London Marathon 2022

London Marathon is the event everyone wants to run. It’s the World’s largest fund raising event and is one of the Abbot World Marathon Majors. It’s renowned for being…

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Conti Conti Conti!

You’ve got me running in circles Each July a rural spot in south Derbyshire hosts the Continental (‘Conti’) Thunder Run, where competitors aim to complete as many laps of a…

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Weekly Group Runs: A Guide To Pace

As a member of LFR you will be wanting to join in on our weekly group runs. We have a number of options for every ability and…

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Meet Our Members: Will Langdon

My running journey started about three years ago, it was not something I’d really done outside of school, I did participate in a couple of cross-country events whilst at…

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The Running Injury Learning Curve by Emily McClelland

WHAT HAPPENED… On the final half mile of the Tuesday evening club run I pushed hard wanting to get that all important sprint finish in…. That’s when I felt a sharp unknown pain on my knee across the knee cap. I ignored it and finished the run. My knee ached for the rest of the evening. The following day I could hardly walk, I couldn’t bend my left leg, the pain with every step and knee bend changing position made me feel nauseas. I knew it wasn’t good. It took 5 days for the pain to subside and with that I attempted a little run, then another, and then one more before the sharp pain returned again. I stubbornly repeated this pattern for some 8 weeks hoping by some miracle that each week I’d be ok again to run one of the many races I was booked into. As the weeks went by I cancelled one race by one, only managing to run the MK Rocket 5k after the osteopath had “pulled me about” to promptly break a few days later. Finally I gave up, realising (eventually) that I needed proper rest. When I cancelled my next 3 months of races it took the pressure off so I could concentrate on doing nothing. In short – I got injured by doing too much too soon, I added on too many miles before I was ready and then I never let myself recover afterwards, that was the final nail in the coffin. There you go, I said it out loud! The effects of not running hit me hard immediately from the first week; I was no longer getting the huge benefits of endorphins that each run released, I could no longer eat the same amount of calories in a day, I no longer had my de stress run that I’d learnt to rely on and the hardest thing of all, my running goals had been removed from my sights; No more first marathon with an aim for a GFA, no more 3x half marathon goal, and thus it went on – I felt lost, completely de motivated and lost all get up and go. I regularly saw the sports therapist and an osteopath, I wanted and needed to get better; however my body was reacting and was being taken over by tension and stress; I needed to handle and deal with the emotions so my body could relax and become capable of recovering. THE LEARNING CURVE…. As different parts of my body hurt it was hard to be diagnosed with exactly what was wrong. The pain in my knee was “runners knee”, an excruciating pain across the kneecap and inside of the knee, to touch it felt bruised and every time the knee bent it felt like a bruise was being pushed. However the knee wasn’t the root of the problem it just took the brunt of what was going on and reacted to the many tight muscles and ligaments. Piriformis syndrome was talked about, as was limited pelvis and lower back movement, hamstring tightness and hip flexors. I wanted to learn and understand more about running and the human body. I started off with the motivational book “Born to Run” by Chris McDougal about the Mexican tribe of ultra runners and the USA’s famed ultra runners; I took confidence from the fact that we are born to run… for all the reasons explained it made perfect sense; on a distance test we could outrun the fastest of mammals, the way we are designed to sweat as we run, we are upright mammals to absorb less heat, the only purpose of our achilles is to run, and thus the list went on. Next I read Ross Edgley’s “The World’s fittest Book”, he spoke in-depth about the importance of core and basic strength to be able to perform any chosen sport and how important these basic principles are to avoid injury. Next up came the book “Eat & Run” by USA’s ultra runner Scott Jurek, more of an autobiography but it encouraged me once again of how we are born to run and just how capable and able the human body is. All these books touched on barefoot running and this made me realise how important foot placement is. I’m not yet ready to run down the street shoeless in the barefoot method just yet but I understand why modern padded trainers and how orthotics actually create problems. Each foot is made up of 28 bones, 30 joints and 100 muscles and we wrap that up in a padded shoe, in essence we put our foot in a coffin and then expect it to work; as the saying goes with equines; “no foot, no horse”. Whenever possible we should be walking around barefoot to allow the whole of our foot to function as it is meant too. My osteopath begged me to read Helen Hall’s “Even with your shoes on” and by the first chapter I was hooked, she puts the utmost importance on our posture, vertical sagittal plane; most