After running the Winter Holly Challenge Marathon only the day before I was feeling very tired at the start of the Grizedale marathon. To make things mentally more difficult for me it was minus 4.5 degrees and the fields were white with a thick frost and some freezing fog. As I parked in Grizedale visitor centre car park I didn’t want to get out of my warm car to register, never mind run a marathon.
It was lovely to see my friend Gary and his wife and daughter Sandra and Fin in the car park. It is great to see friends when you’re feeling tired and still have a marathon to run.
Once the race started I ran with Gary and enjoyed some banter with him which took my mind off what we had to do. The first few miles were very tough with lots of uphills, which didn’t help my legs which were still tired from yesterday’s run. It took several miles for me to even warm up. I really appreciated Gary’s company over these early miles. At about 5 or 6 miles we came out of the freezing fog and onto an open hill top, I hadn’t a clue where I was (apart from somewhere in Grizedale forest) but we were given a most stunning view over the fog and cloud and could see some wonderful snow-capped mountains in the distance. It was like being on top of the world.
I had taken my camera with me in the hope of getting some lovely scenic pictures. I do this occasionally when I know it’s going to be one of those races where timing is complete irrelevant and stopping for a moment doesn’t matter. The pictures of the mountain tops didn’t really do the view justice.
I was feeling very tired, hungry and struggling but the first check point gave me a huge boost as it was stocked with some lovely treats and cake, including Chocolate Swiss Roll, I’ve not had it for years it was so yummy and gave me the boost I needed!
The race was made up of 2 loops the first was also the half marathon and the second made up the marathon distance. I was expecting the overall distance to be long as I had been warned by runners from last year but I had expected the first loop and the half to be fairly accurate. Well it wasn’t as my Garmin measured 14.5 miles for the half. I felt sorry for any runner going for a half marathon PB.
More cake at half way then re-energised me and Gary set off on lap 2. Lap 1 was mainly on wide hard core paths which vehicles could easily traverse but lap 2 was much more technical on narrower, rockier and steeper paths. Most of the runners found this much harder but for me I found it much more interesting and very enjoyable. As the miles slowly ticked by and I knew I had less and less to do and I mentally got stronger.
Sadly I left Gary at about 18 miles, I felt a bit guilty after all his moral support over the first half of the race. The course took us along the shores of Lake Windermere. Due to the fog I couldn’t see across the lake which was strangely eerie.
Finally a few more steep climbs up through the woods took us back towards Grizedale Visitors centre and with a steep descent the finish finally arrived.
It was a very slow time of 4 hours 54 minutes but it was a very tough course with seriously cold conditions, almost 28 miles long and on the back of a marathon only the day before. So overall I was very pleased, I had no injuries and it was good training and preparation for my 10 marathons in 10 days challenge in May.
