25th April 2006

Prior to putting on my trainers I knew that to keep track of myself I needed a few routes together with knowing the distance from one thing to another.

Working out the routes wasn’t too hard as it simply means that once out of my home I can start jogging one direction or the other. As for knowing the distance I got into my car, zeroed the mileage counter and measured the distances.

As I do live in the country I drove to a visible object & wrote down the mileage. It worked out quite well as certain objects, like a post box, large antennas, ponds, etc, are positioned around & the distance to some are very close to a tenth of a mile, e.g. the large antennas is half a mile from my home.

Once the mileage was done, on went my trainers.

I ran for almost 3/10th of a mile (0.32 km) & felt awful!

My legs were like lead balloons & my breathing was all over the place. I was planning to run 4/10th & even though I knew it wasn’t going to be easy I didn’t expect to stop running & feel that bad.

26th April 2006

Based on what happened the evening before I was under no inclination that this was going to be different but did hope it would be. As it happened I sadly didn’t run the 4/10th but only missed the distance by not too much as I got to my next door neighbour’s garden entrance which is about 50 metres away.

27th April 2006

I decided to reduce my pace & even though I didn’t like the length of the stride I did manage to run to the post box & back home. This meant that I did run the 4/10th however what was better was my breathing being fine.

The pleasure of running the distance made me feel great & when eating my dinner I thought about allowing my food to settle & then try to run the same distance.

As I had to do non-marathon things the earliest time was 11.30pm however if I run to the post box a problem might be caused. From my house to the post box there are about 10 houses & two of them have dogs in their respective gardens. When I run pass them they bark at me & if I ran pass them at 11.30pm the barking might well waken up a good number of neighbours. That’s unfair so I decided to run in the opposite direction.

When using my car to measure the distance to a number of things I did spot a tree that stood out & that was just over 2/10th. I set off & did run to the tree & back home.

What was shown was the ease to run at nearly midnight as opposed to the evening however the down side was the vision. It was a clear night however it was nearly a new moon & therefore hardly any reflection. Thankfully I got by as the road gave the impression of being grey & the rest being black.

As for the day, that was brilliant. I ran two lots of 4/10th of a mile & my breathing was getting better.

28th April 2006

Seeing how well things went the night before I ran towards the tree. When I got to it I felt fine & therefore set the target to be the two large antennas which is half a mile from my home.

I got to the antennas & still felt fine therefore another new target was set which was run home.

Fantastic as I've just run one mile without stopping. Legs & my left ankle were a wee bit sore so hot bath time.

29th April 2006

I jogged the same route & distance I did yesterday.

30th April 2006

With the exemption of once jogging at 11.30pm all others have been around about 6.30pm but this jog was done at 11.30am.

I ran past the post box which did in turn get the dogs barking. I continued to jog for a mile & turned around & ran back. At no stage did I stop jogging & what was better still was that within the 2 miles I had to jog up-hill as well as down-hill. Perhaps the down side was my left ankle being a bit sore.

The picture was taken by Sally & shows how I looked after the 2 miles.

1st May 2006

Being a Bank Holiday I decided to go for a run in the morning as yesterday it went well. My plan was to travel the same distance I did yesterday but in this case going to the barn & back home.

I didn’t get to run to the barn!

My breathing was poor & my legs were sore so at about 100 metres from the barn I stopped & walked to it.

I wasn’t pleased about what happened so I felt I had to run to at least the antennas. That didn’t work as on two occasions I stopped, walked a bit & then re-started. On the third time I gave up & walked home. Once back home I sat & thought about why that jog back-fired.

The temperature was a good degree higher than yesterday & given my training is less than one week old I wondered if my breathing & legs came from lack of training. The other aspect was me thinking that I allowed my mind to go for a wonder & when you do that silly things are thought of.

I was still upset with that happened in the morning that in the early evening I decided to run in the opposite direction & see what happened. That went successfully as I jogged for 3.6 miles.

2nd May 2006

Seeing that my legs, knees & ankles were getting a tad sore I chose to swim & went to the nearest pool.

3rd May 2006

This evening I went for a jog towards the barn & thankfully I got to it without any problem therefore I carried on & got to the T-junction. Once there I turned around & ran back home. The distance is 3 miles. Oddly enough my left ankle was fine however my right ankle felt the soreness.

4th May 2006

Birthday so I chose no running nor swimming!

5th May 2006

I picked up Graeme from his home in Whitstable & when we got back to my house we got ready for a jog.

As sport is one of the things he likes & hence him doing that subject for GCSE, I asked him to show me certain warm-up moves. It became evident that sports things I was taught about have changed.

The warm-up that I was taught about was simply doing leg stretches, etc. What Graeme has been taught is to first off run quickly for a short period of time & then stretch the legs & arms. The reason behind the quick run is that your breathing has increased & therefore more oxygen to your body which will help the stretching progress. I warmed-up the way he said it & then when done off for a jog.

He is quite fit therefore I did warn him of my slow pace & how come my steps are like that. When we were running he could tell the difference in my pace to his however he did run at my pace.

We jogged past the barn & got to the T-junction. We turned around & ran home. Before we got back I said to him that I was feeling good & would like to carry on jogging. We went to the end of Chapel Lane & back home. The distance we ran was 6.6 miles & the pair of us felt great.

6th May 2006

Graeme & I went to the swimming pool to help relax our muscles.

7th May 2006

The evening before Sally, Graeme & I went to an Indian restaurant in Sudbury so today I felt that I had to run to try & make sure that any additional pounds gained will be lost.

It was still raining & actually started the evening before. I asked Graeme if he wanted to run but he said not, so at about midday I set off with the direction being towards the barn.

Wearing a vest, shorts & trainers took me a while to get used to running in this as the rain was falling heavily. Either way I did get to the T-junction & felt fine so off I went towards Assington.

I went down & up a step hill which was then followed by a slight bend in the road. Once around the bend I saw an area of the road covered with water. I was able to see that this was a dip in the road & thankfully for me I was aware of it as a big splash came from a car that drove through it.

Knowing I was 2 miles from home & not too bothered about jogging through that type of ‘ford’ I turned around with the view to run home & therefore do 4 miles.

I didn’t expect the rain to hit me the minute I turned around. Up until then the rain was landing on my back & that didn’t seem too big a problem. Once turned around the rain, still pouring heavily, landing on my chest, etc, & that took more of an effort to run through it. Thankfully my mind was with me so I ran to roughly 0.5 mile from home & the rain turned into drizzle.

As I approached the home I felt fine so did carry on running towards the post-box. I reached the box & still felt fine so the pond, 0.5 miles from home, was my next target. When I got to the pond I decided to jog down Chapel Lane.

At the bottom of Chapel Lane there is a T-Junction & that road goes, in one direction, to Sudbury & the other towards Bures. When I arrived at the T-junction I just turned around & jogged towards home.

Even though my knees & legs were quite sore I didn’t stop nor walked & therefore I jogged the whole distance which was 7.6 miles.

The picture shows you what I was like but not how I felt a half-an hour later.

To cool down I went for a brief walk & when starting to walk your legs light or numb which does feel odd. After the cool down I went for a warm bath. I slowly got in the bath & then felt pain on certain parts of my body. What had happened was the wet vest chafed my nipples & armpits.

Due to that I felt it was right to buy a book about marathon running with the hope that I don’t make mistakes like I’m currently doing.

8th May 2006

No running today due to the soreness in my lower body together with the blisters on my upper body. Well, Ok, pain all over!

In a shop I scanned a few books & chose to buy ‘Running for Peak Performance’ written by ‘Frank Shorter’.

I read in his foreword that he won the gold medal in the marathon at 1972 Olympics in Munich. Sadly those winning medals in that Olympics aren’t the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not going to write any more about that other than terrorism is disgusting.

Going back to the book, there are 160 pages however based on what has happened I don’t think it will take me that long to read it.

11th May 2006

The weather in May was sunny one day & wet the other with coldness coming into play. Today it was quite warm so I felt like jogging & see how things worked out.

I got to running beyond the barn however my mind did its job as I then walked a mile followed by running a final mile.

My mind got me thinking the weather was too hot to breath & also too many flies in the sky. How silly it is to be beaten by your mind?

13th May 2006

The weather was cooler so I set off towards the barn. Jogging wasn’t a problem as I travel past the barn & at the T-Junction I felt fine. I decided to go towards Bures & did about half a mile to then turn & run home.

15th May 2006

Earlier I bought track-suit leggings & seeing it was starting to rain I put them on. I jogged for 5.2 miles & the picture shows how hard the rain fell.

18th May 2006

The weather was fairly cool & it was raining but not too heavily. As a result I put on my track suit, took a bottle of half a litre of water with another one lying outside the house & started jogging towards the post box.

I did run down & up Spouts Lane, down & up Wyatts Lane, down & up Chapel Lane & then back to home. That was 5.2 miles & better still were my legs feeling fine. I therefore quickly dropped the empty bottle, picked up the full one & set off to Assington.

I completed the return run to Assington which meant that the full jog was 12 miles & it took 3 hours 37 minutes.

I know that is a long time however something I read in Runner’s World, on the net, is that in long distance running you're ‘better to be a tortoise than a hare’.

As for my ankles, legs & knees they were sore but the enjoyment of running 12 miles made it worth while.

