I'm finally going to be a proper runner!

Yes, it is true.  After years of faffing around and running all those marathons that aren't 'proper marathons' I am actually going to run the only marathon that seems to count in the minds of the vast majority of the population... London!

After 7 (or is it 8?) consecutive years of entering the ballot in the spring and getting the 'Sorry' magazine in October I had resigned myself to waiting another year, and anyway I had already booked Paris on the assumption I wouldn't get a place.  When I got my first London rejection, way back when I started running, I thought I'd look into running for a charity, but the fundraising total seemed eyewateringly high, so I discounted it as a viable way to get to run.  I thought about getting a GFA (good for age) time, but let's face it my times aren't good for any age.

And then, this year, there was a glimmer of hope... My running club had 2 places for the club ballot and, as a one off, a draw was to be held for 2 people, who were prepared to find a charity place, to benefit from a sizeable fundraising pledge so that worrying about raising a huge some of money is reduced.  I did a little mental maths.  We have just over 100 members in the club, not all of them would want to enter the ballot for one of the 4 places.  This was my best chance every to get to London!

Time passed.  I got wrapped up in work - the end of term is alway stressful (and I have just remembered another admin task that I should be doing right now rather than typing this...).  Then, on Monday, while year 8 were doing an end of topic test on 'Atoms and Elements' I sneakily checked my email on my 'phone.... An email to say that I had won a charity pledge!  I smiled so much that one of the boys asked if I was OK!  All I had to do now was secure a charity place.

I thought this would be easy.... after all, when you get the 'Sorry' magazine it is stuffed full of charities begging you to sign up to raise a squillion pounds for them.  I checked the website.  Charity after charity said that all their places had gone.  I was beginning to panic.  Then I decided to think local - there is a wonderful school for physically disabled children just up the road... I wondered if they had any places, so sent them an email.  This was 9pm in the evening, so obviously I was going to have to wait for a reply.  

I didn't have to wait long.  During period 2, while my year 11s were working on their BTEC assignments, I noticed that I'd forgotten to turn the emails off on my 'phone (I normally don't get my email on my 'phone because it is annoying!) and decided that it wouldn't hurt to just flick through and see if there was anything interesting.  I actually did a little dance when I saw the email confirming that they had a place for me.  My yr11 are lovely and used to my eccentricities by now - but they do struggle to understand that anyone could be excited about the idea of running 26.2 miles!

So now the hard work begins!  I still have a sizeable chunk of money to raise and I will be running 2 big city marathons 2 weeks apart.  I'm not sure if I should look on London as an enjoyable recovery run after Paris, or regard Paris as my last long run before London.  Running London seems far more overwhelming than Paris, even though there are fewer runners.  It is going to be harder to get to the start line given the useless transport links on a Sunday morning.  I guess I am going to have to start thinking about logistics pretty soon.

Huge thanks to Fetcheveryone Running Club and Treloar's for making my dream come true.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/MrsBridgewater1

Not all miles are the same...

One of my favourite running routes has the advantage of mile markers, from the annual Alton 10 race, painted on the road.  With the exception of the 4 mile marker (which appears twice, once a bit early and once in the right place) they are all where they should be.  I know, I've checked with my Garmin!  But they don't all seem the same.  I swear that the third mile is well over a mile, it starts halfway up a hill and finishes after you pass through a village.  The other long mile is between the 7 and 8  mile markers - which should be wonderful as this is the highest part of the race with stunning views across the countryside.  It also has some lovely downhill sections, and on a day when it isn't blowing a gale you can really pick up the pace and fly along.  But it seems so long.  Conversely, the next mile seems short. No idea why, it just does.  And always will every time I run this route now.

Today's 10.5 mile run was lovely.  I downloaded an audiobook to make a change from music ('The Hard Way' by Lee Childs if you are interested) and set out, no need for gloves today.  In fact I needed my sun glasses and got a wee bit warm wearing long running tights and a long sleeved top!  There were far more people out and about than I saw last week.  Cyclists, walkers, horse riders and runners all taking advantage of the ice free roads, mild weather and the sunshine!  The rain overnight and early this morning meant that all the show had gone, the river had burst its banks (see photo) and most of the roads were more like rivers than tarmac!

I run this route regularly, the biggest hazard is drivers.  Slow moving farm vehicles are one thing, you can hear them coming from a long way off.  What provides more of a challenge is drivers who don't seem to realise that country lanes are not the place to be driving at 60+ mph around blind bends.  I've become quite adept at throwing myself into the hedgerows - in fact one of the advantages of running in the winter is that long sleeves and trousers mean less chance of nettle rash!  Today's highpoint was when I jumped up onto the muddy verge to avoid a HUGE puddle and an oncoming car only for the car to SPEED UP as it went through the puddle and soaked me from head to toe.  Nice. I was 4.5 miles from home at that point so had no option but to carry on.  If I want to go running and get covered in mud and water I'll go trail running.

Today's run takes me to just over 115 miles this year, a wee bit up on last year's total for the whole of January and, at least at this early stage, on course to meet my mileage target of 1200 miles this year.

