Week 17, 6/5/09 - Wednesday

Time of day: 12 midday
Distance: 20 miles
Time: 3:42:51 (total running time), 4:10 counting a lot of messing around.
Weather: Warm and sunny

This was a learning experience. I consoled myself by saying 'this is what training runs are for, to iron out the problems!' There were a number of factors which affected this run:

1. My youngest son was going on a school holiday, which meant that he was at home in the morning and had to be dropped off at school at 11am. They didn't actually leave until 12 which was when we started off. But we also had to be back at school to pick up our oldest son at 3:10, which obviously wasn't enough time for me to run 20 miles.
2. The weather was very warm and sunny and for most of the time I was running in full sun.
3. I had been feeling a bit under the weather over the weekend although I felt I was fine by Wednesday.
4. We only brought one bottle of gatorade which I carried in my camelback and one 1.5litre bottle of water. (Now I'm writing this down I can't believe this!).

So we waved Matthew off on the coach and started on our way. I had had breakfast at about 9 I think and then a banana at about 10:30am. The first few miles were uneventful. I had planned to stop for drinks and sweets approximately every 30 minutes. I was going to run for 1 1/2 hours out and then 1 1/2 hours back which should have been around 17 miles by my calculations and then the final 3 miles with both Steve and James after we picked James up from school.

The weather really was very warm and sunny. I usually run first thing or in the evening, so I was unprepared for how warm it was and can only think that I was losing more fluid than normal. At the first stop at 3 miles I was already starting to worry that I wasn't going to have enough to drink. Normally I don't drink much until about 6 miles then I have water and then at around 9 or 10 miles I will start on the gatorade. Well today, at 3 miles I was really thirsty and drank quite a bit, at around 4 - 5 miles I was sipping on my gatorade as I was running. At just over 5 miles I stopped and had some jelly belly sports sweets and a piece of chocolate, but really I was less interested in these than in water. At this point I was still stupidly trying to ration myself on my drinks as I was worried about running out.

We got to the 9 mile point and then turned around. The route we took was absolutely beautiful, neither Steve nor I had ever been that far along the canal and it was a gorgeous view. In fact I think that's what kept me going really. The track, though, did get quite uneven and required quite a lot of concentration to keep upright. after about 10 miles my ankles and legs were starting to hurt quite a lot. I was also starting to get quite ratty. I was panicking about how thirsty I was. I ran out of gatorade and didn't want to eat any more sweets as it was making me more thirsty.

At around 11 miles I think, we passed a pub and I sent Steve in to get some water, (I was bordering on the hysterical at this point! but hid it well). He met up with me about a mile and a half later with two 250ml bottles of water, which I felt I could have downed in 1 go.

"Is that all" I said ungratefully "but I'm so thirsty".

"They were £1.75 each" he told me.

At about 14 miles we decided to go our separate ways. I continued along the tow path armed with money to buy water at the next shop and Steve cycled off to get James from school.

I plodded on. Back to civilisation. I stopped at the loo in the park and then struggled on to Asda where I bought another litre of water and a packet of ready salted crisps which I had a craving for. I'm sure I must have made a fine sight stood outside Asda by the bin alternately shovelling crisps and tipping water into my mouth like a starving person. I decided to walk for a little bit while I finished my crisps, I filled my camelback up with the rest of the water and then started off again. This was about 16 miles.

I really could have given up there and then. Everything hurt. I met up with Steve and James at about 17 miles. That gave me a bit of a boost. Then came a long uphill stretch (do you remember that hill that I said was nothing to speak of? well it's funny how different it seemed 17 miles into a long run.

We arrived at the junction to our road at 18.5 miles. The distance from the end of the road to our house is a quarter of a mile. I needed to run past the junction in order to make it to 20 miles. In my head I was trying to figure out how far up the road I need to run before I could turn around and run back home, to make it exactly 20 miles. I just could not work it out. It was like my brain had lost all ability to function normally, it just seemed beyond me. Now it seems simple, but I guess any glycogen in my body was being directed towards my muscles, leaving my brain a little short.

I settled on adding a little loop on which actually worked out perfectly. When I got home I led in the front garden in a heap. God it was so nice to stop. I refused to let myself think for too long about the thought of doing 6 miles longer than this on the day.

POST SCRIPT

I woke up at 3:17 am after this run with a horribly sore throat. Hardly able to swallow. 2 paracetemol went a little way to helping ease it but generally feeling pretty rough. So have taken the day off sick today. I'm sure my colleagues love the fact that all this running is keeping me so healthy! I did a quick internet search on the effect of long distance running on your immune system and found this interesting article which I think explains a lot.

