The Marathon Route: South of the River

Apart from some key points along the route, having never looked on a map of the course, I had no real idea of where the London Marathon goes until I looked it up this week.

I was aware it started at Blackheath and that one of the best viewing points is the
Cutty Sark.

I knew the river crossing was Tower Bridge, roughly the half way point, and that from there it goes east to the Isle of Dogs, before heading back, somehow, via the City to Central London, The Embankment and The Mall.

Unless you’ve run the marathon, or taken a keen interest, I expect a lot of readers to this blog would have a similar knowledge of the route, or lack of, to me.

Since to write about the London Marathon course in a way that would vaguely do it justice would take thousands of words, I thought I’d pick just a few highlights, splitting this introduction to the 26.2 miles into north and south of the river.

The marathon begins at three different points on Blackheath in South East London. You’re allocated your spot depending on whether you’re one of those elite types or not, with runners converging before the 5K point.

A host of high profile events have used the Heath throughout its history, from Suffragette marches and rallies for political leaders; to fairs dating from the 1700s through to what is currently London’s largest free fireworks display, with over 40,000 attending.

With the main road from London to Dover crossing the Heath, it was a notorious playground for highwaymen, not least
Dick Turpin in the 1730s.

Sport is a major part of the history of this bit of South East London.
Blackheath is England’s oldest rugby club (founded 1858), and hosted the first international between England and Wales in 1881. Blackheath is also the oldest Hockey club in the country, formed in 1861.

The race goes north for a short distance to Charlton, before turning west, heading in the same direction as the Thames, although not following the exact course of the river, sticking to main roads instead.

Put Charlton into Google and as you might expect, the first set of results all relate to Charlton Athletic. Other significant locations in this part of London are the
Thames Barrier and, further up the river towards Greenwich,
the O2 Arena.

Once through Charlton, the marathon course heads towards Woolwich, past the Royal Artillery Barracks and Old Royal Naval College, before reaching the Cutty Sark at around 6 miles. I’m told this is one of the most atmospheric parts of the course, the noise being similar to that of a football ground.

Launched to the water in 1869, the Cutty Sark had been built with the ambition of being the fastest of its kind at sea and in doing so, it was hoped, winning the race to be the quickest to bring the new season’s tea back from China. This dream was never realised though, the closest her crew got to success came in 1872. Spotting another vessel bound for Britain loading in the same port, the cutty Sark was able to build a 400 mile lead early on its return journey. A large storm meant significant damage to the ship’s rudder had to be repaired at sea, with their advantage being overhauled. The Cutty Sark eventually arrived home one week after their rival.

Via wool trade voyages to Australia, time spent under Portuguese ownership and a number of years in Cornwall as a naval training ship, the Cutty Sark spent nearly seventy years at sea, arriving at her current Greenwich home in 1951 after many years based in Kent.

Another key point in the early stages of the London Marathon is the Prime Meridian at Greenwich. If you’ve ever wondered why Greenwich, I mean, what’s Greenwich got that Charlton or Deptford hasn’t, then
this link will tell you.

Continuing West, the route passes through Surrey Quays and Bermondsey, along Jamaica Road, before the crossing from South to north of the river via Tower Bridge, one of the iconic points of the race.

The area of Bermondsey has experienced significant highs and lows throughout its history. Following the Great Fire of London, better off folk relocated here, resulting in the area taking on a leafy suburb persona. By the 19th century parts of the area close to the river had declined into inner city slums, including the notorious Jacob’s Island which was immortalised by
Charles Dickens in ‘Oliver Twist’.

Being an area heavily reliant on river trade, Bermondsey, like much of the Docklands, experienced grim days post World War 2. Significant regeneration to the whole docklands area has seen another turn around in the fortunes of Bermondsey, with many a sort after residential and commercial property now in the locality.

Bermondsey is notable for being the location of the first railway in the Capital, the London to Greenwich line. And then there’s
Millwall FC.

The area of Millwall is north of the river on the Isle of Dogs, the marathon heads that way later in the route. Millwall Rovers was founded in 1885 by working class men, many of whom earned their living at Morton’s food factory. There was a large Scottish presence in the side, but it was not exclusively made up of players from north of the border.

The club occupied four different grounds during their time on the Isle of Dogs, but a lack of space limiting expansion plans meant The Lions sought a new home south of the river in 1910.

The London Marathon won’t be my first physical challenge incorporating Tower Bridge. The picture with this post shows me at the end of a three day bike ride from the Eiffel Tower to the Tower of London. On April 17 Tower Bridge will only be half of the job done. I’ll write about the course north of the Thames another day.

This Week's Miles: January 30

As I like to remind the, let’s call them senior, more experienced members of the Stragglers, I have a number of years to wait before the big four zero becomes a reality.

