#100

With the concern about getting through #98 and #99 unscathed, #100 sort of crept up on me a bit.  The day was as good as I could have hoped; sunny but not too hot, Samphire Hoe looked fantastic, a strange other-world at the foot of the white cliffs, accessed via a tunnel which gives it a Narnia-esque feel.  It was by my favourite marathon organisation., SVN, and my glamourous assistant Mandy was there with me, her support of everything I do in running is a constant for which I am very grateful.

The run itself was almost irrelevant, I coasted to mid-way then put in some effort to record another negative split, another standard day of marathon completion.  I did consider slowing up in the final mile to try to exactly repeat the time from my very first marathon but concluded that this would be daft.  I was then presented with my medal, tee-shirt some certificates to go with the cards that several friends had written for me.  Glen had gone to the trouble of getting an alternative tee-shirt prepared referencing the Anti-Nowhere League's notorious song 'So What', the shirt has an ANL symbol with the wording 'I have run 100 marathons... So What?'.  I was sharing 100 Marathon Club official presentation day with Karen and so after all formalities the various cakes and Prosecco were available to all.

Reaching the milestone hasn't really meant a great deal to me of itself, it is something that I have ticked off along with other tick boxes on the way; doubles, quads, 52 in 52 weeks, 7 in 7 days and so on.  In some ways it feels like a burden lifted as I can now get on with running properly again, doing some faster, shorter stuff, getting my PB down and getting more into ultras, I'm pleased to have done it but looking forward rather than back.

23rd September 2015  The Tolkein Run  (26.9 miles)  5:02:41  #100