With a large proportion of the race taking part on the exposed promonade by the sea the weather plays an important part in this race.  On many an occasion I’ve had to run into a horrendous headwind for the final 4km which really isn’t much fun.  This year however I’d say the weather conditions were perfect.  It was cool and with a NNE wind which gave a little helping hand during the second half of the race.  This was very very welcome!

I had a bit of a pre-race plan for today… The aim was push hard and try and get through 5k in around 18:15-18:30 (I’ve run a couple of 18:15 parkrun 5k’s over recent weeks so this should be OK) and see what happens during the second half.  I was more than willing to ‘blow up’ and have a nightmare towards the end.

My current 10k personal best is 38:03 from last years Bognor Prom 10k.  I did run a 37:56 at the Saucony 10k in March but this was apparently a ‘Short 10k’ according to the Power Of Ten website.  As the course doesn’t have an official certified course then I guess it can be open to interpretation.  The Bognor Prom 10k course is officially measured and has a certificate to that effect.

Another thing in the back of my mind was a discussion I had in the pub on Thursday evening with one of my Dad’s friends.  Over the past few days my parents had decided to try and raise a little sponsorship money to help support the Fernhurst Centre Cancer Unit at St. Richards Hospital in Chichester where my mum has unfortunately been spending some time over the past few months.  One of the chaps in the pub gave me five pounds and said if I finished in the top 20 he’d give another 20 pounds.  Last year I finished 21st….

I set off close to the front of the pack and ran hard from the ‘gun.’  The first km is always fast and I’ve learnt that you need to push pretty hard early on as the course has about four turns (with one of them being a 180 degree turn) very early on.  I dug in and didn’t get held back at all or have to change my course during this opening part of the race.  I did notice early on that it didn’t seem that busy, even though over 1,800 people had entered the race (I found out later that there were 1,497 finishers).  I guess they were almost all behind me.

At the 180 degree turnaround I counted that I was in around 21st/22nd position.  Hmmmn.

I’ve talked about the great support on the course many times in the past so won’t repeat it but it lived up to my usual expectations.  As I know quite a few people around the course I did get plenty of ‘Go David’ shouts from friends.

The first km was run in approx 3:34 (35:40 pace – a little quick!!!).  I then eased off (if you can call it that) and settled into a pace in the 3:40 range.  That was more like it.  The only person I was able to ‘draft’ off of was a chap about a foot shorter than me (this is usually the case!) from Portsmouth Joggers.  He was flying and running a great steady pace.  We ended up running almost all of the race together until he opened a slight lead in the final km.

I went through 5km in around 18:25 and although it was hard work I wasn’t at deaths door (which is a good thing in a 10k race!). At around 5.5km you head back up onto the promenade for the run back to the finish. I ran very close to the Portsmouth Jogger (let’s call him Martin – as that’s his name) and after passing the cheers of support from Felpham Sailing Club (where I’m a member) I muttered to him “I don’t know anyone else from here on in so we’ll get some peace and quiet now!” Famous last words. Well, within 30 seconds I got another cheer of support!!

From 7km to about 8.5km there’s not much on course support which is probably a good thing as you just need to get your head down and get on with it.

The final 500m is brilliant – there’s so much support on both sides of the road and although I was in a dark place, I knew it would be finished soon enough.  I had last looked at my watch at about 9km and thought I’d be close to 37 minutes (wow!) but when I crossed the line in 36:44 I couldn’t believe it.  A 79 second personal best time!

Looking at my splits (courtesy of my GPS) my km’s were… 3:34, 3:41, 3:48, 3:38, 3:44, 3:44, 3:36, 3:45, 3:36 and 3:36.  Pretty consistent.  There was a tailwind in the latter part of the race but then it was much harder to maintain that pace.

In the overall results I ended up finishing 13th overall out of 1,497 finishers.  Wow.  This was great news – especially as I was in the top 20 and raised a little extra cash towards a good cause.

The most interesting thing for me here is the data on how I ran during the last 7km (from 35 to 42km).  Apparently I overtook 455 runners during this time, and only 5 runners passed me.  As I said in my race report I kept my pace going steady until the finish, which clearly was not quite the same for just about everyone else around me.  I’ll take that as a positive thing :)

Training over the past few weeks had gone really well and I stuck to my planned training schedule really well.  The easy runs were easy, the hard runs hard and I was the best prepared I’ve ever been.  In the last couple of weeks before the race you taper down your training with the result being that you feel as fresh as a daisy on race day.  Well, for some strange reason which I cannot understand my quad muscles were aching towards the end of last week – this should not be the case!  I just didn’t understand why.  I put this to the back of my mind.  Perhaps it was just a phiggle (a phantom niggle!!).

Sharon and I were up early at 5:40am, breakfast was consumed and then we headed to Twickenham station to meet up with Chris (from parkrun) for the 7:03 train.  At Waterloo we met up with Danny, Nick and Ann and then made our way onto the super busy train (standing room only) to the start area at Blackheath.

The usual routine in the start area was followed – queue for toilet, go to toilet, go to back of queue and queue for toilet… and repeat.  At about 25 past nine we were happy down to ‘race weight’ and Sharon and I took our bags (with warm post-race clothes) and dropped them off for transport to the finish.

The toilet queues... before they got really busy!

Sharon then headed off to her starting area (the areas, or ‘pens’ are based on estimated finishing time) and I went to mine.  I was back in pen 1 again which ensured a pretty swift start.  After the starting gun went at 9:45am I crossed the line after about 50 seconds.  The electronic chip timing that you have on your shoes means that whatever time you start you’ll get accurate timing.

The first couple of miles were busy and we all started off pretty slowly but before long I was on pace and pushing steady.  The weather was fantastic – cool and sunny – and although there was a bit of a breeze with the number of people running and supporters at the roadsides there’s very little in the way of headwinds slowing you down.

After about four miles or so I could feel that my quads weren’t right which was very frustrating.  I couldn’t explain why but decided that I would continue on at my pace (I really didn’t have any other choice) and try and tick off the miles close to 7:10 miling pace.  The first few miles were paced approximately 7:12, 7:15, 7:03, 6:59, 7:01, 7:12, 7:03, 7:02… and so on.

Just before the turn to Tower Bridge. That's me in the blue in the middle. Photo: Andy Wingate

The early mile support on the course was fantastic.  Music (loved running past the South London Jazz Orchestra), bands, people screaming and shouting.  It was awesome.  Cutty Sark was amazing and the wall of sound when you get to and cross Tower Bridge at just before the half way mark.

13.1 miles was ticked off in a time of 1:33:56.  Doubling this time would give an even split finish time of 3:07:52.  That’d be lovely!  Just after this point I caught up with, said a quick hello and then edged past Mike Peace, a fellow club runner.  Mike is an absolute legend.  He’s run the London Marathon every year – and I mean every year since it started.  This is his 32nd year running the race and he is one of the Ever Present runners – a club you can leave but no longer join.  There are now 16 people remaining who have run every year since 1981.

Shortly after 14 miles you head down Narrow Street.  This is the main spot where I took photos from last year.  It was so so crowded.  I was looking out for Kirsty (and family) and spotted her in her usual place.  Great screaming/shouting and a little high-five.  Love it.

You then head into Docklands.  This is always a tough time and you have to concentrate hard to stay to your split times.   I just about managed this.  I knew I’d gained a few seconds in the first half so had some leeway if I dropped off of the pace at all during the final 10 miles or so.  It was good to see fellow clubmate Marie.  I said hello, she asked how I was doing and I said something like “I’ve been better.”

There was no such ‘wall’ to fight through today (well if there was it was in my legs really early in in the race).  I hydrated well on sports drinks and water and had energy/carbohydrate gels approximately every five miles.

After 20 miles you’re back on the main road to the finish.  There’s only 10k to run and looking at my watch I (just) had to run a 10k of around 45 minutes to get to the finish in under 3 hours 10!  Surely that was possible.

Although my legs were hurting and felt like they were on fire that was the only problem.  I wasn’t breathing at all heavily.  I said to myself that I’ll push on as best I can close or better than target pace.  Ignore the pain and run till my legs refuse to run any more.  That’s all I can do.  I wanted to get this time last year at Brighton but didn’t, and I could happily go through some pain to get the time that I wanted today.  Toughen up.

Just before 21 miles I remember hearing a great tune (DJ Fresh, Gold Dust) pumping out from one of the super sound sound systems on the course.  Upon further investigation with the help of Google Maps it was coming from Limehouse Town Hall!  Nice work there whoever was in charge.  This gave me a great boost.

When you’re feeling strong and positive then the final miles are awesome.  You overtake so many people.  You do have to weave a little around people and be aware that anyone at any point could suddenly stop and start walking (or clutching their legs with cramp!).

During the final miles I remember overtaking a chap from Thames Turbo Triathlon Club and a couple of members from another local club, The Stragglers.  I obviously said “Go Turbos” and “Go Stragglers” at I went past in support – as you never know they may say the same if/when they come past you a few minutes later!

At about 25 miles I caught up with Sean from our club.  He was’t having the best of days.  He then stepped up the pace and I ran with him for about 30 seconds or so before he dropped back again (although he eventually beat me over electronic ‘chip’ time).

The main thing I did today which I’d not done previously was ignore the distance that my GPS was reporting.  I checked mile splits based on the mile markers out on the course, and not what my watch was telling me.  If I believed my watch then I’d be off of my pace (it measured the 26.2 mile course at 26.6 miles).  This was the best thing I did before the race (other than train!).

Towards the finish there were 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m and a 385 yards to go sign (at the 26 mile point).  I pushed on all the way to the finish and with the finish line clock reading under 3 hours 10 (and knowing that it took me about 50 seconds to cross the start line) then I knew I’d got the time I wanted.

My finishing time was 3 hours 9 minutes and 9 seconds.  Result.  Job Done.  This now means I can automatically enter the race for the next two years.  My first half as I said earlier was 1:33:56.  My second half was 1:35:13.  Losing a minute and 17 seconds over the second half isn’t too bad I’d say.  I just wish my legs didn’t hurt so much from so early on.  I also now have a really nasty blister appear on one of my toes which is going to be a case of bye-bye-toenail very very soon!

My finishing position was 1,958th out of 36,672 finishers.  I was 1,009th in the male 18-39 age group.  In 2009 my position was 2,699 so I’ve moved up 741 places.  This was also a big personal best time for me over the distance by 10 minutes and 37 seconds.

A couple of people who’d been tracking me online (Kirsty and Emma) said that my 5km splits were metronomic and machine like.  Mike P. who I went past shortly after half way said the same.  My 5km splits were as follows: 22:16, 22:18:, 22:15, 22:17, 22:26, 22:49, 22:46, 22:38.  The final 2.2km to the finish was run in 9:24 which would work out to be a 21:26 5k split.  Here it is as a pretty little picture.

After finishing I ate and drank pretty much everything I had with me and in my post race ‘goodie bag.’  I then went for a bit of a walk, tracked Sharon online and spent about an hour or so cheering runners along Birdcage Walk.  I then waited for Sharon to come past and then I went and met her shortly after the finish.  We then met up with Kirsty, Heather and Danny and caught the train home.

The support on the course was amazing and I found it really encouraging.  I got plenty of shouts from clubmates and friends and the ones who I remember cheering me on were as follows - Andy P., Phil A., Andy/Emma/Suzan, Simon B./Simon, Kirsty/Orlando/Mike/Liz, Deb & Simon, Jess/JJ/Anna, Ali Y., Phil K, Marc & Julia, John L., Chris O., Nigel R., Clare K.  Thanks to all of you and sorry to anyone I missed.  I know there were a few others but I cannot remember their names – sorry!

I think I was much more ‘in the zone’ this time around compared with in 2009.  I was much more concentrated on my pace and getting the time I wanted (needed).