Week 16, 29/4/09 - Wednesday

Time of day: 09:27
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Weather: Sunny

Again I was feeling really unmotivated about this run. I'm not sure why, I think it's just all consuming training for a marathon. Steve cycled with me and we stopped and started in the first couple of miles. 1st stop the garage to buy some lucozade, I thought I'd try lucozade rather than gatorade to see how I got on with it. But which one to buy? Lucozade sport, lucozade original, lucozade energy, so many different types to try and all full of aspartame and other rubbish (aspartame is a pet hate of mine - it comes from having children and getting paranoid about what you are putting into their bodies). Anyway I settled for lucozade original I think, but then I worried because it's fizzy, surely it can't be a good idea to drink fizzy drinks on a long run?
Next stop was Gloucester sports where I had a discussion with the staff there about the best energy gels/sweets, we bought some sport jelly beans.

After that I didn't have any more legitimate excuses to stop. I ran through town and down to the docks where we joined the tow path along the canal. This is a route I have done many times before, but have always had to stop because they have been doing a lot of work there so it's often blocked off in various places.

It was a beautifully sunny day. Really all I wanted to do was sit down and just lie in the sun. I felt quite irritable which is unusual once I start running. We stopped at the 5 mile point and enjoyed the view and the weather. I sampled the lucozade (which was fine) and the jelly sweets (which were really nice) and then started on the return journey.

I arrived home feeling full of energy. I was amazed really that I felt this good after a 10 mile run. It's surprising to me how quickly your body adapts to increased demands. Only a few weeks ago I felt like I could hardly move after a 10 mile run, but today, physically it felt almost effortless. Mentally, though, it's a different thing. It's not the effort of the runs that I'm finding hard, it's more having to try and fit them into an already full life.

Week 15 - 22/4/09, Wednesday

Time of day: 09:14

Distance: 18.02 miles

Time: 3:18:16 (running time)

Weather: Cloudy to start, then sunny


I was feeling quite nervous at the prospect of this run. I really have been wondering what I've let myself in for. I do get this feeling of dread the night before a long run, but once I start running I feel much better, it's like I get into a different head space.

I was keen to get started as soon as we took the kids to school, and actually wanted to run with them to school to get the first mile out of the way, but Steve had been out for a works meal last night and so was keen for a bit of lie in. He was, to his credit, up and raring to go by the time I got back from school.

I seemed to be going at a ridiculously slow pace for the first few miles, in fact I began to wonder whether my garmin was working properly, and actually looking back at the figures they don't seem to correlate with what was showing up as I was running. Strange.

I made my first stop for water after 6 miles, a third of the way through. I was still feeling pretty fresh and enthusiastic and even did an extra few metres to pose for the camera! This part of the run had been along a busy road.

I planned my next stop at 10 miles for gatorade and fruit pastilles. This was a more pleasant section of the run, through a quiet residential area, over the train bridge before reaching a busy shopping area. It was here, at about 9 miles that I lost Steve. He was cycling behind me and the suddenly he was gone. After about another 3/4 of a mile I was starting to get worried, where was he? Then I started getting a bit ratty. I was about 8 miles from home, hungry, thirsty and tired, and now deserted. Just at this point I heard a friendly shout behind me "Here I am, I'm right here". Thank goodness!

Steve had bought a bar of dairy milk and a bounty. Mmm which would I like? I opted for 2 squares of dairy milk. Wow. I'm telling you, that was the best chocolate I had ever tasted.
I followed that with gatorade and 2 fruit pastilles. Food takes on a whole new meaning when you really really do need to eat.

At this point I realised that I wasn't far enough away from home. If I ran straight home it would only be just over 16 miles and I was planning 18 miles. I decided to do a detour down one road and back up the next one. This was probably the low point of the run. I was running an extra mile but was going to end up a couple of hundred metres further down the road. Psychologically this was very discouraging.

It's funny how you go through these ups and downs on a long run. One minute I was feeling in the depths of depression "Why, Oh why did I ever think this would be a good idea" to "I'm feeling GREAT! I'm a marathon runner, nothing is going to stop me".

At 14 miles we made another refreshment stop. I was still going to be short by about a mile so we took a few back roads, discovering places that we never even knew existed. That made it more interesting.

Finally, we arrived back in Barnwood Park, just a quarter of a mile from home. 18 miles! I'd done it. I resisted the urge to rip a sandwich out of the hands of a man sitting on the park bench.

The post run shower revealed all the broken bits of skin that the endorphins had disguised. Then it was a smoked mackerel salad with a slice of bread and butter, followed by an apple. I felt so virtuous.

