Dead
Runners society race
report
Sheffield marathon - sunday
25th April 1999.
I
decided to try and run another marathon to give me something to aim for as part
of my recovery so it was another trip to the city where it all started. However,
this one didn't go very well, the marathon is not for the unprepared, it doesn't
matter how many you have run before :-(
Hello folks
Well its the morning after the day before I ran the Sheffield marathon, here's the report. Be warned, young people and persons of a nervous disposition may want to skip the last part of this report :-( Way back in the mists of time a 19 year old chemistry student at Sheffield University took up running and ran in the 1983 Sheffield half-marathon and that's where my running career began. Every year since then (apart from last year) I have returned to Sheffield, usually for the half-marathon but 3 times previously I have run the marathon. The plan for this year was to go back and run the Boston marathon but for various reasons I couldn't make it, I decided to train for a marathon to try and get fit for a faster marathon later in the year so I decided to have a run in Sheffield again. Saturday the beautiful Shelley and I drove north up with A1, I asked Shelley if we were going to Big Sur this way but she said we were going in the wrong direction :-( So we aimed for Sheffield instead. Thanks to lots of men hitting balls into pockets with sticks all the hotels in Sheffield were booked up we ended up staying a few miles south in Chesterfield, the hotel room number was 17 and I was going to run my 17th marathon! The beautiful Shelley was going to run the half-marathon with me before I carried on to run the full marathon. Unfortunately Shelley had been suffering from a cold all week and on the saturday night she didn't feel well at all, her ears were all plugged up. Neither of us got much sleep that night and come the morning Shelley sensibly decided not to risk making things worse by not running the half-marathon. When we left Chesterfield the weather looked great, cold, foggy and still but when we arrived at the Don Valley stadium for the race the sun had come out and there was a bit of a breeze. On with my racing gear and time for the pre-race panicking. The race was scheduled to start at 9.30am so with 15 minutes to go I was out on the track with thousands of other runners. I met up with fellow eurodead Paul "PJ" Henney at the start, PJ was running the half-marathon, had a nice little chat with him then as 9.30 arrived and we all lined up. Then they announced over the PA that they hadn't finished marking the course and we'd have to wait. So we spent another 20 minutes on the track in the sunshine waiting, I should have got into some shade and got myself a drink in this period but I didn't.
Finally at 9.50am we were off. Out of the stadium and onto the roads of Sheffield, first mile was pretty crowded, PJ was with me at the start but he soon got away. Felt a bit uncomfortable at first in all the crowds, a bit easier after a mile when I had a bit more room to move. First 3 miles were gradually uphill which was a bit tough followed by a couple of downhill miles. 5 miles reached in 39.30, I was aiming for 8 minute pace all the way although I wasn't trusting the mile markers too much as they were rather approximate and the hills gave you no sense of average pace. I was moving reasonably well by now, gradually working my way through although I was feeling a little dehydrated. As the course was out and back I could see the runners ahead of me coming back, the men at the front looked fast! Around the turn area I had mile splits 11.02 and 4.32 which shows how far out some of the markers were! Felt OK to 9 miles, the next mile we had to climb back up the steep hill we had run down to 5 miles, hard work but I made it to the top OK. 10 miles in 1h18.23, still on schedule. On the gradual descent to the stadium runners were passing me as the half-marathoners picked up the pace for the finish. Still moving well to halfway, just before 13 miles the half-marathoners entered the outside of the stadium and we marathoners went a different way to do a little out and back before setting off on the the loop for the 2nd time. As the courses diverged a half-marathoner wished me luck. I reached the turn in 1h43, that would do for the first half.
Now there weren't many runners left and I was on my own, I passed a Cambridge University "kiddie" at 14 miles but a few marathoners came past me looking ominously easy. 15 miles in 1h58.48 and I was climbing again, this was pretty tough the second time around, at the top around 16 miles I felt like dropping out! Down the hill after that which revived me a little but I knew I still had to come back up it on the way back. I was slowing a bit by now, anyone who was still running half-decently was overtaking me although I was passing a few who were walking. 20 miles near the turn around reached in 2h42.22 and now I was headed in the right direction but by now I was shuffling along. The runners around me looked a pretty pathetic bunch as we jogged, walked and shuffled along, by now I was moving at 10 minute pace and all thoughts of 3h30 were long gone, I just wanted to get to the finish in one piece. The climb up the steep hill 22-23 miles was pretty unpleasant but I did manage to pass a couple of runners. Just after 23 miles you can see the stadium in the distance, mostly downhill from here but my legs were so sore by now all I could do was shuffle along occasionally being passed by a slightly faster shuffler. 25 miles in 3h32.51 and by now I had passed the back markers in the half-marathon who walking round with buckets to collect money for charity. In the last mile there were two little climbs which felt awful but I just about kept running up to the top, finally into the outskirts of the stadium and just before going through the marathon gate there was the 26 mile marker, the last mile took 11.52 :-( Speeded up a little and down onto the track, 2 runners passed me in the last 100m but I had stopped caring several miles back. Finally under the finish gantry in 3h46.10, I said "that's number 17" just before crossing the line.
After so much suffering out on the road there was the beautiful Shelley waiting for me, what a wonderful sight. I got my medal and after drinks stations stocked with water, water and more water all there was for me at the end was more water. If there was ever I time I needed some post-race goomies this was it. A pretty awful run, in the last few miles my head felt a bit bunged up which makes me think I had caught some of Shelley's bug. My 15th fastest marathon, 36.43 slower than my 16th marathon in Boston! Oh dear. Still unlike Josiah Thugwane, Bill Rodgers, Moses Tanui and Ingrid Kristiansen I finished my marathon and I ran every step of the way. When the going gets tough the stupid keep going :-) :-( I am thinking of running a 50km ultra in Sacramento on 1-1-2000 so I suppose this was good practice for ultra running. Ultra Tracey alphabet once described how you run an ultra, run for as long as you can and then keep going!
ORN I'm going to try and jog a mile or so in a while, my legs have felt worse than this after marathons although they are rather sore.
bye tony.....
Shelley Walsh and Tony Bell
Milton
Cambridgshire England
Tiger@shells.demon.co.uk
Shelley Walsh Shelley@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/index.html
Tony
Bell Tony@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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