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

Toilets & Drinking Water on the route

Here's a map I've stitched together to show where there are permanent toilets & water points along the route. They are:

1 Kingston Gate, Richmond Park
2 Ham Gate, Richmond Park
3 The Pheasantry Visitors Centre, Bushy Park - Toilets only
4 Robin Hood Gate, Richmond Park
5 The Pavillion at the Richardson Evans Memorial Playing Fields has an outside tap
6 The Windmill on Wimbledon Common

There is nothing in Home Park, so from when you leave Richmond Park at Ham Gate to when you come back in at Kingston Gate there is no public provision of drinking water. That's nearly 12 miles without a drink. However, if really thirsty you could ask for some water from the catering staff at the Pheasantry. Or Boaters pub on the river. Or the White Hart pub opposite Kingston bridge.

I once begged for water at a little booth selling drinks in the grounds of Hampton Court; but those booths are not open all year round, - summer season only.

If you carry a belt pouch when running, you could try fitting an unbreakable light cup in it, a child's polythene mug, say, and could then easily get water from a handbasin in the Pheasantry toilets. Or if none of those options seem good to you, you could make a small diversion in Bushy Park. When you come in to the Park, instead of running diagonally into the middle of the park, run straight ahead along the path, and you come to public toilets by the children's playground. There is drinking water available there. From there head out towards the Diana Fountain and pick up the route again at the left hand end of car park.

So there are lots of options available for the resouceful, without having to stop and buy a drink. But the best option if running unsupported is to carry water in a special rucksack, - Camelbacks as they are known. A friend has lent me one for this marathon project and it has worked out really well. Thanks for that Steve.

Marathon Training Runs

When I first started running with a club, a marathon seemed to be a superhuman attainment, and I entertained a vague notion that I would eventually do one and then retire. When I found out how many people in the club ran marathons regularly and thought nothing of it, that didn't seem like such a heroic notion. But still it has taken me over 11 years to get round to it. The chief reason for that has been the time required for the training. This year I am finally doing it.

So how difficult has it been, grinding out the long runs, increasing the milage I ran per week from ~8 up to 40? Frankly far easier than I ever dared to hope. For that, I must say that my training plan has proved to be very good - all credit for that to Runners World website (http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/) where I got it from. Secondly, what has helped enormously has been that I like, no make that love, the places I have been running in. Also that I have deliberately not put myself under any pressure to try to achieve any particular speed. I just run and enjoy myself. I look around me and look for wildlife, watch for interesting things happening, keeping an eye out for anything unusual. I don't wear headphones when running, despite the fact that I love listening to music, and a long run would be an ideal opportunity to do so. But listening to the sounds of nature is a key part of the experience, and often the first indication that there is something to look at. Finally, I have been exceptionally lucky in having some remarkably good weather for running. Throughout September and October as my milage has crept up from 12 to 20 for my long runs, 2 miles further each week, the weather has held out, being consistently dry and sunny, not too hot (with one exception), but not cold either and with moderate winds. Perfect conditions for me.

Some of my midweek long runs have had to be run at least partially at night. These have been really fun, too. I carry a torch but have found myself rarely needing to use it. When I do, it is frequently to alert other users of the path to my presence (usually cyclists!) Even in the dark it has usually been perfectly easy to make out where the path is. A gravelled path like the cycle routes in Richmond Park is very obvious, but even where the path is only defined by the grass being shorter can still be made out when ones eyes have adjusted.

And at night when there are fewer people around, one can see and hear different wildlife, not just the nocturnal creatures but the shy ones which hide away when there are lots of people and dogs around. I've heard owls hooting, seen bats silhouetted against the sky, darting silently after moths, with their sudden unpredictable changes of direction. I've seen herons flying quite low overhead, with their huge wingspan making them look very dramatic. I've heard the eerie calls of foxes, and once, up on Wimbledon Common, I heard a strange pig-like grunting sound. Was it a badger? Or could it have been a hedgehog? Or perhaps a roe deer? I never did see a deer on the Common on my training runs, but researching on the internet I see that the Wimbledon Parkrun website indicates that there are some. I hope there are. It is ideal habitat for them. Later on that same run I heard a slight rustle in the leaves on the ground as I ran past, and it continued for a little bit so I knew it wasn't my feet disturbing anything which ha caused it. I thought it must be a mouse or a vole and on a whim I stopped and turned and shone my torch where I thought the sound had come from. It was a toad. I quickly turned off my torch and resumed my run, and heard it rustling the leaves again as I left. One dark evening I ran through the middle of Richmond Park during the rutting season, with huge stags bellowing to each other all around me. That was an experience I feel truly privelleged to have had. A couple of weeks later I ran a similar route, but the rut seemed to have ended. I saw and heard nothing for most of the way round until down by Ham Gate, just a mile from the end, I heard a woody clattering sort of noise, and looked round to make out in the faint light two young stags, still practicing their fighting with their antlers interlocked. I could tell they weren't fully grown males fighting in earnest. Other deer stood around silently grazing or watching the fighters. That made my night.

There are fish to be seen in virtually all the water along the route, ponds, streams and even the river Thames. It's not easy to spot anything when you are running of course, but I have sometimes paused by a pond or stream on my way round and been rewarded by the sight of fish.

It's not just the fauna either. The flora is very varied along the route of the run. That's deliberate. there are dense woods, gardens, flat grass, tussocky grass, bushes, bracken and heathland. One bonus of the very warm dry autumn we have had this year is that the autumn colours seem to be that bit more spectacular, with the trees forming more vivid reds and golds than usual. Or is it just my imagination. For a couple of weeks the acorns were falling, and in places when there was a slight breeze, there would be a sound like a hailstorm as they fell in great numbers. I was surprised none of them ever hit me. They certainly startled a couple of ladies walking ahead of me on the path one time.

So all told, I have really enjoyed my training runs. I did some long ones on short holidays, in the Welsh borders, Norfolk farmland and Lancastrian hills, just south of the Lake District. Unknown territory, for which I had to carry maps and consult them at regular intervals. A slightly daunting prospect, running an unknown route in completely unfamiliar territory, with the danger of getting miles off course and hopelessly lost, but I made it back OK each time. And enjoying the runs is really what it's all about.

I have marvelled sometimes, when I found myself without another person in sight, and thought, "This is London. One of the largest cities on the planet. And there's just me and some deer." But of course I've also had a phone with me, and it has also cheered me and maintained my morale enormously when my wife has called, by pre-arrangement, to ask where I am and how I am getting on, and offer her encouragement. Many thanks to her for that.

I want to end this post by sharing with you these photographs I took of the most spectacular rainbow I have ever seen. It was in Lancashire towards the end of my long run, and the sun was sinking low behind me, and dark clouds were starting to pour heavily ahead of me but I was still dry, and these rainbows formed , complete from one side to another (if you look above the main one there is a second fainter one, and a vertical one joining the two in the second picture). Rainbows, like sunsets, rarely come out as spectacularly in photographs as they appear to the naked eye, but these are still very good (in my humble opinion). So imagine they were even more vivid than they appear here.