RW Forum Six - Sub 3:30

Great news O4S!

AA/O4S I'm not sure if I'm going to get he train down or drive yet.  If I drive I'll pick you up from the airport, but I think I'll end up on the train because it saves parking all weekend.  There's the metro that runs straight from the airport to the city centre and the restaurant I have in mind for lunch is mins walk for the station.  What time is everyone else arriving?

O4S - great news. Show us the pic of you on the trolley with the torch....

AA - water? Is that a mixer?

Steak and beer for me tonight. Oops pissed again  

Minni - how did you get on at tri club tonight?

Phew, just finished catching up. Landed back on Weds but was zonked through jet lag and then work has been mental since so apologies for the silence. Race report to follow, but catching up with everyone elses news.

O4S - yeay for the good news.

Chick, Gazelle, great marathons well done both of you. Chick, I'm amazed you're running again already I'm still finding stairs sore although the knees seem better now.

Bro, fantastic half marathon PB. It's looking good for you for NY.

DD, nice bling.

Also well done to the ultra runners.

ST, that sounds v scary. Recovery seems to be going well, hope that continues.

*Waves to USB*. Good to see you pop in. How's everything going for you?

I'm sure that there's lots more I've missed in a week's worth of posts so apologies to anything I've missed.

Bro - I am excited for you!  New York is brilliant, you've probably heard it all before but the whole weekend is immense - the build up, the parade, the fireworks, watching the sunrise over the city horizon as you make your way to the start, the atmosphere at the start, crossing the start line and the uphill mile across the Veranzano-Narrows bridge, downhill second mile into Brooklyn and the crowd support starts, look out for all the cool signs people have, then Queens, then a bit of Manhattan, then The Bronx, and back to Manhattan where you get to Central Park... I want to go again!  SO jealous.  Stay calm during the taper, don't ruin all the hard work you've done.

Isn't being afraid of the scale a part of taper madness 2old?

Appendicitis Minni? I think you'd be having it removed by now... maybe you've caught Daren's stitch? I've had stitches that have lasted a few days - came on during a run and I've just struggled on with it, then it's come back whenever I've run as if I've pulled something.  I think Daren posted something on here a while back about stretched internal ligaments or something like that...

FRTC you make ultras sound like fun (even with a dodgy knee!)  How have you felt since? Sore? Tired?

AA I'll probably go up to Newcastle on the Sunday morning, yes I'm staying on Sunday night and have Monday off work!  I can always come up to Newcastle on the Saturday too if you're all having lunch? White Lightning?  That reminds me of cider drinking teenage days....  

Good to see you back Becs   Summary of the last week: everyone doing GER on Sunday is now drinking blood and urine to prepare for the race.

Must give MT a try then   I did something I haven't done for years tonight - ran with my ipod  4 miles easy, had a bit of CNBA after work so stuck a bit of Kasabian on and had a good run.  I could listen to stuff when running!  Or if all else fails, put it on in my car when I'm driving all over at work. 

Who is coming to TM, whether running or getting pissed *ahem* I mean, 'manning the water station'?  

Okay, so Chicago marathon. I think the story probably starts 2 years ago at Abingdon. I did 11 weeks of good, but not great, training in the build up to that. Then the week before I came down with a cold and had knee problems. I ran not feeling 100% well, and was running a good pace but maybe pushing a bit too hard, then knee started hurting at mile 16 and at mile 18 I was getting sharp knee pain plus felt shivery and dizzy so I tried to keep going to mile 19 then stopped.

Nearly 2 years on at Chicao and I did 12 weeks of training which I was really pleased with, then managed 1 week of good training in the next 6 due to sickness which I knew had put a big dent in my training. However there weren't any signs of injury problems.

Race day arrived and conditions were great. Cold but clear skies. I'd had some problems with my Garmin which had frozen that morning and then started giving me low battery warnings when I managed to reset it  but I had a backup stopwatch and I've run marathons without a garmin before so wasn't too worried about that. Enjoyed the American commentator hyping up the runners before the start. Things like "the Kenyans have only started 30 mins before you, go get them"!

First few miles were fabulous, surrounded by skyscrapers, running across the bridges over the river right in the heart of the city. Started around 10min mile pace, but I always start a bit slow. When I was still doing that 3 miles in tried to pick it up a bit and hit a nice 9:30 min mile pace which felt good and sustainable, with some miles coming in a bit quicker.

Scared to weigh yourself after all the pasta 2old.  Do we have a race number?  A time target?  Are you using for 'average lap'?

I've just though - there are no mile markers at Town Moor! 

Awaiting Becs' second half...

Then things started to go slightly wrong. Left knee niggled a little , but it sometimes does so kept running and the feeling went and I was running nice and consistently.

