Back to humble beginnings

Three days ago I ran for 3 km - 15 minutes - a run which I repeated the following day. One day of rest, and today I did 26 minutes for about 5 km.

How did I get down here? Well, it's a long story... (that's from "Down in the Sewer" by The Stranglers).

It was a long series of setbacks, starting with my motivation crisis last summer, followed by a three week period in the peak of summer in Malta, a slight recovery beginning of September after my return to Belgium, another stop for a one week vacation, then an injury in my calf, illness, a repeat injury on my comeback run... I haven't trained regularly since two months, and hadn't run at all for a whole month before last Thursday.

During this upheaval there were some interesting, I would call defining moments.

I would say the low point of my crisis was the Duisburg 10 km race on 8 August, which I started too fast, also considering my bad form due to lack of sufficient training, and which ended up being the third out of six races up till then in the Scott2Run series where I had to slow down to a walk. Admittedly, the route was difficult, the second half being mostly uphill on difficult terrain including cobbled paths, mud, narrow passages and so on. Even my choice of shoes was wrong on that day.

In Malta, for 3 weeks starting a few days later, I knew what to expect. I managed some runs that took an immense degree of will power to complete in the heat, but it was generally low key running with the inclusion of a good deal of swimming. For example, here...

That was simply wonderful!

I was taking it easy on purpose, with the intention of taking it up a notch or two in September. There was a 5 km race close to the end of August in Birżebbuġa. The temperature was around 33 C, the air humid, and two hours before the start I was still undecided whether to take part or not. I drove there, poured a lot of water on top of my head, drank another lot, and gave them my name. My intention was simply to complete the distance without slowing down to a walk. 5 kilometres! I did in fact run the whole way, which was actually a bit of an achievement in those conditions, but it was there and then that I decided that I was going to pick myself up and build up to a full marathon.

Easier said than done.

My recovery started very well, actually. Back in Belgium, beginning of September, I was dreading the final race for this year's edition of the Scott2Run series. This was a 10 km race in Bertem. Double the distance of Birżebbuġa and including a hill that's the steepest I know of all races I've ever done. In two times 5 km loops. Amazingly, it turned out to be one of best runs this year, probably second to the February half marathon in Malta. I registered the best speed, over 13 km/h, as well as my best finishing position for the whole series. It was a defining moment because I found out that, in spite of the doom and gloom, there was nothing basically wrong with me. My success here was due to three main factors, which I hope to keep in mind for the future:

1. I started slowly. (Now, really, after 23 years of running, do I still need to remind myself of this?)

2. I knew what to expect, so I was mentally prepared for the killer hill (times two).

3. I was determined to keep running and never slow down to a walk.

Following this success all seemed fine. I could resume regular training and build up my distances. I took a break of one week for a family commitment, but after the resumption a sharp pain in my right calf brought me to a sudden halt. Literally. Then a cold, then again the same injury...

Which is why my training runs this week were 3 kilometres and 5 kilometres. I hope my calf is now fine, and I have to be careful and ease back into my standard training schedule very gradually.

I was in Paris recently. In another defining moment, I knew that I had to run through the middle of the Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concorde and along the banks of the river Seine. I decided to aim to run the Paris marathon on 12 April 2015. Now, if my comeback goes according to plan, I might just be able to make it.

As the saying goes, mighty oaks from little acorns grow...

The Wings for Life World Run - 4 May 2014 in Ypres, Belgium

On 4 May 2014, a new concept for running competition was born to the world. Instead of runners competing to reach a finishing line in the shortest time possible, they were to run as far as they could before being overtaken by a "catcher car" going at a predetermined speed. Half an hour after the beginning of the run, the car would leave the starting line at a slow pace and accelerate gradually but constantly until it overtakes all participants. The winner of the event is the last participant to be "caught".

At the same instant, in about 36 other locations spread out over six continents, another identical event is taking place, except that the route is different, and in many cases so is the time of day and the ambient conditions. But all 36 locations are linked as one, and the overall winner is the very last person who's still running in all of them.

The event was named 'Wings for Life World Run', and the idea was (also) to collect funds for research into a cure for spinal cord injury.

