I always suffer from pre-race nerves. Whether it’s an A-race or a weekly parkrun, the butterfly’s in the stomach are the same. Despite feeling fairly relaxed about the Broadway Marathon, and having very little pressure on myself in terms of the result, I still woke up on the Sunday with the same level of nerves. Still, nerves are natures way of getting us to up our game. I was told that 18 years ago while on my driving test, and it has stuck with me ever since.
The decision to stay locally the night before was a wise one. Broadway is only a little over an hour away from home, and I was happy to drive down on the morning of the race. Rebecca however, insisted that I did not need that additional stress before the race and, with it starting at 08:15, also suggested that I would benefit from an extra hour in bed and without the rush of getting things ready for a 6am departure.
We stayed in Chipping Campden, which is around 15 minutes from race registration. A much more relaxed start to the day then. A quick shower, a Fuel 10k porridge pot for breakfast, along with a 1500 Precision Hydration mixed drink, and off we set for Broadway.
Nutrition Preparation
All mandatory kit and race nutrition was packed the night before. I had mixed two 500 ml bottles to sit on my chest in my race vest, both with different Voom products. One was their lemon and lime Hydrate Smart mix and the other their high carb Fusion Fuel. I had used both products in training and was happy with them. The only variance was the flavouring of the high carb drink. In training, I had used the apple and blackcurrant flavour, and it was delicious, but today I had the unflavoured version. I thought it would be better to go this way round, and have the unflavoured for the race rather than an untried flavour. I do find these mixes hard to dissolve in the water. The Precision Hydration tablets dissolve almost in an instant, but I have to shake these powders for an age before they dissolve. There is so much powder in the sachets that they just congeal, forming lumps in the bottle that are hard to get rid of. I’ve tried adding powder bit-by-bit, and following the pack instructions which suggest to dissolve in half a bottle first, and then top up with the rest of the water. Neither really worked. In the end, I had to use some warm water from the kettle, and then let it cool before filling my bottles. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to be able to do this on the go, while stopped at a checkpoint during an ultra.
I made the decision not to carry any plain water. I figured the unflavoured would offer a break from flavouring, and that I would make use of the checkpoints if I needed any extra fluid. On to food, I understand the gold standard is to consume 90+ grams of carbs per hour of running, but you have to train your gut to be able to take this level of fuelling first. I’m not yet at this stage, so I planned for an intake of 60 grams per hour, and packed enough food for 4.5 hours, plus some emergency bars which were stuffed in the bottom of my bag. The organisers stated that there would be “limited snacks” at the checkpoints, but I didn’t want to rely on this. So, my vest contained the following:
- 2x Hi5 energy gels, at 23 g of carbs each (the last two remaining from a legacy box)
- 10x Jelly Babies, at 4 g of carbs each
- 1x Voom Pocket Rocket bar, with 46 g of carbs
- 3x fig roll biscuits, at 13 g of carbs per biscuit
- Voom Fusion Fuel drink mix, containing 89 g (!) of carbs
- Voom Hyrate Smart drink mix, containing 18 g of carbs
- 2x emergency bars stuffed in the bottom of my bag, providing another 50 g should I need it.
I didn’t get through all of that. I wouldn’t say that I had issues with feeling unwell from the eating, but I definitely wasn’t feeling comfortable towards the end, and I didn’t want to push it and risk seeing any of it again on the side of the trail. Calculating it in the end, I estimate that I consumed around 50 g per hour, which isn’t too bad. Something to work on for future though, for sure.
Kit check, registration and race start
Once parked up in Broadway, it was a short walk to race registration. I spotted a speedy fellow Rugby and Northampton runner in the car park and caught up with him prior to heading over. He’s the nicest guy in the world and I almost had to tear myself away so that I could get over to registration. He was as chilled as ever, but I was a little anxious so wanted to get a move on. He ended up finishing second in the end, only four minutes behind Mark Darbyshire, who I also spotted in the car park.
I’ve never really understood why people get so anxious over kit check. If you’ve packed everything that is on the kit list, what is to be worried about? But if I said that I was relaxed heading into the Linford Memorial Hall, I’d be lying. I dumped my bag on the desk and prepared to empty it’s contents. The lady asked to see “some form of first aid kit”. Before I could fully remove it from my bag she said “yea, that’s fine” and handed me a ticket with which to exchange for my race number. That was it. I’ve heard kit checkers say in the past that they ask for one particular item and then they are scanning what you have as you get it out of your bag, but there is no way she saw everything that I was supposed to be carrying today, with me removing just that.
Regardless, kit check passed, number collected, race brief received and we were making our way just a few hundred metres down the road to the start. No pre-race warm up. If I had of got a move on after the race briefing, I could have got a short one in, but I wasn’t going to be pushing hard today and figured I would just warm up during the opening miles. I would only be warming up at the same pace anyway. So, a final chance for a couple of photos before being counted down from 5, and off we set, jogging down the barely awake Broadway High Street.
