Stroud Half Marathon

On Sunday I competed in the Stroud half marathon, my second race since returning from my holiday.

I suppose with hindsight, it was always going to be a big ask. To do two half marathons in as many weekends is tough at the best of times, but when I have just got back from a very lazy and booze-fuelled holiday, and when my body probably still hasn't recovered from my first marathon, I was probably asking too much of myself.

My problem is, I enjoy these events so much that whenever there is one in my area I want to enter. I found out last year that the Stroud half usually takes place the week after the Swindon half, so I made a mental note to do both this year, and booked my place when it was advertised on the internet.

I had had a good few days' training between the two races and had a long chat with Anthony on the Friday evening. It was good to catch up, and I told him I was still finding it tough to get back into it. His advice was simple; lose the excess weight from my holiday by keeping the diet strict and laying off the booze, concentrate on speedwork to make myself sharp, and enter lots of races to get myself back into it. He also told me to forget about marathon training until the New Year, and concentrate on getting my half marathon time down to 1 hour 40 minutes by Christmas.

It's nice that he thinks I am capable of that, but I think it may be a bit unrealistic. I have entered the Bath half marathon in March of next year, and am hoping to get my time down to 1 hour 40 minutes by then.

My plan for the Saturday was to watch the cricket but after yet another dismal effort by England I soon lost interest. In the early evening I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada", which I wasn't planning on seeing, but I'm glad I went. It was a bit of a chick flick, which I often enjoy, and Meryl Streep's flawless performance will surely earn her an Oscar nomination.

I travelled up to the race with a mate from the running club, Tim. We had never travelled to a race together so it was good to get to know him a little better. Having company always makes the event more memorable. We met up with one of the other lads, Kev, when we found the race HQ. It says something about how my running has improved that I can now go out running with these boys; they are a lot faster than me (both have PBs of under 1 hour 40 at this distance) but I still manage to keep up on training runs with them. I could never have done that a few months ago.

There were a lot of runners taking part in the race - some 2000 ostensibly. There seemed to be a good mix of club runners and less serious competitors. I felt good starting off, and I think I made the mistake of starting too quickly. My pace for the first three miles was around 8 minute miles, and while I felt ok I knew in the back of my mind I couldn't maintain it.

I definitely slowed down between miles 5 to 10 even though my breathing settled down then. Slowing down at water stations wasn't a problem as there weren't enough of them! Only at the 5 and 11 mile markers were there water stations and this clearly wasn't enough. I had taken a bottle of Powerade with me in any case as I had noted this shortcoming in the race information. Less experienced runners would probably not have known how much of a problem this might turn out to be, and had the weather been warmer I think some people could have been seriously struggling.

The last few miles were the worst. I was absolutely exhausted and realised I was paying for going off too quickly. I thought to myself at this point that I was probably taking the wrong approach, i.e. I should be enjoying the race and easing myself back into training instead of going for a good time. As Tim said to me later, you're not going to get a PB every time, your body just won't allow it to happen.

In the end I managed to get across the line in 1 hour 53 minutes 58 seconds. At the time I was very disappointed as this was slower than I managed at Swindon, but later I took a more philosophical approach. Tim and Kev had also registered disappointing times (for them!) and had found it tough going.

I was also disappointed that the commemorative t-shirts had sold out by the time I finished. There were plenty of people coming in after me who would be disappointed, so this was bad planning by the race organisers. I made my feelings known later by posting a report on the runners' world website.

After the race I spent the rest of the day just chilling out with the Sunday Times and a few films on TV. I know I should be laying off the booze at the moment but I did have quite a bit of alcohol including champagne in the evening while watching "Ghost Whisperer". I worked out during the race that this was my tenth half marathon since I did Swindon last year. So that's ten in 13 months, or if you take into account the fact that there were none I could have entered in December, January and February, an average of one a month. Not too shabby at all.

So I think you'll agree that in the end I had just cause for celebration.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, October 2006

Batting failure to blame for England's one-day woes

The one-day match between England and Australia on Saturday was billed as an appetiser for the Ashes. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was looking forward to it and disappointed with the outcome. Disappointed, but not surprised.

Both captains were eager to play down the relevance of the contest to the main event and rightly so. While England's test team seems to go from strength to strength, the one-day side is a complete and utter shambles, and to my mind the fault lies with the calibre of the personnel selected, particularly in the batting department.

