My First Marathon!

Finishing the Half Marathon in
Melbourne last October

Well, today I ran my first ever marathon. I’m going to start my story just over a year ago, when I ran my first half marathon in Melbourne. Having just completed the 21.1km, I was incredibly proud, but at the same time in awe of those who had undertaken the much bigger task of running the full marathon. I remember running the last section where the marathon and half marathon courses joined and looking at the marathon’s kilometer markers with big scary numbers on them like 36km - and just thinking I was so glad that I didn’t have to run that far! But somewhere, very quietly inside me, something said “I wonder if I could do a marathon?”. So moving ahead about 54 weeks in time, last night I was sitting on the couch, carb loading on pizza and beer (full disclosure: I only had about 2/3rds of the beer before feeling bad and stopping), and realising that tomorrow I’d be answering that question.

I was never going to get a lot of sleep, the 3am start to get down to the ferry, combined with pre-race nerves and anticipation meant I only got around 1 hour of sleep, in two short bursts (but got through a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory in between). I wasn’t too concerned, all the “big” races I’ve done in the last 12 months had been preceded with only 2-5 hours of sleep and it has never been an issue. Breakfast was coffee and 2 pieces of toast; between 5am and race start at 6:10am I had 2 gels and a bottle of Powerade, and went to the toilet twice...

My target pace for the race was 4:45 per km, for a time of 3 hours 20. I thought this was ambitious and expected I’d probably manage it for the first half but possibly fade in the second to finish somewhere around 3:25-3:30. I hit the 1km board around 4:30, and continued to put in similar splits for the following ks. To non-runners that 15 seconds per km might not seem like much, but I was still a bit concerned that I was going too fast.

Something you only ever get to practice during a race is the art of drinking out of a cup while running. It had been a while since I last attempted that and the first aid station at 4km left me covered in Powerade and choking. The second aid station came up pretty quickly and was my cue to take a gel, the plan being to take one every second aid station or roughly every 8km. By that point the field was already pretty spread out, I was running with a woman from the YMCA marathon club and we were holding a pretty consistent and comfortable pace, and I was feeling good.

Rounding the corner onto the motorway just before the bridge, about 13km in, there was a group of people playing those big Japanese drums - it was awesome! You really appreciate the support from the crowds, and people going the extra mile like that really puts a smile on your face. The harbour bridge ended up being a lot easier than I expected. The section up to that point is really quite hilly and I was surprised by how good my legs felt at the top of the bridge. The view was great, but there wasn’t a great deal of time to enjoy it! By now I was about 3 minutes ahead of my target time, and I think I made up even more time on the way down the bridge.

Top of the Harbour Bridge

I’d been drinking Powerade at every aid station, and as I came through Wynyard Quarter at about 19km I realised I was definitely going to have to stop for a piss. I didn’t really want to lose my pace buddy, but I also didn’t want to wet myself! The stop cost me about 60 seconds, but I still came through the half way mark at 1:37, 3 minutes up on my target. I was starting to think my goal time was looking more and more achievable.

Rounding the tank farm with the bridge in the background, 20km-ish

My 22nd kilometer was my fastest of the race, a 4:19 according to my GPS. I was still feeling good, but the long haul out to St Heliers was looking moderately intimidating! From about 27 or 28km, I knew things were getting bad because I was constantly looking for the next kilometer marker, and the next aid station. Going back over the GPS log, I had been consistently splitting in the 4:30s but from the 29th I dropped into the 4:40s. Somewhere around here I caught up to and passed the YMCA woman from earlier who looked to be fading at this point

On the way out to St Heliers, 26km-ish

I checked my time at 32km, just after the turn around at St Heliers and 10.2km to go - somewhere around 2 hours 27, on track to beat my target but now running on very tired legs. Took my 4th gel and switched from Powerade to Coke at the 33km aid station. As I now know, this is where the hard part of the marathon starts! I started catching up to people who had been reduced to walking, and an even larger number of people who were still running but had drastically slowed. Every now and then I’d feel my hamstrings or quads give a bit of a twinge, which was quite worrying as cramping would be disasterous at this point. I was also now entering uncharted territory, the longest I’d run in training was 33km and everything beyond brought questions of whether my legs could keep pushing me along, whether my battered knees would bring me a world of pain, whether I’d been fuelling well enough to avoid the dreaded wall.

36km, another aid station and I chugged back some more Coke.

37km, only 5k to go, should be less than 25 minutes now.

38km, should be less than 20 minutes. Can I keep running for another 20 minutes, that’s kinda ages.

Up the small hill to the Tamaki Drive/Quay St/The Strand intersection. Is that the 39km sign? Take another gel, aid station should be up here.

Top of the hill, come on legs, I think we’re going to do this. Where the hell is the aid station? My mouth feels so dry after that gel.

Running past Vector Arena - here’s the aid station, thank fuck! More coke, lots of cheering and support. There’s the 40km sign, and bunch of people from Max College for Fitness Professionals - I recognise the woman from the Albany Lakes series, run past with my arm out and high five all of them, awesome!

Pace is increasing, nothing drastic but I’m going to finish this bad boy strong! Through the Viaduct and past the 41km sign, watch says 3:11 - should be over in 5 minutes!

Must be close to the finish now, check the watch again but it’s only 3:13, still more than half a k left.

