Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Virtual London Marathon 2024
by Russell Turner - 09:38 on 23 April 2024
This was to be my second sub-5hr marathon, to prove that 4:37 in the happy days of lockdown wasn’t just a fluke. Not that I was aiming for that time: my cunning plan was to walk a minute, run ten, and complete each mile in a relaxed eleven minutes for a 4:48 finish. Easy.
The weather, after what seemed like weeks of storms, was perfect: cool, and with no wind worth mentioning. Matchgirl chauffeured me to the Glen Affric car park where she admired the view, took a souvenir snap of the happy runner, then drove away so she wouldn’t have to overtake me while I was still finding my rhythm.
All was good. The first few miles featured very little traffic, spectacular views, and, despite some undulating single-track road, I kept close to my 11m/m pace, collecting a few seconds here and there, so by the time I passed a cheering Matchgirl at Dog Falls, just over six miles in, I was over a minute ahead of pace.
Ready to go.
I collected another minute or two over the next four miles, which featured the longest downhill section, before ‘flat’ roads resumed. The eleventh mile was covered in eleven minutes, and shortly after that I passed Matchgirl for the second time, at the Cannich Bridge junction. All was still good, although a very brief but nasty hill up the only A road I traversed took away a few of my precious seconds. Even so, I felt fine, still on pace for my sub-5hrs.
Things got a little tougher on Mile 17, when another climb clawed back over a minute. I reached the Struy junction after 18 miles, where Matchgirl was again waiting for me, with only half a minute in hand, but I wasn’t too concerned. After all, I could afford to slow down because I had an 11min cushion which would still allow me to finish in under five hours. Easy.
On the run – note the undulation!
Except it wasn’t. The constant undulation, which I’d overlooked during my four-wheeled reconnaissance, probably combined with a lack of training runs over 13.1 miles, was beginning to tell. As I tired, the single-track camber also became more annoying, even with Matchgirl joining the run for a few minutes.
After 19 miles it was time for Plan B, which meant putting on my ultra head and walking up the inclines. Unfortunately, there seemed to be lots, and without the corresponding declines. Pace continued to slow, despite the welcome appearance of Matchgirl here and there, and my sub-5 hopes evaporated. In their place was the thought that I could still improve on my 5:14 second-fastest marathon (last year’s virtual, when I did it as a RTTS training run complete with pit stops).
Miles 22, 23 and 24 each featured around 20m of climb – not usually a challenge, but by now the walks had become trudges and the bursts of running had become totters. Tell me again why we do this?
At last, after 25 miles I crested the hill and enjoyed 70m of descent, although walking resumed as soon as I hit the flat on the approach to Kiltarlity and the finish line tearoom I’d been looking forward to. Cruelly, I reached it after 25.5 miles, which meant I had to totter up and down the high street, accompanied by an encouraging Matchgirl (who’d have stabbed me in the eye if our positions had been reversed), until the Garmin showed 26.2 miles. I should have added the extra 0.02, to be a completist, but that might have taken me over 5:10. Little things matter.
I failed in the sub-5 but set a new second-fastest of 5:09 (and 48 seconds, but we can ignore that). Back at The Rural Retreat, I discovered a whole litre of unconsumed Tailwind in the backpack bladder, which won’t have helped. I’d believed I was taking enough, and was convinced I was down to the dregs. Obviously not. It’s impossible to tell if ascent or lack of nutrition was most to blame for my latter struggle. With just one variable I might have done better; with both, no wonder my pace plummeted. My money’s on lack of nutrition as the main culprit.
I hit the target for Young Lives vs Cancer!
This morning, the main after-effect apart from the usual stiffness is a sore left thigh, although I expect that to be gone tomorrow. I’ll take a short walk later but no more running until Saturday when I’m signed up for the Balmoral 5k and 10k. Whether I do both or either remains to be seen.
As always, I finished the run pondering retirement from marathons to concentrate on the HM distance. Maybe this time I mean it. Or maybe Sod’s Law will prevail and I’ll come up again in the London ballot which I entered the day before the real thing. Or maybe I should find a properly flat marathon. I hear that Boston (in Lincolnshire) fits the bill, or the Solway Coast event, gigs permitting. You never know.
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