With each photo, click on it to get the bigger and better version. All were taken by Steve, except where indicated or are taken from obviously someone (me!) running the race. Some of them may not load – I can assure you that they ARE there, it’s just WordPress is being crap and slow and doesn’t load them all each time. Try clicking on the caption to see the missing photos – they should open in a new window.

So. Sunday dawned, I got up, covered myself in Body Glide (fancy runner’s Vaseline!) got dressed, and went out the front door.

Heading off out

Under the tracksuit top and bottoms, was my full marathon kit, as shown to y’all on Saturday:

Anatomy of a marathon runner

The day had arrived. The road closure signs had been around for a while, so there was no escaping it now!

Road closures

I was expected to run this (as recorded by my faithful Garmin!)

Map of the London Marathon route

At the station, I bumped into a chap who was also running his first marathon. He’d won a competition by Adidas to get a place, so he was kitted out in shiny new Adidas gear. We chatted on the train until we reached our destination of Maze Hill to calm nerves! Once I got off the train, it was time to walk up the hill to the start.

Anxious runners walking to the start

My first task for the day was to hunt down Ruth from the Miscarriage Association, who was waiting for the charity runners outside the runner’s enclosure. I spotted her quite quickly, just as the heavens completely opened! She took some photos.. see here and here! I also chatted to Stephen, who was aiming for a super-human 3h30!

Before long it was time to head in to the runner’s enclosure. Showing the dudes at the entrance my number, I was finally allowed somewhere the general public wasn’t! It hadn’t stopped pouring with rain, and most runners were huddled either under trees, or on the bandstand.

Runners sheltering on the bandstand

I put on my heart rate monitor (it had been a source of drama the previous day when it went temporarily missing and turned out to be in the place we’d first looked and re-looked five times!) and handed my bag over to the baggage lorries. It was time to visit the toilet.. except I couldn’t see any toilets. All I could see were the female urinals, yep, you read that right. So I queued up there, and was handed a cardboard thing to go in, inside an enclosed area with dozens of women with their shorts half down. My use of the cardboard device did not go entirely to plan but the less said about that the better! The whole thing was quite private, except for the tiger poking his head over the top (causing much amusement!) as photographed later by Steve here:

Toilet-peeping Tiger!

So it was then time to line up at the start.. time had flown by! In my confusion I accidently ended up in pen 9 instead of pen 8 with all the costumes.

Everyone lined up at the start

Time passed.. the gun had long since gone off! Then somebody called my name, and it turned out to be Gemma, who was also running for the Miscarriage Association and we’d been exchanging supportive messages on Facebook since July but we’d not yet met. She had Moya, another MA runner too – I was delighted to meet them both! We collared someone to take our photo..

Me, Gemma and Moya at the start

Slowly we started moving forward. In fact, it took 25 minutes before we reached the start line.

The start line

We reached the front.. and we were off!

I’d read countless times that 90% of people go out too fast, and 30 seconds slower at the start saves 3 minutes later. So I was determined not to go too fast. With hindsight I probably did go a little too slow, but it was nice to talk to Gemma and Moya as we ran through the streets that were exceedingly familiar to me as it’s where I’ve lived for 6 years. There were a couple of early hills, such as this one.

Running down the hill outside Woolwich

The early miles disappeared so quickly. We were blessed with holy water, saw a bunch of pirates partying, was high-fived by some otherwise quite dangerous looking youths who were giving great support, saw a lady ringing a bell from her first floor window, saw countless small children enthralled by all the exciting costumes, passed all manner of exciting costumes (many of which made us wince!) and generally lapped up the atmosphere. I had my first “Go Rosie” about ten yards into the race! It was all good.

Soon we reached Woolwich, and I’d arranged to meet Steve and the children opposite the health centre there.

The children waiting for me to run past

He watched the Elite Men run past..

Elite Men

Quite a lot of time later, Gemma and I decided to saunter past!

Gemma and I approach Steve and the children

I gave the children and Steve a kiss, and headed off again.. having done the slowest 5K of my racing history!!

Disappearing down the hill at mile 3

Along with a slightly tender ankle, my right foot had gone curiously numb.. a first for me. I realised it could possibly be because of a wrinkle in my sock. So I stopped briefly to take my shoes off and sort it out, then caught the others up. The last big hill (not that big compared to most!) arrived!

Running past Woolwich Dockyard

And down the other side..

The not-really-bent-like-that chimney between Woolwich and Charlton

Still on familiar roads, we headed towards Greenwich. I passed a lady carrying an enormous backpack in army uniform and expressed my sympathy. She expressed her regret at ever agreeing to do it! We reached Greenwich, but alas, I failed to spot my supporter there, who had waited for me but not realised I’d be running past when I did and had probably left seconds before I arrived.

Heading into Greenwich

We were soon at Cutty Sark, and the first (aside from the start) BBC TV camera. They were packing it away.. hehe.. that’s what you get for starting right at the back and not running my usual speed! Greenwich was packed, and a wall of sound. So many people yelling my name! Gemma spotted her family, then hurried on. At some point between Deptford and Greenwich, I lost Gemma when I picked up the pace a little – but in the end she didn’t finish too far behind me.

Heading out toward Deptford, I’d made arrangements to see Steve with the children, and this time his parents too. They were waiting for me! (Photo taken by Father-in-law Julian)

Steve waiting, camera ready, with the children

Sure enough, I spotted them and they spotted me!

Spotting the family in Deptford

This time I gave everyone a better kiss, saw how delighted B was, and then started back up again!

Me and my mother-in-law in Deptford

The next bit was horrible, as I knew it was going to be. From all my training, I knew that around mile 8 onwards, things started getting horrible as my body woke up to the realisation I was in it for the long haul. It doesn’t help that this part of the marathon course is around Rotherhithe and Canada Water which is pretty bleak at the best of times. I started getting a new pain deep inside my thigh going up into my hip which did not help matters. My knees were doing fine though!

I went through the first of the run-through showers, which were basically water sprayers. Got a bit wet but it didn’t matter. I was also being chased by a shark (photo taken by Julian) which amused me as everyone was yelling “Look, a shark!” although I never saw it in person myself.

Shark

This stage lasted forever.. to be fair it was about mile 9 to mile 12.. a good 5 miles and it did take an hour. It’s funny but even now, the next day, I can’t remember much about it because it was so featureless and uneventful, beyond remembering that it was painful (I texted Steve to have ibuprofen ready at our next meeting) and dull. The knowledge I wasn’t even close to halfway was rather discouraging. However I kept telling myself that this was always going to be the hard part and that helped a little.

Before too long I was running through Bermondsey, and I’d arranged to see my brother and sister Jake and Emily, and he’d brought along his girlfriend El as well. Sure enough, I spotted them! I was delighted to see them, managed to give them all a hug (apparently I didn’t smell too bad!) and then carried on along my way.

The next part has been completely wiped from my brain but somehow I suddenly realised, as if I’d just woken up, that I was running along Tooley Street, which I knew very well as the road that runs alongside London Bridge (having worked in the area for 4 years). I also realised that I had RUN all the way from Woolwich, our nearest local town out in Zone sodding 4, into central London. Not only that, but I’d run 3 miles before even reaching Woolwich. I felt smug.

Then I turned the corner and saw..

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge!! And what an amazing sight it was. I’d heard that people get emotional upon seeing it and I could never figure out why exactly as it’s not even quite halfway, but today I understood it. Can’t explain it though! Anyway, I ran over that damned bridge, videoing it (badly!) as I went. The crowd was huge – so many people calling out my name and those around me. I was sad to reach the other side.

Then came the horrible bit – where you see the runners at mile 22 or something crazy running in the opposite direction, much faster, and worse, 10 miles further ahead. It is.. demoralising. Things started hurting a lot more. It seemed to take forever for me to reach Steve who was just past mile 13. In fact, he spotted a friend, another Steve, not far in front of me.

Friend Steve on the Highway

Then he spotted me. I was in a lot of pain by this point from my hip. And quite dehydrated as I’d not seen a water station for yonks and the sun was blazing now. Far from the perfect rain from earlier.

Me in pain on the Highway

As soon as I spotted him, I perked right up!

Hurray for a friendly face!

I had some of his water, and swallowed the ibuprofen. I didn’t want to leave! It was nice to not be running. I had to stop to do all that, so when it was time to run again I was in AGONY. I hobbled off looking and feeling very sore. But the ibuprofen helped around 20-30 minutes later and a lot of the pain went away. So glad I got him to bring some along – yes, there is a tiny tiny risk of kidney damage, but I was willing to take it.. most runners do.

After half a mile or so, we reached Narrow Street and the start of the Docklands area. Lots of people were walking, in fact most were at this point. It was hard to stay strong and resist the urge to walk, especially as my body was aching so much. Finally, around mile 14 or so, I broke down mentally and walked.. I’d basically convinced myself I needed to wait for the ibuprofen to kick in and make the pain go away. It was a good bargain.

So I walked/ran for a little way until I hit Westferry Circus, whereupon me, and almost everyone else, just walked. Free from the crowds cheering our names, we could walk disgracefully and nobody would know. It felt good, and a little naughty!

So it was time for the Isle of Dogs, and mile 15. I was very pleasantly surprised to spot my in-laws and my children coming out of the tunnel at Westferry, as I’d thought I must have missed them half a mile or so earlier where I’d been expecting to see them (I got the DLR station and the roundabout confused) Cheered me up a lot!

