Still buzzing

The reason I haven't posted on the blog since the race is that I've been struggling with what to say.
I don't know why, it's simple really -

The whole day was brilliant. I loved it, and I still feel lifted by it now, days afterwards.

A combination of things made it very special. These included

• The excitement building on the Tube and the train taking the runners to the race start at Greenwich. People were chatting animatedly! On the Tube! Unheard-of.
• The crowds of spectators along the route. Their support gave me a huge lift. The best two banners I saw read. "I'm proud of you, Random Stranger", and "Running faster = wine sooner!"
• Running through the heart of London, the best city in the world
• The cheers from friends and family around the route
• Gritting my teeth through the last 5 miles, and maintaining my pace
• Coming in under 4 hours

Crossing the finishing line, I felt 2 things. First, a distinct physical wobble as my body adjusted to not-running after non-stop-running for nearly 4 hours. I nearly fell over! Second, I felt a huge wave of emotion from all the support I'd had, from the crowd of course, but more importantly from everyone who sponsored me so generously and offered me such encouragement over the last few weeks.

So, thank you everyone for your support. I'm truly grateful.

(And Lucy T, special thanks to you for the support and huge encouragement you've provided. You have been just brilliant!)

Job done

3 hrs 52 minutes. I'm happy with that. More later, now for a beer.

Ready to go!

Good luck, mate!

No rhinos yet, but...

And it's not raining.

Toward the start

On ma way

This tube train is full of marathon runners with their red kit bags. People are talking to each other on the Tube (unheard of), in fact the carriage is buzzing.

Excitement is building now.

Final training run

My nieces Iz and Harriet are in Chiang Mai at the moment, but took the time to post up this photo of support. Thanks guys!

I get quite emotional thinking about all the support I've had. I'm not sure how I'll be able to thank everyone. It's helped hugely toward keeping me going.

This morning I did a gentle jog for a mile around Highbury Fields, just to keep the blood moving and limber up the limbs.

No more training runs. WOO HOO!

The Final Countdown

Just 5 days to go. How do I feel about the race now?

I'm actually really looking forward to it.  The excitement is starting to build. I know that the last 6-7 miles are going to be HARD ... but the buzz from this huge event - from moving in a river of runners through the heart of this great city - should help carry me for much of the way round.  And when the grind sets in, I'm hoping encouragement from the crowd will help keep me going through the last few miles to the finish line.

Lucy T from Boost has been brilliantly supportive all the way through this. One thing she's done, which will really help on the day, was to send me a Boost running shirt with my name in big letters on the front, so that spectators can shout out encouragement to me personally. It's the first time I've run with my name on my shirt - and it should really help.

The weather forecast is for a low pressure front to come across the country at the weekend, ending the spell of sunny weather we've been having. Fine by me. Call me selfish but the last thing you want to run 26 miles in is heat. I remember spectating the London Marathon one year during a spring heatwave: at the 20 mile mark, none of the runners was enjoying the race and plenty looked to be overheating and in trouble.

So, sorry guys, the cool weather will do just fine. Throw some drizzle in too if you like.
(No wind though please!)

15 miles to Broxbourne

This morning Nick, Lee and I ran north along the Lee Navigation to Broxbourne.

Nick and Lee started their run at Limehouse Basin, but with just a fortnight until the Marathon I'm starting to taper my long running,  so I ran from home and joined them further north by Springfield Park.

It was a fine sunny spring day. With a breeze at our backs we just took it easy and enjoyed the sun and the run.

I've run 399 training miles to date.

Support from Swaziland!

That's a beautiful banner

Thanks for the support, guys!

Yesterday, out of the blue, Lucy from Boost emailed me this photo. The orphaned children who made this very fine banner are supported by All Out Africa, a not for profit organisation in Swaziland. My charity Boost gives funding to All Out which they then distribute to a few well run projects, where the sports include football, swimming, riding and ‘days of sport’.

Running a marathon can sometimes seem a bit of a pointless exercise - but not this time.

Lea valley 20 miler

Today I ran my last longer run before the Marathon.

The route took me via Stamford Hill and the Lea Valley Navigation towpath, up to the North Circular Road then south again along the Lea down to Limehouse Cut.

It was a proper spring day.

