Dead Runners society race report
20th Abingdon marathon - sunday 21st
October 2001.
A couple of days after the XC I
started my taper for Abingdon. Here's the report on my 19th marathon.
Evenin all
Are you sitting comfortably, here is a tonymegareport on my 19th marathon which
I ran today.
April 2000 - March 2001 I worked at britain's number 2 university in Oxford,
this was not much fun for me professionally but I did get to train with a good
bunch of runners from both inside and outside the university. Consequently I
heard about this great marathon on a fast course they had in which is about 10
miles south of Oxford. I had also heard of this race as some of my clubmates
from my old hometown running club did this race a few years ago.
Hearing words like "flat, fast and course" in a marathon description
and the fact that the race takes place in October made me think that it would
be a good race to do. As I may have mentioned once or twice I have qualified
for and run in the Boston marathon TWICE, in 1995 and 1998. One of the reasons
I am still interested in marathons is the difficult but achievable target of
Boston qualification. My last 2 marathons were run in 1999 on hilly courses and
this was only a year after a very serious injury which lost me a lot of fitness
and gained me a lot of fatness, Sheffield 1999 was run in 3h46.30 and Monaco
1999 was run in 3h45, nowhere near BQ . Getting back in shape to qualify for
Boston is something I am very interested in as it would at least get me close
to my fitness pre-injury. In 2003 I will turn 40 and consequently I will get an
extra 5 "geezer minutes" for my BQ time, the BQ window for 2003 has
just opened and I need to run 3h20.59 to be able to run.
After doing a lot of speedwork on the track in the summer and not quite enough
long runs I knew I was in decent shape but I had my doubts about being fast
enough to get a BQ time. It would take optimal conditions and a really good run
for me to get the BQ time.
So early this morning as the rain poured down outside the beautiful Shelley and
I headed west to Oxfordshire for the first time since I left the number 2
university back in March. 2 hours later we arrived at the Tisley park athletics
track where the race was going to start and finish. The rain had stopped but it
was cold and cloudy with a bit of a breeze, not the calm conditions the BBC
weather forecasters had predicted on friday :-(
Before the 10.00am start we met up with my old university running pal (and
eurodead lurker) Bob Wells, I also met up with Paul, one of my former Oxford
training partners. Lined up on the track and off we went. Shelley was going to
bandit the race and run the first lap as her sunday training run. One lap of
the track before we headed out onto the roads, a reporter from BBC local radio was
running with us asking inane questions like "is this your first
marathon" and "what time are you going for". Fortunately she
didn't ask me anything as I was going to ask her if she was going to run the
whole race with us. Ran with Shelley for the first mile which took 8.22, a bit
too slow although it was a bit crowded on the track at the start. I speeded up
and left Shelley behind, passed a few more runners but didn't feel as if it was
that much faster, 2 miles in 15.29/7.09! Oops, a bit too fast so I eased off a
bit and didn't try to pass anyone, just let them come back to me. I could see
Paul about 50m ahead, 3 miles in 22.53/7.24 and 4 miles in 30.33/7.40, 5 miles
reached in 38.14/7.41 and I caught Paul.
Eased off and ran on with Paul, Paul is a very experienced marathoner and has
run this race many times, I figured he would know his way round. 6 miles in
46.00/7.46, Paul was saying that Dickie, another one of my old Oxford training
partners, was going to be going for a training run round the course in the
opposite direction, we went round the next bend and there was Dickie! 7 miles
in 53.45/7.45, runners were starting to come past us but Paul knew that if we
waited a lot of them would come back to us in the 2nd half. 8 miles in
1h01.46/8.01 up a little hill, 9 miles in 1h09.40/7.54 and 10 miles in
1h17.29/7.49. That was the end of the first (little) loop, now all we had do
was negotiate the second (big) loop and then run to the track.
Off we went on the big loop, this involved a long gentle climb up from Abingdon
to Cumnor, 11 miles in 1h25.23/7.54, the pace was slipping away from BQ pace
but Paul speeded up towards the end last year so I decided to stick with him.
