Milton Keynes Marathon

Milton Keynes Marathon, my target race for the spring season and my 5th marathon.  I had intended to be doing this with my friend Adam from work, but his training had been ruined by a combination of beer and illness (mostly illness to be fair) so he was in no fit state to run or to drive me there.  By lucky chance Friday 2nd May saw 2 events - an engagement party for Sandhurst Joggers' Vicky Horne and John Tzanetis and the London Marathon finish crew party.  I nipped down to see Vicky and John and met Greg Ward and Emma Lewis who were also doing MK marathon and Emma offered to give me a lift.  Then on to the marshal's do and the draw for marshals places in next year's London Marathon.  There were 86 names in the draw for a possible 30 places.  Sandhurst came out well in the draw with 10 out of 30 guaranteed places with my name coming out no.36.  That pretty much means I will be running London next year as people usually get in up to around 50th place, what with people dropping out of the draw or getting in to the marathon by other means.

Over the weekend before the marathon and I had been eating a bit extra for some carb loading, but keeping it light and not eating late the day before the run, then getting a reasonably early night for a decent sleep.  My bag was packed the day before and all my running and post-run clothes sorted out.  I decided to run in my brand new Brooks Ravenna 4s instead of my old Ravenna 3s.  For some this could be a mistake, running in new shoes, but I get on well with the Ravennas and the new ones just felt more comfortable.  Breakfasted on porridge and raisins, apple juice and made up hi-5 energy/electrolyte drink to sip through the journey to MK.

6:40am and Emma arrived and we had a trouble free journey up to Stadium MK arriving just before 8am leaving plenty of time for a stroll around the stadium and then back to the car to get into race kit.  The weather early on was bright and sunny and forecast to get up to 18⁰C, but with cloud cover from 10am. At 9:30 I went with Emma to drop my bag off in the stadium and make our way to the start.  The race was being held at the same time as Milton Keynes Half marathon so it was quite crowded with both races mixed together with obviously slower runners squeezed in near the front with the faster club runners.  I caught site of the 4 hour pacer who was trailing a large blue balloon and lined up nearby.

The start came at 10am and we shuffled forward to the line and got into running. I checked my pace aiming to do a couple of miles at 9:10/mile, then moving up to 9:00/mile for as long as I could.  I kept the 4hour balloon in sight and no further away than about 50m.  The route goes from the stadium to the centre of MK along a gently rising main road around several roundabouts (it is roundabout city after all) before getting to the centre, which is laid out like an American city on a grid pattern.  You then make your way up a steady climb with a series of 90⁰ left turns on out and back diversions for a few hundred metres on side streets, all the while hugging the centre of the tree-lined boulevards for a bit if extra shade. (See the bits in blue on the route plan).  Getting back out of the centre of town is the same, but with a long gentle downhill section to get back to sweeping main roads and roundabouts to the 10 mile mark where the half and full marathons separate.

The profile says about 100m of climb, but the
Garmin has it at 265m. I believe Garmin on this one.

Then its on to cycle tracks, or "redways" around the suburbs of MK.  For those who don't know MK but are local to me, it's a bit like Bracknell Half with wide footpaths and cycle lanes dipping into underpasses with some quite steep little climbs back out to road level.  From about 17 miles the course starts to climb up a series of short hills one after the other to 21 miles, then with some more sharp undulations to just past 23 miles where the route starts to drop gently back to the finish.  You run on or past 25 roundabouts (Yay!), but disappointingly no concrete cows (Sad face on that MK organisers!)

I managed to hang on to the 4 hour pacer to just beyond 19 miles passing through half distance at 1:56:40 and 20 miles at 2:59:15 (which beat my previous PB for 20 miles by 6:42).  At about 18 miles I came across a runner who was staggering drunk-like and obviously in need of medical attention, but the marshal who was just 30m away was just looking at him. I shouted at the marshall to get up and help the runner and call for first aid.  The heat was taking its toll on a lot of runners and I passed a few more laid out being attended to and a lot of people walking in the last 6 miles. I also heard people talking about other issues with some marshals not being pro-active enough in aiding runners in distress - they needed to be better trained to recognise when medical attention was needed.

