Shaving off 22.5 minutes

Official time 2:40:10; Garmin time 2:37:34; Goal time for next year 2:15:59 that's one minute less for each kilometre travelled so there are two things I need to do to achieve this:

• Increase my average speed to 9.4 km per hour.  I hope these old legs can manage that.
• Work out how to refuel (eat jelly babies) and rehydrate (that's drink water or Lucozade uuugggghhhh) whilst running which is much harder than it sounds if you breath through your mouth while running.

I'll try to restrict blogging about running from now on as although I have no followers it gets boring even for me eventually.

I bought them all

I went with the buy them all deal. 

Paralysed by Indecision

On Tuesday I received an email from Sportcam with a link to the pictures taken of me at the Brighton Half Marathon.  I look close to death in most of them but there is one where I am actually smiling and look as though I am enjoying myself. 

Like school photos there are various options to chose from if you want to own these images, printed or downloadable or on CD, individually or in groups and of course the prices vary with the unit price cheapest if you buy all the images. 

I seem to have lost my ability to make a decision when faced with this abundance of choice.  There is only one image that I would willingly display anywhere but a little greedy demon keeps pointing out to me that I could obtain that picture for a lot less if I agree to buy a dozen that I don't really want along with it. 

I seem to be facing a similar dilemma in other areas and wonder if that is part of getting old or if I AM STUCK IN A RUT and don't know how to get out.  Do I dare sacrifice a little security for the chance of a more endurable existence?  Not sure yet - watch this space.

After the Race

 

Four frillies and the accountant -
no sign of Phil at this point

Brighton Marathon 2011 - Well I'm not a marathon virgin anymore but I still have a long way to go.  We crossed the start line at around 9.08 and it was cold and crowded to start.  You might notice the long sleeve top is missing in the finish line photos.  My lovely running companion has it in the backpack.  I think he runs with me because he knows I will stop and walk part way through if he's not there to police things and I think he is right.  I hate him for making me keep going at the time but love him for it afterwards.

That extra 3 miles makes quite a difference that I was a little unprepared for.  I found the first 5 miles okay.  I pretended they were kilometres to make the end feel a bit closer and that worked until mile 8 but then I started to feel my tank was running low and I haven't practised refuelling on the go.  Eating a jelly baby is quite difficult when you have no moisture in your mouth.  The next water station couldn't come quick enough, I understand now why runners carry a bottle of water.  Of course is not enough just to carry it (which I have tried), you have to keep taking a sip.  I still have no idea how you eat on the go, I'll just have to work on that one.

 


at the finish - no crowds at the font or the back


Having got a bit dehydrated and low on fuel, miles 10-13 were really hard and I had to stop a couple of times to have a sip of Lucozade energy drink, which is disgusting. 

Here I go over the finishing line with an official time of 02:10:10 still within medal time.

The last half mile was really tough.  I knew we were nearly at the end but I couldn't see the finishing post clearly and then when I did it was 200m further away than I thought and that was a long 200m.  I was still standing after crossing the line but shunned the proffered silver blanket as I could only focus on receiving a medal at that stage and failed to realise the photo opportunity in a large sheet of reflective foil.  At least I was still standing and in better condition than at the end of the 10k in October 2010.  I even managed to get my foot onto the bench for the electronic tag to be removed. 



  The shoes, the number,
the medal.......

Noone could be more surprised than I that I have actually done this.  Thanks to Lyn Perryman who started it all with our tribute to her last Spring when we decided to run the 5k Race for Life in her memory.  We've come a long way since then and Jo and Tray are running the full Brighton Marathon in 6 weeks.  That's a step (30,000 steps actually) too far for me I'm afraid but I'll be signing up for the the Great South Run in October and plan to do the Brighton Half Marathon in the Olympic year of 2012.

I just need to practice eating on the run and go and get myself a water bottle now.   Must run.





It's 6.28 am on Sunday morning and I'm trying to eat a bowl of porridge without much appetite.  Porridge is not the sort of food you can eat very easily when you're in the grips of nervous tension and not feeling hungry. 

