Half Marathon a Month Challenge #28 - Bratislava April 2016

Bratislava Half Marathon - 3rd April 2016

A Tale of Two Cities

This was the second half marathon that Chris and I had run outside of the UK, the first one being run #2 of the HMAMC, which took place in the fabulous Barcelona during February 2014.

The reason why we had ended up running in Bratislava was that I had started doing some work in Vienna, and it seemed like a good opportunity for Chris to pop over for the weekend of the Bratislava half marathon, and to make the most me being there. Funnily enough the Vienna Half Marathon took place a week later, but the first weekend in April suited better logistically, and it also meant we could enjoy what both capital cities had to offer.  In fact we were very lucky as the weather was glorious the weekend we were there, whereas Vienna had a horrible cold and wet snap for its half marathon. 

I was already in Vienna, having just finished work, when Chris arrived on the Friday. Of course one of the big challenges was to make sure we didn't overdo it during the two days before the race on Sunday. A sensible plan seemed to be....

Friday - Lots of beers

Saturday - Recover from Friday's lots of beers

Sunday (am) - Run half marathon 

Sunday (pm) - Lots of beers

In hindsight this plan was never going to survive battlefield conditions, and although 75% of it was executed as documented above, in the end Saturday turned into "Lots of beers" too. Would this have an adverse effect on Sunday's race performance? Well, as usual, it did for me, but not for Chris.

The rest of Friday afternoon was spent (as planned!) enjoying Viennese history, culture, food and drink. We started off in the Siebensternbrau for traditional Austrian grub and beers, and then took in the Museum Quarter, the Hofburg Palace, and St. Stephen's Cathedral. Trips to local hostelries were also a priority. 

On Saturday we got up early, believe it or not, and made our way through to Bratislava a day early as we had to pick up our race numbers in advance. This wasn't as onerous as it sounds because the train journey from Vienna to Bratislava is the equivalent of Glasgow to Edinburgh, and it also allowed us to find our bearings prior to turning up on race day. When we eventually got down to the Expo, which was the area where the race would start and finish, the place was already jumping. Like most big events they were holding some shorter distance races the day before the longer ones, and there was lots going on around that.

After we picked up our race numbers we decided to find a pub which was showing some footy. This is where the Saturday 'recovery' plan fell apart. We soon located the excellent Irish pub, The Dubliner,  and they were able to put on the Celtic v Hearts game for my benefit. We also found out the reason why so many stag nights head to Bratislava, as the beer (even Guinness) had to be nearly half the price that it was in Vienna.

 We made the most of this until the end of the footy and then made our way to the locally recommended Bratislavsky Mestiansky Pivovar for some outstanding traditional Solvakian food. 

And, as if the day hadn't been great enough already, we decided that rather than getting the train back to Vienna, we would take a boat along the Danube! It was a lovely evening and a fantastic experience.

Race day.

Well, I wasn't feeling that great on the Sunday morning for some reason. Not sure what could have been the cause of it! Anyway, I deployed paracetamol and copious quantities of water as a mitigation strategy, and we made our way back through to Bratislava by train. It was another glorious day, and the place was even livelier than it was the day before. It was an exceptionally well organised event. Probably the best I've attended.

During the race itself the parallels with how I felt during the Alloa Half Marathon started to become apparent. In this case though it was not a chest infection that incapacitated me, but two days of over indulgence! I was already walking for a bit by 7km in, and I was genuinely concerned about how the rest of the race was going to go from there.

What to do? Well, my immediate strategy was to try and follow someone who was running at a pace that I thought I could keep up with, and who would virtually pull me along. I've tried this approach before in very different circumstances (i.e. chasing a PB) and had some success with it. I then spotted a guy just in front of me who was plodding along at what looked like a reasonable pace. He was easily north of 65 years old, and was wearing a full Sweden international running outfit (!), so he would be easy to keep in my sights. This did in fact work very well for the next 5km, but unfortunately at 12km I was running out of steam, and had to walk for a bit. The old guy in the Sweden kit gradually disappeared into the distance, and I resigned myself to applying a walk/jog pattern until the end of the race. 

But you know, sometimes your body surprises you, and for some reason I got a new lease of life at 16km, just as we were about to run through the old town in Bratislava. I was actually back running at a reasonable good pace, and guess what? I caught up and passed the old Sweden guy at 17km.

