October 2008 Archives

FIVE solid days of rest, eating badly and drinking too much and I'm ready to get back into running again.

I've got a few things I want to do, some pretty standard and some things a little more obscure, so watch this space.

In the mean time, has anyone got any good (shorter) races/fun runs coming up soon?

That was probably the hardest thing I have done. Like everyone else I hope, I am pretty pleased with myself that I can now say I have run a half marathon.

And just to make sure I would be able to say that, I kept running throughout the 13.1 mile course - regardless of how much my body felt like it was dying with every step towards the end, and I was pretty pleased with my time of two hours 12 minutes and 42 seconds.

But when I finished, I had no idea what to do. Through my intense exhaustion all I could see was a sea of foil blankets around centenery square and I didn't know where I was supposed to go or how to get out of the crowd to meet Paul in the ICC centre.

I must have looked like a lost puppy as I wrapped a foil sheet someone had handed me around my shoulders and stumbled around the square on legs that suddenly felt like they were made out of blancmange.

Things seemed to apear from no where - various coloured bottles of powerade, bottles of water, more foil sheets, medals. I couldn't see straight, but I grabbed two bottles of water and downed one of them in five seconds flat. Then wished I hadn't because it made me feel really ill.

I picked up a goody bag and walked very very slowly over to the ICC centre where I found Paul, looking as bad as I felt. Seeing someone I knew made me want to talk about the race and which bits I found tough, which bits were like hell on earth and how pleased I was that I completed the challenge. I don't think he even heard me though, as he was desperately trying to recover from his cough as well as the run.

But suddenly, it was like a switch was flicked and I came over incredibly ill as Paul started to perk up. I could feel the blood draining from my face and I lay flat out on the floor in the centre. When Paul said he was ready to make his way home, I knew there was no way I was even going to make it to the door, and just about reached one of the bins before seeing half a bottle of watery lucozade in reverse. Lovely.

Felt so much better for it though, despite Paul's compulsion to tell the first person we saw about it, then text everyone we know telling them I vomitted within five minutes of the race, and then posting it on this blog. Such a caring boyfriend.

I can still say I ran a good race though, and that's the most important thing. Immediately after the race, I was saying I would never do anything like that ever again, but now I have recovered (albeit with a pulled tendon in my ankle) I am pretty up for doing a few more 10k races, and even - dare I say it - another half marathon next year.

But for now, I am going to sit back and relax for a good week or so, drink lots of wine and eat lots of ice cream. I reckon I have earned it.

Well done to everybody who completed the half marathon in Birmingham today!
Now, if you're anything like Hannah and I, you are feeling exhausted, slightly sick and you're muscles feel about three times heavier then they did at about 9.29am.

Hannah ran a time of 2 hours 12 mins, roughly what she hoped for, and I ran a time of 2 hours 8 minutes, which was slightly slower than what I was hoping for.

But the aim of the day was to get round the course, raise some cash for charity, and have some fun - so well done to everyone who finished the course.

Our races weren't without incident though.

Hannah was extremely chatty when she finished, bending my ear about what happened during the race while I struggled to breathe.
Then, all of a sudden, she turned as white as a ghost and vomitted in one of the ICC's bins. Classy, my girlfriend.

As for me, I had a great 11 miles and was set to finish in under two hours. But then everything shut down. Totally.

I had pins and needles in my arms and legs, I felt sick and giddy, and I was starting to get tunnel vision. If I had seen a paramedic I would have stopped... but I didn't. Instead I saw someone just as pained as myself and together we limped across the line.

Either someone spiked my water with LSD, or my virus, which I was still recovering from, decided to play a few tricks on me.

Anyone else got any horror stories or funny anecdotes?

One suprising result was my boss finishing in 1 hour 49 minutes. He's 50, quite small, and doesn't look the athletic type. I reckon he took a short cut.

I've got a few more things to say about the organisation of the race. Toilets, the goody bag, the late start and the 11th mile water station are among my gripes. But that's for another blog.

I'm sure Hannah will have something interesting to say too... when she's finished hugging the loo bowl!

Just over 12 hours to go and we are puting the final preparations into place before tomorrow.

Our running kit is washed and clean, we've worked out our route to the start line and we've filled out our next of kin details on our running numbers.

In terms of food we have opted for a meal of spaghetti bolognaise followed by chocolate tart - hopefully there will be enough slow burning carbs in that to see us through the race.

One final tip - the weather forecast for tomorrow is drizzle so make sure you coat yourself in vaseline to stop any chaffing.

Good luck everyone. See you at the start line!

So you've run 20 miles a week for goodness knows how long and it's jsut a few days until the big race.
It's now time for the nitty gritty.

If you haven't already, you will start to worry about what to eat before the race, when to eat, when to drink, what to wear, when to go to the loo, what to do the day before and so on.

But fear not. Here on Road Runner we have drafted in running specialist Paul Robertshaw, who owns Tri-1st, a running shop on Harborne Lane, Harborne.

Here are his top tips. Listen carefully - I will only blog this once...

What is the last thing you want to happen just five days before the big race?

