Pre-race planning is definitely key..... especially for a marathon and especially a trail one where there are no course markers or a map provided. Instructions such as "go through KG, SLOT across field, take 30 degree left at corner, etc". On this occasion we also had the advice to "avoid flying motorcycles over the gate." After UltraJ's nav disaster last weekend, he was all over this one in his prep.... Well actually, he just made sure that both me and Viddy knew exactly where we were going in order to keep him on the right route. I planned to use the Garmin with a programmed route and Viddy had that, but had also crafted a set of detailed instructions along with OS map extracts, indexed contents and also laminated.
So how did it go?
1. Simon managed to get us lost before arriving by taking a wrong route in the car
2. We arrived as a huge contingent of runners left at 9am - we'd thought it was a 9:30 start. We got on road at 9:15. But it was ok, they were geared up for staggered starts.
3. We soon caught up with the stragglers and then a larger drawn out pelaton, somehow missing the queues at the kissing gates.
3. Everyone on these races and people you meet are always very friendly, except those that we encountered in suburban Bedford who ignored our cheerful "morning" and who obviously thought we were mad for:
a) Acknowledging their existence and
b) Running through their neighbourhood.
(I think in one or two streets we were lucky as the only runners there would have been ones having just nicked something, but our race numbers gave our true purpose away.)
4. We actually only went wrong 3 times. One diversion of merit to mention was me knowing we were off the route from the Garmin's map by the distance of 100-200m - which included a river. Could have gone badly wrong, but Viddy's maps came good and we rejoined the route after 5mins of UltraJ going very quiet and into a familiar territory of despair.
5. UltraJ and I both discovered that Viddy cramps. He gets the cramps badly. He's also got the most fantastic resilience and cheerful ability to make his running 'pals' laugh nearly uncontrollably in sympathy with his plight.
He really was in agony both during and after the race. An excellent moment was when he tried a sprint at the end and then completely seized on going 1 step beyond us.
Despite that, we all came into the finish together as planned. We just had to wait for the results as the staggered start meant we could not tell where we'd come.
So did I Bonk? Well, I didn't but Viddy did. My pre-race prep meant I was fully hydrated and plenty of energy in the tank and I didn't cramp after all. I'd been paranoid that I would relive my last marathon a year ago when it took me 1hr 40mins to do the last 6 miles.
And why justice? Well, we did OK and managed 3:29 - bang on our higher target that we'd set ourselves. UltraJ actually got his second place that he missed out on last week, with me and Viddy coming in 3rd and 4th.
So how come we all arrived together but got ranked..... Easy, me and Viddy felt sorry for UltraJ and got the marshalls to organise it.
Just so you know how bad the cramps were for Viddy - he couldn't drive home and had to walk up his drive backwards once he'd crowbarred himself out of the back of the car. We'd even had to stop to let him stretch whilst on the M1 - watch the video on YouTube to see true compassion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-C1YTzFv5s&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Job done. Currently on the plane to Tulsa
Familiar territory of despair - love it
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