Week Fourteen

Wednesday - 3.5 miles

Sunday - 26 miles

It has been another tough week on placement and running unfortunately fell by the wayside as I worked a 60 hour week in order to ensure I passed this part of my course.  Thankfully I did and have now been signed off.  This is a Big Deal.  There have been times where I've questioned my sanity  training this hard during placement so I'm very relieved I managed to pull it off.  

On Wednesday morning I managed my only run of the week.  I went to Kennington, because I did my dissertation there last autumn .  It involved visiting older residents in their homes to complete a questionnaire.  As a result, I know the area better than any other in London as I spent two happy months wandering round there.  It's a quite beautiful area and it is filled with lovely memories - I met so many interesting people, it was a unique insight into the dramatic differences between people's lives and attitudes, even in such a small area of London.  It made me grateful for everything I have (especially my health and ability to run).  This photo totally fails to do Kennington justice:

but it's the only one I took on that beautiful morning.  In recent weeks my world has shrunk to literally nothing but going to work and running.  It has been HARD and I have been unhappier than I have been in a long time (and let's just say that has nothing to do with the running!), but now it's over.

What better way to celebrate than to run a marathon?  I found out last year that I'd got into London and Brighton marathons on the same day - at the time that felt quite scary, but by the time Brighton rolled around it felt like just another training run.  I'd agreed with George I'd run it in 4 hours 30 minutes, though I'd really struggled to do that just a couple of weeks earlier so wasn't at all confident that I could.   Then I found out that my friend Tom was running it as well, so we agreed to meet up at the start and run it together.  

As this was "just a training run" I decided I didn't need to follow any of the usual rules.  My friend Maddy has also just finished placement (at a different hospital) and was also going to Brighton this weekend so we met up at Victoria for champagne on the train down there:

We managed two bottles between three of us in just under an hour - probably not the ideal training but I really didn't care!  Then Toby and I went shopping at the expo and bought loads of new treats which I proceeded to wear during the marathon: new socks, new t-shirt, new Runderwear, new hat.  (Tip to new runners: DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER DOING THIS!)

I always have my nails painted in the marathon colours before I run a marathon - it has become a tradition.  So on Saturday afternoon I went off and did that:

After that it was time for pasta, whisky and an early night as I was still massively sleep-deprived from the week before.

The marathon was due to start at 9.15am, we rocked up at 8.45am and the park was awash with people.  It was predicted to be a pretty hot day for April and was already warm when we got there.

It took ages to cross the start line but that was lucky as Tom's train had been cancelled and we only met up a few minutes before our wave set off for the start line.  The marathon went down to the seafront then along towards Rottingdean and inland a bit before looping back.  There were quite a few places where the race was going in both directions.

Lots of pretty sea views!  Running with Tom was really great as he's run loads of marathons so we had lots to chat about, and because he usually finishes somewhere over 5 hours, he was pacing me to not run too quickly.  As a result I had a really enjoyable run because I often go too fast and then struggle at the end.  As it was warm, the pace was absolutely ideal and it was really lovely to have company, a rare treat for me.  We chatted about how Tom's best time was around 5 hours and I thought we were on track to beat that today, he was a little more circumspect about that possibility.  As the marathon progressed, we clearly had a good shot at it and despite being utterly knackered, Tom put in an amazing performance in the last mile and we crossed the finish line together in 4 hours, 57 minutes and 11 seconds.  He even pulled off a sprint finish which left me struggling to keep up!

Feeling suitably delighted with this, we got our medals and took some photos.  (In case you're wondering, I had to switch my top at 12 miles because the new one was chafing - this is why you don't wear new kit, luckily Toby was carrying a spare for me!)

Marathon number 6 - DONE.  Last one before the ultra!  Tom was a total star and is raising money for Crohn's and Colitis UK : if you can spare a few quid for this very worthwhile cause, you can sponsor him here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TomHough

Edited to add.... official race photo!

There is a slightly sad addendum to this story, which is that we didn't really finish in 4:57.  Due to tiredness and stupidity on my part, I had forgotten to turn off the 'Auto Pause' setting on my Garmin (something I always do before marathons).  As a result it was showing our moving time, not elapsed time.  I didn't discover this until the following afternoon, after much ranting about how the chip time was totally wrong, and only then because Toby thought of it.  Sigh....

On the fundraising front, I have MET MY TARGET!  Huge thanks to Mattgreen, who sold one of his boardgames,  the nice chap who bought it, plus the lovely team at Surprised Stare Games.  I really appreciate it!  You can still sponsor me here : http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/marathonmadness