Silvertone Half Marathon - 2012

12/03/2012 - My Silverstone Experience.

This was a race I had not been looking forward to as much as I'd hoped. An ear operation last year had taken me out of action for three months and just when I was getting back into my fitness I developed a chest infection in January that stopped me doing anything for six weeks.

So I was not as prepared as I would have liked to be but I knew I should be able to get round but thoughts of beating last years time were right out of the question. Mind you at least I could just relax and enjoy the run without trying to better last year.

The weather the previous Sunday had been horrendous so I was watching with interest the weather forecast and it looked like it was going to be OK. My wife, who never comes with me to these races, decided to come along. This still worries me. The decent forecast obviously played a part but still .... Does she have an alterior motive? Am I about to be asked to accompany her to, heaven forbid, something like an ABBA night??

The only photo my wife took on the day

Anyway putting aside my foreboding about my wife's motives I was pleased to see it was a lovely morning; excellent, I thought, sunshine on a chilly day - perfect. I had no idea as I stood outside that morning, about to get into my car, that the day would turn out to be such a warm day and lovely day.

We set off and got to the track in good time, got parked and started the long trek to the starting pavilion. Once we got in the place was buzzing already, I'm not sure but it did seem busier than last year. I started with a nice coffee while my wife teased me with a full breakfast bun, bacon, egg, mushrooms, while I could only dream and hope that they would not run out of bacon before the end of my race. I did pop into the Adidas shop and got myself an Adidas climaproof cap which proved to be one of my best ever spur of the moment purchases. Apart from it actually being a great cap the job it did protecting me from the sun was priceless - and it only cost a tenner.

Time was getting on and my wife said that I should be making my way to the start but I waited a while longer, knowing that Silverstone never starts on time, but I was eventually standing on the track by around 11:50. As expected the start was delayed but only by 5 minutes so not as bad as it could have been. I noticed a little in front of me a chap holding a 2:11 sign, cool a pacemaker and with all my hopes of a better time than last year I though this was the chap I should stick with.

We're off !

The race starts, no wait... wait, yes..... no .... yes, and we're running..... walking, no we're running again and I can see the start line in the distance. As I cross the start line a very pretty young lady starts to run at my side and after a while it feels like she's going to be staying at my side because whenever I move and pass someone two seconds later she's at my side again. Just as I think to myself "You've still got it Stu" she drops back, no doubt having finally got a proper look at me - oh well. All was not lost as up ahead there's a very tall chap that looks very much like RF's own Gruff Eddie. I follow for a while but can't decide for certain if it's him, stupid really as I'm not sure who else it could be, and so decide to pass along side. As I did I hear "Hello Stuart". It was indeed Mr Gruff.

So I had a very pleasant 5 miles, 5 miles'ish, chatting away to Gareth and keeping the pacemaker in sight. I knew Gareth lived in the same village as myself but was surprised to learn that if we, OK I, stood on a ladder we could probably see each others houses. Nice bloke and really helped me pass the time and looking back was, with the finish, the highlight of the run for me.

Chase me !!

After about five miles I started to feel I might actually be OK on this run and, in chatting, Gareth and I had dropped a little off the pacemaker so I overtook a few people until I was just behind the guy. Looking round I could see that Gareth had not followed so I waited for a minute to see if he would come along side. He didn't and so I wondered if I should drop back a bit and find him or carry on. By now though I was interested to see how I could run the rest of the race and set myself the target of staying in front of the 2:11 pacemaker so I allowed myself to run a little less restrained.

I crept up on the miles and surprised them with a "boo" as a ran past laughing manically all the while admiring the Lycra clad derrieres of the many ladies running ahead of me. This was something I had enjoyed doing last year and it's been a fulfilling and enlightening hobby ever since, if a little creepy - my wife's words not mine. It still amazes me the range of shapes and wobbles the female bottom can achieve. At this point I'd like to thank the inventor of sunglasses. Mind you the woman in the Baywatch swim suit had a horrible bum, almost manly, and she could have shaved her legs.