Just before I spotted the in-laws at Westferry

Julian took these two photos, including me greeting the children but I think my youngest was asleep! B was waving her flag she’d found.

Greeting the children

Spurred on, I started running again. I sent a few updates on my phone, and one little sod yelled out to stop using my phone. I am afraid I may have replied with a four letter word followed by “off” as an instinctive reaction. Because yeah, obviously I was using my phone just to muck around and chat to a friend rather than anything important(!) given I was running a damned marathon!

I suddenly realised that I was approaching mile 17, and the infamous Runner’s World Supporters Stand at Mudchute! I’d joined a support group in the weeks before the marathon on the Runner’s World website, and had been chatting away with my group, Group 3, for some weeks on a forum. I’d even dropped off some sweets at the expo a few days earlier for them to give me. When I turned the corner and saw the Runners World stand all laid out in the distance, it was hard not to cry. I suddenly realised that this whole marathon thing was real – here were the people who had been online being so supportive, and I was going to meet them!

I staggered up to my support group and greeted them. They were wonderful and gave me a big hug, a very reassuring chat, and were very pleased to see me. You girls ROCK! I took a photo, of course..

Tickled Pink and the Divine Sossidge

Unfortunately, I still had 9 miles left to run, which was a bit of a bummer. So I said my farewells, and headed off. I’d arranged to spot my friend Amy and her son Felix (and boyfriend Dave) at a pub somewhere between mile 17 and 18, but I never saw them, which was a disappointment.. must have been rotten timing. I was feeling down about that then I suddenly remembered and was encouraged by the thought of the Miscarriage Association’s support stand at mile 18. It seemed to take forever, and I walked briefly for a hundred yards before running again, but finally I saw it.. what a wonderful sight it was!

I stopped, chatted to Ruth and the other supporters (thank you all so much for being there!), had a few jelly beans and again realised I was going to have to run a bit more before stopping. Drat. Off I went, into Canary Wharf.

I’d arranged to meet Steve outside of Waitrose. Unfortunately I don’t know Canary Wharf very well overground, only underground (there’s a vast underground shopping centre and general stuff down there) so I kept thinking I’d passed Waitrose and hadn’t realised, and started feeling quite sad. The wind really picked up, and I was exhausted. I got more abuse from spectators for updating my Facebook Fan page. But then I turned a corner and..

A lot happier!

I was very relieved to spot Steve and the family again!!

Thank goodness for stopping

Julian captured my exhaustion quite well:

Exhausted in Canary Wharf

Steve opened a gel for me, and then it was time to go.

Do I really have to run again?

Things got tougher after this point. There was quite a bit of walking involved for the first time. I got sick of hearing “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t run away Gingerbread Man” as clearly the Gingerbread Man was behind me. He must have been so sick of hearing that. Heck, I was sick of hearing “Rosie!” “Go Rosie!” “You can do it Rosie!” “Keep going Rosie!” I mean, it’s LOVELY supporters are cheering you on, but when you just want to curl up in a corner and go to sleep, the sound becomes cruel and mocking even though the intentions are good. With every person I usually acknowledged them with a smile and a thank you, but I think that drained me even more. I just wanted it to stop!

I realised I got fewer cheers if I walked, so I was more encouraged to walk. Hardly anyone was running so people were so impressed by runners they’d cheer them on. It’s a weird state of mind at mile 20 or so, y’know. Some of the supporters yelled out my name like they were machines, and I eventually stopped acknowledging those, instead saving my energy for the ones who really made an effort and looked like they meant it. Some were very sweet. There were lots of sweets and oranges on offer too.

But there was still 10K to go. “Only” 10K, but it’s been said that 20 miles is the halfway point of a marathon.

Then out of the corner of my eye I saw someone waving more frantically than the others. My brain finally twigged that it was Suzi, one of my best friends, that I was sure I’d missed a while back at the start of mile 20 but actually she was at mile 20.75 or something! Suzi is the Very Famous Author of the Very Fine book NeeNaw – Dispatches from Ambulance Control which was released last month. She also moonlights as a St. John’s Ambulance volunteer, so she was fully dressed in her uniform, vaseline, bandages (she helped Jordan last year!) and plasters at the ready.

I was so relieved to see her – apparently 5 minutes earlier and she’d been super busy so I was very lucky! We had a big hug, then we asked one of her colleagues with vaseline on his hand to take a photo (not a wise idea!) but fortunately one of her other colleagues without vaseline appeared to do it instead!

Suzi and me

Alas, there was more running to do, so I had to set off again, which was not good. There was a noisy London Pride London FM stage playing stupidly loud music that made my eardrums hurt but apart from that, I don’t remember much about this bit again.. a bit of a blur of roads that never ended, people yelling my name, quite a bit of walking, but also a lot of running. It has just disappeared from my brain. Probably for the best.

Mile 23 appeared. I don’t remember it all, in fact I don’t even remember taking this photo!

Mile 23

Then things started looking up – people were frantically calling my name as opposed to calling out in a cackling monotony – it was people I knew!!

Jacqui and a different Rosie

Jacqui is a great friend of mine from a ladies running community online and we’ve met several times, including at my brother’s gigs where their drummer knows Rosie (pictured!) In fact I went for a run with Jacqui just a week previously around Regent’s Park. It is an indication of how shattered I was that I couldn’t even remember her name. Normally it’s faces I can’t remember, but this took the biscuit! I did remember after a few seconds but it genuinely surprised me how messed up I was despite thinking I wasn’t that bad really. It was fantastic to see her and Rosie and again annoying to have to run away!

I hadn’t been going long when I heard my name being yelled out excitedly again. What was this?? Two supporters within half a mile of each other? Yes, it was!! It was my friend Miriam (a fellow moderator on a huge women’s only community plus the women’s only running community) and another friend, who I’d not met before, Hazel, and Matt. I’d been running with Miriam (with Jacqui) only a week before.. I was a lot less exhausted then! I was absolutely thrilled to see them all – they’d been tracking me online so they knew I was nearby!

Again, the time with them was gone too quickly, and it was time to go again. Down into the Blackfriar’s underpass. There, me and everyone else did a new type of Walk of Shame. With no supporters, again we could walk unmolested by the crowds. Far too many of them had been yelling stuff like “Go on, you can run”, “Stop being so lazy”, “Kick those legs up” and “Get going” – not necessarily mean things, but when you can hardly walk let alone run, it’s seriously upsetting. These people were in a tiny minority, and the vast majority of supporters said wonderful things, but you remember the words that hurt far more than the words that encourage. Damned pity. So yes, this was a welcome relief from those sort of comments. I walked all the way under that blessed underpass, and up the hill the other side.

Then I decided to run. It was about time, and aside from one brief point at around 24.5 miles where I walked, I ran the rest of the way apart from stopping briefly to talk to people. It was weird to think that I had just over 2 miles left.. the distance home from nursery which often seemed like quite a long way but now seemed like a short walk in the park.

The sun was blazing down, and there was a constant wall of sound from the supporters who were 4 or 5 people deep at this stage. I wanted to take photos and update my feeds, but I feared more negative comments from the crowds, so that was the end of my updates.. sorry folks! My last one was from the safety of the Blackfriars underpass at mile 24.

I kept on running – partly spurred on by why I was doing this. Knowing that all those people who had donated their precious money to such a special cause – I wanted those people to be proud of me rather than just finishing like a damp squib just walking especially if there was no reason (e.g. injury) for it. I could push through exhaustion. I was thinking of the reasons *why* I’d chosen the Miscarriage Association – not just for me, but for all my friends who had lost babies and needed support, many of them needed that support a lot more than I did. I wanted to put the effort in for them.

I’d arranged to meet Steve opposite the London Eye, around mile 25, and finally, eventually, I got there.

Not spotted Steve yet

As soon as I saw him I was so relieved and had a lot of smiles. Everyone kept saying how smiley and chirpy I was, but that’s because I had seen people I knew and cared about! It gave me energy!

Hurray!! Husband!

I was so near the end so I couldn’t stop for long. I got myself ready and prepared to run again.

Last mile to go!

Off I went, greatly spurred on. And extremely surprised to spot my brother and sister and brother’s girlfriend at about mile 25.3 – I’d thought I was supposed to see them at Poplar and was disappointed to think I’d missed them, but no – they’d made it to the end! Jake took a photo – they all remarked I still didn’t smell too bad, and then, yet again, it was time to saunter off.

I’d hardly run a few hundred yards when I heard my name called out yet again! To my surprise I spotted Marina, a friend whose son I had photographed recently.. she’d been looking out for me at several points around the course, following my Twitter, and had kept missing me. I was so thrilled to finally catch her – it was great to see her! After stopping for all too short a time, there was still 0.8 miles or so to go.

And I ran. And ran and ran. And completely picked up the pace by about 3 minute miles. I wasn’t that sore (well, my feet hurt a bit) as my hip pain had gone, my knees were merely unpleasant, and knowing I didn’t have to save energy any more meant I could just go for it. I heard my name yelled in that tone that indicates they know you (you get to know the difference!) and spotted a work colleague of Steve’s, Damion, waving frantically! Then there were the signs – 800 metres to go, 600 metres to go. It sounded like a long way. Then a bit further there was a “385 yards to go” sign instead of the 26 mile marker.

And there, right in front of me, was the finish line. I heard my name called yet again by somebody I’d never even met but knew of online and had seen a photo of only last week (hi Hannah!!) but I was too far away to stop.. and there wasn’t far to go.

