Two trail marathons through beautiful springtime countryside with many similarities but some marked differences. Neolithic is a point to point race commencing the the ancient stone circle of Avebury, across Salisbury Plain to Stonehenge whereas Bewl water is two laps of the largest body of water in Southern England.
Both of these were booked as hopefully pleasant ways of racking up the numbers on my way to 100 Marathon Club full membership. Both were to be taken easily rather than raced. Both served to reinforce that an easy marathon is by no means an easy thing to achieve. The stand out memory of the first was the thunder storm which swept across the course on the exposed plain, being absolutely drenched by the horizontal rain but soon drying off as the sun came out again. Over 1000 walkers started the same course two hours before the runners, this meant a lot of dodging around them on rutted trails which tired my legs. Towards the end I ran out of energy drastically and finished feeling quite dizzy.
Over the next few days I didn't feel well and this impacted the Bewl Water run as a mid-race dash to the toilets added time and distance making the second lap pretty much a wobbly legged walk around. It was hillier than I had expected which again tired me significantly. The best that could be said was that I got it done!
These two 'easy' marathons were supposed to be gentle lead ins to the next big event on my calendar, the North Downs Way 50 miler, but actually only served to increase my already high anxiety.
3rd May 2015 Neolithic Marathon 4:57:41 #75
9th May 2015 Bewl Water Marathon 5:43:28 #76
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