Written by Phil Cairns
My fellow ballot-winner Babs and I seem to be weirdly in sync. Two weeks ago we both reported brushes with fame. This week… foreign travel adventures. Babs back home in Portugal for the Lisbon Half Marathon, me in Lanzarote for some ‘warm weather training’ (this makes me sound way more professional than I actually am).
The Lanzarote trip was a last-minute thing when another planned holiday fell through. I felt a bit desperate for a getaway but didn’t want to lose a week of training. (Again, this makes me sound far more professional, etc…) So I decided to take myself off to Lanzarote and make the running the cornerstone of the trip. Every couple of years, London Marathon seems to produce a freakishly hot spring day, so I figured it would be worth reminding myself what running in heat feels like.
I wasn’t sure how to approach it. I wanted to use the time to push myself a bit, without pushing myself so much that I broke. I figured speed work would not be loads of fun in the heat. I’ve recently read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, in which he advocates running every day. I’ve never been a fan of this approach. Former work colleagues of mine were behind the RED (Run Every Day) January initiative that started a few years ago, and I always thought it was a bit sus, and a gateway to injury. But there was something about the way Murakami talked about it that made it sound appealing in a meditative kind of way, the discipline of running a medium distance, c. 6-8 miles, for an hour-ish every day.
I didn’t connect with Murakami’s book the way I’ve heard other runners rave about it. But I did love this mantra: “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” The mindful idea that if you’re going to run 26.2 miles, you’re going to be in pain. The bit you can choose is how you respond to it. Love that.
The mantra that’s stayed with me most before now was something Kieran Santry said to me the day before I ran my first marathon, Dublin in 2013: “Don’t be a hero in the first half. Don’t be a wimp in the second half.” Pretty good, right?
It takes a lot to out-wisdom Santry. Close thing, but I think Murakami might just have the edge.
Anyone else have any favourite mantras that get them through marathons?
I almost managed the running every day thing. Here’s a brief Lanzarote running diary:
Day 1 – 5 miles:
Oh. My God. It’s so hot. I’m so unused to this. Have I actually become a cold weather runner over the course of training for a spring marathon for the first time? Who even am I now?
Day 2 – 10 miles:
I got up earlier for this one. It made a big difference getting it done before the day really hotted up. Gorgeous out-and-back from Las Coloradas through Playa Blanca and beyond, all along the coast. God, I love running by the sea.
Day 3 – 5 miles, including some hills:
Oh. My. God. It’s so hot. And this feels so hard. While I know London is relatively flat, I really haven’t done enough hills in this training cycle. But it was also an exploratory run, to see what lay atop and beyond the cliffs just the other side of my hotel. Found the most gorgeous, sparsely congregated beach in a cove between two cliffs. Definitely coming back here for some sun and sea swimming before trip end.
Day 5 – 16 miles:
I decided to go big. Found a circular trail route on AllTrails that looked doable, up to La Hoya and back through Los Charcones. First half alongside some of the imposing volcanic hills, second half around the coastline. Safe to say I wasn’t quite prepared for this. Wore the wrong shoes, didn’t factor in the miles to get to and from the start/finish point, which meant I had to cut a chunk of the gorgeous coastline off in order not to turn it into a much longer run, and forgot that I am a hopeless navigator so managed to go off piste a couple of times. Still highly enjoyable after weeks of running round west London, but more challenging than anticipated.
Day 6 – 4 miles:
Well I said I was going to run every day, so while I would normally have a rest day after a 16-miler, here goes… Ouch. Even a gentle out and back along the seafront was enough to make my knees creak and remind me of the value of regular rest days.
Day 7 – rest day:
Phew.
Day 8 – 5 miles:
OK, change of scene as I’d swapped Playa Blanca for Arrecife by this point. Last run of the trip, another gorgeous out and back along a different seafront.
And that’s a wrap. 45 miles across 7 runs in 8 days. Given I rarely run more than 35 miles across 4 runs in a week, that felt like mission accomplished.
Now I just need to readjust back to the cold of west London for the next few weeks…