Our friend Paul has stepped up to the ultimate challenge and will be pounding the streets of London looking to break his personal record......as it's his first marathon I suppose that technically won't be hard, however we are still talking 26 miles and 385 yards!

Paul has run the Bristol half marathon and the Copenhagen half marathons before, so is not a stranger to running.

We have decided to put Paul's BLOG online, talking about his preparations for the 23rd.

Sponsorship:

To sponsor Paul by credit or debit card, please click on the GiveNow logo on the right hand side of the page. Please enter 'Paul' in the Donor Instructions box so that we know this is sponsorship money.

If you would rather send a cheque, please complete a donation form and post it to the address on the form.

Alternatively, contact Paul and he will collect any sponsorship money from you.

Here's Paul...

It all started back in early December when a package came through the door, complete with letter saying that I'd got a place in the London Marathon.  The initial excitement - a bit like finding out you've won a prize in a competition - was quickly tempered by my realisation that ‘the prize' would be to travel 26.2 miles as fast as my legs can work.  However, after this rollercoaster of emotions, I thought it would be a good idea to use this to raise money for ‘For-Ethiopia'.

Why For-Ethiopia?

I've been friends with Rob & Tigist for a couple of years and know their desire to help the people of Ethiopia .  For Ethiopia is focused on sustainable development.  This isn't a one-size fits all approach.  It means first looking at and understanding how people in the local community live and work.  Once the situation is understood, then help can be given to the people in a way that will yield lasting benefits.  For example, there's no point supplying them with tractors, heavy farming equipment and complex irrigation systems if in a couple of years time the equipment breaks down and the farmers can't then find or afford the spares required to repair the equipment.  Because For Ethiopia is listening to and working closely with the people of Addis Alem, it should mean that the money you give to them will used effectively and improve the quality of life in this village for the long term.

The London Marathon – Training, Sponsorship, Blogs…

I started training for the London Marathon almost as soon as I heard I'd got a place.  That means I've been training for about 5 weeks now (or about 120 miles!!!).  The marathon will be on the 23 rd April 2006, which puts it 14 weeks away – less than 100 days away.  For those of you who know me, or Rob & Tigist, we'll probably be waving a sponsorship form under your pen and chequebook in the near future, but alternatively, if you can't wait, feel free to use the donate link, specifying ‘London Marathon' with your donation.  Also, if you agree to use gift aid, we'll need your full name and address to claim back the additional money from the taxman.  As well as setting myself a target of running the marathon in under 4 hours, I'm setting a sponsorship target of £1000.  Your generosity is going to be needed!

Also, since everyone seems to have a weblog (or ‘blog'), I thought of keeping a marathon training ‘blog' to document my experiences and more importantly to track how much sponsorship money has been raised!  I hope to update this blog once a week, so keep checking this site if you want to see how I'm getting on.  With any luck, I'll stay injury (and sickness) free and do 26.2 miles on 23 rd April for ‘For Ethiopia' (it doesn't seem grammatically correct to have 2 ‘for's next to each other.  But then, as you've probably gathered from reading this, grammar isn't my strong point anyway!).  Till next week!

Paul.

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Another week, another 30 miles…  Training's starting to ramp up now.  I'm out for a long run on the weekend of at least 10 miles and my training programme now includes silly things like running uphill as fast as you can for 30 seconds, then downhill for as long as it takes to recover and repeating 10 times in 30 minutes…  I tell you, I've got some strange looks doing this on Putney Hill…  I've given up trying to work out whether the occasional comment thrown at me is meant to be sarcastic or an exhortation of encouragement.  Being the eternal optimist (I do currently think I will be able to run a marathon after all) I take it all as encouragement…

Long distance running – “It's a social occasion – honest!”

