Diary of what followed after I finally succeeded in completing a marathon just in time, before my 50th birthday.

Sunday 29 July 2007

DOWN, NOT OUT

Since 15 November: 113 hours 29 minutes, 1075.7 kilometers
Weight: 76 kilos

Tuesday's training was good. As was Wednesday's until after 13 kilometers I tripped over a tree root. Mainly to reassure the worried looking eye-witness I picked myself up and stumbled along until I was out of sight. But the fall had broken my stride and scratched off bits of skin on my left arm and leg.

In combination with an infected eye, it didn't make for the best of weeks. But I rebounced a bit today by doing 23 kilometers non-stop in the park in Tervuren.

Sunday 22 July 2007

GOING STRONG

Since 15 November: 109 hours 9 minutes, 1031.8 kilometers
Weight: 77 kilos

Not much to report, apart from that training is going very well. A good 19 kilometers on Wednesday, a nice 15 on Sunday in Holland through the dunes near Katwijk.

With a weekly total of 44 kilometers, or four-and-a-half hours, I cannot complain.

If nothing unexpected comes up, I will run a half marathon in a week from now, in Bellingen just a bit southwest from here.

Sunday 15 July 2007

ON TRACK

Since 15 November: 104 hours 42 minutes, 987.8 kilometers
Weight: 76 kilos

A week ago I went along the canal to Vilvoorde again, and back. This route is more or less exactly 20 kilometers. After 1 hour 45, I had to walk a bit but I still managed to get home in about two hours. A good training pace.

Somewhere along that training I also passed the point where I'd been running for 100 hours since I started logging my marathon trainings on 15 November. And early in the coming week I will reach the 1,000 kilometers point.

The past week started not so good. On Tuesday I ran my normal office track at lunchtime again, but on Thursday I had to stop after 5 kilometers due to a mini-injury at my left ankle. It was obviously time to toss away my old shoes and switch to the new pair of Asics Gel DS Trainer 12.

This weekend has been good, with 2 runs of 14 kilometers each.

Sunday 1 July 2007

A TOUGH ONE

Since 15 November: 96 hours 27 minutes, 909.9 kilometers
Weight: 77 kilos

Two trainings only this week, of 10.5 and 14 kilometers respectively, which went quite well.

Today's race was the first since the Brusssels 20k. I was ill-prepared. We had a barbecue last night, with the neighbours of our new house. One of them had cooked a brilliant gado gado and I ate lots of it. Alas, it was low on carbs and the beer and wine didn't do much for my race preparation either.

To call the course - 14.8 kilometers through the forest - hilly would be a grandiose understatement. The difference between the lowest and highest point was 130 meters. I knew that the biggest, as in longest climb was in the first two kilometers. But I was not aware of the sleep slopes further down, and they all seemed to go up.

At 12 kilometers I was walking when a woman passed me and urged me in french to try and follow her. I picked up her speed and managed to keep it up till the finish line, where I thanked her. That's one of the nice things of such races: you really experience the kindness of strangers.

In the coming week I will attempt a two-hours training run again. At a very slow pace it should be doable. I'll also go shoe hunting; my pair of Asics are ready to retire after 800 kilometers and the sales are on.