So the run was going well, I was really enjoying it, though the sun had got rather hot - not what you expect on a Sunday in March. At least the organisers kept my fluids topped up with fluids with regular water and Lucozade sport drink stations. At one point I came to a water station and as I still had half a bottle of the Lucozade drink left I grabbed a bottle of water and poured it over my head. Oh it felt good but I was later to regret the decision as my watered t-shirt gave me a sore nipple. A nipple that despite the soreness and my quite obvious discomfort my wife shockingly refused, actually refused, to kiss better after the race.

The end was in sight so head down I pushed to the finish and managed to spriog home - spriog is a cross between a sprint and a jog. The finish clock I think displayed about 2 hours 13 so I went to have my chip cut off and get my goodie bag surprised that I'd finished somewhere in spitting distance of last years time. I found my wife settled in a little sun trap near one of the places that sold beer and fancying a beer myself was saddened to find they had run out, something my wife swears she had nothing to do with. So I had to go with a cider, which was OK, and a bacon roll, which was damn lovely.

And I'm done.

Last year I finished the day with a lovely big hug from Barnaby Bear but she could not make this years race so I held out my arms to my lovely wife, who grimaced and pointed out that I'd dropped my bacon roll into my lap - crap.

While sitting in the car waiting over an hour to get out of the car park I got a text to tell me I'd finished in 2 hours and 9 minutes - exactly the same as last year. 13.1 miles and I'd finished within 10 seconds of my previous time - consistent at least.

2012 Placings/Results:  Overall: 3597     Gender: 2763     Age: 250      Finish Time: 02:09:48
2011 Placings/Results:  Overall: 3938     Gender: 3045     Age: 229      Finish Time: 02:09:39

And so February ended ....

02/03/2012 - February was not so bad all in all. As mentioned before I finally got over my lung infection and started training though it was tough going at first by the end of the month I was running comfortably, if not doing the sort of space and distance I was before. In fact last night I managed an 8 mile jaunt so I was quite please though it averaged about 1 mph slower than the last time I'd done the run. Still I'm a bit more confident I'll make it round the Silverstone 1/2 marathon in just over a week.

It took a while but the last week it's been nice being able to do martial arts again without collapsing on the ground. This was fortunate as we'd been doing a lot a quite physical workouts at my combat class, loads of punching and fighting drills involving hitting and covering to protect from a solid whack coming from the pad holder - really good fun.I even treated myself to a new set of gloves.

For hitting

With Karate the time has also come to get myself a new Karate Gi as all my current ones are getting a bit worse for wear. I always wanted a Shureido as they are one of the best you can by and I hear a lot of good things about them. So I'm preparing to part with the required £140 - gulp - and fingers crossed it will fit nicely (sadly there are no local stockist that I can go to to try one on).

Lovely Gi

Anyway back to the running. Went for a nice run the other night and as I re-entered the village there had been a power cut while I was out running in the woods and everything had been plunged into darkness. Quite eerie and very peaceful - though it did have the look and feel of a post-apocalyptic world (sans destruction). One could have easily pictured zombies running through the deserted street.

Talking of monsters here my daughters latest painting (done in acrylics)

My daughters latest painting.

Snow - yay!!

05/02/2012 - Sunday and we awoke to find the world outside our house was carpeted with a deep and even layer of snow. Brilliant. So it was on with the running gear, first run out with my new running gloves, and with a wave and promise from the family to avenge my death should I not return I was off. Through the village and as soon as possible it was off roading.

Start of the off road running.

Pretty soon I was deep in the virgin snow, running in an odd knee up high way as the snow was so deep. I was trying out some snow grips on my running shoes and they were proving to be a little too grippy. They allowed little movement in the snow and my lower legs and ankles were aching. Running along the side of the fields I eventually reached the entrance to the woods and before entering removed the grips and shoved them in my pocket.

