Hello!
MK Marathon was the second race in my 2022 "only do new things" racing calendar. After a crappy start to the year with an Achilles problem and all sorts of illnesses, the Brighton 10k had gone well, and I was starting to feel fit again (whisper it).
As a (fairly newly) carless person, and with some of the trains cancelled due to Bank Holiday maintenance, I ended up having to take an assortment of public transports to get me to my destination. It was fine, but I left far too generous gaps between one stage and the next resulting in a LOT of loitering in London, which was a bit tiring! After some 7 hours from start to finish, I eventually made it to the hotel which was rather thrillingly about 1 minute walk from the the start line of the marathon! It was also quite a nice hotel, my room had a bath and everything! I resisted the temptation to have my pizza in the bath (although only because there was no convenient surface for the pizza box, I am nothing if not pure class!!), and settled in for the night. And then had to wait for the boy racers in the carpark to finish their session - at 1 am!!!!! 🤬 But hey, who sleeps the night before a marathon anyway? 😊😊😊
When I arrived at MK Stadium I wondered if there really was going to be a race the next day, because there was absolutely no evidence of one! However, they magicked everything into place at some crazy hour of the morning, and I found myself at 9 am weaving through a quiet crowd of runners to find the bag drop area.
One of the best things about the day was that I got a chance to meet up with a couple of legends! First up was SkiMonday , who I had arranged to meet by the bag drop. I was chatting with a photographer who had just papped me taking a selfie, when I spotted a familiar-looking bearded man in blue peering at me - and there he was, my hero SkiMonday!!! The photographer took another pic of both of us "taking selfies" (SM was miming 😂). We chatted a bit, and then I went off to have a quick shakeout run before the start.
On the way round to the start line I saw another familiar personage - it was Paul from school!!! This guy was at the Oxford Half last year, but I didn't see him (or anyone in fact, Oxford was crazy!). We were at secondary school together in MK so I've known him since I was 13, but the last time I saw him had to be something like 1987 (other than on Facebook and Strava, obvs), so it was nice to finally catch up. And I saw him again a couple of times on the course.
Paul was running in the half marathon, and I did the half myself once - back in 2016, it was my second race ever and I had a mare of a time! I had forgotten, but in this event the half marathon and marathon runners all start together, and then part their ways just after Mile 7. MK is the only race I have taken part in that does this! I was a little nervous that I might go the wrong way, so when I got to Mile 7 I was thinking to myself "keep left!!" but there was no confusion because a marshal with a very loud voice was telling us which ways to go.
Loud voices were something of a theme during this race! I spent a lot of time running with the 4:30 pacer, who was lovely, but he did a lot of ANNOUNCING THINGS IN A VERY LOUD VOICE!!!!!!!! In particular I remember that when we got a bit past Mile 16 he yelled something like: ONLY 10 MILES LEFT TO GO!!!! THAT'S THREE PARKRUNS PLUS ONE KILOMETRE!!!!!!!! Personally I did not find this information very reassuring 😂 He was very good at encouraging us to coast the downhill bits though (I enjoyed that a lot!), and he was very kind too (he saw I was struggling).
Anyway, back at the start, I was feeling daunted. I was tired, and had some doubts about getting round. This is unusual for me because I know I can run a marathon - this was my 7th official marathon event, and I've done at least the distance a few more times than that. But I put a smile on and nibbled at my first gel of the day as I waited to start.
And very quickly, we were off! It was a small field, and a quiet event altogether. Despite the fact that about half of it is on roads, it had more of the ambience of a trail event, I thought. Very different from the razzmatazz of Brighton Marathon Weekend, but it definitely held a lot of charm for me! The crowds were sparse, but the support was somehow warm and amazing - especially from the loveliest bunch of marshals I have ever encountered 😍 There was a Queen tribute band at the finish (which the organisers had been very excited about), but when I got back to the Stadium they were playing a disappointing song, and the singer was undeniably singing flat! Oh well. The musical highlight of the day was actually Queen anyway, there was a brass band playing "Don't Stop Me Now" by a footpath at somewhere around Mile 15 (I think...) which was absolutely marvellous 🤩
THE Queen, and her Platinum Jubilee, was of course the main theme of the event, as you can see from the medal!
