Paving The Road To Boston

Every single journey begins with a single step...

Every single road begins with a single brick...

It's been two months since my marathon effort at Berlin. I met my initial goal of sub 3:30:00 with a solid run of 3:22:45. I was on track for 3:20:00, until the Berlin weather (or maybe my lack of endurance, or mental distractions, or both) decided that it wasn't time for me to break that magical barrier.

But I also harboured a secret goal - to qualify for Boston in 2010. I never told anyone about my Boston aspirations. It was an ambitious undertaking, having not run a marathon in two years, and also never going faster than 3:50:00. Qualifying for Boston required me to run Berlin within 3:10:59. It was a lofty goal at the time, but I believe that lofty goal I set for myself made me work much harder in training. I've never ran this fast, this hard, or this long in my entire training experience! Unfortunately it wasn't enough; I failed to qualify for Boston 2010.

I've had a couple of months to reflect on my running this year, and my running goals for 2010. I've made great improvements in my running this year, far exceeding my expectations. At the start of the year, I never even thought I would go as fast as 3:22:45. It was a pleasing result compared to what I managed last year. I think the good work that I've done in the year will be a solid foundation for my running in the next year. As well as being fitter, faster and stronger, I'm also more experienced, and can draw on this experience to help with my future runs.

My running goals for 2010 are twofold. Firstly, I want to qualify for Boston 2011. Having reflected for a couple of months on what I want to do in 2010, I believe the desire is still very strong. But, why Boston? Boston is one of the few marathons where runners have to qualify to gain entry. There is no first-come first-served registration system like Berlin, Chicago or other marathons. There is no public ballot like London or New York where public demand far exceeds supply of places. This marathon requires a high standard of running. It's also the oldest annual marathon event in the world, inspired by the first marathon competition in the first Olympic Games of 1896. Because of this, it's considered the most prestigious marathon in the world. Thus, for many marathoners to qualify for Boston is an achievement in itself, making it a "people's Olympic event."

My second goal is more peripheral to running, and that is to travel more widely around Europe. I believe that running through a city is a great way to travel, and an easy way to visit a city I'm interested in. Instead of saying I travelled around Rome, I could proudly say that I ran the Rome Marathon and travelled around Rome. Of course I could just travel to Rome without needing to run the marathon, and that's a fair point. There will be cities that I would like to visit without needing to run a marathon in that city.

However, as I found out in 2009, travelling can be disruptive to marathon training, especially when I have a trip scheduled in a high intensity training period. It happens, and it's unavoidable. From a training perspective, these things have to be managed. After some convincing, I believe I've found a way of doing this. And that is to run a marathon in a city that you want to travel to.

By running a marathon and treating it as a training run, I think the benefits are several. You do the most important run in your marathon training - the long slow run. And 42 km is more than enough mileage required for a typical long slow run. You also get to run around a new city and take in the sights. And you can soak up the marathon experience in a foreign country. I think doing a long run in a marathon setting in another country is more preferable to doing long runs on your own in training in our own neighbourhood. But your mileage may vary in that regard.

But surely, you could still travel and do a couple of shorter, faster runs during your holiday. Yes, that's true. However, which would you rather do? A marathon event with thousands of other runners, or just a couple of shorter faster runs by yourself. Marathon legend, Emil Zatopek, said it best: "If you want to win something, run the 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run the marathon."

So having convinced myself to run more marathons in order to travel more, which marathons am I going to run, and which cities am I going to visit? I had some criteria and they were as follows:

• The marathon must be in a major city, with an elite field and with a sizeable number of participants and finishers.
  
• One of the races must be a Boston Qualifying (BQ) race to peak for.
  
• The BQ race has to be on a fast/flat course.
• The event must have a minimum of 5-6 weeks afterwards in order to be fresh and ready for the next event.
  