20th May 2006

Another wet day with the rain falling sporadically it meant that Graeme & I had a couple of things to consider. The first was the rain with the second being that he forgot to pack his better running trainers. He felt the other pair would be fine so we waited until the rain wasn’t too bad & then set off towards Assington.

We got to the village but Graeme had to stop as his shin became very sore. Earlier in the week his shin was bruised because of bad football tackle.

As it wasn’t raining we turned around with the plan to walk back. Sadly it didn’t take too long for the rain to fall fairly heavily & as the weather was chilling, we phoned Sally & she came to pick us up.

23rd May 2006

I did the 5.2 miles & no problems were caused.

25th May 2006

I did the same 5.2 miles but ran it in reverse which meant I had the steep hills at the back end of the run. It did have an effect but nothing major.

27th May 2006

Due to this weekend being the Spring Bank Holiday I had already thought about running a long distance with the hope that it would be at least 12 miles.

The morning was either cold & heavily raining or dry with a clear sky meaning it was warm. I decided to wear the entire tracksuit with the view that if needed, I’ll take the jacket off & wrap it around my waist.

Things were fine jogging in the rain but as soon as the sun came out it got too hot wearing the jacket. Feeling that to stop jogging to simply take the jacket off, etc was something that shouldn’t happen & therefore I didn’t stop jogging. I did tie the arms around my waist but it didn’t take too long for the jacket to feel as though it was falling down my legs. I must have grabbed the jacket & put it back to being around my waist on a number of occasions but it was getting very annoying.

I had done about 2.2 miles & was jogging around the corner that is beside the pond. The jacket again looks like falling off so I un-tied it to re-tie but at the same time I did run around the corner & did see some gravel on the road. The book I’m reading says that running on gravel is better for the knees than running on tarmac so I put my right foot on it & bang, it jerked my knee which made me feel like a jerk by allowing that to happen!

I did try to run a few steps but even though the pain wasn’t very sore it told me that something was wrong & based on that I turned around & walked home.

The anger I felt was immense for not only my knee being sore, mainly caused by me being an idiot, but the distance ran wasn’t long enough. The anger from the lack of distance was worse than the other so I spent a period of time by sitting down followed then getting up to walk a bit.

About two hours later the knee didn’t fell as bad as it did before so I decided to run & see what happens. Whether that was smart or not I’m not sure however I did jog for nearly 7 miles.

After the run the knee did feel sore but not as bad as earlier. My hope was that the knee was simply an un-trained knee & that sooner or later it’ll be fine. Time will tell!

1st June 2006

Knowing the legs, ankles & knees were sore I gave myself a few rest days & used that time to read the book I bought together with searching on the net.

The non-running days allowed my legs, etc, to feel like normal so I decided to simply jog for 2 miles. That went alright.

3rd June 2006

The route was the 5.2 mile jog which Graeme hasn't done. Having jogged this distance but in a cooler temperature I wasn't sure whether that would effect my time. To find out Graeme started his mobile phone's stopwatch & off we went.

Perhaps bored with my pace Graeme sped-up his. The only thing he didn’t think about was him not really knowing the route so each time we came to a junction he had to stop running & wait for me to be within his view.

We must have done about 3 miles & Graeme decides to walk due to the soreness in his legs. I passed him & asked the time on his stopwatch. It was about 50 minutes & knowing the distance I had travelled earlier I decided to break that distance.

Once the hour was hit, Graeme shouted & I was able to see that I had travelled further than before which it now being about 4.5 miles.

Due to the soreness in Graeme’s legs we both walked home.

7th June 2006

As I was off to see ‘Sudbury Joggers’ I asked Sally if she knew the directions to the location. Sadly she wasn’t too sure of it so I checked the Net & then drove to what I thought it said. I ended up at the rugby club so I drove off & did find the leisure centre.

I walked around the building but couldn’t find anyone who looked like joggers as most of them were getting ready to play football. I went into the centre & at the counter I asked a lady if she knew. She pointed out who might be them so I walked over & thankfully it was them.

There were five of them however one wasn’t in his running kit. After a wee chat the other four & I went for a 4 mile run.

We were jogging & chatting to each other however the hill we were running up did separate us. Even though I’ve slowly jogged up the hills near my home this one was a wee bit worse in the sense that the hill went up for about 1.5 miles. Sadly I had to walk.

The club’s view is that on club nights no one runs on their own. As Jem Smith, the club’s captain, was jogging with me I unfortunately made him stop jogging. I did apologise to him however he wasn’t bothered about that & did say that he enjoys running with others as chatting to others makes the running more fun.

I think I walked for about 50 metres & then jogged again. All was fine until I got a stitch just under my left shoulder blade. That made me walk again but soon I jogged again & did get to the end of the route. Jem said the time was 45 mins.

10th June 2006

What happened today is another area where the lessons must be learnt & remembered.

In the morning I was reading certain parts of the London Marathon’s site with an article being very interesting & part of its title was: ‘Too much water a hazard for marathon runners’.

The article stated that when running one must limit the amount of water that is drunk. It outlined what might happen if too much was drunk & that could be headaches, vomiting, collapsing, confusion plus worse still, death. The guide given to slow runners, with me being one of them, was to drink half a litre every hour. Before I read the article my consumption was roughly a half-litre of water per hour so in that sense I didn’t need to change. What was learnt however was the importance of doing things properly as if not, all sorts can happen.

Knowing the weather was hot I decided to wait until evening & then run. I watched the World Cup with England playing Paraguay & one of the things that cropped up was the lack of water the players were allowed to drink. England played well in the first half but performed badly in the second half. After the game the coach & players said that the lack of water caused them a problem. Whether that is right is up for grabs but I do know that I feel better when I’ve got a bottle of water.

The football match finished at about 4pm & at around 4.45pm I decided to start running. My target was to run to Assington & if I felt fine I could then run to Bures & then back home. That distance would be just over 10.5 miles.

As I was using my stopwatch my first mile took 11 mins which was an improvement.

I took two half-litre bottles with the intent to place one on the ground at the T-junction. The T-junction is roughly 1.5 miles from home & to go left takes one to Assington whereas right goes Bures. With regard to the bottles, the one left on the ground would be ready for me if I decided to run to Bures as I was sure the one I carried would be drunk by the time I got back from Assington.

The above sounds like a good idea so off I ran however when holding the two bottles I found it tricky to carry on running whilst trying to remove one of the lids & then replace it. I ended up taking the lid off a couple of times & having a few sips while still running. When I got to the T-junction I dropped off one of the bottles & then was easily able to drink out of the other bottle.

Jogging to Assington was going alright however when approaching the village things started to feel wrong. My breathing increased & then my right knee started to feel sore. I carried on for a while but then stopped as I was concerned about my knee & breathing.

After waiting for a while I decided to walk home but then I got to the T-junction I thought about trying to jog to Bures. I gave up on that idea & picked up the second bottle & walked home.

Once I got back I felt that I must do some more jogging & therefore I re-filled one of the bottles & ran the 5.2 mile.

I managed to run without stopping or walking & better still was the time was 1 hr 11 mins which was a Personal Best (PB).

After cooling down I jumped into a cold bath & when dry & dressed I came down for dinner.

Sally poured a glass of Rose & when drinking it I thought the taste was very different to what I expected. I said to Sally that maybe my taste has changed due to me no longer smoking however tasting the food, didn’t feel right. It was nothing to do with the food as it was a salad. After a while I did feel slightly unwell. I went to bed & fell asleep to be woken up the next morning.

The question was what happened? Was the weather too hot to run? Was it the heat that stopped me earlier when later in the day I did do 5.2 miles?

The answer is that I don’t know but perhaps in time I’ll find out.

14th June 2006

Met up with some of the others in ‘Sudbury Joggers’ & we did the same route we did last week. I did the 4 miles in 47 mins & the good side was me jogging up the hill & also the rest of the route. As for time, I felt it was slower than last week but Jem (who I was running with) said it was nearly the same time.

After the jog we all went to the nearest pub as a meeting had been arranged. Those present were 10 of which half of them I hadn’t met. It was enjoyable meeting up with runners who have been jogging for a number of years.

17th June 2006

Graeme’s shin was back to normal however he jarred his knee, again from playing football as he is injury prone. Either way he chose to go for a jog but put a bandage around his knee.

Maybe sooner or later I’ll find out whether I’m right or not as I think bandages are simply a comfort factor. To those unaware of what I mean, I feel that they are more mentally stabilising than physically. E-mail me if you have an opinion.

The 6.7 mile route was new to us as we chose to run to Bures & back home. The weather for the day was going to be sunny & quite warm so we started to jog at 10am as that time should be cooler than later in the day & the second reason was that we wanted to watch Czech Republic Vs Ghana which kicked off at 5pm.

It didn’t take too long for Graeme to use his own pace however he got to just over a mile when his knee started to ache. He walked for a while & then ran a wee distance then moved back to walking followed by running, etc. In short, he did the distance by doing both a walk & jog.

In my case I nearly ran the whole distance but for obvious reasons Graeme’s knee was more important. When I caught up with him we walked together & after a few metres he said he was fine & the pair of us started to jog. As said above he jogged, walked, jogged, walked, etc, which did mean that for the first few miles the pair of us used to pass the other. In the final few miles I did get ahead of him & did get home before he did however that is irrelevant but what is important was the time.

