Twas the day before Christmas

Now the trouble is that when I come back home to Israel after Assignment I am basically bored on my days off, at least when i am working I know I have stuff to do when I am here and almost everyone is away there is nothing to do, So basically I train in the morning go home get bored so train again in the late afternoon as thus today actually looked like this

7 am Spin Class - Crap Instructor all in Hebrew he arrives late as usual with bad music , cardio OK workout
8 am Core Class - a good 15 minute workout of the stomach and core
8:15 am Weights Gym - Upper Body Sets Shoulders Chest Arms
9:00 am Steam Room

pay rent, get ripped off by landlord , nothing new here but anyone who claims to be a millionaire and then chases me up for what he did just sucks , instant ruined relationship end of story. Going to make him buy a new toilet seat tomorrow for the apartment

go grocery shopping , buy new fabric softener as the other woman in the aisle agreed it smelt the best after opening ten other.

Go home unpack , find out what I thought was cottage cheese is in fact not cottage cheese , so why the hell do they put a cottage on the front like they do on cottage cheese

Watch a movie get bored decide to head back to Gym

4:45 Weights - Upper Arms
5:00 pm Core Class again
5:15 pm Eliptical half hour cross country course
6:00 pm swim 500 m
6:20 pm Jacuzzi

Then up to the cafe in the gym as I have internet here which I do not have at home apart from my blackberry

And thus was my Xmas Eve 2006

Pumping Iron Reposted

Now that I have a high speed internet access again was checking back thru the blog and realised that somehow "Pumping Iron in Ramadi" had been posted 5 times. Now I know you enjoy reading (sometimes) my words but here I must of in frustration hit the POST button more than once as the connection in Ramadi was not the best.
Anyway that said have added some photos and deleted multiple duplicate entries
Cheers
Mal

What is this wet stuff falling from the sky?

Saturday Dec 23rd 2006
7am

One of the better things about living in the Middle East and there are not many positives to be honest, in fact you could count the positives on the fingers of one hand and still have change.

One thing that it is hard to complain about as an “athlete” is that the weather is almost always great for training, of course in summer it is hot but if you get up early normally you can beat the worst of the heat. The average summer training session takes places in temperatures from 24 to 32 degrees Celsius.

Which brings me back to this morning, it is raining cold (probably around 11 C.) miserable and given that I have a marathon to run on January 4th, less than two weeks away and that I am coming off a lay off with being in Iraq.

Do I go out and run in this miserable cold wet weather or go to the gym, do a spin class in a few hours and some weights and then swim all sounds good and noble, but I still am wracked with the thought that I should be out running. What if on marathon morning it is raining and I will look back on this morning and curse the chance I had to run in rain.

Then again I can run long tomorrow and enjoy the gym this morning and have a short hash run this afternoon. Hash running is not real running but a chance to get out for a few hours run and drink beer and plan my long run for tomorrow.

The rain is getting worse.

08:00 am

Oh fear not that they may think of me as a fair weather runner.

I have procrastinated to a point where the weather looks like it is improving and after a second cup of coffee I start to prepare to go out and run.

Before you think I have sat around doing nothing-fellow athlete for the last hour please I note that I have done a load of laundry as well as drink coffee and type this entry.

10:30 am

20 km later time 1:53:17, negative split run, aim was to run as many at 5:40 pace which was successful and given the fact that 17km of the 20 were done with wet training shoes. At the 3km mark a large puddle marked the trail, and given that the area is mainly sand I took to the side of the trail and stepped into knee high water with both legs into freezing cold water.
Now I could of turned and jogged back home, claiming defeat and that it was a run that was not meant to be, so I pushed on at the 7km mark. Can life get any worse my mp3 battery dies and I am left with nothing to listen too. I prefer to listen to pod cast when I am running alone and thus I was now facing the double joy of cold wet feet, grey skies, and nothing to listen too.

