Greece October 2010

One in our #catchup series, going back 10  years to our holiday to Greece. Given it's nearly a decade ago, my recollection of the details are very sketchy so this will mainly be a picture post.

This trip came after running the Berlin marathon. It was cold and wet in Berlin, which led to me having an annoying cough for most of the trip, but that didn't impact our enjoyment. 

We flew from Berlin to Athens. 

We had just 2 nights in Athens I think. 

First night a little bit of exploring with some glimpses of the sights we'd see the next day. 

Lots of famous old  ruins. They really were very impressive. There was some construction going on and pretty big crowds which had the potential to take some of the impact away but actually there were so many ruins and they were so huge it was possible to find space to relax and appreciate the history.

The roasted chestnut dude in the middle of this photo was great but this photo is mainly hilarious for the lady trying to skulk past.

A clear shot of the nut guy.

After our fleeting visit to Athens we caught a ferry to Sifnos. We did lots of research to decide which islands we should go to.

Everyone told us as 'had' to go to Santorini but we aren't so much keen for the well worn path and were keen for something quieter, more relaxed. We spent quite a bit of time reading a website that someone had created which had a wealth of information about Greece. I can't find the website now ... found it, https://www.greektravel.com/, it was a great resource. Among the recommendations was Sifnos which sounded like a nice place to visit, the author had this to say abotu Sifnos:

"If you are looking for that perfect Greek island with a balance of beautiful beaches, low-key nightlife, white Cycladic villages, low-impact tourism and maybe the best food in the Cyclades, then look no further than Sifnos, where I have been coming for over thirty years. Just three hours from Athens by High-speed or five hours by normal ferry, Sifnos is easy to get to and you may never want to leave."

So, first stop Sifnos.

this was our ferry

We stayed in Kamares, which was close to the ferry. Wasn't exactly white sand beaches but they were nice, water was warm and we had the beach pretty much to ourselves.

 

What a beautiful young couple

Can't remember all the places we ate but the shots below are from a restaurant which had local beer,which was good. They also had tabbouleh on the menu. We're a fan so we ordered the tabbouleh. The waitress came back after a while to let us know the tabbouleh would take a while to prepare, 15 minutes I think she said. We were in no hurry and the wait was worth it. It was the best tabbouleh we've ever had. 

At some point (can't remember if it was after dinner) we went to one of the bakeries to get some baklava. I think somehow we managed to order more than we planned and we went away with a heavy box of filled with honey drizzled pastry goodness. It kept us going for a couple of days and was so delicious. 

The quality of the food we had on Sifnos definitely was far above anything else we had in Greece. 

The thing to do in the Greek Islands is to rent quad bikes to explore. We were not so sure about that so we went for this little car to explore.

Yes, the car got us up this hill no problems.

Having lunch in Vathi, a little settlement on Sifnos.

Our table for lunch is on the beach. I'm pretty sure this restaurant has a website (seems not all of them do) https://www.sifnosstudios.gr/restaurant

Photos below are of Chrysopigi, according to www.greektravel.com Chrysopigi "is perhaps the most recognizable church on Sifnos and in a way symbolizes the island. It sits upon a peninsula that has actually split from the mainland, a miracle that is said to have occured when Sifniot women took refuge from Pirates there. The church, built on the ruins of an older church, was constructed in 1650. The Panagiri is held on Ascension day, 40 days after Easter, and it is said that the saint still performs miracles for the island."

Can't remember the name of this little village, we only saw it from this hill but it was one of the more picturesque sites.

Matching bag and door.

Viet from our apartment.

View as our ferry comes in to take us on to Santorini

Because everyone said we had to, we went to Santorini. There is no doubting the impressiveness of this island.

Here we stayed in a small hotal with a pool right out our door, which was great.

The iconic Agios Theodori, I'm pretty sure this is that one.

Santorini is a volcano, the town of Oia is at the top and you really do look straight down a long way to the ocean below. Probably not a place to go if you're scared of heights.

Lot's of steps, but still looking glamorous.

Sunset is a must, we got a good one but needed to work hard to not get crowded out.

These are the grapevines. They just leave them to grow on the ground, seems like a pretty simple way of growing grapes to me. Not far from here we saw some tourists who had a nasty crash on their quad bike. We've again gone for the 'safety' of a little car, although driving on the right hand side of the road meant we didn't always feel safe.

We had our last lunch at this beach on Santorini, worst calamari I've every eaten. It was a tourist trap.

Greece was one of our all time favourite holidays and we'd love to get back there to do some more exploring, spend more time at Sifnos and maybe some kayaking.

