Luton Marathon

On Sunday 18^th November I set out to Luton to run my first marathon in preparation for my Arch to Arc Challenge. I arrived in Luton early and went to the race HQ to get an electronic chip that would record my lap times. At 10am the race started and we began the three lap course. Having not run a marathon before I took it out a little fast on the first lap and paid for it on the second and third laps! The last 6 miles were so painful I had to walk for a fair bit of it.

Fortunately the weather was lovely so the run was pleasant. We also had regular water stations along the course, which broke up the monotony of a 26.2 mile run. All of the other runners and the marshals were extremely friendly. I found myself running alongside a man dressed as Superman who told me that this was his 285^th marathon! This spurred me on to complete the race even when I was feeling at my lowest. If somebody could run 285 of these things, I could run 1!

Eventually I crossed the finish line in 5 hours and 4 minutes. This was much slower than I would have liked, but as I have had to split my training between the other two disciplines I have run not nearly enough miles in training as I need to. Hopefully with a bit more hard work I can improve on this time. I have learnt a lot about pacing from this race and this will be invaluable as I am going to need to do three and a half marathons in one go by July!

All in all, it was a successful day, as I achieved what I set out to do: FINISH! I am now walking like a penguin because my legs are so stiff and I have a blister the size of a boiled egg on my foot, but nothing can quash that amazing feeling you get when you cross the line and they put a medal round your neck. I just can’t wait to do it all again!