"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt



Sunday 31 March 2013

Leaden legs and blistered fingers!

I've been back running now in some shape or form for about a month, and I'm in a position where I feel like I can start to step it up in terms of distance and speed. (This is code for I'm not keeling over after even the smallest run anymore!!)

I've been concentrating on the same two routes that loop me round the block on the Liverpool-Leeds canal. They've been perfect distances; a short 4.3km and a slightly longer 6.2km. I pushed it a little further last week with a 9.5km run and felt alright - not great, but as I would expect given so long out.

I've done a screen shot of my last two weeks of running:


My 6.3km route pace was at 4:53min/km a couple of weeks ago, today I completed the same distance at 4:26min/km pace - a full 27 seconds quicker every km, which is very satisfying. However this is slightly misleading; my times have been 15-20 seconds quicker for the first 4km or so, and at that point I tend to pick up the pace. Extremely encouraging none the less.

Moving away from statistics (I love them, but I'm an information geek soooo...)

I went rock climbing on Thursday. It was blooming ace! I went with 2 mates to the 'climbing hangar'; at the climbing hangar there are no ropes - you just get on with your own thing. It's basically an old warehouse converted into climbing walls.

The 3 of us thought we were (Google's 'famous rock climbers') Chris Sharma scaling a mountain like pros... We were in fact just going on the easiest routes and taking a couple of goes to complete the ascent and descent of them. Still, we had fun...

...We also had blistered fingers following the climbing; how tough does my hand look all taped up? Grrr!!


The blistered fingers are the least of my worries; the whole of my upper body has got bad ass DOMS, and I'm struggling to open bottles and cans because my blooming fingers also have DOMS; who knew?!

Anyway, as soon as the blisters have healed, and the DOMS has gone, I'm definitely going to go back climbing. It's great because it gives my upper body a workout, and doesn't really tire out my legs and so won't hinder my running.

*Embaraasing foot note* Its hurt my fingers a little bit typing this post... What a wuss !

Thursday 28 March 2013

The Tw@ts you come across whilst on a run

We all cross paths with them, the scrotes of the universe who think they’re Ricky Gervais/Michael McIntyre/Billy Connolly/Miranda Hart/Reg D Hunter/I’m running out of comedians now/delete as applicable, or just generally little $hits…

They normally fit into three categories:

Verbal abuse

‘Keep running’, ‘go faster’, ‘run Forrest run!’, ‘I could run faster than you’, ‘you’re $hit’.


Yes as runners we’ve heard them all, no matter what line they come up with, it won’t be original, and it certainly won’t be funny.

My reaction to this in the past has ranged from giving people the finger, shouting expletives, to lifting my top to show my wash board stomach (I’m joking – about the lifting my top, not about the wash board stomach, obviously !)

Nowadays I just ignore it – this is made much easier because I’m either with my running club, or when running on my own I have my earphones in so can pretend not to hear them.

Physical abuse

Hopefully this is something no runner ever has to come to terms with, but sadly, I hear stories of this from running friends all too often. One had a bottle of strawberry milkshake thrown at them (which hit them, causing pain and stickiness). I myself have had stones thrown at me by a gang of cowardly youths… It was a group of 4, and, standing on the other side of a canal I always run down they started to throw stones at me… Luckily I am the pint sized torpedo, so they never stood a chance of hitting me, but very dangerous none the less.

At the time I got really mad about it and shouted at them. I’ve no doubt if there wasn’t a canal between us they would never have had the balls to throw stones at me, or that I would have marched right up to them and done them some damage (one fit runner versus 4 runty youths is no contest).

Even typing about it now makes my blood boil; I can deal with it, but what if it was an older runner who couldn’t get out of the way and was hit?

So yes, physical abuse – the lowest of the lows form scum of the earth

Hired ninja

AKA dogs! Small dogs, big dogs, skinny dogs, stocky dogs… The silent ninjas who are there to ankle tap you or try and play with you. I find they are most prevalent towards the end of a long slow run, particularly a really difficult one, and when you’re on a canal path where the chances of taking a dunk are high.