Week 13 - 11/4/09, Saturday

Time of day: 10:05

Distance: 16 miles! Yes that's right 16 miles!

Time: 2:49:10

Weather: Sunny

I was rather nervous at the thought of this long run. The furthest I have ever run. Luckily, one of Matthew's friends invited him for sleepover on Friday night and my mum took James overnight. This meant that Steve was able to cycle with me, which was a great help. He came equipped with 2 1/2 litres of water, a bottle of gatorade and a packet of fruit pastilles.

After a couple of miles into the run I became aware that my trousers were rubbing the top of my thigh. I was worried, if I was aware of it 2 miles into the run, what would it be like after 12. Steve stopped off at the co-op to get some vaseline. (Of course, why didn't I think of that all long distance runner's need vaseline!)

It took him a while to catch up with me, what with me being such a speedy runner, and we finally met up at about 4 miles. At the next available side lane, I nipped into the bushes for a wee and to apply my newly acquired vaseline, whilst Steve stood in a manly way to guard my dignity. A secluded spot, it certainly wasn't! In the amount of time that we were stood there, me with my trousers round my ankles squatting in the bushes and Steve holding aloft a pot of vaseline, at least 3 cars came past, one of whom gave us an encouraging toot of his horn, no doubt completely misunderstanding the reality of the situation.

Chafing sorted, we continued along the main road to Cheltenham. It was an uneventful few miles and we stopped outside a posh food store in Tivoli at 8 miles, before starting the return journey. At this point I was still feeling pretty good.

At 10 miles I started on the fruit pastilles. We lost a couple during the handover from bike to runner.

At 11 miles I was starting to flag. 11 miles is the longest I have run in this training, so I think it was psychological.

12 miles: I stopped for a drink and some more fruit pastilles

13 miles: "Oh my god, I wouldn't even be half way on the day"

14 miles: "I'm never going to do this". Really I just wanted to cry. The thought of having to run another 12 miles on the day seemed inconceivable. Steve was shouting words of encouragement, telling me how well I was doing. It did remind me of labour, when you can appreciate that someone is trying to be helpful, but at the time you just think "you have no idea of how awful I am feeling".

15 miles: Suddenly I felt a bit better. It was like I kind of transcended the pain and just kept putting one foot in front of the other, repeating to myself, like a mantra: "I can always run a mile. A mile is nothing."

16 miles: Home at last. Stopping was almost worse than running. I didn't really know what to do with myself. I walked up the road a bit and then back and then collapsed on the sofa, then had a shower and that was that. The pain was surprisingly short-lived. I did feel a bit stiff for the rest of the day, but generally better than I thought I would.

Week 12 - 5/4/09 - Sunday

Time of day: 08:36
Distance: 11:47 miles
Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Weather: Fine

I ran with the running club. A couple of us started off half an hour before the rest of the group to get an extra couple of miles in. These were nice flat miles along the cycle path, then we met up with the rest of the group and started the long climb up Selsey Hill. It was really hard work, and despite my resolution to run all the way, I did have to stop and walk on more than one occasion. Once at the top of the hill, we followed the Cotswold Way path to Coaley Peak, an undulating path through the woods.

I was pleased that I felt a lot more comfortable than I had done on my last long run, and am starting to believe that I am going to run this marathon!

Week 11 - 23/3/09 - Saturday

Time of day: 9 am
Distance: 6.3 miles
Time: 1:17
Weather: Fine

This was first attempt at a longer run for a couple of weeks. I ran with the Cotswold All Runners, most of whom I don't really know.

It was a hilly run up over the golf course at Painswick beacon and then down through the woods. I certainly struggled with the uphill stretches and had to stop and walk a few times. As I'm usually a road runner, it was a constant challenge to stay upright, looking out for roots and rocks. I did enjoy that though, the mental effort required did something to take my mind off the physical discomfort.

I was grateful to Simon, the coach for giving me some well needed input into my revised marathon schedule. I'm finding it hard to know how to adapt my training as I've not really done the long runs I had planned. Only eight weeks to go!

Week 9 - 9/3/09 - Saturday

Time of day: 9am
Distance: 10.66 miles
Time: 2:05 hours
Weather: Sunny

I ran with a few people from the running club. We ran along the canal path and back. It was a beautiful warm sunny day. Spring is here! It was a nice run. I did feel a bit tired at the halfway point and really struggled in the last mile. I was very hungry even though I had had porridge about an hour before the run. My mum helpfully pointed out that the marathon is almost 3 times as long, which seems a bit daunting, but I have got another 11 weeks of training to go.