Brighton Marathon

      Originally I was gonna run a 50 mile race to raise money for Thomas Hayes and the JDRF charity. Thomas has type 1 diabetes and children as young a 5 years old are now getting diagnosed with it. The JDRF support children with type 1 diabetes. Not only do they support and help but they are not into the idea of a "quick fix" cure. They are after long term cures to help the suffers and it sounds like they are well onto their way with all the research and discoveries that they are making. I read quite a lot about the condition myself so that I could try and relate to people like Thomas and what he is going through everyday. Sounds like you really need to listen to your body and take control of it and you need to test your blood sugar levels quite a lot.

     Anyway, I wasn't sure I could run the 50 miler so tried to get into London marathon for the JDRF but it was too late, but they got back to me straight away and asked if I wanted to run Brighton marathon instead. I gave it some thought and said "Yes". They phoned me and we had a chat. Very nice, friendly people indeed. We emailed from time to time and they sent out my running pack with vest, sponsor forms, magazines, badges and balloons etc..

That was back in January. I seemed to start my training off with that 50 mile race on the 1st of February. You know, that race I wasn't going to do.. I got round in one piece but needed a fair bit of recovery time before I could resume my training. An ultra-marathon is much harder than a marathon surely? Wrong. I did not plan on racing 50 miles but I did plan on racing Brighton marathon. Distance is not what hurts, it's pace! And the faster I run, the more recovery time I seem to need.

      Despite the 50 mile race, I seemed to be behind on my training runs. I was running okay distances but the pace seemed pretty slow. I didn't want to rush or over-train.
Not long after the 50 miler I got an ingrown toenail in my big toe. I managed 3 weeks of long runs with that ingrown toenail and had to squeeze pus out of it as it had also became infected. I went to the Podiatrist where a lady was able to pull out the "Spike" and file down the nail.
She then says to me "Seems to mostly ingrown toenails lately". I felt bad for her and said I had something else to show her. I then showed her my other foot and explained how I had to snap my big toe back into place during Beaujolais marathon. Now i'd got her excited! below is what she wrote for my surgical assessment.

      The training continued with much relief from the ingrown toenail but not long afterwards, I would fall off a curb after one too may ciders, whilst out celebrating a mate's 40th birthday. This really hurt and would swell up pretty badly. There was just over a week to go until Eastleigh 10k and I ran it despite the pain and the foot would swell again after the race. I was beginning to wonder if I would even make it to the start line of Brighton. I felt I had trained to the best of my ability. In fact, I had felt that this was the best I had ever trained for a marathon but I also knew that there was plenty of room for improvement.


    Race day soon come around and Di was ready to drive me to Brighton. It was early, dark and pouring with rain. Mikey decided to stay in bed and who can blame him! Thank you Di, what an amazing person you are and all that you did for me that day. A true saint :) There wasn't much traffic until we got into Brighton and Di was cutting everyone up and driving in all the wrong lanes. We even did that bit from the National Lampoons film where you keep driving around the roundabout..lol
Di parked up and I walked to the start on my own, it was quite a walk and I was yet to put my bag in and get ready to race. I had left my gels and vaseline in the boot of Di's car. Not a good start at all! I saw Paul Lacey and then Steve and Becky Cleeves. Thankfully Becky had some Aloe Vera vaseline so that my nipples would smell extra nice. (Thanks again Becky) At least it wasn't raining now. I got to the starting pen and pushed quite near to the front. There were a few announcements and the runners were getting hyped. Then came the sound of the Chemical brothers from the speakers. "Setting sun" was the song I think. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and I felt an amazing rush of energy. This was incredible. People started jumping up and down. It was time to run a marathon. A big marathon and my first flat-ish road marathon. I really wanted to go Sub 3 hours 30 and would have to average 8 minutes per mile to achieve this.

It was quite congested at the start as you can imagine. I had put down a time of 3 hours 29 mins thinking that I would be in a group of 3hr 15 to 3hr 30 pen but it was 3hr15 to 4hrs so you can imagine how big our starting group was! The first mile was also uphill despite being a flat course ;) I managed just over 8 mins and told myself not to panic and speed up just to make up the deficit like I usually do in shorter races. This was all about pace. I noticed that I was running some of my miles close to 7.30's but I felt so comfortable and relaxed so I didn't let it bother me. I just kept on running but there were concerns as my ankle was still hurting and I didn't have any gels.

   The ankle pain had subsided after 6 miles. I was feeling better and still relaxed. There were some pretty big hills for a "flat course". I guess they weren't really steep but you were climbing for a while. It was great to see the likes of Simon McCarthy, Paul lacey and Steve Cleeves flying past in the other direction. I was keeping an eye out for all my club runners but not all of us were wearing club vests. Tamsyn had spotted me and I also said hello to Laura. Everyone looked like they were doing really well and this made me even happier than I already was.
The good thing was that we got to run down the hills that we had run up. This was nice as it was close to the coast and there was a nice cooling head wind.

A big thanks to Emily Smith for the photos and support. This was me waving to Stuart. Obviously he gave me the abuse I needed and told me I was too relaxed and needed to run faster. I think this was at the halfway point. So 13 miles in and I was still pacing better than I thought I would and feeling good. This wouldn't last though..
I was now getting worried as I still hadn't got my hands on any food or gels. I had had some Gatorade on the course but that was it. I think I managed to pick up a couple of gels at mile 15. Di did try to hand me my gels earlier on when I saw her but I hesitated and decided against it. The support was amazing. There were faces popping up all over the place and faces I knew and didn't expect to see there. That's our awesome running club for you.

