Race Day 2 - Shakespeare Marathon (Stratford-upon-Avon)

So it's marathon time again! This weekend was the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon, or at least it was supposed to be! Saturday was a nice relaxing day with Gina and Louis on the farm, capped off with a cracking pasta dinner prepared by Mr White, a movie (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - erm...no idea what that film is about!) and an early night. I was woken around 1am by the wind and rain outside and spent the rest of the night worrying about what would happen if the marathon was called off. I had several dreams about running round the farm for 26 miles so when 6am came the question was whether the Shakespeare Marathon was "To be, or not to be".


The latest update on the website said the race was still on despite the freezing temperatures, heavy rain, and 50mph winds. Unfortunately as we were crossing the start line of the race it was announced that the full marathon had been called off as the link between the half and full races had been flooded. So, I joined the rest of the half marathon runners for 13.1 miles of narrow, flooded road, hills, rain, hail, rain, wind, rain, blood, sweat, mud , rain and some more wind for good measure. Within a couple of miles I was so cold and wet that I couldn't open the bottle cap on my water, retrieve a gel from my pocket or feel my face! Some of the lowlights were running up hill and into the wind from miles 8-10 and then on the green-way from miles 10-13 which was under about 6 inches of water. It's funny how people can be as wet as it's physically possible to be and still try to avoid "puddles" on a road that is completely flooded! On the other hand some of the highlight included the organizers still trying to hand out wet sponges to cool you down, a guy who ran like Phoebe from friends and another guy who did a great horse impression when out of breath. "For the rain it raineth every day"! 

13.1 soaked, muddied miles later. 1.5 marathons done!

A well earned medal!

So cold I couldn't drink a cup of tea without help!

So, after a couple of the wettest and most miserable hours of my life I was left with a dilemma. The challenge is 10 marathons in 10 weeks, not 9.5 marathons! After a warm up, a cup of tea, a flapjack and a change of clothes in the leisure centre I managed to persuade the gym to sign me up and let me complete the rest of the marathon on a treadmill. I HATE treadmill running but in comparison to the weather outside it didn't seem like such a bad alternative! Unfortunately the weather wasn't getting any better and there were several power cuts during the run. It turns out that treadmills stop pretty quickly when there's no power! However, after another hour and fifty minutes and a visit from my wonderful godmother to cheer me on the second half of the marathon was complete in a total time of around 3hrs and 37 mins :-) 

All set for half marathon #2!

1x Stratford-upon-Avon gym membership! I'm sure that'll come in handy!

A massive thank you to Aunt Lainey for coming along to the gym after her sermon to offer her support and make sure I was OK. Also to Gina and Louis for looking after me for the weekend, supporting me on a thoroughly miserable day and getting well and truly soaked in the process! "When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain"? Finally, congrats to Chris for a very respectable half marathon finish, well done mate!


Another massive thank you to everyone for the continuing donations. The grand total now stands at £4,310.00!
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/FrazerCampbell_10_in_10


Well, I've run out of Shakespeare quotes so guess all that's left to say is "Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow" (turns out I had one more), or more accurately til it be next Sunday, Race day 3 and the Three Forts Marathon. Let's hope for better weather next week! To be fair it was probably my own fault for packing sun tan lotion after getting burnt last week :-)

Race Day 1 - London Marathon

So 14 weeks of hard training and 14 days of harder sobriety culminated with the first of 10 marathons on Sunday and a pretty good start with a time of 3:27:12, a PB by 21 minutes and 12 seconds.

I've run quite a few marathons over the last couple of years, including a few big city races but nothing can come close to the level of support yesterday. Tens of thousands of people cheering on runners they've never met for hours really is amazing!

So...what have I learnt from Marathon #1?

1. Scottish blood + 15C x 4 hours = VESTBURN! OUCH!

2. Having to look at the backside of an old man wearing a mankini is enough to make anyone run faster!

3. Over 8 miles I am about as fast as an apple!

4. Mental arithmetic is impossible after about 15 miles. I calculated that I went from running eight minutes miles to 16 minute miles and was so convinced that it was right that I spend the next four miles trying to make the time up again before realizing how wrong my maths was! Unsurprisingly this resulted in my fastest 4 miles of the entire race!

5. Despite malicious rumours circulated by Madi, Foggo is not as effective as hot tottie when it comes to dragging you round the course with a nice view ;-)

6. Miles 20-26 are TOUGH! Not sure if the pic below is big enough to show the pain on my face but I assure you it was hurting!

7. When you go 14 days without a drink and then run a marathon, by the end everything starts to look like a beer!

8. Drinking a pint for each of the 26 miles isn't a good idea!

The old legs are feeling OK today so back to training tomorrow night and preparation for Marathon #2, the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon. Will see how I'm feeling at the end of the week and then make a decision about whether I think I might be able to beat this weekends time.

I have to say a massive thank you to my wee sis for coming all the way down from Glasgow to look after and support me, Mads, Lotte and Mike from the Link team and Mo, Emma, Monika & Josh for their support during the race! It really does make a massive difference having a friendly face on the sidelines cheering you on! A big thanks to everyone else for their best wishes and continued support, it really is much appreciated! Also a massive congratulations to everyone else who was running the marathon yesterday.

The fundraising grand total now stands at an amazing £4,097.50. Yet another massive thank you to everyone for their continuing kind donations!
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/FrazerCampbell_10_in_10

Finally, condolences to the family of Claire Squires who collapsed and died in the last mile of the marathon yesterday. Such a tragic thing to happen! Good to see the British public responding in the best way possible though with over £144,000 now donated to The Samaritans who she was raising money for.

Training Weeks 12 to 14

It's late and my maths isn't great at the best of times but I make it that the countdown to race day number one now stands at T - 58 hours! The last three weeks have been a bit of a mixture of tough training and recovery, culminating in a final 21 miler last weekend. Like any good professional athlete (don't laugh!) the last big run is an opportunity to simulate race day conditions, making sure that everything is fully prepared ahead of the big day. For me this meant trying on the vest that I'd be wearing on the day, and...well...that was pretty much it to be honest. It did prove to be a successful endeavour however as I quickly learnt that it is 1) rather skimpy and 2) a bit of a nipple chomper! When I got home and took my vest off I got a bit of a shock. There was a large blister on the top of my left nipple. Thankfully on closer inspection it turned out to just be some vas that I hadn't rubbed in properly pre-race but the fright was sufficient for me to find a more effective safeguard this week. Runners Needs in Canary Wharf were able to oblige with a product aptly named "Nipguards". Only in long distance running!

Me in my LCD vest

What a nipple chomping vest is capable of

How I intend to counter the nipple chomping

So with the training all but complete I'm feeling pretty confident. Let's see how long that lasts! I've run several marathons over the last couple of years but this is the first time I've really trained properly, let's hope that it actually makes a difference! To give you an idea of how seriously I'm taking things this year I haven't consumed an alcoholic beverage in 10 days! 10 DAYS!!!!! As the beer pangs have really started biting in the last few days I've been devoting significant time to developing a strategy to build a weekly drinking session into my schedule. The outcome of these long and thought provoking sessions has been that I need to hit the beer and hit it hard as soon as possible after the marathon to allow maximum recovery time for the next marathon so roll on 3pm Sunday! I read somewhere that a non-alcoholic beer or two after a marathon helps with re-hydration and we all know that alcoholic beer is a million times better than non-alcoholic, therefore it must also be a million times better at rehydrating. FACT! Simple maths really! Can't argue with science can you!

A man with a plan. If you're going to stop during the marathon it might as well be for a beer!

The last few long runs have helped me develop my race day strategy. Any good runner will aim to run the second half of a marathon faster than the first half. I am NOT a good runner! I have NO ability to pace myself!  I am NOT built for running (I'm deceptively dense!).I am NOT going to be able to run the second half of the marathon quicker than the first! However, I DO enjoy a bit of hot tottie in Lycra so the plan is to find an attractive girl to lead me round the course in record time. Yet another stroke of genius I'm sure you'll agree.

Ahhhh....spandex, how I love you!

Thank you yet again to everyone for all of their kind support over the last 14 weeks. The fundraising grand total now stands at an amazing £3,666.25. Your generosity is hugely appreciated both by myself and the charity and you really are helping change peoples lives!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/FrazerCampbell_10_in_10

Training Weeks 10 & 11

So Week 10 was a bit of a right off to be quite honest, late nights at work and not much chance to get any decent training in. Thankfully Week 11 was much more successful with six miles and a gym session each day during the week and a couple of big achievements on the weekend just gone.

