Sunday 29 April 2018

Day out with my 4 boys

AM - 19k in 5s with the Petts Wood crew around Beckenham Place Park.

Late morning and afternoon - took the fast train into London Blackfriars taking the bus along the Strand to Trafalgar Square, the National Picture Gallery (to get the boys their cultural fix), Covent Garden, home and then Nando’s! All in high spirits!

85k for the week. The most I’ve ever managed post a Sunday marathon.






















Palace 5 - Leicester 0

AM - met Messi early doors for park laps followed by Park Run. Messi was intent on running his 3.36 Valencia pace for the PR which I did until 500ms to go when my right hammy tightened. 16ish ks in 4.22s.

PM - at Selhurst with Jack. RLC and Zaha were unplayable and the fans in full voice. It’s consistently raucous every week but most importantly irrespective of the result. A lot of fun with Leicester singing’ we won the langue’ with the entire Arthur Wait responding with ‘you’re @@@@@ shit!’.

That’s us safe now and with the ground redevelopment plans now approved by Croydon Council the club is good health.













Birthday week - #44 and counting

Felt fine on Monday morning meeting Messi for 10ish ks.

Tuesday and Wednesday I ran on the work treadmill for 10ks again with Wednesday being a progressive ramping up to 3.30s for a 4.06 average. Tuesday was also my birthday on which J and the boys duly spoilt me.

Thursday was out again early morning with Messi for another 9 folllowed by another 9 solo in the rain on Friday morning. It’s bloody cold and am totally over this weather.

Flying solo this weekend with J away on a course!









Wednesday 25 April 2018

London 2018

It was already balmy hot when I woke.

After a quick breakfast J drove Messi and I to the train station at silly o’clock, well for Messi anyway.  He definitely has more OCD than me but I have to say I win when it comes to needing to be early for a race. Messi was still shaking his head by the time we arrived in Lewisham for the stroll up to Greenwich Park.

For the last 2 days I’ve been debating how I should reduce pace given the warm weather and respecting the distance.  My prep was hardly orthodox too with being 5k up in the air in freezing temeperatures for the last 3 weeks. In Nepal I lost weight but also a bucket load of strength.  But waking up to this 100% summer weather all I could think was that my decision to head to Nepal was totally vindicated!

Messi was in the Championship start whereas I was in the Red start causing an issue for the plan for us to run together. My Berlin time gets a Championship place as well but Uk Athletics insist that you join a club which I cannot be bothered to do. So there I stood waiting for him to show 3 rows from the front but no Messi to be seen.  I figured that the officials had put a stop to him changing starts.

At 945 it was now silly hot - the 10am start even for London is way too late. For the first time in living memory runners were hiding in any shade they could find. Off we went and the initial few ks hovered around 3.55s. It was now my turn to start shaking my head as all the young pups were going off way too quick.

Greenwich is always 5 people deep and is a crechendo of noise but then Bermondsey (close by to where I went to school) was louder yet again. Although the weather was crappy for us runners it was perfect for the spectators and I don’t care what anybody says, London is the best supported Marathon going. The crowds were insane today with what seemed like the whole of London out on the streets enjoying the festive spirit, dancing and drinking to all of the bands en route.

Post Bermondsey I got the obligatory massive ‘common Sammy Agnew’ from Shaza and Adrian which warmed the soul and then my parents, bro and sis and neice and nephew just before Tower Bridge. It’s always so appreciated to see them there and have to say I always get pretty emotional. Running always does it to me. Tower Bridge next as I tried to neck a gel but my body quickly rejected it having to run into the road side toilets just after half way (1.25 PW).

Back on the road and my least liked section of the race, the dreaded Isle of Dogs. I get so disorientated with all the switchbacks and running through the thick of Docklands you get caught in these wind tunnels and at that point I really began to feel the effects of the headwind and heat. It was about now that the carnage started. People were already pulling off the road in their truckload with the chickens from the early pace coming home to roost. I also noticed the young and talented Alex Money weaving across the road. It was about then that I just said to myself to finish sub 3 and calculated that running easy 4.30s would do it.

I am always estatic to get back past Tower Hill and direction the Embankment where I knew the family would be waiting again and this is where I got a slight twinge in my left hamstring but running 30 seconds slower than what I usually do I was able to muddle through before seeing everyone just after the Blackfriars underpass. I made sure I high-fived Ryder, Soadhi and Freddy before cruising towards Ben Ben recalculating that I had 11 minutes to run the final 2.2k. I practically walked over the finish line in 2.58.

16 minutes slower than Berlin 6 months ago, a PW (with the exception of my first in 2000) and still I cannot claim it was easy. No marathon is easy and was exhausted at the end and massively dehydrated. I barely drank anything the whole way round.

Congregating with the Petts Wood crew after, I learned that Messi ran a typically metronome 2.47 but the biggest dissapointment was for Daniel. I felt bad for him. The marathon is so unforgiving and we’ve all been there. I still get the piss taken out of me for my Calum Hawkins impression at the 2011 Gold Coast Marathon. That reminds me, I also saw Mark Milligan an old Sydney HuRTs friend being escorted into the medical tent.

I realised then how dehydrated I was and asked the St Johns ambulance guys for water but they flatly refused saying that they had run out. That was a little disturbing.

With friends and family coming round to ours for the afternoon I had to get home to help J and cabbed it to Blackfriars but quickly realised there were No trains which was bloody shit meaning I had to go all the way back on the tube to Victoria. During which I reckon I had 35 people congratulate me typifying the spirit of London. On occasions like this it’s right up there for best City in the world.

The joint farewell, bday, post Mara party was special with all our closest and dearest here with my dad retelling my running crew how he ran the first London in 1981 in his rugby jersey running some of the way with JPR Williams!

* The more I run marathons the more I dislike certain aspects. The constant carb loading is a nightmare and my stomach did not know what to make of it having led a monk style existence in the preceding 3 weeks with no meat, alcohol, bread, chocolate.....).









Saturday 21 April 2018

London marathon week

And so back into London and it’s warm after 2 days relaxing in Kathmandu with warm water. London in fact is too warm for marathon running.

Eased back into this week with 10k jogs Tuesday to Friday running with Messi on Friday morning. After a quick lunch with Messi, Selman with Mark P joining we headed to the expo. I bumped into Martin Yelling who I got to know well in Kenya (he is a superstar at this event) and then we waited around for the Paula talk. I have way too much respect for her to get involved with any selfie shenanigans.





Kathmandu: