Asics London 10k

What a race!

And I don't mean that in a particularly good way. Ok, let's examine the history to this one- I've run this 10k for the last 4 years. I run as part of the Scoliosis Campaign Fund team. I run this for my daughter, Scarlett, who has scoliosis and has, as many of you know, had two major operations to correct it. She's doing brilliantly and is a very active young lady. I can't wait for the day she will run this one with me! :)
Anyway, so I've done this a few times and it's always a bit crowded and you have to do a bit of weaving at the start to get into a pace and amongst similar strength runners...that's all fine. BUT this year the whole course was a really assault course. I was hoping to pull my time in under the hour- I'd done some good training times and was feeling strong for this one. Had a fabulous day with Helen in London the day before; met up with Aggi and Andy (congratulations btw) for dinner at Jamie's Italian and so all was well with the world. 0830 on race day, met up with the SCF Team and Nicola and Carrie-Ann- friends who were also running and headed off to the start line near Marble Arch. 0935 is when we were due to start but for some reason this was delayed by a good 20 mins, with us crossing the start line 40 mins later. Yes, it was that busy. And then for the dodgems. Now the roads down that London are pretty wide and still it was heaving- way more so than previous years. The pic below is at the 2k mark (thanks Helen and Dale for cheering me on) and it looks pretty relaxed on that. Don't you believe it! With runners of all strengths and sizes it was really hard work. I'm sure I read somewhere there were 26,000 runners and for once it felt like they were all slower and in front of me!

The other thing to dodge as well was the amount of water bottles scattered on the road- with 3 water stations (a bit OTT for a 10k) there were 1000's of bottles everywhere. Luckily there were no Gatorade bottles scattered this year. Usually at 5k you get some of this stuff and the floor gets that sticky, it's like running on velcro! I'm telling you, it takes quite a bit of concentration dodging all this stuff!

I felt good throughout the run and with Westminster and Big Ben in sight, I knew I was nearly home. As I chugged past Parliament Aggi and Andy were there to cheer and high 5 me- just what I needed- brilliant and at the last 500m and finally a stretch of road with room to manoeuvre, I sprinted for the finish line crossing at 1hour and 1 minute exactly. Pretty gutted at that time as I'm sure I could have come in 4 mins quicker. To be honest I think I might have run a 10.5k race with all the snaking between people!

Anyway, great day, great race, great friends and of for lunch and a good natter and debrief about the day's events at the Soho Pizzeria before catching the train home. It's become a tradition to come home first class (thank you Tesco for the clubcard tickets) with free wi-fi, tea and butties but more importantly, comfy chairs and room to spread with my aching ankles!

Carrie-Ann is trying to persuade me to do a marathon (in best cockney/essex accent "if you can do a 10k you can do an arf...if you can do an arf you can do a marafon!")- wise words indeed but I'm not convinced!

An addendum to all this fun...

I think at this point it is worth pointing out that the last few weeks (possibly months) have not been as fun as I thought and that I think I am using Go With Crow as a distraction. I don't want to get all depressing on you- and I won't, BUT all this activity and whatever you want to call it does not mean I'm, by any stretch of the imagination, "out of the shit."
'What is he banging on about?' I hear you cry! Well, I'm not right still. My left leg really bothers me- still no sensation on the outer surface of my thigh and it's been like that for a bloody long time AND my stomach still hurts where they sewed me up. It varies day by day and can go from a 4/10 to an 8/10. They told me it would improve over the year. Lying sods!
'Phil, stop whinging' - I'm whinging? Nah- this isn't whinging...no where near the whinge gear yet ;-)
But, while I'm here and have your attention, the physical stuff isn't the only thing. Flashbacks. Flashbacks like I don't know where to begin and, at the moment they are becoming stronger and more frequent. The only time they seem to stop is when I'm asleep. How odd! I'd have thought they'd be worse then. Glad they're not. I'm feeling quite mixed up at the moment because of these flashbacks. I want to work, I don't want to work- I'll do some stuff for Go With Crow to distract me from work so I think I'm working. When I am shooting, designing or whatever, I'm totally there and loving it. It's the thought of doing something fills me with dread. WTF is that all about? I find it hard to concentrate. Like I said, at the moment, I'm easily distracted and I'm in a vicious circle knowing I need to work but not necessarily wanting to. Is this like a post trauma thing? I can't afford time off!! I had 6 months off last year- not that I wanted to, so I can't take any more time out. I'm also aware of so called 'competition' around me. There are more photographers setting up businesses.... one guy is offering a 2hr portrait shoot with 20 photoshopped images on disc for £50... I'm amazed! That is desperate and surely it cannot be sustainable. It's a shame because it drags down us decent photographers. Going a bit off topic there but you get my point. Self employment aint all it's cracked up to be. Well, not at the moment it's not.
All I want to do is spend time with my family and my friends and cycle & run. Luckily for me I realise to do any of these things I (unfortunately) do have to get up off my ass and earn some money to do these things. It's not under sufferance, it's just.... these flashbacks are starting to drag me down. Oh crap I'm just repeating myself now. You get the picture. I'm not depressed, I'm just not happy with certain things. That's ok isn't it?

