and along with a good few other runners I know, I lined up at the start to see Steve Cram fire the pistol and set us all on our not-so-merry way, 26.2 miles shy of the finish line.

I’m here today to compete in a marathon, though there isn’t a single person in the field I’m actually competing against. I’m here to beat myself. Break my PB. Even that’s a bit of a misnomer really, having only run one marathon before (and that was Brighton last year). The time to beat is 4h41. It went sort of like this…

07:00 Against all the rules and all of the advice I tuck into a bowl of cornflakes, a full english and a large pot of strong coffee. How bad can it be?

07:15 Off we go to Preston Park. The barriers are up, the marshalls are out, there’s a buzz about Brighton this morning.

07:30 Time for the Imodium to combat the adverse effects of anti-inflammatory pills. This is not going to be a good day!

08:00 There appear to be a sea of runners making their way up to Preston Park for the 2011 Brighton marathon. It’s a hilly challenge in parts and many are here sporting t-shirts advertising they’re return competitors from last year, as is your’s truly. Damian and I find James and our official photographer does a great job of capturing the moment. James appears to be sporting a knee support and receives intense interrogation on the subject. Turns out he’s still as crazy as he ever was and is planning to run his three heroic events this week on said dodgy knee!

08:15 Whilst discussing target finishing times I show my 3h30m target finishing time wrist band on my right wrist and my back stop 3h40m timing band on my left. Damian says that breaking 3h30m will qualify me for the Boston marathon. It’s unanimously agreed that Boston would be a great place to go, so I agree that my target is now to break 3h30! I text my brother and tell him that 12:30-13:00 finish is no longer the target, he should be at the finish line from 12:15, I’m feeling good this morning. Frankly all of this is pie in the sky at this point. I have no real basis upon which to claim I could run sub 3h30.

08:30 Damian and I wander off to the back pen discussing his plan for the run, making sure he’s comfortable with everything and on the way I spot Heather, a lady who volunteered with me on a Sense holiday a couple of years back. Damian tells me I know too many people!

08:45 I wished Damian the best of luck and headed down to the blue pen, just behind the club runners and elites. In the pen I meet a guy called Sacha who is running for Sense. Nice bloke, we had an interesting chat about what Sense do, the 1095miles challenge and his running career too.

The Front Runners at the Start

09:00 Bang, the gun goes. We’re stationary for an awfully long time. Then I hear the PA announce that the 3h30 pacer has just passed under the gantry. He’s some way ahead of me so I resolve to catch him up, but not before a good 15 or 16 miles at least. We’re off. This is exciting. I click into an 8 min/mile pace from the start, only slowed a little by the large proportion of the field who seem surprised by the hill after the first bend!

Another 'Where's Andy?' Competition

The Guys at Saucony Clearly have a Sense of Humour

What little time I’d lost on the way up the hill (to the highest point on the course!) was quickly regained on the way back down. As I passed by the Start line for the second time, I spotted Damian still walking towards the start. I shouted over to him and he replied “Run faster!”

Settled in my pace, the next few miles went really nicely. I’d set the Garmin to ping every half mile and update me on my average pace for that section. If you click through to the Garmin map for yesterday’s post, you’ll see just how consistently I managed to hit my target 8min/mile pace (look at the lap splits).

After about 5 miles I met another Sense runner whose name has sadly slipped my mind. We had a brief chat and on I went. I caught up with Heather on the way back down to St. Dunstan’s and wished her luck before she told me to get going and let her know how I did at the end. At 10 miles I saw Damian again. He’d have been at about 6 miles I guess and he looked like he was enjoying it. Once again, more “Run faster you slow coach” type banter came my way.

