The Tom Gilbert Blog » life

I did it!

giblet — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:45:24 +0000

At the finish, tired but so happy

London Marathon? Done My official time was 4:31:35, and I couldn’t be happier. Everything went smoothly, and I am feeling very pleased with myself. There’s no damage done, my knees were a bit sore last night but today everything feels good.

The Marathon is an amazing high. I had my name on my vest and it really felt on the day like the whole of London was chanting my name. The spectators are incredible and the vibe from the crowds just lifts you so much. The other runners are all in great spirits and there’s tonnes of banter en route. It really was a tremendously emotional day.

Once I get them, I will upload the official pics. My friends came out to watch me run and they took some incredible photos, which I look forward to sharing with you too.

I will do this again. Next time, the target will be under 4 hours. I may even do a fall marathon this year.

You can see my race stats here on garmin connect. As you can see from the split times apart from pee stops and chatting with my supporters I pretty much nailed my pace (10 min/mile).

In terms of the blow by blow I will say this: the first 15 miles went in a flash, the crowd and the runners were all in high spirits and the miles just whizzed by. I literally ran the first 15 miles with a gigantic, idiotic grin on my face.

Mile 6 was the Cutty Sark, the first thing I looked forward to. Next milestone was around mile 10 when we crossed Tower Bridge. That was truly amazing because the ROAR of the crowd was just deafening and the crowd chanted my name all the way across

The next milestone was mile 14 where my awesome friends were waiting with cheers of encouragement, supplies, cameras to take pictures and (omg awesome) a cold, wet towel to wipe my face with. Mile 14 was Narrow street and my absolute favourite part of the marathon. Another area where the crowd just roared, and there were so many people watching, dancing, chanting, waving, or offering goodies (brownies, bananas, oranges, sweets, you name it!)

Next milestone was Canary Wharf, at 19/20 miles which was packed and really great too. Awesome crowds, and the drums! Amazing drums which really lifted spirits in a tricky bit of the race (everything starts to hurt from mile 18).

Then, mile 21 is back through Limehouse on Commercial road and I saw my friends again for a quick chat and another cold towel-down. At this point I was told about our dinner reservation at Gaucho Grill that night which basically carried me the rest of the way to the finish I was so happy to see my friends at this point that I probably looked like I’d already won the race Limehouse was so great – even down by the station the crowds were thick and chanting and yelling. Everybody was shouting my name and I was getting really emotional.

From mile 21, things got really tough. Everything hurt and the last 5 miles felt very, very far. Thames street was miserable for me. A real head down, gritted teeth mile… Luckily the crowds along Embankment and the Mall really lift you and suddenly you are nearly finished and picking up speed again. I managed not to stop running all race but around mile 20 a lot of runners start walking – this actually gave me a boost as I started to pass a lot of people, happy to have paced myself well.

At the finish, the feeling is indescribable. So tired, but so happy, relieved, proud, emotional… You get your medal and a goodie bag. I devoured every source of food in that goodie bag in about 3 minutes flat. Then my friends came and met me with champagne and more goodies and we hung out in whitehall drinking from the bottle

Back home, Colm showed off his brilliant pictures of the day to music while we drank Bolly 2000 – which was just awesome Then off to dinner at Gaucho where I devoured a 400g Fillet and whatever sides were in sight ! What an amazing, amazing day

I was thinking earlier today, that if someone told me a year ago I would run the marathon in 4 and a half hours this year (or at all), I would have laughed right in their face. Just goes to show you…

You can do anything, if you set your mind to it.

Isn’t that just awesome to know?

You’ve come a long way, baby

giblet — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:41:04 +0000

Garmin data since Feb 2010

One more week to go.

Getting excited, and apprehensive. As you can see, my training has been a bit patchy, I have not managed as many runs as I would have liked, but work has kept me busy and injury meant I wasn’t running at all in January and not much in February.

However a recent burst has caught me up a bit and I am feeling as ready as I’ll ever be. Certainly the fittest I have ever been in my life. It feels good. In the last year my body fat has gone from 25% to 15%, I lost a stone in weight and my resting heart rate has dropped from 75 or so to 55. 55! I hurt my foot racing barefoot (I know, I know) in October last year but have since bounced back and fingers crossed, am ready for the big 26.

So I am totally going to do this (see me doing the positive thinking thing already?). Look out for me on Marathon day, next Sunday the 25th April. I am runner number 40310 and I’ll be in a Hope for Children vest. I should be doing about a 9:45 minutes per mile pace, on average. If you see me – YELL Oh, also, take pictures and send them my way!

