Berkshire: Magna Carta marathon race recap

This race was always going to be tricky.  I'd intended to do Autumn 100 as my Berkshire race but realised it didn’t have a medal and therefore didn’t meet my criteria so booked this as a replacement.  This race was promptly postponed due to Covid.  The postponement email was the most rudimentary of all the postponements I had, with not-so-much as an apology, on 11/3/21:

I then heard nothing from them for a year.  A further timetabling issue resulted in my Leicestershire race being moved to 2 days prior to this race, which was never going to be ideal, and my lack of training and recent Covid meant I wasn’t as up for a double marathon weekend as I might usually be.  Ben couldn’t come with me this time so I drove myself to Egham where the race started and finished.

As it turned out, there wasn't a lot to love about this race. 

BAD POINTS

• I arrived and went to the registration desk.  I said, “Hi, I’ve come to collect my number, I’m number 77 I think” and smiled.  The volunteer said, “Alice?” and handed me my number.  That was the only word spoken to me by anyone in the first 90 minutes I was there.

• There was a Union Jack on the bib number (since Brexit I think putting a Union Jack on anything immediately makes it worse).  Please also note the stupid slogan.  Stupid slogans are a guaranteed way to put me off a race.

• The weather was slightly sunny, but the race start was under the shadow of trees.  As a result it was bloody freezing.  I was wearing three layers, a buff and gloves and still shivering.  There were a lot of runners wearing nothing but vests and t-shirts which doesn’t bode well as it usually means little thought has been paid to anyone who isn’t racing. 

• Later, the race was absolutely boiling and I stripped off all my layers and regretted not wearing suncream.  
• The PA system at the start was broken so the race director just spoke in his normal voice meaning it was really hard to hear him and half the field missed all the instructions.
• The race was directly under a flight path and gigantic jumbo jets roared overhead at frequent intervals, ruining the tranquility of what was billed as “one of the most scenic and historic stretches of the River Thames skirting the actual site where the historic Magna Carta Royal Charter treaty was signed by King John of England on 15th June 1215”. They didn't have vast numbers of 737s back then though.  Just saying...
  

• Just as I was settling into my stride after a kilometre or two, my Garmin did that deeply unhelpful thing where it tells you your training status is ‘unproductive’.  Thanks for that.

• Although some bits of the course were quite nice, there was quite a lot of running alongside busy roads:
  

• There was also quite a lot of uneven ground, and fairly early on in the race I came across a runner who had tripped and had a nasty fall.  I stopped and sat on a bench with her while she got her breath back and gave her a wet wipe. 

• The course consisted of two short out-and-backs in one direction and four longer out-and-backs the opposite way.  All of it was along the river so it was pretty much totally flat the whole way.  I thought that would be good after the hills on Thursday but actually it was just dull.
• My legs started feeling sore from 11km in and carried on feeling sore for the rest of the race.  To be fair, this wasn’t the race’s fault, but it didn’t add to my enjoyment of it.
• It was mentioned at the race briefing that there was a walking race taking part on the same path today.  This race was substantially larger than our race and featured about a thousand people all walking along the same trails as us.  They were all going one way – we were going out and back – so for about 15 miles you were constantly stopping and starting, dodging people, shouting “excuse me” etc.  As walkers tend to, they were frequently blocking the whole path/meandering around/not paying attention/stopping to take photos.   I’m sure the runners were really annoying for them as well.  I have no idea whose race was first but it was a planning disaster and one of them should’ve been rescheduled.