This was the tamest heron I've ever seen. Someone must have been feeding it goldfish.

Spring flowers - but still plenty of wood put by for the woodburner

I could live in a lock-keeper's house. Maybe not in London though

Cake and scotch egg extravaganza

At work today we had a cake and scotch egg sale to raise money for Boost, the excellent charity I'm running for.

Victoria had given up her time to cook 70 of her renowned scotch eggs, just a day before going on holiday. These were always going to sell well - in fact word somehow got out and she'd had people queuing with advance orders.

Priya baked a very fine vanilla layer cake with strawberries and cream, and some truly beautiful cupcakes with piped icing and little glacèd fruit slices on top. They'd have graced the window display of a pâtisserie. She even made chocolate brownies, too.

I wasn't about to lower the tone by attempting to bake something myself so I contacted Miranda, an ex-colleague who used to bring in delicious cakes baked by her mum. I ordered 2 cakes - but her mum baked FIVE for me. These included superb carrot, walnut and chocolate cakes.

Thanks to the willingness of these three people to give up their time so selflessly and to their fantastic culinary creativity and skill, we made £375 today. We should even push past £400 tomorrow when the last few slices of cake are sold (there was SO much food).

I'd never dreamed we'd make so much. Thanks so much, guys! Thanks too to Ollie and Miranda for helping make it all come together.

UPDATE: Total raised from the cake 'n' egg sale was £403. Impressive!

4 weeks to go

Whoever was cutting that fringe must have looked away at a critical moment...

Sorry about the slowdown in my blog posting over recent weeks. Despite a few distractions I have kept up the training runs - in a fashion, anyway. I won't be running the race in record time but - fingers crossed - I ought to get round.

Miles run since Marathon sign-up: 335
Days to go: only 28!

Gosport Judo Club

WA-HEY !! 

Thanks for the support, guys!

Thames Riverside 20 Miler

.

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law Jilly got in touch to suggest running this 20-miler. Jilly's signed up for the Brighton Marathon at the start of April and wanted experience of running a longer distance under race conditions.

The route looked good: it follows the south bank of the river Thames from Putney to Richmond and back. Flat, too! So I said yes.

I told Nick about the run, and he in turn encouraged his friends Matt and Lee to join us too.

So, yesterday morning we got up at an ungodly hour to get to Bishops Park by Putney Bridge in time for the start of the race at 08:00.

It was a fine day, staying cool in the early spring sunshine, and with a light breeze forecast to follow us on the return leg. Perfect conditions, in other words.

I maintained a pace of 8:30 minute miles until mile 15 when things started going a bit wobbly. It was not a surprise. I've usually been running at a faster pace but the training has been a little off the boil recently, and 15 miles was the longest I'd run before yesterday.

The final 2 miles were very hard work. Still, they were soon over, and I finished in 2 hours 56 mins. 

A great day. Good effort everyone.

Support from Llandudno FC Under 10's

Seriously, this is real. 

Lucy, from Boost (the charity I'm running for, which provided support for the team earlier in the year) thought I needed a morale lift and so organised this.

Well - it's worked! 

A bit of a wobble

My motivation took a bit of a downturn this week.

I won't bore you with my musings on the psychology of motivation except to say that, for me, staying motivated to train long-term depends (too much?) on keeping to a structured training programme. This week I lost a couple of run slots because it was too busy at work to get out at lunchtime, and the frustration from this combined with the effects of a couple of short nights and made me start to think "what's the point?"

Feeble, I know.

Anyway I'm feeling more upbeat today after a couple of good nights sleep and after a 9 mile run yesterday. I'm pretty confident my wobble was only temporary. And I'm running the Bath Half Marathon next weekend: that should buck me up...

Here are some photos of Hackney street art I passed on my circuit yesterday.

Admiring the Olympic Stadium

Picasso lives on

Good result England

Though possibly a bit weak in defence. Good heart though.

Rehydration with lager is the way to go, I find.

200 miles

Or 206 miles, to be precise, after today's run. It took me in a loop from Bramfield via Walpole, Cookley, and Wenhaston then back to Bramfield.

Quite often barn owls can be seen swooping like white ghosts over the valley bottom near Cookley, but not today.

