...Did it in 5 hrs and 18 minutes...

...30 minutes later than planned...but WOW!! What a feeling…I got dropped off at Waterloo station and made my way to the Red Start at Greenwich. From Greenwich station to the start it is about a 20 minute walk (!!!) up hill. It really started to dawn on me I had to run 26.2 miles. The start went very smooth though, despite me needing a toilet 1 mile in… I paced myself really well, knowing that if I would go too fast I would pay for that later. Not many others did that, and soon I was overtaken by millions of people who raced past me. At times it felt really bad and I felt no one else was running behind me anymore. So I had to look over my shoulder to still see thousands of runners behind me, which reassured me I was doing the right thing. And I was right as the pacing paid off from mile 5 where the first people started to walk around me. By mile 13 most people had adopted my pace (hehehe…) and soon after I started overtaking, which felt really good as I all I did was run in the same pace.

Me at Mile 15 - coming just through the tunnel

I was really feeling great until approx. mile 18, which is where my left knee started to protest and told me to call it a day (injury from Feb). At mile 19 my left hip started to agree with that idea and at mile 22 my right knee told me to bugger off as well. I kept running though just a bit slower than before and at times I had nearly tears in my eyes from the pain and emotions. The adrenaline of the pain, emotion and the enthusiastic crowd kept me going though. Total strangers called out my name and shouted I should hang in and keep running and that I was nearly there… whilst holding a pint in their hand.

When I finally passed the finish line I had the biggest cheesiest grin ever. Well I think I did, it did feel like a smile to me. I will know for sure once I receive the official finish photos. And despite being overtaken by a Pizza slice, several Superman's, the Incredibles, a pirate ship, and Paddington Bear I finished feeling fantastic. Even today I feel fabulous and still have a big grin on my face, except for my left knee, which is still on strike and no running for a while.

Special Thanks to my Mum, Rein, Bart, Zhen Shan, Rob, Craig, Justin, Nick & Petra for coming out and supporting me along the way, keeping me a seat in the pub and for buying me those really tasteful pint(s) afterwards! And also thanks to all the others who watched it on TV, sent me encouraging messages and thought of me along the way - It did help!

Also thanks to everyone who donated to Merlin, the charity I raised money for. And for those who still want to, it is not too late to donate a small amount – just go to www.justgiving.com/anneloes. There were small problems with their server on Friday and Saturday due to the sheer amount of people trying to access it, but all should be working now and I, and Merlin, would really appreciate any donation.

Thanks for all your good wishes,
AZ

PS: Below a video of me at Mile 19 - click link – especially the beeline I make to greet my family is funny as I, apparently, have no regard for the other runners…(watch the sound level – my family is really loud…)

Flora London Marathon 2007 - Mile 19...

.....(drum roll)....

Time left until the big day: 2 days 23 hours and 50 minutes
State of mind: Excitement outweighs nerves by far…

Picked up my running number yesterday at the Excel registration. And it is starting to dawn on me it is really going to happen. My denial seems futile…I will have to run 26.2 miles (42 kilometers)!

And I am getting nervously excited about it all. Friends have been giving me tips on what to bring, to do and most importantly what not to do…It looks like it will be a warm and sunny day too (yikes!).

For those sitting at home and following it on TV - BBC1. (from their nice comfy sofa’s) my running number is 41929 and I will be wearing a white vest with the logo of the charity I am raising money for: Merlin and my trademark fluorescent Yellow Cap.

I know some of you indicated to want to come and support me …That would be great! The more the merrier! I am chuffed that my family is coming to support me as well. Afterwards we will go to the Ship and Shovel Pub to celebrate and in my case site down! With luck and determination, I will be there by around 3pm – I aim to cross the finish line between 2.15 and 2.45…

Location:
Merlin Reception: The Ship and Shovel Pub
1-3 Craven Passage (very close by Charing Cross Station)
London, WC2N 5PH

It would be great to see you there!

Next message will be when I have pulled it off…

All the best,

AZ

I will be okay…right?