Coming out of the Viaduct and there’s fences everywhere, so many people around! Lots of cheering and encouragement, no other marathoners in sight

Looking up at the clock, just before the finish line

Turn a right hand corner and onto the final 100m or so! I can see the clock - 3:15:xx, suddenly it hits me that I’m about to finish my first marathon and to do so in a time that I never even dreamed of!

Arms in the air as I go under the finish gate, I imagine this might seem strange but I almost wanted to cry/almost did.

Staggered to the final aid station beyond the finish, 2 cups of water over my head, 3 down the hatch, inhaled a banana, more staggering, got my finisher’s medal along with lots of praise and a bottle of Powerade, which also went straight down the hatch in no time. Collapsed in the middle of Victoria Park and just lay there for about 20 minutes, relieved to be off my feet, feeling pretty smug and dieing just a bit.

Eventually I got up and went to claim my free beer, which turned into 2 free beers and a long sit down in a chair in the sun. Felt great - physically I felt completely shattered, was hobbling around like a gimp but just felt amazing.

Spent

Despite drinking at every aid station and everything I consumed after the finish, I lost 1.5kg, presumably in sweat, between getting up this morning and arriving home afterwards. Since then I’ve been working on recovering the 3,600 calories I burnt, trying to sleep, and alternating the one bandage I have between my knees and ankles to give the joints some compression.

Done!

So my official time was 3:15:59, 6 minutes short of a Boston Qualification for 2012. First half split was 1:37:02, second half 1:38:56. Finish placing was 125th out of 2,307 finishers.

During the marathon training I didn’t do any swimming but mountain biked at least once a week. From here I’m going to cut my running back to probably twice a week, get a lot more cycling in and get back into the pool. Next goal: half ironman (don’t know which yet)


Song of the Day
Some Japanese drummers, much like those on the course before the bridge

Huntly Half Marathon

I haven't been able set aside time to write a blog entry here in a while - work has been uncharacteristically full-on and I've had a few other things on my plate. Unfortunately blogging is near the bottom of my list of priorities so it's the first to be dropped when time is really tight.

Huntly Half Marathon

About 14km in, looking serious

So I ran my second half marathon last Sunday. I devised a training program with a sole focus on running to span the 5 weeks from my last triathlon to the half marathon. My main goal was to improve my run-specific endurance so that I could maintain a relatively fast pace for the full 21.1km. I started with a 44km week, built to 60km/week. I was cautious about avoiding injury (although I did break the 10%/week rule), and ended up cutting the distance down in my second to last week when my legs were telling me they'd had enough.

My original goal for the race was to go sub 1:40 - having run a 1:47 at my first half marathon. My run pace in the Olympic triathlon (sub 4:30/km) and the pace I was able to hit on mid-distance training runs made me think I might be able to get close to 4:30/km pace for the race, which would be 1:35. It seemed a bit ridiculous because to me that kind of time is getting into the realm of "good" runners (and is faster than my 5K pace was in December).

Finish chute

The first couple of km's of the race I was running about 4:15 pace and told myself to calm down and slow down. As each successive km marker went past, I found I was managing to hold a sub 4:30 pace without feeling like I was pushing particularly hard. About 14km in I decided if I was still feeling good I'd pick up the pace at 16km. I actually started gradually picking up and by the time the 16km marker went by I was pushing a decent pace and passing a lot of people. The last km I picked up further and actually approached my 5k pace, to finish with a time of 1:31:04. Unfortunately the organisers later announced they had screwed up their calculations on the measurement wheel, and the whole course was 600m short! They adjusted times for the additional distance and mine was 1:33:57 - still a time that I'm immensely proud of.

I actually wonder if I would've gone faster if the course had been marked correctly - the slightly short km's meant I thought I was running faster than I was, and forced myself to slow down a bit. I also wonder how things would've gone if I hadn't been wearing a stopwatch and monitoring my pace, and had just run to RPE.

Going through the GPS data I recorded (with more accurate distance), I ended up running a decent negative split - first half (only 10.25km) was 46:31 and second half was 44:33. In fact I did the final 10km in 43:37 which is about 4:20/km pace and a 10km PB for me. So now I have a new goal (which I wont be testing until near the end of the year) - sub 1:30. Requires a 4:15 pace but I think I'll be capable of that after a winter of marathon training.

O'Hagans
I've run the O'Hagans 5k every week since early April - I had posted earlier about how I was consistently dropping my times. Two days after the Oly I managed a 19:22, but since then I haven't come close. The following week was 19:5x and then the last three weeks I've run either 19:38 or 19:39. I can't decide if this is due to fatigue (my initial guess, but during my taper before the half marathon I didn't get any faster) or if it just reflects the change in the intensity of my training. I also won a $100 bar tab as a spot prize at one of the races...that went down well :)

Five Fingers
I tried to incorporate a short run in the VFFs each week, usually 4 or 5km. I really enjoy running in them, I think perhaps over the next few weeks where I don't have any specific events to be training for, I might get out in them more and build my distance in them further. Actually since it took me so long to finish this post, I ran the final O'Hagan's run of the series yesterday in my VFFs. Found them to be a little slippery in a couple of spots (it was raining), and my calves felt alright at the end (sore today though). My time was 5 seconds slower than my last runs in the Kinvaras, which is better than I expected to do in them.

Other Stuff
I've done very little riding and no swimming for the last month or so, have done a bit of mountain biking and think I might try get out and do that more regularly over winter.

