My target for this race was around 0:46:00 but I have had a fairly hard week with another 10k race last Thursday which saw me get 47.22 on a fairly hard multi terrain course.

After having helped out on my mums boat yesterday I stopped the night at hers, and seeing as the race was 2miles down the road It made sense.
A fairly restless night saw me wake up at 0430, 0500, 0547 and 0643 despite the bed being fairly comfy. I guess the fear of oversleeping was making my paranoid so I gav up trying to sleep any more and got into the shower.
Upon waking my stomach felt a bit squiffy, nothing major just a tad acidic so I decided I best get my brekkie fairly soon… at the very least should settle my stomach a bit. It didn’t really and semi-skimmed milk instead of the skimmed that im used to seamed to add to the sicky feeling. In the end I forced it down and then reached for the water and just prayed that 2.5hrs would be enough time to settle it down.

I left the house at 0800 and walked the 3miles from the house down the canal to the start which saw me arrive at around 0845. A 1000 start so plenty of time.
A few people milling around so I thought I would take the opportunity to christen the nice fresh port-a-loos … quite nice port-a-loos for the record as well :p

I had a wonder around the school grounds, it was the same as last year but it at least gave me something to visualise for when things are getting tuff.

I located the changing rooms which were a classroom with blinds pulled shut. The school is a first school so I guess 5yr- 8yr ish, but three things struck me…
1. How tiny the desk/ chairs are.
2. How it was fairly random that they had a display on the wall for “The 1960’s”
3. How cute it was that there was steps in front of the white board for the iccle sprogs to  reach the top.

Anyway I got changed and handed my bag in. This allowed me a good 10-15mins to warm so I went through my usual routine of some sprints, bum kicks, and strides.

I never really remember that much about my runs so apologies if this is a bit sketchy..

The route was pretty simple.. two 5km loops.
Head off towards the town, turn left onto the ring road, head towards the A34, turn left, head to the A51 junction., turn left, and then turn left again back towards the start.
The only difference was on the second lap, the last little bit when they cut a corner off, and then finish on the school playing field.

There wasn’t any chip times, so it was very cramped at the start with everyone trying to get as close to the front as possible. Everyone crowded onto the road ready for the start… the whistle went and we were off…

Pretty un-eventful first 2-3 km’s trying to keep a good pace going, without going too hard and blowing up. I dropped in behind a younger chap and decided to follow. There was another chap running along with him and I quickly realised that he was acting as a pacer. The pacer bloke kept whizzing off, stopping.. taking pics of the younger chap so I assume he was a fairly handy runner. I overheard him say that the young lad was on target for 45mins… despite wearing my garmin, ive stopped looking at it in races, so whilst it was good to hear he (I) was on target, I didn’t really want to know.

Turning back towards the start to finish the first lap the crowds picked up a bit, which having my name printed on my vest following the marathon I could lots of “Go Peeeteee” , “ dig deep” etc which always seams to wake me up a bit as I tend to loose focus if left on my own.

5km.. had to slow to get water, which I then proceeded to choke on, although it was nice to see a race where rather than giving you a full cup or a full bottle.. it was a
plastic cup with about an inch in at the bottom.. a perfect amount IMO!!

Again nothing major to report 5-7km.. I was still in touch with the 45min chappy from above although his mate had disappeared but I kept plodding.

8km I started to get a twinge of stitch. Nothing major, but just enough to by that fear of dread into me,  im not sure if it was this, or a slight climb that saw my average pace for this KM drop from around the 4.35min -  to 4.47 not a huge slow down, but still an extra 12 seconds. During this km my 45min pacer chappy had started to creep away from me. I didn’t really stress too much as although I wasn’t going sub45, I was fairly sure it would be a PB.

Turning the corner back towards the school and finish I see 45min chappy stood at the side chucking up.. I know it will sound harsh and I don’t know why but I couldn’t help chuckle to myself (between trying to catch my breath)

I tried to kick slight to the finish but my body wasn’t having it.. in the end I was just glad to reach the finish.

Official results….

… *huzzah!*

We got to Warwick fairly early, parked up and I donned a suitable fetching bin bag, prior to walking over to the castle. Ros was with me but wasn’t running which meant I had someone I could throw a jumper to prior to the start.

A marshall shouted that the race started from within the castle, so we were sheppared out into the courtyard, but everyone was stood sheltered under the portcullis of the castle trying to keep out of the rain, which seeing as we were about to go off and run seamed a bit crazy… but at least it was warm.
Eventually we walked out from the shelter down to the start pens. I tried to say hello to a club member, but ended up swallowing and nearly choking on my chewing gum. I could feel the minty freshness stuck in my throat somewhere, so I started to try and cough it up… no such luck..

As we were walked down to the start line, a lot of slower people joined from the side, this basically meant that 60min+ people were stood with the 35-40min people which made pacing later a real pain.

