London Marathon 2013 – 3 hours 50 minutes & 36 seconds

 

That was hard – very hard. And I’m not doing that again!  In the cold light of day I guess my time was ok. I beat my only previous other marathon time (London again from 9 years ago) by 24 minutes so I have to be happy with that but the second half of the race was just all pain for me.

The background of this is that I got a place through the ballot last year before deciding to concentrate on the triathlon targets for 2013. Consequently, although I’d upped my running distance quite a bit for the last four months or so, I was underdone on the long runs (+20 miles) coming into this. The one long pre race I entered, the San Dominico 20 miler, was cancelled due to the bad weather. Two Saturday’s ago I ran 34kms which was basically three times from home around Roath and the lake in Cardiff. That was fine but on the following Monday, trying to do some intervals, I felt my Achilles tighten. Since then it’s been no running and ice the Achilles twice a day. So I started the race with some trepidation. You don’t get the opportunity do the VLM often so I was going to do it and try and do it as fast as I could.

Here they come to the start at Blackheath. I must have walked a bit quicker!

 

Pre race I applied a non steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) gel on the Achillies and had a strip of Ibuprofen tablets with me. Interestingly on the radio on Saturday they were warning runners NOT to take any NSAIDs as a study of the Bonn marathon had shown issues with kidney and stomach problems. As anyone who  has run the VLM will know it takes ages to get going so I wasn’t worried about going out too fast and putting strain on the Achilles but even before I crossed the start line I could feel the aching irritation of it. 1km first drinks station and I’d popped my first tablet. The pain eased a bit and I tried to concentrate on an even pace but this is not easy at the VLM. I started in one of the middle pens. I’d thought I’d put down a reasonably fast target time on my application but obviously not as fast as a lot of others. It was a little bit irritating how many slow runners started near the front and I mean slow, not someone pacing correctly. The course is actually quite narrow (for 38k runners) and the spectator crowds so huge they tended to encroach off pavements etc. So it was slow/fast for about the first 15km. When a gap opened you really had to accelerate through it before it closed for another few minutes. There were so many runners running around on pavements, jumping on and running on central reservations. This is obviously not good for an evenly paced marathon effort.

I was happy getting to the half marathon marker in 1.44 but then, even after my 3^rd painkiller, the heel pain was increasing and I could feel myself sort of limping. This, together with what I can acknowledge now was tiredness, made me slow down. I was carrying my High5 gels and they seemed to go down ok, but it was getting quite warm. From about 25km it became a battle. I really was thinking of stopping but you realised the crowds just wouldn’t let you. They gave you “encouragement” even if you stopped to walk. I kept going mainly with the thought that my family and friends were at the 35km mark and that’s where I would stop. However by then, and I have to admit with a further tablet, my Achilles had eased a bit so I thought I could finish. As it turns out I got a very little bit of a second wind in the last 5kms and actually felt quite comfortable. Though not comfortable enough to think about a sprint finish at the end!  My splits are below and they are all over the place. Afterwards I made sure I took on plenty of water and it seems like I don’t have any issues with my pill popping. I certainly went way over any recommended limit and I’m not going to do that again but I think it allowed me to finish the marathon. A day later my Achilies doesn’t feel as bad as I thought it would (but only time will tell when I try and run next). Compare this with my quads – aaah!  I wonder how many days I will be walking down stairs backwards.

Split	Time Of Day	Time	Diff	min/km	km/h
5K	10:27:25	00:25:12	25:12:00	05:03	11.91
10K	10:51:25	00:49:12	24:00:00	04:48	12.5
15K	11:15:54	01:13:41	24:29:00	04:54	12.25
20K	11:41:04	01:38:51	25:10:00	05:03	11.92
HALF	11:46:34	01:44:21	05:30	05:01	11.99
25K	12:07:26	02:05:13	20:52	05:21	11.22
30K	12:36:56	02:34:43	29:30:00	05:54	10.17
35K	13:09:00	03:06:47	32:04:00	06:25	9.36
40K	13:39:49	03:37:36	30:49:00	06:10	9.73
Finish time	13:52:49	03:50:36	13:00	05:55	10.14

And we’re racing! (Hopefully)

I saw a physio about my swimmers shoulder and it turns out with a bit of luck and a lot of rehab work it should be ok.  It looks like it’s not directly my rotator cuff but my bicep that is sore. It’s connected/caused by the rotator cuff but not any sort of impingement as I was worried about. It’s good that I picked it up early. The physio thought, and I agree, it’s probably caused by lack of rotation when swimming and my poor flexibility, especially of my spine. So it’s a new set of strengthening, stretching and flexibility exercises and importantly to continue with the bilateral breathing as per my last blog.

