Ran two marathons back to back this weekend, and I can
really feel it. I’m absolutely physically and mentally drained. One wouldn’t
expect the latter to be much of a factor while running but any long distance
runner would agree with me that finishing a long run is largely mind over
matter. You’re body is TELLING you to stop because it’s tired and your hurting,
for which I don’t blame it for but you cast this aside and regrettably run your
body into the ground. The ability of the brain to warn you when you’re over
exerting yourself is probably a big factor in how homo sapiens is around today
rather than just a collection fossilised remains deep underground somewhere in
East Africa. Mind can most certainly overcome these pain signals (to a certain
extent) and get you over the line in such cases!
I’ve found that podcasts will be my savior on these long
distances. Because the motion of running for such a period of time becomes
intensely repetitive, you can really just switch of and listen to something
without breaking focus. Suddenly you’ve been running two hours and you’ve
hardly noticed. Run and learn at the same time, what an absolute steal!
Listened to a documentary about the Indian partition today, so have come out
with some enlightening historical knowledge that I probably wouldn’t have had
otherwise!
You’re probably wondering why the title of this post is what
it is and I’ll briefly elucidate that now. While doing an evening run on
Thursday, I was finishing up with some hill training whereby I would ascend and
descend a fairly steep slope a number of times. In the field in which I was
traversing up and down there lay a rotund man reading a magazine and consuming
what could well have been sausage rolls (or some similar pastry-based treat). Every
time I passed him, which would have been once a minute, he was chomping down
yet another sausage roll. He must have got though about 12 of them all the
while I was traipsing back and forth. As I was descending for the last time, he
got up and decided to enlighten me with some information that he clearly must
have thought would be useful. That, or he was trying to show off his superior
knowledge of training and/or running. Spitting out crumbs, he mumbled in my
direction “ I used to know Seb Coe mate. And he told me that he didn’t run down
hills, only up them…because it’s bad for you to run down hills”. That was it. I
didn’t have the heart to manufacture a worthy response to this and replied with
“Yep, thanks”. I wish I had taken the time and politely had a chat with Mr. S.
Roll about this truly profound bit of wisdom he had bestowed upon me. Not
surprised that he “used” to know Seb.
1. I’m not Seb Coe.
2. Running down hills isn’t any worse for you than
running is in general on all leg muscle and all associated joints.
3. Maybe if you spent less time eating sausage
rolls and reading the Sun, and more time running yourself then I would take
your point a bit more seriously.
I could go on with a list of things I should have said but
we get the point!
In other news, I have been in further correspondence with
the race organizer and he has granted me some great advice. Seeing as though he
has run over thirty 250km events I am taking note of most things he has eluded
to me so far.
I asked him about blister prevention, it having not been a
problem for me in the seven marathons I have run in recent weeks (I still can’t
believe that I’ve run that much). He replied saying that he hasn’t dealt with a
single blister in the thirty plus ultras he has completed by keeping up the
following regime while training:
“Blisters, again, of the 30 or so 250km events I have done, never had
a blister, even when most people have, foot preparation, simple sanding pad
from Body shop about £2, sand all hard skin off 2 or 3 times a week, moisturise
morning and night, people who have had lots of blisters have followed that
advise and have reduced or even stopped blisters in this type of event, during
the event clean and moisturize the feet after every day, attend to any
problems if they occur, dont ignore them…”
No chance am I sanding my feet three times a week! Maybe once, can
you imagine what a normal human being would think if they walked in as I was
frantically sand-papering my feet? If that weren’t enough for this
well-intentioned person to ring up the local asylum asking that they come and
collect me, they would then see me proceed to dunk both of these ‘well sanded’
feet in an industrial tub of moisturiser, smiling all the while.
I’ll only be sanding once a week…at a push.
Apologies for that! I thought it was some interesting insight into
daily life of an ultra-runner.
Thanks again to all you kind and generous souls for donating money
to the charity (KIMTA ) that I am raising money for, really does make tortuous
weekends like this worth it. If you haven’t read much about the charity then I
wrote a short piece about them early on in this blog which some of you may have
not read but sums up basically what the charity is about.
The link for donating and supporting KIMTA can be found at www.justgiving.com/fireandicekibera.
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