Trails and The Baddow 10

Well I seem to have a had a few hits on the first entry of my new blog (into double figures anyway) so I'll continue...

At the end of my last blog I had completed the Halstead Marathon at the expense of an injury to my left hamstring. Those of you with long memories that read my very early MDS blog entries will remember I ended up having to take quite a long break from running due to not listening to my body and running on an injury. On Monday I couldn't walk without some pain. Tuesday was a little better and by Wednesday it was nothing more than a slight discomfort. As a result Wednesday saw me back out on the local trails for a very gentle run, always ready to stop if the hamstring started putting in a complaint, even an informal one. It didn't and I completed the 6 mile loop I regularly run.

Thursday I thought I'd give it a rest (or possibly it was raining - anyway I didn't run that day) however Friday is usually a day for a longer run from work to home and as it was a particularly nice day I was very keen on having a slightly extended trot round the Essex countryside. It's actually only 2.2 miles from work back to my house, however I usually seem to cover at least 8 miles and no, its not always because I get lost - however...

As I've expanded my running horizons I've found more and more decent footpaths to run and can put together a fairly decent trail run without having to spend too much time leaping into hedges dodging cars driven by clairvoyants. I assume the drivers are clairvoyant anyway, its hard to see how else they can be confident there is nothing round the corner as they barrel into blind bends at 90 miles an hour. Anyway I have quite an acceptable PB for leaping into hedges and generally try not to put myself into situations where I may have to try and break it. Anyway back to the point, I decided to run down a footpath I'd taken once before to link up with St. Peters Way and follow that for a while.

As I said I'd only run the first part once before and that time I had a map - this time I was relying on my memory. I work on a site with a very distinctive radio mast, it's quite a handy navigation aid for those occasions I find myself geographically embarrassed. On this occasion it was meant to be behind me so when I looked up and saw it just before the horizon in front of me I retraced my steps, took the other left and continued...

...onto St. Peter's Way. Sorry if you were expecting a long and amusing tale of navigational mishap but I found SPW exactly where I expected - yes, I was surprised too. I even followed it through West Hanningfield where there are absolutely no markers, amazingly I remembered it from the SPW Ultra, even though that went the other way to this run. Everything was going well, the sun was out, the trails were reasonably dry but with a little bit of spring in them and whilst as far as SPW is concerned the only way is Essex, the rolling fields of the countryside couldn't have been further from the stereotypical image of the county.

Everything went well until was running down someone's drive. Said drive did have signs along it assuring me I was still on SPW - until I went through the gate at the end of it. I followed the obvious path into a field of cows. I'm not sure I've ever seen cows break into a full blooded sprint before but for whatever reason they really didn't want to be anywhere near me. To be fair I had been running for a couple of hours and was a bit sweaty but I didn't think I smelt bad enough to scare a bovine quadruped. Anyway I quickly realised I had upset someone's dairy herd for no good reason as my compass told me I was going 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Yes, I carry a compass and still get lost. Fortunately a man on a ride-on mower pointed me the in the right direction and I was able to continue until I reached the point at which I left SPW and took another trail back towards Chelmsford. I got home with no further major incident other than a large rip in my top caused by not quite ducking low enough under a fallen tree across the trail.

Saturday saw me at Parkrun again where I ran 5km in exactly 21 minutes according to my official time. Not bad and quite enough running for now as I was planning on taking on the Baddow 10 on Sunday.

The Baddow 10 is an event I've run on a number of occasions. It's quite a nice rural road race and it starts less than 10 minutes walk from my house, so as it was a glorious Sunny day Sharon and I took the short work to pick up an entry on the day. The Baddow 10 is a very relaxed event, entries close 15 minutes before the start, which isn't until 11 'o' clock, and as the start and finish are in the same place, the baggage drop doesn't really close at all. We got our numbers and said hello to Ian, who appears to be going to enter every single race within a 100 mile radius of Chelmsford in 2014. I lined up far too close to the front and, at just after eleven, we were off. There is no course I know better than that of the Baddow 10. Even though it's not the race I've run most often I've run all the roads on the course many, many times and so navigation wasn't going to be an issue. Its also incredibly well marshalled so none of the many potential short cuts were really an option either.