I checked that there wasn’t anyone really unsightly for my finish line photo (heh!) and then just went for it.

The weird thing about crossing the line after this race, unlike all the others, was that I wasn’t out of breath. I was just very, very tired. I could have run further. It was very odd. Normally when I finish a race I have given it my all aerobically but this time it was my muscles that were sad. I didn’t feel elated, or even particularly relieved. In fact I didn’t feel very much at all, just pleased to be away from the people I didn’t know yelling my name perhaps!

The other side of the finish line

I had my photo taken officially, then expressed disappointment when I saw the results board and saw I hadn’t won after all. A marshall asked me if I was alright, and I had to explain I was sad I hadn’t won. Thankfully he cracked a genuine smile rather than whisked me off to the ambulance! Then I picked up my goody bag (HEAVY) and finally my kit bag with spare clothes etc in (HEAVY). Let me tell you, non-marathon runners, carrying two heavy bags after doing 26.2 miles is NOT NICE.

Goody bag, for the interested, contained such things as water, sports drink, Mars bar, foil blanket (yay!!), weird flavour rice crisps, two herb sweets, some lo-salt salt(!), charity literature that probably cost the charity six million pounds, a bright red t-shirt with “LonDONE” written on it and probably some other not particularly exciting stuff.

It took forever to walk down the mall to the meeting point and to see Steve. He took lots of photos.

The reason for running - I wanted a foil blanket of my own.

With my medal

Final pose with my medal

And what does the medal look like?

Front

Back

So after eating my protein bar (it was quite chewy so that was hard work!), we headed on over to the Crypt, where the Miscarriage Association was having a gathering, involving some free soup and a roll and a soft drink for me. Ruth took a photo of Steve and me. I could barely eat as I have no appetite after running. We said our goodbyes, and got on the train, and after we had picked up the children during a frantic swap with the in-laws at Greenwich station, I got home. The end.

Well, sort of. You’d probably like to know my time!

5 hours and 45 minutes and 49 seconds.

45 minutes slower than what I really wanted, and 15 minutes slower than what I’d have been really happy with. But still faster than what I’d have been disappointed with. Perhaps that explains the numb reaction a little? I mean, I was glad to finish, but the time was.. meh. I think if I’d gone a little faster at the start and not stopped to talk to people I could have done better, BUT, maybe going slower at the start explains why I was one of the few people running along the Embankment at the end.. yes, I really was in the 10% who don’t mess up at the start. Leaves me wondering if I could have done better though.

Here’s my pace chart:

My pace (click for larger)

As you can see, I was pretty steady until mile 14, didn’t walk at all (most stops are to briefly say hello to people etc). Then it was mostly running until mile 20 where it all went a bit crap. But I did run from mile 24 onwards!

Here’s the actual minute miles:

Pace breakdown

Never dropped below a 16 minute mile, which is good, as that’s super fast walking pace. I love how the last .2 mile was the fastest by far. Heh. And I didn’t walk too much.. only 14% of the way from some stats elsewhere in my software. The rest was all running.

Anyway, that’s that. I will continue this blog as I seek out new and interesting challenges, and I will probably continue running. Who knows if I will run another marathon? I think my next one won’t be London. The supporters were distracting if a time is what you seek, and if I did it again, I’d be doing it for time. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the atmosphere of the marathon – the opposite in fact, I loved it! It was hard combining having a great time with thinking about getting a good running time if that makes sense. I like to keep these things separate!

Today I am very sore, I may have lost my big toe nail, I have blisters on my blisters on another toe, and the small of my back hurts. However, my knees are fine after all that!

In summary? Despite the grumblings you see here in the text, it was in fact an amazing day, I had a wonderful time, I am very proud to have completed it (especially managing to update things like my Fan Page with photos etc on the way round) and even more proud to have raised so much for a wonderful charity.

Thank you so much to everybody who was out there watching, and also very much to those who have sponsored me (will do a final roll call of that in a few days) and thank you very much to the Miscarriage Association for letting me run for them. If you still haven’t sponsored me and would like to, it’s not too late. http://www.justgiving.com/barnpops – every amount, no matter how small, is very welcome!

This is what you are looking out for!

And a breakdown of what you’ll be seeing:

Anatomy of marathon runner 36336

And from behind:

Rear view!

It was this toddler that inspired me to do this. I nearly lost her at 18 weeks due to incompetent cervix, but through some miracle, following through on instincts and a lot of expensive surgery, she’s here with us. I am so grateful to keep her that I want to help those who don’t get to keep their babies.. hence this whole, y’know, marathon thing.

Me and baby C

And just so my older daughter doesn’t feel left out, here she is with us both!

Me and B and C

If you want to follow me run online, you can use either Twitter (barnpops) or my Facebook Fan page (here) for photos, locations and text.. until my phone signal or battery dies!

If you’re actually in London and watching the marathon (or even running it too!) here’s my estimated times*:

Start: 9:45am
Mile 01: 9:56am
Mile 02: 10:07am
Mile 03: 10:19am
Mile 04: 10:30am
Mile 05: 10:42am
Mile 06: 10:53am
Mile 07: 11:05am
Mile 08: 11:16am
Mile 09: 11:28am
Mile 10: 11:39am
Mile 11: 11:50am
Mile 12: 12:02pm
Mile 13: 12:13pm – HALFWAY!
Mile 14: 12:25pm
Mile 15: 12:36pm
Mile 16: 12:48pm
Mile 17: 12:59pm
Mile 18: 1:11pm – expect serious deviation from time at this point!
Mile 19: 1:22pm
Mile 20: 1:34pm
Mile 21: 1:45pm
Mile 22: 1:56pm
Mile 23: 2:08pm
Mile 24: 2:19pm
Mile 25: 2:31pm
Mile 26: 2:42pm
FINISH: 2:45pm

*And here is the caveat – 9:45am is the official start time, but it’s CERTAIN that it’ll take me at least 15 minutes to cross the start line, so add 15 minutes onto those times. Having said that, I might go a little faster at the beginning so I might appear 5 minutes before that.. and towards the end I’ll be half dead so start adding on lots of extra time before giving me up for dead!

Spectator’s guide: http://static.london-marathon.co.uk/downloads/pdf/spec_guide_2010.pdf

Yell “Lizards” if you see me if I don’t respond to “Rosie” as I have my name on my vest.

If you spot me and have access to Facebook, I would *love* it if you could update my Brave or Foolish Fan page wall that you saw me!

http://www.facebook.com/BraveOrFoolish

Same applies if you’re watching on the telly and spot me too!!

My race number is 36336 which you can track with the Adidas Marathon Tracker Facebook app: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112994405396298&ref=ts – or alternatively there’s a mobile tracking thingy – “Adidas have devised a way to follow runners this year in the London Marathon. Simply text ‘RUN’ to 83040 and you will be sent a link to the wapsite. Simply type in you runner’s race number (36336) and the system will do the rest, tracking them via a timing chip device on their shoes as they pass the various 5k markers along the course and informing you of their progress.”

If you’re going to be in the area, please leave a comment on this event where you’re going to be. For the first 4 miles or so, I’ll be running on the left hand side of the road as I’m starting at the Red start.

And FINALLY – if you haven’t sponsored me yet for this fantastic small charity – The Miscarriage Association – you can at http://justgiving.com/barnpops

There’s been another rush of sponsorship this weekend, bringing my total up and up – I am utterly astonished and extremely grateful to everybody, no matter how big or small their sponsorship. Which means thanks to Natasha (again, wow!!), Rattler, Tom, Nikki (silvernik on LJ), Reagan (wow, thank you!!), kisobel, Tara Glover, Meg, absinthecity, my old work colleagues Prashanth, Eithne and Michel (thanks for remembering me!!), Kirsten, Sam and finally Prakriti. Wow. I think I am getting on for 80+ sponsors now. Any amount, no matter how small, is very much appreciated!

So.. this is it until tomorrow!!

So, taking “My Starting Fitness Level” as a guide, here we go:

“The last year has seen pregnancy, not only with the four months of strict bedrest, but I was confined to a wheelchair on the few times I was allowed out. Worse, I suffered from SPD as I did in my first pregnancy, which is when the body produces too much of the hormone relaxin in pregnancy, which makes the ligaments relax and can cause intense pain in the pelvis and lower back. I needed the wheelchair even without the bedrest, and could hardly sleep at night due to the pain. I gained a lot of weight with this pregnancy. Add to that the associated exhaustion and responsibilities of a newborn (and my toddler) so I am not as fit as I would like to be. Still, I have been walking a lot, and I am getting some fitness back!”

Here I am in my wheelchair and stick in September 2008

My first “run” near the start of July:

“I warmed up by walking to the edge of the Thames. We live about half a mile from the river, and there are plenty of great trails alongside the river to run on. The walk was my warm-up. Rather conveniently, the Thames has a series of big red signs which are sort of evenly spaced (anywhere between 50 to 250 yards between them, usually averaging 150 yards) which presumably are used for people to give to the emergency services to help locate them should disaster happen. So I base my run on how many red signs I can run. I manage 3 red signs right off the bat, but as I reach the third one I’m starting to feel dizzy. Okay, I’ll walk for a few. Then run another one. Walk another one.

Thus my first “run”. A run-walk-run-walk-run-walk based on those red signs. After a while I decide I’ve hit my halfway point and head back home, run-walking again. Including the half mile warm-up there (and the half mile warm-up back) I’ve covered 4.21 miles in 57 minutes. “

Exhausting! So as you can see, I managed about 400 yards before collapsing on my first run, and ran/walk the rest, not running for more than 150 yards at a time. However by pushing myself so hard (running until I felt dizzy and then a little bit more) I was actually rapidly improving my fitness levels, far more so than if I’d just taken it easy.

