As you know, about
one-year ago I decided to embark on my most recent challenge of running the
2015 London Marathon. With some coercing from our enthusiastic Team Leader, a
team of 10 (no 14, or was it 12, oh back to 10 again) colleagues, friends, and
family pledged our way in and committed to the 26.2 mile feat. We trained
diligently with and without setbacks and rallied together to achieve the
equally monumental challenge of raising £22,000 GBP for the charity Oxfam. I’ve
brought you along the experience the past 6 months, and will now share/ relive
the final week with you over one month (late, I know) after the event. Thank
you to all who have helped our team to achieve our goals and I apologise that
it’s taken this long for me to wrap up and share this with everyone.
So, how did it go?
The week of the
race saw the arrival of one of our most distant team members, Kyle, where Oxfam
Team Canada was united and fully recruited for our final pre-race fundraiser- a
Pre-Race Send-Off Breakfast. Pancakes, sausage, fruit salad and baked goodies a
plenty, we were able to add another 200£ (+cash match) to the donation pot.
Team Canada family support Leanna Carriere Flipping the Stack
A member of the
Oxfam office team called me recently to ask what tips I had for successfully
reaching our fundraising targets, where I replied that these food sales have
been my lifesaver. Two Soup Sales, a Chilli Lunch, and two Pancake Breakfasts
spread over 6 months kept our work colleagues well fed and interested enough to
keep donating over £1000 total over the events. I found these events especially
helpful in working for a multicultural company where it’s not always custom to
donate larger amounts of money directly to a charity. However, people are happy
to pay a fiver for some breakfast or lunch if it’s tasty, home cooked, and for
a colleague and good cause. My first big thank you goes to all of you who came
over for some Sweet Potato and Chorizo soup or a spot of Solar Eclipse
Breakfast Buffet.
Meet the Team: Mark, Kyle, Zena, Anil, Kristyn, Anya, Rich, Rhona, Ivan, and Emanuel
Down to London we
went and actually the entire team of 10 of us + family eventually met up for the first time. With the token team photo
taken and an attempt at a plan to try and meet the next morning, we parted ways
to navigate the circus also known as the registration exhibition. Here you have
the chance to buy some top of the range running gear, technical food goodies,
and recovery tools that look more a cross between dog toys and torture
implements. I expectedly haemorrhaged money on novelty shoe laces that are
colourful and don’t require tying along with some souvenir clothing items as a
reward for/ incentive to finishing (of course if I hadn’t finished, I wouldn’t
have been able to wear my souvenirs), but managed to steer clear of the
abundance of technical foods on offer- apart from the free samples of London
Pride... I’m quite certain that this amber ale is full of the B-vitamins needed
for energy release during endurance events?! Remember, I studied Nutrition and
that must be why they sponsor
athletic events. In any case, Kyle and I thought it best to preserve our topped
up energy, and by energy I mean crowd patience, and returned back to our hotel
to relax for the evening.
Pre-Race Energy Boosting at the London Pride stall.
Pre-Race Kit Pack
Time for Race Day
and we started off early on the advice of the many who have run the event
before us. Much like I have now become by writing this blog, prior participants
of “London” are self-nominated experts and like to tell you how it is and what
you should do… especially if you haven’t asked for advice. Notions like “Set
off early, and even earlier than you think you should” should be followed with
my advice on top of that “…and even earlier again than you think you should”.
Reason being is that no experts told me that from the tube station to the
starting area, there are no public toilets, it’s a 20 minute walk, AND that at
the start area, you could queue for 30 minutes to use one of the hundreds of guarded
port-a-loos provided (yes, guarded for desperate queue jumpers).
Tinned sardines en route to the start.
With the masses entering Greenwich Park (still 10 minutes to the event pens... and a wall of men peeing in the trees, which I decided not to photograph).
The
self-administered advice that I did follow is to maintain good hydration prior
to the start of the event or the advice that perhaps I decided to ignore is to
not drink too much before the start. This tip is published in all of the
pre-race packs for the runners and I thought it confusing when I kept reading
it- are people really that thick and are they going to suffer ill-fate from
over-hydrating? No, the ill-fate certainly won’t be from pre-race
over-hydration, it will be from a burst bladder waiting in line to go pee or
from a punch-up when they jump the line to preserve their exploding bladder.
These are the details that matter to me and nobody mentioned, so you are
welcome.
Expectedly in the
end, I didn’t manage to meet up with more than two team members but did manage
to pee, keep hydrated, drop my bag, and get to the starting cattle pen in time
for the beginning of the race- maybe with more of an adrenaline rush than I
would have preferred, but found my place in the masses all the same. It’s go
time!
Our fearless leader: Rich and me.
Holy Batman- this is happening (at the start).
Touching back on
the received advice in the run up to the event, the start of the race was
better than I expected. Many previous runners spoke about the congested start
having a negative effect on your time “but you’ll catch it back later, so don’t
worry about it”. For someone who normally gets caught up in the excitement of
the start of the race (and ends up pushing it too hard for the first few
miles), I thought that the start was well set out. I attribute this to the
honesty of the runners in and around my starting areas. When you sign up for
the event, you submit your estimated finish time. The theory is that you should
be grouped with runners of similar ability, thus at a similar starting pace. If
you are all actually running to your ability and of a similar pace, then
traffic flows and this is mostly what happened. Sure enough, over about the
first three miles, the gaps started to open and people naturally swerved in and
around each other as they got into their race groove. My pace was spot on
target at miles 1 – 3, and as well for the entirety of the race.