I was running at a fair pace and, most pleasingly, my hamstring was enjoying the sunshine and not complaining even a little bit. I wasn't sure how long I could keep running with a heat rate of between 170 and 180 but this was a good race on which to find out. Except it wasn't as the answer appears to be 'for more than 10 miles'. Despite the heat, which seemed to take its toll on some of the runners, I managed a new PB for 10 miles, beating my 2006 time on the same course by 17 seconds to record 1 hour, 11 minutes and 21 seconds. Of course having running across the Sahara recently may have given me a slightly different perspective as to what constitutes 'hot'...

Once again I had the privilege to be part of a well organised an well run event. I'm sure one day I'll be sitting in front of this keyboard berating someone's organisation but it isn't today. As I said before it's a very friendly event and well organised.

So what next? Well I'm planning on entering the Saffron Trail, a 70 mile, overnight epic from Southend to Saffron Walden. This is not something to be undertaken lightly, in fact I'm taking it so seriously I intend to go out his weekend to recce some of the route and try and get getting lost over with in the daylight. I'll let you know how that works out...

Life after the MDS - The Halstead & Essex Marathon

My original blog was started to allow those interested to follow my progress as I trained for and finally competed in the 2014 MDS. I have no idea how many people, if any, will be interested in just listening to me rambling on about my post-MDS running but I'll carry on for a while and see if I have anyone is still reading.

So what have I been doing post-MDS? Well it certainly didn't put me off running! Before I went away it was all rather muddy and grey in the UK and the desert appeared to be largely shades of sand so it was quite overwhelming to be running in the UK through fields of green and yellow oilseed rape and through woods full of bluebells. My first few runs were just for the pure enjoyment of the English countryside, and for the enjoyment of not returning covered in it as I was doing pre-MDS, however things were soon to change...

 I had abandoned Parkrun about six months before the MDS, partly because it didn't fit with my long weekend runs but mainly because I stopped any sort of speedwork in favour of endurance - which is my excuse for being a bit lazy really.

Anyway I was still following Parkrun on Facebook and so when I saw that they were having a 'Bring your Bling' day I naturally couldn't resist the opportunity to show off my MDS medal and t-shirt. My medal and t-shirt drew many admiring glances and comments as well as co-starring in the weeks run report. However what was particularly good was that my co-star was Ian Brazier, who some of you may remember first entered my blog as 'tent man' on my very first Ultra, the excellent Saltmarsh 75 and more recently as one of the tail runners on my last ultra before the MDS, the equally good St. Peter's Way Ultra. Ian had already managed to collect 5 medals in 2014 before the end of April and so was 'quantity' to my 'quality' - as the run report put it anyway.

After thoroughly enjoying my return to running and discovering I could still run at a reasonable pace I came across a link to the 'Halstead and Essex Marathon' - probably on Facebook, I don't remember. What I do remember was thinking that the medal looked particularly cool and I would like one - so I did the only logical thing and entered the event, after all I still had over a week and a half to prepare for it - what could possibly go wrong? I had entered the Chelmsford Marathon and the ballot for the London Marathon a week earlier so road marathons still figured in my plans even though my main focus was still on what the next big ultra challenge was to be - I have an idea...

A new PB at Parkrun thanks to a 'Pacer Day' event started to make me think I might even be able to get a new PB at Halstead, after all it was nearly two years since I'd run a road marathon and I'd done an awful lot of training since then, could I get a sub 3 hours 30 minute time this time? What I really wanted was a sub 3:20 time so I could go straight into the London Marathon with a 'Good For Age' time but that was a little optimistic, especially as Halstead was, by all accounts, a very pretty but not particularly fast course.

Before we finally get to the marathon I should mention Run1000. Run1000 is a particularly excellent Facebook group whose members are all trying to run 1000 miles (or kilometres) in 2014. The group provides encouragement and a monthly log of everyone's miles. In return the page owner hopes that everyone will donate a penny per mile run to St. Elizabeth's Hospice. I've had a lot of support for my MDS training from people in this group and have made some friends so I'm quite happy to support the chosen charity. The reason I mention it here is because 23.7 miles into the marathon, somewhere around water station 5 on the second loop I would break the 1000 mile barrier for 2014.

