Six Star Finisher by Mike Duff

Blood (clots), Sweat and Tears

Seven weeks removed from finishing in Boston I’ve had a chance to think about the journey to my six stars. My Six Star certificate has just arrived this week so now seems as good a time as any to try to write this blog.

People have asked what made me decide to aim for the six stars and assume it must have been some sort of long term goal that I’d been planning for years, but the truth is there was no plan and it was really just a series of random coincidences and unconnected events that led me to it.

London 2016 was going to be my last marathon – I’d already done five previous marathons and my body was feeling broken and battered from them. I’d had to defer from the year before and I didn’t think there was any way I could train for another one without completely breaking myself.

So, the first step on this journey was Angela’s suggestion of joining the Eagles in September 2015 and her getting a coach to train her for her secret marathon debut in Rome. As I’d basically made up my own training programmes for my previous marathons based on very little knowledge, I thought maybe asking for help wasn’t such a bad idea and might get me round London in one piece. Enter Coach Mirka and a complete overhaul of the way I trained so that I was no longer trying to do every training run at flat out pace / kill myself. This is definitely the only reason I’ve managed to get through all six and make the massive PB improvements that I have across all distances so never underestimate the power of knowing when and how to train! I know my approach baffles a few people when I regularly run but hardly ever race Club Champs events and don’t pile up 60 mile weeks every week but it works for me.

Halfway through my training and amazed at how much better my body felt for the change, by chance, I spotted a post on the Facebook page saying that the ballot for New York was open so I decided to stick my name in thinking “my body feels OK - maybe I can do one more and then quit”. By race day I’d found out that I’d been successful in the ballot and so I was going to finish my marathon career in New York – not a bad place to finish – but chance had other ideas…

I had never heard of the Abbot Marathon Majors – no idea what they were, what the races were or what it meant. After picking up my number for London I happened to spot the Six Star medal as I entered the expo section and thought “that’s a pretty impressive medal”. I vaguely noticed that New York was also one of the races but didn’t really give it second thought. Subconsciously, something had obviously struck a chord somewhere as three days later sitting on the Eagles bus to the start line Mirka asked me what was next after London. After a few seconds thought I replied “well, I’ve got New York in the autumn and then I’m going to do the majors and get that big medal”. That was it. No lifelong masterplan, no deep research into, just a spur of the moment decision without knowing what I was getting into.

London itself didn’t go particularly well – my target of sub-3:30 went (along with my hamstring) at 16 miles and to this day I still have no idea who was at Mile 23 as I was in so much pain and desperately concentrating on trying to make some sort of passable impression that I was actually still running as I went past. People ask which has been my favourite of the majors which is almost impossible to answer but I can say without doubt London was my least. Controversial, but I hated almost every minute of it and honestly wouldn’t be disappointed if I never ran it again. Of course, every so often that little voice says “well, obviously you still need to put that performance right don’t you…..” so we’ll see.

After London, my next major should have been New York that autumn but it didn’t quite work out. As some of you will know, having done most of the training I returned from a two-week holiday in California to be diagnosed with a Deep Vein Thrombosis in my right calf. With only a couple of weeks until New York my thoughts ranged from “I could still do it – there’s only a small chance I could die on the flight over” to “I might not actually be allowed to run again so this six star journey might be over before it’s really begun”. Spoiler alert – I didn’t run New York, I didn’t die and I can still run.

Instead of New York my second major ended up being Tokyo the following February. I’ve written about my recovery and training in my Tokyo race report so I won’t bore you with it here. Suffice to say, it was an amazing experience from start to finish and the Eagles I’ve spoken to that have run it since have said the same – the city, the atmosphere and the people make it an unforgettable trip with locals amazed that you would want to visit their city and going out of their way to welcome you.

Post-Tokyo with some random bloke we met on the street             

A rather damp Berlin in front of the Reichstag

Third up was Berlin that autumn. Fully recovered I had optimistically targeted 3:15 and upped my training considerably. Anyone who follows me on Strava will have noticed that since the start of my training for Berlin I have an almost OCD approach to doing every training session scheduled, on the day it’s scheduled, at a scheduled metronomic pace. Ok, so there’s no “almost” about it, but sticking to this and not racing races for the sake of it during training has meant that I’ve got to the start line in each major feeling stronger than the one before.

Berlin always has that added buzz to it that you might just be in the same race where the world record is broken – I can’t think of any other sport where us mere mortals take part in the same event, in the same arena at the same time as the elites. That year Wilson Kipsang was rumoured to be targeting the record but failed to finish and a certain Eliud Kipchoge won but weather conditions put paid to the record and my 3:15. If rain and high humidity are a good enough excuse for not breaking the world record then it’s a good enough excuse for me. Still, ending up with a big PB, a large post-race pizza and a few steins of beer on Unter den Linden with a flock of fellow Eagles more than made up for it.

Next up was my deferred New York entry from the previous year. Having run Berlin six weeks before I went into this one with the target of taking it easy and enjoying it – do the first 20 miles in 8 minute miles and then slow down for the last 6.2 and soak up the atmosphere. It’s amazing the difference it makes when you’re running well within yourself rather than constantly trying to set a new PB in a race whether it’s a parkrun or a marathon. I enjoyed every minute of it with the exception of the Queensboro Bridge between 15 and 16 miles which was an absolute killer even at training pace. The last two miles through Central Park were truly memorable.

New York easily has the best on-course support of any of the majors. Other than when you’re on the bridges, there isn’t a road that isn’t lined at least 2 or 3 deep on both sides which helped overcome the miserable weather. From the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge right at the start of the race you should have majestic views over the Statue of Liberty and New York skyline but the driving rain and mist meant we could only see about halfway across the bridge. I didn’t realise until we were on the ferry to the statue the next day how close we’d been to it but it was completely obscured.

Crossing the finish line in New York

Chicago race day

I had a brief diversion from the majors to run Vienna in spring 2018 in 30°c heat but got back on the chase in the autumn with Chicago. Qualifying to be in Corral B was quite an experience and pretty daunting. I could just about make out the elites up ahead and looking around at the other runners in the pen was rather intimidating – I felt a serious case of imposter syndrome. Another attempt at a big PB was thwarted by torrential rain and howling gales (anyone starting to notice a pattern here?). It was probably better than the heatwave they’d had the previous year and, to be fair, it was as much my over-ambitious push from halfway to 20 miles as the weather so I can’t really complain about ending up with a 10 second PB instead of the 10 minute one I’d imagined.

And finally to Boston.

Up until this point I couldn’t tell people which of the majors had been my favourite but even on the Saturday, two days before the race, I could tell this was going be special. Yes, the fact it was my final major might have helped but, even without that, there is just something special about Boston in race week. The other majors have huge crowds, big expos, but seem to be confined just to the race route and the “fans” whereas the Boston marathon seems to simply take over the entire city and suburbs. Shops, restaurants, bars all have marathon specials and every person you meet is running, has run it or is congratulating you on running. Everywhere you look there are Boston Marathon celebration jackets from years gone by mixed in with the current edition. They even go to the extent of repainting the finish line once the race has finished so people can spend the next week being photographed on it.

I approached this one a bit differently to the previous ones given that it was my last major. I’d trained for around 3:05 and was going to start out aiming for a PB but see how I was at halfway. If I felt good, I’d keep pushing and if it was a struggle I would slow down and enjoy it. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it was the latter. The crazy weather conditions that hit the city for the whole time we were there meant any thoughts of a time went out of the window but also meant that I could fully soak up the atmosphere and really enjoy the experience. The last mile or so was an emotional experience for a number of reasons which I mentioned in the Facebook group and there were a few tears shed as I collected my Six Star medal and then again in the reunion area with Angela but I couldn’t have asked for a better place to finish the journey.

Finish straight in Boston

Doing these majors has taken me around the world – I would never thought of visiting Japan, Chicago or Boston but would go back to all of them. The journey has left me with so many amazing memories and provided me with so many different experiences. There has been the general camaraderie between the runners – meeting people you’ll never see again but share a few minutes with at the expo, the bus ride to the race start with or spend a couple of hours running along side during the race. Then there are the individual things you take away from each race.

From Tokyo, the two girls dressed as geishas at the Friendship Run that were giving out origami good luck messages to the marathon runners, the seemingly endless number of weird and wonderful mascots, the genuine warmth of everyone to the overseas runners and the strange mixture of neon and noise with temples and zen gardens.

From Berlin, the inline skating marathon on the Saturday, running amongst so much recent history from the site of JFK’s 1963 speech to running through the Death Strip between East and West where 30 years ago you would have been shot dead, passing under the Brandenburg Gate and running the same course that the world record has been set on so many times.

The incredible crowds of New York – coming from the silence and solitude on the Queensboro Bridge and then being met with a wall of noise as you turn onto 1st Avenue, the mini-version of the Olympic parade of nations for the runners and getting a handshake and look of amazement from an NYPD officer when he realised I had finished, gone back to the hotel, showered, changed and made it back to meet Angela as she finished (she’s asked me to point out that she wasn’t THAT slow, she was in a later wave!).

In Chicago, taking the school bus to the expo, starting so close to the front, potentially having the race cancelled due to civil unrest and eating Pizano’s pizza.

And pretty much the whole experience of Boston.

So, what advice can I give?

1. If you’re thinking of taking up the Six Star challenge or even just an overseas marathon or race then go for it. The experience is fantastic (if expensive) and it’s a great way to see a city and experience the culture.

2. Have a supportive wife who doesn’t mind going on holidays around the world (thanks Angela!)

3. Have a supportive coach who tells you when you’re being an eejit (thanks Mirka!)

4. If you qualify for Boston, run it!

5. Never run a marathon that I’m also running in. There will be rain, thunderstorms, howling gales, hailstones, 30°c heat, humidity, baking sun or, in the case of Boston, all of the above.

Thames Path 100, 4-5th May 2019 by Lisa Watson

My curiosity was first tickled about running an ultra-marathon (anything longer than a marathon) a few years back after an ex-work colleague completed The Spine Race, a 268 miles non-stop and largely self- supported race along the Pennine Way in January. He recommended Centurion Running, who have well marked courses with minimal need for navigation and a reputation for great aid stations. Then in early 2017, I was sat propped up against a bar in Edinburgh having watched Mo Farah run an international cross country, when I noticed a guy in funky hoody which turned out to be from Jedburgh Three Peaks ultra. Shortly after I bought the top, but felt a fraud wearing it without having run it, so I entered and ran it later that year off the back of marathon training to earn it. It’s a 38 mile out and back route on the borders of Scotland that doesn’t involve navigation. It’s mostly trail, with the equivalent of a fell race across 3 hills, the Eildons, at mile 20 and a playground and slides to traverse immediately afterwards-great fun!

After completing my first ultra-marathon, Jedburgh Three Peaks in late 2017, I was cautiously considering entering a 100 miler. For a 100 miler, there is usually a qualifying shorter distance ultra. Centurion Running stipulate you need to have completed a minimum of 50 miles within a specified cut-off time to run one of their 100-mile races. The Thames Path 100 particularly caught my eye as I live within walking distance of the start, it’s relatively flat and the route finishes in Oxford where I used to live for 15 years. Before I ran my first 50 miler, I volunteered at last year’s TP100, which not only gave me a free place in this year’s TP100, it gave me the opportunity to get lots of tips from lots of very experienced ultra-runners who were either volunteering and running. The general gist was that although TP100 was flat, it wasn’t necessarily easier than a hilly 100 and was relentless (they weren’t wrong there!)  In autumn 2018, although feeling under par on the day, I managed to get round my qualifier, Chiltern Wonderland 50 and had my first experience of blisters under toe nails- I think repeatedly stubbing my toes was a factor as I don’t tend to suffer from blisters during marathons.

It felt a bit nerve racking confessing that I was planning on doing a 100 miler. Most people’s reactions were along the lines that it was crazy or bonkers and why didn’t I just drive there. In the end, it was a little bit touch and go whether I was going to make the start line of TP100. I felt woefully undertrained with only had 12 weeks to train for the Manchester Marathon and after getting my mileage up, I had to cut back a lot, as my exercise tolerance was so low due to having low iron and a few other issues. And I’d also managed to pick up a calf strain running Manchester a month before. Manchester done with a satisfying Boston qualifier and London & Chicago GFA time, it was straight off to Boston for Kevin’s marathon. I learned on my return that my 100 year old nan passed away while Kevin was toeing the start line, which made me resolve to dedicate each mile of the TP100 to a year of her life-although it did end up being 104 miles in the end!  

The race registration and the start were in Richmond by the Old Townhall and Kevin and another friend came down to see me off.  It was a pretty relaxed start and after a briefing from the RD, James Elson (who made a Barkley Marathons attempt a few months before) I ambled off towards the back. The weather was unseasonably cold and pretty blowy, with sunshine interspersed with heavy showers-not too bad! The first few miles I was chugging along at a very easy pace, on my usual long run route up to Hampton Court and Walton on Thames at the first checkpoint, which was familiar from the Thames Half. Then near Windsor Castle, I met Kevin for the 1st time for a quick hug before continuing on and making steady ploddy progress.

At the Cookham checkpoint/38 miles I saw Kevin again and took my first longer stop as my left big toe felt sore. Removing my socks revealed a large blister and had no real choice but to lance it, if I was to continue. I then made a messy attempt to bandage it, which amused the medics no end! After circa 25 minutes faffing, I left only to have to put my rain jacket back on for a squally hail shower. I continued my ploddy progress, now feeling better and over taking quite a few people who were now walking.  It was sunset when I arrived at the Henley check point (supposedly at 51 miles, but I made it 54 miles) in 11 hours, including all the fannying about, so I was on schedule for under 24 hours.

At Henley I had a lengthy, but necessary fanny about lancing and dressing another large blister on the other big toe, changed all my upper clothing, socks and trainers for the night, ate some food, went to the toilet again, and gave Kevin a big hug before setting off into the night. This time making progress was slower and more difficult as I must have stiffened up a bit.  I was starting to get more into a pain cave, with painful ankles, knees and muscle soreness. On meeting Kevin at Reading/58 miles I was getting concerned that I would risk missing the cut off time if I continued walking so much. I said goodbye and wasn’t expecting to see him until the Abingdon/91 mile checkpoint. I really enjoy running at night and it was a lovely clear and beautiful night, but very cold. Unfortunately, I continued walking a lot and it took longer and longer to get to the next check point. There were stretches on road, but lots on hard lumpy, uneven ground with the odd tree root to catch you out!  Approaching Streatley, I startled a cute muntjac deer in front of me at one point.

