Supporting – always full of surprises

Once you have been in the supporting role for a few years you could be mistaken for thinking you had seen it all. DNS, DNF’s, great races, not so great ones, temper  tantrums, food tantrums etc. This year’s FLING added another experience to the list!

Thomas started well, great weather and in fairly good shape he was aiming for a new PB. He had given me splits that were slightly faster than last year. Unfortunately for him he got carried away a bit at the start and arrived in Drymen and Balmaha 5min ahead of his faster schedule. And even he said to me then, oh, that’s very fast! By Bein Glass where I was waiting with friends from Germany who were spending their holiday with us he was back right on track of his faster schedule but a bit grumpy. By Carmyle Cottage he admitted he was rather tired but Marco managed to kick him into motion again. Just before the A82 crossing he looked better and was close to last year’s time and would be able to finish only a few minutes behind his PB. So good news given his too ambitious start and a lesson learned about pacing for the WHW Race. So off I went to park the car at the Green Welly and carried his rather heavy post race bag through to the finish. There I met 2 other friends of ours, both retired doctors who would come in handy later! Colette herself just recovering from a hip replacement and out without her crutches for the 1^st time.

So there we were waiting for him to appear at the finish in around 8:11. But the minutes ticked by and he did not appear. And sometimes it is a bit strange, you hear snippets of conversations of others but don’t pay attention. And I had just heard a guy saying, someone had collapsed near the finish. So I just passed this on to Colette who said, oh no, that won’t be Thomas. I heard it was at Rowardennan earlier this morning. So I forgot about it. But the minutes kept ticking until Athol came running towards me. He was waving. And I don’t really like the sight of this. It has happened twice before and it wasn’t good news then. So he said Thomas had fallen only 2-300 yards from the finish and needed my help. What could he have done that he was not able to limp across the finish line himself?! So I sprinted off fully expecting to see blood gushing out from somewhere or a broken bone. The 200 yds seemed rather long but eventually I saw him on the ground by the path with someone watching him. (Thank you by the way. I don’t know your name.) Marco had also arrived. I approached but could not see any obvious injury. It then turned out that he had to jump out of the way of 2 mountainbikers, fell, hit his chest and that triggered off an irregular heart beat! So there he was in the grass with a pulse of up to 240/min and feeling unwell. This is “SVT”, supraventricular tachycardia, which can decrease cardiac output and blood pressure leading to dizziness and numbness of hands and feet. There are a few manoeuvres you can try to stop it or in prolonged cases an injection in a hospital setting might be required. It is something that can last only for seconds and it can come and go like an on/off switch. Or it can be prolonged.

Luckily this was not the 1^st time this has happened so I knew what I was dealing with. Normally it does only last for seconds, in fact it happens very rarely and never when running or exercising. But it was the blow to the chest when falling that triggered it off and it didn’t stop. We poured water over him to cool him down but then he started to shiver and we had to put a fleece on! In that heat! Eventually we decided he should walk slowly to the finish where we could lie him down hoping it would stop. So we made our way to the finish, his time was taken and he had lost 20min so close to the finish. Now this was in fact what bugged him most! He had lost not only 20min but 3 places when he was passed by people while he was on the ground. This meant he had lost his 2^nd Scottish Vet place and 3^rd Scot overall. I was just glad he was still walking! We used the massage table to lie him down but later had to find a new place as people were queuing up for massages. My 2 medical friends and I debated what else we could do as this SVT was not stopping and had lasted for over 45min now. When we were about to get the car he sat up and as quickly as it had started it was gone. His heart was beating in sinus rhythm again and we were all rather relieved! He felt fine then and of course we stayed on until the prize giving. He managed to get a medal for 3^rd Scottish Vet as his time of 8:31 was still pretty good and put him into 12^th place overall.