of us aren’t straight, we’re wonky as hell thanks to modern life. Helen talks in great depth about form with a step by step guide to injury free running starting with being vertical; it all makes perfect sense. “Chi running” by Danny Dreyer backs up what Helen says with the added be at one with nature approach. But the final book to link it all together was “Primate change” by Vybarr Cregan-Reid a fascinating read on how modern life is literally killing us – after reading this book I feel positively allergic to sitting in a chair; our glutes are not designed to be sat on, they are meant to drive us, sit on your glutes and they fall asleep which explains why mine don’t fire. Further more sitting down shortens your hip flexors which restricts the movement of your pelvis and your lumbar area which can result in an anterior tilt pelvis (which I have). None of these things are good! If you isolate an area of your body, be it a joint for example for just two hours it will start to lose it’s ability to do as it’s meant to, we know this from when people are in a cast having broken a bone and they have to relearn to use the hand, motion, body part etc. Most of us are sat for 15 hours a day and unless we can change our career we aren’t able to greatly change that. When possible we need to get up and move; we NEED to be active. These books all quote Gary Ward’s “Anatomy in motion” like the gospel and his YouTube videos are great for some exercises. WHERE AM I NOW… From all the reading I feel far more in tune with my body, and my body sensory is far improved; am I vertical, where is my foot landing, is my pelvis tilting, am I relaxed, etc. if you expect your body to perform you need to understand it and treat it well. 14 weeks post injury, 6 weeks off no running and 2 weeks of complete rest I started to run again; slowly, short distances only using everything I had learnt and I am still learning as I continue to read Helen Hall’s book like my bible. After 2 weeks complete rest I felt incredibly tight, but then that makes sense, I’ve been sitting, my pelvis is hugely restricted from all those shortened ligaments; but I am doing my pelvis wall cogs, glute bridges, quad lifts, and thus the list goes on. 3 weeks into running I was running 5km, I felt incredibly unfit, my cardio ability has unsurprisingly disappeared however I am delighted to be running, I am relaxing into the run and when something feels uncomfortable I do not ignore it I think about it and my body and assess what I’m doing, I think vertical, relax my legs from the hips so they swing a little more freely and make sure my arms are not swinging across my body but are controlled yet relaxed going with the motion of my body, then that uncomfortable feeling goes. It took 3-4 weeks for any aching in my hamstring to go which was in direct relation to the injury. I recall one day at work where I had been sitting in the car, work and car for 11 hours straight with less than 1000 steps taken, my left leg was extremely uncomfortable. I could feel it spasming in different areas, I could feel everything tightening like it was screaming out to move; it was meant to be my rest day however “resting” right now would be being cruel to my body, it needed to get out. I felt like I was taking a big risk, I could run and I could push it and end up back at square one. However with my new found knowledge of my body I did go out for a run, but not before doing my 10 minute walk warm up, (Helen isn’t big on pre run stretching but she does preach 10 minutes of walking to get the blood around to all parts of your body muscles and ligaments. Next check you are vertical and then do some ankle flexes to open up your ankle joints – I run a steady 5km and walk for a good 15 minutes post run. My leg felt tonnes better post run. Many people will think I am running too much at 5 times a week. However I’ve come to realise that my body needs movement, so as long as I’m being sensible on pace and distance I know my body will thank me for being active; I will strive for a run or a decent walk everyday and I will look to incorporate swimming and cycling back into my routine. It takes me back to my horse days; a half hour hack around the countryside was a day off for my competition horse because it was good for him physically and mentally, when he had a few days off he stiffened in his shoulder which affected his whole body and then cost me dearly with the physio! I’m now nearly 9 weeks back running with 34 runs complete, I’m doing my long runs according to heart rate zones, working on interval training and doing my best to get my fitness to where it was pre injury. I’ve got my first half marathon in the middle of October and where I don’t expect to run it at my original goal pace I’ll be delighted to do it and pick up some bling! I’m not naive enough to think I won’t become injured again but I will strive to continue reading and learning about running and the human body in a bid to not fall down the same path again. NB. Emily wrote this back in August. Since writing, she completed that half marathon in October at Oxford and ran her second half at the Dirt Half in November. She has also run a Rushmere parkrun PB and has been competing in the cross country league for LFR. Emily is now training for the London Marathon. Look out for her blogs in the future on her training! You can see more of Emily on her personal blog here:  https://mywonderland.blog/

