Silverstone FLHM

[Nigel]

Good luck for Silverstone this Sunday, Andy. Sounds like the carbo-loading preparation was highly successful last weekend. See you in Reading on 9th March.

PS Isn't that a SIXTH pair of trainers in your photo.... ?!

[El Gordo]

Thanks Nigel. Yes, it's six pairs of trainers. I wrote something about my trainer collection on Feb 11th.

The first two pairs I had (Asics Nimbus 2 and 3) turned out to be completely wrong for my feet, and gave me blisters once I'd gone supersonic past the 5 mile mark.

Next came some Brooks Addictions that I ran the FLM in. Then I saw a podiatrist when I was starting the Chicago campaign, and she suggested New Balance 854s, which I've been happy with, and which are still very much alive (almost literally so after a long run...)

This new year I learnt that the 854s were being delisted, so I contacted the factory shop in Cumbria (yes, NBs are made in England) and found they were flogging off their old £75 stock for £25. Wow, £12.50 a shoe.

Anyway, I bought 2 pairs - neither of which were the exact spec I wanted, but they seem to be OK. I like NBs because they do a 2E (wide) fitting. So it looks like I'm sorted for 2Es for a year or so at least.

Silverstone will be a weird one because of the venue. As usual, some people will feel very tired at the end, and some won't. Indeed, you could say that there will be checkered flagging at the finish.

Yes, see you at Reading!

[Ian]

I hope to be back from Castle Ashby and the Daffodil half marathon in time to meet up with you. If not, I hope you have a good run.

Ian

[El Gordo]

Cheers Ian. I'm hoping for about 1:08, though might have to settle for around 2:20.

[El Gordo]

And sorry, I forgot to wish you well on your own run. Hope you have a good day.

[El Gordo]

I'm not going to get round to writing up the details of today's run until tomorrow, but in brief, I had a disappointing day.

I did get a 10 minute PB but I found the experience of running at SIlverstone a bit... uninteresting.

Commiserations to Ian, who apparently had to pull out of his half through injury.

A report should appear by the end of Monday.

[Daryl]

Hi there Andy,
First off, I want to thank you again for providing Alfred and I with a ride to Silverstone. You made our day so much easier and less stressful. A million thanks.

As for the race, I agree with your commentary for the most part. The course was bland and it was not too exciting. Although, this was my first race, so I thought it was great regardless!

Unfortunately, the saturday before Silverstone, I had injured my knee during a 12 mile training run. It was the first time I had run that far. I talked to my cousin who is in sports medicine, and we concluded that I had strained my lateral collateral ligament in my knee (connecting the fibula to the femur). I kept off it all week in attempts to be ready for sunday, and it repaired itself for the most part, though it still felt weak on sunday.

I bought a knee brace (under the recommendation of my cousin) in hopes to prevent further injury at the race. I ended up with pain for only a day or so after the race, so it was better than the last time. I think I will stay off of it the rest of this week as well. I am hoping that as I become a more experienced runner the pain will whither away.

My finishing time ended up being 2:03:44. I am pretty happy with that since 2 hours was my goal. I had only run 12 miles in that time the weekend before. Unfortunately, the fact that it was my first race combined with the fact that I had never run that distance before made my time worse than it should have been. I drank too much water before the race and dispite a toilet stop at quarter 'til 12, I had to stop ASAP in the race to let more water out. I ended up pulling over to the side after a quarter mile or so. That added a couple minutes to my time. . . literally.

The other problem was that I had way too much energy left at the end I think. I basically sprinted the last 0.2 mile. I should have spent that energy maintaining a faster pace throughout the race. I guess that is the price I pay for not running that distance before the race.

Overall, I had a great time and I look forward to signing up for some more races. I think I am going to postpone any marathon running for a year or so. I can't imagine 13.1 miles being the half-way point for anything!

Thanks again, Andy, for making my first race a very pleasant one!

Daryl

PS- Cool webpage!

[Evil Pixie]

Andy .. well done on 10 mins off the PB! Brilliant!

I was a little concerned about the chap that died ... where can I find out more?

Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!
(number 8154 ... at the very back!)

