My 50th Marathon and Happy Birthday Shakespeare!

This weekend in Stratford upon Avon there were celebrations going on for Shakespeare's birthday. This included various events such as a parade with marching bands and various acting groups and some morris dancers, as well as the marathon (run along with a half, for the semi-fit).

It was a beautiful sunny weekend and we stayed in a lovely B&B in a comfy room with a four-poster. Saturday involved a cafe, butterflies (see Jim's fantastic picture of a glasswing), rowing on the Avon (Jim rowed, I loaded up on food for the next day's run, we both sang silly rowing songs), wine on the large grassy area by the RSC theatre and a pizza dinner. A top day all in all.

The marathon itself was very good. Before the start I met up with a Fetchie, Naomi, who had chosen to run as Lara Croft. We had drinks with several other Fetchies after the race and it was great to put some more faces to the names of people I've been chatting online with recently. I've done this run a couple of times before so knew exactly what to expect from the two-lap course through country lanes and along a track. There are a couple of hills but nothing too bad. There are plenty of water stations and there was a cool breeze negating the effects of the sun. I got a little burnt, but not badly. I felt comfortable and enjoyed chatting with other runners on the way round. My time was 4:02:35, which is pretty good for me. I didn't really mind too much how long it took though, as just completing my 50th was enough achievement in itself.

As this was my tenth marathon/ultra of the year, it also marked the end of the challenge I was doing to raise funds for Animal aid. The challenge was '10 marathons in 5 months', but in my eagerness I completed it over a month early. I got an email from Richard at Animal Aid telling me that the sponsporship has amounted to over £15 000, which is a record as it's the most they've ever received for a sponsored event. Given the current economic climate of credit crunchiness, that's not bad, eh?

Bungay Marathon

I did the Bungay Marathon yesterday. I've run this a couple of times before and have a real soft spot for it. Not sure why exactly, but it's a really charming event. Bungay is a small village in Suffolk and the route is a two-lap road course taking in more cute villages where the locals come out to cheer us along. There are some undulations (I had remembered them as significant hills but was pleased to find them relatively undemanding this time). There are some great views from the higher parts of the route and then there's a mile and a half along a track through trees towards the end.

A half marathon starts 2 hours after the full and I arrived for the start of lap 2 just as they were setting off. This meant that I was surrounded by hundreds of runners from mile 13 to 14 before the field spread again. I briefly considered walking the last hill, but I saw Mick n Phil jogging up it ahead of me and was inspired to continue at a run. [Mick Curry has done hundreds of runs including lots of half and full marathons, always pushing his son Phil in a wheelchair.] I found myself overtaking runners in both the full and the half on my second lap, even though I was running at a comfortable and relaxed pace. I finished in 4:03:22 which is actually quite quick for me.

I stayed the previous night in a lovely B&B in Earsham, a nearby village, which meant I had a pleasant 3 mile walk from there to Bungay as a warm up in th morning. I met lots of people I knew at the run, including several of the '100 Club' runners and lots of Fetchies. I got a lift back to the train station with one, a lovely chap called John, which made the journey home far quicker and more interesting (and cheaper). There was a Fetchpoint at mile 20 which was great for extra encouragement too. A Fetchpoint is a place where some Fetchies set up to cheer us on and provide food etc, but this one also had the added attraction of cowbells!

Ultra #4 - 40 miles in the countryside

On Saturday I did my fourth ultra run. It was a lovely figure-of-8, off-road course starting at a school in Compton (about 6 miles from Goring & Streatley in Oxfordshire).

I took a train up on the Friday evening and got a lift from the station to the school from Jan, the race organiser's wife. The whole family were really friendly and helpful, as were all the marshalls along the way, helping make it an event with a fantastic atmosphere. I went to the pub where there were several other runners and we watched a DVD of the Grand Union Canal Race, another event put on by Dick Kearn. He's a keen ultra runner himself and certainly knows how to set up a super event! Accommodation was free - making use of the gym mats in the school hall.

The run started at 9am and there were competitors doing a 20 mile option all starting at the same time. I met up with several Fetchies and also a friend from primary school whom I hadn't seen since we were 11! It was all very friendly and sociable. We set off from the school field and followed trails and tracks, going through woods and over large steep hills. At 19.3 miles, you could choose whether to turn back for the 20 mile finish, or continue for the 40.

