Newcastle Racecourse Marathon 2013

     I realized today that I never wrote a race report for the Newcastle Racecourse! Although, considering the experience I had, it is not particularly surprising that I would try to forget it.

     The race was held December 8^th on the High Gosforth Park Racecourse. The competitors, all 100 or so of us, ran around the service road that is normally reserved for ambulances and grounds keepers. To get in the appropriate mileage, we started part way around the track with different start lines for the half, full, and 50K so that everyone would finish up at the same place. It was almost 16 laps for the full marathon, 19 for the 50K runners.

    You really get to know the terrain when you go around so many times. I tend to stop looking around and focus only on what is on or next to the track; the hay bale that is ½ way around, the billboard that is ¾ of the way around, the crest of the hill, the beginning and end of the section into the wind. It all becomes very redundant. It was not an ugly course, there were trees and hills, but it was foggy with occasional rain and incessant wind. I would get a bit too warm running with the wind, and then freeze running into it so I was shucking or donning my jacket every 10 minutes or less.  There were also golfers in the center of the track.  I don’t know how anyone could play in that wind, but these folks North England folks are tough and a little bad weather does not keep them from their weekend golf game! On many occasions I would hear that sickening thwak that sounds like impending doom, but to the best of my knowledge, none of the runners were hit with golf balls.

     The 50K runners really impressed me. All of them finished their 19 laps before I finished my 16, whizzing past me in happy chatty groups. My head and my heart were simply not in this race and it showed in my slogging steps and downcast eyes. I ran it just to run it, an intermediary step between Dublin and Anglesey in January (which I did not end up running at all.) I think 26 miles on the treadmill would have been easier mentally and certain logistically and financially.

     Another nasty surprise came when I realized the drink I had been chugging each lap had artificial sweeteners in it. They make me very sick and normally I can taste them in the first sip, but everything tastes odd to me in England so I did not think much of the flavor. It never occurred to me that anyone would give low sugar drinks to runners, but after asking about it on the Marathon Maniacs’ page, it seems this is becoming more common so I will have to keep a sharp eye out for it. It really crippled me for the race. My stomach was killing me and my mood turned even darker and angrier. The food dye Red-40, and artificial sweeteners have the same effect on me. They do something to my nervous system that makes me want to jump out of my skin and rip peoples’ faces off. It is a horrible feeling and one that is very hard to overcome in order to finish a marathon. A very hard day turned into a completely miserable one.

      I really only needed to run 20 miles to get in the time I needed on my feet so I could easily have walked away after 12 or 13 laps, but I was so mad at how poorly I was doing that I was determined to stick it out and get my lousy medal. When I finally finished there were only 4 or 5 people left on the track, all full marathoners duking it out with the wind. I really appreciated the volunteers that stayed at the finish line/lap station, making off runners as they came through and manning the drink table. The emergency workers on bicycles had long since retreated to the hut where it was warm and out of the wind, which really made me angry because I saw a runner nearly collapse. She had bent down to retie her shoe and set off a vasovagal response. Fortunately, she was not running alone. I stopped to make sure she was okay and then went ahead to alert the volunteers while her partner took care of her.

     When I finally finished, I hung around for a few minutes to watch the girl that had been struggling to come in and cheer her on. While chatting with the volunteers, the race director told me I was the only woman in my age group to finish the race so, Tah-Dah! I had a little first place plaque to go with my medal. It always seems kind of silly to get an award with such a painfully slow finish time (5:16:17), but considering the conditions and that fact that others in my group had registered, but not shown up to run, means I’m just a little tougher than they are so I will take the win.

     

I believe I am done running races just to run a race. If there is no reason to look forward to the course or the race in general, it is just miserable. I ended up not running the Coastal Trail Series race in Holyhead (on Anglesey Is.) because I just could not face another freezing cold race in high winds. Jacksonville was awesome and Malta will be awesome in February. In the meantime, I’ll run outside when it suits me and run on the treadmill to get the bulk of my mileage in. Thank goodness for a home treadmill with an incline!

Jacksonville Bank Marathon 2014

        It has been a while since I had a really great race, but Jacksonville was one of them! Since I had been on the road for a week, living in a hotel and eating in restaurants, I did not have high hopes for a great finish, but I knew it would be fun with lots of fellow Marathon Maniacs and it was my 20th lifetime race of marathon or longer distance.

