Official Running Thread

Ninja Elephant said:

That being said, did you not run a marathon on sunday as well?!

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I did, yes...late decision to pop along to one I've done before that's just the best trail marathon in the South - great route, brilliant organisation and a big pile of cake at the finish. Still trying to get back to some kind of fitness after my 3 months on the crocks bench but it was much better than the one a couple of weeks ago. Still pretty insignificant compared to an Ironman though.

Curious Orange said:

He was running up and down outside my house as far as I can tell from Strava. I would have thought he was showing off if I'd been there to see.



Well done to both [MENTION=27279]dazzer6666[/MENTION] and [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION], I'm frankly in awe of both of you.

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Guildford/Farnham ?? It's a stunning route - absolutely beautiful. Loseley Estate, North Downs Way, St Martha's, River Wey, Puttenham Common.......really beautiful.

Simgull said:

[MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION] finishes in 15:54 and claims NSC running thread hero of the week!

Well done and hope you can manage a celebratory pint!

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I'm not sure I'm a hero, but cheers

dazzer6666 said:

Great work buddy.....

100 miler next then [emoji106][emoji16]

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Thanks mate. No way – On a bike is fine, but two feet? Forget that!

knocky1 said:

Week! Couldn't we push it to 8 days



Excellent effort and a well planned and fought campaign. Look forward to hearing all about it .

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Thanks Gaffer. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey was the order of the day. I sailed a little too close to the bike/swim cutoff for my liking, but that's being ultra picky.

Guinness Boy said:

Unbelievable achievement! Absolutely amazing effort, well played.

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Thanks mate. Back to seafront plods on early Sunday mornings now!

Badger said:

Top work, congratulations

I have the utmost admiration for anyone who can complete an Ironman. I don't think I'd make it past the swimming bit!

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I didn't think I could make it past the swimming bit a few months ago, when I couldn't swim front crawl and my technique was shocking. Now, I'm tempted by a 5km sea swim race!

Ninja Elephant said:

[MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION] - what a man! Amazing performance, congratulations. 2.4 mile swim - how long did that take? Was that in a pool doing lap after lap or was than an open water swim?

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Thanks dude. As Dazzer says, swim was in Tenby bay – absolutely beautiful and I nailed it (for me). It was two laps with an Australian exit (get me with all the lingo!) and took 1:27. The race report will explain why it's not on Strava...

dazzer6666 said:

Another pal of mine did it....all in the sea I believe. Incredible stuff. I’m in awe.

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Was he from Mid Sussex Tri? There was a guy from there sat just behind me in the race briefing. The sea was lovely, even the jellyfish – they focus your mind to keep going!

Curious Orange said:

He was running up and down outside my house as far as I can tell from Strava. I would have thought he was showing off if I'd been there to see.



Well done to both [MENTION=27279]dazzer6666[/MENTION] and [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION], I'm frankly in awe of both of you.

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Thanks CO. It certainly was one hell of an achievement!

Greg Bobkin said:

Thanks mate. No way – On a bike is fine, but two feet? Forget that!

Was he from Mid Sussex Tri? There was a guy from there sat just behind me in the race briefing. The sea was lovely, even the jellyfish – they focus your mind to keep going!

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100m - you absolutely could - already very easily fit enough.........a few weekend back to back long runs and you'd be ready

She not he - one of my running pals. She had a lot of trouble with her bike but otherwise did well - just under 14hrs I think. She smashed the run in about 4.20 somehow.

WTF is an Australian exit? [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION]

dazzer6666 said:

Guildford/Farnham ?? It's a stunning route - absolutely beautiful. Loseley Estate, North Downs Way, St Martha's, River Wey, Puttenham Common.......really beautiful.

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Guildford, though you were actually running just the other side of the Hogs Back from me.

Stunning views from St Marthas on a good day, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Apologies for that previous post – I don't normally do multi-quote posts, but I wanted to respond to each of you.

Further apologies for this post, which might be moderated out on the grounds of not strictly being running, but you asked, so I'm going to attempt a race report. I wanted to do one anyway when it was all fresh in my mind and NSC seemed as good a place as any to put it.

So, I won't go on and on about the pre-match prep, but basically an Ironman (branded) event is a MASSIVE deal – especially, as it turns out, in Tenby. Got there Friday night, parked up in my VW Camper, made my bed and tried to sleep. Got about three hours and woke up to rain and then wandered down to the athlete's village to register and see what the deal was. Racked the bike and bags, drove the bike route – faffed around with stuff and got my head down about 8/9pm.

