I was relieved that the race started at 7am as the forecast was for temperatures of around 26 degrees. The undulating marathon route comprised a 10k loop through the Parliamentary Triangle followed by two loops along the southern and then the northern shores of Lake Burley Griffin with crossings over King’s Avenue Bridge on the outward section and Commonwealth Avenue Bridge on the return stretch. Jo provided much appreciated support at several points around the course and then I got some very vocal support from former Strider Anne-Marie Wilkes during the second half of the race. My pace was 5:07 per k for the first lap, 5:17 for the second lap and 5:26 for the third lap, which roughly reflected how much warmer it was getting as the race progressed. I was pleased with my time of 3:43:55, which was my fastest time since 2010. Graham continued to complete the 50k race in 4:38:55 (not bad for someone who’d been advised over 13 years ago that he’d have trouble walking within a year if he continued running!). Anne-Marie, the Ridleys and I celebrated afterwards in a local hostelry with the other Terrigal Trotters.
On the Monday Anne-Marie took a day off work to show me the sights of Canberra and in the evening we joined the Ridleys and Peter and Angela Wilkes for a drink and an Indian meal. It was great to meet up with Anne-Marie and I still find it hard to believe that she left St Albans over 5 years ago.
I did a number of runs with the Trotters during my holiday including their Anzac Day breakfast run and a hilly 10k time trial. Unfortunately, on my last run with them, which was meant to be a 47k run in the bush, I twisted my ankle and bruised a rib after only about 10k and had to cadge a lift back to base. However, they were an extremely friendly and welcoming club and I felt privileged to have got to know so many of them. It is good to know that Graham and Jo have found such a great club so close to where they live.
Orpington Half Marathon: 11 May 2013: I quickly discovered that my rib and ankle were far from healed and dropped down from the marathon to the half marathon distance. My time was 2:06:08 and it was very painful even once I’d consumed a fistful of painkillers. However, on checking my race records I noted that this was my 100th half marathon so there was a sort of silver lining to this event.
Leiden Marathon: 26 May 2013: Having not run for nearly 2 weeks I was apprehensive as to whether my injuries were healed enough to permit me to run. Fortunately the rib was fine and my ankle seemed substantially better than it was at Orpington. The course was flat and rural, but it was very windy. I managed to stick with the 4 hour pace group up to about 29k, but struggled for the last 13k mainly due to how little training I’d managed while injured. My finish time was 4:12:43.
Luxembourg Marathon: 8 June 2013: This race started at 7pm on a very humid Saturday evening. The organisers appeared to have gone out of their way to incorporate every hill in Luxembourg into the marathon route and the second half of the course was particularly tortuous. Large numbers of half marathon and relay runners also meant that there was considerable congestion at the start and at all of the relay changeover points. Right from the start I felt as though I wasn’t firing on all cylinders and I really suffered during the second half of the race. Nevertheless, the support that all runners received when the race went through the centre of the town and when it finished inside the Luxexpo building was tremendous and the race was generally very friendly and well organised. My time was 4:13:45.
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| Dodging midges.... |
Trail Marathon Wales: 22 June 2013: This race started from Coed y Brenin visitor centre in the Snowdonia National Park with a long hill and we soon discovered that the only variations on the course would be the steepness of each successive hill. The wind was really strong throughout the day, but when we found sheltered locations the midges were out in force and they particularly seemed to favour Lucy Stern and me.
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| All smiles..... |
While Abby Reilly, Fiona Snailham, Melanie Orchard and Peter Rogers disappeared into the distance Lucy, Carol Ransom, Mandy Attree, Luke Hart and I proceeded at a more leisurely pace having decided that most of the hills were too steep for anything but a mountain goat to run up. Some of the descents were also challenging with rocks and tree roots in abundance and we were all happy to cross the finish line in 6:40:03, especially as Abby, Fiona, Mel, Claire Sharp and Alison Ryan were waiting there to cheer us in. On the plus side the views were fantastic and the company was great, but this was a truly gruelling event.
Jack Brooks
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