The drive down to Eastbourne to take register for the Beachy Head Marathon took a lot longer than anticipated. Friday evening, busy roads. Driving in the dark has never been my favourite thing. We were on a mission to get to Eastbourne before 7:30pm so that I could get race registration out of the way.

On approach to beachy head the thing that struck me was how big the hills were. I’m kind of glad it was dark so I couldn’t see the full extent. It was also noticeably very windy! The nerves were kicking in.

We made it to registration by the skin of our teeth and I was greeted by a very friendly chap who proceeded to ask if I’d done it before, no. Sharp intake of breath, “well I hope you know what you’ve let yourself in for?” In truth I hadn’t a clue but I was beginning to get the gist.

Our campsite was about 15 minutes away from race start, so pretty close. I think the morning will offer some parking challenges so we will need to be up and out of here pretty early.

The constant buffeting wind all night ensured a sleepless night. So an early start was easy so that we could get a space not too far from race start. The wind was still very strong so it was guaranteed to be a blowy race.

The start of the race is outside Bede’s Prep school. Just beyond the start line you see the course going straight up a beast of a hill, that’ll be fun!!!!

The race started on the dot of 9 and 2000 people set off on what I can only describe as the hardest marathon I’ve ever run. The first hill was carnage, with so many people it made it difficult to go anywhere fast, this continued all through the race. The track was very narrow pretty much most of the way so a lot of the time was spent in single file, I think that even if you had it in you to do a good time on this course, you’d struggle to because of the congestion of runners.

The first half of the course is brutal, it felt as if we were constantly moving up hill, there were obviously downhill sections but they were short lived before you had another hill to tackle. On top of the hills, the terrain was tricky to negotiate. Predominantly chalky and very rutted paths, a bit boggy in patches, but generally fairly dry. The un even surface was quite unforgiving on the feet. With that and the relentless hill to contend with it made it difficult to find your pace. On the plus side the wind was behind us and the views on the top of the South Downs are stunning.

There were no mile markers on the course which made it difficult to judge where you were and when a gel or some fuel was needed, I’d got in to the habit of having a gel every 5 or 6 miles. There were checkpoints at roughly 4 mile intervals so in some ways this was quite nice as you see quite a jump in distance traveled. The checkpoints were really well stocked with all sorts of goodies should you want it, cakes, mars bars, sausage rolls, all sorts. This generally meant that people spent a bit of time there refuelling rather that just grabbing a cup of water and going.

At about 12 miles there was the turning point and the wind was then right in our faces. But there appeared to be a lull in the hills. For a short while at least. For me though the damage was done, the first section had completely drained me so I couldn’t really use this flatter section to try and pick up the pace, plus the wind made forward momentum quite tough.

I can’t remember what point the steps came into it, but there were steps, lots of them. 2 sections of roughly 150 steps each! Every inch of this course has the ability of sapping every last morsel of energy in your legs. There were times when I thought I couldn’t keep going.

After the steps came more hills. I think it’s the last 6 miles where you take on the 7 sisters otherwise known as the 7 bitches, I guess it depends on your relationship with them, mine is definitely the later. This section is run along the cliffs and you can clearly see hill after hill after hill. With every up there came a really steep down and running on legs of jelly means that the down hill is as bad as the uphill. Only the hardiest of runners we’re actually running up these hills, most of us were walking and grumbling.

You could see the Beachy Head lighthouse in the distance, from there it wasn’t far to the finish, so once we’d finally finished running/walking up and down the 7 sisters, there were a few more hills and over the brow of the last hill you see Eastbourne pier and a nice descent into Eastbourne.

The race finishes on the same steep hill that you start on, only this time you’re going down on very tired legs. Crossing the line is such a relief.

I couldn’t see Caroline or Winnie anywhere once I’d finished, it turned out she was waiting on the last hill to see me in but somehow we missed each other and her phone was dead. I hung around a bit hoping to see them but I was beginning to get cold and feeling sick so went back to wait at the van. I had no key so had to just wait it out. Caroline managed to get her phone working and realised where I was.

I was feeling pretty rotten, I’d been sick and the cold was hitting so getting in the van was such a relief, but now we had to drive for 3 hours to get our ferry home!

