The end...

I have been putting off writing my last post. A lot has been going on and part of me did not want to. Considering however, that I started this blog as a way in which to keep focused on my training, during the run up to the marathon, it would be wrong to not disclose the end.

So... 

I think I made everyone aware that my distance runs at the weekend took a knock after my partner had an operation on his shoulder. Due to the op, he could not have his daughter on his own, because he could not lift her. This meant that I needed to be home and could not just go running for 3-4hrs. Next came the implementation of a company take over at work. The first 2 weeks of which I was not getting out of work until very late. The final hit was a week before the marathon, dad was taken ill and I had to return to Manchester... 2 days later we had lost him.

As you can imagine, the week before the marathon was a somber one and I was not looking forward to running 26.2 miles with nothing but my own thoughts. It was then that my partner did one of the most stupid things he has ever done, but also the most romantic; he entered the marathon (with no training and still in recovery). He said to me that he would not complete the race but would run with me as far as he could.

Saturday 19th of April was the day of the marathon, we were up early doors and it was cold!

As I had never done a marathon before and my training had dropped off, I went to the 5hr pacer, hoping to come in before then, but not having unrealistic expectations. I remember, 3 miles in, Pete seeing the mile sign and saying that he really didn't need to see that! By this point we had caught up to the 4hr 45min pacer and were happily running at that level. 

At around 7miles Pete told me he was starting to struggle and dropped back a little. At around 9miles I turn to smile and give him an encouraging wave and he had gone. I instantly got distressed as he had told me he would let me know if he had to leave me. I had seen a few people collapse and sirens were going off. In that irrational way I started to think the worst. I carried on running knowing that Pete would have wanted me to continue. I was tracking myself on my phone so knew he would ring if there was a problem.

At the half marathon point I had beaten my previous half marathon time by 4mins and was feeling good! Another half mile down the road there was a point where we were passing people on the opposite side of the road, who were about 1 mile behind us... there was Pete! 

We both ran to the center of the road, I gave him a quick hug and told him how proud of him I was and that the half marathon point was not far away at all.

I continued with the 4hr 45min pacer until the 16 mile point. I could sense a tightness and possible swelling around my right knee so dropped back a little. At 18miles I lost the pacer I had thus far spent the race with; it was now that I started to hit a wall. 

I was starting to feel the burning pain in my legs and I wanted to know how far behind Pete was. I stopped, stretched out my legs, and spent a couple of mins looking into the crowd of people running towards me, to see if I could see my boy.

I started running again, but at 21miles, having spent the last mile running through what seemed like the middle of nowhere, I had a mental strop! I stopped to walk, took my phone from my arm, and called Pete. It was that encouragement that I needed. He was still going, he had to stop to have his feet wrapped by Saint Johns ambulance, but he was still going and encouraged me to do the same, so I did!

With about 1.5 miles to go I saw the steelwork at the top of Old Trafford; Manchester United's ground. It was then I began to run harder again, knowing that Sir Matt Busby Way marked the finish line.

The time on the clock when I crossed the line was 5hrs 21mins, but the time on the clock when we crossed the start line was 10mins so this meant that I completed in 5hrs 11mins.

I got my medal, goody bag, protein shake and free beer. Then hurried, as fast as I could hobble, to the finish line to see if I could see Pete. When the clock read 5hrs 55mins he came running through, but same as me, remove the 10mins it took to start and he got a time of 5hrs 45mins.

I was unbelievably proud of my boy! It meant a lot that he entered and meant loads that he crossed the line.

We are thinking of doing a half later in the year and then doing another marathon next year in order to beat our times.

So that's it, that's the end of my marathon story. Thank you for taking the time to read it. It has been the most psychologically demanding thing I have ever had to do, but I'm glad I did. This post however, has to be dedicated to my dad. I owe a lot of who I am to him. Thanks dad xxx

Long time no speak...

It has been a few weeks since I last updated my blog and for this I apologise. Things have been very hectic in the world of me and therefore I have not had much time to think. 

Since I last spoke; my boy has returned from Sweden, I have been preparing at work for our service to be taken over, I have ran a lot, attended the gym a lot, snowboarded a lot and other odd bits of things. 

