Out of Puff

The annual Crinan Puffer, a scenic 8.5 mile race along the Crinan Canal took place on Sunday and it was a great day out for lots of us Campbeltown Running Club toonies, a perfect sunny morning for getting out in the fresh air.  The race is a small local community event in Mid Argyll and is tremendously well organised and fun to be a part of with a fantastic value for money goody bag and finisher tshirt.  

Maz and Ems find wee Harry hilarious

Stuart, wee Harry, Tommy await Jennifer's food feast

Some of the CRC gang at the finish

As you may know, I'm a slave to mileage and I couldn't resist going out and plodding 8 miles on the Saturday before too.  This was mainly because the day before was such a disaster.  I went to bed on the Thursday evening tired and hungry.  I started the Friday exhausted and starving!  After a spin class and swim, I cycled to work only to realise I had forgotten my breakfast and my usual stash of fruit and cereal bars depleted.  A long day at work, a small lunch and a late dinner lead to a really grumpy me!  I attended Mairi's first Piloxing class in the evening which was EXCELLENT but I was so shattered I didn't have enough energy to put my all into it and was panicking I'd never make it round the puffer feeling like this.  I completely overate that night, no biscuit was left untouched, leaving me feeling even worse by the end of the night.  Hence, I felt guilt-ridden into running on the Saturday morning too!  

Some of CRC girls pose while the boys gossip

Thankfully, some DELICIOUS food courtesy of Jennifer, and some rest and some good weather over the weekend perked me back up and by Sunday I managed to complete the Crinan Puffer 5 minutes faster than the year before in 1 hour 5.  My husband came 2nd overall in a cracking time of 49 minutes!!  Followed closely on his heels was James 'Creamy' Murdoch in 3rd and Tommy 5th.  Some other cracking times from the rest of the crew, including Emma who narrowly missed out on a podium finish!  So, what do you do after a hard race?  Swim?  Cycle?  Walk?  All three of course.

18/04/2014	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Sat	Post- 1/2 protein shake, toast pbutter & jam	Green tea	Fresh minestrone soup with tuna wmeal sandwich.	Ginger bread slice & green tea.	King prawn linguine (starter lol!) Chicken curry with rice & slice bread. Bread & butter pudding & ice cream.  Some chocs & tea. WHOOPS
Exercise	8 miles easy		Easy run as have Crinan Puffer race tomorrow.  Productive dayorganising MOKRUN and catching up with friends.  FAR too much food at Jens for dinner, so delicious tho!
Sun	Porridge & 1/2 banana.	Coffee	Scrambled eggs and toast.	Green tea & small scone.	Chicken & leek pie, boiled potatoes & broccoli.  Pecan & pear pie with icecream.  Mars bar, tea.
Exercise	10 miles inc 8.5 Crinan race.  23 mile cycle.  20 length swim.  Walk up bengullion.		Beautiful day!  Still full up and bloated from last night - own fault for being greedy.  Had a great morning at Crinan Puffer race where CRC did great and Stu came 2nd!!!  I took 5 mins off last year's time, felt good but it was hard.  Wee swim, cycle and walk when home as it was so nice.  Loved having lunch/tea on decking in sun.  Exhausted!
Mon	Slice toast, ml yoghurt with blueberries & chia seeds	Alpen bar, green tea & handful grapes	LF houmous, oatcakes.  Tangerine & apple.	Banana & handful grapes.	Tuna pasta.  Oatcakes and tea.
Exercise	5.5 miles easy. Spin. Core		Legs felt heavier than I thought when started running, stayed off hills.  Loved spin.
Tue	Slice toast, ml yoghurt with blueberries & chia seeds & spoon of muesli	Alpen bar, green tea	LF houmous, oatcakes.  Tangerine & apple.	Banana on 2 rice cakes.  Green tea.	Baked trout, chestnut mushroom & spinach risotto with side salad.  Oatcakes & chia tea.
Exercise	6.5 miles inc hill reps (x18)		Glorious sunny day.  Productive day at work and managed to get decking all painted ready for summer.  Legs felt really heavy but managed hills slowly on Tomaig with CRC.  Hip feeling sore again :-(
Wed	Slice toast, ml yoghurt with blueberries & chia seeds & spoon of muesli	2 breakfast biscuits with green tea	Trout salad sandwich.  Apple.  Tangerine.	Banana.  2 breakfast biscuits.	Chilli con carne with rice.  Penguin.  Kitkat (need of chocolate!)
Exercise	1 mile swim.  3 mile easy run.  Combat.		Nice dry day.  Hip a bit sore but energy levels good.  Meeting at Howdens to say thanks for their sponsor support of MOKRUN.  SKSC Hub meeting after combat so v late dinner.  Little confusion at meeting about past decisions but once made, group making progress.
Thu	Slice toast & 2 weetabix with skim milk.	Alpen bar & green tea.	LF houmous, oatcakes.  Tangerine & apple.	Ricecakes with pbutter & banana	Roast chicken breast, potatoes & sweetcorn.  Special k biscuits & kitkat!
Exercise	2.5m bengullion run with xcountry.  7.5 mile easy run with club.		MOKRUN meeting with new Greenkeeper of Machdunes, course is challenging but he will flatten and do best he can!  Enjoyed easy run but hip and left hand side really sore - in need of massage!  Oh and congrats to Lindsay and Craig - new baby Robbie Ramsay :-)
Fri	Porridge & banana.	2 breakfast biscuits with green tea	Tuna sandwich.  Apple.	Cereal bar & green tea. A few sweets at meeting.	Spicy chicken & chorizo spaghetti.  Healthy Eton Mess* Choc biscuits and tea.
Exercise	Spin.  50 lengths swim.		More energy today compared to last Friday - I was hungry and tired all day last week and ended up overeating at night and feeling like crap :-(  Hip and left side v tight/sore.  Big MOKRUN committee meeting tonight!
Mileage	43

