Jack Blakiston-Houston gives and account of his marathon experience in light of the London marathon last weekend
On the April 1st, I lined up along with 800 others, at the start of the 2012 Connemarathon in Connemara, Galway for my first marathon. Last weekend was London Marathon weekend and 40,000 runners assembled at Greenwich park to struggle their way through the 26 miles and 385 yards past the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament to the finish line. Yet my own experience was a little less glamorous.
For those who donÔÇÖt know Connemara it is one of the most beautiful, and hilly, places in the British Isles. The sun was very strong, so while I was very happy it wasnÔÇÖt pouring with rain I was still a little daunted by the task that lay ahead. I had trained hard however, and was reasonably confident of getting near my target time of 3 hrs 30 minutes. WhatÔÇÖs more, watching the winner of the ultra (39.3 miles) marathon come through our start line doing six minute miles with a full marathon still to go gave me a slightly more competitive appetite.
The first three quarters of the race was what I expected. I came through the half marathon mark in 1hr 30mins, negotiated the Magairl├¡ an Deamhain mountain (translated it means the devils mother, but actually means the devilÔÇÖs testicles) and I was well under my target time for 20 miles. In fact, after 21miles I had one hour to run the final five, but then I hit the wall. Probably due to my rookie attitude that I was pretty much invincible and could go at the same pace that I would run in Bute Park.
On a basic level ÔÇÿhitting the wallÔÇÖ is when your body runs out of carbohydrate energy and starts to break down fat, and given the 2.5 mile climb named the hell of the west from miles 22-24.5 it wasnÔÇÖt looking good. I felt like 100kg of lead was bearing down upon my back and my legs back were restricted by elastic bands.
As I ran (walked) up the hill I felt like I was going backwards. The whole situation was made all the worse by the thousands of half marathon runners who were merrily jogging past me.
It took me one almost an hour, half a kilo of gummy bears and a packet of fig-rolls to get to the top, and it was there I thankfully saw the friend I met at the start line running. A tiny little bit of encouragement and we were running towards the finish together. Crossing the line in three hours 38 minutes.
I was running for ParkinsonÔÇÖs UK, in the end raising ┬ú1750, and would like to extend a thank you to all who offered support through donation and otherwise.
The Connemarathon was an overall success, with 3,000 in all crossing the line from the three races run on the day.
The ultra marathon I mentioned earlier was won in an astonishing 3 hrs, 56 minutes by the current 100K World Champion Giorgio Calcaterra.
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