Athens Marathon

Two weeks after the Snowdonia Marathon and I was off to Greece for the Athens Classic Marathon. It was warm and sunny in Athens when we arrived on Saturday but the following morning we awoke to the sound of heavy rain. The race started in the town of Marathon at 9am which meant catching a bus from the centre of Athens at 6:30am.

The weather at the start was pretty miserable but at least it was fairly cool for running.

The route from Marathon to the Panathinaikon Stadium in Athens follows the coast for the first 10k before heading inland and uphill for the next 20k and then dropping down to the finish.

I completed the race in 4hrs 45' 23" having found it a lot tougher than I'd expected. The fact that I'd run a marathon two weeks earlier (and a tough one at that) must have had an effect on my energy levels so I was fairly happy with my efforts in Athens.

Next year's race is the 2500th anniversary of the battle of Marathon so I may be tempted to go back for another attempt at the classic course.

Snowdonia Marathon 2009

Well it was back to North Wales for another crack at the Snowdonia Marathon. Last year the weather was terrible - 90mph winds, driving rain and cold. This year it was marginally better -70mph winds, driving rain and milder temperatures.

I was aiming to get round in under 4 hours but it actually took me 4hrs 26' 24". I wasn't too disappointed with my time though because the conditions were pretty bad and i did knock about 40 minutes off my 2008 time. So the target for next year is sub 4 hours.

Here's a video of the race as seen from the runner's perspective. Sorry if it's a bit unsteady but I think it captures the essence of the event.

an up and down week....

On a positive note, the training is still going well. There are just two weeks to go before we make the journey to Wales for the Snowdonia Marathon and four weeks before flying out to Greece for the Athens Marathon.

To that end I've been building up the weekly mileage over the last few months and am currently averaging just over fifty miles per week.

Last weekend I went out with James for a 20 mile training run which took us from home to the other side of Aldershot where we picked up the Basingstoke canal towpath. We ran alongside the canal for about five or six miles, passing through Fleet and out into the countryside towards Odiham. We then followed the narrow lanes through Crondall and Dippenhall before returning to Farnham in a pretty good time of two hours and fifty six minutes. Both of us felt good all the way round the course and neither of us suffered much in the way of aches and pains over the following days, so we both took a good positive boost from our efforts.

And talking of aches and pains - I've had a very unpleasant time of it over the last week and a half thanks to some severe tooth pain caused by a root canal filling coming out and leaving an exposed nerve. Not only that, but it turns out that I also had a abscess under the affected tooth!

Several nights spent trying to sleep through the agonising pain and overdosing on ibruprofen and paracetamol left me pretty miserable and desperate to get something done about it asap. Luckily, I managed to see a dentist on Tuesday thanks to someone else cancelling their appointment. The news from Ms Van der Bilt was not good however. The tooth was 'not viable' and would have to come out! I was back at 2pm on Thursday for the extraction. I won't go into details of the procedure because it wasn't very pleasant but I guess it was worth it in the end as I'm now virtually free of pain - it's just a bit sore now from all the yanking and tugging that was required to get the tooth out!

Anyhow, I was sufficiently recovered to get out on a 14 mile x-country run today in the bright Autumn sunshine. That'll probably be my last long run before Snowdon, so look forward to a couple of weeks tapering down now.

Running as the sun rises.....

Here are some photos from this morning's run..

This is why I get out of bed at 6am!

Tempos, hills and intervals....

I'm attempting to increase my pace with a view to getting under 4 hours for the Snowdonia Marathon and sub 3:30 for the Athens. So, as well as regular long runs - 15 miles last Saturday - I've also been throwing in plenty of sessions designed to improve my speed. These include hill-sprint sessions at the Devil's Jumps, tempo runs of about 10k on Hankley Common and interval training at the military running track in Aldershot. And all of this seems to be doing some good because I'm starting to notice a gradual improvement in my overall pace.

I'm also increasing my monthly distance and for the first time I exceeded 200 miles, which is a bit of a mile-stone. I'll have to careful not to pick up any injuries though as there are only about 8 weeks to go before the Snowdonia Marathon and it'd be a shame to injure myself now through overtraining.

