#294 - Enigma Furzton Marathon Race Report

None!

Pre-Race

Originally this had been slated to be run at Willen Lake but due to flooding the venue had to be switched to Furzton lake, which was a bit of a pain as I think Willen is my favoutite of the three "Enigima" lakes and Furzton the least favourite! Was some second thoughts as was only just back from the US and my legs were very worn out from Bandara just a few days before and I had half a mind to just run a little bit and then just DNF and help out/support folk as they went around. But the weather forecast was looking semi decent so would be a shame to miss it, so off we went!

Race

Well the forecast was correct and it wasn't too bad at all for mid-January and at 10:00 off we went! Now as usual I was fairly near the front of this small race and I have to confess that the sole reason I didn't walk up the first little incline was that it would have been embarrassing to walk after about 200 yards! My shame didn't last that long though as on the first little out and back there is a very short steep 10 yards and my legs simply wouldn't carry me up there! My quads were just dead, dead, dead...

I had very serious thoughts about just stopping right there and then!

Thought though that a 500 yard DNF would be a bit of a poor effort so might as well run a lap or two to see if things improved (they never really did that much) and before long I fell in with Paul Mason (Brathay 10x10 2014 guy) and got to chatting about this that and the other.

A lap or two turned in to 16 miles of chatter and Paul did a great job of pulling me along, had to walk both hills, but otherwise wasn't that bad on the flats, bit of tip toeing around the muddy puddles (my poor multi coloured Hokas will never be the same colour again!) I faded pretty badly by this point and Paul powered on as I looked for folk to walk with as by now I had decided that pulling out was a silly idea!

A lap with Martin Sanderson was nice to have a bit of a catch up, bit of a run, bit of a walk and then just a few laps to go when I caught up with Rachel (who was a lap ahead by this point and having a good run) so that gave me an excuse to push a bit more rather than totally just give up and tried to pull her along a bit on the flat bits and vice versa on any inclines!

And that was about it really - 4:33 which I was fairly pleased with bearing in mind the dreadful state of my legs, they were seriously beat up and had twinges all down the shins, ankles and quads from time to time pretty much all day.

Things I Learnt

• Clean Hokas and muddy puddles/grass do not a good combination make!
• Didn't do so badly on the eating cookies every lap exercise!
• Hills are no fun with trashed quads
• Nice to run and catch up with folk!