I was quite chuffed with this until I spotted the colour of his race number as I passed him. It wasn't the yellow number of a half marathon runner, it was blue! This old guy was running the full marathon (which was two laps of the half marathon course) and he hadn't passed half way yet! I was truly humbled.

And maybe this had a psychological effect on me, because by the 19km mark I was struggling again, and decided I would return to the walk/jog approach for the last 2km. There was one brief exception to this with about 1.5km to go. I noticed that a motorbike was passing me on my right hand side, with a cameraman on the back pointing his camera back in the direction they came from. 

I knew this event was being broadcast live on Slovakian TV, and it suddenly dawned on me that they were filming the leader of the marathon! I was about to be lapped by him at 19.5km, after he had run 40.5km. Fortunately I was just about able to transform myself from a lumbering wreck into a sprightly looking runner for the few seconds I was on the telly!  

At the finish I tracked down Chris, who had incredibly completed the event in just under 2 hours, even after the previous days' indulgences! Not only that but he even had a bad fall during the race, causing some significant damage to his legs and hands. First aid was required!

I don't know how he does it. Quite remarkable.

Originally our plan was to return to Vienna immediately after the race, but as we had already ascertained that the price of post race electrolytes and nourishment would be considerably lower in Bratislava than in Vienna, we elected to stay! Our first stop was a 'Scottish' pub called the Loch Ness, which we had seen the previous day. Not much Scottish about the place that we could see, but they did serve an excellent dark beer, which we had a few samples of.

Next stop was another excellent Slovakian speciality restaurant called Prasna Basta, and then it was on to the train station via a superb place called the Beer Arena Sancova.

The evening still wasn't finished! When we got back to Vienna we popped into what I believe to best Indian restaurant in the city. It's called Nirvana, and we enjoyed a typically excellent curry there before calling it a night. 

What an incredible weekend it turned out to be, including the half marathon event! For me it's easily one of the best of the HMAMC weekends, coming second only to Month #2 in Barcelona.

Results:

Chris - 01:59:59

Frank - 02:34:37

Half Marathon a Month Challenge - March 2016 #27

Alloa Half Marathon - 20th March 2016

Our 27th consecutive monthly half marathon took place in and around Alloa in Clackmannanshire. The Alloa Half Marathon is a well established event (this was the 34th), which could have been half marathon #3 for us in 2014, if we hadn't been running Inverness instead, or indeed it could have been #15 in 2015, if we hadn't forgot to enter it in time! Doh! 

But hey, we were finally getting to run the Alloa Half, and me, Clare, and our wee dog Bailey headed to Falkirk to pick up Chris on the way there. 

It was a busy event but we managed to find a spot to stand in the car park before the race, where we could soak up the sunshine before the start. Yes, I said "soak up the sunshine". It was a lovely day as you can see here! 

It's about this time in my blog posts that I mention the various ailments that will contribute to my poor performance. So here we go...

As well as my still not fully healed knee injury, which also impacts my training schedule and therefore my fitness, I had managed to acquire the chest infection that was doing the rounds at that time. (I'm sure you remember it. You may also have been a victim).

Strictly speaking I probably shouldn't have been running in that condition, but the self deceiving thought* "I'll just take it easy", won the day, as I did not want the consecutive months of half marathons to stop for me at #26.

*You can't really take a half marathon "easy". It's a ridiculous thought.

Anyway, we crossed the start line in the sunshine and Chris sprinted off into the distance as usual. 

The first thing that happened was that my shoelace came undone before we had even reached 3km! That was very careless of me, and I would normally have doubled checked this sort of thing just prior to starting the race. On a happier note I stopped to fix it at the spot Clare had chosen to watch the first part of the race from! So, I got an extra good luck hug. And I would need it. 

Things seemed to be going pretty well for the first third of the race, but at around about 8km my whole body was complaining about the stress I was putting on it. I reckon this was primarily the work of the chest infection. So, even though I was daft enough to start the run in this condition, I wasn't quite daft enough to compound the problem by pushing myself too much. I decided to walk. After only 8km! 

