London calling

After a day off on Monday I managed to extend my intervals to a mile each at 17.5 kph (I'm trying to get into the mentality of runing a 26.2 mile Marathon in New York, rather than a 42.2 kilometer one...). This time I planned ahead and brought a spare pair of shoes for when the first pair became all sweaty and slippery. Unfortunately, I killed another treadmill in the process - this time one of the ones in the gym at work - which resolutely refused to continue, forcing me to move to another one. By the last set of the 6 intervals, I found I had to knock a smidgeon off the pace because I was beginning to gasp for air after only 500 meters or so. While I think I could have finished the workout at the designated pace, I'm not sure how much additional beneift it would have given me and it would have felt like a competition level effort. After all, when I had a coach, he never had me train at maximal effort, only at above my anaerobic threshold.

I was in London on Wednesday and England was enjoying a bit of a heatwave. Since moving to Madrid, I've become very conscious of just how humid it is in London. Also, for logistic reasons (like being dressed in a suit and having my suitcase with me), I decided to get a day pass for a gym near my London office. The good thing was that the machines were exactly the same ones we have in the work gym in Madrid but the bad news was that it was even hotter in this gym than I am used to. I was also a little bit stiff from my interval session the day before so I only ran for 30 minutes at my "Marathon pace" of 4:00/km (15 kph) before running the remaining 10 minutes at an easier pace which would hopefully help me recover for the next day.

The new console for my "deadmill" arrived on Thursday so I was excited to get back to training in my basement. It was a little bit fiddly to change but I did it with no problem other than the machine wouldn't turn on at all. After a few calls to the very helpful service department (as well as a bit of cussing and swearing, if I am honest) I realized that there had to be a simple solution. In effect, there was: the switch was in the "on" position (I'm not that stupid) but it just needed pressing in a bit more. In fact, this seems to be the cause of the machine reseting itself mid-run every now and again. A judiciously placed blob of Blutack has done the trick.

The rest of the week I rather boringly repeated the same workout as many times as I could. It is not the most efficient way to train but my objective at the moment is to get as used to Marathon pace runing as possible while doing relatively short and relatively intense workouts. Hopefully mentally as well as biomechanically, running at 15 kph is becoming a bit of a doddle.

Monday: -
Tuesday: 6 x 1,600 m @ 3:25/km (last one at 3:30/km)
Wednesday: 30' @ 4:00 + 10' @ 4:30 (London)
Thursday: 40' @ 4:00
Friday: 40' @ 4:00
Saturday: 40' @ 4:00 (morning), 20' @ 4:00 (afternoon)
Sunday: 40' @ 4:00 (morning), 40' @ 4:00 (afternoon)

Deadmill

The week didn't get off to a great start as I had a bit of a dodgy tummy on Monday. It can't have been too bad, though, because by the time it was time to do my run, I'd forgotten all about it and took the rather unwise decision to start immediately after eating dinner. One of the many advantages of having a treadmill at home is that you can fart away to your heart's content; this, however, was not the right moment for it. After 20 minutes, all the jumbling around of my food in my stomach was too much for me and I ran (literally) to the toilet. I didn't feel up to carrying on afterwards so I left it at that.

I was fine the next day - it was probably just the hot weather rather than a virus or anything I had eaten. As we were planning to go and see "Despicable Me 2", I did my 40 minute run at 15 kph at work, followed by hill sprints (up to 3 this time) and plyometrics (240 contacts).

I managed to get my intervals up to 8 lots of 5 minutes at 17.5 kph, which is the top speed of my home treadmill (or, at least, it was - see below). I got so sweaty that I had to change my shoes at one point - the slight extra effort required when I lose traction on the belt was just too much. As I've said many a time, I sweat a lot. So much, in fact, that most of the little buttons on my treadmill no longer work. Almost all the "shortcut" buttons that allow you to start the belt up directly at a particular speed, for example, no longer work. On Thursday evening, I set everything up for my run and found that now the little "arrow" buttons to increase or decrease speed had also stopped working. This means that my treadmill can now only go at 4 kph or not at all. It was a fairly good excuse for cancelling my run (it was still too hot outside). There is a silver lining to every cloud, I thought, and went to the shop to see how much a new, faster and hopefully more robust treadmill would cost. A slightly faster one would cost twice as much and a more robust one, like the ones you find in gyms, would cost around €6,000!!!

Instead, I did the responsible thing and rang up the manufacturers of my treadmill (a Proform 780 ZLT), who were extremely helpful. For a very reasonable (I thought) €160 they are sending me a brand new console which I should receive next week. If this one lasts another 3 years then I expect that something else will give out first (and then I can justify buying a faster treadmill!). Even so, I think I will try to find some way to sweatproof it a little better.

This weekend it was the turn of my parents to get a visit down in Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol. In hindsight I would have been better off running in the relative cool of the evenings but instead hauled myself up in the mornings in a half-hearted effort to beat the sun out of bed. On Saturday morning I ran down to the beach, cooled off by lying fully clothed in the sea for a while and then started the hard climb back to my parent's house up in the village. I much prefer to run up and then down rather than down and then up so the next day I went for a "run" in the mountains.

One of the more "friendly" bits

The paths were very rocky and the stones weren't all that stable so running was not an option for most of the way. To be honest, being so steep it was a very different exercise to the one I was accustomed to. I found that my calf muscles started to burn in spite of them being well trained from running on the balls of my feet. I realized that it was a very different use of my muscles from the elastic demands put on them by road running. I enjoyed the climb with its rewarding views and I liked to think that these paths were well known by my Dad who has hiked them many a time.

Going down was in some ways much easier (less tiring) but in other ways much more difficult (more technical). I slipped a number of times but never losing my balance entirely. The Vibram Spyridons held up admirably and my feet didn't feel any worse for all the rock bashing they had endured. Still, this was just a baby hill (375 metres climb in 2 kilometres) - I can't imagine how people complete these ultra trail runs... I suppose everything you can train for.

Monday: 20' @ 4:00 (toilet break!)
Tuesday: 40' @ 4:00, hill sprints, plyometrics
Wednesday: 8 x 5' @ 3:25
Thursday: (treadmill -> deadmill)
Friday: 40' @ 4:00, hill sprints, plyometrics
Saturday: (Benalmádena) 60' @ 4:36 (not including dip in the sea) w/ 250 metres ascent
Sunday: (Benalmádena) 60' hiking / running along rocky mountain path w/ 375 metres ascent in 2 km

In a village of La Mancha...

This weekend we were in Don Quioxote territory with a wine tasting in a bodega in Tomelloso - the birth place of my wife - and a weekend with the suegros who live in Ciudad Real ("Royal City"). To avoid the searing heat, I dragged myself out of bed on the Sunday and went for an hour run, at around 4:05 per kilometer. This is part of my current plan to train fairly little but always at speeds at around or above my Marathon pace. This time last year I was cycling and even swimming more as an alternative to running in the scorching sun.

I only did one day of interval training but I managed to extend it from 8 lots of 1 km at 17.5 kph to 8 lots of 4 minutes at the same speed (which works out to be about 15% extra). Other than several 10K runs in 40 minutes on the treadmill, I did a reasonably demanding spinning class with "El depilatorrrr" as I call him, as well as some plyometrics and hill runs. The steep hill sprints are a favourite of Brad Hudson, whose book I read towards the end of last year and which formed the backbone of my training plan for Seville Marathon. He never has his athletes pump iron but instead sends them out to sprint up 6-8% gradient hills in bursts of 8 seconds. As he recommended, I started off by only doing two of these; next week I'll move up to three and so on.

Plyometrics are another thing I want to incorporate into my training plan for New York Marathon once it gets in full swing. I have become convinced that a large part of my recent improvements in running are due to strong, elastic tendons in my lower legs and feet. Plyometrics have been shown to strengthen the tendons as well as to increase their stiffness and this, coupled with the knowledge that this stiffness appears to be a differentiating factor of elite Kenyan runners over their white counterparts, means that there is every reason that the could help me improve my speed and endurance. Even though it may seem trivial to simply hop up and down, it is important to warm up properly beforehand because it is quite easy to get injured if you are not careful. It is also important to execute them properly, springing back as reactively as possible, otherwise the required training effect will not be obtained. The best article I have found so far on the subject can be read here.

On Wednesday evening I set out to do another one of those 40 minute 10K runs on the treadmill but felt dizzy and lightheaded after about 25 minutes. It was strange: my legs didn't feel tired and I was breathing as I would normally on any aerobic run. It is true, however, that I often get funny signs in my eyes in the first 10 minutes or so of running. I put it down to running in the dark while watching a film on the projector - perhaps the LEDs from the running machine burn into the peripheral areas of my retina, although it does also sometimes happen when I run outside. Another more probable explanation is that I should warm up before launching into my run, even if I am considering it to be an aerobic ("easy") run. I shouldn't kid myself: I checked Jack Daniel's training tables and a 4:00 per kilometer easy run is something a 2:20 Marathoner would do (obviously, this would be part of a much higher volume plan). Anyway, it felt as though I had "bonked" after just 25 minutes of running!! I frantically stuffed any cereal bars I could find in the cupboard into my gob, including some I remember being given free at the end of the San Silvestre race back in December. I managed to finish the remaining 15 minutes without any problem but it served as a warning to me that some carbohydrates are necessary if I am going to insist on moderate intensity training.

