Swindon 10Km

Its official - I am a runner.

Last weekend I took part in a road race. Got a number, a time and a medal for finishing the course. Ran all the way.

Reasons for entering were to:-

1. Gain experience of running in a crowd
2. Run in a competitive environment
3. Measure my progress
4. Run outside the comfort zone of my usual training routes in good weather
5. Establish a Personal Best (PB) time.

 All the above objectives achieved.


We arrived in good time for the 11 o’clock start. Weather was cold and damp with some wind.

To cope with the cold I had brought my red cycling top and black cycling bottoms. But the zip on the top would not work and the bottoms felt too tight for running. So had to extemporize some warm weather running gear using ladies track bottoms and fleece top.

Maybe the only transvestite runner? Worked - kept me warm - if not exactly stylish.

Placed myself near the back at the start. Set off at a gentle pace to begin with to warm up. Managed steadily to increase my pace with peaks at about the 2.5, 4.5, 9 and 9.5 Kilometre points. Worked on a strategy of pushing a bit harder on the uphill but not rushing madly downhill and avoiding any temptation to "race" other runners. Speed tailed off towards the end but with a kick up at the very end.

Average speed 10.2 kph, max speed 13.3kph.

Heart rate peaks appear totally unrelated. Heart rate peaked at about 4, 5 and 7.5Km points. As one might expect heart rate for second half of race was higher than for first half.

How do I know all this? Got a Gadget. Wore My Birthday Present, Precious.
A shiny Garmin.

Official Time - 10Km in 58min 39secs.

A small step for mankind but a giant leap for this man.

End in Sight



Which Charity?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a runner entered into a long-distance race must be in want of sponsorship.

Everyone assumes that I have entered the Bath Half Marathon in order to raise money for a specific cause that I support. In actual fact the decision to enter came first - thought about helping a charity came later.
 
For many races - in particular the most famous and popular such as the London Marathon - it is almost impossible to gain an entry except through one of the major charities - who appear to blockbook places. To get one of these places you have to commit to raising several thousand pounds from your sponsors.

My choice of which charity to choose has come down to a final 3 candidates:-

• Lifeboats - RNLI
• Prostate Cancer - Cambridge
• Voluntary Service Overseas - VSO - Dr Becky Minting in Malawi

All these are charities that I support.

RNLI
It shocked me to discover that many people do not realise that the RNLI is dependent on volunteers to run its lifesaving activities and on donations and legacies for finance.

The volunteers regularly risk their lives putting to sea in the most dangerous conditions. And don’t always come home - the Mousehole lifeboat was lost with all hands on 19 December 1981.

Despite the Royal and National in its name the RNLI provides a service not just in UK waters but in the Republic of Ireland too.

The cost of running the RNLI is £123.5M a year. About £14k per hour.

This is the lead charity for the Bath Half Marathon so would be the easiest one for me to support.

Prostate Cancer - Cambridge
This is the most common cancer for men - mostly over age 50. There is a genetic component to susceptibility but most men will get it eventually. About 35,000 men were diagnosed with the cancer in 2006. More that 12,000 die of prostate cancer each year.

There is an urgent need to find a reliable test for use in national screening. This is one of the areas of research supported by Cambridge Cancer Reseach Fund The current test relies on measuring raised PSA levels. But 2 out of 3 men with raised PSA levels do not have the cancer. And it is possible to have the cancer without raised PSA.

The cancer also varies in the seriousness of its effects. In some cases a patient can have it for many years without serious harm - in others the cancer can grow and spread rapidly. Unfortunately the treatments available can have unpleasant side effects.

So more research is required into why some prostate cancers are more aggressive than others and how this can be detected accurately.

VSO - Dr Becky Minting in Malawi
Many of you may remember VSO as providing an interesting gap-year experience for students wishing to help out in third-world countries and to get something different on their CV.

Nowadays VSO depend on qualified and experienced volunteers to provide the most effective impact. The volunteer in this case is Dr Rebecca Mitting - Paediatrician - working in MZUZU Central Hospital.

MZUZU is the 3rd largest city in MALAWI and is capital of the Northern Province. Here there is no more than 1 doctor for 53,000 people.