Song of the Day
Nearly forgot. Bit different from my last few, Sound Check (Gravity) by Gorillaz from their first (self titled) album

My First Oly - Panasonic People's Tri Mission Bay

Yesterday I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon, which has been the primary goal of my training for the last 17 weeks. For a more structured race report with times and such, you can read my report on BeginnerTriathlete.com here

After completing my first triathlon, the Sprint distance at Mission Bay last December, I decided I wanted to do the Olympic distance being held at the same venue at the end of the season. It's a great spot for a triathlon, based around a small, popular beach with a large grassy reserve, near Auckland City and surrounded by cafes, bars and restraurants. The course for the bike and run is dead flat, with a nice smooth surface. It's also probably the most popular triathlon in Auckland, largely due to the central location and welcoming atmosphere, but also helped by the severe lack of well organised triathlons in Auckland.

In preparation for this event, I've been following one of the free training programs from Beginner Triathlete, the 16 week Olympic 3x Balanced program (meaning 3 workouts for each discipline per week, with an even emphasis on all three). I followed the program pretty closely, I missed a couple of workouts when I went away over New Years, and stretched one of the weeks out a bit around the North Shore Coastal Challenge. In the peak week of the program I swam 7.2km, rode 170km and ran just over 40km. I was very happy with how my speed and endurance progressed over the program, and felt well prepared for the race.

The Race
I was up at 4:30am to get ready, giving myself plenty of time to eat, shower, dose up on caffeine and drive in; arrived in heavy darkness at the venue just before 6. It was nice to be there early enough to get a park real close to transition, and a great spot in transition: there were probably only 10 or so bikes racked when I arrived.

The sun had just come up when the race started at 7:05, the start actually came up sooner than I was expecting and I commented to my mate Oly (who I've shared the triathlon journey with) that I didn't feel prepared - in a short term/mental kind of way. I hadn't got myself into a preferred spot for the start, so I was roughly in the middle of the lineup and a few people back from the front. This put me right in the thick of the busiest swim start I've been in. Fortunately I'm not too phased by crowded starts, but it's still not my preference and I got quite frustrated by not being able to settle into a steady pace. I think I have a lot to learn about how to get the best out of myself in a busy open water swim.

Anyway, my swimming is still at a point where I'm mostly thinking about getting to the end, and thankfully the 1500m went by quite quickly, and I was into T1. Apart from being slightly held up trying to get around some dudes who were walking to transition, T1 was fast and smooth. Had the wetsuit around my waist by the time I got to my bike, quickly got it off and my helmet and glasses on and I was out of there. Blew past a bunch of folk standing on the mount line trying to get clipped in as I jumped on the bike and pedalled on top of my already clipped-in shoes as I got up to speed. Slipped into the shoes easily and I was quickly hammering along at a good rate.

Crossing past the transition area on my second lap

I took a GU gel, calmed myself down and tried to get my heart rate down below 165. I knew this was going to be a tri of massive draft packs, further to my post complaining about drafting in this series I had found an official description of the events as being geared toward participation rather than rules compliance, so accepted it would happen but decided to stick to my guns and ride my own race, head on into the wind at all times! Apart from a bit of rain making things a bit damp, I really enjoyed the ride. I maintained a pace I was very happy with the whole way and was clearly closing the 3 minute gap that Ollie had put on me in the swim.

Unfortunately on the third lap (of 4) I saw Ollie at the side of the road fixing a puncture, meaning there would be no epic battle between us on the run. I was a lot more assertive on the bike this time round, in terms of warning people I was coming through or asking them to make way, possibly because I was actually overtaking a significant number of people (probably mostly doing the Sprint), and was not interested in getting caught up in a crash due to a lack of communication. Any time that I came up behind someone or a group of people who I was only marginally faster than, and thought there was a chance they'd try to jump on the back, I increased my speed enough to not give them a chance to get in to my draft, which proved 100% successful in keeping my ass free of leeches.

This picture is from my first race here in December. I find it interesting to see how much worse my position was then. Also, note the leeches (those guys didn't even try to take a pull)

On the final lap of the bike the wind started to pick up a bit, and I was starting to really feel the burn in my hamstrings and glutes after close to an hour in the aero position at a high level of effort. I started to wonder if this was going to hurt me significantly in the run, and if perhaps I'd been pushing too hard, but I think I needn't have worried. I sucked down a second gel shot about 2km from the end of the bike.

Coming in to T2 I was feeling pretty good and psyched for the run. I'd already slipped out of my shoes, and to avoid knocking them off the pedals I carried the bike slightly off the ground with one hand as I ran to my rack, overtaking a number of very tired and spent looking people on the way through. Again, things went very smoothly. I racked the bike front-first by the brake levers, slipped into my magical Saucony Kinvaras, and ran off, putting my race belt on as I went. I'm not sure why, but I didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I usually do coming off the bike, and was running strong from the beginning.

Although I no longer had to worry about Ollie, I'd been keeping an eye on a third person with whom we also have a bit of a running battle with - Mark, an Engineering Faculty member who lectured us both during our degrees and who is now Ollie's supervisor for his Masters project. He's a very quick runner and has thoroughly routed us both in the run of the last two triathlons we all did, and at the O'Hagans 5K races. I was guessing I had about 2 minutes on him at the last point I'd seen him on the bike, and expected he'd be up to 5 minutes faster than me on the run.

As soon as I hit the run, I started overtaking people. I was feeling pretty good, but was weary about going out too fast and running out of legs before the end; so I sat at what was a comfortable pace, and progressed through the crowd. The run course is 2.5km out along the bike course, then back again, obviously with 2 laps to make it 10km.