Into the woods - beware the witches house !

I'm at the entrance to the woods so I take a breath, my lungs still suffering from the lung infection I'm recovering from, and set off again.


The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

Through the woods and out the other side.

Through the woods.

 I case you are wondering all of these pictures are colour, they look black and white because there was no colour in the day. So after a while I'm out of the woods, a quick mile round a field (not really quick the snow here was about a foot deep so I was reduce to sort of bouncing along). Then it was back onto a pathway alongside the woods heading back towards the village.

Heading back.

Re-entering the village, and struggling with my fitness, I head for home and somehow manage to keep the legs moving even though I'm feeling pretty bushed. I see my house and slow to a stop at the front gate. Lovely run and I was a little sad that my fitness would not let me stay out longer. Oh well, still it was nice to be able to get out.

Nearly home.

Bring on February

29/01/2010 - January, as I alluded to in my previous post, has been ... well .... crap. My wife eventually needed to have a tooth pulled, fortunately a molar at the back, to deal with the abscess in her jaw. My chesty cough was in fact a lung infection and I got told off by both my wife and the doctor for the 5 mile run I had completed earlier in the week - oops. So cue two rounds of antibiotics and though my lungs are a little clagged up I'm now clear of infection and allowed to run again - it's good to be alive.

Glad to be alive!

So today I went for a run. Four and a half miles at under 5mph. Impressive? No to be honest, but I was just so happy to be outside and running. Later I joined my karate class for a couple of hours training and while I found myself getting breathless quickly I managed to finish on my feet.

Not on my feet.

On the up side I repaired the ceiling in the kitchen after it was ripped down due to the water leak of the new year. On the down side I've still got to repaint the damn thing. January, and consequently 2012, has so far been a mixed bag. Even my daughter's not been immune to the ups and downs. Anyway she loves Benedict Cumberbatch and the BBC's Sherlock so she wrote a tune in his honor. I really like it and the fact that she composed it in January trumps everything else that's happened and makes January overall a good month. Though not as good as February - that's my birthday month :-).

Signs of the Apocalypse

15/01/2012 - Well all the signs of the Apocalypse are there to be seen. Christmas was great, so good I had no time but to do anything but have fun. It all started to unravel after the new year.

I had been picking up on my running and keeping it up over the Christmas break, even running on Christmas day, so I had high hopes for my progress in the new year. Then on January 3rd, my first day back at work, it's 06:00 am and I'm all suited and booted and about to leave when I hear, "Stuart there's a leak in the kitchen, waters pouring through the ceiling." Rushing in I see water not only dripping from the ceiling but running down the walls - bugger. So it's a quick change of clothes and the removal of anything that might get water damaged from the kitchen. We lost a couple of photo's which was a real shame but nothing too bad. So I set about removing a section of the false wooden ceiling and bashing out a couple of big holes in the plaster one above. A quick revels a mains water pipe has burst so I turn off the mains stop cock and leak stopped we have a bit of a cleanup.

A hole in the ceiling!!

Next thing I need to let work know I'm not going to be in and that I'll take it as a days holiday - great :-(.
I know I've got a bit of 15mm copper pipe kicking about so I dig out my plumbing gear at set about replacing the burst bit of pipe. Eventually the pipes replaced, that kitchens cleans and re-cleaned and we're just left with the nasty hole in the ceiling. As it's soaking up there I decide that it's best not to patch the hole for a few days to allow it all to dry out.

Next day it's back to work and I'm not feeling well. By the end of the day I'm wrecked so go home and pretty much go straight to bed and there I stay. I've got some sort of check infection and it knocks me off my feet until the following Monday when I decide to get myself back into work. I've not taken any time off sick as I worked from my bed though to be honest I really should have. One hour into work and I'm told to go home, I'm in a right state and no one, quite rightly, wants what I've got. So I'm back home, back in bed and feeling sorry for myself. I work from home the next day but by Wednesday decide I really need to be at work.