A milestone of a different nature for that number, is one which many of those same, senior runners, have reached on countless occasions, and it’s one which I can now say I have also achieved. That being, miles run in a week.

I’ve also managed to get my head round the idea of how to incorporate some speed work into my marathon training, in a way which is doing me good, but not putting my body at any unnecessary risk.

My Tuesday night run involves a 1K triangle course, in Bushy Park close to where I live.

This week was as enjoyable a speed session I can remember, since the days of speed endurance work during the winter while at
Leeds City AC ten years ago.

Six laps of the 1K circuit, alternating between jog and tempo running, changing speed at each turn on the course. Add in the warm up and warm down and this came to 5 miles.

Thursday night is also falling very much into the category labelled routine, our usual 10 miler including a lap of Richmond Park. We’re all about keeping it fresh and varied though, one week we’ll go clockwise, the next anti clockwise: variety being the spice of life and all that. Incidentally, the hardest part of that run is passing the excellent curry house in Ham at the beginning of the night.

This week was one of those moments when the stats make you realise you’re running well. There was some discussion as to exactly how long we took, some clocked 72 minutes, we had 74 – I’ll stick with ours. As I’ve probably mentioned before, Richmond Park ain’t flat, with a couple of hills that certainly make you put the effort in. This 74 minute training run is not far off the 73:23 I did the Cabbage Patch 10 in, and that course is almost as flat as the proverbial pancake. This sets me up nicely for Wokingham Half in two weeks, and does make me wonder what I’d run Cabbage Patch in now.

Friday saw an hour on the bike, there are plans forming about what we might enter the tandem into later in the year.

Saturday saw me return to the Bushy Parkrun. There’s something about trying to be fast at 9 AM, I can’t quite seem to get myself moving. I set my alarm extra early this week and everything! Even a particularly energising
AC/DC track which
Planet Rock played before I left the house didn’t make much difference, I think I may need to study the lyrics of ‘Thunderstruck’ and see if I can sneak it onto the London music list, that said, I don’t want to tempt fate and have actual thunder on the day.

All this grumbling about early mornings, I still set a new personal best for Bushy, 21:35, an improvement of 8 seconds. Its 30 seconds down on my quickest 5K time though.

The Parkrun was part of a longer run, 2 miles before and, once the time had been registered and other Stragglers talked to for a few minutes, another 9 or so after, giving a Saturday morning total of 14.

With another 11 today, and my fairly shabby adding up skills tell me that my weekly total comes to 40.

I am fairly tired now though: must be the age.

Running Music: Tom Petty 'Runnin' Down A Dream'

Click here for previous songs and a short explanation as to why I’m writing about music on a running blog.

Song 5:

Tom Petty ‘Runnin’ Down A Dream’

It’s one of the signs that something is beginning to take over your life when you start to dream about it.

Some people take analysing dreams very seriously. I expect if you thought about it you know at least one person that obsesses about the meaning of what went on in their head whilst asleep a little too much.

I’m no psychologist, nor am I a dreamologist (or whatever they’d be called), but I’ve always thought dreams were a mish mash of random recent thoughts, conversations and experiences you’d had. If you deconstruct the last dream you can remember, I expect you could trace each part to something from the past few days. The closest I get to the analytical is to say, no matter how small the thing you trace back to might seem, the likelihood is it relates to something, or someone, who is important to you in some way, be that positive or negative. Hence why it’s stored away in your subconscious, coming out to play when your brain lets its guard down.

As marathon training is a large part of my life right now, it stands to reason that it will be appearing in dreams. The twist might be that I run the marathon with a friend it occurred to me the other day I’d not seen for a while, or maybe a character in a book I’m reading. The latter would give me a choice of either
Winney the Pooh or
David Bumble Lloyd from the past week. Perhaps, combining Pooh Bear, Bumble and my football team of choice, I might dream I’m on a training run being chased by a swarm of bees. Incidentally, the obsessive dream analyst would at this point, go off on one about trying to run away from the pressures of everyday life. “That dream means you need to get away from it all, need to make significant changes to your life”, or some other such rubbish.

All this, in a round about way, leads into this week’s song choice – don’t mention roundabouts or I’ll dream about
Zebedee tonight, or Milton Keynes!

‘Runnin’ Down A Dream’ is taken from ‘Full Moon Fever’, Tom Petty’s first solo album (minus the Heartbreakers).

Released in 1989, the track was sandwiched by two of Petty’s best known singles, ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and ‘Free Fallin’.

The song has been used to promote a number of sports in the US, most notably as the theme song for the
NBA (National Basketball Association) finals.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

An easy Sunday is all about the lie in, late breakfast, reading the paper or watching TV, maybe recovering from Saturday night. I’ve discovered the easy bit about a marathon runner’s Sunday morning is the pace as you head out to crank out double figure mileage. It's all about time on your feet rather than how long it takes you to get there.