Sunday – 4am alarm and I had a decent amount of kip. Snoozed it a couple of times, but couldn't delay it any longer. It was about 30 minutes down to transition, checked my bike, queued for the toilet for about 30 minutes and got my wetsuit on down to the start. Now when I say the town goes big, I mean it. The High Street was packed with locals, family and 2,500 athletes. I made my way to the 1:40 swim section and I could just about make the Welsh national anthem and Thunderstuck being played (it's traditional) as we meandered down the zig-zag path to the beach. Goggles on, shoes off (you have to run 1km from the beach back to transition so therefore stash old runners in your pink bag (SO many bags for the day!) and before I knew it I was in the water.

I'd had a couple of tips on what to sighting and to basically look for specific landmarks, not the buoys and it worked. I went wide a couple of times (once intentional, once not), but I absolutely LOVED the swim. I tw@tted myself in the eye with my trailing arm after about 200m, pushing my goggle into my eye socket, which smarted a bit (and then did it AGAIN at the start of the second lap), but that was the only drama. The much-feared jellyfish (they're huge) didn't come near me, but I saw plenty. I was in a really nice groove and before I knew it, I was out of the water, wetsuit off and back in transition for the main event. I'd told myself that it was three stages of the ironman – the swim was the warm-up, the bike was the main event and the run was the lap of honour.

I faffed around in transition, getting all my stuff together – helmet and gloves on, pump and energy bars on board, checking I had everything I needed and then I was off and out. Went around the first corner about 100m out and there were two instances that focused my mind, as if it needed it. Firstly, we were told to slow down as some geezer had stacked his bike and then the High5 energy tablets that I had stored on my bike top box in an old-skool film pot (perfect size) jumped right out and smashed on the floor. I just saw a load of white stuff and then quickly realised what had happened. Not time to do anything about it – one big rule in ironman: just keep moving forwards. Everywhere is hilly in this part of the world. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful, but my word, everywhere you go there are hills! You do downhill and there's one waiting for you to go back up, you go up one and around a corner and there's another one waiting for you. But then there are downhills too, which is good.

There are two loops – the first one heading west towards Angle, which you do once, where there are some tricky technical bits (I took it NICE and slow!) but not many horrible climbs (they were laying ahead). I got myself a bit excited at times thinking 'I'm actually doing an ironman', before giving myself a talking to and calming down taking it literally one mile at a time. The electrolyte tablet disaster meant I had to risk taking on Enervit energy drink, which I hadn't tried before the day (another rule broken!) but it turned out to be OK. I took on a load of water and the bars and just kept chugging along. Made decent time back east from Angle with the wind behind us back to almost where we started. One of the aforementioned technical parts (a strava section called 'don't hit the wall' or something) claimed a couple of people, which is never nice to see, but part of racing, I think. Some people go SO fast on a bike it scares me!

The second loop was a different story – it's an animal. The bike course has something like 8,000ft elevation and I reckon the majority of it is here. It starts off fine and as I'd driven it the day before (but not ridden it) at least I had some idea about what was to come. I kept hydrated, freewheeled down the hills to save some energy, and before I knew it I was 50 miles in. Then I had a few stomach cramps and realised that I needed a comfort break. Asked a volunteer where the next toilets were and she didn't know. Asked a marshall on a motorbike and he didn't know either. Ah well, I just kept at it and kept it together. Then a lady came past me, asked if I was OK – I don't think I looked in any distress, I think she was just being friendly! – and she had said that the were at 64 miles (a LONG way, or so it seemed). Fortunately they were closer than that, so I did what I had to do before tackling what many people say are the two toughest climbs – Wiseman's and Saundersfoot. The first is a 16% gradient that was pretty much like the Bostal, so I know there would be no issue with that one. Saundersfoot is a different beast – it just went on and on and on. But here is one of the points where the crowds really come into to. You know the parts of the TdF where the route narrows with spectators cheering the competitors on? It was a bit like that. Fancy dress, people of all ages, beers flowing, barbecues cooking and they REALLY help drag you up the hill. Knowing that I had to do it all over again, I took it relatively easy(ish). Food station at the top of the hill where my 'special needs' food bag was. I'd stashed a couple of pasties as someone suggested savoury would make a nice difference to the sweet energy bars so I nabbed a chicken tikka one. Tasted delicious.

Then lap two of the second loop was more of the same. The big difference here (as well as the tiredness) was the lack of the elite and the really quick guys. On my first they were motoring along on their second one, so by the time we started OUR second one, they were probably almost home and hosed down the red carpet. There was more chat and encouragement with fellow cyclists second time around. Good to keep each other going and there were a bunch of us who were around the same time so we with rode together or kept passing each other. The miles were ticking along, a nice mix of little lanes, scenery and more hills and before I knew it I was back to Wiseman's. Just before the uphill there is a steep downhill where the speed merchants must get up to about 50mph. I think I got to maybe 40 tops on the course. Nice and steady, Eddie.

