To mark my running of the Milton Keynes Marathon this Bank Holiday Monday I thought I would resurrect this blog. I haven't written one since running my 20 Mile PB back in March 2017. A lot has happened in the intervening 7 years. My wife and I have had twin girls, who are rapidly approaching their seventh birthdays, and they have taken up lots of my time when not working or blogging about sport. Thus running has very much taken a back seat. I have run somewhere in the region of 750 miles in the near 7 years since the girls were born. For comparison, that is less than any singular year between 2010 and 2016 when I was running regularly.
I have raced very little since the autumn of 2017, the occasional parkrun, the Newmarket 10k most summers, a brutal couple of undertrained half marathons and a slog around the Essex 20 in over 4 hours. Milton Keynes was thus my first marathon post children. Yes, for the observant among you, I do appreciate as the man I didn't actually birth the girls, but I still think pre and post children helps explain the significant drop off in my performance.
My prep for Milton Keynes was a little better than my previous races but not my much. I had run the occasional 5k in the early months of the year, but managed to kick start something more regular in April, on our holiday to Dubai to see Amy, Col and the girls. I then managed to maintain it on my return, running four or five times a week. These wouldn't be hugely long, in the 5k-10k range with the exception being a 10 miler in a little under 100 minutes with a 4min run/ 1min walk pacing strategy. It all added up to 73 miles in April spread across 17 runs, my highest mileage month since March 2017, admittedly not a very high bar to beat.
I was still keen to do the Marathon, if for no other reason than to get a long run in. It would be my 12th marathon, with my PB set way back in 2011 at Chester when I ran 3:34, my personal worst was set at the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington in 2014 when I ran 4:40. On that occasion I was coming back from an injury so hadn't run much in the buildup. I did a 20km run just prior to the race and ran it at just over 9-minute miling, and so felt able to complete the marathon. I ran the first half well, before blowing up in some style in the second half.
Leading up to Milton Keynes I was mulling over what I was capable of, and you start having silly thoughts. I suddenly started thinking 4:30-4:40 was on. 10-minute miles gets me to 4:20 and builds in a little fade near the end. With hindsight, and after reviewing the Washington race it is clear those Milton Keynes targets were wildly ambitious. My 10-mile run/walk tester was hard work, it wasn't as if I had done it finishing full of beans and like I had another 2 or 3 hours in me.
I am now well into this blog about the Milton Keynes marathon, and we haven't even reached Milton Keynes. Let's get to it. I was solo for the marathon, with Lauren and the girls finding much better ways to spend their Bank Holiday Monday. They went for breakfast, played a game of bowling, and did a bit of shopping before heading to my parents for lunch. I on the other hand woke at 5am, had a quick breakfast and shower before getting on the road by 5:40. The roads were quiet at that time, and I got to the start at the MK Dons stadium by half 7. Given it was a football stadium geared up for big events it handled the marathon well. The only downside being a lack of toilet facilities being open, which is never good with thousands of nervous, overhydrated runners. I grabbed my number and then headed towards the start area. I spotted a McDonald's and knew that would be my first stop, post-race. I was a little keen as there was still an hour until the 9am start. I found myself a quiet spot and waited until we were called to our start areas.
I was hoping to see my friend Pete, but we managed to miss each other. I knew if I didn't see him at the start that I wouldn't see him all race. He was targeting sub 3 hours, whilst I was looking for sub-5. There were four sections red, yellow, green, and blue. I was in yellow, obviously a little optimistic when putting in my estimated finish time upon signing up. I still seemed to end up near the back and didn't get to start until half 9. It was a minor frustration, but I was keen to put all my energy into forward movement and not worrying about outside things.
When I finally got over the start line the roads were crowded, the half marathon was running alongside the full marathon. I enjoyed the atmosphere that bought, but it did mean that my 4-minute run/ 1 minute walk strategy was out the window. The crowds of runners were so thick that I decided to just keep running but at a steady pace, moving through the field as gaps emerged. I had completed two miles at a steady 10-minute miling before I took my first walk recovery on a slight uphill. That became my strategy early on. Take it steady when running, and if I felt in need of a breather then be sure to take it on an upslope. This worked really well, and I made it through 9 miles in 91:32 so about 10:10 per mile on average. Miles 8 and 9 were a little slower, more like 10:30's and so it was no surprise that come the 10th mile the walk breaks were starting to lengthen. Where I had good discipline in those early stages it was now starting to wane. I now whatsapped the family saying that the run/walk structure had gone, and the splits bear that out.