What’s the plan now… well, another Ironman distance triathlon in a few weeks time (time to get back on the bike again) and then perhaps a quieter autumn…

• 2009 – London Marathon (3 hours 19 minutes, 46 seconds)
• 2009 – Ironman Switzerland Triathlon run (3 hours 47 minutes, 26 seconds)
• 2010 – Challenge Roth Iron-Distance Triathlon run (3 hours 35 minutes)
• 2011 – Brighton Marathon (3 hours 25 minutes, 37 seconds)
• 2012 – Challenge Wanaka Iron-Distance Triathlon run (3 hours 44 minutes, 22 seconds)

Now, I’ve already run a marathon this year (in late January) which hopefully means I’ve got some good endurance in me.  Returning back from holiday in mid February I had to sort out a plan of attack to get me to the London Marathon well trained and ready to get myself a good finishing time.  From talking to people and thinking about this myself I should be capable of a time close to or under three hours but I plan to aim for a time that will get me a guaranteed entry into London for the next two years – which is under 3 hours 10 minutes.

I’ve decided to spend the last few weeks concentrating primarily on my running (I’ll deal with the swimming and cycling after the marathon as I’m not doing an Ironman triathlon until, er, July!  Eek!) and decided to follow a training programme in the lead up to the race.   Although training plans are normally based on longer timescales (often 12, 18 or 24 weeks) I picked up a schedule from one of the many running books we have at home and decided to follow the final six or seven weeks to give me some strict focus.

Well, a week out from ‘London’ I think I’ve followed it really well.  I’ve done more speedwork/interval sessions.  My slow runs have been slower and my hard runs harder – which is something that it seems that many people rarely do (and I’ve not done in the past) – they normally just end up running most of their sessions at a similar pace to the others.

Ignoring the Ironman marathons I wanted to see how my weekly mileage compares across my standalone marathons (2009 London, 2011 Brighton, 2012 London) so here’s a little chart showing the milage completed each week in the run up to the race.  For this year as we head into race week I’ve put my projected (scheduled) mileage down as a dashed line.

Standalone marathon training mileage - 2009, 2011, 2012

It’s clear that my training this time around has been consistent and high – the past few weeks have been the most consistent that I think I’ve ever run so that all has to bode well next Sunday.  Looking at the erratic dips in the graphs, in 2009 I had some ITB pain in my left leg a couple of months out.  In 2011 the main problem was two weeks out from the Brighton Marathon when I was ill for a few days and just didn’t run at all.  Come race day I struggled much more than I should have and lost fifteen minutes in the second half of the race.

I’ll probably post another blog at the end of the week after I collect my race number but right now I’m feeling positive and really looking forward to running the London Marathon next weekend.

The schedule I’ve been following had me down for a long run of 17 miles.  So, I’ve messed that up for starters by running 21 miles but never mind (my session on Saturday wasn’t as long as it could have been so the miles will balance themselves out).  The planned long run pace is also considerably slower than my expected marathon pace so the run shouldn’t feel too difficult and should also not require too much recovery meaning that my mid-week sessions can be run with enough intensity to make me stronger and faster.  That’s the plan anyway!

The run is split into a nine mile loop and then two six mile loops.  The first nine miles were done at around 7:58 pace (a little faster than planned but not too much) and then I gently increased the pace a little, running the next six miles at 7:54 pace.

When it came to the final lap I pushed much harder and ran the next six miles at 7:25 minute miling pace.

After a little over 2 hours and 45 minutes I was over the finish line collecting my medal.  The run went pretty much to plan.  My legs (currently) feel fine and my heart rate averaged 145 bpm which is bang on in my easy long run range.

I’ve another long run planned next weekend and then it’ll be time to start cutting back the milage in advance of the London Marathon.  I can’t wait.

In 2011 I ran my most ever mileage (only by about 20 miles more than in 2007, but it’s still more) with 1,346 miles (this isn’t 100 percent accurate as I didn’t log every run but it’s close enough).  This averages out to around 25 miles per week.  Not a great deal but with all the other training I’d been doing then it’s not too bad.

After the cancellation of the Luton Marathon in December 2010 focus was quickly shifted to the Brighton Marathon in April.  I wanted to run under three hours and 10 minutes to get a ‘Good For Age’ time for the London Marathon.  Unfortunately I was ill a couple of weeks beforehand and although I felt good on the day it didn’t last long and I missed out big time on getting a sub 3:10 race.

A few weeks later I ran (for the eighth year in a row) the Bognor Regis 10k which I love.  38:03 and a new personal time over the distance.  All good stuff.  Apart from parkrun events I ran a few smaller races, a 7k, a 10 miler, a hilly race called the Three Molehills (it was tough… real tough) and then the Bedford Half Marathon in December (after cycling 55 miles to the start!).

Triathlon wise things were pretty quiet.  The only races I did were Thames Turbo Triathlon Club events – I raced their annual aquathlon (run and swim) and two of their sprint triathlons.  I got my best time ever in the August race which I was really pleased with.  I had entered a couple of half ironman distance events but for one reason or another I didn’t make the start line of either.  So.. my triathlon racing was a couple of sprint events with the last one in August.  Probably not the greatest preparation for the Ironman distance event that I’d entered in January 2012.

Finally here’s the (usual) graph showing my running distances over the past few years…

• I didn’t want to injure myself as cross country courses are far from the smooth roads of, er…. roads.
• Saturday afternoon racing (which is when all these races are held) didn’t seem to fit well into my diary.
• Because of the fear of injury and a big race planned (an Ironman race I did in January in New Zealand) I didn’t want to take any more risks here.

So, with the Ironman race behind me and a 17 mile run scheduled as part of my London Marathon training…. and an experiment that the running club were doing by putting the race on a Sunday morning, and the familiar (and just a little bumpy terrain of Richmond Park) I really had no excuses but to take part.  As the race is just under 10 miles long I just had to squeeze in a few miles beforehand to make the total up to 17 miles.  The plan was for about 14 of these miles to be close to marathon pace (around 7:12 minute miling pace).

I put in about 6.75 miles warm-up before the race and then got into position.  As it’s a handicap race everyone sets of at different times (determined by a secret calculation by the club ‘handicapper’) and I felt I had a pretty favourable start time.  With about 15 seconds to go Andy B., said to me something like “You’re going to win this if you put in a good run. My money’s on you!”

I set off far too fast (closer to 10k pace rather than 10 mile pace – and I don’t normally do a 6.75 mile hilly warm-up before a 10k) but kept on pushing.  Before long I caught up with a couple of runners ahead of me and I was feeling alright.  My plan was to push fairly hard and see if anyone overtakes me, and if they do I’d then take stock of the situation and decide what to do next.

Well, about three quarters of the way round the first of two laps I was overtaken by Andy himself.  He said he wasn’t expecting to see me so soon (I felt the same) and he was absolutely flying.  I didn’t have a hope in hell of keeping up with him.

I completed the first lap (about 4.95 miles) in 33.20 which is around 6:44 miling pace.  Hmn, just a touch faster than 7:12 miling (especially on a hilly course).  I knew for sure that setting off so fast was going to make thing tough on the second lap and I wasn’t wrong there.

I really had to push harder to maintain any kind of similar pace (which I understandably couldn’t manage after setting off too fast) and my second lap was one minute 50 seconds slower (34:50) with a pace of around 7:02 miling.  To be honest I thought I was much slower than that during the second lap so I’m quite positive about the second lap time.  Had it been a more important race to me I would have controlled my pacing much better.

With the final results in I finished in 68 minutes 10 seconds and was seventh overall and sixth fastest.  I clearly managed to run 14 miles at marathon pace (actually much faster than I should have) which I’m not too worried about.

My next long run is a 21 miler at the weekend where I’ll be pacing this one exactly as planned…

The ‘rules’ are as follows…

• Start around 9am
• Start at the Bushy parkrun current finish line.
• Run the Bushy parkrun course as many times as you like, looping round the start line and finishing line trees.
• Anyone can join in and run any number of laps at any time at any speed, either alone or in groups.
• No official timing, time yourself if you’d like.
• Friends and supporters congregate at the parkrun finish line to give encouragement and support, or maybe just enjoy an alfresco picnic/refreshments and a social.
• People can run as many laps as they like.
• It’s Not the London Marathon, cos it’s not a race, it’s not a marathon distance for everyone, and anyone can join in anytime.

The date was set for Sunday 11 March and a large number of us (around 45) found ourselves on the ‘old startline’ for the Bushy Park Time Trial parkrun.  After a quick photograph we all set off to run anything from 3 miles up to 18 or more back and forth on the Bushy parkrun route.

I’m currently in training for the London Marathon so had plans for a long run. Today I wanted (well, a book I found on the shelf at home that has some schedules in it) to do around 17 miles, but at a slower pace to my normal long runs.  If I can follow this schedule then my long runs will be slower than normal, my faster runs faster than normal and then my marathon will be spot on perfect.  That’s the plan anyway!

The start of Not The London Marathon 2012 - Photo by Suzan Baker

I set off with fellow parkrunners Hayden and Andy and the three of us had a good chat for about 12 or 13 miles.  At this point Andy and Hayden headed for the ice cream van (they’re not marathon training) and I headed for a final two ‘laps’ of the parkrun route.  I pushed a little harder this time and closer to my target marathon pace and had a lovely run.  Just shy of 19 miles ticked off.  OK, so its more than the ‘scheduled’ 17 but that’ll do.

Part way through the run it was lovely to see Roger and Gill Wilson out in the park.  Roger originally came up with the idea of ‘Not The London Marathon’ so I’m sure he was out in the park just to check up on us all and make sure that we weren’t cutting any corners!

It was a beautiful day in the park, lots of us out running and we were all giving each other plenty of support as we crossed each other multiple times during this long run.  After finishing a group of us had a good chat, some coffee, some cake and a little bit of stretching which enjoying the Sunday morning (now lunchtime) sunshine in the park.

Race day arrived and Sharon and I arrived super early (as we pretty much always do at these races).  We went for a good warm up jog where we checked out most of the two lap course.  You run past the stables at the race course and then around the ‘parade ring.’  It was really quite an interesting course although there were plenty of 180 degree (or more) turns and lots of little steep climbs to really take you off of any sort of steady pace.  Oh, and the general course was pretty hilly too.  Clearly not a super fast 10k.

Highlights of the course courtesy of my GPS watch!

I went into the race having no idea of what I was capable of.  I’d not intended to race hard as this wasn’t a key race but naturally as the gun went all those plans flew out of the window.  In the back of my mind I would be perfectly happy with a sub 40 minute run but I should be capable of much better (well, on a flatter course that is).

After a quick race briefing I got myself close to the start line although kept clear of the fast boys at the front (including Bushy parkrun regulars Richard Stannard and Mike Trees).

The start immediately headed downhill and it was pretty fast and furious.  There were twists, turns, people everywhere and some big puddles in the road/path.  Oh, and it was windy and raining too!  Looking at your GPS early on to get an idea of pace was pointless because of the initial steep downhill section.  In fact I don’t think I checked my GPS at all during the run other than at the halfway point to see how I was doing.

Reaching halfway my watch said 18:43 which equates to a 37:26 overall time.  On a hilly windy course and with my 10k personal best being 38:02 this was going to get interesting!

I found myself with a couple of other runners and we all pushed hard and kept each other really close by (close enough that I felt my feet get ‘clipped’ by one of the others on at least one occasion)!

The second lap was tough and I was really digging in to keep up with the other runners around me.  Heading up towards the finish the two runners closeby made a slight gap on me and sprinted to the finish line.  I was perfectly happy not to attempt a three way sprint and left them to it!

Crossing the line my time was 37 minutes 56 seconds – which means that yes, I slowed down in the second half but did mean that I got myself a new personal best over the 10k distance.  Seven seconds… I’ll take that for now.

As for the race – I really enjoyed it.  The course was tough, lots of turns and exposed to the elements in places.  Well organised and an absolute bargain.  I’d certainly do this race again in the future.