I liked the concept the moment I learned about it. I had just (for a change) given up on building up to a marathon. I was not in the mood to run all those long distances. This event, on the other hand, allows participants of all types of ability to take part, whatever their endurance. The Wings for Life website has a calculator that gives you the time and distance you would be running until you're caught, according to running pace. For me this resulted in 25 to 30 kilometres - 2h15 to 2h30 - just about as much as I was fit to go at my current level of fitness.

One of the 40 locations was in Belgium, Ypres to be precise. A one and a half hours' drive is close enough for me. Ypres is a gem of a town where I like to go, so I signed up.

A few days later, I strained my hamstring... Nine days before the event it was practically healed and I went for a final long run. Bad idea. The following day, at day minus 8, I could hardly walk. The situation didn't improve very much throughout the following week, so I thought I would have to forget the Wings for Life World Run. The day before the race I was still unsure if was able to run for 1 kilometre, let alone 30.

But I had paid to take part, it was the very first edition, I could give up at any point and my participation would still be valid, so why not go for it and see how it goes?

On Sunday 4 May, the lovely town of Ypres in western Belgium woke up to a day of absolutely perfect weather, one of those days which I like to describe as "without a temperature". The atmosphere was festive. The setting at the starting line couldn't be more impressive: a beautiful memorial with the names of hundreds of thousands of fallen World War I soldiers.

I set off slowly, treading very carefully to avoid upsetting my jittery hamstring. I hadn't run for the last 8 days. I didn't even know if I was fit to run. In fact, in my mind's eye I was still injured. Except that, to my huge surprise, the injury didn't bother me at all and I could maintain a steady pace of just under 5 minutes per kilometre - just as if I was doing a marathon.

The injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It forced me to avoid running completely for one week before the competition, so I was completely rested on the big day. It forced me to avoid the usual mistake of starting too fast. I ran at a calm but steady pace, on completely flat roads in the pleasant countryside that 100 years ago had been turned into hell on earth by warmongering world leaders. We kept going from one village to another, each lined with cheering spectators, the kilometre markers going by and my legs working like a dream.

At 28 km I was still feeling strong and confident that I would reach 30 km within 2h30... so imagine my disappointment a couple of minutes later when a number of motorcycles and a loud hailer from behind heralded the arrival of the catcher car. I had been so close to the 30 km milestone.

What a fantastic run. I later found that I'd been caught at 28.33 km, in 2105th position out of 34,000 participants world wide. The overall winner, Lemawork Ketema (surprise, surprise, an Ethiopian), who had run in Donautal in Austria, was caught at 78.58 km!

Wings for Life World Run, you've got me hooked. I've done the first event. Now, following the spirit of this competition, I hope to do all editions as long as my legs can carry me. Who knows, I could aim to do the world tour. Having started at 51, I would complete a round trip of all 36 locations spread over six continents at the age of 86.

Now that's an interesting target. No harm in dreaming...

A setback... or is it?

In spite of having announced my retirement from marathons after Rotterdam in April 2013, I had been aspiring to build up to another marathon this October 2014. My long runs had gone up to 2h45m (for approx 30km), but I was struggling to cover this much.

Last Sunday was the middle of a heat spell and less than half way through the run my right shoe was already completely soaked in sweat, the remaining distance to cover seemed endless... I decided to stop - and prepare properly for a 30km effort the following Sunday (today).

Today morning I started earlier on a make-or-break long run for my planned marathon. I would either resume the build-up in training or I would just have to give up. I drove to Tervuren Park about 15km from home, leaving a bottle filled with an energy drink at the doorstep, the idea being that I would pick up this drink in the middle of my run and go back to the car at Tervuren. 28 minutes into the run, on the first uphill stretch, the urge to stop again overwhelmed me, and stop is exactly what I did. I simply didn't feel like running for a long distance.

This of course spelt the end of my marathon aspirations. We're in the middle of summer. I'm suffering from severe lack of motivation, which, combined with the heat make preparation for a marathon in October very difficult indeed. I don't feel like doing it, I don't need to do it, so I'm not doing it.