In fact I recovered quite quickly, and after a couple of hundred metres I started running. I managed as far as 11km before I had to stop again, and by now I was feeling knackered and miserable with 10km still to go. I covered that remaining distance with very shortly spaced run/walk intervals. It was a real struggle, but I was actually settling down to a regular pace, albeit a slow one. In fact I could even text Clare my ETA at the finish line, which ended up being remarkably accurate.

It's a pity the second part of the race was such a nightmare, as it meant I effectively missed some of the interesting towns and scenery during that part of the course. However,  I think there's a good chance we'll be back in Alloa next year, so hopefully I'll be in better shape.

After the run we got back in the car and headed back to Falkirk. 

There we took on some much needed electrolytes at the bar in Graeme Hotel. The weather was so good we were even able to sit outside in the beer garden, which also suited Bailey the dog!

I'll finish up by saying a big thanks to Clare who happily took on the role of designated driver for the trip back to Glasgow, due to my ingestion of too many electrolytes!

Results:

Chris - 01:57:35

Frank - 02:20:29

Half Marathon a Month Challenge - February 2016 #26

Strathaven Striders 'Run With The Wind' Half Marathon - 21st February 2016

Our 26th consecutive monthly half marathon took place in and around the town of Strathaven in South Lanarkshire, organised by the well established and well known running club, the Strathaven Striders. 

The thing is, this was the second year of this event, but we hadn't seen it on the half marathon schedule when we were looking for a February event in 2015. No matter. Last year we ended up doing a home cooked half marathon in Cumbrae, which was an excellent day out.

The reason for the event's title of 'Run With The Wind' Half Marathon was two* fold.

1. The highest point of the ascent in the first half of the run took us up to Whitelee Windfarm

2. It was a very windy event

*Some runners may also have been running with personal 'wind' issues on the day, but this would have been purely coincidental.

Regarding the weather conditions, the organisers were very clear in the lead up to the event that "Gloves,hats, two layers and longs are highly recommended". I'm sure they also said that they would check if folk were suitably dressed before allowing them to run, but as with most events we've done, very little checking of anything is ever done on the day! 

I heat up very quickly on a run, even in bitterly cold weather, so I took half of the advice and wore a hat and some gloves (as well as the traditional bin bag) to the start line. Even then I only needed the gloves for about a mile. Chris is the opposite. He feels the cold (and correspondingly runs well in hot conditions, unlike me). Chris therefore ran the race in an outfit he could have climbed Everest in! 

This was also my first half marathon back on the road to recovery from my knee injury. I had been able to do some non impact cardio (but no running) along with my quads and hams strength work, so if I could come close to a finishing time of around 2hrs 15mins, I would be delighted in the circumstances.

Despite the fact that the first half of the route involved a climb up to the wind farm, the section immediately after the start was downhill. It wasn't long though until we were on the ascent. Yes, the weather was windy, wet, and cold as you would expect from South Lanarkshire in February, but I honestly didn't feel that it was any more of an ordeal than most other events. There were even times during the run when I felt really good about the world, despite the pain still remaining from the injury. 

What's more, I did complete the race around about my target time, so I was extremely chuffed with that. 

Clare and Chris (who had already finished of course!) were there as I crossed the finish line, and as we have family who live in Strathaven we went to visit them!

I have to say a sincere thanks to The Smiths for looking after us following the race, and feeding us hot coffee and hot rolls. 

Given the fact that there are not a lot of February events nearby, there is a very good chance we will be back in Strathaven in 2017. (Although there is quite an interesting mixed terrain event up in Forfar, I believe)

Results:

Chris - 02:03:42

Frank - 02:15:37

Half Marathon a Month Challenge - January 2016 #25

I've decided to now do the Half Marathon a Month Challenge posts on a monthly event basis, rather than in quarters as I'd  been doing them before. Hopefully this means that they will be fresher after the event. Of course it will take a while for them to get up to date as I am 7 months behind! I'd better start catching up quickly. Here we go then with month #25 in January 2016.

(I've also changed the format a wee bit, with results coming after the narrative)

Central Lancashire Half Marathon - 3rd January 2016

In 2014 and 2015 Chris and I had to create our own home cooked half marathons for January as there were no official events available to us at a reasonable distance from central Scotland. However, in 2016 we had a feasible event option when I saw that the Central Lancashire Half Marathon was taking place in Preston on 3rd January. I easily persuaded Chris that it be a worthwhile trip.

