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    Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
    Great stuff, Bored. (A friend of mine had three of her kids run the Hertford Parkrun Jr yesterday)

    Interesting reading the comments about heat and hydration here. I really hate stopping to hydrate on a run - it absolutely messes with my rhythm and also often screws with my insides as the water wobbles around on its way down. I basically only drink if I'm running well over 10k, and if it's also hot, like above 20C hot. How do the rest of you cope? Do you stop to drink? Do you try and drink and run at the same time, the way elite athletes do?
    I tend only to hydrate afterwards for any exercise, I don't know why. Over 5K and I will pick up drinks if they are being offered on the course (and, on my last half marathon, a half of bitter - not the greatest idea). To be honest, on Parkruns, I tend to have so much beer in me from the night before that that must have hydrated me somewhat. Indeed, again before my last half marathon, I had 7 pints which didn't seem to do any harm and I didn't need to hydrate that much. Not of this is scientifically researched, you understand.

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      Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
      Great stuff, Bored. (A friend of mine had three of her kids run the Hertford Parkrun Jr yesterday)

      Interesting reading the comments about heat and hydration here. I really hate stopping to hydrate on a run - it absolutely messes with my rhythm and also often screws with my insides as the water wobbles around on its way down. I basically only drink if I'm running well over 10k, and if it's also hot, like above 20C hot. How do the rest of you cope? Do you stop to drink? Do you try and drink and run at the same time, the way elite athletes do?
      Firstly on Zeb's point earlier, one water station is par for the course on a 10K, I've not often seen more than one and in my experience tends to be if it's either two laps or some lollipop arrangement where you pass the same spot twice.

      I usually take what I can, I'm a right sweaty bastard once I get going and will tend to take something at every station - grab and run in the early stages but grab and walk if I'm struggling or if it's particularly warm. I'd rather make sure I wasted a few seconds and got enough rather than skimp and suffer later.

      I know partly its psychological though - my usual training courses are 4.25 or 6.25 miles and I never take fluid with me, and don't even think about it, but in a race I'll be desperately looking for the 'drinks ahead' sign once I'm past 2.5 miles (3 miles is about standard for the first station).

      Having done more than a few races now, inadequate water supplies is one of my pet hates - the Keswick Half this time last year ran out of water badly (hopefully they learnt for this year, I've not checked, cos it was even hotter this weekend), and have also seen it where organisers have said there is going to be a station at say 10 miles and it hasn't materialised because they realised they didn't have enough water and/or volunteers.

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        This thread leaves me a little upset. Lazy prick upset.
        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 07-05-2018, 20:52.

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          Copenhagen Marathon completed in 4:38 - the temperature was 18C at the start and quickly got up to 24C, so it was something of a battle for survival, particularly on exposed stretches where there was no option to run on a shaded side of the street. I had a wobble at 20km, due to one such stretch and there being a longer than average gap between water stations, so took a slow km and regrouped for the second half. I also knew racing for time was out of the question so took off my watch at that point and strapped it to my belt so I would stop looking at it, and resolved to take in the sights and enjoy the event, which I did. As an example, when I crossed Nyhaven for the second time I realised I hadn't actually noticed the first time I crossed it earlier.

          The amount of support on the streets was fantastic, with few quiet spots, and one bridge in particular was rammed with very enthusiastic, good natured support (including flares going off, strangely). There were also 12 stations, and I stopped at each and every one, and typically had two cups of water and a cup of energy drink at each, so add that to the above debate about hydration. All in all a very enjoyable event, proper city marathon. The course record was broken in the men's elite, remarkable in the conditions.

          I also did Faelledparken parkrun on Saturday and there isn't a lot to say about the course, three times round a flat park adjacent to Parken stadium - it did form part of the course the following day however (on the loop you do twice) so I was more than familiar with it by the end of the weekend.

          Back down to half marathons for a busy and very varied summer schedule before next marathon tourist adventure in Cologne in October.

