Target #asics262 finale

After 5 months the journey is finally over for the asics target 26.2 final 5 runners. Their triumphant finish to the Paris Marathon marking the end of Runnersworld's Asics target 262 project that I was fortunate to be involved with in a very small way.

You will have seen me make reference to it in previous blog posts and you may well have read my review of the bootcamp day as it is one of my most popular posts.

To anyone that doesn't know the asics262 is a once in a lifetime, money can't buy competition to win supported training towards and entry into the 2015 Paris Marathon. 

Over 3000 applicants entered and I was fortunate enough to be selected as 1 of 50 bootcampers for the first selection stage.

The final 5 were eventually selected in December 2014 and have been busy training hard with the support of the asics and Runnersworlds teams towards their target aims for the marathon.

The Paris marathon has just passed and after several ups and downs through the training period all 5 runners successfully completed the marathon in grueling conditions under the hot and sweaty French springtime sun.

I won't steal their thunder, I will let them tell their own story which you can read on the website here. 

It has been a great journey to be part of in my small way, to have met these intrepid runners at bootcamp and then to have followed their journeys and interacted with them on social media. It has been brilliant supporting and gaining support from the other bootcampers and the wider running community that have followed the competition.

Thank you to the final 5

Being part of the whole experience has been inspiring and motivating following the journies and stories on the way to Paris. Many of the forum posts and social media messages following Paris from the asics 5 have been messages of thanks to all who have supported them so I thought it was only right that I in turn thanked the asics 5 for the motivation they have provided to me and other through their training not to mention the time and dedication provided to updating their forums and responding to messages on other platforms.

Tony - first time marathoner and aiming for a sub4 marathon

I will be honest and say I haven't fully followed all the other threads apart from Tony who was part of my group at bootcamp and I therefore had more of an association with. I did try to keep pace (running pun intended!) with his thread as he made his debut attempt at the marathon distance.

Right from the bootcamp stage I was really drawn to Tony's sponge like quality of being so receptive and being so eager to absorb all the knowledge and expertise on offer. I found his story really motivating and refreshing as Tony developed through his training while eloquently sharing his experiences and knowledge gained with his enthusiastic band of supporters on his thread. His challenge of aiming for a sub4 hour marathon in his first attempt took a great deal of courage as he could have quite easily relaxed and just focused on finishing, but the fact he pushed himself towards an ambitious target made his story a must to follow.

I valued reflecting on Tony's realistaion after running his first marathon that a marathon isn't this insurmountably distance that is impossible to conquer but an achievable target for every runner that prepares and trains properly. 

Tim aka Superman, sub 3.30 target

A story of ups and downs, Tim pushing himself to new levels and recovering from shattering lows. As an experienced runner I was inspired by your high standards and your gritty determination to overcome adversity. Some of your posts have been wise beyond your years and  I have appreciated your motivational wisdom and clear insight into pushing yourself to your high standards.

I look forward to following your surely successful attempt at a 3.15 marathon in the near future.

Amy the pocket rocket speedster, sub 4 target

Amy's youthful exuberance, positive attitude and pace to burn literally blew me away at the bootcamp as part of the 5K time trial and she maintained this through her training and into the marathon. 

Well done on turning your short distance speed into a brilliant marathon finishing time.

Tom sub 3 hour target

Wow, I will be honest and say I struggle to comprehend running a marathon in this time and so didn't follow the thread that much as felt it was so far out of my league. From what I have read I was impressed again with the high standards you set yourself and your desire to achieve nothing but excellence. Your finishing time was still phenomenal and an immensely proud achievement.

Andrea sub 4.30 target

With keeping up with some of the other threads I unfortunately didn't get much opportunity to interact with Andrea's thread but I have enjoyed seeing tweets of your progress. A deserved finalist as it was clear to see the happiness and joy being part of the competition has brought you, again a well deserved finishing time and I wish you all the best for your marathons to come.

Thank you to all five of you for sharing your time and your experiences with us, I feel privileged to have followed your stories and wish you all every success in the future.

So what for me?

After missing out on the final five I initially decided that I would have my sub4 marathon attempt at the Halstead marathon in early May. As you have probably gathered this didn't materialise due to a combination of injury niggles, moving flat and starting a new job keeping me pretty occupied for most of the first quarter of 2015.

