GLA-EDI-Double Marathon 14/03/08

Yesterday I was back in supporting mode when Dirk (last year’s well trained Devil supporter) and I set out to support Thomas to the finish of the 1st GLA-EDI-Double Marathon. I must admit that for the first time I think I would have preferred to be running! Not necessarily this race but in general. And Thomas only has himself to blame for this as he has infected me with the running bug.

It didn’t help either that he had been a bit tense the days before the race, realizing that the recent races had taken their toll and his legs took their time to recover especially from last week’s HM. He even took 2 whole days off running and immediately showed signs of withdrawal… He was even grumpier than usual when he had to get up early yesterday morning. He got all his gear ready and gave us – again – strict orders not to do anything that could get him disqualified. He was following the race rules by the letter after checking with the organizers in an email, i.e. carrying all your fluid supplies, only refilling at the checkpoints with whatever you leave with the organizers at the start, carrying all your compulsory gear including torch and space blanket. It turned out later that most competitors did the same with bag packs on their shoulders, but there was the odd one who did carry only a rather small bump bag getting his bottle exchanged regularly by his support at various points …

Anyway, at the start we saw Maggs who was first to register. We then saw Lucy Colquhoun and I said to Dirk, this was going to be the winner – unless Jezz Bragg was also turning up. And of course I was right, but I guess that was not hard to predict! She won the race in a great time of 6h: 50min. Though she was followed closely by Kenny V initially and then John B until just after Linlithgow when she managed to shake John off. Well done Lucy! Back to Thomas though…

We saw him for the first time just before Kirkintilloch when we were on a bridge to take photos. He was gesticulating something to us so we headed off to catch him again at Twechar just before the 1st checkpoint (CP), but he just wanted to tell us that his fellow runner was Crazy German No 2, Andre Reibig, incidentally running in long skins as well … (Note to Andre in case he reads this: Thomas is known as "Crazy German")



There we also met Debbie and Cairn, Marco who was running the first 20M of the route on his own and Kenny V’s family. Off we went to Bonnybridge where Thomas kept complaining about his sore legs and how heavy they felt. I actually expected him to stop somewhere behind Falkirk as he had said before that if his legs were not right he would not push it. Though I thought that this might not be good psychologically even if it was only meant to be a “training run”. We rushed off to the Falkirk Wheel and saw him coming up the hill when we pulled into the car park. So we sprinted across to take some photos and were greeted by a much cheerier Thomas, smiling for the first time. The reason was that friends of ours had come to the Wheel to cheer him on; well at least someone can cheer him up even if it is not me! :-)



We then decided to go to CP 3 at Linlithgow. And I am glad we did as it turned out that the energy drinks that the runners had given to the organizers at the start to be handed at the various CPs were stuck in traffic! So we double-checked with the marshals that it was o.k. for us to refill Tom’s bladder (hydration bladder that is) and when Thomas was still reluctant to let me do it after he arrived, I confirmed this with the marshall again. In the end he was in and out of the CP in no time and he was surprised how little time the refill took. By this time Thomas was in 4th place, Crazy German No2 nowhere to be seen. Thomas was about 8min behind Kenny who was in 3rd place.

At a CP:


As he seemed to be running on and did not mention stopping after 30M we decided to see him every 30-40min from now on to cheer him on and give him an update on how far to the next CP, how far in total etc as his watch had stopped working at some point. It was then that we started to tell him how far he was from 3rd place. He gained 2 min on Kenny by our next stop and another 2min by the following one. I really thought he could do it and catch him, but in the end Thomas was unable to close the remaining gap of 4min that separated him from Kenny. But as we later found out Kenny was on a mission himself. Apparently Thomas had overtaken him in the Fling last year after Inversnaid so there was no way he would let that happen again.