I crossed the half way point at about 1h42m. That’s only 6 minutes shy of my half marathon PB so I was a little concerned I may have gone out too quick in the first half. I finally saw the 3h30m pacer in front of me at around 15.5 miles and caught him up by mile 16. I had a chat with him about how he was pacing the miles and he seemed to think I was looking good for finishing it at this pace, mainly due to the fact that I looked ok and wasn’t really feeling it yet. We compared stop watch times and I jokingly said it was so I could work out exactly how far I could let him get ahead of me at the finish! I carried on creeping ahead of the pacer and met a guy called Kris who was keeping an eye on, and trying to keep ahead of the pacer I’d just been speaking to.

Kris and I ran and chatted for the next nine miles. This was a really good thing for me and I think for Kris too. At least four miles just seemed to pass without notice and even the tougher later miles were made somewhat easier as we shared the odd joke, often about how we kept looking back for the 3h30 pacer, and discussed why we had chosen to support the Charities we were both running for. At 24 miles or so, Kris was looking much stronger than me for the finish so I wished him luck and off he went at one hell of a rate! Nice to meet you Kris.

Then my ankle went a bit wobbly. The same left ankle that plagued me all those weeks ago. I plodded on for the last mile trying my best not to twist it unnecessarily and slowed down a bit for the last half a mile. I really had no clue what time I’d run, only that Mr 3h30m Pacer was behind me so I knew I’d broken the revised target!

Moments Before I Smashed the 3h30 Target!

Crossing the Line in Under 3h30m!

Wearing my Post Marathon BacoFoil

I'm Smiling Because I Know it's a Fast Time!

I found out moments later that I had crossed the line in a chip time of 3 hours 25 minutes and 38 seconds (PB). That’s an hour and sixteen minutes off last year

My brother had assumed the faster target finsih time was just bravado and missed me crossing the line by about 5 minutes!

We headed back to the hotel and I showered. Met my brother and had a quick beer, then dashed out to try and spot Damian coming in. I’d expected him at around 4h50m, given the 21 degrees predicted (And I’m very sure it was 21 degrees!) but he was nowhere to be seen. I did spot Keith though, coming in to claim a superb 4h57m. Very well done mate! I even got a photo.

Keith!

Having decided we’d missed Damian, we began to walk towards the pub that was planned as the venue for post marathon celebrations, with a workmate of mine Sam whose wife Megan had run the event too. As we walked along, there he was! We shouted over, but he’d put the dreaded headphones in and couldn’t hear us. I’ll let Damian blog the story for himself and save the punchline for him to reveal…

And speaking of Damian. It turns out that the qualification time for Boston is 3h05m. Well done buddy, you got me to break 3h30m, even though you were wrong!

Damian and I have agreed to have a go at beating our PB’s in Chester in October.

I said if I ran a marathon in under 3h50m I’d call myself a runner. Done!

Oh, and I’ve redeemed my priority entry for 2012 already. I’m in!

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s
Miles today: 3.00
Target: 609
Miles to date: 794.33
“You also need to look back, not just at the people who are running behind you but especially at those who don’t run and never will… those who run but don’t race…those who started training for a race but didn’t carry through…those who got to the starting line but didn’t cross the finish line…those who once raced better than you but no longer run at all. You’re still here. Take pride in wherever you finish. Look at all the people you’ve outlasted.”
- Joe Henderson

413th to cross the line.

I am done.

That is all I can bring myself to say.

More tomorrow…

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s
Miles today: 26.40
Target: 606
Miles to date: 791.33

I headed down to Brighton this morning as early as I could get my ar$e out of bed. I was sat outside a certain well known coffee house next door to the Brighton centre by 09:15. Then all of a sudden a queue appeared. I figured it’s be a good idea to get in it, it is the national sport, after all! They had a couple of 118 men doing some comedy stretching and poses to keep the crowd happy. As I was standing there minding my own business, I recognised someone about 50 yards away. There’s a story to this guy…

350 odd days or so ago I was standing at the start of the inaugural Brighton marathon. The start was delayed. I got chatting to the bloke next to me. His name was Keith. Keith and I proceeded to claim to want to run about the same time, 4h30 ish yet set off in totally different ways. We met and passed each other repeatedly throughout the marathon and offered support and motivation to each other each time. Then at 24 miles Keith overtook me again. I was dying by this point, nothing left in the tank, I struggled to muster a little more pace (frankly barely above walking pace if I’m honest) and catch him up. As I caught him I said I’d race(!) him to the line. We crossed a couple of seconds apart.

