Posts Tagged with: "London Marathon"

With hubby and kids in tow, I arrived in London last April 17, Wednesday, just a few days before the London Marathon on April 21.  We stayed at The Regency in South Kensington.  The kids immediately loved everything about London—the weather, the food, the Underground tube, and especially our hotel room.

– The hubby and the kids with our hotel right behind them –

– Missing in the photo: Hugh Grant –

– If they could, they would’ve stayed in the room the entire trip! –

Since we were to leave for the countryside the following day for my cousin’s wedding, we headed straight for the Race Expo soon after we checked in.  Jetlag? Nah. Exhaustion? Nada. The expo of marathon majors is something I always look forward to.

RACE EXPO

The race expo was held at ExCel International Exhibition at Royal Victoria Dock. It was about 30 to 45 minutes away from South Kensington.

First things first, I claimed my race bib, then had my Ipico timing tag checked. Included in the kit was a black ribbon which we were encouraged to pin on our shirts to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing just a week before our marathon.

– BTW, check out the Skora shoes I’m wearing. They sent me this for the trip. They’re minimalist running shoes but, I must say, they were the best walking shoes for pre and post race. I wore it practically everyday –

– Contents of the kit. The red bag is the same bag we check in on race day –

I’ve said it many times before. My ultimate dream is to finish the Marathon Majors: Berlin (check), New York (check 2x), London, Tokyo, Chicago, and Boston. (Okay, we can skip Boston for now LOL.) So, when I saw this Marathon Majors exhibit, I just had to stop and pose. Too bad the photo is blurry! Boo!

Then came the most important part: SHOPPING!  Not just any kind of shopping, but shopping for official marathon merchandise! That’s what I live for!  (Yes, I’m super easy to please!)  The official apparel sponsor was adidas and they presented an impressive range of marathon merchandise. My head was in a whirl while the hubby and kids waited, and waited, and waited.

– Those are all official merchandise. Drool drool –

Happily, I took these two home with me. Aaah! Love. The. Jacket.

– There were various shirt designs, colors, and sizes. This was one of my favorites –


– Just one of the official London Marathon 2013 jackets –

Then, it was time for more shopping. I liked the fact that, since we were in Europe, there were quite a number of running products that were new to me since most products we see in Manila are the more popular brands in the US.

Test your strength during the expo? No thank you. I chose to reserve my strength and endurance for race day…

Cute course map by Nestle Pure Life, the official water sponsor for the race…

Of course, I dropped by the impressive booth of Timex. These guys were responsible for getting me a slot in one of the most difficult marathons to get into for us Pinoys! (Sigh. Don’t ask me why it’s so hard for us to get in via lottery system. I don’t know either.)  They had the Timex Run Trainer on display.  The same watch I was going to use for race day.

I dropped by Gatorade’s booth and bought my pre-race fuel, race drink, and post-race fuel conveniently labelled with 01, 02, and 03 respectively. I heard Gatorade is working on bringing these products to Manila. Crossing my fingers!

I chanced upon the Knotty Tiger (hilarious name!) from the same makers of Tiger Tail (which I personally use and we offer at TBR Dream Marathon during race day) and immediately bought one for myself.  I think it’s the perfect travel companion for destination marathons (because, yes, I wouldn’t want to lug my giant foam roller around which is probably bigger than my luggage.)

I passed by other booths of other races too…

– Left: Uso din pala Zombie races sa kanila? Right: Comrades Ultramarathon, one of the toughest ultra marathons in the world –

There was free massage for the runners. How cool is that?!…

Free photo that you could pin up on the board alongside other participants. Even cooler…

I left the expo that evening happy about my purchases and excited about the race.

The following day, we hopped on a train heading towards my cousin’s wedding in Warwickshire, just near Stratford-Upon-Avon where Shakespeare was born.

I saw this at the train station…Waaah, excited!

– Ssshhh. I wore the adidas jacket na di pa nalabhan. No one knows except for you guys! –

NEXT: PART 2: LONDON MARATHON – A WEDDING, SHAKESPEARE, AND A RUN

Thank you so much to all the people who got me to London! Unilab Active Health for sponsoring the trip. Special thanks to my favorites Enervon Activ for keeping me energized during training and race day and Enervon HP for aiding in recovery. Thank you to Timex Philippines and Timex UK who snagged me a race slot.

I am a London Marathon 2013 Finisher!

My official finish time: 4:24:41.

It’s been two days since the race and I’m still on cloud nine!  As my family and I tour the rest of this beautiful city, please give me several days to write up my race report.  For now, allow me to share with you some photos from before and after one of the best races I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in.  This one was right up there with New York City Marathon!  Simply amazing!

PRE-RACE: 36,000 runners gather together at Greenwich Park to find their own race starts: Red, Blue, or Green. I was Green. Race start time was 10AM. The weather was absolutely perfect at around 9 degrees in the start.

Highlight of the start was when we were all asked to pause to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon. There was complete silence from thousands of runners for a minute or two.

THE RACE: The race took runners through some of the city’s major landmarks. We passed Cutty Sark, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Eye and Big Ben!  Roads were lined with spectators from start to end!

