Just keep going ... everybody gets better if they keep at it.

Never have I found the title words to be truer than in the last week. As you know by now, I tackled the Amsterdam Marathon on the 18th October, with the aim of breaking 4 hours. Well,, in case you've shied away from all of my social media accounts, not only did I break 4 hours, but also 3 hours 45 minutes, crossing the line in 3 hours, 44 minutes and 30 seconds. Here's a pic of me just about to cross the line

Quite an action photo don't you think. I'd started the day with a plan of maintaining 8 mins 30 seconds a mile, until mile 16 then seeing what I can do in terms of increasing the pace from there. Now, that would mean me running faster / further than I've done in any of my training runs, but, there's no point going quietly into the night is there ? The route is fairly flat, well, most of Holland is in all fairness. Takes us through the Rijksmuseum, into the financial district before heading out to the best part of the course (in my opinion). Around 7 miles running along the banks of the river Amstel, one things for sure, I know where the well heeled live out there, some very impressive houses on the riverbank. Little did I know at the time, but as I passed the 13.1 mile marker, I had just set a new PB for my half marathon ! The pace by this stage was 8 mins 15 seconds a mile and I was still feeling very good. So good, in fact that I decided to throw in a quick one at mile 17 and see how I got on. Well it was a sub 8 min mile, but it didn't last and I paid the price in the last 10K for that ( at least I think I did) ... at one stage I was on for a 3:41finish but I just didn't have the strength left to maintain the pace, something I will need to work on for the future. Anyhow, rounded the corner, to take us into the Olympic Stadium and then it was time to see if I could stretch my legs for the last 300m .. I did, sort of ... Now, you may notice from the pic above of some red spots on my running vest .. have a closer look at the photo below

Yep, I had the dreaded runners nipple ! So excited was I to get to the start line, I forgot to apply the body glide before I handed my bag in. It wasn't until mile 14 when I looked down and saw that I was leaking claret ... now, I can genuinely say, it didn't hurt, either at the time or when I had a shower, hard as nails from Taibach see ! Great race and lovely location, talked to some lovely people on the run too, hope to see you again soon if you're reading this !

Other training included club night on the Wednesday before the marathon, then going taper stir crazy I did a sneaky 3 miler the next day. Wednesday after the marathon was also club night ( I must admit I struggled with the speed work that night). Friday, I decided to try and run with a bit more weight than I've done recently. So I managed to get 7kg in my rucksack and headed off on a hilly 5 miler, just to see what it would be like. In all honesty, it went well, in fact, due to the amount of bouncing of the rucksack / weights digging into my back, at times I had to slow down to minimise the impact of the weights on my back ! 12 hours later it was time for the very first Swansea Parkrun, 5K, timed, and the best bit, totally free ... every single week .. how good is that, I can't say how good this is and that everyone should try it ... you'll be totally amazed at what you can achieve ! Anyhow, surprised myself with the early pace ( in fact it was way too quick !) but managed to PB my 5K time  (for the 5th time this year). Ok, it was only by 2 seconds but it all counts. Even better was the fact that it was so close on the back of the weighted run ... definitely doing more of both the weight runs and the parkruns. Here's a photo of me approaching the finish line of the parkrun !

Anyhow, enough of all that, onto the fundraising section. First a reminder about the fundraising night in the Old Inn, Penllergaer on the 14th November. It's shaping up to be a good evening, with some great raffle prizes and even better, blow your socks off, auction items ... see the lists below.

Raffle prizes include, (but not limited to), 3 months gym membership of simply gym with family pass to LC2, one of Richard Clarks weight loss books, a session of Reiki, male and female hamper of body care products from L'Oreal and more !

For the auction, these are the items I currently have up for grabs, if you wish to make a bid now, please let me know ... bidding online stops on the 14th at 5:00pm ... if you've bid online and its still the highest after the auction in the pub, the item is yours .. its that simple .. honest .. have a butchers at the list below ( there may be more as well !)

1. Signed football by the Manchester City squad - Sean McManus £40

2. Signed football shirt by the Everton squad - Joni lloegr - £50

3. Cowboy hat with about 40 rugby badges on (kindly donated by Casper) - Darren Thomas £30

4. Golf 4 ball in the Vale Resort, Hensol (kindly donate by Aspire2Be), the lakes course - Peter Jones £100

5. Framed & signed Ospreys away shirt 2010/2011 season (kindly donated by Becky Clark/ The Bank Statement) - Darren Thomas £60

6. Liverpool football shirt, signed by Glen Johnson (kindly donated by Steve Furnell)

7. Two gold tickets to see Ospreys v Clermont in the European Cup in January 2016, access to premier lounge, match day programme - karl angell £100

8. Man Utd signed shirt (2014/15 season) with photograph of squad & signatures to aid identification, along with certificate of authenticity.- Darren Thomas (bidding on behalf of friend) - £110

Once again, a reminder about the date in the diary draw ... simply donate £10 via this link, and pick any date from Jan 1st to Dec 31st ... put the date you've chosen in the text box and once I've sold all the dates, I draw one out of the hat and winner gets £300 ... clicky here

Finally, congratulations to all my running friends who've recently completed their own races, be they 5K or the Snowdon Marathon .. you're all an inspiration as far as I am concerned.

A few more words that we need to adhere to ... "Know your limitations, then go and defy them" ... that's what I intend to keep trying to do !

