# Marathons and Romps.



## Chris Hobson (Oct 8, 2018)

I was diagnosed in May 2013 and started doing the parkrun regularly as part of the fitness program that I embarked on in response to that. As I got better at running and it became easier I gradually stepped up the distances. I ran my first Marathon in Hull in 2016 and did the Hull Marathon again in 2017. Running a Marathon was set to become an annual event for me but at the start of 2018 I was beset with a mystery illness which meant that I had to put entering any future events on hold. I did manage to complete all but one of the events that I had already entered as, over the year, I have gradually recovered. Having left it so late in the year, most of the available Marathons were either too close for me to get the training in, already passed or already full. Normally by this time of the year I would be winding down my fitness level a little so that I could just keep ticking over for the winter. Not so this year, to make up for not having done a Marathon, my wife and I have entered The Rudolph Romp which takes place on Saturday December 1st this year. This is a 24 mile trail run over the Yorkshire Wolds. Not only is it tougher than a Marathon due to it being very hilly, but you also have to find your own way to a certain extent, there not being a marshal at every corner to tell you which way to go.

One of the biggest events, Marathon wise is the London Marathon but it is hard to get into as it is always oversubscribed. There are various ways to get in. You can qualify by being a very good runner for your age, I do OK but I'm not good enough to do that. You can buy your way in by handing over a big pile of cash to a charity. You can do the charity thing but try to persuade friends, family and colleagues to stump up the cash. I've never felt comfortable about blagging money from people for doing something that I was going to do anyway. If you are in a running club the club can apply for a limited number of places which the club can award to members as it sees fit. Then there is my way of entering the ballot for a limited number of places that are allocated at random. I would then fail to get a place, breath a sigh of relief and enter Hull or York instead. Except that this year it hasn't quite gone to plan as I have been awarded a place for 2019.

So, it will be a huge occasion, lots of pressure to post a halfway decent time and the possibility of getting my fizzog on the telly. I'm looking forward to it already.


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## Northerner (Oct 9, 2018)

Good luck with both events Chris!   Better get your orienteering skills up to speed as well as your legs and perhaps invest in some good winter kit for the Rudolph Romp (or do you run as a reindeer?  )

I've entered the ballot of London a couple of times, chiefly because I got fed up of people asking me 'if I had run London', but not got a place. Too many people for me though, too much hanging around at the start, then an extra mile or so to get through to the actual start line from your start position  Same goes for GNR. I'd much rather run somewhere I normally wouldn't, like Stockholm


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## Chris Hobson (Oct 21, 2018)

Sunday has become a regular day for going off with wife Liz and her sister Jill to do sections of the Rudolf course. Jill has entered this event in the past and has familiarised herself with the route but has always had to withdraw due to injury. She has been our guide during these excursions although we still have to consult a map from time to time. We have now done about two thirds of the course and I now have a pretty good idea of how tough it is going to be.


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## Chris Hobson (Nov 13, 2018)

Update. Wife Liz had put her name down at the WHL running club with the hope of getting in at the London Marathon. Due to the various criteria required for their ballot, there were only two hopefuls so she had a 50/50 chance. The draw took place last night and Liz got picked so we will be doing it together.


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## Andy12345 (Nov 13, 2018)

Nice job, I have a similar story to you, started running to beat diabetes at park runs and ended up doing London, running is very addictive, best of luck to you both and well done


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## Caz73 (Nov 25, 2018)

Good luck the Rudolph Romp goes through our village too but I've just done c25k so anything above 5k at the moment is too much for me at the mo.


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## Chris Hobson (Nov 26, 2018)

Caz73, will you be on the sidelines watching us go by, or perhaps watching from an upstairs window? The weather looks set to be pretty crappy but I think that is part of the idea when doing an event in December. Over the past few weeks we have been setting ourselves up with various bits of kit to prepare for all eventualities. I had considered swapping my trail shoes for boots but that would go against the rule about never doing something new on race-day. The way things are going I think that wellies might be better.


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## Caz73 (Nov 26, 2018)

No I,ll be sat in the local cheering you on good luck with it a few of my workmates do it and it's not an easy route.  I went out walking round brantingham at weekend and it is very muddy at the moment.


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## Chris Hobson (Dec 1, 2018)

Update on Rudolph.
I'm currently sitting in Brantingham village hall, all togged up and waiting for the off in about 20 minutes.


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## Caz73 (Dec 1, 2018)

Good luck Chris watch for those light aircraft over Mount Airey!


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## Chris Hobson (Dec 1, 2018)

All done now, finish time 6:36. Don't know where I am in the pecking order until the results are published.

Update
Position in the pecking order was 177/295.


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## Caz73 (Dec 1, 2018)

That's a really good time considering the conditions, we went to York past drewton earlier and people were still walking it.  Well done can't have been easy.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 10, 2019)

Update. Liz has been doing much better than me as far as preparation for London goes. She did the York marathon last year and had a bit of a miserable time due to not having put in enough training so this time she is leaving nothing to chance. She is also representing her running club and won the draw that meant that the other girl who applied isn't able to go. For these reasons she feels under pressure to make sure she trains properly. Still, I did thirteen miles in 2:14 on Saturday morning so I'm working on it.