At 12 miles and nicely on track for around 4:10. Not a PB but given the illness I'll take that. Then things go more wrong. Right knee starts to hurt, and not just a bit, keep going hoping it'll ease like the left knee. Get to just before mile 13 and decide I'd rather lose a bit of time and make sure I finish so popped to the toilet and then the aid station. This was slightly difficult in itself since the 2 were on opposite sides of the course to each other so had to run straight across the middle with lots of runners bearing down on me. Only one collision  and thankfully no one ended up on the floor.  Aid station didn't have ibuprofen but gave me some biofreeze. Not sure that it helped at all. Lost about 3 mins on the stops in total but was still on for about 4:15.

Kept going for several more miles. Pace pretty consistently around 7:30 but slipping a bit as the knee got more painful so I wasn't fully using the right leg. Around mile 18 knee was so painful I had shooting pains up the side of that leg, back was tightening up not helped by running so lopsidedly and I had a pain in my stomach as well. I stopped to stretch to see if that helped. Start running again, no better. Dropped to a walk.

At this stage I felt very emotional, thought about this thread and Shaggy, about my grandmother who had died the week before the marathon and burst into tears. Dropping out wasn't an option though, due to this thread and also the support of the friends I was running with. I wasn't going to finish at this pace though. Forced myself back into a run. It temporarily felt a bit better, but after a couple of minutes was hurting badly again. Back into a walk, okay just walk for a minute no more and then run again, this time try to keep it going for 5 mins. Manageable although my knee was v sore towards the end of the 5. Through the 19 mile marker, that's further than Abingdon.

Basically stuck to the 5 mins run 1 min walk feeling very emotional for the rest of the race. Wasn't thinking about getting through the next mile, just the next 5 min block. The knee was painful but the walk breaks kept it manageable, and the pace felt okay when I actually was running. They started giving out bananas at the last few aid stations. This was a bit lethal as runners were dropping their rubbish in the middle of the road so I was trying not to skid on banana mush and skins!

Final push for the line and nearly got taken out by someone carrying a flag on a big wooden pole. Over the line in 4:24.16 and I've finished but feel so emotional and disappointed.

Minni - I didn't realise your pool was all downhill....

X post - great report Becs - sounds tough out there - well done for getting to the end - what's up with the knee then?

So how do I feel now. Much less disappointed. It was tough but I finished and I can be proud of that even if it's nearly 30 mins slower than my PB. I've also got a huge medal .

With the second marathon in a row affected by knee problems I wonder if my body is trying to tell me no more marathons. I can think of reasons for the problem - the flight, the camber on the road (neither of which my knees like) and not enough training in the last few weeks - but it worries me that can happen on the day with no warning beforehand. I don't need to decide immediately though as the plan is to scale down the running for a bit plus to mix it up with cycling as need to get on with sorting out my flat so I can sell it. Next target is a 10k in December in Regents Park to give me something to work towards without needing v high mileage.

Oh, and I love Chicago. It's a fantastic city, and despite my negative experience I'd recommend the marathon. Flat, enthusiastic crowds, lots of sights and 20 stations with both water/gatorade on offer plus gels, chews and those bananas at the later stations.

Oh Becs I'm nearly in tears here! You're an absolute star for finishing with an injury like that, marathons are horrendous when injuries rear their ugly head - that awful feeling of - I'm in so much pain and running is making it worse and want to stop running NOW but I've come all the way to bloody America to run a marathon and I'll be damned if I go home without a medal.  Please don't be hard on yourself, you have that determinaton inside you that you should be proud of.  You did especially well not slipping on all those banana skins! Have enough time off running until nothing hurts any more, take care x

x-post. Spoons, I think it's a mix of things including ITB, my back gets out of alignment and I also hyperextend sometimes. I've got orthotics, regularly see a chiro and do yoga and pilates which help keep me training injury free. I stretch and foam roller after every run. I do need to strenthen my quads more though as they're relatively weak compared to my calves - it's just finding the time! The day after the marathon the right knee was back to normal, 2 days after I was having problems with the left knee and couldn't even walk, now both knees seem fine again!

Becs:  Well done on toughing it out.  Take a break, do some cycling and see how you feel

Simon:  Broken Ankle had a suspected mini stroke earlier this year and was carted off to hospital where, after 6 hours of tests and being hooked up to monitors, they decided they didn't know what is was but it defo wasn't a stroke.  The symptom he had was wonky vision - diagonal black lines crossing his computer screen and random bits of text apeared to be missing.  In the end they thought it might have been a migraine, although he has never had one before.  That Friday he was sitting reading and his sight went funny again - text missing and no peripheral vision, so off we went.  While at the hospital it slowly improved but he got a killer headache, so again it could be migraine - but nobody really knows.

Any chance we could skip a lap at the TM without anyone noticing - it is the only way I will ever get sub 3.30?

AA:  Flying from Brissle indeed - the plane drops us off in Newcastle en route to Aberdeen.