South Yorkshire: Yorkshire Chocathon race recap

It's as good as it sounds - this race was chocolate-themed!  It had a chocolate-themed aid station, a chocolate-themed medal and a chocolate-themed goody bag - living the dream!  I decided after Bristol that I needed another race before my ultra so I signed up the evening I got home from Green Man.  I told my mum about it, she told my cousin Ellen, then Ellen emailed me to ask if she could run a lap of it with me.  We haven't seen each other for years: my most recent memory of her son is as a toddler - he's 19 now!  My mum and I came up with a cunning plan to enter her into the race as a surprise.   

Then, a couple of days before the race, I received a message from a friend at running club, asking if I was doing a long run at the weekend.  Her daughter Megan is running the London Marathon and doesn't like doing her long runs alone.  I agreed Megan could come and do the first 3 laps with me, meaning this was the first marathon since Brighton where I'd had company the whole way round.

Here's Megs and I looking nice and fresh at the start line:

The race was a series of out-and-backs along an old railway line, making it probably the only flat marathon in the whole of South Yorkshire.  Each full loop was 6.5 miles, with the first half-loop being 4 miles then going past the aid station for another 2.5 mile loop.  This meant there were potentially eight opportunities to eat chocolate!  

We started off slowly and got slower in true ultra-runner style.  Megs had a few niggles and also wanted to stop and take pictures - understandably as it was very pretty.  Weather was also lovely considering it was March!

Megs was impressed I could take photos on the move, although as you can see, not that well...

We stopped after the first half-loop for water and the loo, and by the time we'd completed the second half-loop (6.5 miles) we were already 90 minutes in.  Concerned about the timings, I decided to pick up my rucksack and speaker from Ian at the aid station, as music can be a welcome distraction.  Megan and I had put together a playlist in the car on the way over, and I whacked that on and we set off.  Megs immediately picked up the pace from 9 minute kilometers to mostly 6 minute kilometres (!) and this time didn't want to stop at the halfway point.  At some point on this lap, somebody asked us what race we were doing.  I stopped, looked at Megan and my mind went completely blank.  I said, "errrr....." for 10 seconds before I remembered.  The passerby looked at me like I'd lost the plot - who runs a marathon and can't remember what they're doing?!  There wasn't time to explain this was already my 4th this year.  I said to Megs, "At least you won't have that problem when you're running London marathon!"  We pressed on to finish the second half-loop and stopped at the aid station for some chocolate delights:

They really did have everything.  White and milk chocolate mice, chocolate stars, crisps, jelly sweets, loads and loads of chocolate (and other) homemade cake.  Local races are absolutely the best for this stuff.  The race was advertised as "not having any healthy stuff at the checkpoint" and I can verify this is absolutely accurate :)  I managed to wolf a whole slice of coffee and walnut cake before we headed out on the third lap.  Megan's longest ever training run had been 17.5 miles and by the end of this lap she'll have done 19.5 miles.  So far she was holding up brilliantly and still smiling!  I instructed Ian to wait for my cousin Ellen in the car park and get her registered and we would pick her up as we passed the aid station for the second half of the lap.

Not long after we started the lap, I saw one of the more curious sights of my running career - a pig being taken for a walk on the course:

At first I thought it was a dog, especially as the two dogs in the foreground were barking, but no.  It was an actual pig.  We stopped and took this photo.  This is what I love about marathons - pretty much all of them have something unique and memorable!  Never seen a pet pig before!

Here's another selfie of us looking quite cheerful, I think this was also near the beginning of loop 3.

Shortly after this we passed a man wearing a t-shirt saying "12 marathons in 12 months".  I commented to Megs that I'd only managed 9 official marathons last year, and the man overheard and told us he was currently attempting "52 marathons in 52 weeks".  We ran alongside him for a while and he told us his story - he said he was currently on 24 marathons and it was only week 20 so he is a little bit ahead of the curve.  I love these stories - it reminded me of the chap I ran with in Worcestershire - it really is so inspiring.

