Jerry Shield reports.
Yes I know. It sounds mad,
That was certainly my first thought when Craig told me that Andy was
doing a track marathon at Kings Park, Bournemouth. And then I thought I
will have to go and have a laugh at him and then, well the next thing I
am asking Clare to be my lap-counter as well, and I’m signed up for it.
I figured that if I was ever going to do a track marathon then the one
that was only 10 miles from home would be the one to do.
So what does it involve?
One hundred and five and a half laps of a 400m track. That’s all.
I have run three track
races before. The first was at Ashdown track which involved a 10,000
metre race – 25 laps and 25 shouts from the family. I remember, that
seemed to go on forever. I’ve also done two 5,000 metre events - Very
fast races but both times with guys considerably faster than me who lap
you far too frequently.
So 105.5 laps. Won’t I get
bored? Dizzy? Go mad? Think about the plus points. Never far from;
drink, gels, the toilet, other runners.
I spent a lot of time in
the week or so before trying to decide what it would be like and how to
divide it up mentally? I even, I confess, knocked together a spreadsheet
to work out the respective lap times required for the kind of time I
could aim for.
And then the night before
the race it snowed. Big time. Fortunately we’d moved the cars to a
nearby gritted street so we weren’t stranded in our close (we live at
the bottom of a hill) but by the time I was in the car and ready to roll
it was already 9:00 and the race started in an hour’s time. I got to the
track with less than half an hour to spare. It was completely covered in
snow but Yes it was still on.
Over 60 runners had
actually signed up for the race but due to the conditions the field was
seriously depleted. Only 20 started. There were several faces I
recognised; Heather, Paolo and Ade from Littledown Harriers, Pat Robbins
and Anna who we’d seen at the Grand Union Canal race and of course Andy.
The majority like me were wrapped up very well. Trousers and base layer,
t-shirt and vest hat and gloves. Andy on the other hand was made of
sterner stuff and went for it in vest and shorts. Nutter.
Not only was the number of
runners impacted but also the lap-counters. Craig who had been going to
help out was stuck at home unable to get his car out. That meant that
Clare and Charlotte were tasked with looking after Andy, Pat and myself.
Count our laps and see to our every desire – well drinks and gels at
least. As we were all running at different paces that actually requires
a lot of concentration and patience and combined with the freezing
conditions was probably worse than running it.
So we all gathered
somewhat timidly at the start. Pat hit Andy with a snowball on the back
so it dripped down his vest which was probably the last thing he needed
at that point. It was seriously cold. And then we were off.
I had no real idea what to
do. I was so distracted by the weather conditions that any pace plan
went out of my head. I just set off at what felt like the right sort of
effort. If I blew up, it didn’t matter. I only checked my lap time once
- which was on the first full lap – and it was slower than I’d expected
so I just went with the flow instead. Pretty soon I found myself in
third place and then gradually overtook the two guys ahead of me so that
by about 7 or 8 laps I was in first place. Crumbs, wasn’t expecting
that. Don’t let it go to your head. I just kept plodding along. Getting
a sports drink every 10 laps or so from my support crew and the
occasional gel thrown in. One of the big advantages of this was that if
you missed a drink or gel it was only another 2 minutes before you had
another chance to get one. It also meant you could run with a drink for
a short period (a lap) and then give it back. Then at around 10k Wayne
from Littledown Harriers caught me up. We chatted briefly. He’d run the
Wimborne 10 in 61 minutes (faster than I have ever run 10 miles). He
went on ahead. I figured if I stood any chance of beating him it was to
outlast him rather than pure speed.
Mentally you have to just
switch off for lots of the race. The fact that you see your lap-counters
regularly is great. Clare and Charlotte were very good. Smiles and
support. Very positive. It’s also great to see other runners. It was
much less lonely than a typical marathon as we were all overtaking or
being overtaken regularly. Everyone was very friendly and encouraging
each other so from that perspective it was never boring. The snow added
to the event and distracted us considerably. Parts of the circuit became
quite slippy and it was often easier to run in lane 2 or even 3.
Unfortunately that also means we had to run further! In my head I ticked
off significant points: 25 laps = 10k, 35 laps = one third of the way,
53 = half way. I tried to check my splits every 5k but generally got
pretty confused. I wasn’t too worried about the time anyway.
Somewhere around an hour
into the race Roy and David appeared and ran around the track giving me
lots of encouragement. Elaine also kept popping up in the bushes. She
claims she was walking the dog! Wayne at this point was pulling ahead
quite a way. Another advantage of a track is that you can be pretty
accurate as to whether you are gaining or losing on someone and measure
it regularly. His lead now was about 300 metres. Roy’s advice before
they went on was ‘Don’t let him lap you’. So I put an effort in and over
the next half hour or so reduced it down to 100 metres. It stayed like
that for a bit and then Wayne pulled away again back up to 200.
With about 5 miles to go I
found myself running with Pat who had taken it pretty easy early on and
was now 2 laps behind me. We chatted for a while and then he went on
ahead. Then with about 10 laps to go I decided to give it my all and try
and catch Wayne. By this time Michele and Eddie were there as well and
Roy and Elaine had returned so I was getting plenty of support. I forget
exactly when but I think poor old Wayne must have hit the wall in the
last couple of miles and he slowed down considerably. Not only did I
catch him – I lapped him. In the meantime, Pat had caught up a lap and
was now only a lap behind. The last few laps were pretty frantic for me.
Having never won a race before I didn’t want to blow it now. Fortunately
I held on and came home first. All very low key – no finishing tape, no
presentation or anything but I was more than happy. My time was 3:09:23.
Andy came home a short while later in 8th in 3:28:52.
I think I would definitely
be tempted to do another track marathon as the positives certainly
outweighed the negatives. In fact to be honest on the day I don’t there
really were any negatives. Having lots of people I knew – lap counters
most significantly, but also other runners that I knew and friends
supporting made it a really enjoyable marathon number 56.