It seems patently obvious that the selectors are not picking players who are capable of putting the most runs on the board, and even where they are getting it right they are playing in the wrong position.

For the first 18 overs on Saturday it seemed as if this might not be the case for once. Strauss and Bell played very nicely to put on 83, and Bell's confidence against a side he struggled against last year was one of the few positives. Both of their dismissals, however, were disappointing and England really needed one of them to go on to get a hundred. Strauss' reaction to his dismissal was evidence that he knew that too. He can only have felt worse about it later after England contrived to lose all 10 wickets for a pathetic 86 runs.

Sending in Pietersen at no 3 was a good move I felt, as the idea was to give him the maximum overs to get a big score and capitalise on the openers' success in wearing down the bowlers. Sadly it didn't pay off and full credit to the bowler for bowling to a plan. There is a theory that many of the world's best bowlers have started to work KP out. This would seem unlikely however, given that he is such an unorthodox player. The idea that the pressure of being depended on to get a big score is getting to him seems much more likely.

Sending in Flintoff at 4 was not such a bright idea, especially given his lack of match practise. As he walked to the crease I feared that if he was out cheapy England would have lost the two players capable of accelerating the scoring and be dead in the water, and that is exactly what happened.

As regards the man who came in at number 5, I have no idea what he is doing in the team, let alone so high up in the batting order. I don't know what Michael Yardy's credentials in county cricket are, but his selection seems like yet another example of England's penchant for picking "bits and pieces" cricketers in one-day cricket. This policy has never paid dividends and never will.

Trescothick would have been an automatic selection had he been available, and will walk back into the team as soon as he is ready to do so. England missed a trick by not giving a young batsman a run in the one-day team to find out if he can make the same impression as he has at test level, namely Alastair Cook.

Cook would have at least occupied the crease and would almost certainly have put some runs on the board and that is what England are consistently failing to do at the moment. If they carry on getting bowled out cheaply and not batting the full 50 overs they are never going to compete in one-day cricket. Mal Loye of Lancashire may have been a better bet, or even the mercurial Mark Ramprakash, who has enjoyed such an excellent season in county cricket. Giving him the opportunity to end his international career in a blaze of glory could well have been worth the risk.

Sending Flintoff in at 5 always seems a better option, as it can strike the fear of God into the opposition knowing that such a big hitter will be coming in when 3 wickets have fallen. It gives Freddie the freedom to smash the old ball around the ground and take on the slow bowlers (a department where Australia are found wanting in one-day cricket).

As for sending in Collingwood at six when he has only Read and the tail to support him, that is just insanity. England's most dependable middle-order batsman in one-day cricket is in the form of his life and has enjoyed an excellent 12 months. To give him so little opportunity to score his runs is just crazy, and he must have felt robbed of the chance to get a big score against the Aussies and stake a claim for a place in the final XI that takes the field at Brisbane on November 23.

As for the bowlers, you can't really blame them for not getting runs. It is not their job. The most important thing is to pick bowlers who are going to take wickets (which begs the question, when can Panesar expect a call-up to the one day side?). Bowling out the opposition is always the way matches are won, irrespective of the format. And it is the job of the batsmen to put enough runs on the board to give them a decent chance of doing that. If they only have small totals to defend, they are always going to be up against it. Even if they have a modest total to defend, it is not impossible to do so as West Indies recently proved against Australia.

My only real criticism of the bowlers is of Steve Harmison, or more to the point, of the way he is being handled. Unless he can pull his socks up he shouldn't play. Jon Lewis should take his place for the (almost) dead rubber against West Indies on Saturday. He may lack Harmison's pace, but at least his radar is always switched on. The selectors seem to be condoning Harmison's inability to do his job in one-day cricket by refusing to drop him and this is wrong. No player is bigger than the team and England are in no position to carry passengers.

Saj Mahmood's bowling and in particular his dismissal of Gilchrist augurs well for the Ashes. His confidence must have soared after receiving the man-of-the-match award in the last ODI against Pakistan, and there is every reason to hope that he can be a major force against an Australian batting line-up that features too many players who are the wrong side of 35. Winning a one-day match is one thing; how their bodies stand up to the rigours of a five-day match against a potent pace attack remains to be seen.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, October 2006

Swindon Half Marathon 2006

On Sunday 15th October 2006 I competed in the Swindon Half Marathon. This was my first race since returning from my holiday.

