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3/3/2010	A copy of my 'thank you' note to sponsors is below. Neil Dear Friends, Whilst some are awaiting eagerly some small, social event in LA this weekend, you all know that the real OSCaRs event was last Sunday at the Hong Kong (half) Marathon! Official times were published yesterday, much earlier than last year! Thanks to your effort I am delighted to say that we should meet our OSCaRs Team target of A$100,000 & possibly reach U$100,000! Although that's higher than the amount showing on the website (A$72,566) at the time of writing, corporate matching programmes by Goldman Sachs, The Macquarie Foundation & Schroders will get us there. The spirit of â€˜giving backâ€™ has been widespread this year! As you know, we have a better way of expressing targets: some 200 kids from poor backgrounds in China are going to be helped with operations for their cleft lips - thanks to you! I have spoken with David Wong the General Manager of OSCMM and, in his words: â€œthis will be sufficient for the Sichuan & Yunnan missions and possibly a third, smaller one!â€ This is a terrific response! We are all extremely grateful for your support! Personally the journey this year has been rather too interesting! In fact today I am officially renaming myself 'Neil Calamity MacKay'. Whilst I love running, we have yet to work out rules of engagement whereby we can happily co-exist. Here's why:- CALAMITY 1: spent most of 2009, post my inaugural long distance race last February, injured, delaying this year's campaign. CALAMITY 2: my shortened training timetable was then ended abruptly when I developed Achilles tendonitis on 10 Feb. Six and a half weeks of training was way too little for someone like me! CALAMITY 3: arriving in HK on Friday evening, I slept fairly well. Come Saturday night, I didn't sleep a wink! The 'physical difficulty' of the challenge just rose mightily! (It was then that I hatched the plan of swapping bibs with my host Mike - see below - but, regrettably, I chose the honourable route!) CALAMITY 4: once the race began, amazingly I lost my water bottle (+dehydration salts) before the 5km mark! It had bounced out of it's holster, something that never happened in training! (Shortly after that I saw a double decker bus ferrying 'injured' parties back; I was mightily tempted to jump aboard!). CALAMITY 5: approaching the 10k mark, I flipped my watch from 'kmh' to 'bpm' (beats per minute). The '190' reading would have made me World Darts Champion on the spot! Since your max heart rate is approx 225 minus your age (=178 for me) I was a tad concerned. Not in an alarming sense but more that if I didn't slow down pronto, I would fatigue in a big way & fast - and I still had a ways to go. (My average heart rate over the piece was 179 with a whopping max of 200 so I wasn't slacking!) So, sadly, I 'walked-ran' the rest of the way, stopping running whenever I hit 190 again. (In reality that was the damning evidence that my training regime had been several hundred km's short.) I did 'cheat' mind you by ignoring my heart rate completely for the last 3-4 km's! CALAMITY 6: The above is, of course, my own little list of hurdles. However, everyone suffered on the day with 24 degrees of heat and 90%+ humidity; even with an earlier 6am start! Some 55 runners were hospitalised; 3 of whom were in intensive care. We wish them a speedy recovery. Fortunately your OSCaRs Team survived - with only bruised egos, aching limbs & some great stories! A special congratulations to our star performer Mike Imam who ran sub 1:35! So, overall, I ran 2:17:28. Since I walked approx 4km that's just made me more determined to find a 'half' soon so that I can hopefully realise my target of going sub 2 hrs! Third time lucky? So who arrested 6 bottles of vintage Dom Perignon from a Scotsman? Well whilst my forecast was way too optimistic this year I'm glad to say there were some sharp shooters amongst you. Gallant runners up were L Coppola (UK; 2:15:00), N Koh (HK; 2:15:10), E Scott (UK; 2:22:22) & K Catechis (UK; 2:23:26). But with a forecast of 2:16:00, the winner this year is S McKeever (HK). The booze has been duly delivered! All that remains to be done is to say, on behalf of Operation Smile China, the rest of your OSCaRs Team & myself, a huge, huge thank you. And, of course, a big smile :) Neil Operation Smile China Runners www.fundraiseonline.com.au/TheOSCaRs
27/2/2010	Saturday (day 13, 1 to go. Neil) This is my first full day in HK since arriving last night. It's hot, too hot. But don't fret, I have a plan! I'm staying with a friend from Schroders who can run 1:35. Guess whose bib & timer I'll be swapping over with shortly? Now it's time to forecast my performance. I wish I didn't have to as this year is likely to prove a bit of a giggle! Well let's start with last year: I was too pessimistic! I forecast 2:19 and did 2:06. So what I hear you say? Fair point! But at least we have a reference point. This year - even for people who are used to making forecasts - is nigh on impossible. Fortunately, over the years, wild forecasts have come along at regular intervals! So here we go: let's start with some of the key factors: 1. Achilles tendonitis. Although I'm on the mend there is no way I should be tackling such prolonged, high impact activity as I'll have to on Sunday quite this early! Now that doesn't necessarily mean disaster: I may simply be uncomfortable, in the process probably delaying a full recovery! 