• As a result of this, people racing and trying to get a PB were often held up by the walkers and obviously this could be a bit frustrating.  In the worst episode of trail etiquette I can ever remember seeing, I witnessed a half marathon runner literally PUSH an older Asian gentleman out of his way because he was holding him up by about 2 seconds.  I was horrified.  I apologised to the man on behalf of the runner and the race in general.  When I got back to the HQ I stopped, mid-race to report the guy to the race director.  The race director said he would ‘have a word’ which, as I’m sure you can imagine, is unlikely to have much impact.  Personally I would have DQ’d him.  It was absolutely shameful behaviour that gives all runners a bad name.
• The aid stations were shit.  There were only two – which was OK because of the out-and-back nature of the race – but all they had were gels, water, electrolytes and waffles.  On one occasion I managed to get some orange squash and three jelly sweets (!) but I never saw those again (presumably used up by the faster runners ahead of me).  The waffles were nice, but not really a substitute for a properly supplied aid station (Leicestershire had hot cross buns, FFS!)

• At 30k I was really struggling.  It was boiling hot, my legs hurt, I was bored of running and there was still really far to go.  I had a couple of paracetamol, a caffeine bullet and put on Gordy’s A100 playlist, a triumvirate that has never failed me, but even after 20 minutes I didn’t feel significantly better.    

• Around this time I got chatting to a bloke who I’d seen around at other races.  I told him about my counties challenge and explained that Berkshire had been a tricky race to find.  He replied, “But we’re not in Berkshire.  We’re in Surrey!”  I said, “surely some part of it must be in Berkshire?” and he laughed and said, “No!  You want to do one of the weekday marathons in Slough.  That’s in Berkshire.  Egham’s in Surrey”.  I frantically tried to remember if I’d checked – if marathons are near the border I tend to – but I wasn’t sure if I had or hadn’t. I might’ve checked that Windsor was in Berkshire, but the race didn’t actually go to Windsor – only OLD Windsor.  Oh god.   The bloke said, “I should’ve told you this when you were on your last lap shouldn’t I? Enjoy your race in BERKSHIRE!” and ran off, laughing.  (Possibly I made up the bit about the laughing.  But I certainly felt distraught that I might have run this miserable race for nothing).  I got my phone out and started googling.  It seemed like Old Windsor was in Berkshire, but was I on the right side of the Thames? 
  In the end I had to wait until I got home to check the ceremonial county borders and be absolutely sure. The top map is part of my Strava trace - the red line is the route I actually ran.  The bottom map is the ceremonial county boundary map: the bit above the red line is Berkshire and the bit below is Surrey.  Comparing the location of Friary Field, at least part of the race was definitely in Berkshire.  Phew....
  

• The race briefing promised sports massage would be available at the end. I walked all around and there was none to be found.  If they ever existed, they'd obviously packed up and gone home after all the fast runners finished.  Have I mentioned I hate it when races cater primarily for fast runners?  *cough* I'm looking at you, Isle of Wight *cough*
  

 

GOOD POINTS

• I ran with the woman who had had the fall for the best part of an hour and she was really nice and we had some interesting conversations.  Normally I'm pretty reckless with reporting chats I've had with people on the trails, but as we talked about quite personal stuff including about her child,  I'm (unusually) reticent to invade her privacy by reporting it here.
• There was a nice medal with a picture of the Magna Carta on it:

• The car parking machine was broken so parking was free.  I think it's safe to say that when free parking is the highlight of a race, the bar is pretty low.

 

Leicestershire: Badger Challenge race recap

It's been a while (well, 2 months) since my last race and a lot has happened.  Training has been a bit hit and miss, with three weeks where I barely trained at all thanks to work-related hassle, a week skiing and then getting Covid.  I wasn't that ill with Covid but I only stopped testing positive two weeks ago and have really struggled to build back up to any sort of distance prior to this race.

Then the day before the race I had yet more work-related drama and was feeling really upset.  I put a brave face on it and went to stay the night at my parents because it would've been too far to drive from home.   Luckily they were quite good at cheering me up and distracting me so I managed not to think about it too much and had an early night.

I got up early and headed off to the race which was now only an hour away.  I was feeling very sad and when Ben rang me I was a bit tearful and pathetic and told him I really didn't feel like doing a race today.  Nevertheless, I got there, got my number and changed into trail shoes on the advice of the person next to me in the car park.  It was cold and slightly raining, which wasn't exactly helping my mood.  I stood under the race gazebo, staring at the rain, feeling morose.

