Tag: half marathon

Challenges Everywhere and a Plan

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I finished the Berlin Wall challenge at the end of May. I resorted to cycling much more than I wanted to because of the calf niggle. That now seems behind me. I think because the challenge didn’t quite go to plan and I was grumpy about not doing the miles just running or walking as I had planned, I sort of lost interest – coupled with the fact that I was irritated by the ‘postcards’ and place information given, I wasn’t all that inspired. Having said that, the medal is cool. And actually, the challenge did its thing. Without it, I doubt I would have got on the bike. Anyway, I wanted to finish itin May because in June I wanted to do the Virtual Spine Race Sprint. It’s 43 miles virtually on the Spine route starting in Edale and finishing in Hebden Bridge. I like the idea of watching my own dot moving along the route having watched so many dots move along the Pennine Way both in the winter and summer edition.

I have had a slow start but a controlled and planned start. I have been playing with new plans, new ways to do couch to 5k and then build from that for ages now, years literally. And it’s not really working. I don’t like them. I get so far and then lose interest. It seems silly to just keep doing that and think something will change. So I have gone back to what I know does work. This week I started the runDinsey Dopey Plan. The number of weeks left for the Great North Run actually works really well with the plan starting now and after that I’ll look at what’s next and work out where in the plan to drop back to to have a rest and then build again.

The first week has gone ok. I tried out some of the suggested drills on Tuesday’s run and then some quarter mile segments trying out different run/walk ratios. I was faster doing 15/15 seconds but felt a lot stronger doing 30/30. On Thursday I went after work. I was so tired – in fact I was too tired to do anything other than run. It may not have been the best idea to try a magic mile but I thought I might as well set a benchmark. I initially thought I would run the mile in quarter of a mile segments with a short walk break in the transition from one to the next. But it turns out that tired plus hay fever plus not having done much running at all, means that that was too ambitious. I walked more than I planned, then lost the battle in my head and nearly gave up, then rallied and finished. It ended up being a 13.58 mile on the flat. Oh well. The long ‘run’ today was a walk up to Keighley Gate and back down. It feels a bit like cheating in spite of the instructions being clear about it being perfectly acceptable to walk the full distance. Anyway, I am 13.5 miles into the virtual Spine so have navigated Kinder Scout and am slowly making progress towards Torside. Maybe one day I will actually go do bits of the pennine way and see these places for real. For now, I am looking at them on the OS map and they seem familiar just from previous dot watching experiences.

Finishing the Sprint distance is going to be a challenge, and I am not counting cycling this time, Everything is running or walking. I have a tendency to not get out when things get busy at work – that needs to stop and I am hoping that my slight dot watching obsession and cheering dots on a map onwards will translate into wanting to see my own dot move along and get this done. I am not currently last – which is a new experience lately!

I had 3 challenge codes for conqueror virtual challenges and was wondering what to do with them, what is next. Well, we have booked an adventure for this time next year. We are doing a tour in China so I used one code to sign up to a long distance challenge to try and complete over the next 50 weeks – running and walking for now but if it looks like I am going to be too far off, I may need to add some bike. I am doing the Pandas of China challenge and Kath signed up for the Great Wall challenge. It feels like a nice thing to do to celebrate and get ready for the adventure.

As the medal whore in me seems to be quite happy with these challenges and I am managing to be more consistent when I have a medal to work towards, I am now looking at what challenge to go for in July? Help me out. Lake District? Space Exploration? Great Barrier Reef? Niagara Falls? Help me decide. The distances vary so for some I would need to include cycling if I am going to do it in a month.

Next week looks like this: One run which includes race day practice and some drills; one run which includes some hill work and my long run – 4 miles on the plan. I also want to get on the bike at least once and do 2 strength sessions. One of them in the gym if I can’t manage both. I had got really good at stretching and yoga and that slipped a bit so far this month. I will try and start the week on the yoga mat and set the tone. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I have a plan

Jess GuthLeave a comment
Santa Clara 10

Sort of – and only for running, not to change the world sadly. So yesterday I wrote about my inability to make decisions when it comes to running. I can’t even decide on a training plan. Brains can be funny things, can’t they. A plan would definitely help me get out and tick things off the list because having a plan means fewer decisions need to be made at the point of running or while running, that’s good. However, deciding on a plan is still a decision that needs making. And I just somehow didn’t want to engage with making that decision. So Kath made it for me. She came up with a plan that is based on time on feet and not distance. It’s essentially a half marathon plan and it is very gentle. It has no set miles in at all. It is all about time. I was skeptical. How do I tick off the miles when there are no miles on the plan. How do I know I can run far enough? But I had been procrastinating about not running for a while already and I needed something to kick me out the door so why not try. It didn’t solve the problem about where to run but Kath gave me a suggestion for that, too. I didn’t like the suggestions so said I would go a different way – there you go, sometimes I just need to be told what to do so I can decide to not do that and do something else instead.