This morning saw a fifteen miler, my longest run since I began the London training. From here on, as the distances continue to increase, I’ll be entering unfamiliar ground as I’ve never run more than fifteen miles in one go before.

Today’s route was one which I’ve done before, and rather like. Beginning in Bushy Park, we left at Hampton Court, following the river all the way to Richmond, then back to Twickenham on the other side of the Thames, before my least favourite part, roads through Twickenham back home.

With the musical posts on this blog in mind, it’s worth telling those who don’t know, that this run passes Eel Pie Island. The Eel Pie Hotel played host to a jazz club in the 1950s, the likes of Acker Bilk and Chris Barber among those to appear. Like numerous other venues, not least
the legendary 100 Club, the Eel Pie Hotel’s musical policy moved with the times, ditching jazz in favour of rock. The Stones, The Who and The Yardbirds just some of the household names to have played there during the mid 60s.

The venue was frequented by art school types and those associated with that scene. Ronnie Wood later join the Stones having been a regular at Eel Pie, and members of the Faces would also meet here. Rod Stewart opting for a career as a rock megastar over the possibility presented to him as an apprentice at Brentford FC,, what was he thinking?

The Eel Pie Hotel closed in 1967 when the owner couldn’t meet a £200,000 repair bill the police insisted was essential. It reopened for a short time in 1969 as Colonel Barefoot’s Rock Garden (what a wonderful name that is by the way), with Black Sabbath a notable booking. It was demolished after a fire in 1971.

Teddington lock, upstream of Eel Pie Island, is the largest on the Thames. It’s also the first, or last, depending on which direction you’re travelling in, since downstream of Teddington the Thames is tidal. According to
a website set up by one of the lock keepers, were a person to run up and down the main (barge) lock 115 times, they’d have run a marathon – maybe I’ll do that instead – or maybe not.

The lock is also the location for the filming of
Monty Python’s fish slapping dance, where Michael Palin ends up in the drink after John Cleese wacks him with a fish.

In addition to the
previously advertised cricket discussion, this morning was a chance to pick the brains of Andrew, one of the Stragglers more experienced marathon runners.

The one issue I’ve still not given much thought to, which may come as a surprise to some, is food. Or to be more accurate, energy and hydration: no burger or beer on the day until after the race is run sadly. This thought reminds me of a time I often recall, when doing a 400 metre race at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham once; I could have done without the smell of onions coming from the burger van positioned right by the finish line as I came down the home straight, not what the nose needed. Naturally it was soon forgiven and a visit was duly paid.

Having used sports drinks when a sprinter, since I’ve been doing the longer stuff I’ve become a strictly water only man. The wisdom from those who know more about this than me seems to suggest I’ll need more than that, so I’m going to use the Sunday runs to experiment with gels – I’m not entirely sure what they are either. This is the time for trying new things, it’s much better to vomit into the Thames when no one’s looking than at 20 miles of the London Marathon.

Breakfast is the other thing I struggle with. My morning runs are always done on yesterday’s dinner, but that ain’t going to do on the big day. All runners have their own cut off for when is the last point before training to eat, for me its three hours. At some stage I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and get myself out of bed early on a Sunday. Not sure how nutricious bullets are though, I might just be boring and have toast instead.

As well as the fifteen I did this morning, I ran ten on Thursday night. Added to the interval session on Tuesday which included four 1K reps – not flat out but still a test and the first time I’d done four instead of three, which went with 2K worth of warm up and warm down, this week has been close to thirty miles.

For one reason or another I didn’t get a bike session in this week, or a Saturday run, but both are planned for next week, which should see the tally start to increase.

It's Much More Friendly With Two

It’s dark, it might be wet, it’s certainly cold, bloody freezing is probably more accurate. Your tired, the bus has taken forever to do a relatively short journey, you had the misfortune of sitting next to the really fat person who takes up half of your seat as well as their own, that is unless you have to stand, there was a screaming child that gave you a headache even though you had your headphones on. You get home, the house is warm, the beer is cold, tonight’s football will be well worth your attention, what do you do?

That’s right, you go out for a run.

Why not give it a miss? Just this once. You’re tired remember, and it’s cold, you won’t run well, how can you run well? This is just the time you get injured, and think of the lovely sunny Sunday morning’s you’ll miss, not to mention the set back to your well worked out training plan. No one will know, well, only the people you live with, they won’t snitch, right?

But you can’t, you’ve agreed to run with someone, they’ll be hear in a minute, you’ll have to tell them you don’t fancy it. It’s always harder admitting it to someone else than yourself. Not to mention you had the bright idea to write a sodding blog about your training, and your stats page is telling you that people are actually reading it, damn!