Monday: -
Tuesday: 8 x 4' @ 3:25
Wedndesday: 25' + 15' @ 4:00
Thursday: spining
Friday: hill sprints, plyometrics
Saturday: 40' @ 4:00
Sunday: 60' @ 4:05 (outside)

Summer training

Although training in the heat has its advantages (the only one I can think of being that you get better at training in the heat), as my next objective is New York City Marathon in November, it makes more sense for me not to suffer too much just yet. So I have been avoiding training outside for the most part, as well as avoiding training in the gym at lunchtime which becomes equally unbearable due to the heat generated by all those other people seeking refuge from outside temperatures.

As a result I've been training every evening after work on my home treadmill with a large fan on full blast, which is also an opportunity for me to work my way through a TV series like the one I am currently watching: NY-LON. It is difficult, however, to do workouts much longer than 45 minutes partly due to boredom and partly because the belt becomes slippery with all the sweat. Again, I don't know whether the treadmill is getting slower with its old age, or whether I am getting faster in my old age but the fact is that I am able to run comfortably at what is my Marathon Pace of 15 kph (=15.5 on my treadmill last time I measured it). I could callibrate the treadmill again but I almost don't want to know as it doesn't really make any difference other than a psychological one. I've been doing almost all my workouts at 15 kph or faster this last week:

Monday: 40' @ 13.5 kph on work treadmill
Tuesday: 8 x 1 km @ 17.5 kph (=18 kph, 1%) on home treadmill
Wednesday: 40' @ 15 kph (=15.5 kph, 1%)
Thursday: 15' @ 15 kph, 15' @ 16 kph, 10' @ 16.5 kph
Friday: 40' @ 15 kph
Saturday: a couple of short runs of about 20' with the family on their bikes
Sunday: 40' @ 15 kph in the morning, 40' @ 15 kph in the evening

Training is always a tradeoff between speed, endurance, strength and technique. What I have been doing is clearly not focussed on strength or endurance but I think it will help maintain my speed and improve my technique. Almost independently of your ability and physiology, running at different speeds have quite different mechanics. The basic technique is the same - sure - but factors like the "springiness" of the Achilles tendons, the extension of the hips and the swing of the arms seem only to come into play at speeds of 14 kph and higher. Since I aspire to running Marathons at this speed or faster, it makes sense to me that I should be training these aspects specifically; anything less is a pure recovery run. As I start to build the volume back up, these "recovery runs" will be more important but I also hope to be able to maintain my Marathon Pace comfortably for even longer (ideally implying that my real Marathon Pace was in fact faster). This way of thinking is in line with the post I recently wrote on the idea of "inverse periodization".

Whatever the case, I am enjoying the training I am doing because it is both time efficient and quite satisfying. I just have to be extra vigilant in case I injure myself. My left Achilles is slightly sore if I pinch it hard but (TOUCH WOOD) I think it is safe for the time being.

New York Citi

On the flight over to New York from Boston, I overheard a conversation the guy sitting next to me was having on his phone. He was describing his brother, who was in his sixties and cycling 40 miles a day, as someone who suffered from that "disease, you know, that thing that some kids get which make it hard for them to relate to other people - ah, what was it called again?". I actually got chatting to him and was very surprised that, as a University lecturer as he turned out to be, he couldn't remember the word "autism" and thought that it was a disease. The reason I mention this is because, the next morning I met up with a friend who had gone to the trouble of picking up my New York City 2012 Marathon "non-finisher's" medal and, by a strange coincidence, she was now working for a charity promoting awareness for autism.

One day this will be worth a fortune on ebay ;-)

While I was waiting for her, I had a Red Bull but I was surprised to find a new, completely calorie free version (the sugar free can has about 10 calories). The flavour was a little different and I actually preferred it, so I look forward to that coming to Europe. (Red Bull is a Austrian company based on an original Thai drink.)

