Milton Keynes Marathon: To The Manor, Run! Halfway to Mile 20.

When I started running in 2012 you could have written my expertise down on the back of a parkrun finishing token.  I was unfit, had a 2 year old son, and I had a premonition that he was going to get faster and I would be the fat dad at sports day that couldn't join in.  I took up running to counter that premonition, mainly because I didn't like the idea of joining a gym, I was too unfit to take up any team sports, and running is free*.

Fast forward to today and I now consider myself to be quite an experienced runner.  I'm a qualified Run Leader, have raced numerous 10ks and half marathons, and can chew the fat with most other runners about races that have gone wrong and training techniques that I have found that suit my body and lifestyle.  That said, when it comes to the Marathon, I am still very much a novice.

I have got one marathon under my belt.  I took on the Yorkshire Marathon in 2015 and managed to hit my target of running a 4 hour marathon by 22 seconds (3:59:38) and I'm using that experience as my guide as I train for the Milton Keynes Marathon in May.  I've kept my training plan very close to the 2015 one but I have cut out the slew of races that I did that summer.  I found that they got in the way of the main target and didn't prepare me properly for taking on 26.2 miles.  I've also been reflecting on the race day experience to see if there were any nuggets of useful information or memories that will help me around MK.

One of the major bonuses for any race is knowing the route beforehand.  During York I had no idea where I was for vast chunks of the race and it's disorientating.  It's hard to judge pace if you don't know what's around the next corner.  I live too far from Milton Keynes these days to run the route prior to the race, so over the last couple of blogs I have been reminiscing about my time in MK, specifically with the route of the marathon in mind, to help with my race prep, and potentially to help others prepare for what's in store for them.

During the York Marathon I was fine through the first half of the race, but it was after that when things started to unravel.  I'm hoping that as half way to mile 18 of the Milton Keynes marathon is my old stomping ground, I should get through without entering the running doldrums.

Just after mile 14 the marathon route joins the Grand Union canal at Pennyland.  I spent many an afternoon after school, fishing along this stretch of canal.  It was at the Pennyland Boat Basin where I once caught a friend in the head with a pike spinner (not that I ever caught a pike).  The route follows the towpath into Giffard Park until it crosses the canal onto the redway network in Great Linford and heads towards Great Linford Manor.

As my ex-local pub (The Nag's Head) is situated at the gates of the manor, I spent quite a lot of my youth (once I was old enough you understand) around the Manor.  I always found it reasuring that in a town as young as Milton Keynes, my local was old.  It was a throwback to a bygone era and it's probably where my love of traditional boozers comes from.  More often than not our evenings would spill out of the Nags and into the Manor, but come May 1st I'll just have to be content with the memories and not pop in for a pint.

Not every night in The Nags Head ended this way...

With the Manor behind us the route hits a disused railway path for a couple of miles.  I'm looking forward to this stretch as if it's hot it will be a haven of shade and if it's raining the canopy of trees will keep the worst off us.  The railway walk was one of my main arterial routes between friends' houses but I was always on my bike or walking so a run will make a nice change.

The marathon continues through Blue Bridge and Bancroft, and this is where my reminiscing will come to an end.  From mile 18 to the finish I'll have flashes of memories but nothing from having spent any time on the route.  We do get to run past the infamous Concrete Cows before mile 20 though...I wonder if they are the originals or copies, after they were stolen and then recovered many years ago.

I am training for the Milton Keynes Marathon on the 1st May and have been selected to be one of their ambassadors.  I am also raising money for Bliss, the premature baby charity.  You can find my Just Giving page here.

*Little did I know!

Milton Keynes Marathon - Half way round.

Previously on Run Sancho Run: I'm running the Milton Keynes Marathon in May, but living in Leeds means I can't recce the route in advance.  Luckily I grew up in MK and have very fond memories of large sections of the marathon course.  My last post looked at The First Six Miles and this one will get us to half way.

