Burn to Run launch event at QEHB
Thursday saw the start of our 180 mile relay race, Burn to Run, raising money for the Burns & Plastics Unit at QEH Birmingham.
Fifteen runners ran distances from six to twenty six miles down the canals from the hospital to the Mall in London, the finish line of the London Marathon. Check the website for a full report on all the sporting action from all the runners. This is my personal account of the marathon leg.
Way back in December I’d planned VLM (Virgin London Marathon) to be my sub 3 hour attempt, but in early February I picked up the flu and spent six to eight weeks attempting to train only to be swept back to bed with a vengeance each time.
So by race day I was just hoping to get round in one piece with 30 miles (on three separate runs) under my belt in the previous 30 days. Compare this with the 140 miles run in the 30 days prior to last year’s 3:11 result, not counting the hundreds of miles biking I managed then. What on earth sort of time could you expect from that kind of training?! An interesting human experiment …
By marathon morning, I was already wrecked after three days of very early starts, over 500 miles of driving and co-ordinating the various legs of the relay race across the country from Birmingham to London. It was huge fun and worth every minute, but in retrospect I am extremely glad I wasn’t fit enough to consider racing the marathon. It could have turned nasty!
Starting in the Fast Good For Age pen, courtesy of last year’s sub 3:15 marathon times, had its advantages, with shorter queues for the portaloos and tea, and more room to stretch. But the disadvantage was obvious for someone wanting to run 8:30 minute miling when everyone around you, and pressing behind you from the normal Red start, wants a sub 3 hour marathon time. The first six miles were extremely dispiriting being passed constantly. I managed to keep it down to just sub 8 minute miling before 4 miles was up, then there was finally room to slow it down. This was a good idea!
At this point, I was actually feeling surprisingly strong, and kept up with the 3:30 pacers (8 minute mile pace), thinking to myself, yeah, okay, I can do this, 3:30 is a good time and it feels okay. At the back of my mind of course I knew that the race didn’t start until 18 miles or so. And indeed so it proved. But the quad failure and consequent pain are familiar now. I was pretty pooped by 20 miles, but met F and P at Limehouse for some chocolate brownie and cheerie smiles. The crowd support thereafter was really quite incredible. I don’t normally like crowds, but with my name printed on my shirt, as long as you look to the crowds and raise your arms for support, the cheering is absolutely immense and motivating. I promised myself a walking break every mile after 22 miles, but somehow the constant crowds shamed me into continuing to run. I must have slowed to almost 9 minute miling at some points, but everyone around me seemed to crawling to a stop as well, so it didn’t seem odd.
I’m convinced, although it was warm, maybe 20 degrees, that a lot of people’s reports of the heat are just down to inadequate hydration early on, and misjudgement of pace in the first half of the race. 20 degrees is not hot in anyone’s book.
Sweeping down Birdcage Walk to the big screen, Chariots of Fire music, and deafening crowds was quite something, and I was just incredibly chuffed to have finished in a reasonable time and to have finished off the charity relay with a smile on my face. What a fantastic couple of days.
The training moral of this story? You can run a marathon after a complete three week rest and a severe case of flu, but it will hurt in the last six miles. The trouble is, even if you’re pretty well trained, it can still hurt! I’m sure I was in the same sort of condition at 20 miles last year at Stratford, but Stratford was a bleak and lonely march along the Greenway.
Right, time to book that autumn marathon now I’ve shaken off the flu. Brussels? Berlin? Hmmm.
