Autumn, The Pilgrim and Abingdon Marathon

Cool Autumn
The Autumn marathon season is in full swing and although maybe not as popular for those people doing 1 or 2 long races a year as spring (and London) it has some distinct advantages in my mind.
You get to train in daylight and when the autumn comes around it is often cooler. I have done both London (April) and Milton Keynes (May) and both were really warm days after having trained in cold dark weather through the winter.

I had done MK marathon in May and really suffered in the last 4 or 5 miles, getting cramp at mile 23 in my right hamstring and missing out on a sub 4hour time by just 6 minutes, so I knew I had issues to resolve regarding hydration for my next marathon. However, that was all put in the background as I turned my attention to getting faster 5k and 10k times over the summer (see previous post). That was successful and with the August Yateley 10K done I had to think about getting some more miles into my legs before The Pilgrim.

The Pilgrim - Lack of Progress?
For the Farnham Pilgrim marathon on 21 September I had a target to just beat last year's time of 4:59. However all that was put in jeopardy by getting ill the Wednesday before the race. I had a chesty cough and head cold and was off work on Thursday and Friday, but felt OK by mid-Friday afternoon.  I went for a little jog while coaching son Alfred in a bit of hill sprints and did a couple of reps with
him that had the effect of instantly clearing my head.  Saturday at Frimley parkrun I was meant to run with Alf, but he disappeared at the start and I decided to run as fast as I could to test out the legs and lungs.  Having got round in 23 minutes feeling fine I decided to run the Pilgrim.  You may think that's a daft decision, but when I was ill I didn't have a temperature or any achy joints and muscles like a proper bout of flu, so I figured I would be safe if I took it easy.

Simon and me on top of St Martha's Hill. About half way and
the highest point on the course. It all went downhill from here!

Come race day, I met up with Simon Burfield as we were going to run this together. Simon felt like he wanted the company on his first marathon and was aiming for a sub 5 hour finish which suited me fine.  Everything went well up to 20 miles, jogging along and chatting on the flats and downhills, walking up any steep uphills and taking a few minutes at each water stop to sample the biscuits and jelly beans.  From 20 miles on my lack of miles and time off ill began to tell and my left knee got very sore from a tight ITB so that I couldn't run downhill.  Simon and I agreed to split so he could go for his sub-5 time and I struggled on jog walking the last 4 miles to the finish in 5:02. Simon got 4:45, so well done!

Oh well.  Not sub-5 or beating last year's time but the views were as good as ever and this time I didn't get lost. Also there was no lasting damage to my knee and after some stretching and foam rolling I was out for a gentle 6 miles with the club on Tuesday.

Training for the Big Race
Before the Pilgrim I had done 30 miles running in the week plus a bit of cycling to work. The Pilgrim week was 31 miles, followed by 17, 20 and 33 miles in the three weeks leading up to Abingdon with a longest run of 16.5 hilly miles.  In amongst this I did the Julian Farrell 10k run by Camberley Athletics.  A small event that's quite popular with local clubs that could be lots bigger if they bothered to advertise it at all.  I thought I would do this in about 48 minutes as it has a big long hill in it and set off at about 7:10/mile pace for the initial undulating section.  I soon had a rival running along with me, a chap called David from Woking Athletics and we pushed each other along from about 2k.  With 800m to go I started to push harder and got a small lead over David which I managed to keep all the way to the line coming in at 45:30.

That was 2 weeks before Abingdon.  I managed some decent miles in the next couple of weeks and in the days before the marathon I came to realise that something peculiar was going on - I wasn't injured and I was in decent shape, probably the fittest that I have ever been.  The only niggle was mental - had I done enough miles?  My weekly mileage was probably OK, but my longest runs had only been up to 16 or 17 miles.  I thought of Abby Fudge (who looks after my legs) who, earlier this year, had done her first marathon at Brighton in a wonderful sub 3:40 time on the back of only 2 half marathons as her maximum long runs.  Now, she had also done lots of speed and strength work, but I decided to stay positive anyway.

Race Ready

All ready to go running. I did forget to double tie my shoelaces though
and spent the whole race wondering when they would come undone,
but they never did.

Come race day I was up at 5:30 to have breakfast (porridge, golden syrup and banana, juice and
water) by 6am giving me at least 3 hours before race start for my stomach to empty.  The rest of the time before travelling I spent making sure I was going to be as comfortable as possible during the run.  Using toe socks means my toes don't rub and I don't get blisters, I was using shoes that had been run in at MK marathon so were new-ish with less than 100 miles in them, I had calf guards on, Body Glide on the inner thighs and under arms and nappy rash cream to stop a chafing bum. I then use a combination of the nappy rash cream and a patch of K-Tape on my nipples.  The K-Tape sticks no matter how sweaty I get and the cream on the ends of my nips means I can take the tape off without pulling the top of my nipples off.  Look at all the stuff I've learnt the hard way so you guys don't have to!