Of course all this getting the medal and breaking 1000 miles malarkey was assuming I'd actually finish the event. Phase One, finding the start, was accomplished very easily due to copious signs and marshals directing us. The instructions said that parking was less than one minutes walk from the start, so why was it about half a mile from the leisure centre (the start) to the car park? The answer was that a) it only seemed that far and b) we'd actually gone round and back on ourselves so that when we took the footpath out of the car park we were indeed directly opposite the leisure centre. When I say 'we' I mean myself and my ever supportive crew, Sharon - who had driven me to the start and was planning on cheering me on through the run. 

I collected my number and chip, attached both to myself and made my way to the start, where I met Mr Brazier, intent on collecting medal number 6. We set off almost spot-on 10 'o' clock out into the lanes of North Essex.

The first few hundred yards seemed a little congested but things quickly settled down, the rain had more or less stopped and I settled down to what I hoped would be a comfortable pace for the next 26.2 miles. After a couple of miles everything seemed to be going well and a sub 3:30 marathon looked distinctly possible. Half a mile later my left hamstring put in an informal complaint about the idea of running a marathon and made it quite clear it wasn't at all impressed and furthermore would not let the matter drop. I stopped for a bit of a stretch, told my hamstring to shut up, and carried on. I was in some discomfort but I was still able to run at a reasonable pace and still felt that sub 3:30 was viable.

The organisation of the Halstead and Essex Marathon was quite excellent, not just for the runners but also the spectators. Parking and tea was available to spectators at a point where the runners would pass four times. Sharon had made for that point and was there to cheer me on for the first time just over four miles into the race. The support in this area was brilliant but what was particularly surprising was the level of support all round the course. The marshals were extremely enthusiastic and supportive as were all the spectators. I was wearing my CRUK running vest with my name on the front and received a lot of encouragement all through the race. Given that most of the race was through country lanes and the weather wasn't the best, the level of support was especially impressive.

The rain had definitely stopped and, whilst the wind was very strong, it wasn't as much of an issue as I had feared it might be. By now I had run over 11 miles and passed the main cheering point for the second time. I high-fived Sharon on the way past and carried on. My hamstring wasn't getting any better but it wasn't getting significantly worse and at the half way point I looked to be on for a time of a little under 3 hours 30 minutes.

At around fourteen and three quarter miles I started the second lap. ordinarily I don't like doing multiple laps but as I didn't know the area and it wasn't simply a return to the start/finish point and out for another lap it didn't really feel too much like doing the same thing again. Even the third pass of the main cheering point just before 16 miles didn't seem too repetitive and this time Sharon had the camera out so I had to pose as I ran past.

All was well until I reached 19.5 miles. At this point my hamstring obviously got fed up with being ignored and put in a formal complaint in writing. I had just over 4 miles to reach my 1000 mile target and less than 7 to the finish so while ever I could keep moving I wasn't going to give up and thanked my hamstring for its communication and explained that I would deal with it later - after I'd finished. I continued running but at a significantly reduced pace and realised a sub 3:30 was probably not going to happen now.

However it wasn't all bad news. I had previously not stopped to take advantage of any of the jelly babies - and in one particularly delicious case, Jaffa cakes - that were on offer at various points, preferring instead to speed past and rely on my own much less appetizing gels. However as I wasn't going to get a PB I might as well enjoy the goodies that were available.

I passed Sharon for the last time at just after 23 miles and as predicted reached 1000 miles at the next water station. By now limping was figuring quite heavily in my repertoire, this seemed to make the marshals even more supportive , urging me on to finish. Less than a mile from the finish the route went off-road for a short while. This seemed to slow a few people down as I hopped past about three people on this section. I gritted my teeth, ignored my hamstring and made my customary 'sprint' finish. My view is that if people have waited over 3 and a half hours to see me finish they deserve to see a bit of effort.

I collected one of the best medals I've seen and a goody bag containing - amongst other things - a very pink t-shirt and a bottle of commemorative beer. I finished in 3 hours 36 minutes and 16 seconds, 1 minute and 1 second over my PB. I think it says a lot about how my expectations have changed in the last two years that I was slightly disappointed with that, however it wasn't bad all things considered and most importantly I had really enjoyed the event. Whilst waiting for Sharon to pick me up from the finish (as I said before it wasn't very far to the car but I pleaded injury) I saw Ian finish to collect yet another medal.

The organisers, marshals and supporters all deserve a massive vote of thanks for making my first road marathon for two years such an enjoyable event. I fully intend to be back for next year regardless of what the medal looks like!