Opening miles
It wasn’t far down the High Street before we were bottlenecking into a tight alleyway, heading for the trails that led up to Broadway Tower. A bit of a walk and a queue here, and then again shortly after for the first gate of the day (the first of many). Then it was the 200 m, roughly 1 mile long climb up to the tower itself. I always planned on walking up most of this, getting a little trot on for the little flat sections. I did worry about how this would play out in the race, if everyone else around me were running. Could I maintain discipline and stick with my own race plan, rather than get dragged into everyone else’s? In reality, I need not to have worried. Everyone around me walked the majority of the climb, and I made up a lot of places with my strategy. More gates, I put in little sprints to get there before it closed behind the person in front. Run, walk, run, walk and I was soon at the top. First big climb ticked off already.
A quick look behind at the tower and what a beautiful morning it was and it was time to get on it and start making some progress, as we set off along a nice, downhill section. A steep climb, a gentle descent; so far, no knee trouble.
There were plenty of ups and downs in the race, but three major climbs. The first one was done and the second wasn’t too far away, towards the end of the seventh mile. A steep, grassy descent preceded it as we hit the road and started climbing up towards Snowshill. Not copying those around me, I trotted the entirety of this one. I’d done so in the recce so I knew it was doable. It climbs, levels, climbs and repeats. Taking it steady, I made up another bunch of places, passing the first checkpoint as we continued to climb.
Back on the trails, the next section involved a big descent. This was great fun during the recce and I was both looking forward to it (because I love fast descents) and dreading it in case my knee flared up. In the end, it wasn’t my knee that I needed to be worried about. Prior to the race, I wasn’t sure what shoes to wear. There’s a lot of tarmac on the race route, but also a lot of mud, so trying to find a middle ground was difficult. I opted for my Inov8 Trailroc and they (and me) struggled on this descent. It was part rocky, part (very) muddy. Hit the mud and the modest lugs on the Trailroc’s didn’t have enough to bite. Hit the rock and, well, no shoe is great on wet rock. I was following another runner closely behind and my eyesite was playing up too. I wear glasses, but never for running. As a result, sometimes, particularly in changing light, I struggle with depth of perception. The trees forming an almost dusk-like picture in front of me, I was struggling with exactly how far away the ground was and where, exactly, to put my feet. I decided to stick on the tail of this other runner and not go too mad. A few slips and rock kicks, but no falls, thankfully, and we were back on tarmac, heading for the break point between the half and the marathon.
There was an option, if things weren’t going to plan, to drop down from the full to the half marathon, and you could do this mid-race. You wouldn’t place, or receive any potential prizes if you did so, but it was an option. I said to myself pre-race that, should my knee be giving me some serious grief, I would consider this option. Without even thinking about it, I ‘flew’ down the pavement, crossed the road and turned left, back onto the trails, subconsciously making the decision to proceed with the full.
The middle miles
A lot of flat running now, through field after field, gate after gate. I was running alongside a man and a lady and I could see two runners further into the distance. This wasn’t a mass race, with runners everywhere. It was quiet, and I quite liked it for that. I wondered if I could catch the two up in front, but I had no desire to start pushing on. Not just yet anyway.
I had set my watch up to display the route, but not to give me turn-by-turn instructions. I knew that the course was waymarked (and it was marked well) and I had recce’d the route, so I wasn’t concerned with being notified of every turn. But I did want it there, ready on my wrist, should I need to check anything, particularly given my recce of the middle section of the course and trying to find the correct line through some of the fields. I also wanted it on my watch so that I could set a time and see how I was getting on against it. I set my target time for 4:15, but vowed not to check it until at least the halfway point. Today wasn’t about the time, so I wasn’t fussed if I didn’t achieve that, but I didn’t want to be told early on that I was far behind.
Going through 12 miles and through the fields by Sudeley Castle, I was really starting to feel fatigued. I had been taking on fuel but I was just feeling a bit lethargic. There was still so far to go, I was wondering how I would manage it. I’ve not read it, but I’m aware of an ultrarunning book called “Relentless Forward Progress” and that’s exactly right in this sort of situation. Just keep moving, at whatever pace you can. Keep moving, keep eating, one foot in front of the other, again and again. Scrolling through my watch screens, I accidentally saw where I was in relation to my target time. 25 seconds ahead!
Next up we had the final big climb, which would take us just beyond half way. Plain sailing from there, right? If you’ve seen the post on my recce, you’ll know that this ‘parks estate’ section is a single track road which climbs short and sharp, drops slightly and then drags long and steady to the top. On the early part of the second climb, I’d finally caught up to the two guys in the distance from earlier. They were having a great day out, chatting away as they jogged / walked up this tough climb. I was still part of the small group of three, running alongside the man (the same one from the steep descent around five miles earlier) and slightly ahead of the lady. The man and I exchanged some pleasantries about what a nice day we had been blessed with, and he progressed onwards while I saw the rest of the climb out with a walk. A check of the watch showed that I was 4 minutes behind the 4:15 schedule. Not the end of the world, the difficult part was now over with.
