Splits

Event Information:
Event:	The ING New York City Marathon
Runner:	PAUL SCOTT
Latest Results:
Location Time Pace/mile 5 Kilometers 0:34:19 11:02 10 Kilometers 1:09:24 11:10 15 Kilometers 1:46:43 11:26 20 Kilometers 2:25:28 11:42 Half-Marathon 2:34:05 11:45 25 Kilometers 3:08:31 12:08 30 Kilometers 3:49:36 12:19 35 Kilometers 4:36:02 12:41 40 Kilometers 5:20:28 12:53 Finish 5:38:39 13:31

Well I did it!

It wasn't quick and it wasn't pretty but I finished it, all 26.2 miles in something like 5:38 (don't worry Dick your record is safe).

What an experience, the crowds, the runners, the pain, the even worse pain than before. Not kidding as I type I am lying in bed in agony from the waist down, you know those little muscles that make your ankles work, well yes, even they hurt, all of them.

As for the race (and I know I haven't been calling it that, but a friend who was also running was told "it's a race not a hike" so I'm calling it a race) I would like to be able to take you all blow by blow through mile 1 to 26, but I can't. I can remember less about this run than any of my training runs, and a lot more happened.

I would like to thank so many people, firstly all of the people who have sponsored me, I ran with you all in my thoughts and tried to not let anyone of you down.

I'd like to thank all the supporters on the route, you can not believe what it means to have literally thousands of people calling out your name as your run past.

I'd like to thank the Anthony Nolan trust for all their help in getting me to the start and the finish.

and I'd like to thank my wife, she has been my coach, my inspiration and the person who has calmed me down when nothing else would, and who has picked me up the many times I doubted myself.

It hasn't quite sunk in yet, I got back and had a few beers (what else) but I do feel I have achieved something, I am no Kenyan, and I am no Paula, and congratulations to them all, but I did something for my mate, I did something I always wanted to do, but never ever ever thought I could and I burst into tears at the end (you were right Karen).

So, the soles of my feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my shins hurt, my calves hurt, my knees hurt, my thighs hurt, no I would not do it again, but boy am I pleased I did it once.

There were 2 posters on route, both inspirational for different reasons, the first was "Pain is temporary, pride lasts for ever", which was good, but my favourite was the one that I could hear Mickey shouting after I saw it, "Not finishing is not a f**king option".


To Mickey.

We can't I meet fat unfit people?

Ok, this is starting to grate on me a little bit, I've mentioned my marathon escapade to a few people, and on a number of occassions it has been met with suprise, shock, disbelief and on the odd occasion, "really, so am I".

However, the "so am I's" all seem to be fit, healthy looking people who weigh about the same as my running top when wet, and none of them seem to be like me.  In fact, at a meeting this morning it went a little further, when one of the people I was meeting with suggested a beer this evening, to which I gracefully declined due to my marathon preparations, then all of a sudden the slip of a lad that was also in attendance perks up and mentiones that he is also running it, when questioned about the sort of time he was aiming for I physically felt the blood draining from my head as he discussed his hope of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which means he needs to post a time less than 3 hours and 10 minutes. Oh deep joy.

However, my personal trainer (wife) lifted my spirits and told me "some people don't even train for it, mind you, they're the ones who nearly die!"

Less than 1 week to go!

Would you believe it, this time next week I will (hopefully) be recovering from a very large hangover!

Yes, in less than 1 week, in fact, in almost exactly 6 days time, I should be finishing the New York Marathon, woo hoo.  The end of 4 months of training, hours of endless running and no more talking to myself.

For the rest of the week the training runs are really gentle, and even the 10k I had to do yesterday was "easy pace", and supposedly in "race" gear, firstly there is the use of that word again, "race", any one who has seen me run will know that I am not racing anyone next week.  But the question of "race" gear did get me thinking.  The weather forecast for New York has changed quite a bit in the last few days, firstly the temprature was in the mid 70's last week, which would not be fun, but is expected to be around the 15c mark next week, which will be nice. However, it might rain, now I don't mind running in the rain, it can be quite refreshing, but I've not run for 4-5 hours in the rain, actually I've yet to run for 4-5 hours at all, but any way I'm not sure what to wear if it is going to poor down for the whole thing, perhaps that divers suit would have been a good idea after all!!

