I'll be your substitute, whenever you want me, dont you know I'll..........aaaarrrgggghhhhhhh!
When I heard these words in the early hours of Sunday morning, I thought maybe I was so tired I had transported mysef back in time and I was 8 again wondering if my stepmum HAD to listen to the same damn song over and over and over again :-D
But no I was very tired, but that was because I had been up since 6am Saurday morning. The shit song choices were all Henks, organiser of Caesars Camp ultra runs, and I was marshalling, and sadly still 41.
I went down to Hampshire with 2 runners world friends Smiffy and Pete. Pete was running, Smiffy was running the start /finish checkpoint and I was helping with that.
Except I had another job to do first. As soon as we got out the car Henk said hello to me and told me to get my kit on (I know!!! quite refreshing) because as a runner who had never seen the course he wanted me to do a lap to ensure the tape and arrows were set out properly. TBH if I had known that before I would have crapped myself because I am notorious for my sense of direction (or lack thereof). Anyway I didn't have time to worry I just set off, and it was fine! 10 miles off road all on my own (a relief after listening to Smiffy I can assure you) and I only got lost a little bit near the end, because they did need a few more bits of tape.
So I got back just as the runners were about to set off, some for 50 some for 100. A lot wouldn't make it.
I didn't have time to worry about that though as we needed to get things set up. There were jelly babys wine gums jaffa cakes flapjacks mini mars crisps pringle pepperami soup beans friut salad rice pudding......yeah all that and a constant stream of cups to wash as each runner was visiting us at the end of every lap and that would be 10 times if they did the hundred. I think there were about 90 starters for the 50 and 100 so no way we could not recycle.
So for the next 12 hours I filled cups, water bottles and camelbaks. I made sure food was kept stocked and offered tea and soup to weary runners. I had a bit of a moment at about 1am where I started to flag so I got in the car but I was so cold and the music was so loud and rubbish I couldn't sleep. so I started work again.
Early in the evening I girl I had met at another race who was doing the 100 asked if I fancied doing a lap with her later. I said yes she just needed to tell me when. About 2 am she came in and said could I do the next one with her, 70-80 miles. So at 4.30 I got my running kit back on and I think we set out at 4.45 when head torches were definitely required. Obviously Ester was tired but having someone to run with her cheered her up and she was in pretty good spirits. She was desperate for it to get light and to get to the halfway CP but apart from that it was ok. Toward the end of the lap she started to talk about giving up......I told her what I thought and offered to run the next one with her...........well hef best friend was at the CP and he said he would walk the last one with her so she then agreed I would run 80-90 with her.
This one was hard. Despite not having run 80 miles I was knackered, and Ester was much more down. She was hurting badly and obviously exhausted. I was trying all tactics to get her to run the runnable bits. When she was obviously going to cry I dropped back a bit to let her, but told her lots how well she was doing and congratulated ANY running no matter how short a distance. We talked about how much nicer the second half of the course was, which made getting to the halfway CP a real boost and somehow we made it through that lap in the same time as the one before.
Just before we got to the end of the lap she announced she was giving up :-/
I said what I thought but ultimately it was her decision.
She changed her mind :)))))
I found out today that she finished (I had to leave before she got back) in 26 hours something. Just brilliant and I felt really happy to be able to help a bit.
I just loved the weekend. Though I have hardly trained since cos I have been so so tired. But I now have some idea of what it will take to complete 100 miler. And I know if I have to I can stay up all night, and still run (well get round) 20 miles. COOL!
Do I think I can?
What do you think?
Thursday 27 October 2011
Tuesday 18 October 2011
On anniversaries, teeny tiny terrors, being up all night and sandbagging......
Hello :)
I didn't blog yesterday, had a really busy weekend that seemed like it was worth nothing when I woke up yesterday. Doesn't put you in the mood to blog.....
However today I am new and improved and my smile is the right way up.
So the news this week..... tomorrow me and Mr H have been married for 20 years. I find this astonishing. It really does seem like only yesterday I was telling his dad that if he didn't turn the video camera off I wasn't coming out of the house (and I wouldn't have either, even if I had missed the wedding, maybe a not so loveable quirk :-s ) Anyway since I was so shy I dont know where any photos are, and there are def none online. I do have this one though, which was the first trip to the future in laws......so about 3 years before the big day.