2. Temperature. This year's shindig is almost 3 weeks later than my first go last year. That means higher humidity (80%+) and, as forecast, temperatures some 5 degrees higher too (22 degrees vs 17 last year). Based on one of my comrade's utterances on recent practice runs, this could be a bit of a nasty surprise. There is the additional twist (excuse the pun) for me personally since I've trained this year in Glasgow, the European City of Culture 1990. Temperatures for my outdoor runs have been in a range of -3 to +3 degrees C. But don't worry: I haven't packed the g-string which has been left at home for my next Med holiday! 3. Training. Well my targetted 8 weeks (cos of a previous injury) + 1 week tapering off (slowing down), vs. 13 + 1 last year, got kaiboshed by point 1 above! Now get this, despite my rocky road in Jan/early Feb, as soon as the snow cleared (Scotland's worst winter in 30 years) I was running 10-15% faster than last year. My 16km practice run on 31st Jan was done at 11.4kmh on a route that included a fair, few hills (sorry local dialect!). Whilst I do not know the answer to this, a fair chunk of this may well be due to the 'cooler' weather which is known to produce faster times! (There is not really any reason why this 'sub 2 hour' pace suddenly materialised from nowhere!) 4. Weight. Given all of the above, weight was the one thing that I could control. I'm going into this one pretty light at 70kg having tipped the scales at 75kg post Xmas. That's essentially the same as last year and represents my size zero! If I can drop a bit more In the last few days, I'll try but be blistfully unaware - no bathroom scales! 5. Jet lag! The books I've read suggest that you should arrive one day before the race for every hour of tine zone change! On that basis I'm arriving 6 days late! Eight hours of time zone change and I am only arriving 36 hrs before the hooter goes! Maybe I'll just run in to a Starbucks. So the prognosis doesn't sound brilliant does it? Rubbish! Well there is no point in not having a positive attitude! Maybe my ankle will just swell up but not hinder me too much! Maybe I can cope with the weather by drinking more (+ my rehydration salts!). Maybe because this is my second training programme, some of the improvement in speed is for real - rather than being weather rated! At the end of the day this is an adventure. If everything in life were predictable wouldn't life be dull! So if my ankle doesn't cause major problems I still fancy my chances at giving the 2 hour mark a rattle. For me the ankle issue will either not inhibit me or it'll cause me to pull out. (Sure it could cause me to have to walk later on but, in a 21.2km race, I reckon the 'pear shape' scenario happens earlier or not at all!) The other 'wee' positive is that my tactics last year were disgraceful (12 kmh first half + 8 kmh second half). Surely I can improve on that? I plan to watch my pace intently pre the Harbour Crossing (when gravity/nature take their toll) and stay at 11-11.5 kmh tops! (The hillier second half means that you have to budget for some deceleration. Note too that the 12 kmh mentioned before included a long crazy stretch at the beginning of 13-14 kmh.) Finally, my secret weapon: a revamped playlist. There's a large mental element to running and I sincerely hope my veritable little jukebox drives me seriously mental !! So we're talking either 2 hrs or 3 hrs (the max time permissible)! Screw 'probability weighting' scenarios this year too: my forecast is 1:59:59! COME ON THE OSCaRs! Now as promised my guess the time competition. Fomratting will be rubbish but it you will be able to work this out. It's in ascending order of time forecast. After this David Mackenzie's two competitions will be shown, again in the same order. Good luck to all. NEIL MACKAY'S COMPETITION min hr min sec (kmh) n.11 n.12 n.13 n.14 n.15 n.16 n.17 C Cartledge UK 116.62 1 56 37 10.9 P Cheng HK 118.00 1 58 0 10.8 S Garg HK 119.45 1 59 27 10.6 B Lin HK 120.00 2 0 0 10.6 B Blister HK 121.95 2 1 57 10.4 T Simpson HK 122.03 2 2 2 10.4 B Stacey HK 122.50 2 2 30 10.4 R Davy UK 123.08 2 3 5 10.3 M Liu HK 125.00 2 5 0 10.2 W Blight HK 128.13 2 8 8 9.9 G Tait HK 133.83 2 13 50 9.5 L Coppola UK 135.00 2 15 0 9.4 N Koh HK 135.17 2 15 10 9.4 S Mckeever HK 136.00 2 16 0 9.4 E Scott UK 142.37 2 22 22 8.9 K Catechis UK 143.43 2 23 26 8.9 S Cook HK 143.63 2 23 38 8.9 S Chen HK 145.00 2 25 0 8.8 S Barzilay UK 146.30 2 26 18 8.7 I Mackay HK 150.00 2 30 0 8.5 T Quah HK 150.00 2 30 0 8.5 G Barker HK 150.02 2 30 1 8.5 A Au HK 151.52 2 31 31 8.4 JdB UK 163.00 2 43 0 7.8 H Modi SG 165.62 2 45 37 7.7 DAVID MACKENZIE'S TOP COMPETITION Donor Draw Equiv Time Time Time Speed min hr min sec (kmh) n.1 n.7 n.13 n.14 n.15 n.16 n.17 Michael MacKenzie top 100.17 1 40 10 12.7 Taryn MacKenzie top 105.17 1 45 10 12.1 Robin Parbrook Top 106.50 1 46 30 11.9 Steve Barrett top 106.50 1 46 30 11.9 Paul Truscott Top 108.00 1 48 0 11.8 Mike Champion Top 109.00 1 49 0 11.7 Eileen Neapole top 109.60 1 49 36 11.6 Barbara Wong Top 110.00 1 50 0 11.6 Callum MacKenzie top 110.17 1 50 10 11.5 Quineffer Lee Top 111.80 1 51 48 11.4 Wendy Shortridge Top 112.57 1 52 34 11.3 Adam Osborn top 112.70 1 52 42 11.3 