As I know my reports can be slightly longer winded I have provided an Executive Summary to save you reading all the fluff!
Executive Summary
An easy-going, pleasant, and largely uneventful day out! We turned up, kept each other company, ticked off another marathon, and brought Mary one step closer (or more accurately approximately 55,000 steps closer!) to her 100 Marathon Club milestone.
Full Report.
Mary is starting to feel the pressure of reaching the 100 Marathon Club milestone — entirely self-imposed, though it doesn’t help that our children keep stoking the flames with reminders of “It’s only 14 more!”
So, when a cheap Saturn Running event pops up in Northampton, virtually on our doorstep, it’s a total no-brainer. I signed us both up on Friday night. I could have just come along to support “Mary the Marathon Machine”, but given she is already well ahead of me on the road to 100, letting her run another one solo would just put me even further behind.
Besides, this course holds a special place in my brain with one other event that gnaws away at me.
Last time I was here, I ended up technically DQ’d—or maybe DNF’d—after a disastrous footwear choice. Wearing old road shoes after a long wet spell with no alternative in the car left me slipping and sliding all over the place, so I called it a day at halfway and went home. I had a score to settle with this venue!
Admittedly, my preparation wasn’t ideal—my Garmin showed a Training Readiness score of 1 (I’m not even sure it goes down to 0!). But a local, budget-friendly marathon was too good to pass up.
We arrived in good time expecting a mass start at 9 but had the chance to start when ready.
With a misty morning hanging over the River Nene we set off… a few more minutes to increase the cut off time is always a bonus.
On the way to the event I said to Mary that she needed to stay with me… [it is sounding more and more like she is my carer!] Despite me saying on many occasions during the run that she could run off at her own pace, she stuck to my pace and jeffing plan the whole way. Run 4, walk 1… repeat 69 times! As she herself said, ‘I have no idea what you would write in your race report if I leave you. We run together!”
Okay, maths brains, 69 x (4 + 1) mins doesn’t quite equal our total run time, but factor in walking longer after the well stocked aid station – including coke and chocolate chunk shortbread! And a toilet stop or two. Our plan worked well.
As sheep gambled along the route and munched grass as we passed, swans and rowers glided down the river we had a lovely day of running and chatting, the only downside, towards the end of loop 3 we realised that this event would be a little more than 26 miles, almost 5% longer! More like 27.5! But with trail marathons they can vary from 26 up! So we had no choice but to run on.
By loop 4 the sun occasionally broke through the cloud, although mysteriously only on one part of the course.
The only grumpiness Mary had was when her Garmin beeped for Marathon distance and we still couldn’t see the Rowing Club and still had over a mile to go! I was still focused on the beeps for walk and beeps for running. Although by now the 6 ‘slopes’ on the route felt like mountains and I had taken to walking them… all of an extra 10seconds of walking.
After crossing the line, we collected our medals and goodies (no wasteful goody bag provided, which is great for the environment and completely unnecessary anyway when your car is parked less than 100 meters away—though next time I’m definitely moving my car to the space just 10 meters from the start/finish!)
Then we headed straight to the car to get into warm clothes. Thrilling Thursday runners will be horrified to learn that Mary skipped stretching entirely, opting to dive straight into the car with the heating blasted on full! It was a decision we regretted less than 50 minutes later when we tried to unfurl ourselves to get out of the car.
All in all a lovely day and we highly recommend these Saturn Events to all Massey Runners as they do Junior 3km to run as far as you can in 7hrs and everything in between.