20th December: Portsmouth Coasting

I ran the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon today for the third time… Not much else to say really! I might as well put it all out on front-street here and admit that I was completely unfit and in poor condition to achieve my original goal for this race of a sub-4 hour time, so I just went out this morning to complete the run and round-off 2015 with a finish in my 50th marathon.

Last year I was slower than I had hoped because of the recovery from the flu, but this time my lack of pace was through a general malaise when it came to putting-in training hours over the weeks before hand and readily getting in to the Christmas spirit of eating, drinking and being merry a bit more than I should have!.. Also going out for the 'Happy Hookers' Christmas meal the night before and eating 1.5 Christmas dinners and washing it down with a couple of pints was probably not ideal last-minute prep for race day!..

Well I managed to drag, or should that be wobble my arse around the course, which is flat and fast (and pretty unspectacular for photography), to chalk-off a pretty big milestone even if it was in an underwhelming manner.

At the finish the goody-bag had a buff - always useful, a bottle of beer and the finishers medal which has a built-in bottle opener.

I was met at the finish by my long-time friend from Uni and Pompey resident Claire, to whom I am scheduled to hand the baton to in the Great British Relay in 2016, so had a good recovery cuppa and chin-wag at her sea-front gaff overlooking the sea as the sun waned and set before heading back home, fortunately to no LSS with a broken nose like last year... LSS insists that Spud did it deliberately in revenge for taking him to the vets a couple of weeks before to have his nuts off!

So here ends 2015's adventures, and here's to 2016 and bigger things with any luck!

Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.

21st December: Coasting in Portsmouth.

Grabbing Pini and Moose stupidly early in the morning we made the blast down from mid to south Hampshire and the island that is Pompey for a final pre-Christmas bout of running tomfoolery: The Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon, a race the three of us ran together last year.

Whilst loading my van in slippered feet I trod on a stone I had not seen in the darkness with an almighty crunch and a searing pain through my left heel - a myriad of thoughts raced through my mind, including the urge to scream out with colourful language that would wake the neighbours, but I managed to not give in to that one, although I did need to go and have a look at my heel - fortunately it was not cut, but it hurt to the point I had to sit down for a while to let the pain subside, and hope that it was not something that would cause me to drop out of the run.

As the minutes ticked-by, the pain slowly subsided, and fortunately by the time an hour or so had elapsed and I had driven down to the event base of the Pyramid Centre in Southsea, the knack had been forgotten about so I was good to go.

The three of us were amongst the early arrivals and we eventually found our way inside of the Pyramid Centre, as they had closed the entrance we used previously, perhaps because of the extensive building work over the last year. Finding the hall that was the event base, it had been completely refurbished since last year’s run and looked really fresh and inviting inside. Soon it began to fill-up with all the assorted runners.

We parked ourself near to the massage area whilst we sorted out registrations ablutions and numbers, with Pini overhearing one of the masseurs talking to someone about her experiences running a legitimate massage operation… Apparently she no longer keeps her phone switched on in the evenings on Friday and Saturday as without fail she would always get at least a dozen drunken calls asking for an all over rub with a ‘happy finish’!

Faffing around before the start, I bumped into Carthorse, who had seemed to have disappeared off the marathon scene (and from the terraces at Farnborough) over recent months. He’d come down to the race to cheer us runners on as he knew a significant number who were due to go trot around the course, and having dealt with some serious shizzle in his personal life he is now back in training ready to continue his assault on the 100 marathon club - he’ll get there a long time before me (if I do manage it) having managed to rack-up 40 odd already in around the same amount of time running them as me.

All ready for the start we made our way to the promenade to try and avoid the rush last year when they started the race with most people still in the Pyramid centre!.. To shelter from the cold they had erected a large marquee for us to gather in and as I walked in there I saw the familiar faces of Barry and Kristin doing their first joint marathon.

The race this year started a little beyond last year’s as Southsea Pier has now begun to be re-built having been nearly destroyed in the storms of the previous spring, some 2 years after it was closed for being a safety risk through the poor state of repair it had been allowed to fall in to… Once all gathered the other side, we were counted down and let go.

I’d come in to this marathon with the express goal of just getting around it as quickly as I could manage - with no pressure at all on me for a specific time… The weather was pretty good for the time of year with the sky merely overcast with clouds and not too much of a wind, unlike last year’s torrential downpour just before the start and the first part of the race.

