I didn’t go hell-for-leather this time, keeping my cadence moderate but steady.  It was a far better experience and the time passed quickly.

There was an instant recognition in my quads from the previous time: a dull ache straight away.  I pushed through and kept the cranks turning feeling my heart rate sky-rocket and my breathing go out of control.  Sweat flowing I looked down at the computer – only 3 minutes in and I felt like I couldn’t continue.  I dropped gear after gear.

I stopped twice momentarily during the 30 minutes and the experience was nasty…  previously I’d felt much better.  Perhaps it was too much too soon.  I was spinning much too fast.  It’s in the past now though.

The dreaded turbo!

I’m doing things a little differently this time around. Previously I’ve been interested in keeping a log of my general progress as well as facts and figures to try to see improvement in distance and / or speed….

After my hiatus my body has changed… I’m now back to where I was when I first started!

Something I didn’t do, when I first started exercising, but wish I had done was measure my body changes. This time around I will do so.

So it begins!

I weighed myself: 14 stone 3 3/4 lbs. (199 3/4 lbs or 90.6kg).
I also measured the widest part of my belly: 41″!!! My jeans are still 34″ – must look lovely :S

I will continue these measurements to see if I’m making improvement. I’d like to get under 13 stone again and have my belly and waist more in alignment!

After much mucking about (an hour – swapping bike wheels, putting my Look Kao’s onto the old bike, etc, etc) I finally got on and the pedals were spinning. I was going to get my phone so I could listen to some music but instead just hit play on the CD in the kitchen stereo…

The pedals began turning and Erasure started playing – not something I’d choose but it passed time for the first 5 minutes. After that all I could do was focus on which minute I was on: 13, 14, 15 – “yes half-way” before counting back down again. The last 5 minutes all I could do to distract myself was to draw each number in my mind each feeling like it was taking longer and longer. 30 minutes never felt so slow – or sweaty.

It’s done. I’ve begun.

Let’s see if I can get my head back in the right place – the only way to achieve.

I didn’t give up altogether though. In 2010 I trained for Brighton’s inaugural marathon – it was an interesting time – training with a partner again for the first time in a long time! Unfortunately spending the week prior to the event unable to keep down food I couldn’t enter. This really hit me and there started my downward spiral.

A few pool sprint triathlons and a duathlon was a temporary diversion but training in 2010 ended in September altogether!

There is only one thing left to do… find the fun in training. There must be a happy medium, right?

London Marathon 2009

Woke at 5 for porridge, tea and slowly getting ready and managed to get on the road for 6:30.  No 5 hour journey to London this time, M1 was clear, Jubilee Line fine, even getting to Blackheath, no problem.  It’s really quite nice around Blackheath – must explore more of London.

After strategically queuing for the loo (not pushing in honest) I managed to give J a hug then get to my pen in time for the start, where it only too 8 minutes to get to the start line after the clock started.  I then spent the next 3 miles overtaking people by running on the pavement and dodging spectators because so many people had gone to the front that were very slow.

We joined up with the masses at mile 3 which is when I relaxed down a bit – there were a lot more spectators from here right to the finish!  That’s when I decided to make the most of it, so moved to the edge, where everyone could see me.  People shouting ”Come on Chris”, kids with hands out to high five them – great fun!

It starting getting very warm and my stomach was already playing up, at mile 10 pains were getting quite bad and I had a toilet stop.  Poor girl in front of me in queue had her running buddy shouting about because they wouldn’t hit their target time…  I was this close to telling him he should have entered a smaller marathon if he wanted a good time.  Got going again and had abdominal pains come and go as well as stomach ones, feeling sick on and off from 15 miles onwards.  This was all caused by heat –  possibly lack of salt and fuel – couldn’t take onboard any more.  Had another loo stop at about 17 (I think).

Canary Wharf was mad!  Sooo many people shouting and cheering – it was really quite up-lifting!  From mile 20 I was really fading and struggling badly, but again the crowds were amazing.  In fact it was all quite overwhelming.  Coming up to the Houses of Parliament was an amazing site and knowing that were so close to finishing.  Push through down to the fountains by Buckingham Palace and then turning the corner and seeing the finishing line.  Again, by the edge with people shouting me on….  I crossed the line and punched the air in pleasure.

Seeing J and T at the end was just brilliant – I felt like I was going to die and it just dissolved seeing them.

My toughest run ever but an experience that I’ll treasure for a long time!

4:43 – a long way from my marathon PB of 4:09

Woke about 6:30 where I had a bowl of porridge waiting for me! Spent the next hour and a bit getting ready, checking and double checking various bags before leaving for Draycote Water around 7:45.  Managed to get there in plenty of time for me to change and panic.  J, T and I got cold for a bit before I had to start running at spot on 9:30.

A loop was incorporated into the first lap, making it 6.5 miles, followed by a further 6 laps of the 4.75 mile lake. Felt really good for the first 2 laps and managed to chat to a few of the other runners, maintaining a pace a little slower than 9 minutes / mile. Over the next 2 laps I started to notice I was tightening up and by the end of lap 4 (>20 miles) I was really starting to feel it. At this point T stripped off into his running kit and ran with me for the final 3

I’d already talked myself into being allowed to walk in the last to laps. “Completing the distance is what’s important, not how you do it” having company stopped me from giving in – I’m so very grateful for this! The penultimate lap being the hardest. By this point I was really disappearing into myself, almost oblivious of everything around me, I was running roughly 11 minutes / mile by now. In fact there was a real battle raging in my head, forcing myself through pain to keep moving and not give up! My final lap felt a lot easier, ticking off each of the tricky spots for the last time!

