New Shoes!

After running many, many more miles than I have ever run before in the last 12 months (three half marathons, that Clevedon to Filton run and the Brighton Marathon), I decided that i was way past time for me to buy a new pair of trainers.

Old faithful trainers

You can see in the photo above just how sorry my old pair had become: the tread is completely worn away, the structure is splitting apart in places, the cushioning has collapsed and you can see to the left of the upside shoe that the sole has completely worn away!  That's because I changed from heel striking to mid-foot striking about 18 months ago.

Heel Strike versus Mid Foot Strike

Above I've doodled a picture of the mechanical differences between heel-strike (how I used to run) and mid-foot strike.  The key thing with a heel-strike is the straightness of the leg - all the forces are transferred directly from the heel up the leg and through the knee joint ... I used to get a lot of knee pains when I first started running.

Over the years I strengthened pretty much every muscle in my body, but particularly in my legs and core; this enabled my muscles to take more of the impact and about 18 months ago I shifted from heel-striking.

Initially, I went full on toe-strike - this works for some people, but not for me - it was just too unnatural.

The I compromised and started landing more middle of the foot.  The effects were quite surprising.  My speed increased slightly (don't get me wrong: I am still just a plodder, I just plod slightly faster), and my injuries went down (until very recently - and that was nothing to do with how I was running, just a big increase in distance in a short time).

Mid-foot (and forefoot) running requires much stronger legs - you can see from my amazing artwork above that more joints are flexed so that muscle, rather than bone and cartilage, is taking the strain: and muscle repairs much faster than bone. 

So off I go to Easy Runner.  A small shop just off St Michael's Hill in Bristol - it's the place I've bought three of my last four running shoes.  The one pair I didn't have specially fitted were a real mistake: injuries in next to no time and I had to go back to Easy Runner to be fitted properly.

There was as bit of a wait, but I knew it was going to be worth it: they spend a lot of time assessing how you run and trying different shoes on you.  I lost count of how many pairs I tried on, but the chap knew his stuff: he could see that I no longer needed shoes that compensated for a large amount of pronation (an foreseen benefit of mid-foot strikes are that my feet no longer collapse inwards as I move from heel to toe - and that lack of collapse had transferred itself all up the kinetic chain so that my knees stopped hurting from impact and twisting inwards).

The assistant-chap was really knowledgeable and with some careful observation and gait analysis using a treadmill and a slow-motion camera was able to reveal a few things about my running that I could never know on my own.  I need to do some more glut, hamstring and abductor strengthening work.

Gradually, this chap edged me towards what he described as "transitional" shoes - something half way between the heavily padded types that I'd worn previously and the "bare foot" types that were the vogue a few years ago.

These new pair are even lighter than my last pair and are way more flexible so that they don't fight against the mid-foot striking that I've been doing, but still offer some stability.

So I'll be off for a run soon (when the rain stops) to trial out my new shoes.  Easy Runner are so confident that they'll get the fitting right for me that they'll replace them if they don't work out (as long as I've not been wading through mud).

Shiny New Shoes!

If you're interested, this is Easy Runner's website: http://www.easyrunner.co.uk/

Funky Names of Body Parts

I love the human body, some of the names given to parts of it are magical (or silly); here's some of the meanings I've dreamt up for them … can you think of others?

The Great Trochanter

Cheesy magician for children's parties, catch-phrase Spinnywinnyroundaroom!

Bicipital Groove

Seventies disco group, famous for such hits as Pumping Iron and Feel Those Guns, Darlin'

Fibula

A little lie that supports a bigger one

Teres Minor / Major

Binary star system in the constellation of Umerus

Acromion

Ancient magical text book containing all knowledge of the human body

Sciatica

A Greek Island famous for little old ladies carrying enormous loads on their aching backs

Gluteus Maximus

Roman General, famous for standing up against the Greek king, Iliopsoas at the battle of Pelvis in 104BC.

Angina

Beautiful maiden of legend, said to break men's (and women's) hearts

Brighton Marathon 2014

6am and the alarm goes off.  I turn it off.  Then another goes off, that one goes off too.  Then a third.  I set three alarms: I've been so nervous that I'd not been sleeping so good.  I get up and start moving around.  I can hear others in the hotel moving around as well.  This hotel is about 6 miles outside of town; I some to a hotel owner in town yesterday, he said that he could have let his rooms three times over!

I scoff some cereal and have a cuppa tea and a coffee, dress and jump in the car.  The park and ride is only three miles way, but I'm not absolutely sure where it is.  Anyway, I do miss the exit and then run into a horrendous queue.  But since these are all marathoners too (you can tell), I'm not worried.

