I was supposed to run a marathon today. The forecast was grim, and only got grimmer, with heavy rain and high winds forecast. Saturday before looked better, with a chance of snow, so I decided to run one day early.
I decided to run the same route as my Virtual London Marathon. Training had gone fairly well in the short time available to me, and I got up to 23 k. I wanted to run the first loop in the dark, so that I could enjoy the Christmas lights. Things looked really idyllic, especially with a bit of snow on the ground. However, I had forgotten that running on fresh snow is pretty hard going. And it was still snowing. By the time I had run about 8 k, I discovered I had icicles on my eyebrows.
Still, I completed my first loop in a decent time. My family, my crew, met up with me, and we swapped my beanie for a cap, as the snow was starting to pick up. It got pretty heavy, so by the time I was finishing my second loop, I was feeling really upset, and tempted to give up. However, I realized that I wouldn’t forgive myself, so I pushed on. After a while, I actually felt a lot better. I realized I must have hit the wall, even though I had been taking gels and eating cheese. After all, I was unwittingly combining a marathon with strength training. I was starting to get pretty cold and wet, though, so my husband met me at about 29 k, and gave me a warmer jacket to wear. My socks and shoes were also soaked, and I was worried what that would do to me, so we agreed that he’d meet me again soon with fresh shoes.
By the time we changed my shoes, I was really cold and wet all over, and it was starting to rain, so I just gave in to the facts of life and asked for him to bring me fresh thermals – and I had to switch to thin hiking pants. I ended up walking this final loop. Conditions were getting even nastier, with the snow turning into slush which was getting more slippery by the minute. I wasn’t even able to maintain my normal walking pace. But I completed – again in the dark.
I’ve done some good running lately, so I know that the weather is what did me in. I realize now that this has to be my last winter marathon. There are just too many unknowns in terms of the weather. The best illustration of this was that so much snow fell during my run that by midday people were coming out of their houses pulling kids on sleds!
By the way, I was right not to run today. I don’t think I would have even made it through one loop, judging by the wind and rain outside my window.
Inverness Half Marathon
Tallinn Marathon report
Roscommon Half Marathon