Map below of our route from Athens (top left), sopping in Sifnos (middle) and on to Santorini. We then caught a fast ferry back from Santorini to Athens. 

That'll do

Marathon I: Copenhagen

Finally a post on my first marathon.

When I was at University I was quietly training for a marathon but then on a long run sustained a pretty severe knee injury which held up my running for a while. It was a long time before I got back in to proper long distance running, about 10 years to be precise.

Inspired by my parents (both of them!) I've always tried to keep up my fitness, mainly through running. I ran a lot while I was at University, sometimes running around the perimeter of Hamilton, it would take about 3 hours.

When I moved to Sydney I ran to and from work but didn't ever get in to much of a routine or run any big distances.

When we moved to London, it was hard to get in to a running routine for the first couple of years as I had a 1 hour commute on the train to and from work, and worked pretty long hours which didn't leave much time for running.

However, when I changed jobs I found I was able to run home from work which made it possible to get in to a good running routine. The short run home from work from memory was about 13k, I also had options to extend the run with one route getting up to around 22k.

As I wasn't 100% sure I'd be able to get the training done without injury I didn't really tell anyone I was training for a marathon until I was already doing 30+km training runs.

At this point I'll just leave the rest of the blog to an email I sent after the marathon...

I've been doing a fair bit of running for the past year and late last year figured if I could keep up the running and continue to extend the distances I ran, eventually I might get to a point where I'd be fit enough to do a marathon. With Dad committing to doing a marathon this year I didn't need any more inspiration than that to see if I could do the same. 

So when we got back from the wedding I began to step up my running, without really changing my lifestyle too much. I only ran 3, sometimes 4 times a week, generally with a long run on the weekend when Jackie was working and running home from work twice a week (between 14 and 22km depending on the route). 

I'd scoped out the options for marathons over the year, a lot of marathons "sell out" ruling out most of the big name marathons, however the Copenhagen marathon looked like a possibility, with a flat course, open entry and no pressure on the number of places meaning I could leave it relatively late to decide if I wanted to enter. 

On April 16 I completed the online application (still no firm commitment as payment wasn't required), and on April 17 I went for a 35km jog which went quite well and capped a week in which I ran 97km over 4 runs. So we booked flights and accommodation and I arranged to pay the entry fee. Training had to be taken a bit more seriously now!

A light training week followed with just 2 runs, it was about this time I invested in a new pair of shoes, allowing enough time to wear them in and get several training runs done with them.
The following week, 3 weeks out from Copenhagen I ran home from work twice and then did my 35km run again, a bit slower this time to make sure I felt I could do another 7km.

It was about this time I started having pains in my right foot, which I'm quite certain was a result of walking 2km every day from station to work in my flat work shoes, so highly unfashionable but necessarily I started wearing running shoes to work.

I started scaling back my runs from now and taking care of my dodgy foot. I felt I could cover the distance so long as nothing went wrong but my main worries were now related to getting to Copenhagen - european airspace has been intermittently closed due to volcano eruptions in iceland. Also I wasn't so sure I'd registered properly as I hadn't received my start card in the post which I required to pick up my number and chip. 

The final weeks I was a bit nervous and excited, I really just wanted to get on and do the run. As the day got closer I got more nervous about my ability, quite unsure whether I was underdone.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the volcano didn't cause a problem, I had no issues picking up my number and chip, I ate and drank all the right things before the marathon and had a good nights sleep the night before.

I was still pretty nervous about whether I was going to be able to do it. So while I wanted to wait until having completed the marathon before calling Dad to surprise him with the news of my achievement I put in an emergency call for some last minute advice, which reverberated in my mind all the way around the course, "don't go out too fast", "make sure you're able to talk, everyone else will be puffing around you but make sure you can still talk" "late in the run all those people puffing will be walking". And it pretty much worked.

I started out steady, making sure I stayed behind the 3:45 pace setters. There were supposed to be close to 14,000 people running the marathon, I think more like 12, 000 started, either way it was a lot of people and it was quite crowded, the course unfortunately took us through some bottle necks which was a bit frustrating, at one point where the run looped back on itself I realised that there were far fewer runners just in front of the 3:45 pace setters so at around 18km I think,  I set about passing the pace setters, which resulted in a much clearer run, which made it a lot easier to run faster, for the next 20km or so I don't know how many people I passed, many of them walking, but it was certainly a lot and I was feeling great. 

Jackie got a great photo of me at 29km, feeling very chipper and this continued for quite some time, as every km went by I was beginning to wonder how long it was going to be before it started to get tough. It wasn't long before I found out, I got through 35km easily enough, it was at this point that I realised I'd never run this far before but was still feeling ok.