awwww......blimey did I never know what was to come there. Note the Ford Escort, we spent a lot of time in that going up and down the country, sitting in traffic jams and praying it would start again. Also note white shoes. Essex. The only way :-D
Anyway, we had a curry to celebrate that. And the spent the rest of the weekend trying to eliminate the teeny tiny terrors. I wont go into this I'll just say there is a little rhyme people say to children as they go to bed. If anyone says it to me I will punch them, very hard. We will win in the end. There was some amusement though, I rang my sister and told her that in the US there were sniffer dogs trained to search out this particular pest and asked her if I could borrow her dog (a chow chow or whatever the way you spell that word is) she informed me he hadn't been trained for these pests however he was ace at sniffing out hedgehogs. I am going to remember that the next time I cant find the damn hedgehog thats been bothering me all night! (yeah I know sounds wrong but I'm leaving it there, insert whichever jokes spring to mind)
Being up all night refers to the fact that I am rather hoping to be on Saturday night. Now depending on what your idea of fun is you might not think that marshalling at a 100 mile race is it.....but I do, so thats what matters innit! So I am off to Caesers Camp. They do 30, 50 and 100 mile options, all on the same lapped course. I havent done it, and there is every possibility that once I have seen it I never want to but the best way for me to appreciate how I will feel whilst I am running through the night is to see other athletes doing the same. And I like helping out too, I may meet some people who are doing the TP100, which would be nice.
Aaaaaaand so to todays final subject. Sandbagging. It's got to be done hasn't it and so as I state publicly that I have entered next years Outlaw, I shall also state that I will be rubbish. I am doing the 100 miler in March. There is noooo waaaaay I will be able to do enough cycling between then and July to be any good at all.
And my legs will be broken.
No actually they will have been amputated.
Have I told you my big toe has gangrene?
See, I will be rubbish. If I scrape in before the 17 hour cut off I will be amazed.
(is that enough yet? There is more where that came from and I will wheel it out every now and again)
I should say something about training now shouldn't I?
Every now and again I go running.
There that'll do.
I didn't blog yesterday, had a really busy weekend that seemed like it was worth nothing when I woke up yesterday. Doesn't put you in the mood to blog.....
However today I am new and improved and my smile is the right way up.
So the news this week..... tomorrow me and Mr H have been married for 20 years. I find this astonishing. It really does seem like only yesterday I was telling his dad that if he didn't turn the video camera off I wasn't coming out of the house (and I wouldn't have either, even if I had missed the wedding, maybe a not so loveable quirk :-s ) Anyway since I was so shy I dont know where any photos are, and there are def none online. I do have this one though, which was the first trip to the future in laws......so about 3 years before the big day.
Anyway, we had a curry to celebrate that. And the spent the rest of the weekend trying to eliminate the teeny tiny terrors. I wont go into this I'll just say there is a little rhyme people say to children as they go to bed. If anyone says it to me I will punch them, very hard. We will win in the end. There was some amusement though, I rang my sister and told her that in the US there were sniffer dogs trained to search out this particular pest and asked her if I could borrow her dog (a chow chow or whatever the way you spell that word is) she informed me he hadn't been trained for these pests however he was ace at sniffing out hedgehogs. I am going to remember that the next time I cant find the damn hedgehog thats been bothering me all night! (yeah I know sounds wrong but I'm leaving it there, insert whichever jokes spring to mind)
Being up all night refers to the fact that I am rather hoping to be on Saturday night. Now depending on what your idea of fun is you might not think that marshalling at a 100 mile race is it.....but I do, so thats what matters innit! So I am off to Caesers Camp. They do 30, 50 and 100 mile options, all on the same lapped course. I havent done it, and there is every possibility that once I have seen it I never want to but the best way for me to appreciate how I will feel whilst I am running through the night is to see other athletes doing the same. And I like helping out too, I may meet some people who are doing the TP100, which would be nice.
Aaaaaaand so to todays final subject. Sandbagging. It's got to be done hasn't it and so as I state publicly that I have entered next years Outlaw, I shall also state that I will be rubbish. I am doing the 100 miler in March. There is noooo waaaaay I will be able to do enough cycling between then and July to be any good at all.
And my legs will be broken.
No actually they will have been amputated.
Have I told you my big toe has gangrene?
See, I will be rubbish. If I scrape in before the 17 hour cut off I will be amazed.
(is that enough yet? There is more where that came from and I will wheel it out every now and again)
I should say something about training now shouldn't I?
Every now and again I go running.
There that'll do.
Sunday 9 October 2011
It's right glamorous being me you know........