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Continental 24-Hour Thunder Run – Gav’s Blog

So the name itself may sound like an event ONLY for the super gnarly, ultra fit, ultra strong, ultra everything, and slightly disturbed. This is not the case, If I can do it AND enjoy it, anyone can. This is my take on a super fun 48 hours outdoors... The Continental Thunder Run - or “Conti” as it is generally called -  is a 24 hour running relay race held on a lovely, country estate just outside Burton-upon-Trent. Entrants can participate either as solo entrants (super nuts), pairs, small teams, right up to large teams of 8 – which is where we are. The aim of the race is to complete as many laps as possible within 24 hours. Put simply: the biggest relay race you’re likely to find.  And certainly the best organised, I reckon. LFR have entered mixed teams into the race for a number of years now and so as a club we have some veterans, some newish newbies and, as of last year, super fresh newbies (I was one of them).  I had heard about the event a few times and seen some of the photos from previous years. On the face of it, it looked like a lot of fun. My reservation - which turned out to be completely unfounded - would I be good enough? Would l let everyone down? Would I be too slow?  What if I got hurt? Having talked about it with others at the club I was swiftly told, “don’t be daft – join in!” In hindsight, the culture of our club is very inclusive regardless of ability, age, shoe size, brand of T-Shirt, why shouldn’t I sign up? So I did. I would like to say that there was copious amounts of training prior to the event, but there wasn’t - apart from a few parkruns, club nights, and the like but that really didn’t matter. The weekend fast approached and before I knew it I found myself with a fully loaded car full of kit heading to Catton Park. On arrival. Chair Steve had sneakily “got there early” and secured what appeared to be an LFR crime scene complete with police tape, cordoning off our section of field. Worry not this was our pitch reserved for our race HQ. Fettling with tents, awnings, gazebos and other camping kit ensued before race HR was up and running with the first brew. Before long the entire team was in situ, some were even daft enough to CYCLE to the event (nuts). VIP camping space was reserved for our very own catering facilities provided by Martin and Barbara – Legends (I’ll come back to the catering). Now, onto the event and course. As you can imagine, there’s anything and everything you could ever possibly want to buy at the numerous trade stalls – particular highlights include the bobble hat stand – a must for some LFR’s. There’s a good selection of food stands as well as the all important beer bus – not to be missed. There is also live music on the Friday. You see, not all serious running…. The course itself is, well, technical. That would be one way to describe it. The course starts in the middle of the event field and meanders its way around the edge of the camping areas before heading out (and up) into the woods. The course, dives in and out of the trees, through copses, open fields, just about everything really. The terrain itself is a mixture of grass, mud, a bit of gravel here and there, tree routes, corpses of former competitors…. It’s a real mixed bag and the 10k lap is never the same so you will not get bored. The weather can change the track in an instant as it did for last year’s teams. One moment a dry, dusty trail. The next moment, a muddy, rutted trail of slush that no footwear on this planet can get a grip on –oh and don’t forget you get to do this in the dark too! What’s not to like? The race starts at 12 pm and doesn’t stop until 12pm the following day (clue’s in the name). As I said before, this is a relay race and so the teams organise themselves into an order of running, much like team GB would in a relay (although LFR teams would be much quicker, clearly) and this is the order you more or less stick to. This means that you have time to recover between laps, maybe even go to sleep? Eat, have a beer, cheer on others? Your choice. I opted for all of the above. In previous years, we have been well and truly spoilt by the presence of our very own chef, Barbara, who has provided us with enough chilli, bacon, eggs and sausages to feed an army which means you can easily refuel between laps. No pressure guys and girls, but this catering is amazing and makes keeping fuelled up a whole lot easier. As the race got underway in the beautiful sunshine, non runners settled down in the LFR “viewing gazebo” strategically placed on the course with a 0.5km to the finish line. A perfect place to cheer on others, in particular team mates coming past for the first time. Oh, did I mention the fancy dress? The theme chosen was Hawaiian. The pictures alone will do the talking – great choice and well received by fellow runners. Anyhow, as the afternoon wore on the weather somewhat “changed”. An hour of solid rain turned the course into a mud bath, fantastic for those few with spikes, shocker for more or less everyone else. Luckily, the rain came and went and over the remainder of the 24 hours, the course dried out but safe to say there were a few muddy people passing by, again, pictures can replace a thousand words. As the daylight fell away, the race changed – head torches become compulsory and the course became very different. The course you ran in the daylight was a completely different course by night. There are no floodlights, just dimly lit marshals dotted along the course (they’re there all night too you know). Between laps, I managed a few hours sleep, even a shower at one point. Regardless of what time it was, there was always someone kicking around our race HQ who had the kettle on, or was chewing on some crisps, or asleep in a chair and that was a good thing, especially after deciding to do a double stint (2 x 10k laps) finishing at about 1am. It didn’t seem like that long before the sun was up, by which time most of us had rattled off 4 or 5 laps, quite an achievement, especially given the terrain and weather bomb that hit the site the previous afternoon. To sum up, I decided to enter the Conti for a number of reasons: I love to be outside, I love to run, but I don’t take it too seriously either, I love to be part of a team, I don’t mind a bit of mud, I definitely like a bit of fun and banter and I enjoy being with like minded people. If this is you then this is definitely something to join in on. You will see individuals trudge round the track and they may be more capable than you, they may be less capable, they may be running for charity, they may have lost both of their legs (yes, there was a chap with no legs going round – inspiring) but the one thing everyone leaves with is the great sense of achievement and satisfaction, and some muddy running gear. It’s a no brainer for me – July 20-21st! Finally, I do like a top ten and so one for the Conti seemed quite appropriate. Top 10 Conti 2019 Moments Sense of achievement (50k in 24 hours is not too shabby). Being the lucky one who got to start a lap in the dark and finish in daylight (no I wasn’t that slow, I started just before sunrise). Doing a double stint in the early hours. Being in a team of like-minded running nerds. The team chef - Barbara you’re a legend. Being tasked with taping up Tom’s nipples with plasters (no photos). Doing up Tom’s coconut bra. CAMPING! (I love camping – all the gear, no idea). The relentless banter and laughter. Mud, which does come off.