Like everybody else running in next weekend's Birmingham half marathon I have been doing everything I can to avoid an injury.

So far so good - but now I have come down with a full blown cold which is threatening to turn into man flu.

Can I recover in five days or am I going to have to cough and splutter my way round the 13.1 mile course?
To be honest, I have no idea how much effect a cold will have on my performance.
Normally I have quite a laid back attitude to this kind of stuff and just assume that I'll be fine.

But then I spoke to my dad.

"Oooooooooooh! You don't want to do exercise with a cold," he said.
"Tut tut, that's the worst thing you can do."

"But dad, I'm 26, fighting fit and at the peak of my health," I protested.

"Oooooooooh. Well you can do yourself some serious damage if you do the race with a cold," he retorted.

So now I'm worried and trying everything to get rid of my cold, including spending all of this morning in bed.
If it does turn into full blown man flu then I dread to think what will happen to me. Perhaps my lungs will explode while I'm racing?

Keep an eye out for me during the race - I'll be the greeny, purple looking one crawling along the pavement weeping, crying and begging for the pain to end.

You would think I didn't like my muscles, what with all the hell I put them through. I did the hour and a half run on Sunday and despite the warmth of the day, I didn't find it too bad. But then, after all the pain from last week's football, I went out and did all the same damage to my thighs again, only worse.

I think I pulled a muscle before I even started playing properly, because it was really killing, but I decided I wanted to have a good time and I ignored it. When we finished (we lost 16-15) I limped my way to my car and as I drove home I got such an agonising ache in my thigh every time I moved my right leg that I had to cry out - much to the alarm of the passenger I was delivering back to his car.

But, so help me, I will still do my run tomorrow and I will enjoy it. I've given my legs a good talking to (and a good stretching) and they are to get better and jolly well work to their best advantage. I'm not going to let anything silly like excruciating pain get in the way of my training. Not this late in the day.

I am getting really nervous now. Only three weeks to go and I haven't done as much training as I should do this week because I have been too stiff from playing football on Wednesday evening. I haven't played properly since I was 12, which is probably why.

All the blokes from work go every week to have a game of five-a-side and I have always meant to go with them but have been too intimidated by all the testosterone. But I just decided life is too short and went along to have a go, or rather, was pushed into going to make up the editorial team's numbers. I was the only girl across about eight pitches, but it was still fun and I wasn't too bad. I probably got a bit too into it because for the next two days the fronts of my thighs and my back absolutely killed every time I moved. It was impossible for me to run like that, especially with the back pain.

One thing that I noticed was that I wasn't getting nearly out of breath as the blokes were because of all the running I have been doing over the last 12 weeks or so. But I was in a hell of a lot more pain than them the next day.

This is the annoying thing about different types of exercise - you use whole sets of different muscles to do different things. I do indoor climbing about once a week, running three or four times a week, and I swim, and all of these things have caused different muscles in my limbs to ache the following day.

I have been put down to play football next week, but then it will only be a couple of weeks before the half-marathon, so I might lay off that one so I can concentrate on running without having to worry about all the different dimensions of agony I would be causing myself!

WHEN it comes to the crunch I will always, always, chose beer over running.

So when my mates invited me out for a few drinks in Brindley Place there was no contest.
But man oh man did I regret it when I forced my self to run just over 10 miles the next day.

It hurt. Really really really hurt. All I could think about was stopping and having a really long drink of orange squash. But then that made me feel ill which made me want to stop even more.

But there is a debate here. Is it worth doing a run when you have a hangover?

Some say it flushes some of the toxins out of your body as the blood pumps round you system. But others argue the value of training while dehydrated is actually very very minimal. What do you think?

Personally, I wouldn't do it again. But I might try a shorter faster run so the torture doesn't last so long.

I hate spitting in public. It is absolutely gross, and I despise the sight of tracksuit-clad 16-year-olds sitting on benches and smoking while spitting their foul nicotine-infected saliva onto the floor. I can't think of a worse habit.

But today, I could kind of understand why I sometimes see runners having a quick spit in the bushes while they are out. I didn't do it myself, I hasten to add, but the cold October air doesn't half cause phlegm to build up in the back of your throat when you're running, making spitting seem a slightly more attractive option. I still refuse to do it though, it's so rude to everyone else using the same public space to leave deposits of yourself littering the environment, and even worse for other people to see you doing it. I don't care how bio-degradable saliva is.

Now that rant is done with, I am pleased to say my progress has not been totally diminished. I managed to do my normal 4.4 mile run in about 42 minutes, which is just under the time it used to take me before the holiday.

I did do 10 minutes of fartlek (with a ratio of one minute fast running, one minute slow) as part of it, which by the end of I felt like I was about to collapse in a heap, but this is normal for me so I'm encouraged all the same. Paul did an amazing personal best today of 4.9 miles in 41 minutes 17 seconds, shaving two minutes off his PB. So the holiday certainly hasn't done him any harm.

But I don't want to speak too soon, we will have to see how our long run goes tomorrow, then I can say for sure as to whether our current targets for the half marathon are still doable!