I love running in races, and there is a certain magic about the longer distances. The marathon. Just the word evokes a sense of history and epic achievement and it's the ultimate distance in many runner's minds. Having done London marathon, I could quite reasonably have said "That's it. I've done the ultimate road marathon; I don't need to do any more than that." Then I could have gone on to have a very happy life running parkruns, 10ks and the occasional half and happily enjoying the post-run bacon sandwich with friends.
But then, what if...? What if I hadn't been recovering from an Achilles injury before starting training for London and been starting at such a low base? What if I hadn't got ankle and foot injuries in the weeks before the marathon? What if I hadn't fallen apart at 20 miles. Would I have hit my target time and would I be capable of going sub-4?
So that meant doing Portsmouth (flat meant quick in my mind) and then The Pilgrim (got talked into it by one of the organisers who I happen to work with). Unfortunately with Portsmouth, I wasn't banking on some course congestion on the narrow sections and the wet and muddy conditions. That left me thinking about more marathons for 2014 and maybe, eventually a sub-4 hour time.
The problem about all this focus on long distances and entering races is it can mean a lot of time away from the family both in training and doing events and can cost quite a lot of money. Solutions then: Make a plan for the whole year so you can recognise when you are doing too much, get creative with training, enter cheap races and, if you can, get the rest of the family into running.
My plan for the year centres around doing a marathon in the spring and another in the autumn. I didn't get into London, so I was thinking Brighton or Milton Keynes. Turns out a friend from work is doing Milton Keynes so that made my mind up for spring. Then I went for Abingdon as a reasonably flat PB attempt for the autumn - I imagine it will be full of quick runners who will clear off out of my way. Having got 2 serious target races, the rest should be down to whatever fun events I can fill the calendar with: This is what I booked:
February: Wokingham Half, Bramley 20
March: Surrey Half, Fleet Half
April: Bracknell Half
May: Milton Keynes Marathon, Hook 10
June: Endure 24
July: Elstead Marathon, Thunder Run
September: Farnham Pilgrim Marathon
October: Abingdon Marathon, Halloween 5 Nite run (probably)
To that little lot you can add marshaling at London Marathon and running a few shorter races in the summer like the Yateley 10k series (I'll probably marshal at 1 or 2 of these and run 1) and then a couple of the Woodland 5 series.
That looks like quite a lot (could be 18 races!) and haven't I just broken one of my rules for a happy running family, you might ask. Well, there are no more than 2 races a month, and I figured I could bribe the family to come along to at least one a month with the promise of a decent post run pub lunch. And Wokingham, Fleet, Bracknell, Hook, Elstead and the Pilgrim are relatively cheap being run by running clubs, councils or charitable ventures who aren't looking for big profit margins. Then Milton Keynes and Abingdon are both very reasonably priced compared to say Brighton.
Still, that left a bit of a gap in January, August and November/December. I have to leave a gap in August to fit in a family holiday and it's too hot to run far anyway. November/December can be left to do some club cross country runs, but I decided to do something about January which turned out to be quite reckless... enter a trail ultramarathon!
So, scanning around for cheap events lead me to the pages of the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) and their Challenge events. Run, jog or walk distances from 20miles to 30miles and even 50miles along hiking trails finding your own way using several pages of coded instructions. I entered the Surrey LDWA group's Winter Tanner event - a 30 mile very hilly, very muddy mostly trail run. It cost an embarrassingly low £6 to enter or £4 for members, so I joined LDWA for £13. Still bloody cheap for an event like this. I'll leave a description of the event and my blooding as an ultramarathon runner till later, but for an excellent write up of the event see my friend and mentor Mr K's running blog .
A final note on making for a happy running family. Try and get them all running. Well, this has been a huge success and I have my involvement with Frimley Lodge parkrun to thank for that. Both Elinor (8) and Alfred (10) have given up Saturday morning swimming lessons and are now regular parkrunners and my wife Julia, not wanting to be left out, followed a couch to 5k training plan and is now also a regular runner and parkrunner. It's amazing what the offer of a post run bacon sandwich can do!
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