Just before 7am Henry Hirsch got dropped off and at 7am Emma Lewis turned up and we were off.  We got parked by 8am getting one of the last places in the car park and walked to the start/finish stadium in Tilsley Park.  The weather was clear and sunny, cool-ish at 16 to 18C during the day but windy.  There was a long queue for loos which me and Henry joined, but Emma went into the stadium and found only a short line there.  I got my vest and number on and went to the bag drop which was fine and I loaded my belt with 6 gels on the outside and a couple spare inside the pouch with a few salt tablets as well - hopefully my solution to avoiding cramp if I felt it was getting hot.  We lined up together with 650 mostly club runners just before 9am and I instantly lost sight of both Henry and Emma, with Henry aiming for a 3:30 time (probably setting off at sub-3 hour pace!) and Emma aiming for a 5hour time.

Running the Marathon
I was aiming for a sub 4 hour time and set the Garmin virtual pacer to 8:50/mile which would give me a time of 3:51:30 and an 8 minute cushion for the last 5 or 6 miles.  I set off right near the back so I wouldn't get trampled by all the fast guys and was quickly on pace or a little ahead as we headed down hill round the northern ring road and towards Radley lakes, a really nice looking part of the course.  The course is a mixture of Abingdon outskirts, country lanes, Abingdon town centre, road by the river then on a loop out of town to the villages of Drayton, Milton and Sutton Courtnay before the last 3 miles back through town.  The hill up to Drayton was a long slow drag against the wind followed by a nice long downhill section with the rest of the course fairly flat.  I have heard some people say they didn't like the course because of the drag through Milton industrial estate, but that is just 1 mile done twice on flat quiet roads and you're soon out to Sutton Courtnay which is quite nice looking (at least on the first lap when your legs aren't hurting).

I was really lucky to meet up with runners who were willing to chat for a while or just stick together. Miles 2 to 5 breezed past chatting to a guy doing his first marathon and an army chef who had been working since 5am and hadn't had breakfast.  I tried to cheer him up by saying "You know when they say there is always someone worse off than you? Well today your that guy." He did see the funny side and was smiling when I left him loading up on jelly babies. I saw him finish under 5 hours.  From about 7 miles I got chatting to Nicola from Witney Road Runners and another woman Joanne and we managed to stay together all the way to about 24 miles, keeping the 8:50/mile pace going to beyond 20 miles.  Having dipped a bit with sore hip flexors from 21 to 24 miles I decided  to dig in and maintain my pace and managed to pick it up to a relative sprint round the stadium track to the finish in 3:52:23.

Nice T, Abingdon medal and Jedi Challenge medal
for beating my 20 mile PB.

I am really proud of this race result - it was a huge PB taking over 14 minutes off my previous best and well into the sub-4 hour club.  I managed to keep a really good pace to beyond 20 miles and didn't suffer a major collapse in pace or have to rely much on the time banked earlier in the race.  I was stiff and sore, especially around the hips and pelvis, but after my milkshake and a third cup of free tea I was feeling good.  I also managed to beat my 20 mile PB in the race (2:56:08) and gave myself another medal to celebrate!

Here are the Splits
8:42 8:54 8:57 8:36 8:42 8:47 8:57 8:37 8:43 8:42 8:46 8:51 8:45 8:52 8:54 9:07 8:48 8:56 8:58 8:55 9:00 9:12 9:09 9:09 9:07 9:04 1:14@7:36/mile

Emma with just half a mile to go

Henry recovered enough to smile for the camera

Henry managed to finish his first marathon with not much in the way of long run training in a time of 3:44:20. I think he was a bit disappointed, while the marshals in the latter half of the race were worried as he looked like death.  Emma was a bit concerned about the 5 hour cut off as it was close to her PB. She just missed the time for the road closure to be reopened and made it to the finish in 5:09:25, her fastest marathon in 7 years!  Well done both of you.

As a footnote: last year the last runner given a time was home in 5:17 and there were 2 people who were stopped for being outside the time limit. There was also 1 person disqualified for using headphones.  This year they were more generous with the time limit; they let everyone finish, even though they had dismantled the finish gantry by the time the last runner crossed the line at 5:50.  However 6 people, including 2 from athletics clubs (should know better!), were disqualified for using headphones.

And finally - I finished in good shape with no blisters and all my own nipples (OK, I'm no Scaramanga but you know what I mean), but in the changing rooms after the race I saw an older runner who had bloodied his 100 Marathon Club vest.  Some people never learn.