So the plan for week one is to walk 5 minutes, then do 12 minutes of run/walk intervals and walk for 10 minutes. The original plan had the intervals at 30 seconds walk and 90 seconds walk 6 times but that seemed too easy. Instead I did 12 x 30/30. It was fine. I also walked for slightly longer at the end just to get home. The run was fine. Not as easy as I would like to pretend but absolutely doable. My brain liked this plan. It was more like the bike where I don’t have to make decisions. Of course I still had to decide to start running again at the relevant beep but because I knew I was doing 12 runs, it was just about ticking them off. The goal was not the distance, the goal was to tick off 12 thirty second runs. When I have a distance goal, it is much easier for my brain to justify inserting an additional walk because as long as I cover the distance, that’s fine. Distance based plans seem to make it easier for my brain to give in and not do hard much more easily than wen I have x number of runs to complete. So yeah, this might work for a bit – at least until my brain comes up with some way to cheat this system.

I have now also moved along the Challenge a little. I have left Cienfuegos and have arrived at the edge of Santa Clara. I remember Santa Clara better than most of the other places we visited apart from maybe Havana. And I think this must be because of how I felt, the conversations we had and a sense of being able to touch history. We stopped at the scene where an armoured train was derailed marking a significant victory for the rebels. I don’t really have any good photos of the scene other than the bulldozer that was used in the derailment.

Santa Clara
Santa Clara
Santa Clara 5

Later we headed for the Che Guevara Mausoleum which is an odd place. It’s so full of concrete and the statue of Che is slightly ridiculous in size. The weight of history rests heavy there. I don’t remember what items we saw in the museum, I remember the feeling coming out of the mausoleum, I remember the sense of almost touchable history – after all Che’s remains were only moved there in 1997 and I think the most recent internments took place in 2000. It’s an evocative place. I remember it was one of the few places our tour guide didn’t joke around and be silly. It was the only place I ever heard or saw him get sharp with some of our fellow travellers who seemed incapable of being quiet for a few minutes to pay their respects or at least let others do so. There is something about the place which commands, not respect exactly, but emotion. I remember feeling a little heavy as I got back on the bus but also grateful to have been able to see this place, bow my head and give a nod to the eternal flame. I am almost certainly getting days muddled so this may be a false memory but actually looking at the photos I think I am right, that evening, a few of us stayed up much later than the others and sat talking, perhaps a little more openly and earnestly that we had previously about all sorts of things. I don’t think it was just the bottle of Santiago Rum we shared, I think it was also something about that little group of people who, after the rest of the pretty annoying group had gone to bed, felt a shared sense of history and wanted to understand, learn and sit with it all for a bit. It wasn’t the sort of day you just ended by simply going to bed. I look back at the day now and I struggle to know what to think. Cuban politics is complicated and I don’t know nearly enough to write about this. In the meantime the US continues to threaten Cuba, the blockades continue and people suffer. And for what exactly? I am grateful I had that day in Santa Clara where I could stretch out my hand and touch history. It’s a day that reminds me to sit with the heaviness, to sit with discomfort and contradictions, to accept that life and with it politics is complicated and contested and to pause to think about what is worth fighting for and what I am prepared to be complicit in.