      18 miles in and I was starting to slow. I could feel it and see it on my garmin. I was now battling to stay under the 8 minute mile mark. I had now had 2 gels and a little girl had given me some jelly babies but I think the damage was done or I just hadn't trained well enough. I had told myself that 8.15's would have to do but in the end I settled for pushing hard and settling for sub 8.30's instead. As long as I beat my previous marathon PB of 3.39 what did it matter?
The most annoying thing about mile 18 was that I was stuck with a Batman. I was tired and feeling it but wearing me down even more was Batman running beside me and getting all the cheers and support. He was happily waving and looking all fresh while I was all sweaty and in bad form. About a mile and a half later, I wanted to punch him. It wasn't his fault, I was just struggling with my tolerance levels. I dug deeper and pushed on. Either that or he stopped for the crowds and did interviews.

   

    

     Thanks again to Emily Smith for this photo. Not so smiley now am I?? 

       I took some watermelon from a lady and said thank you. She told me that I was welcome and to carry on running and not stop. That watermelon was the best thing I had eaten in a while. I remember running a downhill bit before we got back onto the seafront. This really helped me get back into the marathon I think. My legs were achy and tired and this allowed me to open up my stride, stretch my legs and get a big of fast downhill running in. It felt pretty good and the change of pace was refreshing.  Mile 20 was soon upon us and I was under the 2hrs 40 that I wanted to be at. All was good. This part of the race was quite tough mentally though as it is a long road into a powerstation and back. It just looked like your average industrial estate to me. Those were some hard miles but it was good to see the Speedy Steve and Simon fly past in the other direction. 

     I was in agony now and the last 5 miles were a real mental battle. I felt like I wanted to walk now. There was a conflicting battle going on in my head. I kept going. It would hurt more to walk than probably run anyway. Not far ahead I saw Paul Lacey walking. This really surprised me as he's a fast runner. I caught up with him and tried to encourage him to run with me. I wanted to walk with him but that encouragement and the words I gave him were also echoing in my brain. Keep running Dean. I carried on and the last few miles were back on the seafront. There were lots of spectators now and they were cheering us on. "Well done Dean Jones, keep going". Lots of people were saying my name as it was printed on my vest. 

The last 2 miles my name was said a lot but I found it really hard to focus on getting to the finish with everyone calling out my name. My concentration was at its limit. My hearing was coming and going which was a bit scary. I then saw Matt White from our club. He was also now walking. I put my arm around him and tried to encourage him too but to no avail. I was obviously not very good at the encouragement thing by the looks of it. 

         On the last mile my toes were cramping and crossing over. This had never happened before either. Didn't look like I was going to make the 3 hr 30 mark as the two 3hr 30 pacers had just passed me. One of them stuck with me for a while which helped me push as hard as I could. Despite this, my pace wasn't fast enough to keep up with him so off he went over the line and I could see that the clock had already passed 3 hrs 30. 

I got to the finish line and the time read 3 hrs 31 mins 30 secs. Luckily I got my sub 3hr 30 on chip timing as it took me nearly a minute to cross the chip timing mat. My official time was 3 hours 29 minutes and 30 seconds. I had done it! 

   It sure was a great race and I am so happy with the time that I achieved. I managed to raise £529.02 plus £124.05 of gift aid, so the total I raised was £653.07. I wanted to raise at least £500 even though I only needed a target of £300. The JDRF support on the day was fantastic. I also got to meet the team and got a great post race massage and a bag with lunch in it. The XL t-shirt from the race actually is Xl and fits me and a great medal too. I would recommend this race if you are going for a fast time but it's very expensive to enter if you're not entering via a charity. 

   A massive thanks to all who sponsored me, the people who cheered me on, the well wishers, the JDRF charity and Di for looking after me and keeping me sane :) 

Southwick Country parkrun

          Graham and 2nd Lordshiller home Mr. Neil Garton. Photo stolen from parkrun page.

   
        So Neil says, "Do you fancy running Southwick parkrun on Saturday? It's my mate's 50th parkrun". The first thing I do is go onto the parkrun website and try and locate the place. Where the hell is Southwick? Turns out it's just by Trowbridge in Wiltshire. "Yes Neil, I would love to, but I have to get to a photography course in Fratton/Southsea by 2pm". "No problem he says".

      He picks me up at 7.15 and isn't late! I'm so used to the Mattingly's picking me up, I thought it meant 7.30. Anyways, off we went past Salisbury and beyond. We get there, park in the carpark and walk over to the starting area. I had obviously done my research into the course and watched a youtube video too. Nearly three loops anti-clockwise on a gravel trail path and dirt/mud track around the beautiful Southwick country park. Today was different though. When the clocks are due to change on the Sunday, the course on the Saturday is ran Clockwise instead of anti-clockwise.
I spoke to many people about this. Some said this way was an easier PB course and others said it was tougher. I had no way of knowing as I had never ran it. We met up with Neil's mate Jon who was running his 50th parkrun. We were also meeting a Graham but he was busy getting in the miles before parkrun for the London marathon. Eventually we were all standing on the grass surround by worms at our feet and chatting away. Mostly making parkrun jacket jokes at Neil's expense.