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            San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half today. It was the original Rock n Roll half/marathon, so the numbers are big. About 30,000 across the three races (they have a 5k on the Saturday, too). It's incredibly well organised - water stations every mile, gatorade every couple, and around miles 7 and 10 they were giving out energy gels. All the roads are closed, tons of volunteers, and a decent crowd out on the street, all having fun - I've never seen so many donuts being offered (and mostly refused), along with beer, tequila, mimosas, home baked cookies, and more.

            We needed the water stations. It was hot out there. The cloud burned off about 10 minutes after the start, so we were running in hot direct sun. The air temp wasn't that warm - when I got in the car to come home it was 74F (about 23C) - but it was enervating. There was very little shade out there. I grabbed water at almost every opportunity, and was still 10lbs lighter at the end of the run than I was at the start. It mucks up the rhythm, but it beats failing to finish due to heat exhaustion.

            I started off pretty strong, but the continual undulations of the course that I didn't remember wore me down, and I ended up walking a few hundred yards three or four times near the end, and that meant I didn't hit my goal time. I missed it by 3 minutes, finishing in 2h 15.

            Next challenge is being support runner for a friend doing to Alaskaman Tri. You're not allowed to run the last 6 miles alone, because it's got 2 2500 feet (800m) climbs, and one 2500ft descent in that stretch and the triathletes can be too exhausted to be safe on their own.

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              Relevant for WFD, the temperature right at the end as we got closer to the water and into downtown dropped dramatically - it was probably 19 or 20, rather than 23-34C. Most of my race was far enough inland that it was hot, but for the AFC half that WFD is doing (and I might still do), the first 10 or 11 miles are right by the water, and are likely to be cooler. It may actually be an easier race (if your quads can handle a big downhill at the start) - I think there's no hills at all until the big hill at the end. But those last 2 miles are uphill and will have a fairly steep temperature gradient, so be prepared for that.

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                Cracking day on Tryfan today, 3rd time for me, 2nd time for my wife and 1st time for her son. He was a bit cocky before, his mum having done it he thought it would be quite straightforward, the realisation the North Ridge is not straightforward dawned on him quite quickly and also that his mum is no wimp...

                I had a ball, anxious at first for some reason but once the first scrambling pitch was done, i had wings. The mega-grippy Adidas climbing/approach shoes i was wearing really delivered, they had to be careful not matching some of my moves up rock slabs as their footwear was not a match in term of grip.

                Low clouds so no summit view and midges were hungry but minor complaints. Return via Heather Terrace path, lovely bit of walking that, quite a few climbers starting or finishing their ascents alongside it.

                Tryfan really is a proper mountain, howeve small it looks compared to the bigger ranges around the world and the mountain scenery is awesome.

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                  My Instagram account is ombredelalune is you are interested in mainly outdoorsy pictures..

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                    I decided last minute to run the half marathon in town. Talked a friend into it as well. A good few thousand runners and thankfully the temperature was way lower than yesterday. I am getting quite familiar with what speeds I can run (did a 22 min 5k on Thursday which was bang on what I thought I could hit) and was roughly right for a half marathon even though it is the longest distance I have ever run.

                    Similar to San B, Gu's were given out at about mile 8 which saved my ass. I ran with a friend for the first four miles before I got my groove for going a little quicker (he similarly had no plans to run before yesterday). Some nasty sea breeze and hills slowed things around mile 10 but I got home in 1:52. I imagined I could hit 1.50 as I can steady state around 8 min miles.

                    I have now run my first two ever timed running events in the space of 3 days. Mid life crisis in full effect.

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                      That's very impressive pace, Caja. My 2:15 got me well inside the 40th percentile (I think about 37% of the field finished in front of me). A 1:52 would have you right on the edge of the top 10%.

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                        Well done all and thanks San B for the reportage. We've just (reportedly) had the warmest May in the UK since records began so I've been doing some very warm miles lately, including a half in Scotland that was too soon after Copenhagen, and too warm (24 degrees) to do anything better than the 2:19 PW I posted. On that and a parkrun the week before I paid the price for going stupidly fast at the start, so I'm now going back to basics and doing more comfortable and realistically paced runs and building myself up again.