As for my running, I achieved this the other week...

which I have to say is much more than I managed to accomplish this weekend...

My head was indeed somewhere else this week. Following Pete's return from Sweden he has had to have an operation on his shoulder. As a result of this he is unable to lift or drive. There has now been more responsibility placed on me when it comes to taking care of mini Pete at the weekend. This weekend I just messed up my times, thought I had an hour more than I actually did. I aimed to complete 18miles this week, but I knew I needed at least 3.5 hours for this, by the time I set off I only had 3 to enable me to have time to get home, changed, and off to pick up the little one. Once that was in my head, and I knew that I had no way of completing my 18miles, my head started to give up on the idea, then I started to worry that I did not have enough time at all and I would be late to collect her. Eventually I just cut my run short and ran home.

In addition to this I have cancelled my gym membership. I was just not happy. It was a leisure centre gym and in true leisure centre style it was pretty standard, a little boring and the staff were not overly knowledgeable. Stupid me though, cancelled my membership and have yet to sign up to a new one! I have picked one, I just need to get there. I go to Poland on Monday so feel that I may wait until I return.

When I return from Poland I am expecting normal service to resume!

The need for a little music.

Just before Christmas my laptop crashed most epically!

The true horror of this did not hit home until I started to get the feeling that I needed a new running playlist. The boy has taken his laptop and my iPad to Sweden, leaving me without iTunes and the only playlist I have on my phone; it has been like this now for almost 6 weeks. The playlist is from when I completed then Silverstone half last year... most definitely time for a change.

In preparation for a new playlist I have been thinking about what works for me and what doesn't. There are bands that I love, such as Alice in Chains, but as I have come to realise, they are not good for running and bring my pace right down! The bands that seem to work for me the most are; Iron Maiden, ACDC (especially Whole Lotta Rosie) and Rob Zombie. 

I feel that these are my starting point, but not sure where to go from here?! What feels like it could be a good running tune, can turn out to be an epic mistake! I suppose my question is this; what other tunes, based on my preferences, might work for me?

In other news; I managed to complete almost 14 miles this weekend!

Finally got past that half marathon hurdle... although only just! I have to say, the last mile became a mind over matter situation, my mind had to cancel out the aching I could feel in my thigh muscles! Stamina wise I was fine. I could have kept going and going!! Just wish my legs would learn to keep up.

In addition to this my snowboard arrived and I am uber excited about trying it out! As it is 2nd hand I took it for a service and the guy in the shop said that I got an absolute bargin. He could tell that it had barely been used and there was not a thing wrong with it... winner!

Then finally this evening, following almost 2yrs of abuse with bleach to get it white blonde and dealing the the fall out (literally), I had to get my hair cut off! The way I see it thought, is that it always grows back, so that's ok. I am missing the blonde though and feeling just a little too 'normal'

Birthday running!

Saturday I turned 32. I have to say that I feel a little old, and before you say, '32 is not that old!' It's already been said to me. Feeling old is not about a number, it's about a feeling surely?

Obviously it's not overly true, I don't really feel that old, maybe just a little run down as I still have a little of the snivels following my cold last week.

It was a different weekend. I was due to return home to Manchester, but was given the opportunity to spend time with my favourite 3yr old, who I had not seen for 4 weeks, whilst her daddy has been away. It was really lovely, she told me that she missed me lots, gave me lots of squeezes and we played games.

In terms of my training, last week was very reduced due to feeling too unwell to train properly. Mid week I managed a 5k run and 2 x trips to the gym to do strengthening. On Sunday I planned to do a 20k run, but I did something that I have never done before... I bailed on a run!

As mentioned in earlier posts I have had knee problems in the past. I have purposely worked my route to go out of town, back in again, back out again. This way I know that if something happens whilst out running, I am never too far from home.

This can have negative affects on motivation however, as sometimes the thought of turning left instead of turning right pops into your head and it's a difficult one to shake, but I always manage to shake it.

Sunday was different, Sunday I was just not there mentally. Usually I can switch off to the ache in my legs, sometimes I secretly enjoy it. Not Sunday though! For some reason my head was just full of negativity and it got to the point where I just thought, 'sod it!' Then I stopped!