So that was the first full month of marathons done. 4 in and still kind of holding it together. Next week is the hopefully more sedate Thames Meander.

If you’d be interested in running the Beachy Mead Marathon in the future, take a look at beachyheadmarathon.co.uk

What can I tell you about Chelmsford? Apparently it’s famous for being the birthplace of radio, it’s also notorious for congestion and pot holes. I only entered the Chelmsford Marathon because I couldn’t find an alternative, so needless to say I wasn’t excited to do this one. Plus I was on my own so I’d decided that this was going to be a get in, get out as fast as possible trip.

I’d spent the previous couple of days in Brighton with my daughter Ella, which was great. We went to see Richard Hawley at Brighton Dome and spent the following day just mooching around. So when I had to leave to drive to Essex I wasn’t too happy.

I’d booked a room in a pub called the ship, big mistake, the noise from the pub came right up through the floor and the smoking area was outside my window, so even though I had an early night, I couldn’t sleep. Didn’t help that my room didn’t have a toilet so I was forever walking back and forth to the toilet to empty my overly hydrated bladder!

I was close to the marathon start though, so the morning was pretty smooth, if anything I could have had an extra half hour snooze. It was a cold start, it’s fair to say that from here on in the marathons will be cold as we enter the autumn months.

It did warm up though as the day went on so turned out to be quite a pleasant run.

The marathon starts in the city centre and then winds it’s way through Central Park and out into the Essex country side, before heading back in to the finish in Central Park. I’d started quite far back to ensure I didn’t go off to fast, but it meant getting stuck on narrow paths congested with runners for a good few miles before things eventually spread out a bit.

I tucked into a slot in the 4 hour pack being led along by a pacer like rats following the pied piper. I’d decided to stick with this pace up until the half way point and then see how I felt after that. I’ve never really followed a pacer before, it was funny to see how everyone clustered around him so tightly for fear of losing their pace.

By 12 miles I unintentionally found myself at the front of the pack and then just slowly pushed forward. I felt ok and things were made more comfortable by having some space around me.

I have to say this was a pretty boring run as marathons go. It was fairly flat going and although quite rural it was very bland to look at, I guess I was spoiled by the previous weeks marathon at the Eden project, that will take some beating.

By mile 20 I was glad to do the final 6 mile count down. I actually felt good and able to push on a bit faster. The pain in my ankle that started after the Isle of Wight marathon was there still, but was bearable, as was my right big toe, I’m not sure at this point how or if it’s survived another Marathon but I’ll find out soon enough. Regardless of these niggles, the last few miles back into Central Park were good, I picked up the pace and felt strong at the final mile which is always a good thing.

Upon crossing the line I headed straight back to the car to get home as soon as I could. Glad it’s done, don’t think it’ll be on my list to do again. I dare say there will be a few more like this as I continue with the 50, not all of them can be as epic as Eden Project Marathon, although next week looks like it could be interesting, the Beachy Head Marathon.

If you’d be interested in running the Chelmsford Marathon in the future, take a look at Havens Hospice.

The past week has generally been spent dusting myself down following the beating I got from the Isle of Wight Marathon. I was left with a few aches and pains. My left ankle being the most irritating, but also the right big toe nail was swelling and clearly wouldn’t be long before it said farewell to its host.

I’ve also had to go straight back into pre marathon carb loading to build up the fuel for the next race.

All in all the prospect of doing another marathon wasn’t a great feeling and I won’t lie, I was feeling nervous as I didn’t want to have another bad experience as I’m sure it would lead me to have to make a choice on whether to continue or not.

Myself, Caroline and Winnie went down to Cornwall a couple of days before and set up our camper van in a campsite near the Eden Project. It was our first time staying in the van for a period of time, but it’s a cheaper way of accommodation while I do these events, plus it’s a bit of an adventure. Sleeping was a bit on the sketchy side. A combination of nerves, lack of comfort and having to keep getting up for a wee as I was drinking so much water, meant that it was a broken nights sleep the night before the race.

The alarm woke me up with a crash at 6:30. A quick breakfast at the van and then it was time to go to Eden for race start. Race mornings are always a bit on the hectic side, doing last checks making sure you have everything you need for the day ahead, even though I’d packed everything the night before, still had to check a few more times. Once checked for the 10th time, off we went.