What did amaze me
from the start, and throughout the complete course, was the amount of spectator
support! Right from the beginning family, friends, and people from the
neighbourhoods got up on a cold grey morning to stand and watch a glimpse of
their loved ones, novelty trees, and super heroes dart by whilst holding signs
of encouragement such as “only XX more miles to beer”, “there are naked
cheerleaders at the next mile”, and my favourite “shut up legs”.
When you're winning- you get your own special hydration stations #WilsonKipsang.
And when you blow a wheel- it's nice to have your trusted Mechanic on hand- Super Supporter Dad to the rescue!
And when you are in the masses, you can expect to be beat by a Snowman. Sorry, Kyle.
I’d say on at least
half of the 26.2 mile course, the crowds
were shoulder-to-shoulder and four spectators deep, and that there was probably
less than 500m of unadorned route. So a second big thank you goes to all of the
supporters- family, friends, friends of friends, and the random people you have
never met that shout your name (or Country in my case) because you printed it
on your t-shirt like you’re at a school summer camp. Go Canada!! Admittedly I
gave a double fist pump to all of those who shouted encouragingly at me along
the way and thank you to Mark Carney’s (Bank of England Governor) Canadian
cheering squad on the Tower Bridge at mile 20-something. I saw them before they
saw me, but with glowing hearts (they saw me rise)… or run… and made a lot of
noise once they clocked my massive flag-cape.
Oh yes and not to
forget the most important props and thank you to my personal cheering squad on
the day who, with some well-debated and planned routing, managed to see Kyle
and me three times on the course. Sighting #1 delivered the happy feeling that
the people that care are there for you; Sighting #2 created the much needed feeling
of encouragement when the effort and boredom started to encroach; and an
unexpected Sighting #3 brought that oomph and pride needed to help you make it
that last few miles.
Feeling Fresh about halfway through
And if you didn't think it was London... here I am by the Horseguards with the London Eye in the background.
And how did the
rest of it feel?
In addition to the immense sense of achievement from smashing my targets (in the top 10% of women racers!!!), Difficult? Yes.
Challenging? Of course. Tiring? Not as bad as expected.
Difficult in that
it was 3 hours and 40 minutes of road running. I was prepared and very well
trained, but I still felt my quads ripping at around the 20 mile mark.
Thankfully though, not as bad as some runners you see pulling up at the side of
the course with obviously excruciating hamstring or calf cramp.
Challenging in that
it’s about choosing and setting out your goals ahead of time- are you doing it
for a time? Or to set a record? Or to raise some money for a great cause? What
are your motivators and how will you reach your targets? The Challenge is
committing to those goals and working on your strategy towards achievement.
It’s not only about getting through the distance, it’s also having the right physical
preparation, as well as having a positive and encouraging mindset throughout
the race. Like when I climbed Kili, mind-over-matter is a large factor on the
journey… for me mind-over-matter was a bigger factor in the training, for
others they have that challenge in the race itself.
And Tiring? Again,
of course running the 26.2 miles is physically tiring, but I would say that the
34 weeks of training and fundraising was more tiring. I started to feel fed up
of running and training and missing out on the extra bit of time I had in the
week to bake or read in the evening. The mojo was diminishing to a level that fluorescent
orange shoes and some multi coloured spandex couldn’t even keep aroused. At
this point I can thank my innate traits of being stubborn and relentless because
I certainly couldn’t give up at that point.
So what about next
time? What are my tips or tricks? What would I have done differently?
Training Plan Round 2: Minor modifications, but all in all, well stuck to.
1) Try
a different training program- it was important for me to try the distance before
the race. All the training blogs advise against that, but some people just need
to feel it before it happens. I would think that as a beginner/ intermediate you
could do a 20 – 22 week program, running four days a week, and not over-train.
It would take determination and diligence, but would be possible; especially if
you…
2) Remember
the after-care package is just as important, and by this I mean the foam
rolling and stretching. Most running injuries are stress and impact related- so
by keeping knot free, loose and limber, you keep your muscles, tendons, and
joints moving in the best way. A foam roller costs less than £15 and who doesn’t
like to have a massage?!
Alternatively for those of you with a constant supply of antioxidant juice... I find the wine bottle works well on the extra stubborn knots.
3) Have
a running buddy- For half-marathon training, it’s less important- but having
someone to spur you on when you really don’t feel like it was super helpful;
and believe me, there will be many hours and days that you really don’t feel
like it.
And in closing, I
want to give those of you who donated to Oxfam a big heartfelt thank you. The training day and
night in preparation and becoming a well-oiled running machine was only part of
the challenge- I knew ahead of time that the fundraising would be just as
difficult. Your support has made a difference to the cause where your funds
have helped to start a rice-growing revolution in Liberia or more recently,
deliver aid to the earthquake victims in Nepal. Thank you, thank you, thank
you!
And if you’re still feeling inspired,
here’s the link to my fundraising page:
