The One With The Half Marathon

It’s the end of week 7 (of 16) of my training plan and today it says, rather ominously, “Half Marathon (13.1 miles) Slow, plus walk warm-up and cool-down”. I love how they include the distance just in case there’s the tiniest semblance of doubt as to JUST HOW FRICKIN’ FAR that is for a 44 year-old ex-smoker who used to consider crossing the living room to collect the remote control from the other sofa “a fair hike.”

So yesterday I went out in the car and found myself a 13.1 mile route and this morning, on yet another cloudless, beautiful Sunday, I drove to the approximate seven mile mark and stashed some Powerade and a young Thai masseuse for the inevitable “support and supplements” my body would require. Long story short, I managed to complete the half marathon distance but was initially a bit disappointed with the time. Like most things in life though, there are pros and cons to consider when reflection takes place.

Pros
- I completed it.

- I didn't die.
- I felt ten times better after 13.1 miles this week than I did after 11 last week.
- Once I got home, I could walk up the stairs AND back down again for the rest of the day.
- I smashed my non-stop personal best running 95 minutes from the start to the Powerade stop, where I only stopped for a minute to stretch.
- I really only stopped one other time (for 30 seconds to stretch) during the remaining 77 minutes.

Cons
- It took me 2 hours, 52 minutes and 7 seconds to complete. I was hoping for 2 hours 30 minutes.
- Mind you, I was running into a cold, strong wind for at least half the run.
- And there were quite a few hills too.

So all in all, I'm feeling quite happy with the progress especially when I don’t think I’ve ever walked that far before, never mind run. And my favourite musical moment of the day was Simply Red singing 'Stars'... pure class.

All that remains today is for me to thank Shari, Brian, EJ & LB for their kind sponsorship in the last seven days as well as my good pal Andy (how does one say it… ‘obtainer’ of rare, as yet unreleased U2 albums) whose generous donation of Friday night’s poker winnings (still can’t believe I got bombed out with two pairs, Kings and Fours) has pushed the fundraising over the half way mark on the way to my target. Thank you all, it’s very much appreciated.

The One After London

It’s March 15th as I write this and I now have very little clue as to what the hell I was going to say about ‘the one after London’. Probably something about how happy I was to be home, despite London being a wonderful, friendly place where people smile at each other all day on the tube and never look stressed and where all of the potentially lung-strangling smog gets sucked away and disposed of as if by magic so that you feel like you’re walking around all day in a flowery meadow bursting with pushing daisies and dancing unicorns. Yes, I’m pretty sure it was something like that…

The One Where I Wrote On The Other Blog

Which you can read by clicking here...

The One At Dawn

Tomorrow I have to go to London for two days for work. This evening I have to go out and rehearse with The Signals. My day’s too busy to go out running at lunchtime so in order to meet the training plan’s requirement for “30 – 35 minutes, steady” I got up at 6am this morning and went out in the dark. I think it’s safe to say I won’t be doing that again.

I’d envisaged waking early, stumbling straight to the fridge, cracking a dozen eggs into a jug, downing them all in one, pulling on my little woolly Rocky hat and jogging into town to sprint up the Town Hall steps, all six of them, before turning triumphantly to face the main street, hands held high in the air as I floated like a butterfly, toe to toe. But of course it was O(h. My. God. It’s. Early.)600 in the morning and freezing cold and pitch black so I couldn’t see a hand in front of my face, never mind the far off Philly skyline.

Think I’ll try the Chariots of Fire run on the West Sands in St. Andrews next time. In the summer. After a long lie.

The One After 11 Miles

You know how they* say that cows can walk up stairs but now down again? I think it’s something to do with their burning desire for a luxury penthouse suite that makes them weak at the knees and then they get vertigo and can’t move, never mind descend. Well that was me today after running for 120 minutes this morning, 10 intervals of 12 minutes with a minute of walking/stretching between each.

I ran to the home of my good friend Donald, sturdy bass player with Falkirk rock legends The Signals who, incidentally, will be getting their rock groove on and bustin’ some moves at Behind The Wall, Melville Street, Falkirk on Friday February 27th from 9:00pm onwards as part of their triumphant 25th anniversary tour. Entry to the gig is free. Smart jeans only. No hoodies. Swooning optional.

