I Once Ran a Marathon

There are pivotal moments in every person's life which are so life changing they end up remembering them every year in the form of anniversaries. The obvious and generic ones are birthdays (which if you think about it might be more special for a parent than for a child) weddings and deaths, but there are many more which although more personal and intimate can be just as potent. The start of a new job maybe, or a season in which a Muslim performed a Hajj - perhaps even a house move. Some dates you just remember.

Today marks ten years[1] since I ran the London Marathon (back in the days when it was a Flora and not Virgin), and I've never understated exactly how much that day (as well as the six or so months leading up to it) had an effect on me. I could say that the lesson was that anything is possible with hard work or something, but I think what I actually learned was that everything in life has a cost, and the more major it is, the higher the cost. In those terms it's a pretty obvious statement to make, but then I guess most life lessons are.

Blogs (well this one for me anyway) are quite handy in that they catch the moment at its most raw; before one has time to process or even misremember it. I regret not having Radio Shak for many pivotal life events, but the two I do the most are the marathon that I ran and the Hajj that I performed. Still, I did manage to get a "one year later" post down, which captured part of what I was feeling at the time. On the other hand a part of me is disappointed with how hard I'm clinging on to the achievement, if only because this essentially implies that the last thing I managed to do of any great value was a decade ago - and that compounded by the fact that I don't really run any more at all.

But lament aside, I am proud of being in that club of people who have managed to run 26 odd miles in one go, and although I'm not quite sure where my medal is the whole day ten years ago does stay with me. Perhaps that's another reason why anniversaries are useful - to both remind us that not only is time always moving, but that it makes space for further achievements too.

[1] Well not exactly - we ran on the 18th of April in 2004.

Film: Town of Runners

I managed to catch this documentary about two Ethiopian runners striving to make it big in their sport, in a country where running is the only real alternative to education and marriage. If there was such a genre as sportploitation then this would probably fall under it, although that could just be my reaction to the gushing in the Q&A afterwards. Oh yes, the director was there too.

As a film it wasn't too bad though and in fact I did quite enjoy it. It's always interesting to see the rest of the training and livelihood beneath the tip of the iceberg we see at events like the Olympics, and I guess this journey is even more striking in a place like Ethiopia where, let's face it, making it big in a sport means a lot more than it does in most other places.

Technically the film was good, and I enjoyed the narrative that eventually emerged from the otherwise confused progress - if anything I thought the film fell a little short of its conclusion and wish that it went a little further on that.

Otherwise you can pretty much predict what happens in the film and how people will react to it (group tours to Bekoji anyone?). I probably wouldn't recommend going out of a way to watch this unless you already have an interest in the topic to feed.

The Standard Chartered Great City Race 2011

There isn't much to report for this year's 5k race. I haven't run (at all) since this exact same event last year, so I was a little concerned at how it would go. Unlike other times when I had stopped running for a while, when I did still feel fit and knew I'd be able to get around, today I really had no real understanding of my fitness level before the start.

The race itself had technical issues. Firstly, it was the reverse course which in although in theory shouldn't make a difference was a little disconcerting as I apparently lost the distance cues I had built up over the past three races I had taken part in. Secondly, as I entered the race quite late in the queue I got caught up in a lot of traffic during the start - I would say it cost me at least 20-30 seconds. And finally apart from my lack of recent race experience I wasn't feeling too great and my sinuses were clogged up. Yes, aw.

My official time is 26:40 which surprisingly is bang on what I hit last year, perhaps proving that I don't need to do any exercise any more. Maybe. That said it was quite a difficult race and I did feel some muscle pain - which is quite pathetic considering the distance - and I expect to feel sore tomorrow, something that hasn't happened since I ran the marathon. On the other hand my respiration seemed to be okay, so I think I can still claim to be relatively fit.

Nevertheless I certainly miss being able to do this kind of stuff backwards in my sleep, and will take this as a clear indication that things are moving on.

