Challenge Complete!

Long time no speak, but it's now 2016 if you hadn't already noticed! :-)
You know what that means....my challenge is complete! I also have some amazing news and to celebrate I thought I would resurrect the blog. With a new fancy look too! What d'ya think? :-)

2015 was an amazing year on both a charity and personal achievment perspective. In the end a total of £3,567.61 was raised for Kidney Research UK, which is over 3 and a 1/2 times more than I set out to raise in January last year. The support has been amazing and me and Amy owe a huge amount of gratitude to every one of you you donated! Thank-you!

Weeks 4 and 3 out from GNR!

4 weeks out:

Mon - 6.1 mile (6:50mm)
Tues - 10.1 mile (6:12mm inc 6 mile @5:49mm)
Wed - 7 mile (6:40mm)
Thurs - 10 mile inc 6 mile tempo (5:27mm)
Fri - 10 mile (6:12mm)
Sat - 3 mile (7:12) , 7 mile (6:48mm)
Sun - 18 mile (6:29mm)

Total miles: 71.3 mile

This week was all about recovering from the previous weeks 81 miles and Hoad Hill Trail 1/2 marathon, while still keeping a fairly respectable volume and between a 12hour a day, 7 day shift at work - nothing too silly! Strictly speaking, I perhaps should have still ran easy on Tuesday, however the legs didn't feel too bad and so I decided to have a high steady workout to keep the engine ticking over - there isn't much time left to get the training in! The plan was to run 8 miles at a high steady pace (5:50-5:55 pace) but the brisk Walney wind made it much tougher to run that pace than it should have, and therefore to prevent sapping too much energy from the legs, I cut it short to 6 mile (averaging 5:49 pace) and ran the rest steady.

Hoad Hill Trail Half Marathon

On Sunday, it was decided I would run the local inaugural Hoad Hill 1/2 Marathon. Origionally I was supposed to be running the full marathon however after deciding to take my running more seriously back in June, it was decided that I would not run anymore marathons this year, and focus on recovering fully from the busy first half of the year and develop speed to take into a marathon build-up next year.

The Hoad Hill Marathon/ Half Marathon is a new local event in Ulverston, Cumbria. It involves a mixture of road, trail and beach, as well as the steep climb up to the Sir John Barrow Monument at the top of Hoad Hill. I'm not one to shy away from hills however this event was going to be something completey new for me, since I am by no means used to running on trail/ through overgrown fields!

I decided to use this "race" as more of a training run, since there wasn't going to be a high caliber of "elite" runners in the field, I raced last weekend over 10 mile in Lancaster and the route would not allow for fast times. This meant that I had 0 taper  before the race (apart from a short 6 mile shakeout the day before) and had covered just under 78 miles on the legs in the previous 7 days plus a week of walking in the lakes with Amy - not the most ideal "race" prep.

Upon waking on Sunday morning, a quick glance out the window shown not ideal weather. The rain had been coming down all night and it was continuing into the morning, with no signs of stopping. This meant I opted, last minute, to wear the inov-8 trail shoes. If it was dry, I was told I would probably get away with road shoes, which would have made me feel a little more at home. A quick breakfast and I was off to the start.

It was good to be at a race where I knew a lot of the participants - a bit like at the Kewswick to Barrow. A lot of local runners, supporting the new event, as well as some from as far as Austrailia! There was 300 people registered in the half marathon and 170 in the Marathon, so not a bad turn-out for a new low key event!

After a warm up, inspecting the start of the route through Ulverston town, I watched the marathon set off and then got myself ready for the race. TORQ kit on, race number pinned, and race tracker (courtesy of the race director Gaynor Prior and Open Tracking) secured to waste gel belt and I was ready to go. 10:00 am soon came and we were off!

Nobody came with me from the start, which meant I could use it as a training run afterall and wouldn't feel tempted to push the pace too much. I went out at a comfortable tempo effort and held it at that all the way. I knew, given the terrain and profile, I couldn't go off pace to judge my effort and therefore just went off percieved exhertion. This became immediately obvious since I went out the first half miles at roughly 5:25 pace, yet by the end of the first mile, with a climbing and a short offroad section along the Cumbrian Way, that slown to a 6:09 first mile (Strava Grade Adjusted Pace estimates this as 5:24 pace if flat).

The first 3 mile were all country lanes and a little undulating, but what im used to I suppose. The 3 mile marker though brought the first sections of farmers fields, which with the rain, had become quite difficult to run on. It was hard, as expected, to keep the pace going however as planned I kepted the same percieved exhertion with a couple of slower miles, including the climb up onto Birkrigg Common.

I was passing a lot of Marathoners at this point and I had to shout my way past some of them, although it didnt greatly slow me down, as the trail was wide enough to pass pretty easily. It was decending from Birkrigg towards the coast that I fell for the first time. The mixture of a tight turn and wet grass, seen me hit the deck and slide along the grass, onto the gravel path. Apart from a few slight grazes and a banged knee though, I was fine and jumped straight back to my feet, exited the field through the gate and decended Birkrigg, dodging other marathoners on the narrow trail, whilst still securing a 5:23 min mile.

