12 Marathons – 12 Months

Rotary Shakespeare Marathon

Well, Sunday saw marathon number four out of the way so that makes me a third of the way through now. This was without doubt the best organised race so far in my opinion. The management at the starting line, the broadcast of information, facilities and race marshalling were all first-rate. There were around 3,500 runners on the day with approximately 1,300 participating in the full marathon (the rest doing the half) so a feat of organisation in anyone’s book!

However, this was by far the hardest course I have run to date and as a result I only managed a time of 4:07 which is a bit gutting as I was hoping to maintain a run of sub-4:00 times. The first mile or so consisted of a lap of Stratford town centre which was naturally closed to traffic for the start. This provided a great confidence boost as you soaked up the cheering of the quite substantial crowds before heading out onto the local roads. This was a two lap circuit for the marathon with the second lap deviating somewhat from the first. For the road-based element of the course the going was pretty much as you would expect. There were one or two shallow gradients and only one real “hill” for which you were rewarded with a 14% downhill straight after a two-stage climb. However, the final three miles of the first lap and the last six miles of the second lap were along the “Greenway”, a disused railway bed now used as a cycle track. The surface is hard-packed gravel/grit and it is just one long straight line with a very slight incline as you head back towards Stratford. There was also little or no shade for the majority of the Greenway section so when the sun decided to reappear at mile 20 I knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant! For the final six miles I dropped into a run-walk-run cycle that I was unable to get out of until after mile 24 and that burned up all the time I had accrued “in the bank”. I knew I wasn’t going to break 4 hours at around 23 miles and as the twinge I’d started with in my right knee was now really starting to hurt I decided to ease up and save whatever I had left for the last mile.

As with any marathon the finish line was a welcome sight and a managed to squeeze out a sprint for the last 100 yards (yeah I know – crowd pleaser)! The announcer was making every effort to get everyone’s name read out as they crossed the line and like many of the larger races now they had employed chip timing for an accurate result.

All the finish line facilities were more than equipped to cope with the numbers and the weather remained bright and sunny for everyone sprawled out on the grass wondering what possessed them to sign up for such torture! As I’d arrived so early I’d managed to park virtually opposite the finishing area and thanks to a secure bag store run by the local Sea Cadets I didn’t have to run with my car keys jangling in my back pocket this time either. So, whilst I cannot fault the Stratford Rotary Club for such a well-organised event I doubt very much I will be signing up for next year as it’s such an unforgiving route. Unfortunately for me now I’m nursing two very sore knees – most likely tendonitis – so I’m strapped up with supports and hoping Voltarol will ease the inflammation so that I can get back out on the roads to be ready for Edinburgh next month.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Next Marathon Looms…

Final training days this week before I tackle the Stratford Marathon this Sunday. Feels like a really long time since the last one because it was at the beginning of March and this one is at the end of April. My only concern is whether I’ve managed to maintain the required level of fitness for another 26 miles but I’ll find out for sure on Sunday! After the next race I’m going to be into a regular monthly cycle so should be easier to manage in terms of a routine.

So, it’s a short easy run tonight, speedwork again on Thursday and a final loosener on Friday followed by a couple of early nights and plenty of hydration (no alcohol!) as I think it’ll be quite warm that day.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back with an update on Sunday after the race.

Speedwork Improving

Had a very good speedwork session tonight. Planned for 7 miles including 3x1600m at 7:40 and 800m jogs between but managed 7:00, 7:11 and 7:21 on the splits so I was quite pleased with that.

I’m not competitive – much

Supposed to do 2 miles easy last night after the weekend long run. Started out ok – maintaining a steady pace and then I found myself following someone and despite all my intentions to go slow and steady I suddenly broke into a full-on run and then all I could think of was putting as much distance between me and them as possible… Ended up doing about 3/4 mile more than planned and way over pace!! But it was fun

Back on Form

Great run yesterday – 14.34 miles in 2:06:13 which equated to an 8:48 min/ml average so not bad at all. I faced my old nemesis the Northwood Hills again and this time without any of the problems that plagued me last week. It was quite a warm day too so I started to get a feel for what the summer marathons are going to be like as my demand for water increases. Having said that, I did my 14 mile run without taking a sip – mainly to see how far I could go and also to see whether constantly drinking (as I often do) has a positive of negative effect. On this occasion I think it was fairly neutral – clearly I can go a lot further than I thought on my pre-run hydration and feeding but I wouldn’t like to push it beyond what I did yesterday and and certainly not as the temperature continues to rise!

That’s probably enough experimenting though as I have my next marathon in a couple of weeks in Stratford – which incidentally coincides with London so I will be thinking of them as I start my race on the start line…

Glad it’s not just me!

Well, after getting a lot of flack over my occasional rant about the London Marathon it seems I’m not alone in the view that people who sponsor runners in this race are unaware of just how much of their donation goes into the coffers of London Marathon Inc. and how little actually makes it to the charities they thought they were sponsoring!

Have a look at the debate raging about Channel 4′s Dispatches programme last night here. If you missed the programme it will be broadcast again on the 16th of April at 03:55 or you can see it on 4OD.

Performance dip

Not a good start to the week – really sluggish at the weekend and struggled to complete my 14 miler without dropping to a walk a couple of times. I think it was just a “bad day” and hopefully not something I will encounter again for a while. To be honest I think I was suffering from an underlying complaint at the time because I wasn’t feeling 100% before I went.

Speedwork tonight, so hopefully that will shake things loose again!