No running

... for over 10 days now due to a bad cold I caught while in Germany! I blame my mum who had exactly the same symptoms when I met her last week. 2 days later the virus had struck but due to her 70th birthday party and other family visits there was no time to rest. We got back last Sunday and it was time to go back to work on Monday after a 2-week-break so not the best time to phone in sick! I got through Monday but then had to give in with no voice and coughing fits that would have scared every patient away. With the trip to Germany, my wee nephew visiting and this cold I have now missed at least 2 long runs for my Edinburgh Marathon training not to mention the shorter runs! Not good! I probably have to adjust and maybe accept that I might not break the 4 hours this time. Well I knew I would be busy, but did not allow for any illnesses to get in the way too. I am better now though and managed to go for a 5M slow run this morning - not the 20M I should be doing but at least I am running again. I do have a supportive husband though who told me last night I was lacking total sharpness anyway and I should stick to what he thinks I am good at - endurance! Well, he wishes! By that he means of course I should just train long and slow to do ultras where I don't need any speed for the times I would be doing, i.e. finishing, rather than getting hung up on beating times such as a 4-hour Marathon. Well he can talk. He does well in ultras AND gets fast times in a HM or Marathon. I do really want to improve my Marathon time and would love to have a sub 4-hour one though. My last longer run was after the MacPirates Engagement Party from BoO to Kingshouse with Katrina and Maya. I enjoyed it despite the hail and constant rain until we were half way across Rannoch and the sun came out! My wee nephew did well on his visit and was introduced to trail running and supporting on the WHW! Much to my family's dislike he had opted last year to join the Athletics division of "Schalke 04" (watch out, now in the Champions League semifinal against Manchester and my home town club!) rather than the local football club. He loves running and is hoping to beat his uncle one day!

Anglo-Celtic Plate 2011

Just a quick blog to put all my thoughts and experiences from the 100K Race in Perth to paper/memory before they fade.

I have never been that nervous before a race, not even before Tam's(:-)) 3rd WHW attempt! I did not sleep at all the previous night and was very glad that the night was 1 hour shorter. And I wasn't even running! But I knew how much this race meant to Thomas,not only having a serious go at this "classic distance" but having been picked for the Scottish Team and wanting to do his best. He of course had put himself out there with a dream goal of 7:30 and I so wished that on the day he would be able to show that his selection into the team was a good one!

But again 1-2 weeks before a few worrying issues crept up with the shoe problem being the major one. He only bought his shoes 1 week before the race trying out various ones before. Then the spreadsheets appeared and I got a lecture every night after work how to use them and what to put on the board for every lap. I could not take it much longer...

Then at last the race started! A great day for supporting, a great atmosphere in the whole team and we were both made really welcome. I set up my wee table with everything I needed. And faithfully changed the board every single lap with infos about laps done, Km done, average pace etc. Needless to say he did not look at it once! He also early on demanded other items than were listed on his plan and as I only had 2 hands for the handover with one holding an already opened gel I was kind of limited to what I could offer him as alternatives! It also did not help that I had to run to the toilet twice myself in the first 10 laps confusing him further. But Marco was a great help. He was my backup and calmed me down a bit. Thanks a lot for that. He also brought me coffees but I hardly drank or ate anything throughout the race myself. I relaxed a bit later and it was great to chat to a few people for a few min at a time until Thomas came by again. I also enlisted the help of Katrina, John, Caroline and Neal so we had between 4-6 hands to have gels,bars or drinks ready. But of course in these laps he did not want anything.

When he started to slow I was getting worried but Marco told me he would hopefully pick up again in the last bit as he can do and did do. I just loved the sound of the hoot indicating his last lap. He finished in a fantastic time of 7h:42min. What a great result. I am so proud of him. He came home with 3 medals and a race momento, 9th place overall, 2nd Scottish Vet and the Anglo Celtic Plate for Team Scotland.

Check out the race pictures:

And it was fantastic to be there and see how well Debbie did. Absolutely amazing. It was great to get to know the other Scottish team members, see Craig win and watch everyone's race and battle unfold. Congratulations to everyone for finishing, for PBs, for winning the Men's Team Plate and for putting the race together!

COUNTDOWN

Various countdowns have commenced.

My 10-week-training plan for the Edinburgh Marathon (and hopefully a sub 4:00) begun last week. In fact I turned the plan upside down by doing my longest run of 22M yesterday with the girls from the club training for London and Lochaber. This was 6 days after I run the Balloch to Clydebank HM in a new PB (by 16sec) of 1:51:18 (not chipped). So in the last 7 days I had my highest "mileage" for ages, 81km! Crazy I know but I thought it might be a good base as I am not sure if I will get all the required longer runs in over the next few weeks as it will be very busy. I am also still chasing my first sub 1:50 in a HM and had hoped I would do it last week. But it turns out I was not in the best shape and the route was not really flat flat but had a few inclines I think!

Anyway, on to the much more important countdown! 7 days to the 100K Championships in Perth where Thomas will be wearing a Scotland vest for the 1st time! I am so proud of him for being selected into the team and hope he can show in what good a shape he is in. This is a big deal, in fact the biggest for this year I think and he has put so much dedication and effort into his preparation that I just hope everything will come together next Sunday.