Sunny Easter

Fantastic view of Machrihanish Bay

Kintyre is a special place to stay, particularly when the we are blessed with the fantastic sunny weather that we've had over the Easter holidays.  During the last few days of the holiday we did some great walks in the countryside, Easter egg hunting, painting, rolling (and eating) with family and friends.

Housework and gardening kept us busy in the holidays - the view from our newly painted decking wasn't bad!

Mairi, Jen and I took a hike up the hill at Machrihanish to find the mysterious Killypole Loch.  Turns out we took the wrong path and ended up at a dead end.  But we did get some amazing views across Machrihanish Bay.

My beautiful neices at their Easter Egg Hunt

Coffee table transformed to paint station

The best dressed Easter Egg rollers in toon!!  We raced our eggs to the bottom of the hill.  Emma won, of course.  #BigKids

After a few days of rest after the marathon, I threw myself back into training (I've got a few races coming up!) and feeling not too bad.  However, I'm ashamed at how much chocolate and treats I've had AND had a cheeky wee night on the town with my besties.  Oh well, I've enjoyed it - you've got to let your hair down once in a while :-)

18/04/2014	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Sat	Slice of toast & pbutter & jam. Blueberry protein shake.	Green tea.  Vit water.	Fresh tomato soup & egg mayo sandwich.	Green tea	Red thai chicken curry with green peppers, sticky rice and 1/2 pitta bread.  Eton mess*.  Wine and vodka & cranberries (???)
Exercise	12 miles easy		Beautiful morning for a run in the countryside.  Enjoyed run and blether but sore tummy.  Catriona and I had a psychic reading… some truths but still cynical!  Great sunny day for working in the garden and had drinks with my besties at night before burnside and whiskys for a dance.
Sun	I'm sure there was pizza and chocolate before bed…. (shame!)	Oatbake.  Water	Scrambled eggs and toast.  Mini teacake.	Water	Roast capon dinner with all trimmings.  Mini egg cheesecake.  AND Easter eggs.
Exercise	21 mile cycle.  1/2 mile swim.  Walk		Another beautiful sunny day and despite little sleep and sore head, I got up and went a cycle.  So glad I did, great day for it and great ride.  Went a quick blast in pool after.  Starving for rest of day.  Ate way too much.  Great fun with neices easter egg hunting in the garden!
Mon	1/2 banana.  Vit water.	2 slices toast and 1/2 banana.	1/2 egg sandwich & fresh tomato soup.	Water.  Dairy milk.	Haggis, neeps and tatties with whisky gravy.  Mini rasberry cheesecake (no cream, butter or sugar).  Easter egg chocolate - last day of 'bad'!
Exercise	5 mile run bengullion.  Spin.  Core.  Walk in Machrihanish.		Lovely day, feeling tired but run up Bengullion made me feel much better.  Great catch up with Jen.  Spin was good but felt weird finished all exercise by 11am!  Went a walk up past Machrihanish to Killypole loch but never found it lol, will go back next time ;-)
Tue	Slice toast. LF greek yoghurt with chia seeds & blueberries.	Alpen bar & green tea	Oatcakes and lf houmous. Tangerine.	2 ricecakes with banana.	Baked 1/2 chicken breast with spinach, couscous & bread.  Tea & 2 1/2 oatcakes.
Exercise	7.5 miles inc 5 x compound sets (800m 10k pace 400m 5k)		Back to work and enjoying being back in routine to be honest.  Loved training tonight!
Wed	Slice toast.  2 weetabix with skim milk.	Alpen bar & green tea	Oatcakes and lf houmous. Banana.	Mixed fruit & nuts.  Beetroot juice.	Chilli con carne & rice.  Protein mug cake (no egg lol!)  2 1/2 oatcakes and chai tea.
Exercise	1 mile swim.  6.5 miles inc 10k time trial with maz.  Combat & piloxing.  Some circuits.		Promised Mairi I'd take her round the 10k route on a time trial and she did fab!  If she does that on 10k day she will get a PB no probs :-)  Enjoyed combat and circuits but starving by time I got home!  Grateful to my husband who had a lovely dinner ready :-)
Thu	Slice toast.  LF greek yoghurt with blueberries.	Alpen bar & green tea	Ryvita and lf huumous.	1 1/2 rice cakes chutney, 1 rice cake pbutter & jam.  Green tea.	Choc fairy cake with pbutter icing - yum!  Then, pork stir fry with noodles.  Tea.  Oatcakes.
Exercise	3.2 miles round bengullion.  7 miles easy (flat).		Sunny day in Kintyre -an round Bengullion with x country club at lunch - fun but actually quite hot.  Did an easy 7 miles to sheep fanks instead of parlauf and ran straight to school dance.  Hungry and was too tempted by James' baking!  Late dinner :-(
Fri
Exercise	Spin.  50 lengths.  Piloxing.		Mairi's new piloxing class has started - woo hoo!
Mileage	41