As we approached the end of this half-loop, Megs again said she didn't want to stop.  She had 4km to go and when I told her this, she said, "Four kilometers is nothing!" -- impressive words for a teenager who'd just run 18 miles, the furthest she'd ever done in her life!  Ian and my cousin Ellen were waiting and after some brief hellos we all set off together.  Ellen and I chatted, she told us how she'd often been running here when she used to live locally.  By the time we were on the home stretch, Megan was starting to get tired so we tried to motivate her with the lure of medals, chocolate and a sit down. When we got to the checkpoint, her Strava said she was 19.7 miles so she did loops of the car park until she got to 20 miles - well done Megs, you were awesome.  We waited to watch her get her medal - which had a special badge attached to say it was a PB as it was her longest distance ever!

  

Then Ellen and I set off for the final lap.  Ellen had only been planning to do one 6.5 mile loop, which had now turned into 9 miles due to the extra half-loop, which was the furthest she'd run in a year (oops! sorry!)

We had a lovely time.  The pig had vanished (though it turned out later Ellen knew the pig-owner!) and we caught up on where we were at in our lives and all our family news.  It was lovely.  Running is ideal for chatting as there's nothing else going on to distract you.  I listen better and talk less when I'm running.  Perhaps I should have all my important conversations that way, haha.

By the final half-loop we were both feeling tired but we ploughed on and before long the aid station came into sight and it was all over!  Because it was a 6 hour race, you have to ring the bell to let the organisers know that you're finishing.  Ellen and I rang the bell:

 And both got our medals:

 

After that we got changed and had one more photo altogether before heading to the pub for some food before the drive home.  One of the lovely things about races like this is everyone can do the distance they want to - I did a full marathon (actually 27 miles - gotta love the bonus mile!), Megan did 20 miles and Ellen did 9.  Thank you both for coming to join me.

Bristol: Green Man Ultra 30 race recap

I've learned a lot about counties and their boundaries whilst doing this challenge, and Bristol is particularly interesting. I thought it was part of Avon, but in 1996 that was split up into different parts.  The ceremonial county of Bristol is now very small, encompassing basically just the City of Bristol and a small surrounding area (the tiny purple section on the map).  As a result none of the 'normal' marathons I could find actually crossed the county boundary.

This race is strictly speaking an ultramarathon, although at 30 miles it's really not much longer than a marathon.  There was a 45 mile version, but as I'd promised I wouldn't run any ultras this year (hahaha that hasn't really happened) I was trying to be restrained.  In any case, I'd read the comments from previous years - by all accounts a mudbath - and steeled myself for what could be a brutal race on difficult terrain.  It had a 9 hour cut-off which is always slightly worrying, and the weather forecast at the start of the week was absolutely horrendous (torrential rain from start to finish).  Hmm.

I took the afternoon off work to drive down to Bristol, which took 5 hours.  When I packed, I planned to use half my suitcase for running stuff, the other half for non-running stuff.  Then I ran out of room for all my trainers so my non-running stuff was cut down to just the stuff in the red circle, haha.  And they say you don't need much kit for running!

The race started at an incredibly civilised 11am.  This was because the 45 milers started at 8am but it meant I got a lie in, a nice relaxed breakfast AND arrived early (shock horror) with plenty of time for registration and chatting to other competitors.  Unfortunately, despite having already having gone to the toilet, I decided I needed to go one last time and as a result missed the start by about a minute - here's a picture of me sprinting off trying to catch the tail end of the pack...

I quickly did catch them and over the next 10km gradually overtook people until I settled into a comfortable pace.  The trail was quite muddy in places but there were also quite a lot of tarmac paths - I was glad I'd worn my hybrid shoes.  Ian was following me in the car and we'd agreed to meet at around 10k.  Unusually, we somehow managed to miss each other (not sure how as we're usually pretty good at this stuff).  

Nevertheless I was in good spirits, and soon got to the 20k checkpoint.  I have been known to have "Hollywood" checkpoint stops where I sit down, faff around, eat loads and generally waste time but today my goal was to get in and get out and I stuck to it.  I filled my bottle, drank some Coke and grabbed a bar and set off (meanwhile Ian missed me again as he was struggling to find anywhere to park - there were people and cars *everywhere*).  Luckily he caught up with me about 10 minutes outside the checkpoint and we walked up a hill together chatting.  After I left him, the trail was quite twisty and turny for a while before heading back into the woods.   The girl in front of me in this picture was from Good Gym in Bristol (along with quite a few other runners and supporters) and had recce'd the entire route.  A couple of times she shouted, "I think it's left here" or "take the upper path" saving me much stress and wasted time!  We talked for a while, she was really nice and she overtook me a couple of miles from the end for a strong finish.

