Hunsrück Marathon, Simmern

The Hunsrück Marathon was easily reached from Hahn Airport, and on the Saturday the centre of Simmern was given over to the junior races, registration, the pre-race pasta party and various other events. I got there in the late afternoon and collected my race pack containing t-shirt, drinks, energy bar, bottle opener and various other bits and pieces, as well as my timing chip, and we walked the half mile or so to our hotel on the edge of the town. On Sunday morning I had a quick breakfast at the hotel and walked down to the sports hall for the bus transfer to Emmelshausen.

The marathon course consisted of about 5K on roads around Emmelshausen, followed by the Schinderhannes cyclepath along the route of an old railway line, and a short road section to the finishing line in Simmern town centre. The route profile showed an overall drop of 140m, albeit with gentle gradients, and a climb of 50m between 4 and 5K. The sun had been out all morning and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so even when the race started at 9am it was already quite warm, although not particularly humid.

A small group of runners set off at a brisk pace, so I tagged along on the downhill stretch right after the start. I was in about 7th place when I reached the 1K marker in 3:46. My plan was to run 4 minutes per kilometre for as long as I could manage, so I eased off slightly and dropped a few places over the next few kilometres. On reaching 4K I was in 10th place, but I used the hill over the next kilometre to get back into 7th place by the time we got to the start of the cyclepath. One of the runners I had passed on the hill had tried to keep up, so we ran more or less together for the next couple of kilometres before he gradually fell away. The hill had been steep enough to cost me a bit of time, but the kilometre markers were so accurately placed that I worked out my average pace at 4:07 and could see I maintained it exactly for quite a while. Somewhere around 12K it started getting difficult, and I began to think I hadn't recovered sufficiently from the previous weekend's marathon, or even from Thursday's training session, but it did eventually occur to me that I must be going slightly uphill as the undulating countryside made it hard to judge the gradient. The cyclepath was mostly lined with trees so the sun wasn't a problem.

Every few kilometres there was a water station manned by the sports club or volunteer fire brigade from the closest village. I let the first couple go by but had a quick drink of water at the next. The helpers were holding out pink cups of water, but there were supposed to be sports drinks available, and I had noticed some more small bottles on a table. One boy was holding a pink cup as well as a small bottle, so I took the bottle as I passed, but it turned out to be plain water. Some laughter behind me suggested those drinks were probably for the helpers. At this point, I could still see the 6th-placed runner in the distance.

By the halfway mark (which also had a separate sign) I had dropped to a 4:09/K average, which took me through in 1:27, a couple of minutes down on my previous marathon. I became concerned about running a poorer race on a superior course, and even possibly blowing up altogether and having to walk. The mental arithmetic for calculating my pace was also becoming more difficult. After what appeared to be a slightly downhill stretch I reached the town of Kastellaun, with nobody visible behind me and the 6th-placed runner apparently now a couple of minutes ahead. There was a tremendous reception from the half marathon participants (of whom there were many more than there were marathon participants) who had most likely just arrived on the transfer buses and were watching the marathon going through as they waited to start their own race. Every road crossing, water station and path through the fields also had a few spectators watching and cheering on the runners.

The last gradual climb of any note lasted a few kilometres, and there was another water station at the end, where I stopped to have a couple of drinks, one water and one isotonic, as the temperature had been rising all morning and the route was about to swing round towards the sun. One of the helpers kindly advised me not to drink so much, but dehydration was more of a risk than an upset stomach. The next 12K had a steady descent almost all the way to the finish, a drop of 140m overall, and although it looked very welcoming on the route profile, it began to present problems of its own when my quads began to hurt. My pace began to drop a bit more and one of the runners I had passed on the hill up to the 5K mark came through very strongly to move me down to 8th. I also stopped for a couple of seconds to try to stretch my quads.

With a few kilometres left, and somehow having managed to press on despite aching quads, it became possible to work out quite easily what pace I would need to maintain to finish inside 3 hours. I felt I should still be capable of 5 minutes per kilometre, and as I went past the last few markers, I noticed I was building more of a cushion. I had a quick drink of cola at the last water station, where they apologised for not having any beer, then struggled up the last little hill which passed our hotel's biergarten, and headed off towards the finishing line, which I crossed in 2:58:23. I was the last runner to finish inside three hours, in 8th place out of about 250 finishers. After collecting my bag of clothes we went back to the hotel to drink a recovery beer or two and watch the runners from the marathon and half marathon pass by.