Regular visitors to this site will know that last year, Swindon was the first half marathon I have competed in. I had trained specifically for the event, having PT sessions with Anthony Davis, and was very happy with my time of 2 hours 4 minutes.

Circumstances were very different this year. I had just returned from holiday and was struggling to get back into training - on a physical and mental level. Physically I have found training hard - obviously I put a few pounds back on during my break - no big deal, I felt, the weight will soon come off. And it takes time for the body to readjust to regular training after a long break.

Mentally I haven't felt right either. It has been hard to come down off cloud nine that I was on for so long, and I've had a feeling that nothing will ever match the sense of pride and achievement that I felt after completing my first marathon. My boss at work, David Power, has been effusive in his praise - he is clearly very proud to have a marathon runner working for him, and made a point of publicly congratulating me. I will also appear in the next edition of our company magazine with the title "Marathon runner" so the whole company will know. I never expected this to boost my career prospects, but there you go.

Anyway, back to the race. I trained up until the Thursday beforehand and on that day finally did a good run of 1 hour 40 minutes. That was the first session that felt really good, and it gave me some confidence.

I had complete rest on the Friday and Saturday, and managed to dig out my coursework from the "Writer's Bureau" and crack on with it a bit - told you I was serious about getting published.

I had a nice surprise on Saturday morning when Graeme paid an impromptu visit - I hadn't seen him since his wedding in May so it was really good to catch up. He had entered the race as well (we both ran last year) but told me he was pulling out due to a knee injury.

In the afternoon I went to the cinema (it's kind of the law now, the day before a race) and saw the excellent "The Departed". I've always had a penchant for gangster flicks, and this was right up there with some of the best in the genre.

I had my bog-standard pasta bolognaise for supper and slept really well. It helped knowing I didn't have far to travel the next day, or needed to get up early.

I arrived at the race in good time (so close to home I could have walked there) and just as I had parked up received a text from Anthony telling me he wouldn't be running, for reasons I'm not at liberty to disclose. I was kind of expecting it, but it was still a disappointment. It would have been good to see him.

There were other friendly faces there however, and I met up with Andy Benson (my old mucker from the gym) and Tamsin Simmonds for a chat before lining up on the start line. Tamsin is one of the Swindon Harriers' best female runners, and is competing in her first marathon next weekend - which goes to show that I did mine at a very early stage in my running career.

The event seemed a lot better organised this year - there was a proper pen for the runners, with seedings, and there was also a baggage tent and free massages.

I managed to find a spot to loosen up before the start and found myself chatting to Laura and Esme, two girls from the gym, on the start line. I tend to find that sort of thing calms my nerves a bit.

And then we were off! I tried to take it nice and steady at first, but as soon as we were out in the countryside I started to struggle. My legs were fine, but my breathing was terrible - I was really puffing and panting going up the hills, probably a result of putting a few pounds back on during my hols.

There was also an unexpected challenge in that one of the freelance instructors from the gym was in the race as well, and for the first half was beating me. I managed to catch him up, and eventually got past him. I had to work hard to hold on to the lead however, but I really didn't want him to beat me. Looking back that probably helped me, as it gave me an incentive to run at a fair pace instead of plodding round.

After 6 or 7 miles I felt a bit better and my breathing settled down a bit. I did find the last few miles quite tough, which to me is a sign that I had worked hard for the first 10 miles.

In the end my chip time was 1:52:14, which is only a minute off my PB, so I think I can be pleased with that all things considered. I picked up my medal, t-shirt and goodie bag and caught up with a few friends. Everyone seemed to have had a good day, but I did feel sorry for Andy who had worked very hard for this event, and was hoping to get a time of less than 1 hour 40 minutes. It didn't happen for him as he had been bitten by a dog the week before the race and was struggling with the injury. Unfortunately these things seem to happen at the wrong time, but he was suitably philosophical about it.

Before I left I decided to avail myself of the free massage service, which I think helped to get rid of some lactic acid in my legs. I then came home, found out about another woeful performance by the England one-day side and so spent the rest of the day watching films on Sky and some of my DVDs instead. Needless to say the fridge was replete with some of my favourite beer and I enjoyed a few tasty beverages that afternoon. I think I had done enough in the morning to earn it.