So, I did it! Ran 35 miles – further than I ever have in my life!

6 hours 5 minutes 38 seconds (by my watch – no official results yet)

It was cold and foggy standing outside the Town Hall waiting for the gun to go off.  My Garmin wouldn’t pick up a signal, but I knew it would at some point when away from the buildings.  Eventually the gun went off and there was a cheer, followed by another minute waiting to actually be able to move and get to the start line!

The first mile, looping through the town, went well and had us passing the finish line, where the commentator called out my name and number   As we headed uphill, out of the town, I finally got a signal.  I was a little concerned as I was overtaking so many people, especially overhearing some seasoned marathoners talking about settling into their pace and not pushing themselves too hard.  Turning into a housing estate, at around mile 3, the hill appeared to turn into a mountain!  Teeth gritted I pushed to the top.

There were gradual climbs until about 6 miles, where we were heading out of Hastings now on a more major road.  To be honest the route from here to the 12 mile point is a bit blurry.  I remember taking up the slack on the downhills while I had it in my legs, knowing that later on I wouldn’t be able to.  At about half way I passed a pub that I’d later find out a group of runners popped into for beer and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon!  My brilliant supporters also met me there and cheered me on.

There were a few ups and downs as run through Battle, past the Abbey and then onto Bexhill.  I had to pop into a pub for the loo just outside Bexhill.  Bexhill seemed to take forever to get through, even having to double back along one road (part of the route) – which was demoralising seeing the runners on the other side of the road.  Then back up hill before a decent to the seafront, which was freezing!

Along the seafront at about mile 22 I came to the Fetchpoint, a point where supporters from FetchEveryone meet and cheer people on and also hand out goodies.  It couldn’t have been better placed, I was hurting by this point and was starting to have battles in my head.  A jaffa cake and a couple of jelly babies later and I was off.  My supporters were there too, apparently they were joking about how many goodies I took.  My mate Tony ran with me for a bit, chatted to see how I was feeling etc, I felt quite emotional for a while afterwards, really helped.

Another hill, which HURT, but then down onto the shingle for what seemed like an eternity.  There was no support along this stretch and a lot of people were walking here.  There were puddles to dodge, people walking to dodge, and obstacles in my mind to dodge.  It was tough.

Coming out by the beach huts then back to the seafront at Hastings was brilliant.  Seeing the peer and knowing it wouldn’t be too far beyond.  My right hamstring went *ping* at this point, so I tried to stretch it, but got instant cramp in my left leg!  Just had to keep running…  the last couple of miles seemed to take forever, the wind from the sea was soooo cold.  Then I finally saw the underpass, knowing that I had only at maximum 100 metres or so to go I felt so much elation that all the pain was gone.  Running up to the finish, no sprinting this time, and done!

4:09:21

The support from my Jen, Tony and Tasha was so great, they helped me immensely!

Set off from home, around the Poet’s Estate, down to Domino’s (always tempting to nip in when I haven’t eaten!!!) up the railway path to the motorway bridge then back up Little Linford Lane and home.  It’s about 3 miles, probably a bit under, but just a leg test.  Everything felt ok, no pain and no swelling.  I’ve sat with my knee iced just in case, but it looks like no damage

It was quite hard motivating myself out of the house… ran through the estate, towards Newport Pagnell town centre and then out Marsh End Road and up Tongwell Lane. Everything fine and on track I came up the side of Tongwell Lake then headed towards Willen.

When I got to Willen the ongoing work to the pavillion and bogged football pitch meant I ended up heading up the footpath towards Willen shops before getting to the lake by the Pagoda car park. Still no problems.

I started around the North Lake, admiring the Buddhist Temple and Peace Pagoda as I past. I started getting close to the Willen Hospice when I noticed a sharp pain in my knee. Well, that happens sometimes, so I carried on a bit further and shooting pain again, then again… then every 3rd step… then everytime I bore weight. Then I hit temptation to run through it, to stop wimping out and get on with it. I sat on a bench and considered what to do, then openned my phone and rang J to pick me up.

I managed to hobble to my pick up point, each step painful where my knee had swollen… luckily I think it is ok.

Not posting my splits today

I ran to Tyringham, through to Filgrave and down the main road to Emberton.  This is the first time I’ve ever run this way and found Emberton Park, which conveniently had loos and picnic benches for my first stop.

I followed the lake and then went into Olney, turning left towards Gayhurst.  This route took me through Weston Underwood, which is a village I’ve never seen in my life!  I eventually made it through the lanes to the outskirts of Gayhurst then took the route past Hanslope Park then round to Haversham and back home.  The entire run was all up and down hills, or “undulating”, as they like to call it…

At mile 15 I hit the wall – every step felt bloody awful, I never broke through it though, which meant my last 6 1/2 miles was spent in a lot of pain.  I physically could not run up some of the later hills as my muscles just wouldn’t work.  Hmmm, maybe I should have taken a nice out and back along the flat canal tow path!