I checked out all the marathons in Europe for 2010, and plotted them all on the 2010 calendar. Most of the marathons are clumped in the March-May months and the September-November months, with a small handful of events in summer and winter. Lots of big marathons tended to be on the same day! But in the end, I picked five events, which I've called my final five. They are:

• Rotterdam (11th April 2010)
• Stockholm (5th June 2010)
• Helsinki (14th August 2010)
• Berlin (26th September 2010)
• Athens (31st October 2010)

These races will pave the road to Boston, that is, these are the races that I will be running in my journey to qualify for Boston. Having only run Berlin before, I have singled out Berlin as the race to get the BQ time as it is currently the fastest course in the world. The other 4 marathons are going to be for fun/training purposes. I chose Rotterdam and Stockholm, as they've been named as one of the top 10 marathons in the world according to Runners World Magazine. I've always wanted to visit Finland and Sweden. And now I have a chance to travel around these Scandanavian countries and run a marathon in each. Finally I chose Greece as it's the home of the marathon. Athens 2010 will mark 2500 years since the Greek hero Pheidippides ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory over the Persians. So I am absolutely certain that this round-number anniversary will lead to a rush of registration entries, and a quick cut-off date.

One thing I'm concerned about is that by singling out Berlin as the race to gain a BQ time, I only have one shot to qualify for Boston 2011. All five events are certified events to gain a BQ time, but as Berlin is the fastest out of all the five, and since I am currently not in the required shape to get a BQ time, I need all the time available to me to be in prime form for Berlin. I guess the one shot approach is what makes it more exciting - the thrill of success on the first go, or the sudden crash of failure at having missed out on my only shot for Boston. There is always next year though. But I hope it doesn't happen, after all I have 10 months to plan and get ready for Berlin.

I'm quite excited about how my running in 2010 will pan out. I've never taken on anything like this before when it comes to running multiple marathons. But I guess if I put my mind to it, and keep my eyes on the original goal of qualifying for Boston 2011, and believe, then who knows what I can achieve.

Hopefully a BQ time. Maybe a new personal best. And some long-lasting memories of the cities I've managed to travel to.

Starting Over, Again

Hola!

I've just passed one year being away from NZ, and in that time I've managed to end up in Spain, a place that I had never anticipated working in from the time I left the green shores of Aotearoa. My departure from the UK has basically ended a chapter of my life and opened up a new and exciting one. After nearly a year in the UK, I am now in Palma de Mallorca.

Getting to Spain was a turbulent journey from the time I was asked to go. In particular, the month of October has more or less been hell-on-earth for me, which has no doubt affected those people close to me. I've had a roller coaster of emotions, and I feel it is time to write some of these thoughts down.

October was the month that I knew I had to prepare for the move to Spain. I knew it was imminent, it was just a matter of what day I had to move. This uncertainty drove me crazy to no end. It was like receiving a death sentence from a trial judge and not knowing the exact date and time of your execution. On top of that, I received news from the people above me that I had to apply for a Spanish visa myself, which they never informed me about before! Hence I had been running around like a headless chicken trying to organise documents to get this process moving. I managed to do so just before I left the UK, but knowing from past experience, it will take a long time before I see this precious stamp in my passport. October was a trying month, which has taken a toll on me physically and emotionally. But it was also a character-building month, which I can learn from and hopefully apply in the future when I encounter more of life's trials.

But the uncertainty of moving didn't start in October. I wrote earlier that my move to Spain was determined way back in June. The time that I got called into the meeting room for a talk with the manager is still very clear in my mind. And I can still play out the silent reaction that I felt when I heard the news. I felt afraid. I was actually pretty scared about the move. It felt like my life in the UK was over, and that I had to start afresh in a new country where English isn't the norm. From that time I heard the fateful news, I had six weeks to prepare to move to Spain. But as the scriptwriter wrote it, it was closer to six months. So why did it take so long?

The reason that it took so long for me to get to Spain was that the customer took a long time to sign the contract. It was made absolutely clear that I wouldn't start work until we had a signed contract. Every time I asked about the contract I got the same response. Time went on and on, and in the end it was over four months overdue. I was hanging by a thread for over four months! Imagine your life being put on hold for four months, not knowing when you had to make the big move. Your plans get disrupted, your goals get changed. I had plans and goals, most of them blown away while I was waiting in anticipation for that signature. It was unfair to say the least. I won't hesitate in pointing fingers at every single party who kept me in the dark for so long. But in the end, that doesn't really achieve anything. That's life, and I had to learn to roll with the punches.

