A Good Plodder On-er

The evening of finishing my last ultra I had the thought, wouldn’t it be nice to do a marathon next weekend. Because I am little old impulsive me I entered the Clarendon marathon which is mostly off road and is pretty local running from Salisbury to Winchester. It seemed ideal, although the start time was too early for me to get there via public transport I could drive to Winchester which is only a 20 min drive, they put on a bus to get to the start in Salisbury and then ended up in back in Winchester where they did a shuttle to the carpark.

I watched the instructional video. I was able to just about pay attention for the whole approx 30 mins as the organisers use of visusal aids showing us what every sign looks like and demonstrating putting a plastic cup on a lanyard to reduce cup wastage made it a lot more entertaining than I expected. The race is run by a Rotary club and the whole feel was very much of a Southern traditional English village. This is not a criticism at all it was welcoming, inclusive of slower runners, upbeat and very friendly.

There were warnings it was a hard course and so I decided that to finish comfortably within the time I should start as early as possible. There were two mass starts at 9.30am and 10.30am but you were permitted to start as early as 8am. To use the shuttle service it was not possible to start much before 8.30 am but I felt that would give me 7.5hrs which should have been more than adequate.

My dogs decided that sleep before a marathon was overrated. My little terrier felt it was very important to go out in the garden at 3am. Then she shouted to go in the front room. I can’t leave the door open because my big fluffy dog had a bit of hard start in life and still hasn’t realised that our sofa is not his private urinal so had to wait until she realised she didn’t want to be in the front room and then let her back out again. This whole palaver took quite a chunk out of my night which would have been better spent sleeping.

I struggled to get up and then as usual was not ready and also procrastinated. I packed my hydration vest with everything I usually pack for an ultra apart from my main nutrition which is Tailwind .These are great little packs that contain electrolytes and energy and what I have used for years with great success. Unfortunately I only discovered at 7am on race day that I had run out which meant I had no plan for keeping myself energised. Undeterred I grabbed a few haribo and hoped for the best. I thought about buying some snacks on the way but my Satnav was warning me I was short on time. I drove into the car park just in time to watch the bus was leaving. The second bus was only 20 mins behind so although not ideal I felt it was not a total disaster.

Fortunately Bananas and jelly beans were supplied at the bus stop so I snacked on them on the way to the start and watched the rain start.

The start was organised and everyone was so helpful. I managed to start at 8.50am and all seemed ok. The route was hilly and muddy in parts, the day had on and off rain but it was never really torrential. Compared to most ultras the going was pretty straight forward. I had brought my running poles which were totally not needed. I am not used to having so many marshals. It was impossible for even me to go the wrong way as there were signs everywhere and marshals stopping traffic to help you cross the road. Ultra runs sometimes have marshals at busy roads but here every single crossing was covered. There were also a lot of water stops mostly with bananas and jelly beans but it’s not what I’m used to and my pace slowed further and further.

Two teenage boys came up behind me on bikes. I assumed they were the “sweepers” people at the end of the course who follow the last runner and let you know if you are going too slow and have to pull out. They told me I was not last but the penultimate penultimate. They also said if they overtook me that meant I would have to pull out. One of the people behind me was pushing his daughter in a buggy which was hard going especially when at one point the wheel broke so I was feeling a bit inadequate given I had no reason to be slow.

About an hour later the same boys who had pulled back overtook me without saying anything. I was a bit concerned at this point but then another cyclist came up behind me and said yes I was still last but 2 but I was fine to carry on. The marshals were so upbeat despite having to hang around for us stragglers and never made me feel like I was an inconvenience

I managed a sprint at the end as I did not want to have a sub 7hr marathon time and squeezed in at 6hrs 59mins and 34 seconds. By far my slowest marathon time. I managed to get the bus back to my car and get home slightly later than planned.

I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep, lack of Tailwind, doing an ultra the week before or just one of those things but some days you are just slow. I didn’t get timed out, I enjoyed the day so in my book it was a success. It wasn’t as if I was going to win. The amount of post race info was incredible, loads and loads of free photos and even a video of the day on You Tube that I considered watching until I saw it was over an hour long. I’m sure many people with greater attention spans really appreciated it.

I ran 28miles as a training run the following weekend and did it over an hour quicker. It was mostly road and only 3/4 of the elevation but still seemed odd that I was so much slower for the marathon.

I have had an easy week this week and let my body rest a bit. Hopefully I can get back up to higher mileage next week. A piece of wisdom taught to me by a wise psychologist is “Rest is Productive”. It is a hard concept to believe as I think we are all encouraged to do more, try harder and achieve more. Having ADHD often makes you unproductive and living not knowing why makes you constantly think it is your fault for not trying hard enough. You go from extremes of intense activity to total burnout and wonder why you can’t get simple things done. Leaving the house is so frustrating as I rarely walk out the door just once as I have to go back for my phone/glasses/keys or whatever. Getting places all the time not having what you needed and either incredibly early or late can grind you down at times but knowing why and that just trying harder isn’t going to work makes it a lot easier to deal with. Being around people even kind, helpful people is also work for most autistic people so giving yourself permission to just stop doing, stop interacting and immerse yourself in whatever calms you does help you achieve more in the end. Unfortunately when that is running silly distances in the middle of nowhere your body can also need a break from that! I am now 3 years post diagnosis and I have learned a lot about how to be me, I have a way to go but just like my running I am slowly getting there.