About 1km into the run I saw Ollie go past on the bike, at the point I knew that there would be no miraculous comeback and I'd have a hollow victory on that front. After the first turn around I saw Mark and guessed I was around 500m ahead of him, he was looking strong and I was sure he'd be upon me in no time. I crossed Ollie at about 3.5km, we high fived and shouted encouragement as we passed. Coming to the turn around at 5km I ran through the central area and saw my family who had come along to support me. I'd caught brief glimpses of my dad while on the bike but this was the first time I'd spotted my mother and sister too. It's always great to have support!

Didn't get in many pics, but here's me in the background. Most of the people around me were in the Sprint distance

Since about 4km a guy I passed had been sitting right behind me. We'd had a couple of brief exchanges and he seemed like a nice guy, but around 7km I decided I had enough in the tank to pick up my pace significantly so decided it was time to bring the pain. I had been running with HR around 158 (lower than usual, was feeling limited by muscle tiredness more than aerobic ability), and stepped it up to 165+. I'd guess I went from a pace of 4:35-4:40/km to 4:15-4:20. I lost him quite easily, and began catching a few reasonably quick guys and girls who had been just ahead of me. Some of them tried to keep up but I think I'd paced myself really well because none could hang on. After the final turn-around at 7.5km, I crossed Mark at roughly the same point we'd crossed on the first lap - shortly after it was the same with Ollie! Apparently I was running at close to the same pace as these two who are significantly faster runners than I in open runs - very pleased and feeling great. Around 9km I was overtaken by a very speedy woman, probably in the 40-49 age group - I was well impressed by her pace and had no intention of trying to keep up!

Coming through the 5K mark with my new buddy on my heels

Coming through the last couple hundred metres I gave my last kick - unfortunately nobody ahead worth trying to chase down, but I wanted to finish knowing I'd given it all I could. Coming across the finish line I found I'd finished in 2:27:xx - comfortably under the 2:30 I'd predicted. My time for the run was 44:47 which is faster than I expected, and is now my 10K PB.

Because this post is getting quite lengthy, I wont go through my post-race activities, but I will say it involved a lot of high carbohydrate foods, a giant Belgian beer, a spa, and about 4 hours sleeping on the couch in front of the TV.

So the next challenge is a half marathon in 5 weeks. My aim is sub 1:40, but based on how I ran yesterday I really wonder if I might have more like a 1:35 in me.

Song of the Day
To go with the rest of this post, I wanted to pick a song that's been heavily featured in my "run" playlist as I've trained my way to this race over the last 4 months. This does mean you probably wont like it, as I do like to listen to songs with some guts to them when I'm running. It's not my favourite song, but it really motivates me when I'm pushing through the end of a fast training run. The song is "Bradley", by the now-defunct band Coal Chamber

PBs, Always Satisfying

Yesterday I ran in the O'Hagans 5K, which I believe I've mentioned in previous posts, and happily managed to maintain my previous record of PBing the 5K every time I run one. My 5K PB record has progressed as follows:
Nov: 22:30 (training run)
Dec: 21:43 (training)
Jan: 21:00 (first 5km race, bit of a hill)
Feb: 20:57 (same race as previous, eased off on the final hill to keep heart rate down = error)
later in Feb: 20:05 (O'Hagans, flat course, possibly up to 30 seconds short)
Mar: 19:51 (O'Hagans)
Apr: 19:27 (yesterday)

I was amazed at how much I was able to pull off my last time. Although the previous two 5Ks I'd run had been during low-volume/recovery weeks in my program, I'm now fully in taper mode so perhaps that helped; it was also my first race in my new, feels-so-light-and-fast Kinvaras.

I suspect the biggest difference is actually the reason why I've been racing as often as I can, which is just getting better at executing a race. I felt like throughout this one I was able to stay focused and as a result not allow myself to ease off in the later half of the race when the discomfort levels are getting steadily harder to ignore. My average heart rate from the race was 171, and max 183 - both of these are the highest I can remember having seen (I have suspected for a long time that I'm a low max HR person).

I had a nice little sprint finish too, I'd been slowly closing in on a guy who'd overtaken me about 1km in to the run, and managed to really put the hammer down over the last 100m to close the ~5-10m gap and just edge him out. I was beaten by a friend of mine from uni who has been doing the series barefoot! He's made rapid progress over the last month or so since he first entered, I think his times have dropped from mid 20's to high 18's. I followed him quite closely for most of the way to the turnaround, but when we hit a section where there was grass he could run on rather than pavement, he absolutely flew and left me for dead.

Song of the Day
As promised, here's the obligatory song to accompany my post. It's another NZ band - this one is a now defunct group called Push Push. The song is nearly 20 years old, with a 80's hair-metal type of sound. I hadn't heard this in a long time but it appeared on a music channel on TV recently and I was reminded of its greatness. The song is called Song 27, I'm going to embed two versions, the longer one with no video has much better audio, but I thought I'd include the version w/ video too since it's not the same without video. Enjoy!

New Gear!

I've read that the fourth discipline in triathlon is buying cool shit, and I have to agree. Between the three sports there are so many potential avenues for spending - bikes and associated componentry can easily be the biggest contributor, but with swimming there's wetsuits and assorted training aids, and then there's that huge running shoe market. There are many blogs out there that can cover the reviews of such items in much more detail than I care to (Runblogger is one of my favourites, and I've heard good things about DC Rainmaker), but I still wanted to share some of my latest purchases and my opinions of them.

