Be careful where you urinate!

NYRR strongly suggests that runners use the portable toilets prior to walking onto the bridge. The bridge will house electrical equipment, and urinating on the bridge is extremely dangerous to you and your fellow runners.

Now this is a danger I have never even thought of!

New York, New York...

We're going tomorrow evening, I think I am excited but also a little nervous. We've got all our documentation through and we know what we are doing (well for the marathon stuff at least, haven't formulated the tourist plan yet!).

We arrive at around midnight on Thursday evening, I am hoping that travelling in the evening and then arriving at night when tired means we'll sleep brilliantly and have no jetlag. I'll be ok, I sleep anywhere (I often miss take off and/or landing as I am snoozing) and after a few trips to Seattle with work I think I have more or less cracked jet lag!

We'll probably go and get our numbers on Friday, there are even free shuttle buses to get there, our American friends like to make life easy for us! On Saturday morning we're going to do a gentle friendship run and on Saturday night there is a pasta party (complete with recipes). Oh, and we need to pop into the Empire State building as apparently: "The Empire State Building, the most recognizable building in New York City, will show its marathon colors from November 1 to 2. The building’s tower lights will radiate orange, blue, and white in honor of the marathon. This beacon will signal all marathoners to go to the Empire State Building to receive a free pin while supplies last. Runners need to present their bib, or a copy of their registration card, at the cashier's office to collect the pin."

Then on Sunday we get a bus at 6am (ouch) remembering that daylight savings kicks in (again) on Sunday. The start is quite a long way from Manhattan, the route goes through all 5 New York boroughs, finishing in Central Park.

Gary is in the 9:40 start and I am starting at 10:20 (number 49378, Green start, Wave 3, Corral A to be exact). Apparently you can track me online if you want or fingers crossed my "e-mail to blog" experiment will keep you up to date...

And what I am aiming for? Better than this year's London Marathon, better than 4:30 and in an ideal world around 4:20 (I'd love to get my third best time).

Fingers crossed, and important to know, the official ending time of the race is 6:40 p.m.

Testing, testing 123...

I am just testing a new way of posting...if it works, I will be able to set up the New York Marathon website to send Athlete Alerts during the race...what a great use of technology!

Is someone out to get me?

First, the fat foot saga, then the fat ankle debacle, now I have a weird blister issue!

My shoes rubbed my heel a bit on Monday lunchtime, must have been an incorrect sock/show combo. It wasn't major rubbing, just a slightly pink heel (I did amuse my colleagues by wandering around shoeless for the afternoon though). Then, at 3am this morning (Wednesday!) I woke up with the most painful heel in history. Not sure what happened but my pink heel must have got infected, it was bright red, seeping and painful enough to stop me sleeping.

It's still sore now, I smell like I have bathed in TCP and I am not impressed...

Holiday Running

Gazza and I have just come back from a lovely relaxing canal boat holiday touring around the black country (The Black Country Cruising Ring comprises a combination of canals each memorable for different reasons. Leaving the much-revamped water frontages of Birmingham via the New Main Line and negotiating parts of the elegant Staffordshire & Worcestershire and the Trent & Mersey before returning along the Coventry and the Birmingham & Fazeley the voyage offers vivid contrasts between heritage and contemporary life.) So there.
We timed the holiday to coincide with tapering but I started the holiday with wrecked legs after a 19ish mile run on Saturday morning before we even set off. Now, compared to lots of other holiday locations, canals are good ones for running, all you have to do is jump off the boat, run for xx minutes in one direction and then turn around and run back. That also means you can play the game of trying to get back to where you started in less time than it took you to get there in the first place.
I managed to fit in 3 runs, all of an hour or more (70 minutes, 60 minutes and an hour and a half at Fradley junction where we were even brave enough to leave the safety of the canal) so all in all a good week!

Just where do you find the time? (Part 2)

This week continued in much the same form as the previous week, but with more varied reasons for not being able to run.
I don't usually run on Mondays so I didn't even consider that as an option, plus, as our current news hack is climbing Kilimanjaro) I had to compose a Comet report for Standalone (it only got edited a little bit, I am pleased with the outcome!). Tuesday is the club night, but a miscommunication between me and my better (not this time) half meant that he brought my running bag as usual to the club but minus my smelly trainers so no running for me! He was away for the latter half of the week so, despite my good intentions, I ended up going out for a drink or two with my new boss and colleague so was in no fit state to run that night or the following morning. I really should no better than to drink on a school night with no dinner, will I ever learn?
So, but the time Thursday came along I was in a right old panic...I was due to visit a friend that evening so no running could be done that day either, then I came up with my ingenious plan. I would run at lunchtime! We have a shower and our office is in Covent Garden so within easy reach of pretty places to run. The only downside is the risk of my colleagues seeing me in lycra. Luckily, I have just invested in some new smart running tops (which were free when buying some trainers) so I at least looked, well, less luminous? I invented a lovely route down to the river, back through St James Park and Green Park, all of which took an hour. Just to feel extra virtuous I had a healthy fruit smoothie from the stall on Earlam street and my halo was back, if a little wonky and tarnished!

This gave me renewed enthusiasm and I even went for a run on Friday night after my Japanese class, 8pm on a Friday night and running round Hitchin, this is the girl who refuses to go supermarket shopping on a Friday night as she thinks it is too sad and now she is running instead?

Just where do you find the time? (Part 1)

Being a slow runner means that long runs take a long time and thus a larger percentage of your day. It's pretty obvious really but think about it a bit more.

Using Mr Cook as an example, he would budget around two and a half hours for a 20 miler. In my case, you are looking at more like three and a half to three and a quarter (and the rest!) And this works for every run, from your 5-6 miles (45 minutes v 1 hour) to your second long run of the week (10 miles in 70 minutes versus 1 hour 40). This does mean that sometimes it is hard to fit runs in, especially during the week, simply because to do a run of a certain length takes a while. But this weekend really showed how hard it can be and how other factors are also at play.

On Saturday I attended a road race organiser’s seminar which involved a 10am start in Huntingdon returning home at 5ish. (definitely worth attending by the way). Now, yes, I should and probably could have gone for a run when getting back but I was tired and it was wet, cold and windy (yes, I am human!) On Sunday, I arrived at Standalone Farm at 6am. My original plan was to run home, but I mislaid my food and drink so by the time 1pm came along I had hardly drunk or eaten all day long plus I was super tired...and it was wet, cold and windy so I went home and curled up on the sofa instead (complete wuss).

So, now I am stricken with guilt, cannot believe I missed a load of training last week due to the fat ankle and now I have missed my long run too...