(Not so) Pretty Pictures

Well the photos are here but I sure don't get any prettier with age.



The compression socks have made their debut this year. No doubt I'll be afraid to run without them from now on. This is just before I nipped into my hotel to pick up my jacket (which you can see in the latter photos hanging from my bag belt unused).



Here's a couple from Chocolate Corner. It's all downhill from here:





This is just coming up to the finish:







Take a closer look at that thigh and knee in the first of the above three photos. What the hell is going on there? Looks like a tendon on top of my kneecap.



I bet that's put you off your tea!

Just call me...

…Mr Consistency! Five hours of running (or trying to) and I’m within 50 seconds of last year’s time. I’ve always said that I’ve only got one speed and this proves it. I haven’t gotten any quicker of slower over 25 years of running. Maybe I need to review my training techniques! I was 1 minute behind a 71 year old Swiss guy and 30 minutes in front of a 73 year old. There’s hope for me yet.

Anyway, as you can see I managed to finish. Interestingly although my time was the same my position was much better than last year. 1478th compared to 1641st. My official splits (roughly every 10k) were all within a minute or so of last year. The winner was a lot slower at 3:03 so I don't know if it was a slower day. The results are out already, as are some photos. I thought the crowds were slightly down on last year too. Maybe with the weather not being as perfect.

Talking of splits, they added a new feature this year to try and prevent the bottleneck just after Wixi. They split to course into two alternative routes for a couple of kilometers. I took the new route which is probably a tad slower because of the running surface. It would be nice to compare the times of people on the different routes.

The biggest difference this year was that my fan club (aka Rosie, Vicky, Lucy and Polly) were missing. It was quite sad as I passed the 5 points where they cheered me on last year.

I can make one claim to fame: the greatest ascent of any runner. The weather was fine (largely sunny with a few clouds) until we reached Lauterbrunnen when I could see clouds forming ahead up above Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg so I peeled off and nipped into my hotel (conveniently situated right on the route) and grabbed my pertex jacket, a swig of Rivella and a banana. As my room was on the third floor I claim an extra 10m of ascent. I didn't use the jacket in the end but it gave me some reassurance having been on the top section of the route in August in 4 inches of snow. The detour might have cost me a few minutes but what the hell.

One strange thing happended around that point though. I was following the 4:30 pacemaker all the way to Lauterbrunnen but after then climbing up to Wengen I spotted the 5 hour pacemaker in front of me. Not sure how he got in front, as you couldn't miss the big green balloon he was towing, unless it was while I was in the hotel.

As with last year I took full advantage of all the water/food stations. I reckon I had enough energy products to kill an elephant but it seemed to work. I don't know what my stomach thought of energy bars, gels and banana washed down with isotonic drink, energy drink, boullion, coke and water every few miles.

All the bands, cowbell ringers, swiss horn players and steel bands were out in force. Those bells make a right racket. The bagpiper was at the top of the morraine as usual but it was a younger piper this year. Not sure what's happened to the old one.

By the time I got up to the morraine the cloud was down and nothing was to be seen of the mountains or glaciers. I'd been chatting to a few Brits on the way up who were doing it for the first time. It must have seemed pretty crap doing all that climbing and not being rewarded by the views at the end. Glad I'd seen it all before.

At the start I meet my friend Thanh from last year's training week and at the end in the shower tent I meet Danni. A few others from the training week were also there but I didn't see them. Later I was sat on a crowded train in KS waiting to go down to Lauterbrunnen when I saw Thanh struggling and failing to get on the next train down. Hope he got down OK.

So, what about the calf muscles I hear you say. Well I bought a pair of those natty compression socks at the marathon exhibition (photos coming soon)and apart from the odd twinge they seemed to do the trick. I got to the end without crippling myself which is a big bonus. I ache a bit but not enough to stop me running.

I went into Interlaken the evening after the race to watch the prize giving and the Jungfrau Mile. It was tipping it down by then so I, and everyone else, stayed in the marquee which is where the finish line was. I was about six feet from the finish line when the runners came in. It was shocking how fast they were. The winner, an Ethiopian, came in at 4:03. They must have handicapped the women as the rest of the runners all came in together behind the winner.