It was around 38km where I started thinking that it's only 4km to go and that pretty much means I'm there, right? Then I thought about Martin Crowe, on 299 against Sri Lanka. And watching the 'From Cloth Cap to Helmet' video where he describes how he'd mentally figured he was at 300 already, and then whoops, he's out. So I realised, 1k at a time, don't get ahead of yourself. 

I was definitely not keeping up the pace I had for the previous 20km and I think I did a couple of 5:40 kms at this point, which was a lot slower than I had been doing. But I realised that I was still passing vast amounts of people who were walking or not moving at all. Sure a few people were passing me but I was still in good enough shape to keep running. I came down to the final kilometre and was struggling to muster a final spurt but in the 500 or so metres of the finishing shoot, with all sorts of Danish cheering which made no sense to me whatsoever I was able to put the gas on, passing a couple of poor souls getting helped to the finish by the military! I was in such deep concentration that I didn't see Jackie, although she got a couple of great photos and was cheering profusely.

Coming down the finishing shoot with my hands in the air, the Danes might have been worried that I thought I'd won the bloody thing but I had such a huge sense of achievement that I really did feel like I'd won on the day. 

It was quite sentimental, and the whole run I was recollecting with fondness supporting Dad running marathons when we were younger, it felt odd to be on the other side, now doing the running. 

Jackie was amazing support, not just during the run but leading up to the day when I was getting stressed and nervous. She made sure I ate the right things and was well hydrated and she was there, cheering and screaming at all the points we'd agreed before hand, telling me I looked good, which in fairness I think I probably was considering, even time for a quick kiss on route, all the runners around me were very jealous, as were all the other supporters of course! And she was there at the end, not flinching when I gave her a big sweaty hug and a kiss!!

My final, official time was 3:40:15, much better than I'd ever dreamed I could have done. Apparently my half marathon times were 1:50:48 and 1:49:27, placed 2306 out of 9141 finishers.

I'm now hoping to do the Berlin marathon in September, although as all open places for that have been allocated I'm going to try and run for a charity to get a place. 

So yeah, that's the story there. 

Going to Paris next week to watch French Open which should be good. 

Berlin Marathon 2010

Marathon II

Nearly 10 years after the fact but here's a post about the Berlin Marathon which was my second marathon. The post below is based on an email I sent after the marathon partly as an update to those that had sponsored me as I was running to raise money for MS Society.

First a bit more back story. I had completed my first marathon in Copenhagen in May (I'll do a post on that soon), it had gone relatively well and I was keen to build on the fitness I'd built up to do another marathon, and to see if I could go faster. It would be a push because I was pretty shattered after Copenhagen. Berlin was a good option, renowned as one of the worlds fastest marathons, one of the 'marathon majors', also had a friend running it too. I had missed the open entry but was able to get in on a charity entry and I chose to run for MS Society, a charity we fund raised for at Gisborne Boys High School.

We had already been to Berlin once, for my birthday in 2009 I think, it was a good trip but Berlin probably wasn't a city we had expected to visit again but a marathon was a good excuse. We stayed in the same hostel as our first trip. It was a backpackers hostel the room we had (on both visits) was like an apartment with kitchen and plenty of space.

To celebrate the marathon we carefully planned an solid Greek holiday to be added on after the marathon which was one of our absolute favourite holidays. I'll try get a retrospective post done on our Greek holiday too.

It was Berlin in October, it was cold, it wasn't a fun prospect making our way to the start line, first via train and then walking. From memory I think I reassured Jackie that it was ok to spend more time sitting in warm cafes eating pastries more than following me around.

Copenhagen had been about 15,000 participants, this was more like 40,000 so the start was huge. Tip was to bring a jumper to wear while waiting to start so I brought an old jumper for this purpose. Given the rain I wish I had followed other people in wearing a rubbish bag to stay dry too. First rookie error. Second rookie error was getting too excited when the starters gun went, ripping off my jumper and flinging it off to the sidelines, I then had a 10 minute wait until we started to move, and at that point it was very slow moving. I felt quite silly but I wasn't the only one in this boat. Perhaps we all should have huddled together to share body warmth!

Anyway, we got going, below is the marathon report I wrote almost 10 years ago (this was before I had a GPS watch)...

The weather was miserable, it was cold and wet which meant that it was pretty tough going. It wasn't long into the run that my shoes and clothes were sodden. That combined with the masses of people meant that I wasn't making particularly good time for the first 10k. My first half was pretty much the same as for my previous marathon (1:50:01 at Berlin vs 1:50:47 at Copenhagen).

