Total 101 miles (6:46mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1009 Vs 1090 beats per mile
Weight 146.5lbs Vs 147.6lbs
Body Fat 12.18% (17.85lbs) Vs 12.92% (19.06lbs)
Lean Body Mass 83.37% (122.43lbs) Vs 82.72% (122.07lbs)
Water 62.42% (91.44lbs) Vs 61.5% (90.7%)
I had been hoping to build on the mileage a bit this week but as it turned out I did exactly the same as last week. I felt pretty smoked on Saturday so just did an easy 6 to make sure I could give my Sunday run a decent effort. Mike kindly reminded me that last week I was a bit of an idiot trying to do two hard days with only one easy day between. It could well have been that that was finally catching up with me!
A shorter Vlog this week
As I mentioned on last weeks Vlog I wanted to do the same Marathon Session as I had done on the Treadmill last week, but this time on the road to get a gauge of where my fitness is. I did this on Tuesday so three days after my long run. It went OK with the first 20 minutes coming in at 5:38 per mile. I then probably did the efforts a touch too hard averaging around 5:10 per mile. It was then on to the final 20 minutes at marathon effort but I quickly realised that I could bitten off more than I could chew and I started to slow so cut that short at 15 minutes. Mike often reminds me how important it is to not dig yourself a hole so on reflection I'm actually quite proud of myself for being sensible on (at least) two occasions this week when it may have been easier to take heed of my obsessiveness and grind the sessions out!
This week also saw the re-introduction of some Heat Acclimation runs and I will continue to do a couple of these a week. I was a proper sweaty mess after the first attempt!
Aerobic efficiency has taken a big leap forward to 1009 beats per mile with a few runs coming in at sub 1000 beats per mile. This is a good indicator for me that I am starting to show some signs of fitness. It's all down to consistency and the past few weeks of just getting out there and getting it done goes a long way to bringing this number down.
I have also dropped a bit of weight and over a pound in body fat so need to keep up with that as I am still rather lardy. If I can run well when lardy, I should fly when I'm actually at race weight so maybe there is a benefit to training quite chunky in the short term?!?!
Total 101 miles (6:37mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1090 beats per mile
Weight 147.6lbs
Body Fat 12.92% (19.06lbs)
Lean Body Mass 82.72% (122.07lbs)
Water 61.5% (90.7lbs)
As some will know, I have set up a YouTube Channel and Facebook Page to ease my narcissistic tendencies. If you would rather watch me chat through this week's diary then please feel free to watch the link below, subscribe, like, comment and all that palaver. For those that rather read what I've been up to then please just go to below the video.
My first week of 10 in the build-up to Berlin went pretty well on the whole. I had a couple of sessions and a split progressive long run. It was also nice to be back into three figures, mileage wise.
Monday, I jumped on the treadmill and did 20 minutes, 4X3minuts, 20 minutes and set the 20 minute efforts at 17.3kph and the 3 minute efforts at 18.3kph. It was a tough workout but a classic introducer session to the harder ones to come. I then did a fartlek on Wednesday and was intending to do 15X1minute hard (20kph) on the treadmill but it quickly became clear that my legs had not recovered sufficiently from Monday and Tuesday's mils so instead cut it to eight efforts. This was a sensible thing to do and on reflection I probably should have done this session on the Thursday.
It was then all about the weekend and as the pre-long run/session anxiety set in I realised it was going to be a proper slog! Especially when I woke up to Biblical rain. This one I had told myself I should od on the road though as the treadmill really cant replicate what you get from the road in terms of impact. I decided that I would do it as a split progressive long run on a my flat tempo loop. Having toyed with the idea of doing a hilly 22 miles at a steady rate I figured it would make more sense to do something a bit more specific to the marathon and get some decent chunks in at high aerobic paces. So I did a 10 mile chunk at 6:07mm, three minutes jog and then 5 miles at 5:47mm. The 5:47s felt tough, about marathon effort so I certainly have some work to do over the coming weeks! This sort of session should bring my aerobic fitness on a chunk though so I hope to see some quick returns over the coming days.
My body composition has improved slightly which is good but I do have a long way to go to get into racing shape. The picture on the left shows me at the start of the week and the picture on the right shows me early April when I was in great shape before London. Of course I got ill and then had to reassess my Spring targets. Dave Archer, a chum of mine kindly commented 'so what you're saying is, you've never been thin?' :-) I do believe that I could get a bit leaner than the second photo but want to ensure I don't do it at the expense of getting ill (again) or injured.