EP

[El Gordo]

Thanks EP. I know I should feel pleased, as 2:20 was my (modest) target, and my plan was really just to use this as a warm-up for Reading and Bath. But after I had a good first 5-7 miles (by my standards) I really thought I was on for 2:10 which would have really pleased me. As I explained I just sort of lost energy at that point and ended up struggling a bit.

Maybe I went off a bit too quickly. I started just behind the 2:15 pacer, and thought I'd stay with them, but I seemed to lose them (behind me) almost straight away. Perhaps I should have stuck with them. They passed me at around 8 miles and I didn't have the energy to stick with them.

But so be it. It's always good to do a race and yes it was a PB so I can't be unhappy with that.

On the subject of the young guy who died at the end, I don't know any more than I read about on the RW forum. It seems that the guy I saw may not have been the one who died after all.

You might be interested in reading Ian Painter's diary entry for today. He has a different attitude from most of us.

Yes, I'm looking forward to Reading. I'll find the run tough again, I've no doubt, but last year, I thought it was a really good event. Some good crowd support, particularly round Whitley.

I'm no 902.

Note for Daryl - thanks for posting your message. It was nice to meet you, and thanks for providing some good company on the journey. It's unusual to hear someone complaining about having too much energy at the end of a half marathon!

Say hello to Chicago for us when you return, and make sure you do that great marathon of yours one day.

[Alfred]

Silverstone Half

Congratulations, Andy, on your web site. It is really quite professional.

I join Daryl in thanking you for kindly giving us a lift to Silverstone. We would have drained all our energy just getting to the site on public transportation!

I have been running in a more or less regular way since October 2001. Since that time I have run in two half marathons not including Silverstone: I ran in High Wycombe in July 2002 and in Windsor in September 2002. Both race courses, but particularly the former, are rather undulating and consequently not particularly well suited for beginners, or in any case not conducive to PB’s. In the case of High Wycombe this was made worse by the lack of organization so that, for example, there were essentially no water stops and at some points runners were left to their own devices fending off car traffic. Windsor was, in contrast, a beautiful and well organized race but still not as flat as I would have liked. All this meant that despite the relative monotony of the formula one track at Silverstone, I rather enjoyed running on an essentially flat course in a very well organized race.

Having started my running in October 2001 from a rather poor athletic base, it has taken me a while to feel comfortable with my running. I was pleased with my finishing time of 2:02:08, which represented an improvement of around thirteen minutes from Windsor. I felt well throughout though I did slow down considerably after mile 10 or so, which was the most significant frustration for me as up until mile 11 I had been convinced that I would end up with a well under two hour time.

I am also training for the full marathon in London which will take place in less than six weeks. The thought of running twice the distance from Sunday is, I must admit, rather daunting. In this, which will be my second full marathon, (I ran my first one rather prematurely in Paris last year) I am hoping for sub four and a half hours. Incidentally, I will be running the London Marathon for the Meningitis Trust. In a few days I will be posting on this forum a link to a web page where donations can be made securely, in case some reader of this note may wish to support me.

Alfred.

[El Gordo]

Alfred - do post your link, and I will definitely sponsor you.

Well done on your PB. Almost every single runner seems to have achieved a PB at Silverstone which is pretty amazing.

Nice to have met you, and keep us posted on the London effort. I'm sure you'll have a fantastic day.

[Alfred]

Hi Andy -

I think that considering you ran two half marathons in consecutive weekends, and that the second one was on a more difficult course, finishing eight seconds behind the previous one is not bad at all.

Thank you for the information about the New Balance shop. I actually decided to migrate from cushioning shoes to stability ones, as I suspect that my foot pain after Silverstone (and which had happened before) has to do with my slight over-pronation and the lack of support that my cushioning shoes offered. So I ended up getting 854's as well.

Good luck in Bath!

Cheers,
Alfred.


PS. My fundraising web page is: http://www.justgiving.com/alfreduren

[El Gordo]

Thanks Alfred. I don't know why your link didn't parse properly - I'll look into it.

I'll sponsor you, and I'm sure everyone else will too.......