My first marathon was Blackpool 2014,
completed in a time of 04:21:24. Between
then and now, I’ve run Chester (2014), Boston UK (2017), a Genuine FakeMablethorpe Marathon (2017) and Hull Marathon (2017). I was drawn back to Blackpool this
year, to have a go at beating my previous time.
It’s
taken a long time to get around to writing about this, simply because I seem to
have had a busy year with work, running and other life stuff!! But, better late than never – I’m not minded
to just skip into the present. This
marathon was special for a particular reason, so I am not going to leave in unrecorded.
Early Training
The initial training had its ups and downs. I think I was complicating things too much; I’d
read too many training guides and articles with conflicting information and got
myself a bit mixed up between what was meant by intervals and tempo
sessions. I found myself tired out and
distressed because I was working far too hard on some sessions and just lost
track of what I was doing.
Friends support in so many ways.
All this was sorted out for me following a run with Sarah and
Mike. Over a lovely post-run lunch, Mike
had a look at the results of my lactate threshold testing from Lincoln University,
jiggled about with the training zones to make them more suited to how he
observed me running and simplified my plan.
The new plan took account of the fact that I thought I could only
reliably run 3-4 times a week and divided this up between long runs, speed work
and recovery. It kept it flexible and
took the pressure off.
We had some bad weather in the winter, which caused some training
runs to be postponed or re-routed, but on the whole all went well, especially as
we were able to do some of our training runs with Sarah and Mike as well as
other people along the way. When I say, ‘we’,
I’m referring to Chris and I. After
Chris’s unhappy experience at Boston, he was joining me again to run Blackpool
marathon to put the whole marathon experience to bed!
Defining goals - revising goals.
In March I ran Retford HM to see what kind of shape I was
in. I verbally predicted a time of about
2:10, but in my head hoped for nearer 2:05.
Therefore I was outwardly happy but internally slightly disappointed with
2:09. This made me review my goal for
Blackpool. When I started my training, I had hoped to beat my PB - my Chester time of 4:19:59 or at least to beat my
Blackpool 2014 time. However, after the
Retford result, I realised I was nowhere near that and revised my goal to
4:30:00.
Race day eve. Keep a normal routine.
The day before the race we went to Cleethorpes parkrun on Saturday
morning, followed by the usual parkrun / CRC breakfast in JD Wetherspoon - ColiseumPicture Theatre. After breakfast, we
said our farewells to and were wished good luck by our running friends. We organised to have them follow us on my
Garmin tracker, at the same time as following other friends running the London
Marathon and watching VLM on TV.
It was a baking hot day and was forecast for the same on
Sunday. We had an easy drive through to
Blackpool, found our Premier in and then went for a wander, the 2 mile to the
sea front to check out where to pick up our numbers in the morning and to get something
to eat. It was SO hot and sunny. Blackpool was heaving; it was lovely to see –
but we dreaded it being that hot on Sunday.
We’d trained through wind, snow, rain and sleet. We weren’t ready for heat!
Sweet Relief
Expect Miracles
We were nicely loosened up by our 2 mile walk to the
start and I resolved to just set off nice and steady. Although I had revised my goal following
Retford HM, I was feeling good because the long runs had gone well after that
(Retford) and I had tapered well. As I checked the pace of my first mile
(10:19) and the second (10:01), my favourite passage from “The Art of RunningFaster” (by Julian Goater and Don Melvin) sprang to mind:
I was feeling good during mile 3, which turned out to be
9:35 pace, a pace which I would go on to keep up for much of the race. Chris wasn’t going for a time, but was happy
to run at my pace. He’s quicker than me
over 10k and HM distance but just wanted to have a better experience than
Boston. We agreed in advance that if one
of us was struggling, the other would go on and see what we could do. The weather was cool (although I was soon
plenty warm enough) and drizzling slightly and Chris and I were chatting.
You could have knocked me over with a feather!
Somewhere around the end of mile three, I thought I could
see a Lincolnshire flag in the distance.
I commented that I must be hallucinating because I thought I’d seen a
Lincolnshire flag. At the same time, we
both realised that indeed there was a Lincolnshire flag ahead of us, along with
some CRC hoodies!!! Then we heard a
shout of “here they are” and heard the sound of a whistle, a cow-bell, maracas
and coconut shells! As we got closer we
could see it was Sarah, Mike, Jo-Mo and Chris!
What a surprise. I couldn’t
believe it! We’d said cheerio less than
24 hours ago and they’d wished us luck and said, “see you Tuesday!” So
emotional! We exchanged hugs and...
well, I can’t even remember what I said, but very quickly we were ushered on to
keep going.
Blackpool Marathon is a 2 looped affair, with 2 x out and
backs in different directions, so I knew we would probably see them again. The surprise of seeing them
kept going for the next few miles up past the Tower, the Pier, Golden mile and
back and the 9:30ish pace continued. We
saw them in the same place on the way back – this time they were on the other
side of the road, so we couldn’t have
gone across to them without crossing the path of other runners. This was no bad thing because I was just so
overwhelmed to see them, I just felt rude not stopping to chat like we do
during Dukeries! It was fantastic.....
the sound and sight of the CRC
super-supporters. We found out later that
other runners appreciated their support too – because of the out and back
looped nature of the course they saw everyone multiple times and cheered up a
runner in a bridal outfit, sadly without bridesmaids, who didn’t seem happy at
all initially, but she managed to crack a smile the fourth time they saw her!