                        For the AFC I've made life easier for myself by switching to the Sheraton the night before - it's the so-called official race hotel, which means they are running shuttle buses directly to the start from the hotel, and back from the finish, and means my daughter can come out and see me en route with minimal effort on her part. There was a discount for race entrants but it was still far more expensive than any other hotel I've booked on the 2.5 week trip, but makes things easier and daughter has been busy researching what facilities she can use during our stay.

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                          Hopefully some of you made it to a parkrun today that was participating in the '70 years of the NHS' celebration. 360 parkruns took part but what I didn't realise until the speeches before ours was that it was a woman from my running club that came up with the idea and it spread - she was interviewed on national radio yesterday about it apparently.

                          It was a brilliant event today, a lot of runners dressed as doctors or nurses - many of which wearing their actual work clothes - a graduating 'you can run' group, a longer than usual list of 50ths, 100ths and 250ths (suggesting some were deliberately timed), and stalls with free cakes and water all adding up to a celebratory atmosphere. Turnout was 381, beating our previous record by a hundred or so, which is fantastic for a well established run. Fantastic to be part of it.

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                            One of the main people behind the Southport Parkrun is a doctor and a Parkrun Ambassador for Health & Wellbeing, so it was unsurprising that we were got involved in the NHS 70. It was also Southport's second anniversary, so it was a big celebration all round and a record attendance of 510. We also had cake and water, but also had our birthday tradition with finishers hanging round at the end to applaud everyone else in as they finish. The BBC were filming so I might be on TV at some point in the next few days.

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                              Didn't know anything about this. Did my first parkrun for a while today. Have had terrible knee problems that I have been trying to exercise through but have tried to rest it, only doing a parkrun a month. This week's preparation has been unconventional. We try to have the kids run a mile a day around through laps of the playground on days when they aren't doing PE. I joined them on Wednesday but, taking my GPS, found out that 11 laps of the playground isn't a mile, it's a kilometre so, thanks to me the kids have to do an additional 5 laps. I then ran the sports day teachers sprint on Thursday. I can joint second but the other two were student teachers - who I am going to get banned for next year - who, when their ages are added together, are still 11 years younger than me. Anyway, today's PArkrun was fine - no pain - but I was over the moon that my wife beat for the first time and by over a minute. She has lost two stone and, while I have been off the parkrun, been posting really good times - indeed, this wasn't her PB today. I wasn't slow for me, about average, she was just faster. Really proud of her .

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                                Good stuff Bored (and Zeb). My daughter has been volunteering at parkrun recently as part of her Duke of Edinburgh so it's been nice to see her as I plod round, or (as last week) scanning the barcodes at the end. She's also working this weekend marshalling 'Gelt Gladiator', a local obstacle race (of sorts), which she's done for the last couple of years - it's a paid gig.

                                My sister, who is a nurse, ran her local parkrun in a nurse's uniform today, it wasn't her actual work uniform as she's not that sort of nurse but it still made me smile seeing the photo.

                                In other heartwarming parkrun news, the guy who without fail is there handing out the finishing tokens at ours, week in week out, ran his first parkrun the other week - on his 85th birthday. I was away that day but saw the video on Facebook of everyone waiting behind to cheer him in - Zeb's story there reminded me I hadn't reported it.

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                                  And on that theme I should add my respect to a guy Steve at our parkrun, I'm on hello terms with him but can't claim to call him a friend - anyway he turned 70 a few weeks ago and today reached the 250 milestone, and fit as a butchers dog - he'll beat me by several minutes even with his ubiquitous dog in tow, and then go back and accompany his wife round to the finish.

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                                    So, the Y3P then. Did do some training, particularly up and down a very steep hill near to me, and did a few long walks too. Was puffing a bit on the first climb up to Pen-y-Ghent but then the body seemed to understand what I was doing and settled down. Despite the warnings was surprised at the rock scrambling that had to be done, but fortunately as it was a clearish day, the view at the top was great. Nice steady easy walk down to Ribblehead and really enjoyed the walk up to Whernside, though the descent down was a real toe-stubber with all of the rocks and stones lying around. Felt great as I looked up to Ingleborough and was really looking forward to giving it a go.

                                    Without wishing to sound uncharitable, this was a charity walk and as a team of 8 we had decided to stick together. In some became apparent early on that some of the members of the team were simply not up to it mentally, had just misjudged how tough it would be, or were not fit enough - despite them being given printouts of the advice given earlier in this thread. The walk down from Pen-y-Ghent was more of a stroll and some should not even have started Whernside. This became a real slog, and I wasted loads of time waiting for people to join me. At the foot of Ingleborough after 19 miles, the group decided to call it a day, after 8 1/2 hours.

                                    Have to say I was disappointed. Was really enjoying the walk, the solitude and the views and felt really good and my kit was fine - no issues at all. However, obviously had to go with the team decision, but will speak to one of my son-in-laws who has done it before and see if he fancies doing it in the next month or so, because I definitely want to beat the challenge. Huge thanks to Moonlight Shadow and longeared for their time and advice - really appreciated it chaps.

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                                      Race day tomorrow, doing the support-run for my friend who's competing in the Alaskaman Extreme Tri: http://www.akxtri.com/

                                      The bad news is that my run has lengthened out now. They changed the course, and now the support runner has to run with the athlete for the final 10 miles, with 5500 feet of elevation gain and loss on roughly 20% grades. I'm gonna be a mess at the end.

                                      The good news is that my friend should be thoroughly fucked by then and hopefully going slow enough for me to keep up. Swim is 2.6 miles in 55 degree water, with 800m in much colder glacier waterfall outflow. Then 120 miles over the passes of the Kenai peninsula on a bike. Then 16 miles of running on Cross Country ski trails before I have to start helping him. I really don't want to be slowing him down, so I hope he knackered enough by the time he gets to me.

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                                        Looks fantastic, and daunting at the same time - very best of luck SB and we expect photos!

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                                          I'm back from my travels now. It was pretty incredible as a race. Remember, I didn't really compete so this is mostly watched from the sidelines.

                                          My friend got through the swim well. It was overcast, and nearly dark, at the start - 4:45am. But the water wasn't as cold (in most of the swim) as it was the previous year they had the race. The number was something like 13C at the put in and take out - it looked great from the shore, because the organisers had a ton of support kayaks out with light beacons on, showing the swimmers the route. The water in the outflow of the glacier was colder than expected (I think about 8C), but most people got through OK. At the swim-bike transition, most of the early people were in good shape, and had been in the water for maybe 75-90 minutes. Interestingly, despite the field only being 20% women, 5 of the first 10 swimmers were women. My dude got out of the water around 35th or 40th, which was very impressive.

                                          Later on, while I was helping the organisers clean up the transition zone, I could see the stragglers coming in - and after 2 hours or more in the water some were really, really struggling with the cold - and we think something like 10 didn't even start the bike ride. It's interesting that there are no locals at all in the town of Seward who compete, because nobody is stupid enough to swim in the ocean there (and there's really no other choice of places to swim).

                                          The riders headed off through a fairly thick fog bank, but that cleared up quickly and the ride looked relatively enjoyable (for a 120 mile bike ride). We were driving the same route to catch up, and it all looked very calm. My rider came into transition in 33rd place after that.

                                          Then came the run. In our heads it was "17 miles on the flat" before the hilly section. But that's unfair. The was still a good 1000+ feet of elevation change over the first 17 miles, and the runners also got to go over a canyon on something called a "hand tram" which is basically a hand pulled cable car with almost no safety elements at all.

                                          Finally came my section. It was a ski resort, where we climbed to the top twice. 5 miles of uphill, 5 miles downwards, at an average grade of 20%. It turns out that nobody basically runs the up, because nobody is capable of running it. But because you're so exhausted as a triathlete, you need to have company which was I was there - to stop him collapsing from exhaustion, falling off the side of the mountain and to provide help if we saw bears or moose. My runner was really energy crashing on the first climb, so I tried to set a comfortable rhythm. As we neared the top and started going over snow patches, the heat (about 27C at the bottom) eased off a bit and he revived. Particularly with views down to the fjords, and across to some glaciers. We took on some fuel at the top and jogged/slid down. That's where my problems started - my runner was feeling better, but also wanted to jog a little to change which muscles he was using, and we ran probably the first half mile of the second climb, which started at a relatively gentle gradient. Then we started powering up the steep part of this climb - a little shorter, but really, really steep, and my legs just ran out of sugar. I piled in all the gels and shot blocks that I had, which helped, but I was definitely ballast slowing the team down. But I know I can keep going, even if it's slow, and we summitted and made the fast second descent and through the finish line. Incredibly, "we" (he) made the top 30.

                                          We didn't see any bears or moose, but the organisers claim that 4 bears and 13 moose were seen by racers, and one had to use bear spray.

                                          No photos from me but here's a short video from the official organisers.
                                          Last edited by San Bernardhinault; 28-07-2018, 21:04.

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                                            I guess these things mean that fewer people are available to design torture procedures for the CIA or ICE

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                                              Splendid, I've been waiting for the report and it looks like an amazing experience - I couldn't do the whole thing (can't swim) but the idea of accompanying someone on something like that appeals. The big local triathlon here (the Lakesman) offers a relay option so I'd maybe consider doing the run leg of that sometime.

                                              Today's adventure (just back) was the Islay Half Marathon. The forecast was for light rain and stupidly I'd been saying to people that it would be a nice change to run in some rain after the heatwave we've been having. First two miles were climby (not Alaska-climby admittedly) and I knew there was another climb later up to the highest point of the course at halfway but thought I could relax for a while with the first climb behind me. But then it absolutely battered it down, and kept battering right through the uphill stretch and although it eased off with about three miles to go there was standing water throughout and I was soaked through. I've felt I've not ran well for a while and talk myself out of it too easily, but I clenched my teeth, dug in and finished quite well, picking up ten or so places in the last few miles (field was about 120). Another big climb for the 13th mile and then a sprint downhill for the finish.

                                              As I was getting off the ferry later I got a phone call from the race organiser saying "erm, don't suppose you know your time do you? We're having a few issues...." I answered honestly and precisely, but that's a first for me, having to contribute my own finishing time for a race.

                                              I heard it reported on the radio that Belfast got a months worth of rain today (about 80mm) and so checked the stats for Islay and it got 50mm....

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                                                Nice work, WFD. The idea of running in a downpour is pretty hellish to me, so I'm doubly impressed.

                                                If the relay leg of the the Lakesman is fun... the race in the "XTri" series that's in Britain is in northern Scotland, and is called "Celtman". If you know anyone doing it, you could be a support runner for the mountain section of that - which looks like a couple of Munros and a lot of scree, as far as I can tell. https://cxtri.com/

                                                Ursus - I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. There's a reason that there are only 300 entry slots, a lot of people don't qualify, and only 2/3 even make it to the start line because the rest aren't well enough prepared. It is only for a very particular kind of athlete...

                                                Meanwhile, here's a photo my wife took of us on our "run" last week:

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                                                  Now that's a hill!



                                                  I'm in all black and suitably out of focus near the centre of the shot.

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                                                    I didn't realise we were up loading photos of us running - now that opens a real can of worms

                                                    Have got back to a good run of parkruns recently except for the fact that I have been really slow, well, on the average side. I put this down to it being too hot for me - this is never the season for me to get PBs. However, Mrs Bored has lost 2 stone recently through eating better and exercising regularly (who knew?!) and, while she hasn't changed her running at all - she has always been more consistent with better technique but, crucially, a six inches shorter, she has just become faster than me by being lighter. Indeed, I have started using her as a pacer in order to get my time a bit quicker.

                                                    Although my parkruns are back more regular, my bootcamps have gone down the dustbin as I have had a load of things on Friday evenings recently. I don't think this has helped my running. As it is now school holidays, I am going to double up on bootcamp Wednesdays and Fridays. I did the first Wednesday bootcamp last week and it didn't quite kill me. Thursday night football has stopped for the holidays but, a, it doesn't really do much as exercise - just as a barometer of my general fitness and, b, the Wednesday bootcamp is more of actual exercise. I really must get my cycle sorted out for the summer as well.
                                                    Last edited by Bored Of Education; 13-08-2018, 11:44.

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