I should also add - although I'm not really cheap, I pretty much refuse to pay the retail prices I see in shops here. I would like to largely blame this on pricing in NZ being hugely inflated in comparison to many other countries (which I'm gonna talk about a bit further down), and the fact I want to get as much cool shit as I can without bankrupting myself. The result of this is that a lot of what I buy is second-hand, from NZ's only worthwhile online store (Torpedo7), or imported.

ISM Adamo Racing saddle

ISM saddles are a bit funny looking at first, but for me the shape seems to make perfect sense. The design allows the rider's weight to be supported on the tuberosity of the ischium, aka the sitz bone or sitting bones (thanks Wikipedia! BTW If you look that up, have a good look at the second picture, it's quite startling when you realise what you're looking at!).

I found that as I had adjusted my bike fit to have a large drop from saddle to bars causing my hips to rotate forward, there was increasing pressure and discomfort on my perenium, that seemed to be greatly relieved by sitting slightly offset to one side. The Adamo line of saddles achieve the same thing but with the weight supported on both, rather than one sitz bone, and the cut-off nose seems to allow the wedding tackle to sit in a more comfortable position too. The saddles are unisex too, and I would imagine they would be even more of a revelation for a woman, as my guess as to what I would've been sitting on in the old (also unisex) saddle if I had lady parts suggests high levels of discomfort.

It is usually suggested that there will be a bit of an adjustment period after switching to an Adamo saddle - my first ride was around 2.5 hours and it felt great! There was some discomfort afterward (similar to light bruising), but after about 300km on the saddle I seem to be fully adjusted to it. The saddle is not quite as cushy as my old one when riding in a more upright position on the hoods or flat of the bars, but I do 90% of my riding on the aero bars anyway, so this doesn't really bother me (and when I'm grunting up a hill my legs are screaming louder than my ass anyway).

I don't see myself changing to a different style of saddle anytime soon, and would definitely recommend the Adamo line of saddles to any triathlete who has a roughly horizontal-torso aero position.

Saucony Progrid Kinvara running shoes

When I first started trying to run about this time last year, I suffered terrible shin splints that prevented me from being able to run for much more than 5 minutes. After taking a trip to a local running shoe store, and outlaying an awful lot of money ($270NZ) I was running in Brooks Adrenalines - moderate to heavy pronation control shoes, and I was cured!

Having run somewhere around 700km since then, and recently done a considerable amount of research into running biomechanics (another post I hope to make, when I have time!), I decided I wanted to give the Kinvaras a shot. The key reasons being the excellent reviews they've received, reduced heel-to-toe drop (4mm vs the 12mm of my current shoes), ridiculously low weight, good pricing and absolutely blingin' appearance! The hope was that with all the running I've done over the last year, I will have been through sufficient anatomical adaptations that shin splints should no longer be an issue and could handle a "neutral" shoe, while the reasonable level of cushioning would make them more forgiving than my VFFs while I develop my stride.

I bought the shoes online from the US for about $80NZ, and the total cost to have them air-freighted here was $130 - a mockery of the retail pricing on them in NZ (if you can find them). Although I appreciate that local retailers wont have the economies of scale nor the relatively low overheads of a large online store, I don't see where the extra $100NZ+ comes from when you buy them locally.

Anyway, onto my impressions of them...
First run in the shoes was great, I did 11kms at 4:40/km which is a reasonably quick training run over that distance for me. The reduced weight (about 40% lighter than my old shoes) was nice, and I definitely felt I was able to more easily land roughly on my mid-foot, although I think I was still heel-striking to some degree. The nice thing is that as the shoes are still quite cushioned, this wasn't punished as heavily as it would be in my VFFs. I suspect the fact there is still a bit of heel-lift prevented me from being able to get a really nice landing on the forefoot like I can with VFFs.

The sizing and fit felt pretty good - similar to my Adrenalines in the way they felt perfectly matched to my foot (the few other running shoes I've tried have felt just a little odd). I did feel a little cramped in the toes; this may be improved by running sockless, will have to try that next time. I also suspect they will stretch a little.

I have recently been experiencing a bit of a niggling pain in my left knee - it almost feels a bit swollen and like it's been getting jarred a bit; that was non-existent while running in the Kinvaras, and I hope this is due to the shoes. My calves felt a bit tight but I'd been experiencing that a bit recently, so not sure if it was due to an altered landing or just normal. At one point my right ankle was a little sore but that was while running on a laterally sloping path and it went away pretty quickly.

My current running shoe collection

Overall, I'd say - so far so good. I look forward to putting more distance on them, and I'm particularly looking forward to doing a 5K and my first Olympic distance triathlon in them next week.

Brooks Trance 9
The Brooks Trance is basically a more expensive (better?) version of the Brooks Adrenaline, designed to perform the same job for the same type of foot. I bought these because the online store I got the Kinvaras from was clearing the old stock at a ridiculously low price (~$75NZ), my Adrenalines are due for replacement and I was concerned I might not be able to get through my planned winter marathon training solely in the Kinvaras. Given the price of Adrenalines here vs the USA, I would expect the Trance to retail around $350NZ. Again, ridiculous.