The Standard Chartered Great City Race 2010, London

I like to think that it's reasonable to expect much less from my races now that I've stopped running. I started this year's Great City race after doing zero training; needless to say I was quite worried about how it would go. On the other hand, this lack of self-expectation made the whole thing more approachable and less daunting, and I think I enjoyed the actual run more than I usually do.

My official time came in as 26:41, a whopping three minutes down on last year's time, but still placing third in the company. If there's any evidence that I'm getting old... it's my ever decreasing fitness and speed around a course.

Snippet

xxxx says (14:30):
    this one supposed to let you train harder as well
xxxx says (14:31):
    can push your muscles more
Shak says (14:43):
    good stuff
    ive.... accepted that i'll never be big big
    ill stick to slim and toned :D
    although now im not running maybe ill just be fat

The Roding Valley Half Marathon 2010

Although my running partner and I had planned on making this local run our basis for the year's training, I happened to miss the last two for one reason or another. In fact, the last time I participated was way back in 2007; I managed to complete the course in just over 2 hours, which I felt was quite disappointing since my PB for the race, obtained in 2004 while training for a full blown marathon, is a poignantly impressive 1:33. Although I had accepted that I would never reasonably get such a time again (unless I was training for a marathon - something which I don't quite think will happen) I did think I had a better time in me. This year my main objective was to demonstrate that, as I set myself a target of a sub-1:50 time (or a 8:40 min/mile pace)

To be honest I kinda failed before I started. The wedding food yesterday probably didn't help, as was the relatively late night I had. All of the carbs I stuffed myself with at 10pm probably went straight to my gut, and to top it off I didn't have much water throughout the day either. Oh dear. But hey, at least it couldn't get any worse - I was even still confident about my time.

I was proven wrong this morning as all the runners woke up to some horrendous conditions; rain and wind were both forecast but I didn't really believe that it would happen until I saw it. I think it was then that I reassessed my time: I would now be happy with anything under two hours.

I found the race hard. Perhaps it was the weather (and the extra weight added by our drenched clothing), but almost from the get go I felt like I was jogging in mud while dragging a cart or something. Although this wasn't too much of a problem for the first half or so of the course, it began to take its toll later on; I haven't looked that the numbers properly but it felt like I had quite a few of the 13 miles were had in over ten minutes. As expected, my left knee gave out at around the ten mile mark, just like it had been promising to during training, although mercifully after a few yards I seem to have forgotten all about it - as I type now, I am concerned about it though. Generally you can tell how well a race is going by your state of mind and emotional wellbeing while running and I recall stuff becoming a bit cloudy toward the end, something I've not really experienced since the Flora in 2004.

However despite my bad feelings during the race I did manage to come in under my two hour target, although not by much. According to my timekeeping I completed 13.38 miles in 1:58:26, a pace of 8:51 min/miles. Considering the conditions I see this as a vast improvement over 2007, and will even go to say that I reckon I would have beaten 1:50 under better circumstances.

So a personal win then? Well not quite. You see I decided a few months ago that the RVHM 2010 would actually be my last long road race. My knee is actually beginning to become a quite serious concern, and for me the loss of everyday mobility isn't really worth the other benefits (including the enjoyment) road running brings. Maybe it's the lack of time I can dedicate to the activity (I only really run once a week); personally I think I'm just getting old and the whole thing is beginning to (or already has) catch up with me.

This doesn't mean I'll end running altogether - I'll still be taking part in various 5k runs and the like, but I will stop my regular running and hopefully replace it with another activity. The two candidates for this are cycling and swimming, but considering my proficiency in the former I think I'll be hitting a pool pretty soon.

EDIT: My time as recorded by the organisers was 1:58.37, ranked 492.

Losing It

Although I'm quite an easy going guy (stop laughing at the back) most of the time, there are rare occasions when I'll see red. During these times, I'll become irrational, single-minded and deaf to reason; the last of which is a shame as since I'm almost always in the wrong when this happens it would be good if I were able to realise this sooner rather than later.

Take this morning, for instance.

For reasons that don't really matter I decided to run laps in the local park for my weekly long-run. It was milder than usual and so I took off my otherwise essential hat and gloves and left them on one of the park benches; no one was going to take a crappy fake Thinsulate hat (that all middle aged Asian men seem to have) and knitted gloves, and even if they did I was lapping at around 2 to 3 minutes so would probably catch them in the act.

