It had almost been a year since I attempted my last marathon. That was in Hannover. And it has probably been three to four years since I am running with an injury that is stubbornly reluctant to go away. After finishing Hannover, I had felt positive, but then entered a new cycle of the pain getting worse. So I finally saw a specialist, who, after seeing the x-ray, laughed because he couldn’t believe I had just run a marathon in…
I am seeing a physio now. When I started preparing for a potential Hanover Marathon entry, the pain in my heel flared up. Reluctantly, I decided to get help from a health professional. I thought their answer would be obvious: Stop running in minimalist shoe-ware. But I wanted to get serious about recovery and was prepared to make compromises. For a couple of years now, I have been running in sandals in summer and FiveFinger or other minimalist trainers on…
I got this new Garmin watch. An Epix Pro (Gen 2), Sapphire Edition, 47 mm, to be precise. It’s nice! And it arrived just in time for the Brighton marathon, and to rescue me from another marathon survival slog. Things hadn’t been going great. After Valencia in December and Luxor in January, I had with Sevilla in February yet another marathon experience that was more an act of sheer willpower to complete somehow, than what I would call running fun. And…
It’s marathon number three with a dodgy heel. I had booked all of them before I knew that my foot condition was not improving, despite all mobility, cross-activity, and mindfulness that is within my capacity. My running calendar showed Seville for February! It’s one of those races that had been on my bucket list for many years. Last year, when my new minimalist running approach had seemed to work in my favour, I got over excited and booked Valencia, Egypt,…
My recovery from the Valencia marathon wasn’t going too well. These stupid heel niggles just don’t want to get better. I wondered if it is a good idea, to do this Egyptian Marathon thing after all. The idea had been from Instagram. Desert and ancient temple running had come up on my feed, hooked me, and I signed up. But was that reason enough to go through with it, despite not getting back to pain-free running? My streak of finishing…
My running had not been a very happy one lately. Well, with “lately” I mean six months or so. Since the aborted Regensburg marathon in Germany in May to be precise, where despite a great course, awesome organisation, and no excuses, I had enough after 20 miles (32km) and could not face the final lap of 10km. Instead, I listened to the siren song, luring me with the finish area that I had to pass before doing the last bit.…
PacePro is Garmin’s little training and race helper: put in a course, set your preferences and Garmin spits out splits per kilometre or mile, or per elevation segment. I was determined to give it a go since my last two attempts of simply following the 4 hours race pacer resulted in just a bit over 4 hours finishes. Don’t get me wrong. I am not getting all uptight about certain times, but I thought, now that I am back in…
Fourteen seconds short of a sub-4 marathon time. How could this happen!? Well, I can think of a few reasons why: Malta was too much fun, and for a marathon in its 38th edition a bit laisser-faire – and there are simply better things to do than chasing times. It was my first time in Malta. I arrived Saturday morning at my apartment in Sliema, only five minutes away from the finish line and where the shuttle buses would depart…
I am on my way back from Madeira to London. The marathon medal is in my bag. While it was my 71st in now my twelfth year of marathon running, it was more than that. Musing over the cause of an ever-worsening running experience for years and eventually not being able to finish my last marathon attempt in April 2022, had led to a blog post that I dropped just before running this one. I had realised that slow, unnoticed…
Last year I had my first-ever marathon DNF. I know! Shocking! After 11 years of running marathons without a single DNF. (In case you found this blog from outside the running universe: DNF at stands for “Did Not Finish”). It was my marathon attempt number 71, in April 2022. Yes, it took me nine months to write about it, mainly because I not only decided to stop running but also to stop trying to figure out how to get back…
After today, I declare my love affair with marathon running as a dysfunctional one. One of those love-hate things. Toxic, abusive, yet, you can’t let go. I know, I know, I have been banging on about this for a while: June 2020, the game-changer month (in a negative way) where my running stopped following all previously perceived wisdom and experience. Is it physical, is it psychological, is it age or just how it is…? I have been searching for an…
I had done Endurance Life events before: Dorset, twice, to be precise. Both races had been tremendous challenges. The course is rated by the organiser as “extremely difficult”. But I do look back to them with fondness and even a bit of pride. When it came to deciding on my first marathon in 2022, ideally in the UK to avoid additional travel complexities in the time of an ongoing pandemic, the South Devon Marathon seemed to be a perfect choice.…
I was at Heathrow Terminal 5 to drop my luggage for my flight to Pisa, when I scanned my boarding pass and saw “wrong terminal” on the luggage belt screen. It felt like all forces of the universe were against me. Well, that is a tad dramatic. What I did think was, where to go with my self anger. Why did I not double check the terminal? There was not enough time to go from Terminal 5 to 3, since…
It was my third time in Athens and that I had signed up for the marathon, which they call “the authentic” one. Again, a COVID cancellation roll-over from 2020. I signed up because I was desperate for running motivation, and marathon events had always been doing the trick. In 2020 Athens had been one of the first to organise their marathon after the first lockdown. Like everything else, it got then cancelled and my entry transferred to 2021. It felt…
This feeling, when you are at the gate to board your flight to Stockholm, all excited about running the marathon the next day, and then you hear the words: without a negative PCR test, you can’t board. It is almost like you want to turn around and check if they are talking to someone else. Hey, I am double vaccinated, you want to shout. Everywhere I checked, the rules said that’s enough. Then it slowly sinks in. No matter how…
