Horrible, just horrible. That’s the polite way of describing my long run today. I have never been in so much pain before when running, and I failed to run the distance I set out for as well.
In a vague attempt to see the silver lining, I learned a lot of valuable lessons though, lessons I won’t have to learn on marathon day.
I intended to do 18 miles, but would be happy with 16. Glad I stuck that caveat in otherwise the whole run would have been a write-off. I’ve moved my schedule around a bit due to illness and injury – instead of doing long runs every weekend, I’m doing them every week and a half instead to give my knees time to recover. So today, ten days after the Silverstone Half Marathon where I was very happy with my pace, it was time to do another long one.
I had been out for four miles with the double pushchair on Monday and that seemed fine. Seems like my pace is slowly coming back which is something. So given I’ve done a 16 miles and two 13 miles before, I was quietly confident about this run.
My first mistake was running with my tracksuit top on. It was cloudy when I set off, but within minutes the sun came out full force and I sweated buckets. But it was too much of a hassle to take my tracksuit top off as it was all tangled up in Camelbak and headphones and so on.
My second mistake was not taking enough water in the Camelbak. Previous runs have been in the cold and often wet, so I’ve always had enough water. This was my first long run in the sunshine, and it was only half-filled.
My third mistake was probably going out too fast, although I was trying very hard not to – I kept slowing down but every time I looked at my pace it had crept back up again. I was trying to average 11:30 minutes per mile at the start but I was doing more like 10:45 right up until mile 5. I thought it wouldn’t matter as I had been fine at Silverstone over 13 miles, but I hadn’t banked on the first two mistakes.
I took a different route to normal – completely the opposite direction in fact and ran down to Greenwich (and around the Cutty Sark) before heading back. This would give me a total of 16 miles, and if I still had any strength left I planned on doing an extra mile out and back when I finished. As you will see, this didn’t happen.
Rather disappointingly, it turns out that the section along the river from the O2 Dome to practically the Cutty Sark (3 miles) has been blocked off for building works, so I ended up running next to the Blackwall Tunnel approach road and through the streets instead of the nice, cool breezes of the river. The sun was beating down horrendously and there was grit and dust everywhere. Quite sure it didn’t help – my pace did drop right down by almost a minute a mile but to be fair it may well have done anyway.
Nevertheless, I made it round the Cutty Sark, back through the roads and grit, and as I hit the ten mile mark I realised I was about to collapse from exhaustion. I was completely overheated. So I stopped, took my tracksuit top off (this took quite some time) tied it around my waist and continued. Half a mile later I was still struggling, and there was a nice bench so I sat on it for a few minutes – this is a total first for me. I knew something was up. I then realised I was out of water. 10 miles into an 18 mile run and running out of water is a total disaster, especially as I was pretty dehydrated as I’d been sparing the water, suspecting it was low.
At this point I was near the O2, so I started running again (and wow, it hurts to start running again after stopping) and after half a mile I stopped the clock (14 minute mile for the last one including taking off my top) and walked the long distance into the O2 from the boats.
I looked a complete mess as I walked through the doors of the very shiny O2. I could see the security guards were looking at me funny so I decided to make the best of it and ask them where I could get drinking water from. Needless to say the only toilet was miles into the O2 itself – I think this excursion must have been an extra half a mile at least. Mental note as well – bring a credit card on long runs so I could buy water in an emergency!
So I got to the toilets, struggled with the lid on the Camelbak for a good few minutes, spraining my wrist in the process (or so it felt!) but eventually the damned thing came undone. Given I realised from the state I was in I should just attempt the 16 miles, not the 18, I two-thirds filled it, and had a big drink myself. Headed back out feeling a lot more human.
Started the clock again at 11 miles and hobbled badly as I got going. This HURT. It was then that I discovered my third major mistake – although I hadn’t been running whilst I took my O2 excursion (around 15 minutes) the half gel I’d taken at 9 miles had long since finished in my system and I was in the throes of a blood sugar crash. Argh. I didn’t want to open a new gel as I only had 5 miles to go and thankfully I had some Sports Beans which I gobbled up. Unfortunately, these things take a while to kick in.
Just under a mile and a half later and I could run no more. There was nothing left in the tank – the low blood sugar was responsible for that. So I walked a quarter of a mile. But then I discovered that a new part of my legs was aching from the walking, and I was actually wincing, so I ran again for another half a mile until I got to the main road. The pain from my legs immediately jumped down to my feet. I walked along the main road to avoid too much attention from the nasty people with weapons, I mean, dogs. At the end of the main road section, quarter of a mile later, I started running again. There was still almost 3 miles left and I was walking for longer than I was running. Not good.
I didn’t last long, and fell back into walking for a short while. Yet again the pain in my legs came back and I gritted my teeth and began running again. This time I managed three quarters of a mile, so a bit better, but my feet were aching. The blood sugar problems that had disappeared were coming back and there was no way I’d be using a gel now with under two miles to go. I walked another stretch but after a few hundred yards I was in agony. I had to run again.
On the plus side, the runs were at a reasonable pace of 11 minute miles, so despite all the walking, my pace never really dropped below 13 minute miles. Something to bear in mind I guess. Any time there was a hill I stopped running and walked. So anyway, I ran for another quarter of a mile or so, walked a hundred yards, ran a few hundred yards, walked fifty yards, then ran almost half a mile knowing this was The Final Mile. I walked a final fifty yards at 15.5 miles, then ran the rest of the way home, wincing and grimacing all the damned way.
When I got in the front door I was whimpering in pain and could barely sit down. My biggest issue with this house is that the bathroom is upstairs – it took me a good twenty minutes to get it together enough to attempt the stairs.
In total, I walked for 17 minutes of the 3 hours and 9 minutes I was out there (not including the 15 minute walking excursion into the O2). Six minutes faster than my previous 16 mile run. So, it could have been worse. And on Marathon Day, given I’ll have an extra ten miles to do on top of that, I suspect it really will be a lot worse. However I’m hoping I don’t make those mistakes – water won’t be a problem (lots at the side) and I’ll be sure to take a huge stash of Sports Beans in the event of blood sugar incidents. And I won’t wear my tracksuit top whatever the weather! And I will definitely not go out so fast, even though that plan seemed to work at Silverstone.. lucky I guess.
I’m hoping this pain will help my muscles get all nice and strong so it won’t be as bad (well, at mile 16.. I have no doubt it will be hell at mile 22) on the day as well. I can hope. I’ll have an ice bath in a minute.. ugh.
So – the times (click to make them bigger):
Pace over the 16 miles
You can clearly see how it all went to pot after mile 10. The 14 minute mile there includes the 2-3 minutes when I stopped to take my tracksuit top off.
Here it is as a graph (click to view it properly):
Heart rate and pace
It’s plain to see how the blue line becomes very wiggly after mile ten with all my stopping and starting. My heart rate was curiously a lot lower but I had no energy to go any faster. It was like I’d hit the wall ten miles early!
This run has reinforced the fact this will be my first and last marathon. I didn’t mind running all that much before – didn’t love it, but it was tolerable. But this is an exquisite form of torture. I have blisters on my blisters – not even nice clear ones, half of them are filled with blood. I’ve lost or am about to lose four toenails, two of them twice, and I haven’t even run the silly thing yet. My knees hurt a lot when not running (interestingly the pain stops for the first ten miles or so) and going about my everyday life. The rest of the day after a run is a write-off, as is most of the next day in terms of pain.
On the plus side, at least the rest of my body is looking more toned than usual. Woo. Frankly the trade-off isn’t worth it.