An hour into my run and I noticed that my hat had disappeared from the place I had left it. Walking away from the park bench was a middle aged Asian man wearing it.

And that was pretty much all I needed to make a confrontation. He was obviously a thief. He even looked like one.

"Is that your hat?" I asked him rudely. "Excuse me?" he replied, quite surprised. I asked again and this time he said it was his. He was still smiling, not quite aware of what I was accusing him of. "I just saw you take it", I lied, trying to catch him out. "I have no idea what you're talking about, this is my hat". "Are you sure? My name is written inside" I pathetically lied again.

This (admittedly lame) exchange went on for a few seconds, myself becoming more angry, the guy not smiling any more. If I had taken a few moments, I would have listened to my sub-conscious screaming at me that the hat was the wrong colour and shape, but none of that really mattered by that point. It was only after I had grabbed the hat off his head that I realised it was a size too big and had an extra layer of fake Thinsulate material inside.

In return the guy grabbed the cord of my headphones, stripping its wires as he did so. He then took a few swipes, drool flying from his mouth as he did so. This was nothing major and easy to avoid; at that point I just wanted the whole thing to end; not because of the trouble I was in but more because I was the one in the wrong. Still insisting that it was my hat I shoved it back into his hands, took my broken headphones and responded to his effing and blinding as I carried on my run, realising that if I hadn't given this poor guy unwarranted grief I would have probably found the person who had really taken my stuff.

Which I did. Further in that same lap I noticed a woman and her dog. The woman had put something down on another bench, and when I approached it I found that they were my gloves. Catching up to her and getting her attention with a much more polite and controlled "excuse me", she immediately asked if the hat she was carrying was mine, and how she was taking it to lost or found (something my gloves didn't seem worthy of). Not believing her one bit (but not actually caring) I took it off her and carried on my way. Where the hell was this calm and reasonable me a few minutes ago? My irrationality cost me my pride and a set of headphones, but more importantly hassle for someone who was just minding his own business.

So there you have it. I'm one of those troublemaking thugs you hear your uncles and aunties complaining about. Which makes me wonder two things: firstly how many troublemaker incidents are just normal people flipping out? And secondly I wonder if I would have flipped out if some of the variables had changed (I don't think I would have been as confrontational if it was a hot woman for instance).

To my credit I did run in the direction the poor fella was originally walking, all the way to the bus stop that I thought he might have been heading to. He probably wouldn't have given me a chance to apologise (and quite reasonably so), but I thought I should at least try. I didn't find him but maybe he'll be reading this? If so, I'm unreservedly sorry.

The Standard Chartered Great City Race 2009, London

I was a bit surprised to hear that I had gotten a sub 21-minute time last year. Of course I hadn't really, but nevertheless I had received a special pink sticker on my race number which enabled me to start at the front of this year's race. Suffice to say I felt special, and that was before the running had even started.

Any elitist feels was quickly quashed when the starting gun fired though. Today's race was a tough affair, both in terms of the conditions (lots of pinches/crowds) and my own physical state (I was pretty knackered). On the bright side, the weather held out for the race and cool-down, I got to meet friends participating in the event both in the bank and out and, of course, I got to competitively race (I missed this year's Roding yet again).

Thankfully my knee held out (it's been giving me problems since February). In fact I seemed to bottle out with my respiration rather than energy/muscle levels - further proof of just how unfit I'm becoming year on year.

My final booked time was 23:44, faster than last year but a result that took much more out of me. Competition in my adopted company has also heated up with my time now being the fourth fastest, but nevertheless it was good to see the group as a whole doing better than we did last year.

An Impromptu Half-Marathon

This morning my running partner neighbour surprised me by challenging us to run an impromptu half-marathon.

Now there's nothing wrong with the distance itself; I've done it many times before, mostly during marathon training, but sometimes as an individual race and came away with some pretty decent times.

