So, this has been what you might call an eventful 6 weeks or so. I think most people who follow this blog will know that I split up with Fleur since my last post. Not looking to dwell on it, nor am I after sympathy, it just makes the rest of this post make more sense...
Anyway, having moved back to Birmingham, and having no cash due to getting my life sorted out, seeing Markus has been put on hold for the time being. With the Wolf Run and Birmingham half marathon looming I have been concentrating on getting my running up to a decent standard. I have been getting out once a week doing 6 or 7 miles, and a second time doing a shorter run, normally 2 miles, with some form of interval training. For those of you that don't know interval training is where you sprint for a period, say 60 seconds or 200 metres, then jog for the same, then sprint, then jog and continue until you can no longer stand. It's great for your overall speed over long distance, and is also, dare I say it, more fun than just running for an hour or so.
I have been trying to get to BMF but most weekends have been taken up with fetching stuff from the inlaws or else keeping busy visiting people. The last couple of weeks I have been running with Joe Kavanagh on a Wednesday night which has been great - he runs faster than me but not currently as far, whereas I run much slower but further. I think we're really helping each other. I've also been trying to keep the core strength stuff up until I see Markus again (2 weeks from now) by doing pullups, situps and pressups every morning.
Anyway, this has been going quite well. The Wolf Run, which is this Saturday, is a 10k through mud, lakes and rivers, with some obstacles thrown in, so I had been running at the 6/7 mile mark, ready to push up to 13 miles after this weekend ready for the Birmingham half on 21st October. The combination of the running and the core strength exercises is having a great effect on my physique where I am getting near to my target size/shape. See below for some before and after/during pictures!
Fat Bastard
More reasonable sizeSo like I said, training is going well. So well, in fact, that when I was asked last Friday (in the pub, pint in hand - oops!) if I would like to do the Great North Run on 16th September as 2 friends had dropped off I said "yeah, why not?" I even, foolishly, promised to help Claire, the kind young lady who was offering me this wonderful opportunity, when she reached her inevitable wall at 8 miles, which was the furthest she'd ever run. Oh how I would live to regret those words!
So we went up to South Shields Sunday morning, leaving Birmingham at 4am. After a nice long drive up the A1 we finally arrived and made our way to Newcastle. I'm guessing the ticket seller for the Metro hadn't brought his sense of humour to work - when we bought a ticket and he asked if we wanted singles I said "yeah - we'll be running back." Nothing, not even a smile. Oh well, maybe I wasn't the first person to say that that morning... We arrived in Newcastle, made several attempts to get to the toilet, and lined up with the other 54,998 athletes. It truly was a momentous occasion, from the group warm up to the Red Arrows display, by the time we got to 10:40 and kicked off I was well and truly ready to go!
We set off at a very healthy 9 minute mile pace, which we maintained until mile 7. As I said, I hadn't run past 7 miles in training yet (that was planned for next week and onwards) so funnily enough I hit my wall at mile 7. The next 2 miles I got slower and slower and was having real trouble. My breathing was fine but legs were absolutely dead - I was struggling to lift them off the ground. My mind was in turmoil - 6 miles is a very long way to go when you are already dying! The only thing keeping me going was the embarassment of stopping in front of Claire! Fortunately, Claire was there, and between telling me crazy stories and feeding me Jelly Babies, gradually brought my mind back to the real world and we carried on at a much better pace for the final 3 or 4 miles.
As we reached the final kilometre we climbed a steep hill which once we reached the summit we could see the sea! Down the other side and into the final straight where there must have been about 20,000 people cheering us on. We literally hit a wall of sound of cheering, music, and a man shouting over the tannoy. Although I was completely dead on my feet I found the energy to do the moves for YMCA which was playing. We finally crossed the line at about 2 hours and 10 minutes, which was not bad considering how tough I'd found it. I felt bad for Claire, who clearly didn't hit a wall and could have kept up the 9 minute mile pace, and so now I am committed to getting round Birmingham with her in 1 hour 50 minutes.
In all it was an amazing experience so thanks to Claire for inviting me, and thank you and well done to the organisers - it was a very slick event.
This weekend sees me attempt a Wolf Run so I will post again next week with the results and some pictures.
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