Went well

I ran the Rodgau 50km and it went well. Rodgau is a season opener for the German ultra running community. There were some big names there including the reigning German 24hr men's champion Florian Reus. I always enjoy this race 10 laps of a 5km route. Sometimes the last km gets rather muddy, but this year it stayed quite firm.

My friend Jan flew over from the UK to attempt his first ultra and was so confident of his speed that he predicted he would lap me before the last lap. Being twenty five years younger and a darn sight faster, I thought that this was a fair prediction.

Chrissy drove us to the start and we collected our numbers and made our way to the refreshment point start.  We set up a double camping chair and I had 10 bottles of Mountain fuel in  old Powerade bottles.  I find these bottles the right size and weight to carry and sip from.  

I wore: 

• Nike Air Pegasus trail shoes,  
• Sealskin double skin trail socks, 
• Dri-Fit Stride Hybrid 5in 2in1 Running Shorts, these like the sock are particularly good as the inner lining rides with your body and prevents chafing, 
• Some old running tops.  
• A buff
• Gloves that went on and off during the race

I liberally plastered by under carriage with Vaseline and taped my nipples. 

We set off promptly at 10:00am and Chrissy went of to do the weekly shop. The weather as ok.  not too cold or windy for the end of January.  I noticed that I was going a little too quickly over the first 5 laps at under 30minutes a lap. By this time  my rather full stomach needed emptying . After this point I settled on a target of thirty five minutes.per lap. 

During the race a fellow runner said to me that it was not done to have a tattoo of a woman on my leg.  I pointed out that was no woman, but Pheidippides, a symbol that I had finished Spartathlon. He had never heard of the race.  Imagine being an ultra runner and not knowing of Spartathlon.  The shame!

On  the sixth lap I saw Jan sitting in our double chair looking rather sheepish.  I went to collect my bottle and he said to me  

"I couldn't be bothered any more after 30km"

"Fair enough,"

"You're not going to have a go at me?"

"Jan, I could only do that if I had never a quit a race as you have done, and I have DNF'ed more times than I like  to mention"" 

I believe he had low blood sugar because he was not eating enough. 

I suggested he put the space blanket on and called Chrissy so that he could rest in the car and keep warm.

At 40km, and only two laps to go I saw Chrissy at the start that we go through ten times

She encourage me as always and I really appreciate her support! I saw her again as I went through the start of the last lap and she said she would call Jan to watch me  finish.  Unfortunately I was too quick and met them as they came back from the chair.  As I was among the last to finish there was not many there. We did, however,  manage to congratulate two eighteen year olds who had finished their first ultra. That is quite impressive.

As Jan quit after 30km, I reckon I lapped  him four times. we meet some of our former work colleagues that evening and had a jolly good drink that night.  as I think I deserved the celebration. 

My next race is on 18th February, the Sparta City twenty four hour. Link here.

My goal is to get one of the two longer qualifiers for Spartathlon, either the hundred miles in twenty one hours or 180km in twenty four.  

This requires me to run around eight kilometers an hour and this race has set me  up nicely for that. I think the trick is to maintain a slower pace in the beginning.  As the route is one kilometer long, pacing should be quite simple. Run quicker down the street away from the statue and return a bit slower on the slight incline

I will wear pretty much the same gear, changing tops once every four hours, so that I fill fresher each time.  I will use the Powerade bottles with Mountain fuel and drink one per hour.  I plan on bringing a lot of warm tops for the evening and a space blanket just in case it drops to very cold.  I will also bring some cheeses and rice. Mainly, I will rely on the food provided by the race.  Another important not is not to dawdle too long getting changed or eating.  Relentless Forward Motion or RFM is the key.

In terms of things going wrong I have a hand written book of motivational quotes that I will look at each hour.  I know that no matter how bad I feel I will feel better after thirty minutes or so.  It is a matter of walking down the steps to the darkest monster infested steps and having the strength to walk out the other side.  

I shall make two checklists prior to the race 

1) Kit list 

2) Things to do to keep head straight list

Don't wish me luck as , to paraphrase the words of the great John Foden

"If you have prepared properly you won't need it and if you haven't it won't help"

Update 

I ran with Fatih last night.  We talked about the race and he came up with some suggestions

• Run slow for the first hour and really focus on warming up 
• Every hour have a walking break 
• Ensure you have Red Bull or similar caffeine drinks for the night section 

 

fist 25km in 

better of a wobble 

mountain fuel and dextrose 

slower 25km 

all in all ok  

Getting back to it.

