White Horse Half Marathon (South Oxfordshire), 6 April

I have been encouraged to enter this event by the Oxfordshire Vegetarian & Vegan contact Paul Appleby who ran a few events back in the 1980s including the Plamil Half Marathons near Folkestone, Kent. I was prepared to book a bed at the local Youth Hostel but Paul insisted that I take the opportunity to stay at his home, a short walk from the venue of the event at Grove, near Wantage and will be assured of vegan catering. Paul even found a video of one of the Plamil Half Marathons and we started watching it before departing to the venue. Saw some familiar runners who were members of the Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club and Mike Stanton is still with the club.

Leading up to the event the weather was forecast to turn wintry with overnight snow but given the time of the year it was likely to clear before the event. Awake at 630am I looked out and saw heavy snow falling with a covering of maybe two inches. By the time I was up it had stopped and the footpaths & roads were mostly clear. The local school provided the facilities. The Start was actually back near my overnight residence.

Despite the weather there was no delay to the start. Held in the Vale of White Horse, I was not expecting any significant hills. We were going in a northerly direction for the first half and with a northerly wind, it was noticeable if not slowing us much. I was more concerned by a callus on my left foot and was taking turnings cautiously. At about 2-3 miles I was greeted by Maria, marshaling at one of her local events. Started at a fair pace and with the flat terrain apart from the noticeable camber affecting my callus, I managed to run at a consistent pace. With the wind behind us in the 2nd half it was more comfortable and we could see in the far distance the snow covered Berkshire Downs.

Apart from the village of Denchworth at 2 & 11 miles, once we left Grove there was hardly a property to be seen on the course. It was mile after mile of country lanes bordered by hedgerows. The only noticeable climb was to cross over the Great Western Railway. As we approached Denchworth for the 2nd time I passed Maria again who must have been quite cold to say the least.

Feeling strong, in the last few miles I started to increase the pace, overtaking some runners although there were not many around. I was a little surprised to see the finish on the outskirts of Grove and just made it under 1.37, a small improvement after the Brentwood event four weeks earlier. Paul & Galina Appleby were helping at the drinks station not that we needed much in this unseasonal weather. On the rather longish walk back to the school I met a country guy who was asking about the club and who use to be vegetarian but due to the pressures of working in a farming community, he was only vegetarian 4 days a week...

As I rested in the school hall, surviving on a black tea as nothing else was suitable, Maria came along after her stint and followed later by Paul & Galina so, there were four of us vegans together. Galina works in a local wholefood shop in Wantage. After the presentations I was invited back by Paul & Galina for a much needed vegan lunch.

London Marathon report from Andi

Andi is first in with the London reports:

This is the big one that I have been training for and have not completed a proper marathon since the last time I did the London 24 years ago in 1984. (Clearly it is true that running and a vegan diet can make you look younger than you are! Ed) So I would like to thank the Vegan Runners for giving me this chance to attempt it again. I know I am not the quickest runner out there but I knew I could get round the 26.2 miles even if it meant crawling over the finish line.

The night before Stewart and I had a good pasta meal and plenty of water to make sure our bodies had enough energy to be getting on with. Getting to the start line was easy and the journey into London was straight forward enough.

At the start I knew I had to go off at a slightly slower pace than my previous runs in order to get round ok and in one piece. This plan worked great up to the 17 mile mark and after the first downpour of rain the chaffing started to appear in places I do not normally get it. My legs also started to freeze up a bit so I pulled over and got some Vaseline on the sores and also did some stretches. I then continued up to around 19.5 miles and a second downpour of rain. The chaffing now was very sore and I was shivering and very, very cold. I decided to pull over and get a foil sheet and plenty more Vaseline. I walked the next 3 miles to get warm and take on food and water. Then about 23 miles I started running again after warming up and managed to get to the finish line in a bit of pain and very sore from chaffing under both arms, down my sides and on my hips.

It felt good crossing the line and I managed to get to the meeting place with the others, sorry I took so long all of you. It was great to meet all of you and hear about your race day etc. I did feel a little guilty making you wait so long but i gave it my best shot.

The response from the crowds were great with “come on vegan” etc. However 2 people decided to be comedians and make silly remarks about my vegan status. I know that Stewart also got the same remark from the same guy which must have been his matinee performance. By the time I got to him it was the evening show, must be hard with a one line act.

