Run > General

Hundon Marathon 2020

Firstly, a cock-up with the watch: when I arrived at the start for the 2nd time, they must have thought I'd already left and were packing up. So I forgot to turn the watch on in the excitement. And, when I did eventually turn it on by Clockhall Farm, I managed to record a 'lap', so the lap summary is amusingly off from actual kilometers. And the distance lost, according to OSmaps, was about 1.4km. Also: the watch is relatively new. If only I'd remembered that it has decent maps and you can upload routes to it, I might have dispensed with the printed paper ones (thanks, OSmaps subscription).

If I never see another ploughed field before I die, it will be too soon.

The concept was: "I've been saying for a while that you don't train for a marathon: you just rock up and see how it goes". So I thought I would. And how it goes is: very slowly. At least, I don't consider a 3 or 4 mile run every 4 or 5 weeks to be "training".

If I never see another ploughed field before I die, it will be too soon.

It managed to be drizzly all day but at least there were no torrential bits of weather. It looks as though the countryside round about is rather nice. It will be good to get out there again on a nice day.

If I never see another ploughed field before I die, it will be too soon.

Mostly I kept everything together, despite the non-optimal preparation. There was a huge downer at 16 to 18 miles, but that's not all that unusual when I'm running long. Probably, I hadn't been attentive enough to my nutrition at that stage, too.

If I never see another ploughed field before I die, it will be too soon.

The organisation was superb: they'd trimmed the checkpoints to two and there was oodles of food (lots left even after I'd visited the 2nd checkpoint). The water and a range of clever liquids (tailwind everywhere and, I think, Coca-Cola at at least the 2nd) were in "serve yourself" containers to maintain social distancing. The tail walker (he flipped between tail walker and tail runner depending on how my legs were working) was the epitome of patience. They even ran out at the end and said "you didn't pick up your goody bag". Above and beyond the call of duty.

If I never see another ploughed field before I die, it will be too soon.

Did I mention the ploughed fields? The soil here is a very heavy clay, and my Hokas put on kilogrammes each time we had to cross a - spit - ploughed field. One of the farmers was apparently out there apologising to the runners and directing them round the edges, which was very nice and totally unnecessary.

My phone died at about 6 hours in, which indirectly led Fiona (following my progress on a "tracker app") to turn up a couple of hours early at the finish - sorry! The "3 - 4 km to go" text I managed to send went straight to the car park at Whepstead Community Hall.

Then, on our return home, we discovered there was no hot water, so Fiona turned the immersion heater on while I scraped the worst of the mud from my legs. Then we went over the road (why are the roads here so wide?) to the Rose and Crown so I could be stinky over there.

What an absolutely fabulous day! I must do this more often.

Split Summary
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1) 0km - 4(/km) 159/159bpm
2) 1km - 9:05(9:05/km) 161/171bpm 124cal
3) 1km - 8:40(8:40/km) 165/183bpm 119cal
4) 1km - 7:44(7:44/km) 165/170bpm 109cal
5) 1km - 7:38(7:38/km) 164/170bpm 107cal
6) 1km - 7:25(7:25/km) 161/170bpm 100cal
7) 1km - 7:21(7:21/km) 161/175bpm 98cal
8) 1km - 8:46(8:46/km) 155/168bpm 108cal
9) 1km - 8:38(8:38/km) 161/166bpm 119cal
10) 1km - 9:01(9:01/km) 161/167bpm 123cal
11) 1km - 8:53(8:53/km) 154/169bpm 104cal
12) 1km - 11:18(11:18/km) 157/167bpm 145cal
13) 1km - 9:11(9:11/km) 161/166bpm 125cal
14) 1km - 8:05(8:05/km) 160/169bpm 107cal
15) 1km - 12:19(12:19/km) 155/170bpm 149cal
16) 1km - 10:03(10:03/km) 141/161bpm 85cal
17) 1km - 12:15(12:15/km) 132/152bpm 85cal
18) 1km - 12:08(12:08/km) 132/151bpm 84cal
19) 1km - 11:38(11:38/km) 122/143bpm 74cal
20) 1km - 11:17(11:17/km) 132/152bpm 69cal
21) 1km - 10:14(10:14/km) 130/144bpm 69cal
22) 1km - 10:10(10:10/km) 138/161bpm 82cal
23) 1km - 12:59(12:59/km) 152/170bpm 153cal
24) 1km - 9:52(9:52/km) 158/167bpm 129cal
25) 1km - 10:48(10:48/km) 155/163bpm 137cal
26) 1km - 11:40(11:40/km) 141/160bpm 105cal
27) 1km - 12:42(12:42/km) 130/147bpm 73cal
28) 1km - 10:03(10:03/km) 132/151bpm 60cal
29) 1km - 11:39(11:39/km) 123/146bpm 72cal
30) 1km - 19:58(19:58/km) 114/141bpm 89cal
31) 1km - 14:37(14:37/km) 122/140bpm 76cal
32) 1km - 10:20(10:20/km) 125/142bpm 65cal
33) 1km - 10:27(10:27/km) 121/136bpm 63cal
34) 1km - 12:40(12:40/km) 105/130bpm 69cal
35) 1km - 11:04(11:04/km) 116/130bpm 63cal
36) 1km - 10:42(10:42/km) 116/135bpm 65cal
37) 1km - 10:49(10:49/km) 117/134bpm 64cal
38) 1km - 19:33(19:33/km) 102/114bpm 73cal
39) 1km - 15:09(15:09/km) 103/122bpm 65cal
40) 1km - 12:17(12:17/km) 105/127bpm 60cal
41) 1km - 11:14(11:14/km) 109/123bpm 69cal
42) 1km - 11:03(11:03/km) 124/140bpm 82cal
43) 0.73km - 7:18(10:01/km) 125/135bpm 54cal