Great North Run 2009 - It's over!

The race is done. Wow!! How hard was that? The day started badly for me. I woke up with such a sore lower back that I could hardly walk and couldn't bend properly. Many pain killers later and following a small amount of breakfast (forced down!) I still couldn't walk properly and was almost crying with the pain in my back. I had to hobble to the start just hoping that the sunshine and the painkillers would help my back to loosen up. I was clearly tense and nervous. I tried to do some stretches when Mr Motivator was warming the runners up prior to race start. That didn't work too well. Then I spotted my shoe lace was untied and struggled like crazy to bend down to re-tie it. Anyway as the race started I was so far back and in such a big crowd that I didn't move for a few mins. We then started a slow walk which became a faster walk, then a very slow jog and finally we reached the *start* line. Yes the START line!!. Then I was off and running properly and amazed to find that my back pain was not hurting half as much as I expected it to. As my blood started pumping and my body temperature rose the back pain eased more and more. I started to feel good and think things were going well........then I tripped over a kerb edge and fell quite hard onto my upper back. Suffice to say it is very scratched and bruised as was my hip, my elbow and my ankle. Oh dear!!. Amazingly this kick started my adrenalin and I bounded back onto my feet and started running far too fast. I realised my pace was too fast as I was wearing my sports GPS watch, so I slowed down. The next few miles were not too noteworthy except to say that the course was like one big uphill stretch. The heat was intense and the mass of runners made finding an even pace\rhythm very difficult. After 10 miles I was spent. My body was struggling to keep going. By 11 miles we reached a big hill and every ounce of me wanted to stop and walk but that wasn't part of the plan. Instead I resigned myself to not setting the time I had hoped for and just kept shuffling along in a slow run. We crested the hill and saw the sea. It felt like the end was in sight. A difficult run down a steep hill to the sea front at South Shields followed. My calves threatened to cramp up but somehow didn't. The last 1000M was really tiring but the crowd was massive and the cheering really lifted my spirits. I managed to grind out the last stretch and came home in 2 hrs and 4 mins. Not bad but I so wanted to do 1 hr 55 mins or less. My worst case scenario was that I would just scrape under 2 hours but alas I missed that goal. Maybe next year!!. Straight after the race if you'd asked me "Will you do it again?" I would have said no way!! But within an hour or two I was already planning next years race and thinking about my training plan to ensure I smash my time from this year. But as for my marathon aspirations they are well and truly shelved for now at least. 26 miles seems like a step too far. I run for pleasure and relaxation not for sado-masochistic reasons. I think stepping up my training to plan for a mammoth 26 miler would take the fun out of something I really enjoy. I'd never say never!!

Another Run, Another Bike Ride

I went for a run at lunch time today to see how the groin strain is holding up. I managed a 4.5 mile circuit at 7 mins 54 secs per mile pace. Not too bad. My leg feels a bit sore though. Hopefully they will be ok by tomorrow. Also went for a vigorous 22 mile bike ride yesterday. It started well. For the first 20 mins I was doing 25 mph flying down the A10 feeling great. It was only later I realised that I had benefited from a good tail wind. After a few more miles I got to the bad news. I had a 6.5 mile slog into a ridiculously strong head wind across the fens with absolutely no protection from hedges or whatever. Nightmare!!. I felt like I was actually moving backwards. Anyway by the end of the ride I had averaged 18.8mph over the 22 miles. I'll take that for now but I'd like to be able to sustain a 20+ mph average in the future. It's all good fun and good exercise. Counting the days to the Great North Run now. 19 days to go.....GULP!!!

Spotify on the iPhone

The iTunes App Store has finally approved the Spotify App for the iPhone so anytime soon it should be downloadable from the UK iTunes store. The app will be free but you will need a Premium Spotify account to access the music. £9.99 per month. Now that sounds expensive until you consider that it's really only the cost of 1 music CD per month and for that you get to listen to bucketloads of music of your own choosing. If that was the end of the story that still wouldn't sound too great but this talk of an "offline" mode so that you can download tracks to your Spotify App and play them without a network connection of any sort (not 3G, not Wi-Fi etc) suddenly sounds much more appealing. It sounds like you can listen to whatever you want, whenever you want from your iPhone. It's now sounding just like a portable MP3 player. Am I right? Have I missed something? Is this the future of paying for music? Pay a 'once a month' fee and download whatever you like? If so I like it! Please discuss......