My next 10k race will be in May where hopefully I’ll have another bash at getting another personal best.  In between then I have the small matter of the London Marathon to deal with…

The sun rises over St. Peters park

As we approached the end of an amazing long holiday we found ourselves at the start courtesy of our friend with a car, fellow triathlete, occasional parkrunner and now Sydney local Grant.

It was an early start for us after a great dinner/beer/wine combo the night before but parkrun is a priority, right? For us it must be as we had to change our flight back to London a few months ago so that we could take part in the Sydney event. This weeks training has been non existent with my last run being a week ago as part of the Christchurch Saturday Runners group in New Zealand.

Runners gather near the start shortly before 8am

Sharon and I (and Grant) rolled up to the starting area armed with our parkrun barcodes and proudly wearing our 100 Club t-shirts. This was the fourth running of the Sydney event so the idea of a 100 club probably meant nothing to probably 99% of the runners there.

I introduced myself to Paul, the run director and he commented our on tops. Nice. At about 7:55 we all moved to the start area and he described the route and what to do at the finish. He pointed out the first place runner from the previous runs and suggested that we just follow him!

Run briefing

I didn’t bother with my GPS watch this morning instead just running to feel (that is, feeling unfit) and with a close eye on what was happening around me.

Right on time the run started courtesy of a loud shout of GO from a child who’d been drafted in for this very important volunteering role!

We all headed off (just over 100 of us) into the park, we then turned a sharp right and then had time to settle into things. Gentle undulations were the order of the day. Next thing were were on the pavement (or is it sidewalk in Australia?) and running around the outskirts of the park. I had a few runners close by to me and was in 4th position. No idea of times/pace.

After running around most of the park you head back in to be presented with “Heartbreak Hill” – shortish but tough with a lovely little downhill on the other side. It was here I heard someone come up close behind me. You then run around a cricket pitch oval and during this part I dropped back to 5th position. Course marking was normally through big chalk arrows drawn on the tarmac paths (which were great) or a marshall.

The weather was mostly cloudy but very warm but the main difficulty for me was the humidity. It was incredibly muggy out there and really hard work. Then again hard work is the underlying theme of 5k running so you just have to get on with it knowing that it’s not too far to the finish.  Looking at a weather observations website at 8am it was 20.1 degrees with 86 percent humidity.

I managed to hang on to 5th place (fairly comfortably) but certainly without really pushing myself. Within seconds of crossing the finishing line I was offered a glass of water from another young girl which was bliss. Thank you.

If you have run a parkrun before then every event I’ve done feels like your home run. We were given finishing tokens which were the same as back ‘home’ and the timer/scanner equipment was the same. An efficient queue for barcode scanning and happy marshals made for the trademark parkrun experience.

Sharon crossing the finishing line

I then chatted to some of the volunteers and then watched Grant and then Sharon come into finish. After a chat we headed off to the cafe which is really close to the start/finish area and sat down with a drink and reflected on the pain that was Sydney parkrun. On the way to the cafe (kiosk) Sharon and I posed for a photo with our lovely black 100 club tops.

Sydney Park is beautiful and a fantastic place to run. The course is by no means easy and the Australian summer weather does little to help that! The event seems to be growing rapidly right now after some great publicity during the week. The only thing I do worry about is that the park was super busy with dog walkers this morning. I didn’t hear any complaints but if runner numbers continue to grow it won’t be long before some conflict appears. I’m sure both the runners and dog walkers can use the park at 8am on a Saturday morning together, but there may be a few bumps on the way.

The second discipline of parkrun - post run coffee and conversation

With the success of Sydney parkrun as we saw it today I can see the need for another parkrun in one of the other city districts coming real soon.

It was a great morning and everyone seemed really friendly. As I sit here writing this post somewhere over the Pacific Ocean en-route from Sydney to London (via Auckland and Los Angeles) it was so worth changing our flights around and paying a little extra to have the chance to experience a truly international parkrun.

Whilst we’ve been here we’ve managed to take in a 5k fun run/race and I (David) did a little ironman distance triathlon two weeks ago.  As we’re preparing to leave the south island and are in Christchurch a little hunting around found me the website of Saturday Runners – organised running/training groups that run regularly in the city.

The plan for this weeks run, starting at 7:30am (prompt!) was distances ranging from 3k up to about 16km.  This sounded perfect – we could decide what we wanted to do on the day.  Even better was that we ‘know’ one of the coaches/organisers – Bevan from the IM Talk podcast that I listen to religiously.  I dropped him a message beforehand to let him know that we were thinking of coming along.

The first session is free and then you can sign up for a five or ten session plan.  There’s a lot of people involved and taking part and just like at a parkrun event people appear from seemingly nowhere shortly before the 7:30am start.

David and Bevan - with hair looking like they've been dragged through a hedge backwards!

After parking up our ‘monster’ campervan near the meeting point we strolled over.  Bevan spotted us (he knows I’m pretty tall) and came over to say hello.  We had a good chat with him and then got chatting to another guy who’s hooked on this kind of thing – group running and fitness.

Just before 7:30 some pre-run announcements were made, maps of the route distributed and the group ‘leaders’ introduced (who were on bikes).  It was an out-and-back route and you could choose what you wanted to do whenever, although for some groups (there’s a 5k and 10k training group they had slightly ‘stricter’ schedules to try and work to).

Saturday Runners pre-run briefing

Shortly after setting off I was running with a couple of others and then one lady mentioned that she’d done the Wanaka half ironman triathlon a couple of weeks ago (the same event where I did the full distance race).  I kind of recognised her but she recognised me and said “David, what brings you here today…?” – it turns out that it was Nicolette, a lady who I’d met at Wanaka on the day before the race when I went out for a swim practice and met up with a couple of other swimmers (Nicolette being one of them) and we swam and chatted for about 45 minutes or so.  Although I am useless at recognising people and putting names to faces, when you’ve only seen someone from the head up wearing a swim cap, wetsuit and out swimming all bets are off on me remembering anything!  I knew she was from Christchurch but certainly wasn’t expecting to ‘bump’ into someone here!

Anyway, the two of us ended up running for just under 10 miles (around 8 minute mile pace) and had a good old chat about Wanaka, the Saturday Runners group, our travels around New Zealand, the Christchurch earthquakes and other bits and pieces.  The time flew by.

Heading back to the start/finish area Bevan came alongside on his bike and told us to pick up the pace for a final sprint race to the finish!  Oh dear.  There was even a small crowd of people there at the finish area (some drinking coffee as there was a coffee van at the finish just for the runners) who cheered us on.  We had quite a race to the finish which was a bit of fun.

Afterwards finishing our runs Sharon and I had a coffee from the van (lovely it was too) and chatted some more.

At the top of the picture are peoples houses. At the bottom are shipping containers there to try and protect the road from any further falls from above!

Before long it was about 9:30am and time to head off on our travels for the rest of the day.  During our short stay in Christchurch we’ve done some pretty cool things and seen plenty of ruined buildings from the events of the past 12 months.  The city seems to be strong and coping well and although we’ve been self-sufficient in our van for the past four weeks we were more than happy to ‘throw some money’ over the counter to some of the local businesses to try and help support their efforts during these tough times.

I did an ironman distance triathlon called Challenge Wanaka in New Zealand.  It was an amazing race.  It was hard work.  I think I did pretty well.  The end.

The long report…

Before I get on with it I wrote a number of posts in the week leading up to the race which may (or may not) be of interest.

Race start was set for 6:30am and as we like to be well prepared in advance the alarm was set for 3:30am. As we woke the van was moving around with the breeze outside. Damn it. Today could just be a tough one. Just after 4am we arrived at the race site in the campervan and found a car parking space literally 3 minutes walk from the main race marquee.

Coffee, suncream, and half a bowl of porridge (I'd already eaten a bowful and was just 'tidying up')!!!

Breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee and a big bowl of porridge, although actually probably no bigger than I’d have at home on a normal day! Sharon and I headed off to the transition area where I made final preparations to the bike – this involved filling up the little ‘storage box’ on the top tube of the bike with energy gels and then filling up both drinks bottles with some Powerade drink that we bought in a supermarket a few days ago. Once the bike computer was turned on everything was ready.

The flags close to transition were blowing frantically in the wind and almost directly onshore. This meant that it would be a choppy swim when daylight arrived.

5:15am and a little apprehensive about the day that lies ahead

Shortly after 6am I put my wetsuit on, had a couple of Immodium tablets (to keep ‘things’ at bay!) and an energy gel. Then it was time to head off to the swim start.

The Swim

The race starts on the beach where we run into the water and after about 30-40 metres in it is deep enough to start swimming.

Returning to the beach after a short 'warm-up' in the lake

Before the start most of the competitors (there were 238 finishers in the full ‘iron distance’ event myself included had a little swim to try and get acclimatised to the water temperature (16 degrees). A few minutes before the start a helicopter appeared overhead and we were all called back to shore. A few handshakes and ‘good luck’ messages and suddenly the race began. I rushed into the water, took a few leaping steps (handy when you’ve got long legs) and then got straight into front crawl.

I started near the far right of the field on the outside as I’m really not a big fan of a crazy swim melee that takes place and especially so with the water being rough. Although the water was rough it actually wasn’t as bad as it had been the last few days when I did practice swims (on Wednesday and Friday). It still was choppy but not horrifically so.

The first leg of each of the two swim laps was going to be the worst as we headed directly into the waves. It was very bumpy and being able to bi-lateral breath (breathe either side) whilst swimming was a great benefit as most of the out I had to breathe to the left to minimise the chance of getting a gallon of water in my mouth each breath.

The lake was cold but with my neoprene swim hat and the adrenaline of the race I didn’t feel the cold one bit. There wasn’t a great deal of contact between myself and other swimmers – the occasional contact of arms, legs and feet but nothing excessive. Everyone just seemed well behaved.

Although the lake was choppy the visibility underwater was still a few meters, which meant on much of the course you could see the sandy bottom of the lake. I saw a couple of other competitors swim caps on the bottom during the swim. One was an elite woman’s cap so perhaps whoever it was had got involved in some feisty action with someone else out there!

Sighting was nigh on impossible on parts of the course as you were heading directly into the sun, which was coming up over a clear blue sky. You just had to try your best and keep an eye out for the marker buoys every 50m apart.

I spent a fair bit of the swim very close to a female racer – she must had been tiny as her wetsuit didn’t stop half way down her legs (like mine) and she had these little neoprene booties on. I tried my best to stay close to get some sort of a draft but towards the end we drifted apart.

Exiting the lake and reaching for the wetsuit zipper

Coming to shore was a welcome relief – as soon as I stood up when the water was quite shallow I glanced at my watch which said 1 hour 11. That’ll do nicely all things considering.

Coming out of the water there was a good crowd of supporters on the beach (including Sharon) which was great and as I ran past her I said something like ‘that wasn’t too bad at all.’

Transition is actually quite big – I got my wetsuit unzipped to my waist (swim cap and goggles still on my head as there’s no point me holding them at this point), ran to collect my swim-to-bike bag and then you have to run about 100m or so across some grass, head up over a temporary bridge that crosses the main road, go back down and then run into the changing tent. Wetsuit off, socks and bike shoes on, arm warmers on (it’s pretty cold at 7:45am), sunglasses on and then run to my bike.

The first pirate 'sighting' of the day! Arrgggghhhh!!

Total swim time was 1 hour 12 minutes and 3 seconds. This was 82nd fastest, 64th male and 26th in my age group (30-39).

Transition one time was 3 minutes 56. This was 39th fastest, 30th male and 9th in my age group.

I think the nature of the entire day was a case of JFDI (just f**king do it), or just get on with it, or HTFU (harden the f**k up). This theme continued all day…

The Bike

Getting on the bike was a welcome relief. I had a plan which was just to push to a power output hopefully in the region of 230-235 watts. On the uphills I’d not get out the saddle and push like hell or anything like that. The idea is to put a constant and steady effort in throughout and not have any extreme ‘spikes’ of effort, as these will haunt me later!