I enjoyed the course very much! Most of it is pretty familiar to me, of course, and I was very happy with the way it is not completely flat. My brain and body like a variety of incline! The first part goes closed dual-carriageways and across many roundabouts, and the roundabouts are raised to accommodate the cycle paths that run beneath, hence there is a lot of slight incline and decline. I enjoyed the road part, and very much the bit with the looping around the office blocks in Central Milton Keynes - I hated that part when I did the HM all those years ago, although mainly because I had stomach ache.
Soon after CMK we left the road and began to travel along footpaths through some of the many parks of Milton Keynes, and it is very green and beautiful, often running alongside water (the lakes, the Grand Union Canal). A man in the 4:30 pacer group expressed astonishment to me at how lovely it all was, as he had only previously visited the shopping centre 😊
The halfway point was at Giffard Park, which is where my mum lives - and lo! There she was, wearing the Brighton & Hove Triathlon t-shirt I gave her, and displaying a sign saying "Go, Ab, Go!". Saw her again a bit later on, too 😊😊😊
I was sucking on a gel when I saw mum the first time (actually I think the second time too!). I had 8 SiS gels (two of them caffeinated) in my vest, and 500 ml of High5 zero in a soft bottle. I also took water at most of the aid stations - surprisingly it was bottled, I thought events were going away from using plastic, but hey it was much easier to take from a bottle than a cup! I had my watch set to alert me every 45 minutes to take a gel, but quite early on I started to feel hunger in between and was starting on a gel before the timer. This suggested to me that there might be Something Wrong!!! I'd had my usual 500+ calorie breakfast with plenty of fluid, and I didn't feel nauseous (except at the very end, reasons will become clear!), but I was already very tired by the halfway mark, and at around 18 miles I stated to notice some light-headedness, which alarmed me. I had been running at a fairly steady pace, although I didn't know what it was because I elected to set my watch screens to only show elapsed time and distance (and I turned off autolap) so I didn't dwell on my pace. I was running by feel and keeping it at an easy effort, and I had run without any walk breaks for over 20 miles, but I decided that it would be best to walk any uphill bits after that to keep my heart rate from climbing too much. There is the second of two slightly more significant climbs near the end of the route, and the uphills were a bit steeper than they were earlier in the race, so I think it was the best decision for me to walk them. The 4:30 pacer said he was a bit ahead of time, and on hearing that I had started behind him stated that I would "be alright" - but I lost sight of him eventually. Unfortunately I had picked up a blister on the end of my longest left toe, so running downhill became a little painful! Yes, I found my Pain Cave and I embraced it, but I couldn't quite get myself flying the downhills 😂😂😂
But by then I was at least confident about finishing, and the miles ticked by nicely. I was able to resume a steady pace after a few slower kms, and felt content. I was do-si-do-ing with a woman dressed as a dog (Guide Dogs for the Blind), carrying her "head" under her arm, and my hat was off to her! I had to leave her behind in the end though 🐶👋
And then, just like that, we were heading back up onto the road and I could hear the disappointing Queen song! I had a huge grin on my face as I ran round the outside of the Stadium and headed into a tunnel (where I could see the people leaving with their medals!). I emerged into the stadium and hit the grass. I think I overtook about 5 people, and pushed myself into a sprint for the last 100 metres or so. Under the arch I went with flying feet - so happy, what a finish!!!!
A little bit of nausea followed that sprint 😂 The medals were inclined to fall off their ribbons, and I regularly heard a clank! of metal hitting the floor, and a creak! of runner bending over to retrieve medal. Bending over is not the easiest, or best, thing to do right after a marathon! After picking up my medal off the floor, and collecting my goodie bag, I wandered over to bag drop, only to be met by SkiMonday again!! He got a real selfie this time, which you may have seen over on Bridge 😍
We said our goodbyes, and I spent probably the next hour dealing with some gnarly cramps, and a blood-pressure drop. I ate and drank all the provisions I had, and lay down with my legs up the wall for a while, until I was OK to leave for the journey home. I hit my bed at about 11 pm and had a pretty good night's sleep! Because of a mixture of circumstances too dull to relate here, my mum followed me down the next day and we (plus my husband) celebrated with too much food and wine 😊😊😊
So it was a tough race, and I have ended up feeling like a winner!! I have had very little muscle soreness, which I feel I can tentatively attribute to my consistent strength work over the past few months, and I'll definitely be keeping that up! Oh and by the way (some of you may get this?), a few weeks before the run I had been joking with husband about running the race in fancy dress with a jumper over my head, as The Great Cornholio from Beavis and Butthead. This meant that my mantra for the MK Marathon ended up being "BUNGHOLE"! 🤣
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