From 19 miles I slowed from around 9 minute miles to around 9:30/mile for the next 3-4 miles when disaster hit in a rapid series of cramps in my right leg, starting with a piece of my upper calf, then hamstring, then inner thigh. I had been taking gels at regular 4mile intervals, water at every stop-usually about 200ml-and some energy drink at the 2 drink stations that had them.  Even with all this the skin on my face was like sandpaper with all the salt dried on it. I was obviously dehydrated and seriously lacking in salts!

The cramps stopped me dead for a minute while I stretched out my hamstring, but I got going again walking for the next few minutes before trying to jog.  I came up to another runner (Graham Holland from Ealing Eagles) with cramp problems and we teamed up to jog/walk up the climbs and jog the downhills.  He even gave me a little extra water in the last mile, so I must have looked bad, even though I was OK mentally.

I had accepted that my Plan A of a sub-4 hour time had been blown away, but it was still a bit of an emotional sight to see 4 hours tick by with the stadium in sight just half a mile away.  Time to grit my teeth and not give up - there was still a decent PB to get.  Plan B was still on and we made it to the stadium approach sweeping (OK, fast shuffling!) past KFC and McDonalds and round the car park to go down a ramp to the pitchside track.  There were a few hundred people in the stadium still waiting to cheer the finishers on and you could see your own finish happening live on the big stadium screens.  I managed to at least look like I was running when I crossed the line arms raised and looking like a salty ghost, before grinding to a halt, hands on knees.

Emma, me, Vicky, Greg and Vicky's daughter all proudly
showing off our medals (Photo: Janet Foran)

My fellow Sandhurst runners finished like this: Greg War 4:48:50, Emma Lewis 5:43:20, Vicky Horne 5:55:47.  Both Vicky and Greg had run a marathon the previous day.


My official finish time was 4:06:37.
Here are my splits:8:55 9:09 9:00 8:47 8:57 8:54 9:12 8:41 8:39 9:00 8:51 8:58 8:50 8:57 8:55 9:06 9:10 9:17 9:40 9:35 9:24 10:28 11:30 12:21 10:39 2:58  

Cramp set in near the end of mile 23 and the finish distance was 26.34miles according to Garmin.  Without the cramp, I may well have been able to dip under 4 hours, as I lost 6:20 over a 9:40/mile pace over the last 4 miles, but that leads to...

Lessons Learned:

1. I could really do with doing more warm weather training at distance and managing my hydration better.  Have another go at an 15 to 18 mile run and weighing myself before and after.  I drank quite a lot compared to other runners that I saw on the course, but maybe I need to do more?
2. I am a salty sweater and I am going to look into taking salt tablets along with water for my next 20 mile or marathon.  Hopefully that will keep the cramps at bay.  I might also try looking at what ultra runners eat - protein as well as carbs, so peanuts or mini pizzas might be the order of the day!
3. Hi-5 gels are my favourite - nice natural flavour and easy to drink. I think Gatorade upsets my stomach a bit and blue drink is just wrong in so many ways.
4. My foot care is sorted.  I used toe socks with compression socks over and came away with comfortable, blister free feet.  Wearing new shoes worked out fine for me as well - but they were another pair of a shoe that I knew worked for me.
5. I have a new personal superstition - I always do well in a race with a green medal.  Bramley 20 (PB by 20 mins), Bracknell Half (PB by 2:30) and MK Marathon (PB by nearly 8 mins).  All had green medals. 
6. Any PB is a success and any marathon finished is an achievement.

Now my marathon has been run, my summer goals will be to lose some weight, get closer to a 21 minute parkrun and run at least one of the Yateley 10k races.  I've just got to see which one is going to have the lucky green ribbon on this year.