Just adding another note about flashbacks here- I also get flashbacks with taste. I was doing a spin class the other day and a taste from ICU came back of some sticks they used to let me use to wet my mouth when I was ventilated. I could even 'taste' the big tubey pipe being pulled out the other day. So flashbacks, sensations, tastes and feelings all triggered by.... I have no idea!

And last week, I kind of really lost the plot. I got really mad for no reason, went to work and cried all the way there. Ground control?...Houston, we have a problem. OK, handbrake. Back to the Docs and back to my counsellor I think. Whilst at the GP's I asked again about my leg. Now, doctors go through a good 5 or 6 years university training, then all that experience in hospitals, so I really didn't need to see what happened next... she Googled my leg. Fact! Luckily I had the manners to keep some self-control and saved my outburst of expletives for in the car! Bleeding hell- she actually sat on her fat salaried arse and Googles my effing leg AND still didn't have any answer for me!

So, I've 'sat' on this post since the 29th. I wasn't sure if I should make this one public. This blog was never meant to be some sort of therapeutic rant. It's about the runs and rides and raising money and this is getting a wee bit too personal for my liking. However, some people- certainly people who have had sepsis and have been in ICU might read some of this crap and be able to relate to it. If it helps one person not feel alone then it was worth it. So, here goes...be kind to me...

July '11 FFS...it's never ending. HOW MUCH OF THIS DO I NOT KNOW... tonight I'm told I was asleep for over a week as I was so ill at one point. I was on nearly every machine going to keep me alive. How am I supposed to cope with this information? How can I keep my sanity. How can I cope with the fact my family had to cope...

Feb '14 this shows how information dribbles out. Yesterday I found out that I also had pneumonia. PNEUMONIA FFS I ask you... I think the only thing I didn't have was the runs! More and more to think about. Just when I'm at my limit. Just when I have it all in its compartments in my head, more comes to light. Had enough.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

So, if it's Sunday 26th June, it must be Bikeathon day. Well, yes it is but a whole raft of things happened. 'Team Tastic' kind of disintegrated!
First of all Neil (who cycled London to Brighton last week) pulled out due to work commitments and I couldn't get another 'Lincoln' rider to car-share. OK I thought, got to do this anyway, so no problem. THEN on Saturday Miriam and Darren- Team Tastic organisers pulled out as their car died on them so they couldn't get to Ham House, the starting point for us. This leaved quite a small compact team- none of whom I knew. So, what to do...drive to London and do a ride without my mates or think up something else? The logistics were to drive down at 4am for an 8am meet-up, do the ride and drive home. Because I, now, didn't know the team members that were left (it turns out at least another one or two pulled out on the day) it all seemed like a stupid idea. BUT I still had the dilemma of needing to do a ride as I still have to earn your money for ICU.
Another mate of mine is currently preparing for the Three Peaks Challenge and I knew he would be doing a training ride. "Fancy a ride to the seaside and back" "Yeah, OK, see you at 8" "Make it 8.30" "Oh, go on then!" And so the replacement ride for Sunday was born: Lincoln -or more accurately, Welton- to Sutton-On-Sea. 90 miles.
It was also a good opportunity to do some time-lapse filming with the GoPro, so that was strapped to the handlebars, set at 5 second intervals.
What a day! The sun was out. I'd got suncream on. Plenty of water, off we went. The roads, in both directions were surprisingly quiet and the road surfaces unsurprisingly crap. Skimming the surface with tar and gravel does not hide the fact that it felt like riding in Flanders on the cobbles! You really can tell the people who repair our roads do not cycle!