Bike training has been reasonable lately although I’d not managed to get in all the rides I wanted to for a variety of reasons. I put in some good miles before Christmas but from 30 December to 17 January I didn’t ride a single mile on my road bike. Far from ideal but those were the facts and I had to deal with it. Maybe the ‘extended’ taper would help me feel fresh on the day.

Heading out of town I immediately overtook one of the female ‘pro’ racers. Perhaps she had a bad swim or is a great biker/runner (I don’t think I saw her again all day). I find that it’s so easy to get carried away early on in the bike (and run) and I really wanted to avoid this.

Bizarrely after about 40 minutes as I approached an incline I changed down from the big ring at the front to the small one and my chain came off. I cannot remember the last time my chain came off like this and typical it happens mid-race. Well, I tried about two of three times shifting back and forth to get it back on and it was having none of it. I was just about to slow down and get off the bike after one last attempt to re-engage the chain and lo and behold it clicked in place. Lovely. 30 seconds saved works for me.

There were a few other cyclists around me and in the first 15-20 miles I overtook a handful of other riders. After about 22 miles you head back through the centre of Wanaka and got some good cheers from the crowds. For the remaining 90 miles there’s very little support – just a few people here and there – and the aid stations. It’s just you, the bumpy roads and some other cyclist a quarter of a mile up the road that you’re chasing down (or trying not to lose sight of!).

When you get to about 70 miles you reach the town of Cromwell – which is where it has been said that this is where the race begins. This is often because of the headwind you normally face all the way back to Wanaka (oh, only 40 or so miles then!!). The wind on the first part coming back was mostly side-on so not too much of a problem but then later on from about 85 miles in you make a left turn heading back towards Wanaka and that’s when the headwind hit you. The wind had been increasing throughout the morning and oh my, it was howling at times. Everyone was in the same boat and you just get on with it but I have to say it wasn’t very pleasant!

One thing I like about this size of field is that it is pretty much a 112 mile solo time trial on the bike. There are no packs of riders like you get at a big Ironman event (which you can spend time and effort trying to avoid so you don’t get penalised for drafting). You just spend time on your own pushing the pace and doing what you can to stay fast and powerful. I didn’t see any drafting at all and everyone I went past dropped back out of the ‘draft zone’ that’s specified in the race handbook and likewise I dropped back whenever anyone overtook me. It was a fair race all round from what I could see.

As for myself, I started fast and powerful and then it got tougher. Early on in the ride I was comfortably pushing above 230 watts and then watched the number slowly decrease! I just found it difficult to keep the effort up. Perhaps I over-estimated what I would be able to do after a 2.4 mile swim and not the ideal taper (about three weeks!). Anyway, as the ride went on I think most people around me were in the same sort of position as my actual position in the field didn’t change much at all. After 34km I was 38th fastest on the bike, I then moved to 32nd, 28th, 29th and then 30th and by the end of the 180km bike (112 miles) I was 31st fastest rider.

Regarding on the bike nutrition – I had about eight PowerBar gels that I’d brought from home and then took High Five gels that were given out at the aid stations. I took one gel approximately every 20 minutes during the bike. After you’ve ridden for a few hours the time flies by and you look at your cycle computer and say “Oh no, surely its not 20 minutes already.” You just have to get on with it even though they’re not the most delightful things to ‘eat.’ I will have had around 15 gels on the bike, together with the one before the start making it 16 so far! Drink wise I took regular refills of the High Five electrolyte drink that was available and also took two or three bottles of water to help wash down the gels.

I set my GPS to give me a bike split every 10 miles. Not for any real reason other than to get a feel for how the headwind/tailwinds were helping (or not!). The first 40 miles I was very close to 30 minutes for each 10 miles. Then I did a super fast 23:45, 26:39 and then 26:21. This was the lovely tailwind down towards Cromwell. The splits then ‘fell apart’ because of the headwind back to Wanaka. The splits then went 30:02, 33:08, 36:19 and 35:51. It just got tougher and tougher as we headed back to transition.

It was lovely to return to Wanaka and my bike computer had the distance down as 111.72 miles. Spot on I’d say.

Total ride time was 5 hours 37 minutes and 23 seconds. This was the 31st fastest of the day, 25th male and 9th in my age group. Clearly I’m a better cyclist than swimmer!

After finishing the bike you run into the transition area and rack your bike. Cycle helmet comes off and then you pick up your run bag and head to the changing tent. I put clean socks on (my bike socks seemed to be a little, er, wet ;), running shoes, grabbed a bit of Vaseline to put on where I thought there may be rubbing, got my GPS turned on and away I went. Much like in Transition 1 you have to run up and over the little bridge that goes across the main road. Sharon was cheering me on and no doubt pleased to see that I was off the bike and onto what I enjoy the most.

Transition two time was 2 minutes 30. This was 35th fastest, 31st male and 8th in my age group.

The Run

Heading out onto the run I got my usual cheer from Sharon who’d been patiently hanging around the main race/transition area as this was the best chance to see me during the day. The run is two laps – of 13.1 miles…

Weather wise at this point it was quite warm (low to mid 20′s I believe), the sun was blazing but the wind was truly howling. It must have been getting close to gale force in the gusts – it really was that windy.

After a slight climb away from the main ‘high street’ you head onto the gravel off-road ‘outlet track’ which goes on for around seven miles (11km). Earlier in the week both Sharon and I had separately run the first few miles of the course and we both agreed that it was ‘a bit like Richmond Park.’ Little did we know…

Before long the gravel turned into sand and you were running very close to a beach. I’ve no idea how the bikes that follow the race leaders got through that section at any speed. It was actually only sandy for about a minute or so but this pretty much marked the start of a whole new section of the run course…  In addition to the ‘terrain’ it was hot, sunny and blowing a gale in exposed parts of the course.  I had to pull my visor down slightly over my ears to try and stop it from being blown off of my head.

About 2/3rds along the outlet track the path narrowed (just wide enough for two people to pass – not run together side by side) and entered a densely wooded area. It went up, down, left, right, all of those together at the same time and was frequently covered with large tree roots (and trees) as obstacles. I wasn’t expected this at all!! It was tough. You couldn’t get any sort of steady pace going in this section. There was even a narrow wooden ‘bridge’ to run across (obviously without any sort of handrails). This was more like a cross-country running race than an iron-distance marathon!

On a couple of occasions during this segment of the course (seemingly in the middle of nowhere) you’d come round a corner and be ‘met’ by one of the official photographers! Bizarre.

Some crazy looking trees out on the run course

There were aid stations dotted around the run course offering a selection of items – water, electrolyte drink, coke (for the caffeine and sugar), high-five gels, bananas and some little chewy sweets. Additionally at the ‘start’ of each aid station was someone with a dustbin full of water and big sponges.

At every aid station I took a sponge and squeezed it over the top of my head to try and get some cool water over me. I then took an energy gel and then water and electrolyte drink. After the first couple of aid stations I got into a more efficient system – when I saw an aid station approaching have a gel (as I’d try and keep at least one or two in the back pocket of my top) and then use the aid station liquids to wash it down and get a new gel.

Coming out of the wooded section at around seven miles you then reach a road called ‘Gunn Road’ – this is a nasty incline that gets steeper and steeper are you reach the summit.

It is about half a mile long and was guaranteed to sap every bit of your energy and slow you to walking pace no matter how prepared you were for it! At the top was a (very welcome) aid station and then you were back on more gravel for the return to Wanaka. On my first ‘ascent’ it took five minutes.

After a while you head into a residential area and are running either close to the edge of the road or pavements. There were a couple more hills (most unwelcome!) and then about 2.5 miles from the end of the lap you look over Wanaka from above. You see the race marquee. You see the main road. You see the finish line. You are so close (probably about half a mile direct) and then the bloody course makes you turn right and head away!

I’m not being negative in any way about the course – much of the scenery and surroundings were beautiful. It was just hard work to run and even harder to enjoy the view!

During this section I could hear a helicopter overhead meaning that the race leader was closing in on me (him of course on his second lap). A few minutes later I was overtaken by the eventual winner (who crossed the line in 8 hours 41 minutes and 53 seconds).

Hard work heading back into town for the turnaround and another 13.1 miles!

You eventually head back towards the start/finish/turnaround area and it’s slightly downhill. I passed Sharon who was about 500m from the turnaround point and I said something like ‘it’s f**king tough’ as I ran past her.

As there was a half-iron distance race taking place at the same time there were many runners of that event on the course and as you head to the finish area on Ardmore Street you head left if you’re finishing or right if you’re one your first lap of the marathon. Unfortunately I headed right as I had another lap to go. My first lap took me approximately 1 hour 48 minutes 32 seconds. An even split second half would mean a 3:37 marathon time. Hmn, quite unlikely as I’ve never even splitted in a marathon! Not least an ironman where it really gets tougher as the day goes on. Maybe I should try and even/negative split it one day…

Heading back out of town when I ran past Sharon she said to me ‘I know it’s shit but keep strong’ or something very similar. After running the first of two laps I knew exactly what I’d be up against for the next 13.1 miles and I knew it would be tough.

Every aid station on the second lap I walked (rather than ran) through (I started this practice towards the end of the first lap) and followed the same routine – have a gel, grab a sponge and squeeze it over me, take a cup of water, electrolyte and coke and briskly keep walking (with the three cups). Drink them all (in any old order!) and then discard the cups and continue running.

Beautiful scenery on the Lake Wanaka Outlet Track

Three iron-distance races in and I firmly believe that (at least for myself) a nutrition strategy consisting of gels and no solid food seems to work and not cause me any real stomach problems. I’ve always tried to avoid coke on the course (although I do remember having I think one cup at Challenge Roth in 2010) but I had no problems with it at all this time and was happy mixing up coke/water/electrolyte drinks! Sharon does say that I have a ‘stomach of iron’ which I think is pretty handy. I’m of the opinion that if it’s good for me then I just have it and get on with it – no matter how it tastes.

About half way through the second lap I remember being overtaken by two men – I thought that it was likely that they were in my age group although the only way to tell is from their race number – which on the run is worn to the front.

From here on I tried to keep them in my sights. I had no plan to ‘race’ them as such but didn’t want to lose them. The run was very quiet (competitor wise) and it made a change to have someone close by running at a similar pace. Second time up ‘Gunn Road’ one of the guys walked it whilst I was about 20 metres behind I mentally didn’t want to walk so kept running/jogging. It wasn’t fast and was in fact pretty much the same speed as the chap walking ahead of me but I wanted to not walk the hill. I kept running. It took about 5 minutes 30 or so to get to the top.

I look like I'm having fun here. Oh how the pictures hides a whole world of hurt!

Although there was not a great deal of support on the run course it was really good to receive. I got a few pirate related comments and ‘aaarrrgghhh’ sounds from people and it really provided a welcome boost. I recall seeing outside one house a family had put a sofa and a couple of chairs out in the road and were cheering runners along from a very comfortable setting! On two or three occasions during the run course local residents had put garden water sprinklers in the road to give us a spray. This was most welcome. I also recall a couple of children with binoculars who were looking at you from a distance to see your name (which is printed on your race number) when then personally cheering you on when you passed them.

I’d been doing all sorts of calculations about finishing times during the run and I remember hoping that a sub-11 hour race was my ‘public’ goal (to be honest, it was my only goal!). Well, it looked like I was safe for sub-11 hours and then I was thinking about the possibility of going sub 10:45. I was thinking things like, ‘If I can get my last three miles under 9 minute miling it’s on.’ For someone who’s run all their long runs normally under 7:30 milling this should be a ridiculously easy but I tell you, after 10 hours of constant exercise, the heat, the hills and the wind things are very very different. However, it seemed I could just do it…

Heading into the final 4k (the bit where you see the finish but are nowhere near it!) I decided it was time to make my move and dig really deep. It’s only 4k – less than a parkrun!

