New Forest marathon

I wasn't feeling terribly well at the start of the New Forest marathon: over the past week, I'd had late boozy nights almost every night with not enough sleep or taking care of myself. The energy levels have been feeling very low for a while now, and it's getting increasingly hard to keep the calorie intake up. The more tired and run down I get, the less inspiring the trip to the supermarket, cooking and eating becomes. It's something I do need to sort out before the TiT, and perhaps quite urgently.

I'd topped up the training with a 14 miler on Saturday morning (meant to be 8 but it was a lovely day, I was in a great mood and got a bit carried away), then gone to the Fetch mile. One of the reasons why I do marathons is because I'm not a fast runner, and have little acceleration. Breaking 7 minutes over the mile seemed to be fairly ambitious but Riel had other ideas and told me he was going to pace me to 6'30 and wasn't taking any argument. The first few steps were terrifying, there was no way I could keep this up over 100m, but Riel wasn't going to let me slack off so I hung on for dear life, breathing like a carthorse by the penultimate lap and finally collapsing over the finish line in 6 minutes 33 seconds as close to death as it is possible to get. I may be avoiding these in future... It was quite nice to have my tortoise nature confirmed in the 100m we did later on - of the 12 of us there, I may have been the 4th quickest over the mile, but I was definitively the slowest of the lot over the 100m.


Why don't proper affleets need to recover like this??

I'm not sure how much the mile took out of me for the marathon, that intensity is something I'm not used to, but I just told myself I need to get used to running on tired and sore legs, and even while feeling a bit under the weather. The first 9 or so miles were great, I felt very strong and relaxed and the pace was comfortably sub 8'30 per mile. With a bit of time in the bank, I could even go for another 3'50 I thought. By mile 10, my guts started to protest so I ducked into the forest by the side of the road. That was the beginning of the end, all my energy seemed to have leached out of me and I was having to dig in to maintain the pace. Digging in so early isn't part of the game plan, ever.

The course is absolutely stunning, but unfortunately I couldn't appreciate it fully as all my mental and physical energy was concentrated on keeping my legs turning over. The views were fabulous, I think, and there were lots of ponies around but I had the tunnel vision back and couldn't see much beyond a few feet of tarmac ahead of me. By mile 15 or 16, we were up on the top of the moor in the blazing sunshine, but I was freezing now and covered in goosebumps. Another bad sign.. There were still a few minutes in the bank if I could keep up with 9 minute miles, but the route now became hillier and I was really struggling, taking my first walk break up the hill at 17, and having to stop for a minute or two at the 18 mile water station to try to get some blood back in my head to stop feeling like I was about to faint. It was at that point I lost the 4 hours and it was desperately disappointing, I felt so angry with myself for not pushing harder.

The tactic for the rest of the race was to walk the uphills and run the flats and downs and this seemed to work, although the cravings for any liquid that wasn't water were getting really strong. Lucozade, orange juice and soda water, a pint of bitter, any would have done as the water now wasn't any benefit other than to rinse my mouth out. Luckily, the repeated marathons are really paying off now, those 7 miles were horrible but at least they seemed to pass quickly. It's not often that you see so many people struggling in a marathon this size, I was really surprised to see so many people walking flat stretches. It's not so unusual in a big city race where people aren't so experienced, but this is a fairly small club marathon and not an excessively tough course and, while it was sunny, it wasn't that hot.

By the last mile however, my watch told me that sub 4'15 was well within reach and a sub 4'10 was possible if I really floored it. I remembered the mile time trial and knew I could push harder than I used to think possible only 24 hours before. An almost 8 minute mile and it was done, 4'09'26.

I'm disappointed with that time but putting it into perspective, I averaged sub 4 hours for each of my 4 marathons in September, with a total of 15 hours 43 minutes for the 4. So it's game on for the TiT, and the learning points are slowly identifying themselves. Message from this week? Rest more, and get the nutrition sorted.

Nottingham marathon, Day 2 in a sub 8 attempt

The Nottingham marathon was Day 2 in my double weekend and after 3'52 at 3 to go mara the day before, the primary aim was a 4'07 to get the sub 8 for the two combined, but ideally a sub 4 to get that pace hardwired into my legs. If my legs are obedient enough to knock out 9 minute miles for 4 hours without too much mental pushing, I'll be in much better shape for the attempt on the TiT.

I woke up feeling surprisingly fresh and the 30 minute walk down to the start eased my legs up to the point where they felt absolutely fine. My right ankle was a bit tight, and has been for a while now, it's linked to the old tendonitis injury from April where my foot collapses inwards and strains the inside of the ankle. Taping it up helps a bit, so it was all go for today. It was strange being back in a big race, shoving through the crowds to get to a reasonable start position and all the ceremony of marquees and music and a compere talking absolute rubbish. Quite uplifting though. By the time we got going, I knew it was going to be a good race, and my mood was stay on top of the world for the next 4 hours.

