Parakeet Marathon #2

Today a friend and I ran the Parakeet Marathon for the second time, nearly a year after first running it. My aim was to improve on my previous time, and to get round in much better shape, and if possible to get up all the hills at something approaching a run, rather than the shambolic stagger I was reduced to last time. All of these I can safely say I achieved, thanks mainly to the stalwart support and encouragement of my friend.

I have already written about my non-tapering approach to training I employed this year, and I can also report that that worked for me. I know it won't work for everyone, especially those who are training seriously to try to get a particular time, or to race as well as they can, but that is not my aim. This year I felt ready for the distance, confident that I would be able to complete it, having run nearly 24 miles the week before and not suffering too badly afterwards.

Everyone tells me that if you start running too fast, you will run out of energy before the end. My friend is a much better and more experienced runner than I am, and he helped me control my speed to the right pace from the beginning. Also, because he very generously was prepared to run at my pace the whole way round, we were able to talk, and the first 15 miles slipped by in 3 hours with my barely noticing the distance.

After 15 miles we paused briefly for drinks and a few jelly babies, then set off on the second leg of the marathon. The Wimbledon Common leg is tougher, with 4 hill sections, and a couple of short but very steep mounds to get over. In fact I wished I had tackled it doing that leg first. The riverside / Bushy Park / Home Park section is almost completely flat.

 We kept the pace steady and slowed down on the hill sections. I needed to stop to catch my breath when I got to the top of some of them, and my legs started to get twinges of cramp, but I was able to continue after a bit of stretching.

Another friend phoned me and arranged to rendezvous with us at Robin Hood Gate of Richmond Park to accompany us for the last ~3 miles. He was on his bike, but he managed to negotiate the muddy tracks we ran along. Where possible I ran on tarmac for the latter stages where I would normally stick to the grass verge. My legs were tired and I found a hard surface was easier than a soft one. With my friends' encouragement I managed to pick up the pace a bit in the middle of Richmond Park heading to Ham Gate.

At Ham Gate I checked the distance we had run on my Garmin. There is always the possibility of a discrepancy between what a route measuring program on a computer measures, and what a Garmin measures on the ground. I wanted to be sure that I could say I had completed at least 26.2 miles as verified by my Garmin. It said ~25.4 miles, and I thought that it was about a mile back to Richmond Gate car park, so that would be fine. I explained to the others that if the Garmin was reading less than 26.2 miles when we got to the end that we should run on some more until we had made up the distance. As the car park came into sight, I re-checked, and was disappointed to find that the Garmin was only reading 25.9 miles. So I explained this to my companions and decided we should run past the car park, through the gate,until the reading reached 26.1 miles before turning round. This we did, and the final distance when we got back to our start point was 26.23 miles, and the time was 6:01:22. My legs felt pretty tired but I was otherwise OK. That time is 40 minutes faster than last year, mainly due to the fact that I had 6 fewer refreshment stops.

My thanks to my friends who ran and cycled with me and supported and encouraged me, and to my ever loyal and patient wife who timed us and provided drinks and refreshments.

Perfer et obdura

On the marathon route, just after coming under Kingston Bridge heading towards Canbury Gardens, there is a nightclub with latin sayings and their translations painted above entranceways. I spotted this one and it seems particularly appropriate as I grind out the miles on training runs:

Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.

A Different Approach to Marathon Training

In recent years I have been given all sorts of advice about running, often by people who have read some book by some "expert". I can't say I've ever taken much of the advice I've been offered. Firstly because I'm a bit too old and set in my ways to change now. Secondly because I've been virtually injury free for all my running career, and would like to keep things that way for as long as I can. Trying to change my running style seems too much like tempting fate. And finally, for the reasons expressed elsewhere in this blog, the goal of running faster just isn't that important to me.

Last year when I ran my marathon route it didn't go quite to plan. After tapering my runs for 3 weeks as per the regular marathon training schedule, I felt completely off the boil on the morning of the run. When I finished my longest training run, I felt ready to run the marathon the following week. So this time I have decided to give that approach a try. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but I intend to continue ramping up the mileage week by week until the marathon. I have completed 20 miles, next week will be 22, and if I can, 24 the week after that, and then the big day. If I feel too tired to do the 24 miles, I'll listen to my body and do what feels right.

So in a few weeks time I will know whether my approach has worked or not. I will post something to say whether or not it has as soon as I can after the run.

Why do I do it?

As I was running through the grounds of Hampton Court Palace on a long training run recently, a woman called out "Is it worth it?" as I passed her. "I hope so!" was all I could manage to reply, but it got me thinking of all the things I should have said.

I was obviously looking too haggard for her to believe that I might actually be enjoying myself. It was a beautiful, bright autumnal morning, I was in wonderful suroundings, keeping fit and getting into that state of mind where my mind can roam freely, untroubled by the pressing concerns of my working week. I had just come through Bushy Park, where great majestic stags were bellowing their challenges to each other across the grass and bracken. I had seen serene swans gliding on ponds while smaller waterfowl squabbled and chased and dived around them. I had watched a kestrel being chased off by 3 crows. There are always all kinds of beautiful and interesting things to be seen whenever you go anywhere where there is some wildlife. It doesn't have to be remotest Wales or Scotland either. Wildlife is returning to our cities. You can see peregrine falcons in central London. Just keep your eyes open.

Then there's the other issue of the physical effort. Yes it can hurt sometimes. 2 weeks before, I had a terrible run. But that is balanced by the sense of achievement. I still managed to get myself round without giving up completely. And the following week I increased the distance and ran it feeling OK all the way round.

So to that woman in Hampton Court, and to anyone who wonders the same thing, Yes it emphatically is worth it. Nobody is making me do these training runs. I'm doing it for fun.

Marathon Training

I am adding training runs to my marathon blog, so that others may have interesting routes to try out whilst marathon training. The first I have created is an 11 mile route which is very similar to the final 11 miles of the Parakeet Marathon. The route can be found drawn here :-

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com?r=5316359


and a 12 mile route through Richmond & Bushy Parks, which can be found here :-

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5275311

and a 10 mile route through Richmond Park & Wimbledon Common, which can be found here :-
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5275347