Malcolm, shut up and tell me about the shoes

Trance on the left, Adrenaline on the right

Ok. Looking over the shoe and comparing it to my old Adrenaline, it looks like there was a design group working on each shoe, except one group spent the first 6 months drinking and then copied the other group's design, making small changes to make it look different. I think the group that was doing the drinking were the ones that designed the Adrenaline, because they're half a size undersized compared to virtually all other running shoes.

Comparing with my well-worn Adrenalines, the Trance have a certain stiffness/firmness to them, which I presume is mostly because they are new. They feel a bit more cushy under foot. Otherwise, the fit is very similar between the two, although my old shoes feel much more like they are perfectly shaped to my foot (again, probably due to wear).

I took the shoes out for a 12km run this morning, and I feel kinda like I've been spoiled by wearing the Kinvaras. The Trance felt a little clunky, the landing was frustratingly heel-heavy, and the upper felt so stiff. My left knee was feeling a bit dodgy again by the end of the run, but I'm hesitant to blame that on the shoes. I did the run sockless (which I prefer to do when possible), which was possibly a poor choice in a new shoe; I ended up with quite a bit of rubbing along the top of on my little and 4th toes on my right foot, where the edge of a stiff piece of rubbery material is on the shoe.

I think I will try wearing the shoes around a bit more to try and break them in and loosen them up a little. I love the comfort of my Adrenalines, and would still like to give these a chance to be a replacement for them.

Week of Racing!

Big week this week, ran a "5K" on Tuesday, 2km of open water drowning tomorrow, and a sprint tri on Sunday.

The 5K went well, it's the 4th open 5k I've done and I set a new PB - 19:51. Unfortunately my GPS thinks it was 4.88km, so which makes it 4:05 pace or 20:25 for a full 5k (which is still a PB). It's also the first time I've had a good battle for the finish. In the final 500m or so there was a guy and a girl within about 20m ahead of me, and a woman just behind me (had been there for about the last k and sounded like she was suffering quite a bit!). As the two people in front were for me, I think I was the target for the woman behind: she made her push and drew up beside me but I was pretty sure she was pretty much spent. I'd paced myself well and felt like I had quite a bit left and made the push for the two in front. I got past the guy first, then slowly managed to draw in and get past the girl. With around 200m to go the guy caught up again so I gave my final kick and hammered home the finish, stronger than I ever have finished, and held the guy out by a few seconds. Good stuff! This 5K is quite a cool event, it's run by a pub down on the waterfront, costs $7 to enter and you get a free pint at the end! It's held every Tuesday evening and I think I'll look to do it a lot more frequently next year. It also draws decent field - around 130 people this week, and the winners are usually around the 16 minute mark (a bit more competitive than the first two 5k's I did where the fields were larger but I came in top 5 overall!).

I've really enjoyed the last 6 weeks or so, where I've made an effort to race in some way every week. I love competing, not that I'm highly competitive at the moment but it's a great excuse to push yourself and establish some performance benchmarks. Also, as a newbie to this game, regularly competing has been a good way to generally feel more comfortable and at ease in a race, to practice my rituals and find out what works and what doesn't. The way I see it, there's effectively free time available by executing a race well, from preparation to pacing, in similar manner to how in motorsport it can be easier get faster by making your driver faster than by trying to make the vehicle faster. In this case, my mind is the driver and my body the vehicle.

The 2k OWS I'm doing tomorrow is part of a series that runs every Thursday evening during summer; they offer 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 2000m distances every night. My first proper OWS was at this event in early December, I did the 500m in preparation for my first tri which was that Sunday. Since then I've been two other times, and stepped up the distance each time. This is the last event of the summer and it seems like it would be rude to not do the 2k! Last time when I did the 1500m it was a definite struggle: for me it's mostly a mental battle as there's just nothing to distract you from the fact that you're hundreds of metres out in the harbour, swimming a distance beyond what you've done before, that you've probably got another 20 minutes of work to go before you'll be on dry land again. Compounding that, time seems to pass agonisingly slowly, you feel very alone, and it feels like you never make any progress. I guess with time, as I continue to do more swims and become more confident in my ability I'll be able to relax a bit more and just get the job done, but I'm not there yet!


Finally, I thought I'd share this. Can you tell the difference between these two garments? One is a compression singlet, the other - my jammers.

Apparently I can't, because on Monday I went to the pool, got my concession card punched, went to get changed and discovered I had apparently chosen a compression singlet as the day's swimming attire. On further consideration I decided it might be a bit risqué, and decided to abandon the swim

2011 North Shore Coastal Challenge, race report

What an amazing race to write my first race report on here for. I'm going to format this in a way that gives all the useful facts and information first, followed the long-winded tale of the journey for those who want the full reading experience.

Race: North Shore Coastal Challenge, 33km Full Monty event
Date: Saturday 5th March, 2011
Race Description: 33km adventure run down the coast from Arkles Bay on Whangaparoa Peninsula to Windsor Reserve in Devonport, featuring considerable wading, rock-hopping, and a few swim sections.
Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes, 37 seconds
Placing: 49th equal of 118
Weather: Varied from overcast to heavy rain, temperature low 20's

Pre-race nutrition: Cup of coffee and 4 pieces whole grain toast for breakfast (2 peanut butter, 2 marmalade), 700ml of Powerade
Race hydration: Carried a 2L Hydra-pak (consumed ~1.7L), 150-250ml of Vitasport at each of 4 aid stations
Race nutrition: 1 GU Jet-blackberry gel 10 mins before race start, 4 Leppin Squeezy sachets, total ~2000kJ (plus Vitasport) and 480mg of sodium

Physical exertion: Hardest thing I've ever done.
Mental exertion: Right up there, pushing through the pain for the last 10km or so took some massive willpower
Would I do it again? Definitely.

