Another run, another PB

Another honk of the PB klaxon! Three PBs in my last two runs, and slaying some demons too. Not a bad start to my weekend!

Today was my first run as a Marathon Runner. After resting for a few days post run I was fine last Saturday morning; a few light sessions on the exercise bike (8k on Monday, 12k on Thursday) convinced me it was time to get my running shoes back on. Down to the usual parkrun of Hove Prom, last seen as the 25th mile of Brighton marathon. Last time I went along there was a slow drudge along helped by the appearance of Kerry and Patrick for a motivational boost - I had to do better this time.

Another notch on the motivation scale was my parkrun times. I hadn't had a PB since March last year, and in that time Kerry has overtaken me with her own PB. This added an extra mildly competitive edge, especially as she turned up today wearing a Swindon shirt! Last night's run prep of a late night at the theatre, together with being clogged up with London air, wasn't ideal preparation - but I didn't want to let that stop me. I'd compiled a special playlist for today, eschewing the backlog of podcasts as I wanted to keep the tempo up. 

A nice few chats before the start, with Carly, Claire, Emily and the Swindon pair, before we took up our positions...closer to the start line than usual. A shorter opening speech than I remembered and we were off!

00:00:00 Ennio Morricone - The Ecstasy Of Gold

A swift start, and we quickly got into a steady pace. I hung off Kerry's shoulder to get a good pace going - 5:29 min/km for the first kilometre of five. I spotted Claire not too far ahead of us and briefly wondered if I could overhaul her as well, but focused on keeping Kerry close. 

00:03:24 AC/DC - Thunderstruck

Round the first bend, and Kerry had realised I was close behind, content to preserve my energy. The first Km was done and I was feeling good, not bad considering I didn't properly warm up! I kept the top of the i360 in my sights to improve my posture and breathing. A quarter of the run done and I noticed that the frontrunners hadn't reached halfway yet - as the course is two laps, with the start/finish passed the other way as halfway round each lap, it was good to see that they weren't too far ahead. It's demoralising getting lapped!

00:08:16 Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart

I'd planned this playlist to gradually increase the tempo so as not to blow out an early pace. At 2km I was still hanging off Kerry's shoulder but I noticed she was starting to slow. I decided to take the lead and have her become the hunter, so I motored past her and kept my pace up.

00:13:00 Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

Just after 13 minutes down, I passed the halfway point. Around two minutes faster than I usually hit this bit, and I was still feeling good. I told myself repeatedly that I had run further than this without slowing to walk during my marathon, and I didn't need to reserve nearly as much energy for the rest of my race, plus I didn't wanna disappoint Bruce! This took me round the 3rd turn of four, and I noted Claire not too far ahead, and Kerry behind. 

00:17:29 Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

The four kilometre was the toughest, and Kerry noted she saw me starting to wobble. I was regretting my long sleeved undershirt, but some relief came from losing my microfibre technical reflective go-faster headband (£3 from Decathlon) and focusing back on the top of the i360. 

00:22:03 Van Halen - Jump

A check of my watch as the song changed and I passed the 4km mark. One more to go, a final turn and I was facing the cooling breeze. This helped and I could see the finishing line in sight! Kerry was behind, Claire too far ahead to catch up. Keeping up with the same pace would see me surpassing my personal best time of 00:29:18. All I had to do was not slow down.

00:26:04 Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart

Didn't I listen to this already? I put that out of my mind as the course passed under my feet. I steadily advanced towards the line, slowly reeling in the woman in front until a blur of peach out the corner of my right eye. Someone was going for a sprint finish. Well, I wasn't having that and I found an extra burst of energy to keep her behind me, overtake the woman ahead and finish in 252nd position with a new personal best time of 00:27:44!

The post run chats revealed a successful day for a lot of us, with a fair number of new PBs. I was pleased that my marathon hadn't caused any lasting damage, and that a lot of my slower times recently had been fear of getting injured before the marathon - with no such worry this time around I could think positively. I was convinced before the start that I'd beat my previous times and this mental attitude definitely helped.

L-R: Patrick, Emily, Kerry, yours truly, Claire

Snickers

Two honks of the PB klaxon, because I managed to get two personal bests in one run, yesterday! 