The first mile or so was with Dave who is well and truly over on the dark side and hooked on marathons now (he had a blinding run), and Olly and Sharon who were doing the half and who got a fair bit of good natured abuse for slacking off. At the top of the hill by the castle after about 1.5 miles, there was a wonderful descent, it was fabulous to open out and fly down it. This wasn't going to be a cautious run, I was just going to run how I felt (as long as that was at least 9 minute miling). I caught up with Richard with whom I ran a fair bit of Windy this year, and we spent the next 10 miles together, having a good old chat. We were particularly taken by the show pony runner, in the tightest compression top imaginable and high stepping along with his arms aloft like he was in a dressage compeition. It was a shame I got busted while doing an impression..... Richard told me off a bit for speeding up at about mile 11, hard to avoid when the half marathoners start picking it up in their final miles, but we stuck together to give them a panto style boo when the route split.

Almost immediately, I both lost Richard and my garmin gave up. It was telling me to delete old laps and inviting me to press enter, which I thought would delete the old laps. No luck, it had stopped counting both the distance and the time so I had to turn it off. It was a bit of a worry, I didn't know how reliant I had become on the Garmin and suspected it was "very", and now I didn't even have a watch. 13 miles to go and the only thing I could do was run at a comfortable pace and hope it was fast enough. Scientific eh? I asked whoever was around me at every few mile markers for a rough idea of the time but that wasn't quite accurate as it had taken a few minutes to get over the start so we were all on slightly different numbers.

Luckily, I was having a great day, feeling fresh with no pain and really really enjoying it. On days like this, it all comes together, you just feel invincible, like you could run for days (guess that what I'm training to do!) and like you're running on air. I had a bit of a chat to a few people, a guy running with his future son-in-law, a guy running for Multiple Sclerosis, a few of 100 club guys, I like hearing everyone's stories about their running, all these very different people with a shared interest. At about mile 19, you get to Holme Pierpoint, a long stretch of water used for regattas, which could I suppose be a bit boring. I loved it however, you can see for miles and it was brilliant spotting all my mates in front and behind me. By the time we got off the water, I had a cracking runners' high and probably looked a bit mental - bit of a hill, woohoo! bottle of water, woohoo! speakers playing new order, woohoo! friendly marshal shouting you're looking good, woohoo! Only 4 miles to go, woohoo!

Given I don't have another marathon for two weeks, I thought it was about time to put my foot down and really nail a sub 4, and going off the various times from other runners' watches, I was looking at about the same time as yesterday. Sub 4, woohoo! Shut up Naomi, you're just getting annoying now.. I was a bit tired in the last few miles and had a rather sore big toe (which turned into a giant blister, nice) but kept it together to cruise along the last bit of embankment and pick it up a bit over the last few hundred yards to cross the line in a gun time of 3 hours 52, exactly the same as yesterday.

The last three races have been 3 hours 51, 3 hours 52 and 3 hours 49 (chip time), that's 8'49, 8'48 and 8'46 pace per mile respectively, just extraordinary. It would appear the legs are quite happy at about 8'45-8'50 pace, with or without the garmin. So that was a sub 8 weekend, 7 hours 41 in total and two sub 4s so I'm absolutely delighted, especially given how enjoyable they've been. The question is now, could I do that for another 8 days? Definitely today, I'm feeling full of energy and bouncing off the walls, and probably tomorrow. Beyond that is less certain, but with massage and proper rest and nutrition I'm feeling much much more confident about the TiT.


Long straight stretch of tarmac = one happy runner

The Three to Go Marathon, Day 1 of a Sub 8 double attempt

The 3 to go was Day 1 of my first double (back to back marathons on consecutive days) since June, with Nottingham on Sunday. As a tester for the TiT, I wanted to run the two in a total of sub 8 hours, especially considering the 3 to go is fast and flat for a trail mara. It's off road but along good gravel towpaths and tarmac paths along the Lea Valley from St Margaret's to Hackney.

The first mile included a rather unwelcome footbridge over the level crossing, with dire warnings not to go over the crossing on pain of disqualification. The second mile included the diversion of removing my running vest and repinning my number to my sports bra top as it was already pretty warm. Unfortunately, I managed to spear one of my two gels with a safety pin (I stash them under the straps) so had to down it there and then. I must have looked a complete amateur taking a gel in the first 15 minutes of a marathon.

