Me @ Prague Full

I have to be honest, it had bothered me. With all the running I’ve done in the last four years, all the events I’ve run, the only full marathon I’d run was the Great Wall Marathon. Now the Great Wall Marathon is 42k, it’s a pretty hard way to cover 42k, actually but it’s not, 42k of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other, running. You have to climb stairs, shuffle through congested guard houses and well, I know it’s silly, but somehow it was important to me to run the traditional 42k city marathon. My attempts to do this had been thwarted before, more than once.

Doing so, looked challenging from the start. Timing between waiting for the ice to melt in Prague so I could run outside and the Prague Full Marathon meant it all seemed a rush. I think I do prefer autumn races, I’ve no problem training through the ‘heat’ of summer, the cold and ice of winter is a different story.

The goal then, really was to finish. To tick that box.

It’s good job really, because, frankly, I made a pigs-ear of the race.

The first and biggest error I made was arbitrary goal setting. I’d run 1:53 at the Prague Half, which was a hugely faster than my previous time. To apply the standard double it and add 10% rule would have been optimistic given that the races were only 5 weeks apart and the 1:53 had been a big improvement. This would have given me a target time of 4:08. It is telling that I’ve just had to calculate that to write it here. It is in fact the first time I’ve calculated it. What I did at the time, was decide that 4 hours was a nice round number. That’s double it and add 6%, now know.

The second mistake I made was to pursue this goal during the race, despite mounting evidence that it was the wrong goal. I actually got held up in traffic at the beginning and had to stop to removed  a layer too. The result was that by 10k I was well behind my crazy goal. I did some maths on the fly and calculated a new even faster per kilometre pace to try and get back on track with the poorly chosen goal.

The result, inevitably, was that by 25k, I was really struggling and the rest of the race was really, harder than it needed to be.

I did finish the race, running and in a fairly respectable 4:18. The truth is that if I’d been smart I could have probably done the 4:08 but that 4 hours was always going to be a goal too far, this time.

There are more photos in the gallery here.

So with everything else going on during 2009 the only event I ran was Velka Kunraticka which was a very pleasant 3.1k over hills and through a couple of streams here in Prague.

2010, then, needed from the begining to have some good events in it. The Prague Half was a great start in this regard.

The biggest challenge seemed from the outset to be the timing, the event coming barely a month after the ice started melting during daylight hours so I could again do my long runs, at least, outside. The second timing consideration comes not from the timing of the half itself but the rather curious situation where the Prague full marathon is but five weeks later. The result is, of course, that the half becomes a step-back week’s long run on the route to a full marathon. If you see what I mean.

All that aside, I had a great day. The course (and I seem to have a different perspective to Prague’s longer term residents here) was fantastic; crossing the Vltava no less than six times and affording us all wonderful views of the city. The event was reasonably well supported and, seemingly invevitable chaos at water stations aside, very well organised.

We also got a nice t-shirt.

Ultimately though I could have run in driving snow, at minus ten, through a post-industrial wasteland with people throwing rocks at me and I’d still have thought it was a great event as I smashed my personal best for the half marathon by eleven minutes, coming in at 1:53:12, having enjoyed every step and pretty much unable to run another.

More photos in gallery.

Me @ Velká kunratická

Well, it’s not been a great year for running events for me. Changing cities, countries and indeed continents coupled with a few calendar clashes meant that I didn’t get to the events that I hoped to and there were too few of them.

Fortunately it won’t be a completely event free year as I managed to squeeze in a little local event here in Prague a few weeks ago.

I ran the 76th Velká Kunratická Race. It’s a 3.1 k race through some hilly woods here in Prague. The event was smallish but well attended and very well organised.

Running a 3k race is certainly not something I’ve trained for but it was good fun to be out there trying work out how to pace yourself for a race that’s only three k but is comprised almost entirely of steep hills.

Ran it in 21:10 which considering I hadn’t trained for the distance, or at all for that matter, I thought was none to shabby.

