900 KMS
NYC Marathon minus two weeks. I’m at the business end of my running adventure now. I’ve run 900 kms in training now, far enough to have left my front door, turned east and started running like Forrest Gump, and running through Calais, then Belgium and ending up in Cologne. I had no clue when I started plodding around in January that I would put so many kilometres under my ASICS trainers.
While I am an average athlete at best, I compete with myself. I do know that according to my TrainingPeaks fitness score, I am currently fitter than I was 15 years ago. In that 15 years I have trained for and completed some major cycling events. That makes the current fitness score satisfying.
I’ve faithfully tracked all my runs on my Garmin kit, so can tell you that I have taken 1.2 million strides in my running and used around 95,000 calories. I’m on my third pair of ASICS Kayano trainers; at my weight, I do pound the pavement. One good piece of news is that my weight has dropped 12.5 kgs to 99kg during the year.
What Do I Think About When I’m Running?
The 111 hours of running time has been good for me mentally. I like to be outside and have discovered parts of London I didn’t know existed, and have enjoyed seeing the city from a runner’s perspective. Sliding through quiet streets when few people are around. Seeing the Royal Parks in all their glory. The endorphin hit of exercise helps me mentally. I’ve never regretted going for a run, even a tough, miserable run. I always feel better afterwards, no matter how badly my body hurts.
I’ve listened to 29 audiobooks and countless podcasts. I’ve run in silence for hours, in an almost meditative state, listening to the metronomic slap of ASICS on pavement. The bulk of the running has been solo, as my crossover between social and fitness has always been in cycling, and still is. I don’t mind this solo routine. It’s my space.
For The Long Run
I’ve followed a 5k training plan, then a half marathon plan, and finally the big one, a full marathon plan. This last plan always peaks with the fabled LONG RUN, and it was mine last week. It was planned for 3 hours and 45 minutes, which at my marathon pace came to 30 kms.
I felt good and left home early, went through Camden and did a convoluted route in and out of Regents Park, before heading down to Green Park, and on to Hyde Park for two full perimeter laps. My time target came up as I reached Buckingham Palace on the way back to Soho.
It was a huge boost for me when some friends showed up to pace me around the course. I warned all that my pace was slow, and possibly a fast walk for some, but still they showed. Thank you to Pete, Donna, Nat, Nino, and Becks for playing such a key part in getting me to NYC Marathon Minus Two.
NYC Marathon Minus Two – Taper Time
The hard work of training was in the bag after the long run. Sorry, THE LONG RUN and I felt surprisingly good after. But I started to feel a sore throat come on the day after and haven’t taken a step on the road this week. Which, predictably, sent me into a doom spiral of anxiety where all my fitness would leak through my fingers and completely destroy my chances of running on 2 November. There are whole online forums devoted to taper anxiety, I now know.
A quick check with my coaching support at Coach Parry reassured me that all should be good, and I need to focus on recovering from the upper respiratory tract infection symptoms I am showing. You can see that I have the terminology down, which tells you how many visits I’ve made to Dr Google this last week. Seven days on I have partially lost my voice and there’s a lot of hacking and coughing, but I expect to be okay in a day or two. I’m planning to do around three hours of running this coming week.
I believe that having a great coaching team and top class osteopath in Guy Gold support me has been key to me getting through these intense weeks of training with no illness until now, and no injuries stopping me. Sure, I have had aches and pains in various parts of my body, but I haven’t missed any training.
The 0.01% Or Just Average?
I see these social media memes that only 1% of people run a marathon. I dug a bit deeper and in my age group, it gets a bit more rarified. 0.01% of 65-69 year old men globally run a marathon. If that’s extended to all men, then the 15,000 men in my age group who run a marathon is 0.0004%. It’s fair to say not many men my age run the 26.2 miles.
I was asked yesterday what my target time was, and I said I would be delighted to finish in the average time for my age group of 5 hours 45 minutes. A look of scorn crossed the questioner’s face and he said “why average?” I explained that at 195 cm and 99 kgs I am hardly cut out for running. And given I have suffered 27 fractures and lung and head injuries in the last two years, I’m glad to be running at all.
I suspect I will take more than six hours. This is far beyond anything I’ve done before, and the New York course is not a pan-flat affair like Berlin. Indeed it has more elevation than any major marathon. If I have to walk it, I will walk it. If I have to crawl it, I will crawl it. It’s still a marathon and I will still be part of the 0.01%
Spare Me A Fiver, Please
I decided to raise some money for charity. I am a huge admirer of Sir Chris Hoy and the work he is doing to raise awareness of prostate cancer, and educate men to get tested. As a stage four cancer sufferer, he has written one of the most powerful books I have ever read—All That Matters—which makes the argument for living the life right in front of us. Here’s also set up the Tour de 4 charity to highlight the challenges stage four cancer patients face. Here’s the link to my fundraising page, and if you could spare a modest amount, it would be appreciated by me, and help me around the five boroughs of New York in two weeks. More importantly it would drop into the huge pot of cash Chris has raised for cancer research.
NYC Marathon minus two. Let’s go.