My brain goes into split personality mode at moments like this, with the runner side of me always winning, not least because, like I say, it’s harder to quit when you have to tell someone else.

The argument I always put to my weaker side is, once you get out there, once you get moving, you’ll forget that part of you would rather still be in the warm. And that side of me is always right.

I’ve written a lot about the good and bad side of being a blind runner. One definite tick in the plus column is always having to run with someone else, no
loneliness of the long distance runner here.

During the week, when any or all of the above can come into play, having someone else there to encourage, motivate or even bully if required makes a big difference. Runners are humans, not machines, we all have moments where we’d prefer to cut a training session short.

Come the weekend and the long Sunday run, the time passes much quicker if you’ve got company, putting the world to right as you go.

Tomorrow my companion will be one who has just returned from supervising
England’s Ashes winning success; I’m hoping two hours will be enough to give me a full, day-by-day account of his three weeks down under.

I know some of the readers to this blog are not the exercising type. I’m pretty confident that some of these will have started the year with all the good intentions about getting fitter and being a bit healthier. If, or when, your brain starts having meetings with itself about whether the effort is worth putting in, toughing it out in pairs is so much easier.

Like Piglet said when wishing Pooh was with him as he was totally surrounded by water, “it’s much more friendly with two”.

Running Music: Canned Heat 'Let's Work Together'

So far:

The Clash ‘London Calling’
Arcade Fire ‘Keep the Car Running’
Iron Maiden ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’

And next:

Canned Heat ‘Let's Work Together’

They played the
Brian Ferry version of this song before the teams came out at Griffin Park on Monday night, ahead of the
Johnston’s Paint Trophy Southern Area Final first leg between Brentford and Exeter – I know that’s a mouthful but a potential trip to Wembley is a potential trip to Wembley, no matter what you call it.

Having blogged about guide running being all about teamwork last week, this seemed the perfect song to put on the list.

Plus, I did actually have it in my head while doing a lap of Richmond Park last night.

Written by Wilbert Harrison and originally titled ‘Let’s Stick Together’, the Canned Heat cover appeared on the 1970 album ‘Future Blues’. The song became their biggest UK success, reaching number 2 on its release in January 1970.

This Weeks Miles: January 16

This week began with a speed session on Tuesday night. With
a good 13 miler on Sunday the legs were a little heavy, but 3 1K reps were completed, and with a decent warm up and warm down, it was 4 miles done.

Thursday and Sunday saw longer runs, 10 on Thursday including a lap of Richmond Park, and 11 on Sunday giving a total for this week of 25.

On the cross training potential front, I made my cycling comeback after 4 and a half years of my bike sitting in someone’s garage. The last time I rode it was at the end of 6 days cycling from London to Berlin for the start of the
2006 World Cup, a fundraiser for
Scope.

It was all about trying out tandem front riding debutants, but at least 15 miles were done, and this gives me an alternative to just grinding out the miles on foot.

London Marathon day is three months tomorrow. It’s one month to go until Wokingham Half.

(Photo taken for Cycling Plus Magazine in 2008)

Running Blind

As well as often being asked how I run, people are intrigued to know what it feels like to run when you can’t see where you’re going.

For those that haven’t followed earlier posts, my lack of sight means I have light and dark perception only, therefore I have no option but to run with a guide. I’m 31, and have been blind for over half my life, so I’m very comfortable facing challenges people might consider tricky without the ability to see what you’re doing.

I am attached to my running buddy by way of a sweatband bandanna, knotted in the middle to form two loops. I hold one, the guide the other, leaving us enough room to run as freely as possible, whilst allowing the guide to retain control for obstacle avoidance purposes.

A guide running partnership is all about teamwork, relying on confidence, communication, understanding, anticipation and practise. Like a sprint relay team, tennis or badminton doubles pair or defensive unit in football, when you don’t have these, you’re chance of success becomes much harder.

Above all though, trust is absolutely crucial if the blind runner is going to perform to the best of their ability, and that’s on both sides. The runner has to have one hundred percent confidence that the guide is going to do everything they can to ensure accidents are avoided. The guide has to be confident that they have the runner’s trust and that the runner will respond to instructions quickly, as well as trust in themselves to make the crucial calls at the right time, not being overly protective whilst not taking unnecessary risks. Both have to understand that a problem may occur, work hard to prevent this from happening or minimise their impact, but, when something doesn’t go to plan, it must not be allowed to have a negative effect on the bigger picture. A jockey will come off their horse, a cyclist will crash, a footballer will miss an open goal, a cricketer will drop a catch they should hold, the strong minded doesn’t let it affect them. If you run and you can’t see where you’re going, it’s inevitable something will go wrong at some point: that’s sport, live with it!