After Birkrigg, brought a stretch of coastal path. This entailed a mixture of gravel, trail and beach for approxiamately 2 miles, and was 1 of the narrowest sections of the course, thereby occasionally getting stuck behind some marathon runners and hence slowing me down slightly. The section along the beach pebbles was especially tough because no matter what effort you put in, your legs didn't seem to take you anywhere! The mile times here increased to 6:09 and 5:58.

Following the coastal path was a 1 mile section of road before joining the canal path, which was a flat section of tarmac for 1 mile followed by another 1 mile section of country lanes and a little trail, which would potentially allow me to open up the legs a little again. Plans were to get back to a decent but comfortable tempo of between 5:20 and 5:30 pace here, however for the same percieved effort, my legs would only allow 5:46, 5:43 and 5:38 splits.

Approaching the end of the canal path before a small section of trail - Thanks to Helen Marr for the photo!

I was now 12 miles in, which meant 1 thing. I had the accent of Hoad Hill to battle before a descent back down into Ford Park for the finish. Knowing I had a strong lead, I didn't push too hard for this. Parts of the climb get to a gradient of 27% (according to Strava data), so it was obvious I was going to slow down...a lot! But I also didn't want to wreck the legs by racing up and back down it - The descent being the bit which could cause the most damaged and DOMS to the legs. I plodded up, over taking a few more marathoners, with a mile time of 7:40 - the 13 mile point clocking over on the watch at the final incline before the Sir John Barrow Monument.

Descending the Hoad - Picture taken by Milton Haworth

The descent from the Hoad was steep to say the least and very wet and slippy under foot! I fell to the ground on 2 occasions and went off track once or twice, not being able to get traction to turn at the technical parts. It became a game of a balancing act, as can be seen from the picture above, but I managed to make it to the bottom in one piece! At the bottom, I was through the gate and opened up the legs slightly for the final 2-300m to the finish line where I was greated by an abundance of family members and friends! I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 22 mins, 12 minutes ahead of 2nd place, which I was pleased with considering everyones garmin clocked 13.8 mile instead of 13.1. My garmin clocked me through half marathon in 1hour 19mins, so on that terrain, at a comfortable tempo pace, I've got to be pleased with that, plus I managed to get some cracking free photos of me in the TORQ team kit too! (thanks to my sister Claire, Milton Haworth and the offical Hoad Hill Marathon photographer!) !

 

I also managed to get some more mantle piece decorations! :)

Many thanks to my sponsors because they make it possible for me to do what I do!

TORQ Fitness - Nutrition
Altura - Custom Clothing
Camelbak - Podium Bottles
Tifosi - Eyewear
Zeropoint - Compression wear


Thats an 80+ mile week clocked this week, with 2 hard session and a tempo race, so allowing me to keep consistent milage and intensity. A slightly reduced mileage week is planned this week of 70 miles, with slightly reduced intensity to aid recovery and because I am on shift at work but I am now going into a Half Marathon Specific training phase for 4 weeks before a weeks taper for Great North Run and will try to update you all on my progress and training week by week!

- Grant

Lancaster 5km // Prudent Riverside 10 mile

Its been another couple of weeks of busy and successful racing, with another to look forward to next week to finish it off before focusing on specific training for the Great North Run.

Lancaster 5km

Yes...I know I've only just published the post about my 5km and 10km benchmark races last month, however it has been over a month since then and the next Lancaster 5km has come and gone.

This time I was feeling a lot more fresh and confident going into the race - I hadn't done no silly fell runs the week leading up to the race, and also had a much easier session on the Thursday to ensure fresh legs. The days goal was to better by 5km PB by anything more than 1 second! I wasn't convinced it was possible on the drive up to the race, and wasn't quite sure of the shape that I was/am in however I was going to give it a good go!

Again there was a few familiar faces on the start line, however was struggling to find faces which I would be able to hold onto the back of, apart from Phil Waite who ran 15.18 last month. As the race started, I tried to hold the pace back a little and wait for Phil to move his way to the front. By the half mile point, this was the case and then I just tried to stay with him for as long as I could - which turned out to be the 1 mile marker! There was no chance I was trying to hold his pace but nobody was coming with me either, so I was on my own!

We went through mile 1 in 4min 56 seconds - yes, not the best paced from myself! I soldiered on and just tried keeping the foot on the gas, shaking off the will to considerably slow myself down. Mile 2 went by in 5min04sec and the will to slow was getting stronger. I think that at this point, if there had been another runner with me, it would have helped a lot to spurr myself on. I did slow a little but not too much - I had a clear lead on pos.3 and was hopeless of catching Phil - I was in dead mans land!

Mile 3 ended up coming by in 5min12 and the final sprint to the line seemed unnessessary and impossible. I ended up running through the line in 2nd place and a time of of 15.39 and collasped to the floor, swimming in Lactate and gasping for air! I dont like these 5km "sprints"!

