Sunday 27 March 2011

Cambridge to Ely

Today marks the start of British summer time.  After a glorious week of great weather and clear blue skies, the weekend weather has been a bit bland.  A blanket of light grey cloud seems to have enveloped the country.  I had been looking forward to a long run in spring like conditions, but it felt like we were still in the tail end of winter.  At least it wasn't pouring with rain and windy.

I had decided that today I'd run along the River Cam all the way to Ely.  It's a run that I do maybe 3 or 4 times a year.  In the winter the ground conditions can be too boggy in places, and in the summer many stretches can be over grown with nettles.  Spring and autumn are usually just right.  From my house it's about 17 miles to Ely rail station.  I wanted to do a little more than that so I started by running a lap of Coldham's Common and then Stourbridge Common before reaching the river and following it all the way to Ely.

There were many rowers out on the Cam first thing, along with marshals lining the bank.  It seemed to be mostly scullers preparing for a head of river event.  I was obviously a little early to catch any real action.  I think all of the rowers were from various town clubs rather than the University.  Given that Cambridge lost The Boat Race yesterday, I'm sure most University rowing clubs would still be in mourning.

Scullers on the Cam

Once I was beyond the A14 bridge (which you can see in the picture above) the river banks were deserted.  I didn't see anyone else for the next two miles, which brought me to Waterbeach.

Boathouses and river bridge at Waterbeach

The stretch of river to Waterbeach is the most familiar to me.  I often run this as a quick 10.5 mile run before breakfast on a Tuesday morning.  It's also the prettiest stretch of river.  The landscape is fairly sparse north of Waterbeach, and can seem very bleak when the weather is foul.  Today it was fairly tranquil, but could have benefitted from a blue sky.  Hopefully, the next time I do this run, which could be next week, conditions will be better for me to take some photos.

The 10 miles, or so, of footpath from Waterbeach to Ely is mostly along the top of a flood prevention bank.  If you haven't taken any consideration of the wind direction, it can be pretty miserable to find yourself running into a head wind all the way, given that you're reasonably high above the surrounding landscape and very exposed.  I know this from experience as a few years ago I decided to get the train to Ely and then run back to Cambridge.  On that occasion I found myself running right into the path of a fierce wind all the way home.  I'd like to think it's a mistake that I won't make again.

From Waterbeach there are a small number of man made landmarks that can act as mile markers on the journey to Ely.  At Waterbeach Bridge I cross the river the run on the east bank until reaching Bottisham Lock a mile down river. Here I cross back to the west side.  There's then a 5 mile stretch of wilderness before reaching a road crossing at Dimmock's Cote.  A fairly unremarkably bridge on what must be one of the quietest A roads in the county.


Dimmock's Cote Road Bridge
About a mile and a half further on the River Cam joins the Great River Ouse, at which point a footbridge crosses the Ouse.  Usually it is possile to make out Ely Cathedral from here.  And although I could just make out its outline on the horizon, it wasn't clear enough for my camera to distinguish it from the cloud.

Just after crossing the bridge I came across a group of dog walkers, the only people I'd seen for miles.  I don't know what their dogs were, but they were pretty big.  As I approached I spotted them looking over their shoulder, and they had clearly seen me.  None of them made any attempt to pull to one side of the path as I passed them, leaving me to run in potentially ankle twisting rough ground to the side of the path.  Neither did they do anything about keeping their dogs under control.  As I ran on, both dogs bounded after me getting way closer than I was happy with.  I had visions of receiving a dog bite just a couple of miles from Ely and three weeks before the biggest marathon of the year.  Fortunately, no harm was done, but I do detest dog owners who can't control their dogs, or who think it's ok for their beloved pets to 'play' with strangers.  I wonder how many dog owners have shouted "it's ok, he doesn't bite", just before their mutt sinks his teeth into the ankle of an innocent passer by.

Gripe over.  As I ran on Ely Cathedral grew every larger on the horizon.  As you reach the end of the river footpath on the outskirts of Ely, the railway station is immediatley to your left.  I was very tempted to stop my run at that point, but I had only run a little way over 18 miles.  So I carried on along the river into the heart of Ely, turning away from the river to run through the Jubilee Gardens and up hill to the Cathedral.

Ely Cathedral
I then did a complete circuit of the outside of the Cathedral and then headed back to the railway station, resulting in a total distance run of about 19.5 miles.  Good enough for me.

Typically, trains weren't running to Cambridge today due to engineering works but I only had a short wait for the replacement bus service.  I had just enough time to buy a drink and flapjack, and have a stretch.  The bus journey back home was much slower than the train and, annoyingly, went within 100m of my front door, but the driver wasn't allowed to let anyone off until we reached Cambridge rail station.  I managed to get my legs to work again for the short 1.2 mile jog back to my house.  I'm now aware that the short stretch I had at Ely station wasn't perhaps enough.  My legs are complaining a little bit.  I think I'll be deligent and sign off now and do some more stretching, otherwise work could be tough tomorrow.