M 8 miles (7:00mm)
T 10 miles (6:42mm), 5 miles (8:16mm)
W 10 miles inc. 3X15mins (6:19mm)
T 11 miles (7:03mm), 5 miles (8:27mm)
F 8 miles (7:10mm)
S 17.5 miles (7:14mm)
S 10.5 miles (7:07mm)
Total 85 miles (7:08mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1160 beats per mile
Weight 148.9lbs
Body Fat 13.42% (19.98lbs)
Lean Body Mass 82.23% (122.43lbs)
Water 60.7% (90.38lbs)
Last week I blogged about my plans and dilemmas for this Autumn and having had some great feedback I came up with a plan. The advice generally pointed towards me giving Berlin a fair crack of the whip but I couldn't get Winschoten out of my mind and trying to achieve the standard for the World Championships next year. Mike & I discussed briefly and I felt that I really wanted to give myself the best opportunity to qualify for the World 100k championships. I decided that I would rather try to get the standard now if I can as there aren't too many opportunities to run a fast 100k and Winschoten is definitely the place to try. That said, having had a further week to mull things over I have now changed my mind! So flaky I know! Instead, I will be focusing all my attention on one last big effort to break the 2:20 barrier for the marathon before moving on to longer distances. Berlin is the place to do it. I should still have a couple of opportunities in the Spring to run a fast 100k.
The training that I do over the next few weeks will therefore be building back the miles, and trying to regain some of that marathon fitness I have had in the not too distant past. Hopefully the stars will align this time to allow my dreams to come true. I feel I could have gone under 2:20 at Berlin in 2015 had it not been for getting a stitch and last year at Toronto, I was definitely in shape to run 2:20 had it not been for the conditions on the day and possibly being slightly affected by jetlag.
So my first week back and on the whole it went pretty well. I managed 85 miles and one session of 3X15minutes on Wednesday. In a weird way I like feeling unfit as you get to see improvements with virtually every run. Aerobically I feel in a poor state of fitness and this is displayed by high heart rates in all of my runs and the resulting poor 'aerobic efficiency' This week it averaged 1160 beats per mile and if I am fit it will typically be in the range of 930-950 beats per mile! I haven't been paying too much attention to my heart rate on my runs and in fact rarely do as I rather run to feel so for my main runs I have been running at a 'moderate' intensity and for my second run have been running really easy/recovery type effort.
The first week of my plant-based diet has gone well too. I have set up a separate blog for this too if anyone is interested in reading. www.plant-basedobsessive.com Unfortunately I haven't been 100% plant-based but more through bad luck than 'failing'. I noticed that the muesli that I regularly eat has 'skimmed milk powder' in it so will finish the box and then move on to a type that definitely has none in! I also had a couple of bottles of Theakston's Old Peculiar which I learned is also not Vegan as they use Isinglass (part of a fish's bladder!) as part of their process. I was relieved to learn that all bottled beers produced by Black Sheep do not use isinglass in their process so that will be my go to tipple form now on! Another vegan friendly brewer is Brewdog and I am a big fan of their craft beers. Although as I get closer to the race I will certainly not be drinking!
So there we have it, I have settled on a plan and I am somewhat relieved as I can now start the prep fully focused on what lies ahead. I will likely follow a very similar plan to Berlin '15 & Toronto '16 but I will probably avoid the Special Block this time around as I don't believe it is entirely necessary, certainly not for an amateur like me and it could well have been my undoing at London this year, pushing me over the edge which resulted in me getting ill.
If you'd asked me four weeks ago what the objective for autumn was, it would have been a simple answer; race the Winschoten 100k in September and get the Team GB standard for the 2018 World 100k Championships which will be held in Croatia. However after a bout of illness that wouldn't shift and inconsistent training I decided to have a full two weeks off to try and let my body recover. However, given the break and being back running now feeling the most unfit I have felt in years I am debating what I should focus on as my A-Race! I have a few options; Winschoten (10 weeks), Berlin Marathon (12 weeks) or Yorkshire Marathon (14 weeks). I am also entered for Gdansk Marathon which is looking like it may well be a steady effort as opposed to an all out attempt given it's only six weeks away!