Things got better quickly. By the time I’d been out five times at the end of July, I’d invested in a Garmin, and wow, what a difference!

“I got to try out my new GPS watch with heartrate monitor. Wow, what a difference! As I suspected, it opens up a whole new interesting world of statistics. You’ll be pleased to hear that including my warm up and warm down sessions, I am jogging or running for over 80% of the session already. Things can only get better! Looks like I did the 5K middle bit (without the warm up or warm down) in around 33 minutes 50 seconds.

I am also proud to announce that I ran for a third of a mile without stopping with my first stint. That is a new record by far. After that first stint I only walked for a very short distance before doing 0.2 mile and so on and so forth. It’s a huge improvement on the maximum 0.2 miles without stopping I managed on my first time out, and I ran/walked it 50/50 then. Now it’s more like 80/20. This is only my fifth time out!”

Then I had a breakthrough at the start of August. After reading a few books, I realised I’d been running too fast all along. I decided to slow right down, and immediately managed 5K without stopping. A miracle!

“I did the 5K in 32.5 minutes.. there is definitely room for improvement there and that is what I will be working on. I would like to beat the 30 minute barrier by the end of the month but I have no idea if that is ambitious or not. I’m so new to this I can’t even set my goals properly. On Sunday I wanted to run a mile without stopping and four days later I did 3.11 miles. The whole couch to 5K programme is supposed to take 9 weeks and you’re supposed to go out 3-5 times a week. Well, I started running on the 11th July. It’s not even four weeks later, and I’ve only been out six times and I cracked it. Not sure I could have gone a lot further, mind, but still! “

Not long after, I entered my first race.

“I did it – I’ve put myself down for my first ever grown-up race! As opposed to the cross-country ones I did at school over 20 years ago, that is. My race of choice is the 5K Adidas Women’s Challenge in Hyde Park on the 6th September – three weeks on Sunday. My aim will be to run it without stopping.. less than two months after I started running! I’ve managed 5K without stopping already so in theory it’s very possible. “

I also picked up an ankle injury, as I’d basically just picked the first pair of running shoes that had good reviews. I soon remedied that with better shoes – what a difference!

“Secondly, on Saturday I decided, after reading lots of books and so on, to get my gait analysed. This was something I had no clue about before I started running. Essentially is seems that we all run in our own way, and it is not a case of one shoe fits all. Different shoes are aimed at different types of runners. I took pretty much a guess based on what felt comfy when choosing my running shoe. It’s a great shoe with great reviews, but what is the point if it just injures me? Given my recent ankle injury, I realised I needed to be sure I was wearing the right sort of thing.”

In mid August, I started swimming.. first time out after not swimming in forever, I managed 2500m!

“Alas, today I only managed 2.5K (1.55 miles) without stopping, compared to last Thursday’s 5K (3.11 miles) without stopping. Not only that, but it took me 90 minutes to do it. However, I am utterly delighted! Why?

Because I did it in the swimming pool!”

Towards the end of August, my 5K speed really picked up with all the training (2-3 times a week)

“But the big thing is my 5K time – I shaved 3 minutes off my personal (and only!) best from two weeks earlier – 30:38! The last mile was very hard as I had been pushing myself a little harder than usual at the start (yay heartrate of 200.. I know when I’m getting near that as I start feeling sick!) and I lost a lot of momentum there, but still. It was a good time!”

Now I’d figured out that slow and steady gets you everywhere, I decided to drastically up the stakes, and at the very end of August, I went for the 10K!

“I did the 10K in 67:12, which included having to get through the odd gates here and there and probably losing a bit of distance on the GPS when I turned round. Not bad for a first 10K. I did a little extra just to be sure and it occurred to me that I’m only a few hundred yards short of a quarter marathon without stopping – not bad for 6-7 weeks training! However I do ache, and despite attempts to minimise the pain (I took a cold bath and later applied ice to the sore areas) I think I will be sore tomorrow. Still, from past experience it’s the runs where you really push yourself that you make the most progress.”

Just before my race, I finally cracked 30 minutes for a 5K in training:

“It was practically pitch dark when I arrived back at my start point, 3.11 miles later, staggering for breath as my heart rate went 4bpm above the threshold I try to stay under (although the average for the whole run was 3bpm under the threshold, so not bad!). My time?

29:18!!

Yep, I’ve beaten the 30 minute 5K barrier at last! Knocked a few minutes off my previous best time from a few weeks ago too. I would guess that the rain helped a lot, but also probably the nasty interval training I did on Sunday too. ”

The 5K race came round, and I was disappointed to not finish in under 30 minutes as it was so crowded.

Running the Adidas 5K Challenge

“So! Two months ago I could barely manage a few hundred yards without feeling my eyes were going to pop out of my head and I needed to throw up! And now, less than two months later? I’m getting grumpy because naughty people ruined my 5K-in-30 minutes challenge which I ran at under a 10 minute mile pace the whole way (that’s 6.1mph – around double a fairly brisk walking pace!)

Really, I shouldn’t be too disappointed, given the bigger picture, should I?”

I was disappointed though, and ran the London Peace Run the following week, determined to beat the mythical 30 minute barrier. Again, I failed, thanks to the crowds and the fact the race measured long.

“If it wasn’t for the crowds on the South Bank, the hot sunshine or the stairs then I probably would have officially timed under 30 minutes. After all, when I ran 10K last week the *second half* of my 10K I did the final 5K in under 30 minutes, so I sure as heck can do it in 30 minutes with nothing tiring me out beforehand. I just can’t do it under race conditions. Now whether my races have been unfortunate or whether random obstacles are something I should expect for every race I don’t know, but it is starting to get very frustrating now!!

If the race was 3.22 miles then I would have beaten my 30 minute target by a second if I take a 5K split time (i.e. the first 3.11 miles). But all the same, my official recorded time is a disappointing time.. so yet again I have to run another 5K to beat my goal. “

So whilst still training furiously (and getting abuse from the locals for it!) the next week, I entered the Epsom Dash, determined to crack the 30 minute barrier!

“The course was EXACTLY 3.11 miles – 5K. Perfect! This time will count.

So what was it? Bearing in mind my 30:51 for the Adidas 5K Challenge, and 30:52 for the London Peace Run (surely more than 5K) run just last weekend..

28:10 by the official chip time, 28:11 by my Garmin. (I think I started the Garmin at the wrong moment!)

That’s well over a minute off my best ever time in perfect conditions in training – cool and flat and in the evening and perfectly healthy. Today I did it on a hilly course (lots of people complained it was a hard course!) with lots of sunshine and I had a cold and was behind on sleep, and on a morning run too. My average pace was 9:04 minutes per mile, that’s 6.6mph.

I’d done it!!!!

And even better.. I was 59th. Out of I am not sure how many people, but I saw numbers of at least 200, and last year 250 ran. EDIT – preliminary race results here suggest only 149 ran. Boo! Still, it’s not bad!

And even better still, I was the 14th woman to finish! 14!! Last year there were 135 women, and I know there were at least 75 this year, probably a lot more.”

Getting my medal

A week later, it was the Petts Wood 10K. I was delighted with 62:28.

“So, exhausted from holiday, fighting a virus, not much sleep and aching from several unfortunate encounters with a cable ski, some violent flumes and a whole lot of pole climbing, I was never going to be on top form for this race, my first ever 10K race! It was also a hilly race, through bits of woodland with narrow paths.”

The home straight

Not long after that, I invested in a Camelbak so I could take on water during long runs. I went for an 8 miler for the first time, and to my surprise during that 8 miler:

“I decided to discount the first half a mile as a warm-up, and to find my real 10K time I took 10K from half a mile in. An average 9:18 minute mile pace. For 57:54 altogether. Not only have I beaten my 1 hour 10K goal, I’ve thrashed it! I *can* do a one hour 10K! Admittedly in perfect circumstances and taking on fluids and jelly babies, but, my body did it!”

I then did 9 miles (stopping and starting for lunch) with the double pushchair. Then I even squeezed in a 10 miler (on my own without stopping).. it was really hard going though.

“As for the 10 miles? Well, once I hit the magic 6.22 miles (10K) I no longer needed to worry about pace so I really let it drop. Within a mile I’d dropped it by a minute a mile, and the final mile my feet were really aching. Not blisters, just soreness, as if I’d been out shopping for hours! That final mile was one of the slowest I’ve done without the pushchair in a long time. It’s safe to say by the time I got home I could not have gone any further. Guess I am not quite ready for a half marathon yet.. “

I did a 10K race – The Movember 10K – with Steve off the back of a virus. Appalling time as I was still unwell, but worse was to come.

Running together ** Official photo (c) IES Photography

“But yes, it looks like I’ll be out of action for the next 2-3 weeks as a bare minimum.. that’s on top of the 3-4 weeks I’ve been out already.

My fevers weren’t abating and my cough was getting worse and worse so I went to see the doctor again on Monday who immediately referred me for a chest x-ray. Turns out I have a shadow on the lungs, which indicates an infection. I forgot to ask if this meant pneumonia, some people say it does, some say not necessarily. Anyway I am on my second type of antibiotics already in the vague hope of shifting this infection.”

As it turned out, I was out of action for 3 MONTHS! By the time I started training again in late January, I’d lost a lot of fitness.