Graeme’s time was 1 hr 44 mins & mine was 1 hr 39 mins.

A couple of things did happen on the run with the first being the heat of the day. After the run I did feel quite tired. The second problem was an insect. I did get stung & when it happened I felt it however it didn’t seem to be too sore. The problem though was that later my right outside calf felt sore.

18th June 2006

No jogging but today is Father’s Day & Graeme’s present to me was a stopwatch which was received with great pleasure.

As for my calf, that is still very sore.

19th June 2006

Given the stopwatch & my calf was now fine I felt like using the pair. I jogged 1.2 miles & the time was 14 mins 38 secs. The stopwatch does show 1/100th of a second but I’m not going to bother you with that time.

21st June 2006

I met up with the others in Sudbury Joggers & we jogged the same 4 miles we've done in the last two-weeks. My time was 47 minutes.

24th June 2006

This was a sunny day & even though 1.30pm wasn’t a good time I couldn’t start earlier as I had to work in the morning & as for Sunday I had a number of others things to do with a couple of them being to clean out two fish tanks.

The start of the run wasn’t too bad however what did get me was jogging in areas where you couldn’t feel the breeze. As this made me feel hotter it made it uncomfortable to run so what I did was jogged for 2.1 miles (28 mins 14 secs) & walked home.

If you’re wondering about why the breeze wasn’t felt, it comes from the nature of the roads. As for the hill certain areas of the road is roughly 10 - 15 feet below ground level & hence the breeze wasn’t too strong & as a result you simply couldn’t feel it.

26th June 2006

As it rained all day I used this to make up for last Saturday. I chose to jog to Assington & did the 7 miles with the time being 1 hour 32 mins. Both my knees were sore but not too bad & my legs were more or less the same as the knees.

28th June 2006

I met some of the other Sudbury Joggers & due to holidays & minor injuries those of us running were four. Prior to putting one foot in front of the other it was decided that the meeting venue is next week changing to Sudbury’s Sports Centre. As Sally, Graeme & I are off on holiday from the 1st July I said I’ll see them in a few weeks time.

As for the running, we did the same 4 miles & due to the last mile being downhill I was able to increase my pace & finished the run in 45 mins.

10th July 2006

Last week Sally, Graeme & I went on holiday to Devon. My plan was to jog, every other day, 4 miles. Afraid not!

2nd August 2006

After Monday's annoying jog this evening was important to run well.

The weather had been overcast all day & at about 6.30pm it started to rain. Due to that & me being involved with a trial race (next Monday), I put on my track-suit.

We jogged for about 4 miles at a pace that is slightly faster than mine which meant the time was 40 mins.

In the bar there were a few things that were discussed & no doubt they will be mentioned later however one thing I did was buy a Sudbury Joggers vest. Needless to say that will be worn on Monday.

4th August 2006

Prior to leaving work my right tonsil was feeling a bit sore so I was concerned about the Monday's Trial Run plus of course the weekend. When I drove back home I equally had a headache. Great!

I took a couple of paracetamols, gave it half-an-hour & then started to jog.

Paul Felton is picking me up on Monday so I'm going to have to ask if I'm allowed to have paracetamols before I run.

I managed to run for, nearly, 5 miles in 1 hour & also my legs were fine.

7th August 2006
East Bergholt - Red Lion - Trail Run

The ‘East Bergholt - Red Lion - Trail Run’ was an enjoyable jog. To those unaware of that area & equally the route, East Bergholt is a village which is half-way between Colchester & Ipswich. As for the route, we ran along the banks of ‘River Stour’. One bank is in Essex & the other in Suffolk. As for notable buildings, that we jogged passed, the ‘Flatford Mill’ & ‘Willy Lott’s’ house. Those buildings were often painted by ‘John Constable’.

The picture shows those of us in Sudbury Joggers that did run in it. From left to right; Paul Felton, me & Bob French.

Prior to running you’re given an A4 which has the written route. At the top of the page are the abbreviations so to give you an idea, the first paragraph was:

1. TR out of front of pub & TR on ‘no thro RD’. End of RD thro G at FPSP down hill x FB & SA uphill thro G & TL at FP JUNCT downhill on enclosed FP & TL at FPSP. At WM TR & TL at next WM over ST & FB & ST & TL.

If that makes sense to you, no comment however to the others, think about us running, reading, looking back at the abbreviations, understanding, not falling & not making any mistakes.

You might be thinking that without me writing the abbreviations, you haven’t got a clue. You’re right but I wrote it like that to try & give you an idea about the speed of process, etc.

The abbreviations were; TR = turn right. TL = turn left. ST = stile. FB = footbridge. G = gate. FPSP = footpath signpost. WM = waymarker. TK = track. KG = kissing gate. SA = straight ahead. RD = road. JUNCT = junction. LHFE = left hand field edge.

Paul, Bob & I were not the only ones who made a blunder…well Ok, we made two blunders however our time was 1hour 22 mins & we did beat a few other runners.

After the run we went to the pub, Red Lion, & met up with Richard. Thankfully from him I got good information regarding my training.

As for future Trail Runs, once Dublin is done I’ll do some more.

9th August 2006

It does appear obvious that Sudbury Joggers has two groups; the first is the quickies & the second, the slowies. No guess as to the one I’m in.

We ran for 4 miles & it was nearly the same as last week. The time us slowies did was just under 42 mins.

11th August 2006

The Dublin Programme, see below for the link, I created said I'll run 5 miles on the Thursday. Based on the terrorism threat, I decided to delay the run by one day.

As for the run, the weather was a drizzle & I put on the track-suit. The 5 miles took 1 hour 8 minutes so even though it was slower than last week, I wasn’t bothered.

12th August 2006

I jogged for 10 miles & what was odd was that the second 5 miles was better than the first. The time for the 10 miles was 2 hours 17 mins & the time for the second 5 miles was pretty close to yesterday’s 5 mile run. As for the weather, rain & drizzle.

I did choose a fairly unpleasant route. I started by running to the post box & then went down & up the three hills that lead to Bures Road. That was fine as I did that yesterday however I decided to run the same route for the second 5 miles. The reason I decided to choose that route was to push myself & which the first part did.

14th August 2006

This run wasn’t good!

The weather was cloudy & cool so I put on a track-suit that I bought a couple of weeks ago.

To start with things were good. The first mile took 11 mins 30 secs & the stopwatch said 23 mins 15 secs when I had ran 2 miles. Not too long after the second mile hte sun showed itself. The track-suit jacket heated up my torso & to me that isn’t pleasant. Whether I’m right or not I don’t know however that heat seems to tire my legs & generally my mental attitude.

I took off the jacket & wrapped the arms around my stomach however it didn’t take too long for the jacket to appear to fall. I un-tied the arms & folded the jacket so I could carry it. When I got into Bures I wasn’t overly pleased with the jog however I knew I had to continue. I was jogging downhill & drinking some water when my right knee seemed to jerk. I stopped running & walked for a wee while. The knee didn’t seem too bad so I jogged for half a mile to the other side of Bures. Once there I could tell the knee was still sore & even though it wasn’t terribly sore I decided to walk home.

On my way back home, one of my neighbour's was passing me & thankfully they stopped & gave me a lift home.

16th August 2006

Knowing that we were going to jog, after the jog those of us in Sudbury Joggers were having a meeting. My knee did feel sore but not as bad as it did on Monday. I therefore did go for a run as well as a meeting.

As said earlier when we jog a normal run, there are quickies & slowies with me being a defiant slow one. Tonight we ran in our groups but when we got to the train line, the quickies were waiting.

The plan was to all run together however with one runner being at the front of the line & the others following in a straight line. The runner, who is last in the line, then sprints to the top of the line. That whole process continues & we must have covered a mile until the plan was partly changed. The part that was changed was that once a runner is half way up the line, then the next runner sprints.

This was a routine as those slower runners were able to chat to the others whilst we were running. Only down side was me alone as I did find the sprinting a heck of a task & sadly I stopped running & walked for a bit.

The other runners stopped doing it as they got to the end of the train line. They waited a wee while & when I got back to them we all did our normal running with some being the quickies & slowies.

Once we all got back to the Leisure Centre, the meeting started once some had their showers.

An area that was covered was the lack of marshals & that without many, some UK marathons will have to stop. In short, those of us present were asked to think about practicing to be a marshal. For me, yes nice idea but I’ve hardly any knowledge of events & would be worthless.

Another thing discussed was promoting the club & using the New Year to find new members.

17th August 2006

Knowing my Dublin Programme (see below for the link) has been pushed back due to my knee on Monday, I decided to run to Assington & back. The mileage is 7 miles.

I chose to wear a vest & when I got into Assington I started to regret wearing the vest. My nipples were chafed so I took the vest off & carried it for the rest of the journey. To those who don’t know, chafe does create an annoying pain.

Moving away from the unpleasant part of the run, it was nice that in Assington another jogger was running in the same direction & we were then able to chat about marathons. After half a mile we went our separate directions as I turned around at the T-Junction with him going towards the village called Newton.

The time for the 7 miles run was 1 hr 30 mins.

20th August 2006

The brother I grew up with was today celebrating his birthday. As for this being about running, was there a reason I wrote about it? No, I just felt like writing it however let’s go back to jogging.

To follow the programme shown, today was a 12 mile run. On the 18th May I did run the route I was planning to run today.

