1087 miles: my 2011 in running shoes

What started with a broken promise ended with mixed emotions. I knew that my 2011 in running shoes would be the biggest, toughest and hopefully the most rewarding yet, but I wasn’t ready for how it would finish.

Pivoting on the San Francisco Marathon, all my training, racing and writing was focussed on getting into the best possible shape to run one of the most brutal road marathons in the world. My madly overambitious plans to start with the Lochaber Marathon were sensibly sidelined in favour of the usual crop of half-marathons and parkruns in the first half of the year, including a brilliant weekend in Campbeltown for the MoKRun.

My annual tradition of PB’ing in Alloa despite (or perhaps because of) being violently sick entered its third year, modified only slightly this year by a rather more exciting end to the day. But before both of those was the last-minute slapdash effort at the Meadows ‘Marathon’ in Edinburgh, which of course was only really a half marathon, run over seven laps of the Meadows in Edinburgh.  It may interest you to know that the organisers are planning a full length-marathon for 2012, covering a soul-sucking fourteen lap course (details here). You won’t be seeing me there.

San Francisco loomed large and arrived on my doorstep at the end of July. With the miles in the bank, hills in my legs and a Union Jack on my chest I was ready to run the best race of my life, and was rewarded with a hugely satisfying 3:49 PB. I’ve wasted enough of your time already on eulogising about this incredible race – go back and read it all again if you’re interested.

I came back from the USA with an enormous medal and two more goals on the horizon. My commitment to run the Great North Run for the Alzheimer’s Society, coupled with my wild over-commitment to run it barefoot, made for a superb combination of a world-class event and another tough challenge complete. Two weeks later I toed my final start-line of the year, accompanying the one and only Ben A. Nicholson around the Loch Ness Marathon, to complete my fourth lifetime 26.2.

 It was a good year for meeting heroes. I met round-the-world runner and adventurer Rosie Swale Pope in Campbeltown before the MokRun, then elite ultramarathoner Michael Wardian and prolific marathoner Dane Rauschenberg in San Francisco, and finally world 5,000m champion and British Olympic hopeful Mo Farah in Newcastle before the Great North Run.  If you’re interested, Michael and Dane were the friendliest. Rosie was busy at a book signing but very kind. I think I might have annoyed Mo – he was out for a drink with some mates. Sorry Mo.

Mike Wardian (after winning the SF Marathon)

Mo Farah

I was delighted to publish articles in Runner’s World UK again this year, reviewing the Alloa Half Marathon, the MoKRun and the San Francisco Marathon.  RW has a readership of almost 400,000, which, as I’ve said before, is almost as many people as read this blog (pfft!).  I very much look forward to publishing more in future. It was also a joy to watch this blog's readership grow and diversify - thank you for sharing it as widely as you have, it means a great deal to me.

Perhaps best of all was watching others achieve and succeed. It was a pleasure to run with my brother the day of his wedding, a delight to see that my sister completed her first 10k, an honour to accompany (and eventually be beaten by) Ben Nicholson in his first marathon. I took a Dalmatian and her owner to the top of Arthur’s Seat. I trained with future marathon world champ Megan Crawford, when she slowed down enough for me to keep up. I even coaxed the Crew Chief out on one or two occasions. I ran in Scotland, England, Portugal, California and New York, covering a total of 1087 miles and wearing out two-and-a-half pairs of running shoes. Here are the final stats:

miles run: 1087, parkruns: 6, races: 6, 

miles biked: 159, metres swum: 1225

I had a great year.

Except the hernia bit. That was shit, and still is.  Not long after the Loch Ness Marathon I started experiencing a great deal of pain whilst running.  By early November it had become unbearable, so I hastened to my GP. She thought it was probably a hernia, and ordered a surgical consultation (which still hasn’t happened, by the way).  In the meantime my running has dwindled to almost nothing, and at times it seems genuinely impossible to think that I have trained for and completed two marathons and four half marathons this year, as well as a few hundred miles on the bike. At times, genuinely, I can barely walk.

Swings and roundabouts, eh?

Happy New Year

Dave

2012 to date: miles - 3 (painfully)

National Running Day

Today is National Running Day in the USA, and I’ve been thinking about what this will mean when I become King of Everything Important. As you might expect, it will mean a lot.

Public Information Broadcast: National Running Day – what this means for you in my brave new world

1.       There will be no work on NRD. Yes, good news, you can have the day off as a bank holiday. This won’t be one of those rubbish bank holidays that moves about erratically, or one where your employer reschedules your work pattern to stop you having it off. Literally everybody gets the day off. No exceptions. This will be the only day in the entire year when everyone is free (sort of free, see point 4). I may have to think of something clever to free up the doctors, nurses and other essential types – maybe I’ll fly in some French people to cover for them. Anyway, whatever happens, no work for you on NRD.

2.       By contrast, there will be lots of running in NRD. Up and down the country people will shun their cars and bikes and run everywhere, all day long. There will be races and fun runs and casual jogs and hill sessions and sprinting and trailrunning and ultramarathons and treadmills and babyjoggers and parkruns and freerunning and steeplechasing and barefoot running and relay races and backwards running and more or less any other type of running you can imagine. There will be so much running you won’t have time for anything but running. Running running running. That is what people will say.

3.       It will definitely be sunny on NRD. But not too sunny. In fact it will be ideal running weather.

4.       Obviously, running will be mandatory on NRD. Anyone found not running will be chased with a pointy stick, which will make them run. I’m not sure who I will detail to chase them, as I’ve given everyone the day off to go running. Maybe it will be the French again.

5.       Running stores will all open early and close late, to allow people the opportunity to purchase running-related goods. There will be massive discounts on everything, subsidised by the benevolent government I will have founded. I will pay for this subsidy through extortionate taxation of all sports-related industry other than running. As with the chasing, the running stores will probably have to be staffed by the French. I’m sorry if they’re rude.

6.       Like at Christmas, families will come together on NRD to exchange running-related gifts purchased at French-staffed running stores, eat a feast of pasta and energy gels, and then go out for a nice bracing run celebrate. People will sing running carols like ‘Born to Run’ and anything by Run DMC. It will be wondrous.

I hope this clears things up and you are all as excited about National Running Day as I am. Just imagine. An entire country smelling of Deep Heat and a population throbbing with post-run endorphins...

Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon

Ridiculously good stash from the Mokrun

Only the briefest of comments on this one – if you want the full story you’ll have to pick up the August issue of Runners’ World UK. It should be in newsagents from the first week in July.

 The two main features of my race experience were the brilliantly mad course (honestly, it’s completely bonkers – full details in main article) and the insane weather, with wind so extreme that it felt like running through soup at times. I struggled a little with a stomach upset and shin splints so had to back off the pace in the final miles to avoid ‘doing an Alloa’, but still managed a respectable 1:41:15 for my trouble. To my amazement I later discovered that this was good enough for 38^th place in the half marathon, out of 260 finishers.  The winner made it home in 1:19:02 – a time which some of my old cross country team could probably challenge. Just saying, guys...

Alloa Half Marathon report hits the interwebs

For those of you without the means, motivation or inclination to actually buy magazines in order to read my published articles, my review of the Alloa Half Marathon, which appeared in the June issue of Runners’ World UK, is currently available online. Click here to read in full. 

Next up for me is some more long running – looking forward to pounding out a solid 16 miler this weekend and maybe even –gulp- starting to do some proper speedwork on the hills. Eight weeks, four days to the San Francisco Marathon. Fear.

Happy running,

Dave

2011 to date - miles: 536.42, parkruns: 6, races: 3, miles biked: 47.44, metres swum: 925