As I would have to spend most of the day in the office and I was meeting friends for dinner in the evening, I squeezed in a brisk 40 minute run around Central Park before meeting up with Elizabeth. The combination of the drum 'n' bass music at 180 bpm and the game of overtaking other runners meant that I found myself running at a pace of 4:10 per kilometre, even though I had told myself to take it easy. I arrived back to the hotel drenched in sweat, in spite of it being relatively cool still at that time in the morning.

I decided to try out one of the new Citi bikes, New York's answer to London's bike scheme (which, in spite of being sponsored by Barclays, are commonly referred to as "Boris bikes" after the Mayor of London who is a keen cyclist). Perhaps Michael Bloomberg was secretly hoping that the New York equivalent would become known as "Bloomberg bikes" but that sounds equally corporate as Citi Bank. Anyway, after much faffing around with the slightly clunky bike checkout system with its pages of disclaimers and rules, I took a bike down 30 blocks to a shop which stocked Minecraft memorabilia as my kids are currently hooked on the video game craze.

I didn't get too far though, on my first attempt. Unbelievably, one of the pedals came off the bike and I had to walk it back to the nearest bike rack. Bear in mind that these bikes are very solid and brand new! A couple of workmen who I asked for directions to the bike rack stood there shaking their heads in disbelief.

By now it was dinnertime so I headed to Brooklyn in a cab. I had seen on a map that the bike scheme only covered the south part of Manhattan island but had I known that there were also bike stations in Brooklyn already, I would have made the journey by bike (and have got there much sooner and with 20 dollars more still in my pocket).

As usual, I woke up very early. It's partly due to jet lag but the sun rises much earlier - in fact, by that token the time difference is exaggerated. It's certainly the case that Madrid is out of line with Morocco and Portugal which are in the same time band (I have heard that this was a pact between Franco and Hitler) but the sun seems to rise very early in New York and people also eat dinner very early. I didn't feel too much like running after my night out but I dragged myself out of the hotel. This time I deliberately left my music behind so that I would run at a more leisurely pace (around 4:30-4:40) and, rather than running round and round Central Park again, I decided to head up to Spanish Harlem and back. In an hour I made up as high as 120th street before having to turn back. It always fascinates me how the houses, the shops, the people and their cars change as you go from one end of the avenues to the other.

I caught my flight later that afternoon and I am now writing this on Sunday morning, waiting for my family to wake up. The kids must have gone to bed quite late (there are signs that my wife had a party) because it is very unusual for them to still be sleeping at 9:30 on any day of the week. It looks like it will be a lovely if not a little too hot day. Perhaps I can convince the family to go out on a bike ride: I find exercise the best antidote to jet lag.

Boston strong

I suppose technically it was the same day, although 6 hours more than the clock was showing had past since I ran the 10K race in the morning, so I decided to go for another run as soon as I got to the hotel. I thought it would be a good way to keep myself awake a few hours longer as well as making me feel tired enough to sleep well once it was (finally) time to sleep.

I decided I would try to get to the famous Heartbreak Hill which is in fact not called that at all except for one day in the year when the Boston Marathon is run. It is famous not so much for its climb or steepness but more for its location, just at the point in the race when your glycogen stores are running out. I had downloaded the Marathon course onto my Garmin GPS watch but, with all the tall buildings around, not to mention the cloudy skies, it took forever to get a good GPS signal. The temperature was perfect for running and a welcome change from the heat back home in Madrid but I was soon to discover how humid it was.

I was surprised how few runners there were and how many of them were women (in fact, nearly all – and it wasn’t because I was only looking at the female runners). The course in reverse takes you along the Back Bay area, which is like a slice of England. I was reminded of a short story I once read by Ray Bradbury, in which a couple of guys travel back in time and one of them accidently steps on a butterfly and finds, on return back to his time, that everything has subtlety changed (in fact, this was the origin of the “Butterfly Effect” later coined by Lorenz). The houses looked so familiar but the street numbers in the 1,000s gave them away, as did the cars parked outside that were bloated as if someone had inflated them by pumping up their exhaust pipes.

The Marathon route was actually quite boring apart from a nice lake that I stumbled upon but which was otherwise not visible from the road. I was starting to get quite tired after 10 kilometers, so I asked a fellow runner if they knew how much further it was to Heartbreak Hill and they told me that it was still about 3 miles so I decided to turn back. It was only later, when I uploaded the route to my Garmin, that I saw that I had got within 1,000 meters of my goal… In the end I ran a total of 30 kilometers that day, so I felt as though I had done a good day’s work and enough to justify a day off the next day.

