The London Marathon

Last Sunday we headed up to The Embankment to watch The London Marathon. I have been to every single London Marathon, and this was the best weather yet……. for watching. I was extremely glad I ran last year in the cool drizzle and was watching this year in the beautiful sunshine.

We had a fantastic viewing point just before 25 miles with a large crowd of enthusiastic Stragglers. Some so enthusiastic they had been there since before 9 am staking out the spot. Thanks guys! (I had to watch the first 5 minutes on telly before leaving home to listen to the theme tune and get me in the mood!).

I always find the FLM a very emotional experience and this was no exception. After watching the awe inspiring international elite runners and wheelchair athletes we waited to spot our friends and fellow Stragglers, Ranelaghs, bptters, adiRunners etc all the while shouting encouragement and support and handing out chocolate, jelly babies and water.

Several people were clearly suffering badly in the heat including some very talented and well trained runners. Many were well behind their predicted/expected times and hanging in there just to get to the finish. Luckily we didn’t see any serious casualties, although one guy threw up right by us and another, after stopping for a jelly baby, had to be reminded which way to go. Scary stuff.

I have enjoyed watching the FLM a lot more since running it myself (2002 and 2006) and knowing exactly the pain the runners are feeling. However I have also become more and more annoyed by the seemingly huge numbers of people who take part every year clearly with no consideration as to the massive challenge they are taking on, and with no intention of training properly or even attempting to run.

This seems to me to be disrespectful to the event and also to the hundreds of RUNNERS who are desperate to do it every year and can’t get a place. I know a lot of people see FLM mainly as a charity thing, but to my mind it is still very much A RUNNING RACE in which the idea is to finish as fast as you can.

Rant over :o)

After 6 hours or so I had developed a nice tan and a very sore throat so we packed up and set off home for our own runs, followed by the post-marathon party.

report on swimming club session #11

Forgot to write report yesterday in the excitement of going out bowling at the ‘Chavtunda’ in Kingston. We thought we might get thrown out for wearing far too many clothes, but managed to sneak past security. Mixed results at bowling, but Sharon and I were awesome on the dance machine!

Anyway, swimming swimming swimming. Me, Danny, David and Sharon in attendance today. It looks like Danny and I will be winning the good attendance prizes at the end of term. With the triathlon looming David headed straight for the big boys front crawl lane, no messing about, and proceeded to plough up and down for an indeterminate number of lengths (cos he can’t keep count of them).

The rest of us swam in the lane too (not ‘that’ lane though) as the pool was v busy with ankle biters today. The water looked none too clean today either…. Danny did his usual 64 lengths, I did 70 (got cramp in my finger this time), Sharon unfortunately had to get out early as she had a bad headache.

My triathlon prep is slightly different to David’s – as there is zero possibility of me front crawling 400 meteres I have given up on it for now and am working on my breast stroke technique as it’s still a lot faster and more efficient than my front crawl. I will get back to it after the tri though.

Cake today was a lemon one made by Sharon (lovely but slightly lacking in the presentation department!) and some chocolate caramel crunchy things made by Mr M and Mr S. David once again won the ‘most pices of cake in 5 minutes’ award.

report on swimming club session #10

Not a lot to report today – a very low key swim club which involved a lot of lengths and no cake! Orlando, Danny and I were the only attendees today. We swam and we swam and we swam and we even swam in the lane today because the pool was very busy with pesky kids for a change.

Orlando did 36 lengths (a bit more than half a mile), Danny did 64 lengths (a mile) and I did 80 lengths (2k). We were then very tired and went home to prepare ourselves for the arduous task of watching the London Marathon tomorrow.

That’s it for today really, so I’ll just quickly tell you that David and Sharon both ran beepy teety pbs this morning. Hoorah for the (first claim (in their hearts) Stragglers) Rowes.

Report on swimclub session #9….. and The Grand National

Still no teacher at swimclub, she is recovering after being knocked off her bike by a silly car driver who didn’t realise how fast bikes can go……. get better soon Nic! We did however welcome new member Orlando to swimclub today.

