Another day in the office! And another stupid o'clock start and the usual granola and Paddington Bear breakfast (marmalade sandwiches). This was a milestone race for me, being my 25th marathon it marked a quarter of the way of my goal to run 100 marathons. I just had to complete the bloody thing first!
So I drove up to Milton Keynes, although a fair distance from
where I live in North East Hampshire, it’s was a dead easy journey and a quick
burn up the M1. I had booked the “VIP parking” which allowed me to park right
outside the start and finish area by “Stadium MK”. I had arrived really early -
7.30am – despite the race not starting till 10. I knew from my boss who had
done the half a few times that the parking situation gets grim, so would far
rather be chilling in the car than getting stressed with the clock ticking
down.
 |
| Stadium MK |
I popped into the stadium when it opened at 8am to ‘check
out the facilities’, it was surprisingly already heaving with people - As well
as the full marathon, there was also a half and a relay race on all starting at
the same time.
 |
| Baggage drop |
Slightly confusingly, there are two stadium areas with separate entrances. The
baggage drop area (which also doubles up as the finish area) is only open to
runners, which has hardly any loos. A short walk around the stadium brings you
to a second, much larger, area where there are loads of loos as well as places
to buy a drink and something to eat. There was not really many queues to speak
about, certainly compared to most races I’ve done. I saw quite a few people
wandering around slightly confused looking for the baggage drop – there were no
signs to tell you, although they announced it on the PA system a few times. Signage
is something they could probably do with improving, you don’t want to be
panicking about where to drop your bag.
Inside the stadium were various life size plastic cows
painted in different colours, I later found out these had been sponsored as
part of the 50th anniversary of Milton Keynes. Lots of runners were
taking selfies with the cows and it provided some light relief from the usual pre-race
nerves.
Time always seems to whizz by before a race and before I knew
it they were announcing “last call” for marathon runners (20 mins before the
start!). I made my way outside. There were four different start corals, which
were colour coded (red, blue, yellow and green). As blue, I was the second to
last slowest haha. One thing that was slightly odd was that the half marathon
and marathon all lined up together, and started at exactly the same time.
In the pen I got chatting to a fellow runner called Natalie
who told me this was her 77th marathon, and planned to do her 100th
at Beachy Head in October. That's one of the great things about running - so easy to get chatting to anyone - it did help that she was wearing a "quest for the vest" t-shirt on which gave away she was a fellow 100 wannabe. Around me
where the pacing group for a 4:15 marathon – they had orange hi-viz t-shirt as
well as balloons. I was impressed with the pacers – this included 4:45, 5:00,
5:15 and 5:30. So certainly very well supported for us slower runners.
At bang on 10 o’clock the start klaxon sounded and the first
wave went off. Our wave started 10 minutes later, which I thought was pretty
good, certainly compared to bigger events like London or Brighton when it can
take an age to cross the finish line. (45 mins at Brighton!) Apparently the half marathon was started
by Jo Whiley at the front but as she was running I never saw her!
 |
| Going through the start |
As I was one of the few runners with my name on my vest I got a shout
out.
The first couple of miles of the race take you out of the
stadium and towards central Milton Keynes down “Saxon Street”. They were dead
flat, dead straight and dare I say it dead boring? You go past an industrial estate
and some roundabouts (lots of those in Milton Keynes…). A problem with this
race is that it is really hard to find your pace over the first few miles. The full marathon goes off with the
half marathon runners. who have the luxury of being able to go faster. It’s so
easy to get swept along with the crowd and so start off way too fast. Which is
what happened to me, I went through the first mile 10:32 and the second in
10:51, this was well above my goal pace of 11-11:30 min/miles so I tried to
slow myself down but not before damage had been done. Towards the end of this
long drag the faster runners were coming the other way, including the lead
runner who was steaming round and was some 3 miles ahead of me...
 |
| Central Milton Keynes |
There was a sharp left turn and we were in central Milton
Keynes. This is a long tree-lined Boulevard with a few hotels, health clubs and
car parks along side. Never did see any shops! You do a little loop in the centre then head back down the Boulevard and back on Saxon Street going back
towards the stadium. We passed the first water station at around 3 miles; this was great - they were handing out 330ml bottles of water and energy gels as well as some sweeties. The water stations were about every 3 miles and enthusiastically manned.
