A week and a half on from my seventh marathon of the year, and I'm looking ahead to my next! It's 3 and a half weeks until I face the tough mountains of the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland. I'm pretty nervous about this one... 3,300 meters of ascent and descent will be more than I've ever done before; and the profile of the course is aggresively up and down! This type of race is also known as Skyrunning - awesome.
In preparation I'm heading up to the Lake District a fortnight before the challenge to test my legs on Skafell Pike. At just shy of 1,000 meters, three times up and down should do the trick...! Gulp.
It's going to be an amazing experience, and I can only imagine the views. Zermatt is famous for not allowing any cars to drive into the town (unless they're eco-friendly electric cars!), so the pollution and noise is going to be about as minimal as it could be.
I'd like to thank Mens Running magazine, and Scotts for this too. I won a place in the 46 km race through the magazine, and Scotts will be looking after me when I'm there as the main sponsor for the event. They've also posted me a t shirt, which I've been testing out this week, and a pair of trail shoes which I'm heading out into Hampstead Heath with tomorrow morning.
Wish me luck!
To finish this blog post where I started, my seventh marathon was on the trails of Hertfordshire. I ran the Fairlands Valley Marathon, organised by local Stevenage running club, the Fairlands Valley Spartans.
The race was interesting! Rather than a marked course, competitors were given written directions (turn left at the set of trees, follow the fence and then bear right acros the field...) and off we went! To further confuse my directionless brain, the marathon ran alongside 12, 18 and 50 km races. Needless to say, at mile 22, an Ultrarunner behind me yelled "mate, the path goes this way!" and off I trotted on a half hour, 3 mile, detour. Realising my mistake, unsurprisingly, led to feeling demoralised and tired, and with 4 miles still to go, when I should have had one. I still managed to pull out 18th place (out of 155), so it could have been worse, and of course I should say that for the most part the course was very pretty - taking me through woods and cross country trails. My highlight: running through a beautiful village called Datchworth, where my Grandparents lived while they were still alive. I haven't been back there since, and running through was quite emotional.
I will be back next year, when I plan to run with a vengance and win the race!
In preparation I'm heading up to the Lake District a fortnight before the challenge to test my legs on Skafell Pike. At just shy of 1,000 meters, three times up and down should do the trick...! Gulp.
It's going to be an amazing experience, and I can only imagine the views. Zermatt is famous for not allowing any cars to drive into the town (unless they're eco-friendly electric cars!), so the pollution and noise is going to be about as minimal as it could be.
I'd like to thank Mens Running magazine, and Scotts for this too. I won a place in the 46 km race through the magazine, and Scotts will be looking after me when I'm there as the main sponsor for the event. They've also posted me a t shirt, which I've been testing out this week, and a pair of trail shoes which I'm heading out into Hampstead Heath with tomorrow morning.
Wish me luck!
The race was interesting! Rather than a marked course, competitors were given written directions (turn left at the set of trees, follow the fence and then bear right acros the field...) and off we went! To further confuse my directionless brain, the marathon ran alongside 12, 18 and 50 km races. Needless to say, at mile 22, an Ultrarunner behind me yelled "mate, the path goes this way!" and off I trotted on a half hour, 3 mile, detour. Realising my mistake, unsurprisingly, led to feeling demoralised and tired, and with 4 miles still to go, when I should have had one. I still managed to pull out 18th place (out of 155), so it could have been worse, and of course I should say that for the most part the course was very pretty - taking me through woods and cross country trails. My highlight: running through a beautiful village called Datchworth, where my Grandparents lived while they were still alive. I haven't been back there since, and running through was quite emotional.
I will be back next year, when I plan to run with a vengance and win the race!
You and me are not the only ones who were less than impressed with 'that' marathon. I've met a few people who ran it when doing the Salisbury 54321 and the Farnham Pilgrim who share the opinion. One potential way around the problem if you're planning on doing it again would be to download someone else's run from this year (someone who did not get lost) as a course on Garmin Connect, if by then you manage to sort yourself out with a new Garmin after the burglary you mentioned in a previous post... (Its a shame to see things haven't changed since my student days in London where I even had a gun shoved in my open window at one point!) At least that way you can follow the arrow on the watch to show you where to go. That said it is all well and good unless they change the course again!
ReplyDeleteFrom looking at your run times it must frustrate you all the more seeing as your ability is to chase for a win by category and overall... At least for me its not so important finishing between the 50-80 percentiles of finishers!
I've booked into the CTS South Devon again next year - I'm chasing the 7x challenge t-shirt for the second year in a row, so if you're there again next year I'll see you for a post run pint in the Cricketers!
I completed my 12 in 12 months with the Reykjavik marathon at the end of August and I've now extended my challenge to do 13 in 2013, so only 2 more to go on that one!.. I too decided to write my blog to hold myself accountable to the challenge - I never expected anyone to be reading it (the wife doesn't even bother!) so it is always a thrill to get a comment out of the blue.
Good luck in chasing the remainder of your 12. I've got the marathon bug and will be carrying on with the marathons at the rate of 1 a month for the dorseeable, even though the initial challenge has been beaten. Long term is the 100 marathon club, but before then: The Jurassic Challenge in 2015, along with the UTSW, the Laugevegur Trail Marathon and some others to build-up the points before hitting the heights of a Skyrunner and the UTMB... I doubt I'll be able to make that one before I'm 40 because of the qualification period, so I may have to go for that one in 2016... Long term long distance running planning :)
Yeah it was a real shame about the Stevenage marathon - the route was quite pretty as far as marathons go. If it hadn't been for the disastrous organisation, I'd probably have signed up again. The stupid thing is that it's organised by a running club, so why they can't provide a few marshals out on the course, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteFortunately I did get my Garmin replaced (an amazing running friend of mine bought me a new one), and have my own data from this years run. If I do it again I'll make sure to revise!
And that's crazy to hear you had a gun shoved in your window! London hasn't changed much, unfortunately.
I'm waiting for payday to sign up for CTS South Devon, but will definitely see you there - that's been one of the highlights of my year. Ill give you a blog comment nearer the time - would be good to say hi at the start, or over a beer! Also planning on the Endurance Life Classic Quarter - that's going to be next years challenge.
How far is the UTSW? The Jurassic Challenge looks amazing - that's one I'm aware of and would love to do too. And the UTMB too - that's a great target to aim for - best of luck!
Congrats on hitting your challenge, and best of luck with the next batch of marathons! Enjoy the experiences!