Having not looked at the course at all, I was surprised when we ran first alongside a motorway and then over it on a narrow footbridge.  I think it was the M5?  We later crossed another motorway - the last time I remember doing that was Convergence - so it had good novelty value!

Just after this I saw Ian again briefly and he took this pic:

Almost immediately after there was a gigantic hill.  The view from the top was lovely but I had minimal time to appreciate it as by now it was approaching 3pm and I was keen to avoid the rain, so I was trying to get a move on.

A little while later I saw a runner from the 45 mile race, struggling to walk.  He explained his legs were hurting and I gave him a paracetamol, I'm pretty sure I saw him at the end so he must've dug deep and found extra reserves.  He asked how far to the next checkpoint and I said 6k as I was pretty sure it was at around 40k.  To my surprise, it was actually only about 3k and was mixed in with another race which had spectators galore, taped race area, loads of shouting and clapping, people wandering around with prams and cups of coffee and in the middle of all that was our checkpoint.  Ian was there too.  I found the situation quite stressful  (especially as I'd run nearly a marathon at that point and couldn't deal with hordes of people) and was keen to get out as soon as possible. I just got a cup of tea and Ian and I started walking.  The route was difficult to see and it was hard to know which marshalls were ours and which were the other race so both me and the girl in front got a bit lost.  We found our way into the woods and there was a muddy hill to climb, then we had to run on the same course but in the opposite direction to the other runners (!) for a short section before one of their marshalls sent me up another hill. 

As soon as it levelled out I came across a runner sitting on a bench being sick.  We've all been there and I asked if he was OK/needed anything and he said no (in truth, he probably just wanted everyone to stop asking if he needed anything)!  I saw him at the end of the race, he finished only about 10 minutes after me, looking a bit peaky but he still did it, kudos.  I ran onwards and caught up with the girl in the previous pic, her name was Lindsey and even though she'd run quite a few ultras, multi-days etc she had not been having a great day today.  She was doing the 45 miler and she'd had a rough time between miles 16-25, it reminded me of the horrible time I'd had at Suffolk.  Lindsey told me she'd started off with the 9 hour pacer but that he'd gone so fast that she hadn't been able to keep up and lost him, which is always depressing.  We chatted away about this race, other races we'd done, our lives in general and ended up staying together for the last 10k of the race.

It's always lovely having someone to run with but the timing was particularly brilliant.  We kept each other going, chattering away.  She told me we were going to go over the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which I didn't know, and then it appeared and she waited while I took this photo:

As we ran across the bridge there were a billion tourists so I used my standard Tower Bridge patter, "Excuse me please, thank you, excuse me please, thank you" to get us past everyone.  After all that I could hardly stop for a photo so I took this one whilst running along, I love it as it sums up what ultra running is all about really.

From there it was just a little way further to the end, and despite my navigational confusion adding on a few more metres (I still owe Lindsey a Calippo for that!) we got there.  I urged her to go ahead and have her moment of glory then I followed her through the finish line 20 seconds or so later. 

We had a hug and were all smiles with our medals, and she told me she'd finished 1 minute shy of 9 hours, "who needs a pacer?, it was a lovely moment.  I also found the Good Gym girl and we had a hug too - sadly I didn't know her name!

I'd started 3 hours later so my time came in at 5:57 with a moving time of 5:40 which means I was successful in my quest to limit stops to the bare minimum (17 minutes over 6 hours is good going).  It really was a very pretty route and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  And the rain held off too - which was definitely more luck than judgement!

I got another giant shiny medal for the collection, a nice green T-shirt and they even provided a hot meal.  As I walked towards the canteen, I saw another runner who I recognised - it was the lady who'd finished just before me at Convergence!  We had a little chat and she'd got a trophy so she must've done well today.  Ultra running is such a small world and it's always nice to catch up with people you've met before. 