“Glancing through my previous runs I would estimate my cardiovascular fitness is somewhere around mid to late September time (so I’ve lost around a month to six weeks there) BUT my bones and joints and feet and so on? Back to August time at least. Hopefully they’ll catch up quickly. On the plus side, according to Runners World, I was supposed to run 10K today in preparation for the London Marathon. It’s just I’ve missed out on a quarter of the training already, whoops!

It goes without saying that my previous plans for hopefully doing a sub 4:30 have gone out the window and I would be happy with sub 6 hours now.”

The next week was even harder.. mentally. The enormity of the task in front of me was a huge challenge, as I attempted 8 miles:

“My times were quite a bit slower than normal.. heck, I ran 8 miles back in October and it took me 15 minutes less. I was out there for close to 90 minutes, running continuously. For the last 45 minutes of that, not only was I not enjoying it, it was first uncomfortable and then horribly uncomfortable and heading towards super painful. It felt like running through treacle, especially when there was a head wind. I felt dizzy at times, especially if I had to slow down to run through bushes to avoid large puddles. I got snowed and sleeted on. Some dogs savagely attacked each other just feet from me as I ran past. And when I got home I was too exhausted to even have a shower at first. My blisters are back. My foot arches are sore. I’ve killed my regrowing toenail that I killed last time. I know I am going to ache for the next few days, then I’ll have to go out again on Wednesday evening.

Foolish doesn’t even begin to describe it. I need my head examined. But I am not quitting, whether I get support or not.. I am far too stubborn for that – when I make a promise, I make a promise especially when it comes to other people’s money and charity. It’s just more moral support would make it a lot, well, more tolerable!”

In the middle of February, I finally hit half marathon distance. Still not loving it.

At the end of February, I went for a 16 miler. Officially my worst ever run.

“That’s another long run in the bag. Well, I say “run”. This time I pushed myself too far, and for the first time ever in training since I worked out how to run, I had to walk. Admittedly in total it was only a mile’s worth, and I only started doing it at mile 13, but I think I’m pushing too much, too quickly. It didn’t help I was only supposed to run 15 miles but in a moment of insanity I decided to try for 16 miles.”

I had two weeks off due to a bad neck, and then it was time for the Silverstone Half Marathon. It went better than I was expecting, and I ran it in 2 hours 22.

“All in all, an enjoyable race, in very interesting (albeit dull for non-F1 fans) surroundings, with good opportunities for personal bests. If I ever run again in the future, I’d definitely want to do this race again.

I was particularly pleased with how well I managed – I am wondering if perhaps my times were getting so dreadful with my other long runs because I was over-training. Certainly my knees caused me no bother and after the first half a mile my feet behaved themselves too.”

Waving my misbehaving phone at Steve

The good times weren’t to last – the following week at the end of March, I aimed for 18 miles but found myself in the most pain I’ve ever had from running. I only managed 16, and ran/walked 3 miles of that.. but learned a lot of valuable lessons.

“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.”

Thankfully, April started out better, with my final long training run. I wanted to do 18 miles.. and do more than 13 miles without stopping. Well, I did better than that!

“Home was in sight, and 20 miles and 3 hours 56 minutes and 58 seconds after leaving home, I reached that front door – the final mile 12:20. So not only had I run the whole darned twenty miles without stopping (four miles further than I’d gone before, and amazingly SEVEN miles further than I’d ever run in one go before) but I’d managed to do it without dropping my pace too horribly – my pace varied by 1 minute 40 altogether, more like 1 minute on average if you take away the extreme data points. My average pace was 11:50.. compared to the 9:25 I’ve done for 5Ks before it’s shocking, but this was 32K so yeah.”

Which has left me feeling very positive about the race THIS SUNDAY! Not a 5K, not a 10K, heck, not even a half marathon. Or even a regular marathon, but it’s The London Marathon itself! The whole point of this journey and this blog. Erk.

I have one final visit to the sports physio on Thursday, but aside from that and a lot of carb loading, I am DONE!

If you’re going to be watching on TV or at the sidelines, I’ve set up a Facebook Event with the full details. Feel free to say you’re coming even if you’re only watching on TV!

Bringing me onto the final topic which I’ve got a bit behind with! A HUGE THANK YOU to Ruth, Bea, Steve Haslam (who is also running!), Nikki, Sheri, victoria, Laura, Christine, Joe, Sarah-Ed-Kitty-Tia, Vicki, Michael (second donation, and wow- thank you!!), Claire-Ian & Lewis, Arkady, Jessica, Marina, Laura (a second one!) and Rachael. So many people, so much generosity. I am extremely grateful and humbled by how kind everyone has been.

If you’ve been meaning to sponsor me and haven’t got around to it yet, here’s the link again!

Thanks to the wonders of Steve’s private medical insurance through work, I could get treatment at a private clinic in the Docklands area – even better it was affiliated with the London Marathon. However hoops had to be jumped through first; I needed to get a referral letter from my GP. Which took nearly a week to come through as I was unable to pick it up earlier in the week as my youngest had chicken pox and would not be very welcome in the surgery so I had to wait for it to be posted.

Anyway, 9 days after seeing my GP, I caught the DLR over to the clinic. It was an interesting area – whilst I was crossing a road, Elvis drove past in a convertable old Ford of some description, wearing the full on white suit and medallion and Elvis hair. Disappointingly, it wasn’t Elvis who was treating me, but that was probably for the best what with him being officially dead and all.

I got to the clinic, filled in my details, and went in to see the physio chap. He was very friendly, and very quickly diagnosed my problem as ITB (Illotibial Band Syndrome) which I was pretty much expecting. Seems that my issues in pregnancy with SPD/PGP (Symphasis Public Dysfunction/Pelvic Girdle Pain) which left me confined to a wheelchair/needing a stick have left a legacy. When running I do often feel pain in that area still although it has mostly gone in day to day life, but the instability in my pelvis has caused my ITB to become tighter than it should, pulling my knee cap out of alignment. At least I think that’s what has happened!

So the chap gave me some stretches to do, told me to carry on with the codeine, and I have to ice three times a day. He also decided to stick needles in my leg. I knew this would annoy Steve (Mr. Anti Any Sort of Alternative Medicine Ever as he thinks none of it works at all) so I happily went along with it. I’d never had acupuncture before so I figured I’d try it. It didn’t really hurt. He also gave my leg a massage. And you know what? It did feel better afterwards. Not fixed (I could still feel discomfort as I went up and down stairs) but my left leg was a lot better than my right, which has a problem too only not so severe.

The good news is that he can see no reason why I shouldn’t do the marathon or any reason I won’t get round, especially with that 20 miler under my belt.

I’m to go back next week for another treatment and then that should be it.

9 days (well, 8 probably by the time most people read this!) to go…. crikey!

After my disastrous 16 miler ten days ago, where I made every mistake going including overheating, running out of water, and ended up stopping for a break at ten miles and reverting to run/walk after 13 miles, I knew I had to make up for that somehow. I had done a 16 miler before, back in late February, but again I walked at 13 miles as I couldn’t go a step further even if I did restart running half a mile later – I still ended up walking a further 3/4 mile at mile 14 before running the rest.

From the forums I frequent it became clear that an 18 miler was the bare minimum at this stage to be in with a chance of finishing in a reasonable time (aka not doing a Jordan). Given I’ve run 13 miles FOUR times before (including my very successful Silverstone half marathon) but never gone any further running continuously, this was clearly a duck to break. So I set myself the target of running for 16 miles continuously, and would allow myself to run/walk for a further two miles to make it 18 miles as a WORST CASE SCENARIO. Best case scenario – running 20 miles without stopping. Heh.

Unlike with many of my other long runs I took this one a little more seriously and decided to try carb loading a bit – i.e. eat lots of carbs in the few days before, and rest a bit. I didn’t exactly rest on Good Friday, in fact I did some interval training whilst out for a walk with the family – sprinting ahead and then back again for 2-3 minutes at a time to get my heart rate up. I did 2.6 miles of sprinting broken up over an hour so not too bad.

Onto today. The weather was looking ominously sunny so this time I didn’t make the classic mistake I made last time – I didn’t wear my tracksuit. However I knew from experience that if I ended up run/walking, I get FREEZING on the walk bits, so I decided to tie it around my waist. The pockets doubled up as more storage for things like my Oyster card and debit card which I didn’t take last time and bitterly regretted when it all went to pieces. I also wore my shorts instead of my lycra tights for the first time in forever.. much better pockets and a lot less revealing.

Alas I still had to carry my Camelbak Flashflo, which is a great device that holds 1.4 litres of water, but when it’s full it is so horrible to run with as it bounces a ton. I think it is designed for dudes with thicker waists rather than women because it doesn’t tighten up enough to stop the bouncing. For the first 7 or 8 miles I had to physically hold the thing. Yeah, I’m sure that helped a bunch with my times and general achiness. This time I put some magic tablets into it which contain essential salts/minerals etc that help with rehydration, which means basically I absorb the water quicker which leads to less sloshing in the stomach.

And of course I carried some gels. Three this time – I decided on one on the hour, every hour. And if that wasn’t enough, I stashed away some sports beans and some “power shots” which are basically chewy sweets formulated to give energy quickly.. probably not a huge improvement on jelly babies but whatever!

And finally, my iPhone and headphones. A long run is pretty darned tedious. And my Garmin, naturally.