The weather forecast said heavy showers so I wore a track-suit trousers & only a T-shirt.

The first 5 miles was just over 1 hour & together with my legs feeling fine, I was very happy. On the way to Assington my legs did tire a bit but nothing of any great concern. The part that did bother me was again my nipples chafing. In this case it didn’t seem as bad as it did on Thursday so I didn’t take the T-shirt off.

On my way back from Assington I got to the T-Junction that means going right takes me home or following along is to Bures. My legs were sore but not too bad & also by looking at the stopwatch, I could tell that if I went home the time I did on the 18th May would have been beaten today by about 1 hour. Based on all of that, I did go towards Bures.

Another jogger was going in the opposite direction so the pair of us said, ‘hello’ to the other & we carried on with our jaunts.

When I got to Bures I was starting to feel tired & sadly I had drunk the water I carry in a container. All that said the funny side is that on 25th April I felt nearly the same but I had only run 3/10th of a mile.

It didn’t take too long until I bumped into the jogger I spotted earlier. I stopped the stopwatch & the pair of us had a chat. When we were about to go our separate directions I did ask him if he would fill the container with water. He did & drinking that was fantastic.

My running pace was very slow & my legs were getting sorer. I got to about 1.5 miles from home & just felt like walking not running of which I did for about 200 metres. I then ran again but only got to the antennas & chose to walk home. My view was that this complete route was 16 miles & as I’ve never ran that distance plus Dublin being 10 weeks away, walk this, keep the stopwatch on until I got back & in future runs, the time must be reduced. The time was 3 hrs 54 mins.

When home I poured a pint of water & was drinking it when Sally stepped in. She started to ask how I was until she spotted blood on my T-shirt. The blood came from both my nipples.

I know a while ago I asked someone & as a result of that together with me reading a few lines, I did earlier put Vaseline on my nipples & armpits. The only down side is that once washed the Vaseline is still there. I’ll be asked others about this & seeing my best way out of it.

23rd August 2006

Rain was heavily dropping & seeing what happened on Sunday, I was wondering which method I would use. I read the two e-mails that I had received with one being sent a while ago by Simon Berry & the other being sent this week from Paul Preston (e-mails shown in Comments from Friends & link is below). I still was unsure so I turned up at the leisure centre with a bottle of Vaseline & Micropore tape. I asked both Paul’s which one to use & the pair said Micropore.

I wore the tracksuit & ran 4.8 miles. Micropore worked well however within the first mile I had a stitch just under my left shoulder blade. I slowed my pace & did run through it however later on things got a bit worse. I would have been about a mile from the finish & my left groin got sore. The question was whether to stop jogging or continue?

At the time of writing I’m not sure if I did the right thing as I continued to run. I’ll find out on Sun 17th as a few of us, Sudbury Joggers, are involved in one of the two Road Races at Mersea Island, Essex. One of the races is 5 miles & the other is 10 miles. I’m doing the 10 mile run & if my time is about 2hr 15mins, then I was right to continue jogging.

27th August 2006
Mersea Island Lions 10 Mile & 5 Mile Road Race

The picture below shows those of us who turned up to run in ‘Mersea Island Lions 10 Mile & 5 Mile Road Race’. If you put your cursor over the picture their names will be shown.

Bob & Mandy entered the 5 mile run with the rest of us doing the 10 mile.

Prior to the race day Paul Preston & I had a laugh by him saying that his target was to complete the 10 miles in 1 hr 3 mins & seeing that I thought my time would be 2 hr 15 mins, he was looking forward to overtaking me. You can guess that one of my targets was to ask Paul if he did overtake me as I didn’t see him.

If you’re wondering, the route was a 5 mile loop & to those of us who were doing the 10 mile, we twice ran the route.

Before we lined ourselves up for the start I had a wee jog to make sure my groin wasn’t sore. Thankfully no pain!

There were a good number of runners & therefore, like other races, you’re asked to place yourself near the start line if you feel you’ll be quick. Paul Felton, Mandy, Greg & I put ourselves near the back.

The race started & it didn’t take too long before Paul F was ahead of Mandy & her ahead of Greg & me but not by too much which meant we could see her. For about a 1.5 mile Greg’s & my pace were the same however mine dropped & Greg got ahead of me.

Regarding the first mile counter, I looked at my stopwatch & wouldn’t believe the time shown. It showed just over 10 mins which was the fastest mile I’ve ran for a very long time. The time between the first mile & the second mile was around 10 mins 30 secs & even though that was slower than the first mile, I was very pleased with myself.

Within the first 3 miles I was able to see Mandy & Greg but quite frankly that is more based on the flat terrain not me speeding up my pace, etc.

Roughly 3.5 miles from the start, Bob ran passed me which was a bit of a surprise as I didn’t know he was behind me. I tried to keep pace with him but not to any avail.

The good thing was that at the 4th mile marker my stopwatch showed a time which meant that no way was Paul P going to catch me!

The picture beside this was taken by Trudy Preston, Paul’s wife. We’re 200 metres from the start/finish line & if I’m right, the two people with me had the same surname, Kitchener, & ran for Swanscombe Strollers in Kent. Robert, 676, did the 5 mile run & he finished in 54 mins 55 secs. The lady did the 10 miles & her result will later be mentioned.

I’m not sure when it happened but the weather changed a fair bit. In the first 5 miles it was sunny & warm however in the second loop, clouds covered the sky & thankfully the heat dropped. In either event, the Water Stations had plastic beakers & an enjoyable wet sponge. It was pointed out to me that wetting my wrists helps keep my body cool so not only did I do that but I also used the sponge to wash my face.

Just after the 6th mile marker, the lady, mentioned earlier, did pass me however it didn’t take too long for me to re-take my place.

I might be wrong but I think the bloke who said to me about the sponge was the fellow who was running, then walking, back to running, etc. The speed of his running was faster than me however my running was faster than his walking so I decided to set myself a target & that was to see if I can beat him to the finish line.

Somewhere between the 6th to 7th markers, he would have been about 1/3rd mile in front of me however it became obvious that I was catching him & if the pair of us did the same, I should be beside him at just over the 8th mile marker.

About 8.5 miles, Jem was riding his bike & Andy was with him. The pair ‘quickly’ said, ‘well done’ & thankfully I was able to put a thumb up.

Going back to the chase, yes I did get pass him but the sod started to run faster & ran more than walk so even though I got passed him he re-took the lead.

Either way, the pair of us were happily chatting to each other & the reason for him running & walking was that 7 months ago he got a bad injury & his training nearly went to zero. I told him that I’ve been trying to catch him & take his place & the pair of us laughed about it.

When we got to the 9th mile marker, he started to put more steps & started to get away. I did try to keep up with him but sadly my legs didn’t feel like it.

It didn’t take too long for me to hear footsteps behind me & knowing the lady was there, I did put a few quicker steps which did get me ahead of her.

About 1/3rd of a mile from the end I saw Paul F standing. He had removed his number & when I got to him he started to run. My ability to chat was somewhat over taken by me breathing heavily. The picture does show how I felt.

We got to 30 metres from the line & I asked Paul about me sprinting it. Given his answer I put my foot down but after the line I wondered if that was right.

Mandy came over & said how well I did however the chats were limited as I thought I was going to be sick. As it happens I didn’t but that sprint made my stomach feel awful.

My time, for the 10 miles, was 1 hr 52 mins 21 secs. Seeing I thought I was going to be 2 hr 15 mins, you can imagine how pleased I was with myself.

The picture below shows my number & the medal I was given. What is funny is that you’ll see in the medal a number of runners with one of them race number is ‘241’.

As for the times of the other ‘Sudbury Joggers’:
5 miles - Mandy 51:08 & Bob 53:25
Paul P 1:02:07, Andy 1:09:26, Jem 1:13:44, Paul F 1:32:45 & Greg 1:37:58

We all went to the pub & were happily having a laugh when all of a sudden, cramp hit my left hamstring. The last time I had cramp as bad as that would have been 20 years ago.

It took a while for the pain to ease however I could feel it for quite a few days. Whether that is ‘mind over matter’, I’m not sure but in the future I’ll be spending a lot of time by cooling down.

30th August 2006

Since the race my legs have been sore but this morning they seemed fine.

Jem asked if we were happy to do the sprinting or should I say that we run & at a certain point we sprint for about 50 metres, etc. Due to Sunday, many of us weren’t too happy but we did it.

It didn’t take long for my legs to feel sore so even though I continued to sprint, the pace was a slow sprint.

When we got back to the centre we went for a drink & after a few conversations Paul F asked if any would be happy to run in ‘The Hague’. That sounded like a great idea so between now & next March’s race, there is plenty to discuss.

3rd September 2006

Yesterday I was planning to run at ‘Abberton Reservoir’ as the map at work shows a B-road running near the bank. I drove to it & saw the road however ‘Essex Water’ weren’t allowing anyone to use it. One of the reasons was safety to certain birds which to me seemed fine. I drove home but the wind was intense so I decided to leave it until Sunday.

Knowing I need water I chose to run to Bures then go past home to run the hilly 5 miles & finally past home again with the view to run to & from Assington. The plastic bottles would be outside my home so that means I didn’t have to drive to a point & leave them on the ground.