Continuing the challenge, run/walk, stupid adverts and Cuba memories

Jess GuthLeave a comment

For the first time this year I have managed to string 3 runs together in a week. Say it quietly so we don’t jinx it! The running itself is outrageously hard but it feels good. For the first time this year I ran in short sleeves and in spite of my hay fever settling in for the spring and summer now, the many shades of green and the blossom were gorgeous. I am very ploddy and I am trying not to be grumpy about it. I ran/walked 2 miles using 30/30 intervals. Then I walked another mile and a bit back home. And in spite of the recent Nike advert I am recording the entire 3.15 mile as a run on my spreadsheet – tolerate away Nike – you do you, I’ll do me. In case you didn’t see it, Nike used the phrase ‘Runners Welcome, Walkers Tolerated’ in their Boston Marathon ad. They have since withdrawn it following backlash. I am not really mad at the advert. I think it is idiotic to alienate a huge set of your potential customers but I don’t actually think that’s what will actually happen here. I am bemused that people are surprised that a company like Nike, or any other sports brand for that matter, would use that sort of advertising. I think calling them out is good, sure, but the internet outrage will have no impact. The only thing that would is if we stopped buying Nike gear and most of us won’t. I am pretty sure the ad did its job, we’re all talking about Nike, the backlash was undoubtedly anticipated, as was the withdrawal and apology. I mean think about this, marketing of sports clothing and shoes seems to me to all be about how that brand will make you fitter, faster, stronger, leaner (or, since the 90s seem to be back, skinnier). It’s about performance. It is not about comfortably being able to move your body in any way that feels right for you. It made me think about how difficult it is in my experience to find comfortable exercise clothes that fit well in my size. I’m a UK size 18ish – large yes but hardly whale size and certainly not unusual. There are a lot of sports brands that do not even make running tights or tops in my size. Others do but my choices are basically black tights or black tights. Anyway, I don’t want to rant. Let’s just say that if your brand doesn’t make anything bigger than a size 16, which comes up small and then call that XXXL, then you’re the problem. I did not fit into those items when I was very much marathon fit. So I get the outrage when sports brand imply that they are really for fit, fast, strong, skinny people but I don’t get the surprise. The whole industry has a problem with gatekeeping exercise and movement. Let’s just ignore that bullshit and get on with our lives. I ‘boycott’ most sports brands, not by choice, but because they don’t make anything in my size. Shoes are different of course but you’re not likely to find me trying on shoes from brands where I don’t fit in the clothes because I’d never go into a store and when I buy online, I stick to what I know.

Anyway, rant over. I am quite enjoying being part of the virtual challenge. I joined the Facebook Group. I am not sure why because we all know by now that most groups will just annoy me. I had a quick scan through and muted it. There seemed to be a lot of nonsense and some spectacularly stunning stupid and too much weight talk for my liking and people doing things that don’t make sense to me like signing up for multiple challenges at the same time and using the same runs/walks for them all. I am trying to be very ‘you do you’ about this and leave people to their thing but no. You cannot run (or walk or whatever) in one place physically and then transmit that to more than one virtual location. That’s cheating surely? But ok, you do you. I just don’t want to know about it. Anyway, here are a couple of screenshots from the App to give you a sense:

The first is the virtual bib you get when you register for the challenge. I like the colours on this one. The second is a shot from the map. The JG is where I am currently. The red marker is where I should be based on the time I set and distance of the challenge and the other markers note points at which I unlock a tree being planted (5 trees are planted for me completing this challenge – Conquerer Virtual Challenge partner with Veritree) or (not visible on this map) or local interests or local spots. At the bottom of that screenshot you can also see the percentage distance and time already covered. If you expand that you get details of those metrics. Below that is the main menu. The last picture is of my rewards page showing what I have ‘unlocked’ so far and how far it is to the next thing.

Those of you who read my last post and have a sense of Cuban geography might have noticed that I have jumped. I was intrigued to see how this would work because obviously 70 miles is not going to take me from Santiago de Cuba to Havana. I am too lazy to Google it but it must be 500 ish miles. So following my last run I was bang in the middle of Santiago on the Cuba map. It could have been on a tree like this – take in January 2011 and no idea what it looks like now.

Santiago de Cuba

At some point on today’s adventure I entered the portal and transported myself to the edge of Camaguey. Hm. Ok. That’s not what happened when we were actually in Cuba of course. In 2011we were coming the other way and before Santiago we were deep in the Sierra Maestra and hiked to Comandancia de La Plata. Stunning views and a sense of tangible history is what I remember from that day. I also remember wondering why some of the people on the trip had come to Cuba and on this particular trip as there seemed little or no interest in history and zero background knowledge. It’s not that I knew (or know) lots but I remember being taken aback by the ignorance of some and lack of curiosity in others. I probably had lots of questions but as usual, none would form fully until much later when the chance to ask them had passed. Sometimes that’s just how my brain works, it takes time to process and take it all in.

Sierra Maestra
Sierra Maestra
Sierra Maestra

So for the purposes of my virtual journey, we have jumped a few 100km but it was a great excuse to defamiliarise myself with a map of Cuba and look through the photos from the trip to try and work out where we were when and what that means for the timeline and route of our trip. I might be wrong of course, I have a very unreliable memory but it doesn’t really matter. It’s nice to have those memories and to let them lead me to questions that might occupy my brain on my next run. Questions about revolutions, questions about change, questions about power, questions about what the world could and should look and feel like for all of us. You know, just the little things.