Despite the drama, I did actually feel better than last month and also managed to knock 12 seconds off my PB - Misson Accomplished! Im getting there! I also got a crate of Bud as a prize!

Prudent Riverside 10 mile

Despite training being more focused towards 5-10km speed work the last 2 month, it was decided to compete in Prudent Riverside 10 mile this weekend as more of a fitness check and confidence boost before starting a short specific training period for the Great North Run.

Race conditions were looking surprisingly good. It was a little humid and a slight headwind on the return although nothing which would seriously impact my time. Since not training for this distance though, I was unsure of the pace or perceived effort that I could withstand for the distance. Having completed a full working week of 12 hour shifts as well as fitting in 2 hard training sessions, I didn’t particularly feel race-ready on the start line either, however it would be good to see how I could hold up without a taper to set a realistic target goal for Great North Run.

As the race kicked off, I held back a little bit to see how the race would develop at the front. I tucked in just behind the lead runners for the first mile to see how the pace felt. I felt rather comfortable with the pace but as we approached the first mile marker, the pace began to drop slightly. I decided to step to the front at this point and maintain the pace that we had set off at.

Only 1 runner, Rob Affleck, of Preston Harriers stayed with me at this point with a gap slowly developing between us and 3^rd place. I remained on the front for the first 3 mile when Rob decided to help with the pace a little at the front for half a mile. I still felt very comfortable here though and got myself back on the front again to lead us to the 5 mile marker in just over 27 minutes.

The 2^nd half of the run gave the task of several hills and undulating sections to tackle. There is nothing closer to home for a Cumbrian road runner though and so I pushed on up the hills, still feeling fresh, from mile 6 and 2^nd place started to fall behind.

I held the pace for the remainder of the run with the last 4 mile being the fastest of the run (final 5k coming in at 16.10) and cruised home to victory in a time of 53 minutes and 44 seconds and 2^nd place coming in 42 seconds behind. All in all it was a successful run without being pushed for pace, plus a negative split on a more difficult 2^nd half. It has provided all the confidence needed to set myself a respectable target time for Great North Run. I felt strong and relaxed running at that pace which gives great self-confidence going into specific half marathon training next week. Onwards and upwards!

Fuel consisted of regular pre-race breakfast of :

1 x Cinnamon and Raisin Bagel with Strawberry Jam

1 banana.

Plus sipped on 500ml of TORQ Energy - Blackcurrant leading up to the race

Immediately following the race, I sped up recovery with a Refreshing TORQ Recovery shake – Banana and Mango – Delicious! J

Distance 10 mile – Time: 53:44 – Position – 1^st

5k / 10k Campaign - Sponsorship!

Another update over due - The last several weeks have brought some exciting news, so here goes! :-)

27th June 2015 - Lancaster 5k

I have never raced a 5k. Yes I have done the occasional parkrun, but never ran a competive 5km race against some strong club-runner opposition. They are short and intense! Now that I am focusing on trying to develop a bit of low end speed though, I decided to hunt out a 5km race to see where I currently stand over the distance and allow me to track progress since my Preston parkrun outing in February (time 16:50) and in the future.

This race was to be my benchmark for improvement. That being said, I needed to find a flat course where there will be a good group of runners to help pull me along. Lancaster 5k offered the perfect opportunity for this being not too far away from home and with the winning time generally being close to 15:00. This 5k is a series of 5 5km races which are held from Salt Ayre running track once every month throughout the season, so with running in June, I could then run again in perhaps August to track progress on the same course.

Unfortunately, the Wednesday before the Saturday race, I opted to go and have an "easy" run on the fells with my work mate, Matt Crawford. Now then..I have never ran on the fells and left the route planning to him, which turned out to be unrunable most of the way up and incorporating some steep technical decents. To cut a long story short, the run completely shot my legs and I was suffering with sore legs all the way to the start line of the race, to the point where I nearly dropped out the night before.

Amy drove me to Lancaster, offering great support as always! :-) Upon arrival is was great to see a few familiar faces. Several of the Barrow Striders were there including Phil Waite, which is certainly faster than me over this distance and facebook friend of Barlick Fell Runners, Russell Parington, who holds a sub 15min PB! There was also a few fast lads from Border Harriers that I recognised including former international ultra runner, Russell Maddams. The field certainly looked like it would allow me to push out a sub 16min, as long as the sore legs would hold up!

A 2 mile warm up and a good load of stretches, drills and strides, I found myself on the start line ready to go, whether I felt ready or not. I turned all sound alerts and vibrations off the garmin and turned it away so that I couldn't see it. I was running this race completely on feel!

The race went fairly well. I was in a group at the start, which slowly opened up. I went through the first mile in 5:05 and felt fairly good, so was certainly on for sub 16 pace. At this point there was a couple of attacks from the group, with Rob Hodgson of Border Harriers making a clear, strong gap at the front. Soon later Phil Waite make a move too but I quite simply didn't have it in my legs (or lungs) to go with him.

