My Year in Sport
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Finishing 2018 stronger than ever, with no injuries, after 18 running races of which my 1st marathon and my 1st ultramarathon above 100km.
This is not a conventional article, it’s more of what happened in 2018 for me month by month. Beyond this point you will find a lot of pictures and personal experiences. If you want to stop reading here, I’ll leave you with this: νοῦς ὑγιής ἐν σώματι ὑγιεῖ **** which means in order for the mind to be healthy the body must also be healthy. Get your @$$ off the couch and do any form of exercise. Don’t destroy your body and mind.
If you are still here, here we go!
A little backstory is required: I can say I was always into sports but never thought of running as one of them until the March of 2017 when I participated to the OPAP Limassol Marathon — 5K corporate race after no more than a few slow group runs with some colleagues. Quite unexpectedly, finished ranking 99/3013 with an official time of 00:21:57. That moment I realized, if this went so good without any practice, there was definitely more to come! Although it was a really interesting discovery, what followed was a lot of messy, random runs ranging from 5–10km and a couple of 20s finishing the 2017 with 400km in total (where most of them were in the autumn).
January
The year started really slow continuing from the messy 2017 pattern.
On Sunday, January 21 something unexpected happened. I participated in the Pervolia International Half-Marathon with a plan to beat my previous half-marathon (pretty bad) PR (personal record) of 2:09:41 and here we are, 1:50:58! Nothing impressive but still it’s 20min down :) Something crazy followed though, while we were having our recovery beer and pizza watching the award ceremony I hear my name (whaat?). Didn’t pay attention at first but my friend there told me: Emm aren’t you the one they are calling? Having no clue, I went there and yes, it was me! As it seems running 21km on a Sunday morning is not so popular for the ages of 20–29 :)
https://www.strava.com/activities/1367899823
After that, a couple of easy runs followed and a trip to Bulgaria where I ran for the first time in the cold, -6°C to be more precise. Some might say it’s crazy but running in the snow it’s a pretty cool experience. (and as a side note, Sofia in the winter is magnificent)
https://www.strava.com/activities/1381101327
February
New month, new experiences right? What’s a better way spend almost 5 hours of a Sunday morning, than running for the first time a trail and a distance over 21k :) Together with small group of 4–5 people from the Cyprus Trail Runners (an amazing group of cheerful, helpful and crazy runners) we attacked the Stavrovouni mountain for a 25km — 1200m elevation gain, while at the same time admiring the scenic view (https://www.strava.com/activities/1391116121).
At that point I’ve realized that running a trail is a bit more complicated than running on the road. (especially if you are running with road shoes like a total newbie :)). The elevation and the uneven surface really add difficulty to the course and you also need to be more focused as a miscalculated step can lead to injuries. It’s a really big adrenaline rush though, so that led to signing up for the half-marathon of the Akamas Blossom Trail Running Festival 2 weeks after (and skipping the big carnival parade in Limassol!)
https://www.strava.com/activities/1413942322
Awesome experience and above all a really fun race. Very different than any I’ve been back then. It was more of a, fun ride let’s say rather than a Time Trial. You could actually meet and speak to people on the way while running and it wasn’t so much about racing each other to the finish. Trail runners have a different mentality, from my very little experience so far, a more relaxed way of seeing things.
End of this month something really big happened. It’s quite a story behind but it’s not in the scope of this article so.. I moved to France 🇫🇷 !
March
Starting a new life in the wine and cheese country it was a good opportunity to change some things and finally start running. The real thing, though, no more “a 10K one week and a 25K the next one”. So I got a marathon training plan from a friend and set as a goal the Marathon de Nantes in April.
As you can see from the above piece of art, things got serious. And that ladies and gentlemen was the beginning! After that the confidence levels went up and of course you could obviously feel the results of the training.
April
Sunday, April 22 race day! Lot’s of people, really amazing vibe but.. The first mistake that you read on the “Running your first marathon” blog posts.. While training for the last 5 weeks for a 4:00:00 marathon, I said f. the plan.. Let’s follow the 3:45:00 pacer!
https://www.strava.com/activities/1524667436
The first part was ok, powerful. Dropped a bit after the 15K but still ok dynamic. Until the 25–26.. Then it dropped a lot.. Fortunately we had a really good crowd giving us courage so the race continued by some low pace/ medium pace alterations until the 40th km. The end was so close that I decided to give it all, finishing with a good 4:26 pace. Final result 3:55:38 not bad for a first marathon with less than 2 months of proper training but for sure there is room for improvement.
May, June, July, August
Lot’s of smaller races during these months around France, exploring this beautiful country and the amazing mentality the people have when it comes to sports. It’s really mind blowing to see people standing in the sun, in the rain, in the snow for hours to cheer and give power and courage to the participants! Huge respect and merci beaucoup!
The next big goal was the Buff Troodos Mountain Ultra race in September so from mid July I started increasing the mileage to get ready for my first (really) long distance race.
Not so clean as the marathon training but still the mileage was high and the elevation gain higher!
September
Doomsday! Sat, Sep 22, 2018 3:59 AM was about to start the most crazy thing I did in my life (so far). Run a 105km mountain race with 4500m elevation gain. I really like PRs and in this one.. oh boy.. lot’s of PRs! The furthest I’ve ran was 45km before that and the longest activity was 5:15:00 so.. yeah, you know :)
https://www.strava.com/activities/1862211899
The race story is in scope and interesting but long.. So just to sum up:
Definitely one of the most incredible and painful experiences so far, both physically and mentally. Huge thanks for everyone’s support through these 22½ hours of trail running in the beautiful Troodos mountains.
It’s really insane what people are doing, running all these crazy long distances, sometimes even for days without sleeping but after that experience I think I am starting to understand how it goes and what it means to them (or getting crazy like them, I don’t know).
October, November, December
After some resting from the ultra, I’ve joined up a local running club RCN (Racing Club Nantais) where I’ve met some really cool people and started training for the first time with a group twice a week that proved to be a really nice experience. The weeks followed by two speed workouts with RCN (1 of them in the track) and in almost every weekend a short race (5–25K). In these couple of months I’ve seen a huge improvement in speed, hitting up a few personal records like the 5K, 10K, Half-marathon giving me the power physically and mentally to aim for some faster times in my longer races next year.
https://www.strava.com/athletes/19964316
Finishing up the year with some Christmas cheer
Two more “fun” races took part in December a 4.2K duo race and a 32K trail. This is the final “1st time” thing for the year and trust me it’s not as easy as it looks (especially in the trail where you had to cross some knee high rivers and the suit was getting heavy) but it’s definitely something you need to try :D
https://www.strava.com/activities/2031428031 & https://www.strava.com/activities/2019484837