My first Half Marathon completed!

The last six months of preparation came to fruition on Sunday when I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon, my first Half Marathon!  Here are the gory details.

I completed the 13.1 mile course in 2:06:56 - 11 minutes under my target time and 50 seconds per mile quicker than last years 10k pace!  I averaged 9min 45sec per mile, though after the second mile I got it into my head that I could possibly finish in under 2 hours, which caused me to exceed my pace for most of the race.  I was feeling remarkably good for the first 10 miles, especially overtaking many of the runners in my pace group, but the last two miles were particularly difficult as I ran out of energy.  I could feel the back of my neck tingling and, deciding that it probably wasn't a good sign, slowed down a bit.  Seeing a couple of fellow runners being tended to by paramedics in the last half mile left me in no doubt that, taking it easy at the end  was the best course of action!  My legs have only just stopped aching, but strangely I somehow avoided getting any blisters on my feet, a testament perhaps to the "Twin Skin" socks I wore.

Most runners were wearing their particular charity's official race t-shirt/vest and were getting cheered by the official cheering squads.  Thus I began to feel a little left out. Of course, I only have myself to blame as Help a London Child did send me running vest.  Not being a vest kind of guy, I sent it back in exchange for a running t-shirt, only to find that it was just an ordinary cotton t-shirt.  I was determined that I would run in a technical t-shirt whilst trying to promote the cause, hence how the "runmalrun.com" t-shirt came to be.  In practice this meant that no one really knew who I was running for, although I did hear a few chants of "Run Mal, Run" and "nice lamb chops"!  Next time I will probably stick with the official running top...

I might not have had a large cheering squad, but I did have Noreen who completed "Team Run, Mal, Run", proudly wearing the other running t-shirt I had printed!  She doubled as photographer, so had her own race to run, catching me at various points around the course.  We forgot to take the proper camera to the race, so all pictures were taken on my phone, which Noreen learnt to use that morning!  There are pre race pictures as well as at 4, 7 and 10 miles here, though she didn't get a picture of me crossing the finish line - the phone went into standby as I was "sprinting" for the finish!  The official photo of me about 50 metres from finish line is here and you can watch a pretty grainy video of me crossing the line here.

Training for this run clearly helped with improving my stamina and pace, so I can only wonder how quick I could have been, had I been more disciplined in following my training schedule.  That leads me nicely to my future plans...  Whilst I have no immediate plans for any more charity runs, I will definitely continue training, trying to get those miles under 9 minutes!  I think it is pretty likely that I will do more charity runs in future and the next one will probably be a full marathon!  Watch this space is  an appropriate phrase right about now.

Last but not least, I am delighted to tell you that I have now exceeded my fundraising target!  A big thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, I couldn't have done this without you.

Race day photos

Me, in Hyde Park at about 8:30am on a Sunday. With strangely short legs?

Practising my runner's pose. Oh yes!

Me and Noreen - Team Run Mal, Run!

Shameless promotion of blog!

Time to line up for race. Pensive.

The beginning of a long wait to run...

...so more photos of me waiting!

The view that I hoped my fellow runners would see!

Patience is a virtue, so I am told.

And I'm off at last (only to stop again about 20 metres further on)!

Way hey, running at last. This is the 4 mile point near Embankment tube station.

Here I come at 7 miles.

Back in Hyde Park (7 miles again).

Shot from a grassy knoll (at 7 miles).

Still going at 10 miles.

Cheering me on via Facebook!

If you have followed a link from Facebook, then firstly thank you for taking the taking the time to check out my Half Marathon blog!

I am running the Royal Parks Half Marathon this morning and am looking to raise as much money as I can for Help a London Child.  I am hoping you can help me in doing this by making a donation to this great charity, via my JustGiving page!

If you feel that this is a worthwhile cause, please join my Facebook group.  If you would also like to "cheer me on" via Facebook, then please paste the following into your status:

"Malcolm Fewtrell is running the Royal Parks Half Marathon for Help a London Child this morning. I am cheering him on and you can too by visiting www.runmalrun.com!"

Thank you on behalf of Help a London Child for your kind generosity.

Mal

Nearly there...

This could well be the last blog post before I race tomorrow morning, so I have a lot to get through!

I am pleased to say that as I write this, I have nearly met my minimum fundraising target, being just £46 pounds shy of the £395 minimum.  There was a big surge in donations yesterday which really took me by surprise.  A massive thank you is due to everyone who either via Justgiving or offline pledges helped me bump up my total by £124 in a single day!   The target is now in sight and so I am hoping that as the remaining donations come in, we may even exceed the target - I know we can do this!

As this is my training blog, I really should update you on where I am with my training...  I completed my final pre-race training session yesterday at the gym - a mere 25 minutes of race pace running which was a nice end to a productive week at the gym/pool.  I am looking forward to getting outside and running in the fresh air again, so in some ways the Half Marathon can't come soon enough!  The shin splints haven't bothered me in the last couple of weeks, though by Monday that may have changed.  The big question is where does my training go after the Half Marathon?  I'll save answering that one for the post race blog post.

