I finished the Marlow 5 this morning - amazing considering that I thought about pulling out last weekend. I had only gone out on about 5 training runs in total, so was a bit surprised to make it round.
Here’s the story of the day anyway…
Myself and W went down to Higginson park at about 9 this morning - arriving about 15 minutes before the race start at 9:30. We had a quick look around for anybody we knew, and saw one of my work colleagues. I was a little worried that W would have nobody to spend any time with inbetween.
While looking around we spotted Ulrika Johnson - a B list celeb in the UK who lives nearby. It was quite amusing to see the number of people “checking her out” from a distance.
I went pretty near the back of the runners at the start (they put markers up to try and group the starters into some sort of order according to how long you think you might take) - mainly because of hurting my leg last week. I have not run since, so didn’t know how I was going to get on at all.
It took a couple of minutes to even get to the “official” start line - and even then we didn’t start running really until we got out of the park. The field this year was 1500 people - more than ever before.
I took the first couple of miles really steady - the first mile was spent avoiding being tripped, and dodging those that were already walking. I didn’t bother checking my watch (that’s not why I run), but I realised at half way that (a) nobody had overtaken me, (b) I had overtaken loads of people, and (c) I had loads left in the tank.
I was a bit surprised at about 3 miles to see Ulrika (the B-list celeb) pulling out of the race. I wondered what might have been wrong - she appeared to be limping.
Over the last couple of miles I just kept plodding along - I think the 4th mile was probably my fastest (again - I didn’t look at my watch - I just kept overtaking people). I then had an attack of doubt - thinking “I’m going really fast here, and I’ve only run 5 miles once in training”… so slowed down a bit for the last mile.
I won’t deny (for those of you that don’t run) that it does feel great when you come in over the finish line. Even at our local race, all the families and friends of those running line the last few hundred metres of the course, cheering everybody on.
On the run in to the finish I spotted W with the camera, and tried to find a gap between some of the other runners…
After finishing, I made my way round and picked up my medal and goody bag - this year the goody bag had a mars bar, an apple, an orange, an isotonic drink, a mineral water, and a penguin (chocolate biscuit bar) - along with a beer mat, and some flyers for local health related businesses.
Here’s the medal;
After finding W (who had made her way to the finishing area), we walked back through the park - it turned out quite a few of our friends had run the race, and their families were all there. Apparently W had been playing in the park with the children while we were out on the course.
I was also chuffed to see some of the people I had trained with over the last few weeks - one of the girls did amazingly - finishing in 46 minutes in her first 5 miler. The whole mood of everybody was very bouyant and cheerful - we had all done what we set out to do. Lots of hugs, toothy grins and slapping of backs ensued
So. There you go. Another year, another Marlow 5. Roll on Waddesdon in July