Yes, you can still sponsor me!

Back from New York

giblet — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:02:41 +0000

Back home. Can’t sleep from jet lag right now, so thought I would post something…

It was a good work trip – very productive and I got a lot done which I needed to. Unfortunately it was somewhat more frustrating on the personal side, didn’t really get to do what I wanted to do while I was there, work stuff kind of took over instead. So on this basis I was somewhat happy to just get home to rest up this weekend.

Especially as I seem to have picked up a cold, probably from the plane – which is also contributing to my inability to sleep I’m sure!

Off on my travels again

giblet — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:37:24 +0000

I shall be off to New York shortly for a couple of weeks. It’s a business trip but I have at least one weekend to myself while I’m there, so I should be able to find something entertaining to do The first week is going to be a normal work week in Jersey City, with a few all day workshops. Second week I am spending a couple of days at an offsite in Mohonk – which should be very nice.

It’s going to be cold there. I remember NY in November from last year. I am not prepared for this!

Breaking in the new flat

giblet — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:31:36 +0000

Well I’m almost unpacked. 2 more boxes then maybe I’ll share some flat photos with you all… It’s been a busy few weeks getting settled in, but I’m 99% there and feeling good.

Today I finally have broadband – this is a huge milestone! It’s crap broadband, but that’s a long story for another day. I will detail my trials and tribulations getting decent connectivity out of the Poplar exchange in due course…

Anyway, Saturday I will have Sky, so then I’ll be all set. Things are looking good! The flat is nice. Not big, but it’s mine, and it feels good. I also have room to hang all my shirts up and have some of my favourite things back out of storage and I can’t tell you what a morale booster that is!

This week I’ve been breaking in the kitchen – it’s been great having my kitchen stuff out of storage and I got a bit carried away using it all, but as you can see I’m eating well

The steak I ate tonight was guilt-free, as I did an hour and a half in the gym today, running, rowing and cycling. Nice to eat and drink whatever you like There’s still time to sponsor me for my 10k run you know – it’s this Sunday!

Summer catch-up

giblet — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:36:45 +0000

During my long hiatus from the interwebs, I have been up to various things. Some of them are marginally interesting! Over time I will try to catch up a bit. Let’s start with this summer, because it’s been a pretty good one! Let’s see, what have I been up to?!

San Francisco and Vegas - 16th May

16th May - San Francisco and Vegas

This was a great fun trip to Vegas for a week for Colm’s birthday. I flew via San Francisco and took the opportunity to stay there one day and night to explore. I really love SanFran! As you can see I took quite a few pictures there, more than I did in Vegas. I spent a lot of time at the pool and at blackjack/poker tables in Vegas and taking photos in those places is generally frowned upon

Highlights:

Turning $300 into $2300 at a $10 blackjack table over the course of 2 hours
Sitting at the same poker table as Steph and the most annoying British poker brat I have ever met - they really went at each other and Steph gave as good as she got
Pulling an all nighter playing blackjack with the group (there were like 12 of us there!), then going for a full Irish Breakfast at an Irish Pub off the strip, run by a Scotsman, watching an Irish Rugby match at 10am local time, quite drunk.
Endless mornings by the pool drinking Strawberry Daiquiris!

Lowlights:

Losing my $2000 winnings on a $100 blackjack table in 5 minutes flat
Dropping a full Gin and Tonic into my own lap at Parasol Down in the Wynn. Much to everyone else’s amusement!

Glastonbury 2009 - 23rd June

23rd June - Glastonbury.

Ah, Glastonbury, always a pleasure. This was my second time - with the same crew as last year. I don’t think anything can live up to the religious moment I had at Glastonbury 2008 watching Leonard Cohen performing a legendary set with the sun setting behind him, but this was also a good year. Great weather (bar the odd little shower here and there), a good line-up, and once again we had a good camping spot and no major drama or incidents

Favourite moment? Probably Friday night when I was a little tired and emotional and pouring my heart out to Colm and Steph I think Neil Young was playing at the time? Or maybe hiding out in a tunnel in Shangri-la during a sudden and tremendous downpour - rain water coming through the ceiling and dripping down my neck - comedy!

London Pride then a Madonna concert - 4th July

4th July - London Pride and then a Madonna concert

I remember calling this my super gay summer day It was a really fun day. London Pride is always entertaining and this time we got to see One Star (Denise Pearson of the former band Five Star) singing. I even took some video of her and she is standing the test of time quite well as you can see.