St Andrew's, Bramfield

Milestones

I passed the halfway point in my training this week: it's 76 days since my first slow, short wheezing run back in November, and there's just 72 days left until the marathon. Ooer.

I'm a great deal fitter than I was when I hauled myself off the couch back in November, but there's still got a lot to do - especially if I am to run the race in a half-decent time.

It's 40 days since my last cigarette (or nicotine in any form). My breathing is much easier now when running.

If I can drag myself away from watching the 6 Nations tomorrow, I'll pass the 200 mile mark in training this week, too. I'll let you know.

Following the water

 I've signed up to do the Bath Half Marathon on 1 March, then the Thames Riverside 20 Miler the weekend after, so I thought it best to push up the mileage this weekend.

It was a bit of a moral struggle getting myself out of the front door today, but once I'd finally succeeded, the fresh air and clear blue day soon woke me up and I began to enjoy the run. I took my canal route down to the river but then I turned left along the Limehouse Cut - a canal that joins Regents Canal to the Lea Navigation. At the Lea I turned north, running past the Olympic Park and Stadium, past Hackney Marshes then west again and home via Clissold Park.

15.27 miles in 2hrs 12mins. Tired but happy.

Change?

Off the wagon

I'm not sure what's on his head either

Today started so well.  Nick and I ran the parks at lunchtime: 5.8 miles in 48 minutes.

But then after work I met a friend at a bar and ended up having a couple of beers and a whisky.

Oh well. No cigarettes were smoked and I've given my liver a break for 22 days - for which I'm sure it's grateful.

The Hair Shirt

It's been a calendar month - 31 days - since my last cigarette, and I haven't even thought about smoking for a couple of weeks at least. So, no problem there.

The abstinence from alcohol has been trickier - which surprised me. There's a can of beer at the back of the fridge which has been winking at me, suggestively, in the evenings after a long day at work, but I've resisted it for 20 days now so I may as well carry on for a few more. 

My first half marathon

This afternoon I ran 13 miles through the parks to Kensington Palace then back via Southwark Bridge. I felt pretty strong most of the way.

I'm feeling it now, though!

A beheading at Whitehall

On 30 January 1649, 365 years ago today, a man stepped from a first floor window of a building on Whitehall and onto a scaffold that was draped in black cloth for his execution. It was a bitterly cold winter's day, so cold that the Thames had frozen over. He had put on two shirts under his doublet so as to keep warm enough to stop him from shivering: King Charles I did not want the assembled crowd to think he was afraid to die.

The king told the crowd: " I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be." He then knelt and placed his neck on a block, prayed for a moment, then extended his hands to indicate he was ready - and the axe came down.

Banqueting House today

My regular running route via the central parks takes me across Whitehall: at its corner with Horseguards Avenue stands the very building from which King Charles stepped to his death. Today, it's again shrouded in scaffolding, this time for renovation work.

It's the Banqueting House: the only surviving remnant of the royal Palace of Whitehall - the main residence of English monarchs in London from 1530 until 1698, when the palace was destroyed by fire.

Banqueting House c1810

The Banqueting House was built in 1622 for Charles I's father, King James I. After Charles came to the throne in 1624, he commissioned Reubens to paint huge panels for its ceiling, where they remain today. These six massive paintings are a glorification of monarchy, their themes representing Charles' belief that kings have a god-given right to rule and are answerable only to God. It was his uncompromising adherence to this belief in the Divine Right of Kings that more than anything else led to his own destruction.

The interior of the Banqueting House

During Charles' lifetime Whitehall Palace sprawled over a large area. It was more a royal town than a palace, extending from Northumberland Avenue in the north to Downing Street in the South.

Palace of Whitehall in 1680

Today, a statue of Charles I stands below Nelson's Column at the top of Whitehall, looking down toward the Banqueting house and the site of his execution.

The story of the statue is a good one. It was cast in 1633 for King Charles' Treasurer, Charles Weston, who wanted a statue of his king for his garden in Roehampton. After the Parliamentary army defeated Charles' forces in the Civil War the statue was sold to a Holborn metalsmith called John Rivet, along with instructions from Parliament to destroy it. Rivet disobeyed the instructions and hid the statue on his premises - it's said he buried it. He produced some broken pieces of brass as evidence that he had followed his instructions, and for some time he sold brass-handled cutlery to both Royalists and Parliamentarians which he claimed was made from the remains of the statue.

