Saturday saw the running of the WPCCC and having run OK at the start of the season with a couple of 3rd and 4th places I thought I was in with a chance of a medal. Then a number of weeks ago I tore my hamstring and didn't realy run for almost 3 weeks. Now with a week and a half of training done I was lining up hoping to be back in shape...
We were running the same course as league 4, and I think back then I picked up a 3rd place. Now as you stand there on the start line you alway have a little look around to see who is there... Well things have changed since League 4... Graham is now 40 and is favourite for gold, Shaun has also turned 40 a couple of weeks ago and with a 1:51 800m at the begining of the year he should take silver. (maybe he'll go out to hard and come back to us the following pack, we can but hope!)
I had to go out with 3rd in mind, but as we rounded the 2nd corner Isaac came flying past and then John and some guy from Defence who I don't really know. I stayed with the 2 of them into the wind down the long back straight, but then lost them. With 2km down I was going nicely and was sort of stuck in no-mans land. I would like to say that is were I stayed for the next 6km, but 2 more guys caught me and again I could only hold on to them for the long back straight into the wind. I ran the last 4.5km on my own with the 1st 50 year old chasing me. I was pleased to keep him at bay as he had beaten me in League 2 a couple of moths ago... My time of 28:06 was 28sec slower than before and only 33 sec off 4th place and a bronse medal (Isaac, who finished 3rd, is from Boland).
now it's all eyes on TMC
Monday, August 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
HOLIDAY TIME
Planning a holiday can almost be as much fun as the holiday itself.
Back in 1997, Dawn and I planned our first big holiday together. What started out as a little trip to the USA to stay with friends and run their local marathon turned into something out of the “Amazing Race.”
Amsterdam, New York, Boston, East Lyme (where I ran my first international marathon), Houston, Texas – College Station (to visit my sister), Bermuda (ran the local T.T., a cross-country and a 10km road race). Back to Amsterdam, via New York, took a train to the south of France (Belarga) and back to Amsterdam, London for a week before heading back to Amsterdam to run their marathon and head home. All this in just 6 weeks….
I now have 8 overseas marathons and we don’t head over without the chance of lining up for another one. London, Paris, New York, Boston, Berlin just don’t excite me. The last one I did was in Macau (Far East) with only 500 runners. So what next you might ask? Well 2011 is still a long way off and anything can happen but we have a few plans. Dawn has started running in the mornings with a lady from Prague, well need I say more. Out come the Distance Runners magazines and yes Prague has a marathon in May. Now wait for it, my best friend lives just outside Salzburg and they also have their marathon in May, just one week later. So I was thinking about racing Prague and jogging Salzburg with Richard. Sounds like the makings of an epic holiday. Forget about the running, how can one go wrong visiting Prague and Salzburg. Ok Prague is expensive and the Salzburg marathon is boring and not well organized, or so I’m told. So keeping our options open we kept looking. Scratching through old brochures Dawn came across something that has thrown a spanner in the works. Switzerland, the land of chocolate, cheese and snowcapped mountains… She had found the brochure for the Zermat Marathon in the Alps. We love Switzerland and I’ve already run a couple of marathons in the Alps and would love to run another.
Back in 1997, Dawn and I planned our first big holiday together. What started out as a little trip to the USA to stay with friends and run their local marathon turned into something out of the “Amazing Race.”
Amsterdam, New York, Boston, East Lyme (where I ran my first international marathon), Houston, Texas – College Station (to visit my sister), Bermuda (ran the local T.T., a cross-country and a 10km road race). Back to Amsterdam, via New York, took a train to the south of France (Belarga) and back to Amsterdam, London for a week before heading back to Amsterdam to run their marathon and head home. All this in just 6 weeks….
I now have 8 overseas marathons and we don’t head over without the chance of lining up for another one. London, Paris, New York, Boston, Berlin just don’t excite me. The last one I did was in Macau (Far East) with only 500 runners. So what next you might ask? Well 2011 is still a long way off and anything can happen but we have a few plans. Dawn has started running in the mornings with a lady from Prague, well need I say more. Out come the Distance Runners magazines and yes Prague has a marathon in May. Now wait for it, my best friend lives just outside Salzburg and they also have their marathon in May, just one week later. So I was thinking about racing Prague and jogging Salzburg with Richard. Sounds like the makings of an epic holiday. Forget about the running, how can one go wrong visiting Prague and Salzburg. Ok Prague is expensive and the Salzburg marathon is boring and not well organized, or so I’m told. So keeping our options open we kept looking. Scratching through old brochures Dawn came across something that has thrown a spanner in the works. Switzerland, the land of chocolate, cheese and snowcapped mountains… She had found the brochure for the Zermat Marathon in the Alps. We love Switzerland and I’ve already run a couple of marathons in the Alps and would love to run another.
Monday, August 2, 2010
IS RUNNERSWORLD, RUNNER'S WORLD?
I gave up subscribing to Runnersworld a long time ago, why you might ask. Well I had read it all before. For 10+ years RW hadn't had a new article in it The same things had been thrashed out month after month, year after year: Run Your Best 10km, 6 Weeks to Your 10km PB, The Only 10km Program You Will Ever Need, 10 Weeks to Your First 10km Race...
After a 2 week layoff for a hamstring injury I was back running again, and joined Dawn for the 10km race in Pinelands. At the entry tables they were handing out back copies of RW. I was lucky to lay my hands on 5 different months from Dec '09 to June '10. I was keen to see if they had any new articles. Well to my utter surprise not one of the old articles were there. Dec '09's cover boasted articles like: "Shape of Your Life 21 easy ways to get slim & strong", "Get More Flexible 3 easy moves", "Beat stress", "The Heat Factor", "Drop 2 Kilos (or 5 ... or 25)", and that was just Dec '09. The other months weren't any better; "Lose 4kg", "Buy a New Outfit", "Better breakfast", "The Mommy Problem". So it looks like RW has lost it's few articles from the 80's and has found a couple of 'Shape', 'Cosmo', 'Menshealth', and 'GQ' articles to use instead.
I'm not saying it's a bad magazine it's just not RW it's Jogger's World!!! But then that might be the way to go as all the big races are about the back runner (shouldn't use runner here) who requires 3hours+ to finish a half...
After a 2 week layoff for a hamstring injury I was back running again, and joined Dawn for the 10km race in Pinelands. At the entry tables they were handing out back copies of RW. I was lucky to lay my hands on 5 different months from Dec '09 to June '10. I was keen to see if they had any new articles. Well to my utter surprise not one of the old articles were there. Dec '09's cover boasted articles like: "Shape of Your Life 21 easy ways to get slim & strong", "Get More Flexible 3 easy moves", "Beat stress", "The Heat Factor", "Drop 2 Kilos (or 5 ... or 25)", and that was just Dec '09. The other months weren't any better; "Lose 4kg", "Buy a New Outfit", "Better breakfast", "The Mommy Problem". So it looks like RW has lost it's few articles from the 80's and has found a couple of 'Shape', 'Cosmo', 'Menshealth', and 'GQ' articles to use instead.
I'm not saying it's a bad magazine it's just not RW it's Jogger's World!!! But then that might be the way to go as all the big races are about the back runner (shouldn't use runner here) who requires 3hours+ to finish a half...
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