We headed along the promenade, with everyone weaving in and out of each other as they struggled to find their place within the pack appropriate to their pace - so it took a good mile and a half to stop nearly bumping in to people and continually looking over your shoulder for people passing you.

Turning off the promenade it was on to the pebbly beach with its slippery sea-weed. We had been warned in the briefing not to stray outside of the marked path as they could not guarantee the footing - for depth of wet sand and slipperiness of the weed.

Emerging the other side we were up on to the sea wall and the route past the boat houses and the university sports field as we made our way along the western side of Langstone Harbour. So far so good, I had managed a decent enough pace thus far, and getting to the first of the aid stations I put my nutrition plan in to effect.

The marathon organisers have a good sponsorship deal with High5 who provide copious amounts of their excellent gels, so I had decided this year that I would grab a couple of gels for every aid station to consume one every 2 miles or so and to not really worry about my own, although I did take some breakfast bars with me as these days I prefer to eat something over the course of the distance rather than just swill down gels.

Soon after the aid station there was upon us the dull trudge across the northern side of the harbour, the cycle path that we run along sandwiched between the chemically treated shoreline - to kill off the invasive Japanese Knotweed that has taken root there, and the lovely sight of the M27… Its not often you get to run along the side of a motorway as part of a marathon route, which just serves to remind you that Its not always going to be rolling mountains and cliff-top vistas!

Its not always trotting around glamourous locations!

Around the top of the harbour we veer off away from the roar of the motorway and across the shingle of the shore and the muddy grassy path - where a large rat ran across in front of me, before hitting tarmac once more and a jog through in to an industrial estate to find our way back on to the coastal path and another bit of shingly beach and the small sea wall, with there seeming to be little to no breeze, although there had been a very fine drizzle for a few minutes at one point.

Heading inland again to ford a stream, we traversed a slippery section of path that was so slick you struggled to remain upright even with trail shoes before filing one at a time through the bottle-neck of a kissing gate and into a residential street.

Here one of the local residents took offence to us runners and deliberately chose to drive at us on the wrong side of the road whilst honking their horn, which was met with a torrent of abuse from us all, and apologies from some of their neighbours who were out in their front gardens watching us all file past and cheer us on.

Through this residential section we picked-up the road again and the bridge to Hayling Island… Everything had gone so well thus far with the wind, only for us to find it here ripping across bridge and in to our faces, sucking the air from your lungs and holding us back as we attempted to run across.

Mercifully once over the bridge, sheltered from the wind once more we had the comfort of the aid station with some mulled wine thrown in for goos measure… Carthorse was waiting here to cheer us on, so I stopped for a few minutes to slurp down some gels and have a brief chat before heading down to the turnaround. This 3 mile stretch saw us passed by the leaders on the way back, so I kept a count of those going past so when Moose and Pini went by I was able to shout their position in the race to them so as to help with any strategy they may have for the second half of the run… and Barry Miller passed by as well sharing an high five with me.

Making the turn myself and heading back off the island I took solace in the number of people still to hit the turn, including a bunch of firemen in full kit complete with oxygen tanks!

I had made a decent pace so far, although I knew I was not troubling last year’s time, so I just carried on plodding around… That was until I got back to the industrial estate when I heard the text tone go on my phone - now this is my ‘friends & family’ phone, not my work one, so I knew it must be someone I knew… Then a few minutes later it went again, so I figured it might be important, and I slowed to a walk to get it out of my back-pack.

It was LSS, and she was in a bit of trouble!.. Whilst bending over to put her trainers on to go for a run, Spud - our border collie/ springer cross, had decided to run past her at the same time and jump up on to the couch to look at what was happening out on the street. As he jumped for the couch, LSS had bent down and with an almighty crunch and and explosion of blood, his bowling-ball of a head had connected with the bridge of her nose and broken it… She was going to take herself off to A&E to have it looked at, so could I hurry back!

Now I was 18 miles in to a marathon, and you only really can run these things at one speed: the one that’s going to get you to the finish in the quickest possible time… Which for me isn’t that quick! That said, getting a call for help is a great motivator to keep you going, but I was already at flat-out pace, and with 8 miles left I was still a good 80 minutes from the finish at best, plus another 30 minute drive home if I ignored the speed limits, so I did the only thing possible: I dug deep, gritted my teeth and tried to get back as soon as possible for her… Then the phone went again, with LSS saying that on reflection and having spent a good time looking at her nose in the rear view mirror whilst driving to A&E, she had been lucky that whilst broken her nose was straight and not crooked, so she decided to return home and tough it out with pain killers rather than have to wait for 5 hours to be seen by a doctor and be told there is nothing to be done for her but to go home and take some pain killers.