And then I saw a bloke with a tiger on his head.

I know that tiger.

I met Tim at Rutland marathon in 2019.  He'd run 46 marathons juggling then.  Today was his 63rd marathon juggling, or jogling, as is the official term (portmanteau of jogging+juggling).  Rutland was my 22nd county.  Today, Leicestershire was my 42nd. 

Last time we'd run almost the whole marathon together so I was immediately cheered to see him.  I didn't really want to spend the whole race thinking about work so was extremely happy to abandon that topic and instead talk about running, all the races we'd done, how we planned to celebrate the end of our respective challenges, and so on.  Just like at Rutland, Tim's jogling was a total show-stopper and other runners, walkers and dog owners frequently made comments, clapped or stopped to take pictures.

 

At one point we passed a party of schoolchildren and their teachers who burst into applause and started cheering for Tim as we went past.  This happened on more than one occasion (as we were doing loops) and I definitely felt the benefit of reflected glory!

We talked about Tim's fundraising (obviously he's raising money for tigers - here's the link:  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/timstigers if you can spare a few quid, please do.  I'm going to go to his 100th jogling marathon as it's lovely to celebrate these milestones and one of the best bits of running is meeting interesting people.  We have added each other on Strava now so I can keep an eye on how he's doing.

The loops sped by.  I probably ran faster than I would've on my own - Tim is a pretty speedy marathon runner who can do a 3 hour 40 marathon without the jogling, whereas I am not.  I need him to juggle to slow him down enough that I can stick with him, and he says it takes the pressure off, so it's win-win!

On the way round  we had a good conversation about Green Magic, which are a health food/nutritional supplement which comes in the form of a green powder.  Tim had seen an advert for it and had signed up for a year's supply at £20 a month.  My dietitian sense started tingling, and when he went on to say it was full of superfoods like spirulina and wheatgrass, it went into overdrive.  Poor Tim got cross-questioned about his oral intake and then lectured that his magic powder was almost certainly useless and he should try probiotics and fibre for improved gut health.  Having now had a chance to review the nutritional content of Green Magic (0.3g of fibre per serving), there's more fibre in a bag of crisps (0.9g)!  Compare that with milled linseed which has a whopping 2g per serving. Don't get me started! 

We also had a long conversation about running poles - I've never used them before but as I have a VERY hilly race in Cornwall coming up I'd asked for some for my birthday.  They arrived last week and I'd decided to bring them to this race to try them out, but thought I'd get them out after a few loops in case they were annoying.   Tim had used them a lot in mountain races and said they helped a lot, which was positive, but also said that adjustable length ones were better (mine aren't adjustable) and that it was best to get cheap ones as he'd broken quite a few (mine were horrifically expensive and better not break - although it did say on the packaging that due to being lightweight they were prone to breaking).  Arrrghh! It's funny how runners are easily parted from their money by the promise of powder that makes you healthier and sticks that magically zoom you up hills.  We both saw the funny side!

I decided I'd get them out of the car after the 4th lap and change back into my road shoes at the same time.  By the time I'd got sorted he was well ahead of me and I never managed to catch him up again.

The park was called Beacon Hill Country Park and there was one big hill at the start of the loop, followed by a couple of smaller inclines and then almost the whole of the rest of the route was downhill.   I'd watched some videos of how to use poles which I tried to copy, but found my legs were too long (or maybe my arms were too slow)?  In any case I got into a rhythm that seemed to work on the uphills.  They seemed easier because now I could push myself off.  The downhills were trickier, because they weren't really steep enough to need poles (and possibly also what Tim said about needing longer poles on downhills... gah!).  The main problem was the loop was so short (3.3 miles) it wasn't worth folding them up again, so I just carried them in the assembled position the whole time.  OK in a quiet country park, not so great in a busy race when you're poking people's eyes out.  Apologies in advance to the residents of Cornwall, I'm going to be a menace.