With CMK* behind us the next section of the course promises to be a lot more scenic.  Having joined the Redway network and skirted the back of Milton Keynes Hospital the route takes us, not for the first time, across the Grand Union Canal and on to Woughton on the Green, Woolstone, and Milton Keynes Village, three of the original villages around which Milton Keynes has been growing for the last 50 years.

By mile 9 Willen Lake comes into sight.  Having spent so much time at Willen Lake over the years, my mind will be awash with memories as we run around the home of Milton Keynes parkrun and Redway Runners**.  The marathon route only follows the parkrun route for a short while (missing out the switchback flight of stairs!) as it passes around North Lake and the Peace Pagoda.

The Peace Pagoda

We will continue through Willen (home of Willen Hospice who I'm sure will have a large contingent of runners raising money for them) and push on through Tongwell and the halfway point of the Marathon.  13.1 miles down and through a huge variety of scenery from modern to traditional, city to countryside.  MK Marathon will have already stirred strong memories for me, but the next section will take me through *my* Milton Keynes, the estates where my friends and I grew up, and the section that I am most looking forward to.

I am training for the Milton Keynes Marathon on the 1st May and have been selected to be one of their ambassadors.  I am also raising money for Bliss, the premature baby charity.  You can find my Just Giving page here.

* Central Milton Keynes
** I do wonder if I would have taken up running if I had stayed in MK or if life would have sent me in a completely different direction.  If I had, would I be a Redway Runner?

Milton Keynes Marathon: The First Six Miles

As I'm sure you know by now, I'm running the Milton Keynes Marathon in May and my training is well under way.  So far everything is going more or less to plan, give or take an unscheduled half marathon PB and an accidental 15 mile run when I had set off for a 12 miler.  The first official 15 mile run is still a couple of weeks away but having already gone the distance I may well tweak the plan and squeeze in an extra 20 mile run before the big day.

The big day in question, 1st May 2017, is not that far away!  Just 13 weeks, only 88 days, and then I'll be lining up outside Stadium MK.  With that in mind I've been thinking about the route.  In an ideal world I'd like to run the route (not in one go you understand) so that there were no surprises on race day.  However, living in Leeds means that popping out for a 10k run in Milton Keynes is a little problematic.

Fortunately, one of the reasons I chose MK for my 2nd marathon is that I used to live there and so have memories of large sections of the route.  For those of you not so fortunate to have lived in MK let me talk you through the route and, hopefully, set the scene for a great race day.

Now, my glorious plan of relying on my memories from the mid 90s hits a bit of a stumbling block as soon as the route starts.  When I left Milton Keynes in 1995 there was no Stadium MK.  In fact, there was no MK Dons until 2003 and even then they played their home games in The National Hockey Stadium (The Cow Shed).  Other than the occasional visit to Go-Carting or Roller-skating, there was very little reason to visit Denbigh (the estate MK Dons now call their home).

Leaving the stadium behind us, the marathon heads north for a couple of miles along the V7, Saxon Street, until it hits CMK, The Centre.  The first bit of the route that I have abiding memories of.  For two years, hardly a Wednesday went past without a visit to the Winter Gardens on Midsummer Boulevard, home of the glorious Happy Wednesdays at the dawn of Brit-pop.  Those nights and the memories that accompany them made me who I am today.

Outside Happy Wednesday c1994. Sorry lads.

Leaving The Centre behind us the marathon doubles back on itself before cutting through Eaglestone, skirting behind MK General Hospital, and towards the 6 mile marker in Woughton on the Green, one of the original villages around which MK has grown for the last 50 years.  From here on the marathon takes on a much greener and more varied route passing lakes, a pagoda, and my old local.  Shame there won't be time to pop in for a pint on the way around.

I am training for the Milton Keynes Marathon on the 1st May and have been selected to be one of their ambassadors.  I am also raising money for Bliss, the premature baby charity.  You can find my Just Giving page here.

Marathon Training - Week 1 plus.