 
                        Jon who was running his 50th parkrun. Another stolen parkrun pic.

      We got in line and were briefed about the course. The ankle was still sore, so I wasn't racing hard today. I started near the back and when we started, it was an uphill gravel track. We shuffled forward slowly as it was quite congested and narrow. I didn't care as I wasn't going for a fast time.
Half a mile in and i'm pretty much clear to run at any pace I wish. I was starting to pass quite a few people now and there were some tight slippery bends in some places which made it fun. The support was great as you came to the mile point and near the finish line and you get to run past a nice pond and over a little bridge. I ran a 7.36 mile but was now pain free in the ankle and wanting to push a bit harder, so off I shot on this lovely undulating course which seemed to be pedestrian and dog walker free. I ran my second mile in 6.40 and still felt I could push. I was really enjoying this.

      The last mile was tough though and I was feeling it now. On the last bend of the course, right near the finish, the wind had now picked up. There was no wind on the first two laps but now it was very strong. I had run my third mile in 6.32 but the 0.1 mile remaining was so hard against a very strong. I pushed on and finished in a time of 21.40. I was really happy with this. Neil and co were still running so I thought i'd go back a support with one of the marshals.

    We cheered and clapped as the runners went round, shouting words of encouragement. The thing is that you couldn't tell how many laps someone had run so you couldn't really say "Well done, the finish is just around the corner" because it might not have been! Neil comes over the bridge and is running pretty well I think, but obviously I don't tell him this. "Come on Neil, put some effort into it" I holler. He tells me i'm walking home as he runs past. I laugh nervously. I hope he's joking.

                               Me trying to look all mean and serious for the cameraman

    I forget that Neil has past me despite trying to mock him and continue cheering on the other runners. I was really enjoying the smiles and thank yous that people give you when you support. I then remembered that Neil had finished and headed back to the finish line where Neil and I ate Jelly babies and Jelly beans. There was also free chocolate on the stall but it was only 9.30ish. Too early even by my standards.

   We congratulated Jon on his 50th parkrun and walked up to the Squirrel's cafe. I chatted to Graham about running and various races. He runs for Frome running club and told me about a few of the local races.
Squirrel's cafe is a charity based cafe and does amazingly tasty and cheap food and most importantly of all... Coffee!

   As we ate bacon sandwiches I got to hear so many funny stories. Most of them were about Jon. Now, I never wanted to play golf in my life until I heard half of Jon's stories. It sure was a great event with great people. Every five minutes though, Jon would threaten to apologise to a woman in a black top who he swore was the woman who he had spat in the face of on today's parkrun. It must have slipped his mind eventually because we left without approaching her.
The only other memory I have is being in the queue for more coffee and this woman telling me about her mushroom allergy. "Can you smell them?" she would say. "Disgusting things". I didn't have the heart to tell her that I loved mushrooms. "Bring me out in a rash they do and my face all swells up". Hurry up serving lady, I just want a coffee..lol.

    I would love to come back to this course and do it again. Apparently it gets quite muddy in the winter though. Very friendly people and a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Beats playing golf anyway ;)

                               Graham and Neil leading the pack on a lovely course

Eastleigh 10K 2014

Thanks to Paul A Hammond for this photo. Exchanging a few words with Stuart Smith just after 4 miles?


   The Eastleigh B&Q 10k race is a very popular race. Not only is it a Hampshire League race but it is also known as a fast, flat PB course! I had been wanting to run this race for three years now. The first year I entered I had torn my soleus muscle very badly at the Salisbury 10 mile race a few weeks before. In fact, I had torn it way before that but kept on running on it until I could run no more and was losing the feeling in my leg from time to time so it was time to finally rest for recovery and this was very slow. It took about 5-6 months again before I ran and even then I could only run about twice a week because of the aching afterwards. I now run 3-4 times a week and no more as it will still cause pain from time to time.
    Anyway, the following year I eagerly entered again, but again, I got injured at the Salisbury 10 mile race. This time it was shin splints. I was in agony straight after the race. I even went for an x-ray as I thought I had a fracture because the pain was so bad. This was due to me thinking I hadn't trained enough for the race and ran a speedy 10 miler two days before the race. This was obviously too much strain for my poor legs. Both times at Salisbury I got injuries and both times I PB'd. Next year (2014) I vowed not to run the Salisbury 10 race and just run the Eastleigh 10k. This nearly never happened though as I had fallen off a curb and twisted my ankle when I was out celebrating a mate's 40th birthday. I'm not accident prone... honestly!

My ankle on the Wednesday. 4 days before the race.

       It was doubtful that I would make it to the startline or even finish the race. I was not too confident as the ankle was still sore and a little swollen. I was long overdue a PB on a 10K race as I hadn't run a 10K race in 15 months and was hitting 41+ minutes in 10 mile and half marathon races. My current 10K PB was 42.12 from Stubbington in 2012. 41.12 was also my first 5 mile time at the Braishfield 5 mile beer race where I was beaten by Derek Goodchild.

