Last weekend I acquired
a medal from an old local race, the St Albans Marathon from back in the 1980’s that no
longer takes place. I think it was
cancelled back in the late 80’s or early 90’s due to low numbers. Now we have a
regular annual half marathon and 5k, but no full marathon. I was interested in this race and felt that
since I had now come into possession of the medal I must now run it – by
remembering it in this way, it would make a training run feel really special. I will call it The Roman Run.
I realised I was able to do the run
on the correct date (7th December) which was really good – just 27
years too late….!! But it did not give
me much time for find out the route so I had to guess a lot of it but tried to
include what I knew.
To make it a special run but also
keep it realistic and not let it totally screw up the rest of my training, I
put some rules/targets in place.
1. - Try to start and finish at the same place
that the original marathon started.
However this was not really feasible due to new buildings, shops etc. in
that area and making driving/parking then running there a nightmare. So I decided to start and finish the run from
home but ensure I passed through that area when I did parkrun.
2. - Include Parkrun. It was our 100th parkrun so there
were a lot of extra people turning up. I could not miss this and with it being
so close to the original marathon’s start it I could run there, and then begin
Parkrun as if it was the start of the marathon.
It was also good to run with a big group although I did feel a big
over-kitted out for a 5k – with running backpack, energy gels etc. and got some
funny looks! (I was also quite near the back this time and having run it at
marathon-training pace did not get a particularly impressive time!).
3. - Try and include as much as the original route
as possible. This was very difficult in
the end as having only a couple of days to plan, I did not find out the
route. However I knew that the route
went up one of the steepest, harshest roads up towards the town centre so
thought I should better include that! I
had also heard the route went out towards one of the nearby towns, but as this
was now all dual carriage way with a massive roundabout to cross, it would be
very difficult to run it without the luxury of closed roads. Instead I decided to keep as much of the
route within the city as possible and include local landmarks.
4. - Keep it as a training run. I didn’t want to push too hard and injure
myself as the proper marathon training starts again after Christmas. I’m running 4 marathons next spring (1
serious, 1 semi-serious and 2 for fun) and keep quite a high mileage all year
round anyway so figured that if I did this very slowly and ran/walked part of
it then I could get some early low-risk miles in the bank. Therefore my only target time-wise was to
finish before it got dark, and would take walking breaks frequently from early
on!! This also meant I would not count
it as a marathon but just as a logged training run of that distance.
So early Saturday morning I set off
for the first part of the run. 5.5 miles
to Parkrun, then when I got there it was only 8.55am so I had to stop and hop
on the spot for a few minutes before we got going. Had a fun Parkrun – I imagined to myself it
was the beginning of the marathon!
Afterwards I had a quick catch up with friends (trying to bribe them
into running the next 10 miles with me but to no avail!) and sadly turning down
the usual post run coffee and cake. When
they heard I had another 17-18 miles to run they told me to get on with it or
I’ll cramp up!
The main part of the run was now
underway. Realising I had actually gone
out too fast for the first part and then getting very cold in the queue to scan
my barcode, it was suddenly feeling very tough. A very steep uphill mile into town past the
cathedral had to be walked, then into the face of busy Christmas shoppers in
the marketplace meant I got more odd looks!
I even took a wrong turn here and started running my regular run out of
habit, and had to double back! This was
despite having a map pinned to my running belt! It was good to tick off lots of local sights,
including:
The park that was old Roman capital
city and remains of the surrounding wall
The remains of the Roman Theatre
The city Cathedral and grounds
The Marketplace, Clock Tower, various
old pubs and inns
Old Roman roads still in use today as
major routes into London
Other more local landmarks which have
since been closed or decommissioned (including the old railway line and nunnery).
The lack of proper marathon training
made this an interesting, if tough experiment.
With a proper plan I got round the Berlin Marathon in September in just
over 5 hours, but now 2 months later I was walking long stretches by mile
14. No worries though, I was not in it
for a time today! Miles 15-20 were very
hard with a lot of hills. It was quite
lonely too now, Parkrun being several hours earlier and the excitement long
gone. I stopped off in Tesco for a
chocolate bar and tried not to collapse at the tills (more odd looks!). At mile 20 I saw a friend from work. She thought I was mad but wished me luck. On the home stretch now. Strangely at 21 miles my body decided it was
feeling ok again and I was back to running (well, slow jogging). I think I was getting a bit confused by now
as kept losing track of what mile I was at, or the time (somehow I thought I
was at 5 hours when really I was at 6!), or even what street I was on. Finally I reached my road, 26.2 miles! I got in the house and had the best
post-marathon goodies ever – a pizza, tub of ben & jerries, a bubble bath,
a DVD and the 1986 medal.
So overall it was a great feeling to
re-enact this old marathon which may or may not ever take place again, and a
good sightseeing tour of places I rarely bother visiting in my home town. In the afternoon I was able to go into town
(in the car!) not only to do present shopping but get the medal cleaned up a
bit and the ribbon repaired. Post-run I
felt very tired but nowhere near as sore as after a race marathon which was
rather nice. Total time including
waiting for Parkrun to start, queuing for barcode afterwards, a quick chat, 2
tesco/loo stops was about 6h25m from leaving the house to getting to the end of
my road (to think I am happy it was under 6 & a half hours!!!).
Thank you to the original organisers
back in the 80s for holding the original marathon and inspiring me to run this
time, and also to Parkrun for our 100th run!
No comments:
Post a Comment