At the last aid station I took my usual cocktail of drinks but didn’t walk through – I ran through trying to balance three drinks at the same time! I just didn’t want to slow down at all – I was on a mission!

I didn’t take a gel at this point as it was so close to the finish (and quite frankly I’d had enough of them during the day already!). I’d say my gel count probably totalled around 25 for the day!

I dug in hard and slowly made progress against the men who’d previously overtaken me – and before long I slowly edged past each of them. I now just had to hope that they’d got nothing left in them and that my move was decisive.

Thankfully it was, and they were both in my age group.

Heading towards the finish on Ardmore Street was fantastic. The hard work was done and all I had to do was try and savour the moment. My watch was on 10 hours 39 minutes and I knew I wouldn’t get to the finish before it hit 10:40 but that wasn’t a problem – I was well inside of 10:45.

It was 5:10pm and there were lots of people out and about. The finish line looked busy (ok, nowhere near as busy as a race like Challenge Roth or an Ironman branded event) and loud music was playing and a guy was welcoming home the runners. I headed left this time (I’d probably die if I tried a third lap!) and ran straight for the line. I saw Sharon near the finish which was great and as I ran past the MC he said something like ‘this guy’s tall – he could be a basketball player.’ The man then raised his hand to high-five me and I jumped in the air. Mid-air I thought ‘this could all go wrong!’ but somehow I landed on both feet and kept going without any sort of embarrassing tumble!

Seconds later I crossed the line. What a f***ing relief! That was tough. My GPS has recorded the run as 26.19 miles and everyone of them being tough. My run time was 3 hours 44 minutes and 22 seconds. I’m really happy with that seeing as though my time on the much flatter course at Challenge Roth two years ago was 3 hours 35 (and I didn’t measure 26.2 miles there either although you should never fully trust these GPS devices). In Switzerland in 2009 I ran 3:47:26 on a very very flat course. For info my second half split was 1:55:50 (1st half was 1:48:32).

So… overall my time was 10 hours 40 minutes and 15 seconds. I was 30th overall, 23rd male and 7th in my age group. These numbers (overall and male) include all the ‘pro’ athletes who raced as well. Had I not have got past those two other chaps in the last few km’s I would have been 32nd (and 9th in my age group). Digging in that bit extra was in my opinion well worth the effort. If I could have swim, biked or run 15 minutes faster that would have made an even bigger difference and put me 3rd in my age group!

Straight after the finish you are presented with your medal (ah, lovely) and then you head to the ‘recovery tent’ – what this means is you get weighed, get fed, get massaged and get a finishers t-shirt.

First stop… the weigh in. I’ve not had this at a race before and they promptly told me that I’d lost about 7kg during the race. I think it must have been slightly less as when I was weighed at race registration a couple of days before I’d just eaten lunch and had more clothes on. Either way, around a 5kg weight loss it not ideal! I sat down, drunk a few cups of electrolyte drink and then headed back out of the tent to see Sharon who I knew would be waiting for me. After meeting up and trying to describe the day in about 30 seconds I decided to lie on the ground to rest my legs. Sharon suggested that I was looking a little pale and should probably head back to the recovery tent for more drink and some food.

We headed back and spent about 30 minutes near the St. John Ambulance staff who kept an eye on me and told me to keep drinking. Sharon fed me with hot soup and plenty of other drinks and before long I was feeling much better. The post race food was sponsored by Subway, so it was sandwiches all round!

'Coach' John from the IM Talk podcast (he's tiny compared to me) and, er, me, wearing my awesome cycle jersey that I paid good money for to help support his excellent podcast!

A few minutes later we saw ‘Coach John Newsom’ from the wonderful New Zealand based IM Talk podcast which I’ve been listening to for a few years now. He’d run the marathon as part of a relay team and I just had to introduce myself. He sat down with us and had a chat about my race and his (which didn’t, er, quite go to plan). A lovely chap, and compared to me, a rather short chap! Meeting him was a highlight of the day and in the podcast they (he records the show with a chap called Bevan) recorded a few days later Sharon and I got a nice mention.

I then moved from the food/drink area for a massage, and really it was just an excuse to lie down for 20 minutes and have some lass rub oil on your legs and back. Lovely!

Returning to our van which was all of 400 metres from the finish line!

After leaving the recovery area Sharon and I watched a few finishers come in, had a little walk and then headed the whole two minutes stroll to the van and I had a shower. It really was great to have the van right by the finish. After cleaning myself up we had a takeaway pizza and then headed back to the finish line area to watch and cheer the rest of the finishers in. If you’re able to walk and talk after a race like this then I think it’s only fair to go back to the finish and support and celebrate those who finish after you. We had a great time at the finish area chatting to locals and other racers and also joking around with the two MC’s who were great at getting the crowd going – especially in a small race like this where there aren’t many finishers coming in later on in the day. The last ‘official’ finisher (before the 17 hour cut-off) was greeted by a great fireworks display. The end of an Ironman (or ‘iron-distance’ race) is really enjoyable and well worth staying around for and getting involved.

After leaving our campervan site at about 4am we returned back shortly after midnight. Long day! The following day we were back at the race marquee at 10:30am for the prize giving and breakfast buffet – which was superb. I ate like a horse and had two huge platefuls of breakfast. It was lovely! Easily pleased I am… especially when it comes to food.

In summary…. Challenge Wanaka – a fantastic race, a fantastic venue, well organised and far from easy. What a day.

Ironman race finish line 'party' fireworks for the final 'official' finisher. Superb.

We took the campervan straight down to the beach this morning. Sharon had her breakfast whilst I sorted out getting myself ready for a swim. Conditions were marginally better than on Thursday. It was still quite rough but the wind wasn’t blowing a gale! There were quite a few groups of swimmers on the course.

Self portrait during Sharon's long run checking out the Challenge Wanaka marathon course

Sharon headed off for a long run – taking in the first five miles or so of the Challenge Wanaka run course that I’ll be doing tomorrow whilst I jumped back into the lake. The first few minutes were once again pretty horrible – I think its mostly just getting acclimatised to the cold water and the chop. On race morning I will try and get in the water for a bit of a splash around/warm-up prior to the 6:30am start. I met up with a couple of other swimmers – from Christchurch (the one in New Zealand that is!) and we had a good chat whilst swimming gently to the first main turn buoy.

After getting back from the swim it was off to the race briefing in the main marquee. When the Run Course Director came on to talk about the course she let us know that they currently had people out on the course picking up ‘road-kill’ and that they’ve been quite busy! One thing we’ve noticed from driving around the island is that there are a large number of squashed animals on the road. It’ll be nice not to have to swerve round them tomorrow!

Sharon finished her run (pleased to have managed her planned 10 miles) and we headed back ‘home’ for me to sort out my transition bags (the bag I pick up after the swim which contains my bike gear and the one when I transition from bike to run containing my shoes and GPS) and get everything ready for tomorrow.

At around 5pm after a little snooze we headed back to the race site as I had to rack my bike and hand some bags in. One of the bags was the compulsory ‘Special Needs’ bag which will be available at about 90km into the bike course. This has to contain a long sleeve thermal top to wear on the bike if it gets cold (which can happen very quickly in an alpine environment – even with the forecast set to be in the low 20′s on race day.

It’s now gone 7pm. I’ve had a pile of pasta for dinner and am washing it down with some ‘lovely’ Gatorade sports drink! We’ll then have an early night before an even earlier start tomorrow.

If you’ve nothing better to do on a Friday evening then you should be able to follow my progress via this link. My race number is 358 and I’m doing the ‘Challenge Wanaka Individual’ event (there’s a half-ironman distance race taking place the same day). The race starts at 5:30pm UK time on Friday evening (6:30am Saturday morning in NZ). If that link doesn’t work here’s the main link to the results section of the site – http://www.challengewanaka.com/challenge-wanaka-live

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for hopefully a slightly less choppy sea, but increasing westerly winds during the day. The later they increase the better as I’d much rather them affect me on the run than during the bike leg.

I’d like to swim around 1 hour 15 minutes and anything quicker would be a bonus. In silky smooth lake Zurich 2.5 years ago I swam 1:08 and in Germany in 2010 I swum 1:04. This time if I’m close to 1:10 I’d be chuffed to bits. It all depends on the conditions in the morning.

Bike time is much more of an unknown. I’ve turned off the speedo display on my bike GPS as it makes no difference to me. I’m going to try and go purely by my power meter and try my best to not push too hard or too easy. Constant effort throughout is the plan. I hope to push about 230-235 watts during the bike leg. I’m not so sure how long it will take but lets just say something close to 6 hours is what I’m anticipating.

As for the run, a sub 4 hour marathon is what I should be capable of. A 3:45 would be nicer though.

So… ignoring transition times something around the 11 hour mark is my current estimate. In events of this length anything can happen on the day so I just have to play it by ear and hope for the best.

Stay tuned for a later update or feel free to keep an eye on Sharon’s twitter account as she hopes to post some updates during the day.

We then headed back to the beachfront so that I could register for the race. The registration tent was empty and I was done in less than five minutes after arriving. This compares slightly differently to the 45 minutes+ at the Challenge Roth in 2010.

Sharon and I then walked round the expo (which consisted of about 10 stands) and whilst chatting to a nice guy at the K-Swiss shoe stand (after buying a pair of shoes) I helped him and his colleague hold the gazebo thingy down as the wind had strengthened even more and was threatening to blow the expo stands away! It really was that windy!

Back to the van and I spent close to an hour watching a couple of people out windsurfing. Nobody was out swimming.

Lake Wanaka - Thursday

Later in the afternoon I rode a gentle ten miles on the bike and then went along to the event pasta party in the main race marquee where I ate a huge plate-load of food before heading back to the van to top up with a chicken curry that Sharon had made. I believe my carbo-loading is pretty much complete – but then again I did start ‘loading’ about six months ago!!

On Friday I plan to swim (again) and then go to the compulsory race briefing at 10am. Sharon’s planning a long run and then in the afternoon I need to take by bike and get it racked and ready in the transition area.

Finally… here’s a photo of what the lake looked like on Tuesday afternoon.  Quite different from today don’t you think?

Lake Wanaka - Tuesday

The weather has fine with some cloud but the strong winds we had last night had made the lake quite choppy. When I say ‘lake’ it really is quite a large lake – its New Zealand’s 4th largest lake (192 km2), 45.5km long and 311 metres deep. We were told that the water temperature was 16 degrees celcius so this convinced me to put my new neoprene swim cap on.

It’s a two lap course (each lap about 1.9km) and my plan was to swim a single lap. The last time I swum was a few days before Christmas so lets just say that my swim training hasn’t been that great! I won’t keep trying to think of excuses. I just need to get on with it. Once I’m out of the water on race day I’ll be happy to just get onto the bike. Then I can start to enjoy myself!

I got into my wetsuit – which I last wore at the Vitruvian Triathlon in 2010 (yes, about 16 months ago) and it still fits just fine. It’s not the perfect racing wetsuit (it’s a bottom of the range 2XU suit that cost 100 pounds new a few years ago but its good enough for now) and after registering (so they could check that the same number of swimmers getting into the lake got out later!) headed to the briefing close to the waters edge.

After the briefing we headed to the water and set off at our own pace towards the first turn buoy – about 625 metres offshore.

It was bloody horrible. There was a lot of chop in the water and it was hard to get used to the cold water. On the plus side the visibility was great and the water was lovely to drink! I really didn’t enjoy the swim to the first marker buoy.

Once we reached the buoy and swam side on to the waves it got a lot better. I was in a much happier place, it wasn’t too busy and from here I just got on with it. Round the next couple of turn buoys and then I headed back in towards the beach.