Hooter went so we go forward, body felt ok with me passing quite a few of the slower runners that joined the pens from the side. This made it hard to judge speed as i was constantly passing people that should not have that far forward.
I passed a club member early on who Im usually ahead of and carried along at what I felt was a fair pace. I wasn’t wearing my garmin so not sure on splits, but I feel the first 3km went quickly, very quickly… in fact.. too quickly… *DAMMIT*
I went from full of energy to very little energy/ heavy legged very very quickly as soon as i put it under load going up the hill into Leek Wooten. I knew there was a downhill bit soon so just keep going.
I don’t really remember much of the next 3-4km other than I was hanging on.. and one big hill around the 6km point. Last year this hill beat me, making me walk whilst being passed by batman and robin, I was determined to make it this time so just dug deep and powered to the top.
I was just getting my breath back when I heard Ros cheering me on… she was stood out in the rain waiting for me, so once again I dug deep and pressed on to the 7km mark.
By this point we were onto our normal club circuit, so I focused on thinking that these are roads that ive been running at least once a week for the past 12month and I can doit, but my pace was starting to drop off now, and a lot of the people I passed earlier were coming back at me.. just keep going I thought.

The club member I passed earlier, caught me up around the 9 – 9.5km point and could see that I was starting to really struggle. I know she’s a WPC and so have a very intimidating and commanding voice, especially when she started screaming down my ear to get my finger out and get on with it. It helped I picked up and managed the glory sprint down the finish straight, at the very least I sped up to get away from the noise (I must remember to thank her next time I see her).

Overall I definitely noticed not being fully recovered yet, and in the snotty nose didn’t help, added together with swallowing my chewing gum just before the start.
Lots of support from our club on route and also having my name on my vest from last week’s marathon meant that lots of people were cheering me on which kept me going.
Final result : 00:47:42 chip time (391st out of 2419)

We met up again in the evening with Rich, Owain (and respective others Em and Judith) and Grant for the pre-race Italian supper…. Ann (Annyhouse) also met up with us for a drink. I had been ‘grazing’ and sipping water all day – and with the heat and walking around the city, plus pre-race nerves – my appetite was curbed and I only managed half my veggy lasagne and bowl of scrummy olives. We all headed back to our hotels in taxis for an early night.

The morning started at 6am with 2 mobile phone alarms… everything was laid out the night before… and we liberally sprayed on sweatproof sun-spray, and sunblocked our faces. We had our (own) porridge (kindly made up by the staff at Premier Inn) with a number of other runners also having the early breakfast. A quick check – water-bottle, Garmin, bus ticket, clean socks for the finish bag… everything ready. Outside there was a cool breeze – I wishfully thought it might be cooler than had been forecast – but as soon as we were out of the shelter of the tall buildings – the sun was starting to get stronger. We met the others by Scot’s Monument – Chuckie, Jack Kane, Grant, Momorris, Annyhouse, Rich and Owain…after chuckling at a guy in a panda costume (how warm was he – but very cute!!) we made our way to the pens. Ann, her running mate, Pete and myself all ducked into a hotel on the way to use the very ‘powsh’ facilities (I still chuckle when I remember Ann saying, ‘Excuse me Sir….’!)…. Seeing the hoards of runners ahead and potential queuing nightmares – this was a very good call! It was an amazing sight that lay out in front – I have never in any race I had done seen so many runners ahead of me and the huge open-sided lorries piling on the runners sports bags in race number order!

After depositing our race bag, we got into our ‘Green Pen’ Pete and I started stretching and just enjoyed the entertaining announcer shouting out various messages to the runners ‘Go Fetchies’, ‘We have a Sikh running – hes 98!!’. He was very loud and excitable and wanted us to regularly cheer ourselves! He kept saying how wonderful the weather was for the day – and kept wishing the sun to stay – I really wished he wouldn’t wish for that! It was getting warmer and warmer and my Gore capris were soaked through from heat!