No really, being a scientist in Londons 'Global University' it's just wall to wall glitz. Basically I just swan about in a white coat looking clever, and pondering questions of science.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Nope. I slope about in my jeans and a pair of latex gloves trying to improvise equipment and borrow reagents and repeat the same experiments again and again with the tiniest tweaks here and there because you just know that what you are trying to prove is right. Then you do prove it, once and then you cant do it again.......so you spend the next 12 months trying to work out what is different whilst being reminded that your competitors are also working hard to prove it too. Then you get results that seem wrong, but you keep getting them.................so how are they wrong? You cant assume anything is wrong if it's repeatable.
You have to think about it differently. You have to take a step back and put all your assumptions away.
Hmmm, where am I going with this? Oh yeah, that's like running that is :-D I look at my training log at the moment and I dont see much in it to be honest. But today I was thinking about that on my run. I'm assuming because a few weeks ago I had a good race I should be bouncing around running miles and miles. (Dont tell me I should be tired I wont have it) I'm not. I'm actually struggling to get out the door.
More specifically struggling to get up and run in the mornings. I am a morning runner. I always have been. So I need to take a step back and think about it.
As much as it pains me I am tired. (I can say it). I have repeated something at work which is good but also makes me more busy and thinking a lot (blimey!).
I also have had a pest problem at home (not Mr H he is actually pretty well trained) which has made it hard to sleep and made me a bit down. However I have my fingers crossed we have sorted it this weekend. If we havent I may well be dong a stretch for arson. I dont know if they allow you to blog from prison, but I am sure I will find plenty of other things to fill my time. (I've seen Prisoner cell block H)
Moving seamlessly back to sport, I did kind of follow Kona on twitter so I know the result, and of course CW did amazingly well but I don't understand all the people going on about the non recognition by the bbc etc. Despite me explaining about a million times at work about what an Ironman is, NOBODY KNOWS. And that I feel is going to be true where everybody works. We only know about it because we are freaks who spend far too much time with other freaks, normally running, cycling or swimming, or, just for a bit of a change, talking about running cycling or swimming.
I remember a while ago one of my colleagues asked me how far I had run at the weekend. I replied (whatever it was, something stupid) and she looked at me in disgust and said 'but I don't even like walking'
Sums it up really.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Nope. I slope about in my jeans and a pair of latex gloves trying to improvise equipment and borrow reagents and repeat the same experiments again and again with the tiniest tweaks here and there because you just know that what you are trying to prove is right. Then you do prove it, once and then you cant do it again.......so you spend the next 12 months trying to work out what is different whilst being reminded that your competitors are also working hard to prove it too. Then you get results that seem wrong, but you keep getting them.................so how are they wrong? You cant assume anything is wrong if it's repeatable.
You have to think about it differently. You have to take a step back and put all your assumptions away.
Hmmm, where am I going with this? Oh yeah, that's like running that is :-D I look at my training log at the moment and I dont see much in it to be honest. But today I was thinking about that on my run. I'm assuming because a few weeks ago I had a good race I should be bouncing around running miles and miles. (Dont tell me I should be tired I wont have it) I'm not. I'm actually struggling to get out the door.
More specifically struggling to get up and run in the mornings. I am a morning runner. I always have been. So I need to take a step back and think about it.
As much as it pains me I am tired. (I can say it). I have repeated something at work which is good but also makes me more busy and thinking a lot (blimey!).
I also have had a pest problem at home (not Mr H he is actually pretty well trained) which has made it hard to sleep and made me a bit down. However I have my fingers crossed we have sorted it this weekend. If we havent I may well be dong a stretch for arson. I dont know if they allow you to blog from prison, but I am sure I will find plenty of other things to fill my time. (I've seen Prisoner cell block H)
Moving seamlessly back to sport, I did kind of follow Kona on twitter so I know the result, and of course CW did amazingly well but I don't understand all the people going on about the non recognition by the bbc etc. Despite me explaining about a million times at work about what an Ironman is, NOBODY KNOWS. And that I feel is going to be true where everybody works. We only know about it because we are freaks who spend far too much time with other freaks, normally running, cycling or swimming, or, just for a bit of a change, talking about running cycling or swimming.
I remember a while ago one of my colleagues asked me how far I had run at the weekend. I replied (whatever it was, something stupid) and she looked at me in disgust and said 'but I don't even like walking'
Sums it up really.
Sunday 2 October 2011
How much do you want it?
This week I have been reflecting on last weeks race, as you do.
It occurs to me that since the 10 in 10 it's the first race I have done where it was important for me to run it well......well long race anyway. Although I have done the 2 50's they werent the same. The first one was, can I do this, and the second one was, can I do this with some fecking big hills :-D
So I know now what I got from the TIT. I got the ability to tell myself (my central governor perhaps?) that I am going to run as hard as I can even if it hurts because this is a one off , I dont have to do it again tomorrow and any discomfort wont last forever.
