Thames Meander Winter Marathon

Three weeks spent resting, training and trying to keep up with son Alfred at parkrun has seen me improve my fitness and generally recharge before tackling another marathon.  I think that, at the moment, I can manage a marathon every 2 weeks quite well, but one every week is really hard work. One every 3 weeks feels like a holiday! So, after Abingdon I have three more marathons planned to see me through to Christmas with 3 week gaps between each of them, these being Thames Meander, Agincourt 600th Anniversary and Portsmouth.  2016 is mostly booked up until June with a focus on training up and staying injury free for Endure 24.

In the lead up to Thames Meander I had done a recovery week of 13 miles, a training week  with a gentle 5 miles club run, cycling to work, a medium solo run, a track session (Cooper Test) and parkrun followed by an easier week leading up to the next marathon.  That last week included a Monday club run of 9.5miles and a night time trail run with my son on very muddy trails, which was great fun.  What was also very good was being able to start each of these last runs jogging from the front door pain free, rather than having to walk for 5 minutes to warm up and loosen tight calves and thighs.  There has definitely been some noticeable improvement in former injuries and niggles over the last few weeks.

I have done the previous two events in this series and was expecting a slightly muddier version of the same, but we were told there had been a change to the course where we would start with a short loop up river, then run towards Putney Bridge but turn about 1 mile before it leaving us 2 miles short by the time we got back to the finish line.  That meant we would have to run past the finish line having done about 24.3 miles and add another loop to the end.  This time the organiser's had to take account of a major rowing event on the river which would mean hundreds of coxed fours taking their boats out of the water just before the usual Putney Bridge turn at about the time we would be running past. That shortened the long loop and left us with the short final loop to do.

The weather forecast for race day wasn't great with heavy rain predicted from early morning until at least 2pm. However, although it had been raining overnight, when I got out of bed at 6:30 it was wet on the ground but not raining.  I knew the course was going to be wet and muddy over a lot of the wooded sections so I thought my usual marathon choice of my Hoka Bondi 3s was probably not going to work as they have very little grip.  They are fine for road running or dry trails, but not for mud.  My choice of shoe for today was to fall back to my previous marathon shoe, Brooks Ravenna 4, which is a semi-supportive show and has reasonable grip, which should be OK for a flat trail.  I had never used these shoes on anything but road marathons, so they looked brand new and pristine, but I couldn't afford to get to worried about them - they were the best shoe for the job.

After the usual porridge breakfast and some water, I got the motorbike packed up and set off. I wasn't raining to begin with, but it was certainly windy with strong gusts knocking me sideways on the M3.  When I got to the YMCA Hawker Centre, there was a queue getting into the car park with lots of people arriving to run Kingston parkrun, but I managed to shoehorn the bike in between a couple of generously parked cars and change into my running shoes in the car park, where I also saw Colin and Elaine Brassington, who were there for the parkrun.

The weather at the start was OK, but soon changed.

In the Hawker Centre it was already busy with runners getting their kit together. I saw fellow SJ runners Vicky Horne and Lance King, who were going to be manning the aid station at 10/16 miles. Then Leon Hicks arrived and we got our stuff together ready for the race.  Out at the start we heard from Marathon Man, Rob Young, who set us off.  At the start of the race it was just starting to rain, spits and spots but nothing serious for the first few miles.  The first out and back section of just under 2 miles went quickly and Leon and I were quickly into pace at about 9:30min/mile though it was quite crowded.  We passed the start and continued on tarmac paths for another 2 miles before getting on to stony wooded trail where the rain began to come down harder and there were puddles to weave around and mushy wet leaf litter all over.

Looks like I'm loving the rain (not!) at Vicky and
Lance's aid station (Photo: Sean Smith)

We got to the first aid station at 4 miles and had a brief drink, then at the next aid station at about 7 miles Leon carried on, while I stopped for a bite to eat.  Leon was now about 100m ahead but we were running at the same pace so a I didn't close him down.  At 10 miles we got to Vicky and Lance's aid station to great cheers from our club mates.  At about 12 miles Leon stopped for a toilet break, and I ran past.  I stayed ahead of Leon all the way to about 20miles, but the rain had been really heavy, wind appeared to be in your face both out and back and by then I was struggling along jog walking 250m/50m.  When Leon caught up, we ran on together, jog-walking until the end.  It was good to have company along that part of the course, even though, by the end the rain had eased off, I was still suffering from being so cold from the wind and rain.

We finished together at 4:45:50 and got handed a nice big medal. Thanks to Vicky and Lance for manning an aid station and cheering so well and to Leon for keeping me company on the way home.

Nice big medal, but a bit disappointed with the time.

I have another 3 weeks until my next marathon, so there's some more opportunity to get a bit stronger and get some steady long runs in.  The next one is one of Traviss and Rachel's marathons down in Kent, this time in commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the battle of Agincourt on 27th November.  That will be flat and not muddy, but could still be wet and windy.