Pens closed… and the Elites set off – we watched as the runners streamed slowly forward in the adjacent pens and waited for our own pen to start moving. We were moving… walking then turned into a slow jog, and we crossed the start mat – Garmin Start – and off! Kept checking the watch as it was a steady downhill – and a lot of runners were moving off fast past us – but we stuck rigidly to the pace pulling back as they surged past. We went past a guy on prosthetic legs on crutches – the courage some people showed was amazing! It was a nice steady route through the early part of the city around Holyrood Park, and we made our way out past a lot of well-wishers (including a young school choir and bagpipers.) When out of the crowds it was eerily quiet – I think all the runners were saving every ounce of energy – but I didn’t even hear any loud breathing! There were Relay runners also running amongst the marathoners… I tried not to get too distracted by their freshness and pace as I knew they were only doing 8 miles or so each. I remember being at Stratford doing the half when I didn’t envy the Marathon runners – but now I was one of them!! We steadily made our way out towards the coast and I hoped for some breeze to hit me – but this never came (or when it did – it was very short-lived!) The sun-shine was cruel but my legs felt fresh and my stomach was behaving very well so there was no reason why I was going to let it beat me. I took gels every 8km as I had in training – and constantly sipped from my dohnut – topping this up at every water station and pouring the rest over my sun-burnt neck and down my back. It was now over half-way – I had done a half marathon – one to go!! I still felt fine with my pace – my head was very much in the zone so I wasn’t really taking in the ‘sights’ – but Pete was always just in sight either beside me, but normally just in front, and when we passed more crowds along the coast his curb-side position was perfect for people to shout his name. This got annoying after a while as no-one was shouting mine (I wondered if my lettering was big enough or if it was covered up somehow) – I realised its because he was only just ahead so they only had time to shout his name before registering mine (plus they were mainly females – so probably fancied him!)  It wasn’t long after the half-way point that we saw the leaders coming the other way – two blonde guys (one of which was Andy Jones who won the Birmingham half we did last Autumn) who almost seemed to be running a completely different race! Then the most blissful moment – around 14 miles – a girl with a fire hose and the exquisite coldness of the water which took my breath away briefly… (thank you!)

Pushing on – a stream of elites were steadily trickling the other direction now – and I wondered how far it would be until the turning point… it was motivating in itself. I suddenly caught glimpse of a familiar green running top and luminous trainers – it was RICH – and he looked strong (at least in top 100) so shouted out ‘Go Rich’ – then not long after – our other club-mate Connor… both spurred me on to bite hard and keep going. After a deceptive loop back along a shadier road – the outbound race continued to Gosford House and as we turned right up a small steep gravel track up to the grounds – I noticed A LOT of runners pacing it out, stopping and stretching – and the rather awesome sight of two monolithic beacons at the top of the track (portaloos!) I didn’t quite get it – but then Pete called over to me something – I thought he said I’ll need to stop (I thought he meant to pee or something) but I was in a pace and I couldn’t stop – so I thought he might catch me up. The path carried on through the grounds through some shady trees – and I could feel my pace slowing but my legs were almost on auto-pilot and mentally I was still determined to keep going. I kept turning to see if Pete was in sight – but he wasn’t and I suddenly was concerned that he might have an injury – but we set out to do a pace and we said if the other struggled that the remaining one should push on – so I did – I really battled. The water stations now became life-saving as I saw more and more runners flaking at the sides with marshals, space blankets and heard some horrific sounds of people ‘being ill’. One guy will stick in my memory – he had ‘For Grandad’ hand-written on his top – I just felt for him as he had done so well and my thoughts suddenly turned to my dad and my family. My determination can be quite scary sometimes (my sister often tells me) – if I put my mind to something I really go for it… even more so since my dad died 10 years ago. He ran – and I wished I could have run with him – so I was imagining him running with me now – getting me through the last miles. It was just 6 or so miles to go – and my watch said 3 hours – so I had pretty much a 1 hour 10km race to do…. which is like my first races….. I could do this – I wasn’t even trained back then – I could do this. So many hours of commitment – I wanted to prove the plan worked and I also wanted to do it for Pete as well, getting me off my backside and out on wet, windy evenings… pushing me through hard races – cross-country races in the freezing cold. All of those were part of the journey – and I had to prove I could do it.

Each mile over the 20 mile point was a race in itself it felt – and my pace was slipping – but I had stayed around the 6 minute km mark at the slowest. At one point I was so hot and I had just missed grabbing water as it was becoming a ‘survival of the fittest’ at the water stops – I scanned the ground for bottles with some water left in and saw one grabbed it and just poured it over me. More people now were calling my name as I think they could see my pain… they were all fantastic and every single one I tried to call back thank you and smiled. The girl with the hose was still there on the opposite side and like the other runners I swung over to that side to get another dose of spray!!

It was a couple of miles to go – more and more encouragement along the sides – it was fantastic – I kept going along the road to the racecourse – it felt like forever to come despite the calls of ‘its just round this corner!!’ Then – the turn into the race-course and some very haphazard scalextric style surface (which had dangerous gaps!) I SAW THE FINISH – the roar of the crowd and my watch said – 3:59….. RIGHT!!! I dug so deep I cannot explain and went for it – as I stopped my watch over the finish mat – 3:59:31!!!! You beauty!!!!!! I felt a bit disoriented – and waddled through – almost expecting to collapse at any point… but a banana and some lucozade sport were shoved in my hand… I was on the verge of tears – but I couldn’t cry – I needed to see someone I knew to let it out…. Where was Pete!!!! I waited and stretched eating my banana – scanning the finish lanes for him – 10 or so minutes past and I saw his cap and green top – I waved and went over and just collapsed in his arms and the floodgates opened – ‘I did it – 3:59’ he was dead proud and also proud of his own time considering how he really struggled. Not one he would readily do again – but I felt I could do it again and in better conditions I could get a better time. My ladies captain has told me the top marathon times for our club ladies – so I have some goals in my sights there.