Before I continue with the nitty gritty of splits and the running, I thought I would look at some of the characters I saw on my travels. There was the chatty, chipper Welsh lady. She was having a great time and chatting with everyone. There were the two dubious looking gentlemen offering lube, an offer I politely declined. The crowds were really good around the course, and I happily accepted several offers of gummy bears and jelly babies. My race number had my name on it, so there were lots of 'Go Simon' etc which really helped. My favorite crowd contribution was when a woman saw me on my phone and said, "Got to keep up with the socials Simon." I had been texting Lauren and the family WhatsApp group with my progress. It did make me smile though. The only blemish on my day was some unsolicited advice from a fellow runner, telling me I shouldn't be walking. My advice to him, keep your views to yourself.
Back to the running we were now in the to and fro section. Still trying to fight the urge to walk. The middle 7 miles in 87 minutes and so we are now in the 12:30 min/mile kind of area. By now the half marathon runners are finished and heading home, leaving us marathoners to our second lap. Much of the route was the same for both races but there was a section by the canal that only the full marathon runners did. I didn't enjoy that quite so much. As I tired, my strategy was effectively to run the downhills and walk the rest, and being by the canal everything was flat, and I was struggling to get running. It was at this stage that the rain started to come. It wasn't heavy and I was very lucky considering the forecast a week out from the race. A properly wet 5 hours out on the course would have made the task all the more challenging.
So, we have had the 9 miles at 10:10 min/miles followed by the 7 miles at 12:30 min/miles which still leaves the 10 miles remaining at 14:30 min/miles. At that stage you know the personal worst is in the bag and you still have a long way to go to McDonald's and home. The crowds are starting to thin and head home after a long day, and with the weather starting to turn. The runners have now really thinned out and at my kind of pace everyone is doing some walking. I was quicker on the downhills and so would catch people up, but they would then move away on the flats and so that yo-yoing would continue for mile after mile.
The marshals were really good at geeing you up and were working hard clearing up the course. I'm sure they were still there an hour or so after I went by. I was continuing to tick off the km's / miles ever so slowly, but at least I knew that the finish was guaranteed. My Garmin was beginning to bleep at me that it was running low on battery. I had been manually splitting it every time I walked or ran and that had the effect of using the battery up faster. It eventually gave up a couple of miles from the end. I was most upset about the lost steps; I had promised Lauren a 50,000-step day.
I managed to log the last couple of miles on my phone, and for most of those final two miles it was very much business as usual. Lots of walking with the occasional burst of running. I had saved enough energy for the final 500 metres. I managed to get going on the run into the stadium, I reached the 26 mile marker and so knew there was only 300 or so metres left, I ran well around the outside of the pitch, it must have only been 8:30 - 09:00 min miles but it felt like flying compared to the trudge of the last 3 hours. I went through the line, relieved to have completed it. I was given my medal and grabbed an alcohol-free beer and my t-shirt before heading for that long overdue McDonald's.
Once in the car I got to work on the food. 5 Chicken Selects were had before I set off. Then two cheeseburgers, two cans of diet coke, two bottles of water, two caramel bars and a packet of ready salted crisps in the near three hours it took to get home with all the traffic. I think I made a pretty good dent in the 3,000 or so calories that I expended on the marathon. Aside from the traffic it was an uneventful drive home, no signs of the cramp that I feared might appear.
My feelings on the marathon are all very positive. A personal worst by nearly 45 minutes wouldn't normally elicit those types of feelings, but I wasn't just under trained, I was barely trained. I did also mistime my blood donating, as I gave my pint of blood 6 days before the race. In the end I think I ran for a little over 2 hours and walked for a little over 3 hours, but I got it done. You have something not quite right in your head to spend 12 hours of your Bank Holiday Monday driving to and from a race, to find out what you already know, that you aren't currently very fit. It is definitely the start of something. I have my 24-hour race in July and another marathon already booked in October. I hope to be in far better shape for the Yorkshire Marathon on the 20th October, and maybe after that we can outline some of my goals for 2025 and beyond. For now, I will enjoy the feeling of transporting myself 26.2 miles under my own steam at the Milton Keynes Marathon.