When the going gets tough, the support gets going.
After our second sighting of ‘the gang’ we headed off toward
Lytham-St-Anns. It’s quite a nice run in
one direction, but gets a bit bleak on the way back, with little support on the
route, other than a few rather quiet marshals.
We saw our entourage again just after the halfway point – possibly about
15 miles. I’d slowed down a little by then but was still consistently under 10
min pace. I shouted across to them that
it was getting tough now and felt a bit quick.
My face in this picture reflects that.
We probably both hit the wall within a couple of miles of each other.
At mile 19 I was feeling tired and said that I needed to
slow down some more, but didn’t (yet)!
We caught up with a man and woman running together. The chap had a really loud voice. He was encouraging her but at the same time he
was making it really obvious to everyone within earshot that he was running at
her pace, not his own. It annoyed me. He
seemed a bit patronising. We were
catching them up but when we got past, it seemed to take forever to lose the
sound of his voice. Once it faded away, at least we were another mile on
the way. At mile 20, Chris and I were
both tired. I had a couple of jelly
sweets and offered Chris one. He took one on this occasion, but had to spit it
out straight away as he felt sick. I
started to feel a little better again fairly quickly and Chris said , “you just
go on, Fran. This is all I’ve got.”
Soon after that, I saw Jo, Chris, Sarah and Mike again...
possibly at about 21 or 22 miles as I headed off towards Lytham-St-Anns for the
second time. This was a real boost as
the last few miles are tough. Chris was
only a few metres behind me at that point but I was to find out later that he
had to stop for a few minutes to be sick and gather himself together. This happened just after he had passed our
gang and they were able to check if he was OK, offer water and Mike offered to run with him.
I
was tired, but going well and realised that I’d kept under 10 minute miles from
mile 3 onwards and that many of the earlier miles were around 9:30 pace. I couldn’t do any maths but I knew that with
4 or 5 miles to go, a PB was in reach if I could keep the pace going. It was encouraging to entertain that thought
and reflect again on the ‘Expect Miracles’ passage.
The wheels have a wobble.
However, towards the end of mile 23 /
beginning of mile 24, I got a stitch – or rather a severe pain in the position
a stitch happens. It was not a stitch
like I’ve ever experienced before. Much more painful and just continued to get
worse, even though I slowed down... to a walk.... and then to a standstill,
bringing in every trick I know to make a stitch go away. After a couple of minutes standing still it
eased slightly and I started walking again.
Then looking back, to my joy I saw Chris, steadily trotting up behind
me. I wasn’t ready to run yet and told
him to go on, but he was ready for another walk. We brisk walked a maybe half a mile and then
I was ready to trot again. Even though I’d lost time (mile 24 was 14:28) I was
still harbouring the hope of a PB so I tried to push on. As will my 2014 experience, when I reached
the turn point and spun round to come back along the lower prom, the head wind hit
me full in the face. The last two miles
were a real battle, partly the wind, partly fatigue and partly because I still
had a quite bit of pain in that stitch area.
Mile 25 clicked over and I remember looking at my total time so far and
realising that I wouldn’t get a PB even if I could really pick up the
pace. In any case, I couldn’t go any
quicker and the last couple of miles were around 11 minutes. The last bit was just a case of getting to
the finish, which was slightly different (and better) than the 2014 finish....
no further turns, just straight to the arch...... and there were Sarah, Mike,
Jo-Mo and Chris again; how my spirits were lifted. Check out Jo with the coconuts and Sarah with
flag and cowbell.
It was a really emotional finish. I was totally happy with my finish time of
04:24:51 – only about 4 minutes slower than when I was 4 years younger! My only regret was that Chris wasn’t with me
at the finish, but he wasn’t far behind, finishing in 04:29:53 and gained extra
kudos for picking up another woman en route, known as, “doing a Frankie!”
What a great day. I
had a really good run and was pleased with the pace I maintained in the middle section
(well, up to mile 24, actually) and Chris got a marathon PB by about 38
minutes! But the best experience by far
was our surprise supporters. The photos
in this post were taking by Mike – I wouldn’t have had any photos if our lovely friends hadn’t been there.
After the finish, we headed off to J.D.Wetherspoons - "Albert and The Lion" where, as well as reliving the race, and having a celebratory pint, we quizzed them about how they came to be here, in rainy Blackpool instead of comfortably
on the sofa watching VLM on TV!
Amazingly, Mike and Sarah had had their hotel booked in Preston for over
a month and Jo-Mo and Chris had driven down that morning! What fantastic friends we have. It was really
funny hearing how Mike and Sarah had set off from Cleethorpes to Blackpool not
long after us. Later were then keeping an eye on my facebook check-ins in the afternoon
as they were strolling around Blackpool at the same time we were! They
were keeping a look out for us and making sure they didn’t go in the pub where we had checked in. I could just picture
them, dodging around Blackpool, looking out for us and making sure they didn’t
bump into us and spoil the surprise.
Whatever future runs and races I do, regardless of training and times,
PB possibilities or anything else, this one will always stand out in my memory
as special because of the unexpected support from awesome friends..... so much
so that I just want to end this post with exactly the same photo I started ..... and say, "thank you, thank you, thank you, Sarah, Mike, Jo-Mo and Chris."
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