Option 1 - Winschoten 100k
The standard for next year's World Championships is likely to be sub 6:55 and I feel I have this in me. As readers will know I ran my first ultra at this year's British Championships but was unsuccessful in completing the distance. I got to 85k before I called it a day. I learnt some valuable lessons and if I can rectify the mistakes I would hope to get the required time to represent GB at next year's World Championships. There is no doubt that I will have my work cut out. Firstly the standard in GB ultra running right now is pretty phenomenal. Lee Grantham ran a genuinely world class 6:42 at the British Championships and Steve Way ran a staggering debut 5:48 at the 87k Comrades Up run this year, finishing in a brilliant 9th place.
These two guys have to be first on the selection list for next year's Championships given their performances. The qualifying criteria has yet to be published and so it is unknown how many (if any!) athletes will be taken but if I am to have a chance I need to be at least on a par with these types of performances. It is highly plausible that some other athletes fancying a pop at selection will also be giving the distance a go.
Lee Grantham is currently ranked no 1 in the World this year over 100km thanks to his run in East Yorkshire in May. I am so pleased (and a little bit jealous) of him for this fantastic achievement. Running that sort of time in a World Championships would get you very close to the top of the podium in most years.
Option 2 - Berlin Marathon
Given the break and starting from scratch again, this is probably my preferred option and it is also tempting in that it will allow me the opportunity to have one big go at the sub 2:20 before properly moving on to concentrate fully on ultras. 12 weeks is also far away enough to get in very good marathon shape.
Option 3 - Yorkshire Marathon
This is where I had my breakthrough race in 2014 and knocked about 6 minutes off my previous PB having plateaued for a bit so it is very tempting to go back and see if I could get close to 2:20. It isn't quite as fast as Berlin due to some undulations and the depth obviously isn't as strong but I know the course and area well and it would also be nice for my family to come and watch. Of course if I did do this as my target marathon, I could probably afford to run Winschoten 100k as well as they are four weeks apart.
Writing this down has been quite carthartic as I think I am coming to the conclusion that Option 3 may be the best solution. It will give me the opportunity to try and get the standard for the World Champs as well as a reasonable chance of a marathon PB at York providing I recover sufficiently. I could then do Gdansk and Berlin as training runs. I would be grateful for any thoughts that any readers may have so please do comment.
One thing that I have been toying with of recent months is whether to really give this plant-based diet a proper crack or not. I have I admit had many lapses back into meat and dairy and I always end up feeling the same - CRAP! I am becoming more and more convinced by the evidence to suggest that a plant-based diet is by far and away the best for one's health. But bigger than that the environmental impacts of animal agriculture are far more shocking than I ever realised (I highly recommend watching the film Cowspiracy - it will shock you and not in a gruesome way). Eating a plant-based diet is by far and away the single most important thing you can do to help save the planet. Aside from that I have also been reading about Carnism and how eating meat has become the norm but when you break it down to basics, it is quite ridiculous. Why for example is it perfectly acceptable to eat a pig but not a Labrador? If you have a spare 20 minutes, watch this YouTube video by Dr Melanie Joy. Just like Cowspiracy, it's incredibly enlightening.
So, I have decided that I am going to be following a completely plant based diet from this day forward. This is simply not up for debate. As many of you will know, I can be rather obsessive about things and for me it seems to be either 'all or nothing'. I will update on how things are going in a Bridget Jones stylee. I may even post some food pics!
Current stats
Weight 150lbs
Body Fat 13.7% (20.7lbs)
Lean Body Mass 81.85% (122.85lbs)
Water 60.4% (90.7lbs)
It may be silly to target a specific race weight but I know if I can get to 140lbs or just under I tend to be running at my best at that sort of weight so I have a while to lose about 10lbs. I suspect the first five or six pounds will drop off fairly quickly, the rest will be a little more tricky! I have put some target stats below, based on what I was carb-depleted pre-Toronto last year.
Target Stats
Weight 137lbs
Body Fat 8.6% (11.78lbs)
Lean Body Mass 86.86% (119lbs)
Body Water 67.8% (92.89lbs)
M 8 miles (6:17mm)
T 7 miles (7:34mm)
W 7 miles inc. 2X1mile (6:11mm)
T 6 miles (7:38mm)
F 5 miles (6:19mm)
S 3.5 miles (6:33mm)
S National 100km Champs. Total 90 miles (6:43mm) Total Training Time 10hrs 05 mins
Race week arrived with me not really too sure about how things were. I ran a woeful 5,000m at the Yorkshire Champs so wasn't expecting much but knew that a proper taper should at least leave the legs feeling nice and fresh. And that it did I did a little session of 2X1mile on Wednesday whilst carb depleted and ran them as hard as I could. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the efforts come in at 5:01 and 4:58. Pretty much Mile PB territory for me!