Happy 10 Year Dopey anniversary

Jess GuthLeave a comment

10 Years ago today I ran my first marathon. And my first marathon was part of my first Dopey Challenge. 10 Years. The world has changed. I have changed. And yet it also seems like yesterday. I had a much longer blogpost in draft. I was trying to make sense of the last 10 years plus of running and what I have learned. But I couldn’t quite get the words right. I am not sure I am quite clear on what it is I wanted to say. Or maybe it’s my flu-fogged brain. I started drafting the post just after I posted the last one about feeling good – then I got flu so I haven’t run all week. So maybe what I started drafting doesn’t feel quite right now.

So I will just share these two pictures. Our Dopey Challenge Finisher picture and the Marathon medal. Reflections of what is now really 11 years of running properly – sometimes more not running than running – might still come. But as I sit on the sofa today feeling frustrated that I got flu just as I was settling into quite a nice exercise routine, let’s just let this be a reminder that sometimes it is fun to do the impossible.

Good luck to all the Dopeys starting the marathon tomorrow. One foot in front of the other!

Doing Hard Things Round 2: The Great North Run

Jess Guth3 Comments
Photo by gillyphotography.co.uk

Last weekend was a weekend of running adventures. Different adventures and experiences. On Saturday Kath took part in the last of the 2025 Due North CIC trail half marathon and 10 km series. I marshalled and had a lovely 90 minutes or so at the top of Malham Cove clapping and cheering on runners doing both the half marathon route and the 10km route before heading back to the finish to help hand out goodie bags and pies. It was glorious and energising and inspiring. Kath did really well, the runners were fabulous and it felt inclusive, supportive and fun. Maybe one day I will get myself in the right space to have a go – at the 10km route.

Sunday was the Great North Run. I hadn’t trained for this. I had barely run since the Rasselbock Half in July and I hadn’t trained for that either. Was this a stupid idea? Well yes and no. I thought about pulling out several times. I got messages reminding me to trust my training and enjoy it – good advice, assuming there has been any training to speak of. So what was I thinking going in? Well, I don’t like DNS. DNS is worse than DNF. To me not starting just feels like complete failure. The only times I won’t start an event are situations where I am either genuinely injured or not well or where I know I won’t finish and starting would mean that I have to rely on event volunteers or staff for help or where I present a risk of being a medical emergency. If not finishing has minimal impact on others, I will start even if I might not make it. Psychologically, I had to start this one. For me. To silence the voices in my head that have been getting louder and louder, insisting that there is no way I can currently get round a road half marathon.

I was anxious. I didn’t much like the crowds as we walked through Newcastle to the start, found the baggage bus, queued for the loos, made our way to the assembly area and stood around for a while. I found my zen somehow. Then we started moving forwards in little waves. Then the red arrows flew over making me smile. Then we were off. Kath set off and I very quickly lost sight of her as I tried to settle into my run/walk. I didn’t really like being in the wave we were in because I was surrounded by much faster runners. This was the pace that was ambitious but realistic when we signed up, before I just didn’t manage to get myself out there with any consistency. It was the pace I have managed to get close to before. But right now I am a long long way off that pace. I was really conscious of getting in other people’s way. I tried really hard to tuck in and not take up space. I tried really hard to be ok about my run/walk.

The support was incredible but also overwhelming and at times it felt like the crowds were closing in. I had flashbacks to the London Marathon and people getting right in my face and I could feel panic rising. What can I feel? Sticky – my fingers are sticky from my drinks bottle. What can I see – a unicorn, a runner in a unicorn costume just ahead of me. What can I hear – my name being shouted with lots of encouragement. And I am grounded again for a little while before the panic comes again – in waves. I don’t feel like I belong. I am still running 30 seconds and walking 30 seconds. It is all actually going to plan. It’s all fine and yet it isn’t. I battle the panic from just over 1.5 miles to the 5 mile marker. I am walking much more now and I can’t quite settle. I do the maths in my head – how long will I be out here, how much longer to get to the finish, how long will Kath have to wait. I resist the temptation to check the app to see how she is doing. If I get my phone out of my pocket I might call her to say I am calling it. I might cry. I am crying. I think about maybe just not doing this.