At the Streatley checkpoint/71 miles I picked up a small drop bag of treats and had a small cup of tomato soup. Then back into the night, which was now very wintry with a heavy frost and frozen fog around the Chilterns combined a couple of hills and the dry, hard lumpy rooty uneven ground, which was uncomfortable, hard going. It started to get light and it was beautiful travelling along in the freezing mist by the river, although I was getting cold. At 77m around a beautiful misty sunrise, I had the most fantastic surprise, when Kevin sprinted towards me. He knew I was worried about my progress and didn’t get much sleep worrying too, so decided to come out and meet me! We walked to the checkpoint at Wallingford where a very kind lady filled up my mug with tea and helped me rearrange my clothing and put on my spare top to help warm me up. There were quite a few people who had under estimated the cold who dropped out here. This checkpoint was decision time for me and I did a few fuzzy calculations and knew I needed to increase my pace to a minimum walk/trot to make the cut off as I was now only within one hour of the checkpoint cut off! Fortunately, with a combination of feeling warmer and the sun’s warm rays, I was able to increase the ratio of lumbering to walking, apart from the areas where the ground got more difficult. Still, quite a few people were passing me, although most were accompanied by pacers, which you are allowed from Henley at the halfway point.

The next stretch seemed to drag on for ages and ages, again on very hard uneven ground through pastures with cows and only a flimsy fence between the path and a bull. Kevin met me at 85m/Clifton Hampden checkpoint, where I had a shorter faff with a toilet stop and drinks refill. I then pressed on to Abingdon/91m, where Kevin pointed out that fellow Eagle, Emily Schmidt, was volunteering. Unfortunately, time was getting very tight and I had to press on and didn't have time to chat. Kevin then paced me for the remaining 9 miles to the finish in 27 hours 25mins, only 35 mins before the cut off. Crossing through the blue arch, I was presented with my finisher T shirt and buckle, gave Kevin a huge hug and, in age old tradition, I cracked open a celebratory beer, watching the remaining runners finish. I was so glad Kevin was able to share that last part of the journey and finish. I then made the mistake of sitting down and immediately everything started to seize up and it was difficult to hobble the short distance to my friends place on Folly Bridge Island, where a nice hot bath was waiting. I so exhausted that I just fell straight asleep in the bath!

A lot of folks suffered similarly and guess 100 miles is never going to be easy and the 27% drop out attests to that, although better than the 42% drop out last year when it was very warm. I was lucky in that I seemed to have bypassed the crashing lows that I have read about. My toes were a mess, with a huge blister covering almost the entire top of my big toe. My ankles and feet were so painful and swollen, that I visited the outpatients immediately on my return to London, where another very kind lady confirmed it was tendonitis (ie an over-use injury) and deroofed and dressed my blisters properly, so they didn’t get infected.

I’m ecstatic at finishing, but it would have been difficult without Kevin's support and the wonderful Centurion volunteers with their kind and wise words. I'd like to think my nan was with me through the adventure and I thought of her a lot, both in the many beautiful moments and when it got tough.

Tips if you’re bonkers enough to think about doing a 100 miler

• Set plenty of time aside for recovery- don’t underestimate the after effects. Book at least one day off work, but it and may be worth keeping your diary free or booking longer or working from home in case you need it, especially if you don’t have a desk job as there is such a high injury rate. I had a bank holiday and worked from home for the following 3 days.

• Make sure you take a 1st aid kit for blisters and other common injuries.

• Allow for additional sleep and lots of rest in the days afterwards. I’m still feeling tired 10 days afterwards finishing writing this!

• DOMS/muscle soreness-found this isn’t as bad as a for a marathon-guess I probably managed to walk out most of the lactic acid. However, over-use injuries are pretty common.

• Training-practice running being tired by doing back to back long runs. I did this on the back of very cut back marathon training. Ideally best to do more than one 50 miler and ideally something longer as there is a huge leap going from 50 to 100 miles.

• A hundred miles is generally going to involve running through the night. Get used to running at night and also make sure that you allow for big changes in temperature and a slower pace by taking spare clothing. Invest in a decent headtorch from the start.

• Crews-family and friends can often meet you to give you food, drink and encouragement, in addition to that provided at checkpoints. It’s great to see a friendly familiar face!

• Pacers-many longer ultras allow you to have a pacer at the later stages. Having some company through the night and the tough later stages to encourage you to keep moving, eating & drinking and generally chatting to you can help enormously in the latter stages.  I was originally not intending to have a pacer, but found it helped a lot for those last 9 miles.

• Checkpoints-ignore the commonly quoted “beware the chair” at your peril! Try and minimise time at checkpoints and don’t sit down (unless absolutely necessary). You can grab a few snacks to eat enroute to the next checkpoint. I probably would have knocked an hour an a half off if I had been more efficient at checkpoints.

Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy

At least, now it has an official name... I'll be back on this in a moment.

The London Marathon is behind us, and I participated to it as a spectator. That wasn't the plan -- of course -- and, instead, I made a brief visit to the famous Eagles Cheer Squad at Mile 23. It was really exciting, I have to say: the level of support given to our runners is truly amazing. What an energy and confidence boost it must be! This made me even more eager to get back soon to running, and start training for 2020 VLM. In all honesty, I need this strong motivation, because the path is still quite uphill, as you'll understand if you read below...

Let me use this last blog post to talk about the condition that is keeping me out of running since February/March. I hope that this could be useful to other runners of the club, by raising awareness on this nasty, mainly running related, injury. It's official, I have "Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy", which could be briefly described as a degenerative state of the upper hamstring tendons (where they attach to the ischium bone -- deep in your buttock, to be clear!). It is a result of repetitive micro trauma of the tendons, that result into an inflammation of the tissue and, finally, into a chronic degenerative state of the tendon itself, if not treated promptly. Unluckily, my right leg tendons are in this degenerative state.

The good news is that this is reversible. The bad news is that it can take a long time: evidence suggests a 3-6 months recovery time, provided the correct protocol is followed. I'll give you below a quick overview of causes, symptoms and possible treatment (disclaimer: it's clear that you have to be diagnosed by a doctor, and that the treatment has to be overviewed by a physio).

Causes

Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy is caused by an overuse of the hamstring tendons. The main risk factors include:

- Muscle imbalance. I can mark the check-box here: my right leg turned out to be far weaker than the left. Physio even measured it, and noticed a 2 cm circumference difference at the thigh level.

- Poor running form. This is mainly due to the famous forward pelvic tilt, which is typical of all of us spending most days in sitting position. When the pelvis is rotated forward during running, we tend to use less the glutes, and to load more on the hamstring (this is often referred to as "running sitting on the saddle"). I can mark the check-box here, too. :(

NOTE TO PLANTAR FASCITIS SUFFERERS: anterior pelvis tilt also leads to overload of the foot arch, which is one of the main causes of plantar fascitis. Correct it (see the "TREATMENT" section below) and you'll likely help your feet healing from PF. If you want to test the effect of forward pelvic tilt yourself, try this: stand tall, extend your arms upwards as far as possible (this will put your pelvis in the correct position), then lower your arms but keep the pelvis fixed (engaging your core muscles will help). Then do a few steps keeping yourself tall, core engaged and paying attention to not rotate the pelvis forward: the steps should feel light, with the feet naturally touching the ground right below you. Now, disengage the core, hunch a little bit, like if you are very tired, and don't stand as tall as before (you are now sitting a little bit on your legs). Take a few steps... You should feel the additional load that you are putting on the foot arch and on the hamstring.

- Too much stretching. Yes, stretching can be bad if in excess quantity, especially if applied to a muscle/tendon structure that is already inflamed. I have to mark the another check-box: basically I have done everything conceivable to irritate my hamstrings!

- Age. Of course... :|

Symptoms

The typical symptoms are:

- A pain deep in the buttock, and sometimes down the thigh. This is similar to the symptom of piriformis syndrome (and associated irritation of the sciatic nerve): this is why a proper diagnosis is needed, to distinguish between the two conditions (which require different treatments).

- It feels painful bending down to tie the shoe laces, or to pick up an object from the ground.

- Sitting for a long time can cause pain, and driving in particular (because you exert pressure right on the attachment point between hamstring and the "sitting bone").

Treatment

Finally we come to the treatment topic. As mentioned at the beginning, depending on the severity of the case, it usually take over three months to heal, even if the proper protocol is followed. Note also that, apart in the initial acute phase (when you feel most of the pain), rest is not very helpful to heal from this injury: being a chronic degenerative state, if no active action is taken, it can last for years, becoming a career ending condition. So what's the proper treatment?

- Phase 1: The first aim is to reduce the pain. At this stage (and only at this stage), rest can help. Also, anti-inflammatory drugs can be used (Ibuprofen & co. are known to interfere with the muscle repair process, but they can still speed up recovery from the initial acute-pain phase, shortening the overall healing time. I didn't use any because in my case the pain was not that bad...).

- Phase 2: When the pain is sufficiently reduced, it's time to reverse the tendons degenerative process. It has been found out that this can be achieved by means of isometric and eccentric loading. In the first few weeks, you can start doing isometric loading (that is loading the muscle in a fixed position). Typical exercises involve leg bridges and side planks every other day. Once isometric loads are bearable without much pain, you can proceed to eccentric exercises (where the muscle is loaded while you are extending it). Common eccentric exercises are leg curls, nordic curls, etc.

- Phase 3: At this point, the pain should be dramatically reduced (I position myself between phase 2 and 3, at this very moment). Now it's time for exercises involving full range of motion, such as lunges and squats. At the end of phase 3, to favour return to running, plyometrics can be performed, such as frog jumps, lunges with jumps, etc. Once phase 3 is over, one can restart training normally, increasing the volume and paces to pre-injury levels. What about running during recovery phases 1 to 3? It is OK as long as: 1) It is performed at and easy pace 2) it  doesn't cause a strong pain 3) the residual pain after the run disappears within 24 hours.

- In addition to what listed above, it is of extreme importance to strengthen the core, and to fix the pelvis tilt. Strengthening the core helps in further reducing the load on the hamstring during running. Also, a strong core is necessary to prevent the pelvis from rotating forward (the negative impact of this rotation has been highlighted above). As already mentioned, the forward rotation is typical of people sitting for many hours every day: that's because it leads to the shortening of the hip flexors, so that they will tend to pull you pelvis down. Given this, it is of uttermost importance to stretch regularly the hip flexors in order to restore the correct hip position!! I know, it's very boring doing this stretches every day, but think about this: longer hip flexors allow you to extend your legs further backwards during the push off; and this increases the running efficiency, making you a faster runner (for instance, at the moment I have lost my cardio fitness, but the strengthening exercises, all the stretching of the hip flexors and the correction of the pelvic tilt have already made me a better runner: last week I made a few strides, and I can run them much faster now than when I was very fit pre-injury!!). As an added bonus, if by stretching the hip flexors you allow for a better pelvis position, you're likely to fix any problems with the plantar fascia.

The final message is: hamstring tendinopathy is a very nasty condition, but it can be corrected. It requires, though, a lot of motivation and discipline (doing the hamstring and core exercises every other day for MONTHS!).

I really hope this will help others to avoid getting this kind of injury. Remember that early signs can be tightness in your glutes and lower back and hamstring soreness. So, if you feel any of these, watch out ;)

Finally, massive congratulations to the all the Eagle that finished the VLM this year!

I'm going to do my eccentric exercises now... 

===============

LonDONE

How did it go? Are you happy? Did you enjoy it?

Three questions you’d think there’d be an easy answer to when the ‘it’ in question is that you ran the London marathon a few days ago.

I know how it went, technically. The other two are a bit harder to get my head round.

So, how did it go?

Something I’ve learned over the last few years is that there is a difference between running a marathon and racing a marathon. However, I learned on Sunday (or re-learned) that although there’s a difference, that doesn’t mean that running a marathon isn’t its own achievement.

Initially I’d been planning to race this one; sub-4 hours, go hard or go home. I rashly set my stall out along these lines before I was far enough into the plan to know if it was realistic. It wasn’t, and I adjusted my expectations accordingly, but this left me in a weird position on Sunday morning. I was excited about the day as an event, all the fun of number pick-up, the excruciatingly early coach from the Green, seeing the EHM crew at their water station in the blue start, all that jazz. But I was more interested in everyone else’s goals than mine, because for the first time my goal was not going to include getting a PB.

The start!

My PB is 4:10, and I’d grabbed a 4:10 pace band at the expo even though I knew my plan was to run 9:30’s til halfway and then see how long I could hold it before I needed to slow down a bit. And that’s exactly what I did - bar a couple of bottleneck miles at places like the Cutty Sark, I stuck to the plan. It was tough but manageable til about 20 miles, and then it was just a case of grinding out the distance.

I finished in 4:16:41 and having expected it would be somewhere between 4:15 and 4:20 I was happy enough with that. But something about being a bit outside PB after a tough but manageable run felt sort of...unremarkable.

I know, right? Ungrateful cow, you just ran the London marathon! Have an emotion!

All I can say is in terms of just what the clock said, that was how I felt at the time. I feel differently about it now though, and the change in point of view came from an unlikely source; maths.

Are you happy?

I really dislike maths. I’m ok with day to day arithmetic and I’m good with budgets, but one of the few arguments Mr. Duff and I ever have is over the existence of the complex number i. He thinks it exists and I think it’s nonsense.

This is because I like maths to be quantifiable, not theoretical. My favourite type of maths is stats.

When you get your official result from the London marathon people they send you a few stats. I was in the top 46% or so overall, and in the top 32% ish for women, and in the F18-39 category. So far, so predictable.

The golden stat, the one that has given me a totally different perspective on my time, is the one where they tell you how many people you passed vs how many people passed you over the first and second halves of the race. Here’s mine:

Stats!

During the second half of the race I do remember thinking that although I was slowing, I was still passing plenty of people. The fact it was over ten times more than passed me is, frankly, astonishing to me and I have to admit it’s nice to know I managed to keep pushing on like that. It certainly didn’t feel like I was at the time.

According to the Ralph Dadswell Guide to Your Marathon Split (thanks Ralph!) I ran just 4 and a half minutes slower in the second half, a huge improvement on Richmond’s 9 minute positive split that I was so annoyed about.

Factoring that in as well as the short stops I took to tighten my laces, get hugs around the course from Lisa and Pammy, Mark and Mr. Duff and to thoroughly milk Mile 23 for all it was worth I’m pretty bloody chuffed with 4:16. And it was a 30 minute course PB, which felt as amazing on the day as it still does now.

Did you enjoy it?