John Rivet was clearly an enterprising man.

After the Restoration of the monarchy, the truth about the statue came out; Charles II eventually bought it, and in 1675 had it sited where it still stands at the head of Whitehall.

So Charles I's statue would have been there 23 years later in 1698, looking on as Whitehall Palace burned down, leaving only the site of his execution untouched.

Fitness roundup *** Dull post alert ***

Miles run since training started	139
Days since training started	59d
Days left until the Marathon	89d
Nicotine free	23d
Booze free	12d

My fitness is picking up now. I've got much more energy, particularly on my runs. I feel lighter, quicker, better toned. 

I'm just starting to work on my speed with some shorter, interval sprint runs. Ugh - painful. I'd much rather just plod along, but speed work will make the difference for my time on the day.

I haven't thought much about smoking over the last couple of weeks. There have been no urges to go out and buy cigarettes. No doubt the break from alcohol is helping, but I do occasionally feel like I'm a hermit living in a cave in the desert. 

It's all to the good though, and the benefits are really coming through now.

I googled for pictures of hermits but instead found this great photo of a hermit crab. Enjoy.

The New River

The towers of Docklands from Muswell Hill

This morning's run took me on a 9.7 mile loop via 4 north London parks: Clissold Park, Finsbury Park, Alexandra Park and Queen's Wood at Highgate. 

The last two thirds of the route is the most pleasurable as it is mainly downhill (!) and off-road as well.

On Parkland Walk towards Finsbury Park

But the first third of the route has interest too, because it broadly follows the line of the New River. The name "New River" is misleading as it's neither new nor a river. It's an aqueduct that was constructed over four hundred years ago, between 1609 and 1613, to bring fresh water into north London. 

London’s population was at that time growing quickly, and the existing water supply for the city was inadequate and increasingly polluted. Most of it was pumped up from the Thames.

Construction of the New River was the biggest engineering feat of its time. It involved designing and digging a channel from the River Lea at Ware in Hertfordshire to Islington, ending next to where Sadler’s Wells is now. That’s 20 miles as the crow flies, but the “river” is actually 40 miles long after the idiosyncrasies of the landscape were allowed for, as the design relied on gravity to bring the water in, and so the channel had to skirt any rising ground. The channel drops 5 inches per mile, which proved to be enough. Over 400 workmen were employed.

From the final reservoir at New River Head in Islington, the water was carried - again by gravity - via elm-wood pipes down into the City. Water connections into individual houses (belonging to the better-off - the poor had to collect their water from wells and pumps) were then made via lead pipes from these wooden distribution mains.

London from Islington Hill c1740. New River Head is centre left

Water continued to be distributed in London using wooden pipes for around two hundred years, until they began to be replaced after 1810 with caste iron pipes, to reduce leakage and contamination and to increase pipe capacity. In the final decades of the 20th century metal mains have in turn begun to be replaced with plastic pipes - again to reduce leakage.

Today, the New River continues to supply a good proportion of London’s water, though the water no longer travels as far as Sadler’s Wells: instead it feeds reservoirs just north of Clissold Park, from where it enters the London Ring Main system.

Some good things about running

It gives space, for you to work through a problem, or just to reflect

It takes you away from your computer and TV,
out into the world

It can take you to beautiful or interesting places

You ALWAYS feel better after a run, however reluctant you may have felt beforehand

I know all that - so why am I on my third coffee, and putting off my run?

6 mile lunchtime run

I'm very happy running alone.

Apart from anything else, until you gain some fitness it's quite hard work holding conversation while running. And once are fitter - as I'm now starting to be - part of my enjoyment comes just from letting the mind roam, or from looking at the world and people passing by, or just from listening to music.

But today Nisha came with me for a run around the parks, and it was good to have her company.

It was another lovely cold winter's day - giving us perfect running conditions. It was an enjoyable run, and it's encouraging that I can now do this kind of distance without feeling tired.