The weather was a bit hit and miss.  Some sections were sunny, often it was pretty mild but there was one particular section which was horrifically windy every time I did it, and often seemed to start raining as soon as I approached it and stop as soon as I got past it, hmm.  Here's some pics of the course - pretty standard country park stuff, nobody reads race reports to look at pictures of paths so feel free to scroll on by!

There was a canicross event at the same time which started just before the marathon, and had its own cute Dog Aid Station. 

I had been worried I might not be able to finish in the time limit because of Covid and just generally feeling tired and not really hill trained, but I needn't have been too concerned.  I finished in just under 5 and a half hours, which was absolutely fine (there was over 1000m ascent too, though it didn't feel like it) and collected my beer and flapjack and medal.

Bumped into Tim again at the end and had another nice little chat - he hadn't realised I was behind him, so had sped up to try and catch me, and therefore the gap had widened further and he completed the second half 8 minutes before me. I also had a nice chat with the race director's mum, who remembered my counties challenge from last time and was encouraging me to do the Big Bear event in Bedfordshire.  I already have a Bedfordshire marathon booked but theirs sounds so nice, I might just do it anyway!

Then I went to the cafe for some actual food (I'd survived all morning on mountains of sugar) followed by driving to see my daughter who conveniently lives in Leicester.  Overall a most enjoyable day out which turned out to be a lot better than expected.

 

Warwickshire: Panda Bear Challenge race recap

My last four marathons have all had significant downsides*, so I was looking forward to a lovely, easy, trail run in a forest.  And Warwickshire delivered!  Set at a country park outside of Coventry, there was even a bonus helping of sunshine.  I had run a Big Bear Events race before (Staffordshire) which was similar and it had been great, so I had high hopes for this one.  Much preferable to the (road) Shakespeare Marathon, which I had originally booked for Warwickshire before it got canned due to Covid.  They made the decision six months in advance yet would only refund 50% of the entry fee and there was no option to postpone... not impressed! 

* Derbyshire: first 13 miles was uphill; Hertfordshire: 105 laps of a track; Tyne and Wear: running against a headwind in the middle of winter in Northern England; Wiltshire: 1500m ascent

Because this race was on a Tuesday, I had taken the day off work and drove up to my parents in Milton Keynes the night before.  Lots of people are surprised when I tell them I did a marathon on a Tuesday, but Big Bear regularly run random weekday events which I love.  You always get lots of 100 Marathon Club members (the clue is in the name ... they've all run at least 100 official marathons), and they tend to be very friendly.  Also there is nothing better than running a trail race when you'd normally be at work.  Especially if it's sunny and there's no time pressure.  I got up at the relatively civilised hour of 6:30am, had breakfast and drove to the race.

Literally the first thing the race instructions said was: "There is a carpark and you must pay. They only accept card payments. No coins or watches/phones".  I had read the instructions carefully.  I had made sure I packed a bank card when I went to my parents.  But on the morning of the race, I left my purse on the stairs as I didn't think I'd need it.  This only occurred to me as I crossed the car park to use the payment machine... oh no.  Oh dear.  Oh bumholes.

I prayed the race instructions were wrong and tried to use my phone anyway.  It failed twice.  There was a long queue of people waiting to use the machine and only 15 minutes before the race started.  Sheepishly, I asked the woman behind me if she could pay for me and I'd give her the money.  She agreed, and told me not to worry about the money, but I went and got it from the car and pressed it into her hand anyway.  I don't know her name, but I saw her quite a few times during the race and tried to offer encouraging words by way of thanks.  What a star!  

By the time I'd been to the loo, collected my number and dumped my bag, the race briefing was starting.  It included a description of the route, which I instantly forgot.

Here I am in my lovely Big Bear buff, which always makes me laugh.  Clever, huh?  Also useful for scaring small children in Tesco.

As usual, the start of the race was quite busy and it was quite a gentle start heading out towards the ponds. 