Walking back, I realised that giving up was like a liberation. Interesting alternative scenarios opened up. I could take a break. I could take up cycling with occasional short runs whenever I feel like it. For three weeks in the upcoming hot Maltese August I could do a lot of swimming instead of running. I could resume the 2014 Scott2Run competition, for which I'm still in the running for a placing.

Five minutes into the walk back to the car I broke into a run, and, amazingly, I started running fast. The slow plod of my earlier run was still echoing in my head, but this new run was quick and sprightly. I had shaken off the burden of having to run long distances to build up to a marathon, and all of a sudden training has become interesting again, rather than a chore. I alternated some jogging with fast running for half an hour, for a decent total of close to an hour running today, and resolved for the next few months to mix it all up a bit.

Long term target - the second edition of the Wings for Life World Run in May (more on this in another blog post that's half completed). As for marathons... never say never again. Maybe winter would be a better time to run long distances.

I don't want to think about it.

Erps-Kwerps - Easter Monday, 2014

Years ago, when a colleague at work mentioned the place to me, I wouldn't believe it was really named Erps-Kwerps. The same thing happened to our son Gianluca today afternoon. But Erps-Kwerps it really is, and the surrounding land is completely flat, which suited me just fine as I wasn't in the mood for any hills, more so as I'm nursing a sore hamstring.

Today's race was preceded by Gianluca's debut race - a one kilometre dash for children. With no training at all he finished the run in the middle of the pack. May this be the beginning of a long running career, Gianluca!

I started my own race with strong misgivings due to the hamstring. The past five days I've only done a short 25 minute jog two days ago, to keep it rested and allow it to heal, but during the warm-up I could still feel it hurting very slightly. A few minutes into the run, however, the pain disappeared and I could concentrate on my usual business of overtaking my rivals. A short stretch with cobbles was followed by longer asphalted stretches and some patches without asphalt, next to fields, a railway line, a huge car storage area and houses again as we headed back to Erps-Kwerps village for the start of a second loop.

No hills meant that I could maintain a constant pace. It's convenient when there are no uphills, but it also means there are no downhills and by the middle of the second loop I was becoming tired. Not too tired, however, and I managed to keep a steady rhythm. At the 11th kilometre I heard someone coming up close from behind. I was in no mood for any sprinting - I was already going as fast as I could - and I wished he would pass by and disappear, but he never did. Instead, I approached another couple as we neared the last bends before the finish, and I overtook them too!

Utter exhaustion at the finish was rewarded by a good time of 53:45 for approx. 11.8 km. It was my best performance to date in this year's edition of the Scott2Run. Tomorrow I'll find out the effect of this strong effort (I don't think I could have run any faster today!) on my long-suffering hamstring. Fingers crossed, it's still fine up till this evening...

Scott2Run 2014 - the first three events

The first group of three races for this year's Scott2Run competition kicked off on a bad footing for me on 22 March, continued with a close to disastrous performance a week later, but was concluded with a fine, fine run on race number three today.

Vilvoorde 12km - 22 March 2014

I had long been looking forward to this. I had been training well, putting in some fairly long runs as well as speed sessions, so I took a fair degree of confidence with me to Vilvoorde. But the day turned out to be cold and wintry, and I was never able to fire myself up properly.

The event consists of two loops - each one with a long steep hill during the first half followed by a flat mid-section and a final downhill stretch. The uphill part of the second loop I suddenly slowed down to a walk. It happens sometimes. A number of other runners passed me while I recovered my breath (and some strength in my legs). I started to jog again after two or three minutes, and began to re-overtake some of the runners who had passed me during the walking stage.

All considered, the final timing of 56:48 wasn't so bad. The field of participants was rather small, so I still managed to collect a useful amount of points.

Furaloop 16km (Tervuren) - 29 March 2014

Mostly in one of my 'haunts', the Arboretum part of the Zonienbos (Foret des Soignes) that straddles Jezus Eik in Overijse and Tervuren.

I realised there was a hills 'issue' in this one, so I checked the height profile on the Furalopers' website the days before. I found that most of the uphill parts were in the first half, while the second half was generally downhill. So I went to Tervuren determined to make up for the previous week's disappointment while being careful not to overdo it in the first, hilly, part.