Bottom of Wiseman's, I change into the Granny gear ready for the climb and my chain comes off! Could've been a disaster, but I JUST managed to get my foot out to stop falling over. I've had a couple of falls at near stationary in training – I never thought it would be end up being good practice for the actual day! A Doris actually said "Well saved" as she went past. Drama over I got up the hill. I was determined to cycle up and not have to walk any of the hills and I made it. The crowds on 'Heartbreak Hill' (Sandersfoot's nickname) had thinned out a bit, but there were still enough there to make a difference. Got to my special needs bag, grabbed my other pasty for transition and got down the hill to Tenby. As you go down the hill to transition, the bike leg is happening on your left-hand side, so there was a good opportunity to check out what lay ahead. It was pretty busy by the time I was heading back in – amazing people to get it done in that time.

(Well done for getting to here – it's turned into quite a ramble!)

*An aside*
The biggest disaster on the day was my technology let me down almost twice). My new Garmin that I'd bought for IMW was playing up in the sea in the weeks leading up to the event, but I thought I'd deal with any problems on the day. It would just freeze the distance, but the clock kept ticking. Then about a week before, I noticed that I really had to press down on the start/stop button for it to do anything. Too late to get a replacement, I just hoped it would be OK. But it wasn't. As I went down to the swim, I really had to press hard to get it to start and then stop (it made the whole distance, though!). Halfway through the bike it beeped frantically stopping and starting any by the time I tried to stop it after the bike, it had given up the ghost. So I just left it running and hoped it would still save. Swapped to my old faithful (I knew I'd have to do that because the battery on the new one probably wouldn't have lasted) and hoped for the best. Despite a few 'low battery' warnings at the end of the run, it made it! But it's annoying and now the new one won't charge so I don't know if I'll ever see my bike and swim segments, but there we go... First world problems.

*End of aside*

So to the run. Ah yes, more hills. Had a pasty, ditched the bike shorts, turned my number around put a new top on. It was four laps, consisting of flat through Tenby town, then up a hill (which I ran the first time, but not the others), back down part of the way, up another hill to collect your lap band, back down a hill to town, out in the opposite direction up a small incline and then back through a maze of Tenby streets (keeping to the right at one point where all the lucky people passed on the left down the red carpet!) before doing it all over again. At this point, the main thing for me was making it through the bike leg in time to do the run. Mission accomplished, so anything was a bonus – I knew I could run a marathon in 6hrs 30. One nice thing about walking up the hill and doing laps is that you get to chat to people who have done more laps than you as well as people who were on the same one as you. I chatted with some great characters and people, many of whom were near the end and we actually encouraged each other.

The crowds were still out in force in the town but also up the hill. Some of the Saundersfoot nutters had camped out on the hill and there were so many houses with music blaring out – it was like a party atmosphere the whole way around. So much so, that a fight broke out RIGHT in front of where I was running (spectators, not runners, I should add). Close enough that I almost ran into the geezers swinging punches, before they were separated by the crowds and reminded there was a race going on. They are pretty narrow streets, especially with the crowds, so it was a bit scary! I didn't wan't a DNF due to being knocked unconscious by a stray punch!

Things like Beachy Head and Moyleman have helped mould me into the runner that I am and I guess I'm fortunate to have the mindset of 'just keep going'. Like I say, I knew I could get it done physically and in my head I just kept telling myself that. I'm not going to lie, the last hill was tough, but I kept on running the downhills*– it was actually a nice release to get the body moving. I marathon is one thing, but ironman is in a different league when it comes to mental toughness. As I said I'd split it up into three sections and that was really important as I was able to focus on what was right in front of me. As 24 miles and five hours on the marathon clicked by, I knew it was nearly over – even more so when I got into town for the final section. The crowds were still out and the words of encouragement kept me smiling, laughing and – at some points – nearly crying as the enormity of the day got to me. Finally it was one more turn and onto the final straight, Finally it was my turn to keep left. Finally I was on the red carpet. I stopped and high five the PA Doris who uttered the immortal words 'John: you are an IRONMAN'. At that point, I got my head down and did some mad charge across the line – I don't have a clue what it looked like and didn't really know what I would do, but it just felt right.

After 15 hours and 54 minutes of emotion, fun, pain and movement, I was an ironman. It felt amazing and still does, if I'm honest. I know it's nothing compared to what some people do in work, exercise of whatever, but as a personal achievement it is WAY up there. Ironman Wales is a beast and there are plenty who didn't make it, for whatever reason. I'm just grateful that the training paid off, the bike stayed in one piece with no punctures and that I had the swim of my life! A much-needed pizza and milky, sugary tea in the finisher's tent really sorted me out before I made my way back to base (typically back up the hill I'd been running up!) where I showered, drank beer and failed to sleep because of the adrenaline.

