For a lot of marathon runners the period straight after a marathon can be a very strange time. You’ve spent months working towards your “A” race, then in the blink of an eye it’s been and gone leaving a huge void in your life while you think about what to do next. I know many marathon runners who just want to get straight back out there and race the following weekend. Equally, I know runners who prefer to let their bodies fully recover by taking several weeks of complete rest.
I like to consider myself as being somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. I’m in no doubt that I need to rest properly after a marathon, probably more so than most due to the health issues I’ve had with glandular fever in the past. But, I don’t like to give myself too long away from running because the longer it takes to get back into training, the more it hurts when you eventually do so.
That was until, three days before the Manchester Marathon, I received an e-mail from a guy called John Stanford who was in the process of organising a 17-day long relay challenge in a bid to break the world record for the longest ever distance running relay. Starting in London on 4th May, and returning to London on 21st May, the event was aiming to run a continuous 2600 miles around the UK, broken down into 100 marathon length legs. The response by athletes to run the legs passing through the North East had been especially poor for some reason, and John had e-mailed me in the hope of enticing me into running the leg between Durham and Middlesbrough.
I have to admit that my initial reaction was “no chance”. Coming just 18 days after the Manchester Marathon I thought I’d be in no fit state to run another 26 miles. However, the longer I thought about it the more intrigued I became about the event. Not only was this a chance to take part in a world record attempt (let’s face it, they’re few and far between!), but the event was also aiming to raise £500,000 for Brain Tumour UK. This immediately struck a chord with me because I know a number of people who have had successful operations on brain tumours in recent years. This was a chance for me to raise money for a great cause by doing what I do best - running a marathon!
The previous leg runner arrived pretty much dead on 7am and, after a brief exchange of baton and GPS gadgets, I set off on my way. Not knowing how my body had recovered since the Manchester Marathon (i’d only ran properly three times since the race) I had no idea how I would feel on my journey to Middlesbrough. I never had any intention of running hard, but after hearing from the organisers before I set off that the fastest marathon leg so far had been 3:15, my competitive instinct all of a sudden kicked in and I thought I’d have a crack at running the fastest leg.
Despite this I set off quite conservatively until I knew how my legs were feeling. The first mile was a slow 7 minutes to get warmed up, then the next few miles were undulating to say the least - a good downhill into Durham city centre was followed by uphill sections through Shincliffe, Bowburn and Coxhoe. From Coxhoe came a long downhill stretch of around two miles to Sedgefield and this gave me the chance to really open up my legs and stretch out. I was feeling good, the legs felt reasonably fresh, and I passed 13 miles in 1:26 - not bad considering I was running completely alone.
From Sedgefield it was onto the A177 towards Stockton and I just kept ticking off the miles. 20 miles were passed in 2:10 and at this point I was confident of arriving at the Riverside Stadium in under 3 hours. Quite amusingly I hadn’t seen the support vehicle at all during the first 20 miles and wondered what was going on. Only afterwards was I informed that I actually beat it to the first three check points so by the time it had arrived at these I’d already passed through!
I’d agreed with the support guys that they would meet me at the edge of Stockton to guide me through the final part of the route. I’d been able to memorise most of the route from Durham, but the section through Stockton/Norton towards Middlesbrough would take in a lot of residential streets and it would have been impossible for me to remember every twist and turn. Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one not knowing where I was going. The driver of the support vehicle was also confused by this part of the route and ended up guiding me around Norton in a big circle which would ultimately add three miles to the length of my run.
Once we got back on track towards Middlesbrough I passed the 26.2 mile marathon distance in 2:58, registering the fastest marathon of the overall relay event! But, more soberingly I was still three miles from the finish of my section and my legs were beginning to hurt like hell. My left ankle had been niggling away at me for a good few miles, both calves were hurting with cramp, and my thighs were screaming at me to stop running. At 27 miles I succumbed to the pain, albeit temporarily, and walked for a few hundred metres to give my body a bit of a rest. Thankfully I managed to get myself going again without too much difficulty, and once Middlesbrough appeared on the horizon it gave me the lift I needed to get me to the finish. Being a Newcastle fan I never thought I’d feel so relieved to reach the Riverside Stadium, but after a 29.3 mile leg in 3:24 it was the best sight in the world!