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## toffee (Mar 12, 2019)

Hello Chris
I was very recently diagnosed with type1 which almost done for me, just had my first session in the gym and running anything more than a couple of miles is about as far as I can currenly manage. I was out doing Ultras and Marathons this time last year and miss being in the hills or down the beach in my running gear. I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I'll get back to those sort of distances but reading your post has given me a bit of hope. Managing a totally new way of living after nearly 50 years of good health has knocked me but I am determined not to let it completely spoil what I enjoy. I was n't going to respond to your post but thought in the end I would, just to let you know how it's raised my spirits reading about your exploits. 
Regards.


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## Pigeon (Mar 12, 2019)

Hello Toffee, good to hear you are getting back into exercise. I find it does wonders for morale! Have you tried Park Run? I got back into this recently after a period off running, and it's a really nice community and nice to get out of bed for it on a Saturday. Even if I don't get a good time (New Years Day was my wrost ever 5K time!) I tell myself at least it was exercise and calories burnt rather than staying in bed. This weekend we're marshalling at our ParkRun and doing a litter pick afterwards as well, should be fun!


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## toffee (Mar 12, 2019)

Hello Pigeon, I am a Parkrunner (or was) haven't ran mine since I started feeling ill last September - It is a great start to a Saturday morning I absolutely agree, well done for marshalling too, it's lovely to put a bit back every now and then. Being a novice Type1 I'm going to have to be careful and monitor my BG levels closely whilst getting back up to speed so to speak but no reason for me to miss it anymore really.


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## Pigeon (Mar 12, 2019)

Ah that's good you've tried ParkRun before, I hope you can get back into it soon. At first I ran with my meter in a bumbag but now I just take 4 glucotabs with me in a pocket (I keep them in a little Ziplock bag that spare buttons came in with clothing!) and leave the meter in the car. In about 12 years of running with T1 I've only had about 4 hypos while running- I tend to find if I run quite hard and fast BG goes up not down, so I have something like a small glass of juice before Parkrun and take about half the normal amount of Novorapid with it and that stops BG from going sky high. I reduce my basal that day as well, by 5%. This is a good book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002R0JXJK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 if you want to read more about the effects of different exercises on BG


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## toffee (Mar 12, 2019)

Thanks, I'll add that to my growing collection of diabetic related books  Interesting to hear your BG goes up if you run hard as well, I was asking the nurse today about reducing my insulin when planning a run, it's all about taking records and monitoring myself and then adjust accordingly I suppose.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 12, 2019)

There is a thread about the parkrun here:
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/parkrun-revisited.66085/

Thank you for your comments Toffee. I am always totally made up when someone lets me know how I've inspired them to do something. It still comes as a surprise to me, so much so that I wrote a post about it:
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/from-last-pick-to-inspirational-sportsman.74130/

I was fairly out of shape when I was diagnosed, nearly six years ago now. I had been fit but had lapsed for about fifteen years. I was thinking about getting back into shape at the time but, being an un-diagnosed diabetic, I just had no energy and everything was such a huge effort. When first diagnosed I was thought to be type one and I really was in a bit of a state. For me the getting fit seemed relatively easy due to the massive rush of energy that I got from the insulin injections. I was eventually re diagnosed as a type two, sort of provisionally at first but now I think that we are pretty sure. I'm sure that staying fit has meant that diabetes has been much less of an issue than it otherwise would have been. Because I was a newbie when it came to running and triathlon events, I have up to now been able to constantly improve and continue to post a new PB from time to time. Having now hit sixty I have had to accept that my performances are going to start leveling off. Still, I'm determined to keep going until the wheels have completely fallen off, hopefully not for a while yet.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 17, 2019)

Carrying on the marathon training today. Out of the house in New Ellerby, along the disused railway line to Great Hatfield, down a backroad to Mappleton, along the beach to Hornsea and then back home along the railway line. This route is just over 14 miles. I like to run on the beach even though it adds a extra mile to my run, I have to check on the tides before setting off.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 23, 2019)

Update
Did the Ellerby-Mappleton-Hornsea-Ellerby run again today. High tide so I couldn't run on the beach. This makes the run about 21K or 13 miles. My problem with bouts of low blood pressure causing me to feel faint has morphed into a more general feeling that makes every training run into a bit of a slog as though I'm dragging a weight behind me. This has meant that I seem unable to get my 1K splits consistently under six minutes even on a 10K run. Today was no different until about the 14K mark when suddenly the dragging feeling went away. The final seven Ks were each all done a full minute quicker giving a finish time of about 2:05, about ten minutes faster than my last effort at the distance. This seems to show that my fitness level is much better than it appears to be when my low BP problem isn't holding me back. After sitting and relaxing with a cup of coffee and a small piece of chocolate I checked my BP and it is in the ideal range.