My 'healthy' eton mess - 1 crushed meringue (50 cals), muller light yoghurt mixed with fresh rasberries and blueberries - yum!

Third Time Lucky in London

Proud as punch at the finish line!

What an amazing weekend!  Book launch, catching up with best friends, sightseeing, hinthunt, parkruns, exhibitions and marathons as well as lots of great food and drink, but best of all - spending it with fantastic company.

Trafalgar Square Piloxing!

My sis Mairi and I after our lovely meal Sat

Despite the nerves, the book launch was successful - my speech, signings, readings and fantastic Indian cuisine at the Koh-I-Noor restaurant made it a nice, informal evening.  

Signing the first copies of my book School Daze

It was all a bit surreal and was the first time I'd seen my novel in print - weird!  The best thing was just getting to catch up with some of my closest family and friends mid-week - I am hugely grateful for them attending to give me morale support and overwhelmed by their positivity and encouragement, thank you so much.  

I got the fright of my life when my best friend Catriona surprised me (in my hotel bathroom no-less!) by coming to the launch unannounced - it made my day!  I wasn't even tempted by a glass of wine at the launch as I had a small matter of a marathon to do....

After months and months of training, I finally completed the London Marathon AND in a Personal Best time of 3:43:29!  I can honestly say that I loved every minute of it and super chuffed to get a Good For Age qualifying time for next year too.  The crowds were simply amazing, 10 deep at some points, cheering and shouting, providing much needed motivation for the 26.2 mile course (although I clocked up 26.8 on my watch).  I'm not going to lie, and from the last few week's blogs, you'll have realised I was thinking about the marathon  A LOT!  

Hugs from husband at the finish :-)

I had been panicking about the weather and the forecasters got it spot on and the sun was splitting the sky on Sunday.  However, I have tried to learn from my past experiences and have listened to all the advice from the experts, family and friends - I just wanted to enjoy it, with no pressure on time.  That, I did! 