Alas, when the time arrived to travel down to Preston, I was still severely incapacitated with my knee injury (see Q4 2015 blog post). Although I had managed to scrape through a half marathon 3 weeks earlier with the same injury, the fact that it was our annual December pub crawl event, and therefore involved beers en route, helped me enormously.

So, I reluctantly made a tactical withdrawal from the Central Lancashire event but I still travelled with Chris down to Preston to provide both moral and practical support, and to enjoy the good swally that is now a traditional part of these trips.

We left Glasgow on Saturday 2nd January, and although we had booked train tickets straight through to Preston, the recent bad weather had damaged a bridge on the West Coast Line and we had to use the bus replacement service. (Shouldn't it be called a train replacement service? #hmhb)

We boarded the bus with trepidation, but in fact the journey was ok and it's just as easy to take a libation on the bus as it is on the train, despite the toilets being smaller and bit smellier.

After alighting the bus at Carlisle, we made the shortish journey to Preston by train, checked in to our hotel and headed out for a carb loading curry at the excellent EastZEast. This was followed by a few beers at some of the less salubrious (and a wee bit scary) establishments nearby.

In the morning we headed to the event venue, which was in Lea Town, just outside Preston. It was a very cold day as you would expect but Chris unusually decided to go out with only one layer. (I've seen this guy run in the summer with a sweatshirt on!) 

He did say after the race that it was the coldest he had ever felt during a run.

Anyway, despite all the circumstances, Chris finished in a very reasonable time, as captured in this video!

Result:  02:03:33

Well, that was Chris sorted, but I still had to run a half marathon at some point in January to keep our Half Marathon a Month Challenge continuity. It was always going to be a home cooked half marathon for me, but when would I be fit enough to run it, and where would it be?

Eastwood Loop - 31st January 2016

I spent the rest of January attending the Physio and acting on his advice on how to improve the injury.*

*Basically this involved lots of strength work on quads and hamstrings. As it usually does!

I was steadily making progress throughout the month, but I was effectively still injured when 31st January arrived and I was sitting on the sofa watching a La Liga game on the telly. It looked as if the HMAMC (for me) was going to stop at 24 months.

But it was only 6pm, and even though I hadn't been doing any notable cardio training for 7 weeks, I just couldn't contemplate waking up on 1st February having broken the HMAMC chain. I was determined to run 21.1 km (13.1 miles) right then, but what would the route be? Believe it or not, even in a large conurbation, it can be difficult to find 21.1km of contiguous and runnable kilometres.

It's time to introduce you to the 'Eastwood Loop'...

If I start running north from outside the house and follow the roads in a loop back to where I started, it goes something like this...

1km - The wee newsagent that sells Newland's rolls and has a Post Office
 
2km - Sainsbury's at Muirend
 
3km - The GHA Rugby Club
 
4km - Giffnock Polis Station
 
5km - Eastwood Toll
 
6km - Williamwood Railway Station
 
7.37km - Back to where I started!

Now the extra 0.37km is very important as it means that running around this loop 3 times is almost exactly a half marathon! How serendipitous is that?!!

Just an aside on the name, 'Eastwood Loop'. I've made that up because I had to label it for this post. It is a very popular running route. It wouldn't surprise me if 100s of runners do what is generically known as 'the loop' every week, from various starting points. However, as it takes in 3 different parts of Eastwood (Clarkston, Netherlee, and Giffnock), and only skims the city of Glasgow at Muirend, I reckon Eastwood Loop is a good name for it.

So, on a cold, windy and wet night I, unusually for me, put on 2 layers of running gear and headed out to do the loop 3 times. I already knew that due to the injury and lack of fitness it would require a combination of running and walking if I was actually going to complete it.

I set off, and unsurprisingly it was a struggle. I just kept my head down and ploughed on, and I got an nice surprise after I had completed 2 loops when my daughter Scarlett joined me for the last third of the run!

Here's a photo of us both after we finished. Suitably weather beaten!

Time: 02:50:10

So, it wasn't a great time by any manner of means, but the distance was completed, the January 2016 box had been ticked, and the HMAMC had now reached an unbroken 25 months for both Chris and me.