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My “Only” Marathon by James P Smith

MY “ONLY” MARATHON Marathon /ˈmarəθ(ə)n/ Noun A long-distance running race, strictly one of 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km). Robert Hooke FRS 1635-1703 found fame for deducing the wave theory of light, and for his work in gravitational theory and horology; but people barely talk about his beautiful English Baroque design for St. Mary Magdalene church in Willen, possibly his least known achievement. I don’t know if when designing the church he thought “this will be a useful marker for about 11.5 miles in the MK Marathon, just after you’ve gone past the LFR marshals”, it’s difficult to say, after all he’s been dead for 300 years, but, you know, maybe, it could’ve been, he sounds like the forward planning sort to me... Also did you know that Willen was known as “Wilies” in the 13th century – I know! “Wilies” – a bit like “willies” – no? Just me? Tough crowd! Anyway, I digress – back to my first and “only” (more about that later) marathon… I’m a relatively new runner (road runner at least) and I have found more joy and friendship as a runner (and LFRer) than I could ever have imagined; I think through running we improve our health both physical and mental, and transcend ourselves (not least because at a deeper level we are through evolution some of the most natural long distance running animals in the world – we are literally “born to run”). But I realise that a marathon is a completely arbitrary distance, and it’s absolutely not for everyone, however I really wanted to run one, if only to race myself. Plus, I was thrilled to bits to have been picked to be an MK Marathon Ambassador – AND they’d sent me a really nice hoody! Also I’d been sent a delightful and unexpected event crew parking permit, which meant we were only 10 minutes' walk away from the start and finish at Stadium MK, and had access to the VIP room (I know, get me! Free tea, coffee and biscuits, plus I’d managed to smuggle Katharine inside – you get a golden wristband you know) along with all the other ambassadors and the pacers – like Steve Edwards who was planning to run his 777th sub 3:30 marathon, and who was going (if my plan worked) to get me round in sub 3:30. Maybe... So, I’d taken everyone’s advice and bought ridiculous new trainers especially for the marathon (good plan?) for the very reasonable price of... No, I can’t say it out loud – but they were in the colourway I wanted – bright crimson if you’re asking. But that’s right – I’m blaming you lot, well you lot and Kipchoge, and maybe Paul Little too! Anyway, I’m sure it’s fine to run a marathon in new trainers that you’ve only run 7 miles in – who needs toenails anyway? (As a footnote, would anyone like to buy a job lot of Birkenstocks in size 7 that will NOT be needed ever again...). I managed to miss the LFR group pic as I was having my photo taken with the other ambassadors – oh the glamour! But got to the start in plenty of time and hustled my way near to the front, not that I was overly worried about my position as I was in the first start wave anyway, and there would be PLENTY of time to make up for a slow mile or two at the start – plus I’d bumped into Colin Aitken, and it’s always quite calming to see a familiar friendly face. Incidentally, mad props to the long-haired Vegan Runner next to me in the pen who’d got the most elaborate intertwined plaited hair I’d ever seen – he was totally rocking a Game of Thrones vibe! 0:00 – 1:00 - MILES 1 - 8 The gun went off and I settled into an easy pace, the roads were wide and there was plenty of space; thankfully it wasn’t stop start like the Royal Parks Half, so you could get into a rhythm straight away. I’d read that at the start of a marathon if your pace feels easy, then you’re going too fast – but I couldn’t hang about too much as I’d got a secret time in mind: - 3:29:59 – to be fair though it wasn’t all that secret - I had told LOADS of people. Although the pace felt comfortable, there was a major problem - I was running alongside Keith Luxon - the 3:15 pacer – aaargh! This was NOT the plan – this was going to be unsustainable – do I drop back now and try and ease off a bit? Wait a mile or two and see what happens? I decided to stay with him for the very worst of reasons – easy maths – 3:15 marathon pace is roughly 7.30 min/miling – which makes it really easy to work out your splits (I tend to break down long runs into 15 minute chunks – which would be exactly 2 miles at this pace) – so I thought I might stay with him for an hour – get 8 miles under my belt, and then re-assess (even I thought this was really stupid at the time but I was a bit over-excited! After all I first ran 8 miles in an hour about a year ago and nearly vomited at the end). So, we ran into the city centre (I know it’s not a “real” city but c’mon really!) where the course keeps looping back– which is a joy because I saw Tom off the front – with his personal lead relay runner bicycle – cool huh! Then loads of LFRs - Gavin, Caroline Clabburn, Katharine, Jen, Julie, Claire, Michelle, Paul McG - loads of us - came flying past in the opposite direction as I ran back out. There was dance music, loads of supporters – it’s always good to see Jim Buttleman, and Pete Mackrell cheered me on (he had probably already finished!) - there were two guys with a terrifying bucket of mystery goo and a huge sign for “LUBE” - eeewww! Then you’re suddenly out of the built-up areas and into Woughton on the Green. It still felt very easy and before I knew it, we’d split from the half marathon runners and the hour was pretty much up, but… I still felt good. Too good maybe; do I slow down now? Maybe another half an hour – I’m sure that’d be fine… Yeah, fine… Probably… Just half an hour... After all, that’s still only 90 minutes... 