Donald lives approximately six miles away from me and I managed to get to his house 62 minutes after setting off which meant only one thing… I was running too fast at the beginning and there was gonna be hell to pay on the way back. Sure enough, I suffered more pain in the last two sessions of 12 minutes than I did the entire 90 minutes of the 1971 League Cup Final when Celtic got humped 4-1 by Partick Thistle Nil. THAT was heartbreaking.

I think I probably ran no more than 11 miles in total today and only just managed to haul myself up the stairs a step at a time and into the shower when I got home. When I emerged all clean and sparkly however, I couldn’t get back down the stairs without sitting on my arse and bumping my way down, such was the stiffness around my knees. But no matter. It was another beautiful day to be out running and Celtic didn’t lose to Rangers in the afternoon and my favourite iPod moment was getting jiggy wid Will Smith so if only unicorns would return to Earth tomorrow sprinkling love potions and prosperity powder which meant I didn’t have to go to London on Wednesday for work, it would be the perfect week.

Until then, let me give my weekly ‘shout-out’ and sincere thanks to Moira, Sandy, Wendy, Laura, Jack, Lucy, Gordon, Nancy, Drew (sans Hardy Boys) and Lesley for their kind donations towards my fundraising efforts in the last seven days. Remember, it’s so easy to see your name on the internet… you could video yourself with a cow in a luxury penthouse suite but it’s probably simpler to go to

www.justgiving.com/neilsutherland

and help a very worthy cause.

Have a great week.

*Stephen Fry, probably…

The One After The Garage

My car (Fox, to his friends) is booked in for a service at a local garage today.
The garage is exactly three miles away on the other side of town.
I’m running back to the house after dropping it off.
The garage doesn’t open until 8:30am.
I have a conference call at 9:00am.
I don’t really do ten-minute miles.
But it’s amazing what the right motivation can do for your performance.
Friday the 13th… pah!
Favourite iPod moment: Bryan Adams – ‘Run To You’

The One With All The 'Episodes'

In true ‘blog catch-up’ mode, it’s Sunday February 22nd as I write this. Over the last 12 days I’ve really hummed and hawed about writing what would be quite a personal little story about the ‘episodes’. Since my only previous venture into exposing intimate details of my private life amounted to the sensational revelation that I named my previous car Dana and was inconsolable when she left me, I think this would be something of a leap forward.

Last Saturday I was definitely going to do it. The following day after my long run, I posted the title but decided against writing the content. Yesterday, again, I was definitely going to do it. This morning during my half marathon run, I vowed it would be done by the end of the day. And now it’s 9:00pm, the will to write it has left me again so I’m heading off to bed. Which is probably just as well because I’m sure it’s not the kind of thing you really want to read anyway. Is it?

The One After 10 Miles

Today I ran 10 miles using the cool new technique that I read about last Monday and have been experimenting with all week but which I haven’t actually written about yet because I’m still operating roughly two weeks behind here on getting things up to date. Next weekend things will definitely have caught up. Or perhaps tomorrow if the snow currently falling outside gets worse and I get trapped at home, unable to work remotely because a bear has ventured into town and stolen my work laptop so he can search my hard drive for funny videos with which to entertain his newly woken cubs. They’re a bitch immediately after hibernation.

So meantime let me say a big thank you to Elizabeth, Hugh, Big Dave, Sylvia, Tommy and Scotty Boy for your sponsorship over the past seven days. As always, your kindness and generosity in assisting my fundraising efforts is very much appreciated.

If you too would like to make a donation to support the work of the National Autistic Society, and in doing so be entered for a free prize draw to win a date with me wearing my skin tight running attire, then go to

www.justgiving.com/neilsutherland

Thank you.

The One With More New Shoes

It’s been quite severe winter weather this week across the UK, although thankfully, central Scotland seems to have escaped the worst of it. But its arrival is timely because I’ve been keen to get another pair of running shoes to rotate into the training plan so that my original pair don’t get wet and muddy or wear out too quickly or decide to up and leave me because of all the constant abuse they endure.

