Tempted by Matthew Curry’s race report from last year, Matt and I booked ourselves in for the Fetteresso Forest Marathon. Christmas kind of got in the way of early training, but we managed to get galvanised and cracked on with week three of an 8 week training plan. The weather was extremely kind to us – sunny with the merest suggestion of a breeze. Very different from 2018 iciness, and I believe this was reflected in some much quicker running times this year.
Matt and I had been originally planning to “just enjoy it”, but about 8 miles in a spectator noted that I was first lady. That put paid to any notions of chill, as Jeni Rees-Jenkins was on my shoulder. I could hear her chatting happily to other runners, as I puffed and pushed harder than I ought to have done. At about 20 miles, I was seriously starting to flag (why do marathon training plans seem to max out at about 19 miles?? It’s surely a risky strategy). Jeni cruised past looking very fresh, and I felt relieved of the pressure of being in with a chance of first lady. Unfortunately Angela Reid wasn’t far behind, and miles 21, 22, 23 and 24 dragged very painfully on. If Matt hadn’t encouraged me, I would definitely have walked this last section (which incidentally was mostly uphill).
With literally only about half a mile to go, something gave in Matt’s knee, leaving me with the terrible choice of hanging in there with my running buddy (who had slowed down with me while he’d been feeling strong), or to leave him and hang onto my place as second lady. Fortunately Matt’s hopping pace was similar to my bipedal pace, so we shuffled in together. Sadly I was feeling too wrecked to enjoy any of the delicious soups and cake. I saw three other people puking after the finish…testament to the challenging route! However, tea (in proper mugs), edible medals, and tree prizes were a perfect end to this very well managed race. I really appreciated the efforts in making the event “low impact”.
Mary
Results: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wk36yx4b27b9w8v/FFM%202019%20Results.xlsx?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR1I_J9XFjfIgi2M2bOp6L8Mj76T_Lj2w1kAfrfrPmXXMoFxEx73Xc6s2ig