Race Report: Lee Valley Marathon (Race for Life)

Lee Valley Park - view of the canal

I got very over-excited after the Lancaster Half Marathon a couple of weeks ago.  Having PBd and felt like it wasn't horrible to run at that pace, apart from the last little bit with the hill, I thought that a sub 4 hour marathon might be possible already.

I hate my brain when it does this.  It puts lots of unfounded pressure on me.  But I really thought this might actually happen.  Then I took a look at a race predictor and it pretty much laughed in my face.  Having given it that half marathon time, the quickest marathon predicted time from all of the various formulae comes out at 4 hours and 2 minutes and a bit.  Not sub four at all.  So I lost heart.

And my brain didn't give up.  It kept telling me that this is possible, but I don't understand well enough or have enough experience to have the faintest idea.  My coach confirmed that he thought it was possible, and that even if I blew up horribly I'd still PB for sure and I agreed.

Well, to cut a long story short, it wasn't my day.

The race organisation had decided that as they'd put enough loos around the route of the race, they didn't need that many at the start/finish/expo.  There were 15 loos for 3,500 women, plus supporters!  Bad move.  Very many of us just went into the long, dewy grass or found bushes and dealt with needing to wee that way.  The worrying down side of it was getting pretty wet feet.  Wet feet is a great way to get blisters.  So I was already cranky before I started.  However, it *was* nice to meet up with Kat (who had a fantastic race and smashed out a marathon PB) & Jools briefly beforehand, chat a bit and get some help with making sure I didn't lose my house keys (thank you!).

The race start was sort of seeded - with timing chips we'd be getting chip times so the clock didn't start until you crossed the line.  There was a call for all runners who might run under 4.5 hours to line up first, then the 4.5 to 6 hour finishers, then 6+.  Then the half marathon runners after that (um, OK. That's a dumb idea as they'll have to run through *all* of the marathon runners.).  I joined the sub 4.5 hour group as my worst case was under that time anyway.

From the start of the race I didn't feel anything like I did at Lancaster, but I thought it'd be fine once I warmed up.  The first mile was a pretty spicy pace - I was supposed to be aiming to hold 08:57/mile (10s/mile faster than goal pace) so I couldn't afford the first mile to be more a warm-up like it was at Lancaster (where I hit 09:22 for the first mile and then an average of 08:53 overall).

It was OK, but in the back of my head I was already worried that things didn't feel all that great and doubts crept in really early.  By mile 4, my brain had checked out - my Garmin wasn't giving me great info on the mile splits and wasn't matching up with the race mile markers either.

So I had a bit of a mull, and as I did, the second two toes on my right foot started to get really sore - my shoe was too small for the conditions and I really didn't want that to turn into a proper problem.  And then there was an actual hill.  The up of which really demoralised me - s-bends up - and the down hurt my toes - s-bends again so you can't really let go so easily.

By mile 7 it was most definitely worrying, my pace was way off and I felt sick.  From that point all I could think about was another 6 miles until I could stop.  There were moments of "it *might* be OK, I could maybe get around in about 4 hours 10 or so... but I felt vile in my stomach and I was worried about my toes.  So I gave up.

I walked a little bit, had a chat with the race marshall at the split between the finish funnel and the second lap and took the finish funnel.

The medal was OK.

The goody bag was *enormous*.  The sponsors were keen and realise that a lot of their target market was right there.

I was desperate for *something* - the water was great, but I chugged the "Upbeat" as well, which helped a bit.  I followed it with the yogurty raisins and the chocolates but that's not real food and I needed tea so I went in search of tea.  Unfortunately the tea place had a menu that said "bacon baguette" which I really wanted and convinced myself of that so much that when it turned out there was only hog roast (roast pork, crackling & stuffing in a soft roll) I had so much momentum I got one of those when it probably wasn't the best idea.

The pork and crackling were pretty good, to be honest and I ate about half of it and ditched a lot of the roll.  Drank my tea and then tried to get up from the grass.  Instantly, I felt really sick; sicker than when I was running.  So I just wanted to be home, somewhere cool, dark and quiet with some fizzy water with lemon.  I crashed out on the journey home, but the naps made me feel a bit better, as did the pint of cold, fizzy water with lots of lemon slices in it when I got home.

Overall - today just didn't work.  My brain and body were not as up for it as I needed for a sub-4, and then I made it worse with the shoes being wet and not fitting for some reason, and then something weird with my stomach and then eating stupid things afterwards.  BUT!  There will be other days!   Lancaster was not a fluke, and I know I can have a much better day at some point in the future.  This was my second fastest half marathon to date - 02:02:31.  When you set out to do a marathon, you run slower than you would for a half, so this makes me quite happy in a convoluted way.

Never ever ever...

Never try something new on race day.