I was at the front of the group for a little while before Ray Edgar from Lancaster & Morcombe running club made a move. I tried to stay with him for as long as I could but with a mile to go he started to pull away further. With half a mile to go Russell Maddams moved around me and got right in front. I think he must have realised I was starting to suffer and my pace was dropping. Him being there certainly helped make sure I kept the foot on the gas. He made a small gap of several yards on me but i kept clawing it back.

Coming back into the track, with 400m to go, the winners were just finishing. I found a little in the tank to push and get around Russell to put me into 4th place. I held the pace around the top of the track and into the finishing straight hanging on to the finish.

I finished in 4th place and a time of 15:51. I was over the moon considering I wanted a sub 16 and was seriously doubting myself before the race with the sore legs. Phil Waite smashed it and significantly closed the gap between him and Rob Hodgson, finishing in 15:18 and Rob in 15:14. Great to see the training starting to pay off! Maybe with a bit more training for me, I'll be able to hang on the back of him for a bit longer too! But for the time being, the benchmark is set at 15:51! :-)


Sponsorship - TORQ Fitness

Inbetween Lancaster 5km and Manchester 10km, I was contacted by TORQ fitness with regards to their Performance Running team. I had filled out a sponsorship application a while back, to see if they could offer any help with nutrition for my charity challenges, but with my recent wins at K2B and Brathay Marathon, they have become interested in me. They are currently having a reshuffle of their team (which was a trail running team), to incorporate 3 road runners and 3 trail runners, and I am pleased to say that I have been selected to run for them on the road as a sponsored athelete with a contract for the rest of this year!

TORQ is a fitness consultancy which has ventured into developing their own performance nutritional products in order to provide a high standard of support to the atheletes which they work with. Their products, in my opion, are the best products I have found! Matt Hart himself, the owner, is a former Pro/Elite Mountain Biker. More info on TORQ can be found at:
http://www.torqfitness.co.uk

The announcment of me joining the team and a runner bio can be found at:

http://www.torqfitness.co.uk/news/new-road-specialist

We Love Manchester 10k

We love Manchester 10k was to be my attempt at the 10k distance. I hadn't really looked into the route so much but just saw it fell on a good date where I wasn't on shift at work and dived at the opportunity. Dave and Marie also decided to run so come the day Amy drove us all down in my car to make a day trip of it.

This would be the first race for me sporting the TORQ team kit. It certainly drawn a few peoples attention at Sport City and even led to me getting in a few official snaps at the finish!

Many thanks to Lisa Stonehouse for the pictures www.lisastonehouse.com

The route wasn't quite as fast and flat as I first thought it was going to be. There was lots of twists and turns which meant it was hard to get into your stride and to add there was a few very gentle climbs. Post race comments amougst the runners led to believe that the course may have been slightly long too. Despite all of this, I did manage to come out with a respectable performance. I managed to run a time of 32.53 for 6th position (or 5th position going off chip times by 1 second), which I think is a solid attempt considering I ran a minute more than that at Dalton 10k in May this year.

Many thanks to Lisa Stonehouse for the pictures www.lisastonehouse.com

From the picture above, its easy to see that I wasn't in the best of states at the finish!

Thats it now though, a 5km and 10km race time as benchmarks to go away, train and SMASH in the future! :-)

Been a While!

Hi All :-)

Its been a while since I posted anything on here, not because I have been taking a break, but because my times been tied up with other things and training. I do however have a few updates but will try keep it short and snappy!

Charity Challenge - Great North Swim

I completed one of my challenge events at the start of this month. The one which I was least looking forward to - The Great North Swim. This is a 1 mile, open water swim in Lake Windermere, which I had done almost 0 training for. I am not a very keen swimmer and so the aim of the event was more so to just finish rather than going for a specific time.

Despite a rather slow start, a little bit of panicking and swallowing of water, after 600m of breast stroke, I managed to get into a rhythm of front crawl, thereby crusing into the finish is a respectable time of 31 minutes. Not the quickest, but certainly nowhere near the slowest either! The important things was that the event was complete, I had a good crack amoungst my work mates and I can now concentrate on my running! :-)

Got to love Saylies pout! ha-ha

Glad it's over and done with!

JNR Race for Life

I was asked to go and run with the children at the Junior Race for Life run, ran by Greengate Junior School in Barrow at the start of the month. How could I turn that down! It was great running and chatting with the kids, somewhat inspiring them to start running themselves! They did great and there was definitely some future talent in there! It was fantastic seeing the new track at Furness Acedemy being used for what it should be used for, developing the next generation of athletes! I just wish I had something like this at their age and then I may have started running earlier!