Pouring rain, but beautiful
Photo credit:  Jurgen Englerth

      A few days before the race, my husband checked the weather forecast and told me, in a very grave tone, that it would be in the upper 60’s (F) and raining. Clearly he is not a runner because that is an awesome forecast for a marathon!  Near the beginning of the race it was a bit warm, but I never felt over heated or cold, just excited, it was awesome! Several times we got a full on Florida downpour, but once you are soaked with sweat, rain water, or both, it hardly makes a difference to get soaked again when you are warm. I did have a bit more chafing than usual in some pretty unpredictable places, but nothing that was a problem during the race. The one down side being the weight added to our shoes from running through ankle deep water.

                Jacksonville is a truly beautiful city and the race course did not disappoint. We ran through gorgeous residential areas of multi-million dollar homes, lined with ancient trees that were hanging with Spanish moss. Often, I am so focused in races that I hardly look at where I am, but this time I enjoyed the views immensely.  Although there were quite a few turns, it was a pancake flat course and is a Boston Qualifier so a good one for folks with an eye on qualifying.

Photo credit:  Jurgen Englerth

                Of course, one of the best parts of the race for me was the Marathon Maniacs!  Being able to look ahead and see 3 MM singlets at once was such fun! When you see that shirt, you know you will find a good attitude, a smile, and all the encouragement you need. 

Jurgen himself! It was awesome to meet him in person finally,
but better to beat him to the finish line :-D

                Once again, I used my Galloway style run/walk with a 4 minute run and 1 minute walk. I spotted a couple of official Galloway pace groups, but when they run they run too fast for me so I stuck to my own pace and intervals and it worked really well.  Jacksonville was my 4^th fastest marathon to date and my second fastest for the year (my all-time personal record having been set in March.) I have tried dropping to a 3/1 interval, which is closer to the interval recommend by Jeff Galloway, but it just slows me down and does not help me recover any faster.

                 My last couple of marathons have been plagued with a weird soreness on the top of my ankle, but I seem to have resolved it as there was no tenderness there at all this time. Matter of fact, I was only a little sore from the race and the soreness was spread evenly over my body, including my core muscles. That is my next focus area, abs and back! I have been terrible with my training the last few months, particularly my core training, so it is time to get my plank time back up and start hitting the stability ball more often.

Loads of MM's and HF's on the course
Photo credit:  Jurgen Englerth

                The main reason this race went particularly well was my mental state. I was happy to be there, happy with all the people around me, rested, and excited to be running.  Normally, miles 13-20 are brutal and it is all I can do to keep myself moving, but this time I hit mile 15 and realized that I still felt great physically and I was still in a really positive place mentally. That is highly unusual for me!  The second half went so well I almost managed my first negative split for the halves (missed it by 8 seconds, LOL.)

Ahhhh, warm rain!

                It was a ton of fun and I’m primed and excited for my next marathon in Malta. I was supposed to run a January marathon in England, but life got in the way and I am taking a pass. As much as I hate to miss a scheduled race, it will allow me the time to build my paces back up for Malta and maybe hit a new PR. More important is my need to focus for Two Oceans in April. I have a lot of running to do!

               

Jacksonville loves it's runners!
Photo credit:  Jurgen Englerth

                

Dublin Marathon

Dublin Marathon

Sight seeing before the marathon and learning to draw our own Guinness

             We had a good couple of days before the race seeing the sights, but the weather was awful so I have almost no pictures. It rained, the wind blew, and it was COLD! I was seriously worried about this race. There was a storm brewing that had the news channels all warning everyone to batten down the hatches, they were saying it would be the worst storm since 1987. I had not packed particularly warm running gear and thought perhaps I would have to drop out with hypothermia. I bought a pack of disposable rain ponchos and headed for the start line. 

Fearing rain, I was prepared with a poncho,
if I could get it open!

