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
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