I decided before the race not to wear the vest I have with my name on it. This time last year I was struggling with anxiety and I was worried that huge crowds of people shouting my name, especially if I was struggling, would be too much for me. Even though it meant that hearing people around me get personal cheers during the earlier stages made it feel a little like I was in a little bubble of my own race, on balance I’m glad I chose the nameless vest. This one was about representing the club, and particularly in the second half lots of the crowd cheered me with a ‘go on Ealing’ or ‘go on Eagle’ which was brilliant. I suspect they were runners from our neighbouring London clubs or that we run in leagues with because they’d recognised the front of my vest. It meant an awful lot to be recognised as a member of our special flock and I tried to acknowledge them all back.

And so we come to Mile 23. The trouble with London is that because the Eagles cheer point is three miles before the finish line there’s a feeling that this marathon is really only 23-and-a-bit miles long, because that’s where you’re aiming for. The last bit is just running to pick your bag up.

As I mentioned, I milked it!

I’d been a bit nervous about the new Mr Eagle being on the pavement as there’s a glint of the sinister in his beady eye, but as I got closer he lifted his head and it was Christina in there! I couldn’t have been happier to see my good friend and running buddy and gave Mr Eagle extra hugs before I ran through the high five gauntlet and away. That felt amazing. The last few weeks I’d started feeling the old anxiety rising again at times and I hadn’t been sure how the race would go at all but here I was, I’d made it to Mile 23 with my brain mainly on an even keel and my friends willing me on to the finish.

Mile 23

I spent the final 5k with my head up taking it in and thinking about all the happy things about the day; managing to meet a friend from home, Tess, at the start and being sure she’d make it too. Learning just how many people can’t pronounce ‘ambulance’ when a very elaborate 4-person costume had overtaken me early on. Everyone bonding over how much Lucozade stations stink. Seeing Harry storming past just after 35k, checking my watch and realising he was on for a storming sub-3 time and being proud all over again of our club and its members. Getting bear hugs from Lisa and Mark, unexpectedly seeing Becky and Dan, and then seeing Mr. Duff at exactly the same mileage he’d stopped to see me at Boston two weeks before (not sure either of us pictured this as what romantic days out would look like when we got married!). The ever-fabulous Run Dem Crew cheer spot at 21 which I’d been looking forward to the whole way.

And then there was the final turn and the finish line and having kept it together all day I nearly cried when I realised that the glorious older ladies doling out the medals were looking for people’s names on their vests, so they could say a personal well done to each and every runner as they carefully placed them around our necks - what a lovely thing to do. As I was a nameless Eagle I got a ‘very well done you, wonderful’ which could have come right out of my mother’s mouth, a firm handshake from a girl I crossed the line with and a hug from an emotional stranger who immediately disappeared again into the crowd.

Finishing!

I took a picture for a first timer and told him he was amazing. I heard more than one person say they were never going to do that again and joked with them to wait and see how they felt in the morning. I thanked the baggage truck crew for their impeccable service.

And I limped off towards the pub, an unnamed Eagle heading to meet up with all the other Eagles whose friendship and belief that I can and should run marathons is the reason why I have now completed 5 of them.

This one was for you, team. Thanks a billion.

The last one before the big one

All the gear…

It is Wednesday the 24th of April at the time of starting this blog.  I have just returned home from club run and completed my very last training run with any real speed… 7 miles with 2 at marathon pace.  A run that I’m sure is meant to give a runner all the confidence in the world, but seems to strike fear into the heart of anyone who has to do it.  I have 2 more training runs left: 5 recovery miles before work on Friday (Also the perfect excuse to wear running kit to the expo on Friday evening.  Also the perfect example of my deep spiral into maranoia/taper crazies. I am LITERALLY worrying about what to wear to pick up my race number and collect all the samples I can fit into my bag), and an easy 4 miles on Saturday which will likely include parkrun. (If you are reading this pre-parkrun and see me running anything remotely faster than 9 minute miles, feel free to tell me to slow the **** down).  

As it is the last week of training, the mileage and intensity have eased off, and I finally have some time to rest, relax and reflect on the past 18 weeks of training.  Eighteen weeks is a long time! Throughout training, I have done over 700 miles, 184 laps of Osterley track, bought three new pairs of trainers, run in 3 different countries and eaten my weight in pasta several times over.  

Training for this marathon couldn’t have come at a better time.  It has made me physically stronger, a more resilient athlete and lifted me out of a dark place.  There have been a few points during my training cycle that I’ve had to dig deep and find something within myself I didn’t think possible - mainly Fleet Half and my second 20 miler on that horrible windy Sunday in March. Sure, there were tears, but after that was a certain stubbornness and drive to keep going.  I’ve begun to realise just how strong I am. How fierce I am and how resilient I am. As tough as those days were, I got through them and the other hundreds of miles necessary to make it to this point. Every obstacle along the way has made me more stronger and more focussed.

18 weeks of lessons and celebrations

Mentally, this marathon came at the perfect time.  You always hear about the positive benefits running has on your mental health, and I can absolutely 100% vouch for this.  I was in a very dark place at the start of my training. My confidence and self worth were at an ultimate low, and was struggling with who I was and want I wanted.  Training has allowed me to channel all this negative energy into running. Days when I was feeling down or low were converted into fuel for tough track sessions or long runs.  Little by little, I began building myself up. I started listening to the positive voices around me telling me how strong I was, how valued I was and how worthy I was. Running has allowed me to rebuild myself mentally and become happy, self confident and resilient. When I say I #runhappy I mean it, because it has made me elated.

Also, running a million miles a week and eating relatively healthy has made me absolutely shed weight, develop a killer set of legs and due to my pre-race hot holiday, gave me an amazing tan.  

Somewhere under a rainbow

My taper started in a rather enviable way with a trip to visit my parents in Palm Springs, California.  It was a fitting end to the training as my parents watched my training begin during Christmas in Vancouver, and would get to see the very end stages at their home in Palm Spring. Also, after cheering in the heat last year, I knew a bit of hot weather training wouldn’t hurt! And oh man was it hot!!  I foolishly woke up for a 7 am start on my first day… it was already 25 degrees in the shade! All subsequent runs took place between 5:30 and 6:15, which worked well with an 8 hour time change and gave adequate time to rest/work on my tan. I was also really silly and didn’t pack enough gels, and as it turns out, SIS gels are very hard to come across in Southern California.  I was able to make due with local California dates, GU gels (yuck) and Gatorade blocks (YUM, YUM, YUM). I returned back from holidays refreshed, renewed and bronzed. My holiday was a fitting end to 18 weeks of obstacles, training and overall self improvement also set a clear way to transition from a training mentality to “race mode”.

Overall I am incredibly excited for Sunday.  I feel my training plan has adequately prepared me for the race. The time I once found laughable now seems achievable.

#DontLetTheClubDown

I have a number.

I have a plan.

I have mile 23.

See you there!

Perfection is the Enemy of Good

‘Ugh. Well this is just perfect. Is anything else going to go wrong today? I really should just not bother’.

I had just locked the front door about to head out for my last long run before London, leaving my sunglasses on the other side of the same door on a bright day that was rapidly approaching 20 degrees. This was the latest in a series of ‘oh for goodness sake’ moments I was having on Easter Monday.

I’d moved my run to Monday because we’d just got back from Boston on Sunday morning, and I’d had no sleep on the plane and was knackered. Then I’d had to move it to a later start; I’d been due to meet Christina at 10am at the Green but had woken up with such awful cramps that I had to go back to bed with a hot water bottle for two hours so it was now past 11am on a really warm day and I’d just spent two hours deliberately heating up my core. Perfect.

Finally, upon adjusting my new fancy two-band hair thingy before I came downstairs and forgot my sunglasses I had managed to twang myself in the eye with it. An open eye.

This was all going so swimmingly that I nearly had a full blown strop and wavered over not running til Tuesday, but Tuesday would be too close to race day and I’d regret it later, so my sunglasses were retrieved and off I went - too hot, fed up and with a still watering eye, but I went.

It didn’t go spectacularly but it wasn’t awful, which is what always happens to me in taper.

Last long run done! 

Everything’s fine, I kept up with my planned sessions while I was on holiday and walked loads so it’s not like I was being lazy, but maybe there’s something about not spending all week worrying about the looming 20 miler at the weekend that makes me feel less runnery. Which is the opposite of how a person would wish to feel with less than a week to go before they run the London marathon.

Parkrun and the BAA 5k on holiday in Boston

A helpful thing happened halfway through Monday’s run; a nice older gentleman went out of his way to make space for me on the pavement and as I thanked him he replied ‘well I can’t do that’ very kindly. Maybe it was the jet lag, but I was oddly moved by what he said.

That’s a good point, I thought. There will have been so many people looking at runners over the last few weeks as all the Spring races are clogging up their towns thinking how lucky they are to be able to do it, and that will happen again on Sunday. Stop fretting and thank your lucky stars you’re in a position to turn up at the start line.

I ran faster after that.

A short race pace effort on Wednesday helped too, and going to the expo on Thursday really helped. With my number in hand, I accepted that there’s really no point or time left to worry so I might as well just get in with it. I think I’ve decided that my plan is to try to emulate Mr. Duff’s plan for Boston, because it seemed like a good one to me; try to maintain steady race pace til halfway and then take it mile by mile for as long as possible. If I need to slow, I’ll slow, but I’ll damn well do my best to enjoy it.

Mile 23 Awaits! 

I heard someone say this week that perfection is the enemy of good. My week, like this whole training block, hasn’t been perfect but it has been good. There’s no reason to expect to run the perfect race on Sunday - most people don’t - but there’s also no reason not to hope for the day to still be good. Good is a perfectly acceptable goal.

After all, life is more often good than perfect. Sometimes life twangs you in the eye with your own headband and you’ve just got to blink furiously and get on with it.

So we’re good? Good. Here we go then.

Training with Ealing Eagles Running Club May to July 2019

There will be opportunities over the next few months to do different types of training. With evening sessions on Mondays to Thursdays, sessions during the day midweek, and various training runs at the weekend, hopefully there will be something for all members of the club to join. After the winter training for longer distances, then Welsh Castle Relays and Green Belt Relay, there will be more of a focus on training for shorter distance racing over the summer. Some Eagles may also want to start training for Ealing Half Marathon in September as 12 week training plans will start 8 July. A summary of the sessions is set out below but please keep an eye on the list of sessions for the week (link also sent to you with email newsletter) for more details and for any changes or updates.

The club aims to cater for all abilities – if you are interested in the run / walk programme (as a volunteer or returning from injury) or in increasing your endurance from 5k to 10k, please scroll down this article for information of specific interest to you.

GUEST COACH SESSIONS

Ealing Eagles is very fortunate that we can access coaching input from guest coaches. For the summer season, in addition to our regular guest coach Olympian Mara Yamauchi, we will be welcoming Simon Mennell to provide some input on mile training.

** Mara’s Long Run for sub 1:30 HM runners ** on Sunday 5 May

Save the Date and Express your Interest
Mara has agreed to lead a long run of possibly ten miles or more on Sunday 5 May for Eagles currently able to run sub 1:30 HM comfortably. The session has been timed to be suitable for Eagles preparing for Welsh Castles which is why it is unfortunately the week after London marathon - those who will be running London should take this into account when deciding whether or not to take part in this training session!
James Linney will be your co-ordinator on the day.
Please email coaching@ealingeagles.com by Wednesday 1 May if you would like to attend.

** Mara’s Hanger Hills ** on Wednesday 8 May at 7.30pm

Meet Hanger Hill Park W5 2JL (at the entrance on Hillcrest Road near the children’s play area)

Hills session with guest coach Mara Yamauchi for all abilities - timed to be useful for those taking part in Green Belt Relay or Welsh Castles Relay. If you would like to come, please join the fb event page or email coaching@ealingeagles.com by 5 May to give us some idea of numbers.

** Mile training ** with guest coach Simon Mennell on Tuesday 18 June at 7.30pm

In time for anyone preparing for the mile races in July (summer mile series and Sri Chinmoy mile relays), experienced coach Simon Mennell  (see his website and power of 10 including his coaching ) will be coming along to give us some practical insight into training for the mile including warm-up for the distance.

Meet Osterley track (120 Wood Lane, Isleworth, TW7 5FF). Track fee of £3.05 (discount for Eagles so please bring proof of membership – EA card or confirmation email from club) payable at reception before coming on the Track. Lockers available for a refundable £1. Bring a bottle of water, a snack for afterwards and enough layers to keep warm when you're not running. All standards are welcome – everyone stays in the same place.

UPDATE 31 May 2019 UPDATE Simon Mennell has very kindly said "I am a very inclusive coach and don’t mind big numbers if I have some help and I can get the points across to help the runners. So not worried about a cap if we get the right messages across. Perhaps we can put them into groups based on mile times I think that could help especially for the main session."

This approach is in line with club policy to be as inclusive as possible. To enable us to organise the session for you to get the most out of it, please can you fill in the google form giving us some idea of your current mile time (if available) and your 5k time. We will then have some idea of how many groups to offer and how many support coaches we will need at the session

** NEW Mara's Hills ** on Wednesday 3 July at 10am

Meeting point: Hanger Hill Park W5 2JL (at the entrance on Hillcrest Road at the top of Park View Road).
An opportunity for some hill training in the company of our guest coach Mara Yamauchi (the hill(s) we use will be either Park View Road or in Hanger Hill Park - as this is the first daytime hill training session with Mara, we will take a view nearer the time)
Please note that parking in the area is restricted until 10am so we will probably start a few minutes after 10am to give people a chance to park cars.
If you would like to come, please join the fb event page or email coaching@ealingeagles.com by 30 June to give us some idea of numbers.

** Mara's EHM Hill - Park View Rd ** on Tuesday 30 July at 7.30pm

Meet Hanger Hill Park W5 2JL (at the entrance on Hillcrest Road near the children’s play area)

An opportunity to try out Park View Road on the EHM course in the company of our guest coach Mara Yamauchi. If you would like to come, please join the fb event page or email coaching@ealingeagles.com by 28 July to give us some idea of numbers.

** CPD for coaches / run leaders and beginners’ volunteers **

Mara will also be offering CPD sessions for coaches / run leaders on Tuesday 30 July at 7.30pm and for beginners volunteers on Wednesday 18 September at 6.30pm. If you would like more information about these sessions, please check the relevant facebook group or email coaching@ealingeagles.com

NEW TRAINING SESSIONS

** Summer Stretch and Strengthen **

Session with Jesal Thakker packed with strengthening and stretching routines that you can do without any equipment. Special focus on stretching and strengthening legs, hip openers, abdominal strength, shoulder flexibility and posture.

Dates: Mon 15th July, Mon 12th August, Wed 28th August

Location: Ealing Common by the Grange pub

Time: 7.30pm 

Duration: 45 to 60 minutes

Please bring along a mat if you prefer using one and a yoga strap / belt / towel if possible.