It wasn’t until 3:30pm that I headed out the door after getting that lot ready and covering myself in Body Glide. This was going to be the long run to end all long runs, quite literally! I was going for a personal best no matter what. Even though my knees twinged a little.

So off I went. Last time I went out too fast (10:30 minute miles) and I read on a forum that apparently 30 seconds per mile in the early stages of a marathon translates to losing 3 MINUTES per mile later on. This time I was going to take it super slow.

It’s not easy to do. One of the funny things about long runs is that when you start out you can’t imagine running any slower and imagine it must be super uncomfortable. Then later on when you can’t put one leg in front the other you wonder how on earth you ever managed those faster times. Heh. So my first mile was a little fast despite my best attempts, coming in at 10:57. My aim was to do between 11:00-11:30 minute miles as that would get me through the marathon for around 5 hours.

The next mile I worked out how to go slower, and succeeded in 11:04. My back was taking a serious pummelling from the Camelbak and I was having to run with my arms at my sides, pulling the darned thing into my back – but I was still in pain. Not good.

Mile three and four were 11:31 and 11:36.. a little bit over the time I was aiming for. No matter. I imagined all the time I had saved up! The fifth mile was 11:37 – getting better at accurate pacing it seems. For one brief moment I actually thought “this is quite enjoyable” but the moment passed five seconds later. Perhaps that is my one and only runner’s high. Ha.

At mile five near to Erith I turned around shortly after passing a grown woman in a tutu out for a walk(!) My plan was basically to run 5 miles out in one direction (because I didn’t fancy trying to run on Erith marshes again.. those winds were HORRIBLE and it was scarily desolate), return to near the start, and then see how I felt about four or five miles out in the other direction and back again. It was then that I discovered why the run had seemed quite pleasant.. the wind had been behind me. Curses.

To my genuine surprise, despite the harsh wind I managed an 11:43 and an 11:47 for the next two miles. I also took my first gel, managing to tear the packet in half and spilling some of it and making everything sticky. Whoops. Mile 8 was not so good at 12:06. Something I’ve noticed about all my runs is that I do tend to start flagging at mile 8. Maybe it’s all the training I did last year where I rarely ran over 8 miles but often did around that or something, who knows. Anyway, things weren’t good, and mile 9 was 11:50, slightly faster mainly because I was sheltered from the wind a bit as there were more trees.

At 9.5 miles I hit the point where I would normally leave the river and return home, but today, for the first time, I wasn’t even potentially halfway through my run.. I had to set off in the other direction towards the Millenium Dome (or O2 as it’s known these days) I noticed I was struggling quite badly, trying hard to get past a small child on a tricycle. Not promising. Nevertheless I did the next two miles at 11:48 and 11:55, so just under the magic 12 minute mile which is a barrier I try very hard not to slip under. I wondered if the gel was wearing off, so I ate one of my fancy sports sweets at 1 hour 45 minutes, 15 minutes before the next gel was due. It seemed to help a little.

I took another gel around 11 miles but the effects didn’t kick in for quite some time. I saw another female runner run past quite quickly in the other direction and tried to pretend she was probably doing a fast run but the reality is she was probably doing her final long run in preparation for her sub 4 hour marathon. WAIL. These two miles were the hardest – a 12:28 (and I don’t even think the wind was bothering me that much) and a 12:04. Coming up to half marathon distance and it was shocking – 2 hours 33 or something dreadful. Hardly the 2 hours 20 of Silverstone, but then I was pacing myself for a much longer run and had that stupid Camelbak smashing the heck out of my back which I didn’t have at Silverstone!

Then something odd happened. Shortly after I passed 13.5 miles I got a second wind. I have no idea where it came from, but when I did those two other 16 milers I seemed to get energy again at this point too.. I always thought it was down to the walking, but maybe my body was waking up to the idea that this running thing wasn’t going to stop. So I decided to be utterly reckless and turn around at 14.5 miles on the clock, meaning I’d complete a 20 miler. Unbelievably, mile 15 was 11:27. The sun was out but not too hot, the wind was behind me and things just seemed nice. I had two sports sweets this time – one at half hour post-gel and the other at 45 minutes. I think this probably helped. The turnaround point was just past the Dome.. not bad.

Mile 16 involved taking another gel, my last one. Again, there was the energy, and I ran it in 11:40, much as I’d run mile 3. What is this?! Maybe it’s true about that whole not going out fast thing. Apparently 85-90% of marathoners no matter how hard they try go out too fast and pay for it in the later stages. I made a huge mark in my brain to try to keep the speed slooooow at the start.

The second wind didn’t last forever of course. I’d completed 16 miles – the furthest I’d ever been before, and three miles further than I’d ever run (the final 3 miles had been run/walked on previous 16 milers) and I think my body was starting to spot that. As with all personal bests, as soon as I hit the furthest I’ve been my body just goes “um, no” and starts really getting sore. Whereas my earlier slowness was down to lack of energy, the slowness now was due to PAIN. The right hand side of my right foot was really sore, it felt bruised. My left knee was playing up. My back had never really got happy from the Camelbak slapping into it earlier, although now there was a lot less water so it was less painful at least.. however the damage was done.

So mile 17 was 11:58. Then I started feeling new pains. Pain in my hip – never felt that before. Pain related to my SPD (I suffer badly from it in pregnancy) in my pelvis which has always become excrutiating in the latter half of a long run.. this one was no different. And worryingly, pain in my right ankle. This one was new – long term readers may remember I had a sore ankle right back when I first started running but it was fixed by getting the right shoes. Alas I definitely have the right shoes now, so this pain was quite simply.. overuse.

Nevertheless, I gritted my teeth and kept going. If I could crack 18 miles of running, I could say I had run 18 miles.. the magic distance that you’re expected to have done before a marathon. I could do this! It was particularly hard with a few very steep slopes and a run along the main road and at times I was limping, especially when the camber of the pavement meant my right foot was taking more weight. I had to cross a road at one point and wow, it hurt doing sharp turns.. my body was seriously unhappy.

So I cracked the 18 miles – mile 18 turned out to be a quite surprising 12:18 considering I thought my body was falling apart. Interestingly I felt about as bad as I had ten days earlier at this point, when I’d only done 14 miles and had been walking for quite some time. Circumstances were definitely different this time!

Part of me really, really wanted to stop and walk at this point.. in fact if I’d set out to do 18 miles there was no way I’d run off and do another two miles for a laugh – if the front door had been right in front of me I’d have taken it. But there were still two miles to go. 24 minutes. I started feeling the effects of sugar crashes but this time I had been sensible and had a good stock of sports sweets. I ate one at 25 minutes post gel, and another at 37 minutes post gel. I am thinking I may need 45 minutes between gels, not an hour, although the supplementing with sports sweets does seem to work well.

So, two miles to go. It seemed to last forever, even though it is the route I used to take every day a few years ago pushing my eldest back from nursery in her pushchair, and latterly jogging back with her. There were lots of people out and about, and whenever I had to turn a sharp corner I couldn’t help but gasp out loud in pain – I got some funny looks and was probably a prime target for a mugger given it was clear I wouldn’t be able to get away, let alone raise my legs to kick them in the privates. Fortunately the sheer volume of people meant nobody gave me any trouble, not even an insult although I tried hard not to listen when people stared at me and talked – the iPhone helps with that.

Mile 19 – 12:14. Not that shabby, considering the rest of me was. A mile to go, and wow, I felt every step. They say 20 miles in the marathon is the halfway point and I can believe it – the miles start stretching into infinity at this point. I had fists much of the time even though it was a waste of energy just because I was wincing so much with every step. But I was nearly there, and crucially, I hadn’t walked a step, except a couple of times to dodge around the anti-motorbike fences.

I reached the point where I had been ten miles earlier – the head off home from the river point.. just half a mile to go. This is always the hardest part – there’s a road to cross, dodgy folk to avoid, sharp corners to take and a few little hills and kerbs (kerbs are excrutiating at this point). I decided to see if I could pick up the pace a little for the last bit.. and you know what? I managed it. It wouldn’t be much use in the marathon as it would probably slaughter me afterwards but given I knew I was nearly home, I could afford to use that last little bit of energy.

Home was in sight, and 20 miles and 3 hours 56 minutes and 58 seconds after leaving home, I reached that front door – the final mile 12:20. So not only had I run the whole darned twenty miles without stopping (four miles further than I’d gone before, and amazingly SEVEN miles further than I’d ever run in one go before) but I’d managed to do it without dropping my pace too horribly – my pace varied by 1 minute 40 altogether, more like 1 minute on average if you take away the extreme data points. My average pace was 11:50.. compared to the 9:25 I’ve done for 5Ks before it’s shocking, but this was 32K so yeah.

Here’s the pace chart (click for full size):

Pace chart

Curiously my Garmin only recorded 19.3 miles of GPS/heart rate data.. later investigation reveals I had it on a setting that only recorded 3.5 hours of data, so I’ve set it to a different setting so it will record more – it still confirmed I’d run 20 miles though. Wish I had known that, oh well. Still, it behaved better than my stupid Nike+, which despite playing music and appearing to be working actually recorded no data at all for the first 5.5 miles, until I decided to get it out and check why and restart the stupid thing. So it claims I only did 14.5 miles. Bah.

Assuming I kept going at a similar pace of 12:30 for the final six miles (eek – I can’t imagine another hour in that pain with it getting worse), I would finish the marathon in 5 hours and 12 minutes or thereabouts. Given on the day I won’t have that stupid Camelbak, I will be properly rested and carb loaded and I’ll have the crowd cheering me on.. who knows? Although by all accounts most marathon runners do 26.6 miles or even more due to weaving and not taking the fastest line, so add another 4 minutes onto that.