Now, I’m a dog person, I love dogs, but if you can’t control your dog ‘you gotta keep that thing on a leash damn’. I must stress: the majority of dog owners are great, as with anything it is the small minority that are the problem… Even worse are the ones who are offended by me being annoyed at nearly biting the dust due to their disobedient dog. C’est la vie!!

Friday 22 March 2013

Being ‘officially’ discharged from hospital and physio…

…and immediately thinking my knee has got a niggle again.

But. Its. Not.

My IT band is tight, as is my back… So I’ve booked myself in for a sports massage tomorrow.

We runners are masochists!

Anyway, I should be really happy about being discharged, and I am… I just need a few weeks of good running to get back into it.

Which I have had I suppose – in the last 2 weeks I’ve been for 5 runs, my last run being a fairly strong 6kms in 28 minutes – not bad given I’ve been out for half a year!!

It’s just difficult to get into my head that I’m ok now, and everything I’m feeling is fatigue and tightness for not having run for so long.

Anyway, in celebration of my fresh bill of health I have entered 5 races! -Three 10k’s, one 5 miler, and one 5k. I’m really looking forward to them!!

Three of these races I completed last year so I know what to expect, the other two I haven’t. It’s always nice to have a bit of variety in your races; old favourites and new challenges.

Here’s to lactic acid build up, DOMS, and walking like a cowboy but grinning like the cheshire cat!! (What a mental image)


Sunday 17 March 2013

Book Review: Kelly Holmes: Black, White & Gold - My Autobiography

I have recently read Kelly Holmes’ autobiography; ‘another’ Olympic star (though not a recent one) to make the most of their publicity following their gold medal success. Having read a few of these types of autobiography I wanted to put pen to paper (or should not be fingers to key board?!) about my (extremely high) opinion of it.

The version I’ve read is a slightly updated one, which was released in 2006. When I bought the book I knew that Kelly had won two Olympic gold medals, but that was about it.


The book starts off nicely with her going to collect her MBE to whet the appetite, before cutting that part of her tale short and moving on to her childhood and the beginning of her story proper.

I’ll not delve in to the story too much, as I’m not looking to give a watered down version of her life. However, where most athletes spend very little time on their early years as it wasn’t really that interesting, with Kelly’s book it is different. She spends plenty of time discussing her former years, as well as her teenage and early twenties before she really got in to the ‘Olympic’ years.

When the book does move on to her Olympic training and path, there is some very hard hitting content – particularly around the injury plagued chunks of her career. You really do feel like you are getting an insight view of a psyche when, by her own admission, he athletic career hit rock bottom.

Again, I don’t want to go into the detail of it (although if you’ve seen her interview with Piers Morgan you’ll know the gist of it) but I really connected with what she was saying. Perhaps that was because I was injured when I was reading it, but I think even if I had been flying in terms of my personal running I would have still felt her anger/depression/disappointment.

It would be easy to gloss over these bits of her story, and not open herself up to the criticism she could have potentially faced, so I applaud her for going into the detail she did – this is partly what makes her book so good. There are no holds barred, and her lows are very low…

(For more on being injured read my guest post 'What runners do when they're injured' ).

The book finishes off by returning to her receiving her (fully deserved) MBE and listing all of her race results.

There is some fascinating stuff about what she has been through in life, and the course she took in becoming a double gold medal winning athlete. I would implore anyone who runs, or likes watching athletics, heck, anyone, to read this book… It really is fantasic!

Monday 11 March 2013

What it feels like to run a marathon...

‘I’ve only done it once, so I don’t really have a very good frame of reference’

I could be talking about anything there really couldn’t I?! If I had to guess what 6 or 7 out of every 10 people’s line of thought was I probably could, wink wink, nudge nudge. (I'm obviously talking about having 'only' run one marathon)

Anyway, as I continue to overcome my injury woes I thought I would blog about 6 things you will go through, or will go through your mind during arguably the most difficult race you’ll ever run.*

1. You will feel like every rumbling of your belly will cause you to defecate in your pants

I get nervous for 5km & 10km races, even though I know I can complete the distance. Throw in you’re about to run a distance you have never run before and nerves go through the roof… Don’t worry though, worst case scenario this happens:


And let’s be honest; ‘I finished a marathon despite having shit my pants’ (whilst totally disgusting) is…. admirable!

