Run to the hills!

Stroud Trail Marathon was a very enjoyable exploration of some of the hillier parts surrounding the small Gloucestershire town.  This was an inaugural event and so was entered with an element of blind faith in the organisers and I am pleased to say they delivered a very good event, instructions emailed out in the week before were comprehensive and it all worked pretty much as advertised.  I was daftly delighted to collect my race number and find that it was my favourite number, 17, and was also personalised with my name.  After a briefing in the 'Subscription Rooms' at the Town Hall, we gathered in the square outside

At 9am a hooter was sounded and everyone stood still waiting for someone else to move, a couple of seconds later everyone seemed to click and we all jogged off but then realised that we had to run across a narrow chip sensor, so there was a little doubling back but it was all done with good humour.

I fell in with clubmates Peter and Julia in the early stages, none of us were interested in pushing the pace so we enjoyed a very relaxed first half chatting away and having a laugh together.  The event was described as being very hilly and certainly did not disappoint in that respect.  There were some real steep ascents and descents which confirmed our early pace as sensible for the event.  Just after half way we naturally drifted apart and I pushed on a bit, taking advantage of a few relatively flat miles along a disused canal.  The flatness, however, did not last and for the final third of the race the course planner revealed a sadistic side, some of it was brutal!

By this time I had caught up with Mike and Danny and stayed with them for a few miles.  Danny has recently completed his 500th marathon and in his seventies can still register a sub 4 hour marathon on his day which is impressive by any standards, I only hope I'm still capable of getting round them at that age.  During this phase I started to struggle with the steepness of the climbs, I was panting and getting dull muscular aches across my chest despite walking them.  I took on some electrolyte drink at an aid station and immediately felt stronger and decided to push on solo.

Some of the ascents in the final miles were very tough indeed, tricky underfoot and in some cases so steep that I found it necessary to grab handy branches or narrow tree trunks and haul myself up as I wasn't able to walk it unaided.  The downhill sections were often so steep as to be almost as difficult as the ups.  Eventually I bullied myself through and enjoyed the relatively easy descent back into the town centre to finish back at the start point.  The run distance turned out to be a mile over at 27.2 according to my watch and others had more than this.  I wasn't bothered as the pre-race information had ominously mentioned that it was at least 26.2 so I was half expecting the bonus mileage.

I was very pleased with the way it went despite the almost six hour time; this was a tricky course and I spent the second half overtaking fellow competitors on a regular basis only getting overtaken myself once.  For the first half my legs felt like they weren't up for it but gradually came round to the idea and I got through a tough patch late on to finish quite strongly which demonstrated that sensible fueling and race management can get me through difficulties, something which slipped my mind last week!

11th May 2014  Stroud Trail Marathon  5:54:30  #35