12 miles in 1h33.22/7.59 and we were starting to pull runners back towards us.
13 miles in 1h41.18/7.56 and halfway reached in 1h42.09. Onwards and upwards,
14 miles in 1h49.14/7.56 and into Cumnor and a bit of downhill. Speeded up and
started to pass a few more runners, 15 miles in 1h56.16/7.02? that was a bit
fast. kept going downhill and got to 16 miles in 2h04.35/8.19, a short 15th
mile I think. By now we were passing a few runners, we were predicting who we
would pass next :-) There were a few runners walking by now, I was still moving
well but my legs were starting to make a few complaints. By now we were playing
cat and mouse with a wheelchair athlete, he would pass us going downhill and he
would get passed by us on the uphill and we cruised through the country lanes.
17 miles in 2h12.14/7.39 and 18 miles in 2h19.57/7.43, legs were now feeling
quite sore and it was starting to get a little harder, 18 miles was the length
of my longest training run for this marathon. All the cars driving along the
country lanes were now getting quite annoying, you had to pick your moment to
overtake runners ahead of you. 19 miles in 2h27.44/7.47 and 20 miles in
2h35.37/7.53. By now the downhill from Cumnor had ended and we were slowing and
the rain had started which didn't help. I was now finding it tough going to
stick with Paul but I knew I couldn't give up, he was running for Oxford City
AC and I was running for Cambridge and Coleridge AC, Oxford vs Cambridge again!
Just before 21 miles we crossed a busy road and a marshal tried to make us stop
to let the cars go, this little break in rhythm was all it took and the cord
broke and Paul was away and off he zoomed. 21 miles in 2h43.22/7.45, now it was
time to hang on and see what I had left. I still passed a couple of runners
around 21 miles but most of the runners ahead of me weren't coming back so
easily and Paul was making his way out of sight. 22 miles in 2h51.47/8.25 and
now it was really started to hurt, still this always happens in a marathon and
to get to 22 miles before this happened was good going. Next 2 miles were
really tough going, I was starting to feel a bit cold from the rain. Runners
started to come past me, although not ones we had passed in the last 10 miles,
23 miles in 3h00.36/8.49 and 24 miles in 3h09.34/8.58.
Fortunately at 24 miles we got back onto to the main road back into Abingdon which
we had already run on earlier in the race so now I knew there wasn't far left.
A few more runners came past, the wheelchair athlete passed me for the last
time as well but now I was starting to reel in a few myself and even passed a
couple to 25 miles which I reached in 3h18.13/8.39. Left turn onto the road
with the track and I speeded up a bit and passed a couple more runners. It was
a great sight to see runners ahead of me turn off the road and head into the
grounds of the sports centre and there was the track! 26 miles in 3h26.21/8.08,
last mile faster than first mile in a marathon isn't too bad! Onto the track, a
youngster zoomed past me but I was content to jog round and enjoy my "lap
of honour", I heard Shelley call my name. Jogged round the final bend and
there was the finish line, over I went in 3h28.17, my 19th marathon finish!
Immediately I got my medal and a handshake from one of the race organisers, for
the next 20 seconds I wasn't sure where I was. I made my way over to the drinks
area and got a cup of water and there was Shelley and I fell into her arms :-)
Shelley helped me over to the car and I got some more clothes on, after a nice
hot shower and a bit of food I started to feel a bit better.
A pretty good run, easily my best marathon since I fractured my knee, 14th
fastest of my 19 marathons. It could have been a bit better but it could have
been a lot worse! As usual after a marathon I realised I didn't do enough long
runs in preparation, you can NEVER do enough long runs in preparation for a
marathon! Nowhere near a BQ though but a step in the right direction.
After the race we had a quick visit to Oxford to see my former landlady and her
crazy cat before driving home in pouring rain, I was fortunate to have the
beautiful Shelley to drive me there and back.
I have run another marathon, now what do I do with myself!
bye tony....
Dr Tony Bell
Milton, Cambridge, England.
Tony@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
previous race report next race report