As predicted there were quite a few people in 100 Marathon Club t-shirts.  I used to find them quite intimidating but now I'm well on the way to joining them, I've realised it's just like collecting football cards or stamps or Pokemon.  Gotta catch 'em all.... ?

The country park is called Ryton Pools and the route snaked around 2 sides of this large pool.  A lot of it was hidden by trees - on one lap I caught sight of a man scrambled down the bank, trying to retrieve his dog's tennis ball from the pond with a stick.  But mostly it was pretty quiet, with just a few dog walkers and later a few parents and children making the most of the play areas.

At the beginning I had somehow failed to notice the rhino, but I soon spotted him on the first lap.  I had seen quite a few of these when I ran the London marathon and had always wondered how they trained wearing the costume.  Turns out they run round country parks in Warwickshire on a weekday!  WHO KNEW?!

The weather forecast had suggested an overcast day with heavy clouds, with any early sunshine soon disappearing.  But the sun came out and stayed out for much of the day.  I heard a plane overhead and stopped to take a photo of it, it looks almost like a bird here:

There was only one real hill on the course and as per usual, I walked up it even on the first lap.  It was short and steep (ish).  This photo makes it look more dramatic than it actually was.

It always takes me 5k to settle into a marathon and when it has laps, it usually takes two or three before I really get comfortable.  On the second lap I spotted the miniature railway - how on earth did I miss that? 

As I proceeded round the second lap, I started thinking about work. The night before I had stupidly checked my work emails at quarter to eleven.  Not the best time for bad news:

"Unfortunately, I regret to advise you were not selected for a place [on a Starting Out In Research Course] on this occasion.  The course was highly oversubscribed.  Yours was a strong application but you have not been in post for very long and we felt you might benefit from a course which was more specifically related to getting your work published"

Due to Covid, and moving jobs, and a number of other things, my ability to get involved in research has been limited, despite having wanted to ever since finishing university.  Myself and a colleague at my previous work had co-written an abstract which has now been peer reviewed and accepted for publication.  We're hoping to convert this into a full paper and get it published in a proper journal - so when I saw this course I thought it would be ideal.  I didn't realise it was competitive and was looking forward to it so felt pretty disappointed and disheartened not to have been chosen.   Especially as I'd been in my previous role for 18 months so it wasn't as if I was new to working at this level.  How am I meant to get started in research if I can't even get onto the 'getting started' course?

Running is the perfect activity for reflecting on things.  It's helped me work through a variety of disappointments and defeats.  I decided to just let myself feel disappointed for a while.  I allowed every whiny, "BUT IT'S NOT FAAAAAAIIIIIRRRRR" thought to wash over me. I felt a bit tearful with twinges of imposter syndrome - "why am I never good enough..?".  I felt annoyed at them for not picking me, which transitioned seamlessly into feeling annoyed at myself for having bashed out the application form in half an hour when I could've tried a bit harder.  After a couple of miles, finally I got a glimmer of Acceptance. I started thinking about what to do next.  I came up with a plan.  It might not be perfect, it might not be what I wanted, but it's the next logical step I can take and at least I'm doing something. 

As I reached the end of this process, I gradually caught up with the runner in front.  She was playing tinny music from her phone.  As I got closer, I realised it was "Come On Eileen".  It finished and the next song was "When The Going Gets Tough".   The horrific-ness of her playlist was enough to inspire me to pick up the pace and overtake her.  Thankfully I never saw her again.  Sorry lady!  It's not you, it's your music taste :)

 

Another funny interaction I had was with this lady.  Her top looked exactly like a Watford Joggers top and so as I overtook her, I asked, "Are you from Watford?"  She replied, "No... I'm from Coventry!" sounding slightly surprised.  We had a nice chat as apparently one of the local clubs round here uses the same red/white harlequin top - must be confusing at the London marathon.