CLUB TRAINING SESSIONS

** Monday and Wednesday 7.30pm club runs **

Over the summer period, we will be using the summer club run routes meeting at Ealing Green with a choice of two distances (3.8miles / 6.1k or 4.9miles / 7.8k) taking in Walpole, Lammas, the park across the road from South Ealing tube and Gunnersbury Parks. The short club run route will be the same as 2018. I have decided that, this year, we can risk going around the bottom of Gunnersbury Park for the long club run route (which is more or less the same as the route we used before the works started in Gunnersbury). Please see the club run route page for the route details.

HOWEVER, please note that the offer of these sessions requires the availability of volunteers to be leaders and tail runners. The coached sessions require input from qualified coaches / leaders or experienced runners but anyone who is willing to help out and run at a gentle pace can tail a run (and make use of the time to have a recovery run, to work on your running form and to get to know other people in the club). If you have made use of the club training sessions, please play your part in making the club training sessions possible.

If you would like to lead club runs on a regular basis and you are not already on the leaders email group list, please email coaching@ealingeagles.com

For the first Wednesday of the month in the summer, the plans are currently:

·        May and August (no official club run)– parkrun handicap

·        June and September (no official club run) - club champs 5k time trial

·        July (internal paths in Gunnersbury may be blocked because of set up for festivals) – we are investigating the possibility of offering a bleep test perhaps alongside club run depending on how many people can be accommodated in the bleep test

** Interval Sessions on Thursdays 7:30pm Lammas Park **

Varied paced interval sessions ranging from 1 mile to tempo (half marathon) pace

Steady pace or easy training runs are done at an aerobic pace, i.e. not too out of breath. This builds up the heart, lungs and legs but will not adapt the body fully to run at a faster race pace. Interval training trains up the different energy systems used in racing at different distances. These energy systems range from anaerobic running at mile pace or faster to ½ marathon training run at around threshold pace using the Frank Horwill 5 pace system system (used by Seb Coe etc).

To race at any distance you need to do intervals at race pace and faster and slower than race pace sessions. Also most club runners do a variety of distances and need sessions to train for these. With sessions done by time, any ability of runner is catered for from beginner to park runner to seasoned runners chasing faster times. The best part is everyone gets to rest at the same time

Watercooler fact:  an interval is actually the recovery part of the session not the fast bit!

** Tuesday Track at 7.30pm **

As mentioned above, to be able to run faster, we need to practise running faster!!! Sessions are therefore being offered specifically to help people wanting to prepare for mile races and also suitable for people who don’t want to run mile races but want to find an extra gear in their running.

Tuesday sessions at 7.30pm in May and June will be based at Osterley track (120 Wood Lane, Isleworth, TW7 5FF). Each week will be a different session lead by a qualified Eagles run leader. July is a little more varied as follows:

·       2nd, 16th July – Osterley track

·       9th July – no official club session – Blondin Relays

·       23rd July – no official club session – coaching development with Mara

·       30th July – EHM Hills on Park View Road with Mara

Track fee of £3.05 (discount for Eagles so please bring proof of membership – EA card or confirmation email from club) payable at reception before coming on the Track. Lockers available for a refundable £1. Bring a bottle of water, a snack for afterwards and enough layers to keep warm when you're not running. All standards are welcome – everyone stays in the same place.

** Daytime sessions **

The 10am sessions on Mondays are being arranged to accommodate both new Improvers who are currently at the 5k level and more advanced daytime Eagles. Either there will be a choice of sessions at different places or both groups will meet in the same place with a choice of options. The sessions are likely to revolve around Introduction to the Mile (in Lammas Park), intervals (various locations) and hills (in Hanger Hill Park).

The 10am slot on Thursdays will be a run / walk programme for nine weeks starting on 2 May. There have been various discussions about what length run might be offered before or after the 10am session (or indeed at the same time as the run / walk programme if there are more than enough volunteers) so please check arrangements each week. Other sessions will be offered after the completion of the run / walk programme.

Tuesdays and Fridays 10k at 10am –self-led runs - please check the relevant Facebook group for arrangements.

** Weekend long runs **

The route of the self-led Sunday ten mile run is through the parks to the river, along to Richmond Lock and back via Syon Park. Please shout up on Facebook if you are planning to do this and would like company.

** Ealing Half Marathon **

12 week training plans for Ealing Half Marathon on Sunday 29 September will start on Monday 8 July. More details of Eagles training for this award-winning race will be published before July. For the moment, first-timers may want to put the following dates in their diary:

·       Wednesday 26 June around 8.30pm Coaches Corner – EHM first timers’ workshop

·       Thursday 4 July 11.30am  Workshop for daytime runners training over the summer

** Improvers **

Improvers is for people who are able to run 5k and want to continue running, in particular for those wanting to increase their distance above 5k and possibly to 10k. Possible targets for Improvers, depending on your current level of endurance are:

·       Ealing Eagles 10k on Saturday 11 May http://www.ealingeagles.com/10k/

·       Dulwich summer league (5miles) on Sunday 2 June

·       Osterley 10k on Saturday 15 June https://osterleypark10k.co.uk/ 

·       Harrow summer league (5miles or 10k tbc) on Sunday 23 June

·       Perivale summer league (5miles) on Sunday 30 June

·       Regents Park summer league (10k) on Sunday 21 July

·       Wedding Day 7k on Friday 26 July (evening race)

·       Battersea summer league (10k) on Sunday 4 August

For more information, please see the article Improvers or the next step after 5k

** Run / Walk programme **

The club offers a run / walk programme free to the local community to progress people from not running very much to running 5k or more without walking breaks (so that they can join the evening club runs). The next run / walk programme will be for nine weeks starting Wednesday 1 May at 6.30pm or Thursday 2 May at 10am.

Healing Eagles are very welcome to join for part or all of the run / walk programme if they have been advised to do some run / walking and would like some company. Please email beginners@ealingeagles.com to check the level at which the programme is operating when you are thinking of joining.

The run / walk programme attributes its success (125 people graduated through the run / walk programme in the period October 2017 to June 2018) to the support and encouragement provided by the volunteers. If you are happy to run at a relatively gentle pace (7 to 8min/k or 11 to 13min/miles though some people will be faster and a few may not be so fast) and encourage beginners while doing so, then please think about contributing to the club and the running community in this way. Running at a more gentle pace is also a good way of working on your own running form (running gently does not mean running lazily or sloppily). For more information, please join the volunteers facebook group or email beginners@ealingeagles.com

Improvers or the next step after 5k

Have you completed the club beginners’ programme or are otherwise able to run 5k?

Want to maintain your running or even to run further and faster?

Improvers aims to progress Eagles from running 5.5k to running 10k (or to keep running at around 5 to 7k) and to provide an introduction to hills and speed work.

It is difficult to write a generic training plan because people will have done different amounts of running and have different availabilities. Here are some useful tips

·        Start where you are and increase the amount / intensity of the running gradually.

·        Listen to your body - if you are tired or have a niggle, then rest or reduce the amount of running.

·        If you have time, it is good to progress to running three times a week with a rest day in between.

·        Try to include some strength work - squats, lunges etc  - or other cross-training to reduce the risk of injury – this will be included in the Monday 10am sessions for daytime Improvers while evening Improvers have been doing some strength work at their 6.30pm Lammas intervals.

·        If you are aiming to increase your distance, the most important training run is the "long run"

o   evening progression using club runs is 6k, 7.5k and then, perhaps 5miles and then 10k at the weekend

o   daytime progression using runs around the beginners session on Thursdays at 10am has more flexibility to do a gradual increase

·        It is also good to do some sort of speed or hills session - shorter distance but higher intensity.

·        The third run could be parkrun - not as long as your long run but possibly run slightly faster.

·        "Drop-down" weeks in which you reduce the amount of running are a good idea.

·        The list of club training options is precisely that – so don’t try to do everything

o   choose from the available list

o   or do your own thing, on your own or with other people.

·        Daytime runners can do Mon 10am, Thu morning (exact arrangements depending on whether or not you want to be involved with beginners) and parkrun.

·        Thursday beginner graduates can also do Mon or Tue 7.30pm, Thu 10am (or thereabouts) and parkrun

·        Evening runners can do Mon 7.30pm, parkrun and ONE of Wed evening (exact arrangements depending on whether or not you want to be involved with beginners) OR Thursday 7.30pm Lammas intervals (new Improvers are probably not yet ready to run on two consecutive days so Wed 7.30pm run cannot be combined with Tuesday track or Thursday hills)

If you’ve already done a few short club runs or parkruns and are free on Wednesday evenings or Thursday mornings, then the combination of beginners and a club or daytime run can also help to extend your distance

Possible targets for both daytime and evening Improvers, depending on your current level of endurance are:

·       Ealing Eagles 10k on Saturday 11 May http://www.ealingeagles.com/10k/

·       Dulwich summer league (5miles) on Sunday 2 June

·       Osterley 10k on Saturday 15 June https://osterleypark10k.co.uk/  

·       Harrow summer league (5miles or 10k tbc) on Sunday 23 June

·       Perivale summer league (5miles) on Sunday 30 June

·       Regents Park summer league (10k) on Sunday 21 July

·       Wedding Day 7k on Friday 26 July (evening race)

·       Battersea summer league (10k) on Sunday 4 August

If you are on facebook and want a forum to discuss topics at a suitable level for you, from training plans to diet, from strategy to the best clothing and also to arrange training runs with others, please join the Improvers facebook group

Met League 2019 AGM Minutes (by Charlotte Levin)

The XC season is over (*sobs*) and it’s been quite a year for the Eagles. We had the highest ever participation for Met League and I think and hope that many found their love for the sport or overcame hesitations they had before entering. Our Sunday League participation saw a drop compared to previous year but still had a core of dedicated attendees (often also keen on the Dirty Double, with both the leagues on the same weekend).

On Monday, 15th April, Met League held its AGM. The Main Administrator, Jan Bowman, pointed out that it’s the biggest turnout she’s ever seen, most likely much down to the proposals regarding equalising distances that had been put forward. Before we get to the summary of those, some other things to keep in mind for the next season.

League Summary

Not only for the Eagles was this the biggest Met League year ever, the league itself had record participation at Wormwood Scrubs with 293 female runners and 547 male runners. The new declaration system, where captains and team managers add and update the race numbers on a web system had made the overall administration much easier and allowed the results to come out quicker. There were some grumblings about having to get the final details in before 19.30 the same evening or otherwise have the runner’s points disqualified. Some clubs with incredibly high participation numbers feel this pain more than others, however in order to get the results to Athletics Weekly in time, the deadline has to be kept. If you are a runner and want to make your captain happy - please be organised with your race numbers and avoid their Saturday evening panic.

The website will be updated to a new one, exact details or timeline were not given but we can look forward to a new look.

Next season, 2019/2020, the scanning of the juniors’ race numbers will no longer be manual. For the seniors this will still be the case but with the hope of automating even theirs for a near future season. There was a special request to have more females help out with the funnel management. This is specifically for the juniors (but welcomed for the seniors race too) in case there needs special intervention for the girls, eg as they collapse at the end of the finish, or feel ill. In general, more stewards for managing the ropes at the funnel are needed as those helping out now often need to aid with officiating and/or have age catching up with them. More on the volunteering contributions further down.

Race numbers

In previous year, athletes have had the same number throughout the season, even if they have forgotten to bring theirs to the race. However careful captains are, this means that every race there’s an issue with duplicate numbers, as old ones are given out to new runners. To avoid this for next season, a runner who forgets to bring their old number will get a brand new one, and the captain updates their number in the entry. If you (and most of you are) are organised, you can hold on to the same number throughout the season. For the captains, this is also the strongly preferred option as there’s then both more numbers for new runners, but also less time spent on their phones in the pub afterwards.

Proposals

There were several proposals put forward for equalising the distances between men and women. Most clubs, including us, had done some polling internally to gauge what the members though. Several of the clubs had seen a low participation in the polls (we had approx 30 responses, from both genders) and the results had rarely been landslide victories.

The first proposal to be voted on was the one put forward by the League Administration, proposing that senior men and women both run 8km next season, with the intention of reviewing the effects of if at the next AGM. The Administration highlighted that the other proposals, with varying effect on different events, would make the time-tabling highly inconsistent and frequently risk participants missing the start of their race due to continuous change. They are not very keen on making the men’s race shorter for two main reasons: the funnel would need to be expanded to deal with an even higher load than they currently experience (which additionally would require more volunteers as well as complexity) and for the races with a flat finish they were concerned about the speed the runners come in at. To some extent these are already challenges, which would be enhanced if races were shorter and the men were running faster as a result.

This proposal was voted through with 14 votes for and 4 against. The proposal will affect the timetable which will become as follows:

U11 girls 12.25, boys 12.30

U13 girls 12.40, boys 12.45

U15 girls 13.00, boys 13.05

Senior women not before 13.30. men not before 14.35.

With this proposal having gone through, several others were not voted on.

London City put forward the proposal to equalise the veteran ages, which this season have been V35 for women and V40 for men. The IAAF standard is V35 based on medical reasons that the body at that age starts breaking down at, however England Athletics leaves it at the discretion of races to decide what they classify as veteran. With the veteran categories not being given any prices and the league being an amateur one (although competitive), the proposal was voted through.

Divisions One and Two will be expanded to hold 12 teams each, compared to the current 10. This is, to the Administration, much preferred over introducing another another division as that would introduce an administrational challenge much greater than expanding the current ones. As a result, no relegations will happen this season and an additional 2 teams (ie total of 4) will be promoted from Division Three to Division Two. For us, this means that Ealing Eagles B men’s senior will be promoted to Division Two, as well as women’s senior veteran’s B team. The women’s senior B team will definitely be in contention for promotion if our turn out and performance continues like this year. There will be a proposal next season to add some rules that stops C teams from entering Division One.

Harrow Athletics Club’s application to join the league was granted and the fee for guest runners was increased from £4 to £5 (mostly to make it easier to give change). U11 courses are now allowed to be up to 2km instead of the previous 1.5km.

Volunteers

This year, there was a continuous request for the clubs to provide volunteers for the fixtures and this will now be formalised. More volunteers are needed for the various officiating roles (no special qualification required) as well as funnel management. For the coming seasons, club will be expected to provide volunteers and suggestions were made to not only make it more clear what the volunteering roles were but also the time slots for them (in case people wanted to race as well). It’s worth highlighting again the need for more female help around the finishing funnel for the junior races as well as the running the rope back and forth for the men’s races specifically. There will hopefully be a parkrun style “future roster” scheme to allow clubs to sign their people up, which will also help identifying which clubs might not be bringing their straw to the stack.