Over the past few weeks I had been a little concerned that my 'aerobic efficiency' hadn't been at the levels I have enjoyed in the past when getting close to a marathon. I suspect the virus pre-London had had some impact on this as I had been trying to peak for that race and then things were a bit out of kilter. Despite this I had put some decent miles in so knew that I was prepared and had the miles in the legs to run ok even if it wouldn't be my best. As it was my first attempt at a 100k it was also very unknown what would happen!
As it was the National Championships I was very keen to do well and so perhaps somewhat naively made my goal to win the race and get the qualifying time (6hrs 55mins) for the World Championships next year. I had somewhat arbitrarily decided that for me to do this I would need to run around 6hours 40mins which is exactly 4 minutes per km or 6:25 per mile. There were other top athletes, such as Lee Grantham (2:21:43 marathon PB) and Ant Clark, amongst others in the race who had experience at these sorts of distances in the past. I was a complete rookie so everything that goes with pacing, fuelling and hydration was going to be a bit of a learning curve. That said, the target to run around 6:40 I thought should be enough to hit my A-Goal. The secondary goal of the race was to learn something from it.
I can confirm that I didn't achieve Goal A but I certainly achieved Goal B!
The conditions seemed like they were going to be reasonably kind however where the race was held is a very exposed part of the country so any breath of wind and we would feel it. There was also no shade whatsoever and it was a very sunny day and really quite warm, although not roasting.
I set off very conservatively in the first 5k as I hadn't done a warm up. Do you need one when running 62 miles?!?! I found myself in third place as Lee Grantham and Tom Evans had put in a 15 second lead. I then decided to bridge the gap over the next 5k which I did. I was enjoying running in a group ticking off the miles very nicely and everything feeling ok. My nutrition plan was pretty simple really. Eat a gel or a bar every 20 minutes and around 150mls of water at each aid station which would be every 5k. I would also pick up a Pitta with Peanut Butter after each 25k lap which I thought would take care of my salt requirements. Unfortunately at the aid stations it was difficult to decipher where the water was as most athletes had arranged to have their own drinks bottles put out so it wasn't until 15k that I got my first proper drink of water. I wasn't concerned at this point as the pace still felt very much like a jog.
After the first lap I felt top drawer and got a nice cheer from my girls. Around 30k I made a move! And was quickly building up a lead over Lee & Tom. My legs felt great but I was conscious that my heart rate was higher than it probably should have been. I got to 50k and picked up my PB Pitta and restocked my fuelling belt. Unfortunately this time the PB pitta was a bit of a struggle and I was having difficulty chewing it down so probably only ate half of it before discarding it for some lucky pigeon. There had been houmous wraps on offer at the main aid station which on reflection would probably have been easier to get down.
I still felt great and pushed on to 60k. by now my lead had grown to around two and a half minutes on Lee in 2nd place and 10 minutes on Ant in 3rd. I was confident that I could maintain things.
Leading and feeling strong but things about to go wrong!
However things were about to go wrong! My watch beeped and I reached for a bar but I just couldn't eat it. It was disgusting. My body just refused to eat it and I had to spit it out. I knew from here I would likely be in trouble as I needed the fuel to get through the distance. But I ploughed on regardless. By 75k and completion of the third lap it was 'only' one more lap to go. Fair enough it was another 15.5 miles but I thought I should be able to muster through. Shortly after completing this lap Lee came past me very strongly and I gave him words of encouragement as he looked certain to get the qualifying time and the win. It was around 83kms that I unfortunately came to a standstill wobbly, woozy and a little incoherent. I then walked/jogged to the 85km point where I officially retired from the race. The marshals at the aid station were very helpful and tried to get me to eat and get me on my way again. But my decision had been made. I am sure had I taken a rest and refuelled I could have got the finish but by then mentally I had disengaged from the race as I would likely come in with a c8hrs finish time which would not have achieved my A-Goal and would likely have really done some damage to myself physically and mentally. This way a DNF felt justified as I had certainly learnt a lot from the experience and there were always other races to get it right. So I ran 85km at an average pace of 6:42 per mile, which considering I walked the last mile of that is pretty decent. It was also the furthest I have ever run by some 12 miles.