As you might have read, I did the 1st mile, at Mersea, in 10 mins. Today I did it in 9 mins 40 secs. The 2nd mile was just over 10 mins. That really surprised me.

Sadly it didn’t take too long for me to feel very tired so I decided to walk for 100 metres & then run again. In a way I didn’t like the idea of walking but a good number have said its part of running long distances so just accept it.

When I got into Bures I felt like running around the village so I did & I enjoyed it.

On the way to home my legs did feel sore & the water was running out. My speed was slow so it would take a while to get back. I grabbed the next bottle & ran off to Spout Lane.

As soon as I got to the bottom of Spout Lane, my legs, etc, felt so tired I stopped jogging & walked.

I walked for a while & then tried to run. Sadly I wasn’t interested in jogging so after a lot of thought I walked home.

I wasn’t happy as my plan was to run for at least 16 miles however I was unaware of the distance I had run so later on I went for a drive & zeroed the milometer. It turns out that I covered nearly 11.5 miles. I wasn’t pleased & was wondering about this when I spotted that I had caught a heck of a sun tan. Was it caused by that?

4th September 2006

On my mobile I read a text that Paul P sent & during our replies we agreed to go for a jog. The route we chose was to start by the 5.2 miles which is near my home. If the 5.2 miles was alright we’ll go to Bures, etc.

It was odd that yesterday the jogging wasn’t too good as my legs were sore, etc, however today I noticed that my legs were fine.

Practically during the jog the pair of us were chatting. In all fairness, if our pace was faster, Paul would still be able to chat whereas I’ll be breathing too heavily & actually slowing the pace.

One thing Paul did say something to warn me about circumstances that have happened to long distance runners who didn’t drink enough fluids. This isn’t about likely cramp but the possibility to urinate blood. Neither of us are doctors & therefore no medical reason will be written together with the fact that it isn’t nice however what I will say is that less fluids might cause it.

Changing subject & to something that wasn’t pleasant for Paul, we ran past the farm that has an Alsatian (German Shepherd to some). It did its usual nasty barking but this time it was through the fence & did give the impression that it wasn’t on a lead. Thankfully the dog was on a lead but annoyingly I did mention the dog to Paul but that was 20 minutes ago & I sadly forgot to remind him when we were approaching him or her (I don’t know its gender & I’m not going to look to find out).

We got to about 0.5 mile from the post-box & I could tell my legs were only just starting to tire therefore we agreed to do 5 miles. When at the post-box the stopwatch displayed 57 mins 28 secs & that was a PB for this 5 mile jog.

Paul has run the Dublin Marathon & said that the route was pretty close to Chapel Lane which is good to know.

6th September 2006

A couple of people who turned up last week weren’t in their kit however today they were. The pair was already known by some & at the Mersea Island Race; they meet each other, etc. Trudy will have her kit on so what happened was Paul F said he’ll jog with Trudy & the rest of us will find out once were jogging; that to me was obvious, the quickies & us slowies.

It must be less than 0.5 mile that we slowies couldn’t see the quickies plus Paul F & Trudy. It turned out that Paul & Trudy ran a different direction & the important thing was that an unsure Trudy did run it, so well done.

For about 2 miles Mandy, Greg & I were keeping the same pace but for some funny reason I seemed to be able to increase my pace. Knowing Greg wouldn’t leave Mandy to jog on her own, I decided to give it a go & see what happens. I was amazed, I managed to get about 100 metres away from them.

I was running what I thought the two Paul’s & I did two-weeks ago however I heard my name being called so I stopped & jogged back. They thought I should have turned that corner & should have run until the next road. Going back to two-weeks ago, Mandy & Greg were jogging with Jem & I was with the two Paul’s. It did occur to me that they would have run a slightly different route however all three of us went off in the direction they thought we should jog.

We stayed together & when we got to the Town Centre it also became obvious that they ran a different route. This evening we jogged as they had two-weeks ago & therefore we ran down some of the roads in the Town Centre.

When we got back to the Leisure Centre, our times were pretty much the same as two-weeks ago so the three of us were happy.

In the bar, I had a chat with Paul P & asked if we did run the direction I thought we did. Oops!

10th September 2006
Grunty Fen Half-Marathon

Just before 8am I left home on a foggy day however I could see the sun. Sally’s & my home is at the top of a hill so hence the fog. It only takes a handful of minutes to drive to Gt Cornard (a village beside Sudbury) & no fog. I picked up Paul P & as soon as we were out of the town, fog. It didn’t take too long for the sun to do its job & the rest of the driving was fine.

We had allowed ourselves 2 hrs to travel to Witchford & as it happened we’re near it in less time. In 2000 my rehabilitation centre, Oliver Zangwill, was & still is in Ely & hence I knew the city so based on that I decided to drive through it & not only look at it again but also allow Paul to see it.

There are three things that will stick in my mind about Ely. I was told that the Cathedral’s foundations are only 18” deep with the reason being that when it was built, Ely was surrounded by rivers & the ground was very moist if not wet. When writing this I thought I’ll double check & did a search. Sadly that didn’t work as nothing was written about it & that is strange as a number of people did speak about it when I was staying in Ely. One thing I can however write is that Ely comes from eels as many swam in the waters. As for the river that flows through the city, it’s the Great Ouse & upstream by many miles it meanders through Buckingham which is where my parents live.

Either way, back to the race, Grunty Fen.

We got to the leisure centre, parked the car & walked to the hall where Paul was able to talk to others he already knew.

When it was time to line up for the race, Paul made sure he was near the start whereas I made sure I was at the back & in fact gave the impression I was the last runner. My reason was that no runner can pass me but I can pass others which really means, it’s positive to pass but negative to be passed.

Once started it didn’t take too long for me to pass a number of runners. One thing I was aware of & tried to do was run the same pace I do when training. Having seen my 1st mile getting a bit quicker, it didn’t come as any surprise to see the time was 9 mins 30 secs which was the fastest one mile I’ve ran. Seeing the weather was very warm (I think at midday it was 28 degrees C), that did bother me however unlike Mersea Island, I did bring with me a plastic bottle of water & to add to that, helpers were handing out wet sponges.

Somewhere about the 3 mile marker I passed someone who then said, ‘Sudbury, do you live there?’ The reason for asking it was that he was from Gt Cornard & based on that we ran together for about a couple of miles. His wife was also running & she was ahead of us. It was enjoyable chatting to him as not only is it nice to chat but it does help speed you up as you’re not thinking of bad thoughts.

Sadly at the 5th mile marker he said he was getting tired & his pace dropped which meant we said to each other about hopefully bumping into each other at the end of the race. As for my time at 5th mile marker, it was roughly one minute quicker than the five miles at Mersea. I was very pleased with that & again thought that the chat helped.

Somewhere between the 6th & 7th mile marker I spotted a running friend of Paul’s. She & a couple of her friends were walking back to the village. Paul had told me that she is a fast runner so I was a bit surprised & also upset for her. She wasn’t the only runner I saw walking back to the village & that again is a big disappointment to see runners doing that especially as they have been training for things like this.

I got to the half-way marker & my time was doing well. I quickly did some maths & if I kept the same pace I would finish in 2 hrs 20 mins. That sounded good so without thinking I sped-up a bit & did pass four runners.

The route is a loop with two laps with the first being around 5 miles & the second 8 miles. In both laps there are a number of completely straight roads with some of them being a long distance until the next bend. I can’t exactly remember the distance but near the 8th mile marker you seemed to be able to see a mile in front of you. Some distance away I saw a couple of runners who were walking so I set a target to pass them. I was able to & actually I passed a few more however most of them were walking. I was finding it hard to increase my pace & perhaps I was looking worse to onlookers as between the 9th & 10th mile marker, a lady marshal asked if I was alright. I said I was fine.

At that point I still thought I was able to finish the race within the 2 hr 30 mins time limit however when I got to the 12th mile marker I realised I had just over 10 mins to do it. I was able to increase speed but sadly it didn’t take too long for my legs to slow me down. I was able to run but it became obvious I would finish in that time limit so the anger got to me.

I know the word ‘anger’ doesn’t sound good however from my point of view it did help me out. The reason being that when I’m angry that thought allows me to continue doing what I’m doing. For example what I was thinking was that if I don’t get the medal, I would be VERY angry & certainly I wouldn’t buy one of the T-shirts that are on offer. In short it made me continue to run until the finishing line.

My time was 2hr 36mins 11secs, I was given a great looking medal & my position 597 with 608 completing it. Yes, I did buy a T-shirt which on the front shows the route & on the back, a list of runners & Paul’s & my name were included.

Prior to the day both Paul’s said that two ladies, from Newmarket Joggers, were planning to run in 2hrs 15mins. Their results were just over a minute slower than mine & from talking to other runners, nearly all didn’t beat their PBs.

As for my body, I did feel fatigued which did mean I drank water. It was maybe that I drank too fast as soon I felt terrible. I sat down & from what I gather Paul asked a medical chap to come & see me. He told me to drink water slowly.

To cool down I went to a tree, lay down & rested my legs in an upright position. Paul & I were talking about the heat, etc, when he got a phone call. Not long after that I felt sick & did vomit.

So she knew I phoned Sally & mentioned that I’m going to wait until I feel fine. Paul & I went to the nearest pub, Village Inn. Sadly the minute I walked in, I felt sick again but thankfully I did get to the toilets.