Final notes

For many of you, the outcome of the votes might not have been what you wanted. If you at the end of the season feel very strongly about it, then please make sure that the captains are aware and raise a motion to change it. We very much hope that our participation levels in the league will not be impacted drastically as we hope that the races bring more to the participants other than just the distance. Especially for those ladies who were very pro the equal distances, we’d like to emphasise that the change will be reverted unless you turn up! We look forward to seeing you all back for Type 1 and Type 2 fun out there, both running and volunteering.

Boston Marathon (by Jenny Bushell)

I’m writing at about midnight in Boston, MA, when the throbbing pain in the first black toenail of my running career has become too much to ignore. I’ll spare you all the pictures!

Now I’ve had a couple of hours sleep, I’ve realised I actually really enjoyed about 80% of the experience of this race, and I’m so so glad that I came to find out what it was all about. Just being in Boston in marathon weekend is an experience in itself - the whole city getting behind the race in a way I’ve never encountered elsewhere.

I woke up on race morning excited and nervy - I knew I was in great shape to run a strong race if I could just avoid being taken down by the twin perils of the weather and the Boston course itself. More on both later. I took the bus into central Boston at 6am to check my gear onto a yellow school bus, having spent about two hours the night before meticulously separating out what I would want after the race from the small bag you are allowed to take along to the start. Thanks Kieran for making sure I knew not to take my post-race gear to Hopkinton!

As I was walking to gear check, the first batch of apocalyptic weather arrived - buckets of water falling out of the sky along with thunder and lightning rumbling around. I had felt well prepared, with a full set of clothes to throw away at the start, as well as old shoes and socks on my feet. (It all gets collected up and donated to charity). My binbag for waterproofing, though, was woefully inadequate, and I found myself with major poncho envy, as well as admiration for the smart souls who had duct taped plastic bags over their feet. By the time I reached my second yellow bus, the one that would carry us out to the race start in Hopkinton, I was pretty much soaked to the skin all over. Seventy minutes in a school bus with sixty other similarly drenched athletes was not the best part of the day! I was glad though that we weren’t enduring the freezing temperatures of 2018, and I have so much respect for those who somehow managed to complete the race in those conditions.

The journey out to Hopkinton was uneventful, largely because our bus windows were so steamed up that we couldn’t see anything of it. I met a friendly chap from Chorlton who then quizzed me quite intensely on my race prep, and who I was impressed to learn was aiming for a 2:35. We disembarked to find the athlete village already a sea of mud, and I paid my first visit to a ‘portapotty’ before finding a spot to sit down on my bin bag in one of the large tents provided. I was also thrilled to discover hot coffee on tap, although rationed myself strictly to half a cup. After about a 45 minute ‘relax’ on the ground, I went for my second ‘potty’ trip, and then changed over my shoes and discarded my tracksuit on the way down to the start. The rain had largely stopped by this point, so although my feet were pretty wrinkly from being in soaked shoes for a couple of hours, I was hopeful that I’d avoid too much damage along the way. It was starting to feel pretty humid, giving the first clue as to the state of the weather later in the day. Aside from that, we started off with perfect running conditions - cool, dry, good cloud cover and a perfectly sized tailwind.

A quick jog down to the start line, where we were efficiently sorted into corrals, and we were off. I was in the second wave, starting at 10.25am, and it only took a couple of minutes to get over the line. The first fifteen miles were a dream race. I was aware that the gradient was more downhill than is ideal, but felt I was controlling the pace pretty well, and the kilometres ticked off at bang-on goal pace. I felt strong and happy, was enjoying the atmosphere (shouting along to Sweet Caroline with a load of Red Sox fans sends tingles down the spine!), and even started to let myself think that I might be able to maintain the pace. Famous last thoughts.

Pretty much simultaneously, I got a stitch, and the sun came out. The pain in my abs moved around a bit, came and went, and I kept thinking I’d successfully run through it. It wasn’t to be, though, and I think it was around the 28-29k mark that my pace slowed dramatically, with a band of pain wrapped all the way around my stomach and back. I didn’t quite realise at the time just how hot it was getting, but the vivid sunburn I’m now in possession of tells the tale! I was apparently only feet away from Angela at mile 17, dressed in a bright yellow rain jacket, shouting my name and ringing a cowbell like crazy, but completely failed to see her.

By mile 21 it was all over. I was walking through the water stations, liquid sloshing around in my stomach as it shut down (something I’ve suffered before in hot races). The only thing keeping me moving forward was the thought that if I didn’t cross the line, I wouldn’t be able to call myself a Boston Marathoner, and more importantly, wouldn’t get to wear my medal and finishers jacket with pride! I avoided medical stations like the plague, fearful that if I accidentally stopped at one I wouldn’t be allowed to continue. I also suddenly started to feel the wobbly quads everyone warns of - all the downhill taking its toll. My strava record says the elevation overall was 277m climbed - it certainly didn’t feel that much, but maybe I’ve forgotten some! Heartbreak Hill was in the end not too heartbreaking, as my race was over by then, and it was more like a jog up Park View Road.

I should say a word here about the tracker. I had no intention at all of upsetting or offending anyone by hoping that I would be able to fly under the radar somewhat and avoid the live-action discussion of how my race was going! I think Allie put it best in saying that when you’re in the process of buggering up a marathon, the knowledge that all the people who have been willing you on can see just how badly it’s going can be enough to push you over the edge. But, I certainly didn’t mean to spoil anyone’s enjoyment in watching it, and I am overwhelmingly grateful for all of the Eagles support before, during and after - the club is 100% the reason I made it to Boston in the first place. 😍 you guys.

Ok, mushy bit over. I staggered over the line, and cried a bit into my Eagles buff, which went the whole race tucked into my shorts in case of more torrential rain. I was scooped up by a lovely volunteer who gave me a massive hug (I don’t think she knew whether I was sad or happy - I didn’t know either - but she knew what someone in need of a hug looked like), and gently directed me towards medals, heat sheets and a variety of bizarre food options. I’m not sure who has ever finished a marathon thinking ‘wow, what I want right now is a sweet roll...’

A bit more staggering, and I made it to my gear and to Angela, waiting at the funnel exit. After collecting Mike (who was sporting an extra-large, extra-shiny six-star finisher medal; much kudos to him), we all lurched off together through more gusty winds and rain to hot showers and pizza.

I’m still wobbling between disappointment and pride. I’m gutted that I couldn’t execute my race plan, but far better athletes than me were being bested all around me by the weather, and by the brutal Boston course. In the end (trying not to be too cheesy!), I’m so proud just to have made it here, to run an iconic race, and to run in the footsteps of Bobbi Gibb and Kathrine Switzer, without whom none of us women would be racing any further than 800m.

Blog 5/6 - Double blog

David Carlin – VLM Blog No.5 – Target time 3:59:59

Four weeks not two!! Sorry I’ve been out…running or cross training when I can!

Week 10 – 31.1 miles 🏃‍♂️ 18th March – 24th March

A busy week at work means I don’t get to run until Thursday!!  A 3 mile route home is extended to 10.6 miles and takes in running with Grange Primary School staff as they are gearing up from 0-5k. Then the weekend appears out of nowhere and its time to run Angela’s 3 park run parks 20 miler on Sunday.  I arrive at 9am to find a group of around 40 Eagles running off on various distances from 6 miles (I think) to 20. It was great to be with such a big group of Eagles, it gave you time to run alongside lots of Eagles and have a chat and hear which marathons or half marathons they were training for and how their plans were developing.

My Marathon training pace is set at 10 minute miles and I finish the 20 miles with an average of 10.03. Job well done!! This was my first drop in weekly mileage for some weeks, however, taking into account a fast half last week and finishing a 20 mile run in reasonably good shape …I am happy man!

Week 11 – 30.6 miles 🏃‍♂️ 25th March – 31st March

My strategy is now to run two shortish runs in the week and keep my legs ready for the long weekend run! A slowish club run on Monday to get the legs moving after the 20 the day before followed by some short sprints on Thursday lead me into the weekend.

I leave home on Saturday at 6:10 am and Trisha, Darren and I head out to Canary Wharf to run from 7:20am. The planned last 11 miles of the VLM course takes 12 miles, due to the fact we got lost in Canary Wharf! However, we run a steady 10 minute mile pace and now have the last part of the course in our heads. We paused at the actual mile 23.5 distance to take stock of the VLM day when we will find 100+ Eagles here waiting to cheer us on! Goosebumps time! I have been here supporting our club runners for the past three years and it was quite emotional knowing what this means to our club members on the day and this year I’ll be on the receiving end of your cheering and high fives. ☺   We finish at The Mall (see photo below) and meet Terena has tubed out to support us all back home.

The run from The Mall to home stopped in Chiswick due to the extra mile at the start! Sunday is a a short 3 mile run to shake out the legs!

Week 12 –  37.3 miles 🏃‍♂️1st April – 7th April

An idea enters my brain, due to not being able to make any track training, I’ll use the short runs to build a little speed work! I have a steady Monday to move from 10 to 9.5 minute miles to and from club run gave me 6.5 miles at a slightly faster pace. Another similar effort on Wednesday.  Last weekend ahead for a 20 miler with Trisha! This was a painful run, not only having to talk to Trisha for 20 miles! 😂 but we both found the going tough from mile 1 to mile 20! We ran to Putney Bridge and back. We both felt that we would had stopped between 6 and 10 miles if we were running this alone.  The power of running with an Eagle showed how much the club does support you, whether a 5k or marathon, the club is both inclusive and supportive. 🦅🦅

On Sunday a 5 mile run with the wives resets my Saturday blues ‘I cant do this!’ and I’m left reflecting on 6 weeks of nigh on 5 x 20 milers and a fast half marathon! I feel this has been my best training schedule but I’ll have to wait to see what Sunday 28th at 10:10 am brings!

Week 13 – 23.9 miles 🏃‍♂️ 8th April to 14th April

Tapering (reduction in weekly miles) starts and it feels really odd not running so far on each run! Club run 4.65 miles at av 8:40 gives me a good speed workout and followed by the same on Wednesday. Wednesday was a grumpy old men club run as I start off with Jurek, David Bone, John, Ranjan, Baljit and myself. We are all motoring along, chatting about the good olde days and soon we are back at Ealing Green. 2 x runs at 8:40 felt very quick after so many weeks at 10 minute miles. Thursday I do a short speed session and I feel I’ve crammed 16 weeks speed work into one week! Maybe not my best idea but I’m pleased I had an idea!!

Sunday is Club Champs at the Towpath 10. A concoction of Eagles started out at 10 minute miles which over the 10 miles reduced in number with most moving faster at certain points along the way.  We seemed to have as many supporting and taking photos as runners. But c85 Eagles out of a filed of c580 was a very good turn out for the club with numerous PBs and high placed Eagles in the event itself.  I was back to 10 minute miles and finished on an average of 9:48.

The marathon fever is growing with the club feeding back results from Manchester, Paris and Brighton this week and Manchester the week before. It feels like London is now looming and of course it would be as its now only 2 weeks away!!

Now two weeks of low activity running wise, I hope to be cross training though and resting and resting and resting…for the next 2 weeks!

I’ll try and make some mental notes of the VLM day and how the run goes but what I do know is that if I make it to the mile 23 support team…I’ll be a happy Eagle and may spend a little time there for a photo or two! 🏃‍♂️👑🦅

David Carlin 🏃‍♂️🍊🦅

Manchester Marathon - Writing a Wrong (by Rebecca Johnson)

I signed up to Manchester marathon days after my first marathon in London 2018 - the hottest London marathon ever. My training for London last year went really well. I managed to get several PBs at different distances during training. I was hoping for 4:15 to 4:30 and everything was looking good, until I saw the weather forecast. Warm weather is usually bad news for me and running, so this was a disaster! I did a lot of walking in London and can’t really say that I enjoyed most of it.

Signing up to Manchester was about proving to myself that I can run a marathon and that my expectations for London weren’t overly optimistic. The good thing about London being so bad is that I was quite relaxed about my finishing time in Manchester. My main focus was on feeling like I’d successfully run a marathon and hopefully that I would also enjoy it.

My training for Manchester went pretty well. I had a bumpy start due to being a bit ill in December and January and I didn’t get any PBs during my training. However, I felt like I was improving over the 16 weeks.

I was a bit unsure about what to aim for as my marathon pace. Some people suggested that I should be trying for sub 4, but my aim was to have an enjoyable race. So I didn’t want to focus on a specific finishing time and then end up feeling like I’d failed (again) if I didn’t manage it. So I focused on pace. I did the Vitality Big Half 4 weeks before Manchester and tried running at a pace of 9:30 minute miles, as I thought that could be my marathon pace. I wanted to see if I got to the end feeling like I could have done it twice. Good news - I did.

So, I had a plan for the day: run at 9:30s until 20 miles and then think about increasing my speed. My usual race tactic is to start too optimistically, to go too fast and end up struggling towards the end and having to slow down. This starting slow tactic was a new idea for me.

I even planned my music playlist to help me. I started off with songs that are nice to listen to, but not particularly up tempo. After around 3 hours of music, I added the songs that usually make me run faster.

So, how did it go?

It was great! The atmosphere in Manchester was great. I loved how they put up signs to welcome you into each town. The crowds were very supportive and I was happy to be surrounded by familiar Northern accents. My own spectators were very nicely spread out. My mum and dad at mile 6, ready to take my gloves off me. Then a mixture of my parents, Simon and the kids at miles 8, 15, 17, 25. Thank you tram!

I managed to start at a pace of 9:33 for the first mile. I did end up going a bit quicker than that for subsequent miles, but tried to hold myself back enough to reserve some energy for the end. At mile 8 I suddenly had a worrying thought: I’ve gone quite a long way, but there is so much further still to go. However, as I passed the half way point, psychologically, it all started to feel better. At 15 miles in particular I felt great and speeded up a bit more. I kept having to remind myself to slow down as there was still a long way to go.

I enjoyed getting to Altrincham and being able to see people going in the opposite direction for a while. I also enjoyed seeing a random absolutely massive tortoise casually ambling along next to the course. Pretty sure I wasn’t hallucinating at that point!

The sun did dare to come out quite a bit in the middle of the race. It was occasionally a bit too warm, but I did my best to ignore it. Luckily it went cloudy again and cooled down after mile 20.

At the 20 mile point, I remembered that I had been planning to speed up, but also reminded myself that I shouldn’t get carried away. Some of my music choices were particularly appropriate at this point. Kylie Minogue’s Get Out of My Way, was, luckily for me, very well timed. I had to do a lot of weaving in and out of people who were walking (probably the reason that I ended up running nearly 26.4 miles!).

