Brathay Windermere Marathon Report

Specificity - the quality or state of being specific.

This is how I should have viewed my training for the Brathay Windermere marathon. The reports had said undulating. I should have paid attention and trained accordingly. That is not to say that I had a bad day at the office, just that it could have gone better if I had a) trained for hills and b) set a more achievable target.

Hilly marathons are not the same beast as the run of the mill marathon. They are hard to pace and should be treated differently. Even to the extent that I think a hilly marathon PB should be given its own recognition and not compared to a flat marathon PB.

My wife and I travelled to Ambleside on the Saturday. I've been there a couple of times before, it's very beautiful and sits at the north end of lake Windermere. Once we had checked in to our hotel we set off for me to register for the marathon so it would be one less thing to worry about the following morning.

On the way there we were passed by a handful of people running the 10 in 10 (i.e. running the course 10 times over 10 days). I can barely walk the day after a marathon let alone get up and run another and then another and then another....

I picked up my number and was given a goody bag which is a first for me. I normally get a goody bag after a race not before. And another first, it came with a free bottle of beer. I laid out my bounty on my hotel bed to take a photo:

Goody bag bounty

The rest of the day we relaxed around the town and hotel and went to a local restaurant so I could fill up on pasta!

We drove to the start the next morning (having already paid for a parking spot). My wife loved the car park assistants who used giant foam fingers to help guide you where to park.

It was a beautiful day. The forecast earlier in the week had the weather as being cool and overcast. It most definitely wasn't. Hills and heat, an ominous sign!

Not a bad location for a marathon

We walked around the athletes' village for a bit until finally it was time for the marathon to start.

Athletes' village, finish line in the background

All smiles before the run

We all lined up behind a band of drummers who marched us the 400m down the hill to the start. Possibly the best way to start a marathon I've experienced. I've copied the official video below to give a taste of what it is like.

Waving not drowning

Walking down the hill

A steep hill that we have to run (walk) back up at the end!

Snaking down to the start

Finally at the bottom we all gathered behind the start line, the drumming band gave a final salvo and then a shotgun shot went off and we were away!

Start line

I had trained to run a 3:30 marathon so naturally I went off at that pace. The roads were undulating but not too bad. Certainly no worse than I've run before. It took about three miles for me to get into my stride and settle my pace to where I felt comfortable (still about 3:30 finish pace).

There was support, not loads; this is a countryside marathon after all.

After going through a village called Hawkshead I struck up a conversation with another runner called Matt. It was his third marathon although his first two were both Snowdonia so he was well suited for this sort of terrain. We both fell into the same rhythm and chatted away for the next 4 miles. I remember saying that I didn't want to jinx things but if the ups and downs were all like how they had been then I would be very happy. Then we hit the hill at mile 7!

I've run up steep hills before in a marathon, Richmond Park springs to mind, but this hill felt like it winded me. It was steep and long and completely sapped my pace. I could also hear the skirl of bagpipes which is not something you expect while puffing up a hill in the Lake District. Sure enough though, at the top were two bagpipers playing Scotland the Brave. At least they helped me take my mind off the climb. It levelled out eventually and then started a gradual decline.

I had split up from Matt by this time and settled into a slightly slower pace since I was now aware of the potential climbs to come and wanted to conserve some energy.

The sun had come out and it was heating up so I started looking for shade wherever I could get it. Race guidelines had said that headphones would be banned on non-closed sections of the race so I had decided not to wear any at all. I'm glad because I was able to take in all the sounds of the surrounding countryside as well as the sights. A total 4D experience. At this point there was nowhere else I would rather have been.

It stayed that way for the next seven miles. The undulations were manageable with no repeat of mile seven. I rounded the bottom of the lake and felt good. 12 miles down, 14 to go.

The sun continued to heat up and then I hit mile 14. Not as steep as mile 7 but a definite increase in slope compared to what had come before. My legs started to feel the pain. Race reviews had said that the second half was tougher than the first due to the unrelenting inclines. They were right.

My average pace was dropping. I was no longer on for 3:30, but I sort of knew that anyway. There was no way I could beat my PB on a course like this. I readjusted my expectations. 3:45 would be an excellent result, sub 4 would be good. That felt achievable.

I could see that my pace kept dropping very slowly for the next 6 or 7 miles but I thought I could manage it. Then I hit the hill at mile 21 that is known as ice cream mountain because of the ice cream van at the top. At that moment it might as well have been a mountain. My central governor won my body over and I had to stop to walk for a minute. I was annoyed with myself, I always am when I have to walk. It feels like a minor failure but sometimes it's the best thing to do. Unfortunately once you stop once it becomes easier to stop again and again.

I adopted a run/walk strategy for the final 5 miles. 800m run and 200m walk. My average pace dropped significantly but it helped get me back into a groove.

With 2 miles to go Matt caught up with me again. He'd had a tough day as well and the hills had caught him out too. He seemed to be finishing stronger than me though so I let him go ahead.