Greengate JNR School have also offered to hold a fund raising event in the autumn term too for Kidney Research UK which is fantastic! :-)

Deemon Dance Raffle

Emma Fawcett of Deemon Dance group in Barrow very kindly offered to hold a raffle with all cash collected going to Kidney Research UK at their show last week. A total of £106 was raised and will be added to my just-giving page! Thank you Emma! :)

Funding and Support

Active Cumbria have very kindly offered me a grant of £300 to contribute towards my training costs in 2015. This will be a great help is paying for petrol costs to attend training in Preston and race entry fees! :-) Thank you Active Cumbria!

Following the amazing support from the people of Barrow and further apart online, within the last couple of days, I have been contacted by Mars Milk Play fund, who have awarded me £300 as well to contribute further towards by training and race costs! :-) Thank you Mars Milk! :-)

Torque Nutrition have very kindly offered me support with discount prices on nutrition products to aid my atheletic life-style and recovery. Whats even better is that all the products taste great! and the gels have to be the nicest and easiest to stomach that I have tried! Thanks Torq!

Training and Racing Plans

Most importantly, my training is going well! I am now back into full training after a full weeks rest following Brathay Marathon and a recovery week of reduced miles. I have gradually tapered the mileage back up and will be back to 70 mile a week this week for my Great North Run training bulid-up. I dont plan on increasing that milage too much above this in the build up, as to try keep my legs free from injury, however will be focusing on the quality of training.

Training Log

I have started training in Preston with Helen Clitheroe and gang and are really enjoying it! The adjustment to training properly, doing tempo runs and speed work on the track, was a shock to the system at first however I think I can see benefits already! I cant wait to see how far I can come on in the build up to GNR! I have a long way to go, but hopefully I can keep chipping away at my times.

To be a bit smarter, I have had a bit of a change to my racing and training plan in the build-up to GNR. I have dropped chester marathon in October, since it doesn't seem beneficial in the long term for me to be doing another marathon this year and I have also dropped Hoad hill marathon and opted to run the half instead (just to support a new local race). I have also dropped Ulswater Triathlon in order to concentrate on my running. The important thing for me, for the rest of this year, is to develop some speed, concetrating on 5-10k distances up to half marathon max, and then take that speed into the new year build up to London Marathon 2016, while letting the legs recover properly from the silly first half of this year!

Currently my racing plans up to GNR include (subject to change):
27th June - Lancaster 5K
12th July - We Love Manchester 10K
25th July - Lancaster 5k
2nd August - Prudent Riverside 10 mile
9th August - Hoad Hill Half Marathon
7th September - Great North Run (Half Marathon)

Lets see how I get on!

Club!

This week I have finially signed for a UKA affiliated club. The mighty Salford Harriers! The standard of running at this club is very high, especially in the A team, so it gives me a good bunch of people to try and aim to eventually keep up with! They are all a damn sight better runner than I am currently, however hopefully in the future, I will be up there with some of them! They have some great relay teams (A and B team) to look forward to competing in next year and looks like they all have a good bit of friendly banter! You never know, fingers crossed, if I could improve on my marathon time enough, we could put some good team times in at London marathon next year too, to get Salford harriers up there in the team championship!

I am also looking at joing a more local club as 2nd claim, possibly Barrow & Furness Striders or Preston Harriers, to compete in the local x-country and maybe even a few track events! Watch this space!

- Grant

Brathay Windermere Marathon 2015

After a 40 mile race, most people like to rest. In fact, it is perhaps medically advised to do so. Some people say to fully recover it takes 1 day per mile of what you have raced. My body was certainly telling me to rest however that was not an option for me. As part of this years personal charity challenges, 8 days after the 40 mile Keswick to Barrow, I had a marathon to run. Not just any marathon either - The marathon voted the UK's most scenic marathon by runners world, encompassing a 26.2 mile route, anti-clockwise around Lake Windermere, the UK's largest lake. With this, brings hills! ...one after another, after another!

Me and Dave gave this challenge a good go last year after K2B and it was not our day! Now, I wasn't as strong last year as I am this year, but me and Dave had to drag each other around the route in sweltering heat to scrape a time of just under 3hour16mins. That certainly didn't give me much confidence going into the event this year, especially considering how my legs and lungs felt after last weeks effort.

Mid week, I got myself out for a few short, easy runs. Or shall I say: what should have felt easy?! I managed 4.5mile Tuesday, 6 Wednesday and then another 4.5miler on Friday, but my right hamstring was feeling rather tight and I felt very lethargic. Not supprising with a 40 miler in the legs! I decided there was nothing I could do other than rest as much as possible before Sunday on the lethargic front, however I got myself booked in for a massage on Friday afternoon to hopefully help the legs.

Saturday came and my right hamstring was still feeling a bit suspect. I knew I could run on it however it was unknown for me if a marathon would make it worse the next day, since i've never suffered with this injury before. To be honest with you, I was a little scared! I was scared about the difficulty of the run so soon after K2B, I was scared that I may have to drop out of one of my charity events and I was scared I may injure myself and impact my future training and racing plans.