Great fun, highly recommended.

Moving on (up)

Well, my dear reader(s) this is one them posts you rarely get, that’s actually about my life. The sort of post I feel that I should be writing but never do.

So the headline, in case you’ve not heard, is that I’m leaving Hangzhou and moving to Prague. Why? Well, as you know I have one super amazingly good reason and a bunch of smaller ones. Overall it’s the right thing to do and the right time professional, personally and it terms of my development and my life’s journey.

In a way I feel like I’ve grown up here in Hangzhou. I guess you grow and learn a lot in any 6 (almost) year period of your life but changing countries makes it really easy to identify what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown in a particular place. I’ve been here for the last 6 (almost) years so looking at life from this moment in time they are the most important years. It also, as I’m 30, works out to be half my adult life, more than half my professional life (if somewhat artificially measured from graduation) and one fifth of my life as a whole. That’s significant.

Changing jobs* and countries at the same gives an unusually obvious sense of the end of one era and the begining of another. I’ve learned more generally, and specifically more about myself, in the last 12 months than in any period I can recall. I find myself excited by the many possibilities that are in front of me for all aspects of my life. Whatever happens from this point, this is going to be one of the best decisions I made because it is time to move on to new challenges and the next stage of the journey.

* I don’t have one, if you’re reading this and also happen to be in the process of recruiting an IT support / project manager in Prague, then we should talk.

I’ve been asked some interesting and some strange questions as I’ve talked to many people about ‘the plan’ so I thought I’d try answer some of these as a way to sign off on my time in Hangzhou.

Will I miss Hangzhou? Gosh yes. Hugely. What will I miss? First and foremost the people. I’ve been so lucky to meet the most amazing people here over the years. It’s a transitory place, people have come and gone over the years which has just made it all the more interesting, you have this fluid group of people that slowly changes over time. It’s an international group so I’ve been exposed to different langauges and cultures, not just Chinese, though that’s been a huge part of it, but also people from all around the world. More than anything the lifestyle makes it possible to connect with people that I just think is much easier than in home country and home culture. Most people you meet are actively looking for possibilities to grow their circle of contacts if not their circle of friends. I can’t stress enough that the most amazing thing about my time here is the people I’ve enjoyed it with both colleagues and friends. You are all amazing and you know who you are.

One final thing that is specific to Hangzhou and has been such a huge part of my time here is the brilliant contrast you have of large cosmopolitan city with a lovely lake (14km around) with landscaped gardens around it and bordered by the wonderful hills dotted with tea fields. I shall very much miss my Tuesday night runs by the lake and weekends of hiking and running in the mountains.

How have I changed? Like I said, you change in six years anyway but I think that my time in Hangzhou has certainly changed me in different ways compared to having spent the last 6 years in the UK. I’ve traveled way more than I think I would have ever done. I’ve been forced to challenge assumptions about the world, about the way to live one’s life and the way to relate to other people in a way that is a unique product of the things I’ve done and the people I’ve met. Oh and apparently I now have a funny accent and use funny words, so I’m told.

Has it been a waste? This question took me by surprise. Is time spent here a waste now I’ve decided to leave? Certainly not. I’ve got so much out of the experience, learned so much and had soo much fun that, absolutely not. I’ve also got a great group of friends. I speak serviceable Chinese and something tells me that’s going to be useful again at some point in the future. As Gandalf says, “Even the very wise cannot see all ends.” I am also applying the lessons I’ve learned in acquiring my second language to dramatically improve my effectiveness in acquiring my third. Czech study has begun in earnest. I’ve also got some great experience of working and living in a multi-cultural / multi lingual environment and it’s hard not to see those as skills that are directly relevant to my immediate future .

I’ve learned so much, made so many great friends, been inspired and challenged by so much that I’ve seen and done and heard.

And we’ve had lots of fun.