Now, the plan for my blog in the run up to the Milton Keynes Marathon isn't to give you a blow by blow breakdown of every run, every training session, every mile covered, but as I've just finished Week 1 of my 16 week plan I thought now would be a good opportunity to set out my stall.  Also, in all honesty, this week did not exactly work out as I thought it would.

I've based my plan on the one that I used for the Yorkshire Marathon in 2015.  It's an amalgam of training plans that I had found online with the excellent Marathon Plan from Graeme Hilditch's book as it's backbone.  This got me around York in 3:59:38, a time that I'd love to emulate in Milton Keynes, so I have no real reason to change things too much.

In a nutshell I'll be running 4-5 times a week, with my LSR* on Sunday being no more than 50% of my weekly milage.  As the distances of my Sunday runs increase so will the distance and frequency of my weekday runs.  I'll be mixing up hills, tempo runs, fartlek, and speed sessions during the week and keeping Sunday long and slow.

That said, last week was week 1 of my training plan and it didn't quite go as I had expected.  A good friend (hello Adam) had pulled out of The Brass Monkey Half Marathon, and foolishly I bought his place from him, so week 1 would end with a half marathon that I had not trained for.  This was not in the book!

I had not run a half marathon since the Dalby Forest half in July last year.  I had managed the odd 10 mile run since then but I was fairly sure that I was on a fool's mission.  The Sunday before the Brass Monkey I took to the Leeds Liverpool Canal and strode out for a 12 mile run, aiming for 9 minute miles to give me the confidence that I could at least cover the distance of the race at a little under the magical 9:09 pace of a 4 hour marathon.

With that LSR in the bag, and a couple of mid week 10ks, I set off for York with a couple of likley lads from South Leeds for company.  I was happy that I could run the distance and wasn't bothered about the time, this was to be the first part of my MK Marathon journey not an end in itself.  I bumped into a couple of other friends from Leeds before taking my place optimistically in the sub 1:45 pen.  I was stood in close to freezing temperatures, wearing little more than a vest with a number pinned to it and shorts, and race day delerium had set in.  I was not going to manage 1:45 but I could dream of past glory.

The race started and, for the first time in over a year, I was racing on tarmac**.  The route took us South of York through Bishopthorpe and Acaster Selby before hitting Appleton Roebuck and heading North towards the finish.  I was keeping better time than I had anticipated and, due to my choice of vest, was getting cheers and comments from runners and spectators alike. 

 

However, by the time I got to mile ten my legs were feeling the lack of training.  Every step reminded me of a lacklustre summer and an over indulgent Christmas.  I knew my pace was dropping and then a knight in shining armour came to my aid.  Chris Sawyer, a parkrun friend from Cross Flatts, caught up to me and in passing told me to drop into his wake.  I've never slipstreamed a runner before so I don't know how effective it was, but matching Chris' pace for a mile was exactly what I needed.  Left to my own devices I would probably have dropped to a crawl and limped home with my tail between my legs.

We got back through Bishopthorpe and struck out to the finish at the Knavesmire.  I had the bit between my teeth and was determined to keep my new found pace to the end of the race.  The supporters and faster finishers who lined the home straight were fantastic,  I even got a shout out from the man with the tannoy mic as I was crossing the line.  I had done it.

 

One of my goals last year was to become fit enough to run a decent pace for a half marathon without having to specifically train for it.  I had thought that goal was long lost, but it turns out I had managed to get myself to a position where I could enter a half at short notice and run a good time.  I had wanted to go under 2 hours at the start of the race so to finish with a new PB of 1:41:48 was astounding and a feat that I'm still struggling to come to terms with.

Click on the pic to enter the MK Marathon

I am training for the Milton Keynes Marathon on the 1st May and have been selected to be one of their ambasadors.  I am also raising money for Bliss the premature baby charity.  You can find my Just Giving page here.

*Long Slow Run
** Last year I swore myself off road races after too many runs up and down Kirkstall Road.