Even before I saw the physio another old issue reappeared in the form of tendonitis of my right Achilles. I did my final long run before the London marathon last Saturday (6^th April) which was fine but then on the Monday I did an easy interval session with Cardiff Tri. I was going easy but half way through I started to feel that annoying twinge at the back of my heel. I cut short the session and did a slow jog followed by some intense icing. I did some more light running again this Monday and it was still tight. I’m hoping it’s just a reaction to doing some sprints so soon after my long run. Like the swimmers shoulder, I started getting Achilles tendonitis just before the Ironman 5 years ago. I’ve had orthotics fitted for my “heavy over pronation”. I’ve constantly been doing exercises (heel drops), stretching and then icing after runs for the last few years which I thought had solved (or at least managed) the problem. All I can do now is rest, stretch and ice often until the marathon on Sunday.

All this happened in the week that I have just about finished entering all the races I’m planning to do for this year. It got me worried that any flare up of these issues or other new ones and I can’t race, then I am seriously out of pocket with all these entry fees. Waiting until closer to the event was not an option as this year these events are selling out fast. I think this is partly due to the UK having the AG world championships here in September but mostly the effect of the Olympics on people. It’s getting people active. The organiser of our local Try-a-Tri said that the event sold out in 38 minutes when it went live on Easter Monday evening.  Just about every event I’ve entered is now sold out or nearly full.  I just hope that I can stay healthy and compete as they just about all have a “no refunds” policy. The normal stuff..... “most costs are incurred before the event so unfortunately we cannot offer refunds etc. etc.”  I can’t argue with that, it’s just it seems like a game of roulette committing (and paying) for things so far in advance when there is a good possibility you’re not going to make some starts. You can see this normally from all those DNS in the results from previous year’s races.

Including the London Marathon I’m up to 16 Triathlon and running events entered for 2013. That’s at least 10 more than I would normally do in an average year. I’ve even entered two Triathlons on consecutive days (Sprint & OD ITU qualifiers). In the past I’ve struggled with two Tri’s in consecutive weekends, so that’s going to be an interesting weekend!  The list includes five ITU Tri qualifiers, one ETU qualifier, and one ITU aquathlon qualifier. In amongst all these are two British Champs, two Welsh Champs and three Welsh Grand Prix races, including an off road tri, which I think I’m looking forward to the most. Then there is of course is the ETU Age Group Champs in Turkey and, if I ever qualify, the ITU Champs in London.

That must be over £800 in entry fees I’ve already spent. Wow – just did a search on my accounts software and came up with £798.35. That is just in, probably non-refundable, entries. Let's not think of all the other expenses.

Got to keep fit and healthy now!

Three Month Review

Approaching Easter and once again the weather is absolute rubbish. Heavy rain and winds here in Cardiff but snowing a bit higher up on the mountains. This cold, wet weather is now forecast to last until mid April. I seem to remember no Indian summer for us last autumn and it getting cold last year already in October. So to my mind that’s about six months of winter! How does that work?  Therefore, for everyone, training outside has been challenging to say the least. I suppose I’ve been lucky in that through work I’ve had a few weeks away in warmer climes (Australia, South Africa and Morocco) and probably got a bit more Vitamin D than most. However, as anyone who travels regularly will know, it’s very difficult to do quality training whilst travelling.

