Our planned weekend in the Lakes seemed to come around quickly, as in my last blog May generally seems to be hurtling around as the 10 in 10 challenge begins to appear over the horizon. Normally the build up to a marathon is a carful balance of carb loading and rest. Whereas the build up to my double marathon weekend in the lakes was far from that, a hectic week in work, squeezing runs in and not the greatest amount of sleep all led to us arriving in the Lakes at about 9pm Friday night, quickly checking into our lovely lodge at Brathay and heading into Ambleside for some food, luckily finding the Queens Head hotel still serving food.
I set my alarm for 7:30am Saturday morning, I'd wanted to get up a little earlier but arriving and eating late meant I'd adjusted my plans slightly , after sorting my kit and a couple of porridge pots I was away at 8:30am for Marathon day 1. It was a cool but dry morning, pretty much perfect running weather, just after Hawkshead a cyclist appeared at the side of me, noticing my Brathay shirt introduced herself as working for the Trust and training for the Brathay 262 event in June. It was nice to have a chat for a few minutesand exchange kudos. The rest of the run went well enough and I was really pleased to get to mile 21 where I'd hidden a bottle of Lucozade behind a wall the night before, it was still there! I felt some discomfort in my left IT band area which I tried to massage out at about mile 23- 26 but overall no dramas and a nice steady pace tapped out which I intend to run in May
I'd left my Garmin charger at home which I was really annoyed about as the whole point of my two laps was to practice steady pacing. As a result we reluctantly headed into Kendal to try and buy one with no luck, lesson learnt for May, check list required! Another lesson learnt is eating, when Adam part of the Brathay support crew told us we need to be taking on about 6000cals a day I thought 'easy' eating is something I am really good at, however I was struggling to stomach anything more than a few bites of lunch, which was worrying me a bit, as a result I was suffering a little from on of my migraines . Once I got back to my room I had some medication and was able to force down Greggs Roll and was feeing much better.
We had a lovely night in Bowness for Sarah's birthday at Jacksons Bistro , appetite was back and I was able to get though all three courses....back on form.
The clocks went forward overnight so I was robbed of an hours sleep however was still up and at it again by 8:30am, Another crisp cold perfect running morning. I had to track todays run on my phone as my battery was flat on the Garmin, which meant I had to wing my pace a little bit was no visual confirmation how fast, or indeed slow I was going. I turned on audio updates, which was helpful but not as reliable as a watch. Overall I paced pretty well, perhaps a little slower than planned but not by a great deal, plus I did stop to take pictures of deer a couple of times.
The main drama of todays run was almost being hit by a passing car whilst running into Bowness along the eastern side of Lake Windermere , most normal considerate people gave me plenty of room, just one Tube in a Corsa passed millimetres away from me, really made me jump and districted me for a bit as I was nervous for a few miles. I spent the next few miles working out which side it was safer to run on, towards or away from traffic?
Next on the agenda is our charity night at the queens in Hyde this Easter weekend, and no doubt some more running before I take on the Manchester Marathon on April 8th.
Time of writing just one month and 14 days until May 11th and day one of 10 in 10, holy crap balls
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