6 miles tempo

The club training session tonight was a 5.7-mile run via Crow Road, Danes Drive and Anniesland Road. I found the pace no problem for the first couple of miles, but we took a wrong turn in following the pack in front, which added a few hundred metres and cost us a couple of minutes while we disputed the route with them from afar. After turning around and heading towards Anniesland Cross I started to fall behind and thought about taking it easy for the last couple of miles, but I caught up at some traffic lights and was able to stay with the leaders until we got back to the Science Park. Finishing time was 39:30.

2.5 miles steady

Went out before breakfast for a short recovery run via Queen Margaret Drive and Napiershall Street. It came out at 2.56 miles, time was 17:49.

800m

I drove to Nethercraigs expecting to take part in both the 5000m and the 800m in the club championships, only to find out the events had kicked off at the unusually early time of 6.35pm and the 5000m had already finished. A few other people had missed the race as well. I was still in time for the 800m, and ran from the front, going through 400m in 64-65 seconds. There were footsteps close behind me all the way round, and they got a bit faster coming out of the final bend, but I held on to win in a season's best of 2:11.

3.2 miles recovery

Went out in the late evening for a few miles from Bearsden Asda around one lap of the old 5-mile club championship course, just to stretch the legs a bit. I felt OK apart from sore quads.

Raduga Marathon, Minsk

By Friday I had got used to the heat and was fairly confident of surviving, although I had tired legs from walking around Minsk all week. I had originally planned not to take part if it was too hot, but too many people had already been told I would be running a marathon, so on Saturday morning I was pleased to see that the sky had clouded over and the temperature had dropped. I had discovered earlier in the week that it was too far to walk from home, so we got a taxi to the registration area where a few tents had sprung up. The organisers seemed quite excited to have a foreign participant, although I escaped the attentions of a small camera crew who were interviewing the oldest competitor, presumably for the local news.

The course consisted of 16 laps of a dirt track around part of the Slepyanka Water System, with a short section of tarmac across a bridge at one end, and a longer uphill section of pavement at the other, with a short, steep climb just before it. The path was strewn with stones and rutted in a few places, although ordinary running shoes were adequate. A couple of minutes before the 10.30am start, the clouds suddenly disappeared, so it would obviously be getting much hotter as the race went on and midday approached.

There were over 70 runners, a fair mix of ages and abilities. A few of them were wearing the national vest and looked like seasoned distance runners. The winning time from the previous year's race was 2:44 so I planned to settle in behind the leaders for a bit and see how it went, with the main goal of setting a PB or at least running inside 3 hours, ideally without winning which would not quite have been the done thing. One of the younger runners wearing the national vest took an early lead, closely followed by a female competitor who was breathing far too heavily within the first kilometre and soon fell away. I stayed a few paces behind the leader for the first three laps, which were run at a comfortable pace of about 10:40 per lap, but he started to slow down on the fourth and I soon found myself at the front. On the seventh lap, somebody else wearing the national vest came through fast to take the lead. I was surprised as I hadn't slowed all that much, so I guessed he must have missed the start by a few minutes. Soon afterwards I was passed by the early leader and another runner in a yellow cap who had been consistently a couple of dozen metres behind up until that point. I went through the halfway point in 1:25 or so which was perfectly fine and discovered the early leader seemed to have finished as he was just standing around at the water table, and although he appeared to run a few more laps later on, this moved me back up to third place.

After about two hours, with the conditions starting to become a problem, the runner in the yellow cap finished. He had been pulling away gradually so I can only guess he had planned to run for exactly that amount of time. This left me in second place with no sign of anyone behind me whom I hadn't already lapped, and the leader disappearing into the distance. By this time I was drinking lots of water or PSP22 every time I got to the water table at the finishing line, and planning what to drink next time around on the following lap to make the race less monotonous. By the 13th lap I was dropping below 8 minutes a mile and the third-placed runner went past me at a pace I was never going to keep up with (although at this point I thought he was still a full lap behind me). Any chance of a sub-3 time was also starting to disappear. Having got to the bell without being lapped by the leader, I managed to pick up slightly on the last lap and finished in 3:06:39, almost 10 minutes outside my PB from the 2001 Amsterdam Marathon, which was also my previous marathon.