Anyway, we made it to Sutton by 1145- happy with that and a well deserved coffee and cake break, fill up the water bottles and head for home.

Now, it's at this point I remove my knee warmers. Let's face it, it was a VERY sweaty day, so they simply had to come off. Ok, back on the road. Within 5 miles of leaving the GoPro flies off my bike into the road. How it didn't get flattened I have no idea. I quickly retrieved it: The bleedin' bracket had snapped! I'd only used the bracket 3 times!! That's going back for sure!! It was now pretty much the hottest part of the day but the breeze when riding made the sun bearable, so we slogged on. I started to suffer about 18 miles from home. This was the longest ride I'd done. We finally got back to Welton about 3-ish. Happy with that and straight into a cold shower! Bliss!

Had a look at the filming- yep, for a time-lapse, it's fine- have a look! The rest of the day, very pleasant, nice dinner, usual family shenanigans and met up with a mate I'd not seen for 20 years for beer & chat (thanks Mark- let's not leave it quite so long next time)- got home, sat down to watch a bit of Glastonbury...and then I saw my legs. OMFG!!! And at this point they started to hurt! See for yourself. Honestly, they didn't look like that in the afternoon- it was like someone flicked the pain switch to max. Hopefully (and I'm sure I've said this before) it'll be lesson learned. They still bloody throb sat typing this. Apparently Andy has the same crispy legs too!

London to Brighton Bike Ride

And so to London... Clapham Common to be precise, where at stupid o'clock on a Sunday morning (and on Father's Day too), 27000- yes that's twenty seven thousand idiots on bikes set off on the 54 mile jaunt to the South Coast. Madness.... but fun!

Myself and two friends, Neil and Jon had got this ride planned for some months. Allegedly this is a difficult ride to get registered on as it's so popular but we seemed to manage ok- lucky I guess. PLUS we got a total bargain on overnight accommodation- £29 per twin room for the night before: 12 miles to the start line, but hey... easy ride!

Our allotted start time was 0830 so we set off at 0700. We got there in plenty of time and actually crossed the start line, getting our cards stamped at 10 past. We were off. Well, sort of. With so many riders it was just mental! The journey from the hotel to the start took just under the hour. The first 10 miles took over an hour! The roads were bottlenecked. And with that many riders, it was actually quite dangerous.

Rides such as this bring out the 'one day a year riders'... you know, the ones that think it'll be a giggle etc. Fine.. that's fine... that is what it's about- encourage people to ride and all that jazz BUT the majority of these idiots sorry, I mean nice folk, act as if they are the only person on the road. THEY HAVE NO IDEA what mayhem they are causing... "Oh, I'll just go over to that side of the road without looking.. lala la la laa" and riders swerve and/or go flying. I tell you, it's not a pretty sight.

Then you have the 'Black Spot' zones... Now, to me that would mean maybe slow down or maybe be a bit more cautious. No. Apparently not. To the 'Day Tripper' it means LEG IT...Can't see anything round the corners but it's downward sloping so let's bloody go for it! Three words.... Blue Flashing Lights. I'm pretty sure the St Johns Ambulence crews must have run out of TicTacs and Extra Strong Mints on this event!
One guy had hit a fence on a corner because he couldn't/didn't brake and his bike stopped- he flipped over the fence and was out cold. They were dropping left right and centre. Like I said..it was actually quite scary. I've posted a video on here at the end. Have a look. It actually doesn't do the crowds justice but gives you an idea.

Don't get me wrong, it was ace fun and a great atmosphere with people certainly getting into the spirit of it (Team Lard were a personal favourite) with all sorts of bikes and fancy dress. One guy was on a beautiful 1970's vintage Chopper and there were lots of tandems. A big hello to the guys on the tandem in full drag as Emily & Florence from little Britain..inspired and very funny!... people just needed to be a bit more careful.