We all managed to arrive at the same time today for a change, despite Orlando’s unscheduled detour to the wifi hotspots of Teddington; he only accepts the sunny ones with somewhere to sit down.

Danny got straight down to business and set off on his 64 lengths to match last week’s effort. Sharon did quite a few lengths but made sure not to peak too early as she has a big race tomorrow. Orlando turned out to be not too bad at swimming, and very good at stopping for a chat at the end of each length! David also has a big race tomorrow but he and I needed to put in some serious triathlon training.

After a 10 length warm up we timed ourselves over 16 lengths, the distance of the triathlon swim. Having both predicted 12 minutes, he finished in 10 and a half and I manged 11 and a half, so it was nice to know we’re not quite as rubbish as we thought.

We then decided to practice the foot-tapping thing, just in case a miracle happened and we need to overtake someone. My first couple of practices on Danny nearly caused both of us to drown due to my lack of technique, his extremely ticklish feet and the fact that it made me laugh while my head was underwater. David didn’t have much success either – he practiced with Sharon who promptly invented a new signal to demonstrate your wish to overtake someone – trying to pull their shorts down. However after a few more goes (thank you to our ‘volunteers’) we soon got the hang of it.

So, swimming over we returned to the cluubhouse where we branched out from the traditional cake and had some fishfinger sandwiches. Plus malteser cake. And Easter eggs.

By the time Danny arrived back from his mammoth swim it was time for the annual trip to the bookies to place our bets on The Grand National. Sharon stayed outside waving her animal rights placard, while the rest of us made good use of the idiot-proof betting slips provided specially for  idiots such as ourselves. Orlando still needed help understanding his, although his ‘close your eyes and pick a winner’ strategy proved to be successful….

By the time we’d wandered back via the Sweatshop and the ice cream place it was time for the race. A shambolic start, they really need to take some tips from bptt, but a very exciting race. Well, some people got excited, jumping up and down shouting and screaming at the tv, I obviously remained completely calm throughout the entire proceedings, even when I discovered I had made a 400% return on my bet!

Orlando and I took a wheelbarrow back to the bookies to collect out winnings, and everyone went home.

Thames Turbo Triathlon

The Isle of Man has the TT races, well Hampton Pool has the TTT races. This morning David, Danny and I went along to observe the proceedings so we would have some idea of what to do if we wanted to have a go ourselves later in the summer.

Much as we all enjoy an early start and getting up earlier on a bank holiday than a work day; we didn’t quite make it in time for the pre-race briefing at 6.45am. We arrived shortly after 8am, which handily coincided with some of the slower swimmers doing their 12 lengths (it’s a long pool, 12 lengths is 400 metres). From our excellent view point on the balcony we tried hard to spot people who are equally  bad at swimming as ourselves. Hard to judge but there were plenty of breaststrokers out there and some people even took a very quick breather at the end of each length.

We also had a great view over the transition area and the exit point for the bike section, where we spotted all manner of bikes and lots of people not wearing clippy-cloppy bike shoes but bog-standard trainers. No one seemed to be participating on a Brompton though…

The next wave of swimmers then began their swim. Each competitor is given an allotted time to start their swim according to their time prediction, and within each wave swimmers start at 15 second intervals. If you want to overtake in the pool, the etiquette is to tap the feet of the person ahead of you, who will then let you pass at the end of the lane. However not everyone bothers with this and we saw sevaral near collisions. Oh well, at least people don’t actually swim over the top of you, apparently that happens in open water swims.

On watching these swimmers we were very glad we’d seen the previous lot. These guys were proper swimmers, all front crawling and tumble turning like anything.

We then went out on to the road to watch the start and end of the bike section. (This is 21 k and heads towards Sunbury and back). Due to the long staggered start of these races there is plenty to watch at all times. Gerry (a fellow Straggler (we saw many other Stragglers and bptters throughout the morning)) was in charge of the bike mount. You have to get on your bike (and off it again) at a specific spot or risk disqualification. It’s all very complicated this triathloning. Across the road was the bike dismount area. The roads are not closed for the event, so to avoid people getting run over there is a seven minute ‘time out’ during which you slow down and cross over when the marshalls tell you. Gives you a little breather before the run too… The whole event seemed incredibly well organised, marshalled and signposted throughout. It had a really friendly feel to it too.