Just to give you some measure though, my last race time was just over 2 hours, with my fastest being around 1 hour 33 minutes (although again, since that was during training that's not an indicative time really). The longest I've run out of competition/training was nine miles a couple of weeks ago, during which I managed just under 8 and a half minute miles; the aim was to match that today (and so get a total time of under 1h50m.

Conditions were not ideal. For a start it was a surprise mentally, but I also hadn't really stretched appropriately, had zero carbs and water loaded and had some bad quality sleep last night. But since I had missed last year's Roding Valley Half Marathon (due to being in Israel) and will be missing this year's too, I thought I should give it a go.

It was pretty tough going. The first half (quarter marathon?) was positive, with us hitting 8 (and a bit) minute miles and going strong. The Roding Valley track is undulating (something that makes it quite popular) and the ups were painful with the downs not really giving as much back as they should have been. The second half was much worse, my knee beginning to buckle bringing my pace down to around the nine minute mark. By the end of it I could feel my tank literally empty with hunger and dizziness arriving in equal measure. I reckon my knee will be out of whack for a week at least.

We finished our adapted circuit in 1:47.30, something which certainly surprised me; I wasn't anticipating a pace that close to the 8 minute mark. It turned out that we had miscalculated the route - we had actually run 12.1 miles which brought my pace back up to a more understandable 8m53s. Still it was under 9 minutes which was better than my last competitive half-marathon, although I suspect an extra mile would have battered that pace.

I'm glad I went out today. Considering the conditions I think we did alright and I no longer feel that I'll be missing out on the annual Roding Valley event twice in a row. Under race conditions and with more adequate preparation I'm almost certain I could hold a pace of 8m30s, and quite possibly do even better than that.

The Standard Chartered Great City Race 2008, London

5k is an interesting distance. The elitist runner in me pours scorn on such an amount; everyone I know should be able to run this distance and it definitely should NOT be a once in a lifetime thing for them to do. As such, those who ask me to sponsor them for a 5k race usually find nothing but disappointment.

On the other hand since it's not long or even mid distance it does have its own challenges regarding pace and speed; and since I had missed this year's Roding half marathon and wasn't about to enter this year's JP Corporate Challenge I jumped at the chance to run under some kind of race conditions.

Training was okay, if only because it underlined exactly how unfit I've become. Although I still regularly run my pace has dropped considerably as I find myself with nothing to run for; the 3.1 miles were taking me around 25 minutes to complete, a far cry from the 7.5 minute miles I was running during my marathon training prime. Back then such a distance would have been done without breaking a sweat, although 3 miles when aiming for 26 isn't really that much.

My aim for the race was to pace 8 minute miles and so any time under 24 minutes would have left me happy enough. And although I had to run my arse off to do it, my chest giving way long before my legs, surprised at exactly how much of a struggle it was. Still I managed to get a time of 23:51, a personal best (at least in recent times) and the fastest in the company team (I managed to hijack the one my dad works for).

Although it's not a patch on how I used to run five years ago (particularly because I was half dead by the end of it), it was good enough for me, especially now, during a time I'm increasingly feeling like I'm getting on a bit.

An Unlazy Sunday

Sometimes you have such a perfectly synchronised day that you feel like you've wasted all others that week - that in fact the past six days were just all leading up to this one.

Today was such a day for me. It was partly typical - I started with an early long run with my neighbour (something we hadn't done since I returned from my travelling) followed by my teaching at ICSS (I was scheduled to come in today).

I left early in order to catch the top end of a family lunch we were having. I couldn't hang around though because I had to leave for South Woodford mosque: today also happened to be the date for the latest QMT Marriage Event thing. I had missed the last one and so made it a point to attend and as usual it was pretty good - with those of us leaving without any leads or interests not finding it a waste of time like we might have other events. The crowd also seems to be getting bigger, and I had known friends attending on both sides.

I had to yet again leave early in order to catch the tail end of a lunch party I had been invited to elsewhere. I arrived just in time, managing to catch dessert, and the next few hours were spent having various (semantic and otherwise) arguments regarding prejudice and racism. It was great and I think we could have gone on for much longer.

