This evening I had the privilege and pleasure to run with Noel Thatcher.  He competed in six Paralympic games (1984-2004) winning 5 gold medals.  Noel is visually impaired and registered blind and was the brain child behind RunforJapan.com which I was involved with back in March.  We have been in touch since then, promising a run after the Marathon, and tonight it finally happened.

Meeting up at his place of work we set off on a route that I have run most of a number of times before.  Although Noel works in the area it became clear that because of his disability he tends to stick to familiar routes near to his home.  He addmitted to me that his wife was a little aprehensive as I am not a trained ‘guide’.  It turned out she had nothing to worry about, the pace was probably so slow for him that he had plenty of time to assess the environment around him.

I say it was slow for him.  For me it was certainly a brisk trot and even my choice of a hilly route (that i thought would help me out a little) didn’t seem to make things more even.  Noel’s fastest 10k is around 30 minutes – a whole 12 minutes faster than me (or 2 minutes a mile quicker!!)  I huffed and puffed my way around the 6 miles whilst he chatted away without breaking a sweat!  But I suppose that was always inevitable.  After all, even though he is now retired, he is in great shape.

Noel is one of those people who you really like to be around.  He has a passion for running and this is evident in all he does.  He is involved in various vision charities and works closely with grass roots athletics.  Genuinely a really nice guy!

Unfortunately once again problems with the Garmin (read me not charging it!) so no ‘proof’ of the run, you will have to take my word for it!  I am sure we will be heading out again, so next time i will make sure its all working ok.

‘Till tomorrow…

N

Wow what an absolutely amazing run. Brilliant. Fantastic. Loads of things to talk about today that I don’t know where to start. Contain yourself readers for a journey far beyond your wildest dreams. Sit back and enjoy the show…

On today’s run I couldn’t find any suitable running socks (of the x-socks variety) so ended up putting some other running socks on. Well I didn’t realise till I was about to leave the front door that both of my socks had the letter ‘L’ on them. Yes today I was going to be a learner runner! Or as is more likely today, much like with life I was embarking on my run with
two left feet…

Well ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed that story about my run, it was a good one. I mean during the two mile recovery session in preparation for tomorrows race it was warm (when is it not at the moment) and
ultimately how much is going to happen in two miles right?

Till tomorrow

For #Juneathon posts see the navigation bar at the top or here and they will be in there.

In January I sat and watched the #janathon tweets fill my timeline, due to Marathon Training I didnt feel I could commit to 7 days training with no rest day. However, as the experience went on I realised that people weren’t just running and other “excercise” qualified, roll on June and the challenge starts all over again. This time I’m entered with only one concern – that being Saturday rest days. Its now Wednesday, I’ll worry about that in a few days, by which point a large number of Juneathon people will already be out…:-)

The run itself – ‘el clasico’ 4.7 mile lunchtime jog. I ran with guy at an 8:45 average pace, all good. It was a recovery run following last nights track session. Legs were a little bit sore but fortunately the run was at a comfortable pace so nothing to grumble about. However, the weather was fantabulous, I think the warmest I have been out in this year, wooo

This review will come in two parts, today’s blog will concentrate on the aesthetics of the watch and compare it alongside the Garmin and Mobile phone apps. It will very loosely talk about how accurate it is as I will be reserving full judgment until Sunday when I will be doing a proper measured event. I have always assumed my Garmin watch to be pretty accurate but it seems unfair to compare the readings unless the distance is accurate…

My first impressions of the watch were that it certainly looks a lot nicer than my 405, time has obviously been spent trying to create a stylish watch perhaps people will wear casually. However, it is pretty chunky which is understandable considering what is in it. The box had limited instructions but that seems common now with tech – enough guidance to get you online and to read more.

Technically you could just go out for a run without syncing the watch – however, most of the watch settings are configured through the Nike connect app so it’s wise to be ‘online’ with this watch. It seems unlike the Garmin counterpart this watch has very little it can do without being online, to it’s defence the Garmin offline tool is pretty pants but i’m sure useful to some (and there are paid for offline tools too). Odd things are configured on the computer and not the watch, most peculiar was watch sounds. In my opinion that is something which belongs in a settings option on device?

I already have a Nike account so can’t run through that process, when I did it many years ago it was simple so I assume it still will be! After plugging the phone in (unhiding the USB connector in the strap) the watch talked with the Nike site and seemed happy to connect. Once fully charged it was time for a run…!

As I’m on the recovery stages following the marathon so far the distances run with it have been relatively short. The watch is pretty damn easy to use there is no denying that. With only 4 menu options; clock, run, history and records, it’s pretty difficult to get lost! Selecting ‘run’ presents you with more options determining whether you will be using the shoepod (which is supplied – one up on the Garmin), heart rate monitor or GPS – chose what you want and that’s it away you go!