I pushed on focusing my anger inwards and concentrating on upcoming events in my life and arguing cases back and forth.

I did push far harder on the second half, as the course is primarily an out and back loop.

Protein shake at home and a lazy day the rain started as I started to walk my cool down so maybe someone up there was looking after me.

4:30pm

Hash run over, best to say that with even walking to the start and back I barely nudged 5 km but was actually good to shake the legs out to a degree, as they were tight from the morning run

6:30pm Day Review

Total km today: 25km. Not bad considering what might have been given the weather, want to get the sense of how my body is prepared for the Tiberius Marathon on January 4th 2007. The only thing that will preclude me now is that if I have to go down to Gaza for more than a day if rumors are true then the word is that I may be back down there. That being, Tiberius is out of the question I just have to get through a few days without being assigned to Gaza, no one cares and I question why we would even contemplate sending a team down there. With no feasible back up, the ramifications of going there are too scary to contemplate.

Good to be running again

It has been a long time since I could walk out the door and just run, so i look at my time in Iraq as my seasonal break, enforced by other than good intentions. Also I was a "wuz" in Iraq and it was too cold too run all I had was my running singlet and shorts and with the temperature in the low c's and 40's f .
I decided that I was allowed to skip running and pump iron with the Marines, well OK i did weights and the Marines Pumped Iron it is scary to be next to young guys 18 - 22 in a Gym three hours a day.
I am about two weeks out from the Tiberius Marathon on Jan 4, which I am doing for fun taking it easy and just cruising along still debating whether to try the Galloway Run 9 min Walk 1 min , in my other 4 marathons I have always bonked somewhere between 19 and 23 miles and have found my splits just awful with dead legs.
Has anyone else been there and tried Galloway without training Galloway at all?
Today a nice ten km , very easy low heart rate average 113 max 135 (up small hill) time around 57 minutes, given it was first run back after Iraq felt good , right knee had been very sore for last few days which I must of cracked? in the Marines Gym in Iraq
Looking forward to hearing back from anyone re Galloway Idea
THANKS
MAL

HERZLIYYA PITUACH
ISRAEL

Fear Not - A New world approaches

Out of Iraq
Minus half a toe nail but good
Have not run for weeks - good - need the rest
Looking forward to getting back into training - good again
Lots more News and stories to come
About to leave Frankfurt after an overnight decompress
More to come
And as always leave comments that way i know I am not talking to myself LOL
Mal
Frankfurt

Pumping Iron in Ramadi Iraq

There is no lycra and no women, no one is fat or overweight, there are no rows of pristine treadmills and elliptical machines with multi channel TV’s attached, there is no reception area where your membership card is swiped. There is no membership fees or promotions, no changing room, showers, toilets, lockers or sauna bath. You are more likely to hear heavy metal or rap than you are to It is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and your membership is valid for four years. (*1). But it has more weights than any other gym I have ever seen, more plates upon plates of weights and bars.



There is no natural light, in fact any windows, the entrance way is sandbagged and you walk past the drop off point for dirty laundry (Laundry is picked up at 6:30am Tuesdays and Fridays by a seven ton armored truck, back on the next run). Eight fluorescent lights strung up and the rumble of the heater that manages to warm the air in front of three machines enhances the atmosphere in the gym.

Most benches and surfaces have some duct tape holding them together. There is dust and cobwebs in corners, in fact most surfaces have dust, it should be noted that almost everything in this part of the country has dust on it if left for more than 30 minutes.



And yet for all its faults, its negatives the Gym here on the Marine Base at Hurricane Point, Ramadi, Iraq has what any gym in the world wants close to 100% of the community belong. Virtually every Marine works out, and they work out hard, heavy and tough. In a realm where the Alpha male rises to the top, he who bench presses the most per body weight is held aloft.

I use the gym here everyday, one because I like going to the gym, two because it is far too dusty to run my usual trail, inches of dust does not make for conducive times let alone ruining a pair of good running shoes, three it is too cold to run here in the morning with the running clothes I bought, and lastly I had an operation on my big toe last night. (More on that later, the big toe that is.)

