I had been awaiting this day pretty much the day after Halstead marathon...really wanting to get my numbers up this year and starting to notice there aren't as many marathons as you think in the southern region.My friend James told me about this marathon and he was running in it as part of his training in the run up to Bad water 135 miler. My alarm went off at 5.10am on a Saturday morning and sometimes it does cross your mind - why am I doing this...but when my alarm went off I was well up for it, straight out of bed and on the road by 5.30. Love the roads early morning as there is noone on them so smashed it - arrived at Queen Elizabeth country park at 7.30 which is the end of the race, so you park your car at the end of the race then they ferry you to the start on coaches which was at Swindon College. I got on this bus with the usual characters - you do get some freaks at these events but there you go, everyone is nice. Arrived at Swindon college at 8.45ish and I still had and hour and 15 before I started as they had 3 starting times
9 - People who were running the marathon in over 4 and half hours
9.30 - Relays
10 - People who were running the marathon in under 4 and half hours
So I had an hour wait, I sat on the hill in the sun and chilled out, spoke to a couple of other runners about various races they had done or were doing, then James turned up at 9.45 who had got the train down from London, he played it very cool - turned up put his bag on the bus and we walked to the start line. James was running this event with me, he reckoned I would be around the 4 hour mark. The marathon was a 5200ft climb, we kicked off at 10 and we were off, James and I were both wearing Garmins and it was funny how they synced each other for every mile, beeping one after the other or at the same time which is pretty amazing that it's worked by GPS ( I love that sh8t, I am a geek). Anyway we started off through country roads and woods, then out into the South Downs through country land back through woods, we were running the first few miles in 7 and half mins flying...some of the hills we were going down at ridiculous speeds, James was very quick down the hills, I think I was a little nervous and didn't want to fall, he explained to me today that it takes years of practice and you grow with more confidence more times you do it. At the half way stage we were in a good position - 1 hour 45 mins so were well on target for 4 hours then at mile 14 we hit a monster hill which we chose to walk up, the 2nd half of the race was a lot more hillier. I was dehydrating massively for some reason, it was hot but I was drinking so much water, when we got to mile 22ish we hit a big hill and I was struggling up it, James walked ahead with a guy called Joe who we had met at the start of the race at this point I was all over the place, head on it's side sliding - James looked back and kept walking.. when I got to the top we pushed on, the last few miles went very quickly as always and we came in with 3.43.58 which I was vey happy with (46th position out of 580) It shows how much I have come on in a year when I ran my first marathon in 3.44 which was pretty flat, this marathon had 5200ft elevation. We sat down for a bit... then was off in he car and I dropped James off at the station, smashed it home in 1.40 mins, had a lay down - medium Pizza, chicken wings and garlic bread... then went round a mates to watch the game, had a couple of peronis. Was a great marathon and now I had the Southend Half to run tomorrow.
Untitled by petegoldring at Garmin Connect - Details
Southend Half Marathon - Sunday 13th June
I woke up this morning and was really not up for the half but my friend Smash was doing it and I thought it's a nice little local race and a good way to end the weekend. My legs were stiff, Smash picked me up at 9.15 we arrived at the race just for 10, we were late and there was a massive que into the car park so we had to dump the car and run to the start of the race.The race was delayed massively due to the car park situation and didn't start until 10.30. I had decided after running from the car to the start that I was lacking energy and legs were stiff so was never going to run a p.b so I decided to run with Ash who wanted to run between 1.35 and 1.40. I set the garmin pacer for 7.15 min miles which would bring us in at 1.34ish. We set off and Ash's shoe fell off - he caught me up, we ran the first 5 miles in 7.10 min miles so was ahead of schedule then Ash seemed to slow down. I was a little worried, the pace slowed right down, I kept encouraging Ash and he came in with a time of 1.40, I was 1.39, I ran the last mile on my own as fancied a little sprint...I felt good at Ash's pace and it was good to be sensible, I knew I could of gone all guns out which would have been stupid the day after a marathon. Always good to run Southend Half - flat course so good opportunity to run a p.b...next year maybe I Will train for the race and try and smash it...all in all a good weekends worth of running - it's a good feeling to know I can run a marathon then cruise a half the next day. Finished up with a few beers down old Leigh with my little bro Joe and a few mates, then a curry...writing this now I am very tired but looking forward to the next event. I totaled up mileage for the week and I ran 82.6 miles this week which is massive for me on a work week....this week will be a little quieter, specially with a swollen ankle.
