Buttons for Brathay Bells and Whistles weekend was part of Kaz Hurrell's fundraising towards her third ten marathons in ten days event in support of the Brathay Trust, and as such was a 'must do'. It comprised marathons on both days in conjunction with a 10K on the Saturday which was ideal as it afforded an opportunity for Mandy to do a bit of running instead of just watching me trudge back and forth. The route for all races was out and back along Prince of Wales Pier followed by out and back along the prom and repeat for sixteen cycles with an extra spur along the pier and back an the end. Sun was forecast for day one and cloud cover for day two with reasonably high temperatures for the time of year.
I had not been in brilliant health in the few days prior to the weekend and I spent the journey down to Dover sneezing, feeling nauseous and with a pounding headache, luckily Mandy took driving duties! I've quite frequently felt similar immediately before marathons and I'm certain that it's often psychosomatic, so I wasn't overly concerned and just wanted to get a decent night's sleep, which I managed, and awoke feeling much better. My plan was similar to the track marathon a few weeks earlier, that is, to take things comfortably until a point around about 16/17 miles and then strike out for the finish line, and hopefully get round in something close to four hours.
Atmosphere at the start line was lovely, many familiar faces, smiles, hugs and chatter, a real relaxed feel but it was obvious that a lot of effort had gone into the organisation; barriers and tape delineating turn round points, a very well stocked aid station, plenty of marshals and a proper finishing gantry with race clock. After a briefing from race director Karen we were sent on our way, the faster people shot away lead by the speedy Adam Holland and the rest of us trotted along behind.
Everything was going pretty well, it was great to have the 10K start two hours into the marathon and be able to be with Mandy as she completed her race. I cruised to the 17 mile mark and then increased my effort level. It was here that my weekend started to fall apart. By 20 miles my stomach was cramping quite badly, and by 22 miles I was finally facing my Portaloo! On leaving the green Tardis my legs felt like all power had gone and I struggled through to the end at around 11 minute miles. The course was about a mile long, which wasn't a problem, and that meant that without the stomach problems slowing me I would probably have been around 4:10 for marathon distance, which I would have been happy with for day one of a double.
That evening I did not feel at all well, I struggled to eat much comfortably and had a couple of occasions when I felt dizzy and nauseous, necessitating a sit-down and deep breathing. Next morning I awoke feeling very nervous about the day, uncertain about whether it was worth starting. In hindsight I should have listened to my concerns and sat it out. I started very cautiously, however, within the first eight miles I knew my fate was to be with Portaloo once again. On leaving the facility it was as if all my energy had been drained from me. By ten miles I wanted to quit. The next few miles were painful and soon 12 minute miles seemed to be beyond my capability. I kept telling myself to get through one more mile and assess things, and my fellow runners were brilliantly supportive considering how many were going through their own torture, however, by the time I had completed 18 miles I just couldn't see the point in continuing. I could have walked through to the end in another two-and-a-half hours but I didn't see that it would really be achieving anything to do that so I withdrew without any real disappointment, more relief than anything.
This was a really well organised and friendly event which, despite everything, I really enjoyed. I was great to see Mandy back completing a 10K after all the injury problems she's been through, there were friends with smiling faces everywhere I looked and the weather and scenery were great. I really don't feel regret at failing to complete day two, events conspired against me and that's just the way it goes sometimes; Portaloo - I couldn't escape though I wanted to.
29th March 2014 Bells & Whistles day one 4:32:36 #31
30th March 2014 Bells & Whistles day two dnf
Monday, 31 March 2014
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Groundhog Track Marathon - Let's Go Round Again!
My improvement throughout
the four days of Quadzilla followed up by three PBs in the three ensuing
weeks at Reading Joggers Winter Handicap (7.85 miles cross country),
Bramley 20 mile race and Reading Half-marathon had put me in a confident
mood. I remarked to Mandy before I left to drive up to Telford that
whatever happened it was going to be a PB. This was probably a bit
foolhardy as the marathon is an unpredictable beast and you can never be
too sure it will go to plan, but go to plan it most emphatically did!
I picked up multi-marathon legend Martin Bush (fast approaching his 700th marathon) and we enjoyed a delay-free journey to Telford Athletics Track, arriving well before the 9am registration was due to commence, which meant a relaxed build-up to the event. The day had dawned greyer, colder and windier than expected so I went with a long-sleeved base layer and gloves, set up my music player and strolled to the track to catch up with the various familiar faces going through their final preparations.
