Saturday 8th June: SDW Marathon
South Downs Marathon is beautiful – I definitely recommend.
Although, maybe not two weeks after GUCR. It was only ever a recovery run for
me, but still, those hills were pretty tricky in places.
I’d never done this marathon before, although I have done
the Downland Challenge, which is approx. 30 miles over parts of the SDW, so I
knew the area was very scenic. This was also a great opportunity to see a lot
of the ‘usual suspects’ who I hadn’t seen for a while. Everyone seemed to be
there. And I was able to introduce all my crazy runner friends to George, which
was nice :o) It’s always great to have a catch-up at events and of course, lots
of piccies for the photo album were snapped.
So, before I knew it, we were off. Even from the very
beginning, my legs felt a bit stiff, but they did eventually loosen up for the
most part. It was a scorching hot day, very warm and the sun was beating down
already. I just took it easy and continued to take it pretty easy.
I had decided to wear my trail shoes and I was pretty
pleased with this decision. Even though there were road sections and the ground
was dry and hard, and therefore perfectly runnable in road shoes, there were
niggly stones that I know would have shredded my feet had I been in road shoes.
Even as I recount this marathon almost a month after I actually did it (I’ve
gone very slow on the blog front, as I’ve been a busy Lizzy), my feet are still
showing signs of recovering from ultra-ness. My feet are peeling and I find
this sometimes happens to me even months after a big ultra. Therefore, two
weeks after GUCR, my feet were still pretty tenderised. Thus, trail shoes were
an excellent idea for SDW marathon. The sole is obviously much thicker and I
didn’t feel the ruts or niggly stones under my feet. Me and niggly sharp stones
do not get on.
The first few miles of this marathon were a little bit
crowded down narrow paths. This was a little tricky, as one guy attempted to
undertake me on a corner, in the middle of a woods. He nearly went flying
(silly man) and I was a little annoyed and got clipped and stumbled, but
managed not to fall. I’m not sure why some people feel the need to overtake
others in stupid places. How much time are they really going to save themselves
if they end up causing themselves, or someone else unnecessary injury? Once the
field had spread out, this sort of thing ceased to be a problem.
A couple of hours in and the sun was now really hot. My
stomach wasn’t feeling too great, but I was okay. However, I wish I had followed
George’s idea of filling a Camelbak up with coke (even though I don’t own a
Camelbak...oh well, somehow I wish I had carried some coke). I was really
craving something fizzy and ‘energy-giving’. I was making sure I was drinking plenty of
water and getting some electrolytes back in, but there comes a certain point
where you need a little more than water and salt capsules/ electrolyte stuff. I
started to feel a little sickly. But again, I was ultimately okay. I just had
to ride the feeling out with some much needed walking. I also ate some salted
mixed nuts & some choc-chip Hammer Nutrition energy bar.
Before I knew it, we were into the last few miles and I just
could not wait to get to that finish line and get a nice cold fizzy drink. It’s
really strange however; I struggled to ‘sprint’ into the finish, and yet I
always normally manage to give it something at the end, I even ‘sprinted’ the
end of GUCR...but on this, I was pretty stiff near the end. I think I finished
in 6 hours exactly. Pretty slow, but it was indeed a recovery marathon. And I got
my Dr Pepper at the end :o) I was aiming for below 6hours, but I was dawdling
quite a bit. There were also some hills where I felt completely zapped of all energy...I
literally felt like I was on a treadmill going nowhere, not moving forwards,
but trying to.
Goody bags were pretty full of various random things on this
event, which I really miss on all the smaller trail events I run and liked. Highlights
included a teeny can of alcohol-free recovery beer. I wish it had been
alcoholic, but it was pretty tasty. We also got some rather strange hard-boiled
coffee sweeties. Exciting. And we got a nice medal and a t-shirt.
Overall, I
would definitely recommend the SDW marathon to anyone, in future. Really good,
friendly organisation. And lots of scenic surroundings and pretty hills :o)