You wouldn't have thought pounding the streets, huffing, puffing, being hot & sweaty would be a good way of meeting people.  Well believe it or not, this kind of behaviour is taking place.  If you're London based and fancy a ‘social jog' after work on a Wednesday evening, there are a series of Adiruns (runs ‘sponsored by Adidas') – pick your distance, I think it's currently 4, 6 & 8 miles, register, turn up at the Adidas performance store and join about 30-50 others in a jog around the Serpentine in Hyde Park.  You're encouraged to chat to people at the start, when you've finished or waiting to get a drink and your bags back from the store room.  If you're really cocky, you can try and chat while running.  The training programmes for the marathon often refer to a term called ‘conversation pace', which is the running pace you can sustain while talking to someone else...   

Anyway, 12-13 mile training run tomorrow morning – I'll need to select suitable ‘motivation' songs on the iPod to keep me going…

Next week, what's on my iPod…

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Motivation to run has been pretty low this week.  I largely suspect is due to the 13 mile training run last Sunday when I just ran out of energy at 12 miles and pretty much ground to a halt.  Since then, it's been a bit of a slog, but forcing myself to do an Adidas run mid-week and the dreaded hill running up and down Putney Hill this morning has kept my training programme on track.  That said, the problem is probably due to what I ate before doing the 13 miler…

Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition

I suspect an evening meal of cheese fondue is probably not what Paula Radcliffe eats before going for a 13 mile run the following morning.  Sure there's lots of carbohydrate in the bread, but the solid coating of cheese surrounding it probably didn't help!!!  Mental note – must eat pasta or jacket potatoes before doing the long run. 

A sign of how much my calorie intake has increased as a result of marathon training became clearly apparent this Monday when breakfast was 3 weetabix not 2!!!  I think I might need a bigger cereal bowl…

Music to run quickly with

Apparently, stick some ‘tunes on and you run faster.  It certainly makes 1-2 hours of running seem to go by a lot faster. The best motivational songs I've found have a strong rhythmic beat to them – so actually, dance music is ideal – though not what I'd usually listen to on my stereo.  So, a sample of the tunes on my iPod to date include:

Push Upstairs – Underworld, Pounding – Doves, Whipping' Piccadilly – Gomez (turbo version), Dusted – Belly, Sing it back – Moloko, Parklife – Blur, Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jet, Life of Riley – Lightning Seeds, No Parachutes – Throwing Muses, Groove is in the Heart - Deee-Lite (yeah, I know… but I like the song).

No doubt I'll probably have a new set of favourite songs in a fortnight's time…

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The Big Easy

In the course of training for the London Marathon, the experts recommend you have an easy week once in a while.  With the training programme I'm following, that means every 4 th week I get a relatively easy week.  So this week, I've only run 3 times (As opposed to the usual 5) and the long run was only 10k.  Although it was at a faster clip than usual – Well, it took me 45 minutes.  I've got to work out a better route though.  Although I stopped the watch at the railway crossing, it did knock me off my stride, having to stop for 3 minutes (yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses!).

Still, the upside of this easy week was getting to have a pint down the pub with my workmates on Friday night and not needing to worry about having to do hill training the next morning.

However, the next 3 weeks will be pretty intense, with my long runs going up to 14 miles, 16 miles and 18 miles…  I guess I'll need to upload more songs onto the iPod!  And make sure I don't end my runs by running past all the pubs on the banks of the Thames at Chiswick.  There's nothing more demotivating than having to do the last few miles of a long run with the warm and inviting scents of Sunday Roasts, bangers & mash, burgers washing over you when passing each pub…

What you see isn't always what you get…

Caught up with Rob & Tigist on Saturday evening over dinner and had a look at the pictures of the medical ‘clinics' which were built and set up by the old Socialist Government.  Appearances can be deceiving as the photos show that the clinics have sinks, fluorescent strip lighting and a water heater.  However, the clinics do not have electricity or water connections!  Apparently all clinics were built to an exact specification which included a sink, electric lighting and water boiler.  This design was then built everywhere in Ethiopia (even in remote areas with no access to electricity or running water – which seems to be most of Addis Alem!).  So, despite having a sink, the nurse still has to make a 30 minute journey to the spring to bring back water for the clinic each morning.  It makes you think about how fortunate we are with the NHS, despite our grumblings.  It also makes you realise that we take a lot of things for granted in the UK . 

