Running

I started running on January 1st 2009 after having done very little of it since I was a kid at school.

At the time, I set myself the goal of running the Auckland Marathon later in the year. I had no knowledge of endurance running and so the journey began.

I started doing shortish runs of about 5 km and completed my first running event, the Waiheke Wharf 2 Wharf, on 17 January 2009. I ran the 12 km course in a time of 1:16:20 and had pretty sore legs afterwards.

As I continued with training runs, a pain in my legs was worsening and seemed to progress from calves to lower back. It soon reached the point where I was unable to walk (let alone run) without pain and had to stop running altogether. After three weeks of rest over late January and early February 2009, the pain had gone and I was able to start running again. I used calf support bandages or compression stockings for a while and was successful in preventing further similar injury.

Running progressed through the year but was interrupted by a chest infection in July-August and another one in October, just a few weeks before the Auckland Marathon. I may have foolishly prolonged these illnesses by running while still suffering quite badly. I can remember running and having difficulty breathing which was foolish and may have risked doing myself some serious damage.

So, preparation for my first marathon was far from ideal and I approached the event with little idea of how I would fare. My training had included two 30 km runs and a few of 20 km.

November 1st 2009 was a beautiful day with little wind. The race start time of 6.10 am meant we ran most of it before there was any real heat from the sun and I was able to finish comfortably in a time of 3:56:44. I upped the pace in the last couple of kilometres and surprised myself by completing the run with relative ease.

Auckland Marathon 2009

I made one of my goals of 2010 to run two marathons. I started the year's running with the Waiheke Wharf 2 Wharf on 16 January and did the 25 km in 2:24:37. [RESULTS]

I tackled my second marathon, the Rotorua Marathon, on 1 May 2010. It had been almost exactly 6 months since my first marathon and the training for Rotorua had gone well. Persistent pain in my left Achilles tendon had been with me for months but it never progressed to the point where I was unable to run and so was manageable. Unlike my build-up for the Auckland marathon, I’d had no colds for 6 months and was able to complete a good training program which lasted about 17 weeks.

On the day, I was keen to get into the run. Sally and I had driven around the course the day before so I had a better idea of what to expect, particularly with regard to the hills. The weather was overcast and threatening to rain but the temperature was mild and the only wind was just a light breeze.

The first 28 km was fairly comfortable for me and I was less than a minute behind the 5:00 minute/km pace which I’d set on my GPS watch. The hills were behind me and hadn’t slowed me down too much. I knew that the last third of the run was all flat and I started to increase my pace. Over the last 8 or 10 km, I passed numerous other runners and remember only one guy passing me.

In the last 8 or so km my legs were starting to feel a little numb and wobbly but I was able to maintain a good sub five minute pace and was fairly sure I would cross the line in under 3 hrs 30. I strode out towards the finish line in the last few hundred metres and felt some disappointment when I saw the clock over the finish line showing 3:30:--. My official time was 3:30:36; the net time 3:30:07. I had missed out on a sub 3:30 time by just a few seconds but was happy never-the-less. It was a big improvement on my first marathon time and satisfying reward for the many hours of training I’d put in. [RESULTS]

Rotorua Marathon 2010

Sally did a good 10 km run and supported me fantastically. She was at the finish line and managed to snap some photos just as I crossed the line.

Rotorua 2010 - A great photo by Sally as I finish

Rotorua 2010 - Buggered!

Our Tarawera retreat the night before

I ran my first half marathon, the Huntly Half, on 23 May 2010 in 1:36:34.

Auckland Marathon 2010

For 2011, I'd decided to do just one marathon and chose the inaugural North Shore Marathon on 28 August.

Training had gone fairly well with no major colds or flus during my training though the middle of winter. I hadn't done a lot of long runs but my weekly mileage was still respectable with many runs of around 10 kms. Three weeks before the marathon, I did my first ever 100 km training week. I decided to set my Garmin pace at 4:50 aiming for a time of around 3hr24. The course was fairly tough comprising two 21 km loops. In places, there was a distinct lack of marshalls or cones to indicate the course route. At North Head, with no one in front of me to follow, I stopped for a few seconds, unsure of which way to go. The course was reasonably hilly and climbing to North Head on the second loop was very hard work. Some drink stations had run out of water on the second loop which didn't make things any easier. I was unable to maintain the 4:50 pace and slipped almost 2 minutes behind after slowing at North Head and on other small hills in the last 5 km. I finished reasonably strongly and was probably about 1:15 behind the 4:50 pace. The Garmin recorded 41.84 km and I wonder whether the course was slightly short. Given the toughness of the course, I'm taking the 3:23:22 which makes it my best marathon time! Sally did the half marathon walk on what was a very pleasant, spring-like day.

