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{TS, slowly morphing into a mini Hippo and Shades, spider like, drawing people into marafuns .......... tee hee hee}
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you asked
Bloody hell marathon report 2005
Setting the scene-
Dreadful week at work-with lots of stress and too much alcohol
Situation normal then
Precious little running in the 2 weeks since Abingdon-more to do with the head than the legs.
Escaped from work at 3pm on Friday-and caught a lift down to Eastbourne with Lurker and Bobbis.
Soundtrack was Armatrading, Simon and Garfunkel and-The Carpenters
(any idea how appropriate “We’ve only just begun” is to running?)
Lurker informed us that she had no inte tion of runni g a maratho ever-oops!
Arrived at Eastbourne around 8.30pm then out to the pub for a chat and a couple of pints and a fantastic plate of chicken and noodles
Must have been a large portion-I only managed half!
Bed by 11pm-and I slept like a baby-waking every two hours for a slurp of isotonic.
Forced down some cereal followed by usual pre race loo rituals-then it was a taxi to St Bedes for the start.
You could tell they were going to look after us
Trays of cake circulating with coffee and tea-pity I had no appetite.
Spent the hour pre race catching up with old friends.The walkers had already set off-I was allegedly a jogger.
But there was NO WAY I was running up that first hill.
A short sharp incline and then a long drag left me breathless and dripping at the summit.I though I was supposed to be fit!!!!
I was so upset I forgot to start my garmin for 2 minutes.
I have never started a race with a walk before except for Lyke Wake-and it really didn’t help me at all
I could not be @rsed to jog!
Still-SVT, Meldy ,AJH and I started a bit of plodding at the top of the hill-I even touched 10 minute miles at one point
Now hippos don’t do off road very well and it wasn’t long before I was walking again.
The others sped off into the distance but unsually there were people walking all around me-Im used to being at the back on my own dammit!
Ok-right well lets just try to get in under 6.5 hours-I knew I wouldn’t make sub 6 as Id need 14 minute miles and it wasn’t happening.
Lets see if I can actually enjoy a race
Snoop and Tiger arrived having started late and informed me that they were stopping at pubs at 16 miles and 22 miles
Ok well I might do that myself.
They wanted to get to mile16 by 3 hours-so off they went into the distance.
It got muddy and I struggled
I was dripping with sweat and already feeling thirsty-although I was walking a lot still.
Net to catch me was Windsurfing Susie pacing a friend round
We ran walked together till 8 miles-when I hit my usual bad patch-and Susie disappeared into the distance
Fisrst checkpoint at 8.8 miles and I gulped a cup of squash
No time to stop-it was a pitiful time already-so off I went again
Managed to get into some sort of rhythm and even overtook the odd person with run/walk
Starting to feel lightheaded and unwell-couldn’t put a finger on it.
Caught up with Pink and Aiki who were walking-at about mile 11-12
Had to run past Nicko just after mile 12-he wouldn’t let me walk!
Through a village on road then up another hill-then back on some nice trail
Ahead I spotted a Thanet club vest-and accelerated towards them
The Camelbak of Wine-it must be!
It wasn’t-SHE was ahead
Ho hum
I was never going to catch her
Settled back into a run walk as started overtaking people again
Just before 13 miles-I heard a shout behind me
“Are you going to ignore us then”
The Camelbak lass!
Had a slurp of white wine(it was after midday)-and plodded on.
Half marathon by my Garmin in an embarrassing 3 hours 20 minutes
There were uphills but they weren’t THAT bad although my feet wept at the underfoot terrain(Using 2 bridges ultra blister shoes as I was going to bin them after the run)
Revised my time to under 7 hours
Began to worry about catching my train back home
The idea was that I walk a lot and try to take I the scenery and actually enjoy myself-but walking felt hard and I really didnt feel
The purging of evil humours would have made me feel better normallybut it was the first set of Stairs
I had to stop several times to catch my breath and let my head stop swimming
Miles 16-18 involved some downhill jogs and the second EVIL set of stairs
Met two ladies who were veterns of beachy-and what they had to say didn’t bode well
Thenthere was”the most pointless bit of the course” as I heard one
Marshal say
an uphill an a down-to make up the miles
Tim Rainey phoned me at this point to
tell me he was in FLM.I was on the uphill bit and couldt speak much
But we hadn’t even started yet
My companion told me there were actually 8 not 7 hills
Oh great
By now I had very little left ad could hardly walk
Still I managed the first long uphill
pull and walked the very steep
downhill too as I couldn’t trust my buckling legs-they just didn’t seem to want to work
By the third hill id lost it
I was able to walk a few steps uphill then I was dizzy and gasping
Normally im ok onhills walking at least
But I just couldt manage it without stopping every minute hands on thighs.I ony pretended to stretch once-then all dignity was gone and I walked bent hyperventilated and got up the hills that way
I don’t thik the hills were THAT bad-but my body couldn’t take any more and I didn’t know why
An elderly couple out for a stroll o the b!tches(????) tried to engage me in conversation-er leave me alone!
Mile21-and what I thought was the last checkpoint(5 hours 46 minutes-Ive finished by now usually)
No squash
Gulped down 2 cups of water in some disappointment
There was chocolate too-but I couldn’t face it
The hills seemed less bad now andI jogged a
lttle again and overtook the elderly couple
I could see buildings up ahead and wondered if there was a shop
All I could thik about was a can of full fat Coke
My 3300ml Isotonic was long gone
Checkpoint 4
More lovely tea, and squash
Had left the checkpoint when it hit me
FUEL
I NEEDED FUEL
About turn to pick up a fun sized mars bar
Nearly vomitedbut forced it down
And in 10 miutes I was back to 16 –17 miute miling
Even overtakig again
Beachy head was fine
Sure it was a hill but I was strong again
What FOOL I had been-I have done so many marathons and I didn’t realise id hita wall
But now its about finishing
I don’t care about the time-
Almost went the wrong way followig an outward marker
But then
it was down the steep hill
Walking—no im not going to trust my legs
And a sprint finish on the road
Around 7.20
Post mortem
This is a GREAT race-inclusive of all abilities
Fantastic organisation and yes fantastic views even if I couldn’t appreciate them
As for my performance-well I don’t kow why I even bother training
Back to the drawing board
Isn't that how it's done?
you sussed us
right
speak to you in a fortnight
You will do it - it's luvverly
There's tea and sausages and beans at the end! And pudding
My name is Diana. It's been 11 months and three weeks since my last (first) marathon and is now just over 6 months to my next. I have signed up for Beachy Head. Mad fool, what have I done?
Diana Beachy Head does sound tough.
I am not that good with off-road, muddy and hilly marathons so will give this one a miss.
Jane - Beachy isn't horrendously hard, but can be very windy. I've done it 3 times and hate it more each time I do it.
Diana, you will be fine for BH, it's not off road as in really slippy and muddy (unless it rains of course), a lot of it is on the South Downs walk bit. It can get a bit windy on the hill tops and across the Seven Sisters - I have some pictures if you want I can email them to you.
Andy - if you do enough of them it minimizes the training.
I won't do any long runs now until late June as I'm racing every week or every other week.
Andy - sensible plan - can't think why I didn't stick to it myself!