I have been haunted by my first London Marathon attempt.  There's not been a day gone by since that memorable day in April 2011 that I have not thought about it.  It scared me, it was the worst experience of my life.  I thought my 6 months of training had went well and felt fit.  But as the sun came out and temperature soared, I didn't re-adjust my race strategy.  I took on little gels or water and think I actually only had a banana for breakfast.  At the time, this was the normal for me - most of my long runs are completed without a pre-run meal.  I thought the run was going well, feeling strong and keeping a steady pace.  I remember looking at my watch at mile 22, about 3 hours 20 and thinking I was nearly there.  But my next memory was waking up in a St John's Ambulance tent on a drip, with Drs and volunteers around me where they packed ice all around me and tried to force me to drink saline solution while they took my temperature from you know where.  I had collapsed with heatstroke mid-race and was unconscious for nearly 5 minutes.  My core temperature was just over 41 degrees, dangerously high.  I couldn't speak.  I tried, but words wouldn't come out.  I couldn't move.  It felt like an intense migraine.  It took me over an hour before I could attempt to move.  A nurse had to 'teach' me how to walk again in baby steps.  I still couldn't speak despite my bumbling attempts.  Embarrassingly I took a seizure and lashed out at the helpers and hated the feeling of being out of control of my limbs, my body.  For days, I vomited vile black liquid and couldn't even hold down water.  It was simply horrible and I was absolutely devastated.  I had gained the first club place so was representing them as well as raising funds for the Help for Heroes Charity.  I felt like such a failure.  I was crushed.  But I was lucky to be alive and although at the time I didn't believe it, I would run again and I would be stronger.  Of course, I have done marathons again, even London but the ghost of this experience had never left me.

I carefully prepared my running gear the evening before

Scared/nervous selfie the night before

This time, the sun was back.  This time I adapted my race plan, I ran through every 'shower', I took on water at every second water stop after 5 miles and took on gels and lucozade.  And it felt great!  What a buzz to run in the same race as some of the best athletes in the world, celebrities and some of my best friends.  The London Marathon is special.  It's emotional, so many people running for so many different reasons, the marathon raises millions for charity every year.  Including myself (all these events in the build up to China for the Beatson Cancer Fund) and best buddy Jamie G who ran his first marathon in aid of Prostate Cancer UK, raising approximately £7,000 - wow.  The camaraderie between runners is amazing, sharing stories and smiles all the way.  I was teary before I even got to the start line!  The crowd's roar is like nothing else.  Seeing my husband, sister and friends cheering me on at the famous landmarks such as Tower Bridge was exhilarating and spurred me on to sprint down the Mall in front of Betty's wee house to get my medal with a big smile on my face.  It was one of the best feelings in the world, simply AMAZING.  The ghost of that first marathon, now dead and buried.  The celebration of all who completed the marathon about to begin!  

Johnny, me, Joc and Jamie displaying our medals and smiles

Johnny pops the question

After downing my protein recovery shake and 500ml of water I was reunited with my husband, sister and friends at Horse Guards Parade where we sat in the sunshine excitedly awaiting our other friends to cross the line.  Charlie, Jennifer, Johnny, Jocelyn and Jamie all completed the race and did us proud.  Unfortunately our CRC star athlete, 'Big Kenny', had to pull out due to a hamstring injury at mile 14 - speedy recovery big man!  The excitement didn't stop there - Johnny not only completed his first marathon but decided to get on bended knee at the finish to propose to girlfriend, Eilidh.... and she said YES, of course!  More tears but even more champagne!  The news just topped off an amazing weekend so the only thing for it was to get back to our hotel to polish off some cocktails and beers before heading out for a slap up celebratory meal at Browns Restaurant, along by the Thames walkway overlooking Tower Bridge.   

Joc and I with our well earned and dreamed about drinks

Me, my mojito and 'I' at the SkyLounge Bar

Coconut daiquiri

My food diary might have taken up too much space in this week's blog - we did nothing but eat out - indian food and 3 course meals galore (simply delicious).  Although I did avoid all fried and fatty foods I did allow myself some treats such as small slice of carrot cake, toffee ice cream and cheesecake (over 4 days - honest!)  The night before the race I opted for chicken pesto pasta at Pizza Express washed down with lots of water and beetroot juice.  Race morning I had porridge, beetroot juice, banana, toast with green tea about 3 hours before race and with 1.5 hours to go I had a coffee and slice of soreen with some sips of lucozade sport.  Afterwards, well I dined on chicken pate, roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings followed by chocolate brownie and ice cream - YUM!  It was the perfect meal that I was craving.  Of course I had to sample the pinot grigio, daiquiris and baileys too.  Ach well, I'm going to allow myself some treats and some rest days over the next week - why not?!  Back to training and good nutrition next week...

My parents had left me some chocolate and champagne in my kitchen for my return - which I will devour - thank you!!

 Anyone can run a marathon.  It takes months of dedicated training and is definitely not easy but it's worth it, you will reap the benefits and could raise lots for charity - go on, give it a go, you know you want to!

Some of the gang made us 'mini mes to support us in the crowd.  Our mini mes decided they had such a good weekend that they wanted to wait in London :-)