Here we are again. You’d be forgiven for thinking I actually enjoyed doing them at this point, but this time around I decided to do Chester marathon. This was the first of my dips into serious marathons that actually featured a little bit of a hill in them. Chester runs out into the middle of Cheshire, does a few ebbs and flows and back into the city’s perimeter for a final dash along the River Dee. Seemed reasonable enough so why not?

Training

So the training for this one was much the same as Manchester except work/life had gotten considerably more busy. For example, we were purchasing our first house and preparing lots of other things in our little lives. But even with that, I still found the time to do many big runs and get ready for the big day. This also coincided with many of the final Liverpool Running Bugs races as part of the 2022 championship. I also took upon myself the challenge of completing 50 Parkruns in 1 year which was a much harder feat than simply turning up, due to many logistical reasons. The nicest part of this particular race was that I would not be alone… Tim, my future father-in-law also decided to run his first marathon with me and that was brilliant. It meant that we could discuss training, dos and don’ts and other marathon related topics. Of course, I already knew that this race would be a lot harder than any of the others.

The training itself consisted of much the same; Monday 10ks, 5k on Saturday, and then varying the distance as we approached the big day. I noticed that my longer, slow runs became more frequent in this particular cycle. That was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because it meant that I felt a little bit fresher on the whole, however I will get to the bad later. It was still really difficult juggling the Chester run due to work and the constant shifts of trains. Here in the United Kingdom, for context, many of the trains were frequently cancelled or delayed hugely. The train companies have been acting at less than optimum capacity but mostly, there have been train strikes going on. I will not make this a political blog post and discuss that as those close to me know my feelings on this; but, that is by the by. Long story short, getting to and from work has been very inconsistent and made running training very difficult. But it still allowed me to run 16-20 milers at a lower pace.

One of the key differences this time has been that I contracted COVID a month before the marathon. This made very little difference to me as I started back training as soon as I was well enough; yet the first half marathon training run after the incident was quite exhausting. But all in all, there was a really good build up to the big day.

Taper

This may have been a big problem with the way I prepared for Chester. I reverted back to the 4 week taper for London whereas I probably should have used a stricter taper on the two weeks before, like in Manchester. The conclusion: so many weeks of taper made it more difficult to appropriately lower down the intensity which led to fast runs in the last week. But this could just be conjecture: either way, the taper was a longer one than usual but the drop in intensity was not done correctly, in my opinion.

Marathon

So we get to it on the October 2022, the London Marathon is running the same day as the Chester Marathon this year (ah happier times). Except this time, we get to the run a day early and we book a hotel the day before and about 400m away from the start. So in theory, this is a less stressful start than both the other 2. We loaded up on pasta and went for sleep, prepared ourselves for the next day. As Sunday starts, we get ourselves down to the start area at Chester Racecourse. For this of course we needed a small breakfast, little bits of extra energy and a healthy addition of water. Then we loaded into the area, it was clear but particularly crisp and cold when we got on the racecourse. And then when the time was right, no drama, no extra theatrics - we got going. Tim and I both started off relatively well but he fell into the 4 hour pacing while I tried to keep as close as I could to the 3 hour 30 pacing. Now, this is a very brave approach to the pacing, since it is 10 minutes off my previous but I felt confident going into the race and it seemed like a sensible target. The first 5-10k was uneventful and I could feel myself easing into the 8 minute mile pace. I stuck with the pace runner as best as I could, but he decided to start off particularly fast so we honestly struggled at the start but settled into a much more reasonable constant pace after a few kilometres. Then, I stuck at this pace relatively well and even headed the pacers for a while. At around 8k, I met a lad called Ian and he was a runner with the Whitchurch Whippets. Ian was fantastically motivational, had a brilliant sense of humour and found the run as intense as I did. However I daresay, he is a far better runner as time will tell.

As we passed the 10 mile mark, I could feel a bit of lag in my legs but my chest felt good. I knew I had run a good 10 miles well, but I felt like lots was left. This even held true until the half marathon mark: I knew I had held the pace alright. However, once we hit around 25-28k I felt that something was different and by the 20 mile mark something was very much so. My legs were going okay but the fatigue, due to the improper downing of intensity, had led to a weirder form where I think I was really inefficient in my running. So much so that by 34k, I was absolutely shattered and had fallen off the 8 minute mile pace. Ian had done the same but was still pulling away - I had to ease off and leave him ahead. It was a slog. Finishing the marathon just seemed to become almost impossible because of what I know believed was overpacing. Even though it hasn’t been that much faster on the day, the previous day’s parkrun, everything else: it was all adding up. Therefore, I calmed it down and slowed down and eventually, over the horizon I could see Chester. As we approached we realised that we were using the same trail back into the city; however there was a big hill up into the southern part of the city first. This was where I pushed all my remaining energy and then managed to slip my way across the final path along the River Dee into the finish line. Finally, done.

That marathon will hit the most of the 3 purely because it was the hardest and the only one where the thought crossed my mind not to finish. It was heartbreaking even to think it. But the good news is that my training is a bit more reasonable now, I have learned from the situation and I intend not to allow a similar thing to happen again.

At the finish of the Chester Marathon 2022: 3 marathons in 2 years

So to sum up:

  • Finished Chester
  • Bit slower than before
  • First time I hit the wall hard on a marathon - probably ran the first 25km too fast
  • Lessons learned, just another training

Next up is the Manchester 2 Liverpool 50 mile in 2023. For ultra-marathons, I think even more discipline is required so lets see if I can keep up!