As I write this I still have a nasty cough and I can feel my chest bubbling but after nearly two weeks I'd had enough so this morning I went for a run. A slow five miles that I really enjoyed. Time will tell whether it comes back to bite me on the arse as my chest is not feeling great but sod it I really could not take doing nothing any longer. All good things come in threes and while I seem to be slowing recovering my wife's in agony with an abscess in her jaw. 2012 has started just how the Mayans predicted - sort of.

On a lighter note I was the official photographer at my karate associations Christmas party. We have a bit of fun training the juniors then we have presentations for new belts and end of year achievements - all good fun. My daughter is nicely surprised when she's presented with a lovely silk black belt, embroidered with her on one end and her nick name on the other.

So that's it for now and fingers crossed things start to get better in 2012 for us and I hurry up and get this chest infection cleared. I really need to be banging in the miles as it's only a couple of months till I do a marathon - eek.

p.s. I got a Kindle for Christmas and it's bloody great :-)

And it's booked.

08/12/11 - Well I've managed to get going running regularly after my operation and have been doing five mile runs without any issues so I'm happy. I now need to start addressing the training I'll need to do for the Milton Keynes Marathon next year. Speaking of marathons I've entered a team into the Adidas Thunder Run 2012.  This time our team, The Thunder ReRunners, will be a 5-man team and will feature the five men from the 2011 race.  Two reasons for this. One, everyone seemed to want to do a bit more next year. Two, the amazing Linda pulled out as she's organised her own team of ladies for the race. So we're all already excited as the 2011 race was without a shadow of a doubt the best I've ever competed in.

I've been given the all clear at the hospital so there's now nothing stopping me from getting back into full training. This is good news as, without the running and martial arts, I've been piling on the pounds. Even though I've been feeling a bit of a MR Blobby I did the 2011 Santa Dash at Hemel Hempstead. It's a 5k race for the Hospice of St Francis and just a fun event to take part in. I think I finished OK for a first race back finishing in about 25 minutes. Not great but as good as I could have expected. There was no one there to take my picture so below I've included a photo of me assaulting a rather large man for you amusement.

Perfect for a caption competition

Rome and Running

01/11/2011 - Finally after 8 weeks of zero exercise I did my first run Saturday 22nd October - a massive 1.89 miles. Rubbish. The hardest, slowest, shortest run I've completed in about two years. Oh well at least I'm back running and hopefully now I can start to drop the additional weight I've gained in the last two months.

Anyway before I can do another run I'm off to Rome for a week with my loving family - so at least I could expect plenty of walking. We flew out on the Sunday, nice smooth flight, and a couple of hours after take off we're landing in Rome. A short taxi ride later and we're settled into our, small, but perfectly formed hotel bedroom.

Small but nice.

Next morning and and after a lovely breakfast we're off for a day trotting around central Rome. We headed towards the Colosseum, admiring the various Roman ruins and the quite scrummy Italian ice creams. We go to the beautiful Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II and pay the 7 euro's each to take the glass lift to the roof. A silly price really but still stunning views across Rome and the Colosseum after which we took a slow stroll back to the hotel and a beer in the bar. 

View from the top.

Evening was spent in a smashing little restaurant full of eclectic charm. 

Waiting for wine

Tuesday was the day we'd booked a guided tour of the Colosseum but a quick look at the ticket and a scratch of the head I ask my wife why we'd booked the Spanish speaking tour. Arse. So it's another 10 euros each to transfer to the English speaking tour guide - yet more money. You do get a little fed-up paying to get into almost everything when the museums etc are all free at home. Anyway the tour was good and the Colosseum quite stunning and well worth the visit. The trip back to the hotel surprisingly, by surprisingly I mean we went there deliberately, took us past the place with the amazing ice creams so we could not walk on by without loading up a three scoop cone.