I finally entered the grounds of the estate where the finish line was and was faced with the cruellest of hills to get there. No way would I be able to run it. I walked until there was about 200m to go to the finish and then picked my legs up and sprinted (shuffled quickly) to the line. Official finishing time - 3:49:36.

My wife was there to greet me but all I wanted to do was lay down on the grass and get some oxygen back in my lungs.

I felt far worse than I appear to look

Finally we headed off to get back to the hotel. It took a while due to road closures but once back I headed straight down the hotel's spa and pool to soak my legs and get some circulation back in my body (the reason I booked the hotel was because they had a pool, sauna, steam room and hot tub - all of which helped my aching bones).

So, how do I feel about the marathon?

I would recommend it wholeheartedly. It's well run, challenging and in a beautiful location. I can see why it is rated so highly by runners.

Am I disappointed by my time? Not really. You learn something every time you run a marathon. This time I have learnt that if I'm going to run a hilly marathon then I have to set my expectations better, really listen to what other people have said and to train for hills better. Next time I run a hilly marathon I would set a goal of 3:45 and not get carried away at the start.

Now I do nothing for two weeks while I let my body rest. I've got a slight post tibial tendinitis pain after Sunday so that will have to disappear before I can start any real running. Then I will ease back into running before picking up training for the Chester marathon on 2nd October. I might try for a decent time for Chester but that will depend on how training goes over the summer.

The goal guessing game

Three days until the marathon. One training run left to run tomorrow morning. It's time to start preparing. My race day kit has been washed. I've printed out all the instructions and passes I need in order to get to the hotel and the start of the race. Tonight I'll gather everything together and put it in a bag ready for the off.

The forecast at the moment looks pretty much perfect according to the BBC:

Not too hot, not too cold

I'm hoping to use the Endomondo live tracking app on my phone to allow friends and family to track me during the race. I've only just discovered it so I may not be able to get it working perfectly. Also, I'm not sure what the phone signal is going to be like in the Lake District so it may not work anyway. My profile is here for anyone interested (race starts at 10am): Endomondo running profile, click through for a live map update

So, now I have to set some goals for myself.

I have run seven marathons and these have broken down as follows:

sub 3:30 - 1

sub 3:45 - 2

sub 4:00 - 3

4:00+ - 1

My PB is 3:29:57 and I am extremely unlikely to beat that due to the undulating course but I should set it as my A goal anyway.

My B goal will be sub 3:45. I can normally do that with minimal training (albeit on a flat course) so should hopefully get under it.

My C goal will be sub 4:00 as this is normally my upper limit on any marathon. I've only came in over four hours once (4:00:57) on my second marathon which I foolishly ran six weeks after my first. I was definitely not ready for it. So as long as nothing drastic goes wrong then I should be able to get back in one piece under that,

I think I've resolved the problem I had with my video. I took a new one earlier this week and then used a converting tool to put it into YouTube friendly format. This worked much better. It's still a bit shaky but I think it's workable, I'm still not sure I'll take it with me on the marathon though since I don't think it'll capture the run in as much detail as I'd like. I'll also have my phone with me so can take video with that if I want to. Anyway, here's the video from earlier this week when I went through one of my local parks (ignore the time stamp, I haven't set it to the correct date yet and it cannot be removed from display):

I'll write up a race report next week when I am back home. Hopefully the weather will hold out as I am really looking forward to what should be a challenging marathon in a beautiful location.

On easy street

Today was my longest run before the marathon next week. 12 miles, 10 at marathon pace. All my remaining runs are in single digits and at an easy pace. Last year I remember feeling very sluggish during this period so I won't be surprised or worried if that happens this year too. Experience is handy.

I've just finished reading a book called Eat and Run by Scott Jurek. If you don't know him he's an ultrarunner. Probably the best in the world and his book is a bit of an eye opener. Sometimes I feel tired and my legs ache while training for a marathon but it pales into insignificance next to what Scott does. He will quite happily go off on a run of 50 miles at a faster pace than I can run a marathon at. During competitions he will run up to 150 miles and run the latter stages at around 7 minute mile pace. That is some serious running right there. I've often thought I'd like to do a race longer than marathon distance but I reckon I'd have to give it at least a year of training to get to the level that I would want. Maybe it will be one of my things to do before I'm 50 (in about four and a half years!).

On Sunday I ran 10 miles along the canal and then through Southall and back home to Ealing. As I ran through Southall at about 8:30am I passed a man on a BMX (call me weird but I never trust adults riding on a BMX). He turned his bike around and started cycling behind me about 5 metres back. This was on a relatively busy street so I wasn't too worried and thought maybe I was being paranoid and that it was a coincidence. After about 200m I could still see him in my peripheral vision slowly cycling behind me. I thought I would test him out and crossed the road. Immediately he stopped cycling and went back the other way. I have no idea what his plan was. Maybe he was just curious to see a man running. Maybe it was another coincidence (unlikely). Anyway, I've mentioned on here before that I sometimes feel like being in an impervious bubble whilst running but these things make you realise that you should always be aware of your surroundings.

Last week my tiny video camera arrived as well as the 16GB memory card. All in it cost around £8 which is practically giving it away. It came with a number of attachments to clip on to clothing or a cycling helmet etc. It also has a protective sleeve to give some protection from the rain.