Our last stop was 5M from the finish and we shouted out to John who was in 2nd place “only 5M to go” and he shouted “whaat? 5M? Oh no!” We got a similar reaction from Thomas later and it turned out that they must have been given rather positive distances at the last CP so expected to be much closer to the finish … So much for the truth, but we can learn and next time we will say “just over 4M to go” …

Thomas finished in 7h: 22min and was delighted. He did not expect to finish at all and getting such a good time despite his sore legs was great news. He does not mind to be just 4min behind 3rd place and never thought that he might be so close to a “podium finish” anyway on the day. Given another day and better legs I am sure he would have been up there.



At the end of the day Thomas invited us for a meal at our favourite Chinese. It is only a 5min walk from our flat but given the circumstances we had to drive and park in front of it as he was unable to walk properly!

Inverness Video

Inverness HM – Birthday Run – 2 new PBs

8th of March is Tom’s birthday and this one was special! He was about to enter the M45 age group.

So we decided to pick a nice race that we could both run on the day and maybe, maybe he could get a good position in his new age group. Well I was hoping for a win to be honest. And to get the only slight disappointment of the weekend out of the way, this was not to be. Instead he came 2nd in his new M45 group as “his” prize was snatched up by someone else. But not to worry, we both came home with new PBs and Thomas also with a few other presents! :-)

We picked Inverness as we quite like it up there and would be able to stay in a friend’s flat until Monday. So after a leisurely drive up north and a stop in the as usual overcrowded Mountain Café in Aviemore, we found out that the race route actually passed the flat we were staying in. So we drove along the route a bit and realized that this was NOT a flat race at all. In fact there were quite a few uphills in admittedly nice surroundings. Well, as this was just a run out of my general training and my actual 10-week EDI Marathon training plan has not even started yet, I was initially just hoping to get under 2hours. My PB was 1:55:29 from Glasgow last year. Seeing the route I thought that might be slightly difficult.

I woke up the next morning to snow showers! Horizontal snow and sleet showers in fact. We set off to the sports centre to register fairly early due to announced road closures. I was getting cold just by waiting in the sports hall and the closer it got to the starting time people put layers upon layers, some even pinned their numbers to their goretex jackets! Nobody really wanted to leave the hall but eventually the organizers threw us out to get the race started. For me leaving that sports hall was probably the toughest bit. I would have never even contemplated going for a run in this weather and here I was just in a thin layer trying to run a HM! “Character building” as the newspaper stated today and I think I have done well just by going to the start.

Thomas had put “no pressure at all” on me by telling me to “get him a PB for his birthday”! And I should take risks and start fast as long as it was flat so I would not lose too much time on the uphills! Well, I set off just being glad to get moving and felt surprisingly fine. I had a few mile splits in my head, under 9min/m to stay under 2hrs, 8:45 to get near to 1:55 and 8:23 to get under 1:50. Arriving at the first mile marker my watch showed 8:00 and I was shocked. That was way too fast. Crossing the bridge and turning against the strong headwind soon sorted this out and the next mile was somewhere near 8:30, much better I thought, just try to keep it up on the flat stretches. I unfortunately don’t have the exact splits as in the end my hands were so cold that I could not operate my watch properly and somehow pressed a few buttons and the data got lost. I just know that when the first uphill stretch started I had a mile with 9:11 that really messed up the time and another one with 9min. I did also have a lot of fast ones between 8:15 and 8:30 and when I reached the point where I knew it was downhill or flat from now on after mile 9 I knew I could beat my PB. I even briefly dreamt of getting under 1:50 reaching mile 12 near 1:42/1:43 but that proved impossible with again strong headwinds on the last mile and by then icy cold hands. I had taken off my gloves after mile2 but by now was unable to get them back on as my fingers were useless. I overtook a few runners/walkers and tried to stick with one guy, but the way to the finish did stretch quite a bit.
In the end I just thought keep running and try not to collapse before the finish and eventually crossed the line in a chip time of 1:51:39! 3min 50sec of my previous time! And 21st in my age group (M40)! Incredible! Thomas took 30sec of his PB finishing in 1:18:31 in 16th position overall and 2nd M45. So well done to him and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We went out for a nice meal in the evening and then drove back via the east side of Loch Ness towards Fort Augustus this morning checking out the Loch Ness Marathon route and onwards to Fort William. Now while this is a spectacularly scenic route, this one is really hilly! I guess compared to this even the Inverness HM route seems “flat” in the end. Not a marathon that I will enter in a hurry!