After seeing my mum and dad at 25 miles, I turned a corner and could see the finishing line ahead of me. The crowd support at this point was amazing. The finishing stretch did slightly go on forever, to the point where I had to stop looking at the finish sign because it was a bit off putting seeing it ahead of me for so long.

The end?

I was so pleased to cross that finish line. I’d run non-stop for the whole race. My final race time was 4:05 and I’d enjoyed it. My slowest mile was my first one and my fastest mile was the last one. My second half was 3 minutes faster than the first and I’d got a PB of over 50 minutes!

My watch was buzzing constantly as I was walking towards my medal. I was really happy to see the messages from my running buddies who had been tracking me during the race.

So, am I now finished with marathons? Even though I hated the maranoia during the taper and thought it would be good not to have to do it again, I have enjoyed marathon training both times I’ve done it. It definitely helps to have a lovely group of running friends to do those long training runs with. Also, I can’t help but notice that I’m not that far away from managing a sub 4 marathon and also, because I’m so old, my Good For Age time isn’t too far out of reach (3:53 I think).

Whatever happens next, I feel very satisfied to have completed this marathon and moved on from disappointment in London.

Hope it’s not short this time… (by Raf Mac)

My first attempt at the fine art of concise race report writing.
Somewhere there is a little about the running itself, I promise.
I dare you to read the whole thing in one go!

- "Sub-3 Train To Manchester" -
We had it all worked out, early doors.
Sometimes in Nov 2018, Bernard Twinkle-Toes Sexton, Nils-Kristian The-Fastest-Norwegian-In-The-UK Liborg, Laurence Still-Wonderkid Elliott and I (known as the No-Faff Raf) - booked an AirBnB house and train tickets to Manchester.

Greg The-Honeymoon-Fatty Fernandes-Lawes also wanted in, but decided against the bachelor’s team. He shall be travelling and staying with Kimmy F. We fully supported Greg's decision, naturally. Greg sets up a chat group, gives it a pet name "Sub-3 Train To Manchester".
What can go wrong?

- Manchester is the new London! -
No, there's no other mile 23 quite like the one in London, but, as we will learn later, the power of Matt Kay 's high-five counts for plenty and Olivia Parker-Scott 's agility in getting between multiple cheering points is second to none. She must have run a good few miles.

Also - Manchester is cheaper, guaranteed place, it's colder, flatter and, on occasion, even significantly shorter than London! Surely that's the one to go for.

Others clearly think the same and join later: Tom Green, Jon Duncanson, Fiona Plain, Richie Emmett, Firas Alhawat. The more the merrier. And this is only those that joined our group chat.

In early December most of us start the focused training - some decide to follow the highly regarded P&D (the minimum mileage version, which we call "The Baby P&D" - up to 55 miles per week). Hardly a stretch for most, really. Some P&D first-timers get impatient in the early weeks due to suspiciously low mileage. Some top it up, race here and there. I just stick with it. I've done it twice to a tee and know that what's coming will test my body to the limits. Unfortunately.

For the next 18 weeks we often meet for group training sessions, in various configurations and places. Be it an extended Sunday Club Run, MP miles around Battersea or Regents Park, joining the Perivale 5k PB Tuesday Track, you name it. It's going great. It's going to be fantastic!

- Casualties -
Apart from fact that where there's marathon training, there are always casualties.

My back flared up in January. At first I thought it's as bad as back in 2017. Pinched nerve, I fell to the floor a few times before getting to a doc. But they gave me some super anti-inflammatory drugs and within a few days I'm back to "normal". Phew. Well, the doc may have mentioned 2-6 weeks "rest", but I was busy reading the dosage instructions and didn't quite record that.

Others are not quite as lucky.
Bernard is out with an Achilles drama. Takes some time off, then resumes the training, but eventually it becomes clear that he's not recovered fully and needs a longer period of more comprehensive physio. One of our main group of 4 AirBnB crew is out. That meant we no longer had to decide which two of the four were going to share a bed (originally 4 boys, 3 beds in the AirBnB house). Boo.

One of Oliver's legs also stops cooperating. Initially it seems like a temporary thing, but the reality is - he needs to make the same tough decision and pull out.

Pretty much everyone else has some sort of a niggle or issue (weak and twitchy bum for Laurence and myself, non-running related groin strain for overly active newlywed Greg), but somehow, luckily, we can fast forward to the race week and no one else is forced to pull out.

- Race week -
Now, to clarify - the "No-Faff Raf" is actually my New Year resolution. And it's 2nd year running.

Therefore I'll just quickly go back to my back. 7 days before the race it flares up again. Surely the nerves must have something to do with it. I only fall to the floor twice (on Sun and Mon). But any sort of movement causes discomfort, I can't lift my left leg to put the shoe on. Bending over without falling over is impossible.

Luckily - I saved half of the drugs from January - I start popping the pills and take the week as easy as possible. Andrew Guy somehow finds new levels of extreme patience, reads (via chat) all about my drama, doubts, worries and manages to help me focus and relax. Accept what may (not) happen. Listen to the body. Let it rest. See how it goes. The magic, carefully timed "you've got this".

By Friday morning - the pain is pretty much gone, I'm just left with the back a bit stiff and an occasional twinge. I'll take that.

So - I focus on having a lovely time with Laurence and Nils. We go shopping, we cook, carb load, we squeeze on a small sofa and watch a blockbuster movie on a phone (there's no TV in the house, instead - the hosts went for a load of female reproductive organ posters, weird hipsters). We drink some awful beetroot juice and pass pink urine. On repeat.

We meet Greg, Kim and Rebecca Jackson at the Stretford Parkrun - does it get any better than this? Life's a dream.

- The Race Day -
6:00am.
Number 2 + 1 (pink, or rather bloody red).
Coffee with clarified butter and coconut oil. Two soft boiled eggs. One piece of toast with avocado. One final Beet-it shot.
Number 2.
Banana. Water with rock salt and lemon juice.
Walk to the race village.
Number 2 (3rd and final, like a pro).
Bag drop.
Number 1 - last minute urinals. Finally, feeling empty and ready!
We realise it's 8:45 or so. Start "walking" to the start line.
We enter our pens 2 mins before the gun goes off! Never in doubt. No warm up. No stretching (planned it this way this time).

I high-five Nils and wish him luck for the last time. Laurence, Greg and the rest are in pen B behind us. They'll soon come past with the 3h pacers going for a 1:29 half split, I'm sure, we can say hi then. I tell myself for the final time that the back will be OK, the weather is near perfect, I've never been fitter. I've got this. I'm weirdly calm. What's wrong with me? I luckily have no time to answer this, because...

9:00. Bang!
My pacing strategy - slight amendment from Berlin: cross half-way around 1:29:15 to allow for a slight fading at the end (circa 1min30 positive split).

Aim to run the first 5k/3mi a tad slower than the avg pace required for sub-3 - to get going. But only 3-5s per km slower.

Then try to average 4:12km/6:45mmi for 27km/17mi.

Finally, "allow" to slow down in the final 10.2km/6.2mi to that initial pace again. 2:59:45 or thereabouts. All I need is 2min 19s off my Berlin time, 1.3%.

"Hi Raf" from Tom going past as soon as 1km in I think. He must have been right behind that pen tape. I learn after the race that Laurence was there, too, but sneaked round the other side, didn't want to stress me - what a gentleman. They're racing their own little race. Off you go, boys, I don't want to see you before supper!

Soon after the 3h pacer with the group catches up - they were in pen B at the start, close behind. Together with them: Greg, Jon and Richie arrive. We're all so focused there isn't much of a pleasantries exchange. You wouldn't tell we're club mates! Everyone's saving each and every breath. Well, apart from Richie, who seems the most relaxed of us. Gives me a big old smile. Looks like he's just jogging lazily on the side of a football pitch, before even being told to warm up properly. How do those youngsters do it?! Different league.

I let them go past, as planned. I'd thought this through and focused on not stressing about being left behind by the 3h pacer (or any of the Eagles, especially). I'm racing myself, my back, my pronation, my sweet little bunion, my mediocre economy, my fear of never finishing what I started. Chasing my dreams! That's the one!

So - it's just me and the tarmac. I knew the pacer would go a bit faster, probably around 1:28-1:29 half pace. So I happily let them all go and stick to my pace. Breath in, out, head high, knees up, shoulders relaxed, elbows back and forth. Or at least I picture it this way. And smile.

The 3h group (and Jon, Greg, Richie) are in sight for ages, 50m ahead, tops. It seems that my 3-phase plan works out pretty well. Slightly increased pace keeps me within a short burst of the group, should I get really anxious and want some "shelter". But I'm sufficiently behind to be breathing fresh air instead of their testosterone and sub3-ambition-fuelled sweat and farts.

Fast forward to 15km or so. I feel a little crisis, the concentration goes a bit, and with it the stride, breathing. Some negative thoughts creep in like an unwanted 6-monthly Thames Water bill. It takes me a while to realise. Ha! Almost got me! Nah. "Relax. Take a gel. Spray your face with some water. Focus!". I have a water bottle from the drinks station. Nice and cold, thanks to the weather, hence super refreshing. All over my face. Down the spine, chest, shoulders, groin / quads. That's better.

Someone helpful says "A bit early for that, you better slow down, matey". For a brief moment I smile nervously and feel embarrassed. But then I hear my voice responding: "Thanks. What's your bib number? I bet I'll beat you to the finish". Someone else asks me for the water bottle with a smile. I'm feeling pretty good again. I've got this.

I go through the half way and check my watch for the first time in ages. 1:29:41. Phew. Not bad. About 25s later than planned, but still have a little play. 30s quicker than in Berlin and I'm feeling better.

At some point I realise I'm inside the 3h pace group. They must have slowed a tiny bit, or my rhythm is picking up a tad. I've not really been checking the splits, running to feel. That's good. What's not good is that I was right about that air. It stinks here, like you wouldn't believe! And it's too warm. Surrounded by oxygen-sucking, smelly diesel engines. I've got to get out of here. I feel that running with the group has also forced me to pull up and shorten my stride. So I quickly decide to weave my way out on the next downhill (yes, we hit a series of innocent looking, but pretty steep bridges, it's not all that flat here). Greg must have felt the same, as he's slightly ahead of the group, 50m or so. Good, we're both ahead now. Let's just make sure it stays this way! For me, especially, since the pacer started 10-15s behind me.

I get to Greg around 24km in. He's chugging along nicely, as he does. Jon and Richie are out of sight by now. I speak to Greg a bit, tell him we're doing well. Good pace, not too fast, but gaining that time reserve with each km. Just keep going, relax. We'll be good. We've got this.

I think we were close until around 32km. Not a single word after that initial "chat".

20 miles! It did go fairly quickly I guess. I could say "time flies". I think I'm meant to be fading away a little by now. But I feel like speeding up instead. I mean legs are hurting, I'm not exactly breathing easy, but this is the best I've ever felt at the 20mi mark. I grabbed a gel at the drink stations a couple of times, just to keep my own for a crisis later. They were pretty good tasting. I used the water to cool myself down a couple more times when having a little mini crisis. I let a big "F" word out when tackling another short, steep incline around mile 22 (that made me feel better).

With around 6km to go, I really started feeling the legs. My right quad, hamstring and glute were getting twitchy. I tried changing the stride but immediately felt a near-cramp sensation. It relaxed with me getting back to the previous stride and slowing down a little bit. That's fine, I said to myself, that was always the plan. I can afford a few seconds per km until the finish. Relax! I turn around - the 3h pacer isn't even in sight. I'm good. It's annoying, because I can feel I could go harder than this. But can't ignore the legs.

This is where I knew I needed some positive thinking to get that pain out of my head (and legs, hopefully). I started going through my previous races, especially those successful and most enjoyable ones. Welsh Castles in 2017. Berlin. 37min 10km in Fulham. Ladywell 10.000m. Summer League. Willan XC. River Relays. Edinburgh mara trip with the family. And so on. Then - the Eagles. The social. The banter. Tier 2. Perivale track. All the support from the guys. Andy Guy, putting up with my faff and helping make the right calls. All those previous sub-3 achievers, telling me I'll get there soon. The cheer squads in numerous races.

And then my family. Junior Parkruns together. My wife, somehow still putting up with it all. I picture how I will call her in 30 mins or so and tell her that it didn't work out, but it doesn't matter, because I love her (and she'll fall for it, then I'll tell her I did it!). I laugh out loud. My kids, playing with the medals and asking if I won. Hanna, who I'll soon run with in a buggy (for the first time!). I keep running and smiling to myself.

- The Finish Straight -
Before I realise - I get to that final straight. It's the longest straight in any race on Earth. I've done it 2 year ago, so I remember. You can see the finish line in the distance and you think it's 200m at most. But it's 900m! You immediately speed up. Ouch! That right leg, I forgot. It almost goes. The left isn't much better. I return to the cruise gear. I don't need that sprint finish. It doesn't matter. Keep it together. You can still blow it! I really am stressing now, the legs are very twitchy. In pain. On the edge of cramping up. But I check the watch. I have circa 5 mins. It can't be more than 200-300m, surely?! Around half way to the finish I spot Jon, maybe 200m in front. He's wobbly... Slows down. I get closer, but can't sprint to go and help him! I tell myself "he'll be fine, he's fine, a marshal will help if need be". I get closer. Jon stops. I can't quite see if he collapsed or just slowly crouched. A marshal helps him get up and move. Then lets Jon go. I get closer. Jon struggles on, a few steps, starts bending forward. "F..., he's going to fall on his face!" I get to him in time. Give him a hand. Not sure he knows what's going on. "Come on, Jon, look, it's just there! We've done it! Let’s go, just a few steps! We've got this!". Maybe 100m and we cross the finish line.

The speaker shouts:
- "Wow! Ealing Eagles! West London in the house!"
I check the watch. We have bloody done it!

Laurence comes back to see us. Then Richie. Greg finishes 30s or so later. He's done it, too!

We all do a long, super sweaty group hug. Sit on the road for a few minutes and smile. Do high-fives every minute or so.

Everyone's smiling. Richie looks just as fresh as he did at the start, slacker. More people are coming in now, so we have to get up and go. We get our bling and I spot a photographer, so quickly get the guys together for a group photo. That'll be a good one.

Life's a dream.
Running is life.

Tapertastic

Hello Taper, my old friend

I've made it to you once again

For 13 weeks you’ve seemed elusive

My longing for you so effusive

And it’s tempting to think the work is now all done

But still I run…

Within the bounds of taper

That’s your lot I’m afraid. I’m neither creative nor talented enough to make up running related lyrics to an entire classic song. I’m not Godfrey. 

 Anyway...

 Last time I wrote all about how tough I was finding training and how I was knackered and niggly and was modifying my expectations. Today I am delighted to be able to report that there were no further mishaps in training (apart from a very persistent blister on my big toe - it’s really sexy training for a marathon) and I’m feeling much more prepared.

