Multi lap timed event. 21.4.25
As Mary and I didn’t have a marathon attempt on Sunday, we needed to log a couple of hours training run – well if she is going to keep knocking up PBs and humiliating me at parkrun each week, she needs to get the miles in.
However my amazing planning and preparation shown at previous events meant I had booked a blood donation session in the morning and Easter dinner with my Mum in the afternoon. By the time I realised we would need to have left to get our run in, we should already have covered 5 miles!
As we both are on holiday, I decided a bank holiday training run would be fine. So I sat back, trying to relax before seeing the vampires and started distracting myself from the Easter Eggs we had got the kids (although they are actually adults!) by scrolling over the events on the 100 marathon club plotting future adventures
When it suddenly struck me…
Where was Mary’s egg?
Initially, I was worried I had eaten it (has happened before once or twice), but then realised… She said she didn’t want an egg this year, to be honest she always says this and I don’t listen and still get her an egg anyway! But I hadn’t got her an Easter gift as a replacement!
Hearing her start to wake from her lie in, I was in a bind! No time to pop out and get an egg or gift, but I couldn’t fail.
With the event list on the screen it struck me… A marathon!Mary loves a marathon and we would be running one in a few weeks anyway so really it was a practical present and definitely better than an ironing board.
Starting to scan the list, I noticed a few marathons for Easter Sunday and then Monday. Originally, I’d envisioned a marathon in the summer, but having one on Monday would save me having to plan a training route, we love running with Saturn Running and at £25 it was a total bargain!
A couple of clicks later and a shout from upstairs… “You’re the best husband ever!” (was there any doubt!) Followed up with “Are we staying over as well?…” So much for a bargain! Next year, Mary gets the BIG Lindor egg instead!
So it wason Easter Moday we pulled in to Bridge Street Carpark just after 8am with packed travel bags and ready to run a marathon!Unlike last Sunday’s Ultra where Mary was ‘persuaded’ to run off without me after 0.18miles, I knew she was planning to ditch me from the off as she had told me as much in the café on Sunday night, whilst drinking a large gin and eating chips before she got pizza (premarathon ritual) and all this after eating at my Mum’s! “I am going to go hard and try and beat my PB!” she said,
I tried to suggest t wasn’t the wisest idea, though I should be used to it by now as she has set 8 all time parkrun PBs this year and I should get used to chasing after her!
After dropping our bags we were ready for the off. Since COVID these events have a relaxed starting time so by the time we started at 8:38 many had taken advantage of the 8am start. A few who were doing their last day of a Ten in Ten! Ten halves, marathons or even 10 50km! Some had started even earlier and were already laps in to their event. So on a countdown of 3 we sent off to run as many 4.4 mile laps as we could until 4pm, with almost an 8hr time limit.
On the drive down I had tried to remind her that as on Saturday she had gone really hard at parkrun (setting a life time PB and going under 24 mins for the first time) that maybe she should have an easier marathon but true to her word… Like the witch from the Room on the Broom! WHOOSH Mary was gone. I on the other hand kept to my Jeff Galloway run walk strategy as I was still feeling weak from giving blood (I wasn’t, but I need every excuse I can have).
Normally, the great thing about these lap marathons is the camaraderie and support you get from other runners as you pass each other; that was there from the other 34 runners on route but today each time I passed by Mary I calculated how far ahead of me she was and her estimated finish time. I had to do lots of mental maths as Mary had run off and left me. With had no one to talk to and no bone conducting headphones (I have misplaced them since last week’s ultra and I still haven’t found them since I have returned home!) so no music, just the Garmin lady telling me to run 5 minutes, rest and each intervals pace!
The hunt for the bear on the balcony (which I haven’t seen since the first lap of this course on New Year’s Eve!), mental maths exercise and the appearance of an ice cream van kept me moving forward. But then again so did Mary at a much more rapid pace. She wasn’t Jeffing… She was flying!
If my maths was correct she would finish in around 4hrs 50… It then dawned on me that as I slowed slightly there was a chance she would lap me! And unlike a grand prix where once the winner finishes everyone finishes, I would still have to run my last lap.
After asking the lady in the ice cream van what time she would be leaving earlier in the race, I had a plan to grab an ice lolly to help me fuel that last 6ish miles.
Never before have I regretted stopping for an ice lolly mid run until today! Each time I passed the van people had been walking away with cold treats but there was no queue. My timing for the ice cream van was dreadful as before me one man was ordering six 99’s not.just for him, which would have actually impressed me but all his family. I briefly considered running off and getting one on my final lap instead, but as I had made the effort to get my credit card out I decided to stay, not realising how this £3 ice lolly break would cost me later.
After finally getting my ice lolly (a very disappointing berry twister if you are interested) I kept on moving as I ate. Before I finished my treat I passed Mary. Having seen me with lolly in hand I wondered which had the greatest attraction: an ice cream or PB?
She was looking tired and her leg lift wasn’t as clean as before. Maybe last week’s 28 miler was catching her up?Once I finished my lolly I popped the stick in the bin (it’s rude to litter) and resumed my run walk interval.
Passing the church I could see the bridge by the start / finish line, less than half a mile away. I knew i would finish well under Mary’s PB and I would be safe from being lapped but i didn’t drop my pace.
Heading back onto the towpath passing the swan collector statue I could hear gasping behind me… It was like being hunted down by an asthmatic lion and I was the fat slow water buffalo waddling to the water stop!
Over the bridge and down the single incline on the course the gasps loudened and suddenly Mary surged past… 4:42 dead… and I still had another slow painful lap to go!
Grabbing some squash I walked on. My Garmin had given up on the interval alerts some miles back and switched to cool down mode (somehow operator error on the training plan or a missed lap button press!) With plenty of time to make the cut off I walked, saving what is in my legs for my next marathon in two weeks.
The last four miles ticked by, helped by a second ice lolly. I might not have won the race by time… but certainly I won on ice lollies eaten!
As I crossed the finish line, Mary appeared from the pub (The race HQ) with a hot chocolate in hand for me to enjoy before I collected my medal and Easter Egg rather than a goody bag! So in the end Mary did get an Easter Egg!