It was around 30km that I started to get really cold, which was a bit of a worry because you would think after running so far I would have warmed up. However with my Dad's advice I knew that the race didn't really kick in till 32k, with that in my mind I managed to have my fastest 5k between 30 and 35km. Around 35k I could definitely feel my legs seizing up, I knew I'd be seeing Jackie around 35k and while she managed to get a photo of me smiling I made sure she also got the message that it might take me a while to get through the last few k's and not to be surprised if I don't get to the finish for a while. Sure enough the last k's were tough, but that's the idea I suppose. With support from Marsh and Fi in the final straight I was able to put in a bit of a sprint finish.

Final time 3:37:29 which I was really pleased with.

Screenshot below of the splits from the Berlin Marathon results page

After picking up my finishers medal I went to the designated meeting place, wrapped in a plastic sheet for warmth. Jackie turned up with a pretzel which made me very happy, turns out I was a little blue from being so cold so a hot sausage and a couple of hot chocolates were quickly devoured before heading home for a long hot shower. 

I've attached 4 photos, before, during (around 36k, looking ok but feeling terrible) and after (looking cold but enjoying my pretzel) and a few days later, in the Greek islands!

Before

During

After

And relax, in Sifnos, Greek Islands

I would like to say a huge thank you to all of your messages of support and donations to the MS Society who I was raising money for. I have hit my target of raising £500 and have to say, knowing that so many people had donated so much money gave me the extra incentive to keep running when I really wasn't sure I could keep going. The MS Society support crew were out in force in Berlin which made me really happy that I have been able to help contribute to the good work they do.

There were lots of highlights for the day, finishing the marathon under the Brandenburg gate was surely one as was the celebratory drinks and meal at 'White Trash' restaurant just down the road from where we were staying - if you're ever in Berlin go to White Trash for a meal, it's great (and don't be fooled by the exterior - it's not a Chinese restaurant).

And finally, a huge thank you to Jackie, Marshall and Fiona who supported me along the run even though the weather was miserable and I'm sure they would have rather been sitting in a pub somewhere, the support really made a huge difference on a really tough run. 

Next stop on Team Bush Marathon World Tour... Paris (hopefully)

Gold Coast Marathon

Marathon number 7

Before running the Noosa Marathon I was bold enough to enter the Gold Cost Marathon.

The GC Marathon was just 6 weeks after Newcastle on June 7 so not really enough time for recovery and building up training again but I figured I'd give it a go anyway.

Given the Noosa Marathon had gone well I had no injuries and the fatigue wasn't too bad on my body. The week afterwards I went for one midweek run and then 22k on the weekend and then started to get in to a bit of a routine wth 2 mid week runs and 1 long run on the weekend. I kept this up for a few weeks with a good 36k run 3 weeks out and 26k the following weekend.

Unfortunately the following weekend I was aiming for a 20krun but could only get 11k before the base of my foot started to give me excruciating pain, I couldn't go on and ended up hobbling home. Whilst hobbling home I had plenty of time to think about the upcoming marathon. On the plus side I knew I had enough training behind me and in theory it wouldn't matter if I didn't do another run before the marathon. On the bad side, I wouldn't be able to complete 42k if my foot was that sore.

I did plenty of ready up on what I might have done, plantar fasciitis came up as a likely prognosis. It wasn't encouraging as it would seem that I would need more than 1 week to recover. 

I left it a few days, did a gentle 5k which wasn't too bad an left my training there. 

I had decided to drive up to the Gold Coast and to take the kids with me. It's a long drive, we started on the Friday, stopped at Coffs Harbour on the way up and then drove on from there. The kids were surprisingly good on the drive. Theo had a terrible cold so we had to stop off and buy more tissues. It was a pretty easy drive but long. The only complicated bit was getting to our apartment in the Gold Coast but google sorted that out for us and we met mum. I went off to get my race pack and pick up some food for dinner. That evening we sorted out the supporter plan with mum, which was pretty easy. Our apartment was very close to the 3k and about 30k mark.

Plotting how you're going to get to the start line is always a key part of the planning process. After much googling and discussion I decided to walk to the tram, get on the tram and go from there. I shouldn't have worried so much, there were plenty of people doing the same as me so there was no trouble finding my way and I was at the start line with plenty of time. 

I was definitely feeling nervous about my foot but there wasn't much I could do at this point. I'd taken some panadol before the run, in an attempt to curb any upcoming pain. I've since learned that having panadol before running is a bad idea, can have serious health implications. 

Got in to the starting pen with thousands of other runners. I was on one of the sides, next to which there was a space for the elite runners to do their warm ups. I saw New Zealander Zane Robertson warming up, very impressive and somewhat motivating. 