So since we last spoke the sun span on its axis and arrived back for the 10,958th time at the same point it was at when I entered the world. If you prefer, the earth returned for the 30th time to the point in its orbit of the sun that it was at when I entered the world, i.e. based on a fairly arbitrary counting system I turned 30.

It fell on a running club night so I celebrated by running 20k (clinging to the 20s) and then a few beers. It was a good birthday.
Unsurprisingly I don’t feel very different. Maybe a little fitter, maybe my level of fitness was OK for a 20 something but good for 30 something…

I planned to do a plug for Podrunner Intervals but I’ve just checked and apparently I’ve not blogged about Podrunner, how can this be?

Before we start, Podrunner is a podcast. If you don’t know what a podcast is then slap yourself up side the head and then go and read some of these.

Podrunner describes itself as: Fixed-BPM; Nonstop; High Energy; One Hour; Workout Music; Weekly; Free. The music is what I would describe as ‘house’ music, but I never was very good with the finer points of dance music terminology. I always tended to listen to dance music when running and since discovering Podrunner I listen to little else. There is a new mix out every week so (provided that iTunes manages to drag it through the gloop of China’s international internet connectivity) you get something new to listen to each week.

The different BPM thing is interesting, I tend to just listen to the latest mix, I do find though that within a certain range I fall in step with the music and consequently run faster or slower (slightly) but anything too extreme and my subconscious stops trying to keep up. So 161 BPM will probably make me run faster but 171 BPM and I’ll revert to default pace. Mostly I just like the music.

Podrunner is the brainchild of DJ Steve Boyett, he also puts out a podcast called Groovelectric which is similar music and more sensible BPM, this is good music for cocooning yourself from the sound of slurping tea in the office.

So back to where we started, plugging Podrunner Intervals, varied BPM music for interval training coming out on the first of Feb which should be interesting.

Check it out.

A friend has put me on to a couple of New Scientist articles (here and here) that together suggest both that humans have evolved several characteristics that allow humans to run long distances, an ability that separates us from other primates, and that this ability gave early humans and their predecessors an evolutionary boost.

The characteristics mentioned include muscles, highly developed in humans that are not required for walking alone. As well as large joints to distribute force and new research suggesting that we have duplicate copies of gene that means we are able better able to produce energy from fat during prolonged exercise.

The evolutionary boost apparently comes from being able to cover greater distances to find food, potentially beating quicker animals across the savannah by going slower for longer.

There you have it an answer to all the people who say that running is bad for you, we were built (trying hard not to use the word designed) for it.

Off to a good start on the first day of the New Year with my 300For30 challenge by running a somewhat humbling 10k.

I signed up for the Resolution Run a 10k at 11am on New Year’s Day around Newcastle’s Town Moor. I thought it was going to be a fun run, it was in fact an event run by small crowd of very serious club runners. That was humbling enough but the course didn’t help either, the terrain was hard and it undulated a lot more than I’m used to as well. It was a sobering experience for someone who has just set about running 300 race kilometers in the next 12 months.

10 down, 290 to go.

Photos on Flickr.

Happy New Year Tiny Tim! Happy New Year one and all!

Important announcement time, it’s now 2008 and and, shock horror, I’m going to turn 30 this year. Eeek.

Well I can’t let this vaguely interesting calendar event pass without marking it some way, so over the last couple of months I’ve been trying different schemes out for size.

The one I’ve settled on is 300 For 30! That is to say I intend to run 300 race kilometers during 2008, 10 kilometers for every year of my existence. By race kilometers I mean run races up to a total of 300 kilometers during the year, so that’s 7 marathons or 15 half marathons or some combination. Not a small undertaking for someone who, famously, has yet to run a full marathon.

So there you have it, details I guess will emerge as time goes on, I have a bunch of ideas, watch this space!

A friend just sent me a link to this which is at once horrifying and inspiring…

High school runner breaks leg in meet, crawls to finish anyway.