A week before Clarendon marathon, I went to have a scan on my groin to check for a possible hernia. This has been causing me some trouble with pain in my lower abs (I think) especially after a long or hard run and especially if I had a cough as well. Not knowing what was the cause meant that I couldn't get treatment without possibly risking the injury getting worse. I had the scan in Aldershot Health Centre and was seen quickly, covered in gloop, scanned and had the results straight away. Good news - I don't have a hernia, and I don't have an injury to my adductor tendon either.
That afternoon I booked an appointment with a physiotherapist for the day after Clarendon marathon. Fortunately I was feeing OK after that run, being able to walk normally and cope with stairs without having to hang on to the bannisters and lower myself down sideways. Still, I was a bit wary of having Tracy at Fleet Physio dig her thumbs into my groin and inner thigh.
I was right to be a bit worried. After an extensive catch up on my injury history after my last treatment session 2 months ago, which included admitting, like a naughty schoolboy, that I had done 4 more marathons in 5 weeks and had another in 2 weeks, Tracy got down to business with a reassessment and then painful massage of my right adductor. She then taped up my inner thigh over the adductor, which I suppose does some good, but actually the main feeling I get from it is that of having a leg wax every step I walk as the tape pulls on inner thigh hairs!
I was given a new list of exercises to do to strengthen core and glutes, work on the patella injury doing knee dips, but do the same on the right leg to make sure they are both the same strength. I know I was there just the day after a hard marathon, but I was clearly weaker and more wobbly doing single leg dips on my right leg than my left. I was also told to avoid doing exercises that caused me pain, the reason being that I shouldn't be be pushing through the pain all the time and desensitising myself to it, otherwise I risk ignoring the warning signs of potential injuries in future.
Abingdon Marathon is relatively flat and fast with one significant steady climb over about a mile, which you do twice. However, there is also the issue of the 5 hour cut off time. What that really means is at 2pm any remaining traffic control and road closures are taken off and anyone still on the course has to run on the footpaths and cross one or two roads themselves without much help from marshals. That doesn't mean that you get asked to stop at 5 hours but there were fewer than 30 finishers beyond 5 hours last year and in fact, if you are a 4 hour marathon runner, you will still be in the last third of the field. What they are really serious about is running with headphones or unauthorised transfers of race numbers, either of which will get you disqualified (9 disqualified last year). I can understand the headphones issue - there are several road crossings and the marshals have to be able to call you across at a safe time while holding the traffic, which is not safe if you can't hear them.
I did this run last year and had a really good run - posting a PB and my first ever sub-4 hour time. This time, I'm still on the way back from injury and building up endurance and strength and my targets and expectations were a lot lower. I was going to go for a sub-5 hour time and hopefully nearer 4:30, which would be a significant improvement on any marathon I have done since London back in April, even the easy flat ones.
I got my kit together the night before as I had a message to remind me from SJ clubmate Leon that it was a 9am start, so no lie in for this one. I was sticking with my now trusty Hoka Bondi 3 trainers, toe socks, ankle/calf compression and knee straps to avoid patella tendonitis after the run. I also wore a t-shirt under my club vest as I thought it might be a bit cool out. Leon turned up at 7am and we drove up to Abingdon with no problems arriving by 8am. There is about a 15 minute walk from the car park area, but we were in Tilsley Park stadium with plenty of time to find the changing rooms and loos before heading out to the start where we met Mark Nikki and Elizabeth from SJ. After several goes at tying my shoelaces and finding them too tight I finally got them fixed to my liking and we were off.
Leon and I had done 4 marathons each in the last 5 or 6 weeks with Leon doing Chicago the week before, so we were both feeling the miles in our legs. We set off together with the aim of doing a steady 10min/mile pace and managed to keep that going till about half way. At 14 miles Leon stopped to walk/jog and sent me on my way, which worked for him, but ultimately tired me out. I made it to about 18 miles before deciding I needed to have a decent walk break and from then on I was jogging and walking to the end, jogging for a mile and walking for 5 minutes. At about 20 miles Leon caught me up and a few minutes later jogged on to finish just over 3 minutes ahead of me.
Abingdon marathon is a bit of a mixed bag as far as the course and support is concerned. There are loads of marshals all doing a good job, the course is picturesque in places around the river and Radley lakes, but a bit of a drag in others where you are running along a busy road or through an industrial estate. The parts through the town centre were well managed and there were lots of people supporting cheering us on. Elsewhere on the course the support was patchy, but where there were supporters they were enthusiastic and cheering us on well.
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| Stadium finish awaits at Abingdon. |
It turned out to be a good day for running a marathon, with perfect weather and there were some fast times from the other SJ runners, as well as a world record time for a woman pushing a buggy (3:17:52):
SJ Results:
Sean Smith 2:59:40
Mark Fallowfield-Smith 3:04:29
Nikki Stanley 3:43:33
Elizabeth Crow 3:58:45
Leon Hicks 4:40:02
Richard Boese 4:43:31
Splits were: 9:34 9:38 10:03 9:51 9:43 9:59 9:58 9:53 9:56 9:59 9:59 10:28 10:21 10:25 10:29 11:01 10:03 11:26 14:17 11:14 11:50 12:49 12:57 12:08 12:32 11:08 1:50
Next up for me is a 3 week rest before the third in the Thames Meander marathon series where I'll be aiming for a course PB at least.
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