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Injury time…

Ah well, I guess I was expecting to damage myself at some point.  My right calf muscle's been acting up – felt a few muscle fibres tear at the end of a speed session on Wednesday, so trying to keep my leg rested until it feels better…  Which means no long run this weekend either…  But actually, I'm almost missing the fact that I don't have to go for a 2 hour run this weekend.  Strange eh?  I probably wouldn't have said that 6 weeks ago.

Well, if you can't run, you can't really write much of a running blog.  So I guess I'll leave it there this week.

‘til next time  

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The 0 mile week .

A pleasant week was spent not doing anything other than limping around the office, or lying in bed or on the sofa with the injured leg laid up.  As a result, 0 miles were done last week and therefore, the training blog would not have been very interesting.

Getting back into training

Unfortunately, my training plan doesn't include breaks for injury, so I've had to stop and think as to how best to get back on track with the training without causing myself another injury.  So this week has consisted of a 30 minute very slow jog, followed by a slightly faster 20 minute jog.  This was followed by a 1hr long run yesterday, although I slowed myself to walking pace for about 3 minutes twice during the run (it was a run home from work so I had to get home somehow!!!).

It's going to be interesting trying to get back into running.  Especially since I'm visiting friends in the Lake District this weekend. I'll be impressed if I can fit any running in on Saturday or Sunday.  However, as long as I'm fit for the skiing on 3 rd March, that holiday should get me some useful ‘altitude' training.  Doing moguls / bumps should make sure the joints continue to get a good workout too.

Anyway, hopefully the injury won't set me back too much.  But time will tell.  Half marathon is coming up in mid March…

Paul.

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Well, having done a pretty good week of training following my injury, which included running today from Putney Bridge to Kew Bridge and back again – 13 miles), I'm now off skiing for a week.  I'd like to say that this was in recognition of the fact that some altitude training might help improve my running time, but actually I'd booked this skiing holiday last July – which is before I'd even submitted by marathon entry form!

I'm hoping that I don't break anything on this skiing holiday.  Provided I come back in one piece though, this should help my marathon preparations.  Skiing is pretty hard work if I ski hard and because there is less oxygen available the higher up you go, the efficiency of my lungs should improve.  Admittedly, I probably won't be running this week – running on slippery surfaces (i.e. ice and snow) is probably inviting trouble.  However, I'm sure I could find a couple of long and hard mogul runs to ensure that my joints and bones still get a little bit of a hammering…

I've also signed up for the Adidas half marathon at Silverstone which will be in 2 weeks time.  This should be a good chance to see how I'll perform in ‘race conditions' and get a feel for what the atmosphere of the marathon might be like (although Silverstone doesn't quite draw the crowds as the London Marathon does…)

Anyway, plenty to look forward to over the coming weeks and hopefully I'll stay injury free from now until the marathon.

Paul.

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Surviving the Skiing

Well, I returned from the skiing holiday with no limbs broken.  However slightly sore ankles resulted from remembering how to snowboard.  Nevertheless, I'm sure the exercise at altitude will help…  I'll put this to the test with two laps of Silverstone in a half marathon this Sunday…

With that, I should probably halt the blog right now and give you an update after I've done the half marathon…

Not too long ‘til the marathon now…

Paul.

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Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon

So, what were the key facts?  Well, I did a lap time of approximately 25 minutes…  It was the second consecutive half marathon I ran with a cold and with each half marathon I do, I seem to get slower!  Oh well.  To be fair, it was the second run I'd done in 2 weeks (don't do this at home kids!) so preparation wasn't ideal. 

However, the fact that I didn't pick up any injuries and wasn't too stiff the next day, means that I should be able to struggle round the full marathon distance.  Especially given the lacklustre build up to this half marathon.  However, the proof will be in the pudding that I'll treat myself to having finished the London Marathon (here's hoping anyway).  I'll need to do more miles this weekend and next, rather than a more leisurely tapering off of the long run distance that you're meant to do in the 4 weeks preceding the marathon.