This was going to be a run by feel rather than governed by watch watching, taking things nice and easy until I decided it was time to charge. Looking at the splits provided by the official timing company I'm amazed at how consistently I was lapping given my lack of attention to the matter, it just shows that allowing yourself to go at a naturally comfortable pace with no conscious input enables the body to do what it needs to do. There were a couple of laps which took a little more time due to deciding to remove my base layer and then faffing with earphones, and at one point I walked for about 50 metres to take on fluids without choking but it was all going very smoothly.
As I approached halfway I started to think about when I would commence the 'sprint' for the tape. Initially I thought 80 laps would be a good point, a full-on 10k effort at the end. I then convinced myself that I could be braver than that and settled upon 70 laps. A couple of minutes of contemplation reminded me that one of my new rules in running bravely is to start the sprint at a point before I am fully comfortable with the idea. 60 laps it was then!!
Laps 61-70 were comfortable; official data shows I went from about 2:18 lapping during the first 60 to about 2:01. Laps 71-80 started to hurt a bit, slipping to around 2:05, 81-90 were hard work, dropping from 2:10 to 2:15. I held on at 2:20 laps until lap 96. Of course I wasn't at all aware of these times as I hadn't yet looked at my watch, I was just counting up the laps and trying to stay focused on the running.
It was at about this point that the negative voices in my head, the familiar self-doubt, started to make more noise: 'Your right hip is hurting with all this constant turning left, no point in injuring yourself for a fast time, just back off and coast home'. I managed to shrug that one off, I've had worse in training runs and carried on with no problem, it would have to do better than that. 'You're feeling nauseous now. What if you throw-up on the track?' Mmmmm, that would be embarrassing! But no, I wasn't going to be sick. Come on, what else have you got? 'Remember how you passed out after the Paris marathon? You're feeling a bit like that now. Your head is spinning. You're going to faint right here on the track if you don't stop running'. That was a tough one to deal with. The data shows these laps were around 2:25.
With 6 to go I looked at my Garmin for the first time. 3:45:xx. My first sub 4 was well and truly on. Time to focus. The head-wind on the back straight seemed stronger than at any previous time in the race, it was as if I was barely moving, although I was overtaking people. I kept telling myself to keep the cadence high, to get each foot back up off the ground as quickly as I possibly could. I started to worry about whether I had counted properly, I'm usually very accurate, but that was a lot of laps to count! With 2 to go I checked again. I was definitely going to do it if my lap count was correct. As I completed lap 104 the timekeeper said; 'last lap number 52'. The relief was immense. The tightness in my legs disappeared and I raced around the final lap to finish in 3:58:49 with a negative split 2:01:07 - 1:57:42.
Official splits (indulging my inner Statto);
Lap 1 (600 metres) 3:29
Laps 2-10 2:15, 2:14, 2:15, 2:18, 2:17, 2:15, 2:11, 2:13, 2:15
Laps 11-20 2:19, 2:17, 2:16, 2:13, 2:16, 2:18, 2:20, 2:37, 2:46, 2:19
Laps 21-30 2:20, 2:21, 2:19, 2:19, 2:19, 2:21, 2:21, 2:18, 2:19, 2:20
Laps 31-40 2:18, 2:18, 2:20, 2:21, 2:20, 2:41, 2:17, 2:17, 2:18, 2:19
Laps 41-50 2:23, 2:21, 2:20, 2:21, 2:27, 2:20, 2:19, 2:18, 2:20, 2:15
Laps 51-60 2:14, 2:13, 2:14, 2:27, 2:16, 2:17, 2:17, 2:18, 2:28, 2:15
Laps 61-70 2:00, 2:01, 2:03, 2:01, 2:00, 2:03, 1:56, 2:01, 2:01, 2:03
Laps 71-80 2:03, 2:07, 2:06, 2:03, 2:05, 2:07, 2:05, 2:09, 2:09, 2:07
Laps 81-90 2:10, 2:12, 2:13, 2:17, 2:16, 2:17, 2:15, 2:16, 2:16, 2:14
Laps 91-100 2:19, 2:17, 2:21, 2:21, 2:20, 2:24, 2:24, 2:26, 2:28, 2:27
Laps 101-105 2:25, 2:28, 2:30, 2:24, 2:01
8th March 2014 Groundhog Track Marathon 3:58:49 #30
I picked up multi-marathon legend Martin Bush (fast approaching his 700th marathon) and we enjoyed a delay-free journey to Telford Athletics Track, arriving well before the 9am registration was due to commence, which meant a relaxed build-up to the event. The day had dawned greyer, colder and windier than expected so I went with a long-sleeved base layer and gloves, set up my music player and strolled to the track to catch up with the various familiar faces going through their final preparations.