This is normally something which I would dwell on, over anaylising what happened, over and over, trying to rationalise it. I didn't though, because I have started to realise that training for a marathon is tough, both physically and mentally. The fact that I manage to get out every weekend and do a distance run is amazing in itself. From now on, I will listen to how I am feeling and even congratulate myself on the days I don't succeed. I have never done a marathon before and the way I see it, at least I am trying! 

No choice but to have a break

Last week I started to complain about the fact that I felt my training had become far too samey and I received a lot of advice from those of you who follow on Google+. What a difference a couple of days make!

I ended up missing my gym session on Thursday due to me having to stay late and do a 12.5hour shift to cover staff sickness. I got home quite late and as I had just got in from work struggled to settle. This had a knock on effect to my Friday morning run, but as some of the advice given was to maybe take a couple of days break, I tried not to beat myself up over this.

Saturday I went Snowboarding and it was then that I started to feel unwell. I don't know what is going on this year, but there have been so many viruses and bugs going round, I can't remember the last time we had a full staff team in. 

Sunday I was due to increase my distance run by another mile. I woke up and although I did not feel the worst I had ever felt, I knew that had I have attempted to run 12 miles, I would have just made myself feel a million times worse!

So that's it, I now have a cold... again! It does not seem to be a particularly bad one yet, but it is enough to give my training schedule a wobble. So this week I will only be doing a couple of 5k runs and will do some strengthening at the gym. I will also probably eat all of the wrong foods... because I do that when I am poorly and to be honest I think it's fair enough!

This isn't a great picture as it was taken through glass, but for amusement purposes, here is me at the snow dome!

Groundhog Day!

I am pretty sure that most of you will have seen this movie. You know, the one where Bill Murray's character lives the same day over and over, until he gets Andie MacDowell's character to fall in love with him.

That's what life feels like at the moment, at least for the now anyway. As I have mentioned before, my boy has gone to Sweden to work at Below Zero Ice Driving. Which sounds fun if you are a participant out for the day, getting to drive Porsche 911's round on a frozen lake. However, is apparently mind numbingly boring if you are part of the support team, working 11hour days, not getting a day off and all you see is the same frozen lake every day. 

As the boy is living some kind of Groundhog Day out in Sweden, I am living a variation of my own crazy 'run, work, sleep, work, gym, sleep, run, work, sleep' and so on. I have a training plan for my marathon which I intend to stick to, but I don't know whether doing the same routine week in and week out is having an affect on me and my training is becoming stagnated as a result, or like poor Bill I am destined to feel like I am living a Groundhog Day, feeling as if I am in some kind of mental stasis, until the boy gets home.

I think the question is then; when you have no choice but to stick to a rigorous training plan, because you are preparing for a marathon, what can I do to not make it feel like repetition?

I'm sorry NYC but the answer is no...

Yesterday marked the start of registration for this years NYC Marathon.

I have only been to NYC once, in 2006, and I loved it, such a great place. I had heard about the marathon and thought it would be a good one to aim for. 

I am doing my first marathon in April this year. I picked the UK's Manchester Marathon because I am a Mancunian and although, for now, I have moved away, Manchester will always be home to me.

The entrance fee was extremely reasonable at £48, which is just slightly over half of what they are asking for the London Marathon.

Anyway, back to my original point. When I heard that the NYC Marathon was opening registration I decided to sign up.

I went on the the registration page and was informed that I would be charged a $11 admin fee for registering, which I thought was reasonable, but before I went through the process I decided to look at the entry fee if I was to be successful. Now, there are 3 separate prices and I completely agree with the slight discount for those who actually live in the city, I think that is a nice gesture. What blew me away however, is that if you are not a US Citizen, you have to pay an extra $100?! This I find quite offensive, why do I have to pay more? Am I going to drink more water, use more portaloo's and need a bigger medal?! Therefore on principle I will not be entering and I may look at doing Paris in 2016 instead.

This all led me to think about entrance fees in general and how expensive things are becoming in the world of running. I do appreciate that there needs to be a cost, especially with a marathon due to roads etc. being closed, but some of them are ridiculous. When will it reach a point where people start to say, 'actually no, I am not prepared to pay that!'