Garmin, iPod, jelly babies, patella taping kit and the dozen other marathon essentials are lined up downstairs ready for the first leg of.  The last of the die hard party goers will be stumbling back to their lodgings now amidst preparations for the river of lycra due to hit Brighton shortly.  There are roads to close and gazebos to set up and stock with water and Lucozade.  Toilets to search for overnight debris and prepare for their original intended use.  8,000 souls will be emerging from their beds wondering why they are up so early on a Sunday morning and why they've spent a good deal of the last 12 weeks pounding the streets (or treadmills) in preparation for this early rise.

I'll let you know how it goes later on.

A Week in December

The book was recommended by a friend so I went ahead and bought a copy at Heathrow to read on the way to New York.  I didn't get further than the first few pages, ironically about the building of Westfield Shopping Centre, that Jacqui had not even heard of let alone visited which seemed at the time to make the book more significant.  That was in mid November 2010 and I didn't pick it up again for 2 months.   I didn't look at the reveiws on Amazon until today as I have read Faulks in the past and enjoyed his writing.   Amazon readers seem to have more negative than positive comments to make (by volume of 151 responses posted to date) and I tend to agree.  To begin there are a few too many characters who are not readily absorbed from the few lines of introduction to each within the first few pages.  This certainly is a diverse cross section of west London's inhabitants and should have been a much more compelling and interesting read than it was.  When I think of how dense Birdsong was and how each word seemed to be charged with life (or death) its hard to imagine this is written by the same man.  Each individual or couple seems to be a thinly drawn caricature and nowhere is this better illustrated than the thoroughly reprensible hedge fund manager who appears to have not a single redeeming element to his personality. 

I'm not sure whether to be encouraged to write or to give up now considering this novel and my own disappointment with the OU.  I'm reminded of a documentary about Stephen King I saw years ago where he King his early writing career and his wife's wise decision to retrieve the only manuscript copy of Carrie from the wastebasket.  King's advice to would be writers was simply to 'write'. 

Perhaps I should just get on with it.  If Sebastian Faulks can keep writing after Birdsong, produce A Week in December and keep going then why cant I?  Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Other interesting bits of the day

After 27 months the Shannon v St Dunstan's case is finally over with an award of costs to St Dunstan's in the sum of ₤3,500 costs to St Dunstan's.  An award of costs in the ET is rare so this is quite an achievement and vindication of the Charity's actions.  I hope interest the Third Sector in reporting this interesting development.

A week's break from training ended today with a 50min run that was quite hard.  Orginally planned to be 90min but had to be cut short for fear of relapse due to over exertion.  I've got my number (538) for next Sunday and a tag for my shoe to clock exact timing to be reported in paper. 

The run made me so tired I couldn't manage dancing tonight so practising the rhumba and quickstep we learned over the weekend in Bournemouth will have to wait. 

Here we are at the end of Saturday evening after a dinner with some interesting and funny people and dancing including a few dances with a strange man who nobody knew and who left as suddenly as he had arrived.  The dance weekend was fun but 2 nights was enough, especially as I had a cold and had a limited number of hankies with me.

Interesting Day

Collected Nanny's ashes from the undertaker this afternoon.  She's on the windowsill in my lounge now but I haven't actually looked in the jar yet (surprisingly squeamish all of a sudden).  It's quite a big vessel, much heavier and bigger than I was expecting. 

There is a Certificate of Cremation No 149077 in the bag alongside the jar that notes the name, age and death date of the deceased and the date and venue of the cremation.  On the back there are instructions about the disposal  of cremated remains.  It notifies that if the remains are buried they can't be disintered without Home Office licence (I couldn't find out how much that costs anywhere) and/or a Bishop's Faculty which costs ₤161.80. 

Activity 4 - Run 10 Miles without stopping.  I know this is allied to activities 1 and 3 and might seem like cheating but running non stop for 10 miles having never done so before is an achievement for me.  I wont include any more running activities unless I manage a marathon which is extremely unlikely.

Activity 5 - ballroom dancing weekend in Bournemouth today to Sunday.  This could be an unmitigated disaster or a bit of fun.  Not inspired by the news (after booking) that the weekend is concentrating on quickstep and rhumba, my two least favourite dances but there is always the hope that at least some of it will be easy enough for Adrian and I to remember.

The up side of a ballroom dance weekend is the opportunity to wear a nice frock, and the associated acitivity of adding to the nice frock wardrobe which I have planned for later this month.