OK, so I've had a bit of a breather since my last marathon but now they really kick off....4 in one week to start with! I honestly didn't plan it this way - it just sort of happened. I'd already entered the Anglesey Coastal Challenge as I'd already completed the Jurassic one but I then entered the Salisbury 54321 as I just love this little jaunt in the Wiltshire countryside - it just so happened that after I'd entered, it dawned on me that they were all in the same week...oh well, no pain, no gain!
The 54321 is so called as it crosses 5 rivers, 4 hills, 3 large country estates, 2 castles and 1 cathedral and is extremely popular, catering not just for marathon runners but also a 50k, 30k, 20k and 10k option for runners and walkers.
There was a very quick sharp shower about 15 minutes before the 'off' and Pat, Caro, Dory and I just sat in the car waiting for it to stop but after that the weather was just about perfect for the rest of the day. After launching ourselves up the slippery chalk slopes of Old Sarum castle, we then joined the Clarendon Way for a while before dropping down to run through the amazing private estate of Longford, complete with a castle and clear chalk river where plenty of huge trout could be seen from the bridge as you run over. After this we crossed the main A338 (still early Sunday morning so very little traffic around as 'normal' people would only just be getting up and having breakfast!) and picked up the Avon Valley Path. By this stage I'd only seen one other female runner who had passed me around 3 miles but just as I hit the slow slog uphill to Clearbury Ring another absolutely flew past me and disappeared in a cloud of dust! However, not long afterwards I caught up and passed the woman who had originally overtook me.
After hitting Clearbury Ring where there was a very welcome water / jelly baby station, it was a fantastic run steeply downhill through a wild flower meadow adorned with loads of different kinds of butterflies to then run along a grassy track and eventually to a Swiss-style cottage and a thick yew tree forest straight from a fairy tale. Another refreshment station, this time serving huge chunks of bread pudding before heading into the forest, so thick that you would quickly lose your way had it not been for a piece of red string that you had to follow! I went through a really tough period here, feeling as if I had absolutely no energy and could hardly put one foot infront of the other and whilst it lasted for around a mile, it passed eventually and by the time I hit the road section again, all was OK.
A lovely long downhill into Coombe Bissett and the next water station before a long draining uphill to Salisbury racecourse then across fields before dropping down into Wilton. After this it was a couple of miles on quiet country lanes and a nature reserve before reaching the outskirts of Salisbury. I still hadn't seen another female runner and even the blokes were few and far between and those appeared to be the same ones either overtaking me or me overtaking them!
By the time I reached Salisbury cathedral, the 'normal' people had clearly got out of bed, eaten their breakfast and decided to invade Salisbury for the day...it was packed and would they move out of the way for a runner?!?! Would they heck....by this time I was really tired so my 'excuse me' soon turned into more of an angry 'MOVE' sort of request! Students were the worst...they take up the whole pavement and just walk into you...can't they see or something? Do they assume I'm going to suddenly leapfrog them?
Anyway, I made it back to the finish in one piece and then went to congratulate the woman who had shot past me at Clearbury Ring only for her to tell me that I was 2nd! OMG!! I've never come 2nd before in a race...ever!
Shortly afterwards I collected my prize of a lovely medal embossed with flames in the 5 Olympic colours so very topical bearing in mind the amazing London 2012 Olympics finished on the same day.
So, number 7 duly completed...I'm still in one piece and writing this 3 days later, can confirm that I didn't ache too much afterwards and managed (sort of) to do a speed session yesterday.
I also received the final information pack for this weekend's Anglesey marathons...for the Jurassic there had been a mix of around 200 or so walkers / runners tackling the event but this weekend there's a massive.....25!!! Definitely going to be the 'loneliness of the long distance runner' me feels this time round...imagine if 24 of them were walkers and I was the only one running...I'm sure that won't happen and there will be quite a few running but it's a long way to drive tomorrow if that is the case!
I'll let you know!
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