Q marathon completed YEAH

23rd Marathon completed the Queen Elizabeth Park marathon near Portsmouth. I have been training really hard partly as I have an iron-man triathlon on 14th July, hence I ran a time I am really chuffed with 4 hours and 3 minutes for a hilly marathon total climb equivalent of climbing Snowdon.

The marathon was really well organised and I was very lucky with the weather. My parents came to support, they said that went to the country park when I was younger, when we lived in Southampton where I was born, we moved to Yorkshire when I was three so I do not remember visiting the park. My parents took the photos below

At 16 miles 

Finish YEAH

Me and my Mum I am wearing my medal but it is hard to make out

I can not believe I have run 23 marathons. while running I sometimes do simple maths and I worked out while running that 26.2 miles x 4 is 104.8 miles so I really wanted to get to 5 miles so that I was under 100 miles to go on my A-Z challenge. 3 more marathons to go.

V marathon completed

My Mum and Dad travelled to Birchington on Sea to see me set off at 7am for the Viking Trail marathon

 

The run was flat along the coast, hot and 6 mile loops

My dad and I at the finish

As you can probably see it was a hot day, when I arrived home I felt terrible and am sure I had heat stroke. I finished in  just under 4 1/2 hours. The final lap of 6 miles I used as recovery I could have kept pushing but would have finished and felt terrible and probably not been able to walk and been in all sorts of pain. It was a mentally hard run. beautiful scenery but running out to a gate and turning round and running back 4 times was very tough, but I finished YEAH marathon 22, 4 more to do. 

My U marathon run YEAH

I went to Utrecht in Holland for my U marathon, it was very cold -1 most of the way round but felt even colder when running into the wind. I found it hard especially as I have not been able to do as much training as I would like due to life been busy.

The marathon started and finished at a science park just out off Utrecht. So I stayed at a near by hostel for one night, it was so cold it was not the weather to do sightseeing but I was lucky that the run went around most of the sights of Utrecht, although I saw them twice as it was a 2 lap course, particularity on the second lap I was not in the mood for sightseeing, I just wanted to see the next Kilometre sign to know for definite that I was getting nearer the end of the run. I ran most of the way with the 3:45 pacer but I could not keep up and eventually had to go at my own pace to limp home in just under 3:55 which I am chuffed with.

The weather in the UK was worse and I thought I might get stranded in Schiphol  airport and as I was the last flight to Heathrow I was worried but the flight was delayed by about an hour which meant catching the last bus 12:15 back to Reading and a cycle in cold weather with icy roads home (about 4 miles) for just before 2am, then both our boys decided to wake up and not re-settle, so 4 in a bed it was, how can small people take up so much room. Then work on the Monday morning.

The hostel where I stayed

I walked this way to the start and I also ran along this road

A view of the science park from my walk to the start

I tried to get a selfie at the start but it was so cold I did not want my gloves of for long and I am using an old phone due to me losing my mobile phone which is not very user friendly

So I managed to get someone to take a photo of me at the start

Finished and in the warm YEAH

My first run since my Y marathon

Best intentions

I have found it really hard getting the motivation to go running, I have all the excuses dark nights, cold and wet but it comes down to just getting on with it, once out I am ok, I went out for a run yesterday when it was raining and cold, I felt surprisingly good but I only went because panic set in. March 18th is not long away. I signed up to a 20 mile run on 11th February in panic mode. I think I will find it hard to do my own 20 mile route. I have certainly not documented my training I am an advert  for how not to train for a marathon.


I was saying to my wife Jo how I shout at my self to push harder, pump my arms more and to move my legs quicker, then I think if I have the energy to shout at myself then I am ok, so I berate myself for using up precious energy.


Jo is incredible her support is massively appreciated it was Jo who told me about the 20 mile run. Jo is also a runner and a very good runner. We have twin boys Harry & Alfie and both work part-time so do not have much spare time so have to support each other in our running. It makes the motivation for running harder as we can not run when we feel like it, we have to go running when we have time but we might not feel like running then. Jo and I used to run together a lot before having children now we are rarely able to run together. We would not change anything and feel very lucky to have Alfie and Harry who will be 2 1/2 in February.

I have entered my U marathon

I have entered the Utrecht marathon on March 18th 2018. 2018 seems a long way away but it will come round quickly.


I am starting to feel back to normal again after the Yorkshire marathon. I was blown away by peoples generosity and I managed to raise £510, a massive thank you to everyone that donated.


My plan is to keep up my running but start marathon training proper in the new year. I am also contemplating documenting my training by putting videos on YouTube. I have a You Tube channel, which you can find by putting 'alphabetmarathons' into You Tube or by clicking on the photo of Jo and I at the Meon Plod on the right hand side of this blog.

Yorkshire Marathon 2017

As post title suggests I have run my Y the Yorkshire Marathon in York on 8th October 2017. It is a fantastic marathon.
I found it very hard. I went with the 3:30 pacer who was actually running 3:24 pace so I did a 1:42 half which I would have been pleased with on its own but I had to run another half, I stuck with pacer till 15 miles but then fell away I had 10 miles to go and I was in all sorts of pain I told myself I can run 1 mile so I did then I did the same again 10 times at the finish i thought I had finished at 26 miles but I had 0.2 miles to go. I was very pleased with my finish time of 3:38

I really enjoyed the event and York is a great place to visit

Me at the start and below trying to keep warm

Wayne the 3:30 pacer at the start, who actually ran 3:24 pace

Me at the finish with my medal, the finish is where the pain really starts

Below is a video of me finishing I took the phone out as I thought I was finishing but I was actually at 26 miles so the video is longer than I first intended