Any way, for those interested, yes I am really nervous now, it has come round so quickly, and all the people who have asked me "so when is this run thing then, 3-4 weeks away?" haven't helped at all this weekend.  No it isn't 3-4 weeks away, and part of me wishes it was, but the other part is like, no come on, lets get it over with now, you can do it, and at the worst it is just going to be the worst 5 hours or so of your life, but it is only 5 hours, and then I can sit down and enjoy a beer or 3, how fantastic is that hangover going to feel.

To Mickey

Today is a big day for reminding me why I'm doing this.

Today is the anniversary of the day my friend Mickey died. 

Today my thoughts are with Glenda.

Today 26.2 miles is nothing.

Last Long One

Ok, so this weekend is the start of Tapering, and for those that don't know, this is when you start to ease off the running to let your body prepare for the actual marathon.  

The idea is that you have done all the training you need to do by now, and the next 2 weeks the body can replenish some of the carbs ready for the run and rest the muscles in preparation.  However, at various points during the day I have a deep desire to go and do a long run, these times normally coincide with me thinking about how ill-prepared I am for the marathon, or when someone asks how the training is going.  But I've been told that I should taper, and that going and running 18-20 miles now will not help.  I really do wish that I'd done that long run.

Still, at the weekend I met my schedule halfway and rather than (as I wanted to) push myself onto my longest run yet, I did 14 miles, which was a bit more than the schedule said to do, but less than I wanted to, and I did it and felt pretty comfortable.  In fact (and I may regret this) I actually felt like I could run a marathon.

My route was different too, and I think this might have helped a lot.  We were staying in Poole, for the Mother-in-laws birthday (don't worry mum I won't mention your age here), and as the party didn't start until 2:30, I took myself off in the morning for a very gentle (as the schedule said) run down to Poole Quay, and along the coast.

This proved to be a very nice route (with the exception of low tide and a smell that nearly had my toast reappearing) along the quay, through Poole Park, and up Evening Hill with it's lovely views of Brownsea Island and the beach.  The I turned round and ran back home.

The run back was less fun, 1) because I'd seen it all on the way out, 2) because the streets were busier, and my invisibility cloak seems to work in Poole as well, as no one could see me, and 3) because the last 3 miles were up hill.  

The good news:  no chafing of the thighs (thanks to all at bodyglide for there tireless research), no bleeding nipples (thanks to all at elastoplast for their tireless research), but stupid here forgot his socks, so whilst breaking in new running shoes for the marathon, I sustained a blister to the end of my big toe and took the skin off the back of my heal just around the top of my trainer, luckily though I didn't notice either until I got home, and I guess that should be them broken in.

I wasn't fast, but I did it, in about 2:30, which still has me on target for a 5 hour marathon, but I have decided that I am really going to be looking for inspiration from the crowd to lift me on to the finish, probably from about mile 2!

 

Words of encouragement

All, you may know that I have been training with my ipod, and intend to run with it in the marathon. Everyone says that the atmos is great and that you don't need it, but it has become a bit of a crutch to me, and the tracks that I have on there really seem to make a difference to how fast and far I can run.  Saying that, I did have a thought today, and I'm now calling on all my supporters (yes both of you), to see if you can record some words of encouragment, you know the sort of stuff I mean, thatI can then put on my ipod to help me through the hours.  If you can record it as an mp3 on your computer and then email me, I will stick it on my ipod and listen to you shouting obscenities at me at random intervals around the streets of NY.

Personal Trainer

It has also come to my attention that the "friend" that talked my into running this silly marathon has secured the services of a "personal trainer" of late, this I believe is the same "personal trainer" that his brother (another marathon runner who is doing Dublin the week before we run New York) uses.  Not wanting to be out done, I now have my own "personal trainer" who is constantly making sure that I get up and get out and do my runs, pushing me to run further, faster, and not to miss a training run.  I have to say, that my dear wife Amy has stopped short of biking alongside me with a megaphone shouting abuse at me, but there is still time.