1:00 – 1:30 - MILES 9 - 12 The next half hour was probably my favourite as it took in mile 10 – with the picturesque Willen Lake (and eventually Robert Hooke’s lovely church – see – a narrative) and I’d been looking forward to seeing the LFR marshalling crew (thank you Caroline McEvoy Mann and the team), plus I’d seen Debbie and Jon, and David and James Parker in the crowds (I’d shouted hello to so many people that it got a bit embarrassing and a runner from Redway had made a sarky comment). I’d started to feel a bit stronger by this point and had stupidly pulled slightly in front of Keith the 3:15 pacer as I’d got carried away discussing cycling with another runner as we shared his “mystery” orange drink – not normally recommended, but nobody ever regretted testing a new nutritional strategy in a marathon did they – to go with their new and untested shoes? (Also to make the sarky Redway guy suffer a bit if he wanted to keep up - he didn’t – ha!). But another half hour at this pace would be okay? Yeah? Probably… Probably... 1:30 – 2:00 - MILES 13 - 16 The next half hour flew by in a whirl and I hit 16 miles and Linford Manor more than 2 minutes ahead of my stupidly unsustainable 15-minute split goal. I felt fine so another half hour at this pace would be okay for sure, and not too risky… And I’d done the Oakley 20 at (slightly) sub 7:30 pace – so yeah… Another half hour definitely! Yeah… Just one more half hour... I mean; I’d run 20 miles at this pace twice before – how hard could another 6 be? Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that sunshine... 2:00 - 2:30 – MILES 17 - 20 And this is the half hour with a jazz band, concrete cows – amazing – I'd never seen them before; and Roman ruins, an abbey, and a windmill – suck that up MK haterz! (Eds. Please check, do the young people still say “haterz”? Okay. What about “hepcats”?) Still the wheels hadn’t come off. I hit 20 miles at 2:27 – 2 minutes faster than my Oakley finishing time, and 13 minutes ahead of my original schedule – complete insanity – I’d never run further than this before - this was going to go wrong… And badly! And probably quite soon... But you know, I get carried away quite easily – I'd been high-fiving children, thanking marshals, making stupid jokes – all these things probably not recommended, but I didn’t know when it would all go wrong so I wanted to enjoy the experience for as long as possible. After all, if this was going to be my only marathon I wanted some good memories before the horrible painful bit. 2:30 – 3:00 - MILES 21-24ish 20 miles had been my longest training run, and the point when people talk about hitting the “wall”, and so I was expecting to slow hugely and spectacularly at any moment – especially as I had now been running at an unsustainable pace. So, my 15-minute race breakdown plan now seemed hugely over-ambitious, so I started working mile at a time instead. And the wall definitely seemed to be a thing, because as soon as we had passed 20 miles we suddenly started overtaking people who had started to slow down or even walk – this must have been awful for them, some looked properly broken - but selfishly, I realised that everyone I passed put me another place higher in the race. Those of you who’ve run the course before will know that it gets very slightly uphill at this point, and it doesn’t matter how well trained you are, you’re bound to be a bit tired by now, so I started to slow – not hugely – and certainly not as hugely as I was expecting, but just enough to lose contact with the 3:15 pace group (by now the 3:15 pace group was only a few of us – compared to the maybe 20 or 30 of us at mile 10); but it was a pretty gradual thing, perhaps only 10 or 20 seconds a mile. Also, I suddenly realised that I could now run 10-minute miles for the remainder and STILL come in under 3:30; and so I did what any self-respecting man would do at this point and burst into tears – totally normal – yes it is – it is - TOTALLY NORMAL! I’m not shouting – YOU’RE shouting! Then around mile 23 I saw Marianne Aitken who I’d chatted to at the start (she’d run an astonishing 15 miles around the course cheering on Colin). She shouted that the 3:15 pacer was just ahead, and that I could still catch him. This sounds like the most overused running cliché ever, but I thought to myself “it’s just a Parkrun left” so let’s have a go at this. Also, a particularly stupid cliché for me - I’m not suited to shorter distances, so I really struggle with Parkruns, so let us not speak of this again. As I turned the corner I could see Keith with his blue balloon, now running totally alone and, much, MUCH nearer than I’d expected and so I pushed as much as I could manage and started to reel him in (not thinking that it would actually happen), but metre by metre I started to catch him; and by mile 24.5 I got back on his shoulder and shouted “Keith! I’m back on your FunBus” - can you imagine how annoying I’d been to the poor man for the first 20 miles? 