Marathon #9: August 2020 – Enigma X – Robertson Family Fundraising

AN ACTUAL REAL LIFE RACE!!

I ran this one for Luke and Thomas:

I had been due to run one of the Engima races in July but we weren’t able to travel down and the races were still all cancelled. However, it looked like August races might be ok and a trip south looked like it might be on the cards so I asked Foxy to transfer my entry and kept everything crossed I might be able to run my first real life race since February.

After a glorious but busy week staying with my brother and sister in law in Buckingham and spending some socially distant time with my parents, the day of the race dawned and I could not have felt less like running a marathon! Covid restrictions meant that no one could come with me to the race, so I had to go it alone. Also, the weather forecast looked like this:

The race is 7.5 laps of a lake in Milton Keynes, but since I’ve come to realise that I like a lapped race, this didn’t bother me. we set off in waves, 6 of us starting together and I ran the first lap and a half with a chap called Ian from Hull.

From early on in the race, I realised I was struggling to breathe normally, like I couldn’t quite catch my breath, I think it was the extreme heat. I slowed and let Ian go on ahead and set myself in for the long haul, taking some pictures as I went:

At the end of each lap I stopped at my bag, drank some coke, ate some salty crisps, doused myself in water and grabbed two more bottles to drink on the next lap. It was SO HOT!! 🥵

After lap 2 I grabbed my phone and FaceTimed Ali, he was out for a run himself and he chatted to me round lap 3. It was nice to have some “company”. There were only 25 other runners in the race and apart from passing a couple of them I hardly saw anyone.

During lap 4, the “hump” lap, I did a Facebook live, keen to show people that I didn’t find marathons easy, despite how it might look! When I watched it back later I was amazed at my inability to string a sentence together and a couple of people had messaged to say they were worried about me. I really was finding it tough!!

Around this time I caught and passed Ian, who was finding the heat really tough. I got my head down and got the job done – delighted to pip in under 4:30, not that long ago that would have been a huge PB and I did it on a very hot day when I really struggled!

Social distancing meant that I was directed to collect my medal from the ones laid out on a bench. No hugs, no high fives, it was very surreal. And because of the waves I had no idea how I had done compared to anyone else, turns out there were a couple of pretty speedy ladies there so I was third lady and 5th overall out of a field of 26: