The Race

The race director  has a sense of humour and knows how to keep the attention of 600 runners none of whom want to listen to the statutory race briefing.  It is warm for January but hanging around in shorts and t-shirts when all you want to do is start the race is no fun. The safety brief is delivered, the route described with how it will be marked and marshalled, we are informed it is ‘hug a marshall day’.  In others words show appreciation for all those who have given up their time to help keep us safe and en route.

The starting siren goes and we are off, 600 runners bunched up on a narrow country lane.  For the first kilometer I am swept along by the mass. It is a time to be careful, in the seething mass it is all too easy to trip with any resulting injury putting an end to my marathon training. Also it will be too easy to get carried away by group going too fast with the inevitable blow out later in the race.  My training programme (Don Fink) stresses the need to controlled pace when running the marathon.

Soon the pace ceases to be an issue, the group starts to string out and as we emerge from a wood the scene ahead reveals a steep hill with a multi-coloured snake strung out along hillside.  This is the first of 3 big hills on the 10 mile (16Km) route. I puff and pant up the hill, my natural urge to macho style keep running up the hill is easily suppressed as common sense kicks.   I’m only 2 miles in.

Man with moobs running

More up and down dale.  I’ve found my rhythm, feeling fairly good, the performance training with weights has paid dividends, I’m running in a more upright position.  I drop off the second hill, steep slope careering past more cautious runners. A sharp turn onto a short but brutal hill, with mystifying sign proclaiming “This is not a hill”. On reaching the crest there is a sharp drop into a valley.  That is not what captures the attention. Across the other side of the valley are what look like coloured ant crawling up the other side.  No time to stop and wonder, on on. Into the valley and across to the other side. The Race Director’s sense of humour has followed us. The next sign shouts out “THIS IS A HILL”.  The multi-coloured ants are runners climbing a 70m 10% slope almost on their hands and knees.

The Hill and still smiling

Off the hill, down dale again to the final hill, legs are starting to feel the gradient.   In the past pride would have forced me to keep running up the hill, but the older wiser me starts to walk.  Marathon is all about pacing. On, on to the finish line with my legs still going and able to hold off the guy behind me in the stumble to the finish line.  16km, over 300m of climb and a time of 1hr 51min, not sure what to make of it in terms of marathon performance but I’ve survived the longest run in over 18 months and I’m still walking in a  straight line.

The Plan

“Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.” John Harvey-Jones(captain of industry).

My whole working life in the Army and in the IT industry has been has been about planning.  John Harvey-Jones’s quote always came to mind when it all goes wrong. Now faced with getting my body into shape to go the distance of the marathon I’m having to plan out of my skin. The temptation is to just get out on the road and put in some miles but now definitely older and hopefully a bit wiser than when I last ran a marathon I’m spending about 10% of my training time on planning.

The first step was to identify a training schedule.  There are any number out there which all follow a progression and either use miles per week or hours on the road as the unit of measure. They are generally 16 weeks and the distance run each week builds up progressively culminating in a run of about 20 miles at week 13.  The distance then tapers off until the race in week 16.

This is all very logical but the plans don’t necessarily allow for age, injury and the sheer boredom of pounding the streets. A friend pointed me towards a training programme she had used to train for the marathon: Mastering the Marathon (Time efficient training secrets for the 40-plus Athlete) by Don Fink.   In other words a marathon plan for old knackers.

I’ve just finished the 4^th week of my training programme and time is becoming all important.  The number of weeks left to training, the hours of training per week and the the pace I run at which will determine the time to run the race.  The programme start with 3hr 30 min training per week and culminates with 8hr 15 min in week 13. Fitting in 3 – 4 hours training per week is not a problem but 8hrs is a working day.  This does not include the strength and conditioning (S&C) training that keeps me in working order, like an old model of car the service and maintenance regime on my old body has to be more frequent.   

The end of the fourth week culminated in a trail race, the longest run I have attempted in a long time, 10 miles of ups and downs in the Vale Pewsey, my body is one piece although there’s a bit of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) coming on.  It was a successful conclusion to the first 4 weeks where I have stuck to the plan. I have built in a recovery week before I start week 5 on 21 Jan. Then the planning puzzle starts with five and half hours running and cross-training plus another 2 – 2 ½ hours of S&C. By week 8 it’s up 6 ¼ hours.  The weekly timetable of work, training, family and social life starts to look like a patchwork quilt. Of course I could just leave to chance and be surprised.

The Wall

1985 in Berlin with the Wall as the front line of the the Cold War I was serving with my Battalion.  We has a strong fitness ethos in our battalion and in a rush of enthusiasm I had entered the Berlin Marathon. Armed with the arrogance of youth and burdened with ignorance of training for endurance events I relied on martial fitness and a  few long runs around the Berlin Grunewald Forest.

Mass city marathons  had only been going for a few years, the London marathon was first run in 1981.   There was very little information on training programmes or nutrition, it was just running after all. I had heard about the ‘wall’ the point at about 20 miles into the race where you just ran out of steam. The military mentality is just tough it out so my simple race strategy was just to keep going.

The backdrop to the start was the 2nd World War ruined Reichstag separated from us by the Wall.  The race did not start well, in 1985 there was no chip timing, when the gun fired the clock started.  I hadn’t bargained on the 15 minutes it would take me to shuffle from my position at the back of nearly 10,000 runners to the start line. Then I was off with no idea of pace except I didn’t like when I was passed by runners who looked as I should be able to beat them.   At about 18 miles I hit the wall, my legs filled with lead and every step became a personal battle.

I was plodding around the inner stadt ring and eventually I hit the Kurfurstendamm where the finish line was located.  The Ku’damm is long wide and straight with a gentle slope downhill slope. There was still over a kilometer to go but I started to feel boyed up at least I was going to finish.  There was a large clock above the finish line and I had the awful realisation it was rapidly ticking towards the 4 hour mark since the start. I desperately wanted to at least beat 4 hrs and so started to pump my legs. Finish time 3 hrs 59 min 58 sec.  Not so much a sense of achievement but one of survival. The marathon has always felt like unfinished business.

Since then I have dabbled with triathlon endurance events but I have remained in the league of completer athlete not competers. Each year I’ve watched the London Marathon on television and been inspired so when I was offered the chance to run in 2019 came up I seized the opportunity. My attempts at triathlon were frequently dogged by minor injuries and always by insufficient training to get a really good time.

Faced with the magnitude of the event and the prospect of a 26 mile slog without the benefit of youth I’m endeavouring to plan and follow a training programme.  So this is my journey to the London Marathon which coincides with the glide path to retirement.

My attempts at triathlon were frequently dogged by minor injuries and always by insufficient training to get a really good time. Older definitely, wiser hopefully, I’m putting a great deal of effort into planning. I’ve set 3 objectives for having a worthwhile experience:  

1. Get to the start line uninjured.
2. Enjoy the race and finish in good order.
3. Get a respectable time.

I’m writing these blogs as part of maintaining  motivation and to draw attention when the time comes to start asking for sponsorship.