The evening was suffixed by an impromptu dinner out with yet another group of friends. It was very last minute (I missed the initial invitation) and I wasn't even going to go - but that I was locked out of my house meant I had to. I was glad I did since the day was made perfect by the final session of banter, food and hanging out.

And of course best of all is the feeling when you come home late on a Sunday, not having to worry about work the next day! Playboy lifestyle it might not be, but it's good enough for me.

The JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 2007, London

This was the second time I participated in the annual JPMCC race (you can read about last year here), and it was almost uncanny how similar an experience it was.

I had actually forgotten about it till last night and between Australia and the wedding stuff I hadn't had a serious Sunday run in over a month. So I wasn't expecting to perform that well today, although having said that I would have been totally gutted if I hadn't broken the thirty minute mark, no matter what my fitness level had been. I actually got a decent 29:17. It's almost a minute slower than last year, but still I'm happy that I kept it under thirty.

We were allowed into the JP Morgan tent this year too, so I got to hang out and enjoy some of the vegetarian sausages they had on offer. Yum.

I wonder how I'll fare next year?

The Roding Valley Half Marathon 2007

Today was the 25th annual Roding Valley Half Marathon, and I was a runner. This was to be my longest run since the London Marathon in 2004, and so I was both excited and nervous about rejoining the lower end of a more serious level of running.

A month ago, when my neighbour and I first decided to run it, we had set ourselves a target of 1:45. This meant eight minute miles, and so was pretty ambitious considering we ran the usual ten, and even that for much smaller distances.

I had a bit of a scare a few weeks ago when I hurt my knee ice skating; and although I'm still a bit stiff it managed to sort itself out before this morning. I'm glad, since I was pretty determined to take part in this race and so it would have been pretty disappointing to have to pull out and wait another year.

Nevertheless, after three training runs of around eight miles each, never going below nine and a half minute miles, we re-evaluated our target time up to the corresponding 2:00. If I'm being honest I thought even this was a little ambitious. I was quite depressed at this considering I did the same race in 1:33 way back in 2004 in preparation for London. Age doesn't help of course, but the main thing that helped me back then was the marathon training itself - at that point I was doing runs much longer than the 13 miles each week.

The race itself was pretty good. We fell into the usual trap of being sucked in with over-eager runners wanting to do the course in under an hour; we paced the first mile at around eight minutes. Luckily we checked ourselves pretty early and stepped down a gear for the rest of the race - we managed to stick to our nine/ten minute miles for the other twelve miles pretty easily, passing a few of those trailblazers on the way.

The course (map here) was actually made up for three loops - one smaller one and then two identical larger ones. This gives runners a psychological advantage of allowing them to mentally visualise markers to aim for (and as an aside, most of the the larger loop made up our training course too). This repetition helps with pacing too; I took it easy for the first long lap, and then exploited that experience in the second.

Overall it was pretty tough. I managed to gun it a bit on seeing the "200m left" marker, but today was nothing like my previous race here. By my watch I managed to finish in just over two hours (EDIT: 2:2.16 to be precise, placing me at 454th out of 660); I feel that I pushed myself and ran the race smartly and so I'm pretty happy with that, especially given the now-clearly inadequate training we had.

As for my career in running, well, I've established a few things. Firstly, I'm definitely plan on taking part in this race more regularly - so next year and every year after that hopefully. Secondly, if I do enter I know to train a bit more and to start earlier (hopefully this shouldn't be a problem since we had integrated the training this time into our usual Sunday runs). And, finally, I don't think I'll ever be running a full marathon again: it would take too long to get back into that condition and quite frankly I don't know how I could manage the training.

I'm glad I ran today. It's vindicating, and good to know that I was still able to complete the distance, even though it wasn't a patch on my previous efforts. Oh and yes, some of you will be glad to know that I am in a lot of pain.

Running Blind

Since it's the holiday season, my neighbour and I decided to go a bit nuts with our weekly Sunday morning run. Well that's the official story anyway, since we in fact got a bit lost.

