A full day of celebrating with Phoenix Running, down by the sunny Thames!
The morning marathon, starting soon after 08:00, was the Coffee-thon. This was Sean's 100th marathon - many congratulations Sean!! It was a lovely sunny morning on the blue bridge route. 8 laps flew by with Sarah and Andrew, with so much to catch up on, and having random chats. There were some cygnets on the river - instead of signing your name, is it acceptable to draw a picture of a cygnet, and use that as your signatory instead??
Lots of friends out on the route, and was very good to see everyone. Also saw Dimitri the cockerel out for his morning walk. Finished a bit before 13:00 so had about an hour and a half until the start of the next one. I find stopping between runs on the same day is hard work, it's hard to get going again, and so I'd rather keep going usually. But today the time was easily filled with Sean's celebration, cake, rehydrating, chatting, and getting changed into "evening wear" (aka, running outfit #2), so there wasn't any sitting around, so starting the second one was no problem.
About 14:30 we set off for marathon #2....Andrew's 100th and Sarah's 250th celebrations!! What comes before Part B? PARTAAAAY!!! Ain't no party like an Escott party!
The run was in the opposite direction this time, on the little Hampton Court loop. Nice to go this way - it was much more shaded which was nice as the morning was quite warm in the sun. And it was so quiet on the towpath and got quieter as the afternoon went on, so it was nice and chilled out running through the trees, listening to the river and watching the boats, chatting to friends. About half way, Sarah and I began thinking about our post race treats, and as this included cider and chips, we spent a whole lap compiling a list of foods and drinks which begin with "C", which is a running version of I Spy I suppose.....
Andrew and Sarah, it's well known, are both incredible runners! Both of their journeys to their respective current numbers are pretty different, and both are wonderful and interesting to hear about - I love listening to their stories so much! I am so lucky to share a lot of adventures along the way with them - as well as their amazing running, they are both so kind, funny (even Andrew's bad jokes), generous, and the best of friends, love you guys lots! 💙💛💙
Andrew, as well as doing his 100th marathon (a third of which are ultra-marathons), also reached his 52 marathons in 52 weeks at the same event! This is all completely amazing anyway, but I would say that it's even more amazing when you: prefer doing short fast runs/ often get sick and throw up at 42 miles into longer runs/ don't like chasing numbers/ get injured easily with high mileage/ started a new and stressful job just before the 52/ have a lot of things in life going on to juggle/ and miss mountains.....so as all these apply, a massive well done to my amazing Andrew!
After finishing in style with a dramatic end and presentation, we headed to the Weir for celebratory drinks.
And after that, Rich, Andrew and I headed back to the Travelodge in Walton, on the way helping Brian get out of the car park, and then finding pizza on the way...
Congratulations to everyone! And thank you Rik and Phoenix Running, for putting on another great day of events, and for taking good care of everyone.