The ability to be willing to push myself harder then.
I like that, a lot. It is tempting to speculate on what time I could have done if I hadn't gone out the day before but that is a bit pointless and takes away from what I did do.
So I wont.
Anyway moving on, I have mainly rested this week. Work is busy, but exciting so that keeps me occupied. This weekend I have swum, run and biked twice, none of it massive milage but exactly what I wanted to do. It's so hot I dont want to be running long, I have plenty of that in my future, and probably plenty of cooler weather to do it in. I have really enjoyed cycling despite meeting someone yesterday who really did appear to want to kill me :-O First of all he reversed out of his drive obviously not noticing I was right there, then 500m down the road he overtook and turned left right in front of me causing my already elevated heart rate to see if it could get just that bit higher. Still. He never got me :-P
Speaking of heart rate I have been recording my resting heart rate each morning to see if I can correlate it with poor performances or when I know I am not well. It was raised after the wekend for a couple of days and funny enough if you go out and have a few drinks that affects it too. I might do a small study, see how much your bpm he next morning goes up per 1 pint the night before. Obviously there will be a limit to this as it is possible to get to 0 bpm. We dont want that.
Lastly I got my VLM magazine. I knew I would but last year they never sent me an acceptance one so I was never really sure I had a place. I will need to run another GFA to get in again, but I reckon I can. I wont enter the ballot again.......ironically I have never got in through the ballot, and I can see peoples frustration about it. I dont think it's very constructive telling people to run quicker to get in, not London where you get the celebritys who dont train for it or people running as giant caterpillars. Maybe there should be a separate London for those runners who think it should only be a serious day. Training logs should be scrutinised and anyone not logging 100 miles a week (at least) should be barred!!!!! There should be a regulation short length, and only water on the course at halfway. Absolutely no support either in case it puts the runners off. Then at the end, if you fail to acheive a GFA time.....................obviously the womens 18-49 should be changed to 3.30 to keep the riff raf out ...................you will be shot.
That would improve long distance running in this country ;-)
It occurs to me that since the 10 in 10 it's the first race I have done where it was important for me to run it well......well long race anyway. Although I have done the 2 50's they werent the same. The first one was, can I do this, and the second one was, can I do this with some fecking big hills :-D
So I know now what I got from the TIT. I got the ability to tell myself (my central governor perhaps?) that I am going to run as hard as I can even if it hurts because this is a one off , I dont have to do it again tomorrow and any discomfort wont last forever.
The ability to be willing to push myself harder then.
I like that, a lot. It is tempting to speculate on what time I could have done if I hadn't gone out the day before but that is a bit pointless and takes away from what I did do.
So I wont.
Anyway moving on, I have mainly rested this week. Work is busy, but exciting so that keeps me occupied. This weekend I have swum, run and biked twice, none of it massive milage but exactly what I wanted to do. It's so hot I dont want to be running long, I have plenty of that in my future, and probably plenty of cooler weather to do it in. I have really enjoyed cycling despite meeting someone yesterday who really did appear to want to kill me :-O First of all he reversed out of his drive obviously not noticing I was right there, then 500m down the road he overtook and turned left right in front of me causing my already elevated heart rate to see if it could get just that bit higher. Still. He never got me :-P
Speaking of heart rate I have been recording my resting heart rate each morning to see if I can correlate it with poor performances or when I know I am not well. It was raised after the wekend for a couple of days and funny enough if you go out and have a few drinks that affects it too. I might do a small study, see how much your bpm he next morning goes up per 1 pint the night before. Obviously there will be a limit to this as it is possible to get to 0 bpm. We dont want that.
Lastly I got my VLM magazine. I knew I would but last year they never sent me an acceptance one so I was never really sure I had a place. I will need to run another GFA to get in again, but I reckon I can. I wont enter the ballot again.......ironically I have never got in through the ballot, and I can see peoples frustration about it. I dont think it's very constructive telling people to run quicker to get in, not London where you get the celebritys who dont train for it or people running as giant caterpillars. Maybe there should be a separate London for those runners who think it should only be a serious day. Training logs should be scrutinised and anyone not logging 100 miles a week (at least) should be barred!!!!! There should be a regulation short length, and only water on the course at halfway. Absolutely no support either in case it puts the runners off. Then at the end, if you fail to acheive a GFA time.....................obviously the womens 18-49 should be changed to 3.30 to keep the riff raf out ...................you will be shot.
That would improve long distance running in this country ;-)
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