The day started at silly o’clock which seems to be the norm
for running any sort of crazy long distance. I had the usual breakfast of granola
and toast & marmalade and before I knew it, I was in the car and driving my
way down to Worthing.
I arrived at Teville Gate (just past Worthing station) and
parked up – ironically for a car park marathon, we couldn’t park inside the car
park where the event was being held. Obvious of course when you think about it, who wants to be run over by the departing faster runners. I stepped outside my car and it was grey, cold, raining and the car park loomed in front of me. It looked particularly grim
and I could see a few runners doing a recce of the course, peering over the
edge.
I didn’t bother with that, I figured 71 laps was going to be more than
enough for me.
I collected my race number from the ground floor of the car park. I met Chris at Sussex Trail Events, who was very friendly and we made a few jokes about the course. I said I was planning to walk the “up ramps” and run down the “down ramps”. He raised his eyebrows and said, "oh well concrete is totally unforgiving you might want to run up the up ramps too." I was thinking, what the hell have I left myself in for.
Amusingly there was a single portaloo for the entire field of runners. Had the organisers been taking lessons from the Brighton Marathon in how to have woefully inadequate numbers of facilities at the start? Thankfully there were a grand total of 44 of us so the queue was mercifully short.
Before too much longer all 44 of us runners were summoned for a “briefing”. Jay from Sussex Trails Event jokingly asked for a minutes silence for our legs. There wasn’t really anything to tell us, other than you have 71 laps to do, 6 hours to do it in, and the last one is run in reverse with high-fives mandatory. With that they rang the cowbell and we were off, passing over the timing mat for the first time which we had to pass on each lap.
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| One of the 71 opportunities to raid the aid station |
I had started at the back (I know my place) and everyone just seemed to sprint off. I hadn’t thought about how much turning there would be. Ten up ramps and ten down ramps with a tight 180 degree left turn between them. Also to make way for the faster runners, I had to keep to the right which meant a slightly longer distance per lap. On arrival at the top, there was the rain and a what felt like a gale to greet us, and a final up ramp to get to a secondary top deck, where we had to do a little loop before heading back down again. I finished the first loop in 4 mins and 10 seconds. I knew that to meet the cut off of 6 hours I had get round in 5 mins per lap for each of the 71 laps. I had a target time of 5 hours 30 mins, which needed 4 mins 38 seconds per lap. So getting round faster meant this was all time in the bank. The first 10 or so laps flew by, it felt slightly odd going over the same ground over and over again and almost slightly nauseous. Each lap we were cheered on and an opportunity to raid the well stocked aid station which was groaning with sweets, fruit, jelly babies, cake, crisps, and lots of water and coke. Shelley, a very enthusiastic marshal cheered me on each lap and we kept exchanging some banter. And each lap, everyone sprinted past me and lapped me.
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| How is it possible to be boiling hot and have frozen hands? |
The first half of the race went really well, I got to lap 35
in 2 hours 36 minutes, churning out somewhere between 4:00 and 4:45 per lap. I
managed this running gently upwards, a bit faster round the flat loop at the
top, and then a fair clip down, allowing the gravity to do it’s fair share of
the work. Chris shouted out at me that I’d done lap 28 and I knew I was a third
of the way through, which really helped me stay focused. I just had to keep
churning the laps out one by one and ignore the complaining from my legs, which
was building with each lap. I chatted to other runners a fair bit which helped
take my mind off the boredom and we exchanged running stories and generally
discussed why we were doing something so utterly crazy as running this marathon
in car park. Still none the wiser.
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| Motivating graffiti on the top desk |
I knew for the second half I was going to have to back off a
bit as by lap 30 my legs were now screaming at me to stop, so I changed my
strategy to speed-walking up to get to the top, jogging the top loop, and then a
jog down. I was far from the only one walking by now, and I was fairly amused
to see one of the guys who had lapped me about 10 times slowing to a walk and
then stretching with a look on despair on his face.
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| Doing the lap on the top deck. Fabulous views of the South Downs. |
The laps kept clocking up, and the weather improved – no longer soaked on the roof with each lap and the fabulous views from the top of the south downs were lovely. Shame about urban decay, smell of stale urine and flaking paint on the way down! Around 3 hours in I heard the cow-bell again, and I knew the first runner was on his final lap. He came absolutely steaming round the opposite way to us, high-fiving every runner. I saw him come in over the timing mat and joined in with the cheers. He finished in just over 3 hours – amazing.
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| Stay in the zone |
This just make me realise I had almost 3 hours
of running left myself though. I tried not to focus on the time but just on the
number of laps completed. As the cow-bell kept going and I saw other competitors
finish and I high-fived each one and gave encouraging words and wished them
congratulations. I also saw one competitor who kept going after his 71st lap
and had to be called back by the marshals – clear he was a little too “in the zone!”.
Never seen a runner trying to blag extra mileage in a race before.
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| Legs screaming for mercy |
The field by now was beginning to thin out considerably and
before too much longer I was running on my own for most laps. As I went over the timing mat, Chris told me
I’d just completed lap 61. I glanced at my watch which was reading just 4:45
hours and I knew I had in the bag - I just had to cling on for dear life and
keep those legs moving. My pace had slowed slightly due to the walking up, and I
was churning out 5:00 to 5:15 per lap. This was slightly behind goal pace but I
knew I had banked enough time in the first half. By now my legs had stopped
screaming so much with the agony of it all but were now behaving like a toddler
throwing a tantrum, refusing to budge except for the sheer will of keep going.
I did a few more laps trying desperately to think of anything else but running
around this car park, and before I knew it I was at lap 70. They rang the
cow-bell for me and turned me round. Yes! I was on the final lap, at last!
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| Finished. At last. |
Except that 10 seconds later the cow-bell rang again. Behind
me the was the final runner, and he was running just behind me trying to
overtake me. Oh the injustice, being
overtaken in my final lap after 70 gruelling laps of this car park – no bloody way!
I managed to find some hidden reserve of energy and willpower and stormed that
last lap in 4:34 coming in 2 minutes before my would-be overtaker. It was a fantastic finish, as I sprinted over the timing mat for the 71st time
I had cheers from all the spectators and marshals and the cow-bell again sounded. I was given my medal – which
appropriately was grim, a car parking ticket in a lanyard. I was done with this car park at last!
Thank heavens for that. I was invited to raid the aid station for the final
time and was given a t-shirt, and Shelly gave me a hug – quite something when I
was hot, sweaty and smelly. Mandatory selfie had to be taken. Once back home I plunged into an ice bath and swore "never again". Until next year, that is...!
My Garmin never really managed to get itself happy being in a car park - it made for an interesting route...
Absolutely brilliant performance 💪💪💪💪💪💪
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