On the third lap, I suddenly spotted the 'pirate themed playground' that had been mentioned in the race briefing.  It was actually pretty cool and literally right alongside the trail.  Goodness only knows how I missed it the first two laps...  The photo I took of the sail/skeleton looks really moody and atmospheric but was taken within seconds of the other three so it's just a trick of the light.

I don't remember much of the third or fourth loops.  Other than it was warm and I shed my gilet after running the first loop in t-shirt, jacket and gilet.  I tied the jacket round my waist the second loop, and left it behind at the aid station on the third loop.  I ran the 4th loop in just a t-shirt, laughing to myself that I was running out of layers to take off (!)  Luckily (for everyone) I needed to put my jacket back on on lap 5 as the weather cooled off a bit, haha.

This is the view from the end of the loop before rejoining the out-and-back section.

As I headed back I noticed the rhino had been accosted by small children and had knelt down on the floor to have his picture taken.  I heard the child's mum saying, "He's a very friendly rhino, don't be scared!  Why don't we put some money in his pot?"  I imagine this happens a lot when you run marathons dressed as a large safari animal.  I thought it was cute but not cute enough to inspire me to run a marathon wearing a heavy, awkward costume.  I once did 10k dressed as a strawberry and that was quite enough!

At the start of lap 5, my joy at being out on the trail was starting to wear off.  Realising you've got to do all of that again, plus starting to feel a bit tired, and feeling slightly uncomfortable due to gorging myself with aid station snacks, I just wasn't really feeling it.  But then I bumped into Jon.  Jon is a 100 Marathon Club veteran and, it transpires, is actually their Treasurer.  I asked how many marathons he'd done, because let's face it, it's never a hundred, is it?  Well no, it wasn't.  Today was his 298th.  Bloody hell.  His wife also runs and she's not far off 200 I think he said...

We proceeded to run together for the rest of the race.  He was a very interesting man and we shared life stories, race stories and he told me about all the epic and insane runs he has completed.  He was from Telford and knew Denzil, who was the race director of my Shropshire race (which remains one of my favourite counties despite having completed it nearly 3 years ago now), who it transpires was also running at today's event and they'd come in the same car - small world!  He also knew Lucas who I'd run Worcestershire with and saw briefly at Derbyshire.  So we had plenty to chat about.  He was also pretty speedy and I kept trying to slow down but failing.

On our last loop, we stopped to take a picture of these metal elephants which I'd noticed earlier but kept forgetting to take a picture of.

And that was it.  We put on a burst of speed at the end and managed to lap the rhino, which strangely pleased me despite not aiming to be fast at all.  We finished in 4 hours 24 minutes, which Jon told me was his fastest marathon since 2018!   I did a little bonus extra bit to make up the time on my Garmin to a marathon as I'd accidentally stopped it for 1/2 kilometre earlier in the race, then returned to the aid station to collect my medal, beer and flapjack.  The aid station was wonderfully well supplied, with food cut up into suitable sized pieces and placed into little paper bags.  They featured delights such as pizza, hot cross buns, falafel etc as well as bananas, jelly sweets, Tribe bars and all sorts of other goodies.

There was a poster showing the route, which I hadn't spotted until the end, but I didn't clock the inadvertent 'Strava art' until later, haha.

 

One of the friendly marshalls took a nice photo for me at the end:

Plus the obligatory selfie with my medal:

The race turned out to be less flat than I thought - eight laps with a few little hills each lap ended up with a pretty spiky elevation profile: 383m total which is not nothing!

 

I headed off to the car and although I was planning to save it, couldn't resist eating my super-tasty flapjack.

On the way back I was driving along absentmindedly when a sign on my left caught my eye.  It said 'Raining Cats and Dogs' which was the name of the kennels I passed when I was doing Escape from Meriden.... which was in Coventry.... OMG.... the penny dropped, I was on the A45, the scene of my traumatic night run!  It was broad daylight and as I drove along I could hardly believe that I had run this.  In the middle of the night.  On my own.  What a badass!