I got to the beach in a little under 35 minutes which I considering the conditions I was quite happy with. If the weather is the same on race day I’d hope to complete the swim in around 1 hour 10 and anything quicker would be a big bonus. A lovely calm lake is what I’d love to be greeted by on Saturday but sods law means a storm will come over the lake on Friday night just to make things tough!

After getting out my wetsuit I had time to relax over breakfast. Sharon then headed off to volunteer at the main race HQ area whilst I started this blog entry and will shortly head out on my bike to check out another part of the course, before stopping in to see Sharon.

After the crazy amounts of driving we’ve done over the past week it is lovely to just kick back and try and relax a little as we head towards the weekend.

Late afternoon update – I rode another 20 miles of the course and it’s all looking good – I believe I rode up one of the steeper climbs as well and it wasn’t too bad either.  I think a lot of how Saturday pans out will be due to the weather, which right now is looking like it might be fairly alright.

I rode out for 30 minutes then turned back and headed for town. I’d say none of the route I rode was at all flat but then not again too hilly. Just general undulations all the time.

It was great to get back out on the bike again and remind my legs of what they need to do for 112 miles on Saturday morning.

On the way back I took my bike to the local bike shop for the mandatory pre-race check-over which it passed and I got a sticker to say that I can rack my bike in the transition area on Friday.

Back to the campervan site for lunch and then Sharon and I took a stroll into town (which is about 1.5 miles away). We had a wander, bought a postcard and then strolled back. Later on I headed out for a one hour run along part of the run route. This could be interesting. I had an idea of what to expect but much like the bike route it’s very undulating. The surface of the run is 75% gravel paths and 25% road. My hour run was mostly on the gravel paths and for those who live in London I’d say its similar to the path around Richmond Park but much more twisty. Settling into a steady pace on the run isn’t going to be easy. On the plus side the scenery was superb.

We then headed to the volunteers briefing (as Sharon is volunteering with some of the pre-race preparation on Wednesday) and then back to the van. Wednesday has more fun in store…

Wanaka as a town is lovely. Not too big, not too small, situated right on a stunning lake with mountain ranges all around. It truly is a stunning location and I can believe it when it is referred to as “The World’s Most Scenic Iron Distance Triathlon.”

After tons of driving/sightseeing and a good dose of rain (i.e., about 48 hours worth of the stuff – non-stop!) training opportunities have been rather limited (my running mileage for last week was about ten miles in total!). My bike has only just been put back together after flying it round the world (which only cost £35 when we checked in at London – bargain!) but first things first, the Radio Wanaka 5km Fun Run on Monday evening.

It’s amazing that the whole town is fully behind Challenge Wanaka. Event flags are flying on lamp posts all down the high street – the regional newspaper had a 12 page event ‘pull-out’ in it a few days ago with details of the race and a full entry list – my race number is 358. The local radio station is always talking about the race and what’s going on in town this week. It really is something special and amazing to be a small part of it all.

Sharon and I arrived in Wanaka on Monday afternoon to be met by blazing sunshine and a very light breeze. Going out for an evening run was meant to be refreshing!

Recycling is big in NZ - So much so that they're re-using last years sign

We jogged down to the lakefront and paid our 10 dollars each (about £9.50 pounds or so) for the two of us to register. The money all goes to a local cause so that’s good. Well over 200 people signed up for the run (or 5k walk) and it was really really warm.

When I went off for a warm-up Sharon kept an eye out for any serious looking athletes and she spotted a few out there. We had a race briefing where we were told that the course had changed slightly to make it a more accurate 5k and before long we were lined up.

Right in front of me were a group of young lads (early teens I’d say) and one of them had a Triathlon New Zealand Squad vest on! Hmn, this could be interesting!

So… the hooter sounded and away we went. A group of four pushed hard from the start and I thought I should try and stick onto them. After about a quarter of a mile I noticed that I was running about 5 minute 15 second milling, which is something like low 16 minute 5k pace. Not bloody likely I’d say!

I eased off slightly and dropped back to sixth place at a pace I was more comfortable with.

About a minute or two later a shout from behind us said “You’re going the wrong way!” – oops! We all turned around, then followed this chap (who was going mighty fast) as he led us back to the ‘real’ course. Sharon had run the correct course all along and it was only a large group of us at the front of the race (I mean fun run) that didn’t turn off at the correct place (the lack of a marshal or sign didn’t help!).

Anyway, back onto the course and before long the positions had re-established themselves and I was in sixth place and the fast guys were back at the front. At this point there were plenty of marshals in place and we were led in the direction of a golf course. We literally ran up a grass bank and across the middle of the course – including one of the putting greens from a hole. I was probably 15 feet away from a golfer as he just watched us all (whilst waiting to take his shot) run across his lovely course!! From here we headed off onto a lakeside path and into the grounds of a local vineyard.

Vineyards like to be positioned on hills. Oh dear. Next thing we were directed up a dusty path and it was hard going. The weather was baking hot – the sun was out and there was nothing ‘fun’ about this run! Well, it was fun but in a painful kind of way!

Eventually we headed back onto the path close to Lake Wanaka and back in the direction of the finish. I spent much of the race running close to the chap in 5th place and in the final km I edged ahead of him and pushed on to take 5th spot. The slight course ‘directional issue’ didn’t make a difference to the overall placings so that’s good.

My GPS measured 3.39 miles and a time of 20:36. Had I had run 5k my time would have been 19:03 which I think is not bad going on the hilly course.

It was a great fun event, lots of people at the finish supporting and spot prizes for a number of the runners (sadly Sharon and I didn’t win).

Sharon finished in 29:19 and her GPS said it was 5k spot on. Lovely. Her first words after finishing when I asked how it was were “Hot, it was hot.”

We then jogged (very) gently back to the campervan site, had dinner and watched the sunset. Lovely.

So, after a slight lack of tapering (meaning a 17:33 ‘one second away from my PB’ at Bushy parkrun on Saturday) I got my bike ready for a very early start. A 5am wake up call on a Sunday is never a good thing but sometimes you just need to get on with things.

I left home just after 5:40am for the 55 mile or so ride to the start of the Bedford Harriers Half Marathon. Although it was cold on the plus-side there was a slight tailwind which I wasn’t complaining about. With sunrise not until just before 8am it was going to be a dark ride for a couple of hours.

The roads around west London were lovely and quiet – even the North Circular up to Hanger-Lane. You rarely get to say that! The route I chose avoided most big roads and I headed up through Harrow and up to Elstree. After crossing the M1 motorway there was a stretch of about 3 miles or so with no street lighting at all so it was pretty damn dark and I had to rely on my (reasonable but not great) bike lights for visibility.

I next headed up to St. Albans, Harpenden, Luton, Clophill and then across to the start in Wooton. I arrived shortly before 9am having ridden for 3 hours 1 minute of cycling at an NP of 237 (TSS 218). Sharon had the car conveniently parked nearby so I packed the bike away and got changed into my running gear. A couple of energy gels before the start and away we went at 10am.

The run was pretty uneventful. I enjoyed it and it was nice to be in such a large race.

I hoped to run close to 1 hour 30 and I think I did myself pretty proud! Going through half way in around 45:10 I crossed the finish line in 1:29:57. Close enough I’d say. I can’t say it was particularly easy. Well, the first half was pretty steady but towards the end I had to concentrate pretty hard to stay on pace and not get dropped by any groups.  I didn’t want to kill myself out on the course today so did hold back a little as this is just one piece of a much bigger picture.

My finishing position (at least in the provisional results) was 173rd out of 1,523 finishers.

Job done.

On Thursday of this week my good friend Danny convinced me to come along to the speed training session that he does on a Thursday. A few of us went along and although we got a good kicking by many of the youngsters of the Harambee running group and got absolutely soaked to the skin in the pouring rain it was a good hard session and I felt good on Friday and ready for more!

Saturday morning at Bushy was setting up to be a fast morning. Conditions were great (cold, firm ground and next to no wind) and in addition to a ‘mob-match’ between two local triathlon clubs the Harambee runners were there for a pre-Christmas blast round the park.

With the team behind the excellent parkrun show and Marathon Talk podcasts in attendance it was set to be lots of fun down at Bushy.

I planned to push pretty hard and see if I could get close to my personal best of 17:32 from a few weeks ago. After a bit of a confused start (a few chaps started early and the starting sequence got a little muddled) over 800 runners headed off towards Teddington Gate.

I don’t have much to say other than I pushed really hard throughout. The field was absolutely ‘stacked’ with fast runners and there were plenty of people around me. Lots of surging, lots of competitive running. It was ace.

Just before the 4k mark Martin Yelling came powering past me looking strong. He looked like he was on a mission and that mission was to take down parkrun show podcast host and co-presenter Danny Norman (which he almost did). The last km was tough (hmm, much like the previous four!).

Sharon was there taking photos and got a great photo at about 4.5km of Danny, Martin and myself in the background…

I crossed the line in 26th position with a time of 17:33 – one second slower than my personal best. Excellent. I have no complaints about that time at all. With four sub-18 minute finishes in the past six parkrun events (OK, we all know the southern courses as ‘soft’!) I firmly believe that I’ve stepped up a level to a new range of times in my running (well, over 5k at least).

Finally, to give an idea of the strength of the field at Bushy here’s an example – last week a friend ran 19:45 and finished 29th. This week he ran 19:43 and finished 102nd! There were admittedly around 23 percent more people this week (810 versus 655) but that means he should have been around 35th place! Talk about top heavy!

The Three Molehills - Course Profile

The race is a three leg event that can be run as an individual or as a relay team.  Individual all the way I say :)

Leg 1 – ‘The Box’

A fast start saw me get to the bottom of this Box Hill in probably 15th position or so.  Although I’d raced off at just slower than 6 minute miling pace I knew that this wouldn’t last – and Box Hill would take care of that!  The first obstacle was some stepping stones across a river.  Well I wasn’t expecting those.  Straight after the stepping stones came the steps – around 270 steps that take you up to the top of Box Hill.  These were tough.  You couldn’t run up them – it was just a quick powerful walk/climb up the hill with many other runners all around you.  There was no real room to overtake and everyone around me was going at a speed I was happy with.

Once at the top you run to a turnaround point (a lovely viewpoint which has great views of much of Surrey) and then down Box Hill.  With a severe lack of any kind of hill training (for months if not years) I knew I’d not be prepared for some of the downhills – which I find much harder than going up.  I restrained myself a bit coming down as I didn’t want to completely destroy my quads and because of this I was caught up and passed by a few people on the downhill section.  Once we got onto the flat parts I could keep up a good pace but going down I didn’t want to risk things too much – as this race was more for fun than a position and is just part of the grand race plans for the next few weeks/months.

After 3.63 miles of running and 27 minutes 11 seconds, most of it up and down, you return to the start/finish to start the second leg.  There was stacks of support from spectators and other runners who were running the event as part of relay teams.  I like this style of race as you get plenty of support and as there’s a lot of ‘out and back’ you see other runners who encourage you and you can encourage/support back.  I was very surprised to see an average of 7:23 miling.  Surely I couldn’t keep that up…

Leg 2 – ‘Norbury Manor’

The second leg headed off in the direction of Westhumble and then up yet another incline!  This was a much gentler climb – still hard work but not one that you had to walk up!  It did go on for quite a while but that’s the nature of this event.  Near the top there was a water station with PowerBar gels (the only time I’ve been given gels in a race before I think is in an Ironman triathlon – so top marks to the organisers for sorting this).  I took a gel and some water and continued on.  During the downhill a couple of runners flew past me.  Whenever anyone came past I’d try and see from their race number if they were an individual or relay entrant.  Unfortunately these were individuals.

Two more runners then closed in on me and I decided to try my best and hang on with them.  At the bottom of the descent the three of us were all together and we pushed on as best we could (around 7 minute miling pace) alongside the A24 on the way back to the start of leg three.  My GPS measured leg two as 6.04 miles and it took me 42:31 (7:02 miling).

