Not The Recce Weekend (running), Not The London Marathon with Phoenix (running), and London Marathon (spectating)

On Friday morning fiancé Andrew (thank you for all your incredibly kind messages!!) and I set off for Chichester, to meet Tara and Alan for the annual "recce" weekend. This is a weekend dedicated to figuring out the route of the upcoming LDWA 100, which takes place on the end May bank holiday. This year was titled "Not The Recee Weekend", as due to logistical challenges in all getting to Scotland (where the LDWA 100 is this year) at the right and same time, we had relocated to Chichester, which was less of a logistical conundrum. 

I had never been to Chichester before, and it seemed a very lovely city. On arriving, we set off straight away, to run a marathon route (designed by Tara and Alan) along the Sussex Literary (literally) trail, up to the South Downs, back along the Roman Road past the Halnaker windmill, and through Boxgrove, finishing back in Chichester with a look around the cathedral. We had several checkpoints, even having a celebratory Pimms at one (thanks Tara!). 

Saturday we did a beautiful 9 mile run heading along the Chichester Canal with ducklings and swan nests, down to Chichester Marina where we had a coffee stop to rejuvenate. Filled with caffeine we bounced off for a section along a lovely beach, and saw Major Mike in Tintanic!!

We completed the run all along beautiful trails to finish in Chichester at the Buttery teashop, a very good place to finish indeed.

We went our separate ways, and I headed to Walton on Thames for part 2 of the weekend.

After 2 hours sleep (thanks to getting a room in the Travelodge right across from the Wetherspoons, and enjoying most of the night listening to drunk people and bad music), my alarm went off at 04.15, and after a brief meltdown, I reminded myself that I voluntarily choose to spend my weekends doing things like this. The reason for this early start, was that today was the London Marathon, and I was heading up to see the end, and for reasons which had made sense when I entered after a nice big glass of sherry, I thought it would be a good idea to run the Phoenix Not The London Marahtin first. Luckily, I'm not the only one with such ideas, so Annabel, Gavin and Sean were also doing the same, so it was a really fun day.

I ran my marathon - 8 laps on the towpath- in the cold but sunny early morning. I was enjoying it, and seeing everyone, until half way when I fell over. I then had to take a little time out in the loos, cleaning myself up and addressing my second meltdown of the day. After reminding myself again that this was "fun", I got back out on lap 5, put the Hades Town (my new favourite musical) soundtrack on, and was soon enjoying things again.

Afterwards, we headed up on the train to London, and were at letter M in time to meet Sarah when she finished her London Marathon - and celebrations began! Thank you Annabel, Gavin and Sean for all the cocktails, cakes and Doughnut Time doughnuts! 

The Limassol Marathon, Cyprus, 14.04.2024

Best weekend! My first time to Cyprus, and I loved it. The marathon was on my birthday, Sunday, so we travelled out on Friday and arrived in the afternoon to the hotel (Crowne Plaza, Limassol). 

Straight away, we had a dip in the outdoor pool (chilly!) then headed over to registration (which was out of town) to collect our running numbers. 

From here, we walked back, stopping along the way at the Marina for some amazing food!

Saturday was given over to exploring. With the marathon registration, you got free bus travel over the weekend, which was great, and we travelled on the #30 bus up to the Amathous ruins, which are around 3500 years old. We spent the morning walking around and marvelling at the magic of the ruins in the sunshine. 

 

 

After a spot of lunch (with some motivational drinks) and a nice walk....

 

...the rest of the afternoon was dedicated to trying to acclimatise to the heat in the sauna and steam room, as I had noticed from walking around, that the temperature appeared to be around 20oC higher than it was at home.

On Sunday, the marathon started at 07:30, so it was an early start (up at 04:30, but really it felt like 02:30 with the time difference). 

Walked the couple of miles along to the start in the Molos Park, and saw the sunrise on the way. 

Then bumped into Karl at the start which was a nice surprise!

There were around 800 people doing the marathon, but over the weekend there was other events going on too; 5km, 10km, children's races and a half marathon, so there were around 17000 participants altogether, which made for a great atmosphere.

The marathon route itself was a coastal route, the first 10km or so going west towards the docks, reaching a tree lined road which was nice and shady and filled with the fragrance of the flowers and trees. Then it turned round, all the way back past the start and all along to a little way past the Amathous ruins (that we'd visited the day before), before turning back westwards for about 7 miles to the finish. Apart from a mile or so on the tree lined road, there was no shade at all and it was HOT, HOT, HOT! I wilted quite badly towards the end, and my pace graph is hilarious and can be pasted straight into a text book as a perfect example of exactly how not to pace a marathon. But I manged to hold on to finish in 3:56, which was my 40th sub-4 marathon finish on my 40th birthday. This is completely irrelevant and not even a "thing", but it did cheer me up a bit about turning 40. 

 

 

Afterwards, we relaxed with sorbets to cool off, then more nice food and drinks to celebrate.

 

 

 

Later on, Andrew also proposed, so that cheered up even more, and it was altogether a memorable birthday and weekend altogether, and I love Cyprus forever!