FLM Garmin Stats

It's a 'man thing', everyone needs a gadget and mine is a Garmin 301 to collect statistics for my runs. Here are the statistics from Sunday. The things I see are, I was on track for 3:30 for the first half but then I slow down in the second half. My heartrate slows in the second half as well. If I could just keep it going, ummm, maybe next time!!!

The Flora London Marathon 2007

Preparation is everything. I had prepared my bag of things to take, I had checked train times, I even prepared my porridge oats the night before. What I did not prepare for was car parking and train tickets. So at 7am after following the worlds slowest driver into Epsom, I zoomed into the NCP carpark opposite Epsom train station, only to zoom back out again minutes later when I saw the £20.00 parking charge. Over to the Ashley Centre, ticket, park, 1/4 mile run around the block across Epsom to the Train Station, Queue up for ticket machine. Why is everyone taking an age to get a ticket? Choose a ticket, pay. Can't pay, machine doesn't take money, arghhhhh, jump over to other machine, get ticket and a pocket full of pound coins. Run for the platform, up the stairs. Wrong platform, back down, up the other stairs. At last, on the train. The train is full of marathoners, its more packed than a normal commuter train, but not as nearly as packed as the Waterloo to Blackheath train!

The Blue starters village is massive, so many toilets, such long queues, everyone milling about last preparations, vaseline, talc, body glide. Gulping down lucozade or water. Stretching, not alot of jogging around going on. Tannoy booming and time passing too quickly. I got my timing chip taped on properly, met and lost Graham (DMVAC runner) and joined Pen 4.

Pen 4 is for people who think they will complete the run in 3:30, my target time. Its a stretch of road fenced off with builders temporary mesh fencing. Now I don't know much about 'pen etiquette', but I would have thought that a line of men weeing through the fence was unusual, maybe 'continental', certainly 'alfresco' and a great laugh for the spectators the other side of the fencing as all they could see was a line of willies! I had to join them I am afraid to say. Then worried I was going to get held back I ran forward to catch up with the pen 4 people, but I went too far and looking around I saw pen 2 people. So I found myself going over the start line about 30 seconds after the leaders.

The whole run was crowded, but I always had enough space to run, the occasional 'on your left' helped and care at drinks stations was needed. In the first few miles my mouth was dry and I was getting hot. When the first drinks station came I took the bottle, swigged a gulp and poured the rest over my head. The effect was immediate and I felt cooler. I continued to do this for the whole course, the downside was that my trainers filled up with water but I was cooled. Later on I remembered Andy Fays advice and poured water on the backs of my legs to help the cramping I felt.

After a few miles I was not feeling too good. My head was saying, 'your not going to make it' and 'what excuse could I have for stopping?' Somewhere around 10 miles this changed, I was feeling OK, and my head had stopped thinking of excuses. The crowds were amazing, it was like a wall of clapping and cheering and 'come on Andy shouts'. I looked around and saw someone with Andy on his vest.

Tower Bridge came along and I looked around the sea of faces for my brother but could not see him. A mile later I heard, 'Come on Dorking', looked over to see a familiar face cheering. It's great to hear a cheer like that, I heard the same cheer at least 4 times around the course. A big thank you to all of you that came out and cheered.

Around 14 miles I saw elite women coming back and then the elite men with the timing car out front. A cheer went up for them as they cruised past. We still had to go around the Isle of Dogs! When I came back along that road I sure did not look so good. By this time I had started to feel cramping in my legs, nothing lasting, nothing to stop me, just a quick tight feeling in my leg muscles.

30km came along and then 35km. Now I was reaching the same distance as my longest training runs. This was the time that my legs felt the pain, my hips hurt and my feet felt heavy. Just a few more miles to go. I had used the last of my energy gels and just needed to keep going. Somewhere along here I expected to see Sarah, Oliver and Daniel. I kept listening out and looking into the crowd but did not see them. The 25 mile marker went past and it was now the final mile and some shade as I ran along Birdcage Walk. Round the corner and another cramp. 'Legs don't fail me now'. 200 yards to go, the finish in sight. I had made it, the clock clicked past 3:44 and I sped up to make it before 3:45. There was Sarah and the kids. It was so great to see them, great to share this moment.