West Cork

We had a great 3 week holiday at the cottage in Union Hall. Jenny and I spent the first couple of weeks alone and were then joined by James and Richard for the last week and by Jess for the final few days. The weather was really good apart from a couple of days of rain and we made good use of the boat with plenty of waterskiing and trips to Sherkin Island. We also made good use of the windsurfer and kayak.
On the running front, I kept up the training with daily 7 mile runs through the West Cork countryside. Jenny came with me for all but one or two runs and managed to cope really well with the hilly course. We also hiked up Hungry Hill on the Beara Peninsular with James and Rich.
So al in all a very relaxing few weeks despite all the physical activities!
Now back at work but maintaining the training momentum with some good sessions over the last week or so including hill training at the Devil's Jumps (new pb of 1'38" for the sprint to the summit) and 26k around Hankley Common last Saturday. I also smashed my 10k rowing time and got under 40' for the first time.

Gibbet Hill 10k

It was off to Haslemere last week for another go at the Gibbet Hill 10k race which, as the name suggests, is a hilly course starting in Wey Hill and climbing to the top of Gibett Hill and back down again. I was joined for the race by James and his mate Tom, who was doing his first race having only started running a couple of weeks beforehand.
I was aiming to try to beat my record of 49'21", which I'd set two years ago.
It's a pretty informal race but with a high percentage of local running club members taking part it can be quite competetive. And so it was a short walk to the start, a few words from the starter and we were off.
The first mile or so took us along a quiet road which climbed out of the residential area and into the countryside before a marshall signalled for us to turn onto a bridleway and the start of a serious climb to the viewpoint at the top of Gibett Hill. By this time I'd left James and Tom to their own race and tried to make my way through the field of runners, many of whom had started at a strong pace but were struggling with the climb through the forest.
The top of the climb came at about three and a half miles after which the next mile and a half was pretty flat. As I approached the final mile back down to the finish I noted that I'd been running for just over 40 minutes and was in with a very good chance of beating my pb. So I pushed hard and virtually spinted down the road towards the finish. Somehow the last mile and a bit took over 8 minutes but I still managed to cross the finish line having knocked 50 seconds off my pb. Job done.

Back to the training...

Since the Picnic I've been back running regularly over at Hankley Common. I've also been trying to mix things up a bit with visits to the gym, cycling (road and off-road) and swimming. The gym sessions are designed to increase my upper body strength - in particular my arms. I was surprised at how much my arms were aching after the Picnic marathon - running up hills requires good strength in the the arms and shoulders. I've also been back on the rower for some longish sessions. My latest efforts produced a 40'52 10k and a 5k in 20'13. I need to get under 40' and 20' respectively and also test myself over 2000m.

The Picnic...

was no picnic. It was damned hard. I got very bad cramp at the 18 mile point and was very close to pulling out - mainly because I was at the bottom of 200 odd steep steps and every time I tried to lift a leg up to place my foot on the next step my legs cramped up completely. Eventually I managed to sidle up the side of the steps thus avoiding having to raise my legs too high and temporarily holding the cramp at bay. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the top though and when I did I tripped over a root and fell to the ground at which point the cramps came back with a vengeance. I couldn't even stand up, it was that bad. I had to crawl along the ground to a nearby tree and haul myself up using the lower branches for support. The rest of the race - the next 8 miles - was spent trying to overcome the frequent cramp attacks which were particularly viscous on the up-hills - of which there were many!

I finally finished, to my great relief, in 6 hrs 23 mins. I was 80th out of about 120 starters many of whom dropped out at the half-way point.

I'm planning to have another attempt at the Picnic when it's run again in 2011 - hopefully I'll be able knock a few minutes off my time (maybe even get under 6 hours) and next time I'll be carrying some electrolyt drink with me which should help with the cramp problems.

Tapering for the Picnic

The Picnic Marathon is only 4 days away now so I've had my last run until Saturday's race. I started last week with a long Sunday run of around 14 miles and then took it easy on the running front with a few morning runs, a couple of swims and a 30 minute session on the rower. At the weekend I just did a 4 mile run with Jenny and then an 8 miler on Sunday. I've been using my Mizunos for most of my runs over the last couple of weeks because I think that at 850 miles the New Balance shoes are beginning to lose a bit of cushioning and I was noticing some soreness in my achilles and underneath my heel. That seems to have cleared up now so it looks as though I'll be starting the Picnic free of injury. The only slight concern is that the forecast is for very warm weather on the day of the race so I'll need to take plenty of water + electrolytes to ward off the cramps!