Toby Hudson Top 114.00 1 54 0 11.2 Richard Coghlan Top 114.65 1 54 39 11.1 Zia Rosen top 115.17 1 55 10 11.0 Elaine Lee top 116.63 1 56 38 10.9 Guy Henriques top 117.53 1 57 32 10.8 Mark Lang Top 118.38 1 58 23 10.7 Tim Fitzpatrick Top 118.50 1 58 30 10.7 Todd Martin Top 118.97 1 58 58 10.7 Richard Coghlan Top 119.75 1 59 45 10.6 Chris Carline Top 119.98 1 59 59 10.6 Tuan Lam top 120.00 2 0 0 10.6 King Fuei Lee top 120.02 2 0 1 10.6 Ryan Neapole top 120.17 2 0 10 10.6 Richard Coghlan Top 121.98 2 1 59 10.4 Caitlin Neapole top 125.17 2 5 10 10.2 Ken Chan top 126.08 2 6 5 10.1 Richard Coghlan Top 127.38 2 7 23 10.0 KP Luk Top 128.63 2 8 38 9.9 James MacKenzie top 130.17 2 10 10 9.8 Morgan Tan top 130.20 2 10 12 9.8 Gavin Ralston Top 135.00 2 15 0 9.4 Tilly Rosen top 135.17 2 15 10 9.4 Richard Coghlan Top 143.75 2 23 45 8.8 Louisa Lo Top 150.00 2 30 0 8.5 Tjun and Sylvia Tang top 150.00 2 30 0 8.5 Wing Wo Cheung Top 151.00 2 31 0 8.4 Richard Coghlan Top 180.00 3 0 0 7.1 Steve Barrett top 271.98 2 151 59 4.7 DAVID MACKENZIE'S SECOND COMPETITION Donor Draw Equiv Time Time Time Speed min hr min sec (kmh) n.1 n.7 n.13 n.14 n.15 n.16 n.17 Manish Bhatia Second 90.00 1 30 0 14.1 Shannon Lee Second 102.40 1 42 24 12.4 Lillian Tham Second 105.00 1 45 0 12.1 Rena Tsang Second 108.00 1 48 0 11.8 Ameila Wong Second 110.08 1 50 5 11.6 Michelle Wu Second 110.20 1 50 12 11.5 Marilyn Lau Second 113.00 1 53 0 11.3 Jeffrey Kan Second 113.00 1 53 11.3 Seung Ju Kim Second 113.45 1 53 27 11.2 Erin Brenner Second 114.38 1 54 23 11.1 Jovita Chow Second 114.65 1 54 39 11.1 Magdalene Morris Second 115.00 1 55 11.1 Adam Osborn Second 115.17 1 55 10 11.0 Ken Chan Second 116.10 1 56 6 11.0 Esther Ki Second 118.98 1 58 59 10.7 Kelvin Lee Second 120.02 2 0 1 10.6 Angus Hui Second 120.02 2 0 1 10.6 Stella Lee Second 126.63 2 6 38 10.0 Amy So Second 127.12 2 7 7 10.0 Grant Johnston Second 130.00 2 10 0 9.8 Morgan Tan Second 130.20 2 10 12 9.8 Helen & Wayne Chow Second 135.17 2 15 10 9.4 Teck Ng Second 139.42 2 19 25 9.1 Jay Luong Second 145.02 2 25 1 8.8 Tjun and Sylvia Tang Second 150.00 2 30 0 8.5 Dick Tham Second 150.50 2 30 30 8.5 Maurien Yau Second 180.00 3 0 0 7.1
26/2/2010	Friday (day 12, 2 to go. Neil) Arrived in Hong Kong this evening. Someone has a sense of humour and has left the central hearing on at 27 degrees C! Humidity very high too! A little bat of chat I'd thought about as I wrote the blog but intelligently managed to omit from a more relevant section! The Importance of Starting. I don't have my wee book of running quotes handy (as I fly over Russian airspace - I believe- as I type). But someone once said that the most important thing to do in any race is get to the starting line! When I first read that I thought that that was stating the flamin obvious. For those of you who have bothered reading this blog, that chap had a point! Shortened training program curtailed further still by injury and inclement weather! Hold That Dream. Now my goal is to run a full marathon in under 4 hours one day. That is a generally accepted standard of respectability in long distance running: kind of proves that you're a semi decent runner even if you can't qualify as a proper athlete. Injury prevented me from a having crack this year. That's not too bad mind you as it makes sense to try your first time in a non-tropical environment and in a somewhat less undulating environment than little Hong Kong Island. (As an aside did you know that Oprah Winfrey achieved this feat?) The fact that I'm injured again hasn't put me off! In my opinion those problems have been self-inflicted: I should have paid more heed to stretching and studied more how to deal with returning to vigorous exercise after decades of (relative) inactivity! This year's injury was a simple error of ramping up training too quickly, ignoring the cardinal '10% rule' (albeit time was fast running out). So you see long distance running is not just a physical activity: you need your wits about you too. (As an amusing little anecdote: one old friend in London asked politely about my little half marathon then interjected that his colleague was about to run 250 km across some desert! Where are my car keys? Ultra-marathons will need to wait until my next lifetime!) The Snake Oil Salesman? There's something about good stories sounding better when you're feeling vulnerable! Armed with my dodgy ankle (it's late) one of my daughter-in-laws sent me an article on Trion-Z magnetic bracelets! Apparently they help Achilles tendonitis! What are they? Well I've not had time to read much about them: the magnets create negative ions that counteract the harmful positive ions from things like the iPhone I'm typing this on. Apparently, when suitably balanced bloodflow improves aiding healing, sleeping and so on. Paula Radcliffe, Britain's most famous marathoner wears one; as do various famous golfers and the English cricket team! Whether it's simply a placebo effect, I have no idea. But I was happy to try anything! Snake oil salesmen? I'll pass my verdict on Sunday! And before you ask: it's camoflauge - ideal for ultramarathons apparently!
25/2/2010	Thursday (day 11, 3 to go. Neil) Hello. And goodbye. My flight to HK is boarding! Q: What's worse than economy class flight half way around the world? A: One in which you're not allowed (i.e. shouldn't) to drink alcohol!