Saturday 26 March 2011

Long Overdue Update

It's been almost two weeks since my last update, so I'm going to try to keep this blog fairly brief.  After completing the Bedford Clanger I rewarded myself with a bit of a rest week.  But, of course, my interpretation of a rest week might be different to most people.

The day after the marathon I found myself running with a new personal training client.  On the Monday morning my legs felt a lot stiffer than they had from the previous two marathons, but I knew that I'd be able to get them to function after a little warm-up.  So I arrived at the park where I was due to meet my new client in plenty of time for a walk, building to a brisk walk and then a jog.  My legs creaked and complained at first, but once they were moving everything seemed fine.  Not that I wouldn't have preferred a day on the sofa.

I also ran with my marathon client on the Tuesday.  Once again my legs were a bit creaky in the morning and another warm-up was required before meeting with my client.  But again, once things were moving my legs felt pretty good.  Just as well.  My client is showing considerable improvement.  When he first started his training with me his fast run was a little faster than my jog (no offence Matthew!).  These days I have to do some proper running to keep up with him.  I can see our regular Tuesday evening appointments growing in intensity for me as the year progresses and as the marathons build up.

It was also on this day that my final race day instructions for the London Marathon arrived.  I'm sure that many thousands of people up and down the country would have been opening the same instructions on the same day, all with varying degrees of excitement and nerves.  Many of my friends immediately updated their Facebook status with news of the arrival of their race day information packs.  I'm sure some people would have been trying to read significance into their allocated race number (it's the same as my date of birth - must be lucky, and that sort of thing).  Out of interest (or perhaps not) my number is the very memorable 32795. 

It's impossible to think of London as just another marathon.  Even though I've known I've had a place in London for months, the arrival of the final instructions was very exciting.  There are many marathon runners out there who consider London to be too big and too crowded to be really enjoyable.  I say bah humbug to you.  No other marathon in this country generates anywhere near the same level of excitement.  I've run plenty of other marathons that have been friendlier, or prettier or more rewarding in terms of sense of achievement (i.e. they were really bloody tough), but London tops them all for atmosphere.  Also, and this is rather unfortunate, but in the eyes of non runners you gain far more kudos for completing London compared to any other marathon.  This will be my fourth London Marathon and I am very excited about the prospect of lining up on Blackheath Common ready to run around our capital one more time.  Followed by meeting with friends to share our race times and stories in Horse Guards Parade.  Your heart pounds with excitement as you pass crowds of spectators at the busiest landmarks: Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge and then the entire length of Victoria Embankment for the last two miles to the finish.  I can feel my heart rate rise just thinking about as I write this.  Bring it on!  Of course, there's still plenty of training that needs to be done before the big day.

By Wednesday morning following the Bedford Clanger my legs felt like they were back to normal.  That evening I was running with the Sweaty Betty Running Club.  So, as you can see, my supposed rest week began by running on three consecutive days.  I then followed this by having a kettlebell workout on Thursday and my hour one to one Pilate's with Holly on Friday, before finally having a complete rest day on Saturday.

And how did I spend my rest day?  Saturday 19th March felt like the proper first day of spring.  The sun was shinning and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  It would have been great to have spent the day outdoors.  However, it was also Super Saturday, the last day of the Six Nations Championships.  With three marathons under my belt I felt I deserved some R&R in a pub with friends whilst watching all three games.  I also found that I actually had an interest in all of the matches.  The first game was Scotland versus Italy.  As Italy had only just shocked the rugby world with their win over France the previous week I was really hoping they would also beat the Scots, just so they could go out with two wins to their name.  The result was 21-8 to Scotland.  Doh!

Next up it was Ireland against England.  England had so far won all four of their previous games.  A win would mean a Grand Slam victory and their first in eight years.  I had a horrible feeling before the game that Ireland would raise their game to beat England, especially as the match was being held in Dublin.  Result: 24-8 to Ireland.  Double doh!

Finally, France versus Wales.  Could Wales provide further humiliation to French pride?  No.  Result: 28-9 to France.

So after a day in the pub, all three rugby games resulted in a loss for the teams that I was supporting.  Never mind.  It made a change from running and I got to spend a lot of time with friends that I rarely see these days.

