Thames Path - Saturday Night Marathon - Race Report

Aaaargh...Another Marathon!
If you looked at my previous post, you may have noted that I have been here before, back at the end of July when I came out for a medium/long run with a number on my vest and achieved 9 miles and a DNF.  So, Saturday late afternoon on 19 September and I was back at the Wokingham Waterside Centre for a second go at the Thames Trail Marathon on the Thames Path between Reading and Sonning.  This run also coincided with International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so I was thinking that there might be a few salty dogs along for this run, but when I turned up there wasn't a west county accent to be heard.

The Wokingham Waterside Centre is nowhere near Wokingham, but lies at the extreme northern end of the borough just east of Reading on the Thames.  The organiser's original plan was to run from here along the Thames through Reading to the other side of Caversham, then return making a 6 and a bit mile lap.  However, works to Reading bridge mean the path has a nasty detour (steps, busy road) so the run goes between the Waterside Centre down river towards Sonning, then back past the Waterside Centre on to Reading Bridge and back again.  It has one short lap of about 2.2 miles followed by 4 long laps of 6 miles each.  The course runs on grass, gravel trails and tarmac paths and you end up crossing Horseshoe Bridge over the mouth of the River Kennet 8 times.

Start/Finish is at A, the short lap goes out to point B and the long laps go out to the red markers

I got to the event at about 4pm to give me plenty of time to get my number and kit sorted.  I have the marathon kit sorted now for road and easy trails and it consists of Hoka Bondi 3's with normal laces, toe socks (today Injinji liner socks) and OS1st ankle/calf compression from ING Source, short leggings and running vest.  I have also taken to wearing knee straps which sit just below the knee cap, more for insurance than necessity as I find they lessen running impact loads and improve my post run recovery.  I dropped my main bag at race HQ upstairs in the Waterside Centre and took a drop bag down to the start with a post run drink, chocolate, banana and my head torch for the second half of the race.

We're off! Not quite crowded with just over 30 runners.

Run in the Autumn Sun
After a short race briefing describing the route we set off on time at 5pm in lovely sunshine with 32 marathon runners out of a capacity of 40 for this event.  It didn't take long before we were spread out along the grassy banks of the river, running in ones, twos and threes.  The first part of the route should be familiar to people who have run Reading parkrun or the Halloween 5 Nite Run, running along the grass path following the river as it bends right and the path goes into the woods.  I noted a few tree roots and dips and hollows in the path for later when it got dark,

Pleasant running along the river

but other than the first section in the woods, the path was fairly flat, with stony gravel tracks up to the first turn around.  The short lap was dealt with quickly and the first long lap took us past Sonning Lock and up to Sonning Bridge, all looking quite picturesque in the late summer sun.

Tactics
I had decided to tackle this event using a run/walk strategy, thinking that I would still have quite a lot of tiredness in my legs after the Farnham Pilgrim 6 days before. So, I set up my watch for an interval training session of 26 reps of 10 minutes running and 1 minute walking. That turned out to be a bit optimistic, in terms of the number of reps I could do, but I stuck at it and got to half way in a decent time of around 2:15.

Fairly spread out by lap 2, there was a lot of lone running.

In to the Night
At the end of the second lap it was getting a bit dark and I took a break to get my head torch, grab some chocolate and a banana.  My head torch is really good, a fairly cheap Chinese CREE 2200 lumen torch with battery pack on the back of the head strap.  It lasts for ages, stays charged for months and is well balanced, so it doesn't move around.  With the torch set on the lower brightness setting I could see very well, though I was conscious of not wanting to look people in the eye and blinding them.  However, even with a bright torch, I was a bit cautious running on the grass paths and in the woods as it is not so easy to see little pot holes as in daylight.

I was feeling very tired by half way and had got past the turn point at Sonning for the third time when I caught up with a woman in a Supergirl costume who was having knee trouble.  Carla had done a 12 hour ultra a couple of weeks ago as preparation for this, her first marathon, which is a bit unconventional for a training plan.  We sat on a bench by Sonning Lock for a couple of minutes while I showed her some ITB stretches and talked about what her injury could come from, then we carried on jogging and walking together for most of the remaining 10 miles.  There were some very quiet, misty and peaceful stretches along the river with the moon shining and I think we were both glad of the company.

On the way back from Sonning for the final time with 4 miles to go I was trying to run, managing half a mile then running out of energy and was forced to walk for 5 minutes or so, but when I got past the start/finish aid station with 2 miles to go the thought of finishing soon lifted my spirits enough to jog on again.  I got to the finish at about 10:40pm, inside the cut off time with a couple of people behind me.  I got presented with some nice bling by race director Paul Ali, had my photo taken and was directed back to race HQ for some food and a hot drink somewhere warm.  I was very tired but had had a good time on this run. It's well organised, low key and friendly and they didn't seem to mind people taking most of the allotted 6 hours to finish.  The only thing I would say is, if you are a bit nervous about running in the dark by yourself, you might want to take a friend along with you, or just make a new friend along the trail.

So, another marathon done (9th this year and 17th overall), I still didn't quit and didn't do any more damage to any injuries.  I know I am not in any sort of shape to do a marathon a week, but my fitness is improving and I'm pretty sure I can do 1 every 2 weeks and manage some decent recovery and training in between. That is just as well as next up is Clarendon Marathon in 2 weeks time, followed by Abingdon 2 weeks later.

Supergirl Carla at the finish. See you at Abingdon!

Getting my Mojo (and my legs) back...

