Soul Day Marathon

Not a fast time.....we had just got back from hols but the opportunity to do a Thursday marathon? Well why not. Down near Dover on Samphire Hoe this was a small affair with 150 runners. I wanted to enjoy the morning and by 12 the temperature was up to 28 according to the weather, but 31 on the car. I do like some of Traviss Wilcox' races. This was friendly affair and with bright light glistening off the sea bundled along in about 1.45 for the first half. A few chats with other runners including the amazing Ollie running his first ever long race. Overheating was an issue for many and quite early on, people were dropping like flies. I moved into 4th place, although this was not a competitive race with toned and honed marathoners, I held that for the rest of the race, despite having 2 x 5 min stops at the CP to cool down and hydrate.

Not competitive, but a fun day out. Just what I needed to cheer me up after an awful last race. A gentle long slow run in just a bit over 4 hours. Marathon #75 done.

Not the Rio Marathon

Billed to be an awesome adventure around all parts of the Olympic Park in August. I don't want to get angry again but the worst marathon I have ever run. For £40 you got to queue up for 40 mins to pick up your race number, the start was delayed because of this.....the course was 4.41km loops around the velodrome and after 16 miles the checkpoint ran out of everything but water. At 21 miles it ran out of water. Quite frankly after 2 laps I was not in the mood, save for catching up and having a much overdue catch up with Helen Smith. Pretty much everyone was complaining. It was dire. Criss-crossing the A12 4 times per lap. Dull and repetitive. Finally we crossed the line after having a walk for the last 2 miles as was parched out of water and it was 27 degrees and into what was billed as a lap of the velodrome.......nope.....finish up the stairs.....the marshall said that we could pick up our medals from 'over there' but we must only take 1 bottle of water as they didn't have enough. I went straight over to the RD and asked if I could take some water outside. He said that they "had to ration it" and then walked off.

What was brilliant was catching up with Helen, Elaine and Peter Bowles at the end. Thank goodness for some lager-based electrolyte replacement. I ran most of the way back to South London too.