I've been back into proper training since then.  In brief, a mere 6 mile run last Sunday, followed by 8 miles on Tuesday and 9 miles on Thursday.  I'm aiming to run about 18 miles tomorrow.  I did also do three runs with clients or as part of the Sweaty Betty night, but I'm not including these as parts of my training this week.  I'm selective as to when I add these to my weekly total!  I was going to go to Park Run this morning.  But I woke with a tiny hint of a hangover after having 3 pints last night.  I'm such a lightweight.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Bedford Clanger Marathon

I'm not sure which is the biggest relief.  Completing the third marathon of the year or England's narrow victory over Scotland in the Six Nations.  Why is it Scotland can always raise their game to give England a hard time?  Of course, I know why.  They still hold a grudge for 100s of years of English rule.   The rugby this weekend has thrown up a surprising win for Italy over France (who would have predicted that?), a controversial win for Wales over Ireland and a narrow victory for England in a frustrating game.

I had to make another sacrifice at the weekend in the name of my ambitious target.  A friend was holding his 39th birthday party last night, complete with samba band with which he is a member.  Ruth and I popped along for a brief period of time and had one drink before returning home for an early night.  I would have liked to have stayed longer.  I enjoyed the brief bit of samba that I heard, but was glad I took my ear plugs.

I can't imagine that anyone else at the party last night got to see 6:45am this morning, unless they were just on their way home.  That's the time that I got up so that I could have my breakfast and get my kit organised ready to leave for Bedford at 7:45am to ensure I was there in time to start the race at 9am.  I was there in plenty of time, along with many more other competitors than I had expected.  The start line itself was very vague, in that there didn't seem to be one.  Everyone just gathered outside the registration tent and when 9 o'clock arrived we were set off on our way.


Competitors gathering outside the registration tent

The start of the race was at Box End Watersports Centre to the west of Bedford.  From here it headed more or less due north across a mixture of road and trail to the village of Stevington, where we'd pass through the first checkpoint at about mile 5.  Competitors quickly became very spread out after the first couple of miles, and I almost missed a turn, but was shouted by a runner behind me (thanks, whoever you were).  At the first checkpoint I was overtaken by a group of five runners.  I was taking advantage of the Jaffa cakes that were on offer, but the group behind me just carried on running through the checkpoint.

After the checkpoint the marathon followed the course of the Great River Ouse for about a mile, before once again joining back onto tarmac at a pretty little bridge. 


Bridge over the River Ouse at about mile 6.

At this point we were mostly heading due east around the north edge of Bedford.  We passed through pockets of countryside and several housing estates.  There has been much development in this area, to such an extent that my photocopied map was completely unreliable, and even the race instructions were out of date at one point.  Whilst trying to make sense of the instructions I was caught once again by the group of five runners who had previously passed me at checkpoint 1, and who I'd then overtaken.  We had a group discussion before reaching a decision about which way we should go.  At this point I decided I'd stick with the group, rather than risk getting lost on my own.

It was also at about this point that I realised I'd made an error in my choice of running shoe.  After running the Cambridge Boundary Marathon in road shoes and regretting not wearing trail shoes, I opted to wear my trail shoes this time, on the advice of the organisers, which proved to be a mistake.  The sections of the route that were on trail were very firm underfoot, and there were considerably sections on tarmac.  We hadn't reached halfway and my feet were feeling mashed.  Life would be so much simpler if I didn't have a choice of shoe.

We continued eastwards until we reached the third checkpoint at the village of Salph End, and roughly the halfway point of the marathon.  From here we started to make our way south around the east end of Bedford.  We ran through some fairly uninspiring countryside, passed underneath the busy A421 Trunk Road, and around the artificial landscape created by the Willington gravel pits and then started heading westwards towards the village of Cardington and checkpoint 4 at 19 miles.


At checkpoint 4 - mile 19

As we left Cardington I noticed the village sign, which included a picture of an airship.  Was this the centre of airship construction, I wondered?  A kilometre or so further on my question was answered as we passed two enormous airship hangers.  A google search has confirmed this to be the case.  The R-31 and R-32 airships were built here in 1915.  Airship construction continued at the site until the late 1920s.  It was here that the R101 was built.  But when that airship crashed in October 1930 all airship construction ceased.  In the late 1930s the site became a centre for the construction of barrage balloons and the No.1 RAF Balloon Training Unit.  I bet you never expected to get such an education from this blog.

Shortly after seeing the airship sheds we headed north, passing underneath the A421 once more and then through a large section of residential streets to the southwest of Bedford.  I have to say that this part of the course was fairly uninspiring, and the group I was with thought that it would have been better if we'd run the course anti-clockwise to get through this section earlier on.  However, we soon reached the final checkpoint at mile 23.5, and from here we had a fairly scenic run along the banks of the River Ouse all the way to Church End, which was then just a few hundred metres from the finish back at Box End Watersports Centre.


Marathon number 3 done.

