Quickest marathon this year...

Nothing to brag about at 3:58, but after all the illness and injury this year, it was a welcome return to the world of sub-4.

I hadn't entered many events after missing such a lot over the summer, but fortunately Simon Redfern offered me his unneeded place at the notoriously fast Abingdon. I popped up on the train last night and stayed about 3 miles from the start, which made for a beautiful warm-up walk along pretty and misty country lanes this morning.

There were loads of mates there, so great to catch up with people and it was perfect running weather (sunny & cool). It was Paul's 100th marathon - always good to have a new member in the club. He ran a PB today and was really chuffed.

I enjoyed the run and had a fantastic day out. Nice wicky T shirt and a chunky medal, as shown below with Tommy, who nearly thwarted my plan to run by involving me in a "nearly falling down the stairs tripping over black cat in the dark" incident. Fortunately he was fine and I just suffered a stubbed toe (which is now rather larger than it should be, and a bit purple).

UK Ultra Champs

This weekend I went to the last round of the ULTRArace UK Ultra Championships. It's a series of 9 races, of which the best 5 score. After a year with an unusual amount of illness and injury, I only just managed to do 5.

The first was the Northampton-Tring double in January, at 45 miles each day. I ran these with a chest infection, which didn't exactly help, but that was the first two races completed in reasonably decent times. Annoyingly I picked up anterior compartment syndrome on the second day (effectively a painful lump on my shin which made me limp badly and have to take a complete break from running for a couple of weeks).

I was just about back to running again when the next round came along with another canal double, this time at Grantham, 29 miles each day. I did a bit better there.

Then there was the summer with the groin strain: no running and missing out on lots of events. I finally got back some of my fitness over the last few weeks, enough to do the Nottingham 50K on Sunday. A beautiful route through lots of woods and fields, along the Robin Hood Trail, finishing at the Castle in the city. I was pleased with 5:13 - not particularly quick, but better than I'd expected after all the time off.

And those 5 were enough to put me in third place in the championships. I got a big box of energy bars, a huge glass trophy and a cheque for £50. Shiny!So, same again next year? A brilliant series organised by Rory and Jen at ULTRArace - those guys rock!

Back to school, back to running...

So the new term has seemed a bit manic at work. Not sure why it should seem busier than usual, but it does. Fortunately this has been pleasantly balanced with the ability to run again. I'm still at the slow end but my fitness is gradually returning. And I'm really appreciating every run. (Picture grinning like an idiot at 5am running around the Heath...)

The Green Chain Marathon was hot but very scenic, following the Green Chain path which links up lots of pretty sections of woods and a stretch along the Thames in South East London. Quite hilly in places, but a delightful day out with great company.

The New Forest Marathon is always held on the last weekend of the year that our favourite campsite is open. It would be churlish not to go. Another sunny weekend, with donkeys and blackberries being the best nature around. Always good to get out of the city for a couple of days. And they'd changed the marathon route a bit, running some of it in reverse (though not actually backwards - that would be more challenging) making it more interesting. And at 4:20 for me, it was a bit faster than of late.

The Flower of Suffolk on Sunday covered some beautiful (and flat) trails along the coast, in blazing hot sunshine. I stayed overnight before the event in Lowestoft. I'd taken some work with me and sat on the beach in the evening doing some Maths - most enjoyable! It was an LDWA thing, the first I'd done for ages. Oh, how I'd missed the stiles, kissing gates, boardwalks, footbridges, filed edges - even a tiny patch of mud. I set off early to avoid the worst of the heat with Gil, a 60 year old 100 club member, who's done well over 400 marathons and ultras. We chatted the whole way round and had a good laugh.

The "enrichment" sessions at college have started up again too, so I've been running in the local park with a bunch of teenagers each week, training them up for a 10K (Greenwich in November). We have a really enthusiastic group, with nearly 40 of them this term!

Apart from the whole being-ridiculously-busy thing, I'm finally feeling back to normal. Nice.

