Bare Foot Running And Shakepeare Marathon (As A Supporter)

[The following entry should have been uploaded on Friday 13 May.  The blogger site was down at the time.  I will hopefully add another update later today]

What happened to the last week?  I can’t believe that over a week has gone by since I last updated this blog.  I’ve had to look through my training diary to see what I’ve been up to.  The answer is very little.  I’ve only run four times in the last 11 days. 

My first training run following my previous blog was a week last Tuesday (3 May).  Inspired by the book Born To Run, I decided to have a go at bare foot running.  My plan was to do some interval training with the aim of doing 8 x 800m intervals.  I headed to Coldham’s Common with the intention of running the first six intervals flat out in running shoes and the last two as fast as was comfortable with bare feet.  I wore my oldest pair of trainers so that my feet wouldn’t be too cushioned prior to going bare foot. 

For anyone interested in my 800m times, the average time for my first six intervals was 2 minutes 44 seconds.  Not bad given that it was just over two weeks after London marathon and on grass.

When I took my running shoes off and took my first steps in bare feet on the grass it felt fairly invigorating.  A layer of early morning dew covered the grass, which was nice and cooling on my feet.  My feet seemed to immediately splay out more than usual and cool, wet grass tickled the space between my toes.  As I set off for my seventh 800m interval I was instantly aware that my running style had changed, although it didn’t feel completely unnatural.  I was also aware that I would not be able to run anywhere near as fast without my shoes.  At first the grass seemed to provide a reasonable level of cushioning.  However, before I was even half way through the 800m piece I was very aware of each bump and hollow in the hard baked ground just below the soft layer of grass.  But even so, it wasn’t a wholly uncomfortable feeling.  It still felt reasonably liberating to be running without shoes.  Without the benefit of shoes I ran an 800m interval in a time of 3 minutes 27 seconds, although time wasn’t really the objective.  The point of bare foot running should be to help strengthen the arch of the foot, which in itself should then provide more natural cushioning for the rest of the body.

On my second attempt at running 800m bare foot I knocked 10 seconds off my previous lap time, but I also felt as if I had reached my absolute limit of bare foot running for one day.  When I slipped back into my old pair of running shoes with their negligible cushioning I started my cool down run for home, I felt as if I was running on clouds.  I couldn’t believe how soft these old trainers now felt.  It made me wonder if I really need to replace my running shoes as often as I do, which in itself is not as often as shoe manufacturers recommend.

I vowed to have another go at bare foot running, but next time I might reduce the amount I do to just 2 x 400m.

Following my bare foot running experience my next run came later the same day with one of my clients, although I never include this as part of my weekly mileage total.  I then ran with the Sweaty Betty running club the following evening, which I do include with my weekly total.  This might seem contradictory, but I justify this on the grounds that I do end up running for pretty much a whole hour and my pace varies all the time. 

Other than my Pilate’s session with Holly on Friday, I did no other training for the remainder of the week.   I feel rather lazy admitting to this, but looking at my work diary for the previous week, I had no other opportunities for fitting in a training session.

At the weekend Ruth and I went to Stratford-upon-Avon to meet two of our best friends, Kate and Ron.  The main reason for the trip was to support Ron in his first marathon.  He had entered the Shakespeare marathon and followed a training plan that I set for him.  Kate had been sending me regular emails to keep me up to date on Ron’s progress.  He largely followed my advice to the letter and had lost about 1.5 stone in weight in the process.  Ron is in his mid 50s, has a heart condition for which he is on medication and has never been a regular runner.  From the progress he had been making during his training, I had figured that a 5 hour marathon should be realistic, so I set this as his target.

The four of us were staying with Kate’s sister in Warwick, just a short drive from Stratford.  Ruth and I were both instantly impressed by Ron’s weight loss when we set eyes on him Saturday morning.  The results were clearly visible.  He also seemed more excited than nervous about the prospect of running his first marathon.

In order to make the most of our trip to Stratford, and to ensure Ron spent the day before the marathon not doing much, I had booked tickets to see the RSC production of Macbeth in the newly revamped Royal Shakespeare Theatre.  We were all very impressed by the new theatre, which is like a round theatre with the seats almost encircling a central stage, with exits and entrances for the actors along walkways alongside seats in the audience as well as from a stage at one end of the theatre.  The production itself was what you’d expect from the RSC, with great acting, a few surprises and lots of blood and gore.  My one gripe was that the director had drastically cut out much of the three witches and replaced the witches by children.  There was no “double, double, toil and trouble” scene, and instead of referring to the weird sisters, the actors had to change their lines to reference the “weird children”, which just didn’t sound right to me.  Anyway, what do I know?  I’m just a simple personal trainer and probably shouldn’t be expressing my views on the arts.

The start of the Shakespeare Marathon

Come marathon day I was going to cycle around the course to cheer Ron on at various points, whilst Kate and Ruth drove between a couple of points to see Ron a total of four times.  Some 3600 people had entered the event, but the vast majority of runners were just doing the half-marathon option.  All runners set off at the same time, and those doing the full marathon had to run the half-marathon course twice.  As it happens, this was my first marathon back in 2004, so I knew how dispiriting it could be to set off for the second lap of the course as all the half marathon runners were finishing their run.  This was why I had decided to cycle the course and to give Ron as much encouragement as possible.



Ron at the 5 mile point

From my perspective, it was great to be playing the support role for a change rather than being the runner.  As a fellow runner on the sidelines I made a point of cheering on all the other runners as much as possible, rather than simply focusing on my friend.  I did end up getting a few comments of gratitude from other participants, some of whom I spotted several times and who had started to recognise me.  I did also have one other person to cheer on, as one of the Sweaty Betty ladies, Helle, was also running in her first marathon.  However, she was considerably faster than Ron, so it was quite a challenge to see Helle, wait to see Ron, and then jump on my bike to get to another point on the course before Helle passed and to wait once again for Ron.  So, although I wasn’t running, I still felt as if I had a reasonable workout. 

High spirits with 2 miles to go

Ron and Helle both ran great first marathons.  I last saw Helle at 22 miles.  I cycled alongside her for about half a mile and we exchanged a few words.  The entire time I was alongside her she passed several runners.  She was flying, whilst all around her seemed to be suffering.  Evidence enough that she had plenty of reserves and probably could have gone faster, she ended up finishing in almost bang on 4 hours.  After saying goodbye to Helle I returned to the 22 mile point to wait for Ron.  He was clearly feeling the miles, but was still making great progress.  I’d cheer him on, leapfrog him and give him another cheer a mile down the road.  I continued to do this all the way to the finish.  Ron had seemed to be suffering a little from mile 22 to 25, but when he rounded the corner on to the finishing straight he looked like a man with limitless energy.  He actually managed a sprint finish and overtook another runner in the last 50 meters who had seemed way beyond his reach at the point he rounded the last bend.  Ron’s finishing time was 4 hour 45 minutes, 15 minutes ahead of target.  I was really impressed by his effort, he did himself proud.

Ron's finishing sprint

Since Sunday, I’ve only managed one significant run.  On Tuesday I did an 8 mile run and included a 2 mile fast stretch at a 6 minute mile pace.  I then ran again with the Betties on Wednesday.  I’ve done a little bit of kettlebelling on Monday and Thursday this week, but each time I was aware of my shoulder injury from the week before London marathon, so I didn’t push it too much.  I have a sports massage booked in for next week, so I’m hoping this might help relieve it.

Tomorrow I plan to have a go at the 5k Cambridge Park Run.  It’s been quite a while since I last did Park Run.  It will be interesting to see how I get on.