My entry has been put in for next years ballot so it has not put me off doing it. The good news is that I also managed to raise around £1200 for Fiona’s Sanctuary which i am pleased about.

ASICS KINGSTON BREAKFAST RUN (16 M) - 30 March

Andi Gaywood writes:

This is the second time I have done this event and enjoy the location and the unusual 16 mile distance done over 2 laps. The March event is good preparation for the London Marathon and gives the legs a good run out before the FLM.

Saying that I did make 2 fundamental errors even for a runner at my plodding pace. Fistly due to work issues I forgot to eat properly the day before and secondly I set off running about a minute quicker than I have done before for the first 8 miles. These 2 basic errors meant at the 10 mile stage I was out of energy and needed to come up with a plan. I struggled round the next 3 miles to the 13 mile water station where I stopped before I would eventually fall down. I managed to scrounge a couple of bananas from a couple of helpers and also a couple of drinks to enable me to get some needed energy in me. I walked the next mile from 13- 14 to allow the food and drink to take effect and then started to jog again.

I finished a bit slower than my previous time but that was due to the 13 – 14 mile walking bit. I was happy to finish and enjoyed the run.

Frenchay 10k - 20 April

Jenny Dunleavy says:
I ran the Frenchay 10K (Bristol) on 20 April and am pleased to report a personal best of 53.17 despite an undulating course with some killer hills, especially the final one leading to the finish! My vegan runners vest certainly stood out from the rest, and I was pleased to be running past people on the final hills. I think regular cycling has definitely improved my running ability.

Taunton Marathon in brief

Congrats to Ruth Newman who got an age-group 3rd place!

Flitwick 10k 20th April

(Maria says) I had planned to run this but have been feeling a bit rubbish - but my better half John was running it and I knew Peter Simpson was too. So I brightened someone's day by handing in my number at Race HQ - it promptly flew out of the building in a runner's eager hand - and ambled over to the start and finish area to take photos, while waiting for my Mum to turn up as we were going to go to hers for lunch afterwards. (I am Bedfordshire lass by upbringing, but sadly not as fast as Radcliffe or Yelling - I wish).
The pic above is one of Peter in action. (The others are too blurred as he is moving quite fast!).
Reports from runners (OK the better half) say that the course had quite a few hills, not much traffic at all to speak of, and from what I could see, the medals were rather snazzy and the finish-line free food & drink, generous.

London Marathon Photos

A quick collage, left, of Peter's photos from the event. (Identification guide: Dave Arnold top left, Andi Gaywood top row 2nd left, Verna Burgess top row on the right, James Meldrum middle row on left, Stuart Boulton bottom right; Annette Herold holding sign in rightmost pic middle row).

Bath Half - Caterina's story

Peter Simpson has heard from Caterina, and says:

Catarina has returned from her holiday in Spain where she had a very difficult time finding any vegan food. Despite all of the fruit & veg we see in our shops from Spain, there was no evidence of it in the home country.



The Bath Half Marathon was a bad experience for Catarina and a large proportion of the runners when the start was delayed for an hour and not helped by the rain, cold weather and conditions under foot. See the discussion forum on the Runner’s World website Feedback on the Bath Half Marathon . Catarina had not had the best of build-ups to the event and had very little to eat in the 24 hours leading up to the event so was feeling weak. Rather than give a bad advertisement for the club, Catarina decided not to wear the Vegan Runners t-shirt. Despite the struggle to complete the course, she still finished in a respectable time of 2 hours 7 minutes and first of our four vegan runners. Well done Catarina despite the nightmare scenario!

Bath Half Marathon 16th March 2008

Matthew Cole and Karen Morgan report on an interesting time at Bath...