A Tale of Two Shirts

Back in October I, along with countless others, was eagerly awaiting the outcome of the London Marathon ballot. I'd already missed out two years in a row so I managed to convince myself that this time I'd be the one getting the "You're In" magazine.  Sadly I was mistaken.  I now have a hat-trick of "Sorry" magazines and a trio of London Marathon branded winter training tops.  To say I felt a bit deflated is an understatement.  I had already missed out on a place in the Paris Marathon but was determined that I wanted to find a spring marathon for this year to keep me running during winter, and to mark my 40th birthday in April.

I know that I could have applied for a charity place to run London, but having had to raise money to take part in the TrailTrekk I knew how much pressure was involved in raising large sums of money, and I didn't want that on top of having to find the time to train for a marathon.

Rather than sticking a pin in a map to find my next big race I asked running forums, Twitter, Facebook, Uncle Tom Cobley and all, for their recommendations and came up with a short-list of four marathons which kind of fit the bill.  They were, in alphabetical order; Blackpool, Brighton, Edinburgh, and Milton Keynes. I had a good look at all four, price, route, and importantly, the logistics required for me to run them and the family to come along and watch.

Blackpool would have been done in a day, with no need for a stopover, so was winning hands down on cost and logistics, but the route looks tedious*.  I had heard good things about Brighton but it ain't cheap and I have very few favours to pull in around that neck of the woods, so it would have been a hotel.  Of course all of the hotels know that it's the marathon, so prices were already creeping up.  That left Edinburgh and MK, two cities that I have strong links with.

The majority of my family comes from (and still lives in) Edinburgh, so finding somewhere to stay would not be an issue.  I've been visiting Auld Reekie all of my life and I felt like I knew the route quite well and could visualise how the run would pan out.  Milton Keynes, however, is the town I grew up in from the age of 10 until I went to University.  I still have friends who live there that we could potentially stay with but, and this was the clincher, there are huge sections of the route that I used to play on, cycle on, fish along, when I was growing up.  As a race to mark my 40th birthday there could be no other, with its obvious links to my past.  I duly signed up to what will be my second marathon and my first of 2017.

I know that I said that I didn't want a charity place for London, but I decided to try and raise a bit of money for Bliss, a charity that I have fund-raised for in the past following the premature birth of our first son.  The difference in my mind is there is no target.  I can run, put my head into running the best marathon I can, and not have to worry about constantly asking people for money, or worrying about having to find the money to top up the donations should I not raise enough.

Mr Ambassador.

Having signed up for the Milton Keynes Marathon I have subsequently been selected as an ambassador for the race weekend.  Being an ambassador does not come with golden chocolate balls but it does entail writing blogs like this one and encouraging others to take part**. I also got a snazzy t-shirt to wear on my training runs and, for full disclosure, I got my entry fee back as well, which is nice.  On top of all that, having decided to raise money for Bliss, I have also received one of their running vests to wear on the big day.

Come race day this will have my name written all over it.

So between now and the 1st May, I will be blogging my training progress, and sharing my thoughts and reminiscences on the route, especially the section between miles 8 and 17.  I am very proud to be an ambassador for the town which shaped me growing up, I'm excited about running past so many landmarks and landscapes that have played such a large part of my life, and I am once again humbled and thankful for the work that Bliss do to help families of children who are born prematurely or sick.

*I could be wrong.

**Hello Iain, Duncan, and Hannah.

Interested in joining the fun of the MK Marathon, or 1/2 marathon? Click on the link for more info.

Leeds Christmas 10k Challenge

Here is my latest review, first published on Run Leeds December 16, 2016.

***

With so many races to choose from these days it's nice when the organisers make life easier and give their runs a meaningful name. It's fairly obvious that the Leeds 10k is a 10k race in Leeds.  The same goes for the London Marathon, it's a marathon in London.  The Great North Run is much more vague with no clues as to where or what you are entering in the title.  The organisers of the Leeds Christmas 10k Challenge have named their race perfectly.  It's in Leeds, it's 10k, and it takes place around Christmas.  It does exactly what it says on the tin.  There is one ambiguity though, the "Challenge".