I don't have any regrets about how I approached the race, nor with the DNF. Of course I wish things had turned out differently but I do feel I learnt a lot and was pleased I 'gave it a go'. It has given me more insight into what Heart Rate & effort I think should be sustainable for me for 100k and also the importance of hydration in combination with the fuelling. My feeling is that my decision to stick with plain water was probably my main downfall as my body was becoming slightly hyponatraemic (sodium balance was out) which resulted in a reduced blood plasma volume meaning my heart rate was increasing to unsustainable levels. On reflection I also suspect my fitness was also probably only worth 6hrs45- 6hrs50 on the day so running at 6hrs35 pace for the first half was a little ambitious to say the least.
Where now for my future? Well I feel that the ultra world is the direction my running is going. My engine is definitely my strength and I cant wait to have another crack at the 100k distance to try and get that World Champs qualifying time! My next 100k race will be in Winschoten, Holland in September. I also plan to put myself forward for selection at next year's Anglo-Celtic Plate. In the meantime, I have three weeks of reduced mileage and some faster stuff before the build up begins.
W/C 24th April
M 20.5 miles (6:43mm)
T 6.5 miles (7:55mm), 7 miles (7:09mm)
W 16 miles (6:27mm)
T 10.5 miles (6:17mm), 10 miles (6:39mm)
F 11.5 miles (6:01mm), 6.5 miles (7:11mm)
S 8 miles (6:55)
S 40.5 miles (6:12mm) Total 138 miles (6:33mm) Total Training Time 15hrs 02mins
W/C 1st May
M 15 miles (7:04mm)
T 12 miles (5:57mm), 5 miles (7:49mm)
W 8 miles (7:19mm), 5 miles (7:44mm)
T 20 miles inc. 30mins, 4X5mins, 30mins (5:55mm)
F 8.5 miles (7:24mm), 5 miles (7:50mm)
S 10.5 miles (6:34mm)
S 22 miles (6:13mm) Total 111 miles (6:40mm) Total Training Time 12hrs 24mins
W/C 8th May
M 10.5 miles (7:36mm), 4 miles (7:26mm)
T 8 miles (6:46mm), 4 miles (7:15mm)
W 11.5 miles inc. 15X1min (5:21mm)
T 10 miles (6:42mm)
F 8 miles (7:59mm)
S 5 miles (6:34mm)
S 14 miles inc. Yorkshire 5,000m Championships (16:15!), 5 miles (6:46mm) Total 80 miles (6:50mm) Total Training Time 9 hrs 5 mins
This first week post-London was really critical in terms of the specificity for the ultra and I was keen to get in some big miles including my longest run ever. It went well with a 20 miler the day after London. There was still definitely some fatigue there but doing a 20 miler at a half decent pace on tired legs is good conditioning for what is to come on the 21st. The rest of the week went ok with some decent miles at not too shabby paces but it was all building to Sunday which was planned to be a 40 mile run. this would give me the opportunity to practice my fuelling as well as hopefully run a bit quicker than planned pace for the ultra. I split the session up into 4X9.5 miles (not your standard interval training!) just to break it up a bit. I did it on my usual tempo loop but changed direction after each rep. This confirmed what I already suspected in that my Garmin is quite optimistic in one direction and quite pessimistic in the other! The efforts were at 6:11, 6:02, 6:09 and 6:12 pace with the whole run averaging 6:12mm. It was a really useful exercise as it allowed me to gauge how much fuel I would need to take on in the race. I was running ok and started eating after 45 minutes then every half hour but only 150 kcals at a time. As I approached 30 miles I started to feel like I was close to 'bonking' so quickly ate a bit more and then felt better and finished the session quite well. That said I do think that the final rep pace was reflected by the lack of fuel and also perhaps that it was seven miles further than I had ever run before. It was such a satisfying run to get done though.
The second week I was just keen to ensure that there weren't too many ill-effects from my 40 miler as well as continue to get some decent miles in and a hard session. Although I had planned to run a few more miles this week I was sensible in that I eased back a little as I was suffering from DOMs quite severely on Tuesday and Wednesday. I had left the session until Thursday as my legs really weren't up to much faster running before then. The session itself went ok, not particularly fast but it was blowing a gale and considering how my legs had felt 24 hours earlier I was quite chuffed with the paces of 5:31mm for the first 30 mins, c5:15mm avge for the 5 minute efforts and then 5:38mm for the final 30 minute stint.
