Hi all,
For 2012 i've decided to set myself a bit of challenge (well for me, maybe not all you seasoned runners) of doing 12 marathons for charity. I'm hoping to do 1 a month but am struggling to find events which will cover it.
so far i've got on my list.....
Jan: Gloucester (have place)
Feb: Seville (have place)
Apr: london (have place)
May: windermere
Jun: Lancaster
Sep: Nottingham or Kent Coastal or LochNess (though at £44 seems a bit pricey)
Oct: Chester or Liverpool
Nov: Rutland
does anyone know of any in the months i've missed or can recommend some alternatives to the ones i've listed above (i'm on a bit of a tight budget so any more marathons abroad are a bit of a no-no though)?
thanks
W2S
Comments
i have but the big problem is finding them spaced out enough that i've got a bit of recovery time - i was wondering if any runners knew of marathons local to them that don't tend to get advertised on the site here......
was also hoping people could recommend ones (i've only ever run london or leicester before)
Oh ok - I've only done London and Edinburgh which were very different. One thing I would say is that there are lots of different types of marathons and depending what you like they might not all suit you - so if you can say what you like - country/city, noisy/quiet, large/small etc etc maybe people can let you know about ones that fit the bill. As far as the charity aspect goes, I suppose ones that are located near friends you can stay with might suit you better than ones where you'd have to fork out for a hotel. So in your place I would probably work out who would give me a bed then google the local running clubs to see what races they are putting on. Or do a google search including the name of the county and the word marathon and see what comes up - you never know!
You've probably seen this but if not it might be of use.
Good luck.
I think Portsmouth have a marathon around the 18th of december this year so may fit into your plans for a late dec one next year....looks very flat, but i imagine if it's near the sea front may be a bit brisk with the weather.
Also i think Southend may be looking to hold a marathon in March (??) not sure if this info is right or not though.
Hope this helps.
Apparently, Southend will be on 29/4, the first stab at a website is here:
http://southendmarathon.com/
be an interesting contrast to Brighton
Have you looked at Blackpool for March?
Good luck
cheers everyone - am going to go for Blackpool in March (really can't afford to go abroad more than once and i'm already booked in for Seville) and will look into the portsmouth one too - getting closer
My bf is also doing this after one of his runner friends did it last year
Races that he's entered or is thinking of entering are
Jan - Gloucester ( booked )
Feb - Cotswold or Cambridge
March - cornwall ( Duchy marathon ) ( booked )
April - Shakespear Stratford upon Avon ( booked ) -( i'm doing the London Marathon lol )
May -Windermere ( booked )
June - Wales , Tenby ( booked )
July - Bletchley or Isle of Man
August - Guernsey
Sept - Wolverhampton, Nottingham or New Forrest
Oct - Abingdon Oxfordshire ( booked )
Nov - Luton ( although i'm not sure he knew about Rutland so have forwarded him the details )
December - Portsmouth ( booked )
i've told him about this thread so he'll probably come and post on here u can swap some ideas and training plans then if that will help at all
The faversham marathon ( Kent ) in july is worth a look. It is not for everyone as it is 40 laps around a recreation ground, but I have done it several times and enjoy it. It is run by the 100k association. There is a link on the 100 marathon club website to the entry form if you are interested.
The 100 marathon website is really good for finding marathons both in the UK and worldwide- look under events.
Good luck with the 12 in 12.
If its on - you could kill 2 birds with one stone...
Portsmouth
Belvoir leices
Steyning Stinger
Sussex
Richmond park
Lancaster
Which will take me up to June and then still making some decisions for the second part of the year with probably Mablethorpe, Nottingham, Rutland, Portsmouth with a couple of others to fit in.
I've done 7 already but really wanted something to get stuck into!!
Might see you at Lancaster!!
I am doing:
Jan - Gloucester (entered)
Feb - ?? maybe Belvoir or Cambridge (tbc)
Mar - Duchy (Redruth) (need to post off entry form)
Apr - Shakespeare (entered)
May - Brathay Windermere (entered)
Jun - Wales (Tenby) (entered)
Jul - ?? maybe Bletchley or Isle of Man
Aug - ?? maybe Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 or Guernsey
Sep - Robin Hood or New Forest
Oct - Abingdon (definitely want to do this, it's my local!)