Reluctantly shucking my coat
and revealing my goofy outfit 

                Despite the dire warnings, the morning dawned brisk, but beautiful with the promise of a great race. My husband stayed with me at the start until the last minute so I could keep a coat on as long as possible and then waved me off to join the throng of the third and final wave. I was a little sad that I had missed the group picture for the Marathon Maniacs, but I spotted Anders in his red shirt, standing up on an island, surrounded by a sea of people. Even though he had a bib for the first wave, he had waited to look for other Maniacs (have I mentioned what awesome people Marathon Maniacs are?) Anders had run Frankfurt the day before so he was ready to take it easy and hang with the slow pokes at the back. Dublin was his 112^th marathon and also rounded out 12 marathons in 12 countries in 12 weeks. (At the writing of this blog, he just finished the New York Marathon so that all bumps to 13!)

                ALL of the following photos were taken by Anders  Forselius. He is an awesome Marathon Maniac and writer for Runner’s World Sweden! He was such fun to run with and totally kept me going with his boundless energy, (despite his having run the Frankfurt Marathon the day before!)

Anders has fun with the spectators and helpers

                A short time later, we heard a shout and found Danielle “T-Rex” Hastings catching us up. Wow, another legend in the Maniac community! This was shaping up to be an amazing day! Not for my running though, I seemed to be struggling from the get go. Thanks to two days of speed walking though rain and wind to get from one tourist attraction to the next, my legs were far from fresh and I was totally exhausted. Anders and Danielle, on the other hand, were fresh and daisies and chatted along like they were out for a walk in the park, LOL. It was so awesome to just be able to listen to them. They stuck with my through my Galloway style run/walk with 3 minutes of running to 1 minute of walking even though they could have gone much faster.

      I also met Lichu Sloan. She has run over 150 marathons all over the world, including the amazing feat of 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 weeks (I’m seeing a trend here, LOL)!  I can’t wait to see her again in Florida when we run the Jacksonville Marathon!

                There were so many Maniacs on the course it was fantastic, I met another when I was looking for my start coral, and ran a bit with James Daly who was having a blast taking in the sights. I really do love finding Maniacs at races, they are always so friendly and upbeat!

                At about 18.5 miles I really started to struggle. Since the wicked bouts of bronchitis in Korea, my lungs have not been the same. I was hoping moving the clean air of Yorkshire would help, but it looks like the problem will be with me longer term. I have had great results with taking Singular, but of course, in the race morning excitement I forgot to take it. I do carry a dose of Sudafed to deal with allergies en route so I took that, along with a good dose of salt and pushed forward. It made a huge difference and by mile 20 I was ready to get it done!

                Anders and I caught up to the 5:00 pace group and then started moving ahead, still maintaining that 3/1 run walk. When I stopped to take my salt and Sudafed we fell behind the 5 hour pace group so Danielle decided to go on ahead. Her boyfriend was expecting her to finish in 5 hours and she did not want to miss him. It was so awesome of her to stick with me for so long! She is such an amazing young woman, very accomplished in her work life, not to mention running 43 marathons in her young 27 years!  Danielle’s is a great writer and blogs here, (finding her boyfriend did not end up going so well): T-Rex Goes International

Spectator support was great!

I think Anders ate his weight in candy during the race, LOL

Danielle was having a bit of knee trouble
so I showed her my favorite mid race stretch

There were some impressive costumes!

LOL

                Crossing the finish line I gave Anders a huge hug for all his help and motivation and we ambled though the gauntlet collecting our medal, shirt, and goody bag. I had not spotted my family yet, but the crowds were thick and it was getting colder by the minute so I went straight for my check bag where I had smartly stowed sweats that I could throw on over everything. Eventually, my husband and daughter found me and we headed back to the hotel for a hot shower and a cold Guinness, YUM!  Guinness is totally different in Ireland; it is fresh and has no preservatives so it is smooth as silk with a light sweetness and no bitterness.

                Even though the running did not go as well as I hoped, the weather was better and the company was extraordinary! I had such a good time making new friends and seeing Dublin in the way that only marathoners do.

'Sláinte!'

(pronounced 'slawn-cha', meaning Health! ‘Cheers’)

RA report: Despite the cold, exhaustion, being on my feet for two days, and living on tourist junk food, my RA was tolerable. I definitely felt the fatigue that came with eating too much junk and I was stiff and sore before I got to the start line, but I did not have any acute joint flare ups and even the knee that has been bugging me stayed quiet. I did use KT Tape on the knee, and even tried taping my hip, but I managed to pull it mostly off the first time I dropped my tights to go to the bathroom, LOL. It is time to stop slacking and get more serious with my training! I've been lazy with the move and not gotten back on track like I should, but I have a month before the next race and it will be an easy one so my focus is on doing a good job at Jacksonville! 