Having taken part in the Leeds Christmas 10k Challenge for the last two years it is now clear in my mind what the challenge is.  It isn't an obstacle course.  There are tougher runs out there, not that the Christmas 10k isn't a tough hilly run.  But nothing (to my knowledge) has such a wide range of running surfaces to contend with.  The route covers running track, open grassy fields, tarmac, bridleways, and muddy root-strewn paths.  The only thing missing is a river crossing and I think everything would be covered.  So for me the "challenge" come race day is whether to wear road or trail shoes.


There was a new route for this year's Christmas 10k.  Gone were the dreaded steps of Scrooge Hill, but the rest of the route was similar to the previous years.  Starting with a lap and a half of the running track at South Leeds Stadium, you then cross the training fields towards Middleton Railway's Park Halt Station and a short sharp climb before entering Middleton Woods and running the length of the disused Tramway.  Another short steep section from the Tramway to the Rose Garden and the long descent on the Wagon Way, before doing the whole thing again and finishing back at the stadium.


I had been keeping an eye on the weather in the build up to the race to try and gauge whether trail shoes would be needed.  There had been some rain during the week but not much, so I went for a pair of road shoes that I didn't mind getting a bit mucky, hoping that I would want them more on the fast down hills rather than needing extra grip from trail shoes on the off road sections.


Having collected my number from the Phoenix Bar at South Leeds Stadium I made my way track-side to soak up the pre-race atmosphere.  Lots of the gathering runners were in "festive" running wear and one tor two had gone the whole hog on the fancy dress front.  Any number of Santas and Elves were joined by a tree, a Christmas cracker and an oven ready turkey.  Suddenly my choice of footwear didn't seem like the biggest challenge of the day.

Pre-race photo opportunity

Eventually we got under way.  As it was a new course this year I hadn't bothered to check my previous times, happy instead to test my fitness.  Last month's Holly Hustle had highlighted just how off the pace I had become, but I'd put in some decent runs in the meantime and wanted to complete the Christmas 10k in under 50 minutes. 



The start was a bit 'stop start' as the throng of runners was funnelled over the timing mat, but I soon found room to run the long way around the outside of the running track, whilst everyone else tried to run the racing line around the inside of the bends.  Out of the stadium and onto the grass my road shoes were far from ideal so far but then we hit the platform and the tarmac and they came into their own.  I was through 1km in around 4:30, perfect pace, but with two long climbs to come.  I felt good but could I hold on to the pace for nine more kilometres?


I'm not sure how many times I've run on the Tramway.  It feels like it goes on forever, slowly taking you up higher and higher through the ancient woodland that once connected Huddersfield and Nottingham.  It's a knobbly bridleway these days but it was mostly dry without any muddy puddles to ford so my trainers were still doing well.  Last year the route left the Tramway with a sharp left halfway up, but the new route took us right to the summit before a scramble up a muddy bank towards the Rose Garden. 



I'd been trailing a friend from parkrun who is much faster than me but the runner in front of me stopped to walk up the final section of the climb and I had no option but to walk too.  My friend and unwitting pacer, who was further ahead, pressed on and a gap opened up.  Once we were back running we got onto a 100% new section of the route, a slight downhill weaving between trees, then a short climb before popping out at the Middleton Park Visitor Centre and the long downhill on the Wagon Way.  My pace was still good, despite the enforced walk, but I knew that the second time up the Tramway would be a struggle.  I was right.


I passed the water station at 5k and onto the climb back into the woods.  The elevation was starting to take it's toll.  I knew I was slowing down but also knew that I had it in me to get to the top of the Tramway again.  The pack had thinned so there was no excuse for slowing other than fatigue.  I hit the short muddy section to the Rose Garden and, for the first time, regretted my shoe choice.  The runnable slope had been churned up on the first pass by the 500+ runners on the first lap.


My road shoes slipped under my tired legs, I took a much wider line to find solid ground, and I ran up the hill which I had been forced to run up on the previous route, but I was spent.  The determination to run the final hill had taken so much out of me that I was struggling for breath.  I couldn't gulp the air in fast enough on the descent back to the train station and the stadium, and the dream of a sub 50 finish was looking like it would remain a dream.