A long summer

It's been a while since I last wrote here. Mainly because I finally did the sensible thing and stopped running for long enough to let my injury have a chance at healing. Which it now finally is, I think, fingers crossed and all that.

I went to see an osteopath who diagnosed a groin strain. Over the summer I saw him many more times. The treatment involved rest, lots of painful prodding/poking/massaging, some dry needle therapy, spinal manipulation, lots of exercises (squats and lunges in every direction) and stretches, hot baths in Epsom salts and taking flax seed oil. There was about a month of no running at all (!!!) then gentle jogs of increasing length were gradually reintroduced.

I was surprised at quite how disproportionately I was affected by not being able to run. I had joked before about how I'd go mental if I couldn't run, but hadn't realised that actually it would expose a major personality defect in that my mood is governed so thoroughly by my ability to go for a jog in the morning. Feeling unfit is not good for me. And yet stupidly I kept eating as normal for too long, resulting in weight gain that means I'm fatter so have extra weight making the return to fitness all the more hard work.

But it felt very good when I finally got to run again, albeit very slow and only a 3 miler at first. My first 10 miler was lovely and I eventually got to do a marathon on 20th August. It was fantastic to see all my running mates again, who'd been wondering where I'd been.

The event was the Thames Meander: a great route through Richmond Park, along the Thames to Putney Bridge, then turn around and run back again. It was very well organised by Dave and Mel Ross. I did my patented returning-from-injury walk:run and managed 4:34, which seemed pretty respectable.

The joy was short lived as my knee became really painful the following day and I had to have another week of no running. But then I quickly got back into it and managed a 32 miler (run:walk again) along the Thames from Moulsford to Marlow. My first event organised by Xnrg, whom I now rate very highly. There were more folk there that I hadn't seen for weeks and it was a small event with a real feel-good factor.

After a full-on week at college, I was happy to spend Saturday running the One-to-go marathon along the canal from Hackney Marshes up to the Lee Valley Water Sports Centre (we got to see some great kayaking and white-water rafting) and back again past the Olympic Stadium. And there were yet more people I hadn't seen all summer. It was far too hot (a really muggy, oppressive sort of heat) but I was happy to be there. I was much slower than at the previous couple of runs, but really enjoyed the day. My hip felt a bit dodgy - not painful but it didn't feel quite right. I'm hoping everything's okay, but will go back to get checked out by the osteo before doing too much more I think.

So, annoyingly, I haven't been able to return to fitness enough to be able to do the Spartathlon. That's extremely disappointing, but I suppose it will be there in future years.

The summer did have some very good bits of course - a brilliant trip to Paris with Jim and lots of other days out here and there. Plus I got to meet my new nephew, Rory, and see the rest of my family too.

And I'm running now and mentally feeling like myself again. :-)

Walking in the Saturday sunshine

After nearly a fortnight of no running at all (trying to let the hip injury recover) I could feel a creeping insanity building. After spending a couple of days wandering on the North Downs with some Duke of Edinburgh students, I decided I could safely walk a marathon, hopefully without causing more damage. I'd already entered an Ultra (30 miles) on Saturday afternoon, which was part of the Enigma festival of running, but I switched to the morning Enigma marathon, which meant getting up to Bletchley for an 8 am start.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and an opportunity to hang out with lots of running mates. I could tell the day would be good for my mental health if nothing else. The route included a couple of laps of the lake, plus a trot along the canal towards Leighton Buzzard. This was a section that I had traversed in darkness during the GUCR 5 weeks ago: it looked very different in the sunshine and with lots of cygnets swimming about and a fearless Heron perched regally on the bank.

I walked most of it and put in some jogging here and there, trying to listen out for the uneven footfalls that indicate limping. I expected to be right at the back of the field, but even at nearly 5 and a half hours, there were still half a dozen people behind me. I chatted with lots of people en route, and was happy that there were other folk taking it as easy as I was, providing entertaining company.

