Finally i finish a race

this year has been a year of DNF's (did not finish) or in some cases DNS (did not start), i DNF'd in the Arctic, The Grand Union Canal race, Ceasers camp, and DNS's in the London to Brighton, Long tour of Bradwell, i did managed to finish 3 marathon distance races, London and Toronto marathons, and the 3 forts off-road marathon.
The last race of the year was the 47 mile Beacons ultra, it had everything wind, rain, very heavy rain, darkness, up hill, down hill, fire roads, mud, trails designed to break ankles, canals, great company, great marshalling, just a great event all round, i trotted round in 10 1/2 hours with the "face of scottish adventure racing" Rab, i know we could have gone a lot quicker, Rab had done little training and i just needed to finish and finish i one piece, as it turned out i was fine apart from a little wobble on the second climb when i just seemed to run out of steam, it was only a blip and i felt fine and strong for the rest of the race in fact the next morning i felt no stiffer or sore than i normally do after a 10 mile run home from work and i was back out training on Monday evening.....

un-healthy healthy man....

now i like my biscuits, i eat my fair share of cake, and i could live on chocolate, but no more when i had the chest infection a few weeks ago i had a blood test which has shown that my cholesterol is sky high, initially the doctor wants to just reduce my biscuit/cake/chocolate intake and review my cholesterol level after a month or so, the blood test also highlighted some issues with my liver, after a second blood test i have now got to go and have a liver scan, being a typical bloke i never asked the doctor any questions about what was wrong so i don't actually know what the problem is, i don't get much feed back from my doctor but even i detected a slight hint of concern, the scan is on the 15th Dec.

South Africa here i come

no not the football world cup, but the Comrades ultra race, it is a 56 miles race run in alternate directions between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, this year is a "down" race and will run from Pietermaritzburg and Durban, it's one of the most famous races in the world and a "must do" race for any ultra runner, one of the things that makes it so special is that you have 12 hours to complete the course, if you are outside the 12 hours even by a second you are classed as a non finisher, you don't get any medal, you don't get mentioned in the race results, its as if you never raced. it's not the easiest race to get into, the field is limited to 15,000 and only 5000 of those places are given to "first timers" but i was luckily enough to get a place, the race is 30th May 2010.

Illness it was then...

chest infection was the diagnosed, to be honest I've probably had it quite a while and just been ignoring it, after a long course of heavy duty antibiotics i can't say I'm feeling total right but at least my chest doesn't hurt each time i breath in or out!!!, I've only run twice in the last 6 weeks, once at the aborted Caesar's camp race and today at the Toronto marathon!!!, unlike Caesar's i actually finished this race and in a time of 3:48 which all things considered I'm quite happy with

Illness or over-training you decide

I'm going with illness i have been doing a fair amount of training but no more than I've done in the past, i missed a couple of races with cold like symptoms which i just could not shift, i had the obligatory mild swine flu that every 'man' has had, more annoyingly i missed the London to Brighton when i felt fine during the week but by the time the weekend and the race came i felt appalling, it was at this point that i decide to take 3 weeks off from any running/cycling just doing a little light walking, do i feel any better, no not really but I'm bored so have decided to have a go at the Caesar's 50, i have a busy few weeks lined up after the Caesars 50, i have a weekend of navigation training in Brecons followed by a week in Toronto and the Toronto marathon, then hopefully at the end of October i have a week away somewhere warm to do some swim training.....

A bit sluggish.......

Well i have an excuse, that being 62 running miles, 115 cycling miles in 8 days....ankle and groin have been fine but i have a slightly sore right achilles which will require a few rest days to make sure it doesn't develop into anything.....

A busy few weeks......

Just a quick catchup, its been a busy few weeks, Jo had a unsuccessful attempt at the A2A, it was an amazing effort and she will be back in a couple of years for another go, i followed her overnight run and add that to the days work i had already done and it was 38 hours without sleep, all good practise i suppose, the last couple of weeks have been spent either cycling to/from work or running home, it added up to quite a few miles, even mild swine flu didn't stop me, my ankles have been quite sore but the stretching and the frequent use of my ultra sound machine seem to be finally making a difference, at last i seem to have got over the groin strain i have been suffering with for the last 2 years it been a while but finally the running is becoming pain free, this weekend I'm off to the Peak district for the 31 mile race so we shall see where we are at on a longer run.