Photo of the day - 3: My own private cross country running league!

It's that time of year when up and down the country cross country leagues are beginning. With my first claim club, Serpentine Running Club, I do the Metropolitan League in North and West London. Nearer to home I take part in the Surrey League with my second claim club, South London Harriers. I have also run in the East Yorkshire League with East Hull Harriers too. In short, I do like cross country running! Unfortunately, Covid-19 restrictions have meant that racing was restricted, and although England Athletics have now given the go-ahead for socially distant events, the leagues don't find this workable so there aren't any cross country leagues taking place anywhere near me. But hey, no worries. I'll just do my own So today was my first round of the my own cross country league. And what better way to do it than on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Lloyd Park, Croydon! Actually, by the time I started it the rain had subsided and it was actually quite sunny. The mud didn't disappoint though. I will aim to do 10 cross country races around London, Surrey, and maybe further afield between now and mid-February. I am actually quite looking forward to it.

One day one photo - 15: One day two running races

Saturday was a busy day for me. I left my house by bike and rode over to Wimbledon Park where I raced in the Surrey Road Relay Championships. Then I rode across London to Sparrows Den fields near West Wickham, and raced in the Will Bolton Cross Country Relays. Both races were roughly 4.5km and undulating, both were with my second-claim club, South London Harriers. One was on-road, one was off-road. Then I had a quick drink with my team-mates and rode home.

I slept well! As you can see from the photo, which is of our team at the Will Bolton Relays, I am not fully dressed to race. I had just arrived from Wimbledon at the time. There was only one other person as crazy as me to do the double - that was Ruth Hutton, pictured next to me. She had the good sense to drive across though, so was able to preserve her legs and do two very fast runs.

Why did I do two races in one day? I just saw it as a challenge. I have recently ramped up my run training, wanting to take it up a gear, so I thought that doing these two races would be a good challenge and also a way of making me stronger for future challenges, such as the Beachy Head marathon, which I am hoping to do next month.

The other thing is part of the mid-life crisis. I am conscious of the fact that in less than 6 months I will be 50 years old. I can hardly believe I have come this far! Things do get harder physically as you get older - you are more prone to lifestyle problems such as high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. You also need time to recover from physical efforts. About 10 or 15 years ago doing two races in a day would have been no big deal for me. But with age I had grown to feel this was possible any more. About a year ago, if I did a fast time at the 5km Park run on a Saturday I would need the whole day to recover! I was having to realise that I am no longer the athlete that I used to be. 

So with the sustained run training I have been doing this year I wanted to see if it really was still possible to do two fast 5km running races in a day with bike riding in between. And in fact, I seem to have passed the test. The time I did for the Wimbledon race was faster than what I did last year as well. So it is reassuring to think that maybe my fitness levels may not have declined as much as I thought. But I probably will sleep a lot longer, and I guess my legs will need a deeper and longer massage! 

So how is my Paris Marathon training going?

Last autumn I signed up for a couple of challenges that I hope to take on this year. One of them was the Etape du Tour, and the other one was the Paris Marathon.

As the marathon is taking place in April I have been focusing mainly on running. And it has definitely been a focus!

Preparing for the Paris marathon has been a quite an undertaking, not least getting in the regular training and staying injury free.
It won't be my first attempt at running 26.2 miles (42.2km), but the previous times when I ran a marathon I was a sprightly young lady in her early to mid thirties as opposed to now, roughly fifteen years later, with joints that get that bit stiffer and creaky. Plus I need more time to recover after exercise, and am just an tad slower than I used to be.

Although I have done a lot of running in my time, in recent times my running training has just been limited to 3- or 4-mile outings, the odd Park run, and then once a year a longer event like a half-marathon or 10-mile race that I would plod round.

Running 26 miles just seems such a long way, and a long time to be on my feet. What am I going to do for four or even five hours while I pound the pavements? I might get bored! For the first time I may have to break a life-long habit of not wearing headphones just so I can get through the challenge. Yes, challenge is exactly what it will be! It's quite handy that the setting for the challenge is in a lovely place like Paris, which should make the task a less arduous ordeal!