Another strange thing I noticed. Last year Interlaken was full of Koreans but this year you couldn't get away from the Brits. Three out of four tourists seemed to be British. Hardly saw any last year.

Oh and one last thing. On Friday I started coming down with a sore throat. Fortunately didn't seem to bother me during the run on Saturday but now I've got a full blown man-cold so I'm to bed to feel sorry for myself.

Photos should be coming soon. Watch the birdie.

And now, the time has come....

...curtains for me! Well, my name's on the definitive start list but without a number.

Not sure I'm ready for this but there's only one way to find out. Went out for a steady 40 minute run last night and didn't feel the calf problems but I didn't expect to. They only play up after an hour's running.

I've just got to pack then off to bed and up at 5:00 to catch my plane.

I wonder what my next post will say.

Phew!

Back to Plan A. I’ve managed to acquire a place from the wonderful Agnes of Germany who is not able to run this year (although still waiting for my name to appear on the definitive startlist. Good luck for next year Agnes! Thanks to all those who offered me advice on this: Umberto, Thanh, Richard.

So, about those niggly calf muscles. I’m not sure why but I’ll be fine for around an hour then one or both of my calf muscles just tighten up in a worrying ‘just about to tear’ sort of way. Interestingly if I ignore it it doesn’t seem to get any worse but there’s still that awful feeling that they could go at any minute. My mitigation strategy is to spend this week stretching them and then to invest in some of those natty compression stockings. I’m hoping that they sell them at the JM exhibition as they did last year.

Training wise I’ll just be going for a steady run on Wednesday night.

Wish me luck.

Idiot of the Year. Duh!

This was going to be a post about my niggling calf muscles which seem to start playing up after an hour's running but that's been overshadowed by a much more important (and embarassing) discovery:

I'm not entered in this year's Jungfrau Marathon!

I've spent the afternoon looking for my entry details. I've been on the provisional starting list for months (and have just discovered the definitive list only on the German part of the website!). I have a dim and distant memory of having tried to pay my entry fee using the credit card payment facility on the JM website only for it not to work. I seem to remember emailing them about it as well (I'll have to check it out). [Update: I have checked and found that I did email them but didn't receive a reply.]

Anyway, net result is that I'm not in it. This is tempered only slightly by my niggly calf muscles which I reckoned probably wouldn't last the distance but it would have been nice to find out.

So, with my flights and hotel booked I'll be having a weekend in Lauterbrunnen.

What an idiot :o(

Pakistani Panic

I nearly forgot to tell you. A couple of weeks ago I was running along a road near the forest when I saw ahead of me a load of posh cars parked up (mostly big fat black mercs) outside a big fenced building. There were a few blokes milling around outside. It wasn't until I was within a few yards of them that I noticed they were all driver / body guard types. As I approached they all looked at me nervously and patted their pockets or put their hand inside their jackets. Inside the fence there was some kind of party going on and a Pakistani flag draped on a flag pole.

So there's me complete with bottle in hand and bag round my waist running at a gang of armed and edgey men. I couldn't stop as that would have made things worse so I just kept running hoping that they would give me the benefit of the doubt.

Needless to say I came back a different way.

Trams, Drains and the Dark

Last night I thought I'd be clever and get the tram out to Tervuren, which is on the eastern edge of the Foret de Soigne, then run back through the forest to my flat. This would let me get into parts of the forest that would normally be out of my reach. So off I went only to get to my start point at a belated 8:20. This gave me about an hour or so of daylight for a 12 mile run through unfamiliar forest. Ooops methinks.

So off I set. By the way this was the back end of a 30 degree day so it was a trifle warm and sticky. Everything's going fairly smoothly with me having to check the map at just about every junction (couldn't afford a wrong turn). A couple of miles in I hit Runner Central. Near a suburb called Auderghem (or Oudergem for my Flemish friends (hope I got that the right way round)) there were runners everywhere. In the space of twenty minutes I must have seen twenty individuals and three clubs out running. Must be something in the water there.