Nov - Rutland (probably)
Dec - Portsmouth (definitely want to finish on this one)
It's annoying that the Cambridge Boundary run says:
"Check back for entry details closer to the new year" and has done so for months. Emails to the organiser have gone unanswered. The alternative (Belvoir) has no medal, which is a pain as it would be great to get 12 medals in the year. Not 11 and a t-shirt.
If I don't do one these in Feb, then I could always double-up in another month. I am undecided at the moment. I like the idea of spacing them out - one every month - but this may not be possible. My friend who did 12 last year did just that, skipped Feb and did two in May.
Anyway, I'll be off out for my first run in 2 weeks tomorrow, as I have to get my training back on plan pretty sharpish, or the whole idea might go up in smoke!
This is my goal for 2012 too. At the moment my list is
Jan - tbc
Feb - Heartbreaker (entered)
Mar - Paris Eco Trail (50K but I've decided over distance counts - entered
Apr - Brighton (entered)
May - North Dorset Villages (entered) Marlborough 33m
Jun - South Downs
Jul - maybe Chichester Challenge
Aug - ?? maybe Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1
Sep - Farnham Pilgrims
Oct - maybe Lucca
Nov - tbc
Dec - probably Portsmouth
Managed 8 this year, sporting a slightly dodgy glute post Florence 2 weeks ago but am up for the challenge, and know a lot of people who'd think this is pretty mild. There are always a lot of people more hardcore out there!
Whats the Heartbreaker one KateF how far is that?
Compo 1 i'm just doing London lol, but i have a feeling i shall be the cheering squad for most of Ulen's ( MAABOF ) marathons!!! feel free to join me anyone if you are about for any of them or if you're doing them i'll cheer you on too lol
The Heartbreaker is new for next year, in the new forest, normal marathon distance but there's a half and a 10K too details here. http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/00_Heartbreak_half.html
I don't fancy Gloucester so need to try and find something else for Jan, not much about though.
Out of interest how are you booked on the Abingdon marathon?
I'm very keen to do it but the entries don't seem to be open yet.
Also this seems to be the most complete list of marathons I've found
http://www.100marathonclub.org.uk/new/events/uk_marathon_list.shtml
Great challenge! I've just finished doing 12 marathons this year - not as neat as 12 in 2012 though - you clearly thought that through better than me! I was tight for funds too so did a few on a treadmill watched over by my friendly gym who were fab. Running that long on a treadmill (I much prefer outside) was distinctly not fab, but added another element to the challenge (that's what I told myself anyway). I ended up with a few clusters of races as well (spring and late sept-early oct) as found the spacing 1month apart hard to do on a budget too, but I'd done marathons pretty close together before and wasn't too much of a problem. Good luck!!
Rosie
This site is also quite good for tracking down marathons:
http://www.marathonrunnersdiary.com/races/uk-marathon-list.php
oops yes sorry for the slight confusion there, i just knew by bf Ulen MAABOF would definitely be doing the Abingdon one as it was his local Didnt realise that the entries hadnt opened yet sorry for the confusion
Kate F mmmmm i'm going to have a think about the Heartbreaker thanks for the details if bf did the marathon i wouldnt mind doing the 10k ( i wouldnt do anything further than that cos of my training for london marathon ) but its a kid free weekend for me so its doable, guess it all depends on what bf is doing lol
It will be great to meet some of the people off here tho if people are doing the same races, wonder if you get a medal for the heartbreaker marathon? It looks like its off road abit tho Is it? Have you done it before Kate F?
I was aiming for 6 marathons this year, until I got injured. Mine were:
Bath Beat (a LDWA event, so cheap and you can run or walk it) in April
South Downs - June
Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 in August
Abingdon in October
Beachy Head in October
Portsmouth in December
Next year I think I am going to take a break from long distance running to allow my body to recover, but I am doing a whole load of long distance swimming events instead.