Paul did tell me that what I’m going through is no great surprise & after the Dublin Marathon, the same may happen. All said & done, it could be that today’s heat caused this & it’s very unlikely that it’ll be this hot on the 30th Oct.

If you're wondering why I'm doing this & equally others, I think the picture answers you.

13th September 2006

When I left home it was warm so shorts & T-shirt were fine however this evening it became…well, wet.

We had two choices with one being a jog & the other involving sprinting. As sometimes my left groin gets sore when I’ve been sprinting, I decided to just jog.

Jan, Greg & I started in the same group & as Jan is a ‘quickie’, Greg & I were more or less keeping up with her. After about a mile, my right calf started to get sore or actually a sharp pain but not quite like the pain you get from a cramp.

I was unaware that some ‘Joggers’ hadn’t made up their mind & they where going to jog for about a mile & then decide. As my right calf was sore I was pleased to see that we stopped running & waited for the other runners. The reason being that some might be doing the jog we were going to do.

When we started jogging, my calf was sore but not as bad as before so I was able to keep up with Jan, Greg & Jonathon.

About a quarter-of-a-mile later the rain started to fall & half-a-mile later I was finding it hard to keep up with the others so the gap started. The rain fell heavily & soon, lightning & thunder. To give you an idea of the amount of rain, I was wearing a cotton T-shirt & after the jog I took off the shirt & was able to wring out a lot of water.

As for the jog, Bob & Linden were partly behind me & soon we jogged together for a wee while. It didn’t take too long before I got a second breathe & was able to increase my pace.

It appeared that I was getting closer to Jan, Greg & Jonathon when all of a sudden I got a stitch under my left shoulder-blade. I tried to run through it but the stitch was getting worse so I stopped running & walked. Bob & Linden caught up with me & as I didn’t feel like jogging at that stage they carried on. Soon the stitch went & as often Bob & Linden were stopping to make sure I was alright, I was able to meet up with them & we finished the jog by running together.

When I got to the Sports Centre, I stopped my stopwatch & was very amazed about the time. It was 52 mins 33 secs & based on me having to walk, the running must have been a good pace.

16th September 2006

The idea for today was to run 17 miles & as the morning wasn’t too warm, I was looking forward to completing that distance. Sally was off to the town & Graeme decided to join her which was good as my pace wasn’t intended to race speed & I didn’t want him hanging around in an empty house.

The route I chose was first to jog the 5.2 miles, up & down the steep roads. Once down I jog past home, collecting another bottle of water, & off to the 10 miles around Bures. The extra two miles would be around my home.

Unfortunately the route & duration didn’t work. I jogged for four miles & found out that I needed the toilet.

The re-start was again the same 5.2 mile, i.e. passing the post-box & the step roads. After I ran that, I picked up the full bottle of water & went off to Assington. My legs were feeling a tad sore so I ended up walking the final mile.

The question that will be asked on Wednesday is whether the interval makes any difference to my fitness, etc. The ‘interval’ means that I did jog for 4 miles, walked for 1 mile, had 30 mins gap, jogged for 11 miles & walked back for 1 mile. My hope was that I was still on my feet & only the 30mins gap was me not moving. I’ll find out.

18th September 2006

That was an enjoyable jog. The sun was shining & thankfully the temperature wasn’t too warm, just good enough to run in shorts & a vest. From what I gathered the weather is soon to drop so off I went with the view of running into & out of Bures which would mean 10 miles.

As it turned out the distance was below 11 miles & the time was 2 hrs 6 mins. I think my pace was pretty close to that used in Mersea Island & as that was a race whereas this was training.

One thing I do want to say was that I met a driver who had courtesy to me & most have to others. I was running down the narrow St Edmunds Lane (I think that’s its name) & nearing the bottom of the hill. I spotted a car which had turned into the Lane so I stopped jogging & was positioning myself so he could drive pass me. I looked up & he signalled me to pass him. Well, I don’t know where you live but that driver is spot on.

20th September 2006

My inside right calf & my right ‘rear end’ were both sore & sadly I’m not sure if it comes from either the two earlier jogs or, at work, picking up a heavy object. Either way, it was sore but training must happen so off to meet up with the other ‘Sudbury Joggers’.

The jog went very well. We ran the same route & my time was 48 mins 24 secs.

Oddly enough, my right leg was still sore & actually felt worse when I was having a shower.

In the bar we all had a chat about the various races at ‘The Hague’ & some of us thought about doing all of them. Interesting idea & given the day is 17th March 2007, a time to think it through.

25th September 2006

This evening’s running was………………….swimming a few lengths!

Why swimming? As mentioned last Wednesday my right leg was sore & it’s still sore.

I spoke to a lady who’s a Physio at the Moulsham Grange & I gave her a brief explanation of the pain I’m suffering from. Asked if my back was sore the answer was, ‘thankfully not’.

Even though we had a brief chat & not a full examination, she did mention that she’s not 100% sure but felt the pain came from lifting, at work, heavy equipment & it wasn’t caused through running. Knowing about Dublin she did however advise me to take a break from running so when asked if swimming was fine, she said, ‘yes’.

Tonight therefore I went for a swim at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre in Sudbury.

27th September 2006

I’m afraid the proverbial has ‘hit the pan’!

Yesterday at work I picked up a clutch & upon doing it my right leg was very sore. I said to the Branch Manager that as I’ve had this pain for a week I was going to get a Doctor’s appointment.

The appointment was this morning & after discussion, with one question being the number of miles I jogged last week, the doctor felt that the pain in the lower inner section of my leg was a ‘shin split’ & the upper part of my leg indicated ‘sciatica’.

To me that sounded awful & seeing I’m writing this five hours after the appointment, it still sounds awful.

His instructions were:

• Take the drug ‘Ibuprofen’
• Don’t go to work as the job does mean picking up heavy objects together with driving
• No running for a while
• Yes to swimming
• If I can, see a Physio
• Read the instructions on the box of ‘ Tiger Balm’ & if I like the idea, buy the balm
• If still sore in a week, re-appoint

As for my fitness he said the same thing I've read which means that even though I'm doing less now than before, the level will not drop. That's the same idea behind ‘tapering’ which is that two-weeks before the marathon, jog less than you did before. One of the reason is that it will help you picking up an injury. If only...

Looking at the situation, 4 weeks 5 days until the marathon. Will I be running in it? YES!

12th October 2006

Yes, a big gap between the dates so if your question is why? Due to the leg I haven't been jogging but have been swimming. When writing this, 8.20am, the leg is still sore but not by too much so fingers are crossed.

16th October 2006

I went for a cross-country walk into Bures & back. When walking the leg gives no pain & then all of a sudden an ache. The ache isn't as bad as it was a month ago however in two-weeks, it's the Dublin Marathon. I simply can’t wait until tomorrow as I'm seeing a Physio.

As for the MP3, tunes had to change & that was pretty good listening to a heck of a lot of music to therefore decide which would be loaded. I’ve written them in the order they appear on the MP3.

Question is, whether your taste is the same as mine?

• Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up • Van Morrison – Goin' Down Geneva • Dave Bowie & Queen – Under Pressure • Paul Weller – The Changingman • The Stranglers – Golden Brown • Pink Floyd – Time • The Rolling Stones – Paint It Black • Peter Frampton – Show Me The Way • Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra – High Street • Derek & The Dominos – Layla • U2 – Pride (In The Name of Love) • Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy • Led Zeppelin – Kashmir • Dave Bowie – Heroes • Coldplay – Clocks • Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick • Gary Moore & Philip Lynott – Parisienne Walkway • Ben E King – Stand By Me • Robbie Williams – Angel • Oasis – Wonderwall • The Stranglers – No More Heroes • Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody • Pink Floyd – Money • Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra – Biggie Wiggie • The Who – My Generation • Jackie Wilson – (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher • Moby – Porcelain • Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven • Dire Straits – Money For Nothing • Blur – Song 2

Ignoring the fact that sadly a few of them are no longer with us I've only seen two of bands. In 2002 Sally & I saw Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra at Thetford Forest Park, Norfolk (2002) & in 2004 at Westcliffe, Essex. At a guess it would be 1983 The Rolling Stones were seen at Wembley Stadium.

17th October 2006

The Physio wasn’t prepared to diagnose the problem other than suggest it could be a trapped nerve.

He showed me a number of stretching manoeuvres with the idea that instead of doing these stretches in the hospital I do it at home & then phone him to explain how that leg feels.

20th October 2006

On Wednesday I did as arranged & spoke to the Physio, Roy, on the phone. I mentioned the leg was no better than the day before so another appointment was made & that day is 1st November 2006. During our conversations he did say that movement must happen & that I must continue to stretch. I asked about jogging & he said to give it a go but be careful & stop if pain starts.

That night I went to the Leisure Centre & met up with other Sudbury Joggers. They were pleased to see me & that was the same in return. When we set off it didn’t take too long for my legs to feel as through they weren’t with it but I did continue to jog with Bob & Paul P.

We slowly did a mile & came across Greg & Mandy as they stopped to wait for us. At the same time I decided to walk & the others followed suit. For the next mile I had to stop & walk on about three or four occasions as my right lower leg was sore but it was when my right buttock got sore meant I had to stop & walk.