With this added impetus I redoubled my efforts over the last 8 miles and crossed the line 20 minutes slower than last year, hopefully minimising any further time loss by the motivation of knowing I had a battered and bleeding wife back home in urgent need of some tlc. Upon locating Moose I explained to him what had happened back at the homestead, so we jumped straight in the van and made our way back to Hook! - Pini had already disappeared off to his in-laws so didn’t need a lift back.

A bit of a bizarre end to the final marathon of the year, but hey, the important thing is that LSS is ok, if a little battered and bruised… Considering LSS took Spud to the vets to have his nuts removed a couple of days beforehand she suspects it was him exacting revenge upon her, so no Christmas photos of her with the 2 back eyes that will soon be following the busted nose.

My fitness seems to be on its way back at least with me now only being 20 minutes down on previous, an improvement already from the hour at the beginning of the month!.. Next up a week of Christmas/ New Year’s fun :)

Eat pies. Drink beer. Run far.

1st December: Daddy Daughter Running 2

This Saturday was one of the few days each year that I see my daughters and with my youngest disappearing to her BFF's birthday party for the morning of the day, in advance my eldest had asked that we go running together again in the absence of her little sister. Naturally I jumped at the chance for a bit of quality daddy-daughter time and had already planned the day to fit around this.

With my eldest easily managing a muddy 3 mile XC with me earlier this year and completing the 3.5 mile Hook fun run (as previously seen on this blog), I suggested when she brought up the subject of distance and route that we go one stage further and run a 10k and to my pleasant surprise she went for it!

Turning up on the morning, the ex had rather helpfully dressed my daughter in the clothes to go running in... but without a change for after and with fashion trainers on her feet that aren't really suitable for running, especially XC, rather than her proper running trainers which were 'still at school'. The little thing was really excited to be running with me so I knew we had to go for it even if her attire was not totally ideal!

That morning after brekkie we went out to the village store to get food for lunch and dinner together and we discussed the pending run; how we would approach it, the route and that we would not stop, just slow down to a walk and after a pre-run watching 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen' we left for our jaunt.

True to form the little monkey was very eager and wanted to run at a pace that would burn her out in no time, so I had to rein her in, explaining that the distance was nearly twice as far as she had run before.

We're off!

Settling down to a more manageable pace for her we made it up on to the common and our close encounter of the hairy kind with the Highland cattle. 

Tread carefully, there be hairy beasts about!

Deciding to walk past them it gave her the chance of a small rest before we went up and over the motorway bridge.

Over the motorway.

Once through the woods we were further than she had run before from the house, although she had walked further and we carried on across to the water meadow and on to the canal. After a bit of mixed running and walking we reached King John's castle and jogged round and inside it before making it to the end of the canal and the halfway point.

Arriving in King John's Castle.

Poor little thing was starting to feel it now as we made our way on to the fields and the way back in the direction of home. It was here that she started to notice the rubbing of her little toe on the side of her trainer and asked if she could take it off to run. Explaining why this was not such a good idea with what she was running over I tried the old trick of misdirection and started talking to her about how we were going to have the chicken nuggets we had bought as soon as we returned to the house, which seemed to work, although I could tell she was being genuine about the pain.

Returning over the motorway.

Working within her energy levels we ran and walked our way back across the woods, the motorway and the common to the last stretch home that was thankfully downhill she found her second wind and hared-off at the speed she started the run so I had to up my pace to keep up with her! After 1h23 we were back at the house with a very hot and rosy-cheeked young lady panting like a steam engine from her terrific achievement!

She was really made-up with the fact she'd managed to complete a 10k XC and quite rightly so! At 9 years old I am incredibly proud of her in running further than most adults ever will at such a young age, and hopefully now she has proved to herself what she is capable of doing already and who knows, it may encourage her to push-on to bigger and better things now she has this under her belt!

On a different note I've managed to get a wait-list place in the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon at the end of December as I realised that I was going to have 6 weeks between the Dorset next week and the Anglesey in January, so squeezing this one in at the mid-point seemed a sensible option and will also mean I would have clocked-up 15 in the space of a year! I have also entered a Brutal 20k and the Winter Gut Buster 10M as back-to-back runs on the 29th and 30th of December so as to not let my fitness levels drop too much over the Christmas period.