Marathon Distance Achieved

If last week’s endurance effort was sponsored by ‘snot’, this week was most certainly sponsored by ‘blood’! A small nose bleed was caused by clearing a partial blockage of my right nostril (picking my nose!). Then after about 30km I realised that I had begun to lactate haemoglobin! I also had painful rubs under my left arm from my mp3 player’s strap and a few hot-spots around my groin from my cycling shorts. Needless to say; I will be buying a dirty great big pot of Vaseline!

I covered the 42.2km in 4hrs 3mins. I completed the first half marathon in 1hr 53mins, but as soon as the sun was up; it sapped my speed (speed seems like the wrong to use there, maybe ‘slowed me further’ would be more accurate!). I did not do any press-ups or squats this week; I did pause every few km though to stretch off. I felt a lot better than last week and drank less water. I got through 5 bottles totalling 3.3L as well as a can of Pepsi and a can of Pocari Sweat (a sports drink with sugars and salts).

Chris got back from leave this week and we really need to get onto paying our deposits for the race. We’re in a bit of a catch 22 situation, as Chris needs some assurance that we will be able to recover the entry, travel and equipment cost through sponsorship (which I’m taking the lead on), but I’m not keen to start fund raising until we have places in MDS12 confirm, as I don’t believe potential sponsors will take us seriously until we have confirmed slots in the race. More discussion to be had on this next week, which will be the deadline, as I’ll be off on leave for 2 weeks from then! I’ll keep you posted (not that anyone’s reading this, as I am not promoting it until we have the race places1).

First Marathon Distance (Nearly!)

After the Wahba Crater run last weekend, I thought I'd better get out and do a decent distance this weekend, as the terrain would be the nice easy tarmac and concrete of the compound. I set out to complete 20km at no real pace and stopped every few hundred metres to do some press-ups or squats. I slowed to chat a couple of times as I saw friends playing golf or out walking with their babies, but basically plodded on and got to 20km quite easily. I decided to set my sights on 30km, which came and went with little pain; so turned my attention to finishing a marathon distance. Not being too hot on my metrics - I thought 26.2 miles plus 50% = 39.3km? apparantly not. 42.195km would have done it, so I'll have to try again this weekend!
Indications are good though; no injuries sustained from a near marathon, but hellish lactic burns for the next few days, and trying to dance at the McDermott's 25th Anniversary the same night was a killer. 3 days on and I'm feeling good and managed 75 minutes on the exercise bike tonight whilst watching most of the Manchester derby and seeing man U get hooped by City 1-6!
I visited the British Embassy last night to brief the Riyadh Group of British Businesses on my team's half marathon event, which takes place in February. The response was astounding, which is hugely encouraging for when I begin sponsor collecting for the MDS. Chris is a bit nervous about paying the deposit and then getting stiffed with the balance if we don't raise the money, but I'm sure we can more than meet the cost and raise a good bit for our charities.

Wahba Crater

After some good leg strengthening in the gym and stamina building on the exercise bike, I was ready for a bit of a test. A desert camping trip with colleagues from my team and another British military organisation provided the perfect opportunity. We set off in 9 vehicles from Riyadh to drive 750km West to Wahba Crater. This is a spectacular natural feature, which appears to be a volcano that does not rise from the ground. some say that it is an impact crater, caused by a comet of meteor. There are lava flows a few hundred metres to the East of the crater and pumis rocks in and around it. The crater is over 2km wide and several hundred metres deep. It has a salt lake bed at its centre and many patches of lush greenery within it.
After a lively evening by the barbeque and later sitting, legs daggling into the crater, I went to sleep in my campcot in the open. Woken by the sun at 6am, I got up and got my running gear on. I ran from our campsite by the lava flow due East from the crater and circumnavigated the crater in a counterclockwise direction. I strayed out initially to avoid a large rock feature to the North edge of the rim, but soon got myself up on the lip to enjoy some phenomenonal views as the sun was still low in the sky. The ground was rough and undulating, but I was pleased that my dodgy knees and ankles were up tothe task. My polar pedometer read 11.3km on returning to the campsite, but this may not be entirely accurate; as I had to take shortened steps for much of the route. The run had taken me 65mins and according to my watch; I had burnt 1237kcal. My average heart rate was 157BPM, with a maximum of 175. The average would have been a bit higher, but I like to leave it recording as I cool down to see what my recovery is like.
After a bite for breakfast and some much needed water, tea and a pocari sweat, I joined most of the other campers for a walk/climb down into the crater. It was fairly tough going and some of the children had to turn back, but we got down and enjoyed the scenery for a while and took some photos, before splitting into two groups for the climb out. The first group decided it was better the devil you know and went back the way we had come. I joined the other half, who walked to the North of the crater and ascended using a prepared track which zig-zagged up to over half way, before leading us counterclockwise along a trail that brought us out where some of the vehicles had been driven around to. My pedometer only read 2.7km at this point. A small sub-group then climbed the smaller peak of the feature that I had earlier run around before heading back to the vehicles. According to my watch; I had burnt 1157kcal.
This was a huge confidence builder for me, as I had fully expected my knees to let me down. I felt full of beans, and even ran up the last part of the ascent. Chris returns from his holiday next week and I will be more than happy to send off the MDS application and deposit!