We then walked through to Bushy Park to see the end of the run section (5k – none of us are worried about this bit!) and the overall finish. Strangely this seemed the most low-key part of the entire course – because of the staggered start no-one knows who is winning or how well any one is doing. It clearly requires lots of concentration and focus to keep yourself going at a good pace.

We then headed back to the pool and were forced to sit around in the sun chatting for half an hour or so – watching sport is exhausting. Some results were up but we couldn’t make head or tail of them and left before the prize giving.

David took some photos of the event which you can see here http://www.davidrowe.co.uk/photos/72157600058236477/

In order to take some of these shots he had to enter the ‘no spectators allowed’ section. However when he told them he was with swimkirsty.com they let him through no problem :o)

A very enjoyable morning that’s all done and dusted by 10.30!

Oh yes….. I’d better mention it…… David and I have both entered race 3 on 28th May……

Report on inaugaral swimclub outing – The Boat Race

Much excitement today as we had our first ever swimclub outing – to the boat race! We strolled through the cemetry (having an intellectual conversation about the difference between cemetries and graveyards) and went to collect Nicola and possibly Stuart. He decided to go on his bike so the rest of us set of for the bus stop. Danny and David appeared to get abducted by aliens on the way but were beamed back just in time to catch the bus.

None of us were 100% certain where we were going, and David’s handy map only confused us further and created several debates about where the north and south of the river are. However through the power of the mobile phone we discovered that Hammersmith Bridge was our destination, where we met up with Graham, Jon and Natasha.

More heated debate ensued about which was the correct side of the river to be on, eventually we found a spot which we mainly liked as it gave a good view of spectators who might get wet later. It was also next to some people who I briefly considered mugging for their picnic as we were incredibly slack in this area.

We stood around for a while discussing the important issues of the day i.e Graham, Danny and David’s bptt pbs. Nicola gave us regular updates on what was happening in numerous sporting events from her wide range of semi-working technology.

First bit of excitement was the b-team/reserves or whoever they were in the preliminary race. It was so exciting that I can’t remember who won or who was in the lead when they went past us.

Then shortly after half past four came the main event and real excitement ensued as the boats came into sight under Hammersmith Bridge. Oxford were leading as they went past us which displeased the Cambridge graduates amongst us. However through the power of Nic’s half tv screen we soon found out that Cambridge won so everyone was happy (because the rest of us didn’t really care either way).

Next on the agenda was food and drink. This involved a 10 minute walk which was a good thing as it was not really that warm for hanging about on riverbanks. We found a pub in Barnes but just as we were about to go in, Danny became fixated with the idea that he could smell fish and chips. We followed his nose (and the directions of a passing man eating chips) and eventually happened upon the most generous fish and chip shop ever.

We strolled back to the pub stuffing our faces and had a couple of drinks with Graham, Jon and Natasha (who had gone straight there). We had an interesting chat about the relevant merits of various races according to your finish position and then went for the bus home. On the bus Nic made friends with a nice friendly SA man!

We had a great time and I am already thinking about our next swimclub outing.

report on swimming club session #8

Session #8??? Wow doesn’t time fly. Small select group at swimclub today – me, Danny and David. Which was disappointing as my new swimmng costume got it’s first outing and the boys have no appreciation for this kind of thing. I liked it though.

We went for quantity over quality today, the aim being to swim 64 lengths (1 mile). We did of course focus on having excellent form at all times though. Danny did sets of 10 and then 4, David and I mixed it up a bit and did 10, 16, 20, 12 and 6. With a long chatting break in between each section obviously! We all completed our mile which was a good achievement.

No time for cake today, just a quick stop to adorn David in pink accesssories and we were off on our outing…..