Supporting wise I thought this might be an easy one but to the contrary! After being handed a laminated "Perth 100k split calculator" (Yes. Laminated! This is how serious it is!) and a lecture as to its exact use, my head started to spin - and I am not even running. The laminated table will tell me after every lap what pace, distance etc he has done and I have to then write it on a board so he can see it when he passes. So I got myself a board, proper round-the-neck stop watch and hope I won't loose track of the laps! Only problem is that he will hopefully come round every 10-11 min or so. When I will be able to go for a coffee or a toilet break I don't know. To me the WHW support sounds much easier - at least you have a few HOURS in between some stops.

Good luck to the Scotland team on Sunday. It will be an honour for both of us to be part of it. Good luck for everyone else running the 50K or 100K. If I could only wrap my runner in cotton wool until then so no last-minute injury or infection can strike ...

K2 Radicals 100

Meet my brand new skates! K2 radical 100 speedskates!

They are a late birthday present from Thomas as it took me a while to find the right size even though I had my eyes on them since Berlin last year. In fact I have been toying with the idea of speedskates for 2 years now.

For the 1st time I am the proud owner of speedskates. I will happily swap my fitness skates and put on these. They have 4 100mm wheels (compared to 90mm before) and should make me (even! :-) ) faster.

They arrived from Germany at my work and I quickly tried them out before we opened our doors. They seem great. The problem is that you actually have to go slightly smaller than your usual size as they need to fit tight enough to allow a good connection between your feet and the actual skate to transfer the energy so slipping or double socks etc is no use. So size wise the contrary to your running shoe sizing.

Anyway I can't wait to take them out for a spin!

And as we have also just entered the Berlin Marathon again (Thomas just about managed to get a charity place as all other 40.000 places were taken!) I will be trying for a new PB, definitely sub 1:40, maybe even towards 1:35. IF it is dry on the day unlike on previous 3 occasions!

Back on track

…or rather trail I should say. Today saw me running one of my hard and long Fling training runs from last year, up to Loch Tom and back, 25K with quite a hill to climb in the middle of it. I was supposed to run 18M yesterday with the girls from the club but when I saw the horizontal rain I bailed out. I had done 14M the weekend before and was keen to get another long run in. So I postponed it until today when it was dry but still very windy. Thomas had a date at lunchtime (yes a date! A female colleague wanted to meet him for coffee!). So rather than spying on them I decided to go for a run (you have to get your priorities right.) I packed my backpack and went out to see if I still had it in me. I pushed myself up the hill without walking and though it was a battle at times I finished the run sore but happy.

So the weekends have been quite good training wise but it is the sporadic running during the week which is my down fall at the moment. I have been really tired from work and it does not help if you have a medical student shadowing you for 4 weeks. And I mean SHADOWing. How young are they nowadays?! It is quite funny though to get little snippets of her life and besides passing on a bit of medical experience I can’t help myself but dishing out a bit of advice on life in general. She is from Orkney and when I asked if she knew Graham Harcus (who has ran with T a few times) I was informed that Orkney has 25.000 inhabitants on 92 islands. I guess not then. But I’m getting side-tracked.

I hope to run a few club races and keep the long runs up with the girls who will also do Edinburgh. Closer to the time I will link into my trusted 10-week Marathon plan for a time between 3:45 and 3:59. Though a few distractions might change that. We have already had a few “bookings” for our “guestroom with a view” and I guess family and friends will have to get used to being dragged along to races. My nephew and his girl-friend are the next guests at the weekend of the Nationals. Then there are friends at the time of the Fling and 2 visits to Germany at the beginning of April.

In 2 weeks time though I will be back on the WHW for a WAG-run (Wives and girlfriends for those who don’t know). While the fast ones will run from Drymen to Beinglass Katrina (JK’s wife) and I will be running from Beinglass towards Carmyle Cottage to give us around 2 hours on the WHW. HABs welcome too by the way (Husbands and boyfriends). If anyone is interested in joining leave a message so specific times can be arranged.

2010-2011

I hope you’ve all had a nice Xmas. We’ve had a quiet and cosy time spending our first Christmas in our new home.
Time to look back now to see what happened to my running goals of 2010. Well on paper it looks like that: Fling, Devil DNS, CCC DNF. Well, it could be seen as a failure but I am actually very pleased with last year. :-)

The Fling was only my 2nd ultra after the Devil and I was scared of it. I was running it unsupported with drop bags and had no idea of how it would go. But on the day I really enjoyed it. I loved seeing everyone pass due to the staggered start (and I do mean nearly everyone!) and was very happy to reach the finish in my target time of sub 13.5 hrs just in time to see Thomas getting his prize for 2nd overall!
As a Fling bonus I achieved one of my major running goals after trying for the past year or so of getting under 50min in a 10K. I just ran the Women’s 10K out of fun a couple of weeks after the Fling and got in even under 49min! I did another 2 10Ks and managed to stay under 50min both times even though I did not beat my new PB of 48:55.