 It’s interesting. Most runners have a favourite subject to talk about, and that subject is running. Races, kit, training sessions, pacing plans, injuries - anything running related and we’re more repetitive than Theresa May croaking out in a strong and stable voice that Brexit Means Brexit. Generally though, when someone is having a tough time and they’re having a face to face conversation with you they tend to play it down and try to sound positive. 

 Writing updates about the training for London club ballot places seems to be a cathartic process. Certainly I can remember more posts about people having to dig deep or change their original approach than I can where everything went 100% to plan. It certainly helped me work out how best to approach the last few weeks of the main plan and where I should be pitching my goal for race day.

 The last few of weeks’ training have been good; I’ve swapped back to my old model of shoes and the niggles seem to be calming down as a result. I’ve managed three decent long runs in a row, with a particularly strong 18 miler at Kingston at which good company helped me pace it well and get a good fast finish (thanks again Trev). I’ve added an extra day of recovery into each week and have therefore been better able to hit my session targets, helped a huge amount by running most of them with a small but special group of running buddies and by encouragement from other running buddies who are too fast for me to actually run with. I’ve completed my last proper long run of 20 miles, am still mostly in one piece, and all in all I feel much happier about the big day in three weeks’ time. 

Last long run done

Most importantly I now get to enjoy my favourite part of the whole process...TAPER! Marathon training is super tough and making it to taper in one piece is no mean feat. But make it I have!

 I love taper. You get to run less, eat more, and as it’s now the home straight it feels safer to go around telling people that I’m running a marathon you know. You did know? I’ve already told you? Several times? Oh. Well anyway, I’m running a marathon you know! 

Taper is a balancing act. I know some runners who actively hate it, because they feel like they’re not doing enough. And you do still need to train - if you stopped doing any training at all for three weeks then race day would be a shock to the system! But after weeks of 16, 18, 20 milers a gentle little 15 on a Sunday morning sounds positively delightful. 

 Taper is the fine-tuning bit. You keep practising race pace, refine your nutrition plan, make sure you’re comfortable with the route, check your kit is all tried and tested and iron out any potential stressors that you can control (reports that I have bought new Runderwear in a shade of raspberry pink to match my running shoes in order to avoid the horrifying prospect of my pants clashing with my trainers on race day can be neither confirmed nor denied). 

 Oh, and carbs. Taper is also about carbs. At least for the last few days. 

Carby carby carbs

That said, it’s equally important to remember that there will be some things you can’t control. The weather, for example. Or how congested the race will be. Or how many people dressed as rhinos, toilets, or helicopters might come out of nowhere and zoom past you (I did beat that helicopter over the line though). But taking the time to chill out and think things through during these last few weeks of gentler training can definitely help you stay calm and keep your focus. 

 Ah, taper. I’ve missed you my sweet carby friend. 

 Let’s see if I’m still so zen in a couple of weeks shall we? 

The 2019 Greater Manchester Marathon: Super Sunday (by Greg Lawes)

Having been an Eagle now for just over two years, this will be my first ever race report.  Thankfully, I have been overlooked on a number of occasions for various relays and cross country races.  The main reason is that in every way of life, I am an accountant. We are known for being extremely dull and a bit anal, which has definitely flowed through to my running and my ability to notoriously follow the given training plan.

Towards the end of a gruelling 18 week plan, with countless hours spent running in to work down the Uxbridge Road and Friday night 10k tempo runs on the track I was feeling confident.  One of the problems training with club mates faster than you, is you end up with ideas above your station and with a few weeks to go, I announced to a number of people:

“I am going to give 2:59 a go”

The responses were reasonably consistent:

“Greg, do you really think you are capable of a sub 3 marathon?”

“I don’t know.” I replied honestly, “But hopefully, I won’t blow up too much.”

Hopefully not famous last words.

On the morning of the marathon, I woke up to a text from James Linney, wishing me luck and expressing the FOMO of “that marathon day buzz,” clearly it has been a while since he did one.  I was nervous, I felt sick and I was starting to doubt myself. Luckily, the wife (aka Kimmy (also running)) was on hand to tell me to calm down and shut up.

In the starting pen I met Firas and Nils, two Eagles that have come a long way in the last year, we confirmed our race tactics and went off on the gun.  My race tactic was simple, stand twenty metres behind the guy with a 3 hour flag and do not let him out of sight, easy.

The pacer was Chorlton runner Matt Shaw, the last time we both lined up together was last June, on the steps of Caernarfon Castle, ready to proudly lead our respective teams in to battle for the Welsh Castle Relays.  Matt was out of sight within minutes and comfortably won the stage, beating me by a huge 14 minutes (sorry lads!), lets hope my chase was more successful today.

The first few miles was more of an Eagles social than a race, Tom Green stormed past on the way to setting a GWR for the campest ever marathon, I met Richie Emmett looking as cool as a cucumber and then exchanged a “thumbs up” and a low-5 with Jon Duncanson and Raf before focusing on the job in hand.  I am not going to say the pace was exactly easy, but the nerves were starting to settle, not helped by every other spectator screaming something along the lines of “A sub 3 marathon! Are they mad!?!?”

At mile 6, disaster struck, after taking my first of four chia-seed based energy gels, I went to put it neatly away in my back pocket and heard two noises that will haunt me forever…

Plop

Plop

Two of my gels had hit the deck.

I turned round and let out an array of expletives that could be heard as far as Liverpool.  Could I turn round and get them? Not a chance, it was like a scene from the Lion King, a stampede of sub-3 hopefuls tore through the streets of Manchester behind me, not even Mufasa could have saved them from the inevitable.  Had I just dropped the World Cup?

A nice old man running alongside calmed me down and told me not to worry, we had a nice chat, before I re-convened for a team talk with Jon.  At mile 9, Jon then pointed me in the direction of two children handing out some rather toxic looking gels on the side of the road. Beggars can’t be choosers I thought to myself.  I grabbed two and the crisis had been averted. No one has ever said anything about nothing new on race day…right?

At mile 12, there was an incredibly generous downhill section, I took my chance to breakaway from the 3 hour pack and went through halfway 33 seconds ahead of schedule at 1:29:27.  The only thing I had left do was that again.

At mile 16 the pain was growing, I was reunited with Raf who went through 101 different ways of running the next 10 miles.  I can’t recall any, the only point I gathered was that we could not afford to slow down too much. Eventually he finished talking and I responded with a polite grunt.  Raf was making things look easy, much to my annoyance, my quads were becoming harder to lift by the step and even my arms were starting to ache. He was out of sight by 18, knowing this meant I was last of the sub-3 hopefuls…dig deep and don’t let the club down, I told myself.

At mile 23, I finally remembered why it was two years since my last marathon, minutes went past like years, I knew right there the race had begun. To make things worse, at the end of the mile my Garmin beeped….”7:04 for the mile”… Hardly slow by most people’s standards, but seeing that “7” was a real psychological blow.  I tried to remove any negative thoughts and focused on the smug faces of the boys* (no names) sat back in Ealing with their feet up watching the tracker and seeing me blow up so close to the finish, I could not give them the satisfaction.

Two to go…I turned round and saw the 3 hour pacer coming right for me.  I felt like the break away in the Tour De France about to be swallowed and churned out by the peloton.  Not today, I had come too far…I gave everything to get in front of them, it was futile, and I was back in the pack.  

One to go…Every time I got any breathing space ahead of the pacer a new pain would appear in the legs, they were getting harder and harder to move and eventually the peloton had thirty metres on me.  I knew this was going to be close.

“Nearly there” someone shouts

“No we’re not” I respond

With 800 metres to we turned right, and there it was, right over there, a long way in to the distance, on the horizon….The glorious finish line.  An emotional moment for any runner. I looked down at my watch…2:56….definitely going to be close…

This was my moment to surge forward, putting any remaining bit of pain to the back of my head.

700…I was past the 3 hour pacer

400…”ITS NOT GETTING ANY CLOSER”

300…2:58…

200…Surely, this was it!

100…

With 10 metres to go, I looked down at my watch and finally allowed myself to believe that this was my day!!  I relaxed, spread my hands and looked in to the sky. Rolling across the finish line in 2:59:18…unbelievable. An achievement that really seemed impossible just a few months back.

Waiting for me over the finish line was an ecstatic Raf, a smug Laurence, an incredibly chilled Richie (had he even ran?) and a nearly passed out Jon.  Just a few of the guys I have been training with and without them would never have been close to such an achievement. We milked the 30 metre walk from the finish line in style with hi-5s and photos.  It was now time to sit back, relax, upload to Strava and let the kudos roll in.

*To point out, they are also very supportive.

Eagle Friends

I’m not going to lie.  This blog post has been one of the most difficult ones for me to write.  Not due to lack of material (there’s actually too much to write about), but more due to me not wanting to sound too sappy or emotional.

Making friends in a new area was the main reason I became an Eagle in 2015.  I had recently moved to Ealing for work and didn’t know a soul so I decided joining a running club would be the best way to meet new people.  I barely ever ran and was SO nervous before my first club run. An occasional Parkrun was the extent of my running at that point, and I wasn’t sure I would even be able to make it round without walking.  Eagle support and encouragement started from the second I arrived. Allie was leading that night and was incredibly positive, welcoming and reassuring. Something that I see week in week out when new members are welcomed with open arms.  My first club run also happened to be a social night, so I had the added bonus of meeting loads of Eagles! I was hooked from day 1!

Clean and shiny Eagle friends

I have met so many of you over the past 2 and a half years and made so many life-changing friendships.  You guys are some of the most encouraging, supportive and helpful people I have ever met. The friends I have made in this club have not only supported my running, but been there when I needed a shoulder to cry on, a bit of a bitch and a moan or a well deserved late night out on the town.

As a runner, so many of you have been there for me in your own unique way.  These range from drunken encouragement that I could make the Welsh Castles team, letting me chase you around the track, up and down hills (Charlotte and Abi basically put me on the bus to Wales), pacing me to PBs while I swear at you silently under my breath, and most importantly helping me to respect the process and celebrate each and every success along the way.  This last bit is what makes this club so unique. We have such a wide range of speed and endurance yet still take time to encourage each other.

There is no way I would have ever dreamed of running a marathon without the support of the friends I have made in this club.   And without that support, and some gentle pushing I would have no business setting my sights on a 3:30 marathon. The past 14 weeks of marathon training have been mentally and physically tough; training for a marathon can be an isolating experience.  There have been days where I've been on the top of the world and days where all I've wanted to do was hang up my shoes and curl into a ball. Having a supportive network of Eagles has kept me going. Your words of encouragement, congratulations and kudos have picked me up after a bad run and pushed me to try even harder after a great session.  

Supportive team of Eagle Ladies at the SEAA relays

Fleet half was not my day.  My legs weren't fresh, my head wasn't into it, and I had a lovely cold brewing.  I would never have made it without Yvette dragging me around the last 3 miles and was overwhelmed with the messages of support I received in the following days.  I was able to bounce back, refocus on my training and got a considerable 5k PB a mere 7 days later at the SEAA relays in Milton Keynes (a race done with the Eagles which is probably a contributing factor.  Although there was an Eagle or two who were very quick to suggest if it's not Gunnersbury, does it count?).

PB face on!

So what am I going to take from this?  The first is the fantastic friends I have made and friendships that have gotten stronger.  There's nothing quite as special as knowing so many people have your back. I'll be carrying this with me on race day.  The second is resilience. All the encouragement I've received has made me realise just how strong and unbreakable I am.

I am so proud that in just a mere 3 weeks I will get to fly around London on behalf of each and every one of you.  

End of Year Reports

Ealing Eagles Running Club – Annual General Meeting (AGM)

(Circulated via weekly newsletter, Facebook and Eagles website)

Date: 30th April 2019

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Venue: To be confirmed.

Committee:

Chair: David Carlin

Coaching: Wei-Hei Kipling

Communications: Sam Royle

Membership: Terena De Abaitua-Hind

Race: Kate Ward

Social: Sonja Knoll

Treasurer: Greg Fernandes-Lawes

Agenda:

Time Item by

7:00 p.m. Welcome Chair
7:05 p.m. Chairman’s report Chair

7:15 p.m. Annual accounts Treasurer

7:25 p.m. Election of committee Chair

7:40 p.m. *Agreement to a second Membership secretary Chair

*Election of 2nd Membership secretary

7:45 p.m. Changing of wording in the Ealing Eagles RC Constitution Chair

*Child Welfare Officer to Designated Safeguarding Officer

7:50 p.m. *Agreement to Ealing Eagles Charitable Trust being the Chair

first charity we support in 2019-2020

*Second charity agreed via members votes and

Committee consideration.

7:55 p.m. Close

Chairman's report

It has been an exciting and fast moving 12 months in my role as chair!

At the end of this report there are three items the committee are proposing to the club, on which the club needs a vote of approval. These are;

• An additional Membership secretary post on the Committee.

• That we adopt Ealing Eagles Charitable Trust as one of our two charities this year.

• A change of wording in our club’s Constitution – Child Welfare Officer to Designated Safeguarding Lead.

I’d like to once again thank the outgoing committee from 2017/18 for their help and support to the committee in the changeover of roles and passing on their knowledge and expertise.

Then a big thank you to the current committee for taking up the reins and in Sonja’s case for continuing in post.  Their hard work over the past 12 months has enabled the Ealing Eagles Running Club to run smoothly (no pun it ended!). Please remember all of the committee are ‘volunteers’ and they give their time over the year so we all can run and run and run!

This also leads to a huge thank you for a large number of people who put lots of their own time into the club to ensure our events take place. The following teams, committees and individuals all work extremely hard and have made the following events happen. There are too many individuals to mention and thank, however, as Chair I know their support has been invaluable to both the committee and the club members.

Some examples where club members other than the committee have supported you all to run are;  VLM Mile 23 cheer squad, Green Belt Relay, Welsh Castles Relay, Ealing Eagles 10k, Beginners programmes, Norfolk relay, Richmond Park relay, River relays, Club Championships, Summer League, Cross Country, Socials inc. pub crawls, parties, Birthday quiz, Santa run, Handicap Wednesdays, Club run leaders and tail runners, Grumpy old men runs, track and hill sessions, organising volunteers for external events, Mental Ill Health support, Charity fund raising and not to forget our ‘Kit express’ delivery service. A big thank you to all the club members involved in these activities. My apologies if I have missed any events out!