Time left until the big day: 7 days 23 hours and 4 minutes
State of mind: Extremely worried about not being worried…

I can’t believe the Marathon is next weekend. I feel I am completely in denial and the bit that worries me the most is the fact that I am not worried at all. Technically, I am a tad bit behind with my training – and that is a slight understatement – but mentally I feel well up for it.

My original training schedule is hanging, slightly feathered, up on the wall with loads of empty slots where I failed to fill out the appropriate mileage. And I know the following:

Fact: It will hurt!
Fact: I might (perhaps will is a more appropriate word) not enjoy every single mile, if any!
Fact: I will finish (don’t ask me how though) and feel fantastic afterwards, right?

My holiday to Ecuador was not greatly timed, but the 14 days at high altitude did me some good, I suspect. My first run back in the UK and I felt like I was flying across the road what with the increased ability to absorb oxygen – which is what spending time in high altitude does…apparently. Unfortunately that effect will be long gone by 22 April.

One thing I noticed it that my calves protested rather loudly the first couple of days, so I decided to book in for a sports massage and now I know that sports massage stands for voluntarily torture session for which you need to pay! Geeez...”Does this hurt she asked?” I couldn't even answer, my voice had completely disappeared, that was how much it hurt! I was sore for a day and a half! Do feel better for it now though as it really loosened my calves and thighs...she focussed on my legs only (obviously).

I will be picking up my running number on Wednesday, which I will publish later on for those of you wanting to support me from the comfort of there own home. ;-)

I will be okay, right?

Oh and it is still not too late to sponsor me and help me raise money for Merlin - Click here please - Many Many thanks!

Cheers
AZ

PS: On an extremely funny note: Go to Google – type in “official marathon preparation” and you will find my blog ranking number 1 and 2! Click here to check

Getting Fit…. again

Time left until the big day: 1 month 2 days 16 hours and 10minutes
State of mind:………………………..

Despite the current snowfall, hail and horizontal wind guts, I feel great for having achieved as much as I did over the course of last week. I am still suspicious though for having an effect on the UK weather what with me running. The weather was perfectly spring wise prior to me starting again. I even spotted that if you type in “weather forecast hindhead friday” in google - click here to check and you will see my blog is ranked 5 or 6!

Nevertheless, I managed to run 6 times in 7 days and slowly building up distance. On top of that, I decided to add swimming to the regime. Last Saturday was the first time I went and I entered my local swimming pool with the objective to swim for at least 30 minutes.

10 minutes in and I finally had my bathing suit on… Geez, I am really not sure they are supposed to be that tight. All was not helped by the fact the changing rooms are not exactly build to accommodate tall people…so 15 minutes later and I finally entered the pool spotting three more bruises as well as a tight fitting suit…

Still full of positive intention, I started swimming laps. The pool is a small one and each lap was a mere 25 metre. I wish I could say the tightness of my suit had something to do with the fact I could barely finish four of these. I had to stop, I was breathless, I never realised swimming was so tough! After 15 minutes in the pool, I lost count of the number of laps I had done and noticed the lifeguard started to eye me sceptically as if he suspected me to be his next drowning victim. It might have been the fact that my breathing had turned into a loud and obnoxious gasping for air sound. I reckon I managed about 700 meters (28 laps) but that is a very rough guess indeed.

When I left the pool I nearly fell down (my legs were not up to carrying my body anymore…apparently). It was like this movie with Bridget Jones when she was on the exercise bike and stepped off. That was me leaving the pool on Saturday. I was back in the pool on Sunday though doing 32 laps!

I am leaving for Ecuador in two days, which is not greatly timed with the marathon just around the corner, but with all the climbing, trekking and other activities it is not going to do me any harm I figured. The coast has a reported 90% humidity (YES!!!!), and 30-degree weather might even do me good! Worst-case scenario I fail finishing the marathon tanned!

Best wishes and speak/chat soon

PS They say Ecuador is very internet oriented..guess I (and you) will find out ;-)

Hurray!

Time left until the big day: 1 month 13 days 16 hours and 6 minutes
State of mind: …HURRAY (probably temporarily, knowing myself)

OK so pretty excited today and I for one never expected to say that after I successfully spent in excess of £200 on therapies and new sporting gear!

