Fundraising

My Virgin Money Giving page

I've raised funds once in my life. I was eight, my brother seven, and my childhood best friend, Andrea, was nine. When Andrea wasn't digging up dead birds and putting them through a mangle and my brother wasn't mixing slugs with salt, we were ardent animal lovers. So much so that we decided to raise money for our nearest zoo, in Chester. We had many events planned, the first being a sponsored bike relay around our estate. I went, my brother went, Andrea went. A total of about one mile. We repeated this...once more. Nobody came to watch. I think Mum poured us each a glass of cordial afterwards (probably not related). Despite the less than arduous nature of our challenge we raised the princely sum (to those still in single digits of life) of sixteen pounds.

This promptly went behind a picture in Mum's bedroom, safe and sound, until we had completed future events and could present the money to Chester Zoo in some kind of grand ceremony. It was promptly forgotten, we moved on to building a tree house, and the money, Frank Abagnale style, never found its way to Chester Zoo.

Since that day I have never undertaken a challenge that I feel is worthy of raising funds with. I feel that the challenge you set for yourself, when asking for sponsorship, should be something you are not sure you can do. Something that you will need to work for and something that isn't a given.

For me, my running goals for this year reflect just such a challenge. I've bored you with details previously (see: Welcome to my blog), but running 5km in under twenty minutes, 10km in under forty minutes, and a half-marathon in under an hour and a half represent targets I may not achieve.

Any doubts that I had, and I had many, were magnified after the Canberra half marathon earlier this month. I had trained fairly hard prior to the race, lost a lot of weight and pushed hard, but was still more than ten minutes off my goal. A very significant time difference to make up in six-nine months. This is of course the moment my old friend, Gavin Edwards, chose to get in touch with me about a fundraising offer I'd made back in early March.

Gavin's daughter, Georgie, was born with Rett Syndrome, a devastating disease that robs young girls of their futures. It presents, typically, between the ages of six and eighteen months as, initially, subtle deviations from normal development before entering a period of developmental stagnation and regression. It affects approximately 1:10,000 children, predominantly girls, across all races and ethnicities. Children who suffer with Rett Syndrome become progressively more disabled and require 24 hour care and multiple therapies that can be painful and traumatic. It is not curable.

Despite this I have yet to see a picture of Georgie that doesn't show her lighting up every room with the most beautiful smile. This is only possible because of the amazing work her parents, Gavin and Katie, do with the support of local and regional services.

It is for this cause I will be trying to raise some money. The first charity is Reverse Rett, an organisation that is helping to fund work searching for a cure for Rett Syndrome and to improve treatments and enable earlier diagnosis of the condition. Their priorities are to:

• fund research into the basic science, clinical treatments and clinical trials.
• facilitate the development of clinical treatment centres which would be capable of running clinical trials.

The second charity is Hope House Children's Hospices. They run two hospices and provide support for life-limited children, young people, and their families in Shropshire, Cheshire, Mid and North Wales. They provide their service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They rely heavily on donations and fundraising.

Both charities do amazing work and provide an essential service for children and young people who have to overcome significant adversity. It will be a privilege to help support both organisations.

And don't worry, the money won't end up behind a picture in my Mum's room.

Georgie Pie's Brighter Future
Reverse Rett
Hope House Children's Hospices

Back in the saddle

Wednesday 15th April

The thought of dropping over ten minutes from a PB in a matter of months was giving me the jitters and I was eager to get back on the road. The "oyster incident" took the wind out of my sails, putting it firmly in my bowels, for the first couple of days after Canberra, but by Wednesday I was raring to go.

Vic and I decided on a Sydney classic; Hyde Park, Mrs Macquarie's Chair, through Domain and around the Opera House. Nice and slow, 5:30 per kilometre. Felt surprisingly good, given I'd lost 200-300 grams per hour in weight the day before and had recently run a half marathon i.e. I felt awful.

The Corporate Cup was afoot at the time. Seems like a bonkers race to me. Runners of all abilities literally everywhere in the Domain. The course? Couldn't work it out. There were runners with bib numbers going in every direction on every stretch of road. No marshals to police the madness. It was like they'd herded up a random sample of folk from Sydney businesses, dressed each in a singlet, took them to Museum Road and said, "run my beautiful salespeople, run!"

We did 8km, returning through the Domain. Cracking weather.


Thursday 16th April

Intervals! Post nights!

Another Sydney classic; Liverpool Hospital to Fairfield Railway Station (ahem). The route is about 6.5km and the plan was for 1km intervals with 90 second standing recoveries. Victoria joined me, but we ran the intervals at different paces.

If not flat, this route is predominantly uphill. Charming. I like it because it uses up commute time and only crosses two or three quiet roads, the rest along designated walkway. It's also good because you can extend it by 1-2kms and run on to the next station (up to Merrylands, 12km) if you miss the train. Or perhaps that's not good.