This year after crewing at Spartathlon and completing the Frankfurt marathon I have been re-energized and really want to get back to top fitness. I even went back and updated my race log of races and found to my surprise that I have entered 78 races and only DNF 12. These area mixture of marathons and ultras and covered a total distance of 7020 km.  

I feel it is important to note that running, although a solitary activity, is a matter of nonhierarchical teamwork. I wrote about the need to ditch the hierarchy here and I believe this is the future of work. Regarding running, one cannot train without the support of others. I could not have achieved the amount I have, without the support and assistance of my family and friends. The best thing on last Sunday's marathon was four kilometers from the end when I head the cry of "Rob" and saw Chrissy who had come down to see the end. She videoed the meeting and although I don't seem it, just seeing her lifted my spirits. Her support over the years has been amazing. Anyone that can put up with my mood swings over the years is really special. 

The last ten years of helping to run the British Spartathlon Team (BST), where each year we ensure all British runners and their crew have sponsored team shirts free charge, really does show that we can make a difference. It is a combined effort, with each performing to the best of their abilities and no real leader. Russell does the shirts; James does the advertising; Dave does the website. It is a good example of a nonhierarchical team and I like to think of us as an anarcho-syndicalist committee. 

Although it is a long time since I have qualified for the race, I have kept involved and helped ensure that the ethos of the British crew being there, being visible and ready to help all runners is something that I am particularly proud of. 

At Spartathlon, the Sparta Photography Club provide an excellent free service publishing all the photos on Flickr here. My favourite photo from this year, outranking this one of me with my friend Kostis, the former President of the International Spartathlon Association, is the one below it, as it shows the non-hierarchical team ethos I am referring to.

This was taken at the 80km HellasCan support point, showing part the British Spartathlon team crew. There are five members of the BST team there, all the act of helping each other. From the left Jonni is in the green and black shirt on the left have done 80km of 246km. His sister Sasha, in the white vest can be seen trying to attract my attention, as I post a photo of Jonni on the BST twitter. Sue is at the table with Jonni and her husband's Mark equipment searching for the specialized ultra-nutrition. Nathan and Jamie are in crew shirts with their backs to us as they wait for their runner Allan Anderson to, come in. As the twenty or so runners all take different times to reach this checkpoint, we all muck in. To quote the great Bill Shanley "The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life."  

This leads me to my next point and rather the point of this blog.  Being a child of punk, I have always been somewhat, in the modern parlance, "woke" although I predate not only woke but also political correctness. It was " ideological sound" in my day. I have lost count of the amount of protest marches I went on in the 70s &80s and volunteered for the Miners groups and Terence Higgins trust back then.  Nowadays I merely wear rainbow laces and the more eagle eye will be able to spot them in the video above. 

It has always irked me that the British Spartathlon tends to be older white males. We, however, have a history of LGBTQ representation, but not many women or non-white runners. Thus, one of our goals for next year is to increase the diversity in the team. Being one of those old white males I have no expertise in the area and am at bit of loss as how to increase this engagement. If there any of my followers who know something about increasing diversity engagement, please do get in touch and teach this old dog some new tricks. 

 #fitness #ultrarunning #marathon #marathonrunner #mentalhealth #bame #lgbtq #diversity #team #teamwork #teambuilding 

Week 21

Mentally getting better, due running and weight a little better. I need to stop punishing myself for not reaching unrealistic goals. Let's set better goals and reach those.

Week I don't know....

Ever get that feeling,  no matter what you that you are still depressed?

You try and modify things and nothing changes?

Or seek advice and no one really listens to you? 

You explain things in detail about how you experience an aspect of your life and every one tells you to do the same thing again and again. 

You tell them "I have tried that and that does not work."  But still they insist on you trying the same thing over and over again.

I just wish someone would have the time and respect to 

FUCKIN LISTEN TO ME, ABSORB WHAT I SAY, THINKING ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS  AND MODIFY THEIR RESPONSE ACCORDINGLY

.........................

INSTEAD OF JUST PARROTING THE SAME OLD SHIT,

Week Eleven

 Weight high  Back at the flat and running to and fro

Week Ten

 weight stuck, plus birthday week 

Week Nine

 Weight still stuck. Did nearly 70km. Will be  in the flat and can run more and avoid snacks