The day started with what must be the worst possible preparation – an hour standing in freezing rain waiting for the park and ride bus into Bath for the start of the race!
Despite the conditions, everyone queuing for the bus was in surprisingly good spirits – especially when the message was passed along the line that the start of the race had been delayed by an hour (we would have missed it otherwise). When we finally arrived at the Runners' Village and negotiated the muddy quagmire to drop off our bags, it was almost time for the race to start. Luckily by this time, the rain had finally stopped and conditions were much improved although everyone was still soaking wet and very cold. Most people at the start were wearing bin bags in order to keep warm – causing a slight hazard for those further back as people in front started discarding them. We had already decided that our fitness levels weren't good enough for us to be able to achieve any personal bests and that we would just enjoy the run as much as possible. Being so cold at the start would probably have made PBs difficult anyway. The Bath half marathon is a two lap course – which means the elite runners are going past on their second lap as most of us are plodding our way around for the first time. It's inspiring to see the front runners go by, but after a while becomes a little dispiriting when you realise just how far you still have to go when others are close to finishing. It must also be difficult for the fast runners having to overtake slower runners who sometimes forget to keep to one side of the course.
We kept a fairly steady pace most of the way round – averaging about 10 minutes a mile, however by the time we got to the ten mile mark Karen was struggling and had to slow to a walk for a short distance while Matthew kept on running. In the end, Matthew finished with a chip time of 2hrs 15mins and Karen with 2 hrs 24mins.  Definitely not our fastest races but in a way, given the atrocious starting conditions and lack of sufficient training, it seemed a bigger achievement than other races that we've completed in faster times.

Alloa Half Marathon, 23rd March 08

Hazel Robertson provides us with a reason to stay positive...

This was to be a warm up for the Lochaber Marathon at end April and my training had been going really well….. until (as usual) I caught a cold at 2 weeks before the race.  It lingered on, with sinus congestion etc and I was only just fit enough to run on the day.  I started off far too fast doing the first 10k faster than I've ever done a 10k! Then turned into a headwind for 4 miles along a very straight road.  Lost the will to live, stopped looking at my watch and decided just to treat it as a good training run.  A killer hill at mile 11 nearly wiped me out, but I struggled on feeling a bit sorry for myself and feeling annoyed with myself for feeling sorry for myself.  About half a mile from the finish I realized I actually could have got a PB if I had just pulled myself together and ended up 30 seconds behind my PB after putting on a sprint to the finish.  Not the best experience, but quite a good lesson for the marathon – don't start too quickly and stay positive!

 

Totton 10k report from Sidney DeLara

He says:
Opening the curtains in the morning to see snow on the ground and still falling is a rare sight down here in Southampton. By the time of the start of the  Totton 10k (on edge of Southampton) however sun was shining and potential problem of having to run through snow was no longer an issue.  Vegan diet aiding me to another PB.

The Belvoir Half Marathon 30th march 2008

Stewart Boulton reports


As we all know, Leicestershire is the greatest county in Britain, this is an undisputed, iron-clad fact that you could put your mortgage on – unlike my Half Marathon times which in the last year have been a little unpredictable!  From the highs of the Hinckley Half to the lows of the Stratford Half, my times have been somewhat varied during the last 10 months.  However, I can say that the Belvoir Half Marathon was once again unpredictable, but this time, for all the right reasons.

Being a lucky so-and-so, I will be running the Flora London Marathon on April 13th and when I heard there was a Half Marathon in Leicestershire 2 weeks before the big day, it sounded perfect.  An ideal distance, in my favourite county, just at the right time, surely a dream race, so I entered swiftly and waited for this pre-marathon appetiser…

On the day I made my way to a remote village called "Hose" and parked up in a water-logged field close to their Village Hall (admittedly after a few wrong turns!).  Their local Hall provided all the necessary amenities required for hosting a race and the whole event was well organised (and marshalled) from start to finish; including baggage claim, showers, refreshments and a smart "hold-all" style bag as a free race gift.

The start was my least favourite part of the race, the first few hundred yards was running through the muddy field we had just parked in, as we all splattered our way in between lines of parked vehicles making our way to a gate at the opposite end.  Once we were past the gate the rest of the course was a pleasure.  Thirteen glorious miles of quiet, rural village lanes in the heart of Leicestershire, often undulating but with no killer hills lurking.  Water stations were also regular, well positioned and well manned throughout.

I initially started off close to my Marathon pace (8.5 minute miling) but felt uncomfortable with the congestion that surrounded me so I decided to speed up for the next few miles until I was in my own space.  By the mid-way point I was feeling great and that's when I decided to give it 'more' and run the second-half at an increased pace.  By Mile 9, I took an energy gel and knew that a Sub 100 minute HM was still on the cards.  An achievement I have only ever managed once before.

In the last 2 miles of the race I found myself overtaking dozens of runners and realised that my finish to the race was strong and decided to push for the best time possible considering I got off to a steady start.  As I returned back to the Village Hall, I crossed the finish line in a time of 1h 37m 48s, a new PB, although that was never my intention when I started the race.  I was delighted with this unexpected bonus and once again, Leicester had brought the best out of me, but hey, what's new!