The Brighton Marathon 2018

“Crusaders page now... go go go”

 

That’s how this one started. One of my running buddies and fellow Fareham Crusader, Paula,  sent me a message, and with a little over a week to go I had a place in the Brighton Marathon. Knowing all I had done since my last ‘road marathon’ I knew I would likely get a personal best. However, all the things that I loved about ultras and trail races disappeared under the pressure to perform. Yes, I know people that follow trail races look at your finishing position and compare you to the rest of the field, and in reality you do some of that yourself, but no-one really knows, unless they do a lot of them, what a good time is for any given run. Trail races aren’t perfectly accurate in terms of distance. You very often, to the great hilarity of the organizers, get a mile or so for ‘free’.
 

But this wasn’t one of those. This was a UKA accredited distance, 26.365 miles or 42.2km. Everyone knows someone who has done a marathon, so most people have an expectation on time. For where I was right then, that was perfectly fine. I had a list of races for the year, I had put some as A-races and some as B-races - this was definitely a B-race, one that I would work, but not go flat out on. 

 

My goal in my head was 3 hours 45, still much better than my road PB of 4 hours 9 minutes and 12 seconds which has stood since my first London Marathon in 2010. I knew that I was much more prepared and although I had not done any race-specific training - speed work and suchlike - my distance running and long weekend trails should hold me in good stead.

 

I hadn’t publicized I was doing Brighton, in fact two days prior I realized that Mike was also doing it. I had not told anyone in my club since I didn’t want the pressure to go and ‘perform’. 

 

On the Friday before the Sunday race I got the train to Brighton to pick up my race pack. I took a photo of the pier from the promenade and posted on Facebook - in all honesty, I’m not sure why. Was it to goad myself?  Sure, I wanted a PB, but I had spent a number of years talking about running a PB and knowing I could do it, without ever putting myself to the test.  Very quickly I had comments on doing the marathon. Everyone knew the Brighton pier!

 

On Sunday I arrived in Brighton 2 hours before the race and met Mike in his hotel. As usual he was faffing. There is nothing he likes more, but he is great at it. Mike is far more regimented than me. I've stopped taping my toes for single day races, but I'm probably going to evaluate that for anything longer than 50 km. Mike was religiously taping, where I had just dipped mine in a bag of 2Toms BlisterShield, put on my Injinjis and was out the door. 

Having not run a road marathon for a few years, the number of competitors was a bit of a surprise: 26,000 people. I was in the pen for 3:30 - 4 hours. Mike was in the 3 - 3:30. I knew I didn't want to push that hard. Even so, with the pen that I was in, I was almost at the back. Although it felt as though I was overtaking the whole way, the density of the runners didn't change. From memory in London, it had seemed to thin out a lot more, and I was slower back then.  At around 18 miles I saw Mike coming back towards me on one of the switchbacks. I wasn't sure how much of a start he had on me, but this was where I thought I would put a bit of effort in and try to catch him. I figured he was around a mile a head of me. I saw him once more coming back out of the Industrial Estate, heading back into Brighton. The race was on. My watch had been telling me for most of the way around that I was on for a sub 3:30. When I say sub, I mean by seconds, but I was fine with that. 

At around 4 miles to go, I thought he was about 5 minutes ahead of me, but it was Mike who saw me. I passed him with around 500 meters to go. He was on the other side of the road and he waved.  About 200 meters from the end my watch beeped to say fastest marathon effort 3:29:45... I knew that I wouldn't make the line in 15 seconds. For a second or so I was annoyed - I had worked hard on the second half for it not to be a sub 3:30. It's odd how your mind works. This had always been a training run, but because it was now a PB run, I had set a goal: sub 3:30, which is what my Strava shows.

As I crossed the line I got my phone out to photograph Mike. He looked fresh, while I started to feel a bit wobbly and not so fresh. My time was 3:31:03 and I should have been more ecstatic than I was at that moment. Hindsight is a great thing as now I am very happy that I have that time. That means that since my weight loss every distance I have raced has been a PB. The only distance I haven't raced is 5k, but during parkruns I have managed to go  sub 20 minutes. My race board could be updated. My marathon time had stood since 2010 - a lot has happened since then. Real progress. 

It took me about 20 mins to get back up. I had retrieved my bag and was lying on the ground, shattered and a bit dazed. A phenomenon hit me that has only happened once before - the tips of a few of my fingers went white. I got myself to my feet and found a coffee van. Life is too short for instant coffee and this van was making lovely coffee and protein cakes.  

I had about a mile to walk back uphill to retrieve my car. I hadn't been able to get into the marathon Park and Ride due to such a late entry, so I had found a side street a mile or so from the end to ditch my car. Actually this was great for recovery. My legs were feeling looser.