Leg 3 – ‘Ranmore Ramble’

Leg 3 began in a different direction and headed straight uphill.  A steep incline took us up, up and up and it was just a constant climb all the way up to the top of Ranmore Common. At the start of the leg I heard one of the chaps right behind me say, “I think he’s overcooked it!” about one of the runners ahead who overtook us a couple of miles ago and was now walking.  The three of us ran past him and didn’t see him again.

Once at the top of the hill you run along a quiet road and then through a muddy wooded area which was rather energy sapping.  Another water station at the turnaround point (where I walked for a couple of seconds just to get some water in) and then it was time for the race back down to the finish.  I was still with the two other chaps at this point and we’d helped each other on the climb up.  If it wasn’t for them I don’t think I would have made it up there so quickly.  During the final descent to the finish I couldn’t quite keep up with the other two and they moved off up ahead.  I kept pushing and was really happy to cross the finish line in 1:41:22.  The 4.37 miles that I measured for this leg took me 31:40 (7:14 miling).

In the overall results I was 21st out of 106 individuals (the winner finished in 1:30:50).  Looking at the team relay entries I was beaten by 7 teams (out of 46 overall relay teams).  My overall miling pace for the 14 or so miles was 7:12 miling – which is what I need to be running a marathon in – although I have no plans to run a marathon that hilly!

So, two longish runs in a week – on Tuesday I ran a half marathon in La Santa in Lanzarote.  That I thought was a hilly course – altitude wise that run had a total elevation gain of 620 ft.  I thought that was pretty hilly for a 1 hour 37 run.

As for this run, well, the elevation gain was 1,697 feet!  That’s probably more hill climbing that I’ve run in a whole year!!  As I write this the following evening my legs are truly screwed and I feel like I’ve almost run a marathon.  A couple of hours easy riding on the bike today surely must help.  Only time will tell…

Finally I have to say the course marking was excellent, the water/gel stations fantastic and the marshalls superb.  They were everywhere!  Top marks to Events To Live for a really well organised event.  It was also a nice touch to be greeted by Alan (the race director) as you cross the finish line.  Oh, and I made my best effort with my big hair to get onto the blog of the race photographers for the event – I think I did a good enough job :)

Within a week I had flights booked and I was going to stay as the third person in their apartment.  My work is much more flexible than Sharon’s so I was heading away without her.  The other trusty love of my life who enjoys a good ri…, er… What I mean to say is I also booked my road bike on the fight as well so I can train on that (although there’s well over a hundred bikes at the resort it’s always good to train on what you’ll race on).  40 quid return for the bike on the plane.  Good work Thomas Cook Airlines.  Just sort out the legroom and I’ll be happy (I ended up paying extra for decent legroom seats – although lets not mention that ‘large’ lass sat next to me on the way home who needed a seat belt extension!).

Club La Santa…. If you’re after a beach holiday with endless cocktails by the pool then I’d strongly suggest going somewhere else.  If you want to stay in an environment where you can train to your hearts content and know that there are others doing the same then you’re in the right place.

The days mostly had a general routine to them – a morning warm up (known as ‘morning gymnastics’ in the programme) with about 75 other guests and then a 3, 4 or 5km run. Followed by a bike ride and maybe a swim somewhere in there as well.

The overall aim of this week away was to get some good bike mileage in and also some more swimming.  I’m not a fan of swimming and just see it as something that needs to be done in order to get me onto the bike and run!  I’m a middle of the pack swimmer off of limited training so would just be happy to get a few regular sessions in this week.

My running is in a strange place right now as I have recently got a pain close to my right shin.  Running doesn’t seem to make it worse, or better and prior to going away I had 10 days of zero running and it wasn’t feeling any much better.  I decided to play it by ear (or feel) with regard to my running this week.

So this is what I got up to – partly to show that it wasn’t really a holiday in the lazing-by-the-pool-all-day look of things.

Friday

A 4k easy run followed by my first ride on the island.  Just getting out on my own bike felt fantastic. So much happier than using one of the club bikes here.  I know my bike, I know how to ride it and I am responsible for the brakes, gears, whatever.  It’s also got my lovely power meter on it so I can train better and get some great data out of it at the end when I load my cycle computer data onto a computer.

I had downloaded some bike routes in advance of going away as well as getting a detailed map of the island onto my GPS.  This was a great help if ever I decided to go off of a planned route.

So back to Friday – a solid ride up to the North of the island following part of the Ironman bike course.

Actually it’s pretty difficult not to come across parts of the Ironman course as there aren’t that many main roads on the island.  The climb on the way to Haria was pretty much never ending.  I’d say that it started at Famara beach and just goes on and on (there’s one very small downhill but generally its all up up up).  Looking at my GPS logs the climb took me about an hour and was over 14.5 miles long!  The view at the top is great, but even better than that is the ride down complete with multiple switch-backs on the road (which unfortunately do force you to slow down).  The nearest you get to switchbacks back home is Box Hill in Surrey and this climb eats Box Hill for breakfast!

I then continued riding up to the North of the island which had another climb – a simply stunning one all the way up to Mirador del Rio.  Once at the top (having taken a few photos) the descent to Arrieta was awesome and I clocked over 45mph on the descent. A right turn then takes you onto a long long climb through Tabayesco and then ends up just before the switchbacks outside of Haria which you then have to climb back up.  Nowhere near as much fun as coming down them but plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.  The ride back had plenty of descending which was lovely and I got back to base mid afternoon in time for a swim.  For the power geeks out there my NP for this ride was 247 watts with over 8,700 feet of climbing.  TSS was 310 (VI 1.09).

3km in the pool and I was done!  That’s probably the furthest that I have swum in a long time and although I could go further if I had to, I didn’t and was knackered.  I’ll just do little and often with the swimming this week.

• Totals: 2.5m run, 64.5m bike, 3k swim

Saturday

Saturday started with a parkrun – well, not a real parkrun but a 5km run.  I then took myself back out on the bike for 51 miles which took me down to the south of the island (lovely view and very steep downhill section from Femes), a lovely coastal road through lava fields and then and then back up through the volcanic Timanfaya National Park. Lovely scenery all round.  As soon as I got back to the apartment Ray and Ann were heading out for a little bike ride on their own so I decided to join them.

A couple of easy runs of 4 and 5km on the first two days and I felt happy to get a few more miles in.  We got back to the apartment at about 4:30pm so this gave me 45 minutes to decide whether to run in the 5 or 10k running races that were taking place at 5:15pm. What the heck.  It would make a reasonable brick session, even after a little break.

Race time… I had no plans to really race as I’m just being cautious about my leg at the moment so the plan was to run 5k and if all felt ok then run the second lap and make it 10k.  The course is set that you run a 5k lap (including going across the finish line) and if you want to run the 10k race you just keep going and run a second lap.  I set off and before long found myself comfortably in third place.  Positions don’t mean much here as the standard from week to week varies widely but either way I was running well and pretty comfortably.  It was very windy and as I came onto the running track for the end of the 5k I saw the two chaps who were ahead of me cross the line and stop.  This meant that I had a choice… I could take third place in the 5k or hopefully take first in the 10k.  I think that was an easy decision to make.   The first 5k took 19:22 and I felt very comfortable running this pace.  I then just carried on running with me now in the lead.

Another steady lap and there was no sign of anyone close behind me.  I came back into the stadium with plenty of support from other runners and spectators and crossed the line in a time of 38:50 (just looking back in my records from when I came here in 2007 – we called it a holiday and not a training camp back then – I finished in 39:28).

• Totals: 3.1m run, 66m bike, 6.2m run (10k race)

Sunday

I skipped the morning run and went straight to the pool and did 2k. My shoulders aren’t used to swimming more than once a month!!!

Sunday is market day in Lanzarote so I upped on the bike and rode to the old capital of Teguise to walk round the market and then rode back to La Santa via Famara.

Later in the day I went out for a little mountain bike ride with Ray and Ann and covered about 7 miles.

• Totals: 2k swim, 34m bike

Monday

After the morning warm-up by the pool I decided to join the organised 5k running group.  The group leader lady said to us “I shall run at 5 minutes per kilometre pace. If you all run faster then I shall run faster.”

We set off and after about 2k I had drifted off of the front together with another chap.  We pushed on and had a good little bit of back and forth between us.  An easy run turned into a bit of a speed session!  Oops.

I wanted to get a long ride in today so after breakfast (Alpen rules!) I headed out.  Once again it was very windy but that didn’t matter as I was trying to ride to a fairly constant power output whether into or being followed by the wind.  Back up to the north of the island and then down into the wine growing region of La Geria and back through the volcanic national park to La Santa.

On the way back I managed to come across Ray and Ann who were on a group bike ride so I tagged along for the last 6 or 7 miles (which was at a much gentler pace than the pace that I’d been riding all day).  As we came into the final descent from Tinajo to La Santa the headwind was fierce.  You really had to push hard to get any sort of speed (and it’s all downhill) and the group of riders with me at the front were pushing hard.

I immediately noticed that one of the riders wasn’t keeping a clear gap between himself and the rider in front – his front wheel was overlapping the ride leaders rear wheel.  This is a big no-no in group riding.  I planned to tell the ride leader about this once we’d finished the ride (it was too windy and dangerous to start making hand gestures at this point) so I just pulled right away from the other riders and kept my distance.  I found out later that the riders had been told not to overlap wheels at the pre-ride briefing.

Within less than a minute there was an almighty crash as the man who’d been causing the overlap went tumbling to the ground.  We all stopped as quickly as we could and ran up to him.  He was lying on his back and there was blood all over his head.  He didn’t look good at all.  It turned out that one of the riders in the group was a paramedic (I think) and she took control of the situation whilst calls were made to the emergency services and a few cars pulled up.  Ray and Ann appeared a few moments later and then one of the ride leaders rode back to La Santa with about half of the ride group.

This was one hell of a frightening thing to be so close to (I was probably about 10-15m away from it when it happened) and it reminded me for the most part I am much happier riding solo rather than in groups.  Two days later I heard that the man had been flown to Gran Canaria with spinal injuries and was in intensive care in an induced coma.  Poor sod. Really not good news.

• Totals: 3.1m run, 86.5m bike

For the power geeks out there my NP for the ride was 235 watts with over 8,100 feet of climbing.  TSS was 382 (VI 1.1).

Tuesday

Tuesday is half marathon race at Club La Santa do I thought I could use it as a hilly long-ish run (I’m meant to be running 19 miles in training right now but this will have to do).  I set off at a steady pace at the early start time of 7:45am and had a good solid and comfortable run.  Once again it was blowing a gale on the top of the hills but this make a good workout.  I finished in 1:37:24 (much slower than in 2007) but then I was racing hard then and hadn’t ridden nearly 90 miles the day before.  I came third.  The winner did a great time of just over 73 minutes which considering the windy conditions was pretty damn good indeed.

Another visit to the pool for a 2k swim and after a steady 27 miles on the bike the most important sport of all – a game of ‘compact golf.’

• Totals: 13.1m run (race), 27m bike, 2k swim

Wednesday

My legs were really starting to feel tired at this point and my right knee was hurting (I believe all the hill climbing on the bike) but I really wanted to get out on the bike to enjoy the weather and scenery once more. After a gentle (25 min) morning 5k I headed out and rode just over 16 miles, came back to base and then went out with Ray on the bike for a further 27.5 miles.

I nearly went for a swim later in day but didn’t quite make it.  I’ll count that as a ‘half session’ as I did have my swimming shorts on, but just didn’t make it to the pool. I almost went windsurfing in the afternoon but instead just watched and supported the windsurf race.  Much drier on land.

Early evening it was time to pack the bike for the journey home tomorrow.

• Totals: 3.1m run, 43.5m bike, intent-to-swim-but-not-quite

Thursday

I went for a bit of a hilly off road run – headed in the direction of Famara close to the coast.  I got to Caletta de Caballo and then headed inland and uphill to Soo, then back on the road home making it 5 lumpy miles.