24/2/2010	Wednesday (day 10, 4 to go. Neil) Now itâ€™s time for last yearâ€™s survival songs, dubbed â€˜The Belters.â€™â€ Less than one third made it through. Here they are: 1. Sweet Child OMine (Guns Nâ€™ Roses) â€“ this, as last year, is one song thatâ€™s required to lift my up the hill coming out of the Western Harbour Tunnel. Decibel levels donâ€™t come into consideration! 2. Hands Held High (Linkin Park) 3. Escape(Enrique Iglesias) â€“ hard to leave some Latin flair out of my upbeat playlist! No I donâ€™t wear lycra! 4. Last Thing On My Mind (Ronan Keating) â€“ a little mellow one for cruising back from Kwai Chung towards HK Island. 5. Autobahn 66 (Primal Scream) â€“ well I need more than one song to get me along a remarkably boring stretch of the run (dual carriageway) to the tunnel 6. I Still Havenâ€™t Found What Iâ€™m Looking For (U2) â€“ the â€˜finishâ€™ always takes a bit of finding when youâ€™re running 21.2km. Hopefully I wonâ€™t be cycling round this playlist too many times! 7. The Best (Tina Turner) â€“ like some of the songs, this one is etched in my psyche due to an actual event: in this case the Hong Kong Sevens! 8. Bleed It Out (Linkin Park) â€“ Iâ€™m not going to tell you which of Hong Kongâ€™s coterie of famous economists is a Linkin Park fan! A passionate song for a passionate event even if they are slightly strange bedfellows! 9. Hero (Enrique Iglesias) â€“ not every song can be heavy! 10. Hot Stuff, Lets Dance (Craig David) - 11. Heroes (David Bowie) 12. Rocks (Primal Scream) 13. Start Me Up (Rolling Stones) â€“ hopefully I wonâ€™t need this and my ankle holds up! 14. Something In Your Mouth (Nickelback) - 15. Mony Mony (Billy Idol). This song will forever be associated in my head as the song that kicked off my first ever long distance run. The 2009 half marathon started at 7am on a Sunday morning in Nathan Road with giant speakers blasting this little baby out! 16. Burning Love (Elvis Presley) 17. Where The Streets Have No Name (U2) 18. Mr Cab Driver (Lenny Kravitz) 19. Stand by Life (Simple Minds) â€“ no self-respecting Glaswegian can not include a song by one the cityâ€™s biggest bands! I admit that it takes it back to my student days which wasnâ€™t yesterday! 20. Lucille (Deep Purple) 21. Kingdom Come (Coldplay) 22. Fix You (Coldplay) â€“ a slightly questionable song given an incredibly slow start. But it has an awesome finish. 23. Amazing (Seal) 24. My Vision (Seal)
23/2/2010	Tuesday (day 9, 5 to go. Neil) Hi there! First of all I am ditching apostrophes and smillie faces to try and avoid the formatting problems of yesterday! Today has seen some remarkable gestures of generosity. When you are involved in fundraising that is wonderfully uplifting. So thanks to everyone involved. Momentum is building across the entire OSCaRs Team. One person made a donation offline and apologised for it being, in his opinion, too small! Helping others is nothing anyone should ever apologise about. Heartfelt donations and messages of encouragement are â€“ and should rightly be considered as â€“ tremendously uplifting! Back to the blog at hand. I said I would publish a playlist of brand new heart-pumping songs. (I have even had a request from of my â€˜olderâ€™ friends â€“ I am going to hear about that comment â€“ for the playlist! Perhaps he is going to leave his Harley at home and put on his running pumps!) All new playlist? Well that was another of my stupid comments. I have tried â€“ with 18 new songs â€“ but how on earth could I reject some of those from last year? So tonight you are going to get the new ones and tomorrow the survival songs (i.e. the real belters!). I readily admit that songs sound very different depending on whether you are drinking beer or not. (Thatâ€™s my excuse for selections that I do not subsequently understand!) Now sadly I cannot attach mp3s of these and would be breaking rather too many copyrights to try! However, I can recommend a website that my son suggested www.we7.com to listen to them. To be frank I have not had time to check to see whether they are on there or not: tonightâ€™s should be whilst tomorrowâ€™s, wellâ€¦.. 1. Human (The Killers) 2. Losing Touch (The Killers) 3. We Are The People (Empire of The Sun) 4. Pencil Full of Lead (Paulo Nutini) 5. Get Shakey (The Ian Carey Project) 6. I Got Soul (Young Soul Rebels). This oneâ€™s being reserved for the flaming Western Harbour Crossing at whatever decibel level is required to get me out! 7. I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas). Something I suspect Iâ€™ll have plenty of in my right ankle â˜º 8. Please Donâ€™t Leave Me (Pink) 9. Simple Things (Paulo Nutini). This may have been a thematic in my last appraisal! A funny wee song that will not be appreciated if the lactic acidâ€™s burning â˜¹ 10. Cat Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent). Any guitar rifts can lift my spirits and take me back to my Status Quo days. â€œBlue for Youâ€ was the very first album I bought as a child. Did I say this was a new song? Not a label for the next few either! 11. Buck Rogers (Feeder). One day Iâ€™m going to buy a Jaguar XKR and I donâ€™t care how old itâ€™ll be! 12. Dead Ringer For Love (Meat Loaf). I like this but maybe not enough so I may still it out before Sunday! 13. Release Me (Agnes). Basically what happened to me when the starter gun went off last year. Out of the traps like the proverbial rabbitâ€¦. 14. Poker Face (the Ladyâ€™s Really Gaga!) I may have to borrow her recent Brit Awards wig soon mind you â˜º 15. Number 1 (Tinchy Stryder) 16. Just Dance (Lady Gaga). I remember â€˜dancingâ€™ to this at 3am in a nightclub in Glasgow at stag do, the morning after Iâ€™d arrived in from Hong Kong. Messy story! 17. The Climb (Miley Cyrus). Definitely a song for the second half of the race 18. Slow Ride (Adam Lambert). Yes I did watch some American Idol last year! The really good stuff arrives tomorrow night! Ciao.