Its just been unfortunate that circumstances haven't allowed me to capitalise on my involvement with this competition but that's just the way it goes, life doesn't always work out that way. 

I will be honest and say I am so disappointed to have not followed the asics 262 journey by actually running a spring marathon but last Sunday morning as the Paris marathon was progressing I had nothing but excitement as I waited for the results to come through.

I was a mixture of nervous energy waiting to see how the Asics 5 had done as well as waiting to hear about other bootcampers and the progress of several other Twitter friends.

Following the other asics spring marathon in Manchester was also a great experience as at least three members of my sub4 hour group achieved a sub4 marathon, (awesome runs Angela, Matt and Craig) to go along with Amy and Tony's sub4 runs in Paris which was coupled with a sub4 run from another runner from the groups Chris. 

The year ahead

But for now I am planning some marathons for the autumn and it looks like I might repeat my three marathons in three months from last year but with different marathons this year hopefully picking more PB friendly courses.

In terms of asics 262 I am saddened as I know the ship has sailed for me, witnessing the journey of this years runners only made me want the experience more. realistically though I know I will not get another chance to be selected. If I run sub4 in the autumn I obviously wouldn't be selected in my sub4 category and would be so far off running a 3.30 for that to be a possibility. Having come close to running sub4 and being hopeful of at least getting close again this autumn I can't see why I would then get selected again for the sub4 category again anyway. 

I have still learnt a lot and benefited so much from the experience I have had, I am very grateful to asics for the chance of being part of the process and to all the other runners for sharing, supporting and just being awesome! 

My final thought is reflecting on something that Tim has touched upon on his thread about the idea that 'History is not destiny' and that to change the outcome of a marathon from what you have achieved in the past you need to train differently and act differently. 

I'm famous!

Well almost, just a little bit, OK not quite really I just have my photo in a national top selling magazine and that makes me feel like a it of a celebrity! 

Why you may ask? 

Well at the end of last year I was selected as one of 50 lucky boot campers out of over 3000 applicants to be selected for the first stage of Runners World's Asics Target 26.2 competition. 

February's issue of Runners World features a recap of the boot camp stage and subsequently a photo of all 50 boot campers:

 

Of course I would recommend you pick up a copy and read up what Runner's World have to say but you can also read my summary of the day here. 

While it's great for me to have my mugshot in with all my fellow boot campers I feel robbed of not having a second photo in the group shot below as I am a little hidden by the runner in front! 

If you haven't already do check out the Asics 26.2 section of the Runner's World website for lots of tips and advice on marathon training, the Asics 26.2 forum threads are also worth reading up on as a great way of chatting with other runners. 

Asics Target 26.2 Boot camp

Time to reflect on yesterday and my attendance as one of the 50 shortlisted runners at Runners World Asics Target 26.2 Boot camp training day in Birmingham. 

Our introduction to the day informed us that we were lucky enough to be selected from a record number of over 3,500 applicants for the boot camp stage and from everyone I spoke to during the day I can certainly echo the sentiment from Asics that everyone thoroughly deserved their place and should be proud of their achievement of coming this far. 

The day itself.....

The journey 

For me it was a particularly long day as I was up and awake at 4.00 in the morning and out the door at around 5.00 to take on the early less reliant pre rush hour tube service to make it to Euston for my 6.45 train. 

The tube is a completely different proposition at that time of the morning with almost everyone in a zombie like state of sleepiness somewhat surprised that there are other individuals up and awake at this unearthly hour. 

I made it in plenty of time for my train and soon settled down in my seat to catch up on some much needed sleep as I sped my way across the Country. 

At Birmingham New Street Station it was a case of mixing with the early morning Birmingham commuters to catch my connecting train to Perry Bar station and onward to Alexander Stadium where the day was being held. It was pretty easy to spot a few other individuals in running gear heading for the same train so I introduced myself to what turned out to be previous winners Malcolm (AKA Malcs on twitter on the RW forum) and Roger Reid (AKA ChiroRoger on twitter) who both offered interesting and insightful views of their winning experiences. The group also included fellow bootcamper Rosie (AKA Londontrack on twitter) who like me was both nervous and excited about the day that lay ahead. 

Session one - Running gait analysis 

After a quick briefing by the Asics team and watching a video of last years winners experiences we split up into our time category groups for the first session. 