That day, I popped up to Windermere to collect mine and Marie's race packs and watched a few of the amazing 10-in-10 runners powering their way around the lake, body parts strapped up to the n'th degree and it erased a lot of the doubts in my mind.  Perhaps I would regret the decision at a later stage, but I decided to just get on with it and take the marathon on as a "non-competitive fun-run"......or thats what I told myself at this stage anyway ;-)

How could I give in to finishing a marathon in this beautiful place!?!

On Race day, I had arranged with my dad to take us up a little early so that we could drive most of the course and drop some water bottles off on root. This was because I remembered last year, really stuggling in the heat between the water stations, so with these in place, there was better chance in staying hydrated and topped up on electrolytes. I devised where would be the best spots to drop them and off we went. Turns out that during the run I was that focused, I ran straight past 2 of them! But fail to prepare is to prepare to fail as the old saying goes! 

After a good 10-15minute warm up + stretches, I was ready to get going. We congregated on the lawn and then got led down to the start line for the official start by the drummers. I still had in my head "take this easy Grant. Hold yourself back at the start, see how it goes and then make a decision on how to run the race....I mean fun run!" Lots of other runners and spectators started to wish good lucks to one of the guys at the front, a few along from me, Phil Eccleston. He seemed to have great support (he turned out to be a previous 10in10 runner), and I heard one of the guys a few rows behind say he was most likely to win. With me being a slightly competitive bloke, this got my adreniline pumping and made be wonder if I could keep up with him. Eventually the countdown from 10 began, the gun went off and I found myself pushing for place at the front, directly behind Phil.

Ohhh Crap!...What have I let myself in for!

Marathon Start - Me 2nd in from right (purple vest) and Phil centre (grey vest)

Phil was straight to the front wanting to lead the group. I was quite happy to let him do that (since I was supposed to be taking it easy..that soon went out the window!) and the race slowed down a little following the initial sprint for positioning. A quick garmin check from Phil must have idictated we had slown too much and he upped the pace again. The first hill came and we stuck together. There was only 3 of us in the group at this point, and then I think Phil must have been testing the waters a little and he upped the pace a down the short decline on the other side before the next bit of an incline. I played the game and stuck with him and then just seemed to hold that pace on. Next thing I knew, I was at the front and the lead escourt car was introducing me into the first village as "Grant Johnson, an unattached runner, leading the 9th Brathay Trust marathon and Phil Eccleston in 2nd place, approximately 200m behind." I had no idea of this. I thought he was right behind me, as I daren't look back.

I found myself on my own. Not the most clever thing to do in a marathon really. I was secretly hoping for him to catch me back up and then we could work together for a while, however I didn't want to lay off the gas either. My head had gone into race mode. Since my legs were still recovering from K2B, I knew that, at whatever pace I ran, I was going to taper off towards the end, since the legs would tire over a matter of time rather than pace. I believed that my only hope of placing well would be to go out hard and hang on for dear life at the end...so that I did!

The route isn't a route where you can get comfortable at a certain pace and hold it there, since it is too undulating. Instead, I found a level of precieved effort (I should look into using my HR monitor more often), and stuck with that. I started ticking off villiage by villiage, with frequent updates of how far 2nd place was behind off the lead car in front. To my amazement, I was making ground on him. I put in a reasonable attempt at the steep incline of 15% at mile 7 and then as I decended into Graythwaite I was told I was over half a mile ahead. I must have continued to increase the lead from there as the lead car started to stop mentioning 2nd place to the specators.

Thanks to Terry Lonergan for this picture of me at just short of 13 miles, trying to get some fluids down me. 

My pace had been pretty consistance down the west side of the Lake. Despite the hilly terrain, I went through 10k in 36mins and 10 miles well under the hour. I actually thought the 2nd half of the route was going to be easier, since I had been running into a bit of a head wind for the previous coulple of mile, however that certainly wasn't the case. At 13 mile, it was a run past newby bridge, where there was great support, and then along to fell foot where I would follow the road back to Ambleside. Although some parts seemed fairly flat (fell-foot), they were false! There was also some steep climbs and rolling hills along that side of the lake, including the famous "Ice-cream mountain", which holds a lake viewing point and ice-cream van at the top of a hill. 

Again, I dug in and stayed at the same percieved effort level. Some miles were coming up around 10-20 seconds slower than the previous half marathon splits, however when looking at the Strava "Grade Adjusted Pace (GAP), it is evident that I hadn't actually slowed. I was still averaging the same speed if the terrain had happened to be flat.  I think the GAP feature is quite a good tool so that you can analyse the data easy in this way...but i'm a bit of a stats freak! ha-ha

It wasn't until the finial 10km kicked in which the real big push had to begin. The last 10km starts with "ice-cream mountian" so it certainly doesn't make you feel like your nearly home! I was correct in my previous judgement. My legs considerably tired by this point and I had to really dig deep to keep pushing. I didn't know how far 2nd place was behind, but I wanted to hold him off for as long as possible. My miles times slowed by about 20-30 seconds per mile as predicted, but as luck has it, so did seemingly everyones. Unless you know the course well and purposely set off really slow, I dont think anybody would manage a negative split! 