And that was it!  We went to a fun, quirky, restaurant called Zaza Bazaar and even saw a Banksy before driving home through Storm Freya.  Happy days!

Worcestershire: Seven Deadly Sins marathon race recap

I signed up for this race on the spur of the moment because I was grumpy about my February marathon (Icing on the Cake) being cancelled due to snow.  It was all a bit last minute!  After I'd booked it, I realised it was only 23 minutes drive from Stourbridge where I used to live.  Hasty preparations followed and I arranged to meet up with old friends there on the Saturday.  Iz (my daughter) and I would stay overnight and I'd run the race the next day. 

It all went according to plan until we had a bit of a Hollywood breakfast and I suddenly realised it was 9.20 and we hadn't left Stourbridge yet and we were meant to get there by 9.30, eek!  We drove like the wind and arrived at 9.42, luckily it was all OK as it was quite a small event so I managed to get registered, get instructions on the route, and get onto the starting line with plenty of time.  Phew!  Iz stayed in the car, intermittently doing homework (minimal I suspect!) and instagramming her friends pictures of herself sitting in the driver's seat...

The race was called the Seven Deadly Sins because there were actually seven races, one every day this week.  You could do different distances but there were two ladies who completed their seventh marathon in seven days today - amazing!  I also met another lady who was running 100 half marathons this year to raise money for Willen Hospice in Milton Keynes (where I grew up). Fundraising page here if you can spare a few quid for a good cause.

The route was simple - there were six loops, followed by three out-and-backs.  Not ideal for my map as it will look like a tiny dot, but oh well!  I got started, noting a few little hills on the way out (the race briefing said "with the exception of one small hill the route is generally flat").  By the time I'd finished Garmin said 350m ascent which wasn't quite as flat as I'd been hoping!

Before I got round the first loop, I got chatting to Lucas.  Today was Lucas's 225th marathon.  I love meeting people like him when I'm running because it's really easy to while away five hours talking about all the races we've done, which ones we recommend, which ones we're doing next etc.  And that's exactly what we did!  Lucas lived 10 minutes down the road and this was his third marathon of the week - he never does any training and just runs loads of races.  He has the same philosophy as I do that it's better to be able to keep running than go fast, and also my other philosophy that you should always walk up hills, so we were a perfect fit and ran the entire race together.  Here we are midway round the course:

The course was quite repetitive but had some pretty sections, including a lovely quarry which I sadly didn't take a picture of.  It had a little trail section, a church up on a hill and some lovely countryside views.  I didn't take many photos but hopefully this gives a taster:

It was a gorgeous sunny day (in part) and chatting to Lucas passed the time very quickly.  We soon finished the six loops so I called Iz to let her know we'd be passing the start.  She hopped out of the car and brought medicinal jelly babies and waved us on our way again.  We repeated this three more times, the final time collecting my speaker so we could listen to some music on the way.  We joked that this would be our fastest out-and-back as we were both motivated by a bit of R&B!  On our way back we passed a lady who said, "Are you two still nattering?" which made me laugh as I can talk all day and so could Lucas!  We were both starting to get a bit tired by this point but as we turned the final corner we still had smiles on our faces.  I didn't realise til later that we also had matching outfits, haha!

The last time I ran an entire race with someone else was Brighton with Tom in April 2017 and it was really fun to do it again.  We finished joint 8th out of 14 doing the marathon, had a thoroughly enjoyable day and no issues whatsoever.  There was a fantastic huge chunky medal, a hot dog and a cup of tea at the finish line (and they even kindly made Iz a vegetarian one).  We were back in time to see one of the 7 in 7 marathon finishers cross the line which was a lovely moment and I even drove home afterwards!

Thanks to Lucas for the company, and Steve and team for a brilliant, fun and beautifully well-organised event.  Iz said, "when are you going to do the other six?" I feel I may have to one day!

West Yorkshire: Hubble Bubble marathon race recap

This week's race was a huge improvement on last week's.  Not only did I have enough sleep the night before, it was also a mere 2 hours drive away so I only had to get up at 6.30am.  Luxury!  It was billed as a Hallowe'en themed fancy dress marathon so I'd been to the party shop last weekend and bought this amazing outfit.  Last night I tried it on properly for the first time.  It was surprisingly comfortable.  As soon as I arrived I spotted a few guys from Penny Lane Striders, my running club.  I didn't know them (they're much faster than me) but we had a quick chat - they were doing the 32 mile ultra.