That's one of the biggest pieces of advice that athletes are given.  And it's a good one.  So, I'll likely be ignoring it spectacularly on Saturday.  Never mind this race could take 8 hours if I have a bad time of the hills so if something is not right, it's going to be a long day of not right to get through.

I'll be at the very least wearing new shoes, new socks and a new attempt to avoid the chafing I got on my back at the last long one.  I got that same chafing again on my last longish run home from work and I think I may have hit on why it's happened.  I've only ever run twice in that exact rucksack; the original one was a 2013 early model and was very tightly adjusted, this one is a late 2013 model and I think quite a bit looser when I used it.  So, I'll adjust it to be much more tight AND I'll use this magic anti-chafe lotion impregnated towelette on my back before putting on my clothes and rucksack.  Fingers crossed that will help, cause the chafing from that bag really burns quite badly and causes sharp, acute pain in multiple places across my back.

I'm undecided on the shoes at the moment and I have a bit too much choice on that front, but I have ruled out a bunch immediately and there's a short-list of 4 left.  I won't get to change them during the race so it is quite a key choice.  The socks I can carry a spare pair with me, but the plan is either thick merino Smartwool ones or the brand new Drymax ones I just bought which claim to keep wetness to a minimum compared with many others.

Everything else is tried and tested and should be fine - especially hydration which I think I have nailed now.

No parkrun for me on Saturday as my race starts at 08:15, but I'll be thinking of all those thousands of parkrunners at 9am and maybe one of them will be thinking of me.

Sneaky 15K race

Rotherham might well be cold, wet and muddy next weekend.  So having a little leg stretch this weekend, on Clapham Common, in the rain, mud and cold was a perfect head-straightener in the final few days going into the Ultra.

15km, some on paths, some on gravel, some on grass and some on mud was a brilliant re-check of the Skechers Go Bionic Trail shoes and how they perform in less than gorgeous conditions.

It was raining on the morning of the Clapham Common races (5km, 10km and 15km plus some shorter ones for the kids) and had been overnight too.  Add to that a gusty, chilly breeze and it could have made for an uncomfortable run.  However, I wanted exactly those conditions for a number of reasons; testing kit, testing resolve, seeing how well I deal with mud.  So I ditched the running rucksack on this occasion to focus on other kit choices:-

• Shoes - Skechers Go Bionic Trail
• Socks - Compressport Trail Socks
• Shorts - Compressport Trail Shorts, layered with short lycra shorts on top for warmth
• Top - Compressport Trail T-Shirt, layered with a Pella Team Freespeed t-shirt for warmth

A few minutes before the race, I took off my rain jacket and put it and my rucksack with dry shoes and socks in with the baggage drop.

Mr TOTKat and I intended to have a relatively steady race, but it didn't quite turn out that way.  I trotted off quite briskly at the start, keeping cadence high in order to set that for the rest of the run.  1km in, I felt good and glanced at my Garmin which said 05:23 for the first km.  About 30s to a minute quicker than intended.  But I didn't ease off.  I found myself working through the field on the first lap (1 lap for 5km, 2 for 10km and 3 for 15km races).  As I ticked off the kms and other runners (not caring at that point whether they were doing 5, 10 or 15km) I felt that the pace was good and then I was wondering whether it was sustainable for 15km.  No better way to find out than keep it up!

On the second lap, I started paying more attention to the people I was passing; checking out the colour of their number bib (red for 5km, blue for 10km and orange for 15km).  I needed to see if I passed women with orange on, or was being passed by women with orange on - I wasn't being passed at all, so that wasn't a problem.

Come the 3rd lap, with fewer of the 10km runners still out on the course, I was still maintaining the pace and felt fine with it - not a piece of cake, but still sustainable without feeling like I wanted to slow down or stop.  I finally caught sight of a woman with an orange number ahead of me.  Target locked in, I thought about trying to catch her.  I couldn't see any more further ahead and there were none behind me for quite a way.  So I tried a bit to see if I could reel her in.  To cut a boring story short, I just couldn't manage it because I'm not experienced enough at racing just running and she spotted me about 3km from the end and just made sure I didn't get any closer.

38th finisher, 10th woman, 2nd F40-44.  Happy with that.  Now time to take it easy into the weekend!

Kit check:- The t-shirt was great; it certainly helped with posture and keeping my body upright rather than drooping as the race progressed.  The shorts supported my thighs and back really nicely too - the extremely high waist was a godsend in keeping things upright and the drafts out.  Very very happy with the Compressport Trail kit indeed!  The Skechers trail shoes were pretty good on the grass and mud, I had no problems with grip, but did get very wet feet indeed - to be expected in the conditions.  I'm not entirely sure how they drained out the sloshing water, it was a worry due to lack of drainage holes in the soles, but somehow that just worked and my feet weren't a wrinkly mess at the end.