In the Corps, discipline and respect are the cornerstones of their world. You do not see Marines walking around the Camp here endlessly saluting or standing to attention. But you do see respect and honor.

In the Gym every Marine is equal, because they all want to be the best, no one wears any insignia of rank in the Gym everyone has the same sweats, everyone has the same haircut and everyone wants to be better.

The gym here will never win any trendy award, the old broken treadmill in the corner will still be gathering dust in six months. However today, tomorrow and for every day there after, the Hurricane Point Gym will have close to 100% of the population walk past the sandbags and push open the door.

(*1) When you enlist in the Marines it is for four years.

The Trademark of Death

Yesterday it was sitting in the armored Humvee’s getting shot at by RPG’s, today a sniper decided to try and take a shot at us.

The worst thing is that there is no warning, no sense of impending danger all that you experience is the sound. The air simply cracks, one single round the trademark of a sniper.

We were down at the Government Center, well to use the term Government and Center together is an oxymoron. Because whilst it may be known as the Government Center, certainly no administration has taken place there for a while. On previous trips it was always where you met the Provincial powerbrokers, but that was before six major bombing attacks on the building compound and a daily assault from mortars, rpgs and snipers.

It is now a shell, cold stark and with tables and chairs covered with dust, no heating exists and the cold in the rooms reflects what is left of the town. Across the road from the GC there used to be shops and building, now there is rubble. The buildings were leveled first by 500 lb bombs then by demolition teams, as they had become a haven for terrorists from which to attack the Government Center.

This morning we went there with the Marines who had escorted a local contractor and his foremen whose job it will be to remove the rubble from outside and make the area suitable for a car park for the GC and planners even have ideas for a park. Now given that no parks exist in this city it seems an ambitious urban planning scheme to say the least.

So whilst the Marines were escorting the contractors out thru the safe back way to the alley and then to the street so that they could assess the task ahead, we tagged along wanting to shoot a segment link for the War Stories Special.

We had a couple of takes in the camera and moved to change angle with the camera rolling Ollie was just about to start when the sniper “sniped”. It shakes you up for a second or two and Ollie headed for the wall, I just ducked down and waited for the inevitable gunfight, but the discipline of the Marines is such that locating the position from which the shot was fired is more important than blasting away.

The site survey did not last much longer and we moved back into the safety (sic) of the Govt Center and spent time filming Xmas Greetings with Marines even then the cracks in the air continued on and off. Just another day in Ramadi.

in Memory of a Fallen Runner

There is nothing sadder than attending a Memorial Service for fallen soldiers in the field. It is hard not to hold your emotions in during the final minutes, it is not the service or the firing of the salute rifles outside the mess, it is the sight of and sound of fellow soldiers and marines on their knees as they reach out and touch the dog tags. It is not a loud sound but the soft sound of two dogs tags touching each other. Two small pieces of metal that contain the heart and soul of a friend.


They played a song that I never have heard before, a country and western ballad “ American Soldier” I do not know who wrote or sang it. It will forever be in my heart, because one of the fallen was a Marine I knew.

A reservist who came here and paid the ultimate price in the name of freedom and liberty. This is not the time or the place to debate the merits of the war here. We all have opinions and thoughts as to the rights and wrongs of what is happening. But for families who have lost sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, know that out here when a comrade falls the entire community weeps with you and your loss is shared all, in the dust and heat, cold and mud they are never forgotten.

When I run my next marathon I will have on my arm the name of a friend who will be remembered because she like me liked to run marathons.