     I didn't know what I was going to run like today. I was excited about running but not hyper enough to believe I was going to run well. I stood with Mike Mattingly in the starting grid and off we went. Mike shot off and I had trouble keeping up with him! He was weaving in and out of the congestion and I simply couldn't be bothered. It took me about 30 seconds to cross the chip timing mat and I was still walking when I crossed it. The ankle was sore and I just wanted to make sure that I didn't turn it over again, so was very cautious about every step I took and knew I had to be focused on this even in the last miles when I would be tiring and the ankle would weaken and become vulnerable.

    After 3 quarters of a mile, I was feeling good and the ankle had warmed up nicely and had now felt pain-free. I had run my first mile in over 7 minutes but wasn't too bothered. Time to give this race what I had! I dangerously cut across in front of a runner and felt bad about it even though he swore at me. In my defence, I don't think you should be in the "Sub 40" section at the start if you're going to run a 7 minute mile. Later I would also get told off by marshals for running on the wrong side of the road. I was in the zone now though and nothing was going to stop me... apart from the ankle maybe.

    There was a slight hill on the third mile. I had already passed Rodolfo but as you may know, uphill is a big weakness of mine and he passed me. This didn't last long though as after this, there was a delightful downhill where I passed him for the second time. I was flying past runners on the opposite side of the road but was still getting breathless and tired. I had hit the 5k mark dead on 21 minutes. A PB was possible at this point.
    I had decided that at 4 miles, I would ease off the pace a bit and as long as I ran the remaining 2 miles at an average pace of 6.45 each, I would PB easily. I was quite confident now. This is when I saw Stuart Smith and he was yelling abuse and telling me I looked too relaxed. Was great to see him, Rob Kelly and the other supporters from our club. I could only hear some of the supporters shout my name but weren't sure who they were. I don't really remember much about this course, it just seemed a blur as I was just focused on the race.
  I then caught Laure at about 5 mile and told her to get running. I shouldn't be able to catch her as she is super speedy. We ran together anyway, and she was now my motivation. These last miles weren't as easy as I had hoped. We were running hard and I managed my 6.45 at mile 5. I saw Dan Campion who stood out cheering as I approached. Just the sight of seeing Dan made me run faster as he is one of my running heroes and an inspirational figure :) We pushed to the end but the wind was strong against us. The last stretch seemed to last for ages. Where's the finish line? There was a lot of support at the end which always makes me want to run faster but I was struggling for a sprint finish. I told Laure to run ahead and she did and then Rodolfo flew past me with an amazing sprint that I was in awe of. I had finished with a sub 42 on my garmin and got a chip time of 41.28. That's a PB of 44 seconds :) This also happened to be my 50th race!

A great day was had with the club and it was so good to see my fellow runners who I hadn't seen for ages. This was the shortest race I had run in 15 months and it felt weird that a race could be over so soon and to be eating cake at the finish of a 10K..lol. The guilt! I also got a T-shirt but they only do Large t-shirts, so sadly I don't really have a memento from the race apart from my race number... Oh, and a PB ;)

A big thanks to Stu Smith, Dan Campion, Kathy Annals, Rob Kelly and Emily Brent for the support and the others that I forget. Now resting my ankle and hoping to make the start of the Brighton marathon.

Llanelli half marathon 2014

     The above picture was sent to me from a marshal I met at Llyn Llech Owain parkrun the day before. He was also a great supporter at the Llanelli half as were many others.

       Selina is the name of my cousin in Carmarthen, south west Wales. Every now and then she likes to talk me into races or is it the other way around? We like to blame one another anyway. I mean, who wants to get up in the dark at 5.40am in the cold and when you go to the car it's very windy and raining? Not us, that's for sure.
I have the most fun times with my cousin because we are both a bit scatty and disorganised. Of course we forgot breakfast. My cousin lives 10 miles from civilisation, high in the valleys with my aunty Thelma. We were told to leave two hours early by the race organisers because of traffic congestion. I think Llanelli is about 20 miles away from us? I'm sure my cousin will be quick to point out all my discrepancies in this report cos that's what she does best... pick out my faults..lol.
      We went to a McDonald's drive thru and this was our "Athletes breakfast". Remember when Usain Bolt woke up late, went to McDonalds for Chicken nuggets before a race and won it? Well, there's no resemblance here! I had two sausage and egg mcmuffins plus an OJ. My cuzzy was a bit more sensible and had a bagel with Jam and an OJ.

      We got to the car park near the start about an hour and a half early. We were too early. Not much going on but it had stopped raining. We sat there for a while exchanging our miseries and phantom injuries. More people started to arrive and they were warming up with an hour to go and we just sat there people watching and chatting away. Eventually we got out and walked over to the start at the Scarlets Rugby stadium. An impressive big stadium with lots of history. I read through the captains of the rugby club over the years. There were no captains during World war 1 or World war 2, I guess they were busy. Anyways, feels like i'm waffling a bit now!

     We queued for the toilets, put our bags in the bagging area and made our way to the start. Everyone stumbled out to the start at the last minute as it was cold and quite windy. I said goodbye and good luck to Selina and then we were off. I wanted a pb today but would have to run an average mile of 6.45. This didn't happen at all though.

