MK Marathon Ambassador 2018 - The Race
The final blog of the MK Marathon Ambassador
blogs for my running club. View original blog post here: MK Marathon Ambassador 2018 - The Race!
It’s me again! Following on from Part Two,
the MK Marathon Weekend has been and gone. What happened to my
plans? Did I follow them? What did JG do? Well…
At the time of the previous blog, my aim was to run
10 miles that weekend. When training for a half marathon, if you can get
to 10 miles in your training then you’re already there. If you can run 10
miles, then you can run a half marathon – it’s only a parkrun to go! I
went out with some of the club ladies and ended up being sick from the
heat. Ran and walked 6.2km and got home again. Bad times.
Not to worry, I can still do 10 miles this
week. I ended
up not being well at all the next week and life got in the way of my
plans. Other than a couple of swim sessions, I turned up to the Rocket 5K
on Sunday with no running in me and I was full of doubt…
MK Rocket 5K
Well this is a lovely little event. They only
introduced the 5K to the MK Marathon Weekend two years ago. I’ve done it
every year since. I’ve said before, I got my PB there in 2016 –
27:54. The following year I did 28:24 and this year? No
PB…29:58. I was happy to get under 30 minutes. There was no way I
was going to get a PB – I’ve barely done any running so my speed (my slow
speed) is not there. Too hot anyway.
Saying that…there were a HORDE of LFR members doing
the 5K and so many of them bagged themselves PBs! Absolutely
incredible! Well done, all of you! Everyone loves a PB.
During the run I noticed my hip causing me some
grief and the foot pain I’d been having previously really decided to come to
bite me. Ouch. By the end of the day, I could barely walk
around. This doesn’t bode well. Went
swimming that night which helped the hip, but the foot was still pretty bad.
MK Half Marathon
Monday morning arrived and I could hardly stand on
the foot. Oh dear. I hobbled
around a bit. Figured I should warm it up. It wasn’t
helping. I still arrived at the Stadium, went to the lovely air
conditioned VIP room to hang with the other Ambassadors. We were all
nervous about the heat. How can we run in this?! I was doubly
nervous because of my silly foot and lack of training. Still…did my photo
duties with the Ambassadors and then found the club for the LFR photo shoot,
obviously, and off I hobbled to the start.
3…2…1….oh we’re off. Now straight away I knew
this was a bad idea. I was in pain. Part of me thought…get to a
mile, then you’ll know. Well I knew before that. I was hot – I hate
the heat anyway – but the heat AND a painful foot and no proper training….not a
chance. I knew where a good spot was to watch all the runners coming in
all directions, so thought I’d get there, stop and support everyone instead.
As I walked, LFR members Kirsty and Jane caught up
with me. Kirsty was running her first marathon and Jane her first half
marathon. So glad I saw them as I hadn’t seen them at the start to wish
them good luck. I started running with them for a bit until the
roundabout and then stopped completely and sent them on their way.
So…I didn’t finish the race. This is no bad
thing. What have we learnt from all my grand plans, little plans, and
silly ideas with no training? Don’t do it!
Someone did ask me on the day: “how on earth did
you get to be an ambassador?” – harsh, but fair. I applied last year when
I was training for Snowdonia Marathon. At that time I was fundraising,
taking part in countless events for my training, blogging, and updating my social
media…everything you can think of. All to get me to Snowdonia and
complete it. Which I did! Yay. See my post on that
here: Snowdonia
Marathon.
My thought really when I applied to be an
Ambassador for Milton Keynes was that I could do all the same things, although
I wouldn’t be fundraising, and it would be a run for me. I was obviously
a good candidate at the time.
Unfortunately following Snowdonia I was injured for
quite some time and as you’ll see from Parts One and Two of
these blogs, I was ill, injured and all sorts meaning all my planned events and
training I did not even start. 2018 hasn’t been the greatest so far.
Whilst all this was happening, I had to make the
sensible decision to drop down from the marathon to the half marathon.
Training for a half marathon should have been easier, but again it didn’t
happen. I should have said to myself sooner that I wasn’t ready and to
pull out before I even started. But I made the decision during the race
and hopefully by doing so have not done any lasting damage and can come back
stronger for whatever my next event may be.
The only words of wisdom I can give to other
members who may find themselves in the same position is to listen to your
body. When there’s a niggle, when you’re in pain, don’t run. Don’t
run on an injury. You will just make it worse. No matter how much
you want to get to an event, you will hurt yourself more if you carry on when
you shouldn’t. Go get it looked at. Listen. Lack of training
and injuries go hand in hand. Be sensible. There will always be
another run.
I know we all talk about not quitting and finish
lines and that’s all that matters, but do you know what? It isn’t.
Not if you’re injured. Not if you haven’t trained. I am
absolutely fine with my decision not to run. It means I get to run again
when I can. And because I got to see all those who did run…
Luckily when I stopped at the roundabout on the
half marathon, I wasn’t alone as the Chairman and club member Ian had cycled up
to support the runners as did some other members. I stayed and cheered
everyone I could. Went back to the Stadium and cheered some more.
This turned out to be a fantastic experience.
I saw almost all the LFRs come in – we had so many doing the distances for the
first time, it was amazing to jump up and down and scream them in. And
even those seasoned runners doing their umpteenth half or marathon, I got to
see them all too. Also seeing the LFRs sticking together when it was
getting tough, getting each other to the finish. What an amazing club we
are.
It’s truly incredible seeing people you know
and admire achieving their goals after working so hard on all their training to
get there. Particularly in this weather. I couldn’t do
it. But I am so immensely happy and proud of all of the LFRs out on the
course that day. It was brutal. You did brilliantly. Well
done!
And that’s it for me. It’s not the day I had
imagined when I applied last year, but it was still a great day for so many of
you. I’ll be back out at some point. See you soon, LFR!
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