This was going to be a run by feel rather than governed by watch watching, taking things nice and easy until I decided it was time to charge. Looking at the splits provided by the official timing company I'm amazed at how consistently I was lapping given my lack of attention to the matter, it just shows that allowing yourself to go at a naturally comfortable pace with no conscious input enables the body to do what it needs to do. There were a couple of laps which took a little more time due to deciding to remove my base layer and then faffing with earphones, and at one point I walked for about 50 metres to take on fluids without choking but it was all going very smoothly.
As I approached halfway I started to think about when I would commence the 'sprint' for the tape. Initially I thought 80 laps would be a good point, a full-on 10k effort at the end. I then convinced myself that I could be braver than that and settled upon 70 laps. A couple of minutes of contemplation reminded me that one of my new rules in running bravely is to start the sprint at a point before I am fully comfortable with the idea. 60 laps it was then!!
Laps 61-70 were comfortable; official data shows I went from about 2:18 lapping during the first 60 to about 2:01. Laps 71-80 started to hurt a bit, slipping to around 2:05, 81-90 were hard work, dropping from 2:10 to 2:15. I held on at 2:20 laps until lap 96. Of course I wasn't at all aware of these times as I hadn't yet looked at my watch, I was just counting up the laps and trying to stay focused on the running.
It was at about this point that the negative voices in my head, the familiar self-doubt, started to make more noise: 'Your right hip is hurting with all this constant turning left, no point in injuring yourself for a fast time, just back off and coast home'. I managed to shrug that one off, I've had worse in training runs and carried on with no problem, it would have to do better than that. 'You're feeling nauseous now. What if you throw-up on the track?' Mmmmm, that would be embarrassing! But no, I wasn't going to be sick. Come on, what else have you got? 'Remember how you passed out after the Paris marathon? You're feeling a bit like that now. Your head is spinning. You're going to faint right here on the track if you don't stop running'. That was a tough one to deal with. The data shows these laps were around 2:25.
With 6 to go I looked at my Garmin for the first time. 3:45:xx. My first sub 4 was well and truly on. Time to focus. The head-wind on the back straight seemed stronger than at any previous time in the race, it was as if I was barely moving, although I was overtaking people. I kept telling myself to keep the cadence high, to get each foot back up off the ground as quickly as I possibly could. I started to worry about whether I had counted properly, I'm usually very accurate, but that was a lot of laps to count! With 2 to go I checked again. I was definitely going to do it if my lap count was correct. As I completed lap 104 the timekeeper said; 'last lap number 52'. The relief was immense. The tightness in my legs disappeared and I raced around the final lap to finish in 3:58:49 with a negative split 2:01:07 - 1:57:42.
Official splits (indulging my inner Statto);
Lap 1 (600 metres) 3:29
Laps 2-10 2:15, 2:14, 2:15, 2:18, 2:17, 2:15, 2:11, 2:13, 2:15
Laps 11-20 2:19, 2:17, 2:16, 2:13, 2:16, 2:18, 2:20, 2:37, 2:46, 2:19
Laps 21-30 2:20, 2:21, 2:19, 2:19, 2:19, 2:21, 2:21, 2:18, 2:19, 2:20
Laps 31-40 2:18, 2:18, 2:20, 2:21, 2:20, 2:41, 2:17, 2:17, 2:18, 2:19
Laps 41-50 2:23, 2:21, 2:20, 2:21, 2:27, 2:20, 2:19, 2:18, 2:20, 2:15
Laps 51-60 2:14, 2:13, 2:14, 2:27, 2:16, 2:17, 2:17, 2:18, 2:28, 2:15
Laps 61-70 2:00, 2:01, 2:03, 2:01, 2:00, 2:03, 1:56, 2:01, 2:01, 2:03
Laps 71-80 2:03, 2:07, 2:06, 2:03, 2:05, 2:07, 2:05, 2:09, 2:09, 2:07
Laps 81-90 2:10, 2:12, 2:13, 2:17, 2:16, 2:17, 2:15, 2:16, 2:16, 2:14
Laps 91-100 2:19, 2:17, 2:21, 2:21, 2:20, 2:24, 2:24, 2:26, 2:28, 2:27
Laps 101-105 2:25, 2:28, 2:30, 2:24, 2:01
8th March 2014 Groundhog Track Marathon 3:58:49 #30
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