Waiting to start

I wonder if I can get to half way. My right foot hurts, my hips hurt, I keep scanning my body and the message is always the same – there is some pain but none of it is serious and none of it is a reason to stop. Mile 6 feels like it takes forever. It was actually faster than the previous mile. As I pass 10k I suddenly feel a bit more positive. Maybe there is a slight break in the crowds coming past me. I’m not sure. I just feel less anxious. I start to take more notice of the signs and the support. I start to feel a bit more like it is ok for me to take up some space. A bloke from 2 waves behind me walks along side me for a few paces to fuel, asking if we are nearly there yet and I cheer him up by telling him we are very nearly half way. He tells me I am doing great and then disappears off into the distance. Somehow the interaction makes me smile. I realise that an earlier one had played on my mind – I had dropped into a walk and a bloke came past me, turned to look at me and said ‘For fuck sake’. I am pretty sure I didn’t block him. I am pretty sure I wasn’t in his way. I am pretty sure he didn’t have to change his line. I hope that taking out whatever was going on with him on me, helped him get it done, I also hope that he has a particularly energetic batch of fleas hatch in his pubes.

Mile 8 was a big thing in my head. I am not sure why – other than maybe running maths. I was thinking in 15 minute miles. I knew I was going slower but for the purposes of my running maths, 15 minute miles worked well. 4 miles an hour. Which meant that if I could get to 8 miles then I only had to do another hour and then I would only have a mile to go. The additional minutes and the .1 don’t feature in running maths. When I made it to 8 miles I knew I would finish. I didn’t know how long it would take me but I knew. The doubts about finishing and whether maybe it would be better to pull out were gone. I settled into the pain. I kept telling myself that I only had to keep doing this for another hour. If I could push through for an hour I would be nearly there. Then we saw the red arrows. I am not sure there are many places on the course where you can see them so this felt like my own personal 8 mile celebration.

I tried to run a little every mile – and I did but I think in miles 11 and 12 I only ran for 30 seconds each – it hurt. I kept pushing the walking – that hurt too. I found focus in the pain somehow. I knew it wasn’t dangerous pain, I knew I wasn’t doing serious damage or injuring myself. It was just my body telling me that it wasn’t prepared for this and that it really wasn’t entirely happy about what I was asking it to do.

As I made my way down the short sharp slope before the ‘finishing straight’, two women passed me and one said to the other ‘now prepare yourself for the longest mile of your life’. And it is. You turn and it feels like you should be there but you still have a mile to go. The support is loud and brilliant. After an age I got to the 800 metres to go sign. I kept walking as fast as I could and talking to myself. Both firm and reassuring because giving up now would be stupid wouldn’t it. Never mind the longest mile – the 400 metres from the 800m to go to the 400m to go sign were at least 3 miles long. It felt like forever. I started jogging really slowly at the 400m sign. I glanced at my watch and realised that I would probably just get under 3 hours 40 if I kept pushing. I got there. I crossed the finish line and felt – well nothing really. I walked and got water, a medal and a bag/t-shirt and made my way through the crowds to find Kath (she did really well). We queued for an hour or so to get on a bus back into town and got back to the hotel about 10 minutes before our dinner reservation. Job done.

So reflections. I can do hard things. This was hard. I am annoyed at myself for lack of training and the resulting lack of fitness is just embarrassing and silly. No excuses. I didn’t do the work. The Great North Run was not fun. This particular ‘impossible’ was not fun to do at all. It just was. I am glad I pushed through and did it. It was a good mental exercise and I am proud of myself for coming through those first 5 miles of waves of panic. 2 days after the run I am sore, sore but not broken. This was my slowest road half marathon ever, slower than the first one I ever did at Disney World in 2013. Over an hour slower than my PB and nowhere near my running ambition which is to run strong and happy. The positives – I am mentally tough. My superpower might just be a complete inability to accept that I can’t do something. Realistically, starting on Sunday was a bad idea. It was always going to be pretty awful and yet doing it and it being awful was still better than not doing it. Because I have done it, I know what needs work. I have pushed myself into a place where I want to do the work. Doing the GNR on Sunday was the test I think. It was always going to tell me whether I am done with longer distances or whether I want to keep trying. And I’m not done. While I was out there, as painful and horrible as it was, I also knew I wanted to be there and I wanted to be back and do it again, properly, with training and preparation. Sometimes doing hard things is about saying, yes, this is hard, and it hurts and that’s my fault and next time, I’ll be ready for this. Next time won’t be easy, but maybe next time will be a happier hard.