A couple of miles later and I'm following this track which on the map appears to cross the main railway line only to find my way barred by a ten foot high fence with no other likely crossing point for miles. Fortunately I'd previously been on the other side of this line and knew that there was a storm drain that went underneath the railway embankment. I just had to find it in the woods. I thankfully chose the right direction to look and found it about 200 yards away. This drain allowed a stream to cross under the line. It was about four foot high, a couple of feet wide, a hundred foot long and full of cobwebs. A small price to pay for saving a three mile diversion.

By the time I'd navigated this it was starting to get dark. Under the trees it was doubly dark so It wasn't long before I couldn't see the ground I was running on. Fortunately I was back in familiar territory so I didn't have to read the map any longer.

As if this wasn't enough ny right calf was tightening up in that worrying 'just aout to tear' way. So decision time, do I walk and get back at midnight or keep on running. I decided on the latter keeping a very close watch on the calf. It started to cramp at one point which scared me but I eventually managed to get back to my flat in one piece at 10 o'clock.

Didn't see many joggers in the park funnily enough.

Trees and more trees

To summarise the last few weeks I've been getting acquainted with the afore mentioned Foret de Soigne (or Zonienwoud depending on which side of the Flanders (Flemish) - Woloon (French) divide your allegences lie). I've got to the stage now where I don't have to take my compass with me (apart from last night (see next post)).

If the truth be known it's actually Dave's compass. He kindly let me have it when I lost mine when I went up to do the Three Peaks. On close inspection the dial is calibrated into 64 divisions instead of the usual 360 degrees. Very useful. Picked it up cheap says Dave. No bloody wonder says I. Anyone any idea what these 64 things are?

Back to the woods. A word of advice to anyone who manages to get a run in these woods. First get a good map then choose a route that follows the sentier (footpaths) rather than the tracks. They are much more interesting and scenic.

I've been getting into the woods a couple of times a week. The first part of the wood that I enter from the direction of my flat is actually a park (pond, cafe, joggers etc.) but you're soon into the forest proper where you see the occasional runner but its fairly empty most of the time. Last week there was a guy in the middle of the forest practising his trumpet playing. Makes a change from birdsong.

I've seen a couple of red squirrels, one of which didn't seem to notice me and just kept shuffling around in the leaves just a few feet away. Not like the grey squirrels at home that scoot up a tree if you so much as look at them. I've also seen evidence of the wildboar where they'd been rooting around a tree making a mess of the ground.

At first sight it all looks pretty much the same but after a few visits you start to recognise the different paths and tracks. There's a couple of paths that follow streams (dry at the mo) that I particularly enjoy as they are twisty and rolling and great for running along. I bet the woods look good in autumn.

Coming back you have to go through the park and you get to play 'burn off the jogger' to your hearts content. I know it's wicked but it's great fun. While I'm at it can someone explain to me why when it's nearly 30 degree centigrade you would think it a good idea to go for a run (sorry, jog) in tracky bottoms, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a scarf and a hat? Seen it more than once in the park.

Is it me or what?

P.S. Decided to enter the Brussels Marathon on Oct 5th. Be silly not to while I'm here. It goes past the end of my street.

Concrete Cow Half

Apologies to anyone who's been on this blog in the last few weeks for the lack of posts. Hopefully I can make up for it a bit now. So where to begin?

Oh yes there's my pw (personal worst) in the Milton Keynes (land of roundabouts and concrete cows) half marathon. This took place on 20th July. The weather was almost perfect and the course was flat (albeit largely on paths and tracks)and I was feeling not too bad. I'd had a few weeks off what with moving to Brussels and the old head cold from the last post. The race was fairly uneventful. It's not a bad course but it does have a lot of twists and turns which prevent you getting your head down and cruising. I seemed to be going fine at what I thought was a 90 minute pace but when I got to the end the clock read 1:35. Taking off the 20 seconds or so it took for me to get to the start line that's still a sub 1:35 in my book. That keeps all of my halfs over the last 26 years between 81 and 95 minutes. Fairly consistent in the circumstances. That's ignoring the Bath Half which I ran in a leisurely 2:25 with my daughter Lucy.