Training In Iraq

By the banks of the Euphrates, 135 km west of Baghdad in the city of Ramadi. Not sure whether it is a sunni stronghold or a shia frontline, but the consensus is that it is a stronghold of Al Qaida and other foreign militants whose sole job is to prevent my training to proceed as in a normal day back in the real world, also it may have to do with the thousands of US troops based here trying to rebuild Iraq and stop civil war.

have just found out it is a "sunni stronghold" and that the shia's would have trouble fielding a football team here, so the sunni's are to blame for my lack of training facilities, it is hard to run laps on the streets here, well you cannot so my training is restricted to the bases here, Camp Ramadi the main camp here is big enough to run in but the potholes and tank tracks make it a dangerous place, oh and the threat of mortars also make it les than an ideal location. That being said I did manage a nice 5 and half km run yesterday , hence the photo of running with the tanks as i approached the halfway turn around point a US tank was screaming up the road. If you think a crazed person on a SUV constitutes a life and death prospect, then avoid a 80 ton tank going full pitch towards the same intersection, I slowed down to allow him to pass before turning back.

I have promised Simply Stu (podcaster of Simply Stu a photo of a T shirt he sent me for competing in his inaugral worldwide triathlon last year - so Stu there you have it , Simply Stu's worldwide tri now includes Iraq.

This morning it was to the gym and that is the subject of my next blog later

Mal
Ramadi
Iraq

Ramadi Iraq - Running with the tanks

The View to Asia

It is a joy of travel that allows me to run in some incredible places, and the run this morning on the banks of the Bosphorous River saw me running in Europe and looking into Asia, albeight thru very grey and cloudy skies, past palaces that are hundreds of years old and cobbled alleyways.
This must be one of the few places in the world where you could possibly run in two continents, that is if you can get accross a very large and heavily traffic congested bridge.
On any quiet Saturday morning in a city of 15 million people you would expect to see other runners, I saw one other runner out this morning and the universal smile is the same the world over.r
Sometimes it is nice just to have the smile returned and know that you can share your joy with someone else who you might never see again.
Mal
Istanbul
Turkey

Looking Accross the River to Asia in the Dark of Dawn

Waiting for daylight to come so that I can get a long run along the Bosphorous River, the dividing line between Europe and Asia. If I could figure out a way to get onto the bridge without becoming a traffic statistic I would be tempted as then I would have the bragging rights of saying that my long run took in two continents.
Woke up at 6am to listen to the mosque call to prayer in the distance, the call sounds nice at a distance but the novelty of it wears off if you happen to have a mosque next to your hotel, 5 times a day .... allah akbar gets on your nerves.
One thing about being on the road travelling and running is preparing yourself to go out as you would at home, the trouble is that sometimes things can get lost in translation, or the attempt of a hotel to "go that little bit further"
Before my long run I like to have a banana and coffee. So I call up room service and ask for a coffee and a simple banana, coffee no problem .. but banana thanks for trying guys but I did not need three banana peeled sliced laid out on a plate with garnishings, a simple banana on a plate that all that I needed
Still pitch black outside and thus will have to wait, gives the coffee the time to do its thing

Hotel Gyms

On the road can really suck when it comes to totally interfering with any semblance of a training schedule. In Istanbul Turkey covering the visit of Il Papa (aka the Pope). Which is a nice way of saying you are locked down in a hotel waiting for something to happen or not to happen. I cannot leave and go for a run because if something was to happen then I have to be there when it happens and not somewhere on the streets of istanbul and out of contact.
I have a traing program for the week which i am trying to stick to, but like all good hotel gyms the treadmills are more for show and peopel walking badly on them rather than Treadmills taht are for runners, every time you get the speed up beyond walking pace the belt slips and the danger of flying off backwards or losing your step terrifies me.
I have managed to get a couple of runs in of five kms at a good pace and the elipticals are reasonable. The weights well they are stacked nicely and the machines ... well they are nicely placed in the hotel gym.
Get the Picture
Looking forward to Saturday morning when I can get out of the bubble of the hotel and go for a run