There was a positive though. I am thankful that I managed to spend four more precious months in the UK. When I first got the news that I had to go to Spain, I was just about to ramp up the marathon training. I had already bought tickets to watch Diana Krall in concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I was just beginning to know Tina a little better. Having fateful news hastily announced to me there and then disrupted everything I worked so hard towards. Of course I could pick up the pieces when I moved to Spain, but the stress of relocation, and last minute plan changes, would have been too much.

But I managed to hold on for four more months, and in that time, especially when I knew I would lose out on training days, I worked a lot harder in marathon training, concentrating mainly on tempo runs and speedwork. The extra effort paid off; I was able to give it my best at Berlin. Having four more months in the UK meant that I didn't need to change my flight plans, as I had already booked my flights to Germany in April.

I also purchased tickets to see Diana Krall in late October, and I thought it was nigh on impossible to even see the concert, unless I was willing to travel back to the UK to see her. But it turned out that I managed to see the concert five days before I left the UK. It was an amazing concert in an intimate setting, which changed my outlook of jazz music significantly. Diana Krall exhibited a masterclass of silky jazz and piano playing. I think I've become a jazz convert.

But I'll always be thankful for the extra time that I spent in Reading, and with Tina. When I first broke the news to her that I would be leaving the UK, I couldn't help fighting back the tears. It was one of the most difficult things I have had to do. I'm pretty sure she felt a bit of emotion there too, but she was way too composed to show it. She even gave me a valuable piece of advice there and then and I am truly indebted to her for that. During my four months, I felt that I got to know her a lot better in that time. I even had the courage to ask her out to dinner. It was in July during the time when I thought I only had six weeks in the UK. Some people may think it would've been awkward, or even off-limits, to ask a housemate out to dinner. But it turned out to be a fantastic time and I hope she enjoyed it too.

In the end I wanted closure before moving to Spain. And, in the midst of the October chaos, I managed to do that. People who I got to know in Reading, I made a point to let them know I was leaving. From my neighbours, to the owner of the sandwich shop that I always visited in town. On the day I left the UK, I farewelled Tina at the train station as she left for work. I gave her a big hug, a sealed letter and another big hug, and watched her climb the elevator to the platform. The final parting glance and wave she gave me on the elevator was the last time I saw her. When it was time for me to leave Reading on a train to Gatwick Airport, I couldn't help shedding a few tears, knowing that all good things have to come to an end.

Living in Spain for nearly two weeks hasn't been as difficult as I initially thought. I have my own apartment with everything provided for me, and the life skills that I learnt when I first arrived in the UK has greatly helped me here. The food has been excellent, and I thought I would suffer from major withdrawl symptoms missing out on the pasties and paninis that I normally had in the UK. The obvious challenge is the Spanish language, and I'm trying very hard to learn Spanish as quickly as possible to get around the place and talk with the locals. So far, I'm doing quite well in these two weeks, and hopefully in a month or so I could get by comfortably. I believe that I'll have at least 12 months in Spain, but as I learnt so suddenly in Reading, plans change and perhaps I'll end up living in Spain a lot longer, or maybe even less than that.

I won't discount moving back to the UK, but if I do, it will be a new chapter all together. Maybe I'll move back to Reading, maybe I won't. Hopefully I'll cross paths with Tina again, but maybe I won't get another chance. Living in Reading for 12 months was a significant chapter in my life, filled with many great moments that I'll always remember with clarity. The networks and friends that I've managed to establish and build up are precious and I'll try my absolute hardest to maintain them whilst living here in Spain.

To close this rather deep and meaningful entry, the title of this blog post was inspired by DEEN, a long-running popular music group in Japan, with their track also titled Starting Over. Having closed a chapter and starting an entirely different one, I feel like I have been doing just that.

Saludos!