Marathon runners are completely spoilt for choice this month. According to the Runner's World website there are 17 marathons taking place in the UK in May. However, even with so much choice I found it easy to select the one that I wanted to run this month. On 22nd May I'll be taking part in the Windermere Marathon and running around the spectacular Lake District. It should be a challenging marathon, but beautiful at the same time. This should be the first truly scenic marathon of the year. The first four have been quite nice, but Windermere should be epic. I can't wait.
Following our holiday at Centre Parcs I came down with a bit of a cold and chesty cough. It's possible that this was brought on by post marathon fatigue. There's a belief that marathon running can affect your immune system. It is funny how many people seem to get a cold a week or two before a marathon, just at the point that their training has reached a peak. Anyway, my cold forced me to rest a couple of days longer than I'd planned, so it wasn't completely unwelcome.
I threw myself back into training last Thursday by going for an 11.5 mile run from home to Waterbeach and back, sticking to the River Cam tow path. There were plenty of rowers out on the Cam, but very few runners and walkers on the path. The flies were out in force though, and a few came to an unwelcome end in my throat as I pounded the tow path.
I had intended to take part in the Cambridge Park Run on Saturday, but my cough returned with a vengeance Friday evening resulting in severe lack of sleep. However, I dragged myself out of bed Saturday morning so that I could drive Ruth to the start of the run and cheer her on. Whilst there I realised the organisers were one volunteer short, so I ended up marshalling part of the course.
My plan for yesterday was for a 22 mile training run. My biggest issue now is that all of my running friends have now completed their spring marathons, so they won't be going for very long Sunday runs. Some of them will enter marathons in the autumn, but they won't be thinking about doing any marathon training again until maybe July. So I have a few months ahead of me when I'll be doing most of my long runs on my own. Saying that, I managed to join up with Jamsheed, Shelley and Andrea for part of my run yesterday. They'd all planned to meet at 9am to go for a 10 mile run. I set off an hour earlier to get 8 miles in by myself, I then met with my friends to run 8 miles with good company. After I'd said my goodbyes to them I set off to run an additional 6 miles by myself.
It was a beautiful day, perhaps a little too nice for running. I think we made it all the way through April without any rain. What happened to the April showers this year? The weather has been amazing over the last few weeks, and there hasn't been any sign of it changing. The heat and the fatigue in my legs made the last 6 miles a hard slog. With about 2.5 miles to go I bumped into an old friend walking their dog, so I took the opportunity to stop for a chat. Although it was hard to get my legs going at first, once I was running again I felt slightly refreshed from having a short break. Once home I felt very satisfied with myself. I now have three weeks until the Windermere marathon, and this time I plan to have a three week taper rather than my usual two.
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