Last week was the first week of taper which included one 'sharpening' session and the Yorkshire 5,000m. I did a sharpening session of 15X1minute on/off on the treadmill with the on efforts at 20kph and off at 16kph. This gave me confidence that I might be good to run a reasonable 5,000m but it seems the miles of recent weeks have left my legs very strong but not very fast! I struggled in with 16:15 in what was pretty much a full effort! There was one benefit from it though in that it allowed me to calibrate my Garmin Footpod so I should get much more accurate readings for pace on the treadmill going forward! It confirmed my suspicions that when I run on the TM I am not running at the pace my Garmin has been giving me. This means it would appear that my mileage wont have been quite as high as I have reported in recent weeks although it wont be too far away!
I thought it would be sensible to get a blood test this week, given the change to the plant-based diet just to ensure I am not deficient in anything. The results are below and typically for Vegans there may be a deficiency in B12 and Iron. But these seemed ok. My Haemoglobin and Haematocrit seem to be in a similar place to where they have been when I was eating meat too so hopefully this is a positive sign. I don't really understand much about blood tests to be frank but it looks very similar to previous results so I don't think I should be worried. I will be having a vegan hiatus for a few days while I deplete my carb stores and go back on the dairy for a bit before loading up from Thursday.
So one week to go and I'm very excited about my first ultra. I have some idea what I think I might be capable of and think I can get to 75k in pretty decent shape but what happens after that is a complete unknown. For anyone that wants to track, you can do so here. The race starts at 7:30am on Sunday and there should be splits every 5k. See you on the other side!
M 14 miles (6:19mm) T 13 miles (6:32mm), 7 miles (6:34mm) W 17 miles inc 3X4.5miles (6:05mm), 4 miles (7:31mm) T 14 miles (6:37mm), 6 miles (7:14mm) F 9 miles (6:42mm), 6 miles (7:35mm) S 7.5 miles (7:10mm), 4 miles (7:46mm) S 28.2 miles including London Marathon (2:34:33)
Total 131 miles (6:34mm)
Total Training Time 14hrs 20mins
This doesn't look like a standard taper week I am sure you will agree! For folks that read my last blog I decided to knock London on the head as a PB attempt and instead focus on my debut at the British 100k Championships on 21st May. Of course I would still run London as I was keen to fulfil my promise of trying to help raise funds for my colleague's son Charlie who needs surgery and physio for his disability. Thank you everyone that has donated and there is till time if you could spare a few pennies. I have been humbled by the generosity of folks that have donated, some of whom I have never even met! So thank you once again. If you are inclined to donate the link is here.
Running the London Marathon at a steady effort would also prove to be a good training run for the 100k.
I travelled down on the Saturday and made my way to the expo, which is a necessary evil! It is so busy on the Saturday and it takes a good three hours out of one's day to get over there, get sorted and get back, even if you do fly through there! There was something positive though and that's that I got to see many of my old club mates from Orpington Road Runners who do a sterling job of volunteering with number and chip collection as well as manning one of the baggage lorries on race day.
I stayed near King's Cross on my own and made my way across to Blackheath on Sunday. Once inside the Champs start it was great to see so many of my running friends from far and wide and catch up on what their plans were for the race ahead. I was so excited and for this once I wasn't nervous as I would be taking it relatively easy.
I started quite a bit further back than I normally do but was still over the line in a few seconds and was running a long with Rob Downs before he shot off into the distance. I was also with Mark Offord and Stuart Beaney for large parts of the first half. There was also the novel situation of running with a chap dresses as a carrot until the 9 mile point. I even tried to do Facebook live interview with him on the go! It was a guy called Andrew Lawrence who actually runs for Morpeth. I'm not sure his kit would have stood the test of UKA scrutiny to count for team prizes but he ran very quickly for a carrot.
The race wore on and I felt great, I was having an absolute ball, high fiving and getting cheers from the folks at the roadside, some of whom I knew and others that I didn't. London really is ace as you get to feel a bit like a Rock Star for a couple of hours. The race proved to be a very good training session and I completed in a slight negative split with 2:34 feeling on the whole very comfortable. It is still a long way though so the legs are always going to be a touch tired especially with 130 miles in the legs for the week.