That gives me a goal – sub 5 hours – best possible result, would be astonished and amazed! I will set it as my target though. 5:15 – would be very happy with that. Ideally I want to finish before 5:30 which would be great.

So I am very happy – not only did I break my 16 mile duck (finally) but I actually RAN 20 miles! Amazingly, for the first time since I started training, I actually did what the Runner’s World recommended run was, ha ha. Took most of my training to catch up, but I did it. Shame I don’t do more midweek runs like they recommend but I don’t think my knee would love me for it. Now I have that 20 mile RUN under my belt, I can be very confident of finishing the marathon.. heck, if I’m really, really lucky I might even run the lot although I do suspect I might end up walking. We shall see.

One of the things that inspired me most about the marathon was many years ago watching people run along Embankment. I had never seen such determination and agony in the flesh (i.e. outside of films!) before. It was astonishing – people pushing through despite the absolute agony. Most were running, but those that walked got such loud cheers.. they’d try to run again, some would manage it, but most would manage fifty yards and then stop again, destroyed. The sadistic part of my brain wanted to know what that felt like and thus the idea of running a marathon was born. Well, I have a fair idea as I hit it at around 18 miles today – I did two miles of it but in three weeks I’m going to have to do eight miles of it. Erk. Still, at least people will be cheering me on rather than looking at me funny!

Right, I’ve written far too much here so I will leave you all in peace and get some rest myself. I’ve had my “ice” bath (OW) which has helped considerably so now I just need a good night’s sleep. I did burn off nearly 2,400 calories (that’s like 24 packets of Wotsits, people!) in under four hours so I deserve a break for now.

GOODBYE LONG RUNS! I won’t miss you!

I have quite an “exciting” number of 36336 which I will probably forget, but it’s not that important I remember it as I’ll be wearing it. Combined with my neon yellow Miscarriage Association vest (with my name and URL on it!) you won’t be able to miss me if you’re watching on TV or at the sidelines! I’ll take a photo of me in it nearer the time so you can see.

I’ll be starting from the Red Start which is the one closest to Maze Hill station, along with all the other Golden Bond runners like me. So just a short very steep walk through Greenwich Park to the start.

As promised, I’ll try to keep my Twitter feed updated on the way round but there are Warnings that the mobile network likes collapsing so you can fully expect to think I’ve dropped dead at mile 20 and won’t hear any different until I’m well out of the area and you’ve forgotten all about me There is a tracking system provided by the marathon that reports on every 5K I’ve completed but by all accounts last year it wasn’t very reliable.

I’m hoping to have a quiet celebration (or commiseration!) in a local pub in the evening – if people are interested, please contact me for details as for obvious reasons (the trolls last week notwithstanding) I don’t fancy publicising my whereabouts on a public site!

And finally, a huge thank you to Hazel, my mum, Jamie, Zara and the boys, Meg, Tarah & Dan and finally (for the second time!) Jacqui for your extremely generous sponsorship. It is so appreciated – without you all sponsoring me, this training and the race itself would not be nearly so meaningful. And also I suspect that if it wasn’t for you all sponsoring me I’d have dropped out a long time ago!

I’m now just over £200 short of my £1300 target – any little that anyone can give at this point will take me that much closer to the final target! I would *love* to exceed the target, mainly because the Miscarriage Association has a shortfall this coming year with its budget, and given marathon sponsorship from its 27 runners accounts for over a quarter of that budget, you can see what a difference it makes. It’s not just swallowed up with marketing and bureaucracy like so many of the bigger charities. Which is one of the main reasons I chose to run for them aside from it being a cause close to my heart – I want to feel less bad about asking people for sponsorship because their money will go so much further than a lot of causes. So many people have been touched by miscarriage, and in many cases helped by this charity and you may not even know because miscarriage is so taboo. Goodness knows parents in this situation need all the support they can get if they want it.

Most of the people I’d hoped would donate have done so now, so I guess I am counting on the kindness of strangers, or near strangers. I hate asking for sponsorship but unfortunately one does have to be a bit cheeky about these things, especially with a month to go. So my JustGiving Page is here. If you haven’t already given and are intending to, now is the time pretty much – help me get through my final stupidly long run in just over a week!

And as always, please DO spread the word..

Anyway, the darned marathon thingy itself is a month tomorrow….. eek.

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.

Welcome to Silverstone

Note: All photos (except for ones on the track without me in) were taken by Steve and post-processed by me. You can click on any photo/image to see a much bigger and clearer version.

We stayed in a hotel nearby the night before so as to avoid the long drive up to Silverstone before the race. This turned out to be a good move, especially as there were queues to get into the car parks.

When I got out the car the first thing I noticed was that it was blowing a gale, and it was bloody freezing. Oh great. I got myself ready then posed for my obligatory pre-race photograph:

Before the race

My plan for this race was to hopefully finish in under 2hr30mins – I’d managed 13.1 miles before in 2hr28 minutes the first time I did it, but the second time it was more like 2hr34. Given I’d not been out for a while and my knees were playing up and my foot was sore, I wasn’t holding my breath I’d break that time. In fact I was fully expecting to have to walk in places.

Before long, it was time to head for the start. I headed for the back of the pack, knowing I wasn’t going to be on top form (no running over the previous two weeks) and given the type of race it was, I’d be unlikely to be overtaking many people if I started near the front and it is always demoralising to have people stream past you.

Waiting on the start line

As you can see, the race started (and finished) in the location of the Formula 1 start/finish line. It was very odd to be lining up on car markings like I’ve seen on TV.. they were a lot smaller than I imagined, and I’ve seen F1 cars for real as well – makes it all the more impressive what they do.

Rather worryingly, I spotted a bunch of dudes with guns also at the back.. one way to make sure you keep going I guess!

Dudes with guns

After a few minutes, during which time I updated my Twitter feed (take a look for the updates!), we were off. It took over 5 minutes for me to reach the start line, I was that far back. Not that this matters, as the race, like most of the races nowadays, was chip-timed via an RFID chip on my shoe, so the clock becomes irrelevant.

The first mile was slightly downhill with the wind behind me but I didn’t realise that at the time. It does explain why it was one of the fastest of the race though (10:21 minute/mile) and I was desperately trying to pace myself! As soon as I started running my knees started aching (they’d felt okay that morning for the first time in weeks) and my right foot was super sore. It really hurt to run. I was not encouraged, but after about half a mile the pain receded into discomfort. Discomfort I can do.

Here’s a map/route of the course. As you can see, we ran on the race track for the first and final 3 miles, and ran about in the middle for a time, and ran round the outside of the track after that. You can click on the map (and indeed any image here) for the full size version.

Course Route, as recorded by my Garmin

Before too long we were at mile 3, and 5K was down. It’s funny, but those first 3 miles went so quickly – ironic given that the 5Ks I’ve done seem to have lasted forever in my mind. Perhaps the featurelessness of the track helped a little with that – lots of long straights and very little detail.

Steve caught me on camera as I ran past near the start line:

Waving!

At this point we stopped running on the main track and we were onto service roads and similar – the track was very bumpy at times, and lots of dust blowing around. I took a photo as I passed the mile 4 marker.

Mile 4 Marker

The track temperature was also very warm, and although the wind was still there, it was warm too. Very glad I hadn’t wrapped up warmer, in fact I was close to overheating a few times.

I also kept getting caught up in a caterpillar. About 40 runners (that’s how many it seems!) were tied together in pairs, and in a chain as well. They seemed to be keeping a similar pace to me and kept getting in the way, very frustrating especially at one of the drinks stations. EDIT – please see my comments at the end if you’re thinking of complaining about this *observation* – I fully support the Caterpillar and what they’re doing and they seemed like a great bunch of people, but this race report is about me and my race and the things that affected it, not anyone else’s.

The Caterpillar

A few people made F1 sounds as we went round corners, and a marshall was listening to the race (in Bahrain!) live on the radio as I ran past but I tried not to listen too carefully as I was recording the race to watch later and didn’t want spoilers!

Mile 4 was actually the quickest, at a surprising 10:18 minute/mile. I was genuinely surprised at how fast I was going – but was certain I was going to run into trouble later. Whilst I can still do a 5K in under 30 minutes (just!) it would tire me out doing it at the start of a half marathon, which is over four 5Ks. I got a little concerned I was going too fast, so I made an effort to slow down for Mile 5 (10:38)

Normally I’d be bored like on my long training runs, but it was fun to run with so many other people and catch snippets of conversations, or read the stuff on the backs of their shirts (lots of people seem to run in memory of people) – so it made for a much better run than usual.

At Mile 6, Steve caught me running past again!

Me disappearing into the distance

Shortly after that, we saw the eventual winners run past near the end on the track nearby. Demotivating!!

It was around this time I started feeling quite dehydrated. I’d foolishly thrown away my bottle of water I’d got at mile 3, thinking there would be more water not long after. Alas at mile 5 (I think) all they had was Lucozade Sports drink, and whilst I drink that after a run sometimes, I don’t fancy it on a run, and besides I’d brought along gels. Mixing the two would be quite unpleasant and sugary. The next water station turned out to be almost at mile 8 by which point I was really suffering.