Onward and upward! Next race is Newcastle Race Course with the North East Marathon Club and then on to the Jacksonville Bank Marathon in Florida.

Robin Hood Marathon, Nottingham

The Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham

     This run sounded like so much fun! Unfortunately it ended up being pretty run of the mill. The scenery was so-so. We had some nice park mileage, but mostly it was industrial. I thought they would play up the Sherwood Forest theme and that there would be more people dressed as Merry Men, but it was not so. They sold costumes inexpensively, but they were fleece and it was a warm day. Anyone in a fleece tunic and hat would have been pretty miserable in it.

                The weather was pretty good. Mild temps, but with a stiff breeze at times. A lot of people were cramping, probably because you do not realize how much you are sweating when the wind blows it all away. I went through way more water than usual and was very glad I had carried a few doses of Salt Stiks. I gave away one dose about half way through to a kid that was already cramping. It was his first marathon and he was clueless. I hope it got him to the end, but I’ll never know since I do not remember his number.

                One interesting feature of this race was the way they handed out water, in Iconiq water bags. At first I thought this was kind of cool. Less waste, easy to hang onto when the water stops were 3 miles apart, and fast to hand out which kept the water stops from being such a bad choke point. With the wind, I ended up going through 15-20 ounces of water every 3 miles so my small hand bottle was no

t enough by itself. With the baggies of water, I was able to grab two at a water station and wait until the next scheduled walk break to empty one into my hand bottle, and drink the other on the run.

                There were some serious down sides though. Near the beginning, when the course was still packed with half marathon runners that had taken off with us, someone stepped on a full water bag and it exploded, spraying me from head to foot in water! I was very glad it was not something with sugar in it and I dried out pretty quickly, but it still sucked to be sprayed down like that. Next, they are not easy to get the water out of. You have to squeeze hard and make sure the little tab/spout stands up right. Once you get the water flowing, it squirts out with such force that more than once I managed to shoot it straight down my throat and into my lungs! At one point I did such a nifty job of it that I had to stop until I could catch my breath while every muscle around my ribs cramped up from the coughing spasms. My ribs were still sore the day after. I supposed they take less plastic and so should be more eco-friendly than bottles, but the way they were blowing about and lying in the gutters, I could not help but think about how much harder they would be to pick up and how easily they would wash down the storm drains. It was an interesting innovation, but one I hope not to see in a race again.

                Near the end we ran around a lake that was man made, so not very interesting, but it had more swans than I have ever seen at once. A pair came in for a landing very near me and that was pretty cool. They sound like helicopters and skied for a good 30 feet before settling down on the water.

                The race ended pretty uneventfully, I was ahead of the 4:45 pacer, but he finished late. The last out and back of about half a mile (it stinks to see the finish line and then have to run the other way for another 5 minutes,) allowed me to wave at and give thumbs up to a few people I had talked to during the race. I gathered my medal and goodies and headed for the massage therapy tent I had been eyeing at the start. All they wanted were donation so I emptied what I had in my SPI belt (which was less than $10) and got a wonderful workout of my calves, hamstrings, and glutes. It was awesome! I thanked them profusely, especially for being willing to work on sweaty, stinky runners. I cannot imagine how they kept from gagging, LOL. Marathon finishers do not smell good under the best of conditions!

    Considering how pathetic my mileage has been, I was very happy to finish under 5 hours (which qualified me for Two Oceans,) and without any major pain or issues. All and all, I am glad I ran it.

Future races that I am already registered for:

Dublin Marathon Oct 28th

Newcastle Race Course Dec 8^th

Jacksonville Bank Marathon Dec 29^th

Coastal Trail Series, Anglesey Jan 18^th

Malta Marathon Feb 23^rd

Manchester Marathon March 6th

Coastal Trail Series Sussex March 22^nd

Two Oceans Ultra 56K April 19^th

Windmere Marathon May 18^th

Wales Marathon July 13^th

Yorkshire Tough Mudder 2013

 Yorkshire Tough Mudder 2013

The wall we climbed to GET to the start!