Saturday was the Olympic Park run, a five mile run around the Olympic Park (the sharp ones among you probably figured out the location from the name of the run) finishing in the Olympic Stadium (yes, you guessed it the Olympic Stadium is located....in the Olympic Park, that's right - you're a clever bunch aren't you) with a lap of the track in front of 15,000 people and a sprint down the 100m track. I decided to run the race at my target marathon pace for some good race practice, well party for the practice and partly because I overdid it the night before and was feeling a little ropey and not really up for pushing six minutes miles. I can only blame myself, no...wait.... actually I can blame Mitan and his impromptu cocktail mixing in Roka! I have to hand it to him though, the self named Patel is a work of genius, anything that can smell and taste that good at first sip and then blow your head off once downed is a sterling piece of cocktailery (I think the correct word is mixology but I'm sure you all agree that my word is much more fun). A finish time of 35:08 put me only a couple of seconds a mile off my target seven minute mile pace so feeling pretty comfortable with my ability to pace myself in race conditions (and my ability to run on a stinking hangover).

Sunday was time for one of the last big runs before the first marathon, a gruelling 21 miler, again after another night on the town! Living only a mile and a half from the start line of the London marathon means that I can follow the marathon route and get a really good feel for the route ahead of race day. Unfortunately I ate far too much before leaving the house and spent the first couple of miles trying to keep my breakfast down (which I am happy to report was a success, although a challenge in itself!). At the start line I spotted a couple of guys who looked to be taking the run they were about to start pretty seriously. They passed me after a couple of miles at which point my competitive nature kicked in and I picked the pace up and decided to stick with them. Turns out it's a little weird to run right behind complete strangers when you're not in a proper race! Anyway they had exactly the same idea as me and were running the marathon route ahead of the big day (with much more preparation and support than me, but a lot less alcohol in the system for fuel which evens things out a bit I think). What followed was an epic 21 mile race with the lead changing hands several times and a blatant act of cheating when the two mystery runners took a short cut to avoid some roadworks, snatching the lead back with only a matter of miles to go. The last few miles must have been the most exciting race that the Isle of Dogs has seen in years, I was closing on them but was it quick enough! In the end, after 21 miles of blood (literally - found it in my shoe when I got home), sweat (again literally - but a little less surprising) and tears (not literally but it completes the sentence so let's go with it) the race finished in a dead heat. Unfortunately without a camera for a photo finish (or a finish line for that matter) I can't be certain but I could tell from the look in their eyes afterwards that they knew I was the real winner of the day. So an entertaining 21 miles in 2hrs 46mins with plenty left in the tank which bodes well for a sub 3:30 marathon, not sure I'll quite get down to the 3:15 I had been hoping for but you never know on the day...

With a new gym workout added to the routine I spent some time this week in the gym reminiscing about some of the funnier things that have either happened to me or that I've seen while in the gym. I thought I'd share a few with you over the next few weeks.

I'll start this week with my #1 most embarrassing gym moment would have to be my first attempt at a class called Body Pump. I was at Uni at the time and had spent the whole summer getting in pretty good shape. I'd done the same the previous year and then lost it all within the first day and a half of freshers week so this year I was determined to keep the fitness up at least until the end of the first week of partying. So, Body Pump sounded like just the trick and when I arrived to find out that I was the only bloke surrounded by a group of very attractive female students I have to admit I wasn't overly upset. In fact I thought it would be a great opportunity to show off a little and despite the protests of the instructor with a rather hefty amount of weight I was all set to do some serious impressing! What I didn't realize was that Body Pump is essentially performing a lot of light weight reps to high tempo music, so after about 15 or 20 reps I was pretty much done and had to be helped out from under aforementioned hefty weight by a couple of aforementioned attractive female students. Epic fail? I think so! Did I go back? I think not! WHAT A CLOWN!

Another episode of Fraz's embarrassing exercising escapades to follow next week...

Yet again, a massive thank you to everyone who has made a donation! The grand total now stands at £2,960.00, only 40 quid of an archer and a half, or three bags of sand if you prefer your cockney rhyming slang ;-) 

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=FrazerCampbell_10_in_10&faId=163391&isTeam=false