Tyndrum-Kingshouse Hotel

What a great run I had today on the WHW - and as a surprise even company!
I had planned to run just from Tyndrum to KHH by myself instead of like the main group from the Drover's. That would give me a distance of 30K, plenty for my training calendar.

So Thomas and I dropped the car off at KHH and thanks to John and him taking care of the important transport issue got a lift down to the start. That way I could access all my dry clothes after my return as I was going to have to wait for a couple of hours until everyone else would arrive. I found out that I would have company in the van as George - Ian's friend and support runner - wanted to do a shorter distance as well. I was a bit worried that I would keep him back or be out of my depth to keep up with him, but it turned out to be a great run in great company and the time flew by.

He started to run up the hill behind Tyndrum and I tried to keep up but then remembered that Thomas had told me to walk it and I just admitted there and then that I would have to walk the uphills. And that was fine. So from then on we walked the uphills and occasionally when it wasn't as steep George would encourage me to run slowly. That way I did run a few bits that I would have walked. We kept quite a good pace going on the straights and downhills, again slightly faster than I would have run, but I felt comfortable with it. As George knows the route very well he kept telling me about the bits that were due to come and how we would run or walk them and that was helpful.

He has so much experience in running and supporting and kept telling me all these interesting stories that before I knew it we had reached Bridge of Orchy in 1h10min, much faster than I had expected. I even forgot to take on my first gel after 30min and took it eventually in BoO after a short toilet stop.
I kept sipping away at my Lucozade and thought that I was drinking quite well, but it turned out later that I had only taken on just over 500mls the whole time! Ups, I need to watch my fluid intake I guess. I had a few jelly babies and "Vital" biscuits going uphill behind BoO and took another gel near the Forrest Lodge and that was me. Probably not quite enough if I had to keep going after KHH, but it was o.k. today. We reached the top of Rannoch Mor and started our downhill. This felt really good and we came to just above Blackrock Cottage at 3h31min and we thought, well can we make it under 3h45min? We then started to charge down the hill but the hotel looked closer than it actually was. But George kept the pace going and I felt good and just kept sprinting along and we arrived at the KHH carpark after 3h42min! Great!

We got ourselves dried off and warmed up in the Lounge looking out for other runners. The first runner home from the main group was Marco. I then met little Cairn for the 1st time who was out for his 1st support drive with Debbie and we all headed into the bar. The pea soup and chips were good!
Thomas had a good run as well so all in all a great day out for both of us.

21st February 2009

The day of the National XC Race - and also my birthday!

I didn't run myself but was keen to go along as a spectator and try out my birthday present, a new Canon Ixus 970, a compact camera that has a video option! So in JK fashion I filmed throughout the race, thinking that holding the camera vertical would be a good idea as it gets the runners better into the picture. Not knowing that it seems rather difficult to later rotate the picture and it is also easy to loose all sound when editing it ... Obviously I still have to learn a lot until these videos are presentable!

We met a lot of WHW family members including new addition Harvey. In fact I spotted Harvey first before I recognized Caroline! She was wrapped up in a few layers including full waterproofs.
Thomas wasn't sure until 2 days before the race if he should actually run or if it would interfere with his general training etc. But he felt good and got ready for the race. And he had a brilliant run. He finished in 98th position. And he was first for the club (though that did not help the overall position of Glenpark, i.e. last!)

Anyway, off we went home after the race for some last minute preparations for my birthday party. Jude, his running partner from Inverclyde AC also came and told us that he had lost his shoe in one of the mudholes on the course - maybe some of you spotted him digging it out?! Thomas has been running with Jude twice a week (Tue+Thur) for the past 3-4months. They meet up for "steady 8-10M runs" and this certainly seems to be great for Tom's training. Jude is also quite an experienced coach so he has become a bit like a personal coach for Thomas.