POST-RACE: The race ended at The Mall. Thousands of loved ones waited for their runners at the Meet & Greet area.  I had my Enervon HP and an apple as I waited for family to arrive.

Happy to see the hubby and my kiddos after the race!

Thank you so much to all the people who got me here! Unilab Active Health for sponsoring the trip. Special thanks to my favorites Enervon Activ for keeping me energized during training and race day and Enervon HP for aiding in recovery. Thank you to Timex Philippines and Timex UK who snagged me a race slot. Thank you to my Coach, Andy Leuterio, for killing me during training so that I could perform during the race. Thanks to the following for sponsoring my gear and nutrition: Gatorade (sports drink), Oakley (Radar path shades), CWX (compression tights and recovery socks), Timex (Timex Run Trainer watch), and Kswiss (Kwicky Blade Light shoes).

Check back after a few days for my full race report!

This is a weekly post on my training for Virgin London Marathon on April 21, 2013. Like I always say: The marathon is the icing on the cake; it’s the journey leading up to the race that I absolutely love. Thank you to Unilab Active Health for the trip and to Timex Philippines and UK for the slot.

WEEKS TO LONDON: 2

Taper time, baby! With temperatures rising, all I can say is: THANK GOD!  Is it just me or is it the hottest summer that we’ve ever had to run?!  Am I the only one dying out there?

Two Sundays ago, I was supposed to run 44km, my longest run before London Marathon, but, due to the extreme heat, I ended up running only 30km run. I can tell you this: It felt like a freaking 50k. Amidst the stale and humid air, with my quads and heels burning in pain, I felt like I deserved a medal for even reaching 10k under that scorching heat! (Instead of a medal, the cold Mountain Dew I had was enough of a reward!)

Last Sunday, I ran 21k, my last long run before the marathon. With the shorter distance, this run was much more manageable under the sun but equally challenging. By 10k my clothes were soaked in sweat as if I had finished a half marathon! By the time we ended the run, I was ready to dunk my head in a bucket of ice!

I know, I know, I’m whining.  But, I’m seriously stressed about this heat.  The past two weekends runs have NOT been fun for me. For the first time in my life, I actually dreaded my long runs. But, I’ve just reminded myself that, as with anything in life, once you commit to a goal, you stick by it and give it your best—whether it’s uncomfortable, exhausting, or pure torture. (If that doesn’t work, then you just head off to an air conditioned gym and run on the treadmill! Hah!)

Our little secret: I’m really just counting the days until we can escape the summer heat and freeze to death in London!

FINDING MY SANITY

I have two weeks to London Marathon, but the family and I leave next Tuesday for London and then Paris.  Yes, yes, the hubby and kids are coming along with me for this trip. Woohooo!  While we’re all excited for the trip, especially Li’l Miss Bull Runner who’s been talking a lot about snow, Disneyland Paris, and croissants (LOL!), this also means that, for this running mom, packing and preparing for the trip becomes three times more complicated.  I’ve got to pack winter clothes for a wedding, a marathon, and two kids.  Gasp.

At the same time, work has to be done before I leave. I’m busy designing a 200-page book, working on the magazine, and planning for upcoming events for TBR.  Double gasp.

Then, to make matters worse, while I thought I was tapering off, my Coach, Andy Leuterio, tells me that I must ride 100k this coming Saturday. Century ride gasp.  Then faint.

It’s been an insane week and I’m trying to stay sane.  But, as always, I’ll survive!  Just keeping my eye on the medal.

This is a weekly post on my training for Virgin London Marathon on April 21, 2013. Like I always say: The marathon is the icing on the cake; it’s the journey leading up to the race that I absolutely love. Thank you to Unilab Active Health for the trip and to Timex Philippines and UK for the slot.

NO. OF WEEKS TO LONDON MARATHON: 5 WEEKS

After I ran my required 32km LSD last Sunday during Run United 1, I woke up on Monday feeling all revved up for the week of training to come.  Raaawr!  Give me more, Coach.  Give me more!

Monday is a rest day (wherein I do Bikram Yoga because Coach says that doesn’t count heehee), but I always check my program online at Training Peaks to mentally prepare for the workouts and to plan my schedule for the rest of the week.  I looked through the week’s workload and, for the first time since January, it was empty.  Coach Andy didn’t fill it in.

The Coach, who is one of the most OC people I know, rarely ever fails to punch in my program for the week.  Either this crazy Coach of mine impulsively decided to bike for 48 hours and skipped all his work over the weekend OR he accidentally missed working on my program because of his rising clientele of athletes who wish to suffer under him (Naks!)   Immediately, I sent him an SMS reminding him to fill it in.

His reply: “Relax…”

What the?!!  What is that supposed to mean?!!  How does one relax when I have no clue what my body and I are up against for the rest of the week?!  There’s no time to relax!  London is a mere 5 weeks away!

Then, another text message came in: “This is a recovery week.  Eat your greens and get a lot of sleep.  Gradual build up by Friday  to Sunday. 21k hill repeats.”