3:00 – THE FINISH - MILES 25 – 26.2 Now having your own private pacer is really quite an honour, but I didn’t get to enjoy it for long - as Keith told me to “get in front of me – and you’ll go sub 3:15” (although this may have been a clever ruse to get rid of me). Sub 3:15 this had never been a part of my wildest dreams and so another (smaller) cry was in order. To be fair I am quite a cryer – I only have to hear the music from UP and I’m gone *starts to sniffle thinking about it, poor Ellie*... But it was now quite hard to judge my pace, as at 25.5 miles you join the half marathon runners for the last half mile, so I was running with people who were now mostly going quite a bit slower than me, so it suddenly felt silly fast. At this point I should step out and explain a theory of mine. I’ve run trails on and off for years, mostly quite leisurely, but I’m a relatively new (18 months) road runner. However, I am, unquestionably, a lazy, lazy runner – I don’t like it when it hurts; but I weigh less than a duck, I’ve got disproportionately long skinny legs and I was wearing cheating shoes in MK; for context my average heart-rate over the MK marathon was 136 bpm (the average in a marathon is normally 160). When it’s good, the running feels like breathing. Which in practice means that although I’ve got some chops, I probably don’t perform to my potential – which I am completely fine with. But I know people who work so very hard, and frankly much harder than me, to reach their goals or even to just be more active, that I will be forever in their awe. Until MK I hadn’t run for more than 2 ½ hours in one go – and that had seemed QUITE long enough! A perfect example is my friend Emma – she's also quite a new runner, and MK was her second marathon – which she nailed in 5:58 – absolutely amazing, and perfectly paced – but that is the best part of 3 hours longer than I could possibly imagine running for. The idea that steadier or slower runners work the hardest is the hill I AM willing to die on. So, to jump back in, the half marathon runners were grinding out their last half mile and working hard (sometimes quite vocally – blimey! That’s quite the creative swearword combination! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?), so hard that I fed off their energy. Also, I was suddenly taken with a picture in my mind of my hero Yuki Kawauchi finishing Boston, so much so that I “may” have made a half-marathoner jump shouting “BE MORE YUKI” to myself – yeah - sorry about that... I checked my watch, and it said: “Current Pace – 6.30” - whaaat? 6.30? That’s my 5k pace - this is ridiculous – what is happening? Deep breaths Smith – don't cry again. I looked over my shoulder and Keith was in the distance, but this time behind me! In the finishing stretch you race down the hill past KFC (oh the glamour again!) and through the tunnel onto the pitch at Stadium MK, this was all a bit heady as Stadium MK is really quite impressive from pitch level, and as I turned the comer onto the finishing straight I saw Katharine! And then Doyley, Emily and Garner (in her smart new bobble hat); and then the finishing arch with its clock saying 3:13:xx – what? No! This was absolutely NOT part of the plan. I could feel my form coming apart (I suspect more from emotion than exhaustion); eyewitness accounts from this time point out that I looked more like Bambi than Kipchoge. I high-fived Katharine, ran over the timing mat, screamed, and (I am justifiably quite proud of this bit) stopped my Garmin, WHICH SAID 3:13:37! And then promptly collapsed... POSTSCRIPT... After pulling myself together, and giving poor Stephanie and Annis a horrible sweaty hug, I fetched my lucky flip flops and found Katharine (she’d been looking for me and had asked someone in the VIP room if they’d seen me – they said “is he really overexcited?” Yup, that'd be me.) - I’d bumped into Keith in the VIP room too and not thinking he’d suffered enough already gave HIM a sweaty hug too – poor Keith... Incidentally Katharine had just smashed her half marathon PB by miles! POST POSTSCRIPT... The marathon timing mats give you an average pace for four rough quarters of the race, and looking back my average paces were 7.22, 7.23, 7.23 and 7.24 min/miling; and my last mile was the fastest at 6.48. I realise how very unusual this is for a first marathon, and I know I will NEVER repeat it. POST POST POSTSCRIPT... That whole only one marathon thing... Well, you see, I’ve booked Abingdon now; so, let’s call it TWO! But just two, then that’ll be it. Yeah, definitely just two...