As I mentioned earlier, when running there is very little displayed, given the size of the screen I would have expected a better use of display to at least give the option of more information. For me if running with a HRM, I like to see, at minimum, time elapsed, distance and heart rate. I would also like to see average pace just so I don’t have to do maths in my head as I run. From what I can tell on this device I have the option of 2 blocks of information, everything else I can get to via the buttons but requires fiddling whilst running, never good!

After finishing the run and connecting it to the computer via the USB device, which I found a bit odd and dated – I would have expected Bluetooth sync or something similar! I checked the online site. I hoped Nike had done a bit of work online since I last visited, the site used to be pretty cool, a visual masterpiece, clean and simple. All good apart from the last point, why have a complex device but only present information in a basic way? Fortunately, tucked away was a button that said Nike+ Beta, now this was better! Much more granular information displayed but still well designed. Nike have obviously spent a lot of time and money on this site and it has been worth it.

The whole process from start to finish was seamless and very easy. This watch is perfect for the casual runner due to it’s simple interface. However, there is one thing that let’s it down, the cost. If this device had come in at around the £100 mark I think I would have been happy to recommend it (as I do the Garmin 305′s) however at nearly £200 it seems a bit pricey. Especially considering the Nike+ app for the iPhone is about £2 and I would expect the target audience to be the same? As I don’t have a 4g iPhone I haven’t compared the watch and the app but I would expect the results to be very similar!

I’m still really surprised by the decision to make these, they are pretty much solely for runners so no good for cyclists or triathletes and by the time you have added £50 for a heart rate monitor it competes with the likes of Timex, Garmin and Polar of which I suspect all of the later are more useful especially for multi disciplines. I always expected a Nike+ watch would come but not with a GPS built in. I wanted and hoped for a simple and small device which could interface with the iPhone app providing readouts from that, I suspect if such a device could be created it would be cheaper too!

I will reserve final judgement until next week following the 10k. Ultimately if the watch is 100% accurate then regardless of my thoughts on it’s look or functionality, the watch does what it needs to do!

Initial verdict Garmin 405 (£182.08) vs Nike+ (£189), Garmin 405 wins, however for beginners and those on a budget the 305 (£116.12) trumps the lot of them hands down. Come back next week for a distance review!

After this  year’s marathon  I let my body recover how it should.  I completely rested for a whole week. No running, no gym – nothing. This is the longest period of non-exercise I can remember since starting running a few years ago. Following the detox week, I resumed with little sessions – 15mins here, 20 mins there. In between there should have been a couple of 60minute runs but I ignored them substituting them with whatever else I could do. I couldn’t be bothered to run…what was the point? Twice now I have had issues in the 4 marathons I have entered, and in my mind fairly difficult ones to overcome as I wouldn’t put it down to under-training. Why put my body through it again?

I wallowed, I was miserable, my mojo had left me, the thing that I had spent so much time waxing lyrical about and helping others with had once again let me down. Laura was clearly concerned for me, apparently it seems I’m a little moody when not running, although I don’t think this was her only reason for concern!

I mustered up a few runs last week and trying to push myself with an Audiofuel track. Whilst I was aware my speed would be slow, I hadn’t expected such a change of speed vs perceived effort. I don’t think I could even manage a mile at the pace I ran 13.1 for at Dorney about 2 months ago. Sole-destroying!

On Saturday I happened to be in Newquay on a Stag Weekend, I had an empty day so decided I would take my kit and just run. Whilst I put my Garmin on I didn’t care how fast I was going or how long I was going out for. I didn’t plan a route I just threw on my camelback and went for a run.

Mental note to self – even when you don’t care about speed or distance do a little recce of the area first, in particular the profile! I was blissfully unaware as to how hilly it would be until I had run for about 3 minutes and saw a huge hill. Up, down, up, down and that’s how the run went, not to forget the wind too which also added to the ‘challenge’. However, on this day it didn’t overly bother me, it didn’t matter how fast (or slow in this case) I went up the hills and if I really wanted to I could have just bypassed them, but I didn’t and the photos from the top were my reason not to.

After about 7mile I was feeling a little low on energy, I had gels in my bag but I was in a seaside town and an ice cream seemed a whole lot better idea!  I had planned on calling it a day at that point, I was a stones throw from the hotel and had covered 10k so was happy but the ice cream gave me a change of heart pushing me on for another couple of miles.

Returning back to my hotel, happy but tired I finally took a squint at some of the other watch data and unsurprisingly it was very slow however it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. Not all runs are winning runs sometimes they need to be enjoyable and this was!

Sometimes it’s good to just run and not race…!

On my marathon blog I mentioned how I was given a Motorola Defy to play with from Vodafone. This phone is the ideal runners phone what with it being small as well as waterproof. However, somehow whilst in a rough state at the St Johns tent the phone went walkabouts and I thought this would be the last time I saw it. I frantically asked around the st johns tent and no-one new where it was. I tried to call the phone soon after the end of the race but it went to a dead tone. Gut feeling was it was gone for good.