Ouch my rear hurts

Now I should point out that I have only just got a road bike and have never riden with a group, but I quickly learnt if you get pushed out the back of the pelaton you are in most cases "buggered" this drafting thing you hear and read about is real and the effort required to ride in the pack is about half of trying to push the wind yourself. So that wa sthe first lesson from my first group ride, as well as trying to decipher the hand signals from riders ahead.
It was a beautiful morning and turning up I had no idea whom I was to be riding with and set out with the head coach Ron and hiis group, they had hinted at our first meeting that i would be riding with the 3rd team out of four, not the beginners and not the real elite. Wrong as we pushed back after sixty five km's I found that I was in fact with the elite group, so my ego was really stoked and it also explained why I could not keep up with them on the hills.
70 km of road countless hills and a sore butt to boot, whilst I have been riding Mountain bikes for years it is going to take time to get to grips with the power of a road bike because comparing the two my road bike is like a F1 compared to the old cheap clunker of a MTB.
My first week of training now complete and I can already feel the benefits and improvements and by weeks end, man was I tired.
Off to Turkey now for the week covering the Pope, so training will be in the Hotel Gym ... Rock on ...

Group Long

I have always enjoyed Long Runs, they are a chance to simply enjoy running at an easy converstional pace, note the word converstional pace. Every book you read says "Conversational Pace". By the end of my first Long Run under a coach perhaps a "panting muttering of words" is a better description.

This morning was my first "long run" with the Triathlon training group and apart from having the nerves of running with people I did not know and the fear you have of being the lone loser out the back it was fun to meet new runners and triathletes.

We were heading out to the sand dunes area along the coast with the aim of attacking the uphills, it is a beautiful run out along the cliff tops and once I realised that was not the tail end charlie, I could relax and start working at a more than standard pace and I could still "converse" at this stage.

Little did I know that when we got to the Gas station and Coach Ron briefed the group what was instore. The briefing was in Hebrew of which I understand perhaps one word in a hundred that the group was to pick up pace. So blissfully unaware of what was ahead the group set off. I soon realised that we were moving fast and the lead runners were soon off in the distance. At this point a girl next to me panted what the translation was. I mentally decided to move into next gear and for the next 5 km's I motored along at nearly 13km/h which a week ago was my tempo pace not my long run pace.

It actually started to feel good to push through the envelope and find my legs.

Not a week into a coaching programme I am already starting to feel the effects and incrase in my own abilty to lifdt my heart rate and sustain it

The time and diatnce did not refect the workout, so next time I will stop my watch at stops and try and get a better reading of time and pace

Tomorrow morning in the dawn hours it is biking with a coach for the first time

Intervals & Thrashing about in Water

There is something magic about a stadium in the dawn as the sun comes up and still to this day I am always in awe spiritually as you enter the stadium, normally this is reserved for entering a stadium to watch your team pal and the first moment you see the hallowed turf my breath is always taken away.

This morning I could almost see my breath and the dew on the ground still coated the grass around the track, there were no stadiums filled with spectactors but just a group of us huddled around Chief Coach Ron who was briefing us on the Intervals workout that lay ahead. This was my first session with Ron and was his chance to assess my level of running so there was within me the desire to “hold form” and show him that I did have some talent “raw” but willing.

The session was brutal, perhaps brutal is the word I use, this being my only second session with a coach assessing me and coaching me.

We started with a warm up and the words of “faster Mal” by the third lap of the warm up and even faster on the Fourth lap, before the session briefing. A reverse 2000m down starting with 2000, 1600, 1200, 800, 800.This fellow runners is a workout designed to make your legs burn with only a minute interval between each set. As I set out on the 1200 my legs had that burn and from moment on my heart rate was never below 90% of max. The first 800 was hard and Ron said one more would do me he just wanted me to keep the same pace up and hear me breathe as I ran past him.

As you turned onto the final straight Ron would concentrate on you and it is comforting but unnerving to feel for the first time in my running life that I was constantly being assessed and there is no where to hide or allow yourself to ease down.

