4 laps of an urban landscape in a 20 mile road run on a wonderful Spring day under blue skies and glorious sunshine – some peoples idea of running hell, but for anyone running a Spring marathon, its classed as a fantastic training event. See Simon’s comments below
Results:
Ilidia Campbell – 2:49:18
Ralph Bernascone – 2:56:43
Lotte Moller Vasby – 2:59:59
Jackie Parsons – 3:03:51
Simon Funnell – 3:20:54
So on Sunday I thought I’d give the Worthing 20 a try as a good training run for my 1st ever marathon in 4 weeks’ time.
I arrived at the signing-on tent around 8.20am signed on got my race number and thought I’d have a look around to spot any other Joggers but didn’t spot anyone so headed down to the start line and was starting to feel quite nervous at this point.
Bang goes the gun and we’re off! By the 3rd mile marker llidia comes past me and before I knew it she had disappeared into the distance! By 4.5miles Lotte comes past me, as did Jacky and Ralph, so by 5miles 4 Joggers had come past!
In the first lap I felt very comfortable and was running at a nice pace so just kept going. By the 7 mile marker the race leader had come past me and within a blink he was gone again can see why he finished it in 1hr 48mins.
By the time I had reached mile10 I’d covered it in 1hr 30 and was feeling really good, and said to myself “2 down, 2 to go”, by this point I’d seen the same spectators twice and they were a great help cheering us on.
The 2nd and 3rd lap I don’t really remember much of it, I was just listening to my music and plodding along but I’d definitely seen every bit of Goring at that point! Then I was starting the last lap, and by mile 16 I could feel the pain starting to kick in and had not realised that I’d eased off the gas but was still comfortable at the pace…………then the dreaded wall hit me at 18.5 miles, physically I was feeling fine but my god I felt very sick at this point, there was nothing else for it I had to walk for a few minutes, I had a drink and ate some sugary sweets and started to feel better, so started to jog then before I knew it I could see the finish, so just went for that last 100 yards and finished in 3hrs 20.
I was glad I did it to know what it’s gonna entail for the Brighton marathon, but I think I’m ready now. I just know I need to take on more fuel to get me past that wall. On the other hand today is a different level, ankles hurt, knees hurt, quads hurt, but I guess the pain comes with the rewards!
Simon Funnell
I felt quite sick too at the last lap, stomach went into a knot. I blame the gel blocks, haven’t tried them before. Never again
Lotte Moller Vasby