2. ‘This doesn’t feel too bad’

Yeah, you’re only half way there Sonny Jim… I felt great at 13 miles, I felt pretty good at 16 miles, I fell apart after 18 miles. If you feel good, appreciate it, and don’t think it’s a reason to up your pace; it will always catch up on you.

3. Men WILL wear extremely tight lycra

I’m not against men wearing lycra, it has a purpose – I wear lycra shorts underneath my running shorts to stop chaffing (plus I like the way it makes my bum look - but that’s a different issue).

From my experience male marathon runners seem to think that just because they’re running 26.2 miles it therefore means they can wear skin tight lycra pants (which by the way, will show definition of any bumps or lumps!). This in my view is uncool, I don’t want to be bending over to tie my laces only to look up and see a cling film wrapped appendage bobbing along; just no!

4. Spectators

Oh they always mean well with their clapping, ‘you’re doing great’, and ‘keep going’, let’s get this clear though… If I want to stop and stretch the calf muscle that has been cramping up every time I move faster than a shuffle for the last 3 miles I will, don’t tell me not to give up – I’m not bloody giving up am I?!

5. It will hurt

Make no mistake about it you will suffer – the amount you suffer will depend on how much training you put in… The quote ‘the more you sweat in practice the less you bleed in battle’ is definitely true when it comes to marathons.

I got cramp in my right calf after 18 miles, form then onwards it crept into every muscle in both my legs, and by trying to stretch out one muscle it would only cause another to spasm into cramp. However, looking back the memories of the pain from cramp aren’t the over-riding feeling – so accept that at times it will be very tough and you won’t go too far wrong!


6. You will feel bloody ace when it’s done

There is no feeling like having run a marathon; you will never again (until the next time at least) walk like you’ve spent a night in prison having dropped the soap in the showers (and goofily wear a medal to let all and sundry know about it!).

You will never again be able to consume 5,000+ calories in one sitting and not feel guilty about it.

You will never again breakdown in tears because you’ve completed something which has taken months of dedication, training, abstinence from drinking and eating excessively. (What? Just me?!)



On a slightly more serious note; spectators and the crowd are great, they are a huge help and they will help you at the lowest of your lows (like giving out jelly babies)… If you’re really lucky, they’ll make you carry on running no matter what and you’ll look like this:

Sex face / dying face / out of body experience / have I just shit my pants face / thank f@ck that’s the finish line face… You decide!

I feel very proud and privileged to say I have completed a marathon – in many ways the race is the easy part… You get people handing you drinks and energy gels, cheering you for running a stupidly long distance, and a nice bit of bling afterward. It’s the days, weeks and months leading up to it which are difficult; the lonely 20 milers in the pouring rain, the tempo runs in the blazing heat, the torment of injury and 'will I be able to finish?'

The decision to run a marathon should not be taken lightly; it is a massive undertaking; when I signed up for it I made a conscious decision I would prepare for it properly and put my all into it. I wanted to complete the marathon in less than three and a half hours (I ‘only’ managed less than four hours) and to not stop running at any point (I didn’t manage that either). I commend anyone who has the guts and dedication to complete a marathon no matter how long it takes – 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours, or 6+ hours.


You find out a lot about yourself when training for a marathon, and on the day when you are running it. It is in many ways an analogy of life; 'life is a marathon not a sprint'. Will you give up when it gets tough? Will you fight for it and make it through the tough times? Nothing worth having comes easy and if you want it, you have to work damn hard for it and earn it - there are no free rides in the marathon (or life).

*Most of the observations in this blog are tongue in cheek though have an edge of truth!!!

"In anything in life; sport, love, family, friendship, you get out exactly what you put into it... It is always better to have put too much into something, to have given your all, despite running the risk of burn out or over exposure, than be the person who is afraid to put their complete effort in for fear of failure or not wanting to stray out of their comfort zone."