It wasn't a question for me, despite my stomach starting to play up a bit. At about 24 miles I was caught up by Phil - a friend of Ade's (the runner I did most of the Thames Trot with). We stayed together for the remainder of the race, chatting the miles away. It was good to have good company, especially when I had to walk quite a bit when my stomach got really painful, as well as in a couple of places when the instructions weren't totally clear so we could work out between us which way to turn! The route was generally well marked with some marshalls here and there, flour on the ground and a few arrow signs, plus we had written instructions. Fortunately I remembered I had ibuprofen with me, which enabled me to really enjoy running the last 6 miles or so. Wish I'd taken it earlier! At the checkpoint at 31 miles, the organiser's daughter (whom I'd chatted with the previous night and mentioned being vegan in passing) had saved me a banana, realising that I wouldn't want any of the Haribo sweets on offer. Like I said - a wonderful family!

At the finish we were each given a Creme Egg - Jim's face lit up when I presented him with mine that evening - and a long sleeved grey T shirt (as modelled in the picture).

It was a brilliant day and I'll definitely do it again, as well as hopefully some of the other events run by the same people.

I did my usual recovery 4 miler the next morning, before heading to Eastleigh to stay with my brother and his family for a couple of days. We got in a couple of lovely trail runs (7 and 4 miles), plenty of walking and a bit of a bounce on a trampoline - all good for recovering from a long run. Russ also took Jim out for a nice long cycle ride so everyone was happy.

Paris je t'aime!

The heading says it all. Four days in the beautiful city is a fantastic relaxing way to kick start the two week holiday from college. We left for the early Eurostar on Saturday and arrived in time for elevenses (at a cute street cafe) on the way to the hotel. A quick trip to the marathon expo, then back into town for some shopping and wandering around enjoying the sights. Pizza and red wine in the Quartier Latin for the now-traditional and ideal pre-marathon dinner.

After lots of smaller events, I'd forgotten how it can be fun to run with thousands of others (over thirty thousand starters lined up on the Champs Elysees) and I took the run at a relaxed pace, just drinking in the scenery (and a glass of red, courtesy of the Beaujolais Marathon organisers at mile 23 too!). The route takes in two parks and several of the major sights (Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower), with my favourite part being along the Seine. In one of the tunnels there were amazing accoustics, with the runners sending a kind of sonic Mexican wave through the dimly lit underpass. A comfortable finish in 4:14:22, then back to the hotel for lunch.

In the afternoon we went to a pub near Place de la C0ncorde to meet some of the Fetchies: runners that I'd been chatting with online in the preceeding weeks. It was great to finally meet these people in real life!

In the picture below I've got my copy of L'Equipe which has all the finishers' names and times printed in it. This is the paper that I keep hearing about as we watch the Tour de France every year so it's pretty cool to be in it!

We had a picnic on what we call the 'picnic bridge' - the Pont des Arts - including yet more red wine. A very civilized way to dine. There were some rather good buskers playing the sort of jazz that is used in the Jeeves & Wooster TV series.

On Monday and Tuesday we took in some museums, cafes, bars, shopping and general pootling about just being happy to be in Paris.

Like I said, Paris je t'aime!

Charnwood Marathon - my first LDWA event

Yesterday I completed the Charnwood Marathon, an event organised by the Long Distance Walking Association. I'd heard of the LDWA years ago as lots of the 100 Marathon club members are big fans of these events. Some events are for walkers only, but lots have a later start time for runners to take part. They are very friendly events, with lots of fruit, cake, sandwiches & hot drinks at the checkpoints, as well as soup at the finish. They are cheaper than most road running events too. There were certificates and sew-on badges at the end rather than medals. Timing was approximate.

