Richmond Park, celeb spotting, and some real athletes

On Sunday my brother-in-law, who is running the Virgin London Marathon, was doing his final 20 mile run in Richmond Park, so me, my wife and sister-in-law joined him for a couple of laps. It was my first time running there and I can see why my brother-in-law likes it - it's a huge area, and although it's surrounded by suburban London it feels very much like you're in the country with some beautiful woodland and deer roaming around. And a nice big lap with a good mixture of hills and flat bits.

Three weeks before the London marathon though, so probably the busiest day of the year for runners - it seemed like the whole city was there doing their final "long slow run", but even so, it's such a big park that there was plenty of space for everyone. The lap we ran is around 7.12 miles and I set off fairly steadily, not really knowing what the terrain would be like. Although it's undulating and there are a few hills, there's nothing as steep as the inclines in Greenwich, and there's also some long downhills to compensate. I did my first lap in 1:12:49, averaging 10:13 per mile but sped up a quite a lot on the second lap (powered by jaffa cakes and jelly babies) and averaged 9:49 per mile to complete the run in 2:22:53, almost exactly 10 minutes per mile. I felt really strong too so overall I'm pretty satisfied with my fitness with a couple of weeks to go.

The run was also notable for some of the other runners - a group of, I suspect, elite Kenyans who overtook me on one of the uphill stretches and disappeared into the distance effortlessly, their elastic legs carrying them along as if on tip-toes, barely touching the ground; Gordon Ramsay, who apparently I ran past without noticing; and, most impressive of all, a runner with one good leg and one prosthetic leg who also overtook me at a rate of knots, while chatting happily to everyone he passed. A really inspiring sight.

So, together with the midweek Dulwich runs I did, I completed 28.8 miles last week, and 4 speedy lunchtime miles in Dulwich today (comfortably my fastest 4 mile run this year) brought my total for the month of March to a hefty 130.4 miles. I'm in Aberdeen on business for the rest of the week so won't be running until the weekend again but at this stage I'm happy just to give my body a rest.

Finally, a quick hello and thanks to Michaela at Practical Action for her ongoing support, and also to Ben, who is also running in Brighton for Practical Action.

[Image at the top is from the Friends of Richmond Park website]

Three weeks to go

 So... in three week's time I'll have run the Brighton marathon. It's been a date a long way in the future for so long but suddenly it seems very close.

Yesterday I did my final "long slow run" in Greenwich - 20 miles. It was really hard, much harder than two weeks previously when I did 19. I think perhaps I was a little dehydrated as I wasn't running any faster than when I did 19 but during the last 5 miles or so my heart rate really climbed and I think I'd have been struggling to complete another 10km.

The temperature was certainly warmer this weekend, so it was a good lesson to learn in advance of the big day and I'll need to remember to stop for water more often during the race.

With three weeks to go it's about time to set some targets for the race. In order, they are:

1. Get to the start line, fit to run !
2. Enjoy the experience !
3. Cross the finish line on foot - before the 6 hour sweeper truck picks me up !
4. Run the whole course (with the exception of stopping briefly a water station or two)

5. Beat the average American male marathon runner (according to Wikipedia in 2005 the average American man completed the marathon in 4 hours 32)

6. Run at an average pace of 10 minutes per mile (4 hours 22 minutes)

7. Beat 4 hours 15 minutes.

8. Beat 4 hours 9 minutes (= 9.5 minutes per mile)

Clearly I would love to beat 4 hours but I think averaging 9 minute miles is overly ambitious for my first marathon and given my level of fitness and training.

My total for March now stands at 97.43 miles and for the year, 304.86 miles.

This week the "taper" begins and while I still aim to run 4 times per week, the distances will gradually decrease up to race day.

Fundraising

As it's now only 4 weeks until the Brighton marathon it's time to ramp up my fundraising efforts.

 Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far - I really appreciate your support, especially since many of you have sponsored me in previous years. Practical Action and CLIC Sargent, like most charities, depend heavily on donations to support their work and they are very grateful for your help. In the current economic climate everyone is tightening their belts and charitable donations are one of the first items which people look to minimise, so many charities are really struggling to maintain their activities.

As well as asking my long-suffering friends and families for sponsorship, this year I am also looking to large corporations to donate. So far I've asked the chief executives of three organisations for support - Sainsbury's, United Biscuits and Marks and Spencer. I received a polite email from Sainsbury's outlining all of the charitable activities they support and saying they were unable to support me at this time - but nothing as yet from M&S or United Biscuits. I have had one anonymous donation so far though so I'll be charitable and say that perhaps this came from one of those companies.

I don't expect to have much success via this route as most companies already have specific charities they support at a corporate level and probably receive hundreds of requests from their own staff and from random people like me every year. However, I plan to carry on this approach - "if you don't ask you don't get", and I've also been asking if they have any promotional items they might consider donating as prizes for a raffle / quiz night I might organise later in the year.

This week's running consisted of a couple of lunchtime trips to Dulwich for 5 and 8 mile runs, and a 4 mile run back from the garage after I dropped my car off for its MoT, plus 12 miles in Greenwich yesterday - bringing my total for February to 64 miles and for the year to 271.5 miles. I've had a bit of a cold for the last couple of weeks so haven't been feeling 100% when I've been out running, and my knee is still giving me a bit of pain, but since after this weekend's last "long slow run" of 20 miles my training plan moves into the "taper" towards the race, that'll give my body a bit of a chance to recover.

What do people think about when they're running?

Last year I bought Huraki Murakami's book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". In retrospect I misread the title - I was expecting to find out what he thinks about when he runs (besides being an author he's an experienced marathon and ultra-runner). But I quite enjoyed the book - much of it is essentially a diary of his experiences training and running in races, so for an amateur runner it was quite interesting - particularly his story of re-running the route of the "first marathon" by Pheidippides, much of which now follows the route of a busy Greek highway.

But I was looking for something a bit more philosophical about his reasons for running, what he got out of it, and it didn't entirely answer the question I hoped it might, i.e. what do other runners think about when they run.

Before I started running one of the reasons I didn't give it a go was because I assumed it must be really boring - unlike with cycling, the scenery passes at a very sedate pace and unless you are a top distance runner, your scope to run somewhere much different to where you are now is pretty limited.

But I've since realised that running isn't boring at all, and perhaps as my working life has become more hectic, I've come to really value those hours out running in the park or along the river. It's an opportunity to empty your mind and, particularly on long runs when there are few people around, it's possible to almost achieve a meditative state, helped by the rhythm of the running and breathing.

On shorter runs, or when running at lunchtime after a busy morning at work, my mind is generally more active, and it's a good time to try to think about and solve work problems. Somehow the action of running seems to get your mind working differently from normal.

And of course when you're running there are plenty of more immediate concerns to think about:
- Don't shut that gate don't shut it, don't shut it....aaargghhh
- Is that dog a chasing after runners ankles dog or a nice well behaved dog?
- Is that crampy feeling in my leg going to stay at it is or turn into proper cramp?
- Am I going too fast ? Am I going too slow?
- Is that kid going to run away from his father or towards him?
- I hope that crowd of pigeons stays exactly where it is
and of course, the Voices, which are always saying "Just stop, you know you want to, you've run far enough, you're tired and sore, go on stop".

A good week's running this week - a very speedy 5 miles (8:45 pace) on Tuesday lunchtime at Dulwich, 5 miles again in Crystal Palace Park on Wednesday (slower, but good hill running practice) and another 5 miles at Dulwich on Thursday lunchtime (this time running around in the opposite direction for a bit of variety). And then my long slow run at Greenwich today - 19 miles, at 10:20 pace, which is pretty good for training, and keeps my hopes of running around 10 minute mile pace on race day alive.

So, a 34 mile week, bringing my total to 241.86 miles for the year.