My prize for second place in my age group (third overall, as I discovered when the official results appeared a few days later) was three bottles of shampoo and some equipment for drying wet shoes from the race sponsors, as well as a race t-shirt and medal (with a "2" on it). One of the officials played a few tunes on some kind of small wind instrument during the presentation, and we recognised Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and the theme from the Russian version of Sherlock Holmes - perhaps in honour of their sole British participant, although I didn't ask. The official results showed that of 73 runners, only 34 completed the distance.

4.25 miles slow

Went out in the morning with Natasha for a 4.25 mile loop - along Platonova, around the back of the Botanic Gardens, through Park Chelyuskintsev and home in about 36 minutes.

5K slow

Went out in the morning with Natasha for about 5K, down some side streets to Park Gorkova, around the park and back home in slightly under 30 minutes.

11K steady

I needed to do some rapid acclimatisation to the late summer heat in Minsk so went out in the afternoon to have a look at Saturday's marathon course, along a couple of main roads and then a dirt track at the far end of the Botanic Gardens which continued across the Children's Railway and took me to the Slepyanka water system. Stopped a couple of times to work out where I was. It came out at just over 11K, got back home in about 54 minutes.

7.4 miles steady

Went out before breakfast for a few exploratory miles, from the hotel at Hahn Airport past the bus station, through a car park and down to Büchenbeuren-Scheid for a loop of the old USAF barracks, then back to Lautzenhausen, part of the way down the road to Büchenbeuren until I ran out of pavement, and down to the edge of Sohren before heading straight back to the hotel. The airport is a lot more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists than I would have expected. The total distance was about 7.4 miles which I completed in just under 54 minutes although I ran out of steam a bit on the hill back up from Sohren.

Achilles Heel Bella 5K, 4 miles recovery

The Bellahouston 5K took place in good conditions, slightly damp and not windy at all. I tried to maintain a 3:15/K pace from the start and judged it exactly right for the first couple. Some time between 2 and 3K I went into the nosebleed territory of 4th place, and I was still maintaining the same pace at 3K, but I soon started to fade a bit and was passed twice in the last kilometre, finishing 6th in 16:42. This was 7 seconds down on the JogScotland 5K, which may have been slightly on the short side in any case. I was first finisher for a somewhat underrepresented Garscube and claimed two valuable Summer League points.

After getting back home I went out for 4 steady miles around the West End (via Shakespeare Street, Cleveden Drive, Cleveden Road and Napiershall Street) just to stretch the legs a bit, completing the route in a steady 27:34.

2x3 miles steady, 6.4 miles tempo

Ran up to the club training session at a fairly steady pace, just to get a few extra miles in, but it was harder than I expected and I was glad of the ten minutes' worth of waiting around when I got there. A smaller-than-usual fast pack ran the first mile in about 7 minutes and got progressively faster, reaching a 6-minute mile in the second half of the route. I had been sure I would drop off the back at some point and maybe even have to take a shortcut home, but I managed to hang on and finally started to feel reasonably OK after about 4 miles. Finished the 6.43 miles in 41:10, about 6:24 per mile. Ran back home afterwards at a steadier pace, another 3 miles or so.

3.85 miles easy

Went out for a few easy miles in the evening immediately after playing football, 3.85 in just under 30 minutes.

4.8 miles steady, hill reps

Ran the shorter version of the canal route at a comfortable pace to avoid aggravating a thigh strain. Finished in 32:34, 6:50/mile, sore quads as usual but no suggestion of an actual injury. The club training session in the evening was in Kelvingrove Park. We jogged down to the meeting point outside the Kelvin Hall and then back to the park for 10 minutes of strides and another 10 minutes of continuous hills.

10K moderate, 7.5K steady

Went out before breakfast for my preferred 10K route along the canal. It was a bit tougher than usual after I'd overdone it slightly the day before. At the halfway mark it looked unlikely that I would beat 40 minutes, although I was quite content to settle for completing the run. Got back home in 41:08, around 6:37 per mile.

In the evening I ran a loop from Bearsden Asda past the rugby club and round the far side of Milngavie Station. It looked like coming out a bit short so on the way back I made a detour via Roman Road and Bearsden Cross which took it up to almost exactly 7.5K. Time was 32:34, an average of just inside 7-minute miles. In the last few hundred metres my sore quads turned into a bit of a bit of a thigh strain on the right side, which I attempted to work on with some stretching when I got home.