Then out of nowhere our dream house appeared and we weren’t even actively searching and before we knew it we had bought it with an entry date of 1/7/10 (strategically placed after the WHW Race). So suddenly I was busy with trying to get people organised for July for some major changes before we would move in early August just 5 days before the Devil and after a 2-week long planned holiday with 10 relatives in Glen Affric! You get the drift but running took a back stage from July onwards and when I did run my Achilles was playing up. So I decided not to even start the Devil. Thomas did though as he needed the points for his SUMS and he put in a decent run not being in the best shape and very exhausted from the recent move.

Before we knew it we were in Chamonix for the UTMB/CCC and even though I had started to run again my training had been pathetic compared to what it should have been for the CCC. But I got sucked into the whole atmosphere there and was all up for it to see how far I could get when the heavens opened and the dream of running over mountains in sunshine got washed away. After his inaugural Courmayeur 5K (or was it 6?!), Thomas phoned me and thankfully decided for both of us to stop. We were the first to “DNF” and should have got a medal for it as later on the whole race was stopped and only a few had made it to the finish. As everyone knows the rest of the races were also stopped, cancelled and then changed the next day. But we had a great week with everyone else who was there and were not too disappointed.
Once back I concentrated on skating to get in shape for the Berlin Marathon. I was not as fit as last year but still thought I had a chance to get a new PB and finish under 1:40. For Thomas the weekend was hard as he had been all set for a new PB when a chest infection struck and he was unable to run for a couple of weeks so he was sidelined to spectating. But what else should happen then the heavens opened shortly before the start and turned the roads into rivers?! Where had I seen that before? For skaters this is even worse so the PB was not on but I still managed to enjoy myself and ruin all my bearings in the wheels! So that’s 2 races spoiled by torrential rain and none of them was in Scotland! In fact all the races here had been fantastic weather wise.

After Berlin I think I just went into hibernation running wise. I just thought I deserved a rest and did not do anything for weeks with the odd run in between. Well that went on into November and by the end I had to do something and decided to become a “Marcothoni”. So for the past 25 days I have been running every day covering the minimum most times, sending swear words towards Marco when I had to get up at 5:30 am to do my run before work but otherwise in fact loving running on the ice and snow with my Kahtoola Microspikes! I now even own a pair myself, having ordered a pair via Amazon on 20/12/10 they arrived on 23/12/10! How is that for a Xmas miracle?!

The highlight of the year though was Thomas finishing the WHW Race. And finishing it well! Despite injury worries before, during and after the race. I am really proud of him and still have tears in my eyes when I think of the moment he ran into the car park at the Leisure Centre. I am so glad he had a very good year running wise and now not only has a WHW Goblet but also a rather nice decanter for his 2nd veteran place overall in the Scottish Ultra Marathon Series!

So into 2011! I have no big plans and will not do any ultra race next year. Instead I will be concentrating on “shorter” distances, i.e. Marathon and HM. :-) Now I hear some saying that this is not very ambitious. I know. But after last year I have learned that there is no point planning ultras when I already know that I will be struggling with getting all the required miles in, the long training runs etc. If I have a training plan I like to stick to it and get a bit nervous if things get in the way. And as there are a few important non-running events next year that will take up my time, I decided not to put me under this pressure. I was thinking though despite better judgement of entering the CCC as I really want this finisher’s gillet. :-) But it turns out my Fling points will count for 2012 so that’s been postponed until then for now. Unfortunately the Devil is only one week after my parents’ Golden Wedding so again not the best timing for me as I will be involved quite a bit in the planning before and after. I also want to be around for a few other family events in Germany that will take up weekends as well as having friends and family over here for their holidays. So ultra-wise I will be back in support for all that Thomas wants to achieve next year.

For myself I have planned the Edinburgh Marathon and I hope to get under 4 hours this time. This is my main goal. I hope to do some of my longer training runs on the WHW. I will do a HM somewhere, probably the Women’s 10K and a couple of other ones, maybe the Glasgow HM later on in the year. I still have to get a sub 1:50 HM time so that’s another goal for 2011. At the moment we are undecided if we will go to Berlin again. If we do I will be back on my inline skates, and maybe even get a new pair of racing skates that will help me to be even faster!

So bring on 2011. It will be an exciting year for us, welcoming friends and family in our new home, celebrating various special birthdays, weddings and of course continuing to be part of this special WHW-Family and enjoying everything (ultra-)running has to offer – both for the runner and the supporter!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year 2011.