The mortality rate for children under 5 years old is high. Main causes are:-

• Malaria
• Pneumonia
• Malnutrition
• Tuberculosis - largely due to HIV

In Malawi the HIV infection rate is 12%.

The hospital is overcrowded and under equipped. It includes:-

• Children’s Ward of 40 beds - usually about 100 patients
• Nursery for premature births - too small and lacking some basic equipment
• Nursery for slightly older children - small and overcrowded
• Under 5s Clinic - small booth - deals with 100+ children each day.

Before Dr Minting arrived in March there was no doctor there and the work was all done by clinical officers. Since her arrival she has:-

• Introduced a paediatric clinic twice a week for outpatients
• Set up a new High Dependency Unit for severe cases
• Introduced weekly Teaching sessions and daily Handover Meetings

With the Sister in charge of maternity she has applied for and obtained a VSO grant of £3000 to improve the services for newborn babies. The money will be spent on locally sourced but effective equipment such as ”Blantyre hotcots” incubators which will help to reduce the 26% death rate among admissions.


Help Me Choose
Three good causes. Which should I choose to support with the sponsorship for my run?

Help me decide. Post a comment.

Bath Post

 

New Training

"A formation of high flying geese
Lit up by the morning's low sun.
To see lovely sights such as these
Is truly reward for my run."

Apparently I train like a typical beginner - extending my distance but not my speed. Need new directions.

New Directions - Choose!

 
New Route
To extend my time and distance without doing repetitive laps of the same circuit I have tried a new route which goes down towards the River Avon and back uphill home.
 
It starts and finishes as my usual circuit - to retain the familiar Karma - but extends out and back to a loop at the other end. It has the potential to be lengthened.
 
Distance >6Km. About 4miles. But I am having difficulty measuring the distance accurately.
 
Four runs at over 40 minutes, one shorter run for 35. The 10+ minute mile average is a pedestrian speed. Whereas “slow“ for a long distance runner is an 8min. mile.
 
Does this matter since my aim is to finish?
 
New Routine
Reading a book from the library - “Everyone’s Guide to Distance Running" by Norrie Williamson - it appears my routine is not good. Apparently one should vary the pace and distance on different training runs.
 
So I have tried doing some bits faster than others. Floating down hill - pushing up. With slower recovery periods jogging along between them. Supposed to add strength and pace to endurance.
 
Mind you Norrie regards distance running as 50Km upwards. E=mc2.
 
This has made the runs more interesting and more difficult - which is probably a good thing. Did find myself with tired legs and lungs at maximum distance from home. Motivator!

New Risks 
MOH suggested I take my phone with me and call home for a lift if exhausted or have an accident. This is a bit like a WWI aviator with a parachute - added weight and a supposed disincentive to fight on. Good advice though - and will be followed.
 
Yesterday morning running style was all over the place - awkward almost stumbling or tripping once or twice. Tired? Over training? Something to watch out for in the event itself. It would be a bad trip to fall in a crowd and take others down too.
 
New Target
My entry has been accepted for the Swindon 10Km. Three weeks to prepare.
Sub 70 min?
 
New Time
Back to GMT. But local time - as on the new sundial at Widcombe - is plus a few minutes.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree." - Kilmer

"Timber" - The Muppet Show 

Westonbirt Arboretum

Time To Rise

A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon the window sill
Cocked his shining head and said
“Ain’t you shamed you sleepy head?”
Robert Louis Stevenson

One morning last week I lay in bed watching a blackbird eat blackberries. He hopped about a bit on the ground and then flew up to the top of the hedge grabbed a blackberry in his yellow bill and flew down to the ground again. He did this repeatedly until he had enough. I marvelled at his skill, energy, and persistence.

Routine
What was difficult has become routine:-

• Up before Dawn (roseate fingers etc - thanks for the reminder Homer)
• Run (well jog really) for 34-35 minutes / 4.8Km
• Shower
• Prepare breakfast

And all before my usual getting-up time.

This has been my routine - with interspersed rest days - for the past week. To many of you it may not seem to be a long running time or distance - but only a fortnight ago I was having difficulty at the end of 20mins / 2.4Km.

Next target - 40+ minutes or 5.5Km.