Anticipation becomes more of a factor the faster you run. I spent twelve years concentrating on track sprinting, with the 100 metres my most successful distance. Regardless of your level of sight, reaction times are vital, how fast you come out of the blocks can be the difference between winning and losing. I was always among the fastest starters in groups I would train with, beating people to the 30 metre mark even though they’d run the 100 metres in 11 seconds, whilst my personal best was 12.5. When I would run 200 metre races people standing at the finish line would sometimes be concerned I had false started as to them, I would move between seeing the smoke and hearing the gun: I managed to master the art of going on the B of bang. With this in mind, I am able to run fast, safe in the knowledge that I will respond, even if a warning is late.

When writing about Tadworth Ten recently, I made reference to the challenging ground conditions. This race was a perfect example of where the runner/guide relationship working well results in a strong performance. There were stretches of off road with many a bump in the ground where a sighted person could break an ankle if they weren’t concentrating. Where we ran on road, it was mostly down hill, and pretty steep. Jim, my guide on that occasion would later comment that my running was either courageous or foolhardy. Truth be told, it was probably a bit of both, but I’m only ever going to try something like that if I have faith that the person I’m attached to can take action if needed. In the case of Tadworth, had I been running with a lesser guide, or someone I wasn’t used to, my time would have been significantly slower.

How much information I like to be given does depend on the situation. There’s the minimum, curbs, tree roots, people and so on, but in a race situation I may ask the guide to tell me things which might help when fatigue becomes an issue.

“There are ten people ahead and I believe we can catch them,” they might say. This is a judgement I’m unable to make but is exactly the sort of thing which I would use to drive me on. There remains a sprinter hiding inside me and my competitiveness means I get a kick out of the knowledge I’m picking people off.

Sometimes, no matter the amount of information I’m given, not being able to focus on a target, or look at what’s around me, can be a challenge. The moment when fighting fatigue is when this becomes an issue. As the body and brain gets tired, thoughts lurking in my subconscious take over, think of it as like daydreaming in boring meetings, or thoughts keeping you awake at night. Often this takes the form of songs going round and round my head; frustratingly they’re usually ones I hate. I hope by writing about ones I like which I’m associating with running, or the London Marathon, might mean the likes of
Fall Out Boy and
The Script can be replaced with some decent stuff at my mental hour of need.

It’s said boxers go to some dark places in the mind when pushing themselves to the limit and beyond. I’m no psychologist, but I do know that if I feel I’m not running well, this thought can easily get tangled up with any other negative ones which might be lerking in my subconscious. Of course this can happen to anyone, and dealing with this is all part of toughing it out, a challenge I’d like to think I rise to. A word from the guide about how they think I’m running, a comment about who is around us or an update on mile splits and the brain is focused on the job again.

Whether being able to admire the scenery would make a difference to this mind wandering I can’t say, I’m sure were I watching out for obstacles this concentration would keep me occupied. Alternatively I’d be brought back to reality with a bump by running into a tree. All together now:

“George George George of the jungle, strong as he can be!”

(Photo taken by Nigel Rothwell of The Stragglers)

Running Music: Iron Maiden 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'

So far:

The Clash ‘London Calling’
Arcade Fire ‘Keep the Car Running’

And next:

Iron Maiden ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’

“Run on and on, run on and on, the loneliness of the long distance runner.” (Iron Maiden)

The great thing about having to run with a guide is, I never experience that “loneliness”.

That’s not to say that running doesn’t have it’s mental challenges, something I plan to write about in a future post, but boredom through lack of company isn’t an issue. In fact, one of the great things about the long Sunday run is, the tempo is slightly lower meaning plenty of time to put the world, or issues arising from Saturday’s football, to right.

‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’ by Iron Maiden featured on the band’s
1986 album ‘Somewhere in Time’. It tells the narrative of the 1950s
Alan Sillitow short story of the same name, which was turned into a film in 1962.

When teenage boy Colin is sent down for robbing a bakery, his life prospects look pretty bleak. He takes up long distance running by way of distraction from the brutal regime of the Borstal-style young offender's institution he finds himself in.

His athletic ability is recognised by the powers that be and he is given the chance of early release, should he be victorious in a cross-country race against a local public school.

Not willing to play the game and present his captives with their desired publicity boost, when approaching the finish line clearly in the lead, Colin stops and, to the bemusement of the watching spectators, waits for his fellow competitors to cross ahead of him. Having stuck two fingers up at the establishment, Colin faces years of hard labour, rather than the early release he could so easily have taken.

‘Somewhere in Time’ got to number 3 in the UK album chart on its release in November 1986. It also inspired the title of the band’s ‘Somewhere Back in Time’ world tour which included
a night at Twickenham Stadium in July 2008, a show which remains one of the best I’ve ever been to.

