POP 564 Tuesday 19 April 2011

Today's POP is Melissa. It was Marathon weekend here in London, but our Music Editor already killed the Paris course a week ago…

 

 

 

DATC PLUS NIKE

 

I’m about to finish a write up of all the ups and downs of the past couple of months, from handing in my thesis to finishing the Paris Marathon in 4hrs 8mins 58 seconds on 10th April, to yesterday when I was screaming at my friends

Mark and Charlie from Run Dem Crew in the London Marathon at 40k. When I saw Mark he had hit the wall and looked like he could barely see, let alone hear me, but he still finished in an amazing time of 3 hours 32minutes.

 

 

My decision to run the Paris Marathon on April 10th 2011 (my first proper race at all!) was maybe ill-advisedly last minute – I only started training properly in January – but I’ve always run a lot casually, and when I was under too much pressure last year running was my saviour. Running 11 miles on a regular meant a half marathon didn’t seem like enough of a challenge, and I needed a new one. I do a mix of individual sports including a lot of regular weight and cardio training, and yoga, which strengthens your knee joints and feet among other benefits, so I knew I was in pretty good condition for the demands of a marathon. I also based my decision on the fact I always seem to take over most of the women and a lot of the men running along Regent’s Canal.

 

 

If I had to do just one sport it would be running. Not only is the high running generates like that of no other exercise, but traversing increasing distances creates an unrivalled sense of power and space in the mind. (Knowing yoga was very helpful in my training, because yoga teaches you to regulate your breath and use mental images to overcome pain and distances). Because I couldn’t get to Run Dem Crew meetings I trained entirely on my own in the countryside, researching and designing my training schedule with the help of the internet, some friendly advice from Mark, and the Nike + GPS iPhone app. The app plays music and has a voiceover who tells you around every mile how far you’ve gone and how fast you’re running, so with an armband and some good earphones you can easily keep track of your pace. It also tracks your history and sets you challenges based on past speeds, distances, or both.

 

 

 

 

 

Disastrously two weeks before the big race I broke my iPhone in a freak gym accident in a hardcore speed training session in Cape Town. According to the basic combination of stopwatch and online maps I used in training afterwards, I slowed down quite dramatically without a voice in my ear to monitor me. But magic Ashley came to the rescue and lent me his Nike + SportsWatch GPS for the big day. With this on my wrist I kept a steady pace of 8’30 (mins per mile) until around the 16 mile mark where some unfortunate shit went down. My target was sub 4 hours but with this and unexpected heat and the hell of the famous final few miles I was well pleased with my time. I hadn’t had a chance to try the watch out before the race and didn’t realised that it might need charging, and unfortunately it ran out of batteries around 18 miles. So from then on, I had no idea how well I was doing and by the time I reached the finish line it felt like it had been about five hours. I also wanted to share my run with you via my profile on nikerunning.com (I’m sure my ups and downs after 16 miles are pretty jokes), but after thinking most of yesterday morning I was being stupid I found out from Nike that there’s a compatibility problem with Mac OS 10.6 that should be fixed by the end of this week. (The software is currently not properly detecting the watch).

 

The GPS watch definitely seems to be more accurate than the SportBand, which I actually bought but don’t think have properly calibrated yet. Having your running info on your wrist instead of having to reach across yourself and fiddle with your iPhone screen also makes a massive difference. I was also glad I didn’t run with my own music because I would have missed all the crazy Parisian brass bands and drumming en route, and the lovely people at the end shouting ‘come on you’ve only got six hundred metres to go!’. In sum, I want a GPS watch! I would also like to shout out my Lunarglide 2 shoes and the Indy Max-Vent Women’s Sports Bra Nike kindly donated after I bewailed the problem I was having with my sports bra chafing my underarms. As the weather gets hotter all I wanna run in is shorts and a sports bra, but a few long runs like this and my upper arms had been rubbed raw underneath by the sides of my bra. The Max-Vent is lovely and smooth though and saved me from the hellish distractions of rubbing pain. I’ve been thinking a lot since all this about the conundrums of sports bras and will be telling you more about that soon.

 

Another particularly feminine side effect of running is that my previously pretty feet are completely mashed up, but since purchasing my Lunarglides the problem has improved. More on that soon too. A special big ups to Georgina Cook aka drumzofthesouth for housing and feeding me. Especially for feeding me, I ate like a horse. I ate her out of house and home. Here’s a picture she took of me at the finishing line. Watching the London runners yesterday was a much more exhilirating experience than I anticipated, from the mad girl running 3hours 45ish in a wedding dress (I’m complaining about a sports bra?), the pride in seeing your friends struggle over that wall, and the extraordinary grace of Mary Keitany making 2 hours 19 minutes look like a doddle. I made it over the finishing line, but for DATC + running this is just the beginning.

 

 

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