Cyclepathic Disorder

This time last year I ran the Kent Roadrunner Marathon at the Cyclopark in Gravesend in a fairly stupid manner; I went out over-exuberantly, paid for it painfully in the second half and struggled home in a time twenty minutes slower than target.  This year I have the experience of a further 22 marathons under my belt and I know that it suits me to start cautiously with early walk breaks and build up to a fast finish.  So I went out and did exactly the same thing as last year.  Clearly some kind of cyclepathic disorder is affecting me.  Either that or I got carried away in the early stages of the race and ran like an idiot.  Again.

The trouble is that tzruns put on such good events that they attract entries from a large number of multiple marathoning types. This means there are so many friends to catch up with that I end up over-enthusiastic on the start line and go off like a dog chasing a stick.  I tried to counter this effect by starting right at the back this time but to no avail, the first four miles were all between 30 seconds and a minute quicker than the comfortable pace I'd intended to start with, at which point I thought it might be a good idea to pick the pace up a bit.  It was a warm day and before halfway I was getting flashing spots in front of my eyes.  Luckily I was sensible enough to take this as a clue that maybe I should back-off a bit and my race plan instantly changed from trying to beat four hours to reaching the finish as comfortably as possible with as many walk breaks as were needed to achieve that aim.

I did feel slightly daft being overtaken by friends whom I'd recently passed myself but all in all I was happy to be sensible.  Some days it all comes together nicely, other days you just have to do what you have to do to reach the finish.  So I strolled a bit, chatted a little, jogged the downhills, struggled uphill and enjoyed watching a large number of friends go about their standard weekend business of putting 26.2 miles behind themselves.  Particularly inspiring were those who had completed ten marathons in ten days at Lake Windermere earlier in the month.  Some runners really did suffer in the heat and the medical staff in attendance were in action on a few occasions which provided reassurance that my change of strategy was pragmatic.

The social aspect of the event continued after the race due to Anna completing her 100th marathon and being presented with her official 100 Marathon Club gear.  I still felt a bit spaced-out but joined the crowd gathered to hear the short speech from chairman Traviss Willcox and applaud the presentation before attacking the table full of cake, as is traditional on these occasions.

Being honest with myself, I reached a point in March/April this year where I thought I could now turn up to an event and grind out a four hour marathon if I wanted to do so.  Since then Hamburg and now Kent Roadrunner have given me a gentle nudge and reminded me to be a bit more humble about things.  I am still not fit or conditioned enough to consider that as a given minimum and complacency about the distance is a dangerous mindset.  I am, though, now much happier changing my plans mid-race and rather than brooding about it afterwards, feeling like a failure, I can smile and 'enjoy' the bumpy ride to the end with no concern about how my finishing time will look to others.

It is obvious that the people behind this excellent event have run a lot of marathons themselves; everything is thought through from a runner's perspective which is why it has quickly become one of the most enjoyable social events on my marathon calendar.  One of the really nice touches is that the professionally taken race photographs are available at no extra charge, compared with the big events which will often charge £60 in addition to an inflated entry fee.  I have already entered for next year and will, at some stage, possibly run a decent race at this venue.  Or maybe not.  In any case I know there will be plenty of friends around no matter how the running eventuates and for that reason alone it's worth being there.

31st May 2014  Kent Roadrunner  4:34:10  #36