My splits were as follows

#1 2000m 9 min 11 secs Pace 4:28 min/km
#2 1600m 7 min 24 secs Pace 4:30 min/km
#3 1200m 5 min 35 secs Pace 4:28 min/km
#4 800m 3 min 37 secs Pace 4:22 min/km
#5 800m 3 min 34 secs Pace 4:20 min/km

Looking back I am happy with my ability to maintain pace and keep running at that level of threshold I believe in myself and my abilty to improve. As the adage goes to run faster, you need to train faster.

I learnt lessons this morning like a yoghurt is not enough to eat before training as I will really need carbs to run track, and in cold weather to use long skin pants to avoid injury. Also have food for immediately after because I was starving by the end of the session and was glad I had a banana in my bag as I climbed in the car.

Now for the second part of the day and the need to actually accept that if I want to complete a triathlon and really compete not just go through the motions and accept that result without actually racing or pushing myself. I am going to have to learn to swim freestyle.

You could take me out of the coast 5 km and tell me to swim in breaststroke and I would not be daunted, take me out 500 m and tell me to swim in freestyle and I would be trouble.

Here in lies the problem to be resolved I have to learn to swim freestyle, Coach gavin gave me a trial program to get me started. The ten laps to warm up felt like I had already done the a workout, BUT I was determined not to give up and pushed myself. Then kickboard a length, one arm a length then one lap freestyle, the lap freestyle actually felt good and positive with energy, the kickboard lengths felt like a bad way to drown myself in slow motion. Followed by 6 laps cool down and the seeing the end of the black line felt really good. So good in fact that I put on fins and did four more laps with fins and a kickboard, I like the fins reminds me of training for my SCUBA Divemaster level.

What felt good was that I did not give up or revert to breast stroke, I had actually completed a freestyle session, not hard by any standards BUT I had done it alone with no one around me, the session was mine. Is my stroke bad “yes” does my kick suck “yes” but it was my session and I had achieved a small goal within myself . A session of freestyle.

In years to come I will look back at this entry and laugh, but then again I remember the first time 8 years ago when I tried to run around the block and could not manage it without stopping and now I have run four marathons.

The next step - The Coach

I have come to realization that if I really do want to meet my true ambiyions in running and run a BQ (Boston Qualifier) and compete in Triahlons next year that as much as I believe in my own abilities that a professional coach is worth a try.

Contacting one of the biggest Tri teams here in Israel I made an appointment to meet the Head Coach and another Coach (who would be my coach "Gavin") it was intesting to hear there opinions on what I had achieved and how I had been training. I have known within myself that my training was to a degree becoming more and more unfocused and given the distractions of war during the summer, the wheels as to direction and focus have been wobbling. Through my own fault and lack of purpose in my training. The meaningless runs were honestly becoming junk miles and my fitness and times have not improved in relation to the effort I had been doing.

Both Ron and Gavin agreed that my training whilst being good had plateaued and that working with them they could help rach my goals. Not a surprising thing for a coach to say but at the same time was reassuring that working together I could start to better times and goals

I would have a program and work with different groups including track sessions, long runs and biking. My swim training would not begin till I come back from Iraq at the end of the year.

My first workout that Gavin wanted me to do was a tempo run, but rather than just cruise and think I was working hard I was to maintain a solid 12km/h pace which sounds simple but most of my training runs used to max out at maybe 11km.h so to push that little harder and make the run count.

The next morning I was to meet Gavin at the track at 6:30 for my first group session. It was almost daunting to arrive at the track in the dawn light and find almost fifty others there all about to do the same. It involved a warmup for ten minutes then 5 x 1200m repeats a distance I have never done before with expressions like we are going to aim these repeats at between 15km and half marathon pace. After three of these I could feel the lactic building in my legs and then Gavin said on the next two 1200 intervals he wanted my 1km splits as to ascertain my pace and push myself a bit harder.