I followed this with a breakfast and a 2k swim and then it was time to head back to the airport for the flight home.

• Totals: 5m run, 2k swim

Summary

• 321′ish miles on the bike over 6 days. That’s an average of just over 53.5 miles each day. Nice.
• 36 miles running (not bad when I would have been happy with just 3!)
• 9k swimming. No comment.

The cycling is fantastic in Lanzarote.  The roads are for the most part lovely and smooth (ignoring 100m in Famara and the part of the Ironman course after Arrecife when you turn left just before Nazaret).  I really liked having maps of Lanzarote on my bike GPS so I could see exactly where I was at any moment.  It’s windy, warm, hilly and there’s often other cyclists out there who nod hello to you.  Cars give you tons of distance and there’s actually not very many of them.  A bit of a bikers paradise.  I just wanted a few more cafes and bakeries to get supplies from but I had plenty of food and water on my rides to be completely self sufficient anyway.

Running is great with off road tracks if you want them.  Be prepared for hills though.

As for swimming, the 50m heated outdoor pool at Club La Santa is superb.  I just wished that I actually enjoyed swimming.  The first couple of lengths of each session is good but then I just want it over with.  I see swimming as a means to getting on the bike.  Maybe that’ll change one day but right now that’s how it is.

Two months out from my third Ironman distance triathlon and think the timing was ideal.  I’ve never cycled so much in my life and I really enjoyed it.  I think the weather back home will take some getting used to in late November and December but I just need to man-up for these rides.

Running is still a concern with my leg but if I can keep ticking over and get some good physio in over the coming weeks I’ll be happy.

As for swimming – lets just not go there.  I’ll go to the pool and get plenty more swims in but that’s all I have to say on the matter.

At the outset I said this would be a training camp and not a holiday.  Over the week I have probably read about 10 pages of a book and came home with more magazines (there was a copy of Triathlon Plus in the room on arrival) that I came out with – all of them unread!

Finally I must mention the evenings as it wasn’t all training.  The entertainment laid on by Club La Santa was very good, although we never made it up past 10pm.  Food wise we ate on site every night and I was happy with what was available.  A couple of beers with dinner together with the lovely company of Ray and Ann made it a lovely little break.

I just need to recover now!

Following on from a 10 mile personal best and a good 18:02 5k run at Frimley Lodge parkrun a couple of weeks ago.  The Frimley course is fast but has quite a few turns in it to slow you down so I was really pleased with 18:02.

A week later I was at Bushy parkrun.  I’d not run there since August (shock horror!) and had a nice little warm-up with Sharon before the start.  Conditions were ideal (cool with little wind) and as the 700+ runners set off I found myself pushing hard.

I chose not to look at my watch and just go on feel as much as I could.  As I went round the corner at the end of the first straight (about 1.1km in) I could see Mark G., Chris W., and someone else up ahead about 20m away.  I was feeling good and tried to see if I could slowly reign them in.  There was no rush.  This isn’t a sprint!

By about 2km I was with them and I tucked in close behind.  It felt comfortable being in their draft and before long I decided to push on ahead.  As I moved ahead I expected to see Mark and Chris right behind me (as they’re both much faster than me over 5k) but they didn’t.  I was then off on my own, with no idea of my time/pace other than knowing that either I’m doing very well or Mark and Chris are having a ‘mare!

At 4k I decided to take a glance at my watch.  I didn’t see the timer but did glance at my pace, which was about 5:37 per mile – a few seconds per mile quicker than my PB pace.  OK, all I had to do was try and fight through to the finish and I was looking good for a personal best.

Coming down the final straight I dug real deep – didn’t quite catch the runner ahead of me but crossed the line in 17:32 – a 19 second person best.  As soon as I saw my time I was pretty stunned – then I realised how tough it is going to be to get near it again!  Ho hum.

Fast forward a week to today and I’m on the start line at Richmond parkrun.  I’ve not run here since new years day and its a little challenging course.  The downhill is too steep to be comfortable, and there’s very little comfortable about running uphill on the way back!  I wasn’t expecting anything special today as I’d run 17 miles on Friday as part of my marathon training.  The legs were feeling it but a 10-15 minute warm-up and a few ‘strides’ got me ready.

Over 250 runners set off in ideal conditions once again and it was pretty chaotic at the start as everyone goes off in a mad rush to find clear space.  As I came round the first corner before the downhill I was probably 12th or 13th and I could see the leading two runners moving into the distance.

I pushed on at a solid pace and went through the first mile in 5:33 (there’s a fair bit of downhill during the first mile).  I’d slowly moved up to about seventh place by this point.  As we headed along the grass towards Sheen Gate I caught up with the runner ahead of me and pushed on past him.  I was feeling pretty good but know it was literally all uphill from here!

In the last half mile I caught up with another runner ahead of me and pushed past him on a short steep uphill section.  I opened up a gap and just kept on pushing.

Crossing the line in a time of 18:13 was much better than I’d hoped for at the start.  I was fourth overall and my time was 22 seconds faster than my Richmond parkrun PB of 18:35 (from September 2009).

So, at 10am I was on the start line ready to see how my legs would cope with 10 miles of hard effort, especially after a surprise 18.02 time at Frimley Lodge parkrun yesterday (which doesn’t really lend itself to fast times).  I’d not planned to run that hard but had a couple of people were breathing down my neck and that spurred me on.

Anyway, back to today.  Ignoring whoever was around me (there were about 60 runners from Ranelagh Harriers in the race) and just going at my own pace I started off and settled into a pace around 6:15 minute miling.  This would get me over the finish line in 1:02:30 which I’d be really happy with, compared to my previous years times…

• 2006 – 1:11:47
• 2007 – 1:03:09
• 2008 – 1:06:02
• 2009 – 1:02:22
• 2010 – 1:11:48 (was part of a much longer run)

After two or three miles I was running around 6:12 pace on average and thought I’d just try and stick to it.  The first half should feel fairly ‘steady’ which it did and I crossed the 5 mile marker in 31:11 – bang on my PB pace.  I knew the second half would get much tougher, especially when I’d not trained for this race any way whatsoever (my current training is more about going longer and slower as part of my marathon/Ironman prep) so this could get interesting.

Looking at my GPS I went through 10km in 38:31 (28 seconds slower than PB pace).  Interesting…

During the second half of the race I think I kept myself together very well.  Only three people overtook me – one from The Stragglers running club, a Thames Turbo Triathlon Club member and just before the 9 mile mark it was Ranelagh Harriers clubmate Sean P. who drifted past.

I pushed on as hard as I could through to the finish where I crossed the line in 1:01:56 – giving me a new personal best time over the distance by 26 seconds.  I also managed to negative split the race (first five miles was 31:11, the second five was 30:45).  I finished in 125th place overall (there was some really quick times ran this morning) and my age grading was 73.95%.

A good mornings race, that’s for sure.

More decisions were made for me in the shape of the three of us running a lap of the course with the intention of a reccy and a warm-up. I am very glad we did, as we saw the canal path before it was full of runners!

Anyway, soon enough we had listened to the first time runner briefing and after a “welcome” from the Race Director for the day to us visiting from Bushy, we were off to the start. The course isn’t fast underfoot (though I think a slight downhill gain) and is rather twisty turny but there are marshalls and arrows, so no getting lost. You run in a melee around a football field at the start, then up onto the canal path, OMG! It’s so narrow and tree stumps everywhere!!! It’s so hairy scary, especially given you can’t really overtake anyone including people who set off nearer the front who clearly shouldn’t! Then you go through a lovely little wooded “cross country” area, over a weird hard to run on path during which time I feared for my ankles, through a quagmire squidgy bit and then finally over another football field. Oh, then you repeat it :) I rather like a multiple lap course I must admit…

I don’t know what I was thinking really about my pacing before the start, certainly the canal path on the first lap slowed me down when there was no over-taking but when I glanced at my watch at the start of the second lap, it said 14:01, so I was happy enough with that. I tried really hard to keep pushing but with half a mile to go I was really starting to feel tired. Soon enough though, the end was in sight. I pushed on and crossed the line, my official time was 27:56 – my fastest parkrun time since 22nd March 2008. I was over the moon :) I was even more pleased when I looked at my splits and saw my miles were 9:09, 9:05 and 9:04 (obviously plus the last bit), so pretty much even.

Then of course, the boys made me run another lap as a cool-down. It’s my favourite apparently. Ahem.

We headed off afterwards for a coffee and a chat with some of the Frimley Lodge volunteer team. By the time we got to the cafe, we had received our text messages from parkrun with our official times, super-quick service! All in all a lovely day, lovely run and great, friendly people. I would thoroughly recommend it if you fancy a visit to a different parkrun.

The past weekend Sharon and I went along to watch, support, shout and take a few photos at the Catford and Bec hill climb events in Kent.  I’ve posted a blog about the events over at our photography website so take a look and then see the gallery of photos that’s linked to near the end of the blog.

Anyway, following this blog post my good friend Richard suggested on facebook that I should give one of the hill climbs a go.  Having watched these events I’ve wondered what it would be like to be the one fighting their way up a steep hill with crowds all around.  The nearest I’ve got to this has been climbing the (much less steep) Solera Berg during the Challenge Roth iron-distance event a couple of years ago.

Following Richards suggestion to me I decided that todays long bike ride should head south-east towards Yorks Hill, the home of the Catford Hill Climb.  I planned a route using the excellent Running Free Online website, loaded it into my bike GPS and off I set.  About 40 miles later (and lots of short – and long – climbs and descents) I found myself at the bottom of Yorks Hill.

I didn’t know where the start of the climb was (as it was almost too steep to walk down on Sunday!) so as I was cycling along the lane the road levelled out and with an incline just ahead I hit the lap button on the GPS and dug deep.

Two minutes later the road levelled out (again) and I saw a painted white line on the road!  Bugger.  That’s the start of the climb and I’d just expended two minutes hard effort (and two and a half hours cycling) to just get there.

I pulled over, got myself down to race weight (meaning, I had a pee in the bushes) and prepared myself.  My bike clearly wasn’t ready for a steep climb as it was laden with tool kits, bike pump, spare inner tubes, water bottles, energy bars, etc. etc.

I stood on the line, clipped into the pedals and hit the start button.  My heart rate was at 121 (much much higher than resting) and away I went.  Within a few seconds the incline ramped up and I had those thoughts of ‘you’ve gone off too hard.’  Too late to worry about these things now.  I was in my easiest gear (and remained in it the whole way up).

This incline then flattens out a little before the real fun begins.  A lung bursting 20+ percent-er which was painful to say the least.  Out of the saddle, gasping for air, convincing myself that this is good for me and pushing up the hill as quickly as possible.

I’m sure my style wasn’t great but when I saw an opening in the trees up ahead I knew the end was near.  At the top of the climb just before the entrance to a small car park there was another white line painted on the road.  I pushed to the line, hit the stop button again and then unclipped and came to a standstill as quick as I would be if I were about to ride off of a cliff edge!  Bugger me that was tough.  My heart rate peaked at 174.

Shortly after the finish. Looking a little worn out!

Looking at the clock my time was 3 minutes 11 seconds.  This would have put me in 88th position (out of *cough* 102 finishers) in the 2011 Catford Hill Climb.  Surely with an easier warm-up, less ‘crap’ on the bike and screaming crowds I could go under 3 minutes…?

Looking through my cycling logs I’ve got my heart rate higher than 174 before so clearly I wasn’t trying hard enough.  Finally, here’s a little summary graph of the effort from my GPS/power meter for those who like this kind of thing.  Click for a larger version.

This means I need to go back sometime and ride it again!  Watch this space….

As for the overall bike ride, I rode just over 77 miles, around 5,300 feet of climbing, 4 hours 51 minutes of riding (5:09 total ride time – which includes stops for traffic lights/junctions/getting lost).  Normalised power was 235 watts.