Marathon Blog

Sorry for not updating Marathon Blog for a while. The end of term was a nightmare and training / blogging went out of the window a bit. But now I’m on holiday and I have all the time in the world to run. Oh… and it’s 30+ deg C outside… I’m in Barbados
I arrived here on the 31st March and went for my first run at 9am on 1st April. Everything was going so well; I felt fresh and motivated, my spirits were high, I had my new pro runner II water bottle holster round my waist, and there was no sore muscle or blister in sight. But after 5 minutes my head was throbbing… it was so HOT! I was pouring water over my head every few minutes but even that didn’t help cool me down. I kept going and completed 16 km, but I spent as much time walking as I did running. I had a headache for the rest of the day! I was going to have to wake up earlier.

On Sunday I was out of the room by 8:00. You can’t go training in the Caribbean and not go for a run along the beach. So I decided to do some fast reps up and down the beach. I quickly discovered that running on the beach is a killer… my heart felt like it was going to explode after just 5 minutes! I had decided that running in bare feet would be better than getting sand and sea water in my trainers… it wasn’t. I managed two reps before I kicked a rock and that was the end of that run.

Luckily the toe-damage wasn’t too severe and by the evening I felt good enough to go down to the gym and hop on the trusty treadmill. I did 40 minutes at 16 with the last 5 minutes at 18.

Yesterday I was determined to do a decent outdoor run… so I got up at 6:00 and drove off to a quite part of the island. The run started with a massive uphill and after that I was back to square one… boiling! It seems that no matter how early you get up on this island, it is never cool enough to run. But I’m going to give it another shot… maybe I just need to get used to it… or perhaps getting up at 5am will help a bit?!

I would like to quickly thank all of the people who have sponsored me over the last few days for your kind donations and for all of the great advice you have given me. Shankara Smith sent a particularly useful piece of blister advice:

“in future I’d suggest popping them before bed and then with a needle and thread, threading a piece of cotton through the blister, this ensures that all the water comes out and it doesn’t just start filling up again (take the cotton out in the morning), then immediately dab a drop or two of Lavender essential oil onto the area (it will sting for a moment), this has two benefits, it is antibacterial which is a good idea, and it speeds up the healing, plus you have nice smelling feet!”