The Race Director, Chris Seeney, is quite relaxed about start times, sending off small batches of runners every 15 minutes from 8am until 9am, he does so in a unique way, booming out the opening lines of the famous 'Once more unto the breach' speech from Henry V in his Midlands accent. Always a moment of great fun, but also quite inspiring, particularly so on this occasion with the large RSC building as a backdrop.
I had decided that both days would be no more than a jog round with no time targets at all and in the early stages I fell in with Andy, a 100 Marathon Club member from Cornwall, we chatted and jogged through the early miles which took us out of town along the Stratford canal, which made navigation easy, and then through Wilmcote past Mary Arden's house...
and out into the countryside during the course of which we were joined by Judith, who had been late arriving, we had started with the last official batch so she had done well to catch us. We discussed the merits of various races we had done and the first aid station at Haselor was soon reached. From this point the course consisted of two out and backs with a loop which returned to the same aid station, I didn't want to hang about too much at the station so I grabbed some water and headed out on my own. This is no reflection on the company, I simply find going at my own pace preferable but it did mean that I had to be more vigilant as navigation was down to me alone.
The joy of the repetitive nature of the course at this stage was that you get to see all the earlier starters and it was great meeting so many friends, including Denzil who was completing his 100th marathon. Once the loops were completed it was a case of re-tracing the route back into town. By the time I reached the canal with four miles remaining my legs were very fatigued, partially down to the cross country nature of much of the course, but I wasn't feeling brilliant either. I could see groups of runners ahead so I targeted them and slowly reeled them in, but it was quite an effort and I finished feeling quite cold and shaky.
Mandy drove me back to the hotel so that I could clamber in to a hot bath to recover whilst she returned to the cricket club to cheer in Denzil, who with a number of others was reportedly 're-fueling' at an impromptu aid station, namely the Mary Arden pub in Wilmcote. And why not? It's not every day you run your 100th marathon!
We spent a lovely evening with our friends Rosemary and John, who had been due to run that day but had decided against it due to illness and I went to bed hoping that the slightly under-the-weather feeling would be gone by the morning.
The Sunday dawned fairly gloomily but I felt ready to run and so we headed out to the Carriage Cafe on the Greenway for the start. After the traditional Shakespeare speech start a batch of us trotted off for the initial spur which took us cross country to Bidford on Avon and back. A group of four of us had formed; myself, Andy, Rosemary and John, all of the others are stronger marathon runners than me and my legs were beginning to complain quite loudly by the time we'd got the initial 14 miles completed.
I took the decision to leave the group and run the next spur on my own. This was a nine mile stretch along the extent of the Greenway and back. The Greenway is a disused rail route which is flat and straight, I knew I was beginning to suffer and I had to go inside myself a bit, grit my teeth and bully myself through. By the time I got back to the cafe to start the final three mile loop I could barely keep myself moving forward, my legs felt so stiff. I had no sight of other runners so I was very carefully following the written instructions, I really wasn't in the mood for any 'bonus' miles! This last stage contained some very steep climbs and descents but I got through without drama to get another two marathons in the bag. Sometimes it's easy to underestimate the marathon distance once it's become something done so regularly, this double reminded me to take them all seriously!
7th December 2013 Broadmeadow 'Cricket Club' 4:53:55 #22
8th December 2013 Broadmeadow 'Carriage Cafe' 5:20:20 #23
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