a marathon week

Well, this week has been fine for me.  Using different shoes for strength training has worked wonders and I'm back on track again.

Running on Thursday morning wasn't easy though.  Gale force winds and heavy rain meant that the 50 minutes felt like 150 minutes.  Character building, as I often tell myself.  Friday wasn't much better either.  If the runs on Sunday and Monday go well (as I expect they will) then I can begin training on three consecutive days.  Starting at a low level again and building up slowly so that the final three days will be running steadily for 50, 60 and 60 minutes.

But this week has been dominated by a couple of short races.  One in Boston, USA and the other in London, UK.

The Boston marathon will be remembered, not for being a great race, but for being the scene of a devastation rarely seen at sporting events.  Thankfully the perpetrators were identified and caught (or killed) but my thoughts go out to all those affected by the mindless violence of two brothers.

And so to tomorrow's race in London.  For the past few years, when watching the London Marathon, my attention has not so much been on the elite runners looking to win the race but on those rare souls who have taken part in every London Marathon.  The 'ever present club'.  In particular I will be watching out for Chris Finill who has run every London Marathon in less than 3 hours, a remarkable achievement.  Long may it continue Chris.

To finish today's post I thought I'd ask how many members there may be for the club of with the following rules:

 - been a runner continuously since before 1981
 - watched every single London Marathon live on TV
 - doesn't particularly want to take part in the London Marathon

Count me in ...

various bits and pieces

Alright that's enough rain ... it's getting a bit boring now.  Every time I venture outside I get sodden and if I'm running for a couple of hours or more ...

With all this wet weather we're getting this month I expect the ULTRArace 100 to be dry this year.  As it takes place in June it should be dry anyway but you never can tell in this country.  Last year it rained solidly for ten hours or more.

It's good to come home to a decent cup of coffee though.  At the moment that's Starbuck's French Roast, and recently there's been either cheese on toast or porridge to go with that.  Recovery for body and mind.

Fay had some good news yesterday, she been nominated for 'customer services employee of the year' by Bradford City Council.  The awards ceremony takes place on 21 May but she thinks that, if previous years are anything to go by, the prizes will be shared and there won't be an overall winner.

It's still possible that, because of the stupid UK government, she may not have a job after September 2013.

Keir's just learned that he's been selected to go on a school visit to Auschwitz in Poland early next month.  Ties in nicely with his massive interest in history - fourteen days is a bit short notice though.

All the best to those racing soon ... the JOGLE race starts tomorrow I believe and on the April 22 William Sichel is in New York for the 6 day race.  And then there's a marathon in London on Sunday which seems to attract ever increasing numbers of people who aren't well enough trained to run 20 miles let alone 26.2.

And finally ... I hope the hunters in The Magic Forest manage to recapture the lion soon.

rain, coffee and the London Marathon

This afternoon there was a rather large thunderstorm accompanied by a very heavy downpour.  Needless to say I was running at the time and arrived home rather wet.  And so were all my clothes.  Lots of them.

In places the rain was so heavy that puddles stretched all the way across the road ... three or four inches deep.  Not an enjoyable fartlek session - character building though.  Made all the worse as I don't have any decent coffee to come home to.  For the next three weeks it's all decaffeinated, I finished some excellent coffee from the Sanani area of Yemen just a few days ago though.  Maybe get some more after the World Championships.

Earlier in the day it was London Marathon time.  Chris Finill (of the UK 24 hour team) ran again.  He's one of a small group of people to have completed every London Marathon.  He ran 2h 52 this time.  Personally I think it's a bit too close to the race in Brive but I know that every runner prepares differently and no two training schedules are alike.

From my fellow members of Otley AC Scott Harrington probably had the best run, he was comfortably under three hours. Neil O'Brien was probably the unluckiest - missing the four hour target by a measly eleven seconds.