Paris Marathon 2013

Audrey Brown wrote (see)

Bad news - old age is creeping up on me - I can't read my garmin now short of putting it on a stick

Yep, I have to hold things further and further away.  Putting off going to the opticians for as long as possible.

Mr Maj recently had to accept that his arms had become too short for him to be able to read...

Simon MacD wrote (see)

2012 has been brilliant for me from a running perspective. Stayed injury free and new PBs at 10K, 10 miles, half marathon and marathon.

Very similar here: my best year yet (out of only 4 years running, I have to admit). PBs on all distances, and it's also getting to the stage where I look at the position in a race as well (was really pleased with the Amsterdam Half: top 200 out of 12,000). I've tried to get as much race experience as I can this year, and it's been fun. I'm daring to think about targets which seemed completely impossible a couple of years ago (sub 3....).

Engineer: sorry to hear you're injured, which is the offending body part?

Weedy: that's funny on the 800m false start. Pretty annoying for you I imagine. But I can see how it could happen with the cyclist. At least you had a decent warm-up

TD: results are up. And however much you explain your graphs, I still don't really get them

Kaz: if that means you're going for the "follow my dream" option, I'm very pleased for you!

Dannirr: That photo was great, very jealous (and it's not bad round here either). Have you thought of producing a smoothy recipe book? They all sound so tempting...

Dirty Leeds Rob wrote (see)

Audrey Brown wrote (see)

Bad news - old age is creeping up on me - I can't read my garmin now short of putting it on a stick

Yep, I have to hold things further and further away.  Putting off going to the opticians for as long as possible.

Opticians love me as I'm the nearly blind freak they get to test their skills out on.

anyone for ....

http://www.royalparksultra.com/

one week after Berlin? (not me matey) DV?

The Jimbob wrote (see)

anyone for ....

http://www.royalparksultra.com/

one week after Berlin? (not me matey) DV?

 

I took part in the half this year and was really disappointed in it.... besides the Ultra costs 200 quid(!!!!!). You can run the Thames Meander Marathon in August and it does nearly the identical course but misses out central london (you start in Kingston and run to putney).

I'd love to do it but not for that price.

The Jimbob wrote (see)

anyone for ....

http://www.royalparksultra.com/

one week after Berlin? (not me matey) DV?

 

Nah..   I'm on a mission with Badwater as my target..  I'm only doing 100 mile ultra's because they are the only ones eligible for the entry application.  Ultra's less than 100 miles don't count.  I need to do as many as I can in 2013 and 2014 to prove that I'm worthy of being offered a place in the 2015 race.  Its highly unlikely that I'll get a place, statistically, so I need to make my chances as good as I can.  

Emmy - that is a bit of a rip off - i didnt see the £200, only saw "from £60" which was the charity place price. Racing is getting really expensive. GNR was £49 but i feel its worth it for that as its so good. RTTB was £46 which was a complete rip off as it was sooooo bad. the dodgy "British 10K London Run" is now been swallowed up by Nike but it will still be truly terrible - that entry fee is £50!!. Yet the Bupa London 10k (i'm doing) which is virtually the same route is £25. The Bupa one is part of the London Marathon events along with Silverstone half (entry fee 20 quid) and VLM (historically cheaper entry fee) so it seems that is the way to go. Royal Parks half in 2011 was pretty good i thought.

Good morning, good grief, bit of a catch up there, busy, busy, busy.
Weedy..RHR normally low 50's currently high 60's
Yep, racing is getting expensive. Being of the Scottish persuasion I struggle at more than £2/mile. 10K's are getting out of hand. Don't mind the charity jobs. Early Nike London's were good value with a reasonable shirt as your running numer and half decent medal but they've gone off the scale in my view.Ist London 10k was a fraction of cost now...seems disproportionate increase in last 2-3 years given low levels of general inflation

Thankfully most of the 10km and half races around here tend to be reasonably priced, but I guess that is because most of them seem to be organised by the various local running clubs rather than big corporate sponsors.

The Jimbob wrote (see)

Emmy - that is a bit of a rip off - i didnt see the £200, only saw "from £60" which was the charity place price. Racing is getting really expensive. GNR was £49 but i feel its worth it for that as its so good. RTTB was £46 which was a complete rip off as it was sooooo bad. the dodgy "British 10K London Run" is now been swallowed up by Nike but it will still be truly terrible - that entry fee is £50!!. Yet the Bupa London 10k (i'm doing) which is virtually the same route is £25. The Bupa one is part of the London Marathon events along with Silverstone half (entry fee 20 quid) and VLM (historically cheaper entry fee) so it seems that is the way to go. Royal Parks half in 2011 was pretty good i thought.

Yep, 60 quid is for the charity places where you promise to raise at least 500-750 GBP. It's a complete rip off and why I refuse to run it. I'd rather do the Thames Meander as the field is a lot friendler.

This year the RPH was 45quid and there were no changing rooms/showers. It was shocking. I'm not going to do it again.

Weedy, a few years ago a French friend came to the Arc to take photos of us before the race. She was wearing a Hi-Viz vest and was on her bike. She decided to bike down the Champs Elysees...her own Tour de France moment. No one batted an eyelid so she kept going.She cycled the entire course , unchallenged and looking the part,and it's among her best memories...all over her city, in the middle of the road. * I assume the cyclist in your case was dead embarassed....*

I think I'm going to take the plunge and buy a OROD. Is it the Grid Roller most folk on here use?

Eggy: yes although I think honestly the normal foam one was good enough, start with one of those if you haven't already (for about one third of the price)

I have the tigertail. Hurts like hell but feels so good!

Cheers all. Think I'd be willing to splurge on one of the more expensive ones with a plastic insert, even if only as being tall and a lover of pizza and cakes probably means I weigh a bit more than the average runner, and I'd recon the plastic one could take a bit more abuse.

Neil - in your position, I don't buy any talk about not understanding graphs. But for light relief, go to a search engine of your choice - I'll assume Googley - click on images and search for "funny graphs". It amused me for minutes. Some favourites were:

The binary graph is geek-tastic.

Had to do some google research for the Binary one..........