Over the next two intervals my km splits were 4:40 and 4;44 which actually surprised and the new knowledge that I had base times to work on faster than I had contemplated in previous track sessions.

My next track session is tomorrow with head Coach Ron, I feel that it is going to be even harder and that whilst scary also has added a new impetus to my training.

Friday is a long group run and Saturday morning we hit the hills on the bike

New York Marathon 2006

There are great marathons in the world and as to which one is the greatest, that will only ever be decided by the person who has run everyone in the world and since the chances of meeting that runner is about the same as me breaking the world record, then as marathoners we will always have something to talk about on long runs.

Having said that only New York is magical, where else in the world can you effectively close down major parts of one of the largest cities in the world and have more than a million people cheer you and actually enjoy the sight of us mortals running badly.

First up lets get Lance out of the picture, yes I did see him at the start. We managed to get to the edge of the blue corral on the bridge and saw him warming up and then at the start. No matter what anyone says, he like me ran the marathon every step of it and for that we as runners should be proud of what he stands for in our running community. It was very cool to be standing there as a runner and yell “Go Lance” and then turn and begin the race just like him.

I was running with my great friend Chaim aka Captain Caveman from the local hash running group having seen him achieve his goal of completing his first half marathon earlier in the year at the Three Borders Half Marathon here in Israel, now we were towing the line at one of biggest running events in the world the NYC Marathon.

Having had such an interrupted year of training with war, I know war really changes your training program, hard to run long when people are going to kidnap or kill you, so in some sense I was glad at the starting line that I felt confident and ready and in all honesty knowing that I was going to do a good time as long as Chaim was going I would be there with him.

One of my favorite sights at the start of marathons is the endless urination that happens around you, women who would normally not even use a public toilet are happy to squat in front of thousands and pee. A funny story actually happened here, listening to a podcast about running a marathon I remembered a great idea and that is take a Gatorade bottle with you , as you get to the mass start drink the remains of the drink and you have in your hand a ready made toilet with wide mouth access if you know what I mean, then simply put the bottle down by the curb.

Anyway in the corral when we were getting our stuff together Judith just grabbed this bottle of Gatorade out of my hand and took a swig. Just as the bottle got to her mouth I mentioned its purpose , the look on her face was one of had I used it already, never grab anything out of my running bag without asking is the moral of this story.

I liked the feeling of knowing that the run was going to be fun and that I had no pressure on myself physically or mentally and the ability to suck up the atmosphere made a big difference.

One good thing about NYC is that with the majority of streets being wide and the race starting from three waves it is easy to get into a pace and not have many other runners blocking you. The start over the bridge is fantastic and I had time to look back and see the incredible mass of runners hurtling down and onto the streets.

One hard thing though is that I only know how to run metric, I honestly have no idea of how far a mile is and the pacing and timing is much harder as you try to calculate out splits, luckily they have 5km splits and 26 markers is less than 42 but further apart.

Last year I remember bonking as I crossed the 59th street bridge into Manhatten and feeling drained as I tried to keep up with my pacing team of 3:50, this time when I crossed the bridge I actually started sing out for everyone “ If your happy and you know it clap your hands” which got a great response from other runners around me. Chaim was starting to hurt at this point and I knew from past experience this pain sucks when you are only around 16 miles into the marathon. The big problem I was having at this stage was that I was getting very very cold the wind was so bitter and I had to take my running hat off all the time as it was freezing my head and giving me chills right to the end of the marathon it was on and off .

The run up 1st Avenue is an awesome experience it feels like the whole city is out cheering you and you feel like a champion. The Sponge Bob sponge stop is another souvenir to treasure from NYC, after taking it I stuck it down the back of my pants I wanted my Sponge Bob.

The next challenge was just up the road at Mile 19, this is where last year I made the stupid mistake of taking a Powerbar gel having never used then on any training run and it hit my stomach and I had started to feel the urge to be violently sick and rather than give me the boost it finished me off and I hit the wall then.