I managed to plod my way to Ambleside, without looseing too much ground to second place. I was hurting..alot! but I wasn't willing to let first place slip. Mile 24, 25 and 26 markers were all half a mile short of where they should have been and this messed with the head even more. Garmin telling me one thing, the markers telling me the other. I eventually made my way to the Brathay Estate and was greeted with what felt like a mountain of a climb up the drive to the finish. I stumbled up to the brow of the drive and I could hear all the cheers around the corner and my name being shouted over the tannoy. They were welcoming me into the gardens of Brathay hall, and I didn't know what to do! 

Approaching the finish!

Now.. I've won races before...but nothing of this calibre where there are hundreds of people cheering you on. Obviously, Manchester was like that, but bigger! But I wasn't first home there. Workington to Keswick and K2B had literally a handful of family and friends there. What am I supposed to do? Do I run down the finishing stretch hi-5ing everybody? Do I jog down the finish screaming and shouting? Do I be cocky and perform some sort of cart-wheel or tipple-over at the finish? Being, a somewhat, quiet(ish) lad, I decided to do none of them. I kept my eye-line low and scurried to the finish (I had still not at this point looked behind once to see where 2nd place was) and 5 meter from the line raised both arms in the air in an attempt to achknowlege my achievement - 1st place in a time of 2hour40. Fastest in the previous 4 years. 

Celebrations!

Phil ended up to be not be too far behind (approx half a mile) and finished in 2.43, with 3rd place, Iain Jones, finishing in 2.47, both being solid performances which would have beaten last years winner! The race can be followed, how it all happened here. 

Podium Shot!

All in all, it was again a very successful day for me! Like I have said before, and I will say again, things are starting to fall into place, and I think I owe a lot of that to the people which surround me as well as the support I get from the Barrow running community! Without that, I dont think I would have progressed as much as I have done over the last 6 month. Exciting times lie ahead for me and the support I get from everyone, as well as the success, makes the training and hard work put in all worthwhile! On-wards and up-wards!

Special thanks go to NW Email for publishing mine and Amy's story, advertising my just-giving page and for some of the photos above!

If that wasn't all enough...I got my prize awarded by the Legend that is Joss Naylor! Now thats worth more than any prize worth giving!...It's just a shame he was looking at the wrong camera! ha-ha

Im now going to enjoy a good couple of weeks of well deserved rest before the build-up for the summer/autumn challenges. Stay posted!...   

In the mean time, it would be great if you could vote for me at the link below if not already done so! If I win, it could greatly influence how I progress with my running over the next 12 month and consiquency my career in running! :-)

http://marsmilk.com/play-fund-2015/clubs/unattatched

Thanks, Grant

Official Results

Newspaper Report

Strava Activity

Just-giving

Keswick to Barrow 2015 (40 mile)

K2B 2015

The Keswick to Barrow is something which stands a great achievement locally and in turn raises a great deal of money for charities close to the communities hearts! With Amy's current situation and a title to hold from last year, the K2B had to be one for my challenge list!

I was going into the event confident and feeling strong after my recent accomplishments in my other events. The weather forcast didnt look too great however every time it was checked, it seemed to get better! Either way, I was going to get wet at some point!

Our friends Jamie and Sarah had come down from Edinburgh to stay at ours for the weekend since Jamie had decided to give the challenge a good go too since only starting running in February! This meant I had a carbo-loading partner! He certainly took some educutating on nutrition though...turns out he was eating on average less than 1000 calories a day!! I soon got that topped up to 3000+ and boy was he grateful on race day! ;) Buzzing like a fly around s$%t!! :)

On race day we got up at the dreaded 02:45am so that we could get our breakfast and then pick Adam (my support cyclist) up at 3:30. Its save to say neither of us got any sleep! Jamie loaded his pre-packed support tupawear into the car (its unbelievable the amount of stuff he had! he had labelled pre-packed bags for Sarah to give him at every checkpoint inc gels, energy bars, salt capsules, drink refills, etc, etc!! I felt sorry for Sarah for the amount of intructions she had!! Although not everyone gets their own personal support cyclist ;-) ) and then off we went. 

We arrived in Keswick a little early as usual, which gave us time to "offload" in the portaloos and then have a little bit of a socialise before the official 05:30 start. It was great to be in the starting area with so many local friends and family, instead of the usual large events where you are squashed up against thousands of hairy men in vests that you dont know! The start area was in the usual field it normally is, just so we could all get wet feet straight away! :-) Soon be it though, we were assembled on the start line and after a few good lucks to the fellow runners, we were off!