 

I got my registration documents and race number this week for the London Marathon, 21^st April. It’s coming far too quickly for me to do it justice. Then again it’s not far enough before the Euro AG Triathlon champs for me to recover. But I’m glad I got in through the ballot. I see that the ballot closed at 125,000 entries and I guess there are no more than 25,000 places for ballot entry so those are quite long odds. London was my first and only marathon (outside of Ironman) which I did ten years ago. This is my third ballot application since then so that’s not too bad. Thinking back to that first marathon, I was so unprepared. I remember I bought a couple of pairs of generic running shoes in the States at a flea market. No doubt they were fakes as I got both for $20. It was only a few years later, and knackered legs, that I found out I was a very heavy over pronator and if I’d kept with that type of shoe I probably wouldn’t be able to walk now, let alone run. These days, with the help of the internet, I’m fully kitted up with the right gear and I know what to do. It’s just a matter of doing it!  For my very long pre marathon run I chose this weekend to enter the San Dominico 20 mile race in Merthyr Tydfil. The current temperature prediction for Merthyr for Sunday is -2C to zero. It will probably be either raining or snowing. Oh what fun!

So to review, like most I guess, I’ve done most of my training indoors in the last three months. In fact, looking at my logs, the last time I was out on the road on a TT bike in anger was at the London Tri back in September. I have tested both my new TREK Triathlon bike and my second hand road training bike out on the flats but not really training. It’s all been on the mountain bike, spin classes and on the turbo trainer. Run and swim training has been ok, but as always, subject to managing little niggles. In the three months I’ve hit both 5km and half marathon PB’s which I’m really happy with. However my swim times are rubbish. I entered a few events at the recent Welsh Masters Swim Championships but bailed out after only two of the events. Although my 400m time was 10 secs better than last year it wasn’t what I was hoping for with the training I’ve been doing (I also wanted to watch the rugby which might have had something to do with it).

I suppose the biggest fear of veteran age groupers is being hampered or fully curtailed by those injuries and conditions that you are more susceptible to getting, and take much longer to recover from, as you get older. I consider myself fit for my age (as you get older you always have to say that –“ I did well in that race for my age”) but the older you get the harder it is to get over any injury. A while back, before I was 50, I had a discussion in a pub with some guys who had already turned 50 and more. They swore that the “tipping point” was 50 years of age.  This is when things really start to go downhill. I didn’t believe them at the time. Now I do.

As an example, I got a new heart rate monitor for Xmas. So the first time I used it after Xmas I got this (after a long run).

 

A very nice rash and graze from the hrm strap.  OK, now I cover the offending bits with a plaster and smother it in Vaseline, but three months later the scar is still very prominent and does not want to go away. 15 - 20 years ago it would have disappeared in a couple of weeks. 25 years or more ago, it would have been gone in a week. That’s the problem as you get older. You just hope you don’t come off your bike as any cuts or grazes will mark you more than an Ironman tattoo. One of the biggest problems for older athletes is that whilst you can generate large, strong muscles with training and the right diet, protein shakes, amino acids etc. there’s not a lot you can do with the supporting soft tissue (tendon’s, ligaments etc.). Which, no matter what you do, basically shrink and get hard with age and struggle to support the muscles you’re trying to develop. Hence my two big problems of swimmers shoulder (rotator cuff injury) and Achilles tendonitis. I know all ages can get these problems it’s just that it’s much harder to manage when you’re older. It requires lots of work on the supporting muscles (around those you are actually using) with strength exercises, physio, and particularly in my case with my Achilles, ice the tendon after every run to get the blood flowing through.

I’ve had a few days off training this week as I’ve had pipes through my nose into my gullet measuring pressure and pH (for 24hrs). Not easy to train like that, especially with a monitor strapped to your side and a cold (but snot’s the issue!). It’s another age related thing, but not directly to exercise and fitness, just age. There’s so many other little things I could go on about (don’t get me started on bone density, mineral deficiency and stress fractures) it becomes boring but worse, very negative. I think you just have to keep going and see what happens. Two things I hope I never get problems with are shingles and inner ear (balance) problems. These are two conditions prevalent in the over 50’s and I know quite a few friends and athletes being knocked for six and out of things for months/years by these. For shingles, it’s estimated that 1 in 4 over 50 year olds, who have had chicken pox will get it to some degree. I don’t think (haha) I’m a hypochondriac, just pro-active in my heath, but when I was offered a vaccine against shingles last year (for money) I jumped at it.

My next goal?  To be able to walk on Monday after the 20 miler.