Anyway, we had a few water stops on the way and eventually arrived at a rather large hill known as Ditchling Beacon. Narrow and steep (2k with an average gradient of 9.7%). The only words that can describe it. Now I'm no pro cyclist (as you all know) but I know how to tackle a steep hill. Steady and slow pace- total concentration on your own movements and everyone around you. One false move and you're in trouble. On the left of this road, riders were dismounting and walking the hill. Fair enough. In the middle, riders were giving it their best but alot were having to dismount. On the far right (or maybe this was just my take on it) were the riders that could cope and had the legs for riding this hill. I've got a steady pace going, happy with what I'm doing...Jon's gone on in front and he's riding it well...Neil's somewhere behind and again, he's good on hills too. HOWEVER Mr gangly legs in front of me is swerving all over and two thirds up decides it's time for a little drink. On a hill. Cycling. CAN'T YOU WAIT TIL YOU GET TO THE TOP??? Apparently not. And what happens when one starts fidgeting about for bottles... concentration goes and so does his speed.... My front wheel touches his back wheel and BAM...I'm on the bloody floor. By this point my vocab has turned a nice shade of blue as I mutter under my breath. but I got up pretty sharpish, straighten my wheel and after a few paces, remounted and carried on. Very unimpressed and even more unimpressed that all video footage after this point is unusable due to the jolt and the GoPro camera is now facing downwards for the rest of the ride.

I'm glad to say I overtook Mr gangly legs about 5 mins later and yes I was still muttering as I made my approach to sunny and windy Brighton. Again, as we all approached the city, riders bottlenecked and ground to a halt- a combination of traffic lights and shear numbers of cyclists but once on Brighton front for the finish, it was wonderful. Very atmospheric with a huge crowd to cheer us all across the finish line. And so that was the L2B ride. I crossed the finish line at about 1300 with Jon and Neil coming in about 15 mins later, but this ride was never going to be about times- it was about being part of possibly the largest organised ride in the UK.

"How did you get back to that London" I hear you cry! Coach and lorry: bikes stowed into a lorry and us collapsing into the coach back to Clapham Common. Once unloaded we had our lovely 12 mile ride back to the car and an even more lovely drive home. So a total of 78 miles clocked up... a long ol day. But, as always, fun!

start & finish, we got this stamped

What do points make.....PRIZES!

Yes folks, it's taken a while but looks like some, if not all, prizes for the draw can at last be announced. I think we are going to aim for a round total of 10 prizes. This is what's confirmed so far...

• 1 Month Family Membership at David Lloyd Burton Waters, Lincoln (up to 2 adults and 3 children)
• Lincoln Audi weekend car loan- TT or a cabriolet (T&C -winner must be over 25 and have no more than 6 pts on their license)
• Family set of tickets to Jamie Marcus Productions' 2011 Pantomime, Snow White, at Lincoln Drill Hall
• Full professional car valet
• David Lloyd Gym bag and goodies
• Lincoln City ball & shirt
• Martin Johnson signed rugby ball

We're waiting on confirmation on the other 3 prizes. So far so good and hope it prompts you to donate. DON'T FORGET- £15 gets you one entry... £30 gets you 3 entries... how good is that!

Meanwhile, back to the summer tour- this weekend is the London to Brighton bike ride. I'm led to believe there's over 20,000 riders on this one. Sounds a bit scary if you ask me. Anyway, head down and pedal on. With that many people it MUST be fun. I'll spill all the details after the ride on Sunday.

Hoping to have some more video for you to laugh at. I'll be trailing a GoPro HD camera to get some unusual shots as I want to work out some camera angles ready for the Swiss ride in August.

Good News...

At last!

Finally, the on-line donation page is live. After 6 weeks of emails and phone calls, Lincolnshire NHS's Charitable Funds Dept has been dragged into the 21st Century!

So, the all important link is as follows-

www.virginmoneygiving.com/gowithcrow

Another way of connecting to this is with a QR code. What is a QR code I hear you ask. It stands for Quick Response code and Wiki describes it as "a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, URL, or other data."
All very flash, but what does that mean?
Well, if you have an iPhone or a smartphone of any description you need an app to read it. One of the best ones I've come across is RedLaser and it's free!
Download this app, point your cameraphone at the QR code below and zap it. Bingo! You'll see what it does. A great [marketing] idea that hasn't really taken off but has alot of potential.

