Marafun Marathon

Completed my 4th Marathon on Saturday. The Orpington Marafun. I really loved this event, it was local, well organised and despite the small field a very friendly atmosphere. I ran the first half with Jerry, George, Dave and Tom, really great group and got round the first half fairly easily. However, after about mile 15 miles got cramp in my calfs and thought I would have to give up and become a DNF, but I have never failed to finish a race and though just got to tough this out.  I ended up running slowly and as soon as cramp hit me I  stopped,  stretched, then walked and eventually ran and so on and on and on.

I ended up finishing in 4.56 which was PB. The frustrating thing is I know I can so much better but keep getting hit with problems in later stages. There were lots of Orpington Road Runners and friendly faces and I spoke with lots of people on the route. At the end I ran with a couple of 100 Marathon club members. I said to this woman you must find this pretty easy and she said this was her 297 marathon and closing stages always tough. Her husband who was running with her had done over 400 marathons. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I did not take any gels and I did not have any energy problems and apart from cramp everything else was fine.

One thing I did notice was the night before I woke up with a very slight feeling of getting cramp in my legs so the problem was in my legs before I started. My conclusion is to have more massages. 

I am going to concentrate of shorter distances for a while and do a bit of speed work before I start my training for Beachy.