Madonna was just brilliant. I was not expecting her to be that amazing. High energy, perfect choreography, great singing, and a tribute to MJ that was quite touching and nicely done. If only MJ hadn’t died, I could have seen both my childhood music heroes live this summer A somewhat selfish way of looking at it I know, but I think that’s how we all handle death isn’t it? How it affects us?

After London Pride, we took the Thames Clipper to the O2 for Madonna. This was a really nice jaunt on the river and as a Londoner I must remember to do this more often!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNDm3pysz_s

U2 concert in Dublin - 25th July

25th July - U2 concert in Dublin.

Chance to see U2 live in Dublin? Not to be missed. Having not seen them live before (somehow), I was thrilled to see this show - it was epic, and to the home crowd! Sunday Bloody Sunday was amazing, I could barely hear the band over the crowd!

I had a great time, and sang myself hoarse, along with everyone else

August was very hectic indeed - check it out:

All Points West in New York - 1st August

1st August - All Points West in New York

When a work trip lined up with the APW weekend I couldn’t believe my luck, nor turn down the chance to attend. What a line-up! Jay-Z, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, Tool, MGMT, Elbow, Echo and the Bunnymen, Gaslight Anthem and Coldplay! Oh my!

Festivals in the US are funny - especially this one, with bizarre and annoying rules about a) how much alcohol you can drink and b) which areas of the site you can drink it in. Most of the weekend was spent finding creative ways around these rules

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqUX0BssS50

Amsterdam Weekend - 7th August

7th August - Amsterdam Weekend.

I’d never been to Amsterdam, so when Rick and Colm suggested it (primarily as a means to get air miles and tier points with BA via a discounted business class return), I couldn’t say no!

It was a weekend in Amsterdam, so about what you’d expect really! i.e. lots of museums, culture, and canals, of course (what did you think I meant?!)

We stayed in a 3 bed private room in the Bulldog hotel (hostel really) - good location and atmosphere. Good value too - recommended.

U2 in Wembley - 15th August

15th August - U2 in Wembley.

They were so good in Dublin, I couldn’t resist seeing them again in Wembley. Amazing concert - in Wembley it was fully a 360 degrees layout (unlike Croke park in Dublin where it was about 270 for safety reasons). This was the 360 tour so I’m glad I got to see that

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJaceKLzMQ0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc5Wefznke8

Cannes and Monaco weekend - 21st August

21st August - Cannes and Monaco weekend

Summer drawing to a close - must go somewhere hot and beachy stat!! Managed it. Cannes was beautiful, I spent the whole weekend on the beach sunbathing, eating and drinking Popped into Monaco for lunch on Sunday “on the way” back to Nice airport.

Reading festival - 28th August

28th August - Reading festival

I really needed a weekend at home at this point - what a month! But what the hell, it was Reading festival and I’d not been to that before. Rick scored me a ticket and even got there early to score a good spot for me so all was set for a great weekend

Reading had an incredible line-up this year. Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Vampire Weekend, Yeah yeah yeahs, The living end, Gossip, Glasvegas, Gaslight Anthem,The Maccabees, Florence and the Machine, Faith no More, Prodigy, Radiohead, among others!

That said it wasn’t all roses. I must say having been to Glasto twice Reading was a shock. A much younger, more hectic, rude and “nasty” crowd. Some scary moments of pushing in dense crowds, people throwing stuff into crowds at gigs, and the absolute craziness of the last night….

It was like ‘nam - I’m telling you man, it was crazy! You weren’t there man, you weren’t there!!

…breathe. Okay, so anyway, picture a campsite at 2am on the last night. Groups of young kids roaming the site looking for trouble like something out of Lord of the Flies.. Flares and fireworks going off horizontally (occasionally hitting tents). Mushroom clouds on the horizon from kids throwing camping gas canisters and aerosol cans onto bonfires (!) Fire engines hurtling around… Crazy!

I’m not going to reading next year. (Unless the line-up is awesome again…)

Anyway - that was my summer. Not a bad one eh? How were yours?!

Back from Ireland

giblet — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:16:14 +0000

Back from my weekend in Dublin – was most enjoyable – couple of really nice meals and a good long cliff walk along the coast. Also maybe a few too many drinks on Friday Pictures to follow, I have had a bit of a hectic day and not got to uploading them yet.

The day was hectic as I picked up the keys for my new flat today, and spent my evening shuffling things around from storage, picking up some missing essentials etc. Will be a few more days before I’m anywhere close to settled in there but already I have a bit more space for my things which is nice.