22/2/2010	Monday (day 8, 6 to go. Neil) No good story is complete without some human drama! So here goes. As I explained last night, my training programme for this event started very late. Nine weeks training is not enough time if youâ€™re starting from a low level of fitness. There is no real substitute for mileage. And thatâ€™s a function of time. So what happened? Well training, despite a slow start in January, suddenly picked up sharply in late January as soon as I ditched my old treadmill and started running outdoors. The difference was startling: I could run further and faster outdoors! With renewed confidence I ramped things up to a 16km run on 31st January at a pretty okay speed. I kept things going on my basic circuit (12.5km), culminating in me stating in my original invitation email for this event that Iâ€™d done 50km in 8 days. Then, on Wednesday 10th February, disaster struck! Iâ€™d had a niggle in my right ankle on the preceding Saturday night but took that into account by resting until the Wednesday. At 9.5km I couldnâ€™t run any more and hobbled home. Once home, I couldnâ€™t put my weight on my right leg such was the swelling in my right ankle! It took a whole 9 days before the swelling disappeared (to Friday 19th Feb). Not one metre was run during this period! And given a severely truncated training cycle, this was nothing short of a disaster! The planned 20km long run was binned! Enter a new member of my professional support team! Gordon Allison, a former Rangers FC first team physio took control in a last gap attempt to get me on a plane and off to Hong Kong. Was he successful? Well that remains to be seen! Frequent ultrasound & plenty of rest was the order of the day. But, by comparison, Iâ€™m a difficult patient! Professional footballers get their foot put in a â€˜case bootâ€™ that effectively immobilises it, thus affording them the maximum chance of a speedy recovery. That wasnâ€™t an option for me. In addition, the normal treatment process for this kind of injury (Achilles tendonitis) is complete rest then a return to brisk walking once the swelling has stabilised; followed by low impact sports (swimming, cross trainers, etc) and, should that stage be okay, a gentle return to high impact activity (such as running). For footballers that final stage would involve running down one side of the pitch, walking behind the goals, down the other side and so on for 10 laps. I donâ€™t have time for such a measured return to high impact activity, never mind the â€˜low impactâ€™ stage. A commitmentâ€™s a commitment! So, after 2 days of rest (last Friday & Saturday) and increased walking, I took a gamble yesterday and went for a run. Well I avoided disaster - thank goodness. However, I only ran 6.4km and chose a fairly flat route. As expected, my ankle swelled up again. But not so much that I couldnâ€™t put weight on it and now at least I know that I can run â€“ after a sort! Exactly what happens over 21.2km remains to be seen. I ainâ€™t gonna run anywhere until next Sunday. I aim to rest. Iâ€™m making this disclosure simply because those folks donating to the charity and entering my â€˜guess my timeâ€™ competition were originally provided with a reference point as per the invitation email of last yearâ€™s time of 2:06:37. I would consider this incident as a material factual point to provide to everyone. Whoever said that long distance running is boring? Away with you â˜º. As with last year. Iâ€™ll provide my own forecast Saturday night. In this business you get used to wishing you kept your mouth shut! Iâ€™ll be able to start off at normal pace but at some point a swollen ankle may impact my performance. So this little personal mishap is entirely self-inflicted. A cardinal rule of training is that you do not lift your speed or distance (or combination) more than 10% in any week. I blew that out of the water in late January but I didnâ€™t really have any choice and I actually felt good in the process! So donâ€™t say you havenâ€™t been warned! Iâ€™m getting wiser â€“ the hard way! Another bizarre little factoid Iâ€™ve picked up (from two sources). Apparently your brain remembers runs you have done for up to 3 weeks. Sodâ€™s Law strikes again. My longest run this year at 16km was 4 weeks before race day! Time for a new record I suspect! Anyway Iâ€™m off for some zzzzâ€™s. The first thing I do when I wake up these days is compare the size of each ankle! Letâ€™s hear it for symmetry every day this week â€“ starting tomorrow hopefully!
21/2/2010	Sunday (day 7, 7 to go. Neil) I've prattled on about various things so far: weight loss, how to run smarter, etc. But I need to fill in some more background about my personal journey. How come I started training so late? This will lead neatly into the big revelation tomorrow! Last year, I completed the half then happily took a month off as Operation Weight Gain started in earnest. After that, deluded into thinking that I was an athlete, I went straight back to running 10k's at my base speed. Easy peasy. Not so fast young man: within a matter of weeks I had pains in my lower legs. Now if truth be known, the underlying problem had probably started building earlier. My 'fast forward' training programme was, by necessity, pretty fast. During it, I used to go for massages on a weekly basis - they are very inexpensive in HK at HK$150 + tip. The little Chinese lady, who spoke only a few words of English, used to say "no good' when she massaged my calves and I writhed in pain. So, I suspect, the problem started earlier than my overly ambitious return to the treadmill even though this clearly added to the problem! Now based on a large part of the ultimate solution (which didn't occur until November), the problem lay deep within my legs, in the myofascial tissue. Now I'm no doctor, but that's the stuff that's wrapped around all your muscles and stuff. So if these are tight, then the muscles' movement are restricted. So basically, given my years of inactivity, the probability of this happening was high and unavoidable (although noone new to running pays anywhere enough attention to stretching, another dimension to the same issue). The myofascial breakthrough came at Schroders London office where they have a sports masseuse. Now even she was stumped for a long time. Eventually, thankfully, she recalled a technique she hadn't used for a while which is myofascial massage to the deep compartment tissue. Now, as the name suggests, that was agony. Indeed, in years gone by, I've had kidney stones twice which a doctor once described (in a 'pain generating' scale) as the male equivalent to giving birth (as the stones pass through your kidneys). Now this little innoculous sounding massage was right up there in the decibel sound test! It works wonders but my goodness it's sore. Indeed, it's worthwhile learning an appropriate breathing technique before you embark on one of these sessions! (And that's not taking the mick out the of the female equivalent for childbirth!) So besides this lady in London, prior to this my trainer sent me to a geriatric ward (long story) to get ultrasound etc in Hong Kong. No joy. I saw a physio in HK too. Left with a very expensive pair of orthotics (posh insoles) - made in Vancouver! No joy. I even went to a biomechanic podiatrist in Glasgow. After a detailed session steeping off pressure pads, being videod (apparently my running technique is better than my walking one - go figure!) & so on for 90 mins, I left with a pair of even more expensive carbon fibre orthotics - for day use! So if I get knocked over by a bus, at least my shoes will be in one piece! The final solution (besides the myofascial massage) came in December. And isn't this ironic? A chiropodist chum said "Neil, it's your age! Get a pair of heel lifts." So after spending a small fortune on orthotics (which my latest physio describes as the "last resort') I was sent packing to 'Boots The Chemist' to buy a STG 10.99 pair of gel heel lifts. That little investment did the trick and is highly recommendable to people of all ages in lessening the juddering effect of heel- striking runners! (Both orthotics are gathering dust in my wardrobe!) So despite having internationally-based teams of multi-facetted professional advisers, more than Paula Radcliffe I suspect, I finally started running again on 28th December. That in itself was quite a journey. The journey since then has not been dull either but you'll need to wait until tomorrow for the most intriguing twist in the tale.....