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It’s too late to worry about it now… by James P Smith

IT’S TOO LATE TO WORRY ABOUT IT NOW… According to legend, in 490 BC, Pheidipiddes ran the 40km from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia – with the word “nikomen” – “we win!”; at which point he was given a silver blanket, a blingy medal, a banana, and a flyer for the upcoming Corinth 10k - 2 Tetradrachms off for affiliated Atheneans. (Sub-editor: hang on – did he not drop down dead?). To this day, we celebrate his epic achievement by running through deserted industrial estates and complaining about our sore hamstrings! I know I bang on about it endlessly, but I haven’t ever done a marathon (I’ve eaten a few though ho ho! Hang on this doesn’t work as a joke at all, as I don’t like milk chocolate very much, so why would I eat a Snickers! And they’ve not been called a Marathon for 29 years – I KNOW! So please let’s all forget I said that!). Anyway, what I mean is this is very much uncharted territory for me – but since my last update I’ve finally gone further than my previous longest run of 15.5 miles. The great Bruce Tulloh claimed that you could do yourself justice in a marathon if your 5 longest runs added up to 100 miles – really? - good luck with that! To be fair – he ran barefoot – yes… Barefoot… As in “NO TRAINERS”! He doesn’t sound like my kind of go-to-guy at all! On a completely unrelated “Bruce” running theme – I’ve always felt a bit for Bruce Fordyce – who won the Comrades Marathon a record nine times (and London to Brighton 3 years in a row) – after all that amazing running, I’ll still bet that whenever anyone in this country hears the name Bruce Fordyce - the first thing they think is “nice to see you, to see you nice! “ – poor Bruce Fordyce; still he was very good on Play Your Cards Right! So… I had a go at running 16 miles down the canal (there may be a theme emerging here), and it was fine, more than fine, I ran faster than I was planning to run MK – which completely screwed up my pace planning – but we’ll come to that later. So, feeling strong off the back of the 16, and as I’d forgotten to enter the Oakley 20 until it was full, I last minute entered the MK Festival of Running 20. And it was (mostly – Campbell Park I’m talking about you) a joyous experience, robots galore, not too busy, and a chance to test out trainer, sock, arm-warmer combinations – useful arm-warmer fact – you can get 2 gels in the top of each arm-warmer if your shorts are too short to have pockets – even with my HUGE GUNS! I broke it down into half hour sections until 16 miles - hitting 16 miles in 1:59:58 – a massive 2 seconds ahead of my dream schedule! I’d done 16 miles before so I knew how that would feel, so each mile was a new experience, although 17 felt fine and 18 too; but at 19 I perceptibly slowed – I didn’t feel that I’d hit any wall, just a bit slower, and mile 20 involves running to the very top of the Campbell Park mound so I’d expected to slow down there anyway. But when I came into the finish the clock said 2:30 – a good 10 minutes faster than I’d planned. At this point I felt relaxed, and happy that if I could run 20 miles, I could maybe run another 10km – even if I was getting slower; and then I got the email… “Here are your entry instructions for the Oakley 20” – bum! I’d already entered a year ago, forgotten, and deleted the email – drink “may” have been involved. Could I do another 20 mile race a week later? I know that you should do your long runs at a gentle pace, and these are a bit more racey – and as Johanna Sharples had told me at the MK Festival 20 - “you can’t jog in a vest”; but I’m not all that competitive – I’m really not – truly – I’m a lazy, lazy runner, if I can’t chat/ get on the nerves of my fellow runners I’m not playing. I’m genuinely in awe of runners like Tom, Elle or Paul Little who absolutely empty the tank – I wish I could do that, I just haven’t got it in me. Plus, I wanted a hoody – especially as the word on the street is that it would be “salmon” (genuinely) one of my favourite colours – as it goes so well with aqua (like most of us, I have a lot of aqua) – I am ALL about the complementary palettes… And Oakley was better (and faster) than the MK Festival 20 – a beautiful course, well marshalled, great weather (which helped). Loads of LFR there to chat to; and although it was hilly, I still managed to run sub 2:30 – a time I could not have comprehended 18 months ago (it was 10 seconds a mile faster than my first club run – for 4 times the distance) – and the hoody was SAPPHIRE – let joy be unconfined! And so, I have a quandary… assuming I only do one marathon (even I don’t believe this now) – and I have since run another couple of 17 milers down the canal (I know it’s boring, but I can’t get lost or run over), and over 500 miles for the year – twice what I had run by this time last year; how fast do I run at MK? People talk about a marathon being a race of two halves – a 20 mile and a 6 mile race; and that you should start really easy, then wind it up – but let’s be honest – that is NOT going to happen; I am absolutely going to get swept up in the excitement and try to hang on – and maybe that’ll work – I’ve got the miles on my legs after all; I’ll let you know how well that turns out…

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EAT, SLEEP, MARATHON TRAIN, REPEAT by James Smith