The Charnwood Marathon started in Quorn, Leicestershire and followed a loop trail route through many fields, tracks, paths and over hills and a gazillion stiles. It was very uneven terrain leaving me with tender ankles today. The weather varied hugely - it was windy more often than not, but we also had hot sunshine and freezing cold icy hail. The route was scenic with some great views (including from the highest point in the county) but it wasn't marked or marshalled, nor was there a route map. My Garmin produced the following:

The LDWA events involve participants being given a sheet of directions to follow. There were 2 1/2 sides of A4 with densely packed instructions: "Go thro kissing gate next to ladder stile. AH on path and downhill to X stream & thro kissing gate. TR along field edge keeping steam on R. TL at field corner, uphill with wall and wood on R,..." - that excerpt was a mere 2 lines worth! I found it extremely difficult to read and run, but fortunately I was running with an experienced LDWA member who'd mastered the knack of running down difficult terrain while both reading and eating an energy bar. Apparently it gets easier with practice. It was draining mentally to have to keep up the concentration rather than just running. We also had an orienteering-style card that had to be clipped at the checkpoints, some of which were unmanned so we just had to hunt around to find the clipper.

It was a great day out, despite the marathon taking me just over 5 hours to complete. I think I'll try some more LDWA runs in the future. They certainly make for a different sort of challenge.

Charity Updates

I received an email from the Kashmir Education this week, saying that






..."the third quality school (BANJOSA VALLEY PUBLIC SCHOOL) of KEF opened on 24^th of March in the remote village of Banjosa. Lovely children with smiling faces were the first intakes of class prep and class 1."




The money I raised by doing the '7 runs on 7 Suns' challenge went towards building this school. Jim's school raised further funds for Banjosa by having a non-uniform day.






Also, back on the 13th, I received the following in an email from Animal Aid: "The income from the sponsor form is £10,796 so far. The target for an Outrage insert is £12,500, and £10,796 at this stage means this should comfortably be achieved. Given the current state of the economy, this is very good news indeed."

It's good to see that being sponsored to run has a real impact. I almost feel guilty taking money for doing something I love, but then the money's not for me so I guess I should just ask for more! Actually, I probably challenge myself more when I know it's for charity than I would otherwise, so I do get something very positive out of it personally too. It's currently looking like the '10 Marathons' Challenge may well end up being closer to 15 for example...

Running with Wombles

Ok, so the title is a bit of a misnomer as it was a group of students, not Wombles, that I was running with. Not that I think my students are wombles, but we were doing a 10K in Wimbledon you see… (Ok you pedants, it wasn’t actually on Wimbledon Common, but hey, Orinoco makes me smile!)

So, Maths may be my subject, but the teachers at my sixth form college are asked to organise two 6-week ‘enrichment’ courses for the lower sixth each year. It was obvious I’d choose to get ‘em running. (Well, I thought it obvious, but initially I was asked if I’d like to look after the netballers – “NOOOOOOO!”)

We only get an hour or two on Wednesday afternoons to train, but the time is spread across more than six weeks, as half term holidays and other things crop up during the term. I figured the timing was about right to get the students up to a level where they could complete a 10K. We train in a local park, doing a mixture of drills, intervals and hillwork. We’ve been out in all types of weather, including rain (making for comedy slippyness) and we even did one session on the college field in inches of snow – a fantastic workout! We also discuss nutrition and I help them come up with a training plan, basically adding two further runs per week (one easy, one long). This year I’ve had the assistance of Meriem, our cutest French teacher, at the training sessions. She also ran in the race.

The first group of the year do the Brighton 10K in November; the second lot do the Wimbledon 10K in March. This year it was on Sunday March 22nd - a lovely sunny day. We met at Embankent tube station at 07:45, which fortunately didn’t seem too early as at least the mornings are still light before the clocks go forward. The students were great – they’d trained hard and also got sponsored (mostly for NSPCC) and all of them completed the event. Their times ranged from 48:31 to 1:21:23 and they were really chuffed with their rather nice medals. One student organised his own special vest from a Cancer charity and ran in memory of his friend’s mum: he raised £100. One of the students was tripped at 6K, but he hobbled his way to the finish – a long way to limp! There is one keen student who’s done all 4 of the 10Ks. Even the Vice Principal of college came along to take part (beating the rest of us with a time of 45:43).

I also met Peter Simpson again, the founder and club secretary of my running club: Vegan Runners UK. He’s pretty quick, finishing in an impressive 42:08. I was just taking it easy on the day, as I didn’t want to risk injury that would spoil my busy running schedule over the next few months. (My time – 54:24.)