It was nice that they were celebrating the 50th anniversary of Milton Keynes with some art. Finally there is a left turn before you get near the
stadium, and finally you get off the road. Firstly, running right past peoples
houses through a housing estate (slightly odd) before finally getting onto a dedicated path, which around these parts they call “redways”.
 |
| Celebrating 50 years of MK |
This finally took us out of the initial grim part of the course and into
the more rural part of MK, and it is surprisingly really nice. At the 7 mile
point the half marathon runners took a right turn, and us full marathoners went straight on. Thank heavens - finally,
the course began to thin out substantially and I wasn’t running shoulder to
shoulder with other runners. We went past the “Cross Keys” pub where some
ladies were belly dancing outside, much banter was exchanged and of course I
had to stop to take a photo! After the 7 mile point the scenery improved. We went through
a lovely woodland area through Ouzel park, before doing a loop around Milton
Keynes village and past the beautiful Willen Lake and Tongwell Lake. Crowd
support was a bit patch out in these parts but very enthusiastic and there were
lots of high-fives from the kids and jelly babies being handed out.
 |
| Beautiful scenery out on the course |
 |
| Running through the woods |
 |
| Grand union canal |
We then dropped down onto the towpath of the Grand Union
canal, which was lovely, before running through Great Linford Park. This then
took us on a massive long drag called “Railway walk” which went on for mile,
after mile, after mile… this was a gentle incline upwards the whole way but was
really hurting the legs. I had done Southampton the week before and I really
felt it in my legs by now. Just before we entered Railway walk I heard my name
shouted out, it was my facebook friend Lucy (also a 100 wannabe runner). We
had to stop for an obligatory selfie, before she swiftly overtook me and
vanished from site! Haha. It was good that half way along the long old drag there was a brass band out - I could hear it for miles. Oddly there was a bloke dressed as a rabbit giving out high-fives?! OK then.
 |
| Catching up with Lucy |
 |
| Random brass band |
Finally exiting that Railway walk we then went
through a really grim industrial area and then into the beautiful Loughton
Valley park. By now my legs were really hurting, although I had quite of lot of
energy everything had seized up so I decided I could walk it out doing my 13
min/miles speed walk. Along here I was
also overtaken by Big Rich who I’d met the previous week in Southampton, “hello
I remember you from last week!” he said. Seems I’m not the only crazy one marathons
on consecutive weekends then. I got walking for a bit with a lady called Vicki; she was doing her first double and was really finding it tough as she had got a sprain at mile 2. She still overtaked me though ha!
We went past some interesting things: the peace pagoda; some neolithic stones; and of course the famous concrete cows for which Milton Keynes is famous for. This kept interest levels up and there was always something to look at. The organisers had put signs up to alert you of things to look out for which was also great. Also around the course quite a few amusing signs, which helped!
 |
| The distant sight of concrete cows |
The second half of the course was far hillier than the first. The redways were lovely, however you know all those roundabouts that MK is famous for? Guess what! You get to run underneath a lot of them - which involves down and up ramps. And lots and lots of them. Plus a lot of long gentle inclines, and the odd sharp hill, there was not much flat running to be done. This all piled the pressure onto the legs.
We did a little loop aound Milton Keynes college and once again eardrums blasted by loud music to the point of blood coming out my eardrums, by local radio station MKFM.
We then went through the “Coffee
Hall” area of MK (strange name), then it was that final bastard hill at mile 24
that I remembered. I bumped into a lady from the 100 marathon club who introduced herself
as Ruth, she explained this was her 499th marathon! Here's me running my 25th, just a slight way to go to catch you up. Big respect to you Ruth, what an amazing achievement. We exchanged
some stories and light hearted banter about the hills which really took my mind
off the agony. Before I knew it we were at 25.5 miles and the stadium was back
in sight, along with the KFC and McDonald's!
As I approached the stadium I managed to start running
again, this didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would do and I kicked myself a bit for walking so much. We entered the
stadium through the players tunnel and us runners did a lap of the pitch before reaching the finish line. I
managed to overtake a few people on this little bit (sorry, fellow runners,
that is bad form I know!) before finally getting to the finish line and crossing the timing mat. A giant
screen in the stadium showed the finish line and flashed up your name, that was
a really nice touch.
After finishing Big Rich was in the stands and shouted out
my name, it was great to catch up on the race and we congratulated each other.
As I walked away from the finish line I was handed a bottle
of water, and a lovely lady called Tracey hang my medal over my neck. I mugged
her for a selfie of course, clearly I’ve spent too much time with Queen of
selfies Emma. The marshals on this race are very friendly. There was a short walk back up the ramp to
the exit zone and I saw Gemma come past (who I’d met at the car park marathon),
I have her thumbs up and shouted some encouragement. At the top I collected my
goody bag and finishers t-shirt. The goody bag wasn’t the best ever, but it did
have a packet of crisps and a brioche which was very nice. I also collected
several bottles of flavoured milk.
The best bit now was my car was waiting for me less than 100
yards away. That was marathon number 25 done and dusted.
Comments
Post a Comment