A day out on Creag Meagaidh

UPDATE: I've added a video of Nick on the summit of Meggy, below

When I started this blog I promised to update my Fundraising Page, every now and then, with a new Embarassing Photo from my past. Well, I've posted up a new one.
Here's the story of how I came by the frosty eyebrows and the Thousand Yard Stare.

It starts in a curry restaurant in Fort William, a town on the West coast of Scotland, on the evening of 1st March 2010. My friend Nick and I were halfway through a winter climbing trip. Earlier that day, in glorious sunshine, we'd climbed Buachaille Etive Mòr, a mountain overlooking the vast Rannoch Moor and which stands at the head of Glen Coe. From its top, the crystal clear air gave us views of snow-covered mountains for tens of miles all around.

True blue. Little did we know what the following day had in store

In the restaurant that evening, over an extremely rich curry and a pint or two of lager we hatched a plan to do another climb the next day. Our objective was Creag Meagaidh ("Meggy"), a complex mountain on the northern side of Glen Spean, which takes the form of a flat summit plateau at 3,710ft from which five ridges radiate. Our target was Smith's Gully, a prosaically-named route up the cliffs forming its north-eastern face.

As we left Fort William at 0600 next morning, low cloud cover was signalling a return to normal Scottish weather service after the sunshine of the previous few days. The forecast had been reasonably good though, so we had no inkling of what lay in store for us.

Dreich

It's quite a long walk up to the base of the mountain, of just over 2 hours. We soon found out that rich curry doesn't provide good fuel for an uphill slog carrying heavy packs: we were sluggish for the first hour and a half up the path. But slowly we got in our stride as the huge Meggy crags loomed up out of the mist and cloud.

As we were putting on our harnesses and sort outing our climbing gear in the shelter of some boulders, another climbing team passed us, heading toward  the base of Smith's Gully. We threw our gear on and set off in pursuit, overtaking the pair. They confirmed they'd been intent on the same climb, but after we explained our objective they decided to do another route rather than follow us and so risk being hit by ice dislodged by our axes.

Standing at the base of the climb, it felt more serious and committing than anything we'd done on the trip so far. At grade V(5), Smith's Gully is one of the harder Scottish gully routes and now, the wind, cloud and spindrift snow blowing in our faces added to the intimidating atmosphere in this remote and wild place. 

But once we'd started, we found the climbing continuously varied and interesting, and relatively easy for the grade with a decent snow/ice buildup. The climb continued for 3 long rope pitches: I led the 2nd, eventually belaying with ice screws at the very end of the 60m ropes. The 3rd pitch was supposedly the most difficult section of the climb but because of the good ice conditions it felt pretty straightforward.

As we arrived at the mountain top, very pleased with ourselves, the wind was still building, and buffeting snow into our faces.

meggy from Jim on Vimeo.


We were in thick snow cloud - a complete "whiteout", visibility down to a few metres and worsening. After we'd packed our gear Nick sat down with map and compass to take a bearing. Then we set off to find our way off the mountain, Nick was in the lead and me close behind. I could only just make him out, from just a couple of metres ahead.

Taking a bearing

After fifteen minutes of plodding through the increasing murk and driving snow,  Nick suddenly disappeared with a yelp. He'd fallen through a cornice - a self-supporting shelf of snow formed over a cliff edge by the wind, the edge of which had been completely invisible to us. Luckily he fell only a few metres, landing on an easy snow slope and coming to a halt. It could have been a lot worse. He climbed back up, shaken. After sitting down for a moment to collect himself, we moved back 50 metres from the cliff edge, before turning again to follow our original compass bearing.

A couple of hours later we were back in the car, heading back to Fort William and the pub.

Lesson 1. Take a more detailed map than a 1:50,000 if there are cliffs about and there's a chance of bad weather 

Lesson 2. Treat forecasts in Scotland with a pinch of salt 

Lesson 3: Give yourself LOTS of leeway from a cliff-edge in a white-out
Lesson 4: A rich curry does not make for good climbing fuel...

To Limehouse Basin

 This afternoon I ran 11 miles: to the Thames at Limehouse and back.

It was a beautiful day, but cold. Smoke was coming out of the chimneys of many of the canal boats.

Since I last ran the route, someone has painted JE SUIS CHARLIE in large white letters across the bridge over the canal at Mare Street.

My calf strain is healed, which makes me very happy.