A Right Royal Run & Richmond Park Marathon #73 & #74

By Saturday morning royal wedding fever had reached fever pitch. Lots of fever going on there. Sounds like time for a marathon....

....A Right Royal Run, no less. Despite being near Reading (that jewel in the English crown), the run had a subtly regal feel about it. The start atbWokingham Waterside Centre, which as well as serving an excellent cup of coffee (helpful if your golden horse-drawn carriage - ha ha!- made good time down the M4, and you arrive very early) is in a completely wonderful location, in an idyllic spot right by the Thames (with Reading barely in sight), with the river sparkling in the sunshine like a thousand diamonds in a crown. 

What a day! Come reign or shine, it seemed a great day for a brand new event, and a completely new organizer - Saturn Running. Hats (or rather, tiaras) off to them for a fabulous first event, which went off without a hitch. 

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry - I've really throne away an opportunity for a great photo there. 

Eight glorious laps through sunny meadows, through shady woods along the meandering Thames up to Sonning Lock and back made a marathon, and I enjoyed every step, apart from a couple of laps somewhere in the middle where I got a stitch. I've never had a stitch before, and blow me down, I never want another. There was a couple of seconds where I thought it was a heart attack, but then I grasped a hold of myself, and reminding myself of some basic biology, realised that was unlikely, unless my heart had slipped out of place quite significantly. By jove though.

Apart from that, and a couple of blisters, all went without a trouble, and I finished in 4:22. Got a nice medal....

Thanks to George and Charlotte of Saturn Running (who very conveniently, have names to make A Right Royal Run event more royal sounding) for a brilliant day, and I look forward to the next....  

The next day, Sunday, was the Richmond Park Marathon. I was equally excited and nervous about today. I love Richmond Park more than anywhere, and the events of recent days have re-realised dreams of becoming a princess/ rich, when I shall live in one the mansion houses backing on to the park. Anyway, enough daydreaming. I was nervous because the run had a 5.5 hour cut off time, which didn't seem very long, really. I felt a bit calmer to see lots of familiar faces from yesterday, and also Kasia and Gemma, who were amazing and really helped me a lot today - thanks girls! 

I struggled for the first 6 miles. My legs felt useless and heavy, I was lacking energy (goodness knows why, since finishing yesterday, I'd been out for pizza, then had another meal when I got home, then breakfast, and then another breakfast on the way to the race as I was still hungry), and I was freaking out about the time limit, even though my pace was fine to finish well within time. Oh deer.

After chatting to Gemma and Kasia and some other runners, I relaxed a bit, and at 8 miles, I started to feel a lot better. I had a few ups and downs (and if anyone tells me one more time that London is flat, I will send them off on a three lap marathon around Richmond Park), but I really enjoyed it. It is a stunning park, is Richmond Park. All big and green and open, with herds of deer just hanging around. The marathon route is 3 laps, the first one 12 miles, and the next two 7 miles each around the Tasmin Trail all around the edge, and it really shows the park in all it's glory. I was pleased to feel especially good on the last lap when I suddenly picked up a lot and felt great, and was able to pick up my pace. I love feeling good at the end of a marathon, and I had no i-deer I would be feeling like that after doing 4 marathons in 9 days, which is more than I've done before, I think. I finished in 4:45 which I was pretty happy with all things considered - as well as the hills it was a pretty hot day, and I felt a bit tired from yesterday...oh deer, or deer.

And that's enough deer jokes for now. Deer me. The quality of the jokes on here, already low, has really slipped. But fawn-tunately I only have two deer photos from today, so that'll be all.

The Richmond park Marathon is really a top notch race, a finely organised occasion, and runs like a well oiled machine. Lovely marshalls the whole way round. Excellent goody bag, including my first marathon mug (!), and a sparkly deer medal.

Now for a weekend off marathons. My Mum and Dad have just headed over the start line of the annual LDWA 100 (this year it's in Kent - The Cinque Ports). I am very proud of them! Last year my Mum supported me around the 100, she had just finished her breast cancer treatment, and I was raising money for the centre where she had treatment, and now a year later here she and my Dad are, doing the whole thing themselves! Andrew and I shall be helping at a checkpoint for the first time (checkpoint 3, 18 miles in) and after checkpointing duties are completed, will be offering support/ food/ medicines/ plasters/ a supply of bad jokes/ incentive to walk faster to avoid us/ whatever they need to get around. Please think of them and send them good vibes over the weekend! And good luck to all who are doing it! 

Dobbs Weir Double Marathon #71 & #72

A new event this weekend! A double marathon event up the Lee Valley near Broxbourne, organised by the lovely Fenella at Extreme Running UK, for the first time, ever!

After my last double a few weeks ago which was basically a disaster, I was a bit apprehensive that I'd be just as useless as last time, but fortunately my body had pulled itself together and I felt great the whole way through both days. I've been trying to figure out what it is that triggers feeling good or bad on a run - nutrition, sleep, work, hormones, exercise in the week, stress, etc, but I came to the conclusion that all of those things must surely play a part, and a lot of things you can't control really, so I guess you just have to go with things, look after yourself as best you can, and adjust your run accordingly. In other words, I have no idea what the secret is.

Anyway, something worked right this time.

