As I sit on a tube looking at the glum faces around me all heading for work I only have to shut my eyes and I’m back running in America…This is quite a long post and unfortunately I suspect the bit most of you have come for is nearer the bottom, sorry!

Las Vegas

Two weeks ago we flew out to Vegas for a mini adventure stuffed full of cool things, as this isn’t a holiday blog I will try stick to running related stories the first of which occurred less than 24 hours into the trip. Inevitably jet lagged I woke at about 5am (1pm British Summer Time), after a while I gave up trying to get back to sleep, put my trainers on and headed for the Las Vegas strip. Given the fact Vegas is a desert even at 6am it was respectably warm. What was amazing to see was how many people were out, although many looked like they were still out from the night before…! It was a lovely run, and my first opportunity to see ‘Disneyland for Adults’ as I now like to think of it, the biggest problem is knowing what to look at! Whilst in Vegas I got out a couple of times trying to push up my tolerance to heat, and whilst here I realised how long it takes for an American traffic light to change, (Sean from.Audiofuel if your reading its over a minute…I know this as I was using Adrenaline Junkie and I missed a whole sprint session because of it!) Cars definitely rule in the states.

The Road Trip

In after what seemed like only a day in Vegas (it was actually 4) we packed the car ready for the drive to San Francisco. We had planned our route to stay off the Interstates and instead it would see us heading out of Nevada and into California over the mountains, first stop Death Valley.

We arrived in Furnace Creek in the early afternoon and it was indeed HOT. The thermometer in the resort read 115°F and we were about to go somewhere even hotter, Badwater. As a runner I know of Badwater, every year there is a 135 mile ultra marathon starting here in July (the hottest time of the year). It wasn’t until I stood stood looking out over the Salt Flats in blistering heat did I realise how hard this event would be. This event is off of my radar for a good few years!!! I did take the opportunity to go for a run in Furnace Creek, I took heed of the advice to get out early and I’m glad i did as it got hotter and hotter. The last 10mins of the run back to the Ranch saw the sun come over the mountains I’m very glad I did! A very enjoyable run in desolate land. In stark contrast to vegas, here I was very much in a world of solitude, amazing.

Angels Camp - 'Famous' for its jumping frog contest each year

I took the next day off, it seems being sat in a car for hours is tiring! This day off did mean I missed out on running in the snow (yes that’s right, in about 4 hours of driving we went from 115°F to sub zero, odd!) Next stopover was Angels Camp on Route 49 and an early morning jog to get my legs ticking over. Felt tough, heavy legs but all understandable given the last few days driving. Again the area was very quiet, it is very obviously a gold mining city which is clearly struggling to stay open… It was a cool run, but as I found in Death Valley pretty hilly. It made me worry a bit for the half mara the next day!

The San Francisco Half Marathon

At about 3.30am the alarm went off to get myself ready for the 5.30am start. With the standard ritual well versed now I was ready to run. That said I did have some other bits to sort out (more to follow). After an eventful taxi ride I was toeing the start in wave amongst other sub 2 hours and I presume sub 4 marathon’ers. This was the first combined mara and half I had done and I liked the combined setup. At 5:43, still dark- we were off and I started to try feel my legs. I hadn’t researched the run much but knew there we’re some hills to come but unsure when.

Off I trotted en route towards the golden gate, the most iconic part of the route and as we only arrived in SF the day before, somewhere I had yet to see. As I neared the two large red pillars loomed in the distanced hidden somewhat by the morning fog, normal for this time of year. However, before the bridge came the first hill and it was challenging, although the chatter around me suggested that this was not the worst “save energy for after the bridge I kept hearing”.

The run over the bridge was great, although at the time I think I was cursing the gradients as from a distance it looked pretty flat! After about 9 miles of which 4 were on the Golden Gate I exited nervously anticipating what was about to follow (on two fronts).
Oh my god the hills were immense. I was given a stark reminder of the Dartford Half course from 2010. However, this time the roads seemed to keep climbing with no signs of stooping. I hadn’t intended this to be a PB race as I wanted to see the sights, but the harshness of the course completely quashed that idea!

With just under a mile to go my mind and focus shifted to my other plan. The one I suspect most of you have come here to read. Looped through my earphone cord I had placed the ring. The ring I had hidden whilst on the road for the last week. I had removed batteries from an emergency phone charger and stored it there, the theory was it would be the last thing Laura would open. Going through customs I hid it in some clean socks in my hand luggage. I also packed a neck lanyard in my gel belt to wear with the ring near the end. At 12 miles, whilst still running I carefully removed the ring from the earphones and attached it to the lanyard.

At 13m I saw Laura at the side of the road and went over to her. She looked thoroughly perplexed and confused ‘why are you stopping, are you ok?’ She mumbled. I was and as she stood there looking for a reason to why i had stopped 100m from the finish line went down on one knee. I wish I could tell you a romantic and cheesy line but if I’m totally honest my mind went blank but I’m sure all the right words came out as I handed over the ring. I think I can safely say it came as a total surprise to Laura, perhaps she may have dreamed for more romance than stood at the side of the road at 7.30am being proposed to by a sweaty man (especially given some of the beautiful places we had just traveled through!), but for me this seemed totally fitting. I doubt for one second I’d still be running had it not been for her and her constant support. I wanted to have a lasting memory plus they do a marathon on the same day, so I have a definite excuse to come back one day – I figure it could have been worse I could have done it at Badwater

So there we have it she said yes, then told me to get on with the run and I promptly stood up as I could feel my legs cramping a bit, I headed to the finish just meters from where I was. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur, I had booked dinner on a boat in the bay that evening but proposing at 8am leaves a long day ahead with a very happy Laura

That pretty much sums up my running in America. If your still reading I figure you were here for the juicy bit because people tend not to get this far down normally! Please leave a comment below so I know you have passed by

Till next time
N

So this period of time with no blogs doesn’t correspond to a lack of training just a period of laziness with posting! Since I last updated I have done a number of long runs all off which technically warranted some individual recognition but alas they will all be lumped into one long post.

