Firstly I suppose a little background around my running career.
I've run since about 2005. I joined a fabulous running club down the road from me, Dudley Ladies. At the time I was 18 stone. Why? Answer: I don't know. At the time I was in comfortable relationship with someone who loved me for how I was, sounds like a cliche but true - all the pounds kept going on after various holidays, parties and festive seasons and not coming off. Anyway it just goes to show that you can be a "runner", and in fact put on weight if you don't eat right. I was a happy 13mm runner running 3 times a week - 2 x 3 milers Tues/Thu + 7-10 miles on a Saturday.
I didn't really join the running club to lose weight, just because I wanted to do something for me, and running was something I had previously enjoyed. I used to be an OUWBC rower - this involved some hardcore nutter exercise levels and we had done a bit of running as land training which I also liked once I'd got past the initial puffed out stage. Anyway, even at that weight and level of difficulty it presented I genuinely loved running. I did every race going. boy do I know what it is like to be last and have those looks of pity. I really do. I ran with a wonderful lady Denise who kept me going when otherwise I may have given up.
The biggest favour my Doctor ever did me in late 2007 was suggesting I "lost a few lbs" because I had turned 30 and risk factors of nasty medical things were higher. I did. Being female I get cagey talking about these weight related subjects but basically by late 2008 I had lost over 5 stone by not eating CRAP. As I'd started to notice the improvement in my running pace in the summer of 2008 I secured a place in the London Marathon 2009. Late 2008 I joined Stourbridge Running Club, purely because they had a different set of club nights to DL and it meant I could run 4 week days a week with a club in the build up to London. I still run with both clubs. Stourbridge really helped me make a big improvement. Running with different speed groups, doing structured speed work and cross country races, which I have actually grown to love. Bizarrely I am the men's captain - I think (hope) it seems to work.
A lot of people say that the training is the hard bit for these events, but I can hand on heart say that I loved the training for my first Marathon and I still do love the training build up today. I love seeing the outdoors, I love seeing all the new sights and smells, I love chatting to my friends as we run. I love the feeling of running along, and pushing myself a bit further or faster than I did the last time. Road, trail, cross country, snow I don't care. I even did a 20 miler on a treadmill one winter when there was sheet ice outside. I don't care if its urban, countryside, sunny or raining (ok don't quote me on that last one!). I have seen and experienced things that I never would have if I didn't run and I think I am a better person for it.
London 2009 went off OK, 4.35 which for a first Marathon I was over the moon with. Yes you can have a good guess at your marathon pace from your training runs and secretly hope for a certain time, but the marathon is a bastard and can cut your delusions of getting that time down to size when you least expect it - but I was happy, I'd had a good run, ran all the way and felt I'd done myself justice. That same year I completed the Longford Marathon (4:11) as a training run for my first Ultra marathon, the JW Ultra. The JW runs from Stratford Upon Avon to Bournville in Birmingham and despite being looked down upon by a lot of Ultra runners as "easy" being "only" 30 miles I clocked 5:23. Looking back I had run Longford too hard and I was knackered at the JW. Still you live and learn and over all it was all an enjoyable experience.
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| First Marathon - London 2009 |
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| After my first Ultra - 30 miles. Note the glazed look and sunburn |
The next year, 2010 London again. with my new found experience I trained hard for London, but again looking back I did all of my long runs way way too fast. I did enjoy the training, hey I was getting massive PBs at 30K, 20 miles etc - distances that people don't really give a shit about! It made me feel good at the time but I lacked vision of the bigger picture. Eventually I found the training a bit wearing. Come the Marathon day, after about 10 miles I had nothing left. It was quite possibly more mental tiredness than physical but I ran 4.34. Argh - almost but not quite a step backwards. So much more training than 2009 and one minute quicker! I felt low. It was in the summer of 2010 I lost it a bit and dabbled in the world of Triathlon. I'm a pretty OK swimmer, admittedly shit on the bike and running, well I'm middling to slow really. The little Triathlon I entered in Cheshire I won!!!! To be fair it was the race for life of Triathlons with about 3 other girls who were serious competition, but I like to think I have retired at the top of my game. (....joke :) )
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| Post my first and only Triathlon |
In April 2010 during the build up to London I had run the Half Marathon at Connemara, Galway in Ireland. It was an absolute pig of a course, a very very hilly 13.1 miles. I was inspired to see the Ultra runners who had completed 26.2 miles before hitting the 13.1 I had just run. So yes, you guessed it - before the awful London I had found myself entering Connemara 39.3 for 2011. After the London experience I was a tiny bit scared. Because I needed a holiday (ha!), and with thoughts of what would be good training I also entered a series of running events in Disneyland, Florida in Jan 2011.
It is now that it seems an appropriate time to mention Gobi, my coach. I met him through friends and through the website I log my training on. Gobi is a retired Ultra runner (100km champion) now a nutter cyclist. He is a Welshman with a barely understandable Scottish accent who doesn't take any crap, and if I'm honest he is a little bit scary, but in a good way. I asked him to help me, which he agreed to do in late 2010. First analysis of my training: "YOU RUN EVERYWHERE TOO FAST!!". He has helped me more than he will ever know, and with his guidance I've been able to achieve things I didn't think I could do - and do them quite well for little me (OK it's all relative but it's a fact). It was hard at first to get the pace discipline of doing slower and different paced runs as instructed but I got there, and relatively quickly I think. Anyone who says "I can't run slow" is either a liar or not trying hard enough. The main thing was after London 2010 disaster I got back that love of running thanks to him and I shall be forever grateful. That is all.
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| My coach - scary or what? |
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| The surreal-ness of the Disney Marathon. |
April 2011 was then time for Connemara 39.3, described by someone who had climbed Everest and also run the event as "harder than climbing Everest" (or so we were told by the race director!) I put those training miles in. Again a common mistake would be to run too far in training, the mentality of "I'm doing a 40 miler I need to build up to a 35 mile training run" is nonsense really. In actual fact the longest run I did for this was the Milford 21 (+ lots of other 20 milers) but I had a training plan around these long runs based on the Ultra. When the day came I was lucky to find 2 ladies who were friendly and we all stayed together for the entire run. I basically ran 10 minute miles at Connemara, running time 6:35, with 5 mins of stops at each of the 3 checkpoints to stuff my face with gels 6:52 official time. So happy to be one of those Ultra runners that I'd been inspired by the year before. The scenery was amazing, I felt so good the whole way through. I had the best time ever. The last 13.1 was still a pig - I've concluded it doesn't really matter if you've run 26.2 miles beforehand or not!
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| Thumbs up at the end of 40 miles |
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