Portsmouth Coastal 2016
Here we are again.
The Portsmouth Coastal Marathon 2016 - a year ago I failed to finish. A lot had happened in the year. My weight was 20 kgs or so less and I had trained. I hadn't trained to go fast, but I had trained to finish the distance. My marathon-specific training wasn't speed work, round and round a track improving speed. I had miles under my belt. I wasn't worried, but I can tell you I wanted to go hard, find out how far I had come. But I didn't. Gaz, Mike and I had 3 months left before departing to the desert. There were a lot of people we knew doing 'Pilgrims' in February, which was another multi-day race, but for me I didn't fancy that - it was too close should an injury occur. I had one more race after this: the Meon Valley Plod. Again the plan was slow. Finish it off. We had plans to do an overnight marathon too, but as far as silverware was concerned, this was pretty much it.
We set off and there were more MDS runners, all in backpacks and all carrying full weight. We weren't. We were about half weight. We had taken advice from Elisabet Barnes - she was adamant that we didn't need to be at full weight too early.
The run was uneventful really. We learned a few things. The WAA MDS pack wasn't fit for purpose. I had run a few times in it, Mike was wearing his and the chest strap popped off about 8 miles in. Mine and Gaz's had done the same. It was a design fault for sure, but one I could do without. I was using the Raidlight OLMO, Gaz had the Hoka pack. Mike needed a new one. We did running repairs with a safety pin, to stop it sliding up the rail and off. At 18 miles or so Mike had a wobble. Probably due to overtraining. As great as Mike is at running, his Achilles heel is that he never thinks he has done enough so will often get injured, in my opinion by overtraining. Prior to Druids, which was only a few weeks back, he had done the Atlantic Coastal Challenge. I have since done it and it's not a walk in the park. We took 5 minutes at the top of the Eastern road. We didn't have far to go and we would have walked it in, But Mike gathered himself and we finished strong.
For about 4 months now I had had the belief that I could run a bit and had built up the confidence to join a running club. I had looked around a bit and had a few conversations with a Paul Pickford on Twitter. He asked me to come along to Fareham Crusaders. I did, and I joined. I'd never been a member of a running club before, only a rugby club, and I was really unsure what it would be like. In a rugby club, you bond, as you know the guy next to you won't give a yard and will do all he can to protect you. I was worried how that would be transferred to a running club - would they all be better than me? Quicker than me? Would I be holding them up? However, I felt at home almost immediately. I knew I had made the right choice. The club I had chosen had some very talented runners, but didn't take themselves too seriously. I didn't want a club that was full of elitism, people who looked down their noses because they considered themselves to be better, which I think is a misconception. Well I've only been a member of one and it wasn't the case here.