    The course went past the stadium and onto a main road which was closed for us. We ran down a nice hill and ran around a roundabout. This was an out and back course so this hill would be going up at twelve miles. This is still labelled a flat course though as the gradients are gradual and pretty much even out with the ups and downs.
We came off the road and onto a trail path that went past a lake with a couple of swans in. This was the 5k point where I had blown up. I was tiring already and couldn't work out why. The booze from Friday night maybe, the parkrun the day before or the Mcdonalds? Probably all off those factors. Plenty of excuses anyway. I kept on pushing regardless. It got harder as we ran onto the coastline and along it. There were points where we were running on wet sand on top of the tarmac. This felt quite hard going. There was another climb coming to the halfway point and it was good to see the speedy runners coming back the other way. The support on this race was great. I got a lot of nice comments in my Lordshill Southampton vest. Although I might have been mistaken for a Port Talbot runner as our vests are very similar. Maybe they stole their design from New York road runners too ;) I even saw the speedy people from parkrun who gave a nod and said hello.

    On the way back along the coast at mile seven or eight, the wind was very strong and this lasted for about a mile I guess. About nine miles in I saw my cousin Selina coming the other way. She was pointing to her knee and saying it wasn't good. I felt bad for her as I really wanted her to get a sub two hour half as she was so close at Cardiff (about a second out I think)  but she has struggled with knee injuries from time to time but it didn't stop her from doing the New York marathon in November!

     I got chatting to a few people and other runners encouraged me as they past me as they could see I was struggling but still trying hard. On the last mile some guy ran with me up the hill and told me I was doing well which was nice even though I knew I was about 6 minutes out on my target time. It was a great race but nowhere near the time I wanted. I only had myself to blame though. Usian Bolt had tricked me into a false sense of security. Should I sue? Anyways, I crossed the line in 1hr 35 or 36. One of my worst run half marathons but I thought it was a great course and had great support. I would do it again and am tempted just because my time was so bad. I got a really big shiny medal and a bright red woollen hat.

    It rained hard and the wind picked up as I waited for Selina. I managed to catch up with my parkrunning buddies from the day before and then I went inside and changed as I was getting cold quickly. After a can of coke I came back out and waited for my cousin. Despite her bad knee, she was stubborn and wouldn't DNF. Cos that's the Jones way ;) She had picked up a man along the way who was helping her in, via words of encouragement. Looks like we both needed help that day to finish. Got to love your fellow runner. So many selfless people out there in the running world. She was limping but still running. Crazy girl, love her. We went back to the car and decided never to eat McDonalds before a race again. It was now off for a family carvery in Carmarthen :)
The next thing you know, Selina is talking about Loch Ness marathon! To be continued...

I was trying to take a selfie at the end but was struggling to fit much of me in when two girls came along and offered to take the pic for me on my phone. They were quite pretty so I was nervous and struggled to smile..lol

Llyn Llech Owain parkrun

Sorry for stealing the above picture, not sure who owns the rights to it but thanks. This is the lake at Llyn Llech Owain parkrun that you run around. Easily the most scenic parkrun I have done so far. Llyn Llech Owain country park is situated in Gorlas.

         I was in Carmarthen visiting family and running the Llanelli half marathon on the Sunday, so why not try and fit in a parkrun on the Saturday too? I had done my research and the directions from the website where really straight froward. About a 12 mile drive from Carmarthen down the A48, turn left at the crosshands roundabout and into Church rd and a up a big hill. Then we got lost.. We drove up and down the hill a few times but eventually saw another runner and followed him. It was just a simple right turn into a big spacious carpark.

        I turned up with about three minutes to spare, although they weren't really spare as I still had to get my running shoes on. I made it to the last thirty seconds of the race briefing and then all the runners walked to the start. We chatted amongst ourselves and I was taking in the beautiful day and scenery. A nice trail walk to the start where we were given a few guidelines and a few jokes were made. Everyone was in good spirits and I felt very welcome indeed. There were only 58 runners which was a nice change from the crammed 500+ we have at Southampton parkrun every week now. Off we went..

Me after the finish. There is a really nice cafe for refreshments and a big brekkie if you fancy it.

      I wasn't going to go too fast as I had accidentally drunk seven pints of cider the night before and had to race Llanelli half as well. Not my best idea! The sun wasn't quite out but it was a lovely fresh morning and it wasn't raining for a change. The course takes you around the country park on a trail with some great undulations to make it more interesting and challenging. I would recommend trail shoes for this course as it can be uneven and bumpy in places but me and trail shoes don't get on. There are plenty of twists and turns and then you see the picturesque lake in all its glory. After that you turn into a slightly denser wooded area which is cool and shaded and then out you come into the light with the finish in sight and some supporters, but of course you've only done roughly 1.5 miles and have to go around again yet ;)

       For such a small parkrun the support was fantastic. People were cheering me on and clapping and smiling. You can tell that they have a really good community there. I spoke to some people after the race. One of the marshals asked me about parkrun in Southampton as he has been there and obviously I was representing my Lordshill road runners t-shirt. Spoke to one guy from Bassett in Southampton as well who had moved to Swansea ten years ago, he was also doing Llanelli half. I then spoke to Liz and Jack Tremlett. Liz was run directing on this day and she was telling me how her and husband Jack had set up and organised this parkrun. Very inspirational stuff. They asked if I wanted to do a warm down run with them. Of course I did! We were all running Llanelli the next day as well. I thought Liz was joking when she asked if anyone wanted pacing at the start of parkrun but she previously got a 1hr 29 half marathon time at Llanelli. She's pretty speedy! And her husband Jack has a parkrun PB on this course of 17mins 25. Some warm down this was going to be..lol.
The four of us ran another loop. Me, Jack, Liz, the Swansea dude and a little cute dog. As usual I chatted too much.

