Enigma Chrismas Marathon

The morning of the Enigma Christmas marathon was upon me and I wasn't feeling ready for it at all, I had not really ran over 5 miles at a time since the Rutland Water Marathon and not more than 10 miles per week so was slightly dubious about running up to 26 miles in one go...still off I went tinsel in my hair and butterflies in my stomach.

Arriving at the pub (which is the headquarters for the race not a place to get drunk; well today anyway) I met up with Dawn, Ria and Brenda, Liz and Mel who had all ran the first marathon the previous day... you see why I choose to run on the Sunday is in the hope that I wont be last as everyone else has already ran the day before and should in theory be knackered and achey.... not the case at all!

It was nice to meet up with some new people whom I had gotten to know on Run for Fun and Run 2012 miles/km in 2012 (shameless fb group plugs) Brenda was lovely happy and smiley and ready to face her first double marathon along with her husband Andy who had slipped the day before and was injured but attempting to run anyway.

We made our way to the start line and I decided to stick my mp3 player on, something I hadn't done in a long long time but thought it may see me through and make the run a bit easier. The route had been changed at the start slightly due to some recent flooding and we started just past the large Tesco that I was previously fed up of seeing on the Enigma 30 mile Ultra, thinking about that run scared me a little as I knew I was faced with 7 1/2 laps around the lake which is mentally challenging. Before I knew it I had completed the half lap and came through the checkpoint where Karen and the other supporters were waiting for us, running straight through the checkpoint I went on to start the first loop and was going quite well knowing it was around 3.7 miles until I cross through the checkpoint again. Soon enough I was through the checkpoint and made the decision not to stop for anything and to keep going, I didn't feel I needed anything to eat (even though all I had stomached for breakfast was half a banana)

Three quarters through the second lap I began to regret not stopping as I had started to feel very weak so with the checkpoint in sight I stopped ate a banana and noticed some lovely iced fairy cakes in a tin on the supplies table, a quick decision had to be made and a very important one.... yellow icing or pink icing!? In case you're wondering I went with yellow....

Food was just what I needed and I decided to go back out and do some more laps of the lake. There were alot of people out and about taking walks, cycling around the lake but the one problem I had that day were dog walkers... if you can see a runner or a few runners running towards you with around quarter of a mile to go until they reach you, surely that is enough time to un extend your dogs extendable lead so it's not 4 miles long and going right across the path of others. Or if you have a massive dog and it goes gallivanting up to a runner why not either call out to the dog to get it under control or try to reassure said runner that the dog won't hurt you??

At one point I had a massive dog the size of a bear stand length ways in my path...luckily I was walking at this point as it was up hill and I had to practically leap frog over it's back! Maybe having to run through a constant assault course like that made me not realise how fast the miles were ticking off I was up to 18 before I knew it and hadn't hit the wall. I had decided to take some electrolyte drink as felt water wasn't enough at this stage. I had kept a container full of freebies from previous races, magazines etc and had a nice water melon flavour which was really refreshing and seemed to do what I wanted it to do. When I found myself struggling I also decided to keep my brain active by decided what colour icing cake to have at each checkpoint, the cakes turned into my checkpoint treat something to keep my moving forwards.

The last two laps were very hard I had resorted to run walking the penultimate lap as after a few steps my left foot had a searing pain through the top of it and I told myself that although I was booked into the Enigma Winter Double Marathon in January and another three marathons after that, that this would be my last marathon as anything over 14 miles I simply do not enjoy this spurred me on a little knowing this would be the last time I would have to go through the pain and mental torture of thinking I can't do it!  I walked some of the way with a nice group of runners who were on their final lap they got me around my least favourite part of the course where it is all zig zag gravel paths round some flash apartments (the bit where it's possible to cheat...but I never have!) It's funny how parts of the course changed from being my favourite to least favourite and vice versa from the Enigma 30. I came through the checkpoint for the final time and kept going... I had one lap left to complete and still hadn't hit a wall... yes I was hurting though not as much as before and yes I had decided I didn't want to do another marathon but I hadn't hit the mental desperation wall that I usually do, I think cakes and music helped. The last lap was pretty much walked the whole way as putting my left foot into any kind of running motion was painful, but at the final straight I was determined to sprint and sprint I did through the finish to my wonderful spinning medal and a pb of 5 hours 31 mins (yes I know I am wishing I could have beat the 5:30 mark but hey ho) That's a massive time off my previous marathon of 5 hours 57 mins!

At the finish I got to meet up with fellow runners who had finished before me majority of which were double marathon runners! After a nice curry with Brenda it was time to go home and within two hours of being back I had already decided I am going to continue running the rest of the marathons I have booked... after all I found this one easier going on the way around and I could walk pretty normal the next day and even walk up and down stairs properly...which is a first after running that far :-) I may not attempt the double in January but will certainly run and finish the first day and may get another pb to start 2013 off with a bang!