In other news... I mentioned in an earlier post that I had entered the first Yorkshire Marathon.  I've decided to run this in memory of my friend Ali (that's him in the photo).  Ali's unexpected death, at the age of 42, back in November has left a huge gap in the lives of all who knew him.  He was a thoroughly good bloke, a real gentleman and fellow grammar pedant.  I still can't quite get my head around the fact that I won't see him wandering around town with a take out cup of coffee in his hand and his beloved, mad, dog Percy at his heel.

After talking to Ali's family, I have decided to raise money for a local charity, Cardiac Rehab.  This charity was started by a local doctor (and runner) and the methods the charity developed have been adopted by health authorities across the country.  I've set up a fundraising page HERE and would be very grateful for any donations you feel able to make.

I am a marathon runner!

This morning I had a lie in, compared to last week, but I was still out of bed  by 6am.  A quick cup of tea and a bowl of porridge while checking emails  before I collected my carefully organised kit and jumped into the car.  I'd left my race number on the keyboard last night so that there was no way I'd forget it, which is logical, until I moved it to send an email.  I'd only got 5 miles from home before I remembered and headed back.  No matter, I arrived at my friend's house at the right time, and was welcomed by his gorgeous little boy who had made us paper flowers for luck!

The Abingdon Marathon starts (and finishes) on a track.  It is a smallish race, with only about 1,000 runners.  I had a couple of hopes for the race, one was to finish in a higher position than my race number.  Looking around the assembling runners I began to doubt that this would be possible.  Very fit and fast looking people were running around the track to warm up, while I huddled under my space blanket!  

The race started promptly and we were off.  My aim was to run 10 minute miles, in the hope of coming in at around 4 hours and 20 minutes.  As this was my first marathon, I also accepted that things might not go to plan, and that four and a half hours would be acceptable and, if I'm honest, I'd be happy to finish before the course cut off of 5 hours.

Running conditions were lovely.  Cool and cloudy.  I had only done one short run since last weekend, and I was raring to go.  10 minute miles were proving impossible to maintain.  At about 1 mile in, Rohan came up behind me and told me that I was running at 8.40 minute mile pace.  I knew this, but I couldn't make my legs go any slower.  I needed a hill or something to slow me down.  I ran the first 5k in a respectable parkrun pace, and the first 10k was a season's best time for me.  Oops.  This was not the plan!  I walked through all the water stations in an attempt to slow myself down, and fall back down the field a bit to be running with slower runners.  It worked a bit. 

Around 10 miles I started to get very bored and wondered whether I could be bothered to finish, my foot was sore, but no more so than normal.  With a few notable exceptions (the Fetcheveryone fetchpoint being one of them) there was very little on course support.  The marshals were plentiful and excellent, but compared to big London races, it was lonely out there!  I ran 3 or 4 mile stretches on my own.  As the roads weren't closed MP3 players weren't allowed so I sang a bit in my head to keep myself going.  I also did some tricky maths problems to pass the time.  

The fetchpoint at mile 12 was a huge boost.  I still felt great, but bored, bored, bored!  Here though I got to meet people I've only chatted to online, and two lovely people I don't see often enough!  I was so thrilled to see Colin that I ran across the road to give him a hug. He lifted me clean off the ground!  I also dallied a bit to chat to the lovely Elaine.  You'd be hard pushed to find two nicer people to bump into during a marathon.   I carried on invigorated, and remotivated, but slower.  Which was no bad thing.  

I don't really remember when it started to feel like hard work.  I do know that I was getting slower and slower, looking forward to the water stations as an excuse to slow down, but it was progressively harder to get going again.  At one point I was desperate for a loo.  There were no loos.  I was on an industrial estate, so had to look around for a suitable bush!  Not the high point of my day, especially when I suddenly thought that the industrial park might have more CCTV cameras than the leafy lanes of Hampshire!  The marshals were excellent, encouraging us every step of the way.  Even if they did say, at 22 miles, the finish was 'just around the corner!'

At 25 miles my Garmin battery died.  It was fully charged at the start.  Clearly I need to run faster or get my Garmin serviced.  I hadn't checked my watch for a while so I had no clear idea of what sort of time I was on for.  All I could do was listen to my legs - which were screaming!   My feet had been perfectly dry until I came into the park, where we had to run through a big muddy puddle!  The cold water felt lovely after the initial shock.  

The race ended with a partial lap round the track.  As I passed the '200m to go' sign I decided that I was not content to shuffle over the line and pushed hard for home - a moment that was caught on camera by Colin: 

I finished in 4hrs 23 minutes and 8 seconds, which I am reasonably happy with.  Definite room for improvement, but I feel I can run better and faster if I do this again. 

After the race we collected goodie bags, t-shirts and medals (see below) and had to walk up stairs to exit the track.  At the top of the stairs we were given tea and biscuits, which were very welcome.  The next task was to walk down stairs, carrying a polystyrene cup of tea, biscuit, bag, t-shirt, medal and (in my case) a water bottle!  I think running a marathon was easier than that!  

Meeting up with super speedy friends afterwards, it was reassuring to see the that they too were walking strangely!  We managed to navigate our way to a Pizza Express we had passed during our run where we discussed our war stories and demolished pizzas!

So now I can say that I have run a marathon.  Would I do it again?  Yes!  But I would do it differently. I need to work on getting the pacing right so that I can enjoy the latter stages more.  I am so glad I did do it though!  If anyone wants to sponsor me retrospectively for this (I am fundraising for UNICEF) please follow this link!