The upshot of all this is that how I feel on the day could make a difference of about forty minutes to my finishing time. 1K splits of 5 minutes equate to three and a half hours which would be a PB for me as my best marathon time is about 4:20.


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 26, 2019)

Update.
Training for the London marathon hasn't gone too well as both Liz and myself got zapped by quite a nasty flu bug which lasted about a week and then took about another week to get properly over it. Still, I think that our underlying fitness levels will be good enough, we just won't be setting any records.

We are currently just setting off on the train out of Hull on the way to Kings Crustacean.


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 28, 2019)

Update.
We are now in our room at a Premier Inn near Greenwich. We have all our running gear on. We have had a big breakfast. We are feeling ready to rock*.

*Roy Wood's homage to Bill Haley.


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## Grannylorraine (Apr 28, 2019)

God luck to you and your wife, are you running for a charity? If so send me the link and I will make a donation as I have not sponsored anyone so far this year and the only lady from the running club I go to is not fundraising.


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## Pollyanna (Apr 28, 2019)

Hat off to you .. Good luck


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 28, 2019)

All done now. Time about 4:53, about half an hour down on my best marathon time. This is partly down to training being messed up by illness but mainly by having to spend the entire run weaving in and out to pass slower runners. This is not because I am particularly fast I hasten to add, but simply because there are just so many people of very varied abilities on the course. The weaving back and forth from left to right was so pronounced that my GPS watch has recorded 29 miles. It is generally very accurate so I tend to believe it.


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## SB2015 (Apr 28, 2019)

Chris Hobson said:


> All done now. Time about 4:53, about half an hour down on my best marathon time. This is partly down to training being messed up by illness but mainly by having to spend the entire run weaving in and out to pass slower runners. This is not because I am particularly fast I hasten to add, but simply because there are just so many people of very varied abilities on the course. The weaving back and forth from left to right was so pronounced that my GPS watch has recorded 29 miles. It is generally very accurate so I tend to believe it.


Well done Chris.  

I only managed to get up to a half marathon, and we did that A5 the time as we had no heating in the house, and it was a way of getting warm, and then using the local sports club for showers.

Your GPS seems to be more efficient than some step counters that were in the news as being very inaccurate.


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## Northerner (Apr 28, 2019)

Chris Hobson said:


> All done now. Time about 4:53, about half an hour down on my best marathon time. This is partly down to training being messed up by illness but mainly by having to spend the entire run weaving in and out to pass slower runners. This is not because I am particularly fast I hasten to add, but simply because there are just so many people of very varied abilities on the course. The weaving back and forth from left to right was so pronounced that my GPS watch has recorded 29 miles. It is generally very accurate so I tend to believe it.


Well done Chris!  Must admit, I have always avoided the London and the GNR as I think there are just far too many people - very difficult to run efficiently, and I'm far too impatient to spend 50+ minutes after the gun just getting to the start line!


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## Lucy Honeychurch (Apr 28, 2019)

Well done


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## missclb (Apr 29, 2019)

Nice one Chris. Great effort despite training being hampered. How are the legs today?


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 29, 2019)

Having checked over the list of 1k splits on my phone, there are some strange anomalies that would seem to account for the extra three miles that were recorded. At one point I seem to have run 1k in just over 2 minutes, and there were several others that were also unfeasibly quick. Regarding the inaccurate step counters, it is likely that they weren't calibrated correctly.


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 29, 2019)

Legs are quite stiff but not too bad, considering that I had to dig pretty deep to finish. I can still walk about fairly normally, It was a bit of an effort to get my socks on.


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## SB2015 (Apr 29, 2019)

Chris Hobson said:


> Legs are quite stiff but not too bad, considering that I had to dig pretty deep to finish. I can still walk about fairly normally, It was a bit of an effort to get my socks on.


Well done Chris.
Have a bare foot day


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 29, 2019)

This is the link to our charity if anyone wants to chip in.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/littleshortlegsandthechomedome


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 29, 2019)

I can't really have a bare foot day as we still have to get home on the train. I'm fairly impressed with London's transport system.


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## KARNAK (Apr 29, 2019)

Well done Chris congratulations.


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 29, 2019)

Thanks Lorraine.


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## Grannylorraine (Apr 29, 2019)

well done to Chris and Liz and all the amazing people who raise so much money each year at The London Marathon while I sit on my backside watching it.


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## Chris Hobson (Apr 30, 2019)

There has been one rather interesting developement. I often comment on a blog called Platitude of the day. This blog is dedicated to the important task of taking the piss out of the daily intrusion of religion into the Today programme on Radio Four, known as Thought for the day. The  subject of the London marathon has been discussed and I have mentioned that my wife and I are doing it. It is very unusual for any of the TftD contributors to comment there but one of them has and has donated his fee to Castaway. Some of the other commentors have promised to chip in too.


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