Upping The Anti
Yesterday I posted an entry for the Swindon 10Km race on 21st November.

Today I jogged for 5 laps - approx 6Kms - 44.4 minutes.

“A week is a long time in politics.” - Harold Wilson

A Footbridge

 

BC 250

Nothing to do with the First Punic Wars. This year the Bath Chronicle is celebrating 250 years and I thought I should not ignore it.

What has this got to do with this blog or with running?

It was the Chronicle that first sparked the idea in my head of entering for the Bath Half Marathon. The paper gave the opportunity to local people to put in an early entry to the Bath Half using a two-piece code that was provided in 2 weekly editions.

And I did - as described under Auction Fever in my earlier post Reasons Why.

The celebratory 250 anniversary edition - issued last week - describes the early Chronicles as being:-

"A mixture of the bizarre and the banal, of the ludicrous and the tragic."

Not that different from today - especially the Readers‘ Letters.

Some reports down the years read remarkably alike. The report of the bombing of The Corridor in 1974 and that of the exploding gas cylinders at the SouthGate were similar - at least in the described experience of the journalists concentrating on their routine reports only to be interrupted by the sound of explosions.

Another theme down the years is reports of visiting celebrities - and those later to become famous.

These include:-

• Princess Victoria in 1830 before she was Queen
• Winston S Churchill - an obscure parliamentary candidate whose first ever political speech was at Claverton Manor (The American Museum) in 1897
• The Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie in 1936 - afterwards lived in Bath during his exile years
• Princess Diana - visited Bath in 1985
• Michael Palin in 2010.

The poster read - "Michael Palin in Bath - Pictures”.

"The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous -licentious - abominable - infernal - Not that I ever read them - no - I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper." Richard Brinsley Sheriden

That Was The Week That Was

Today I completed my first training run of more than 30 minutes.

Monday evening, after an exhausting rest day and a sleepless night, I had to backtrack and do only 2 laps. My first evening run. More people about than in the morning - plus a lost duck looking for her pond or a river.

To make up for the missed distance I decided to do 4 laps this morning. At the end of three I was beginning to think of excuses to stop. Knee ache? But went round again and clocked up just over 30 minutes.

Ruler on map suggests almost 5Km - less than a quarter of the Bath Half Marathon distance. Not bad progress for 8 weeks. Lost 8lbs in weight also. Now I need to repeat that for the remainder of the week.

My feeling is that I am on course. But I know it is going to get harder as the days get shorter and colder and my training runs get longer. My local routes are beginning to be a limitation and I need to get to places where I can run longer distances uninterrupted by features.

Am considering changing my routine to a mid-day run - avoiding running in the dark alongside rush-hour traffic. A pre-lunch run is popular with office workers. By doing this I can also postpone buying warmer running kit until I have saved some cash.

No Lidl near here!

Time to consider entering a 10Km race, as suggested by Nurse and other runners. To add pressure and provide a real measure of progress.

Public Bath

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! - Lewis Carroll

Blogging on Jogging

Blogging is the modern vanity publishing - without the expense and with the potential for a wider audience.

My interest in blogging was aroused when I found that others were doing it. So I wanted to have a go myself. My blog would be more informative, erudite and amusing than others.

Or maybe not.

Learning new things from books is still the way I prefer. And it must be for many others too - as shown by the vast numbers of computer-related how-to-do-it books. All instantly obsolete - in Somerset there is a warehouse full of them.

In the Library I found a new edition of Blogging For Dummies I knew I had to give blogging a try.

This almost coincided with my decision to enter the Bath Half Marathon. Doing one new thing encouraging the other. It did not take long to recognise the synergy between the two.

You don’t see it? Agreed, it is neither Auden and Britten nor Merlin and Mustang. But the blog needs narrative and my running requires motivation.

Thus:

• Metaphorical boat-burning in pubic - no turning back
• Support and advice - from friends and followers
• Record of progress - and regression
• Momentum and self discipline - the project has to continue to provide regular blog material
• Helping a charity - by seeking sponsorship.

Each feeds on the other and combined provide more than the sum of the two parts.

That is synergy.

Synergy in Action

Coming Soon:- Options for sponsorship. Help me decide which of three charities to choose.