9K slow, 800m, 6 miles recovery

Went out in the morning for my usual 9K route with Natasha. I wouldn't normally run so far a few hours before a race but Saturday had been a day off. In the afternoon I had an 800m at Linwood in the last league match of the season. I got there in plenty of time and felt OK after a short warm-up. I got slightly boxed in after about 100m but managed to escape and set off in pursuit of a small pack which had broken away. I went through 400m in 65 seconds which was 1 second down on my previous attempt at the same venue, but I was still feeling fine and it looked like my run earlier had made no difference at all. On a very windy afternoon it was eerily calm in the back straight, and I regained my lost second to go through 600m in 1:39, but lost it again running into the headwind in the final stage of the race. I was still closing fast on the runner in 3rd place but couldn't quite pick up enough speed to catch him. Time was 2:14.8 and I was 2nd of the Division 3 participants.

After getting back home I went out to rack up some more miles, this time an old 6-mile route up Firhill Road, through Ruchill Park, along Bilsland Drive, then Balmore Road, Skirsa Street, a footpath down to Summerston Station and back down Maryhill Road. This became quite a struggle, even at an easy pace, and it took me slightly over 45 minutes.

10.1K steady

I managed to go out before breakfast again, in much better weather this time, although I could barely move. Decided to stay off the canal (for the most part) in case of flooding and run the 10K route I had originally planned, which is the same as the 9K route as far as Cleveden Road, then to Lock 27 via the canal, down Crow Road to Anniesland Cross, and back along Great Western Road, except I misremembered the last part of the route and came back up Queen Margaret Drive which added an extra 100m. Finished in 43:40 (6:57/mile).

9K moderate, 9.15 miles steady

Went out before breakfast for the first time this week. My only concession to the terrible conditions was that I stayed away from the canal and ran my old 9K route via Dorchester Avenue. I reached Great Western Road in a brisk 19:05 and tried to ease off a bit after that, but finished in a route PB of 36:40 (6:31 per mile).

In the evening there was nobody around for the club training session as they were mostly involved in a trail race at Dawsholm Park. A small pack had gone out a bit earlier so I ran the route I had already had in mind, up Milngavie Road to the West of Scotland Rugby Club, then the undulating countryside course of the Hogmanay Handicap, and back down Milngavie Road. It came out at 9.15 miles which I completed in a fairly steady 1:04:04, about 7:00 per mile.

2.5 miles recovery

After playing football I thought I might shake off some minor strains by running a couple of miles, so I ran a 2.5-mile loop via Queen Margaret Drive.

Dreilauf

The scheduled club training session was a paarlauf, but with teams of three in a continuous relay. I was on the long grass above the cricket pitch for the entire 25-minute session, although the other teams were rotating better so that nobody stayed in the same place the whole time. I didn't mind running on the grass but it was raining so my feet were soaked within a couple of minutes.

3.5 miles recovery

Went on a short recovery run from Bearsden Asda in the evening. Up Milngavie Road, over Mosshead Road and back via Stockiemuir Avenue and Drymen Road. Probably just over 3.5 miles. Right hamstring was a bit tight later on.

Helensburgh Half Marathon

I can't remember exactly when I last ran a half marathon but it was probably around six or seven years ago. I thought I should have run enough miles recently to make a reasonable attempt at this one, which was on the Garscube Summer League calendar. My plan was to stick to a 6:00/mile pace as far as possible, with a goal time of somewhere around 1 hour 20 minutes.

I went past the first mile marker in about 5:45, so I tried to settle back a bit, although I was already running with a pack. All the runners in front were still visible so I could see that I was in about 14th place. It started to rain quite heavily but the pack stayed together over the next few miles, and one or two runners who had started off faster were gradually caught. Coming up for 5 miles, there was the only significant climb on the course, and having fallen back slightly by now, I used the hill to move up a few places and went through 5 miles in exactly 30 minutes, which suggested we had been losing time over the previous mile or so. It was downhill for the next stretch as we headed back towards Helensburgh, and I picked up a bit of speed to get back ahead of schedule. As the course moved onto the old road for a few hundred yards, I broke away from the pack and went clear in 7th place. After the next couple of mile markers I had made up 30 seconds in total on my 6:00 average, despite having to splash through some minor flooding en route. I had been getting gradually closer to the leading Garscube runner and finally moved into 6th place shortly after going through the 10-mile mark in about 59:30. The pace was becoming harder to maintain but at the next couple of mile markers I was still running a consistent race. I had spotted some fast finishers gaining on me at one point when I had dared to look back, and I was passed just after the 12-mile mark by a runner from Dumbarton, but I held onto 7th place and crossed the line in 1:18:04. This works out at a 5:57 average.