A selfie of the sub 4 group running style! Courtesy of  Sarah @mia79gbr

My category, the sub 4 hours group, had the gait analysis session first where we all took it in turns to have our running gaits analysed and the appropriate suggestions made on our current footwear and potential future footwear. 

The nature of the session meant that the group was able to talk amongst ourselves while one runner was being analysed and it was great to start chatting with fellow runners. We were also able to spend time discussing the incredible prize on offer with previous winners Malcolm (aka Malcs on twitter on the RW forum) Adrian (aka Ady_Livingstone) and Sarah (aka mia79gbr). It was really useful to get a better idea of how the competition progresses as well as hearing about the pressures of the dreaded public vote!

The group listen and learn from last years winner Malcolm, photo courtesy of Craig Bowdery @craigbowdery

Session two - Physio session

Session two for our group was a physio session with Sarah Connors where she talked us though common runner injuries and complaints and how we can combat these. The session especially focused on warming up the nerves in you back and the importance this plays in firing up your glutes and hamstrings to allow you to run more effectively. 

We then all took part in some stretching and core conditioning exercises with varying degrees of success and flexibility. 

After a morning that flew by in a blur it was lunch time and while the other groups hungrily tucked into a wide range of sandwiches our group more conservatively nibbled at our food as we had drawn the short straw of having our running track session straight after the lunch break. 

Session three - Run session on the track 

After trying to take on some sustenance we reluctantly headed outside into the cold West Midland air for the obligatory group photo shoot which gave us our first taste of being out on the track. 

With the formalities of the photos done and dusted the other groups departed leaving us out on the track ready to be put through our paces from the coaches. 

For many of the group it was their first experience of running on a track but I think it is safe to say it was an exciting experience for us all whatever our background. 

The track session had rightly generated a lot of discussion through the day and I think was causing a certain amount of anxiety amongst us especially as we didn't feel particularly well prepared after a hurried lunch. 

After some warming up, which was much needed as it was pretty nippy, our first task was to complete some pacing runs at both 9.30 minute miles and slightly faster at 9 minute miles to give us an idea of the pace required for our marathon times and to see if we could pace ourselves for a sustained period. 

One of the pacing runs as part of our track session, photo courtesy of  @runnersworlduk

It was a difficult task and one I think we all struggled with and relied mostly on guess work rather than an insightful pacing knowledge. 

With several laps now completed we were all raring to go into the main exercise of the 5K time trial. The task was to complete the 5K by completing different periods of sustained increased pace followed by shorter recovery periods. The pattern was to be 400m at our 5K race pace, 200m of recovery at a slightly relaxed pace and repeated 8 times with the final 200m being left for a sprint finish. 

It was a run I really enjoyed both in terms of the mental and physical challenge but also for the testing nature of it. It was pretty tough to keep pushing and raising your speed at regular intervals and it is an interval session I would like to repeat again. Everyone I spoke to form the group seemed to likewise enjoy the session. 

It was hard to judge what was being gained from the session in terms of selection criteria apart from the obvious of making sure we could all run as fast as we had stated on our application which everyone easily demonstrated. I was pleased with finishing fourth in the group despite being ran down in the last quarter but I don't believe it gives me any advantage in terms of being selected for the next stage. 

After another few laps of pacing we were all relieved to head in doors to the warmth and to replenish our energy supplies with some left over sandwiches. 

Session four - Q&A with Holly Rush

Our last session was the Q & A with sponsored Asics athlete Holly Rush which was already a money cant buy opportunity without taking into account the actual prize we were all competing for. Holly was very relaxed in front of the group and obviously is a passionate runner and she was more than happy to talk through her experiences and share with us many facets of her training, nutrition, racing strategies and offered us advice in all these areas plus injury prevention, training methods and race preparation. 

I think the group were all thankful and privileged to have the opportunity to spend time and discuss running with such a talented and passionate elite runner. 

The end of the day

Eventually the session had to come to an end and with it marked the end of the day as a whole. The Asics team gave us a quick debrief of what to expect from the next stage and the boot camp day was then at its conclusion.  

The last thing to do was to pick up our goody bags and make plans for the journey home. And what goody bags they were, here is what we had in them: 

I ended up travelling back into central Birmingham with two runners from my group Chris (aka ChrisBrammer on twitter) and Tony (aka AnthonyMcNeill).