I also rely on the fact that the two London marathons that I did were such a long time ago that if the running experience was not good that trauma has now been erased from my mind! I vaguely recall crying as the finish gantry on The Mall came into sight, but that might have just been relief that I had managed to get through it in one piece! I also recall the volunteer who gave me my medal avidly congratulating me as though I had won, when I had probably finished in around 13,000th place!

So here I am, just over one month away from the big day in Paris. Training has been going okay. I have not followed a set training plan from on-line or a magazine, preferring to start my training early - back in October - and running on feel. The aim was just to get up to running 13 miles by Christmas, and then to run 20 miles by early March at the latest.

I have achieved that, but it wasn't easy and it wasn't pretty - especially the 20 miles I ran along the River Thames a couple of days ago without properly carboloading! While doing my training I have been doing cross-country league races with my clubs in London - Serpentine RC and South London Harriers - so that has made it complicated to juggle.

A short fast run over mud, wearing spikes is just as taxing as a long slow run on smooth ground. So doing these back to back on the weekend just means my legs are shot during the week! As the long runs have gotten longer, the Saturday cross-country league races have had to be run slower just so that I could have a bit left in the tank for my Sunday run!

Since getting past the 12-mile mark things have become more sketchy for me in terms of risk of injury. Throughout my adult life I have suffered from either patella syndrome, ilio-tibial band syndrome, Achilles tendinitis or calf strains.

So as the training runs have lengthened, this has steadily become a greater and greater exercise in injury prevention and damage limitation! I am spending a lot of time (and money) at Crystal Palace Physio Group to get in regular massages and keep my muscles loose. The foam roller, a tennis ball and a golf ball have become my best friends. Yoga has also been the order of the day, though I have tended to do that at home because when attempting it in a class I felt so self-conscious at how rigid my body is compared with all those supple women of a certain age!

Then I have reintroduced the post-run sitting in freezing water routine to my regime. That moment when I hit the water is massively unpleasant, takes my breath away, makes me squeal, I worry I might get hyperthermic afterwards, but it is character building (apparently) and healing!

There have been good parts in this marathon preparation though. It has made me vary my runs that bit more and go to new places. Instead of just running the usual parks in South Norwood and Crystal Palace, I have also added in Dulwich Wood, Dulwich Park, Cator Park, Beckenham Place Park and Shirley Hills.

San Silvestre 8k in Buenos Aires 

Wherever I have travelled I have kept my trainers nearby to get in a few miles. So I ran to work when I worked in Central London, I did regular runs around the Royal Parks, including Richmond Park. Of course when I recently travelled to Argentina I ran - around Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Mendoza, even doing a running race while there.

I also did a running race in Tortona, near Milan and plan to do some running in Paris when I recce the route. I even did a run en route to join my second claim club, East Hull Harriers, up in East Yorkshire! It had been tempting to just peel off the motorway to go running around some National Trust land in a place called Sharpenhoe, near Luton!

My biggest issue now is that I will run out of time to go to some of the other interesting places I had hoped to run in. I haven't yet done the South Downs or the Box Hill area yet, and I was also hoping to do a bit more stuff north of the river like Hampstead Heath or Hackney Marshes. There's nothing like a marathon to get you out discovering new places!

The other great thing has been in this era of social media (which didn't exist when I last ran a marathon) it has been great to connect with other people. There's a Facebook group for Londoners who are running the Paris marathon, a group for all women who are running the Paris marathon, as well as equivalent groups on Strava. These are great ways to stay motivated while training, get tips and advice if you have doubts, and even make new friends.

Catching up with Mariana in Buenos Aires 

When I went to Argentina I managed to meet up with one of the girls from the Facebook group, Mariana who lived in Buenos Aires. It was great to be able to catch up with one of the Paris marathon girls on the other side of the world.

I look forward to seeing her when she is in Paris, and also when she comes for holiday in London.

So how is my marathon training going? Well, it's not too bad. I haven't had any injury or illness, apart from a cold a couple of weeks ago. There have definitely been moments where I thought this is all a silly idea and I won't get through it - particularly on those days where I felt really tired just doing a 3-mile run! But in the end I just had to really hang in there and believe in my strategy.