(Photo taken by John Webb at the British Music Experience at the O2 in London)

This Week's Milage: January 9th

This week I have increased the weekly miles from 25 to 31 – and don’t forget the 1!

Tuesday night saw 6 miles in Bushy Park, Thursday 8 in Richmond Park. The pleasing thing about Thursday was I ran at a good high tempo, whilst not experiencing any niggles for the first time for a number of weeks.

Saturday was the Parkrun in Bushy which, including a warm up run to the start comes to 4 miles.

Then today it was the most important of the week, the long Sunday morning run. It turned out to be a 13 miler,
taking in the last leg of the Green Belt Relay.

With London Marathon day three months and one week away, I feel as if the training is going to plan. It’s also good to be running a half marathon length training run five weeks before Wokingham.

A Sunny Sunday in January

I’ve often thought people in South West London, or within reasonably easy access of it, really have no excuse when it comes to not exercising. Clearly not everyone has to enter a marathon, or run for that matter, but walking and cycling are just as good for experiencing the great outdoors. There are plenty of options for doing just that in this corner of the capital.

Bushy and
Richmond Park have something to offer even the most reluctant outdoor type, and the River Thames from Hammersmith out to the sticks is as good a stretch as you could wish to find.

For those of us in Marathon training mode, the options for much needed variety of long runs is fantastic. I’m sure it’s harder to motivate yourself to grind out another two hour tour of local housing estates and industrial parks.

One of my favourite races is the
Green Belt Relay. Organised by my club Stragglers, this weekend event in May sees teams of eleven complete a 220 mile, 2 day route around the edge of London. Both years I’ve run I’ve bagged the anchor leg, 9.15 miles from Walton-on-Thames to the Hawker Centre in Ham, and this morning we revisited stage 22 of Green Belt as part of a long training run.

A better day for running could not have been wished for, cold, still and sunny. The good weather had brought the masses out, along what is a route with a multitude of points of interest: good to see with the opening sentence of this blog in mind.

After Sunbury Lock we followed the Surrey bank past Hurst Park and Molesey Boat Club before crossing the river at Hampton Court Bridge to continue our run on the Middlesex side alongside Hampton Court Palace. All three locations have made notable contributions to sporting history in this country.

Until 1962,
Hurst Park was a race course, one of the trio of Parks with
Kempton and
Sandown. Hurst, or “the little race course at Hampton” as it was referred to, features in the Dickens novel
‘Nicholas Nickleby’.

It’s the site’s part in cricket history which I find more interesting. The first known awarding of a trophy happened here, presented to a combined Surrey and Middlesex side on their victory over Kent by the Prince of Wales on August 1st 1733. The first LBW (leg before wicket) decision was given on this ground in 1795, during a three match series between England and Surrey, which England won 2-1. With cricket played by gentry and royalty in those days, I imagine it’s very unlikely this English victory was celebrated with an 18th century version of
the Sprinkler Dance.

Further downstream is
Molesey Rowing Club, famous for the Barcelona Olympic gold medal winners the
Searle Brothers. Less famously the club was a brief training place for me and another school friend in the mid nineties. Rowing ultimately wasn’t for either of us, although I don't recall our other sporting interests being met with a great deal of enthusiasm. Andy went on to play cricket for the England blind team, including games in India, I’ve already referenced my Commonwealth Games experience.

Hampton Court’s history is, of course, widely known, but on a sporting point, the royal tennis court is the oldest still in existence in the world. As we ran past this morning we could hear music booming out from the ice rink, alongside Somerset House and the Tower of London, Hampton Court is one of the iconic buildings in London that gives over space for ice skating each winter. We didn’t make a detour to visit the maze, although the last time I walked it’s half a mile of paths I was in and out in just over five minutes. Not an experience shared by Harris, a character in one of my favourite books ‘Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog’.

“We’ll just go in here, so that you can say you’ve been, but it’s very simple,” Harris told his country cousin. “It’s absurd to call it a maze. You keep on taking the first turning to the right. We’ll just walk round for ten minutes, and then go and get some lunch.”

The story tells of how Harris first gathers up all the other visitors that had been lost for sometime, with the promise that he knew the way about, before getting hopelessly lost himself and having to be rescued by a keeper.

Hampton Court is the first stop for the boat which travels into Central London. I’ve never fancied the full journey, but the short ride to Kingston with a walk back is good fun.

Our run took us to Kingston Bridge, where another river crossing was needed, for the last stretch to the Hawker Centre, past the Boaters pub where a fine Apple Crumble can be found: not a thought you need when you’ve a few miles still to run.

The other times I’ve run that leg have been swelteringly hot days at the end of May, and the second long run of the weekend. The difference cooler temperatures and fresh legs makes was clear as a training run produced a marginally quicker time than the race: 1 hour 11.17 today, 1 hour 11.24 last May.