North Shore Marathon 2011

In 2012 I aimed to run the Auckland Marathon at the end of October. As part of my build-up for the marathon, I ran a half marathon in the Whangarei Run/Walk Festival on 16 September. I ran well and was pleased to complete this in a personal best time of 1:31:45. [RESULTS] A 1:30 half had eluded me but reflecting on the off road part of the course and Onerahi hill, I felt a 1:30 half was defnitiely within my grasp. Sally, Sharon, Jo and Nicky walked the half too - well done!

My training for the marathon had gone very well and I was running up to 100 km a week. With 5 weeks to go to the 2012 Auckland Marathon, I went on an early morning 13 km run - an unusual time of day for my running. I had been feeling like an indestrucible running machine and my fitness was the best it had ever been but on this run, my right calf became tender for no apparent reason. The next day I went on short 5 km run and had to walk part of it such was the pain in my calf. I tried another short run with the same result before deciding I needing to stop running and rest the leg.

This was a hard thing to do after running almost obsessively for several months. In the previous 12 weeks I'd run 850 km and now I had to throw away all that hard work, all that conditioning, and kiss goodbye to what I was sure would have been my best marathon time.

On the day of the marathon, October 28th, I went for a 6 km run with almost no pain in the calf. I was back into it and returned to a steady running routine but without the big kilometres I had been doing.

I ran the Kerikeri Half Marathon with a friend, Party Marty, on October 16th 2013. It was Marty's first longer run and we were both pleased to finish in just under 2 hours.

Kerikeri Half 16 October 2013 - Marty: 1038, me: 942

WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT RUNNING You gotta do the miles. There’s no substitute for the conditioning your body gains from running hundreds of kilometres and you must have this physical toughening to comfortably complete an endurance running event. Not only does it improve your cardio-respiratory fitness, it also accustoms joints to the prolonged pounding which they will endure. I like this about marathons - there are no free lunches. Unlike so many other things in modern life, you can't bullshit your way through a marathon. If you've run a good marathon, you have my respect. Running pace is very important. Four hour marathon pace is an easy, relaxed jog but you do need to maintain it for four hours – easier said than done! The marathon is an endurance event and the first two thirds of it is largely about preserving reserves for the last 14 km. On my first marathon, I followed a 4 hour pace runner so all I needed to do was keep this guy in my sights and my pace was taken care of. This is probably a very useful tactic for the marathon novice who could otherwise get sucked into starting the run at a much faster pace than necessary and then flagging badly towards the end. A GPS watch is indipensable for maintaining your target running pace. If you have one of these, you enter the pace and have your own electronic pace guy sitting on your wrist. I'll repeat this again: PACE IS IMPORTANT! If you look at other runners' split times, you'll probably see that most have screwed up their pace - they've started too fast and finished slow as a result. Your time for the second half of the run should be no slower than the first half and hopefully slightly quicker. This is referred to as a 'negative split'. Choosing a sensible pace isn't easy. It's something that you'll develop a better feel for as you run more marathons. For a marathon novice, there's plenty of training programs out there which should allow you to comfortably complete a 4 hour marathon. From there, there's plenty of room for improvement - hopefully! Listen to your body. If it's hurting, ease off, give it a rest, and return to running when it feels better. I have made minor injuries a lot worse by stubbornly continuing to run while in pain. You don’t need to do 40 km runs to train for a marathon – 30 km is plenty. These longer runs put your body under added stress and the less you stress yourself in training, the better. Look after yourself during and after longer (two to three hour) training runs. I have developed colds that I suspect may have taken hold while my body was stressed following longer training runs.

At the start of the North Shore Marathon 2011- I'm to the left - No. 635. I beat the guy in the kilt by less than a minute.