I have put in a few miles, so I am almost good to go. I just need to not break my leg during a ski trip that I've got planned, or pull a muscle during that final 20-mile training run! The coach trip to Paris (without Brendan!) is booked, my lodgings are sorted, so I just need to show up at the Champs Elysées on 8th April. But even now I'm not taking anything for granted!

Some might ask, why do a marathon? It's so time-consuming, there's a risk of injury, it can be painful physically and mentally. It's hard to fit around everyday life, it can be expensive when you add in the cost of equipment, travel, accommodation, entry fees and medical bills to prevent or treat injury. After all, I have done a marathon before, so it's not like I have anything to prove.

I guess the answer is that I do have something to prove. These challenges can't be taken for granted. Also my pet hate is living off my achievements from many years ago. I feel much happier celebrating something I achieved last week than trying to milk off something I did more than 10 years ago!

So as long as I am getting older the bar will naturally be getting higher, and so there will always be something to prove! Perhaps it is part of the mid-life crisis phenomenon but hey, I say if it's keeping me off the sofa, I'm happy!



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Running race face

One day one photo - 24: Southern Road Relays

Years ago, when I took part in running races I was doing events where I would just run individually. The only relay race I recall doing were some cross country ones at a place called Horsenden Hill in Perivale, north-west London. They were traditionally the season opener.

Apart from those, the only other relays I did were sprint relays, i.e. 4 x 100 when I was at school, and then a few triathlon relays.

But it seems that relay races have become quite common now, and I find them fun. I have done the cross country one at Reigate Priory, and a road one in Wimbledon Park. There are relay races also at Nonsuch Park in Sutton, and at Beckenham, plus the Sparrows Den in West Wickham. My favourite ones though, are at Crystal Palace Park - and it's not just because it's round the corner from my home! Earlier in the summer I did the Dino Dash Relays, which is one where they raise money to restore the dinosaurs and the subway in Crystal Palace Park. That usually takes place at mid-summer, so it makes for a pleasant bright evening spent with a lot of local runners, and they keep the cafe open too.

Then today's race was the Southern Road Relays, held at Crystal Palace. That one involved running clubs from all over the south of England. At times like this I feel quite lucky to be able to just rock up at a race which is barely a 10-minute bike ride away, while others would have had to travel all morning to get here. Apparently this event is normally held at Aldershot, but it had to be relocated to Crystal Palace. Aldershot's loss is my gain, as I probably would not have travelled to Aldershot to do it! It was a lovely sunny day, and we ended up having quite a few people spectating and cheering us on - probably just by default of the fact that lots of people walk in the park at the weekends!

Anyway, it was a fun race, though I have no idea where my team finished as I was in the B-team. Our A team got a top 10 placing, which is good for the club spirit.

Note that my club for this event was Serpentine. That is my first claim club, so the default is to run for them, though I race for South London Harriers, my second claim club for the local cross country league races, and other local races where Serpentine don't have representation. It's nice to have that variety, though I do sometimes have a job trying to remember which running vest I should take to which event! Hopefully, I won't make the error of turning up at a Harriers event in my Serpie vest!

One day one photo - 2: Running race face!

Running the last leg at the relays

Not my best side, but does anyone have a best side when trying to be competitive in the closing stages of a running race?! I was part of a team of women representing South London Harriers at the Surrey Road Relays, held in Wimbledon Park. It was a nice area, and a part of Wimbledon I had not been to before. There is even a running track, which I hadn't previously known existed. It's not just all tennis in Wimbledon! You learn something new every day!

Our club fielded a lot of relay teams across various age group categories, and many of the teams won silverware in some shape or form. It was beginning to feel a bit like the SLH show at one point when the presenter kept on announcing the name of someone from our club as a winner of something or other! My team bucked the trend by not winning anything! But, despite coming home empty-handed we still had a good day!

For my part, I ran one of my fastest races over 4.5km. The time I ran it was exactly the same as what I had done in a 5km a couple of days earlier with my work colleagues at the Inter-Agency 5k run in Regents Park. That was a flat course where this Wimbledon route had a hill in it. So I clearly had a pep in my pace. 

I can only guess that running with other speedy runners such as those at SLH makes you raise your game that bit more - hence the race face! I hope I can keep on raising my game and maybe get somewhere near sniffing at a trophy (at least before I get all old and injury sets in)!