At the roundabout near Kentucky Fried Chicken, Bob decides to go another route & asked if any of us wanted to jog that route. We all decided to continue on the same route. About 100 metres up a short hill my right leg was so sore I had to stop & not walk. The others did stop & to me that can’t happen so I asked them to continue to jog & after a while they did.

After waiting a while I was able to walk & at that stage I kept thinking about Dublin. I had said to the others that if the leg is still this sore I’ll turn around however I decided to continue the route & simply jog & walk. The idea is that this route is 5 miles so use the jog/walk in the same way I’ll do Dublin.

It didn’t take too long for the walking to be done more than the jogging & it’s true to say that my anger with my leg did increase. All the effort that some of the Sudbury Joggers have done together with Graeme & then most importantly, Sally made me feel very angry.

I got to about 300 metres from the leisure centre to find Greg & Jem doing the route in reverse with the intent on finding me. When we got back to the centre I stopped my stopwatch & it said, 1hr 3mins 18secs.

The next day my leg was so sore I knew I couldn’t go to work therefore I went to see a Doctor & upon him reading previous details together with today’s information he has given me a two-week sick note.

The reason behind a two-week sick note is that he feels its sciatica not what was originally thought, shin splint together with sciatica. He believes the injury wasn’t a running injury but work related. The reason for the change is that normally shin splints are resolved in a month however mine isn’t & the pain in my lower right leg together with my right buttock indicates sciatica caused by my lower back. Knowing about the van accident, circa 2 years ago, & the back spasm, circa 20 months ago, he feels that my back has never been corrected & the current injury stems from incorrectly picking up heavy objects. Based on that together with the nature of my job, he gave the sick note.

As for the Dublin Marathon, he did state that to correct the sciatica I must keep moving & that to run the marathon would be unlikely however jogging & walking can help but only if things in my leg start to improve.

Quite frankly my health is more important however I wanted to try & run the whole 26.2 miles in Dublin so finding out that most of that will be me walking, well enough said.

26th October 2006

Yesterday I did go for a very long walk & all bar the last mile, the leg was aching but not sore. This morning the leg was so very sore I thought I was going back to the GP. As the time was 6am I took another Ibuprofen & did fall asleep. When I woke up the leg was aching but not sore which meant I was very pleased. Sounds silly to stupid that someone about to enter the Dublin Marathon is happy his leg aches.

During the day I e-mailed a good number of people I know & also the lady we met at BBC Essex Radio. She mentioned it to the listeners & that encouraged others to donate to the Moulsham Grange. If you’re unaware of that, please click on the charity link shown below.

Finally the bags are packed, Euros in my wallet (I made sure I’ve got the dough (€) not Sally ) & time to crash out.

30th October 2006
27th Dublin Marathon

Did I start my 1st marathon? Yes!
Did I finish my 1st marathon? Yes!
Was I pleased with the weekend & event? Mixed feelings!
Would I do another marathon? Yes!

I mentioned ‘mixed feelings’ as something awful happened. To those unaware between the 16th – 17th miles a 42-year-old Irish man suffered a heart attack & sadly, all medical treatment was unsuccessful.

Dublin Marathon’s Web Site opened a ‘Book of Condolences’ & soon the wife of the gentleman will receive it. I submitted my condolences via an e-mail.

Prior to Dublin, I had a conversation with Paul Felton & Paul Preston (both club mates at Sudbury Joggers). About a month ago, Paul F. ran in the Great North Run (Newcastle – South Shields) & in that race another competitor died. In the conversation, I became aware that these things are sadly part of it. To add to that Sally & I were in a petrol station, near the Dublin Airport, & I spotted the newspapers’ headlines. I bought the Irish Daily Mail (rarely do I buy/read newspapers) & within the article it stated; ‘It is estimated globally that there is one fatality for every 50,000 people finishing a marathon’.

That stat does look worrying but then one can say that if you act, dependant on all stats, you might as well be a ‘couch-potato’ & if you do that your health will deteriorate.

Moving away from that subject I’m first going to quickly outline what has happened in the weeks leading up to the race day as some people might simply be reading this & not the full Running Diary.

Prior to flying to Dublin (27th Oct) the pain in my right leg has meant I’ve been off work for just over a month & together with that, hardly any training. During that month, I’ve seen two different doctors & a physio. Initially the diagnosis was a shin splint & sciatica however now it appears to be sciatica. The reason for the slight change in the diagnosis is the pain is sporadic, not always in the same position & equally as sore as before. As for the marathon, the second doctor said that would be fine but give up if pain gets to me. In addition to that, he did say ‘no work’ due to the nature of my job, sometimes picking up heavy objects, will cause more pain.

As said, we flew on the 27th, which meant we described to go & collect my bib number, chip key, etc, on Sat midday. At the same venue, there was the EXPO, which had a number of companies. One of them was a firm of chiropractors based in Dublin. As we both have problems, Sally saw one of the chiropractors & I saw the other. One part of the brief investigation was standing on two weight scales with one foot on one scale & the other foot on the other scale. The scales did come out in kilos & even though I use stones & pounds, I did understand that the weight coming from my right side was heavier than my left side & the margin was large, e.g. right side being something like 115K & left side is roughly 95K. Knowing we live in Suffolk the gentleman gave me the Web site http://www.gcc-uk.org & said that through that site I can find a local chiropractor.

Adding to that I did go to one of the ‘adidas’ stands, which had a free ‘footscan’. To those unaware of a footscan, you jog for a few steps with one-step landing on a piece of equipment that is linked to a computer (PC). The software, within the PC, shows the way your foot lands & with that info you can see if you’re wearing the correct pair of trainers & if not, you have the knowledge to buy the right pair.

I mentioned my sciatica & thankfully one of their employees was a sports physio who was on the stand & he was able to see me.

The footscan showed that I’m a heel-striker with a neutral, normal foot. Heel-striker means as name says, i.e. heel lands first. A toe-striker first lands on either their front or ball of the foot. Neutral foot means that it lands evenly whereas ‘overpronation’ foot lands more on the inside of the foot & ‘supination’ foot lands outside the foot. As for normal foot, it means I’ve a normal-sized arch. If you can see the picture, you’ll see those words in diagrams.

Going back to the way my feet landed, my right foot landed harder than the left so was I jogging whilst thinking of the info gained from the chiropractor stand.

In addition to seeing how my feet landed, it was good to listen to a sports physio as he showed me a number of stretch moves & at the same time, he discussed training.

Once we left the EXPO, we had a few days to view that area of the Republic of Ireland & in the afternoon, we thought of going to see Phoenix Park. Someone in that country needs to understand that street signs are helpful, as without them, people will endlessly be wondering around. Put simply, we didn’t see any signs that had directions to Phoenix Park & from what I’ve read; Phoenix Park is the largest enclosed urban park in Europe. We spent about an hour, if not more, trying to find the park & our annoyance was growing so we gave up & went to a pub in some village somewhere in Ireland.

Going to a pub is alright but that wasn’t what we wanted to do & with no street signs, what could we do? The annoyance of no signs did happen on Friday as it took us a few hours to find our B & B & actually two attempts. I had a few maps but hardly any directional signs & that doesn’t help people who don’t know Dublin. To give you an idea of what I mean, if a sign said either Rathmines Road Upper or Upper Rathmines, we would have quickly found our B & B. If I remember correctly we thought we were getting close as I did read a street name which had Dublin 6 on it as the B & B was in that area.

Before going onto the good things, I’ll mention the other thing that wasn’t good. As said, we were having difficulty finding our B & B & as we hadn’t eaten for a few hours, we went back into the city & had a good dinner in a lovely pub. Once eaten, as it was a sunny day we went for a pleasant walk in that area of the city. We walked along parts of Grafton St, went to Temple Bar & then into the Castle grounds. We got back in our car & I phoned the B & B’s number. The bloke who answered was a tosser!

Two weeks before hand, we spoke on the phone & he stated that he wasn’t going to be in the house. With regard to the keys, when I want them I’m to phone him & he’ll explain where they are. On the day (27th), he claimed he had been sitting waiting for us & why didn’t I phone him? What a twat, first he can’t remember what he told me, secondly, have a go at your customer & thirdly he then said no one would be in until after 6pm.

After asking a number of people, we found the B & B but the time was 5.30pm. For some reason I decided to ring the door bell & found a friendly the lady opening the door at 5.35pm! She showed us the room & during the conversation, I did mention the conversation I had with that bloke. She did apologise & stated that he is her son.

After she left the room, I felt like having a cup of tea but how could I without a kettle, tea bags & milk?

My breakfast was a bowl of muesli, a glass of orange juice (where the glass was the size of a glass you put a shot of liquor into), two wee sausages, one rasher of bacon, one egg, filled teapot & toast. As for Sally’s, she said she would prefer a continental breakfast & ended up with a glass of orange juice (same size as mine), one apple, one orange, one banana & one of them wee yoghurt containers. The fruit had seen its day & finding out she doesn’t drink tea nor coffee would you think they would give her orange juice, well they didn’t.

If you’re thinking that, I thought the B & B was crap, your right! If you think, that’s odd, go to a British B & B & then you’ll find out what is expected.