Yesterday I ran Brighton Marathon with my brother. Tell a lie. Yesterday, we completed Brighton Marathon. There's a reason that people recommend training plans, and we grossly underestimated what we'd got into! Nice atmosphere at the beginning, with a lap of the park where the starting corrals were knocking off both the first mile, and the highest point of the course. Easy, right? One mile down, barely broken a sweat. Down the main road into town, past familiar sights, lots of people calling out my name - getting it printed on the front of my shirt was the best decision I made preparing for this - knocking off miles two and three. Nice and easy! More posing for pictures as my wife surprised me by appearing between the pre-agreed spots, nice boost to take me past my old flat, up a hill that I'm not entirely convinced wasn't completely vertical, then back down the main route through town.

Down to the seafront, passing the mile 5 banner and crowds on both sides of the road were cheering me - I think by this point Phil was regretting not getting his name put on his shirt too. Up the steady climb to the clifftops and never again will I say that certain roads are flat. While they may seem that way perched on a motorbike, running up them reveals the true gradient! Out towards Ovingdean, ticking off miles 6 and 7, a steady pace, enjoying the view and going to part of the Sussex countryside I'd never visited before. It was about 8 and a half miles before I first slowed down to walk - a personal best in terms of steady running. 

Back out of Ovingdean, a village that helped me discover my love of jelly babies, and an evil double-back climb before heading back to town. More clifftop running, enjoying the views, glad it wasn't sunny. Being annoyed by the camber of the road, which may be one of the reasons my ankles are protesting this morning. A supply drop from my wife (and Phil's partner) at 12.5 miles, because despite normally having good math skills and running a half marathon last year, I can't work out the halfway point of a marathon. This was the loudest point of the whole run, and precisely the wrong time to start listening to music in one earphone! 

Approaching the 14 mile mark, scanning the crowds for signs to pass the time (I'll read any text if it's put in front of me, if I could combine running and reading I'd be much better at this!) I suddenly noticed one with my name on! Two friends from my local parkrun and pub quiz had roped in their friends and come down to cheer me on! Seeing Patrick and Kerry, and then half a mile later Claire and Matthew (the other third from our quiz team) with a supply drop was a real boost ahead of what my brother declared "the longest, most boring road ever" - the four mile out-and-back from Hove to Portslade. I used to walk this road daily to get to work so I knew what to expect, but I think it took a lot from him. We helped break it up by running to a bit of street furniture, then walking to the next one, and it really helped keep positive.

Unfortunately that deserted us after mile 18. Aside from Vanessa popping up with supplies, this was the bleakest part of the run. The psychological effect of turning away from the finish line was a blow; as was more of the dreaded camber, the rain, the sparse support, and Phil's knee giving him gip. These combined for a slow effort, and apart from catching each other up after toilet breaks (19.5 miles was the first time I came to a complete stop!) we didn't break above a walk. The grey, windy, cold, wet section through Shoreham Port - industrial estates aren't the nicest of scenery - up to the power station was the point where all motivation deserted me. I knew that all I had to do was get to the next water station, opposite where my bike gets MOTed, and that would be enough - after that would be the turn back towards the finish line and while we still had five miles to go, we had to do it anyway as everyone was waiting for us at the end so we may as well complete it!

It was at this point that we realised warmer clothing would've probably been beneficial as we were both shivering in our shorts and t-shirts/vest tops. Phil blagged a blanket from a first aid tent and we swapped this on the long route back. I honestly don't remember anything of miles 23 to 24 apart from endless grey clouds and a large amount of people shuffling along like a zombie movie. Just after the 24 mile point I got to familiar territory - the next mile or so was part of my usual parkrun route and I knew it like the back of my hand! Even more of a boost, Patrick and Kerry surprised me with an unplanned support slot and walked with us up to the 25 mile point. It was nice to have a distraction as Phil and I were out on our feet. Thankfully the psychological marker of only having a mile and a bit helped, and the crowds of support returned along the seafront. I noticed that my response to people calling my name changed over the run - from an upbeat "thank you, young lady/man!", to a simple thanks, to a raised fist of acknowledgement, to a weary thumbs up, to a very minimal wave! 

The sun came out to see us home, which means that I managed to get sunburned in the same run - in the same few miles - that I needed a blanket to keep warm. Thanks, British weather! Past the 26 mile banner we started to pick up into a gentle jog and crossed the line together, in 6 hours and 5 minutes. If I do it again it'll be with several more half-marathons and longer runs under my belt, as I'm normally upbeat and optimistic but this took it out of me. Still, I've run a marathon now, and nobody can take that away from me - not bad for the kid who preferred to hide in the library than take part in PE at school!

(Incidentally, from a few minutes of Googling, it appears that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has never completed a marathon himself - which means that I can be judged as a better sportsman than The Rock, using this as a barometer!)