To cut a long route short

I'll be honest with you. I think I'm a little neurodivergent. I certainly have dyscalculia and might have a tiny streak of OCD in me. The OCD manifests itself when out running. There was a time when I had to absolutely finish a run on a whole mile. I've since expanded it to accept .25, .5 and .75 of a mile, as well as whole kilometres - 5K being 3.1 miles etc:

I have to live with race distances as they are officially measured. But I get a little annoyed when my Garmin reads 26.43 miles on a measured 26.2 route. That's almost a quarter of a mile difference.

I know why it's out. The measured route is recorded with the shortest routes around the corners. The shortest is the fastest. The "racing line" as motor racing drivers call it.

When you're in a big pack of everyday runners, most of the time you're not taking the "racing line". You can't in a mass of people. You have to accept that. 

So I wondered. Just how much can running the racing line affect your distance?

I'm working on an experiment.

A typical American "city block".

This is section of the streets of my home town. I'm going to run the two routes marked. The red around the inside of the block. The blue around the outside, and a longer route. But how much longer is it?

The inside line .35 mile

The outside line .41 mile

The exact rules of such an experiment need ironing out The Garmin should be have some kind of official calibration and I should probably experiment with other GPS's too. It's just an idle idea off the top of my head. But already you can see that my Garmin records that the outside route is .06 of a mile further than the inside. Two laps would equate to a tenth of a mile difference. You can see how you can easily pick up some extra distance if you don't run the official measured route of a race exactly. 

Any thoughts on how to properly conduct such an experiment gratefully received. 
 

A few minutes with a legend

I’m in the presence of greatness

At the recent Grandma’s Marathon expo. I almost literally ran into running legend Dick Beardsley, and had the chance to spend a few minutes chatting with him. The meeting was quite by accident, as I almost bumped into him as he was walking away from a meet and greet session at a sponsors booth. 

If you haven’t met Dick before, you should know he likes to talk. He talks with such passion and joy in his voice that you can’t help but be carried away on his waves of enthusiasm.

Being English, my accent is often a gateway into conversation, and this time was no different. He latched on to this and was straight off into his memories of that first London Marathon in 1981 and the run with Inge Simonsen. 

He told me that He and Simonsen became best friends after that race, and they had been invited to drop the starters flag together at the 40th anniversary running of the event. But Covid had other plans. Perhaps they will be able to do that for the 50th.

He shared how they had duked it out from Tower Bridge onwards, each attacking the other, until they decided to cross the finish line together holding hands.

“It had never happened before, and it will never happen again”. He said. “It was exactly what that race needed”.

I remarked that in a post race interview he said that he had run three competitive marathons in three months.“Nobody would do that these days” he said, and he effortlessly segued into his training and race nutrition. His fuelling on the London Marathon had been flat Coke that had been sitting in his hotel room for a couple of days. It was the sugar in the Coke that kept him going. But the energy from the sugar burst only lasts for about three miles, then you crash and have to take more.

Every three miles he had to take a drink of flat Coke. How times have changed.

Times have changed with shoes too. “My shoes back in London weren’t much more than pieces of nylon with rubber soles”. He said before going on to explain about supershoes, how they work, and that I should be trying them. He related how he was utterly amazed the first time he tried a pair for himself. I envisioned him running out of control in these new shoes. 

If they are good enough for him, then I should give them a try.

He even charmed my wife, telling her she was the best sort of supporter for cheering me on at events. 

With that he was done, it may only have been five minutes but it had seemed like an hour or more. I had been so inspired by his passion. His recall of an event from almost 45 years ago was amazing, and he’s still clearly very excited by it. I asked him for a selfie and he willingly obliged.

I have a new sporting hero now. 

Sweet Dreams are made of this.

Big events like a marathon create a lot of nervous energy. Different people channel it different ways. Some people have trouble sleeping. Some get all excitable. You can see that sort of person on Internet forums posting ALL IN CAPS WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS AT THE END OF THEIR POSTS!!!!!!!

Me, I’m a much quieter person. My nervous energy gets channeled in different ways. 

I have odd dreams. Not necessarily bad dreams. Just plain odd.

It has been that for as long as I can recall. Right from my days of acting on the amateur stage. I used to have a recurring dream where I woke up in bed, on the stage just before the curtain was about to rise.

When I was taking part in triathlon, I used it dream about swimming in circles and not getting anywhere. 

When I was co-driving a rally car, I would have all kinds of weird and wonderful dreams. The one I remember the most was when I was co-driving and my driver was pop singer Ariana Grande. I know nothing at all about her. But I knew it was her in the dream because her long pony tail was sticking out of the top of her crash helmet.

I came to depend on the dreams. I see them as a positive way of channeling my nervous energy. Some kind of good luck charm if you like. If I had the bad dream, things were going to be OK, and I was going to do well. 

So where has my bad dream been for Grandmas Marathon? It has been noticeably absent so far. Until last night.

I had this bizarre dream where I was taking part in a race where the route was so twisty and tortuous that we could only walk it. In single file. No-one could run. Only walk around this lush garden. A very odd situation indeed.

But it makes me feel good and ready for Grandmas Marathon.

BRING IT ON!!!!!   

 

Worms of Wisdy

As we get closer to race day. I’d like to share some words of wisdom. Things I have picked up over the years. Some serious, some fun. Some you will have heard before, some you may not. Hopefully you’ll be able to take something from them to help you through your race. 

1. Your first goal is to finish. You may want to set a PB or a BQ time or something. You never know what might happen on race day. The weather might not co-operate in some way. Perhaps you wake up feeling a little off-colour and extra nervous, and you just can’t do it. It’s happened to many of us. You’ve trained a long time for this. You should get to the finish first.

2. Always smile for the race photographer. Look like you’re enjoying yourself. No-one needs to know if you’re in any pain. If you can, save a little something and sprint in. Do you know how amazing that’s going to look if the photographer catches you with both feet off the ground? Your friends will see that picture and say.”Oh My God! Look at YOU! Running like that for 26 miles? You’re amazing!”

3. Enjoy the crowd. By the end, they are playing a huge part in keeping you going. There will invariably be young children offering high fives to runners. Take them. Take as many of them as you can. Give back.

4. Thank the volunteers. Seriously. This goes without saying. Over any distance, from 5K to Ultramarathon. We can’t run without volunteers. Manning water stations, road junctions, whatever. Thank as many as you can. It doesn’t take much. Maybe have a witty comment lined up. I used to thank volunteers at road crossings with “Thanks for making sure I don’t get run over”. A traffic cop in Duluth once laughed at that. A little thanks goes a long way.

5. Don’t wear your finisher/participants shirt until you’ve finished the race, It’s bad luck. OK, I just made that one up. BUT

6. You should wear as many t-shirts from previous years as you can in the days before. If you have them of course. It marks you as a veteran and a loyal supporter of the event. MIND YOU

7. If it’s your first time, it’s OK to wear other event finisher shirts.  You’re a runner. Be proud.

8.  The .2 effect (.1 for half marathoners) This is very real. You’ve run all the complete miles of the race, and you now have that last fraction of a mile to go. Crowds line the streets, cheering like you’re a superstar even though they don’t know you. From somewhere will come a burst of energy. Your aches and pains will subside and you will be able to dig in for a spectacular finish. (See number 2)

9. Savor the moment. Listen for your name being called by the race announcer as you approach the finish line. This is your moment. You’ve worked hard for this. Drink it in. Remember it. If its your first marathon remember it for the rest of your life.

10. The .05% factor Never forget that you are a part of an extremely small group of the population. Only .05% of the population have run a marathon. Be special. Have a great time.