Saturday's marathon started at Dobbs Weir campsite. Had a bit of a panic, as it was a really small marathon, only 35 of us I think on the first day, and for some reason I'd convinced myself that everyone else would know each other, and I'd get left out and left behind in a field somewhere, as everyone else ran off. Such a fool, as (of course) the complete opposite was true - there were some people I knew already, and everyone was completely lovely. As cheesy as it sounds, by the end of the weekend it felt like being part of the Dobbs Weir family and I met some brilliant people. We started off from the campsite, where one of my favourite things happened. When Fenella called us over for the race briefing, Dylan the little dog (who was along for the weekend with his owner Jayne, the massage therapist for the event), looked up, trotted over with us all, and stood at the front, pawing the ground, as if ready to set forth. He listened for a few moments, then when Fenella mentioned the word 'marathon' he looked up at the sky, as if suddenly having a better idea, and pottered off back to the tent. A smart dog, Dylan. Anyway, it was a lovely route from the Dobbs Weir campsite, along the canal through Stanstead Abbotts and Wear, then off the waterways and on for a few miles through parks and roads and fields to pick up the Cole Green Way, where I caught up with Andy who I'd met near the start, and who was doing his 99th marathon today (100th the day after - fantastic work!). We ran the next few miles together, before catching up with some other runners. The route was lovely, I haven't explored this area very much, but it is beautiful. 

The route description was great, up until (much like people running a marathon) about mile 21, when it became a little more vague. The last few miles were quite tricky to navigate, but by that point about 10 of us were running together, and actually, being lost together was a lot of fun, and a lot of laughs were laughed. I think, putting on a marathon for the first time must be such a challenge, there's bound to be some troubles. But, even by the next day these problems had been fixed, with excellent signage and descriptions all through day 2 (didn't get lost once!) - so thanks to Fenella and your team for sorting this out so quickly (I wish I could say the same about my own mistakes, but there you are).

Sunday's marathon started in the same place (Dylan chose not to attend the race brief this morning, he was off looking at ducks), but followed a different route, which was more rural and, I thought, even more beautiful than the day before. Even smaller group today on the marathon (although a 10 mile race was also going on) - only 15 of us. Following the route description was a breeze. I ran most of  the way with Ben today - who following a difficult race at the Milton Keynes Marathon a couple of weeks ago, had decided to set the record straight by doing another one straight away, and did a fantastic job - nice one! I also learnt from him some things about shift work and body clocks - which was really interesting as something that's always bothered me on overnight events is feeling really terrible about 4 am (really nauseous, dizzy, unable to focus on anything, etc). I've never been sure if that's because by that time, I'm about 60 miles in, so are you just feeling dreadful because you've run 60 miles, or because you've been up running all night and it's something to do with your body clock? I've tried some very uncontrolled 'experiments' like not starting a 50 mile run until 11 pm and seeing what happens at 4 am - and the feeling is exactly the same, even though I've run probably only 20 miles or so. And Ben reports that when working shifts he and many others would have a similar feeling, so it seems maybe the body clock does have something to do with it after all.

Met a few of the others from yesterday on the way around too, and I know some were doing their first double - and all did an amazing job! 👍😊🎉🏆

There was something up with my nutrition strategy (whatever that is) today - there was Coke at every check point, and I literally couldn't get enough of the stuff. I hate it normally, never touch it, but it was like I entered into some kind of addiction, I must have drunk pints. I went immediately off it again as soon as I'd finished. Weird what you crave sometimes. As well as the coke incident, other nutritional points of interest today included accidently eating a bacon frazzle, and then, my vegetarianism ruined for the day, I ate some jelly babies as well, just to make sure. 

Got back. Drank some more coke. Jayne had some space for a massage, so walked across the campsite to the showers to get changed, and when I got there realised I'd left my clothes bag right next to the massage table. No wonder my mind is completely gone at 4 am, it barely works at 2 pm. I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but massages really work. I had hardly any leg stiffness on Monday - thank you Jayne! 

Brilliant weekend - thank you to Fenella and her team for a brilliant event - I hope this becomes a regular fixture in the race calendar. And thanks to everyone I met, all the encouragement, chats, lifts to the station....it was a really good event, made all the more special by the people there. 

Saturday

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Sunday

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Marathon #70 - The Ranscombe Spring Challenge, 28.04.18

Lovely run for number 70, thanks to SVN running, in the Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve in Rochester. The name Spring was quite misleading, as was the weather forecast, which turned out to be least accurate weather forecast ever. Really glad I brought sun cream instead of a waterproof. Really. 

The run was a timed one, of laps of about 4.5 miles around the nature reserve (the first half up a hill, the second half down). Which is 6 laps for a marathon, and which gives plenty of chance to reflect on the route, which went something as follows:

Lap 1 reflection: The route is too hard, I can't do 5 more.

Lap 2 reflection: Maybe it's alright. There's only 4 laps left now anyway.

Lap 3 reflection: Yes, the route is OK! And it's pretty much half way there now. Time to raid the cake at the aid station to celebrate. Ooooh, Rocky Road! Chocolate cake!

Lap 4 reflection: I love this route, I love hills, I love the bluebells, I love the rain, I love everything. I think I ate too much cake. I feel a bit high and sugary.

Lap 5 reflection: Cake is wearing off. I love half of the route. The downhill part. I'm bored of the rain. Still love the bluebells though. Might have some more cake.

Lap 6 reflection: I love this route, I love hills, I love bluebells, I love rain, I love everything. I think I ate too much cake again. But who cares, I finished!