At the end, another runner described having had the exact same hip flexor pain (and related foot pain) symptoms I've been suffering from. After several months of enduring this, the cure had come quickly, in the form of a physio's elbow harshly prodded into and rolled around the offending area. Apparently it hurt while being done and was worse the next day, but then after that the hip was cured. Sounded too good to be true. But Trin was there doing massage and she offered her elbow. It certainly hurt while she was doing it. I mean really really owwy ouch! And today it feels as if a small explosion has taken place inside my hip. So I am tentatively hopeful that this is the wizard cure and tomorrow I shall be able to run again. That would be more than shiny.

So, another great day with the Fox, whose Enigma events keep us addicts sated. Looking at my stats, I notice that my 99th, 149th, 159th and 169th marathons have all been Enigmas. (That would be more interesting if there weren't also at least another 3 not ending in ...9th) Huge thanks to Dave and all his merry helpers, who make these such wonderful days to be a part of.

A half marathon?!

The Picnic Marathon is billed as the UK's toughest, mainly as it's set on the North Downs and involves a convoluted route going over Box Hill and the adjacent White Hill several times. Including going up the steps by the stepping stones a few times (you'll know the ones if you've climbed them).

When I entered, I hadn't already arranged to do the Enduroman 100 miler the previous weekend. And my lingering special needs right hip flexor and left foot meant that I probably shouldn't have even ventured down to Surrey. But they allow the option of stopping half way (which is enforced if the first half takes over 3 hours), where you can pick up a T-shirt, mug and medal for the Midsummer Munro ("the UK's toughest half marathon"!) so I figured I might as well go for an interesting training run.Within a couple of miles I could tell that my injuries were slowing me a lot on the steps, but even on the more friendly, flatter sections I also had a very lethargic (and limpy) pace. So I figured I'd just do the half and enjoy the afternoon (we started at 2pm). It was intermittently hot-sunshiney and thunder-showery. The stepping stones were ankle-deep in fast-flowing water (unlike in the picture above, which was clearly taken at a more tranquil time). There was a fantastic atmosphere with lashings of encouragement from the marshals and the other runners. I had a great time, not at all disappointed at not finishing the Picnic, glad of the opportunity to be sensible and avoid further damage to my legs and feet. I still took in six ascents of Box Hill and went twice over the neighbouring and equally tough White Hill. Plus the Munro T-shirt is a decent wicky one that I'll actually use. And actually I really enjoyed the course, so am keen to go back in 2013 (they only do it every couple of years) to finish the Picnic properly when I'm fit. Another top event to go on the to-do list then.

Just 100 miles

Last year while at an ultra in Norwich, I first heard about the Enduroman "Deca", which is the almost impossible sounding triathlon event of 10 full Ironmans (Ironmen?) in 10 days. This year's event was to take place in the New Forest, so I thought about combining a weekend's camping with a little spectating. But then I was told that the more obvious way for me to watch it would be to run The Enduroman 100 Ultra, which takes place on the triathletes' run course, but with a few extra laps.

And so it was that I took the train down to the New Forest on Saturday morning, arriving just as the Doubles were in their swim stage. The Doubles? Well, it turns out that in addition to the Deca, which had started a week last Friday, there was also a Quintuple starting on the Wednesday (5 Ironmans in 5 days), a Triple starting on the following Friday (but this isn't 3 in 3 - it's the full 7.2 mile swim, followed by 336 miles out on the bike, then a 78.6 mile run to round it off), then the Double started on Saturday (same format as the triple, but two thirds of the distance), with a mere single Ironman starting on the Sunday morning. The idea being that all the events would finish with some running on Sunday. The 100 mile run seemed like the lightweight option, starting on Saturday afternoon. And it was odd that when asked "which race are you doing?" the reply had to be "oh, just the run". When did running 100 miles become "just" running 100 miles?!

I admit that when I enthusiastically entered, I hadn't really noticed that it was only a fortnight after the GUCR. And I'd figured that being in the New Forest, the run would be flat. Oops. At least I had acknowledged that it would be laps (of 1.04 miles it turned out, so we did 97 laps, making a course a little over the 100 miles stated). So, still barely able to run after aggravating a hip flexor injury at GUCR (and my attempt when I did run being a slow comedy limp) I actually thought about not doing it. But I really wanted to see the Deca and everything, so thought I might as well give it a try. And it was well worth it.

