We arrived at the B&B at 3pm-ish and as we had some time we decided to drive the course. This probably seems like a stupid thing to do, but in a way I'm glad I did as a) it's a nice picturesque course and b) I had a better idea of where the hills were. It turns out there were only really 2 main hills, and on the day of the race itself I didn't really notice them. We had a meal booked at Prezzo in nearby Blandford so we went out for that at 6:00pm. I had the same as what I had at the Bideford Half which was garlic bread and meatballs/pasta but I was still hungry, so back at the B&B I had some flapjack and Jaffa Cakes which went down well.
I got a reasonable night's sleep and Sunday morning the alarm was set for 05:45 as I was having breakfast at 6am. The B&B owners were great (and even got up with me) and I had my usual pre-run breakfast of shredded wheat, sultanas and a coffee. Staying at the B&B were 2 South Africans also doing the race, one of who had done the renowned Comrades Marathon (on a year when it was ran going "down"). This year he is to do it on the "up". Comrades is a 54 mile race and is supposed to be pretty gruelling. I caught up with the two guys at the end of the race and they had both down really well, one of them bagging a PB.
On the morning of the race, I walked up to the school (which was the race HQ) and picked up my number and dropped of my bag, and then wandered back to the B&B for final preparations. I was incredibly nervous, but also pleased that the day had finally arrived although it was forecast to be quite sunny which was a worry. I walked back up to the race HQ at 8:15 and I'm pleased I managed to see Shades from the Runner's World thread I'm involved in. It was great to meet her and her last bit of advice was to not go out too quickly, which I kept in my mind. The race start was literally 10 metres from our B&B, so I'll remember that if I do this race again.
Onto the race itself and it was more or less perfect conditions at the start. The sun was out, but there was cloud cover and there was virtually no wind. I started off gently just to get the first 3 or 4 miles under my belt and to see how I felt. Everything was feeling good with no sign of my knee niggle or any stomach issue rumbling so I was going well. I remember thinking at about 13 miles and also again at 16 miles that I was doing well but to just keep it steady and see how it goes.
At around this time I had a bit of a strange (very brief) conversation with someone on a moped. I had seen this moped earlier and then I saw that she had pulled into a lay-by. She still had her helmet on but as I came up to her she made eye-contact with me and the conversation went something like:
- Moped driver: "Do you know where the air field is?".
- Me: "Eh?"
- Moped driver: "Do you know where the air field is?".
- Me: "Urrrm...sorry, no"
.....and off I trotted, without breaking stride.
The route itself was very picturesque with lots of nice scenery, cows, sheep, goats, pigs and and some horses all along the route. The course is quite a rural one so there wasn't that much support along the way, but the marshals were great and in fact the whole organisation was brilliant. I had a personal drink at the station at mile 19 so I picked that up and carried on.
At around 20 miles I was just about on for a sub-4, which was at the very top end of my expectations but by this time I was beginning to struggle slightly. The sun was out (I have a red face this morning to prove that!) and by mile 22 my calfs were cramped and I was reduced to having to walk a few times, which is a shame. At around this time I was running near a fellow Trotter who I later found out was also struggling. He tried to drag me along, but I wasn't able to go with him unfortunately. I then reassessed with the true main time goal to finish under 4:30, but kept pushing (firstly trying to do 4:05 and when that slipped by to get under 4:10).
The final mile was tough. It was a very slight gradient on a gravel track and it just seemed to go on and on. About 200 metres from the finish I caught sight of my wife and she spurred me on. She took this picture and I have to say I don't look too bad here! I was feeling a lot worse than I look as my legs were shot by this point.
I'm pleased to say that my official finish time is 4:08:12 and I am genuinely over the moon by that. My one and only previous marathon was 5:15 at London 2010 (which admittedly was a pretty soft target for me) but I'm pleased to say that I smashed that time so all the training, weight loss, change in drinking habits etc seems to have paid off.
I picked up my race medal (picture below) and t-shirt and caught up with my wife. There were a few fellow Trotters at the finish and most of them had struggled in some way, I think due to the heat. The organisers had put mini-buses on to get back to the start but I decided to walk back as I thought the walk would do my legs some good. I got back to race HQ 10-mins later, grabbed my bags and had a shower. I also had some food (scotch eggs, flap jack and Jaffa cakes....) which went down well and also did a bit of stretching.
We jumped into the car and drove home, where I promptly had a large mixed grill and a pint which did go down well, but I was very tired so I did go to bed fairly early and I'm glad it's a Bank Holiday today!
So, what have I learnt from this race:
- There are no short cuts to training. It helps me to be pretty well organised and disciplined in the marathon training and remembering to ease off a bit if injured.
- Even with the above, the marathon is a distance that has to be respected. It can smack you in the face, and it's good to expect this to happen and have ways of dealing with it. For me, it's along the lines of "get to that lamp post" or "get to that spectator" and just trying to keep my form and relax my shoulders.
- I think the carb loading helped a lot. I may have to practice this some more as it wasn't really right that I was still hungry after my Saturday evening meal so I need to look at what I can eat the night before. I worry about stomach issues though (which I have suffered a lot with in the past), so I do need to practice this before an LSR.
- I had some Jaffa Cakes with me on the race, and these were an epic fail. I had practiced with them through the winter months and had some at Bideford but whilst running this race they just didn't want to do down so I didn't eat them. I had some jelly beans and melon at one of the food stations and that helped kick start me. I need to look at this if I'm to do another marathon, maybe revisiting gels again. I have used gels in the past and I didn't get on with them but I need to think about this again.
- I learned that I could dig in when times were tough and get through in a good time for me. It's a shame that I had to walk a bit, but even this was tactical as I walked up the slight inclines and trotted down the other side, thinking that I as probably walking quicker than I could run at that point anyway.
So, all in all I'm really pleased. I must say I'm looking forward to going back to the 10Ks and halfs, but I reckon there's a good chance I'll be putting my name down for another marathon at some point!
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