The session was pretty tough, but I walked (hobbled) away with a new 1 km (3:35 minutes) and 1/2 mile (2:53 minutes) personal bests (estimated).

Victoria wasn't happy because her suffer score (69) was almost double mine (39). Lolz.

What have I learned from Canberra

Be very wary of oysters

It was always going to happen. There is an inherent risk in eating raw animal of any kind, with shellfish being somewhat notorious troublemakers, and sooner or later you're going to get burnt. Ironic, as they're not cooked.

The frustrating thing is I reckon I spotted this was a naughty oyster before sending it down my pie hole. It was smaller than the other five and wasn't attached to its shell. I did give it a good sniff and detected no problems, but my sense of smell is lacking and the sensitivity of this test is likely sub par.

Anyway, a day spent on the toilet, in bed, or hurriedly moving between the two has given me time to reflect on what I learnt about my progress towards a sub-90 half-marathon:

Calm before the storm

Pre-event training (weight loss)

With hindsight I remember that with foresight I had decided weight loss was going to be my target in preparing for Canberra. Christmas had obviously been unkind to my waistline and my birthday and Victoria's birthday land late January/early February respectively. These entail lots of drinking and lots of eating. Tied in with a trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open and to Tasmania for wine and cheese, this perfect storm of gluttony led to the scales tipping in at 92kg. At approximately 178cm, my BMI was somewhat unseemly.

However, with the use of MyFitnessPal and running, I have seen the scales at 78kg. As I tend to have a range of weights depending on whether I've ran that day (I sweat, a lot) and what I've eaten I'd say I've dropped from 88-92kg to 78-82kg. 10kg weight loss in just over two months. Success.

I still have weight to lose, aiming for the low seventy kilograms, but am very pleased with the progress so far.

Pre-event training (running)

I didn't follow a set programme and felt just being out on the road was the most important aspect. I did do some quality sessions (intervals, Fartlek, progression, tempo), but on the whole my runs tended to be moderate pace (4:45-5:00 min/km) over moderate distance (6-10km). My long runs were far less than ideal, doing 16-21km at around 5:30 min/km or slower.

In preparation for July (Gold Coast) I'm going to do at least two quality sessions per week and one long run at closer to goal pace. Actual run work is going to be more the focus than weight loss. I must be wary of overtraining, and will reflect on this frequently.

The taper

I think I got my reduction in running about right, but a somewhat surprising lack of energy at 6km and a truly massive stool hindering proceedings suggest I didn't succeed with my nutrition. I think the culprit was a massive portion of pretty oily pasta I ate on the way to Canberra and my evening meal (more pasta) was heavier than it should have been.

On the day my banana with peanut butter served as a good pre-race bite (around 90 minutes before the gun) and I hydrated successfully.

Race strategy

Fail. I had intended to run even splits with my pace group, but was unable to join them at the start. Trying to catch them, thus running positive splits, was an error I lived to regret. I guess this tells positive splitting isn't the correct strategy for me, or I should have at least planned this strategy pre-race. The half-way approach, mixing strategy, was destined to fail. I had planned to do even splits and I should have stuck to that strategy, regardless of whether I was with the pacers or not.

When all is said and done I can take a lot of positives from Canberra. A new PB by six minutes and lots of lessons learnt, but I'm not hiding from the fact I have a lot of work still to do.

Right, back to the toilet!

Welcome to my blog

This blog is going to predominantly document my running trials and tribulations, more specifically my distance/time targets for this year and my efforts to achieve them/fail gloriously trying/fail ingloriously trying.

I love running. Did it a lot in my early-mid twenties before succumbing to shin splints, picking it up again in my early thirties. It's great to get out and explore your surroundings and I've seen so much of the places I've lived/visited than I would have done otherwise. I'm also getting more into the social aspect of running and am meeting some inspirational people doing it.


5km in under 20 minutes

The one I'm most confident about. My PB stands at 20:05 at St Peters Parkrun, which I achieved at the third attempt a couple of weeks ago. If it wasn't for a bloody stupid hill in the middle of it I reckon I'd already be sub-20. I'm looking forward to seeing how fast I can do the 5km in this year, perhaps edging into the 18 something or other, but twenty minutes is the target.


10km in under 40 minutes

Yes math fans, that's double the 5km/20 minute target. Much less confident about this. Need to maintain a pace that I haven't yet managed for 5km for twice the distance. I have no official PB for this distance, but Strava reckons I'm around the 46 minute mark. That's probably (hopefully) an overestimate and I think I'm more around 44 minutes. We'll find out soon enough when I do the Manchester 10km in May. I've set myself a very optimistic goal of 42 minutes. Ahem.