K2B Official runners start (I'm in the black jacket, middle front, next to Dave in blue)

I'll try not to blab on about the whole event mile by mile. I dont want to bore you all! I'll try just put the points which I thought were key milestones in the race for me but I will appologise in advance! Its something for me to look back on and reflect good times! =-)

Miles 1-4 - Me and Dave Edwards rans these first miles together, alongside some deer at some points too! I wish I had of had a camera! I was looking down at the floor one minute and then the next minute 3 deer jump out of the bushes and start running just in front of us. It was rather peculiar - certainly woke me up at that time in the morning anyway! Rain was coming down however not so heavy. It was rather refreshing if anything! We had made quite some ground on the rest of the group in the opening couple of mile, cruising at a speed of around 6.15min/mile. The legs felt good so a great start! At this point though Dave started to drop off (we had decided to both run our own race as usual). 

Mile 7 - Mile 7 found us at Dunmail Raise, where you see the first of the support cars with people cooking breakfast for all the walkers. Now that smelt good! I'd have loved to stop for a bacon butty! I powered on though holding a 6.16 minute mile over the higest point on the route. Now came the drop into grasmere! :)

Mile 10-12 - Grasmere checkpoint followed by red bank - still feeling fresh - 10 mile in 1hour1min. Red bank being first major climb at 25% gradient but I managed to run the full thing.

Mile 15 - Another incline before re-joining the A593. Plodded up to save energy resulting in a slow 7:22min mile (one of my slowest), however grade adjusted pace on strava estimates this to still be a 5:59min mile on the flat. 

Mile 17 - Testing trail climb before decending to conistion. Again slowed the pace to a 7:17min/mile to preserve energy 

Miles 18-26 - Undulating roads around Coniston Lake. I had physically felt better at this point last year but happened to get cramp at 22 mile. This year though I had stuck to my fueling strategy thus far and continued to do so (gel every half hour, salt capsule every 1 hour, sipping on 0cal electrolyte drink when needed), and the cramp was non-existent.  I plodded on at a consistent pace of 6:35-6:45min/mile to conserve energy for the moors. 

Mile 26-30 - Lowick checkpoint at marathon distance (2Hr46) brought my first bit of support. My sister and Amy were there to cheer me on...with the dog too! A great pick-me-up to spurr me on! These miles consists of 4 miles of climbing - around 150ft per mile according to GPS. I experienced my first dose of cramp in the 26th mile however I soldiered on, slowed down the pace and plodded my way to the top at 7.30min/mile. This was a huge supprise to get to the top without stopping once. These 4 miles being the biggest influence to my finishing time!

Mile 34 - Cramp getting quite frequent and shoe lace decided to come un-done! Trying not to trip over them (didn't want to stop - scared I woulnd't get going again), I went around the corner and found my sister and Amy broken down in the lay-by! A quick stop to have Amy tie my shoelace and I was off again! I think someone watching over me must have placed them there. I certainly didn't want to bend down to tie my own shoelace! Luckily, Lee Drury came to the rescue for them 2 and got the car up and running for them to get to the finish in time. Thanks mate! ;)

Mile 36 - Finish - By this point my legs were shot. Slight inclines felt like mountains however I shoved some gels down me to give a mental boost more than physical boost and plodded my way to the finish. Turning onto Hawcoat Park, I could see Amy, Fern and my Nanna and Grandad at the finish line all with huge smiles on their faces. I didn't have a sprint finish in me but it didn't matter. I plodded along the matting to the finish and clocked in, in a time of 4 hours 12 mins and 30 seconds. The fastest time in 20 years!  

Mission Accomplished! :-)

2nd place ended up being 36 minutes behind in the end, and third place a matter of minutes behind him. Both of their times would have beat my winning time of last year! All I wanted to do at the end was get a recovery drink and get in the shower but as means must, I made time to get some pics for the local mail with the Mayoress and answer a few questions for the report :) 

The link below is a great tool strava have just brought out which shows each runners position along the route. Its great to see where I made most of the ground on people!

Strava Fly-by

I would just like to mention my friend, Adam McBernie, who cycled alongside me all the way from mile 7 to the end! He passed me all my nutrition and kept me hydrated all the way, passing me drinks when I didn't even feel like them. Without him, the time I ran wouldn't have been possible. Having someone there at times helps you focus by not having to worry about when the next aid station is or if your going to run out of water/food. It takes a lot of weight off the shoulders, physically, and for that I owe him great appreciation! Thanks again mate! 

The rest of the day also went superb! My mate Jamie who has only been running a matter of months finished in a time of 6hour 40! My dad also smashed his PB, well under 7 hours, and my mum completed her first ever ultra smashing her predicted time, completing it in well under 9 hours! I was certainly a proud friend and Son! :) 

Me Mother-goose and Nanna! 

Donations have come flooding in for Kindey Research ever since and I have had a lot of recognition on social media/in the local newspaper. Both of which are my main goals of all these challenges - donations and awareness! I would just like to use this space to thank everyone who has sponsored so far. You dont know how much it means to us both! Thank-you! :) 

I now have a marathon to recover for on Sunday! :/ Silly man! Im certainly looking forward to some good rest after this one though! 

Wish me luck! :) 

Stats and reports can be found below:

Strava Activity

Report 1

Report 2

Just-Giving

 - Grant