Look at that elevation! No wonder I was struggling for breath, it's 800 ft in the air ;) That's my excuse anyway :)

       I can't wait to go back and do this parkrun in the summer. Definitely something to look forward to :)

The Thames Trot 50 mile Ultra Marathon

(Mikey and myself at the start. Pic by Ellie Coulthard).

              We were thirty-five miles in and I needed to stop. I was dehydrated, dizzy and having a panic attack. I told Mikey I needed to stop to catch my breath and urinate. My urine had confirmed the seriousness of my dehydration. It was dark like treacle. I hadn't even seen it this dark after a binge drinking session. Now I was really panicking and thinking I was going to die. Mikey did his best to reassure me as we walked and I drank more fluids. That was the worst I had ever felt during a race and there were still fifteen miles to go. This is what was happening all inside my head but on the outside it was a bit like this...

             I got up at five a.m on the first day of February. Mikey and Di were coming to pick me up at 5.30. Of course, they didn't turn up at that time so I had time for another coffee on top of my bowl of Special K. We then went to Eastleigh to pick up Ellie who was coming to support with Di. Di is Mike's wife if you didn't know. We were on our way to Iffley in Oxford to run fifty miles. Well, I was only going to run twenty miles wasn't I? But we know that's not true already from my previous paragraph!

           Rob Kelly had talked me into entering this race and after some careful consideration I had said yes. We then talked Stuart Smith into it and later found out that Simon McCarthy that already entered too. If you didn't know, all the people I have mentioned so far are from my running club "Lordshill road runners". I must also mention that there were two crazier people before us to do this Thames trot race a few years ago, Dan Campion and Phil Dimech. These guys finished in under Nine hours with a lovely snowfall finish.

        I was doing my research and had read many books on running ultra marathons. Mikey and myself had run our furthest in August of last year, completing 50K on the Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 race. Only Nineteen more miles to add then! I read the write up over and over that had been published in our club zine fron Phil and Dan. I was doing marathons here and there but not really training for a fifty miler. Your longest run was supposed to be at least thirty-one miles. I struggled to run twenty miles in my last marathon. Everyone was pulling out of this race, me included. Mikey who I had talked into entering was still keen though. Was he really mad enough to run it on his own? I felt guilty and said I wasn't doing it but would run the first Twenty miles or so to support and keep him company.

(Thanks to Ellie Coulthard for this pic of the start in Iffley).

       We arrived at the pub to register, got our chip timing wrist watches and numbers. We also collected a technical t-shirt. I asked for an XL but ended up with a Small somehow. We had a Bacon sandwich and another coffee at the bar. The start was delayed by about twenty minutes due to last minute course changes. The changes were being made because of all the flooding on the Thames, but the race was still going ahead and that must have taken some tough organisation.

    We set off at a nice slow pace knowing that we had a few miles to go. It was quite surprising to us how fast people were actually going. We were pretty near the back and there weren't many behind us. We followed the runners in front but when there weren't runners in front we didn't have a clue where we were going or if we were going in the right direction. About Three miles in I had already stubbed my toe and tripped over a curb. This was more of a Mikey thing to do rather than me. He was always falling over on his waterbottles. I was running with my rucksack to carry drinks, my coat, hat, gloves, t-shirt, toilet roll etc.. I was very well prepared.

      We had to stop running and wait for this guy to help us with the directions. We really should have had the map handy. I'm shocked that we didn't run the wrong way more often. In the end I was getting a bit annoyed with getting lost so got the map out but couldn't really understand it too well. Other runners were having the same problems so we often gathered in groups to work out the route between us. The written instructions were easier to use but didn't always make complete sense. There were parts of the course where we would see runners running in different directions but still getting to the same location. I remember this happening at least three times on the course. Who knows who ran the right or wrong way. The only thing that mattered was that we were recording the correct mileage and getting to the checkpoints. The first part of this race was diverted because of the floods so we ran through a town centre and then with some hesitation we ran into and through a village.

    The first checkpoint was only about eight or nine miles in. Ellie and Di came to meet us as we ran in. I wasn't feeling hungry yet but managed to force a banana down as I had read it was best to eat often and as little as possible. This is so that you have more blood pumping around the oxygen in your body. Blood is needed to digest the food that you eat. So eating less is more effective in that sense and can be broken down more efficiently. Anyway, I had already had enough of my backpack as it was making my back sweaty and I was now warm enough to run without a coat, hat and gloves. The sun was shining even though strong wind and heavy rain were predicted.

      We then went onto really slippery mud where Mike fell over and I thought he was going into a stream. This made me laugh but as I was laughing and running trying to catch up with him, I also fell over. After the slippery mud we had an open field of bog. I was walking carefully and I was worried with my weight that I was going to sink pretty deep in this mud. Luckily my shoe laces were tied pretty tight cos I think I would have lost a shoe. We had already ran through puddles of unavoidable water. So the feet were already cold and wet. The water was icy cold and was too painful to run when you came out of it as your feet were numb. So we would walk fast and then run again when the feeling came back into out feet.