I ordered a new pair last week (New Balance 1063s, if you like details) and got an email on Tuesday evening advising they would be delivered yesterday so my boss very kindly let me work from home so I could sign for the package when it arrived. And here they are. Cute huh? Look how they nuzzle into each other while they sleep… aw, just like weary little tiger cubs.

Now I know you’re worrying that from a fashion standpoint, perhaps the yellow flashes may clash uncomfortably with my golden locks of hair and I’ll be subject to much abuse ‘out on the road’ from cooler kids. But let me reassure you that my thick woolly hat looks likely to be covering my head until the Scottish summer arrives on June 29th (departs July 6th) and by then I’ll be fast enough to run away.

Despite yesterday being a rest day on the training plan, I was dead keen to try them out so I went for a steady 20 minute run (2 x 10 minutes with a minute of walking in between) and they felt lovely and cushioned. A very sweet ride.

Favourite iPod moment last evening: Maria Mckee singing ‘I’m Gonna Soothe You’

The One With The Cool New Technique

Last night, before I turned off my bedside lamp and said goodnight to Mr Huggles, I was, as usual, lying in bed reading one of my favourite glossy magazines full of almost-clad women which I so totally buy for the quality, informative articles in the hope that they’ll teach me new tools and techniques to enrich my social and leisure time. Stuff like stamina enhancement (‘pace yourself’), injury prevention (‘look before you leap from the top of the wardrobe’) and ways to show you care (‘mix tapes… always mix tapes’).

I came across an article entitled ‘It’s Good To Walk’ written by former Boston Marathon winner Ambrose Burfoot which, apart from being very funny and puncturing the pompous running attitudes of some, advocated a technique which made perfect sense and clicked immediately with me. Essentially, he was describing a technique which added a little walking to a training run (‘R/W training’) and could even be used during a marathon itself…

Run a mile, walk for a minute, repeat another 25 times. Simple.

I was so enamoured with this cool new technique that I couldn’t wait to try it out this evening. I have a vague idea that I might be running an average of 11.5 minute miles at the moment but since my training plan says ‘50 minutes steady’ for today, I decided to carve it up into 5 sessions of 10 minutes with a minute of walking in between each. And it was great.

The countdown timer on my phone vibrated with an alarm in my skin-tight running pants every 10 minutes (I’ll pause here for a second while you picture that… got it?... no?... how about now?... there you go…) and I used the minute in between to either walk briskly, stretch any muscles that felt tight or drink from a water bottle, something I find quite hard to do when I’m running. By the end I reckoned I’d done almost five miles total distance so will definitely be trying out this technique again in the coming weeks.

Favourite iPod moment of the evening: Doves – ‘Pounding’ …does exactly what it says on the tin.

The One With Only 12 Weeks To Go

It’s been four weeks since I started my ‘proper’ training.
It’s been three weeks since I started this blog.
It’s been two weeks since I promised this blog would definitely be up to date by the end of the month.
It’s been one week since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said “I’m angry”… Who sang that?

Only twelve weeks to go now until the marathon itself and at my current rate of posting, I should get this blog up to date by the middle of April. I would’ve done more last week but I had a busy time visiting Starbucks and catching up with ‘Lost’ & ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and doing a bit of shopping and lunching and helping out Miranda with the babysitting and walking round my upper east side apartment in my underwear staring blankly at this computer screen. TMI?

The writing may be blocked but I’m very pleased with how the fundraising is going and this week I’d like to say a huge thank you to Nathalie, Daragh, Adam, Deej, Janet, Mark, Sharon, Rach, Joanne, Dave, Dora, Captain, Tennille, James, Goose, George, Duey, Mary Kay, Aiden and Lucy who all sponsored me in the last seven days and helped push the total over £1,000.

If you’re feeling left out and would like to see your name on the internet next Monday then all you have to do is go to

www.justgiving.com/neilsutherland

and make a donation, big or small, to support the work of the National Autistic Society. Every little helps.