The Race:
This race was recommended to me by my friend Lucy, who had done one of the shorter events previously (they also offer 6, 11, 16 and 22km races). Lucy has been quite a useful person to know as I've been getting into this competitive athletic lifestyle, she's done a few various runs, triathlons and such, and she always has some useful advice for me, and being recently incapacitated by impregnation she's been a spectator/supporter at a few events too (it's always nice to see a familiar face in the crowd when you're suffering through the last few kms of a hard race!).

The event website has a detailed description of the first 11km - the leg you only get to do if you're doing the 33km, and it sounded like a load of fun. There was also a recommendation from someone that you decide which distance you think you can do, then do the next longer one. I figured I could do 22km, having done a half-marathon a few months ago, so it seemed the only option was the full 33km - it can't be that hard, right?

Supplies taken on the run (ditched the sunscreen though)

For a change, I managed to have a pretty good sleep the night before, probably nearly 6 hours before waking up at 4:45am to get ready. Picked up my partner in crime: Ollie, who I had conned into running it with me, and headed to Devonport. The organisers put on a bus from the finish up to the start, to avoid the logistical issues of a point-to-point race, which unfortunately meant being at the venue two hours before race start. We arrived at Arkles Bay as daylight had just about fully taken hold, but with the overhanging gloominess of heavy rain clouds and light rain. The make-up of the fellow competitors was somewhat typical: mostly males, and mostly aged between 30 and 50 - that's not to say there wasn't still a diverse minority present; plenty of much younger, older, and more attactive faces in the bunch too! Everyone looking in good shape and all that we spoke to were friendly and in good spirits, despite the miserable weather.

Rounding Arkles Bay

At 8:30am, about 20 minutes before high tide, the hooter went and we set off along the beach, toward the first spit (I had to look this up to confirm I had the right terminology). Almost immediately we came upon what I had already discovered to be the most annoying of obstacles during the training session we'd done the week before: submerged rocks. There were significant wading portions throughout the race, and you would frequently be blinding stepping forward, not knowing if you were on a large rock and about to drop, or standing on a flat and about to trip over a rock. The first 4km was almost entirely wading in water between knee and waist deep, with a couple of short sections of rock-hopping over some very slippery rocks.

The nature of the course means that you're frequently moving in single-file, which in the first few km - before the group of 150 entrants had shuffled into order of pace, meant quite a bit of time stuck behind slower/less confident people, and some interesting/dodgy manoeuvres to get around people. This was actually quite fun, scrambling around the un-favoured path to try and get beyond someone before you reached the next point where you were reduced to single-file again.

Looking back across the first swim

In the water, part-way through the second swim

We hit the first of the two major swim sections at around 20 minutes in. It looked like probably 70-80m across - not much of a hurdle but pretty slow going when fully clothed with a backpack and running shoes on! Me and Ollie had both taken goggles with us so we could swim properly with our heads fully submerged for a nice, efficient body position. The hard part with this and the following swim was knowing at what depth to stop wading and start swimming, with swimming being marginally quicker once you got deeper than about your navel, but seeming to use more energy. The second swim came at around 45 minutes in, and was much longer - it looked like at least 200m to me. In both swims we seemed quite a bit quicker than those around us, largely I think because of our reasonable proficiency in swimming and the fact that we elected to swim a lot more where others would wade until they couldn't touch the ground. The second river crossing still took about 10-15 minutes (amazing considering I can do 200m in a pool in around three and a half minutes). Some cheeky bastard got picked up by the IRB (inflatable rescue boat) and ferried to the other side for both swims, despite the course descriptions being adamant that you should be capable of swimming 2x 200m if required.


We hit Long Bay, the 11km mark at around 1:30. My memory of many of the sections of the run is quite hazy, but I do remember there were a decent number of people gathered along the beach, huddled under raincoats and umbrellas, to cheer on the competitors - that kind of thing really makes a difference to me, I always get an amazing buzz and my spirits pick up immediately when a complete stranger is encouraging me (this was one of the things I loved about the Melbourne 1/2 marathon). At Long Bay a young fella, probably 13 or 14, started his leg of a team's relay as we were coming through. It can be quite humbling doing events like this, and having someone so young out-pacing you, but fortunately I'm pretty used to it. The little guy did slow down a lot once we got to the more technical parts shortly after Long Bay, we (mostly Ollie) helped him over a couple of tricky parts, but he disappeared some distance behind as the terrain got worse (he did eventually catch us sometime later). There were some very deep wading sections around rock faces between Long Bay and Browns Bay, with the tide now on its way out there were some quite strong currents to content with (we commented a few times that we didn't think the little guy would get through them, but apparently he did!). The other occurence that became increasingly regular on this section, as the rain began to come down a bit heavier, was falling of rocks, dirt and debris from the cliffs on our right. We were showered by some lighter stuff, and witnessed a few football-sized rocks come rolling down in front of us, which made us a little nervous.