The forecast for the day was rain, but as we all waited for race start it was just a looming cloudy grey. The pre marathon nerves were seriously kicking in now. I really hate all the hanging around before an event, but the atmosphere was pretty jolly, lots of chatter and of course blaring music to inspire the runners.

As we got called to line up for the start, the heavens opened. We set off in a torrential downpour. There was a fair few hundred competitors so it meant a slow start, which was fine as I’d intended to start slow and then go slower, I wanted to ensure I got to the end and still be ok, without being a burden on Caroline like the previous week.

The race started fairly flat and went down into a valley, then proceeded to be very undulating. Initially we went along quiet roads but soon got onto some beautiful woodland trails. The rain was relentless, but strangely added to the experience.

At the 4 mile mark there was also a sign for the 17 mile mark, this is always a bit demoralising, knowing that I had to run 13 miles before I was back to the same point.

Inevitably the trails ahead were extremely boggy. In some places it was calf deep. Very slippery and made it difficult to negotiate without slipping up.

I’d heard that this marathon was very hilly and that proved very true. The highest point at about 10 miles took us up Helland Tor. No chance of running up that hill, more of a climb. Once at the top it was worth taking a moment to just admire the view. By then the rain had stopped and things were clearing up nicely so the view was incredible.

It’s the morning of the first of my 50/50 challenge, my nemesis, the Isle of Wight Marathon. Easy to get to, but from experience, not an easy marathon. Not that any marathon is easy, but the Isle of Wight is the only one where I have had to pull out, twice! The first time was because a big toe nail popped off and when I stopped to try and deal with it my legs completely gave up on me, that was at mile 22. The second time was the last official Time I did it in 2017. Again the dreaded mile 22, I hit the wall and ended up going to hospital in an ambulance and being put on a drip. I said after that that I wouldn’t run another marathon, but 2 weeks later I ran the Isle of Wight course just to exorcise the demon of the last attempt, I finished and it was fine.

The lesson I took from both of these experiences was to never underestimate the marathon. Training always has to be taken seriously and nutrition is a big part of that, I was a bit blasé as I’d run several marathons before and thought I could rely on past fitness levels.

So, hopefully today won’t be another DNF. I’ve been training for the past 8 months so I’m as ready as I can be. My speed is not great, but this challenge is not about PB’s, it’s just about completion – quantity not quality 🙂

Ok, it’s two days later, I’ve just got back from a recovery run. First chance I’ve had to write up how it went.

In short, it was bloody horrible!

Excited to finally be starting the challenge, adrenaline pushed me off at the start a bit faster than I had wanted to. First few miles were averaging 7:30 miles, then started to even out to around 8 minute miles. Subsequently by mile 13 I was starting to feel it. Mile 16 and things we’re going quite pear shaped. I was starting to spin out and kept stopping to get my heart rate down. Every mile from here was painful and unpleasant. To make matters worse I was totally on my own so had know one to chat to, to try and take my mind off it. I decided that to finish it I needed to adopt a run walk strategy, so any of the hills I walked up.

The last few miles of the race do hold some truly horrible hills. Bunts Hill out of Porchfield is quite a notable one at the 22 mile mark, followed shortly at mile 24 by Pallance Road. Even walking up that one is a killer. But the remaining distance is thankfully flat as you run back to the finish.

The finish line is such an amazing sight, made better by seeing friends and family cheering me on. On crossing the line I literally collapsed to the ground. Questioning my life choices and wondering if there was any way of backing out of the challenge!

In hindsight lying down was the worst thing I could do, but my whole body was screaming at me to just lie down and be still. Once home, the cold and nausea was really kicking in. I just wanted to sleep. The thought of eating anything made me shudder, and anything I did have just came straight back up. It wasn’t until about 11pm till I could venture out of bed and forage for food.

So, the past couple of days have been a bit of a downer. Dusting myself down and Genuinely questioning why I even started, but having just come back from a run and feeling ok, I feel better and am sure I’ll be fine for round two this coming Sunday. The Eden Project Marathon.

If you’d be interested in running the Isle of Wight Marathon in the future, take a look at Ryde Harriers.