Three weeks ago Justin and Ash came down to stay and we planned for a long one. The temperature was climbing and at 9am we left the flat planning on a 15miler. The route was set, taking the tourist upto and around the Olympic Park in Stratford then heading back, from my reckoning about 15m. As I have already alluded to it was pretty toasty out and after 8m miles there was not a cloud in the sky. This felt a good test for me, I’m keen to push my body in the heat especially when running with company! The run went pretty smoothly especially as the miles creep up!

The following Saturday I was out again with company, this time with Sam. Sam is training for an October marathon and we planned an 11 miler into central London, once again it was hot (although not as hot as the previous week). I found this run tougher than I would have liked, I think it’s off the back of a tough training week where my body gets back to 4/5 days of running. That said the run was completed with an afternoon to spend in good company enjoying the sun and a picnic in Regents Park.

Finally last weekend we headed to Silverstone to watch the F1. I still had to run so shuffled my schedule and fit in a run on the Friday. Leaving the campsite I had no plan and was hoping to wing a 15ish mile route…unlike the previous two runs this time it was wet, very wet. A few passing torrential downpours drenched my kit but I found the temperature much more forgiving. My Garmin conked out of battery so threw on endomondo just to help guesstimate how far I had gone. I had charged my Garmin but for some reason whilst traveling it had gone into a spasm and discharged itself, helpful! As I said, I had no route planned so I just went for it. I found myself about 3 miles from our tent with a major A-road to cross OR a run back the 8m I had just covered. I was regretting the poor preparation somewhat! Against my desires I decided to run along the grassy verge on the side of the road, this was far from a pavement requiring me to duck under speed signs and avoid speed cameras! Fortunately I made it back to camp, drenched but content following a reasonable run, awesome.

Interspersed between the long runs I have made it down to my local running track a few times. Having not been on a track since school the experience felt weird to begin with, by the 5th lap I was experiencing a totally different feeling I quite enjoy the 45min sessions and the different drills each week create a nice variation.

I did intend on getting this post up last week but failed! I have done another long run since…on Saturday I did a WET 18miles. I found this tough, even with gels at about 13/14 miles. My energy levels were too low which i put down to poor eating the night before and an insufficient breakfast. You’d have thought by now id be sorted with regards to pre-run diet but clearly not!! Still I made it to the end somehow and it was now time for some R&R!

That’s 58 miles of long runs in one post and not even really touching on the midweek sessions! Getting busy again over here…!

It seems that sweatshop have competition on their hands in the name of SimplySweat. This is by no means a bad thing, as a money saver by day I always like to scout around for the cheapest way to get my kit but am normally drawn back by the lure of the Sale and 20% vouchers…

SimplySweat enter the market offering respectable prices and a reasonably large range. However, the product list is still far narrower than Sweatshop. Every time I seem to look back it is growing and growing and following communication the things I found lacking from their stock were being sourced and possibly added in due course. What was missing? For me the sparse range of compression wear was an issue and something I first went looking for when I logged on. Following that I then headed over to look for the Adidas kit, I tend to prefer Adidas over other makes as the clothes fit, look nice and seem well made. Again, other than accessories, this was another gap on the SimplySweat portfolio. This may make it sound like they had nothing, however that was far from the case, trusty pair of X-socks added to my basket. I wear exclusively x-socks to run in, they just work for me, and whilst they aren’t cheap I’m happy to pay to avoid blisters! Another scout about and I had added some Gore shorts to the basket, it’s summer now and shorts are always very useful! One last thing caught my eyes the quick lock laces, I’ve seen these before but finally I bought them! Review to follow shortly…

All added to the basket in a reasonable fashion without any problems and the checkout process was simple. The only thing I disliked, and this criticism goes for most e-tailers is P&P. I think with Amazon charging nothing it’s easy to forget that another charge will crop up…The order came ultra quick, next day in fact, can’t grumble about that! Perhaps because it’s still in its infancy it was so quick but let’s hope that speed continues…!

Browsing around the active wear at Simply Sweat website it appears they also have an outlet for hiking, swimming and others. This separation of sites is an interesting and possibly detrimental feature, I wonder whether there should be an ability to buy from different sites and pay P&P once…? If the sites had been joined I may well have picked up some stuff from the Swimming site, but given that my code was just for the running kit I was unable to do that.

Will be watching the net and running mags to see whether this site takes off with the customer service I received it should do…

NB FYI for any of you that are users of Body Glide – when I checked this was cheaper than at Sweatshop, will definitely be picking up a tube of this when it comes back in stock!

Short and sweet as at girlfriends sisters wedding as an usher. Today as a token gesture I ran 2 miles downhill. End of story.

Till next time!

N