 

The timing chip was attached to a sort of ankle bracelet that made me feel a bit like I had an ASBO!  The start line was a 10 minute walk away so I didn't have long before it was time to get down to the canal.  Here I am at the start line.  As you can see my hair is fricking awesome.

 

I suddenly noticed that not many people were in fancy dress.  As in, less than 10%.   The last fancy dress marathon I ran was Marathon du Medoc, where just about everyone was in fancy dress, so I started to wonder whether I'd gone too far.  Oh well!  Too late now!

We started running.  It was nice.  It was a cool day, but sunny, which it turns out is perfect for running in a giant wig.  My hair bounced up and down as I ran.  It felt like a bizarre and possibly slightly inappropriate cross between Baywatch and The Little Mermaid.  The route was very beautiful.

After less than a kilometre, I was right at the back with a couple of chaps, who I think were called James and Paul.  We had a great time talking about running and all the races we'd done.  Paul was on his 97th marathon with a goal of getting to 100 by the end of the year.  He'd done Medoc 3 times so we talked about that and gave advice to James - this was his 4th marathon but his first one off-road.  The time passed quickly.

The route was a 10 mile out-and-back away from Leeds, followed by 3 miles out-and-back towards Leeds.  This worked really well as it naturally broke the race into four sections which seemed very doable. 

As we approached the end of the first section, there was no sign of last week's demons.

I turned around and started the 10 mile section back.  Not long later, I lost Paul (James had got ahead of me a while earlier) so I put on some music and kept going.  Lots of random passers by smiled at me and wished me luck or commented on my hair.  It was around this point two of the Penny Lane Striders guys went past me, in second and third place!  I ran past a sewage works, still smiling...  The sky was blue and the route was pretty.  I'd been led to believe that canals are hard/boring - not true!  I met a lovely lady called Hils who was 77 and had run 64 marathons and was hoping to get to 100 before she was 80.  What a legend.  I love people like that, so inspirational.  I hope I'm still running marathons when I'm 80.  I overtook quite a few people on this leg, as I ran through the water stations and up the (tiny) hills.

The sun finally went away and it started to rain as I approached the start/finish line before the second out-and-back.  Luckily it was just a shower.  I stopped for a bit of Mars bar before tackling the final section.  I was still smiling, still loving the wig as I set off along this final section.  I'd once done a training run along this bit when staying with friends in Leeds so I was excited to come across some familiar sights.  Sure enough, after about 4k I suddenly started seeing things I recognised. Round about now I saw James coming back the other way.  He was on track for a PB!  The two Penny Lane guys also passed me, now in 1st and 2nd place in the ultra, brilliant work guys.

I reached the turnaround point, had a chat with the lovely volunteer and then headed back for the final stretch.  When I was at about 40k, my mum randomly phoned me.  She didn't know I was running a marathon and had called to ask me what "dual factor authentication" was on her iPhone, but kindly chatted to me for the next couple of kilometres to keep me company.  This really helped pass the time and we said our goodbyes when I was about 1/2 kilometre from the finish.  Whilst I was chatting to her, I saw Paul for the last time, heading out on his final section.  Here I am approaching the finish line:

I crossed the line, about half an hour faster than last week and got given my medal and goody bag.  This is the first race I can ever remember where I was given my medal in my hand rather than it being put round my neck.  I'd never thought about it before but I missed the symbolism of it, it's somehow not the same putting your own medal on.  Anyway.  I put it on and had a lovely post-race photo taken.  Really enjoyed this race and the organisation and staff were lovely, I'd definitely do another It's Grim Up North event.

And then I went to Starbucks and had a cup of tea and got changed, and while I was in the bathroom I had a proper Hallowe'en surprise when I took my sock off and found my foot covered in blood.  I hadn't realised anything was wrong but I think I must've had a long toenail which cut into the toe next to it.  Not sure my sock will ever be the same again!  Luckily my foot is absolutely fine!