Two of my running t-shirts have now been printed with "runmalrun.com" to help me publicise this fundraising campaign on race day tomorrow.  Thank you to Time Bomb in Croydon for getting these printed so quickly.  I had my name on my t-shirt for the 10k and spectators cheered me on by my name, so I figured it would be nice to hear "run mal, run" for 13.1 miles!  I realised that if I had "runmalrun.com" on the t-shirt then I might also get a few hits to this page as well, thus increasing my fundraising potential.  Of course I had to buy the "runmalrun.com" domain so I could redirect to this blogspot page, but it is all for a good cause.  Tomorrow morning I will be looking something like this:

Oh yes, the sideburns!  My "fuzzy bear" beard has given way to what can only be described as "Rockabilly" sideburns.  They are a little oversized, but this helps to draw attention to them.  They certainly provoked a reaction in everyone I saw yesterday - from "What's with the Elvis look?" to Noreen's "I hate them!", they did the trick!  I didn't really bank on explaining the reasons for them as often as I did, but despite the lump in my throat, it helped me focus on why I have to run with all my heart tomorrow.

So now you know what I am going to look like tomorrow, you are more than welcome to come down to Hyde Park and cheer me (and thousands of other runners) on!  And if you get bored of watching us all run, there is the Brakes Food and Fitness Festival going on in the park at the same time.  There will be many things going on, including a Farmers Market, Live Music and have-a-go Sporting activities.  It looks like it is going to be a sunny day tomorrow, so will make a great day out!

The rest of today will be spent preparing for the race - getting all the race gear together, planning travel, stocking up on carbohydrates and getting some rest.  This time tomorrow it will all be over!

Fundraising update!

Race day is inching ever closer, so it is about time I gave you an update on my fundraising progress.  After all, that's why I am doing this!

My fundraising target is £395 and so far I have raised £215.  Getting even this far is already a big personal achievement for me, surpassing the total amount I needed to raise for last years 10k.  A massive thank you is due to everyone who has so far pledged or donated via my Justgiving page!

I still have more to do, namely raise another £180.  This is a big ask, but with your collective help I am hopeful that it can be achieved.  Every donation is greatly appreciated and gets me closer to reaching my overall target.  So if you haven't already done so please visit my Justgiving page or email me with your pledge at donations@runmalrun.com.  Go on, dig deep!

The beard is unleashed.

Ha ha, I have grown a beard!  The natural thing to do when in training for the Royal Parks Half Marathon, no?  Well there is some reasoning behind it...

Many people do "fun running" in costume to help draw attention to themselves and their chosen cause.  I am a pretty serious guy most of the time and the term "fun running" always seemed a bit of an oxymoron to me.  Training hard, risking injury and worrying whether you will reach your fundraising target is anything but fun!  I was convinced that approaching the Half Marathon from a serious point of view was the key to running a good time and exceeding my fundraising target.  A training schedule, blog, facebook group and email updates, all serious rational stuff.  Yet here I am six days left, fighting injury and still with a lot of fundraising to do.  Perhaps I have missed the point of fun running?

Despite my protestations that running is serious business, I do quite admire those who run whilst wearing crazy costumes as I don't feel that I could.  But I want to do something.  Inspired by the 118 adverts of a few years back, I toyed with the idea of a big old mexican style moustache, after all they were runners.  I was even ready to call the moustache "Mick" in homage to a mates Dad who sports a moustache in the style I was after.  Then the penny dropped - I should pay homage to my Dad who passed away earlier this year.

In the 31 years that I knew him, my Dad never grew a moustache or beard.  But he did always have big "Elvis" style sideburns!  What better way to remember Dad on race day than grow some oversized sideburns.  I tried growing only my sideburns, but it looked like I had just missed a bit whilst shaving.  Growing a full beard would look slightly less rubbish and I could carve a couple of big "lamb chops" out just before race day!

So the beard is just a means to an end, a small act of remembrance for Dad on race day.  The big act of remembrance is to complete the race in a good time and reach/exceed my fundraising target..

One week to go!

Wow! Six months have passed since I signed up for the Royal Parks Half Marathon and race day is nearly here...

It wont have escaped your attention that I have been somewhat quiet of late.  A recurrence of good ol' "shin splints" in the week after my last blog post, put the brakes on my training schedule (again).  During this training hiccup, I have struggled to find things to write about.  Well how about the past six weeks for a start?

Last time, I had just completed an 8 mile run and was really stepping up the training.  The shin splints came on during the next run, so I stopped the training for that week.  I could barely walk for the first few days, but after a week of rest I felt good enough to run again.  By this time I was in Ireland and I managed to pound the hard concrete pavements for two 4 mile runs, but the pain returned on the third run.  I rested for another 10 days before resuming training at the beginning of September.  I actually managed an almost complete week of training, culminating in a 9 mile run.  True to form, the pain came back so that was my last long run.

Clearly I need to address the issue of shin splints, so finally I started doing exercises to strengthen the dorsiflexor muscles - these are the muscles that pull the foot towards the shin and in many cases the source of the shin pain.   I am also back in the gym, with some gentle treadmill running and keeping up the cardio fitness on the bikes.

So where am I now and where should I be in respect of my training schedule?  The furthest I have run is 9 miles a month ago, where as I should have been up to 12 miles last week.  I was however heartened by the feeling that I could have run a few extra miles on the 9 mile run, so am confident that I will manage the 13.1 miles come race day.

I am looking forward to race day with mixed emotions, both relief and trepidation.  Relief in that the race will soon be over and all going well, I will have pushed myself further than ever before.  Trepidation in so far as I still have to reach the Help a London Child fundraising target, though with the help of all you lovely people it shouldn't be a concern.  If you haven't already done so, please do visit my Justgiving page - all donations are massively appreciated!

Race Day - 10th October 2010.  The countdown begins...