London Marathon 2017

Had an awesome weekend and marathon in London 😀

A few months ago (27th January '17) I got an email from The Running Bug team, that I had been selected to be a Reebok #FloatrideLondon ambassador with a free place at the "otherwise-sold-out-and-very-hard-to-get-a-place-in"-London Marathon. I'm very pleased and humbled for getting this opportunity!

The last many years I have entered the ballot for the London Marathon but without luck and had sort of given up the idea of participating. And I tried to fool my brain and convincing myself that it's (the marathon) probably just over-rated anyway hence not worth the effort of trying to get a place at. However, I guess deep down in my heart I knew this wasn't true. Truth is I would love to run it!

So I was very very pleased finally standing at the start line with some 40,000 other equally-minded, eager to get going. 😋 Everybody buzzin' and off we went...

A great relief to get going. Crowds of people cheering along from the first few metres and from here only very few places were without huge hordes of enthusiastic and cheerful high-5'ing spectators 😎 What an amazing atmosphere!! Simply AWESOME!!

Of course I brought my camera and took some photos along the route. Who wouldn't! And I also captured some video footage (about 45 minutes in total 😱) which I've compiled into a 5 minute video. 

My training for it (the marathon) has not been optimal. I've mostly been a #WeekendWarrior due to my job allowing only little time during work-days for running, so pretty much all my training has been in the weekends. However, I felt ready for it and managed to get myself a PB in 3:48:55. I really enjoyed it and had an awesome weekend in London! I will definitely recommend anyone to run it.
Ballot sign-up for 2018 is this week!! (1st May '17 and till 5th May '17: LINK).

My Reebok kit and Reebok Floatride running shoes did a great job and my feet or legs was not sore afterwards. My Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR GPS watch also did a good job.

I'm very pleased and thankful that I got the opportunity to participate in the London Marathon 2017, which would not have been possible if it wasn't for Reebok UK Team #FloatrideLondon, SweatshopOnline and The Running Bug. Thank you very much!

I have been out running once since the marathon - a nice and easy 10km run @ 5:20 min/km avg. pace (somewhat a week after) and my legs, feet and body feel great. 😉

I'm not sure what my next target will be, but I'd love to do some more ultras. I was a bit jealous when I passed some runners as they finished TP100 this weekend when cycling along the river in Oxford... 😊

Oh - and remember to give blood if you can! Donated today - my 25th donation in Oxford 😎 #GiveBlood

Until next time - Keep on running and see ya out there!

#VLM2017, #LondonMarathon, Team #FloatrideLondon, SweatshopOnline, The Running Bug, Suunto #Spartan Sport Wrist HR, #GiveBlood

Best M.

Next stop: London Marathon

London Marathon this coming Sunday - Yeah 😀

With less than a week to go, I'm feeling ready for it - Still slightly surreal that I've got the chance to run it though, but I'm looking very much forward to it indeed! Thankful and excited!

A couple of weeks ago I was at a Reebok/Sweatshop training session as a part of the preparation for London Marathon with some great talks by various people including my coach Shaun Dixon (from Let's get Running), a nutritionist and former Marathon World Record holder Steve Jones who won Chicago, London Marathon and New York in the mid-80's and who is also a Reebok Ambassador. 

All in all a great day with a bit of exercise at the end round the streets of London. Most of the information given is very much in thread with what I have been trying practising over the past years. Here's a few points:

• Training:
   - Listen to your body!
   - Don't do to much too soon.
   - Don't play catch-up with your training plan if you miss a session - Let it go!
   - Session over 3-ish hours if probably not doing you any good.
   - Rest after a race.
   - Stretch those legs once in a while.
• Carbs:
   - Don't be carb-phobic! You need carbs to fuel your run.
   - Start carb-loading for a race a maximum of 48h prior to the race. 
• Proteins:
  
   - I eat varied and relatively healthy, so I probably already get enough protein, hence no need to top-up with (expensive) protein shakes that does not taste that well after all.
   - Milk/Cocoa flavoured milk is (still) great as a post-run-drink for re-hydration and has a good mixture of proteins and electrolytes that helps the recovering process. Top that up with a banana for some fast carbs. The body can only process so and so much protein at a time, so no need to over-do it.

Almost ready for London Marathon. My new Reebok running kit has been washed and dried. The new Reebok Floatride running shoes has arrived and have been tested. Accommodation has been sorted. My camera is being charged "as we speak" and the memory card emptied to make room for my photo coverage of the streets of London. The new Suunto Spartan Sport WHR multi sport GPS watch has arrived and I thought London Marathon would be a great place to test it and compare it to my old GPS watch. 

And for those who have too much time on their hands can follow me via this link:

FOLLOW ME ONLINE @ LONDON MARATHON: #56502

See ya at #LondonMarathon 😃

Best M.

Team #FloatrideLondon, ReebokUK, SweatshopOnline, The Running Bug
Suunto Spartan Sport WHR
 

Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR

A new watch - the Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR - has arrived just in time for a bit of testing before taking it to London Marathon 😀 

The new watch says 1 April 2017! A little more than 3 weeks till London Marathon and I have just received a new gadget + some other cool stuff from Suunto Team for testing. Thank you very much Sarina for this opportunity to be among the very first to get to use this cool watch with optical wrist-based heart-rate monitoring based on technology from industry leader Valencell. It looks very promising and I'll be spending some time testing it and comparing it to the Suunto Spartan Ultra among others.

As mentioned there's just about 3 weeks till London Marathon, and despite getting less runs done than intended due to my daily commuting during the week, I feel ready. I've had some good long runs in the past couple of weekends with amazing weather with lots of sunshine and plenty of time to enjoy the slowly increasing levels of green in the visual spectrum - Simply love spring time!😁

I've had a cold most of this past week, which, in companionship with late hours at work, lead to no running during work days this week. However, as my cold is bettering - yet not gone - I'll be heading out both today and tomorrow. I cannot not-run with this new gadget sitting perfectly on my wrist measuring my HR in the high fifties writing this. 

I've decided to skip my long run this weekend and hope my cold will approve and leave me alone - at least till after London. I've managed to get 31km in as my longest run in my training so far. And as I have been aiming for about 32km as my longest (as then there's only 10km left to the full marathon 😋) so I feel I'm pretty much there distance-wise. Speed-wise I'm not really sure where I stand. I have had some really good patches over the past couple of week(end)s, which could get me near the time I discussed with Coach Shaun Dixon (from Let's Get Running) before I got a new job requiring a bit of commute leaving less time to run. So I have to see on the day (23 April) how things are and go with my instinct pace-wise. I know I can run the distance - I've got not doubt about that - but I just don't know how fast. But I'm gonna bring my camera and my new Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR watch and my Reebok Floatride running shoes and simply enjoy whatever London has to offer me on the day 😎. 

Accommodation for London Marathon has been book relatively central to the event and I'm looking very much forward to the event and to experience the atmosphere along the course round London. It can only be a great day! Hopefully I'll get a chance to meet some of my fellow members of Team #FloatrideLondon, but I guess chances are slim with some 40,000 other runners! 😮

I'm heading out there now to run while the sun is still shining...

See ya all out there and have a great 1 April 😄

Best M.

#SuuntoSpartan Sport Wrist HR, Team #FloatrideLondon, #VLM2017 #LondonMarathon #SweatshopOnline #ReebokUK

PS: Views are my own! The watch has kindly been provided by Suunto Team.