You might be thinking that I did say above that I had a ‘mixed feeling’ & so far nearly all I’ve written is bad however the EXPO was good & adding to that, more good things will follow. In fact here is one, good food in pubs & restaurants. I love food & before you ask, I didn’t fall in love with Sally, as she is a good cook…well…

When Sally & I go out to eat food, we, for a laugh, give the restaurant points. Five points means they are brilliant & no points means, food poisoning! One of the points I give is on the time of serving. If I’ve drunk no more than half of my pint of bitter, they get a point. The pub food we ordered was in front of us before I managed to get a few sips & before you think, the food was good. As for the two restaurants we went to, yes I managed to get close to half a pint however that is one point & as for the food, brilliant especially at Gallagher’s Boxty House, Temple Bar, Dublin.

On Sunday both Sally & I were aware that I shouldn’t walk too far as obviously the next day I’ll be jogging 26.2 miles. We drove to Wicklow Mountains & that area is brilliant. It’s so blatant that Sally & I prefer the country to towns as the picture shown says it all. Oddly enough, we did go to the town Wicklow & Arklow but we didn’t think much of them & drove back to the mountains. Unfortunately, it was getting misty however, we did get to an area called ‘Sally Gap’. It’s the highest crossroads in Ireland & a myth says that St Patrick died there. If you’re in that part of Ireland, it’s worth seeing the Wicklow Mountains.

Monday 30th Oct ’06 means the 27th Dublin Marathon.

26.2 miles to be covered & my hope were to jog more than walk. It appears that over 10,000 registered to this Marathon & in recent years, the number has increased.

The picture shown is I at the finish line. The baggage area is a short distance away from the finishing line so given the time; I put my tracksuit in the bag, put some Micropore over my nipples, put the box in the bag & gave the bag to a bloke who was working in the baggage area.

There is a good gap between the finish line & start line so Sally & I both walked together to the start line. We got to close to the start line & were both standing on the road. Knowing she was standing around runners about to run, she walked to a better position however at no stage were we asked to go in different direction. As this is my first full marathon, maybe things like that are common but surely, if too many non-runners stood there surely they would block the running routes? No doubt, I’ll find out from Paul F.

When we were walking to the start line, I had a chat with a bloke who was walking beside me. It came as a laugh when I found out he is from Margate as that town is only about 15 miles from where Graeme lives, Whitstable.

When the race started, the pair of us shook each other hands & off we went walking to the start line. The jogging started at the line & remembering the Mersea 10 miles, I started my stopwatch when I went over the line. At that stage, I was unaware of the time distance between the start of the race & me reaching the start line.

I had only run about 100 metres when both my legs started to feel sore. Knowing I wasn’t giving up I carried on running however, I got to about 1.5 miles & knew I had to re-think my plan. I had taken an Ibuprofen at 8am so felt I shouldn’t take another one until early afternoon. Expecting the pain in both legs to start at 13 miles I felt I had to bring that plan into advance. Whilst I was sorting out the MP3 I unfortunately had to walk for about 20 metres however once the music was in my ears, things started to look up.

I was able to jog & overtake people until about 5.5 miles when I had to go behind a Phoenix Park tree & hence water it.

Back on track, I was able to jog until the 12th mile marker where I went again to the toilet. After the toilet, I went to the nearby Tipperary Water & Gatorade Stations. I had never drank any Gatorade & had been told by others that they didn’t like it so in many senses I shouldn’t have drunk any however the blue raspberry was spot on. After the drink, I jogged however, the wind was blowing towards us & after a while, I decided to walk until the wind didn’t affect me. I must have walked for about half a mile before I got back into the jogging mode.

I had been looking at my stopwatch for every mile marker I passed & the sign that said halfway was 13.1 miles done & the time was just over 3 hours. Seeing how my leg has upset my training plus the pain that started early in this race, I was pleased.

I managed to continue to jog until somewhere between the 15 – 16 markers. The legs got quite sore & my mind wasn’t able to think of over things so the jogging changed to walking. From that point until the finish line, I walked more times than jogged. What was equally upsetting was watching many people pass me, as their walking was faster than mine was. One day I’ll remove that competitive feeling as after all I’m not exactly a fast runner & as I know after this, not a fast walker.

From about the 20-mile marker the inside of my legs were chafing against my shorts so at the 22-mile marker I went to a St John’s Ambulance lad & got some Vaseline. In future long distance runs, before the race I’ll smear my legs with Vaseline as chafing is sore.

I was approaching the 24 marker & was thinking that Sally & I didn’t mention the lettered repatriation area we were going to use. I started to text her & was about to send it when I saw her near the 24 mile marker. The pair of us walked to near the finish line but before that, I did get her to buy me a Mars bar, as I needed to eat something.

We went passed the 25 mile marker & the finish line was only metres away however not for me. I had about another mile & to anyone who doesn’t know nastiness that was one. Legs very sore, finish line is roughly 200 metres but you have to travel further.

When doing that last part of the marathon I did try & jog but my legs kept telling me to walk. Sadly I did what I was told & hence walked to the finish line & when passing I stopped the stopwatch.

Once you’ve passed the line you have to go & allow someone to remove your chip. The chip registers the time it took me to travel from the start line to finish line. The race time starts when the race starts & ends when I’ve passed the finish line. My chip time was 6 hrs 53 mins 1 sec with my race time being 7 hrs 4 mins 8 secs.

To me that time wasn’t good in fact; I was very disappointed as I thought with all that training, one sore leg messes up my hope to finish at 5 hrs 30 mins. I’m sure many of you are thinking I’m very silly & you’re right however thing that on the 25th Apr I couldn’t run further than 3/10th of a mile but with all the training I did, on a very hot 10th Sept, ran 13.1 miles in 2 hrs 36 mins. Oh well, time to get my stuff, eat food & get drunk on Guinness.

Actually, that backfired. As I needed to eat we chose to go start to an Italian restaurant that Sally had spotted however on our way there, my right foot got incredibly sore. When sitting eating, I realised I didn’t cool down nor go for a massage. My legs got very stiff & due to that, I went outside to stand & hope I didn’t get another cramp that I did after the Mersea 10.

Thankfully, I didn’t so after we eat; we went back to the B & B for me to have a lukewarm shower & then for me to cool down.

That Paul P. said to me was that my hope of getting drunk is very unlikely to happen, as I’ll feel very knackered. How right he was as I fell asleep & when I woke up, I felt like again falling asleep.

The next day my legs were very sore & walking was a total laugh especially as my right foot was worse than my legs.

Once we flew back to Stansted & then drove home Sally made me come with her to Tesco...alright she didn’t...as all she did was remind me what I told her which is that I must walk as that will help the soreness leave my legs. It was the next day the soreness from the marathon eased however my right foot didn’t & neither to was the right calf.

On Thursday, I went the same doctor I met the last time & comments he said were again different to the previous appointment. I asked if it would be good for me to see a chiropractor, however he said, "Don’t go to a chiropractor or a physio". I found that odd as the day before I went to the Physio Dept that the other Doctor had arranged. He told me to give up long distance running due to my weight but take up swimming. I do understand that heavily weighted people can have knee problems but there are ways to stop that happening, e.g. run on grass not tarmac. The final thing the doctor did was give me a four-week sick note!

As for my view on the event, etc, a big shame about my leg however I will run another marathon however not in Dublin unless a few friends decide to run it. The next race should be Stowmarket on the 12th Nov but that leg comes first.

12th November 2006
Stowmarket Striders Scenic 7

It’s hard to think that bad things can themselves be of help but the Stowmarket Scenic 7 wasn’t good to me both on & off the roads.

The night before I didn’t get any ache so I felt that perhaps, things might be going forward. The next day, there was still no pain so off I went to meet up with some of the other Sudbury Joggers. Sadly, it did ache when I was driving into the town (Sudbury) but I carried on. A group of us went in three separate cars & on to Stowmarket, the pain stopped & started but the pain wasn’t very sore.

Before the race started, we had a two minutes silence & then off we went for 7 miles of straight roads. Some people thing the route had hills but to me it didn’t as the roads only at times did increase & decrease by hardly any.

Mandy & I were running beside each other but it didn’t take that long for my right buttock to ache which meant that I couldn’t keep up with Mandy’s pace. I turned on the MP3 & hoped that would see me through as it did in Dublin.

I didn’t even get to the first mile when I had to stop jogging! I did a few stretch moves but neither seemed to make a difference. I then had a choice, give up & walk back or carry on. I went for a latter.

I got to about 2.5 miles when the pain again hit me in both the buttock, calf & then the foot. I stopped jogging, tried more stretch moves when a couple of lovely ladies (Glenda Taylor – Stowmarket Striders & Tanya Smith – Ipswich Jaffa) stopped jogging & Tanya gave me an Ibuprofen. The set-off jogging & I walked for a bit when I felt fine enough to jog. At a rough guess they got about 200 metres in front of me.

With sciatica, it is sporadic & soon the pain stopped. That did allow me to put a few good paces in when all of a sudden, pain comes back which meant the pace dropped.

As it happens, I did catch the ladies at roughly 4.5 miles & for a while, the three of us jogged, walked but more importantly talked to each other.

We went passed a marshal & as encouragement he stated that there is another jogger just in front of us & he is walking. That chat worked for me as I did start jogging but sadly, I didn’t catch him & frankly I couldn’t as the pain to my foot & buttock was very sore.

My time was 1 hr 26 mins. Instead of a medal, all finishers were given a white embroidered cotton towel with the following shown in the colours shown:

Sce7nic