On the Tuesday, I found a chance to run down to the Vibram USA store to pick up a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Seeyas to replace the pair that was now wearing out, as well as a pair of Spyridons which are less in need of repairing but somewhat cheaper in the States nonetheless and some Injinji "toe socks". With the humidity, I arrived at the shop totally soaking but I suppose that running shops are amongst the few shops for which it is relatively acceptable to turn up like this. I was given some paper towels to dry off with while I made my purchases. I ran back along the River Charles and realized that this was where all the runners run.

Later that evening I did a short interval session on the hotel treadmill, of 4 lots of 1,600 meters at 10 mph (approximately 16 kph). The gym, although small, was one of the best-equipped ones I have seen in a hotel.

I couldn’t really go to Boston without having seen Havard University, so this was my objective for the run I did the next day. It was a very picturesque run alongside the River Charles and there were a lot of other people doing the same thing. Every so often my watch would pick up the heart rate strap of some random person I happened to pass by. After three days of rain storms in the afternoon (to which I attribute the fact that I have now got a head cold) the weather was now sunny but noticeably less humid. I felt as though I was running downhill most of the way there and most of the way back and checked of most of my kilometer splits easily between 3:55 and 4:15. Every so often I had to stop for traffic lights, of course, but at one set a policeman actually held the traffic and waved me across.

Towards the end of my 20 km run, I stopped for some water and to cool down and watched the other runners pass by. I always find it interesting in a nerdy kind of way to critique other people’s running styles. Of course, almost everybody was heel striking and – if not actually braking – at least losing the natural spring of the foot. One guy was running on the ball of his foot but in such a deliberate way that I felt sorry for his calf muscles. There were a couple of runners who seemed to be light on their feet – it so happened they were both girls and both running in minimalist footwear. Minimalist running shoes don’t guarantee good running style and are probably more dangerous to run badly in, but I do think it is easier to learn to run well in them.

Now, off to New York…

Hare of the dog

I’m writing this post having drunk probably slightly too much in business class somewhere between Madrid and Boston.

Last week I was asked by a friend, Carlos, if I would be interested in being a pacer for the Proniño 10K race taking place this weekend. I told him that I’d love to but that it might be a bit complicated given that my flight for Boston was leaving at 12:45 the same day. But then I did the maths and realized that it was just the right side of crazy and, with a little help from my wife, it was actually doable.

I’ve been sleeping very badly all week now that the temperatures have soared. It’s a choice between being bitten by mosquitos, sweating your head off or getting a dry throat from the air con. My preference is for the third option but, in practice, I tend to suffer a mix of all three ailments. I suppose I must have been a little nervous – after all, it is a responsibility being a pacer and it’s not as though my 10K is so much better than 40 minutes that I can just breeze it.  As I was finally dropping off I started to fret that I might not be able to remember what a 4 minute per kilometer pace feels like or that, with the heat, I might find it too hard. To think that I ran a Marathon at that pace not all that long ago. I like that pace, it is fast enough that I have to put a bit of a spring in my step but I don’t get out of breath (at least, not for 35 kilometers or so).

It is probably not the best preparation for a day that is going to be about 6 hours longer than usual, to get up at 7 am (1 am Boston time). I got a taxi down to the start, in the mega complex where Telefónica has its headquarters; my wife would pick me up later with my suitcase and take me to the airport.

The time I would normally spend warming up before a race was spent with the other pacers, tying on balloons and sticking on the transfers with the various time targets: 40, 45, 50, 55, and 60 minutes. I remember the first races I ran, how I would seek out the balloon and try to get ahead. The number of times the balloon man passed me by and, with him, my chances to get a sub 40 minute finish: I haven’t forgotten what it means. I thought I would warm up by doing my usual bouncing up and down on the spot. Unfortunately, this proved too much for my balloon which bid us “adios” and floated up to the blazing blue sky, never to be seen again. I wasn’t the only one to have technical problems: several people burst their balloons while putting the stickers on. (An aside: I can't help but be reminded of a game I wrote for the ZX Spectrum when I was 10, called "Burst the Balloon". I recently went to the trouble of typing it in from the magazine in which it was published. You can now even download it from here and play it on an emulator.)

Finally, after much ado we congregated on the podium with Chema Martínez for a quick photo opportunity (this makes two with Chema in one week for me). Juan Carlos and I, as the two 40’ balloon bearers, eased in to the crowd somewhere near the front (balloons have a certain amount of kudos). We opted for holding the balloon string between or teeth so that we would clear the relatively low starting gate.