Oh.  There’s the punchline.  Almost like an epiphany, everything made sense.  He was saving my legs for the tough workouts at the end of the week.

With that, I popped the cork off of a wine bottle I’d been saving for years, toasted to three long days of forced rest, and danced like there’s no tomorrow…NOT!  In truth, I spent the next three days meeting work deadlines, tutoring my daughter for exams, rushing off to meetings, squeezing in a secret swim on Tuesday (ssshhh!), and endlessly complaining why I felt even weaker than days when I kill myself during workouts.  (I know, I know, I’ve completely gone nuts just like all you other triathletes reading this!)

By Thursday, my calendar had been filled in with run and bike workouts.  I was back to training and, somewhere around my 3rd set of pushups and catching my breath, I wondered why I was even whining about rest days.  I may be screaming for more rest by next week when the Coach increases my mileage.  Gulp.

“You’ve got to have the mental toughness and confidence in yourself where you believe that you can take those days off and you can recover and you can run great. A lot of what we see in athletes that just train all the time and never give themselves adequate recovery is often portrayed as toughness. What I’ve realized over the years is it really is a weakness. It’s an insecurity that you’re not good enough to recover like other athletes: I’m not good enough to do that; I need to keep training; I can’t take time off; I can’t take easy days.”

-Alberto Salazar

This begins a weekly post (or more if I’m giddy) on my training for London Marathon happening on April 21, 2013.  Like I always say: The marathon is the icing on the cake; it’s the journey leading up to the race that I absolutely love. Thank you to Unilab Active Health for the trip and to Timex for the registration.

COUNTDOWN TO LONDON: 6 WEEKS TO GO

Say what?! 6 weeks?

– London Marathon. Photo: www.manchesterrag.com –

It seems like only yesterday when I told you about how lucky I was to have my best cousin’s wedding and the London Marathon just two days apart.  Then, I told you how much luckier I was to have been given a slot in the marathon by Timex.  Then, the good ol’ peeps from Unilab Active Health committed to sponsor my trip.  And, the best news of all, the entire family will be coming with me!

I am blessed.  And, I am oh-so grateful, too.

KILLER TRIATHLON + MARATHON TRAINING

With all these blessings that seem to have fallen from the sky and straight into my lap, I committed to giving it my best (read: killing myself in training). So, I started on my triathlon program with Coach Andy Leuterio as early as the 2nd week of the New Year and never looked back.

This is entirely new for me.  Training for a marathon as a triathlete.  The program will train me for two A races: London Marathon in April and Ironman 70.3 Cebu in August.  The Coach initially said it was a challenge for him to prepare this program as 42ks aren’t really recommended within a long-course tri season.  Marathon training will compromise my bike and swim training around 8 weeks before the marathon, and then there’s another month after before I fully recover. For a moment, I gasped in panic when I learned this.  Then, I raised one eyebrow, clenched my fists and pounded them hard on the table, and declared: “Pfffft. I can do both.  Let’s go London!”  Then, I fell back into the couch, popped a handful of Cheetos into my mouth, thinking:  “What the hell am I getting myself into? I am so dead.”

The good news? I’m still alive.  And, I’m actually enjoying the training!  I’m trying my best to maximize each workout and balance my workouts with the rest of my life without going insane.

What have I loved so far about the marathon/triathlon training?

1) Keeps injuries at bay – You all know I’m injury prone because of my flat-feet.  But, since I can cross train with biking, swimming, and Bikram yoga, I can workout without stressing my knees, ITB, and feet too much from running.

2) Variety – I enjoy waking up to each day knowing you’ll do something different. Don’t get me wrong. I love running the most, but the variety of each day makes the week more colorful.

3) Weight loss – I dropped a full 10 lbs already.  I’m exactly at my goal weight.  And, I reached it while eating sensibly (e.g., no strict unreasonable diets, but everything in moderation.)

4) Allows for balance – I always said that while running and triathlon are important to me, I would never let it take over my life; after all, it isn’t my life.  I love how this program can fit seamlessly into my schedule with treadmill and trainer workouts that can be done in an hour or two.

5) Progress – Modesty aside, I seriously think the program is working for me.  I’ve never felt fitter and healthier in my entire life.  As one of my good friends would say while nudging my shoulder in disbelief: “Woooo choooz!” but, seriously, I do feel strong and steady and it’s an awesome feeling.  (I bet my Coach is in tears now.)

TO PR OR NOT TO PR AT LONDON…

Yes, that is the question.  And, honestly, I don’t have an answer.

After eight marathons, majority of them abroad, I’ve learned that everything—from fitness level, weight, weather, sleep, diet, gear, traffic, race organization, hydration, shoes, down to how much petroleum jelly you put in between your toes—must all come together and work perfectly on that single day of the race.

All I know is that I’m working hard and I’ll give it my best.  Cliche I know, but that’s really what this running and tri business is all about, right?  Now, now, I better not hear anyone saying “Woooo chooooz.”

“It’s not records I chase, it’s self improvement.  And that cannot be done by taking it easy.”

– Chrissie Wellington