20/2/2010	Saturday (day 6, 8 to go. Neil) This year I'm going to run the race smarter! Frankly that wouldn't be difficult! Admittedly it was my first attempt last year and I received several completely contradictory descriptions of what the course was like. Now I can't let myself off that easily since I did receive sound - nay sage - advice about taking off at a moderate pace! (Anything I've read on the matter say personal bests are typically achieved with broadly similar splits - first & second halves in English - with a tendency for the second half to be faster!) What did yours truly do? Let rip at 12 kmh for the first split, itself a slowdown from the start! (I had been trained at 10 kmh - eventually - as I went from 10 mins running to over 2 hours.) And guess what? The second half was a nightmare! In sharp contrast, the outward half was pretty flat. Not far into the home leg, you get hit by the Western Harbour Tunnel. From 30m below sea-level you leave your natural orbit and get deposited atop an elevated roadway that must be 15m (at least) above sea level. (I'd buy up to 25m personally!) Then along comes another climb up an elevated roadway at HMS Tamar and, just for a laugh - actually a wheeze! - a final bridge climb over Gloucester Road. So Strategy 1 is a slower first half to avoid a collapse to only 8kmh on the home leg. Strategy 2 is to drink smarter - water that is! I was pretty miffed at the water provision last year. Runners only got little paper cups!!! I mean to say, for a 'near death' experience, a wee bottle or two wouldn't have gone amiss! To be sure that requires a bit more tidying up as bottles will last longer and therefore be deposited over a wider area. But it can be over 20 degrees centigrade with 75% humidity - as it's forecast to be this year! Since I don't expect better service (!) this time around I need to be better prepared. Specifically I'll run round with a 700ml water bottle, fill it up once. I'll lose 2.0-2.5 litres of fluids so I reckon replenishing that with 1.4 litres will prevent me from getting too dehydrated. In addition I'm going to use rehydration salts, lemon & lime flavour! Strategy 3 is to avoid 'knackeredness.' One of my vivid recollections in finishing the half last year was how on earth do people do a half marathon then just start all over again? (If they're doing a full marathon! Only required reading for those of you who might be hung over!) For this, besides strategy 2, I'm going to eat! Something I didn't do last year although I did have my first encounter with one of these sugary things, the name of which I can't remember. It sticks your gums together like glue which is not, I suspect, the desired outcome. I'm going to have a banana. Not because I'm a monkey - I'm actually a Tiger - but because potassium apparently slows your heart down. I suspect that this is one of these little nuggets of info that's wildly exaggerated. You probably need to eat 2 or 3 hectares of banana plantations a week for 10 years and even then what would the side effects be? To top that off, I'll take a honey Jordan bar for a proverbial picnic! (These little gems came from a sports physician I met at a local clinic where I get myofascial massages - see tomorrow's blog. He took great delight in telling me that when he was in the army he'd run 20km in 90 mins carrying a 50 pound back pack! I'm sure he said kilos but that's a bit whacky! Like all these stories, they all relate to a time in the narrator's life when he was 20-25 years younger! Now when I was 20 years younger.........). So there you have it, a veritable strategy for success!
19/2/2010	Friday (day 5, 9 to go. Neil) One of my favourite things about running is reading running books. No effort is required! No running shoes either, just a comfy bed to lie on. All you have to bring along is your imagination! One of my favourite books this year is a piece of fiction entitled: "Once A Runner" by John L. Parker Jr. It's been described as "the best piece of running fiction around. Beg, borrow or buy a copy and you'll never need another motivator." ( by Dave Langlais, Runner's World.) But my favourite description of the book is:- "Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him FREE." From the book itself, the passion of a competitive runner shines through in the following extract:- "The thing is that in track we are painfully...aware of how we stack up, not just with our contemporaries but with our historical counterparts as well...... [it] is different from other sports. A basketball player can...tell himself he's the greatest rebounding forward to ever hit the hardwood, but he'll never really be troubled by the actual truth, will he? ......Maybe Jumpin Joe Faulks would have eaten him alive thirty years ago. But he'll never know." "In track it's all there in black-and-white. Lots of people can't cope with that kind of pressure; the ego withers in the face of the evidence. We all carry our little credentials around with us; that's why the numbers are so important to us....." "It's a simple choice: we can all be good boys and wear our letter sweaters around and get our little degrees and find some nice girl to settle ...down with.... (and)...take up .... the hearty challenge of lawn care...... !!" "Or we can BLAZE! Become legends in our own time, strike fear in the heart of mediocre talent everywhere! We can scald dogs, put records out of reach! ....... We can race dark Satan till he wheezes fiery cinders down the back straightaway!" "We can lay it on the line, bust a gut, show them a clean pair of heels. We can sprint the turn on a spring breeze and feel the winter leave our feet." I'm sure different parts of that must resonate with you as regards various aspects of your life! Don't you like dreaming? Life would be dreadfully dull if we ever stopped! Some other quotes from a book by Amby Burfoot, the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon, entitled "The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life": (For next Sunday): "The human body can do so much. Then the heart and spirit must take over." Sohn Kee Chung, winner of the 1936 Olympic Marathon. (From a long time ago): "The will to win means nothing compared to the will to prepare." Juma Ikangaa, Tanzanian winner of the 1989 New York City Marathon. (My first attempt at this lark in Feb 2009): "I'd rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, than run a conservative race only for a win." Alberto Salazar, American winner of the 1981, 1982 & 1983 New York City Marathons. (For 28th Feb 2010): "You have to forget your last (half) marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." Frank Shorter, 1972 Olympic Marathon gold medallist. All these quotes make me feel like going off to dream. Sleep well!