Tiny video camera or massive hand?

I took it out for a run on Monday just to see how it felt and what sort of quality video I could get. It hardly weighed anything so that was a bonus. I did however have difficulty holding it steady and managed to capture the sky more than the path I was running. I might take it out again to see if I can improve both the shakiness and the angle of video. Anyway, here it is in all its glory:

[Update: for some reason the video is really jerky. I've uploaded it twice and have also uploaded to youTube all with the same result. I will try to fix this for the next video I upload]

This weekend I have two 8 mile runs. I might run along the canal for the final time if the weather is good (when it rains the path has a habit of gathering large puddles). Anyway, it's pretty much relaxed jogging for the next week and a bit and then I run a marathon. Simple, eh?

Doing the no-taper taper

The Hanson marathon method is structured in such a way that the schedule only really alters from the routine that has been followed with one week to go until the marathon race itself.

This effectively means that although the quantity of running follows a downward trend for the last three weeks of training it doesn't actually feel like a taper until the final week.

I have though run my last long run. 16 miles through Richmond Park on a glorious blue sky day. Deer came out to play but I did not see any parakeets (unfortunately).

I managed to take a couple of photos while out running through the park and you can see them on my Strava link below:



I have just over two weeks to go to the marathon and the longest run I have left is a 12 mile tempo run (1 mile w/u, 10 miles tempo, 1 mile w/d) next Thursday. I can't say I will miss the interval and tempo training but they do give a sense of variety to what is a very intense (6 days per week) training schedule.

I've ordered a micro video camera that I am hoping will arrive in time for me to test out. It may be possible for me to clip it on my vest as I run the marathon so I can upload some videos. Unfortunately the battery only lasts for about two hours so I won't be able to capture the whole race, I'll just have to be selective (providing I can get it working sufficiently).

I'm running my last pair of back to back ten mile runs this weekend. Saturday will be my usual jaunt around the local parks of Ealing and on Sunday I think I'll run along the canals since I haven't done so in quite some time, so long as the weather stays nice.

Given the cold temperatures of March and April it has just started to warm up around here now. I don't particularly mind about the heat or the cold but it does feel nice when I step out at 5:30am and the sun is shining and the temperature is above freezing!

If my video camera turns up by next week I'll try and put up some sample videos.

Pre-race prep

There are no gels supplied at the feeding stations at the Brathay marathon so I've had to buy my own. The trouble is that I only use gels during marathons, never during training so I always buy a large box and end up not using most of them.

But now I've discovered the marathon race pack from High5. Basically it has everything I need for pre-race, race and post-race nutrition.

£10 from Wiggle. Good value I think. There's plenty of gels, an energy bar and some supplements to add to water.

Now all I had to do is find a way of carrying them around with me on the course. My gel belt that I normally use is not the most comfortable so I'm going to use a FlipBelt. It can hold all the gels I need (six, I think if I go for one every half hour) as well as my iPhone and keys etc. I've tried it out whilst carrying my iPhone and by the end of my run I forgot I was even wearing it so I consider that a success.

Finally (I have been busy!), I've bought some Event Clips. These are a replacement for safety pins that allow you to clip your number to your shirt without the awkwardness that safety pins always cause. Being Welsh I've gone for the Welsh flag motif. I've not tried them out in anger yet but they do appear to work.

This weekend I'm running my last long run, 16 miles. I've saved one of my favourite routes until the end. I'm going to run through Richmond Park. I'll take my iPhone in the FlipBelt so I can take photos of the deer and parakeets if I see any. I might try out the Event Clips too if I remember.

Just over three weeks to go. Can't wait!

Video of the Brathay Windermere marathon

Here is a great video I found on YouTube of the Brathay Windermere marathon that I will be running exactly one month from today. Looks beautiful but very, very hilly. Almost certainly won't get a PB at this.

Better late than never

I know, it's been a while since my last update but I have a really good excuse! I was lazy. There, that's good enough isn't it?

I meant to start up the blog again when I began marathon training back in January but forgot. And then once you've forgotten once it becomes easy to continue to forget.

Anyway, let's put all that behind us and move on from here.

So, what's up you ask? I am four weeks away from my next marathon. The Brathay Windermere marathon in the Lake District. Not much hope for a new pb since it is apparently rather tough and hilly but it's a beautiful area I've been to several times and I'm looking forward to a good, hard marathon.

I've been following the Hanson marathon method again for a sub 3:30 finish. I don't actually think I'll achieve sub 3:30 because of the course but at least I can train to that level and see how it goes. I'm thinking of negative splitting again since it has reaped dividends in the last two marathons.

I've only missed three training runs out of the schedule due to illness/tiredness/can't be arsedness and I've only got one long run remaining next weekend. My legs feel tired all the time, which I know is a good sign, and I think my weight is finally starting to drop. I'll probably reach 80kg by the time of the race which is not too bad (78kg would be my ideal).

This has just been a quick update to get back up to speed. I'll post again next week after a couple of 10 mile runs this weekend.