Off we went and we quickly settled into a rhythm. No more than 100m from the start some firemen were spraying cold water from a hose that was very much appreciated, even if it did fog up the sunglasses that Juan Carlos had leant me. Shortly afterwards someone pointed out to Juan Carlos that one of his shoelaces had come undone so he dropped back to fix the problem, leaving me on my own.  Of course, he didn’t take long to catch back up but I pity anyone that tried to keep up with him, thinking that he was running a 4 minute kilometer.

The course is not a very difficult one as races in Madrid go, but it is anything but flat, which makes pacing that much more of a challenge, especially as hills effect different people to different degrees. Nevertheless, we went through the halfway mark in almost exactly 20 minutes. I remembered what Carlos (not Juan Carlos) had said to me about pacing. He’d recommended me to go slightly faster than the target pace so that there was some margin left at the end for anyone struggling to get under 40 minutes. I hope I didn’t make too much of a brusque change in rhythm but I was conscious that we needed to up the ante just a smidgeon.

I had hoped that we would form a little group of people aspiring to break 40 minutes but I think it is a sufficiently competitive time that those capable of it want to get in front of the balloon. I felt bad every time I overtook someone because it is a bummer when the balloon man goes past – I know from personal experience. But some people were fading and it was important to keep the foot on the gas pedal.

Around about the 6 km mark I had my first casualty (that I was conscious of). A guy who had been sticking to my left shoulder was starting to breathe more heavily and I could tell he was in trouble. Of course I told him the complete opposite, that he was doing really well and that most of the work was done, but I wasn’t surprised when he dropped back a few meters. Of course, I didn’t let him off easily but it was too late.

I still had one guy running with me of whom I was conscious, at any rate. I’ve no idea whether he was running a Personal Best or not but I decided I would make it my mission to get him across the line before me. I hope it didn’t come across as patronizing or anything like that but I tried to encourage him by simply saying out loud the things I say to myself when I am in a similar situation. “Focus on your running form, run lightly”. “This hill is very short, it won’t affect you – think of all the training you have done”. “That long hill was a real bastard but now we’ve done the hard bit”. “Only 15 minutes to go, think of it like a long interval training”. “Only 1 kilometer to go, think of what you are going to tell your friends, make sure you squeeze out every last drop of effort”. Just then he swore as his watch had run out of batteries so I told him to forget his watch – I said that in any case the GPS could be a false friend - and just run. He sprinted ahead of me and finished very strong. Again, I’ve no idea what his objectives were but I enjoyed his achievement by proxy.

The last kilometer marker was about 100 meters ahead of where is should have been which made me wonder whether the last kilometer would be 1,000 meters or 1,100 meters. Either way, by this stage, no one was interested in the balloons and was engaged in their own personal battle. As I approached the line with the clock ticking mercilessly, I turned back and saw that there was quite a gap between me and the next runners. I started shouting at them that they could still make it and a couple of them changed up gears and managed to sprint through just in time. Again, for all I know, these might have been runners capable of a much faster time on a better day (or maybe they were just training) but you have to assume that most people are giving it their all.

One really nice thing was that a lot of people came up to me afterwards and shook my hand, presumably satisfied with their performance. A couple of people were under the impression that I had finished somewhat faster than the target time (in the end I did 39:52 which was pretty bang on) – I think this was due to the time they took to cross the start line relative to me, which meant that their relative time was much faster.

Now I had to think about my next logistic challenge: find a spot where my wife could get to with the car, in spite of the roads being blocked for the race.  Eventually we managed to find each other with a bit of help from our GPS devices. The kids are still just (but only just) young enough to appreciate being given a helium balloon. I suspect that next year they will be more interested in exploding it or simply not at all. I got changed in the street, slapped on some generous helpings of deodorant (sorry for those sitting in seats 3C and 3H in the 12:45 Madrid to Boston Iberia flight). I kept my Vibram Seeyas on as they are probably the best shoes to wear for a long distance flight.

I was offered the chance to be a pacer at another 10K race next Sunday – the “North to South” race which is a good one for getting a Personal Best as it is downhill all the way – but this would mean going directly from my flight (which arrives at around 6am) to the start. Tempting as it might be, the deciding factor is that next Sunday is our 12th wedding anniversary so I think sport will have to take a back seat (for once).

I’ll be in Boston and New York this week so I hope to be able to do some nice urban runs, as well as popping into the flagship Vibram store to stock up on next season’s footwear.