Comrades 2010

What a astonishing experience, this year was a down run so from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, 16,000 of us started at 05:30 in the dark, even at that time the supporters were out, basically there was support along the whole 56.7 mile route, everybody wants to talk to the blue running numbers as they are the international entrants of which the was about 500 of us, the finish is in the Sahara cricket stadium which was packed you do a lap of the stadium before crossing the line, it really is a quite a special finish, i finished in 10hrs 17mins which got me a Bronze medal, the international athletes had their own enclosure in the stadium were you could watch the finish, it also served unlimited beef/chicken curry and beer which was a right result!!!, next year is a up run and it would be rude not to enter, entries open on the 1st Sept 2010 and with only 16000 places up from grabs i better get my entry in early.

Gadgets, and i do like a gadget

And the Garmin 310 xt is a great gadget, I've been using a GPS watch for a few years now to log my miles but the problem has always been the time it takes to lock onto the satellites and the battery run time, well the 310 xt fixes both of these problems and if i ever learn to swim i can use it in the water as well, the xt has a 20 hour run time which is good enough for most of the races i do, the satellite lock is really quick so no more hanging around waiting for the satellite lock before i could start running or cycling, i also went for the heart rate option which allows me to track my heart rate which is interesting in a very nerdy sort of way, the xt works well with sporttracks software (http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/) which allows me to log and report on all this running and cycling i do.

it's been a while......

well since my last post i have not done anyway near the training i had hoped for, excuses include proper bout of flu, a normal cold, and a heavy workload, even so i still managed 4 marathons over a 4 week period, and then followed it up with 39 miles of the Malvern ultra, i never really intended to do the full 54 miles distance but was happy to do so if i felt good, as it was a cold and a sore hip stopped me, i have a couple more weeks of training until the Comrades race in SA, as if running 56 miles in under 12 hours is not difficult enough, I've decided to make it a little more difficult by flying on Friday to Durban via Dubai meaning i don't land until Saturday lunch time, the race starts at 05:00am on Sunday and finishes at 17:00 Sunday, my flight out of Durban is at 23:00 Sunday night and again returns via Dubai before landing in London late Monday night....one day I'll learn.....

Special people

This year's 6633 was very mild, i recon the average temp was around -15 which in reality are quite comfortable temp's to race in, there were a couple of reminders of how hospitable the environment can be when temps dropped to the -40's, but regardless of the temp 26/120/350 miles is still a long way, there were 3 finishers in the marathon, with Lory setting a pb which wasn't to difficult as this was her first marathon, quite a toughy for you first I'll think you will agree, Andy, Tony and Nik all finished the 120, and Chris and Sean finished the 350 with Chris doing the race unsupported, as for me i never got started withdrawing before the start, i have thought long and hard about my decision and it was the right one, I've started work on addressing these issues but unfortunately there is no quick fix, i switched to support duties and Martin soon had me running the last 5 miles with Lory in the marathon and walking with most of the competitors at some stage during the race, it was a great bunch of people this year but honourable mentions go to PJ who just never stopped smiling (even when it was soooooooooo cold) and for getting as far as Arctic chalets, Tony for quietly going about the job of racing the 120 even when the wheels quite literally fell off, and Sean and Chris who both did an awesome job in the 350, it takes a special type of person to finish any race like this, it about time i stepped up to the mark and become one of these people...

National pie week.....

I may not ever win any sort of running race, but i don't think i would be a also run in a pie eating competition, my training for the Arctic is over all but a couple of 10 milers this week to keep the legs ticking over, I've packed the sled, so the rest of the week is going to be spent chilling out and eating!!!, I've got the day off on Friday to get my medical form signed, hopefully a quite weekend, the taxi is booked for 08:30 on Monday for a 13:00 flight to Vancouver and onto Whitehorse, Chris (last years winning) is on my flight so it will be good to catch up with him, it's been warmer in Whitehorse than London this week with the lowest temp i have seen of about -5, and the temps in Inuvik have only been in the -20 region, let's hope the ice road is still frozen by the time i get to it!!

Well it wasn't a fluke....

the recent weather has played havoc with my training, all my normal routes both round Loughton and between work and home have been sheets of ice, the snow in the forest has been too deep to run properly and safely, i had a couple of good sessions up in Brecon before the snow arrived and a couple of Saturdays I've got the train into town and walked around the city purely because it had been cleared of snow, I've managed the longer runs at the weekend but weekday runs have been missed, but to be honest the i think the reduced mileage has helped, I've felt strong on my long runs and this was bared out by the Ultra Race 45 at the weekend apart from an an issue with my calf/shin at the start of the race i managed the 46.1 miles in 8hrs 45min, i lost at least 30 mins at the start but finished strong and fit, i even walked the 2 miles from the finish to the hotel afterwards, i had planned to do the second day but decided to rest my calf/shin as it was sore in the morning, i probably would have been OK, because i walked the 2 miles from the hotel to the station without any issue....
So thats 2 races and 2 finishes, long may it continue!

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.....