I was out running myself today and thought I better tried these "steady runs" myself. And I had a great 14K steady run along the waterfront, my legs were feeling good and I really enjoyed it. Halfway I met Thomas & Jude and they came flying past me, so much for their "steady pace". As they were discussing their run later in the kitchen over a piece of left over carrot cake, I heard them talking about 8min/M pace being "jogging pace as if you were running on the spot"! Well, so much for my recent fastest pace at the 5M race! But that just shows how different we all are. I know not to run with Thomas nowadays as he keeps getting too cold when he runs with me due to my slow pace! So he says anyway. :-)

I passed Lunderston Bay in Gourock on my run and I could not believe my eyes when I saw people out there with a picnic! And not only was another group out for a picnic but they also got their BBQ ready! What weather forecast had they seen!?

Next weekend will see me running from Tyndrum to KHH, trying to get there before I am caught by the large group of runners doing Drovers to KHH. I am looking forward to it, maybe we should have a BBQ afterwards?

RRR Renfrewshire Road Race

Today was my 1st race this year, a 5 mile road race just around the corner from us, in the Battery Park in Gourock and along the waterfront, organized by Inverclyde Athletics. Looking at last year's results my goal was not to come last! And maybe holding off at least one of the other Glenpark girls. Well, Thomas had set me a target of under 40:00 which I thought was rather ambitious and I complained that he put too much pressure on me! I don't know what it is about running, but when it comes to running or even running races I turn into a rather pessimistic person and can't really judge my ability. I am usually very nervous before the start and I wonder what I will be like when it comes to the start of the Devil!
Anyway, I managed to achieve all my own goals and even had 2 Glenpark girls behind me and overtook a Bellahouston runner with a sprint finish to get in after 39:31. This makes it my first run with a sub-8min mile (7:55min/mile and 4:55/km). And most importantly :-) my personal trainer was pleased that I had in fact beaten the 40:00min target.

News Update

We came back from our skiing holiday in Austria last weekend. The snow conditions were excellent, but the weather wasn't. Poor visibility and in fact fresh snowfall during the day made for difficult skiing most days, but we did have 1 sunny day (see photo) when we stayed on the pistes from the first until the last lift! I tried my luck with snowboarding one morning - it was fun - but also rather sore the next day as I had lots of -expected- falls. The little village of Obergurgl looked like a magical winter wonderland and all in all we spent a relaxing week with great food in good company. We will go back to the same resort next year as the skiing area and the scenery is fantastic (when you can actually see it).

Back at work now and also training in earnest for all the upcoming running events. We went to the club's speed session on Wednesday where at the moment we are doing 10 hill reps. After the first of this kind of session a couple of weeks ago I was actually told off by Thomas for not having worked hard enough. Well, I did try to save some energy on each repetition as I thought that was quite sensible given that I had to get through all the 10 reps .... But not on Wednesday! After the second one I felt quite sick and a quick glance at Thomas assured me that this was exactly what it should be like!? I only managed 4 of these though, did 4 easier ones and bailed out on 2. Not to worry I was assured by my "trainer", at least I worked hard enough on 4! Next time I have to record my HR to see if my max HR is higher than what I think it is (180). Tom has been promoted to be my coach, well at least sometimes. I do like to follow the training plans of my German Guru Steffny as they have worked out quite well so far, but as I am doing a few other runs and different speed training with the club and of course the DOTH, his plans do not quite fit in. So this is where Tom's advice will come in handy, I hope!

Anyway, we were off to TISO yesterday to buy new running shoes for me. Who came out with a new pair? Well, not me. My Asics GT 2130 model has been "upgraded" to the 2140 with apparent better heel fit etc. Well, it does not fit my heel any more. But the guy at Run4It is trying to source the old model for me from EDI. I will stockpile a couple of pairs if he can get them.

Today Thomas and I were back on the WHW. He ran from Milngavie to Rowardennan and back to Balmaha. I ran from Balmaha to Rowardennan and back. We met when I was half way back between Rowardennan and Balmaha. It took me 3:35 in total. I was quite exhausted at the end, but it was a good run. Thomas also had a good run and it seems his training is going well.