And the other news this week is I now have two more participants helping raise money for Lincoln ICU. Simon and Gavin from Lincoln Drill Hall have kindly agreed to join in.

Simon will be running the St Ives 10k on July 17th and Gavin will be riding the 101 miles of final cyclo sportive with me- The Wiggle Rut. Good luck guys- enjoy your events!

Woodhall Spa 10k

And so to Woodhall Spa for today's 10k race. I've done this run for the last 4 years. It's great. It's relaxing, great route, great atmosphere and not as many runners as Lincoln 10k. I always manage to bump into people I know at this event and this year was no different. I drove across with my adoptive 'Lincoln family'- sis, Aggi and mum, Rosemary as my support team. Aggi was supposed to be running today but has some sort of groin injury for which she needs more scans than I care to mention, so that put her firmly into the spectator area. Once there I bumped into Andrew and Chris Vaughan- father and son runners and real good mates, a variety of people I know at Lincolnshire Police as well as Lee and Priti- friends from the next village. Interestingly, there was a rumour going around that next years Lincoln 10k was increasing the amount of runners from 5000 to 7500.... I hope not as it feels too big already. That sort of decision- if correct- comes across as greedy rather than inclusive and can quite easily spoil a very good event.

Anyway, I wasn't very well prepared for this run and, to be honest, wasn't looking forward to it. I'd not run since the Lincoln 10k (3 April) as I've been constantly training on my bike. When I finally did go for a run (3 days ago) my thighs totally stiffened up. Not good! Anyway, the weather was good, so let's get on with it.

I have a number of things I do before a run (not in an OCD way) such as the night before, get kit ready with number pinned, iPod music sorted (always on shuffle or it would take hours decided on which track when etc!) chip attached to trainers  etc and on the morning, up early, a bit of brekkie, pack some bananas, water etc and most importantly a nervous poo! (gross to mention but very important as once that's out of the way I'm all set and not worrying about it. Have you used portaloos at race events!?)

1105 and the race begins (because at 1100 the wheelchair racers are set off) and, well, what can I say- it was fantastic. The first couple of K were a bit sore but as I loosened up I found a good pace and stuck with it. By 5k I felt brilliant!

I must mention here that right next to the 5k marker, a runner had collapsed. He had other runners looking after him. He was out cold and had been put in the recovery position (I could hear the ambulance coming). This guy was wearing a runners club vest. He was obviously a regular runner but it just goes to show how dangerous any sport can be and whilst I'll always encourage people to participate (over the years alot of my friends have taken up running because of me...Simon, Claire, Nigel to name a few) you have to train and do it properly.

Today, my iPod helped- there were some good tunes. Here's the list for you nosey gits out there :-)

Ok, ok stop laughing- there's some good stuff on there- you go away and have a listen!! 

And so the second half of the run flew by and before I knew it, I was on the last kilometre. I never look at my watch until I finish as I kind of have just the one pace and if I were to try and speed up, I'd... well, I just would regret it the next day. This running malarkey is all about enjoying the day- for me it's not about PB's and upping my performance. If I get a better time, great, but I'm here for fun. That is the bottom line. I don't want to be suffering all week and walking like a robot or at worse, limping!

And so, I crossed the finish line. My unofficial time on my watch was 1.00.47... just over the hour and just slower than last year (59.34)... not bad. Happy with that. So that's another event under my belt... still waiting for Lincoln Hospital to bloody well sort out their on-line donation registration. They have registered (last week ffs) with Virgin Money Giving so, just waiting on confirmation. It's taken 6 weeks of pestering (the discussion had to be made at committee level! IT'S A NO-BRAINER! you either want the fund-raisers or not! this is typical of the NHS and large businesses- it's almost as if this sort of sh*t goes to committees to justify managerial jobs- I could go on...) to get this far... nearly there so just gotta wait! ...deeeeep breath....and relax....Grrr!

Me and Rosemary at the finish

Finally, here's a link to Google Maps for the route. Not sure how accurate the info is but it gives mile splits for times etc. I switched the app on a few mins before we set off and same at the end. The app is called Cyclemeter and is pretty good as I can use it for runs, cycles etc.

I think extra running is in order for the London 10k in July and to be honest, today made me realise I've missed running, so I need to get the balance between cycling and running right.