Weather was windy / cold, but had moments of sunshine (but not enough for me to ditch the fleece).  It has to be said, skiing wasn't ideal preparation for the legs (though not bad for the aerobic fitness).  Not out of breath, just couldn't make the legs work very quickly.

Training after

Uh, well, managed a subsequent run on Wednesday, for 30 minutes.  But if I manage to run 3 times a week I'm treating that as a minor achievement. I'm also revising my marathon time ambitions.  Lets face it, anything under 5 hours and managing to run the whole distance and I'll be happy.

But don't let me put you off

I have to say, when I do get to run, I do enjoy it (despite what the past couple of blogs seem to indicate).  The Half Marathon was fun – partly the experience of running round a race track, partly the sheer numbers of people running and also, the fact that 5 minutes into the race, the PA system blared out Living On A Prayer.  Hilarious!  Plus you get a ‘finishers' T-shirt and a decent metal medal and as much lucozade sport as you can drink on the race course…  Although after the marathon I'll probably need to get treatment to ween myself off the stuff…

Paul.

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The end…

Well, it came.  Then 4 hours and 19 minutes later, it was over.  6 months of training culminating in a general warm glow of satisfaction, a finishers t-shirt and medal, being foil wrapped like a roast chicken and a serious aversion to stairs.  But hopefully, I'll have raised a bit of money for ‘For-ethiopia'.  If you didn't sponsor me, but would like to, then please do!

Looking back to when I first started, it's hard to believe that I managed to run for so long and so far.  The atmosphere was absolutely amazing from the start at Blackheath to the finish on the Mall.  Even the atmosphere on the train from Putney to Waterloo and from Waterloo East to Blackheath was a treat.  There were only a few hundred metres over the entire course where there wasn't at least one row of spectators cheering you on.  Greenwich , Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge , Canary Wharf and the final 3 miles were just packed with people – and this was despite the constant drizzle.  There must have been hundreds of people who were giving out jelly babies and assorted confectionary along the way to sustain the runners.

Then there were the people I was running with – I think Batman and Wonderwoman were probably the most popular characters, though along the way, I passed Superman, Bob the Builder, a couple of Wombles, spiderman, a few cavemen, the Riddler (curiously, behind the Batmans), a lady with a hat in the shape of a telephone, a guy in full wedding gear running along with an inflatable woman in a wedding dress on his back (and an ‘L' plate), and Bananaman.

And most impressively, a man with an artificial leg, a man running barefoot and the septuagenarian with the caption on her back ‘I was at my peak … around 1958'  

Thanks to everyone who's sponsored me – it certainly inspired me to keep going – especially at the 20 and 25 mile marks when my split times went seriously wonky.  I don't remember seeing much of the 25th mile other than the 2 metres of road directly in front of me and a vague awareness that lots of people were overtaking me…  If I looked energetic when crossing the finishing line, I think it's mainly due to the adrenalin rush and excitement of finally getting to the finish!  Hence the slightly wide-eyed look on my face having just finished the race.

Anyway, regardless of what you think, sitting here the day after running a marathon, it's made me realise what a lot we take for granted.  For example, being able to put on a pair of socks in under 60 seconds… 

Seriously, I ran past a lot of water bottles on the side of the marathon route which had been used and discarded by the marathon runners.  Meanwhile, in Ethiopia , many people have to walk for two hours or more in order to fetch and bring water back to their homes in order to drink, cook and wash.  We can all too easily take for granted basic things such as running water and electricity, yet in other parts of the World people would have to ‘run' (well, walk probably) several miles to get water for the day.  I'm sure the money you've generously donated will help to improve the lives of people in a small community in Ethiopia .  It may only seem like a little improvement to you, but it tells them that you are concerned about them and want to help them.  That's got to be a healthy thing in my book, even healthier than trying to get fit for a marathon.

Paul.

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