What an experience, what a day, what a place. Ironman Wales might be the second toughest one, but it's one HELL of an atmosphere. Would I do it again? Possibly – not to try and beat my time, but just because of the experience, it's something else. Should you do one? Only if you REALLY want to and do the training. Sounds simple, but there is not better example of 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail'.

Thanks for reading – well done if you got this far!

dazzer6666 said:

100m - you absolutely could - already very easily fit enough.........a few weekend back to back long runs and you'd be ready

She not he - one of my running pals. She had a lot of trouble with her bike but otherwise did well - just under 14hrs I think. She smashed the run in about 4.20 somehow.

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Yeah, but the trouble is that I don't WANT to do it

Without it turning into a game of Guess Who? is she from Hassocks? I was stood in the toilet queue with a girl from there who knew Marina and the We Run Hassocks crew...

knocky1 said:

WTF is an Australian exit? [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION]

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Do a lap, get out of the water, run around to where you started and get back in. Quite nice to catch your breath, clean your goggles and then prepared yourself to go again. As for the name, I guess they did it first/do it in Australia

Calls for a one off table. Anyone else want to join.

Greg Bobkin said:

Thanks for reading – well done if you got this far!

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Wow WOw Wow! Fantastic Stuff. An amazing achievement. I wont be doing one any time soon!

knocky1 said:

Calls for a one off table. Anyone else want to join.

NAME	Full Ironman
Greg Bobkin	Completed

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NO, well other than Mr Blobby - DNS

Greg Bobkin said:

Yeah, but the trouble is that I don't WANT to do it

Without it turning into a game of Guess Who? is she from Hassocks? I was stood in the toilet queue with a girl from there who knew Marina and the We Run Hassocks crew...

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Wanting to is probably the most important bit of all, so good call !

Yes might have been her - Sharona........lovely girl, long red hair. Very good athlete.

knocky1 said:

Calls for a one off table. Anyone else want to join.

NAME	Full Ironman
Greg Bobkin	Completed

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Where is @Dr No when you need him ??

dazzer6666 said:

Wanting to is probably the most important bit of all, so good call !

Yes might have been her - Sharona........lovely girl, long red hair. Very good athlete.

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That was her! Say hi and well done to her from me – we didn't really talk about times, but it was clear she was in good shape and had been training non-stop on the Beacon, so it stands to reason. She told me about being hit by a truck while riding, which sounded awful (obviously!), so I'm pleased she had a good one. It was a real coincidence as we started chatting and she asked where I was from, then mentioned about Kurt and the guys that do the Brighton Triathlon training stuff, then Hassocks, etc, etc. I think I saw her out on the bike course and during the run, but wasn't sure as we were all in loads of layers trying to stay warm in the morning...

knocky1 said:

Calls for a one off table. Anyone else want to join.

NAME	Full Ironman
Greg Bobkin	Completed

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Thanks mate, I'm honoured. I'm sure SOMEONE here will want to give it a crack one day. My money's on [MENTION=13055]Ninja Elephant[/MENTION] – he's out on the bike a lot...

Or maybe you could give it a go, Gaffer. It's only a little bit of a step up from an Olympic Tri *cough*

And think of the bragging rights you could have over your mate/nemesis

Mr Blobby said:

Wow WOw Wow! Fantastic Stuff. An amazing achievement. I wont be doing one any time soon!

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Thanks Mr B. I don't blame you – just keep doing what you're doing. The impressive results in your running this past year or so has been an amazing achievement in itself!

Greg Bobkin said:

Thanks mate, I'm honoured. I'm sure SOMEONE here will want to give it a crack one day. My money's on [MENTION=13055]Ninja Elephant[/MENTION] – he's out on the bike a lot...

Or maybe you could give it a go, Gaffer. It's only a little bit of a step up from an Olympic Tri *cough*

And think of the bragging rights you could have over your mate/nemesis

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Unfortunately the **** did one in 2008. He has the bragging rights, the bragging rights, the bragging rights, ad nauseum.

knocky1 said:

Unfortunately the **** did one in 2008. He has the bragging rights, the bragging rights, the bragging rights, ad nauseum.

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Well what are you waiting for? Get on it!

How much was it? A few hundred quid? If so, I'm years away from being able to justify the expense but I am keen on piling into an Iron Man. I will need to really work on my swimming though, a KM kills me at the moment so 2.4 miles will take a significant amount of work.

In the meantime, I am gearing up for round 2 of the 3 parkrun challenge with [MENTION=18183]big nuts[/MENTION]. My left calf didn't enjoy the sprinting session of yesterday but I'm feeling like I'll be able to compete this week - with the spirit of the Bobkin within me!

Brilliant write up [MENTION=24635]Greg Bobkin[/MENTION] - saw it earlier but saved it for the commute home. Definite hero status.

Look forward to catching up soon even if Parkrun is well, a walk in the park for you now.