Thing is, I (finally) had a proper analysis on how I run – they call it gait analysis. The reason I decided to go see a physiotherapist was to find the cause of my persistent knee problems that kept me from proper training.

I had, in the misery of not training, convinced myself it was either Chondromalacia (Runners Knee) or Iliotibial Band Syndrome (I-T). Both very common knee injuries, but am glad to say that is not the case!

I showed no sign of either injury, although the pain I experienced was very similar. But no, I am irregular, unbalanced and crooked! Well that is to say my running is….;-) So why the Hurray I hear you say… well for one it is nice to be different, but that is besides the case, it means it is (in most cases) easily fixed!

Now that I know I am a person, whose feet, ankles and kneecaps live a rather twisted life when left to their own devices, all I need to do is fix it– i.e. new shoes! So that’s what I did today – got myself a nice pair of shining new trainers made for people like me (apparently there are others out there with similar problems ;-).

Special thanks to Karen from footmechanix for doing the whole thing and advising me what shoes to buy! With roughly 5 weeks to go (whenever I write that I do get nervous!) everything is still very possible.

Somehow the chorus of this song of Paolo Nutini suddenly makes sense…;-)

To Listen to it click here
Chorus goes like this...Hey, I put some new shoes on, and suddenly everything is right, I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling, it so inviting,

Take care all!

AZ

Oh boy....

My blog has not been updated for a while and I wish I could say it was only my blog that missed any action.

However, I am afraid to say I have been injured! Now that sound svery serious indeed, but truth is I have knee problems - well left knee that is. So I haven't run for two weeks and only just getting back into it.

Because I have not been running - I need to build it up again very slowly to also avoid any more problems with my knee. Ice is the key word here I have been told by experts. So after every run I am wrapping my knee in a towel I have put (permanently) in the freezer.

Needless to say I am pissing my pants what with the Marathon less than 2 months from away! What was I thinking is a recurring though most frequently thought at 4am in the morning having just woken up...

Friends assure me I will be fine - coincidentally these friends never have run a marathon before. At the least the weather is kinda better again with the spring showing for milliseconds at a time. Unfortunately not yet whilst I was running.

Ta for now...

AZ

...frostbite!?

Time left until the big day: 2 months, 28 days, 13 hours and 59 minutes
State of mind: …showing signs of frostbite!

Life of a runner in the UK is not exactly easy, is it? If it is not pissing down with rain, there are wind gust of over 150 miles/hour (always against, never ever for!) or like today an inch of snow with temperatures that would not be odd in an Antarctic climate. A quick search online shows that a typical Antarctic climate is characterized by being extremely cold, dry, windy, and with scarce precipitations. In fact, summer does not exist. I don’t know about you, but that in certain ways sounds like the weather here in the UK, especially the sentence “summer does not exist!”.

Sometimes I do feel it is all because I started to enjoy the idea of running and if that is indeed the case, I apologise to you all for turning the weather conditions in the UK to such a state of misery.

On top of that, I am seriously having problems keeping up with a 5 times a week schedule and it is not just the weather conditions that keep me from running either. I still talk about it as a 5 times a week schedule, but I do entertain the thought of reducing it to a more feasible 4 times a week in my mind. If only because that will then be slightly closer to the 3 times a week I actually manage to run.

I wrote earlier about feeling I had joined a swimming club. On tonight's run, however, I felt I had incidentally joined the local Haslemere ice-skating club. Not only was it dark and gloomy, the road was positively icy and slippery and I would have probably set a Personal Best if only I had worn my ice skates.

On a positive note, I have entered a Half-Marathon Race at the end of February, the 25th to be exact! All part of the “official” preparation for the big day in April. It will be the Eastbourne Half marathon, nice on the coast here in the UK. Parts of the race are on the boulevard close to the beach, which sounds exotic, but I am sure, and it is just experience talking, that it probably will either rain really badly or even worse attracts even more severe weather conditions, solely because I am doing it. In that case, advance apologies to all other participants...

Have a great week!

Take care
AZ