Some days go well, other days don’t and occasionally a special milestone is reached. Well, I got two out of three today.
Did the day go well you ask? NO! So, it was the other two.
The day started off ok, legs weren’t too sore, the weather was damp and cloudy but mostly dry. From this point, it quickly went downhill! Within 1 mile of setting off the rain started and progressively got heavier. By the time I got to mile 8, I met Michelle and retrieved my gillet from her car to keep me a bit drier.
It wasn’t just the rain that was causing me a problem it was running. It is perfectly normal for me to start slowly as I loosen up and get into a rhythm, this can take me sometimes up to 6 or even 8 miles. Today it just was not happening and if anything, I was getting slower. What was wrong with me? I kept trying to push on and get moving but I couldn’t do it and kept finding myself having to do short walks. I came to the conclusion that it was my fuelling that was the problem, I simply didn’t have enough energy to consistently keep running. I’d get a gel from one of the water stations and be able to run for a while but then would tire and have to resort to walking again.
By the drinks box at mile 18 I had adopted a strategy of running and walking. Here I met Michelle and Chris, changed again into a full waterproof jacket to keep warm, took on another gel and a spare one for on the go. My hands were that cold, it took me 5 minutes with both hands and my teeth to fight my way into the gel.
I could feel something in the heal in my left trainer but my hands were far too cold for me to be able to take my shoe off and have a look. The discomfort was bearable, so I decided to continue and do nothing about it.
Just after Ice Cream Mountain, at mile 21.5 things got even worse for me, for some reason my shorts started to slide down. I think all the rain had started to affect their elastic waist. I had to keep trying to pull them up but that was very awkward when I couldn’t feel my cold fingers in my wet gloves and had several layers of covering over my shorts. This started to keep happening every few hundred yards making the last 4 miles very annoying.
Back at base after finishing in a very slow of 4:50:34 I had my protein shake and went for some physio treatment. I took off my very soggy trainers and to my surprise found a set of 4 safety pins inside my shoe. It’s not often you run a marathon with safety pins in your shoes! Luckily I had inflicted acupuncture on myself!
It might have been a horrible day but there is a great statistic to share, it was my unofficial 100th marathon lap of the lake. This is made up of the following:-
88 Brathay 10in10 laps
5 Windermere marathons
6 10in10 Training runs (unofficial runs)
1 lap with Ben 401 (unofficial run)
Now to dry my clothes and eat plenty in preparation for tomorrow.