Since finding out that I had been chosen to be an MK Marathon Ambassador (what were they thinking?) and realising that I’d actually have to run a marathon (I’m still only doing one -I’m not kidding), I’m roughly halfway along my ill thought out and hokey training plan (if this was one of those inspirational running blogs, I’d have to refer to it is my “journey” with a photo of me in the lotus position - perhaps with “NAMASTE” superimposed over the photo)… So, there are two approaches to marathon training: 1. A careful plan, with a mix of intervals, tempo runs, recovery runs, rest days and a long slow run at an easy pace, building in distance, tapering to hit race day in perfect condition. 2. Or… Loads of running! Don’t overthink it – just run A LOT! Why not run twice a day? Why not run two half marathons on the same weekend? Rest days? Pffft! Obviously, I’d planned it to be approach “1”, but it is tending towards approach “2” a bit – for example on the week of my original blog I’d run 18 miles, last week I ran 49 – a 272% increase! If I extrapolate that out another 3 months - then I’ll be running 133 miles the week before the marathon (I can see this happening!). However, larger mileages change your body in new and exciting ways that you’re not necessarily expecting – 1. The arms and upper-body musculature of a Tyrannosaurus Rex – before I started running I had MASSIVE guns (citation needed) – but where have they gone? Surely I couldn’t have looked like this before… Yeah... Surely not… 2. No bum whatsoever – and I mean no bum! I am never going to win “Rear of the Year” at this rate - they might as well give it to Carol Vorderman in perpetuity… 3. The toenails of a hundred-year-old tramp… No sandals for me ever again – but fear not, I’ve got a plan for the summer – I’m of German heritage – so I can legally and morally sport socks and sandals simultaneously! And if anyone tries to stop me – that makes them a RACIST! But still I have absolutely no idea how to pace it on race day. My longest run (so far) is 15.5 miles and I ran it at my totally arbitrary marathon pace to see what it would feel like; and it felt surprisingly easy, a bit too easy really, as my average heart rate was only 130 (my heart rate should be reasonably accurate as I’ve now got a super-fancy heart-rate-monitor – so fancy in fact that it gives me loads of completely unnecessary metrics – I now know that I’ve got an “Average Vertical Ratio” of 7% - cool huh?). So do I re-assess my (secret) marathon goal time; but would the wheels have fallen off at 18 miles? At 20? There’s only one way to find out – especially as my hilariously over-optimistic Garmin reckons I should be aiming at 2:46 – yeah… Seems legit! Anyway, I can’t spend all day here yakking, I need to do some MOAR RUNNING and sharpish, I haven’t run since yesterday after all!!!

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Mud Glorious Mud

Mud glorious Mud (or lack of it until this week!!! I feel sad today as my favourite events have finished for another year, Cross Country is the best thing ever, there’s a run, there’s tea, there’s rolls, there’s cake but most of the amazing team spirit and great fun that LFR bring to each and every race. We were by far the noisiest team attending the Three Counties Competition even though we were outnumbered by the Athletics Clubs and uber serious runners. We saw in excess of 25 turnout at each Three Counties race, a dozen at the County Championships and a boat load at Hardwick Xstream. We didn’t get wet apart from the water crossing at Wellingborough and felt let down by the lack water at Hughendon Park where apparently it dried up months ago! They need to learn to build a Dam like Wellingborough did to make sure it was deep enough. Then quite a few of us took on Hardwick for the first time, where just the five proper river crossings including one where you held a rope to get across, were on the route! This year we travelled to Dunstable for race 1 and took on Heartbreak Hill from the opposite direction (which totally confused me) and the great disappointment at only seeing 1 burnt out car! What is going on, is the Town becoming more upmarket! On a personal note, I was injured and limped home (nothing gets in the way of XC). Race 2 took us to a new HQ at Wellingborough but the same old streams and challenging hilly course, but as ever we gave it everything. Race 3 was the usual pre-Christmas turkey sandwiches and mince pies at Standalone Farm, where we enjoyed more success and from what I recall was a rather dry course littered with LFR’s in santa hats. We travelled to Hughendon Park for the County Championships on the first Saturday in Jan (with plenty of additional weight under those belts thanks to Christmas). It was dry but great fun cheering everyone on and stuffing down cake. Ampthill Great Park saw the charge of the LFR brigade taking on the brutal hills and technical woodland areas of race 4 in the Three Counties league, they sure know how to hurt us but they never broke us! The final race was at Wooton with just the one small hill (twice) and very slippery technical wooded areas (yes I slipped over but never lost a place!) was a fabulous way to finish the league. Then came Hardwick Xstream, a corker of a local race, plenty of water, a bog, a hill and great views all in one REAL cross country race. It was all worth it for the Horse brass, to see Graham and Fiona cross the line together and Jane (with hat) actually running through mud and water. If you only run one race next year, make it this one.   Thank you to all those clubs for hosting the events this year, we loved nearly every minute of it. If it wasn’t for these people it wouldn’t have even happened Thanks to Jane and Tam for organising the whole Three Counties League for the 2nd year running and to Rob for his magic on the website. Thanks to Max, Claire, Tracy and Steph for looking after us and ensuring we were in the right place at the right time and for counting us back with a smile and a cheer. Thanks to Will for the evidence of how much pain (Matt) or joy (Celia, Sally, Anna and Lorraine) running actually bring us. We stand and applaud you all for making the whole thing possible. I know we do it for fun (and CAKE) but there are always a few bits of bling about to remind us of our achievements:   Three Counties Chris Ayers 1st FV65 The Ladies came 6th Overall which compared to last years 11th place is just phenominal The Gents came 8th Overall which compared to last years 12th place is just incredible The overall team rose up from 12th last year to 8th this year!   County Championships Mens Veterans Team were 2nd (Dan, Steve, Kevin, Andy, Chris, James) Andy 3rd MV50 Dan 3rd MV40 Paul Thomas 1st MV70 Janice 2nd FV50 Chris 1st FV65 It was such a fab season and I hope you’ll all be with us next year (when we may even be hosting a race again) to show once again what a club we are GO LFR

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