I think it was shortly before we reached Brown's Bay, the 17km mark, that one of the more memorable events occurred. I was following Ollie along a narrow shelf of rock, elevated about 1.5m above the water and rocks below. Suddenly I heard a rumble and stopped just in time to see an enormous rock, roughly the size of a beach ball, come tumbling down from above and land directly at my feet, breaking in two. The rock and the debris it brought with it hit me in the arms on the way through, and scraped my leg, leaving me with a few minor cuts and bruises. It was a very terrifying moment, particularly as I began to consider the consequences had I not stopped in time, or if it had fallen just a split-second sooner or later. We continued on, a little shaken and a lot more nervous about getting too close to the cliffs.

Doing my best to look happy, 25km in

As we continued on we came across more and more of the slower runners and walkers doing the shorter distances, so many that it became a rarity to spot someone else doing the Full Monty - easily identified by the pink wrist tags we were wearing. We'd usually have a bit of a chat when we saw another Monty, check how they were doing, ask if they'd done it before - bit of small talk but noone really had the energy for much more than that.

We hit Milford Beach, the 22km mark, at about 3 hours. There was a short crossing there that is very deep to allow boats to get in and out to a slightly inland marina, and the current was absurd, I must've travelled at a 45 degree angle as I went through. I remember thinking that if this was the end, I would be very glad to stop running about now. 3 hours beats the longest I've done an athletic activity continuously by a good hour or so, and my legs were feeling very heavy.

The run from Milford to Takapuna is around 5km, largely along beaches and walkways, and despite suffering most of the way, it seemed like the time passed very quickly. I was surprised when we reached Takapuna beach, and actually thought the organisers must've screwed up the distances because I was sure I hadn't done 5km. Just by the Takapuna boat ramp there is a small camping ground, and again my spirits were lifted by a number of people sitting outside their tents and caravans, cheering us as we went through.

I do that a lot with my hand when I run

I barely remember anything between then and making the turn off the beach and onto the road for the final 1km or so. I do remember commenting to Ollie that I was really pleased that despite having been running for so long, and my legs feeling absolutely ruined, we were still regularly passing people and, important to me, I was very pleased that I hadn't given in to the pain, and was running all run-able sections.

It felt great to hit the road for the short final section, to run on some nice solid ground that doesn't slide away underfoot, or have an angle left to right that puts more weight on one leg. I tried not to think about finishing and stick to the mental strategy I've settled upon for long runs and swims - assume you're just going to keep going indefinitely and don't consider the thought of finishing until you have a minute or less to go. Finally, the finish line was in sight, I mustered all my remaining energy and picked up the pace a bit for a good finish.

Crossing the finish line was such a huge relief, I was immensely proud of what I had achieved, and greeted the ground with enthusiasm as I collapsed onto a nice soft patch of grass immediately after finishing. We stayed on the ground for probably 5 or 10 minutes, shared congratulations with a few competitors we'd chatted to during the run, and generally enjoyed the feeling of not being on our feet!

The run was a great experience, everything it promised to be, immensely challenging and accordingly rewarding. I'll be back next year, and hopefully with another year's endurance training I'll be ready to smash some time off this year's effort too.

Me, Ollie and one of the buddies we met along the way - enjoying the ground.

MalcolmG the Athlete

I always hated running, dreaded the day of cross country at school, ending up walking at least three quarters of it, and never made any attempt to push myself. I guess I would say that all the sport I played growing up was more skill-based (i.e. cricket) rather than intensely athletic.

By the end of uni I found myself in worse shape than I'd ever been, carrying a bit of extra fat and no longer doing anything remotely active, so I set about changing it. This started off as going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week, doing mostly weights with a bit of cardio after each session. After a few weeks, I decided I was going to give running a crack - it started off as 5-10 minute sessions on the treadmill, eventually in April I managed a 20 minute session, doing about 4km - easily the longest distance I'd run in my entire life.

Things progressed over the next couple of months, and in August I decided I was going to run a half marathon in October, while I was in Melbourne on a brief holiday. That came and went, with 6 weeks of training I managed a 1:47:23, which I was immensely proud of; I really enjoyed the run and was hooked. Unfortunately, I still didn't really like running, but at some point got the idea in my head that I might like to give a triathlon a go.

Getting in to swimming was by far the hardest part; although I'd learned to swim at a young age, I'd never been fast or competitive, and I was most intimidated by the swim portion of my upcoming triathlon. Initially I would swim one length of a 33m pool before having to stop for a breather, but after about a month I was able to string together a 500m set. Moving to open water swimming in a wetsuit was a massive shock, but fortunately after a couple of weeks of regular outings at St Heliers Bay I got to a point where I was able to get through my first sprint tri without too much trouble.

Since that first triathlon, I've been training hard to compete in my first Olympic length tri (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run). My swimming has come a long way in the few months since then, and I've already managed several competitve open water swims over 1000m. I'm at a point now where I usually look forward to a swim workout or race, and somewhere along the way I've started really enjoying running, too. Interestingly, cycling - which was initially my favourite of the three disciplines, is probably the most dreaded for me now, largely due to the much longer time that I have to dedicate to a cycling training session (they're double the duration of the swim and run workouts in my program).

My desire to compete is high now, as is my desire to broaden my horizons somewhat and tackle some new challenges. Before 2011 is over, I aim to run a sub 100 minute half-marathon, run my first marathon (tentative goal of 3:30), and prepare myself to be much more competitive for the summer of 2011/12 triathlon season.

And because the question does pop up with semi regularity - yes, Ironman is a major long-term goal for me; in the coming months I'll have to make the decision whether I want to tackle Taupo 2012.

I hope this suitably sets the scene for future postings on my various athletic experiences and endeavours, without my common issue of waffling on too much.