Glorious victories and a dodgy 14 miler

So what a weekend, England stun the world with a fantastic display of some of the forgotten art within the wonderful game we call rugby, and I do another 14 miles stomping around the streets of North London.

Yes, I know I said I was going to try and stop going off topic, but come on, wasn't that truely fantastic? I always said that if the pack could turn up and they had a flyhalf they had a chance, and on Saturday both happened.  The pack (led be Sherri) gave an amazing performance, the Aussie back row has been legendary on the run up to this tournament (something akin to the England back row last time round) yet they were taken apart at the breakdown by the likes of Moody, Corry, Easter and Shaw, the ball carrying from the forwards was relentless and the support at the breakdown was staggering in comparrision to previous games, let alone what the front row and tight 5 did to the scrums.  The backs were also very close to being able to show what they can do with quality ball in hand.

Anyway, bring on Le Blues.

So back to the running, I had quite a good week last week following my 16 miler, and picked up early in the week with some good quicker short runs, and also I didn't need 4 days before I was able to walk again, which was a huge relief.  But this weekend was always going to be difficult, I had intended to run 18miles but having my daughter and England playing the Aussies was going to mean it was difficult to fit the time in (and now it is a long time).  Saturday came and went and I was left having to do the long run on Sunday (before the 3rd quater final).

I set off from Winchmore Hill this time, and ran up to Southgate, and up past the home of Southgate RFC and on to Cockfosters and trent park.  This was all really straight forward and my times were wonderfully consistant.  I refulled at the shop, and headed back down Southgate and past the Fishmongers Arms (the other home of Southgate RFC) and down to Grange Park.  I didn't have any real idea of route in mind, but I've done so many miles round the area now that I know I could link particular runs I'd done together to form a long run over familiar terrain.  From Grange Park it was up and over the hill on Old Park Ridings (which I still think is quite a steep climb) and down through the park, this was around the 7-8 mile mark and I'll be dammed if I didn't feel really good, so good in fact that I desided to put Windmill Hill into my route and started to do the 2nd climb in 2 miles, with the benefit of hindsight I think that might have been a mistake, I laboured my way up the hill which was really disapointing as I'd sailed up the fist climb, and then as I reached the top this little slip of a lass came bouncing past me, and I mean bouncing, I swear she used more energy bouncing upwards than I could muster to propel myself forward, still better than  being overtaken by the suit running for his bus last week.

As I headed back down into Enfield around the 10 mile mark me legs were really starting to feel it and I began to get quite down about how little time I had left to build the strength up in my legs before the marathon itself, I had stopped to get another bottle of water and think that in doing this it might not have helped, but I pushed on and after a few miles the pain subsided from my calves and then moved up my legs into my thighs, then groin and then the lower stomach. 

The per mile pace of the last few miles of my run resembles the Alps, with everything from a really poor 12 minutes to a 9:50 as I started to get angry with myself.  At this stage I'd also like to apologies to the lady with the small child who probably didn't need to overhear those sort of words at such a tender age, and also if anyone out there knows if you can get running insurance, you know, hyperthetically for someone who perhaps whilst running collides with a child in the street and flatterns them?  

In the end I pushed myself onto 14 miles, and then took myself home to watch the rugby and spend some time with my family.  It wasn't quite the success I'd wanted, but on the positive side I did another run over half way.

Less than a month to go

Ok, it is really starting to get very real now, and it is coming round very quickly.

Before too long my training is supposed to start tapering, can you believe that, the last 2 weeks before the run and I'm supposed to taper my training, there are those out there who think I started my tapering around about 12 weeks ago, but I can assure you I have now logged over 250 training miles (unfortunately an ipod malfunction appears to have lost some of my runs including my 16 miler last weekend).

I have also had some criticism from some regarding the content of my blog, and that it had originally started out to be a window onto the sole of a man undertaking the hardest phyiscal and mental challenge of his life, and instead (although very interesting) has become a window onto one mans view of the England Rugby Team - GO ON ENGLAND.  But I feel I can draw a number of similarities from my running and the England team, no one thought they could get this far and it is sheer determination rather than form and prearation that is keeping them going.

So apologies, but I will try and get the blog back on topic for those that prefer to read about my physical and mental anguish and pain.