18/2/2010	Thursday (day 4, 10 to go. Neil) I'd better finish off my story about my experience with weight loss. I troughed post last year's half marathon at 68 kg (down 25kg). Looked ill, just like all these 'size zero' models - without the model-like qualities I hear the wags saying! At any rate 'Operation Weight Gain' started in earnest, straight away! However, given how much my stomach had shrunk, belting into 3-course lunches/dinners wasn't as much fun as I'd dreamt it would be! Sad that! Anyway I persevered (not so sad!) and eventually the pounds started coming home to Daddy! Now remember this was when I discovered I'd a problem with my legs, both of them. The ASICs were hung up to de-contaminate in a dark corner. So my calorie intake was on the rise - including drinking a few more 'sherries' - at the same time that my calorie usage was declining! A potentially explosive (exploding?) situation; after all, don't all weight losses lead to even larger weight gains? Well 'no'. My indoctrination into healthier ways had been executed more completely than I'd realised! Eventually, I let my weight settle at 73-74kg where I kept it. That was quite pleasing. At Xmas, it rose to 75kg - I'm only human after all. And in the run-up to this year's event, I've started shedding the pounds again and am now back at 71kg, aiming for 70 in a weeks time. For the record my 'meer cat' diet comprises:- Breakfast: 6 tablespoons of oats with a cup of skimmed milk, some blueberries & a black coffee. Elevenses: "have a banana"! Lunch: a sandwich with no coleslaw, no salad dressing (except low cal stuff) and maybe some soup. Afternoon tea: the old Philadelphia 'light' cheese on 2 crackers. Dinner: 4-5 oz of meat or fish, some potatoes & veg. After dinner: zippo. Maximum weight loss occurs with the above and exercising 4-5 times a week with each session burning around 800 calories. Easy, peasy! It's quite cool to be able to control your weight. I joked with my nutritionist that I'd need a 70kg suit, and a 73kg and 75kg one too! At the moment I only have two sizes - leaving out the largest size! Anyway I'm not going to talk about my weight again you'll be pleased to hear. The rest of the blogs will be about running in one way or t'other. Plus don't forget a big revelation early next week! A bientot!
17/2/2010	Wednesday (day 3, 11 to go. Neil) A small detour this evening to an altogether more interesting subject: Operation Smile. Last summer I attended a dinner at the Hong Kong Club for its founder and various local supporters. There I heard many interesting stories. Here are a few:- 1. Plastic surgeon. I sat beside a friendly Cantonese gentleman who is one of the field plastic surgeons. He is one of the three types of specialists who give up their own time to fly in to China to conduct 'cleft lip repair' missions: the others are dental experts & anaesthetists. (Some of the teams are from the mainland; others are from Hong Kong or even abroad, part of the global OS set-up - as distinct from the locally incorporated OS China Medical Mission). I remember three aspects of our conversation: (a) Often kids with cleft lips are abandonned in temples. Whether that's because of a one-child policy or just the stigma attached to this condition in rural areas, I'm sure the reasons must vary. However, very often these kids do not go the same amount of attention that those growing up with devoted patents would enjoy. Consequently, they don't learn to cry, or to smile, as these behaviours are honed from the parental response they would normally engender! (I'm not trying to say that all kids that OS helps are in this camp but it's still a harrowing story.) (b) I took the opportunity to quiz my friend about the operations: have there been any fatal accidents? How does pain control work for these young kids? He assured me that there had been none; whilst, on the latter issue, pain control was the same as he'd use if he were operating in Hong Kong. (c) Do not get plastic surgery done ladies more than three - at least to the same area! It will start to look bad! Since I'm long overdue a makeover, I took that as quite heartening :) 2. Anaesthetist. This was my favourite story from the evening. An Australian lady who specialises in this area and who is married with kids, gives up vacation time EVERY year to support missions! That blew me away. As a team, your OSCaRs runners have given up time but we cannot compete with that degree of devotion. I don't know the woman but who can't admire such commitment? 3. Young Ethiopian man. This was a story by the co-founder of Operation Smile, Mr. William (Bill) Magee Jr, an engaging storyteller. Now I do not recall this story precisely (my fault!) but I do remember the essence of it! He met a young local on a visit to North Africa who Bill had been told had a cleft lip. Immediately he went over to introduce himself. The youngster, sporting a baseball cap, kept his head low, covering his cleft lip with the peak of his hat. He refused to look him in the eye. Bill said to him I can fix your lip and all you have to do is look me in eye afterwards and say "thanks." Whilst 'The OSCaRs' is all about us - donors & runners - helping very young children, this story highlights vividly the hurdles these kids can face in terms of their own self-esteem! Finally, you may also be interested to know that OS China Chairman is Sir David Akers-Jones. (Next week in my pre-race update I'll attach his 'thank you' letter to the 160+ donors who funded 70 kids' operations in 2009. I forgot to do it first time around!) "In the years leading up to the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997, Sir David was appointed as an Advisor on Hong Kong Issues (æ¸¯äº‹é¡§å•) to the Government of the PRC from 1993 to 1997." (This description was lifted from Wikipedia.) Many of us lived through this time professionally. As one of the older runners, I certainly remember his name. I'll add my own tuppence worth about a very famous man before I sign off: it didn't take great observational skills to notice that Sir David is extremely passionate about this cause. David Wong, the GM of OSCMM's Hong Kong office is another such individual. So, you see, poor kids are helped through this process. But doesn't it produce such positive outcomes in so many different ways for many other folks too?