After the Hawker we continued to Teddington Lock, before running through Teddington to Bushy Park and home, a total distance we believe was 13 miles.

We saw hundreds out for a Sunday morning walk. If you can get to this corner of the world it’s perfect for sticking to the New Year healthy lifestyle plan.

Note: some of the facts quoted in this blog come courtesy of the excellently detailed
Green Belt Relay website.

Running Music: Arcade Fire/Foo Fighters 'Keep the Car Running'

I know picking a song called ‘Keep the Car Running’ suggests I’m planning on taking a sneaky turn down a side street and blagging a lift on the big day. I have, ahem, only chosen this song because it has the word ‘run’ in its title, and because it’s ace of course, honest.

Music has the power to influence even the most extreme mood changes. How often do we hear of people turning to certain songs when in an hour of emotional need?

Although we can lose ourselves in books, TV, film, theatre or art, forgetting the outside world or by way of escapism from issues that are dominating our thoughts, music has the ability to worm its way into our lives where other, less portable artforms can’t.

How many times have you heard someone say “this song reminds me of”, before launching into the anecdote which they always remember when they hear said piece of music.

Songs connect with people, provoking special memories, inspiring through lyrics, lifting the mood or,
as already blogged, helping to motivate.

I say all this as the next song on my list is one of those, memory tracks which, on one occasion, did wonderful things for the mood as well.

Between 2001 and 2009 I attended over twenty music festivals, from massive events like
Leeds and
Reading, to smaller, more relaxed alternative such as
Guilfest.

Inevitably some are better than others, who’s playing, how the event is organised, the weather and people you're with all having a major impact on how good your weekend is. What turned out to be my last ever visit to the
V Festival was easily my least enjoyable.

I was already losing interest in V, their choice of artists was drifting more and more towards mainstream pop. 2007 still had enough going for it, with Foo Fighters, Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Basement Jaxx and Emma Pollock holding their own amongst Pink, Kanye West, Lemar, The Kooks and Mika.

It turned out to be easily the coldest festival I’d been to; I don’t think we experienced anything warmer than 15 degrees all weekend. It rained, a lot, meaning our tent flooded, so I was bored, wet, cold, grumpy and ready to get the hell out!

Then the Foo Fighters played their cover of Arcade Fire’s ‘Keep the Car Running’ during their headline set. A brilliant song covered in style and suddenly things weren’t so bad after all.

So, I present to you, live performances of both versions, the original by
Arcade Fire which is an absolute belter, and
the Foo Fighters cover.

I never did go back to V, but that experience was just a blip as I have since had fantastic weekends at both Leeds and Guilfest.

(Photo is of a classic American car taken in Cuba. It just happened to be the best car picture I have, I'm not showing off, honest!)

Tadworth Ten: Stats

Warning, this post is for stattos.

Having described my Tadworth Ten experience after the race yesterday, I’ve now been sent my mile splits from Jim, my guide runner on this occasion. I’m pleased to say it makes encouraging reading.

Negative splits are always good, no matter the distance or type of run, but I’m especially satisfied to achieve this given how I had to tough out the hill on the second lap – as the mile splits below show.

My times were 39:24 first lap, and 39:36 for the 2nd lap. The mile splits are all over the place, which goes to demonstrate the differences in gradient.

The times which stand out for me are the comparison between mile 4 and 9, a great downhill stretch towards the end of the lap. Given the comparatively slow climb on mile 7 compared to mile 2, to pull out a 30 second improvement on the second lap is very pleasing, and shows that the break for illness and injury I’ve written about hasn’t damaged my basic fitness.

So, those all important numbers as they say on the Lottery:

1. 7:53
2. 8:03
3. 7:22
4. 7:59
5. 8:05
6. 7:47
7. 8:50
8. 7:32
9. 7:29
10. 7:55

Running Music: Full List

This page will have the complete list of songs which I write about, updated as the weeks pass.

To recap, the point of this list is, I often get songs stuck in my head while running. More often than not they’re ones I hate, or at best, find irritating.

I’m not in favour of the idea of running to music, not least as the beat could encourage you to run at a pace which you hadn’t planned to. However I am in favour of using music to motivate, clear the mind, relax or anything else that helps your preparation, I might even listen to some of these on the morning of April 17th.

All these songs either relate to running in their title, or have some connection to the story of my first marathon.