I crossed the finish line in something like 3 hours and 50 minutes.  My Garmin tells me that I ran a little over 27 miles.  The group I had run the majority of the marathon with mostly finished at the same time.  At the finish the organisers were ready to offer us tea or coffee, and there was a huge pile of home made cake to tuck into.  There were also a few mini clangers - a Bedford variation on the pastie, which have a meat filling at one end and a sweet filling at the other.  We had pork and apple in our mini clangers.

On the whole, I'd say that this was an enjoyable marathon to do, but not for first timers.  It was tough, and the need to self navigate adds a level of complexity you don't get at larger marathons.  However, it's certainly good value for money at £9.75.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Countdown to Marathon Number 3

Just three days now until the third marathon of the year.  I seem to be back on track after last Thursday's scare.  Earlier in the week I still wondered whether I'd be able to run a marathon this Sunday, but after a weekend of rest and ice, and a sports massage on Monday, all now seems to be ok. 

I ran on Tuesday evening without any problem, but I was reluctant to run hard.  Then I ran again on Wednesday evening with the Sweaty Betty girls, performing my role as coach, and I was completely unaware of anything being wrong with my knee.  It's been a fairly uneventful week otherwise.

The next marathon, the delightfully named Bedford Clanger, should be a low key affair.  It doesn't even have an exact start time.  Anyone wishing to walk the route are instructed to start before 8.30am.  Runners are told that they should start after 9.00am and before 9.30am.  There are five checkpoints that we must run through, other than that there will be no marshals on the course and the route will not be marked in any way.  Competitors need to find their own way around by following written instructions.

I'm not a fan of following instructions in writing.  I personally prefer to follow a map.  So I intend to buy the OS map for Bedford tomorrow, make a photocopy of the relevant section and draw on the marathon route.  I also aim to  start at about 9.15, assuming that slower runners will want to start first, giving me the chance to chase down and overtake people.  I'll pull alongside and have a brief chat as I do so.  I'm also aiming to take the marathon a lot easier than the last two.  I dare say that stopping to read either the instructions or the map will slow me down anyway.  I've been telling friends that I intend to get a PW this time (a personal worst).  My plan is to take a little over 4 hours, but it might be a tall order expecting me to slow down to that time. 

Bedford, here I come.

Sunday 6 March 2011

I'm Not Invincible After All

On Thursday this week I received a warning that I need to look after myself more.  I know I'm not immune to injury, but I did have a belief that I have a fairly strong and resilient body that can take quite a bit of punishment before becoming injured.  I expected to feel a few little aches and pains on the way to running 12 marathons this year, but I really believed that I'd get at least halfway through the year before noticing any ill effects.  Unfortunately, I've had what I hope will only be a minor twinge much earlier in the year than expected.

Immediately after the marathon last week all felt good.  I felt a little stiff in the legs on Monday, which is perfectly normal after a long, hard run.  On Tuesday everything felt pretty normal.  Wednesday I ran with the Sweaty Betty Running Club, the first run following the marathon, and my legs felt fine.  I also ran with a client Thursday lunchtime, again, all felt good.  Then Thursday evening, whilst training a client mostly with kettlebells, I demonstrated a jumping lunge and got a sudden sharp pain right under my left knee cap.  Ouch!  It's been feeling a little painful ever since, although it has felt a little better with each passing day.

I've been resting as much as possible ever since, along with icing and plenty of foam rolling for my quads.  I believe I've over loaded my outer quad muscle (the vastus lateralis) which caused a brief spasm causing the muscle to tighten up and then pull my patella out of alignment causing the pain in my knee.  If I'm correct it should be relatively easy to fix.  I have a sports massage appointment booked for tomorrow.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll still be able to run my third marathon next weekend.  I'm also applying a gel to my knees called Regenovex.  It's a new product that is suppose to help with lubrication of joints.  I'm a little sceptical, but willing to try anything.  I liked their strap line on the packaging: "because movement should be a pleasure".  Indeed!

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Official Race Result for Cambridge Boundary Marathon

Just thought I'd do a quick update of my finishing time from Sunday's marathon as the results are now posted on the event website.  My official time is 3 hours 24 minutes 21 seconds.

The six minute discrepancy between the time I thought I had run and the official time is because I'd had my Garmin set on auto stop mode.  So every time I stopped to cross a road, or the time to climb over a style, or the time I stopped to chat to my friends halfway would have resulted in the stopwatch pausing.  So I spent about 6 minutes during the run not going forward.

I've been resting up since Sunday.  If you can call teaching three kettlebell classes and meeting with five personal training clients resting.  I certainly felt more tired on Monday than I did after Gloucester Marathon.  The amount of mud involved on Sunday definitely made it a much harder marathon to run.  I'm quite surprised that there isn't a bigger difference between the times for my first two marathons.