But, as I crossed the finish line at the home of Hunslet Hawks I stopped my watch and was astounded at my finish time.  I was light years behind the winner but I had managed my sub 50 dream with a time of 48:45.  I later discovered that my PB on the previous route was 50:03 so a course and race PB and a well deserved mince pie!


The Leeds Christmas 10k Challenge had once again lived up to it's perfect name.  The new route, two long laps rather than three short ones, was good.  Personally I'd like to see the steps brought back but I really liked the section between the Rose Garden and the Wagon Way, so on balance I think the change is a good one.  My racing is now over for another year and I'm happy that once again the Leeds 10k Challenge has rounded off another great year of running.

The Buggy Club

When I started running, back in 2012, there was no question about running with my son.  He was the reason I bought my first pair of trainers and set off on 4 years of pavement pounding, he's still the main reason that still I run to this day, but we've never been running buddies*.

He was 2, I was a poorly constructed mass of suet held together in a clingfilm exoskeleton, I could only just get myself around Cross Flatts Park without needing resuscitation, never mind pushing him in his buggy whilst trying to run the distance!

Apart from the physical size and weight of a 2 year old, and my considerable girth, there is no way that I would have considered taking him running.  I wasn't up to the job but then neither was his buggy.  We live in a compact Victorian terrace, use public transport, and have a small car.  Our buggy reflected these aspects of life.  It was a compact, light weight, could turn on a sixpence, but had solid wheels and no suspension.

Perfect for our needs but not for running as I discovered recently.  The 2 year old is now 6 and he has a little brother.  I am 4 years healthier and, for one reason or another, decided to take the newest member of the family out for a run.  I say run, it was the middle of the day, he needed a nap and I needed some fresh air, so we headed to the park for a walk.  I knew that I had a one hour window so I thought I'd walk the parkrun route with him.

Dressed in civvies** we made our way to the start line, and for some reason, I decided to run.  Neither of us were ready but we made it around the 5k route with some encouraging smiles and nods from other park users.  I had taken it steady because I wasn't dressed for running.  I was knackered, but I decided that I should do this on Saturday at parkrun and get an official time.

The problem with rocking up at parkrun (even a small one like ours) with a buggy is that they are an embuggerance on the start line.  I headed towards the back of the grid and set off for another steady run.  I was far from my usual parkrun pace but I was well aware of my buggy's limitations, especially on the pot-holed sections of the park path.

We crossed the finish line in a respectable 27+ minutes, but I was already trying to workout where I could save some time.  I had walked a passed the worst of the pot-holes, and on the detour around the steps.  If I could eliminate the walks then I would start seeing the times come down.

The following week we lined up again, ready to push through the up hill struggles and managed to claw back some time to set a buggy PB of 27:30.  But I couldn't leave it there, I knew there was more I could do, I knew I could push a buggy (and it's precious cargo) around much faster, but I also knew that I couldn't do it with our buggy.  I needed a decent set of wheels to really see some improvements.

Cut forward a month or two and I now have that new set of wheels.  A second (or third) hand Red Castle Jogger which has better breaks than my bike.  In comparison to our original buggy it is massive.  It's so big, even collapsed, that it has to live in the cellar when not in use. But size is important, especially for the wheels.  We can now cruse over the parkrun pot-holes as if they were not there.

Red is fast, right?

At the first opportunity I took C and his massive wheels back to parkrun to see if the big wheel theory would work, and sure enough we crushed our time finishing with a new buggy PB of 25:59 a minute and a half faster that we had achieved with the city stroller.  The improvements now will be down to me getting fitter and stronger.  Sub 25 is beckoning me and my new running buddy in his new running buggy, I might just need to get scythes or a snow plough fitted to get through the crowds on the start line.

*hopefully that will change now that he's started going to junior parkrun.
**cotton t-shirt, jeans, converse, not running kit, you get the idea.