In order for us all to attend and run in these events there is a growing team of coaches now working (unpaid) to give us all mainly free training sessions and coaching. Yes, we could all go out and run but how easy is it just to turn up and follow a coached planned session. It makes running much easier for us all. Knowing there is a planned session coaxes us out into the sun, rain and wind when we may stay in at home or worse at work. The committee are looking at how we can add further value to the club membership. I believe all members get value for money for their annual subscription.

England Athletics put their costs up a year or so ago which wasn’t passed onto members and there is potentially a new cost to the club from South East Area Athletics (SEAA) who make track events and some other races available to us. There is likely to be a £2 surcharge per member in the near future. So after careful consideration we will be increasing the Annual Subscription from £30 to £35 from 1st April.  The committee have benchmarked the membership fee with other clubs, and this will still make us the cheapest subscription by £10 or more. You will be invoiced by the end of April for 2019-2020 running year. We believe we will be able to hold the annual subscription at this level for the forseeable future.

The committee want to encourage more of our members to take up a coaching badge or two, particularly to support our Junior section, so the committee has decided that from April 1st 2019 we will reimburse 100% of Coaching course fee, once you have completed the course and led or supported the agreed number of coaching sessions. For more information or direction as to what courses you could enrol on, please speak to Wei Hei and we will collate any names for a short meeting or simply direct you to the right course. It would be brilliant if some of our faster runners would consider undertaking these qualifications. Ideally, we would like an additional 10 more coaches, so as the club numbers increase, we can have more coaches available to lead and/or support sessions.

Last year the membership renewals with England Athletics was traumatic as their IT system crashed!  Olivia and then Terena worked exhaustively to get members signed up and registered to run under the EA banner. The club membership continues to grow year by year. We receive regular enquires, most of which transfer into membership, with higher membership requests post Ealing Half Marathon and January ‘three months free’ intake concession.  In January 2019 we met with England Athletics and they have assured us that the membership renewal system will work this year! They are also commissioning a new membership web portal and I’ve asked that Ealing Eagles are involved in the initial consultations, user acceptance testing and their pilot site before it goes live. More on membership at the end of this report.

As we all know, the club has a fast-growing membership base. Feedback from new members is that “EE is a friendly welcoming club”. The welcome at club runs, club socials and our Summer league and cross-country events really do demonstrate the social side of the club. Hills and track are now being seen as great training sessions for all paces and runners and encouragement at these sessions is second to none from both the coaching team and fellow Eagle runners.

To make all of the activities work for us we rely on good and clear communication with you all.  We try to communicate with all members via our weekly newsletter, updating information on the website, Facebook and Twitter. In February we decided to cull all of these mediums to the paid membership of the club only. I make no apologies for any ex-member who hasn’t paid the subscription, however, if you feel you have paid please contact membership@ealingeagles.com and we will research why EA has not confirmed your payment.  The Intranet password on our website will change soon too as many ex-members will have access and should no longer have that right and a recent non running issue has caused us to think about who can access our internal site. The new password will change from ‘EalingFeeling’ to another password which will be communicated in the newsletter and Facebook page soon.

So 2019…what does this mean for the club, our community and the committee?

1. Club: Most of you know, from kit sales, Ealing Eagles Running Club is 10 years old in October!! We plan a big celebration in the summer - see our events page or weekly newsletter. There are also going to be monthly Social events from May 2019 in addition to the Wednesday socials in the New Inn.

2. Community: As a club we will no doubt continue to grow in numbers. It is hard but really important we mix at socials and attend Cross Country, Club Champs and Summer League. These can be good opportunities to meet other members and continue our welcoming nature within the club. You don’t need to run every event, unless you’re gunning for a Club Champ medal, but it would be great for as many members could attend as many as they can, accepting family and other commitments are more important, to continue our strong club presence in these events. They are inclusive of all running paces, there are only a few events where a minimum time will be required, so please join in as much as possible…you will enjoy them!

3. Committee: I have had a good year as chair, in that I have enjoyed attending a great many running events, either running or purely supporting you as club members running in them. We also need to look longer term as we are still a growing membership and we need to ensure all members feel they are part of the club and we are looking after their running needs. Hence ‘Healing Eagles’ was born this year. I hope members who were/are injured have welcomed this Facebook group, but I am aware not all of us use Facebook.

I have enjoyed my year as Chair and wish to stand again for another year. I also asked the committee to all stand again as I’d like a year of stability across the committee.  I am pleased to say all the committee members have expressed a wish to stay on for another year. In saying this, members have a right to nominate themselves for any position on the committee and as a committee we know this.

Committee members only have a one-year term, so each role has to be elected at the AGM.

These roles are:

Committee:

Chair: David Carlin Nominated to stand 2019-20

Coaching: Wei-Hei Kipling Nominated to stand 2019-20

Communications: Sam Royle Nominated to stand 2019-20

Membership: Terena De Abaitua-Hind Nominated to stand 2019-20

Race: Kate Ward Nominated to stand 2019-20

Social: Sonja Knoll Nominated to stand 2019-20

Treasurer: Greg Fernandes-Lawes Nominated to stand 2019-20
 

Although the current committee members have expressed a wish to stay on for another 12 months, I reiterate that this doesn’t exclude any members from nominating themselves for any of the committee roles.  So, if you are interested in any of the positions, please follow the timeline below.

1st April 2019 AGM agenda, together with Chairperson’s report and Financial accounts to date. Followed by a reminder via the newsletter and Facebook up until 5th April 2019.

9th April 2019 Nominations for the Committee places to be sent to membership@ealingeagles.com  By 9th April 2019

(Please supply your name and which role you want to be elected for). If more than one member applies you will be requested to send a short personal statement to  membership@ealingeagles.com on the 12th April 2019.

12th April 2019 Nominations announced. If there are two or more nominations for a role, a personal statement from each nominee will be circulated to inform your vote at the AGM. Only votes at the AGM are accepted. You cannot vote by proxy unless you are 17 years of age!

30th April 2019 AGM – See agenda election.

Members are able to nominate themselves at the AGM, but I would personally prefer the membership to see a transparent election. I feel that it is hard for members at the AGM to make an instant or uninformed decision, so some notice of who wants to be on the Committee and a paragraph about themselves would be welcome.

If you want to speak to me about the roles and expectations and the amount of time you will have to invest in committee activity, please do contact me at chair@ealingeagles.com

After the election of members, the Committee have three proposals for consideration;

1. We now have c800 members and this will only increase over time. Phil Cairns stepped in last year to support the membership function, initially to process new members as Terena sorted out the EA issues.  As the amount of new membership enquiries has grown it became clear that the Membership secretary role is no longer a one-person job. We would like to propose an additional Membership post on the Committee. I.e. a second Membership secretary. Over the last couple of weeks, we have had 30 applications!

• Phil Cairns has agreed to be nominated. Again, any club member can nominate themselves for this role. Please adhere to the above guidelines if you want to be nominated for this additional post.

1. The Committee would like to amend the wording in the Constitution to be in line with most Childcare institutions from Child Welfare Officer to Designated Safeguarding Lead. (Constitution attached)

2. We currently have two Charities CALM and Shooting Star.  The committee propose we adopt Ealing Eagles Charitable Trust as one of our two charities this year.

Kelvin or Nigel will explain where the Charity is as far as progress and this year’s plan.

(5 minutes). On Facebook and in the weekly email we will be asking for suggestions for our second charity. So please email chair@ealingeagles.com with your suggestions and why you are nominating that particular charity. The committee will review the suggestions and announce the chosen charity at the AGM.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the AGM on 30th April!!

David Carlin

Chairman, Ealing Eagles Running Club

End of year accounts
 Ealing Eagles end of year accounts can be viewed at the following location:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-KIrHcUuOzFOXhzb0xuQ0U1UGFJZWREVkJjNktqc1hEVWJz/view?usp=sharing

Southern Road Relays 25th March 2019 by Tom Irving

"It's a strong field, we'll be one of the slowest teams there". We had all heard Cap'n Santry's words in advance, but there's always a little bit of you that doesn't quite believe it. 

Until you see the GBR jackets. And they weren't merchandise from the Green Belt Relay.

Feck.

So Operation Don't Be Last kicked off in an infeasibly sunny track in Milton Keynes, the thinking man's Stevenage. At least for the men, as ever our women had higher hopes than the men. The format was quite simple, alternating laps of 5.05km and 7.66km around a twisty, deceptively slow course around a park, with a start and finish on the track.

One of the club's best runners, John "Foxall" Llaxof, kicked things off for the gents with a brilliant first leg... finishing 48th of the 53 teams. Ah. The winner of that stage has a 5,000m PB of 13.49 and Paul Martelletti could only finish fourth. We are probably not going to win this.

Jenny Bushell went first for the women, an hour later. The field was equally fast, including Tracey Barlow, the UK's 25th quickest marathon runner ever. Commonwealth Games finalist Iona Lake could "only" finish 3rd in her leg!

You get the picture.

We may not have been the quickest team there, but no one left a single second out on the course. I'm not going to pick out a single performance, but the agony on Kieran's face summed it up. Overall the women were an amazing 17th out of 27 teams, and the men were 41st out of 43 teams that finished. Operation Don't Be Last was a success!

I'm proud to be an Eagle for many reasons; but today I was proud to be part of a club that could put out a team for one of the toughest events in the country, not afraid to be last, and have total commitment from everyone.

And you know what? We had a bloody good time.

David Carlin – VLM Blog No.5 – Target time 3:59:59

Week 8 – 42.2  miles 🏃‍♂️ 4th March – 10th March

Weekly miles increased by 3.5 miles.  Monday Club run plus a bit feels hard after running 15 and 5 miles at the weekend. It’s good to see others Strava runs which keeps me focused on getting out on the road, rather than staying in and missing storm Eric! Running into the wind use to be a bug bare of mine. Then I learnt that putting head down restricted my air intake, which means less oxygen in the blood stream and therefore the science bit doesn’t happen and your body doesn’t cope as well. I had to keep telling myself “keep your head up!” Which after a while become a unconscious act and I now feel comfortable running into the wind. As an ex-asthmatic this seems unreal!

Tuesday. Forgetting my bus pass (not a free one…I’m not that old…yet!) gave me an extra 0.5 mile this week as I ran home  to get it as I had a an early meeting that day! 🏃‍♂️

Wednesday is the club social and a talk about the Green Belt Relay. I arrange the weekend run with other Eagles.

Thursday I ran to Ealing Common, to run alongside the common on the South side (dead end road) with Terena and Rob and ran 8x 0.1 mile reps full pelt with a walk back to recover. My first spell of speed work and possibly my last at the rep pace as my back wasn’t happy about it!

Saturday starts at 6 a.m. to have breakfast and I leave home at 7:15 to meet up with Rob. We run 4.5 miles including Greenford hills and we head back to Hanwell to meet Caroline. We run a few miles and Rob detours home as Caroline and I head from Three Bridges along the canal to Brentford, Chiswick and finally reach Hammersmith. There we pick up Kelli and Terena and head back along the river to Dukes Meadows, Kew Bridge and to Gunnersbury Park. Caroline now up to 12 miles runs 2 more in GP before getting her free coffee, food etc and the three of us head to Lammas until I hit 19.3 miles.  Having such a great group of people to run with made this my best ever long run. I finished and felt good, legs felt like I could have continued and I had no thoughts of “when will this be over!” Sunday I run a short circuit to get the lactic acid moving. ☺

Week 9 – 29.9 miles 🏃‍♂️ 11th March – 17th March

This week will be a drop in mileage due to the great news we have a Vets team entered into ‘Welsh Castles Relay’ which means I need to try and run a good time at the Fleet Half Marathon on Sunday to attempt to get my name on the coach!

9 miles on Monday and 7.5 on Thursday all at marathon pace to try and keep a faster pace in my legs for Sunday. It’s going to be a tough run but I’m hoping for 1:45-1:47 and then I can focus once more on my training plan. Its been a very stressful and long week so I’m looking forward to Sundays half.

Sunday is Fleet half. A bright sunny morning and near perfect running conditions. I start off at 1:45 pace and find the course very undulating! I run quickly down the hills and after 5 miles I’ve made up a couple of minutes and join the back of the 1:40 pacer crew. I held my pace and finish in a surprising 1:38:53. Also, I bump into Susie Chan, Endurance runner and steal a selfie!

A good week, and now long weekend runs to look forward to over the next couple of weeks. Angela’s three park runs 20 miler being the first!

David Carlin 🏃‍♂️🍊🦅

Not a VLM blog anymore

First of all, apologies for being so late with the blog. But the truth is that not much really happened in these last four weeks. I'm religiously following the plan laid down by the physiotherapist at Move, and slowly begin to feel the beneficial effects of it. The muscles around the hip have become stronger, and the hip seems to be more stable. I've also been able to run a few times, without pain. I mainly focused on keeping a good form, and improving the technique, so to reduce the future chances of getting injured again (and, hopefully, to improve the performance, too...). 

On the other hand, my fitness has been hit really hard by these weeks of rest. I can feel the fatigue just after one or two miles, and the heart rate clearly rises after three. I know that this is normal, and temporary. But nonetheless frustrating. I look at the Strava feed in awe: many guys and ladies in the club are doing amazingly well in training for the spring marathons, and ran truly fantastic times in the tune-up 10ks and half marathons (side note: The Big Half should have been one of my tune-up race, that I had to give up. I'm quite disappointed that they do not allow either deferrals or transfers. I won't sign up again. Full stop). I can see the level of the club constantly improving, old members getting faster and faster, and new young members which are showing brilliant performance. BTW, as a consequence, the contest to get on the WCR bus has never been so exciting! And I can't deny that I am a little bit depressed at being forced to be just a spectator... Trying to stay positive, and to find an upside, I keep looking at my fellow runners brilliant training and races to find greater stimulus and determination for my come back. I need this, especially now, to keep going when I feel so heavy and sluggish during my (few) training runs, between a (booooring) strengthening session and the other.

When I started feeling the pain in the leg, it was still mid January, and I hoped to quickly solve the issue to get back on track. Things took a quite different turn, and the problem revealed to be much worse than initially thought. As said at the beginning of this post, I am now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... But for what concerns the London marathon, it is clear that the time has run out. At this point, I can take it easy with my rehabilitation: I won't rush it, and take all the time needed to be able to properly train and run again. I would like to be back for June/July, maybe initially focusing on short distances. In particular, I hope to run again the Sri Chinmoy mile relay in July (Kieran, Briain, don't rush finding a replacement, please!!! ).

So, in this VLM blog I won't talk any more of VLM. In the next post, though, maybe I'll talk a little bit about how I am changing my running form and posture (following physio advice, and suggestions from a few other credible sources). It might be interesting to those plagued by plantar fasciitis, because one beneficial side effect of improving the running technique is that it tends to reduce/solve that kind of problems (as I am experimenting on myself).