Summer Blues
It's been a log time since I posted last with the miserable news of having to pull out of Endure 24.  I really haven't felt like I wanted to talk about running, I've been feeling so down about injuries. Since May and the pain of slogging round a very tough Richmond Park marathon and then the realisation that I had some significant injuries to sort out, I then made the decision to get some treatment.  So, I've been seeing another woman, a recommendation from our club coach James, and have had some interesting diagnoses.  I had a list of problems including left patella tendonitis, right aductor strain, lower right abs strain, tight calves and sore heels. These things mostly derive their source from 2 things - a general lack of foam rolling and a possible hernia.

Having been going through a series of rehab exercises for a month or so, the patella tendonitis has largely cleared up, I have had some treatment on the aductor (extremely painful inner thigh massage!!) and have seen my GP to get a referral for an ultra sound scan to see if I do have a hernia.  That's to come at the end of September and here's hoping that I find out one way or the other what the problem is, so I can move on to to get the right treatment or management plan.

I took a real dip in mileage after June and went back to doing a few short runs a week with lots of stretching, foam rolling, core strengthening and glute workouts, together with club track sessions just working on drills and improving running form.  Our family holiday to Fuertaventura in the Canaries also helped, with loads of swimming and a couple of runs on sandy beaches which were low impact but really hard sessions.

Races that I had booked between Endure 24 in June and September included Yateley 10k Race 3, Thames Path Saturday Night marathon, Thames Meander marathon and the Farnham Pilgrim marathon.  I did Yateley 10k in July to get the medal and the T-shirt as it was the 25th anniversary of the event and ran a respectable 47:24.  I was a bit sore the next day though.

Saturday Night DNF
Having done no distance running beyond about 6  miles for 2 months, I then went to the Saturday Night marathon in Reading. Crazy on the face of it, but it was a lovely sunny evening and I felt like getting out for a run with a race number on my vest.  The course is a series of laps starting and finishing at the Wokingham Waterside Centre (actually just east of Reading) on the Thames, running along the path down to Sonning and back up to Reading Bridge.  It was lovely, and I was cruising along at about marathon PB pace (what!?!) for 6 miles when I realised that the lack of miles was going to cause serious problems if I tried to continue. So I got to about 9 miles, having had a really good enjoyable run when I pulled out. I had never done a DNF run before, which was a bit sad, but what I did do was great and I ran really well, with good form and pain free, so overall I was pleased.

Thames Meander Summer Marathon
That DNF was a sore point, so when the next race came up at the end of August - the Thames Meander marathon - I decided that another DNF was not going to be an option.  However I needed to come up with a sensible plan to complete it.  That started with not doing Kingston parkrun before the marathon, then running at a comfortable 9:15 to 9:30 pace to around 12 miles, run walking to the turn point at 14 miles and jog walking back to the end.

I had done this one back in March and wrote about it in a previous post.  As you would expect, the course is flat and mostly woodland trail, with some quiet roads where they run alongside the river.  My plan was executed as expected, getting to 14 miles in 2:30ish leaving me 12 miles to cover in 3.5 hours to get in under 6 hours - a self imposed cut off time.  There were no major dramas along the way, but the slower runners were all forced to wade through 2 flooded sections caused by combined

Another Thames Meander medal

heavy rain the week before and a very high tide. One at about 18 miles was a slipway that I had to wade across knee deep and in socks as I didn't fancy 8 miles of wet blistered feet; the other at 23 miles was just a couple of inches deep and I couldn't be bothered to take my shoes off.  I got a blisters on my little toes as a result.  I finished in 5:37:17.  Call that a long training run with a very long recovery walk, but usefully I got to feel what it's like to keep going to the finish when I'm really tired and learn some tactics to do this without getting injured.

Ton Up Elinor
I had a little diversion from my own running for a major milestone for my daughter Elinor, who ran her 100th parkrun at Frimley Lodge Park on 12 August. Elinor started running parkruns with me back in 2012 at 7 years old with a first full parkrun in a time of 42:39.  She's now almost 10 and has a PB under 26 minutes, which is great going.  She has also volunteered over 20 times and loves being the centre of attention doing the new runner's briefing and shouting encouragement to runners as a marshal.  We enjoyed our run round Frimley in a gentle 30 minutes followed by some lovely cakes.

Come on Pilgrim! - On St Martha's Hill and still smiling
despite the brutal climb up the sandy trail.

Farnham Pilgrim Marathon
The day after was Farnham Pilgrim Marathon, my third attempt at this one and a punishing but picturesque way to get another marathon done.  This time I had a target of anything under 6 hours, my previous best on this course being 5hours, but I couldn't think of doing this run at a set pace, as it is so hilly.  So, the plan was to walk up any significant gradient and run/jog all the flatter and downhill sections.

This is a great event, with lovely countryside, spectacular views and lots of friendly marshals and things went mostly to plan.  I managed to get to the high point on St Martha's Hill at around 12.5 miles in 2:15, with the only mishaps being almost spraining my ankle running along a narrow path at 8 miles, then on the way down from St Martha's, I was remembering getting a knee injury at this point last year, and jogging gently downhill, when I tripped and almost landed flat on my face!  Fortunately there were no more dramas and I jogged and walked back to the finish in a time of 5:23:48.  I was pleased with that, 2 weeks after the Thames Meander and beating that result by over 13 minutes on a much more hilly course - the Pilgrim is longer too, by about 500m.  I'll happily call that a Comeback PB!

Next up is another go at the Saturday Night marathon, with another plan to beat my comeback PB, not come last, not aggravate any injuries and get in shape to eventually get back below 5 hours at Abingdon marathon in October.  In between we have another parkrun milestone, with my son Alfred reaching 100 runs on 26 September.  It's nice to feel positive about running and getting my mojo back.