Anyway, standing in the queue, I spotted Keith again. I said “It’s you!” and he said “It is, we finished a marathon together a year ago!” (He’s the guy to the right of me in the picture, in the green singlet). A great start to the morning and a good opportunity to reminisce about nearly killing ourselves last year!

We both made a bee-line to the priority entry for 2012 desk and coughed up our fiver each (and I got one for Damian too). I then had a look around at the running gear the stalls were trying to sell. I tried on a pari of Vibram Five-Fingers (Google it if you don’t know what I’m on about) and came to the conclusion they are a weird thing to wear but could imagine you’d get used to them fairly quickly. As for running in them? I’m still far from convinced but would happily try!

I then met Steve Cram again. Looking forward to meeting him at an event in the near future…

Next was to check into the hotel and get myself out for the day’s run! It turns out the hotel had a few goodies for any customers who happened to be running in the morning.

I overdid it on the distance, not great the day before my biggest event of the year, and ran 3.5 miles along the seafront. It was HOT!

Wandering about the town we spotted this –>
What was it doing out on it’s own?

We walked the seafront in the afternoon to see what was going on and how preparations were progressing for the event in the morning. Here is the target for tomorrow (and a bit)…

Later this evening I decided to review a couple of energy gels I’d managed to pick up at the Marathon Expo earlier.

I’m used to Lucozade Sport Orange energy gels. You buy ‘em in Tesco, they’re really cheap, small packs and I think pretty easy to use (though Damian hates them!). They are like syrup in a reasonably strong orange flavour and I find if you just squeeze the contents of the pack in as fast as possible and down a mouthful of water after, they work well. They’re 45g a go and give up about 125 kcal each.

Today I’ve abused my body with the following two alternatives, both in orange flavour…

Multipower Multicarbo Energy Gel
These are little 40g sachets that pack 104 kcal in. The tops rip off easily and the taste is a bit like the lucozade ones but stronger. They were good, I’d happily use them again.

SiS Go Gel
I have once again got my hands on an orange flavour one. First impressions are ‘how the heck do you get the top off?’ as I struggled to get into the sachet. Not a good start. They also taste a bit like the lucozade ones but watered down. And then I felt a bit sick. Not for me I’m afraid. Want to hear the worst bit? They’re 60g a sachet and only 86 kcal. Bigger, heavier and inefficient compared to the other two options above.

Injury update: The shoulder is still giving me grief. The crazy anti-inflammatory pills are obviously doing some good, but I have to report the adverse effects of taking them are not compatible with running. I suspect I’ll be starting tomorrow’s run with something to block things up!

Now time to go and rest.

Today’s quote is the most appropriate I could find…

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s
Miles today: 3.50
Target: 603
Miles to date: 764.93
“No doubt a brain and some shoes are essential for marathon success, although if it comes down to a choice, pick the shoes. More people finish marathons with no brains than with no shoes.”
Don Kardong

I received a lovely email today from a friend. I hope she doesn’t mind being quoted…

“I hear you have had a very difficult couple of weeks. I’m so sorry to hear about your nan, that is really sad news. I hope you are ok. A week including a funeral, car accident and a marathon is quite a week. I hope it goes really well at the marathon on Sunday for you.”

Thank you

So, today is day 200. That’s way more than half way isn’t it?!?! Well it sounds like it!

I’m also over 160 miles ahead of the minimum target. Having to make up 305 miles over the year to hit 1500 is still going to be a challenge though. I’m over half way and still have 144 miles to pick up somewhere. That’s an average of nearly a mile a day for the remaining days!