      All we thought about was reaching each checkpoint. We had a guidebook to tell us how far each checkpoint should have been. This wasn't quite accurate because of the flood diversions but weren't too far off to begin with. Someone was calling me just before the second checkpoint. It sounded like my name was being called but I didn't think I knew anyone else at this race. Haha, small world eh? It was Dennis Cartwright. I first met Dennis through an internet running group. He was a keen marathon and ultra runner who is doing his first one hundred miler this year! Seeing Dennis lifted my spirits immensely. We ran and chatted away while looking at the red kytes hovering above us. Not very often I get to see birds of prey. What a great sight.

      There was no sign of Di and Ellie at checkpoint two so we had water and cake and then just kept on running. Yet another diverted route as we were running down a main road with the traffic zooming towards us. I think we went the wrong way to be honest and should have turned off earlier but we got to where we were supposed to in the end. I was expecting to do more walking than this for some reason. We were running a lot and only really walking up the hills and on the really muddy bits, unless we were wading through the icy cold water. Although out pace was fairly slow and relaxed most of the time.

     It was so good to see Di and Ellie running. Just seeing their smiling faces totally changed my frame of mind and my spirit. My energy levels became refreshed and I was feeling more confident now. We were nearly Thirty miles in and had just waded through some really cold, icy water. See the photo! Thanks to Dennis Cartwright for letting me use his photo below.

(Yes, we had to wade through this! Thanks for the pic Dennis).

        Just before mile thirty we were still running with Ellie and Di. At this point Mikey wanted to stop for a pub lunch but I wasn't so keen to stop for so long and we had time limits for the chceck points as well. I went in the pub with Di to order drinks and food but I was covered in mud where I had fallen over four times by now and my trainers were soaked. The pub was quite posh so we decided against the idea.
In the end Ellie and Di managed to get us baked potatoes with bacon and cheese and cake for dessert. I wasn't in the mood for anymore sweet stuff but the potato tasted amazing just after running thirty miles. I changed my socks and put my coat and hat on again as the temperature had dropped. We were sat in a car park chatting and eating and all felt good. It was great to rest the aching legs though.

        This story may be a bit scattered as it was so eventful and i'm having trouble remembering what order things went in. Everyday after this race I am still reliving it. There are so many great things to remember. It was just like a big adventurous day out. In fact, that's exactly what it was! I said to Mikey that we should just aim for thirty-five miles as it will be the longest distance that we have ever run and that in itself would be some achievement. Not bad for someone who was only running twenty miles to support! When we reached the checkpoint at mile thirty-two I wanted to change into clean, dry socks straight away. There were also pork pies, sausages and mini scotch egg things on the table to eat at this checkpoint. I was straight in there. After some more fluids we said farewell to Di and Ellie who had now picked up some DNF'ers and were taking them to the finish. Not long after we got going, my socks got wet again pretty much straight away as there were more unavoidable puddles. We had some choices to make on directions as well but Mikey was sharp enough to point out the muddier routes with the majority of footprints to follow.
From time to time Mikey would get annoyed. Sometimes the terrain got really tough to run on and he would threaten to quit but I would just laugh at him and tell him to cheer up. This was obviously easier said than done...
 
  Anyway, back inside my head at mile thirty-five.... I was having a funny five minutes and Mikey was being very supportive. I was battling away with my thoughts. It's hard to stay positive when you think you're about to die. I thought about Ellie and Di who had taken their whole Saturday to come and support us. I thought about my running club and the Campion "No pressure" quote written on my facebook wall. I knew we were never going to beat his and Phil's sub nine time but that didn't matter to me. I also remembered that I was going to run this race for Thomas. I wanted to raise awareness for his type 1 diabetes and the JDRF charity. I bottled out though. I didn't think I would ever finish a race like this. I had all my friends who believed in me and that helped so much. It was worth trying and try I did.

(The thirty-nine miles that I managed to record)

     Those funny five minutes elapsed and we were back to the running. We ran into Reading and finally onto the Thames toe-path. It was quite nice looking out onto the Thames. Mikey mistakenly pointed out a Moorhen but I knew it was a Coot. White stripe for a Coot, Red for a Moorhen. ;) Anyway, we kept on going on tired legs. After a while you get used to the legs aching and they just become desensitised. I felt like I could run forever after mile 40! My garmin died at mile thirty-nine so now we didn't have a time, pace or mileage reference. We reached the 40 mile checkpoint where I ate so much cake. Luckily Di and Ellie were there to greet us again. We now needed head torches and were lucky not to be wading through the water of the Thames in the dark a few miles earlier.

   We had made it to the checkpoint with only twenty or so minutes to spare. We were told that we had to run in pairs now as it was dark and that the finish was roughly only six miles away. We met a guy called James who would join us and run with us the rest of the way as he had no-one else to run with. He was from Wimbledon and was turning Forty in a weeks time and saw this as a great way to reach it. His friends told him he was mad and should have just got a fake tan instead.
The head torches were on and we were running up and long hill that seemed to go on for ages. We came to a shop and another runner. Who asked if we knew the way. It turned out that they had changed the finish route from what my guide book said. We waited for his friend in the shop to buy a coffee and then ran with them and were shortly joined by more runners. There were now about seven or eight of us running together. Two of these guys had run it a few times before. One guy had a GPS map of the route on his phone but only had five percent of battery power left so we had to get moving.