About 5 hours later I had a sudden thought, I wanted to see how good a running app would be over such a long distance and in the crowd so on the start I fired up Endemondo and didn’t stop it. In theory then I should be able to log onto Endemondo website and track the phone to wherever it got too before it was switched off.  I have uploaded two images – the left it the run route for the day upto the passing out and the right is a massively zoomed in picture of the road the point I ended up.

In the middle of the right image is the St Johns tent I ended up in. From the left picture ou can probably make up a fairly straight route into that – that’s me running. Then it turns into a spiders nest, what could that be? All of a sudden it clicked, someone from St Johns obviously had it in their pocket and each line was then heading to pick someone up and bring them back to the tent! Jackpot, I had a lead!

As we were away the following week the investigations continued through Laura’s parents but a week later my hopes where somewhat dashed. St Johns had nothing and neither did the London Marathon Group. My initial thought that someone had maliciously pocketed it was coming true. I was preparing a shame blog about it all, with the only consideration being how harsh I could be!

On the back of an event which saw Laura’s suitcase not making it to Gatwick and then all of a sudden in a van outside our flat without warning I said to Laura to double check there were no messages on her phone voicemail (about the case). When she checked her VM there was one un-listened to message. It was a nurse from St Johns, she had the phone. She must have got Laura’s number off it before the battery died. I rang her and she was really happy to hear from me and put the phone straight in the post.

So that is that, the phone survived the marathon although sadly did not make it to the finish line so gets no VLM medal.

Great phone.

It may come across a bit hypocritical of me to talk about hydration during races as this is one of the areas I am investigating following the Marathon. However, when I’m not running I do try my best to keep my fluid intake as high as possible. I have a few neat gadgets to help (surprise surprise) and also throw some electrolytes into the mix…

Hydracool

This is one of the most impressive bottles EVER. It has a cog in it that rotates every time you draw water from the bottle and measures how much you have taken in. It has a 24 hour timer and you can programme it to say how much liquid you want to consume and it will display percentage info etc. Pretty damn cool and geektastic

Vapur

I got these a few months back and have come in use especially when I have done a run following a commute. I fill up one of these bottles, clip on the side of my bag and by the time I have got to my destination it should be empty and weigh nothing so no hindrance in my bag during my run. They can also be chucked in the dishwasher and freezer the first is a bonus as keeping bottles smell free is a challenge in itself and the later I’m very much looking forward to in the summer as the weather warms and I’m out running in the sun! They come in various sizes and colours and whilst I’m no rambler/climber (insert any other sort of out door sport here) I can imagine a whole magnitude of uses for these handy water pouches.

Nuun (Electrolytes)

I try whenever possible to take at least one of these a day regardless of training regime. They are zero calories and add good salts to the body. I’m not going to preach about knowing the full benefits of electrolytes but for one it forces me on a daily basis to have at least 500ml of fluid as sometimes I need the prompting to not just drink tea! I do believe they have a help with muscle recovery, crucial when endurance training!

On that note it’s probably time for me to take on some H2O

N

Until the last few weeks I have been fairly cautious about airing in public that I would be once again be doing this race. However, after a solid 4 months of incredible training, nailing every session long run and build up race I decided I would once again tempt fate and head to Blackheath for the third time in as many years. 

My target was 330-340. My halves in the run up had seen me hit 1:32 in the middle of big mile weeks so the target wasn’t a pipe dream – in theory it was a realistic goal. I had smashed out 4 20mile+ sessions and to be perfectly honest had actually enjoyed the last 4months of training and breaking new barriers. I was fitter, faster and stronger. 

I wonder whether my tone is obvious already but once again the London Marathon nearly beat me but let’s get to that in a bit…

After a very enjoyable expo, bumping into Tom & Martin of Marathon Talk, Adam Phillips a fellow runner who I met at the 2010 Motivation Station in Nottingham and Noel Thatcher Paralympic Gold Medalist as well as others who I have crossed paths with in the past I was ready to roll. I even collected my number right next to Sophie Raworth although I couldn’t for the life of me remember her name so didn’t introduce myself, it transpires we would have a similar story to tell of the event.

I arrived with ample time and loitered around the green start. I bumped into Ed Coats before the start – I was pretty excited by this. I have utmost respect for what him Cracknell and Fogle did crossing the South Pole and I have followed his future adventures in Running Fitness magazine. Amazing – it was photo time  

After this it was time to chill and get into ‘the zone’. I had a loaned phone from Vodafone, again playing with the Motorola Defy. I really like this phone and was chuffed to have it with me today – although would it see me round the course?!

