Me and Dave gave this challenge a good go last year after K2B and it was not our day! Now, I wasn't as strong last year as I am this year, but me and Dave had to drag each other around the route in sweltering heat to scrape a time of just under 3hour16mins. That certainly didn't give me much confidence going into the event this year, especially considering how my legs and lungs felt after last weeks effort.
Mid week, I got myself out for a few short, easy runs. Or shall I say: what should have felt easy?! I managed 4.5mile Tuesday, 6 Wednesday and then another 4.5miler on Friday, but my right hamstring was feeling rather tight and I felt very lethargic. Not supprising with a 40 miler in the legs! I decided there was nothing I could do other than rest as much as possible before Sunday on the lethargic front, however I got myself booked in for a massage on Friday afternoon to hopefully help the legs.
Saturday came and my right hamstring was still feeling a bit suspect. I knew I could run on it however it was unknown for me if a marathon would make it worse the next day, since i've never suffered with this injury before. To be honest with you, I was a little scared! I was scared about the difficulty of the run so soon after K2B, I was scared that I may have to drop out of one of my charity events and I was scared I may injure myself and impact my future training and racing plans.
That day, I popped up to Windermere to collect mine and Marie's race packs and watched a few of the amazing 10-in-10 runners powering their way around the lake, body parts strapped up to the n'th degree and it erased a lot of the doubts in my mind. Perhaps I would regret the decision at a later stage, but I decided to just get on with it and take the marathon on as a "non-competitive fun-run"......or thats what I told myself at this stage anyway ;-)
How could I give in to finishing a marathon in this beautiful place!?!
On Race day, I had arranged with my dad to take us up a little early so that we could drive most of the course and drop some water bottles off on root. This was because I remembered last year, really stuggling in the heat between the water stations, so with these in place, there was better chance in staying hydrated and topped up on electrolytes. I devised where would be the best spots to drop them and off we went. Turns out that during the run I was that focused, I ran straight past 2 of them! But fail to prepare is to prepare to fail as the old saying goes!
After a good 10-15minute warm up + stretches, I was ready to get going. We congregated on the lawn and then got led down to the start line for the official start by the drummers. I still had in my head "take this easy Grant. Hold yourself back at the start, see how it goes and then make a decision on how to run the race....I mean fun run!" Lots of other runners and spectators started to wish good lucks to one of the guys at the front, a few along from me, Phil Eccleston. He seemed to have great support (he turned out to be a previous 10in10 runner), and I heard one of the guys a few rows behind say he was most likely to win. With me being a slightly competitive bloke, this got my adreniline pumping and made be wonder if I could keep up with him. Eventually the countdown from 10 began, the gun went off and I found myself pushing for place at the front, directly behind Phil.
Ohhh Crap!...What have I let myself in for!
Marathon Start - Me 2nd in from right (purple vest) and Phil centre (grey vest)
Phil was straight to the front wanting to lead the group. I was quite happy to let him do that (since I was supposed to be taking it easy..that soon went out the window!) and the race slowed down a little following the initial sprint for positioning. A quick garmin check from Phil must have idictated we had slown too much and he upped the pace again. The first hill came and we stuck together. There was only 3 of us in the group at this point, and then I think Phil must have been testing the waters a little and he upped the pace a down the short decline on the other side before the next bit of an incline. I played the game and stuck with him and then just seemed to hold that pace on. Next thing I knew, I was at the front and the lead escourt car was introducing me into the first village as "Grant Johnson, an unattached runner, leading the 9th Brathay Trust marathon and Phil Eccleston in 2nd place, approximately 200m behind." I had no idea of this. I thought he was right behind me, as I daren't look back.
I found myself on my own. Not the most clever thing to do in a marathon really. I was secretly hoping for him to catch me back up and then we could work together for a while, however I didn't want to lay off the gas either. My head had gone into race mode. Since my legs were still recovering from K2B, I knew that, at whatever pace I ran, I was going to taper off towards the end, since the legs would tire over a matter of time rather than pace. I believed that my only hope of placing well would be to go out hard and hang on for dear life at the end...so that I did!
The route isn't a route where you can get comfortable at a certain pace and hold it there, since it is too undulating. Instead, I found a level of precieved effort (I should look into using my HR monitor more often), and stuck with that. I started ticking off villiage by villiage, with frequent updates of how far 2nd place was behind off the lead car in front. To my amazement, I was making ground on him. I put in a reasonable attempt at the steep incline of 15% at mile 7 and then as I decended into Graythwaite I was told I was over half a mile ahead. I must have continued to increase the lead from there as the lead car started to stop mentioning 2nd place to the specators.