16/2/2010	Tuesday (day2, 12 to go. Neil) Struggling with a New Year's resolution? Well ahead of last year's marathon I lost 23 kg, falling from 93 kg to 70kg. (Actually troughed post run at 68kg although that no doubt reflects a large 'dose' of dehydration.) To be frank, 70 Kg is my size zero! I looked ill according to many friends. Mrs MacKay was none too happy either! However, as I've done again this year, if you have an option to shed 4-5 kg (likely mainly fat if you're drinking sufficient liquid) then why not run 21.2km without carrying 5 bags of sugar! Carrying your shopping home can wait for another occasion! I'll take about the 'post event' weight experience at another point but for now here's my take on weight loss. But, before I go all pious and attract some unfriendly comment, please note that I still indulge on occasions in excessive alcholol consumption (getting drunk takes less time) and I still indulge in my non-negotiable food passion, genuine tiramisu (the version that must be eaten VERY slowly & without any interuptions), :) 1. Nutrition is more important than exercise! Obviously both have to be combined but more of your weight loss will come from the former than the latter! I see really diligent gym goers who never make much progress - despite obviously putting in the effort - as they have this macho idea that you can work it off! Only one third of my weight loss was produced prior to going down the nutrition route. (Apologies for sounding like one of these irritating online newsletter plugs!) It's too easy to eat 700 calories more than you require, adding back everything you lost in a typical gym session! 2. Maybe you can go it alone but it's unlikely. In reality, the likelihood is that if you're overweight you have big gaps in your knowledge. Somehow that needs to be filled. Sure I knew I ate and drank too much. But I didn't care and who knows I may choose to go chubby again one day! The point I want to make is that if you have to move weight - as I had to for a health reason - get help. Besides filling in knowledge gaps, you need the motivating force of someone telling you off if you're not progressing (or cheating in your diaries - as I occassionally did). Using willpower alone is another of those macho ideas that will limit your progress! 3. Keeping weight off requires re-education. Portion control is a big one. Since there's a delay between getting full and your brain receiving a message to that effect - why else would you suffer the discomfort of over-eating? -learning to stop munching earlier is key. Be satisfied at feeling a bit hungry most of the time! What's the difference between eating 1,700 calories and 2,500? Don't know, don't care, fine. But if you want to lose weight, find out. Other DO's & DONT's:- DON'T eat within an hour of exercising. Eating good foods at the wrong times is bad if more fat gets stored. DO drink 2 litres+ of water (not cider) a day! Takes the edge of your appetite. Easier to do in hot, than cold, climates I admit. DON'T snack! Eat 5 times a day! If you have to graze, naked (i.e. dressing-less) plain salad is ok. (Remember fruit is part of a balanced diet but don't overdo it as it contains calories. I ditch cafe lattes if I'm in 'weight loss' mode, in the process ditching the (skimmed) milk calories and either drink black coffee or possibly add a splash of the skinny stuff.) DON'T eat after dinner full stop. DO eat desserts occasionally. If your behaviour changes completely, it won't be sustainable. You need to learn to control/limit your vices, not banish them :) Whilst some may disagree with the above I'd respectfully point out that two other OSCaRs runners would through the same treatment with the same nutritionist. And guess what? The same result! So what happened post my run last year? Did my weight soar alongwith the Hang Seng Index? Once I stopped the nutrition sessions did all this evangelical diatribe disintegrate? Oops, I'm too hungry to continue. Off for a raw carrot! Speak again once I regain my strength!
15/2/2010	Monday (Day 1, 13 to go. Neil) Welcome back! My second attempt at a long distance race means a second attempt at blogging too! (Blagging is much easier!) This represents something of a personal diary this time around since it's a team website this year! In the 12 (other) days to go, I'm going to recap on last year's little venture (for those of you in the throes of a New Year Resolution); discuss the journey from then to now (after losing 23 kg for last year's shindig, did I manage to keep the pounds off?); what's hot in my playlist for 2010!; can I plan a smarter strategy this year than my farcical run of two halves last year (12 kmh for the outward half & 8 kmh on the rather hilly way home - aye carumba!); favourite bits & bobs I've read about running this year; I'll guess my own time and publication of your guesses of my finishing time as you try and arrest 6 bottles of vintage Dom Perignon from me! There will be a 'shocking' revelation next week! (Well it sure as heck knocked me for six!) This year is Hong Kong's 14th marathon. 'Marathonitis' has hit big time this year with 60,000 hopefuls registering in under 3 weeks. Many were left disappointed. Our runners nearly were! It'll be curious to see if the turnout is any better than last year's disgraceful showing. I can't remember the nos. precisely but there was up to a one third 'no show' in some events. The organising committee is clearly optimistic since they're not accepting entries on the last two days from overseas runners, the normal practice. Hmmmm! The bad news is that the HM has been brought forward to a 6am, rather than 7am, kickoff! Pyjamas should be acceptable provided you're displaying an official bib! I haven't received the brochure for this year's event but I imagine it's still a 100m elevation for the full marathon (& maybe 60m for the half). That's a key reason why the event is very unlike London or New York! There most runners rock up for the full marathon yet HK's 60,000 runners will be 50-60% for the 10km (starts at 5.30am!) and the balance will likely be skewed more for the 'half' than the 'full'. The top athletes can't have a crack at world records on that type of course. Before I sign off, we'd all be delighted to have your support this year! We all want to make a big difference to 200 kids from poor backgrounds in China. I'll talk at some point about what I learned about the charity this year. That will include some heart-wrenching stories of babies with cleft lips being abandonned in temples and, without the feedback from parents, not knowing how to smile or why to cry! The OSCaRs runnners can't do all that much to change these poor kids' lives. However you can! Nite, nite :) (P.S. Kira the kitten, this year's mascot, despite being only a few months old, is at risk of being throttled before she reaches 'cathood'! She's found more shortcuts on my Mac than I was aware of by padding all over my flamin' keyboard! Meow!)