The start is a park in the middle of Brighton, a few miles from the beach.  I drop my bag off with my rain mac in and wander around for a bit.  It's quite a buzz.  I am so anxious: I have no clear idea that I can do this.  I say a prayer and talk to my nan for a bit.

Paula Radcliffe does some speech about how she won so many marathons.  Funny, not stopping to take a wee didn't figure in it.

I'm in the less than four hour group.  I know that if I can do the distance, that I can't do it in e time I originally thought I could.  So I find some space at the back and just soak up the vibe.

These events are amazing: the feelings and energy at the start is electric!

Almost without knowing it, the race starts!  A loud trumpet sound and that's it.  I pretty much walk to the start line … I have a feeling that I might need every ounce of energy that I've got!  And, besides, I need to establish in my own head that I need to run at my pace and not get swept along with the crowd.  If I start too fast, I may not finish.

The first few miles of the race wind down towards the pier.  On the way I see someone else wearing an Alzheimer's Society vest, so I wish them luck.  His name is Luke and his story absolutely broke my heart: his mum has Alzheimer's and is in the final stages of the disease.  She's had it so long that he simply cannot remember a time when she was normal.

We stick together for almost the whole race.  He's good company and really helps me to keep going.  He says he's after 10 minute miles; since I work in kilometres that didn't mean too much for me, but his pace feels easy enough and we keep each other going.

The next leg of the race leads eastwards asking the coast tracing white cliffs.  It's pretty undulating, or hilly as is perhaps a better way of putting it.  But the fresh air welcome.  Trotting on it looks like we're about to turn round and then we notice that the turn around is a mile inland somewhere.  All these races do that, make it look like you're at a turn and then lead you off somewhere.

My knees are starting to hurt, so I pop a couple of ibuprofen, which help enormously.

Trotting back towards the town we pass the pier.  The next time we see it, we'll be heading back to the start.  13 miles is only a few hundred meters away from the pier, and just past that is the Brighton Centre - where (if you been paying attention) I've been recently banging on about ABBA, Eurovision and forty years.

Chat chat chat trot trot trot.

Luke says a few times that if I want to run ahead, that I should feel free to.  I say the same to him.  At one point I say that I've got a stitch and say that he'd best go on ahead.  But we stick together.

My emotions are a bit random; sometimes I feel like crying: this whole experience is so amazing.  I am so stunned that I am doing this: that geeky, bullied kid runs a marathon!

We head into some posh residential region.  Suddenly I found that I was tired and bored.  This is a really long straight stretch and it's doing my head in.  Miles fourteen and fifteen are an absolute drudge.  Then sixteen is approaching and suddenly I'm full of beans.  An energy gel might have helped, but I was aware that I was coming up to seventeen miles and I wasn't crippled.  So I'm cheering myself and Luke on, but he doesn't look right.

His furthest run was eighteen miles, only a mile further than myself, and he was now approaching that.  I keep cheering him on.  Then he gets cramp.  The penny drops: he is struggling and can't keep up. I'm really disappointed, but I'm not helping him, so I go ahead.

The final stretch is westward towards some power station type thing and back.  I feel great!  Mile twenty, twenty-one, then twenty-two, then crash!

Pain increases and power fails.  I take more energy gels and drink, but it's become a struggle like never before.

But I can now see the pier.  I know it's less than four miles - that's a windy run home.  An easy run.  I just have to keep going, one foot at a time.  I can do it.  I know I can.  I only have to keep it up for less than an hour.  Then only twenty, fifteen, ten minutes.

Then I pass the pier - only four hundred meters.  I feel as though I'm going to cry and then I can see it!  My legs are moving, but I'm not going any faster, but I am getting there!

Emotions are all over the place, they have been all weekend, all race!  I pass the line and my mind is completely blank!  All I want is to lie down.  My heart it's beating and feels quite unlike anything I've ever felt before.  My hands feel numb.  This isn't good: I have to try and keep moving and come down gently.  God!  I want a cup if tea!

So there you go.  I run 26.2 miles and what I want most is a nice cup of tea!

After the race, I wait around and watch some of the other runners come in.  It's really moving: these people are still moving and this is now five or six hours after the start.  All sorts have run in this race.  As you'd expect, there's the usual young hotties, but there are the old, crippled and flabby running too: these are the ones that inspire me - this is a real challenge for them and they did it!  I don't know any of them, but I feel such immense admiration for them!

I'm so dazed after the race, that it takes me a couple of hours to work out that the bus back to car park was behind me the whole time … and so I come home from one of the most incredible experiences if my life.

When I got to bristol, I continued up to St Peters church to sit by my Nan's grave and show her my medal.

My emotions continue to wander all over the place - elated at one moment and tears the next.

Thank you everyone for your love and support: I could not have done it without you - together we will have raised (including ALD's contribution) about £900.