There were a few bridges to run over (very steep!) which killed my speed a bit. This was the hardest part of the race by far – we headed onto a route around the outside of the circuit on service roads and there was little wind but very hot temperatures. I can’t remember many details as it was pretty featureless, but my times slid down a little, closer to 11 minute miles. But with every mile that passed I remained stunned that I hadn’t dropped over an 11 minute mile pace – I was fully expecting to have run out of steam by that point as I often do on my training runs. Two weeks ago at mile 8 my speed dropped to 13 minute miles and never really recovered, so I was amazed to still be doing 10:51 at mile 9.

Mile 10 came round and I decided to try out the caffeine gel I had. I think I will not be trying caffeine gels again. Within 5 minutes of taking it, I was having terrible stomach cramps, and my speed dropped right down to 11:12 as a result – not the plan. I also sent my last update to Twitter, although I didn’t realise that at the time.

Miles 11 and 12 maybe I got some benefit from the caffeine as I started going a little faster, in fact Mile 12 was a 10:29 much to my surprise – I think I’d been a bit disappointed by the 11:12 of the mile before. Certainly I got a second wind from somewhere which is amazing because normally during my training runs once the speeds starts dropping it never recovers. Or maybe it was discovering that the 11 minute mile team were right behind me after I’d overtaken them around mile 3.

Mile 12 and I tried to update my Twitter but network congestion meant it kept on failing. I kept on trying for the rest of the race and never did manage to update at all, until we got home! Poor show, O2. It’s not like it was an F1 race day – it was a fraction of the attendance.

Knowing the end was in sight, I tried to give it my all, but the course had a trick up its sleeve. We were returning back the same way we’d run earlier – so instead of a downhill with the wind behind, it was an uphill with the wind right in our faces. Here’s the course elevation:

The course elevation

As you can see, the last mile was horrific. Ugh. So my time was 11:07 despite the fact I was putting in a serious amount of effort. I had to let the 11 minute mile pacers run past me as there was no way I could keep up with them up that hill.

Finally I reached the top. And Steve captured me running over the top too!

Coming over the top of the final hill

I was absolutely shattered, and my darned phone was not updating! My heart rate had shot right up (it was already about 5bpm higher after taking the caffeine gel – another reason to avoid it) and was close to maximum. Yet I was still super impressed that I was still able to run at this pace 13 miles into the race – this is very much a first for me – my previous record of running before collapsing (i.e. suddenly losing 2-3 minutes per mile in pace) is 10 miles.

I was clutching my phone in one hand and a bottle of water (having learned my lesson!) in the other as I passed Steve near the finish line.

Clutching my water and phone

I waved my phone at Steve out of exasperation – it was fortunate he knew how poor the signal was or he would have thought I’d fallen victim to one of the ambulances that were circling the course with blue lights on (worrying!!)

Waving my misbehaving phone at Steve

My pace had dropped right down, but it’s traditional to do a sprint finish. So I gritted my teeth, increased my pace to somewhere in the 9 minute miles (seriously!) and sprinted the final few hundred yards across the finish line. Ugh.

I staggered over to the chip removing dudes and asked the one I had if I was allowed to stop running now. Apparently I was. So I got my goody bag and staggered off to find Steve.

Just finished the race

Here’s my “finished about 10 minutes previously” pose, complete with medal.

So I got myself changed (there were lots of toilets free, a miracle!) then returned to the car – I fed C whilst a bunch of people with excessively large vehicles parked around us and ate champagne and scotch eggs and then I drove us all the 2.5 hours home. Ow.

So – what was my final time?

The official chip time is here of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 9 seconds. Garmin has me at 2hr22:13, but I think I started my timer a fraction early. Here’s my mile splits:

My mile splits

As you can see, I actually ran 13.28 miles – when corrected, my half marathon time is more like 2hr20 minutes – even better! The extra is probably due to all the weaving, just about everyone had a similar time on their Garmin – the course is measured via the shortest possible route and with big crowds you can’t always manage that.

Regardless, I smashed my hoped-for goal of 2 hours 30. I also finished in the top two thirds of women runners – not bad considering only serious runners were likely to enter and I haven’t been doing the training I ideally should. So I was very happy – not just over the time, but also over the fact I kept going for 13 miles and didn’t significantly drop my pace. I don’t know how much longer I’d have managed at that pace, but it was reassuring nonetheless. It means, so long as I don’t suffer any major training setbacks, I can aim for a 5-5.30 hour marathon time.

Here’s a chart showing my pace over the race: (click for bigger)

My pace graph

As you can see, it was mostly a steady pace except at the end with the big long hill, and the patch in the middle where I was dehyrated. A huge improvement on my usual fairly straight line before the pace just drops off suddenly!

What makes it all the more remarkable is that within a few hours of getting home, I came down with a horrible gastric flu/norovirus/winter vomiting bug/stomach flu/whatever and could barely move from bed. I’d felt weird after the race but put it down to the caffeine gels. I wonder if it was them that caused the stomach cramps or not.. I guess I will have to try them again on a long run. Anyway that explains the late update of this race report – I’m only now able to function a little again.

So – the medal!

Front of medal

Back of medal

All in all, an enjoyable race, in very interesting (albeit dull for non-F1 fans) surroundings, with good opportunities for personal bests. If I ever run again in the future, I’d definitely want to do this race again.

I was particularly pleased with how well I managed – I am wondering if perhaps my times were getting so dreadful with my other long runs because I was over-training. Certainly my knees caused me no bother and after the first half a mile my feet behaved themselves too. Taking those two weeks off, and eating lots of carbs in the days before, really seems to have helped. I am feeling a lot more confident now about the big event – less than six weeks away now!

It’s my first ever half marathon event, and in fact my first race since my ill-fated 10K that brought on pneumonia back in mid November. 4 months to the day actually. Fortunately for this weekend I (touch wood) feel no signs of cough although I do have a slightly runny nose. Nevertheless, my health is reasonable. My neck is quite a bit better. My knees, less so, but I guess we shall see – they seem to be improving and I honestly think taking these last two weeks off was the Right Thing to Do. Hopefully the damaged muscle (or whatever) has repaired itself stronger than before, much as it did last time.

13.1 miles is a long way to run, make no mistake. Thankfully I know I can run 13.1 miles, having done it twice in training two and three weeks ago respectively. I also know that I feel just about dead by the end of it. I read somewhere that a half marathon is about three-quarters of the effort of a full marathon, given you have to run it a little faster. Let’s hope so!

The race starts at 12pm GMT. I am intending to finish in under 2.5 hours but we shall see. I was on course for 2hr15 minutes before I caught pneumonia but there’s not a hope I could do that now.

Unlike every other race I’ve done, this one is going to be interactive! Well, it’s going to be a test run for the main event itself (just over six weeks away now.. eek) in terms of keeping y’all updated and vice-versa. Yes, I’m going to be tweeting my way round.

But it’s more than just a few updates here and there – I’ve found an application that will upload my Google Maps location and any photos I wish to take! So not only will you get my exact location, but sometimes I’ll stick up a photo as well. I’ll also be able to read any encouragement you want to fire back at me via Twitter too.

I’ve no idea how well this is going to work, so basically this Silverstone half marathon is my trial run for the London marathon in terms of technology. It should give me a better idea over what will be realistic on the day!

If you want to follow me/encourage me, please follow/message my “barnpops_run” twitter feed. For the main marathon I’ll be using my usual “barnpops” twitter feed but as this is more of a test, I’m using a second account in case it all goes horribly wrong!

So, 46 hours to go before the half marathon.. and I have two photoshoots before then too! We’re staying in a hotel nearby the night before so hopefully the morning will be nice and simple.

In other news, a massive thank you to Lucy, Bic and Jo & Paddy for your generous sponsorship! I am getting closer and closer all the time – 73% of the way there now. I’m hoping I can break the £1,000 barrier with a month to go, but we shall see!

On with today’s post. I haven’t been out since that horrible 16 mile run a week ago last Sunday. Last week I had tummy problems which were also, really weirdly, causing me extreme dizziness. Every time I moved my head it was like the room was spinning! Thankfully that passed by Friday and I was all set to go out running on Saturday for my long run, but I had tummy troubles again. All advice is not to go running if you do.

That’s not what is bothering me though – it’s my neck and my knees. My neck was getting better but has flared up again in the last few days; I can’t stand for long as it starts hurting, let alone run. And my knees – I had hoped they would be better now after my run but they’re just not improving. It is actually very worrying. They had been a little bit sore before that super long run but I could run through it.

I have my half marathon race at Silverstone race track (home of Formula 1 in the UK) *this Sunday* which I will of course run (subject to obvious health problems like if I caught a nasty cough or flu) and if my knee gets worse, I guess I’ll just have to walk or run walk some of it. I *need* to do at least three more very long runs (minimum 18 miles, preferably 20) before the actual marathon but if I have to skip one of those to save my knees for the big day, I will.

May or may not head out for a run this week in the evening.. will probably be worth seeing just how bad my knees are at any rate! Stupid knees. I seem to recall they did this last time and the pain went away – it was just down to the unexpected activity and once they were stronger it was fine. The problem is usually caused by an increase in mileage and I’ve certainly been doing that of late. So fingers crossed this is only a temporary setback.

In other news I have been experimenting with ways to let everyone know where I am when I run the marathon. I’ll be doing a test run of it at Silverstone. Basically I’ve found an application for my phone which I can use to press a button and it tweets my location as a Google Maps URL. I can also upload photos too and get it to update Facebook! Which sounds perfect. Keep an eye open for a post later in the week telling you how you can see my running commentary on my running!