This year I had trained using these gels and for me too get thru this point in the race was critical I felt fine and as we crossed into the Bronx we slowed to walk for a few hundred yards as Chaim was carrying a 400lb gorilla at this point and suffering badly. I urged him on with the promise of another walk as we crossed back into Manhatten.

My legs were tiring as we pushed through those low twenty miles and whilst I did not hit any wall I was tiring. Luckily Chaim’s family were by the side of the road and this gave him a fantastic burst of energy and got the gorilla off his back.

That trek down 5th Avenue was a blur as I tired knowing that it was so close and yet so far as we still had the Central Park ahead of us, turning into the Park is hard as you know that is almost over and all the joys and anguish of 6 months of training is going to end, if I was not hurting so much you almost want the marathon to be longer so you can enjoy the experience.

Columbus Circle beckoned and I felt a complete re surge of energy as you turn and the finish line is just up that small hill and the crowds lift you as you give everything left. Lifting Chaims hand up we crossed the line in 4:27:27 like champions, friends and people whose lives will never be the same because we had run a marathon together.

The medal is draped around you and all of a sudden the cold hits you and the scramble to get the space blanket was imperative. Shuffling along in our tin foils Chaim went into a hypothermic shock and we actually ended up in the medical tent for fifteen minutes, with four space blankets on Chaim and a wool blanket to boot. Having never been in a Medical tent at the end of a marathon it was almost funny to see people in such pain, I know cruel but sadistic in my own way.

Chaim was shaking so badly that the cup of tea we were given almost shook out of his cup. Fifteen minutes later he was fine cold but ok and we walked out of the park laughing with our heads held up high we walked the streets proudly wearing our medals like champions we were. There is a magic to finishing a marathon that no drug in the world will ever duplicate, as you know that you a member of the point one of one percent of the worlds population that has run a marathon.

Ramat Hasharon 15km Race

Having never done a 15 km race it was a challenge to toe the line on Saturday just two weeks after running NYC Marathon, (and yes that race report is forthcoming) I had decided that i was going to run this race for myself and not worry about anyone else. Which was a nice way to prepare and even more importantly I ws determined not to be out psyched by another runner which destroyed me in my last 10km even though I had set a PB 48.08 in that event it was a disaster mentally and I did not want to repeat that again.
My aim was to control my heart rate and not let it getr out of control and maintain a pace that would allow me to push hard at the end. The thing I had not factored in was the bloody big hill that I realised as I was running down that it was from 12 - 13.5 km on the way back.
My splits were great and with 5 km at 24:30 and 10 km at 50:15 , by this stage I allowed my heart rate to push above 150 and maxing out at 161 on the hill back to finish in 1:17:40 my last km with a nice downhill was 4:33 min.km and my best km was 4:30min/km.
In fact five of the km's had me running sub 5:00 min/km's which was pleasing , great to finish positive and strong and now the next stage as I am about to embark on a professional coaching program and that my fellow runners gives me that one quest, put simply a BQ time within 18 months
Mal

If you follow the link race picture from the run

http://www.shvoong.co.il/imageFromEvent/1.asp?number=459&NOI=1226&ThisPage=14&IL=7&allowSearch=False&EventNum=1695&EventName=%E0%EC%E9%F4%E5%FA%20%E9%F9%F8%E0%EC%20%E1%2015%20%F7%EE%20%EE%F8%E5%F5%20%E0%E9%E9%EC&EventDate=18/11/2006

The Mal is back

Sometimes you need a break from blogging and for that I apologise to those of you who come and read my running diatribe. But I hope that with everything coming back into karma, then I shall be back with a far better pace

Blogging is like commiting to training program, it must have focus and motivation and that is my new commitment for the coming future.

So once again apologies and thanks for dropping by again.

Run back on Monday for the Race Report from the New York Marathon and also my first visit to a Professional Coach on Sunday

Mal

New York Marathon 2006

Bib Number 18737
Time 4:27:27