We turned right out of the estate and suddenly more runners appeared. There were two ahead, seemingly running together, and ‘the man’ was further down the hill. Without over trying, I caught up to the two guys ahead and passed at pace. “Oh, can tell you’re a road runner,” said one of them. I’d perked up a bit. A gel, over half way and counting down the miles rather than up, and making up places, things were going well.
A few uneventful miles ticked by as we passed the road section and re-entered the trails. The lady behind, who I was running with earlier, had now caught up, and she seemed to be moving well. I hopped off the path in one of the fields and asked if she’d like to pass. She duly obliged, never to be seen again. She eventually finished 3rd lady. Something that was bothering me now though, was the underside of my feet. The Trailroc’s are not the most cushioned shoe, and they’re also not made for road. And yet here I was, running 26 miles, with a lot of it on tarmac. There was a steep descent at the end of mile 18, down a stony, hard packed path. I avoided the good footing and opted for the grass verge instead, to protect the pounding on the bottom of my feet.
The final miles
Things were going well. I’m not entirely sure why but, for some reason, I didn’t expect to make it this far and still be moving well. Probably due to my knee troubles during the taper. But I was, and I was reeling in another couple of runners up ahead. We got to Cromwells Seat and I had caught up to ‘the man’. So much so, that I was close enough for him to hold the gate for me as I followed him through it. A short, semi-technical descent followed and the man and a guy in front carried on down the Cotswold Way. I knew from the recce that we had to take a hard right here, along a path that didn’t seem to exist until you got to the gate at the end. They both hesitated and checked around for course markers but couldn’t find any, hence their intention to continue forward. I called after them, insisting that we should be turning right. Following a quick check of the route on my watch, I confirmed and led them to the gate in the corner of the field. Sure enough, there was a course marker on the gate and I felt smug about helping keep the two guys on course.
This was the section in the recce where I made some route errors. There was that right turning, the choosing of the right gate in the next field, and then selecting the correct line through the one afterwards. No such problems today. I knew exactly where I was going and left the two behind me in my wake, not to be seen again for the rest of the race. That last field was a grassy, 150 m descent, ticking off mile 21. This was the first time that my knee really gave me any trouble. I changed my gait to more of a gallop to reduce the load on my right leg. Thankfully, it eased off as I hit the plateau at the bottom.
Back into the field in which I was in earlier and towards the break point where I would be rejoining the half marathon route, there was no one else around. I could see no one in the distance, and I listened for gates shutting behind me but I heard nothing more than a faint click. Road crossing complete without any hold ups and soon enough I was passing the final checkpoint in Stanway.
I took my time with the two gates as I headed back off-road. Partly because I was still in view of the checkpoint crew, and partly because I needed the breather. “I’ll just make sure this gate is closed and correctly latched.” Four miles left, and I was really feeling the fatigue now. I still couldn’t believe that I had made it this far, at this pace, given how I’d felt just before halfway. I had a quick check of my time comparison, slightly ahead, but this was tough.
I ran / walked through the next couple of fields as the terrain rolled. I started passing half marathon runners as they struggled up the hilly sections. Not nice to see them struggling, obviously, but great for my morale and adrenaline as I went past them. I couldn’t move any faster though. I was running at 10:00 / mile and slowing further. I sipped a bit of drink and longed for something plain. The unflavoured carb drink wasn’t completely unflavoured, and tasted heavy in it’s consistency. I just needed plain water, but there was nowhere now to get it from. I couldn’t take on any food either. There was a slight nauseating feeling, which I didn’t want to aggravate. This was it. Whatever energy I had left, had to see me through to the finish. Now 2 minutes behind, I just kept moving. A bit of a trot, a bit of walk. Relentless forward progress.
The last field finally came around. I knew it was downhill from here. I barely managed to get my legs over the stile in the corner, but there was nothing else standing between me and the finish now. I followed another marathoner over the stile and he was walking down the lane, completely spent. I found something from somewhere and threw together my fastest split of the race. I turned the final corner and scanned for the finish line. Where was it?! Eventually it came into view as the small crowd offered their support. I saw Rebecca and Archie on the other side of the road, which helped with my ‘sprint’ finish.
I crossed the line with jubilation, proud in my achievement. My knee had held out. I had ran a marathon, and one with more than 900 m of ascent. I had had a great day out, running on the trails, and here was Rebecca to greet me at the finish. I was so grateful that she had brought water with her. I couldn’t muster any food yet, but that water tasted so good! 4:17:13 was my finish time, coming in in 25th place, 12th in my age category. Not bad for my first marathon.