    We were really lucky to have met these guys otherwise we would never have found the route back and would have definitely DNF'ed. We were running through some woods when the battery on my headtorch died so I had to keep up and use the other runners light to guide me over the uneven ground and around the puddles and avoid debris. We finally found civilisation  and ran into the centre on Henley. We had people cheering us on to the end. I could see Mikey starting to pick up the pace and I wanted to do the same but the others didn't. We all ran across the finish line together. We were a team after all and if it wasn't for the others we would never have finished. We got our medals and finished in a time of ten hours and twenty-six minutes. We came one hundred and seventy seventh and still had over an hour until the cut-off time to finish. The winner finished just over five hours ahead of us! Unbelievable really.

     So, would I do it again? Yes, definitely! I have already been thinking another ultra already. To have people support you really makes a difference on these long events though. You have mood swings and highs and lows throughout but overall it is a very enjoyable experience and one I will remember for the rest of my life. Also a big thanks to Lawrence for making the "Lawrence cakes" which we ate on the way round. Until next time ;)

http://www.justgiving.com/deanjonez

Stormforce 10 Camborne

                 Although I used to live in Newquay, I have never done a race in Cornwall. I had friends down there so I thought why not book a race and catch up and do some skateboarding at the same time and throw in a cycle ride on the camel trail. The Stormforce 10 is part of the Cornish grand prix. Which is pretty much a Cornish league race from what I can work out. So you have all the Cornish clubs racing but there were also a lot of Devon club runners. Who knows how it works, i'm just making all this up now!
             
              I didn't get to the start of the race in the best of conditions and I sure wasn't going for a PB that day. I had cycled to Padstow from Wadebridge and back along the camel trail and we had then cycled to Bodmin and back from Wadebridge as well. If this wasn't tiring enough we went skateboarding in Mount hawke but after about 10 minutes I had fallen off the ramp because my back foot had slipped off the board. I then rode over my own foot causing my ankle to twist and as I fell backwards I also hit my head on the ground. I felt dizzy and a bit shaken up. Panic had set in and I was freaking out. I was helped along by Five pints of Tribute. This was all the day before my race.

              I wasn't actually expecting to be at the start-line of this race with all that beer and the stiffened ankle but it happened! I woke up, my buddy Chris made me a bagel with Peanut butter and we were off to Camborne school for the start. I collected my race number and stood staring around the room at all the other club runners. Falmouth road runners, Newquay road runners, Tamar Trotters, Truro running club, St. Austell running club etc.. It reminded me of our Hampshire road race league with all the teams in their colours gathered in different areas. A lot of runners saw my Lordshill road runners vest and spoke to me and welcomed me to their race and thanked me for coming down. What an awesome response! I even messaged Falmouth road runners to thank them for the support from their runners even though this wasn't their race. The "Carnies" were also nice though and spoke to a few other club runners at the start and on the way around.

           We were very lucky with the weather. The sun was shining and actually felt quite warm even though it was the end of January. I enquired about the course. Any hills? Terrain etc.. Slightly undulating. Yeah right! Cornish people are funny. We started on a road going downhill which was fun. Loved overtaking people but the ankle was still a little sore. It was all road and mostly country lanes with some very big hills. The steepest one was at mile 4. As I ran down it I remember thinking. "Surely we don't run up there, it must turn off somewhere". Then I just replayed the voice in my head of the man who said it was slightly undulating. He must be laughing right now. And that was enough to make me smile to myself. I battled hard to get up that hill. Everytime I run up a big hill I think about Roger Bradley from our running club. He gave me the best, yet simplest hill running advice ever. "Keep your head up Dean, how are you supposed to get oxygen in your lungs with your head down there?" Haha. That man is a legend.

          I remember wanting to average Seven minute miles as a training race but it never happened. I wanted to get some speedy miles in for the Romsey 5 as I was long overdue a 5 mile PB. So the course was just a series of country roads with hills dipping and climbing. About mile Seven maybe? We veered off to the left and onto a gravel path which was just kind of a cutway through the back of some houses. There was a really big downhill. My favourite thing in the world! I seem to get noticed in races running downhill cos I go flat out. Runners were saying well done as I passed many of them. My garmin said I was running a 5.46 minute mile but this ended up being nearly a seven and a half minute mile as this downhill had to end and mirror itself to another big hill climb just after mile 8.
It was around here that I got speaking to a man who used to live in Sway who was a keen tri-athlete and supported Bournemouth football club and drove down to watch them play a lot. I love meeting people and finding out about them. Adds to the awesome experience for me if i'm not racing flat out. Obviously, you can't actually do any chatting if you're racing properly ;)

        Anyway, the marshall just after mile Nine told me that it was all downhill now. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. The ankle was still aching all the way round but wasn't affecting my running. I sped up and did my best to run fast. It was still dry but the sun had gone in. I crossed the line around 1 hour 14 and it started to rain. I grabbed a free banana and got a pair of more mile gloves and a hat that didn't fit me and we left. I was expecting a medal but didn't get one. I think I was supposed to go back into the gym for this? Wasn't sure really. It wasn't really clear. There was hot soup available though but I just wanted to go back to bed as I was feeling so tired.

    Really enjoyed the race. Very challenging and would love to do more Cornish races. Falmouth road runners have also invited me down to train with them so I may take them up on that in the summertime.