Tomorrow we travel to Brighton, to spend the weekend there and fit a marathon into the middle. I’m really looking forward to it and just hoping this blooming shoulder injury isn’t going to completely destroy the day!

I think I’m going to head down early tomorrow and catch some of the marathon expo at the Brighton centre. I’ll try and catch up with Steve Cram if possible. We still have a run to do!

I’ll be wearing the 1095miles.com t-shirt on the day, as will Damian. Say hi if you spot either of us, we don’t bite. I’m 1566 and Damian is 800. There’s an iPhone app to track the Brighton marathon and runners you select available HERE for those of you who have one.

Enjoy the run if you’re doing it and best of luck. It’s going to be HOT!

Blogging may be brief and unreliable for the weekend, depending on how much internet time I can get over the next few days.

Wish me luck….!

Andy.

Today’s shoes: Newish Kayano 17′s
Miles today: 3.12
Target: 600
Miles to date: 761.43
“Runners like to train 100 miles per week because it’s a round number. But I think 88 is a lot rounder.”
- Don Kardong

It’s been a long while since we’ve had a guest post. Anyone doing Brighton on Sunday and like to corroborate my/Damian’s story of how tough it is?

Andy.

Today’s shoes: ‘They used to be new’ Kayano 17′s
Miles today: 3.00
Target: 588
Miles to date: 749.24
“You only get to negatively affect your DNA.”
- Manciata’s explanation for why some people can’t run a marathon.

I was up and out the door at 0730, only to find the car was thick with frost. Not what I wanted to see! After some furious scratching at the windows and a few minutes with the blowers on in the car, it finally seemed drive-able. I arrived about 20 minutes late to collect Damian from a chilly Crawley station and off we went down to Brighton. A quick stop on the way confirmed Damian’s suspicions. I was terribly poorly prepared for the day and dived in to a cafe to grab a bacon sandwich and a large coffee. I necked half a bottle of water and a couple of Ibuprofen for luck(!) too. I’m pretty sure he was asking himself if I was actually taking this running lark seriously. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions from the pictures that follow, but I suspect it’s a fair comment

We finally parked up alongside Preston park, faffed, stretched (well Damian did and then commented on why I didn’t) and as you can see, I didn’t really look like I was going to run today, frankly I was still asleep. The chilly morning breeze sorted that one though as soon as I took my trousers and sweater off! The freezing wakeup call behind us, off we went from the start looking like amateurs in shiny new shoes, and followed the Brighton route as best we could without the benefit of road closures! (For example the route runs through Ovingdean school grounds, which were obviously closed today, meaning about half a mile detour) The route file is available in Garmin/GPS TCX format if you’d like it for your Garmin… use the Contact Us page to request it.

It appears everyone else in Brighton received their Entry number and race pack today too. By noon there were an awful lot of runners out pounding the streets. Probably many in the realisation they’re running a marathon in three weeks. Good luck one and all.

I went with the QotD idea. I ran with the idea of varying the usual and did most of the first few miles at whatever pace Damian preferred. I dashed off a couple of times in the next few miles to grab water and deliver it to Damian as he stoically plodded on. He did an amazing job, running 30k (just shy of 19 miles) in what was a very warm day and busy road conditions. By the time he was finished I had run 20.2 miles and continued on to make it a round 22 miles. This puts me 147 miles ahead of target too. Very good.

I’ll let Damian tell you the story of his new found faith in humanity.

More tomorrow, I hope. This is as close as it’s going to get to understanding the state I’ll be in the day after the marathon (which is a mere three weeks away now) so it’s not going to be a fun one!

Andy.

Today’s shoes: New not smelly Kayano 17′s
Miles today: 22.01
Target: 540
Miles to date: 690.39
“Keep varying the program. Your body will tell you what to do.”
- Joan Benoit Samuelson