The evening was spent in a very popular little restaurant which was recommended in our guide book - it was pretty shit - it was busy, distinctly average food and forgetful service. Here's the thing, the general standard of food in Rome was distinctly average.  You'd be forgiven for expecting the pasta and pizza's to be top notch but it's just not. The overriding word that springs to mind is "bland". I love Italian food, I've had some lovely pasta in some of the Italian restaurants in Bedford etc but not a single one in the week I was in Rome. 

Looking for food.

Wednesday was a day of bus hopping around Rome and visiting the sites.  First on the list was the Vatican. We'd bought a days ticket to ride the open top buses and with this you get a set of headphones that you can plug into sockets next to your seat and listen to a narration of the sites you're driving past. So we traveled and listened until we reached the Vatican. As expected it was very busy and full of nuns and priests and rather impressive.  We purchased a sandwich a drink, in my case a beer - something that surprised my wife, from a mobile food place and settled down for brunch.

Busy, busy, busy

Food and drink consumed we continued on our we doing a bit of tourist shopping on the way. I really wanted a bobble head pope but the prices were a bit too high so I had to consul myself with a nice ring instead.  It's silver with the cross and the Lords prayer engraved round it. My wife felt it was an odd choice for an atheist to chose but I liked it for it's own sake bit like religious art you don't have to be religious to appreciate it. Not that this ring was fine art, at ten euros my wife expects it to turn my finger green. 

Stopping at a cafe.

We then visited a castle and generally bummed around Rome for the day, visiting the Trevi Fountain, museums etc on our quests to see as much of Rome as we could.

Some statues in some museum

Interestingly the Trevi Fountain is stunning but if you're expecting it to be sitting in an impression plaza you're in for a disappointment. It's hidden away down some small alleyways in a small and crowded little square.

Trevi Fountain - watch your bags !!

Thursday it was a very early start as we had book to travel to Pompeii; a three hour journey by coach. The journey was broken up by a stop for a coffee, the standard visit to a craft producer and a quick stop in Naples.

Naples, it was alright I guess.

It's quite impressive standing in Naples and seeing Mount Vesuvius in the background and knowing that we were heading to Pompeii; a town destroyed by the volcano in 79AD. Anyway off to Pompeii and our first task once we arrived was to grab some lunch.  Pompeii is still lived in today and due to tourist is quite busy.

In newer Pompeii

After lunch we set off into the old city of Pompeii, home to around 25,000 people at the time of the eruption that buried it for many centuries.  First thing that shocked me was how large it was. I had this idea in my head that it was a small village but in fact it was a large Roman town - thriving and quite beautiful.

Amphitheatre Pompeii

We spent two hours on a guided tour around Pompeii and only saw a fraction of it. It really is an amazing place; from the grand buildings and marble pillars to the small domestic dwellings and the city's brothel - still adorned with rather naughty pictures on the walls. While walking around Pompeii you are taken in by both it's beauty and it's familiarity, so much of it you can relate to and recognise as not being out of place in ones own towns and citys. Welcome signs at the front doors, the shops, the public swimming baths, lead piping etc. Then you remember what befell the residence and this is brought into stark focus when you see the plaster cast of the people who perished. Inside each of these is the remains of a Pompeii resident cast forever in their dying pose. Quite moving even in the hubbub of the milling tourists. One can't help but wish that they were put somewhere better that the shelves of the storage areas or in the glass cabinets in dark corners.

Then the long couch trip back to Rome arriving back at 9pm very tired and hungry. So we hit the local Mc Donalds and ordered for England. Excellent day. Friday we spent the day prior to flying home chilling around Rome and enjoying a HUGE beer at one of Rome's many bar/cafe's. Then the flight home which was delayed because one of the planes tyres went flat just as we were about to take off which meant sitting on the plane for a couple of hours while the tyre was replaced. Still all in all an excellent trip away.