The first 8km were, indeed, very hilly, but I managed them quite well, overtaking a large number of rivals in the process. The second half, as predicted, was generally flat or downhill.

Up to a certain point.

Suddenly I saw looming up ahead a steep hill. I thought it would be a short stretch, and then we would resume going downhill. But then we came to another hill. It went on and on. Determined as I was not to slow down to a walk this time... slow down to a walk is exactly what I did. Once. Lots of rivals going by. Restart at a slow jog. Another hill, one I've done lots of times in my training. Another stop! What a disaster.

I lost about four minutes from my normal time at the end, though I did manage to recover enough energy in the final 2 or 3 km to have a respectable finish, at a sprint. Official timing: 1h18:58.

Picking up the pieces - Wednesday 2 April 2014

I had been looking forward to a good year of running, with lots of ambitious plans, and here I was slowing down to a walk in the very first two races of this year's edition of the Scott2Run.

I'd never slowed down to a walk in two successive races. I sorely needed a morale booster, so I decided to risk a make-or-break long run. I'd gone up to 25 km - 2h15 in my pre-Scott2Run preparation. Next long run: 27km - 2h30. That's what I set out to do, and that's what I did without any particular problem.

That's how I found out that there's nothing seriously wrong with my current form. With the wisdom of hindsight, I can lay the blame for my recent mishaps on:

a. Having done a short run on the day before the race;
b. Having had a stressful morning a few hours before the race, doing the weekly shopping and such stuff;
c. In the case of the Furaloop 16km, bad mental preparation for the route.

I also seriously need to improve my form going uphill. I used to be very good at this, but, seemingly, not any more.

Perk, Kasteeljogging - 11.5km - 6 April 2014

This used to be a triple loop in a park, with long stretches where runners are forced to go single file or risk twisting a knee or an ankle while trying to overtake on very rough ground. They have now changed this into a more sensible double loop, finishing with a long lap around the club football grounds.

Except for the initial two or three minutes, that were rather crowded and where overtaking was next to impossible, the going for me was very smooth. Most of the time I was overtaking other runners without exerting myself too much. While I ran, I realised that I hardly need to make any effort to run on flat terrain, which is what we had throughout today. Having 'rehearsed' the final lap around the club football grounds during warm-up before the race, I was prepared for this too and finished strongly at 53:19.

So, I guess, I'm back on track for a (still) promising 2014 running campaign.

The Malta Half Marathon, 23 February 2014

...

I hadn't raced in Malta since... I can't even remember. In fact I hadn't run at all in Malta since almost a whole year due to various mishaps and injuries.

I sort of made up for this in the 2014 edition of the Malta Half Marathon.

Looking at the statistics of my previous participations in this one, I noticed a steady decline with the advancing years. Can't be helped, of course. I had achieved an impressive 1h30:11 when I was 14 years younger, followed in later years by 1h31 and 1h34. In recent years I was doing 1h40 or so in half marathons in Belgium. A PB this year was just the stuff of wild dreams, but the downhill profile of this race did justify an expectation for a sub-1h40.

But first of all, the greatest pleasure I had from this return to my running roots was the opportunity of reuniting with so many dear friends.

I miss them really a lot. The picture above, taken just before the start, shows from left to right: Victor Laurenti, Lee Micallef, myself, Charles Tedesco and a fifth person who I'm sure is a fantastic chap, but who unfortunately I don't know at all... There were also many others, and to all of them I was glad to say hello, how are you, it's great to be here and to see you again.

The event has grown tremendously since my previous participations. Back then the field used to consist of hundreds of runners, now it's in the thousands. More than 2000 ran this half marathon, while a comparable number did a "walkathon" - exactly the same event, at a walking pace.

All these thousands inevitably lead to a very crowded start, but we now had an electronic chip tied to the number, which records the actual time from the start gantry to the finish. So we didn't need to worry too much about the time lost until we actually reached the start, except that... in the official result the time given includes this wasted time in the beginning. Worse than that, groups of ignoramuses go and position themselves to start their "walkathon" ahead of the real runners, creating obvious problems, whereas they had been specifically instructed to start at the back, again for obvious reasons that needn't be spelt out at all!