The field thinned out fairly quickly and I found myself about 20 yards behind a man in an orange vest, for about 8 miles. I wasn't bothered about passing him and didn't want to spare the energy talking (talking also makes me need more water, and the stations were 4-5 miles apart) so he inadvertently acted as my pacemaker, cruising along at about 8'30-8'40 pace. It really did feel like cruising, neither plodding like in a trail marathon, nor pushing hard like in a PB attempt, just a nice comfortable pace, legs turning over easily, breathing easy, enjoying no noise but the sound of your feet on the gravel, the breeze on your skin and the sun on your back. Just lovely.

The route wasn't my favourite, with about 6 miles of disorienting twists and turns through the Lea Valley Park and quite a lot in the second half past increasingly grim warehouses and concrete flyovers but it was prettier than I expected and overall not a bad little race. By about mile 16, I drew up alongside orange vest man and we were to play cat and mouse to the finish (I beat him in the end, purely because he'd threatened to take out a restraining order..). By 20 miles, I caught up with Joe to my great surprise, he wasn't having a good race so I pushed on. In the last few miles, all the recent marathons really paid off, I passed a few people while feeling good with no aches and pains. I was a bit tired but it's so much easier to push on mentally now, plus whatever I did sub 4 today was time in the bank for Nottingham.

I crossed the line in 3 hours 52 minutes, at an average of 8'47 per mile (last week was an average of 8'49 per mile) and in exactly the same position - third senior lady. This isn't good, I'm getting predictable......

The Kent Coastal marathon

The Kent Coastal was the first road marathon in a long time, since Edinburgh in May and, while I was really looking forward to getting back on the road, I was a bit concerned that all these trail marathons had made me a bit lazy. They've definitely made me stronger, the hills today weren't too much of a problem, but I did have to remind myself to run them (they're a great excuse to walk in trail marathons) and to keep going at the water stations and not stop for a chat with the marshals. This was my first sub 4 marathon when I ran it last year so I wanted to beat that time of 3'58, but really it could have gone badly wrong since I could have lost quite a lot of aerobic fitness over the summer.

My tactic for this race was to run the first half a bit quicker to bank some time for the inevitable windy stretch in the 3rd quarter. Dave and I hadn't agreed to run together but, like Edinburgh, we found we were at a similar pace so we kept each other company in companionable silence, until Allan popped up to provide the commentary. It's a good race to run with other people, especially in that tough 3rd quarter. The first half is fairly hilly but along some nice sea front down to Ramsgate and back, then after you lose all the half marathon runners back at the start/finish, you head out through Margate and further up the coast to the turn around point at 19.3 miles.

This is the hard part, the wind picks up here and it's pretty exposed along a pretty unexciting bit of concrete sea wall. What kept me going here was the company, the thought that I just needed to get to about 19 miles and it would all get easier and the extra strength and endurance from all those marathons I've done this year. The aerobic side wasn't too bad, it did feel like I was pushing it a little bit, but I suspect that's because I've forgotten what it's like to run at that effort for that long without nice walking breaks. My pace had slipped a little as predicted into the wind, and I was finding it pretty tough, but things got much easier at the turnaround point.

Our little band of 3 broke up a bit, Allan was looking like he was in a greyhound trap and Dave was starting to tire a little bit (unsurprisingly, on his second mara), so Allan went on ahead and I left Dave behind. He claims he didn't want the company anyway. There was a reasonable cushion of time to get the course PB if I kept moving and happily the legs were obedient, nothing was hurting too much other than the standard bruised feet. I managed to overtake a few people in the last few miles too and got through Margate to run the last 0.2 mile at 7'44 pace which was rather satisfying. My finish time of 3'51 was especially pleasing as it was a 7 minute course PB, and also enough to get a prize for 3rd senior lady. I've never won a prize before, and was so far from expecting it that I was queuing up at the burger van when they announced my name! A cracking day out by the seaside then, and with a few weeks' more training and road marathons, the PB at Abingdon should be achievable.


Allan, Dave and me, and a bloke having trouble sitting down

The Pathfinder marathon - number 30

The Pathfinder marathon in Cambridgeshire was a lot flatter than Dorset last weekend but required a lot more navigation. Unlike some LDWA instructions, these lacked distances so when we were told to "turn right and after the pumping station and stream, turn right through the gap in the hedge to follow the edge of the field with the hedge on your left", we went sailing up the grassy rutted track for, ooh, more than half a mile rather than about 50 yards. Doh. So this turned into a 28 mile event, at least it was a nice day.

It wasn't the most attractive marathon, lots and lots of flat fields are never going to be very exciting, and the Dorset coastline spoiled me a bit last week with its soaring views, but it was a grand day out with some of my marathon running buddies. And the road season starts on Sunday with the Kent Coastal.