About 2 minutes before the start, it started to rain and boy did it rain. It was a proper downpour and there was no hiding from it. I tried to stand so that my shoes didn't get too wet but it wasn't much good. Almost as soon as the starters gun went the rain eased up but the damage had been done. 

So we were off, and not long in to the run it was quite a sunny day. 

I got in to a reasonable rythym in the mid 5m 30s /km pace. 

After 10k I was doing alight and picked up the pace a bit and was pretty steady in the 5m 20s and I was reasonably consistent until 35k. Up until this point I was thinking I might be able to beat my Noosa time.

At 35k the wheels starting to come off. Then at 37k the run loops back towards the finish line. It's at this point you find out that you've been benefiting from a tail wind for quite some time and that it's quite a stiff breeze to run in to. Unlike Noosa I really struggled through the last couple of k's and felt some cramp coming on. Thankfully I didn't succumb and I managed to jog on to the finish.

I probably dropped about 4-5 minutes in the last 5km which was a shame but still very happy with a final time of 3h 54m 51s (according to my watch).



There was a great finish area with loads of food and drink which I made the most of before coming out to see my support crew. 

On returning to the apartment I understood why mum had been complaining about the stairs to the apartment, it was quite a hike up there!

The day after the marathon we went to Sea World. The weather wasn't so flash again but that probably kept crowds down. 

The next dday we started the drive home, not sure if we'd get all the way or need to stay somewhere overnight. We made pretty good time and we able to have a stop at the big banana in Coffs Harbour.

Noosa Marathon

Marathon number 6

Kirikiriroa marathon was number 5, it was a tough one which got me back in to longer distance running.

Not long after Kirikiriroa marathon we moved to Newcastle Australia for a new job (probably a few blog posts int that).

A few things about moving to Newcastle meant I was able to do more running. First of all there was the warmer weather. A new job gave me an opportunity to reset some of my priorities, I was able to carve out a bit more time for running. Add to this the kids were getting a older and so I was able to spend more time running and not feel guilty. Finally, the numerous waterfront running paths made it a pleasure to run.

So the conditions to get fit were right. So I started running a bit more and before long started to think about another marathon. I decided to have a go at the Newcastle Marathon which was to be run in April. Mum and Dad have planned a visit to Newcastle which would coincide with the marathon. Unfortunately, just as I was hitting my strides I strained my hamstring. Had to go to the physio who said it wasn't bad but I probably should try to run the Newcastle Marathon. So, I had to skip that one, I did still manage to run the Newcastle Half and did alright.

After Newcastle I had set my sights on Noosa and we had friends coming over from NZ, one of whom was planning on running the Noosa marathon too, so I really had to see this one through. I trained steadily but without pushing too hard. I was hoping to do sub 4 hours so needed to be fitter and faster than Kirikiriroa. I managed to get my training to a spot where I thought I'd be ok.

The trip to Noosa was an adventure in itself. Great fun for the kids.We flew from Newcastle to Brisbane and picked up a rental car in Brisbane (after a ridiculously long wait). On the road to Noosa we made it to our AirBnB where our friends were already settled in.

The day before the marathon was pretty chilled.

Marathon morning, woke up super early, I think it was 4 something, way earlier than I needed. We got to the start in good time. Did the bag check thing for the first time ever. Security seemed pretty lax but the risk was pretty low.

The marathon started at 6:15, before sunrise. Was best to get started early because it gets pretty warm in Noosa even in May.

I figured if I did every km under 5m40s then I would be just under 4hrs. The issue as always was not going to be the first 30k but the last 12. I started out with a pretty steady pace, mainly around 5m35s. A bit of a hiccup when I needed to take a toilet stop around 11k but I managed to catch up the lost time pretty quickly and was pretty consistent in the 5m30s per km territory.

Noosa marathon is very flat by the way, some very small hills for the bridges which go over the waterways. It's a 3 lap run, so support is good. There were a couple of local supporters who were particularly good and supporting every runner that went by.

It's also one of these runs where the half marathon and 10k runners start afterwards and are on the same track, this can mess with your pacing a bit but I managed to keep consistent.

I was feeling pretty good throughout the run and after getting through 30k with no trouble I thought I'd lift the tempo a little bit for the next 10k I kept my pace will under 5m30s. I was starting to feeling suitably shattered by 40km but still managed the last 2k in under 5m 40s pace and finished strongly down the chute, Strava said my time was 3h52m50s. Can't remember what my official time was, around about the same. I was thrilled with my time and while I was pooped at the end wasn't injured.

Unlike Kirikiriroa, where I was a absolutely shattered at the end, I felt at Noosa like I had run a very measured pace to give me the best time I was capable of on the day. I was pretty chuffed, and ready for the next one!