My Venice Weekend...

... was excellent. We had a great time and the race was very good for me.

As this is really the only race that I've actually concentrated on since the summer, I thought that I would write a few short comments here. Venice is definitely one of my favourite races, and I seem to be back year after year to give it a bash. I think, however, that we might give 2008 a skip this time as with two kids, one of them still very small, I'm not sure if we could manage it.

The race itself was good. I knew that my training would last for maybe 30 minutes of hardish running, and then I would be just trying to keep a good, stable walk-jog to the finish. I think that this type of racing has always been my favourite and I always look for a good result at Venice, so I did not want to disappoint again.

Many years ago (1997) when I first went to Venice I was given various "top" tips from runners who had run this race many times before. Since then I have developed my own strategies, which seem to work very well here, but one thing I never seem to be able to solve is the tourist problem. And this year was not different - so many people - so crowded - it was like ... well ... Salzburg at Christmas!

I had a mid morning start, so I knew there would be tourists, and I planned that in, and got off the main street as soon as possible on the way to 1. I was lucky, I had optimal route choices (no errors at all - even route choice) until 9 - 10, where I bumped intro a young Swiss guy and lost concentration for a second, and took the slightly longer route, so lost maybe 10 s here. Every thing continued going well, except my knees started to hurt, and my ankle was not feeling so good.

Approaching 16 I made a 3 / 4 s error, and leaving 16 I miss read the map, didn't see a bridge and ran round a block of buildings on the left, instead of the right. I guess it cost me 15 s. The last small mistake was the exit from 20, where I went north instead of south and this cost me maybe 10 s. So all in all a good, error free run. After about 14 / 15 my running abilities got less and less and I wasn't able to push anymore.

When I finished I was in 2nd place, and eventually finished in 12th place, which is great for the condition I'm in. The winning time was 65 minutes and I was less than 10 minutes behind. I made a total of 60 s mistakes, which I think is great, and pushed as hard as possible most of the way. There was no stopping and no uncertainty - a good race for me.

I ended up with a KM pace of about 5:35 min / km which is almost 40 seconds down on my KM pace from last year, and a full 2 min (and more) down on my best KM pace (when I was still running Elite), just showing how unfit I truly am at the moment. I'll be back - the question is when!

Maybe I'll see some of you in the next years in Venice! Here you can find the website!

Keep well,
Richard.

Quick Update.....

Well, I had the operation last week, and unfortunately it did not go as well as the first one. The "anti pain" injections started to wear off after an hour, and so the last 20 minutes I could feel almost everything. And then the stitching.....aaararrrrgggggg!

Anyway, he had to give me another injection before I went home so at least the pain went away again and then lots of pain killers (3 a day for a week) have kept it mostly away. Unfortunately it appears that the infection has spread back into the left side of the jaw again, and so it's a good chance that I'll need a third operation pretty soon. Additionally, after the first operation I was pain free in a little less than 2 days, but after this one, 1 week later, the pain is still very present - this is not good! Another hospital visit on Friday.

And to top it all, I've picked up a cold (it's going around at the moment) so I'm feeling quite miserable at the moment. Anyway, I should be able to run by the weekend, albeit very slowly, and I'm chomping at the bit to get started again.....

Thanks to all you who sent good wishes and SMS's - it was really kind of you!
Later guys,
Richard.

P.S. In the future I think I'll post these sorts of post to our family blog :) Most of you know where it is!

it's been so long

Yup, really it has, since I last posted something here. The lack of news has also mirrored my lack of training over summer, and this entire year has been a complete write off. However, I'm hoping that after next week, things will start to improve.

You might ask what happened, well let me summarise:
1) After a good winter, the performance was not what I expected!
2) Lots of tests (blood / physical / mental) didn't really help.
3) Doctor then discovered problem with teeth, Dentist said operate
4) It appears that my 4 false teeth were very badly handled when they were capped, and they have formed large infections within the bone in my upper jaw.
5) The first operation, that took 2 hours, was only able to remove the infection from the left side of the jaw, after which I needed to recover, and get the second side done.
6) That is happening on Tuesday.

This has meant that my summer has been one of NO training - why should it? No amount of training can help me here. So I basically stopped training, just occasionally running, and here and there the odd race.

It could also explain the reason why I get so very sick, when I get sick. A normal cold or fever can hang around for 4 to 6 weeks with me, infecting my sinuses, chest and throat. I hope that this will now be a thing of the past, and that I will feel generally better as well.

So there you have it! I'm confident that I will be able to start winter training in 1 or 2 weeks and am looking forward to a great winter. We already have a lot of snow (more snow this year so far than the entire of last winter) and I even managed a small jog with Frank yesterday.

Watch this space and keep coming back for more,
Richard.