What's it all about?

It was all about wanting to finish in 3:30, a medal, aching legs, loosing the ability to 'do' stairs and leaving my mark.

Check out the results:

http://live.london-marathon.co.uk/2007/

Flora London Marathon 2007 Results
Name MR CURTIS, ANDREW B (GBR)
Runner No.: 24579 Club Dorking & Mole Valley

10 km 0:49:11
20 km 1:41:31
half 1:47:15
30 km 2:36:06
40 km 3:32:10
finish 3:43:46



Position (overall) 5832
Position (gender) 5015 out of 24814
Position (age group) 681 out of 3966
Finish time 3:43:46


You have to see this: http://www.realbuzz.com/en-gb/Your_pictures_and_videos/index?pageID=3174&ht_do=view&id=130

Runners Number

Here it is. Dah dahhhhhh. Months of training, a morning at Excel in London to pick it up from the FLM Expo and here it is. My Runners Number. Number 24579, Blue start, pen 4. Next stop Greenwich. The small round thing in the top left is the Championchip that will be laced into my shoe and provide me with my marathon time.

But whats that in the bottom right? It's from the goodie bag and what does that say, 'for breast feeding mothers'? Is there something about marathon running I don't know? Maybe its time to tell you the 'Marathon Runners Secret'.

The Marathon Runners Secret
One of the consequences of running for a longtime is chafing and I know from a previous marathon that the parts on me that chafe are my nipples. I discovered this when I got in the shower after the New Forest Marathon. 'Ohhhhhh', I said, 'thats strange, my nipples feel like they have been worn right off'! So I took a look, and hey, they had been. So to take care of my newly recovered nipples, I will treat them and use the FLM goodie bag item.


3 days to go. Am I nervous? Yep, too right I am. I'm as ready as I could be, but is that ready enough? Probably, but my stomache is churning and all my thoughts are about Sunday.

The State of the Toes Address to the Nation

My Fellow Runners, Americans & Human Beings .....

For those that have suffered my boring 'goings on', I frequently tell people about my toes. Well one particular toe actually. My left big toe. It's a beasty and I do not like it. It's somehow, maybe injury, I don't know, but its gone and got itself Arthritis and basically doesn't bend. It bugs me a lot and it is very tender, so if anyone knocks it, I cry like a baby. But the other toes have been given a bit of a battering recently with the long runs over the tracks of Boxhill and are beginning to form a 'toe union', joined by their common suffering. A couple of toes on the right have 'gone to join the dark side'. They went like this last September after the New Forest marathon and never really got back to normal.

So on Sunday I will be rubbing Pain relief gel into the my big toe joint and will do battle with the toes. I will pound them, I will stub them and I will expect them to do their best.

'Toes, failure is not an option, you will not complain, you will not let me down. Remember, pain is only temporary'.

Training Update

Its time to taper, and I have wholeheartedly committed myself to tapering. 8km on Tuesday and 10km on Thursday. But the 10km on Thursday was with the club and with a group, not having run in a group for sometime now it was good to do it again. I felt good, not tired, and ran faster than I would on my own. Did intend to run on the weekend but did not do that either. Well I did run around a Lake in flipflops looking for the kids who were late for a tennis lesson!

Back in December I blogged. 'Yippee', 'I've got a London Marathon entry'. Today I will blog, 'yippee ..... the training is over!' The last long run is done. The last 22miler was last weekend and I thought that was it, but this week was a 15 miler. Thats a 2:10 run not a 3:10 run, but still not a short distance. So again I procrastinated until the last minute and then did the run. This is me at the end of it. See the 'yippee' in me? See the joy of having done a long run? No? Nah, nor do I. All I see is relief that these long runs are over. Its not all been like that though. I did look forward to the long runs early on in the training. But after 2 20 milers and 2 22 milers, I now feel relieved its over. Next long run is London in 2 weeks. Why blog this? So that when I read these posts after I have signed up to another marathon I will be reminded of the amount of willpower, the amount of motivation that I need, just to do the training. They say the training is the hardest part and right now I hope it is.

2 weeks to go then. 2 weeks to fend off the viruses and illnesses that all around me have. 2 weeks to think positive and build up energy for the day.

Bring it on !