I'm late posting this, it's been manic at work and I'm packing up the house to move, but better late than never.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I ran the Goodwood GP Marathon. I chose it because being middle aged and slow and a first-timer I felt quite nervous of doing a marathon in case I hit the Wall a long way from anywhere I could get help, or if I got injured or something. A race around a motor-racing circuit appealed to me because I'd never be more than 3.8km from where all the people and chairs were (less if I was prepared to turn around near the start of a lap). And no less importantly for a perimenopausal mother of two, I was always going to be within 3.8km of a loo. And it was pretty flat too. I'm not bothered by hills on a casual run, but I wouldn't have known how to pace them, I was unsure about pacing as it was and didn't need another complication. I saw after I'd signed up for it that it had a strict 6 hour cutoff time, which might have put me off if I'd seen it earlier because I was aiming for 5:55 and that didn't give me much leeway, but that was the only downside, it seemed. I decided that my (a) goal and (b) ambition would be (a) to finish last and (b) to finish in under 5:45. After all, finishing last is finishing, and that was all I really cared about, and 5:45 seemed to strike a nice balance between self-care and making it in on time.
When I got there people were helpful and friendly, and I told one of the marshals that I was nervous about finishing in the time, and he said he was glad I'd told him because if it was a close thing and I was nearly done he wouldn't let the race close before I'd finished, which was very kind of him. Before the race began a chap led us in a warm-up, which was a good thing because with my nerves I'd completely forgotten about warming up.
It was a clutch of races, with about 70 or so of us setting off for the Marathon at 9, with a bunch more 15 minutes later who were doing 20 miles, then the HM crowd, then the 10k people, and finally the 5k runners joined in, so for a short while it was quite crowded. But for a lot of the race I had the track to myself. Right from the start, everyone else seemed to be tearing ahead, while I plodded. I was pretty much alone for the first lap, then just as I was passing the start/finish line I heard people shouting "Great work, two laps done!" and the leaders shot past me. After that it got busier and busier, and I wasn't really sure about etiquette but I figured that people behind me might be trying for specific times so I tried to take a line so people could pass me easily.
I set out jeffing, five minutes of running to thirty seconds walking. I probably went too fast, because the weather report said it would be nice and cool in the morning and rather warm in the afternoon so I wanted to get a decent way through before the sun came out. It went pretty well, and I had my gels and there was water at the trackside, and I'd left a couple of cans of Red Bull beside the track (yes, I know, but I really really like it and that to me outweighs concerns of drinking bubbles during a run). Halfway through I was doing great.
I had as my playlist the complete works of A-ha. It's over ten hours long, and I started about a third of the way in. I have had friends say they couldn't run a marathon that was in laps, they'd get too bored. I cannot get bored with Morten's lovely voice in my ears. Also, there's so much maths that you can do with running. Fractions, the inverse proportion relationship between pace and speed, calculating what my pace needed to be to finish in the six hours and seeing it get easier and easier as I got miles under my belt. I love doing maths. And I quite liked the racetrack being repetitive, I liked that I always knew where I was. The stewards waved at me and said encouraging things at each lap, and with seven of the eleven laps done one of them said, "You're still smiling, we've been wondering how long it'd be before you stopped."
Eight laps done and my knee, the one that spent about six months earlier in the year either mildly injured or experiencing a niggle, started niggling. I stopped to put on a support, and oh dear, I could feel the cramp taking over second by second. Once the support was on I started walking, and could barely move at first, but it did seem to be improving, so I thought it was a good time to have a banananana (it was a large one) and one of the Red Bulls. I must have walked for half a kilometre before I could run again. After that I changed my jeff ratio to 2:30 run : 0:30 walk, and my speed dropped. I had been managing under 30 mins a lap before that, but the last three laps took me 35 minutes or more each.
With two laps to go I found myself closing on the chap in front. I knew he'd lapped me, I recognised his yellow vest, so he was on his last. I kept pace with him and chatted for a bit, but then I was able to pull on and leave him. That made me feel really good, it meant that even though I was bound to be last, I'd at least be on my final lap before the last of the people ahead of me had finished.
I had the happiest lap for my 11th and final lap. I had worked out that I could walk the entire thing and still finish, if I needed to. I did keep jeffing though.
I finished on 5:44:16 chip time, or 5:44:50 gun time. It was the second best run of my life (nothing will ever beat a successful C25k w5r3, obviously).
It turned out that yellow vest guy wasn't second last. He was fifth last, there were two other people who finished less than a lap ahead of me. But the person who was second last was... ME! I know that you're not supposed to be bothered about other people only about your own time, but I couldn't help being pleased at that. One of the folk who ran off fast at the start had only sustained that pace for the first couple of km, and I'd passed him without realising when the track was crowded.
I couldn't speak for a while afterwards, or at least I couldn't do the normal type of speaking where you exhale, I was only able to inhale. I've no idea what was up with that, it makes no sense. There was a flapjack in a bag and bottles of water and a nice medal, and I remembered to do stretches, and made it back to the car in one piece.
The next morning my ankle felt awful and I got the crutches out in case it was an actual injury, but it was better by lunchtime. I took a week off running, then did the Brighton HM and got a PB.
Goodwood do marathons every few weeks it seems, and I'd definitely recommend it as a venue. It was organised by Run Through, and they put race photos up for free. I found many photos of me, every lap, and yes, I am smiling in every single one, a big stupid grin for nearly six hours.
Another Manchester Marathon Race Report
Edinburgh Marathon Race Report
Tallinn Marathon report
2018 Virgin Money London Marathon - My race report
Beachy Head Marathon Race Report 