Thanks to Terry Lonergan for this picture of me at just short of 13 miles, trying to get some fluids down me.
My pace had been pretty consistance down the west side of the Lake. Despite the hilly terrain, I went through 10k in 36mins and 10 miles well under the hour. I actually thought the 2nd half of the route was going to be easier, since I had been running into a bit of a head wind for the previous coulple of mile, however that certainly wasn't the case. At 13 mile, it was a run past newby bridge, where there was great support, and then along to fell foot where I would follow the road back to Ambleside. Although some parts seemed fairly flat (fell-foot), they were false! There was also some steep climbs and rolling hills along that side of the lake, including the famous "Ice-cream mountain", which holds a lake viewing point and ice-cream van at the top of a hill.
Again, I dug in and stayed at the same percieved effort level. Some miles were coming up around 10-20 seconds slower than the previous half marathon splits, however when looking at the Strava "Grade Adjusted Pace (GAP), it is evident that I hadn't actually slowed. I was still averaging the same speed if the terrain had happened to be flat. I think the GAP feature is quite a good tool so that you can analyse the data easy in this way...but i'm a bit of a stats freak! ha-ha
It wasn't until the finial 10km kicked in which the real big push had to begin. The last 10km starts with "ice-cream mountian" so it certainly doesn't make you feel like your nearly home! I was correct in my previous judgement. My legs considerably tired by this point and I had to really dig deep to keep pushing. I didn't know how far 2nd place was behind, but I wanted to hold him off for as long as possible. My miles times slowed by about 20-30 seconds per mile as predicted, but as luck has it, so did seemingly everyones. Unless you know the course well and purposely set off really slow, I dont think anybody would manage a negative split!
I managed to plod my way to Ambleside, without looseing too much ground to second place. I was hurting..alot! but I wasn't willing to let first place slip. Mile 24, 25 and 26 markers were all half a mile short of where they should have been and this messed with the head even more. Garmin telling me one thing, the markers telling me the other. I eventually made my way to the Brathay Estate and was greeted with what felt like a mountain of a climb up the drive to the finish. I stumbled up to the brow of the drive and I could hear all the cheers around the corner and my name being shouted over the tannoy. They were welcoming me into the gardens of Brathay hall, and I didn't know what to do!
Approaching the finish!
Now.. I've won races before...but nothing of this calibre where there are hundreds of people cheering you on. Obviously, Manchester was like that, but bigger! But I wasn't first home there. Workington to Keswick and K2B had literally a handful of family and friends there. What am I supposed to do? Do I run down the finishing stretch hi-5ing everybody? Do I jog down the finish screaming and shouting? Do I be cocky and perform some sort of cart-wheel or tipple-over at the finish? Being, a somewhat, quiet(ish) lad, I decided to do none of them. I kept my eye-line low and scurried to the finish (I had still not at this point looked behind once to see where 2nd place was) and 5 meter from the line raised both arms in the air in an attempt to achknowlege my achievement - 1st place in a time of 2hour40. Fastest in the previous 4 years.
Celebrations!
Phil ended up to be not be too far behind (approx half a mile) and finished in 2.43, with 3rd place, Iain Jones, finishing in 2.47, both being solid performances which would have beaten last years winner! The race can be followed, how it all happened here.
Podium Shot!
All in all, it was again a very successful day for me! Like I have said before, and I will say again, things are starting to fall into place, and I think I owe a lot of that to the people which surround me as well as the support I get from the Barrow running community! Without that, I dont think I would have progressed as much as I have done over the last 6 month. Exciting times lie ahead for me and the support I get from everyone, as well as the success, makes the training and hard work put in all worthwhile! On-wards and up-wards!
Special thanks go to NW Email for publishing mine and Amy's story, advertising my just-giving page and for some of the photos above!
If that wasn't all enough...I got my prize awarded by the Legend that is Joss Naylor! Now thats worth more than any prize worth giving!...It's just a shame he was looking at the wrong camera! ha-ha
Im now going to enjoy a good couple of weeks of well deserved rest before the build-up for the summer/autumn challenges. Stay posted!...
In the mean time, it would be great if you could vote for me at the link below if not already done so! If I win, it could greatly influence how I progress with my running over the next 12 month and consiquency my career in running! :-)
Thanks, Grant
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