My game face

My "OMG, what am I doing?!" face

Clean and smiling :-) I kept smiling, but definitely did not stay clean long

    The Yorkshire Tough Mudder was a blast! I won’t do a blow by blow of each obstacle, since you can easily Google images and descriptions for each one, but I will say that, despite the difficulty of some of them, the hardest part was the mental aspects of talking myself into continuing on when I was cold, wet, exhausted, and spent.

Ice being added to the water for Arctic Enema,
the second obstacle of the morning

My "OMG that was cold!" face

  I know it sounds crazy to voluntarily put yourself though something like this, but it is one of the many ways to test your metal in a non-threatening, and fun atmosphere! Knowing you can quit at any time and be picked up and driven to the finish (minus the t-shirt and head band,) give you a safety net that can be good and bad. Good because if you truly can’t go on, you have an exit, but bad because you have any easy way to quit.

    Even though I was a lone runner, I had plenty of help when I needed it and everyone was wonderful. That being said, I don’t know that I will do it again alone. Listening to the banter of the teams made me feel a bit lonely at times, wishing I had a team of my own, but it is tough to get involved when you register from half a world away! I was invited to join a couple of teams, but they had very different start times. So nice of them to invite me though :-)

Another lone runner that I teamed up with for the "Buddy Carry"
Yes, I carried this guy piggy-back for a good 25 yards!

  As for doing a Tough Mudder with RA, I won’t lie to you, it was not easy. Cold makes my joints ache and I spent a lot of time in icy water. Plus, I was covered in bruises by then end. Bruised elbows from pulling myself along on them through pipes, bruised knees and thighs from climbing over walls, and other assorted bruises that I can’t even guess the origin. I don’t know how it could all have been worth it, but it absolutely was. I supposed proving to myself that RA does not stop me from joining in on the fun stuff is the big draw. I like scaring myself with new challenges and some of the obstacles were definitely scary!  I have not jumped off a high dive in years and I have certainly never pulled myself along a horizontal fence with just inches between it and muddy water!  I only really failed at one obstacle, the monkey bars. I was just too cold, numb, and tired to grip the bars and hold myself up, so I fell off the second rung and swam across. Hey, at least I tried! I also only made it to about the second block on the one where there are floating squares, strung across water on a rope. It did not occur to me to climb back up and try again, probably because I was so shocked when I went straight in the water and never touched the bottom, with a huge rush of mud up my sinuses.

  How this company makes being totally miserable so much fun is beyond me, but they have definitely found a gold mine! While I’m at it, I should point out that my husband, who is specializes in logistics in the Air Force, said it was incredibly well organized and operated, and he is a tough guy to impress!

 

Getting zapped

Finished at last!

"You are the first woman across the finish line"
"Seriously???"

Northumberland Coast Marathon, UK

Northumberland Coast Marathon

      The minute we found out we were moving to England, I started looking for marathons. In my search, I managed to stumble across the Northumberland Coast Marathon, which was a small club race put on by The Northeast Marathon Club. The race was billed as the most scenic in England and was capped at 100 runners. I signed up immediately since the fee was small and I was afraid it would fill up. It was a smart move since it definitely filled up quickly.

     This was my first trail marathon and since my mileage had been paltry at best during the move from South Korea to England I didn't have high hopes, but I figured I could finish inside the 6 hour cut off.

     I won’t type much about the race, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

The start and finish area

3 - 2 - 1 GO!
All 72 of us :-)

It was a muddy start

Down the first of many beaches

Dunstan Castle 

The ridges in the sand were deep and brutal, I turned my ankle on every step

     I don't have any finish line photos since my husband was in the pub enjoying a pint (phone reception was terrible so he missed my 1 mile out text.) It was a fabulous race though, and it truly was one of the most beautiful races I have ever run. I’m so glad I didn't blow it off when my training had shriveled so badly. Despite the terrain and poor preparation, I managed a 5:15 finish so I had maintained at least a little of my conditioning.

  Also in the area is the Alnwick Castle where several movies have been filmed, including the scenes where Harry Potter learns to ride his broom. We decided to have a go at it ourselves.

Pick up your broom...

  It was a wonderful introduction to England and running through the English country side. I can't wait for my next trail marathon, Anglesey at Holyhead in January! In the mean time, I have several road races planned and next up is my Tough Mudder race report!