It was a glorious sunny Saturday morning and the Doubles had been in the water since 9am for their 4.8 mile swim. The lake was beautiful and there was a great atmosphere, with crews and supporters cheering as each athlete finished that section and made their way up the hill to their bikes for their first transition. The bike course (which sounded very hilly, pot-holey and fraught with dangers such as traffic and wayward donkeys) was apparently very tough. There was an 11.1 mile loop they repeated, with a turnaround up by the stately home. The run route was neatly designed with a section that went round the edge of the bike turnaround, so we got to see some cyclists most times as we passed through that section, where there were also crews and an aid station and music playing the whole time (which was especially welcome through the middle of the night - there wasn't a huge variety, but I remember hearing a lot of Queen). It also went round a couple of lakes, one of which was the one the triathletes all swam in. We had a race briefing at noon, then set off at 2pm.

I had kind of skim-read the info about the run course. Enough to know that it was trail and I'd need a good head torch for the bits through the trees at night. I'd seen that it said something about flat, but not taken in where it mentioned the fact that what could be (and wishful-thinkingly was by me) mistaken for a pleasantly flat loop around the lakes, along a field and round a stately home, was in fact set on a hill with the lakes at the bottom and the home at the top. And the pretty bit through the woods round the lake was on a narrow trail strewn with many trip hazardish roots and stones, lots of uppy-downyness and a particularly dodgy steep downhill with a barbed wire fence just off to one side. Some of the roots were spray-painted with orange fluorescent paint, which was really helpful, particularly at night when they glowed effectively under the headtorch light. The uphills were steep in parts, but that was ok as they suggested ideal walking sections on each lap, but the long downhill from the house towards the lake was just the wrong gradient for my battered feeling legs.I had the comedy limp at the start, which actually eased off after a while (at 80 miles someone told me I was looking far smoother than I had in the first lap). I took it easy (well, I couldn't muster much speed to set off too fast even if I'd wanted to) and really got into it after about 20 laps. The weather held up right through the moonlit night and we were joined on the course at various times by triathletes from their different events. It was awe-inspiring watching how well they could run after so many hours (or days) of tough activity already completed. I was a bit sore and achy, but kept well motivated by all these amazing athletes around me. It was great to watch the swim of day 10 of the Deca (and the single Ironman) starting at 6am. Shortly after that, the rain arrived, and from then on it was all very wet, cold, and at times exceedingly windy. (And the tricky path round the lake was not made any easier when it became a tricky and extremely muddy path.) Yet despite the weather, the crews, marshals and supporters were all still there, enthusiastic and helpful, making this unbelievable atmosphere. There was an aid station near the finish, where we could refill drinks bottles and grab food whenever we needed it. At night, a couple of the marshals were wearing cow costumes. I'm nearly sure I didn't just imagine that anyway.I had people encouraging me at lots of points along the way, with the fact that I was the only female left in the ultra (after one other pulled out at 50 miles) possibly making it easier for them to know my name. I felt a bit guilty for being so slow, but given the circumstances, I was pleased with being able to finish this unexpectedly tough event. The last lap was run in reverse, which made it clear whenever someone was nearly finished, and meant we got to see all the other competitors still out on the course. There was high-fiving and wishing all the best to those still going. It was indeed very slow, taking me just under 26 and a half hours. I think I came in third place, and technically I suppose first lady.

The goody bags were full of, erm, goodies! Including a Superman-styled Enduroman T-shirt, a box of gels, a hat, a buff, a drinks bottle and more. Then there was also a good wicky T-shirt and a medal for finishing.It was a great event, with huge thanks due to Steve the organiser and his team of helpers. They, together with the other competitors, their crews and the supporters, made it a fantastic weekend and it felt a privilege to be a part of it.

It made it feel extra odd to be back in the classroom teaching again today, when our lower sixth students returned from study leave. As far as they knew, I probably spent the weekend watching telly or shopping.