A new running thing… but not in London

Ok, so for those who don’t know, the London marathon didn’t happen for me this year. I think I’ve always been clear that there was a bit of an ‘if’ getting to the start line. When you are pushing yourself doing runs that are that far, and far further than you’ve done before (although, well, it actually went wrong at the same distance as the longest I got to in 2020), there’s always a risk of picking up an injury.

And at 16 out 17 miles in said going-wrong run, I managed to tear my calf muscle. Which usually takes at least 4 weeks to heal. Because after 2 weeks of full rest (this was 3 weeks before the marathon), it still wasn’t healed enough to run, I decided to defer my place - it’s fairly silly trying to run a marathon when you have an injury at the start, even though some pain at the end is only to be expected.

So we’re still much where we were last year, with a now 4-year marathon attempt. However, that’s not to say there haven’t been some successes since I last was humming and hawing on it all in August 21, so here’s me picking up the thread of that from the time training restarted in autumn.

Autumn 2022 to March 2023

When starting to work towards marathon training, you hear talk about building a base; well building a base for me meant a heck of a lot more walking in my runs than ever before.

I did the first race I’d done in years in November (the Bonfire Burn, as reviewed in a previous post) with about a third of it walking (and another kilometre where it was pure mud, so more slipping around than even walking), but it soon became apparent that for me to get anywhere near to the distances necessary to think of pulling off a marathon, it needed even more walking than that. Especially when there were any even any minor gradients to “puff you to a standstill”.

In order to get a more realistic feel of where things were, and as motivation, more races/group training runs were planned. After the Bonfire Burn, it was the Hatfield 5 miles at the end of November, the first of Gade Valley’s marathon training runs in late Feb (12 miles), the Cambridge half in early March and finally the second Gade Valley run (17 miles) in late March.

It was as hard as you might expect starting from quite a bit behind where I’d been in 2019/2020, and of course, despite my best efforts, there were other setbacks. After avoiding it for 3 years, I got COVID-19 for the first time in January 23 (if summer training is horrible because of hot days - “rum, not run” - then winter training has the disadvantage of more chance of the sniffles). That took me out for 3 weeks, meaning there was a bit of a ridiculous leap as the longest training run went from 8 miles straight up to the 12 miles of Gade Valley I.

Then a true race - the Cambridge half. I know I encouraged James to enter too, to keep him entertained while I completed it, but I’d not quite realised that the wave starts would mean he’d be literally half way round before I’d even started!

Technically, as I’ve never done an official half before, it was a pb for me, although of course it was quite a bit slower than I’d run the distance in 2020. However, it was also the first race I’d been in with anything like this number of competitors and supporters. Even for me in the tail at the back (although surprisingly far from actually last) there were a fair few ‘crowds’ cheering out on the course right the way round.

And on that note, I should say the day itself was super cold, ~3°C, not cold enough to be a problem running, but certainly very cold for the two people who stayed out the whole time necessary to cheer not only the super speedy North Herts Road Runners (NHRR) members (there were plenty of those finishing <1 h 30 min, even James!) but also those in the just over 3 hours run-walk (I was by then doing 50% walking by time), any speed as long as we get round it within the time limit, category. Thank you to them.

I’ve heard people say how there’s a section in the middle of the Cambridge half that’s boring as it’s just on a country road in the middle of a flat nowhere - well, as it happened, I didn’t have a boring ‘boring bit’ because that was the section I was running alongside, and actually very slowly overtaking, Mr Ovary, who was doing a fabulous job in a very difficult costume (it wouldn’t have allowed you to use your arms).

After the race, I told myself ‘no, I wouldn’t feel tempted do a half again’, even despite it not being unlikely that I could find the extra minute’s speed to get the time to under 3 h (i.e. when it would be Ok to push it more at the end because you could rest rather than go straight back into training the week after!), but we’ll come back to that thought later.