Liz Yelling came second in (I think) 1:11.

So, all in all, not overly disappointed but there is room for improvement.

What a Month That Was

Over a month since my last blog. Apologies for the lack of posts but I've been a busy boy but unfortunately not on the running front. In a nutshell I've been to two weddings (York and Switzerland), had a big 50th birthday party, got that job in Brussels that I mentioned in my last post. Been here three weeks now, found somewhere to live.

That somewhere is within ten minutes (running) of the very old and enormous Foret de Soignes to the south of Brussels.

I was running into it for an hour tonight and hardly made a dent. Also tonight I downloaded the Nokia sportstracker software onto my phone. This is a GPS tracking software which coupled with the Sportstracker website allows you to load your runs onto the internet. For some reason (lack of satellite visibility?) it only recorded the second half of my run but the results are impressive, especially as you can upload any photos you take on the run and it plots them on the map based on the photo's timestamp and where you were at the time. The phone was free when I upgraded with Vodafone and the sportstracker software is free. Take a look.

Hot and Cold Running

It's a glorious 26 degrees centigrade outside and I've just come down with a bad head cold. I'd planned a nice and steady long run today to finish off my preparations for the South Downs Marathon next Saturday. Instead, I'm moping around the house feeling sorry for myself. Not only do I have the run next week but I've got an interview for a new contract in Brussels on Wednesday.

Alors, c'est la vie n'est pas.

The Cross, the Crow, the Laces and the Ice-cream Man

I thought that I should see if I was actually up to running something like the South Downs Marathon (considering my performance (lack of) in the 3 Peaks and it's only two weeks away) so I took myself off for a long steady run over the Chilterns yesterday. I went over four Chilterns ridges (not massive but a total ascent of 725m) to Whiteleaf Cross above Princes Risborough and back again.

On the way out I was running through a corn field on a path just wide enough to put one foot in front of the other when I saw some creature running along the path in front of me. It turned out to be a crow. The path was so narrow between the corn stalks that the crow couldn't extend it's wings enough to take off. In the end I went around it through the corn and left it to sort itself out.

Coming back I followed the Ridgeway path past Chequers (don't think Gordon was in) then up Coombe Hill. There was the usual ice-cream van in the car park, so having brought some money with me I decide to get myself an ice lolly. Ten minutes later after searching in vain in the six million pockets in my Camelbak bag for enough money the ice-cream man, who was clearly a fellow endurance type wearing his cycling top and hat as he was, let me have the lolly and then, bless him, stuck a bottle of water in my bag as well. Running whilst eating an ice lolly was a new but not unpleasant experience for me. The water was a life saver too as my Camelbak was nearly empty and I still had a few miles to go.

Ten minutes after the ice cream van my laces snapped (again). These are the thin Kevlar laces that come with the Salomon shoes. My Polar speed pod clip chews them to pieces and unlike ordinary laces they are a pain to try and rethread. This cost me about ten minutes.

In the end I was out for 3h 45m and covered something like 34km (not exactly sure as my speed pod decided to turn itself off twice during the run. Considering the muddy conditions and the few delays I had I'm fairly pleased with that.

I seemed to have got the nutrition and hydration right. I decided not to over-indulge in the gels and drink for the first hour (having loaded up with an energy drink before setting off). In all I had 1.5 litres of isotonic drink in my Camelbak (plus 500ml of water from the ice-cream man and some rehydration salts I happened to have with me), two bananas and three SIS gels. There was no sign of cramp (maybe due to the potasium in the bananas). After the 3 Peaks cock-up I made sure the Isotonic drink was at 6% solution. That extra 2% makes so much difference. The weather was warm but bearable, overcast with the sun threatening to break through. I lost 5lb in weight during the run but have no doubt put it back on already.

So, overall a bit of confidence restored and looking forward to the South Downs.