After lots of pushing and shoving for the first kilometre or so, I got down to the real business of running. All I needed to do was keep weaving in between slower runners while concentrating on not running too fast. Whenever the road was downhill I let gravity do my work, otherwise I kept an eye on the runners ahead, always aiming to catch them at a comfortable pace and then looking further ahead to the next 'catch'.

This went on for most of the run. Once or twice a runner would come racing by at what seemed to me an impossible pace, but generally it was me who was doing overtaking, including quite a few of the aforementioned good friends of mine.

The going got tough around the 16th kilometre, where there was a rather long hill towards the Portes des Bombes in Floriana. This was followed by a downhill stretch to Sa Maison. I got my breath back somewhat as I switched to gravity mode until we reached sea level. From then on, for the final 4 km flat along the seafront at Msida, Ta' Xbiex and finally Gżira and the Sliema Ferries, I had to grit my teeth, ignore the weariness in my legs and push hard towards the finish.

We're doing fine, on track for 1h40, someone told his companion as I went past them near the Msida Marina. Oh well, I thought, no PB for me, but a respectable time just the same. I kept my pace, overtook some other runners as we entered the Ta' Xbiex coast road and approached the final stretch past the Manoel Island bridge. 

In the last stretch, someone had the idea of writing down motivating slogans on the road, every 10 metres or so. "Work hard, play hard, run hard", "Keep going, never give up". Can't remember the exact words, but they helped. As I approached the finish I looked for my supporters who had promised they'd come to cheer for me.

Then I saw Daniela, who jumped out of the crowd and took this picture of me. Smiling through gritted teeth...

Daniela is now my official photographer... Next to her, the rest of my supporters' club, my dear wife Sue, Gianluca, Erika, Christine, Anthony, Carm. Thank you all for being there!

I don't know about the couple who were on course for a 1h40m. I came in at 1h38m plus something, official time. Chip time from start to finish gantries was 1h37:14.

Excellent run. I'm thoroughly happy with it, even more so considering that just two months ago, back in Malta, I could barely walk properly due to a back injury.

Big question mark now. Can I build on this, up to the full version? Depends on whether I still have a sufficient mix of motivation and strength to carry it out. Time will tell...

Steenokkerzeel 10k

Typical Flemish suburb located a short distance away from Brussels.

It was the last race that I needed to accomplish to gain a total of nine and a placing in the final classification of the 2013 Scott 2 Run challenge.

I almost missed it.

The race was on Saturday 5th October. The following day, on 6th October, there was the Brussels marathon, and this was the date that stuck in my mind, so I had the impression that the final race of the challenge, at Steenokkerzeel, would be on Sunday 6th October. My plan was that on Friday I would do a final easy 10km run, so that on Saturday I would rest to be in good shape for a race on Sunday.

Saturday morning I looked at the website for the competition, to confirm the starting time and so on. That's when I realised with a shock that the race was that very afternoon, and certainly not on Sunday! So I had to quickly change my plans for the day, prepare my running gear and drive to Steenokkerzeel for a 10km race.

Normally I take a day off running before a race, but this time I had done a standard training run of 10km the day before, so for this race I could only hope to do an easy run and simply gather the necessary points to achieve my placing in the final classification. It turned out the route was completely flat, no treacherous muddy paths in the forest, two loops along flat, well paved streets, and I managed to give a pretty good account of myself in spite of not being properly rested.

And (finally!) I obtained a well deserved classification in the top 25 of my age category. It really was well deserved, as I had to overcome many obstacles throughout this edition. In several cases I simply turned up without racing properly, just to put in a presence and get the necessary points and the minimum requirement of nine race participations. But if I hadn't bothered to check the website at the last possible moment on the morning of the last race, the good work I'd done in August following my back injury, scraping through a couple of races during that month would have been all in vain, as I would have missed the last, ninth, race due to a silly mix-up in the dates.

Placing 22nd in the overall final classification earned me a 45 euro gift voucher, which I can exchange for a Scott product at their warehouse in Kortenberg. This warehouse is open every first Saturday of the month, but the gift voucher expires at the end of February. Next Saturday is the last possible date when I can use it. The saga of my 2013 Scott 2 Run competition continues...