London Ultra: Impending Fear

Next Sunday I'll be running the London Ultra; a 50km course around London, mostly clockwise on the Capital Ring from Mottingham/Grove Park to Perivale, through quite a few London parks, heathlands and otherwise green bits.

You'd think that for my first run longer than 42km, in fact only my 2nd ever run over 28km, I'd be fearful of the distance and the fact that I've not run further than 15km in one continuous run since June last year.  But no, that holds pretty much no fear for me.  I know I can cover the distance, yes my hips will likely ache somewhat at some point around 35km in, and the balls of my feet too if I pick the wrong shoes, but there is another fear...

Brooks Pure Cadence (probably my choice for this)

Getting lost.

You see, despite the web site saying cheerful things like "London's Capital Ring provides a wonderful waymarked route which is easy to follow and can be run at marathon pace", the course (now in it's 2nd year after a course change following the first two runs), is well known for people getting lost, and lost more than once along the course.

I've done my research, I've looked at the course route and I've read a god few race reports from last year and they all, without fail, mention getting lost at least once.  Now, if there's one thing that's guaranteed to drive me crazy in a race, it's poor route marking.

I really don't want to get massively angry as it's so energy sapping and this will be my first endurance event of any notable duration where I will not be fuelled on dietary carbohydrates (I'll carry some bits of sausage, some nuts and cheese in case I feel hungry but it takes so long for that food to get processed it wouldn't be any use to fuel the running I'll be doing at the time, I'll be relying on body fat and liver glycogen).  I'll need all the mental energy I can get and wasting it on fury will be very counter-productive.  Yes, I'll have a map, but I really don't want to be getting it out to look at it every 5-10 minutes.  The route is pretty twisty and there aren't any long stretches where you could zone out and enjoy the motion.  I've not been able to convert the KML file from Google maps into a file that my Garmin can read, nor am I convinced about the manually transcribed route I've made in Garmin Connect as it's based on the official Google maps route that doesn't follow paths or roads and you can't tell which side of the river it's on at times, plus it looks like it goes through buildings a lot of the time - it looks like a low resolution GPS file.

So if anyone knows the Capital Ring (Sections 3 to 8) at all, or has walked/run bits of the route, or has run the London Ultra route (2012 onwards), or just generally has any suggestions on how to stay on track, please do let me know!

Running flats...

I -think-.  These running flats make something for a difference.

With no training (honestly, I've done bugger all running), I've pulled 30s off my 5K and 120s off my 10K PBs and the only real difference is the shoes.  They're last season (SS11)'s Saucony A3...

...and they weigh nothing at all.  That's not where the big win comes from (for me, for now), though.  It's the lack of hugely built-up heel, which forces me to strike mid-foot to front-foot and not with my heel.  You just can't heel strike in these 'cause it jars your foot, ankle and knee and there's instant feedback of "Bad" to your brain so you stop it pretty quickly.

The really good thing was that because they were last season's design, they cost a princely sum of £29.99 (list price £72).

The best laid plans...

I was going to run part-way home tonight, but I got invited to an event tomorrow night which is black tie.  "How does that add up?", you might ask.  Well, I have one dress suitable for black tie events and it's needed dry cleaning since Christmas and I've not got around to it.  So, in order to be suitably attired tomorrow, I had to (ohyes, had to!) run out at lunchtime and buy a new dress.  Um, and shoes to go with it:-

Which meant that I had to get them home tonight as there was no way I was leaving them in the office overnight.  So, I wasn't going to cram them into a tiny rucksack and ruin them either, so no running this evening.

So.  The trick now is planning for tomorrow; I need to pack gym stuff, evening stuff and wear stuff during the day that I won't mind crumpling up into my desk drawer overnight tomorrow night.  Complicated!  Big gymmage session planned for tomorrow to help with potential excess in the evening, but I'm going to have to be very careful for lots of reasons; it's mid-week, I'm almost there with that 2lbs I wanted to finally shift, and my new dress is very figure-hugging, so not much room for scoffing anyway :oD

Also, we are sans functioning kitchen scales at the moment (they got a bit dropped and have been quite unhappy since), so breakfast was slightly estimating this morning, though I did look up the conversion for US cups to grams of yogurt, which helped.  I cajoled the scales into working long enough to weigh bits of tonight's dinner and the new scales will arrive tomorrow but then they'll sit in my desk drawer until Thursday evening as well as my office clothes for the day.

Today went like this:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - a pear
L - salad; spinach, sweet pepper, capers, celery, apricots and a chicken fillet
S - tangerines and a small handful of yogurt coated banana chips
S - carrot and houmous
D - salmon fillet with couscous, peas and sweetcorn

Exercise - none

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1390 1788]
Protein (g)	115.9 (33.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	136.1 (36.5%)
Fat (g)	47.0 (30.3%)
Fruit & Veg	8.2