Still it meant that we got a good 8 mile run out of the session, something I personally haven't done since Marathon training. As for the time, we completed the circuit in 80 minutes, giving us an okish average of ten minutes per mile (although we kind of battered that time during toward the end).

I was quite happy that I managed it without my breathing giving me too many problems; however as expected it was my legs that slowly ran out of juice first. I'm gonna find it a bit difficult to run up and down stairs over the next couple of days.

The JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 2006, London

Today was the first JP Morgan Corporate Challenge London Race of 2006 (the second one is being held on Thursday). This is a certified 5.6km annual course that's been held in various cities globally since 1977, and although I've had the opportunity to run it for the past two years I've not really had much inclination to do so till now.

It was my first competitive run since April 2004, so I was quite excited about it. I manage to do around 6-7km each week so I wasn't too concerned about the distance, but there's something about race conditions that makes one push themselves more than they would on a typical Sunday morning. In other words, I was interested to see how I would perform on that Battersea Park course with ten thousand other runners.

I had been warned that the event becomes pretty congested and so to make my way as far forward of the starting crowd as possible to get any kind of competitively accurate time. I didn't quite manage that, but it wasn't that bad anyway - I think I lost around a minute, maybe two, over the whole course due to traffic. Ironically those that had managed to push their way to the front were the ones walking and being obstructive - as early on in the race as the 1km mark. Honestly, some people.

But this wasn't supposed to be a serious race. There were people of all shapes and sizes there, some taking it seriously and some not, but all having fun and intending on hitting the various BBQs and alcoholic drinks waiting for them back in their corporate tents (apart from me that is: I had a match to catch, thanks).

5.6km is a strange distance. I've been pacing myself at 5km for the past few weeks and felt a slight wall at that point during the race. The remaining 600m wasn't that big a deal, but it's interesting how accurate a measuring device the human body can be (a bit like those ants, innit?). It was also pretty damn hot, but on the day this didn't seem to bother many (except for that one guy I saw unconscious on the floor around the 4km mark. Eep.).

And the results? Well my target before the race was to break 30 minutes, so I was pretty happy with the 28:25 I clocked up (unofficially - surprisingly there were no timing chips this year). I managed to gun the last 200m or so which implies that my pacing was off, but I'm putting that down to traffic more than anything else. For those who are interested (that'll be just me then), my time equates to 5km in 25:22, 1km in 5:04 and 8:10 per mile, which is pretty much bang on in line with my marathon pace. What that means is that, in theory, I should have received a better time than I did (the shorter distance allowing me to run a faster pace). Perhaps under more ideal conditions I would have done.

I enjoyed the race anyway. It was even enough to convince me to try for something more ambitious - perhaps not quite another marathon, but possibly something half that distance. Maybe.

Marathon Man

There are times I regret not having started a blog earlier. My experiences with graduation, Hajj and Bollywood Star, for example, are some things I would have loved to have put down on paper, but didn't. Instead I have to wait for a reason to bring them up.

Today is the 25th Flora London Marathon. As I type, the medium pace runners are crossing the finishing line as I also did this time last year. It's a very surreal experience and to be honest it's the training that lingers in my head rather than the day itself which was just a blur.

Despite the many appreciated pre- and post- race good lucks and congratulations, I think only a few people really know what my run had meant to me: those that met me at the finish line and witnessed the physical and emotional wreck I was when I had crossed it. There's only been a few times in my life that I've been close to tears and that was certainly one of them (but don't worry, I stepped up. Growl).

Although I've sworn never to run it again, the race did change me in a way which may draw me again to the event. It really is a life changing deal. I'm sure there would have been much more for me to say, had I written my thoughts down straight away, but the London Marathon of 2004 was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Which reminds me - I've got to call a guy I met on the day to reminisce...

Weak Hu-Man

This morning was my first jog since the beginning of Ramadhan (so that's around 2 months or so). It always amazes me how quickly our bodies adapt (or in this case fail) - I managed around 3 miles before I started losing breath and had to stop. That took me around 27 mins, so I'm at the 10 minute/mile mark which I'm happy with, but the distance is kinda bad considering I was doing around that every other day and twice that on Sundays this time last year for training.