Well, I’ve done it. Completed a marathon. Not sure yet if I’ll ever do it again, but I wonder if it’s a little like women who’ve had children – they go through childbirth, immediately afterwards insist ‘never again’ and then a few months later want to do it again after all….
Preston Guild Marathon takes place once every 20 years – it was listed as a ‘one to do’ so when I needed my next challenge after the half marathon and 10km runs so far this year, I leapt at the chance to raise some money for East Cheshire Hospice.
Either way, Sunday dawned, well to be honest, wet, cold and miserable, but it didn’t matter, I had layers on, had trained and so long as I got round that was the main thing.
Famous last thoughts.
I set off knowing reasonably paced, happy with my race plan. Around the first mile marker, I bumped into fellow runner Dave, on his sixth marathon and, as we were going to be running at around the same pace, we decided to stick together and keep each other company.
I’m so relieved we did. Not only did Dave keep me going while I ran further than I’ve ever run before, but we kept each other going through the conditions of the event. The marathon course – described by the organisers:
‘The course cannot be described as ‘hilly’; however there are a number of ‘undulations’ that will test you; but as we are sure you have all put in the necessary training, they should not cause you too many problems’.
– was hilly. To be honest, it felt like we spent such an amount of time going uphill, we weren’t sure we’d ever find a downhill.
Secondly, the weather. It was cold, wet, windy and at one point bombarded us with hailstones. The weather and the hills were relentless.
Despite it all, we finished in a respectable time of 5 hours 47 minutes – I was limping with a very tight IT band, Dave struggling himself, but we crossed that line together, to be greeted by Mr GFB, brandishing my running jacket and warm clothes. Given that he then had to walk back to the hotel with me, help me strip off as my fingers were stiff with cold, and listen to my teeth chatter for a couple of hours afterward, I couldn’t have done it without him either – let alone my training buddies Katy, Sarah, Emma and Lisa, my trainer Mike, physio Nas or my twitter mentor Zoe.
I’ve raised over £300 for charity, picked up more aches and pains than I care to think about and gone from a complete non-runner to marathoner in just over 12 months. I think that’ll do for now.