At 9:45 the claxon sounded and once again I was crossing the start line. It felt warm, warmer than I have run in for a while. That said I was running in my comfort zone and at pace. It was tough – but this is a marathon right, it’s meant to be tough! At the mid point I was still going fine. Checking off mile by mile – I would have a few more miles to get through before I started counting down from 100!

14 check, 15, 16,17,18 the eventful mile from last year check, 19, 20, 21 saw Adam P on side of road cheering, 21.3 collapse and 21.5 I somehow wake up in a St Johns tent.

First thought on waking up ‘bugger (possibly harsher language went through my head) not again, not this time’. I knew what to do I had to call Laura and tell her where I was as i knew from last year St Johns wouldn’t- trusty defy still working! I rung but they wanted me off the phonel, partially fair as I was close to throwing up and probably not looking too great. The next min I was vomiting so they got me on the floor. This was the last time I saw this phone, I’m hoping someone from St Johns has it as the evidence I have against them is pretty damning (as my running app was still running) but it’s early days and that’s another blog post (maybe!). As I was on the floor laid out I started cramping up – I knew this would happen. Bugger. 

How long I was in St Johns for I don’t know, I will dissect my Garmin when I have time but my reckoning is 40-50 mins, with analysis probably nearer the later. As I sat on the chair throwing up I had to decide what to do. I had 5 miles still to complete, but my legs were recked having sat in a chair and on the floor – 8min miles were not going to happen but could I run walk. I did the maths how long would it take if I tried to go again? 1 hour or so?

This time quitting was not an option for me, I would make it to the end (or at least try). I found out that the next St Johns tent was about a mile away so if worst came to worst I had somewhere I could end up! I had called Laura who had lined the pavement at 22.5miles and she tried to get down to me but it was too busy, I would head to a landmark and meet her. My legs were getting worse, badly cramping. It was time to move. 

At the 13/22miles balloons I met Laura. She said she’d walk with me but the pavements are not somewhere you can walk and it didn’t take long to realise that unfortunately wasn’t going to be possible. I was on my own. I had a stop and chat to my friends and family as I went round – I even got fed a jelly baby by little Tomas who had come to see me. It was an opportunity to thank them for coming out to support me and they deserved it!

Shortly after I bumped into Iwan Thomas, I have been in touch with him via twitter and through previous expos as well as Laura knowing him from her It Pays to Watch days. I think it would be fair to say at this point it may have been a competition for who looked worse. He’d blown at 14miles but was going to make it. I hoped I could stick with him but the state of my legs said otherwise. 

My pace was slow I would call it a run walk as I ran for as long as I could before my cramps started then walked at short a distance possible before they went. It was slow progress though. I took on water when I could and felt in pretty good shape. Had it not been the pain in my legs (my body felt fine) i would have tried to run it. I learnt a lesson with this – keep pain killers to hand! 

Anyway to cut 5 long and slow miles short I made it to the Mall and this time collected my medal. I crossed the line in 4:40 although that time doesn’t really mean too much to me. That said without the ‘power nap’ as it has been ironically called and doing a 21.5mile run/5mile walk I would have come in about the 4 hour marker…

Thanks to getting my place through Virgin I had entry to a party organised at Planet Hollywood. This was a great opportunity to unwind, Iwan was there and we chatted some more as well as having an opportunity to be meters from Richard Branson, an idol of mine. A very rewarding finish to a difficult day!

As I sit and reflect, my legs are totally recked, to an extent I have never felt before. I went out to conquer and win and once again I had another bad day in the office. That won’t stop me. I have been quite protective about who has helped me over the last few months but at this moment I would like to thank Liz Yelling for being a great mentor. Her schedule has seen me get fitter, faster and stronger and without a shadow of a doubt I would have hit the 3:30-3:40 target if my body had let me. The question that now needs to be answered is why this happens to me. Why when everyone else can dig in and ‘zip up the man-suit’ does my body shutdown and stop me. I’m sure over the coming months I will get to grips with this through Liz and the running community at large!

Thanks again for all who have supported me upto this Marathon especially Laura who is no doubt sick of roasted veg and chicken tomato pasta! I don’t think I could have worked, eaten and got the miles in without her support. Another personalised shout out to Chris D at the Sports Clinic for massages and an ear to bash when necessary. 

Much love, remember run hard, run fast, run strong – or something like that! See you at the next race

N

Ps I have lots more photos to upload but trying to do it on an iPhone is too time consuming!

On Sunday I will be running the London Marathon and once again I will be raising money on behalf of Havens Hospices. I’m aware that a number of you have donated to my campaign in the past and so far I have raised in excess of £2000 for the hospice so am looking at new followers and those who have seen how much I have given in training and support to this fantastic charity. On Wednesday night I even got my apron dirty and made some cakes to bake for the office and raised over £60!

Donate Here

Please check out Havens Hospices website and look out and cheer for all those in a yellow bib!

N