Two weeks later was Gade Valley II, a 17-mile training run. It’s a lot harder route than Cambridge, as it’s not flat by any stretch of the imagination, and I won’t lie by saying I wasn’t feeling training aches before I started it. By that stage, quite a number of my regular Tuesday NHRR club sessions had degenerated into run-walks for only 30 mins, or perhaps 20 mins if I were really sore [I owe big thank yous to all those who plan and lead club sessions - Cara, the two Daves, Jo, Karen and Linda (alphabetical order) to name a few - not least, for having to put up with my continual ‘adaptations’ to the stated plans].

However, despite the niggles, I still didn’t ‘expect’ the run to go wrong. Although, in actual fact it could have been worse - at ~14 miles, four ginormous deer, complete with very big antlers, burst out the undergrowth 10 m ahead of us and went charging off up the road. My guess is red deer, not fallow deer, and certainly not the Muntjac I’m more used to from Norton Common (although James and I had indeed once had a shock even with ‘just’ three of those charging across our path).

Never have I been more glad of not being a little faster.

But it was so near the end that the injury happened - my calf just went pop. I knew it wasn’t a terrible tear owing to the fact I could limp the last mile back to the HQ, but I also knew it was likely to scupper running London.

And so it proved. In early April, I clicked the button to confirm I was withdrawing. But, if that’s the case, then what’s this ‘new running thing’ mentioned in the post title…

April 2023

By 4 weeks after I had the injury, things running wise were starting to look up. I could attend some of the club evening training sessions, and start looking towards longer runs on the weekends again.

But for a bit of motivation to maintain at least some of the effect of this winter’s training for later in the year, I decided to enter another half in October. And apparently it’s even flatter than Cambridge - which you wouldn’t think would be possible! So role on my next challenge, the Great Eastern Run - I do not promise under 3 h though [note from the future, problems with my Achilles meant this couldn’t in fact happen]!

Then, for the rest of April, two club runs that wouldn’t have been possible if I’d actually been at the marathon. The first of these was my very first time on a running track.

The running club often has a extra Saturday session, held jointly with Fairlands Valley Spartans, at a track in Stevenage. Now track sessions evoke memories of (bad) school sports lessons, in rutted grass, and hadn’t been on my list of things to try.

It also tends to be the fastest (keenest?) members of the club that attend these sessions; to me they look like elegant springboks, whereas I was rather afraid of showing myself up as the lumbering elephant getting in the way. As it turned out coach Karen was very reassuring on that - in the list of track etiquette points (e.g. warm up in the outside lanes clockwise, run in the inner lane anti-clockwise) it was clear enough fast and slow runners could be ok together - well at least for training!

Not withstanding issues using my gps watch’s ‘track mode’ [(a) I managed to set up as if I were in the outside lane the whole time and (b) didn’t realise you needed to say don’t autopause again in a different place to where I’d already done that for normal running], which meant the distances/paces calculated were all wonky, it was a fun hour doing something quite different.

Springy, flat surfaces are rather nice on the calf muscles.

Then, we had the annual ‘bird run’. We are very lucky to have someone very good at ornithology in the club, and who kindly gives up his time on an annual event to lead us round a run to spot (or hear) the birds at Oughtonhead Common.

Last time I went on this, I remember lots of swallows and house martins on a rather soggy day; this year was perfect spring weather with skylarks, blackcaps (doing lots of song), the first swift of the year, some goldcrests, a yellowhammer, a green finch (well that one was only heard) and chiffchaff. And wonderful hosts with a fabulous brunch (I had three scones).

So, in other words… it’s correct - there are other runs just as rewarding as London marathon, in their own way! Although, that does not mean I won’t be giving it my very best to have more success in April 2024.

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Extra shots

• Calf tear advice (no stretching, no foam rolling!)
  https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/health/injury/a773619/ask-the-physio-calf-tears/

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Credits

Photos from the Cambridge Half are ©Sussex Sport Photography and are used with permission.