We all had a bit of time to kill before our respective trains so we took the logical option of heading to the pub for a well deserved pint! If an elite ultra marathon like Holly Rush can enjoy a drink during training then why can't we! A nice refreshing pint in the pub was a nice end to the day before the arduous journey back home.

A well deserved pint!

My reflections

Overall it was such a positive day with so many lessons learned. The cynical amongst you might say it is all just a very clever marketing strategy to further the asics brand and you might be right but when they treat us runners so well and offer such an amazing prize I think we are all more than happy to be part of this marketing ploy.

In terms of selecting the bootcampers for the next stage and in turn the final 5 I believe asics know what they are looking for in a potential finalist and maybe I am what they are looking for and maybe I am not. I believe I have a lot to offer but at the same time I am not the big personality perhaps required for some of the demands of being in the final 5.

In many ways I am happy to have just experienced boot camp and would be happy to not progress any further but at the same time I am even hungrier for the prize having found out more about it.

The demands of the voting stage will be gruelling if I get that far and it would be awful to go through to the voting stage and then not get any further. On the other hand I am really interested and motivated by the challenge the voting stage presents!

What did I learn and take away?

• I am definitely a neutral runner
• Making new friends and meeting some social media acquaintances
• Some excellent stretching and core advice and techniques
• To be proud of my running achievements
• A drive to want to be a better stronger runner
• Some good ideas for some more speed work
• A plan to follow the sub 4 marathon training program in the spring
• A renewed determination to run a sub 4 marathon in 2015

Thank you for reading, it was great to be a part of the day and meet so many other bootcampers. I would love to hear what you thought of the day and what you got out of it. I wish all my fellow bootcampers the best of luck in getting through to the next stage and look forward to supporting whoever gets through if I'm not fortunate enough to get through. 

What Target Asics 26.2 means to me

Tomorrow I will be taking my place on a Birmingham running track alongside 49 other runners as one of the lucky 50 to be selected for the final stages of Runners Worlds Asics Target 26.2 competition.

For anyone who doesn't know what its all about it a competition to select 5 lucky runners across 5 different finishing times with a prize of a training plan, training advice and support and training kit alongside entry, travel and accommodation for the Paris 2015 marathon.

Quite an awesome prize, in previous years the competition format has included a public voting process alongside the initial boot camp stage which ha earned the competition the tag of Xfactor for runners!

What does it mean to me

When I entered I never really thought I would get selected for this stage, sure I wanted to but I never thought I actually would! 

For me the prize consists of several more than desirable elements:

• Being part of team Target 26.2
• Attending boot camp for training, advice and meeting other like minded runners
• Runners World and Asics freebies
• Free entry into the 2015 Paris Marathon including accommodation and travel

But it is the money cant buy aspect of the prize that really grabs my interest and no doubt the attention of the thousands of other runners who entered the competition.

The chance to be trained by professional running coaches and to receive advice from dedicated professionals to me that is living the dream! 

Since I got into running some ten years ago I have always vaguely dreamed of becoming an elite runner. 

I recently wrote an article for RunningJunkies about it here entitled 'Do you dream of being an elite runner?'.

The article was mainly motivated by the story of Steve Way who in the last few years has transformed himself from an obese non runner to an elite runner representing England in the marathon at the recent Commonwealth games in Glasgow.

My dream to be an elite runner has been a long standing aspiration as I figure with the correct training and support I could improve my running performance significantly enough to be able to represent my country at international level at a major competition such as the Olympics or World Championships.

It is a wild dream that at the very least would require me to win the lottery to allow me to give up my day job to allow me to commit the time and resources into this plan.

The Target 26.2 competition is however one way of achieving my elite runner aspiration on a smaller scale. 

I would love to be selected in the final 5 and to have an awesome few months training and preparing for the 2015 Paris marathon with the support and guidance of the Runners World coaches behind me. 

I realise all the other 49 runners all hold similar aspirations and I am sure we are all equally deserving of the prize and will all be giving of our all to try and win this once in a lifetime opportunity.

All I want to do is give of my bets at boot camp and the rest is up to the Runners World judges, they know who they are looking for and I think it is then a case if I fit that profile in terms of my running ability, personality and having the right 'look' they are after. What every the criteria for selection I will have to just give it a go and see what happens!

Good luck to all my fellow boot campers and I look forward to meeting you all and experiencing what I am sure will be a special day.