Well done if you've survived this far

Til next time

Fatboy

I'm going for a run, I may be some time .....

…. But hopefully not that long #sub4hr !

This is the last blog until I’ve completed the Amsterdam Marathon. When approaching races like this, I always, without fail, look back at when I started running and the progress that I’ve hopefully made. Back in April 2013 I was persuaded via a friend on twitter to enter the Cardiff Half Marathon in October of that year, the longest I’d run prior to that being a Swansea Bay 10K some 10 years earlier, and it has to be said, some 3 stone lighter. I didn’t really know what I was doing when I was training for this, other than trying to increase the distance I could run each time. No tempo runs, no fartleks, no hill work .. nothing, other than run and keep going until I couldn’t go any longer, which, typically, wasn’t very long anyhow ! I managed to complete the ½ in 2 hours 4 mins, my longest run prior to that race being 9 miles .. yes, the 13.1 miles hurt ! The following week I joined 3M’s Roadrunners, based in Gorseinon and its been relentless forward progress since ( barring a 3 month lay off due to a rotator cuff injury).

I get asked quite often what do I do when my training or a race hasn’t gone to plan, its been bad etc. I find the singularly most important thing is to always, without fail, look for a positive in every single piece of training that I do. Did I mention, WITHOUT FAIL ! No matter how bad the run has gone, no matter how bad I feel after it, no matter how far away from the training session goals I am, I look for and always find a positive, WITHOUT FAIL (I have mentioned that before haven’t I?). As an example, the London Marathon was not a good run, twisting my ankle at 8.5 miles in & having to run / walk /hobble the remaining 17 miles home ! The positives from that were that I finished it (where others may have pulled out) and that I was only 30 minutes off my PB even with a dodgy ankle. See, the power of positive thinking !

Anyhow, enough  of the rose tinted stuff, what’s happened since the last blog … quite a lot and all positive yet again … the first West Glamorgan Cross Country League fixture of the season took place at Llanmadoc in the Gower. It was our clubs turn to host a fixture so a lot of organising went on between some fantastic people at the club, the National Trust and others. Working nights meant I wasn’t really in the right place to run, but I did help man the cake stall and thanks to all the great people who brought cakes and then bought other peoples, we raised £240 on the day, between my charity and another club members, so £120 more for the cause, great stuff.

Runs over the past 2 weeks …. (all logged on Strava now, if you’re really that interested in looking at the splits and so on !)

18 miler along Llanelli coastal path, aiming to keep my heart rate around 145 bpm .. achieved the aim at a pace of 9’ 51 mins

Club race 5K race from Llanelli Leisure centre out and back, the day after an 18 miler, legs felt heavy, but I managed to beat my 5K PB by 5 seconds, lord knows how that happened ….

Hilly 12.5 miler, with 3Kg pack on my back at marathon pace, again achieved aim, pace per mile was 8’54 seconds -  with hills and weight on my back, very pleased with how that went.

Fartlek session along Llanelli coastal path, about 6 miles in total, 1 min effort, 1 minute recovery for 30 mins, peaked my speed at 5 mins 30 seconds a mile ( ok only for a minute but I felt like Mo Farah at one point !)

Gentle 5 miler after the previous days club training, 5.1 miles in total at a pace of 8 mins 19 seconds.

10K training run along Llanelli coastal path, not really pushing it and not paying much attention to time / pace, at least not until I looked at my watch after the 5^th mile. My pace for which was 8 mins … anyhow, I looked at the total time so far and could see that I was on for a PB if I pushed hard for the final mile and a bit. Last mile was completed in 6 mins 55 seconds menaing I PB’d my 10k time on a training run by 25 seconds … it’s strange how these things happen but very pleasing when they do !

So, what do I hope to get from the Amsterdam Marathon, well, my target time is to get under 4 hours .. anything better than that will be a bonus !

Fundraising continues with some very generous people out there donating prizes and money, they know who they are, thank you, all of you.

Quick reminder of the fundraising night being held on the 14^th November in The Old Inn, Penllergaer, Swansea. It’s shaping up to be a good night, got some great raffle prizes, and confirmed items for the auction, to date are

1.       Signed football by the Manchester City squad

2.       Signed football shirt by the Everton squad

3.       Cowbay hat with about 40 rugby badges on (kindly donated by Casper)

4.       Golf 4 ball in the Vale Resort, Hensol (kindly donate by Aspire2Be)

5.       Framed & signed Ospreys away shirt 2010/2011 season (kindly donated by Becky Clark/ The Bank Statement)

6.       Liverpool football shirt, signed by Glen Johnson (kindly donated by Steve Furnell)

There may be more to come as well …. If you’re interested in any of the items above, make a bid and let me know … also, if you have anything you feel like donating to the auction, again, I’d love to hear form you.

Once again, congratulation on surviving this far, the £10 date in the diary continues, if you wish to donate £10 for a chance to win £300, click on the link and enter your name and the date you want when you donate …. I’ll confirm that the date you’ve chosen is free (if not, you can chose another one) .. clicky here to donate http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/MdS-Madness

 

Finally, I have to share this photo, its of two members from the running club, one was helping the other achieve a PB in the recent Caridff Half, just look at the determination on their faces … fantastic team work … which reminds me, make sure you have self belief beyond reason, be your biggest fan and smash it !

 

 

See you after Amsterdam

Fatboy