I apologise if today's post is a little ranty, but I love running, I love entering things and being with other runners. It's just getting to a point where I have to think carefully about what I enter as these days it has to be worth it to me and paying an unjustified fee for being a foreigner is not something worth doing.

Back on track... but with some issues!

This week I have hit my training hard, with only one slip up, which was not my fault... but we'll get to that.

So here is how my training week has been...

Monday

I got up at 04:00 and was off by around 04:30. Monday is one of my shorter runs of the week and therefore you would think a little easier. However, it's normally the first day after my distance run at the weekends so I can be a little stiff. I did 4.31km...

Tuesday

First gym day of the week and it is leg strengthening. I try to keep this early on it the week so as it's not too close to my distance run at the weekend. I tend to do a little cardio to warm up, but as I run so much I do not need to do a lot. Tuesday is certainly more about the weights.

Wednesday

Up and out early again! Not so early on a Wesnesday though, about 05:00, as I work out of an office closer to home... which is nice. Mid week route is a little longer than Monday, but not by much; I did...

Thursday

Thursday is back to the gym time, but on Thursdays I concentrate on upperbody. Oh, I forgot to mention that on both gym days I also do core.

Friday

Ah... this is where it went wrong. Friday should be the same distance as Monday. However, I live in the town center and at 02:00 Friday morning I was awoken by drunk people fighting in the alley behind my flat... lovely! By the time I managed to get back to sleep, I was that tired I must've turned my alarm off. No running for me on Friday as I was far too busy after work.

Saturday

Distance run day! I managed 10 miles on Saturday...

There was however some issues when I returned home. After I had been home for around 20mins, I started to get severe pain in my abdomen, so painful I was doubled over in the kitchen. I went to bed in an attempt to sleep it off, but was not 100% for the rest of the day. I had a brief look online for some answers and found that this is a common problem for distance runners. Apparently, because certain areas of you body need more oxygen and blood whilst running, your body starves other areas of it. In this case my bowels!! It's not a pleasant subject but one that needs to be mentioned. Obviously I am not a Dr so if anyone suffers for the same thing then it's referred to as runners GI. When I have more time I will research this properly and update as there was a lot of advice around diet and things.

Sunday

Lastly, today I went snowboarding. Indoors as there is currently no snow and is never enough even when there is. It was my first time and I absolutely loved It! However, attempting a 3 hour lesson the day after a 10 mile run was probably not the best idea, but I am ok and my legs are working fine!

Back to some level of normality!

I feel like I have not posted anything for weeks and that is probably because I haven't! Although I enjoy the festive season it always throws my routine off. Not being in work as much, reduced hours at work too, all resulting in later get ups. We have had the wee one quite a lot over the holidays and I suppose I have placed more importance on spending time with those that are important to me than on myself, which I do not consider to be a bad thing overall.

This does not mean to say that I have not been running, I have, it's just that I have been attempting to squeeze it in amongst all the family get togethers and trips away.

Last week I attempted to do a 9.5 mile run. It was hard work and I could certainly tell that the party season had taken it's toll. So much so that as I approached home and should have branched off to complete my last mile, I actually just ran home, meaning that I only completed 8.5miles. It's ok though, it was a bad run, they are expected and I will not allow them to get me down.

Yesterday Pete left for Sweden, he is working at the Below Zero Ice Driving Experience. Where he will be part of the support team for those who want to spend a day driving Classic Porsche 911's round a frozen lake. 

http://www.belowzeroicedriving.com/#

He will be gone for 7 weeks so this will give me a great opportunity to train hard. I have put a concrete plan in place, a plan which starts today!

I got up early this morning, again it wasn't a great run. It was short, slow and I was fighting against the wind. I got home and had scrambled eggs and peppermint tea. However, I got to work and was asked to travel to another site to cover sickness, this means that I do not have anything with me for lunch as all my healthy food is in the work fridge. Ah well, I will just have to improvise at some point.

There have been other adventures recently. We went to the Forest of Dean for a long weekend and had a long trek along the sculpture trail. Here are some of the pretty things we saw...