And so the list is:

The Clash ‘London Calling’
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Arcade Fire ‘Keep the Car Running’
Blog Post
Arcade Fire original on Youtube
Foo Fighters Cover on Youtube

Iron Maiden ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Canned Heat ‘Let’s Work Together’
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Tom Petty ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Spencer Davis Group 'Keep On Running'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

All American Rejects 'Move Along'
Blog post
Youtube Link

Lindisfarne 'Run For Home'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Thin Lizzy 'Running Back'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Bruce Springsteen 'Born To Run'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Neil Young 'Long May You Run'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Kate Bush 'Running Up That Hill'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

REO Speedwagon 'Take it on the Run'
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Lemonheads 'Outdoor Type
Blog Post
Youtube Link

Jimmy Cliff 'You Can Get It If You Really Want'
Blog post coming soon
Youtube Link

The Marathon Campaign Starts Here!

Shergar, Workforce, Galileo, Leicester Piggott, Willie Carson, Kieren Fallon, Frankie Dettori and, randomly, Santa Claus (1964), some of the names to win at
Epsom on Derby day.

Obviously I was never going to get near an Epsom win at
Tadworth Ten this morning, but I consider getting round in under 8 minute mile pace a small, personal victory. My time of 79.08 is some way off my ten mile best of 73.23, but the
Cabbage Patch in October had everything going in my favour: flat course, good road surface, lovely weather.

If you like a hill then Tadworth Ten will be up your alley. The race is two laps, with a combination of road and off road, a stretch through a small wood and hills (both up and down were equally steep). It’s certainly the toughest ten miler I’ve done, and with no immediate reactions from the niggles I’ve had over the past few weeks, I’m hopeful I can now kick on. As the title of this blog says, the Marathon campaign starts here!

I think the hills at Tadworth give you the equivalent of an extra mile work out than were you running on a flat course. As
Wokingham Half in six weeks is, I’m told, flat and fast, I think my half marathon personal best of 1 hour 44 (Watford Half, February 2008) is very much ready to be confined to the past. I have a target time in mind but I ain’t telling you what it is.

The most important thing now is to build up the weekly mileage. Given a two week break for flu, injury and ice I’m satisfied with a start of 25 miles for the past week (that doesn’t include the ten run over the Christmas weekend). Clearly this needs to be seriously improved but I know that can happen.

(Photo taken by Nigel Rothwell of The Stragglers)

Running Music: The Clash 'London Calling'

I don’t like the idea of running to music.

It can be very frustrating in races when you’re trying to get past someone and they can’t hear you’re coming because they’ve got headphones in. Plus, I always think you miss out on the atmosphere of the day, there’s people standing in the cold encouraging you and you can’t hear them because you’re listening to something else.

I also think it’s counter productive for your own performance. It’s very easy to be lead by the beat of the music you’re listening to, and therefore run at a tempo which isn’t suitable.

Listening to music in the gym is different. Unless you’re creative and include hills and sprints when setting up, running on a treadmill is desperately dull. Also, most gyms play music and I can guarantee it’ll be shit, therefore taking your own helps your sanity.

The one time I made a gym playlist it featured Pearl Jam, the Pixies, Flaming Lips, Green Day, Feeder, Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys and Goldfrapp, infinitely better than the tuneless, thumpy dance music my leisure centre of choice was offering: blimey what a grumpy old man I sound!

Using music to motivate, calm nerves, take your mind off what you’re about to do or just because of some daft superstition is fine in my book. I remember, during my brief flirtation with acting, before each night of one production, I wouldn’t leave the house until I’d listened to what were my favourite two songs at the time,
Sheryl Crow ‘Change’ and the wonderful
‘Outdoor Type’ by the Lemonheads. If you’re about to do something which will make you nervous or where relaxation is vital, including a short bit of music time during your preparation means you’re more likely to be in control of your emotions when it comes to the big moment, whatever that might be.

Although I don’t run to music, I often get songs stuck in my head. Usually when I’m tired, and I can pretty much guarantee it’ll be a song I don’t like.

With this in mind, and because I thought it would make for an interesting addition to this blog, I’ve come up with a twenty song, London Marathon playlist.

When I first thought about doing this I had planned to post one song per week, but there’s less than twenty weeks to go until London so that won’t work. You’ll get one per week, until the last week when I may have to post one per day, or something.

Most of the songs I’ve picked have ‘run’ in the title, with a few exceptions, not least, the rather obvious first choice.

The Clash ‘London Calling’

Taken from the album of the same name, released in the year I was born (1979), this song has become something of a London signature tune, despite its lyrics not entirely reflecting the Capital in a great light.

Concerns over social violence and the risk that if the Thames might burst its banks then Central London would flood are prominent, as is reference to world events such as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident earlier that year.

The video shows the band performing the song on a boat, on a rainy winter night, very appropriate for marathon runners.

The song has been critically acclaimed as the band’s finest moment, obviously these statements are their to be argued. We can be certain of hearing it a lot during the 2012 Olympics, and it’s as good a way as any of starting this part of my marathon blog.