No ordinary Marathon run???
I am not normally obsessive – but the last few days I have
been checking and re-checking
the weather forecast for Preston for today’s
Preston Guild Marathon, and it made no difference whatsoever – heavy rain
remained the forecast. I HATE running in heavy rain, but so be it…
Mik and I arrived at Preston at just after 8am and made our
way to the Holiday Inn hotel to meet up with Jason who had stayed over prior to
the race. We dropped off our kit and all prepared for the race, and then set
out for the 5 minute walk to the start area.
We lined up in the relatively uncrowded starting pens and
waited the last 10 minutes until… ‘Crack’ – the sound of a starters pistol
signalled the start of the race. Mik, despite having run the Snowdon Marathon
only yesterday, set off ahead of Jason and me, and the race was underway… in
the dry!
We made our way out of the city centre, but just after the 1
mile mark Jason’s calf started to give him real problems, which led to him
pulling up and retiring shortly afterwards – the only silver lining of which
was he was able to return to the hotel to eat his own bodyweight from the
breakfast buffet.
I carried on, still enjoying the dry conditions, as we went
through the outskirts of Preston centre and out into the countryside, where the
views improved considerably, and feeling good I slowly made my way through the
field of runners. Everything was fine until around the 9 mile mark, when the
rain finally started to fall. Being warm
and ‘in the groove’, I carried on and was surprised to find myself
alongside Mik at the 13 mile marker. Mik was obviously feeling the miles in his
legs from the previous days marathon and encouraged me to strike on and stay
with my current pace. We ran together for about a mile and I gradually pulled
ahead. Rain was falling heavily now, and coupled with the strong breeze and
cool temperatures I was starting to chill, with my legs starting to tense and
one calf starting to tighten. This continued as we ran on through the country lanes,
though little villages and back toward the finish. Still feeling strong I was
keeping up a good pace through to 23 miles but finally the tightening in my
calf and legs forced me to have to walk for a short while. His led to getting
colder and meant I ran/walked the remainder of the race through to the finish.
The sight of Jason stood on a corner near the finish raised
my spirits, as did the sight of my waterproof jacket he had with him, and I
pushed hard for the finish, crossing the line in a shiny new Personal best time
of 3 hours 46 minutes and 26 seconds, so I was well chuffed. I was, however,
chilled to the bone, exhausted and soaked through. I collected my medal and
goody bag and walked round to meet up with Jason, and shivering put my waterproof
on.
Mik passed us shortly afterwards to go on to cross the line
in just over 3 hours and 52 minutes.
My overriding impression of the event was that it was very
well marshalled with lots of very cheerful volunteers cheering the runners on
despite the cold and very wet conditions, and while the course wasn’t what you
could call hilly, some of the inclines proved to be pretty challenging in the
last 5 miles of the course. Nice medal, technical T-shirt and plentiful water and gels
on the route made it a good first Marathon staged by Preston – mind you they
have plenty of time to work on any improvements before the next one – it will
be in 2032!
So, as I said after I finished the race today – any marathon
you can say you finished, with a PB on a day that started with 3 in a bed is
always going to be a good day…
Oh, the 3 in a bed? That’s an entirely different type of
report, and not for this write-up…
Many thanks to Mik Escolme and Jason Bulley for making just
another Marathon a much more enjoyable day,
For more information visit the race website.
Steve Treweeks.
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