Let's hope that the Swindon half marathon continues to be a highly enjoyable day for many years to come.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, October 2006

Jon's Hols

I'm sitting here thinking what to write about my holidays. Suddenly inspiration comes to me as I see a postcard from Gouves on my desk (one I pinned to the fridge before I went away to give myself inspiration for the marathon). I pick it up and see the beach I was lying on for the last two weeks and my gut feeling is simple: why can't I still be there?

Yep, I had a great time. And a big part of me wishes I were still there.

The first thing I will say is I think it was a very prescient move to book a two-week holiday instead of the usual 7 nights. I couldn't have come home after a week. I hadn't recharged my batteries by then.

So what did I get up to, you may ask? What did I do with my two weeks in Crete? The answer is very little. Verging on naff-all in fact.

I just chilled out completely. With one exception every day followed the same routine. I would get up very late, do any washing I needed to do (I took as few clothes as possible to make room for books), re-hydrate, and then stroll to the Blue Sky beach bar where I enjoyed a full English breakfast, usually washed down with a pint of ice cold "Mythos" beer. Then I would either go for a stroll or head to the beach and swim in the sea or lie on the sand and read my book.

Usually I would start to feel peckish around 4-5pm and so had a snack, washed down with a couple more beers. Time then for a stroll or lying on the beach before repairing to my hotel, where I would sit for a while on my balcony with a bottle of wine and my music, until I could be bothered to shower and head to the hotel bar for a couple of beers. At the Klio apartments they keep the glasses in a freezer so the beer stays cold for longer. They know a few things, the Greeks.

Remy did a fine job of looking after his guests in the main bar, as did Faye at the pool bar and Sophie in reception. The Klio is not the greatest hotel in the world but it is clean, and things get sorted out pretty quickly. I managed to pull the handle off the door to my balcony one day and that got taken care of soon enough.

Then I would head to the "Pella" restaurant on the seafront for my dinner. I would go there for two reasons; one is that it was arguably the best place to eat in Gouves, the other is that an old friend of mine, Stavros, works there now. I met him the first time I went to Gouves in 2001, when he ran a bar with his wife. They are divorced now, and he works in this family-run business.

Some evenings I would head to the "Booze" bar where I would partake of either more beer or some cocktails. I spent one evening there pretty much on my own with Yiannis and the lovely Jenny (a 23-year old Jennifer Love Hewitt look-alike from Portsmouth) for company. I stayed until 5am that night. Other evenings I would just go back to the Klio bar for a nightcap, depending how tired I was.

The one day I was slightly adventurous was when I got up early and went on a boat cruise to the nearby Dia Island. There wasn't a lot there but it was worth it for the boat ride (a bit too choppy on the way back for my liking!) and lunch on the boat.

I also spent one afternoon at the local aquarium which was pretty cool. Other than that, probably the best thing happened on the penultimate day, when a pretty foreign rep from one of the large five-star hotels invited me to play water polo in the hotel pool. "Come on, you're not too old," she urged me in her broken English. Thanks a bunch, I thought, I've run a marathon, I'll have you know.

So I thought why not, I'll have a go. Nothing to lose at all. As it turned out it was good fun and once I figured out exactly what I was supposed to do, I surprised myself by not being too bad at it, scoring a few goals in a losing cause. I snuck into the hotel on the last day and played as well. Why couldn't I have found out about water polo on the first day? Oh well.

After water polo I finished the holiday with a meal at the Pella and said goodbye to Stavros and the rest of the staff. Stavros gave me a bottle of his own homemade raki as a gift - how nice is that? As I was leaving a guest arrived, an older man, who I found out had stayed there no less than six times this season. It's easy to see why.

But I can't go back this year. Holiday season is nearly over there. And I have lots to look forward to here: more races, the new James Bond film, Christina Aguilera at Wembley and of course, the Ashes.

There are lots of opportunities - I need to sort out my writing and get myself published. I need to rent out my house fully. And I need to do my best at work - I have a job I enjoy and a boss I think a lot of. That hasn't always happened. And there's running - plenty of room for improvement there.

I like to think of myself as a positive person, so I should see all these areas as opportunities. And next time I go away I will make sure I've earned it.

Maybe being back isn't so bad after all.

Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, October 2006