Half marathon in under 90 minutes

I hadn't decided if I'm less confident of this target than the 10km target. My Canberra half marathon attempt tipped me into the "less confident" camp. Whilst I had some strategy issues (30 minutes in a line for the toilet and then not using the toilet, finding out at 6km that I really should have used the toilet, not making it to my pacing group by the start, trying (unsuccessfully) to catch my pacing group) I feel that I put in a huge effort (see Strava suffer score of 278) and to drop 10:32 minutes from my PB is going to be fairly taxing.


I may also use this blog to ramble about some other interests in my life (mainly eating, drinking, and travel) and work. But may not.

Craig

Misled - Canberra is not flat

So the first half marathon of the year and the second of my life. Approached it with both excitement and nerves. Had essentially no idea how I was going to do, but felt it'd be a great barometer of where I am in terms of achieving my half-marathon goal for 2015; a sub 90 minute race. The aim was to run sub-100 minutes which I felt was achievable on a flat (ahem) course like Canberra.

Cracking morning. Absolutely beautiful with a real autumn feel. Crisp, blue skies, and a bit of colour in the trees. Took some lovely pictures on the way to the start line.

Arrived a half hour before kick off and, as is Victoria's custom, headed straight for the toilet queue. I have seen a lot of toilet queues at running events without ever really needing to use their service. Wandered about a little whilst waiting and took in the atmosphere. Saw the Sydney Strider's tent and some of the running royalty of New South Wales.

With a relieved Victoria, in a couple of senses, we made a dash for the start line with only a couple of minutes to spare. There went my hopes of starting with my pacing group. This was a, somewhat unknowingly, disaster. We were at the back and I had to make a decision about whether to try and catch the 100  minute guys or just run my own race. Decided to compromise and head off 15 sec or so per km faster than necessary with the intention of catching up over the first 4-5km and, if not, settle into my own race.

It's difficult to say with certainty, as this was only my second half marathon and I don't know what strategy works best for me (positive splits, negative splits, or even pacing), but I get the sense this early quick pace compromised much of the later race.

It also coincided with one of the first, of many, hills on Canberra's 'flat' course. I don't know where I'd picked up the idea that Canberra was flat, but the myth was soon dispelled.

So here I am, running around 4:30 per km up a bloody hill. 4:30 isn't that quick, and I've ran it comfortably over distances up to 10km on numerous occasions, but by about 5km I was feeling it. And still no sign of the pacing group.

I resigned myself to pacing myself and started running in the 4:45 - 4:50 zone. Too slow to comfortably break 1 hour 40, but I was hopeful of negative splitting the last 3-5km. Optimist.

It was around this moment a stool made its presence announced. Most unwelcome. Turns out it was a monster, but I had to wait until the end of the race to find this out as I only spotted the one portaloo on the whole course. Where the hell had it come from? My diet had been in no way extravagant in the run up, but this was certainly an extravagant stool.

At 10km there's a lovely steep hill up onto a bridge spanning the river/lake than runs through the middle of Canberra. And what's that I see in the distance! My pacing group! Ah ha! But all hope of catching them quickly evaporated as I try to increase my pace and my body says "oh no you don't, fella". They were about 400 metres ahead, but it felt like it would need a Herculean effort to catch them.

Over the bridge, up another stinking hill, and right into a short out and back. "Hi pacing group! Bye pacing group," as they pass me in the other direction. Bastards. I make the 180 degree turn and straight into a head wind. Wonderful. The stool makes another announcement. Things are looking bleak. But 12km have been passed! Over half way and I'm still on for 100 minutes, although it's looking tight.

It's a pretty boring section of the race here along undulating Tarmac. 4km later and another 180 degree turn sees us heading back toward the second river crossing and the finish line! I pass Victoria going the other way. She's looking good, sub 110 minutes. We allow ourselves a high five.

More hill onto the bridge. I'm tight on time and so the negative splits start. Oh, no they don't. Body says no again. There's a hill midway along the bridge. I'll summit that then increase my pace I tell my body. A compromise I thought, but the body was in non-compromising mood.

The last km or so is cruel. It's downhill off the bridge, in a wide arc, but all the time you can see the final hill that you're going to need to ascend. After 1hr 36 minutes it looks like Everest and my psych takes a body blow. I even consider walking the final kilometre, but no! Mind beats body on this one.

Up onto the final straight, a short out and back, and over the finish line. 1:40:32.

So I didn't meet my target, but set a new PB of approximately six minutes faster than Sydney last May. Victoria crosses the line in 1:46:58. A cracking time considering she hadn't prepared as well as previous races. Her second best time (of four half marathons) and only 30 seconds off her PB.

Mixed emotions. Nice new PB, but going sub-90 feels a long way off. I feel with a better strategy (not spending 30 minutes in a toilet queue, without using the service, and actually starting with my pacing group) and less stool issues (if 30 minutes are spent in a toilet queue, at least use the bloody toilet) I would have broken 100 minutes, but I was close to my maximum. Strava suffer score: 278. Epic.

Epic indeed.