I know it’s been a few weeks! So, in my journey to 100m, which was never the intended challenge, we’ve reached the end of 2013. A year of 2 half marathons that went really well and actually made me believe that running was good for me. Maybe not marathons, but the half marathon was definitely a distance I was getting better at.
I’d sworn off marathons after London 2012 but 2014 would see me return to the distance, and in some style, I might add, as biased as I am! My initial plan for 2014 was the same as 2013. The GNR and Birmingham half with another half earlier in the year; at that point Silverstone was the obvious choice as I was familiar with it.
Then things changed. I got to reading about runners that did multiple runs in a short space of time e.g., 10 marathons in 10 days, a half marathon every day and more. These weren’t things I wanted to attempt, not then anyway! But I was intrigued by some of these efforts. I’d very much been of the belief that you did 2 marathons a year at most, as I did in 2009 but halfs could be run more frequently, especially if used to train for marathon; again, just like I did in 2009!
Having not run for charity since London 2012, I decided that I wanted to do something on a bigger scale for a charity in 2014. A number of friends at that time had been diagnosed with cancer and thankfully all recovered in time. Macmillan’s Cancer Support was a charity I heard a few of them talk about and so I decided to run for them in 2014. I tried for one of their London places but was unsuccessful, so it became a question of what challenge to do.
I was focused on it being a multiple race challenge. Something to really challenge me which looking back seems a bit bizarre given the challenges I’d had with marathons back then. Now I think someone put the idea in my head, but I’m inclined to think that it was to paraphrase Reeves and Mortimer “My idea!”
From Sept 2006 (1st half) to Oct 2013 (last race at that point) I had completed 6 full marathons and 10 half marathons. A decent return in 7 years for a part time runner; I stopped running after each marathon after all and a good amount raised for charities. I decided trying to do the same number of races in 7 months would be a good challenge! Not sure why, but that was my first multiple race challenge. In 7 months, double the number of runs it had taken me 7 years to do!
So, I started looking for races to enter and initially the Coventry Half was due to be my first race and the Birmingham half the last of the 16 races. In terms of marathons, I decided to give Edinburgh another go but I had no place for London so had to find 5 other full marathons. I discovered there was loads to choose from, I just needed the right ones for me with a spread over the 8 months the challenge eventually got spread over.
The first half changed to Silverstone and in the end, Birmingham was not the final race of the challenge but the 18th. I ended up with a rather low-key race to finish at. A few months in I decided at some point, possibly in May to round up the 16 races to 20! A nice round number and also it meant I’d not just double my race count.
This was in the days before Strava, so I started logging my runs on a spreadsheet! Below is a screenshot of November 2013, where I started my training. Basic details about each run! I was under no illusions that the sooner I started training the better. And I was a bit more confident about my running having broken my half PB twice in the last 2 races. My concern was the marathons. I’d only gone sub 6 once so I decided I had to just try and make the marathons as pain free for as much of the run as I could.
I’m not sure how it came about but I ended up wearing an afro for the first 2 races at Silverstone and Coventry and it became a regular thing at all the races. MacMillan’s sent it to me, and I thought for 1 race, why not? That said, I didn’t really need a green afro to stand out. The name, the long beard and the Usain shorts were enough, but it became a thing.
The list of 20 races ended up looking like this:
No DATE RACE
1 02/03/2014 Silverstone Half
2 23/03/2014 Coventry Half
3 06/04/2014 Manchester Full
4 27/04/2014 Stratford Full
5 04/05/2014 Sunderland Half
6 25/05/2014 Edinburgh Full
7 22/06/2014 Shrewsbury Half
8 05/07/2014 B’ham & Black Country Half
9 06/07/2014 Edgehill Half Marathon
10 17/08/2014 Worcester City Half
11 24/08/2014 Severn Bridge Half
12 07/09/2014 GNR
13 14/09/2014 Northampton Half
14 21/09/2014 Bristol Half
15 28/09/2014 Nottingham Full
16 05/10/2014 Chester Marathon
17 12/12/2014 Oxford Half
18 19/12/2014 Birmingham Half
19 26/12/2014 Leicester Full
20 02/11/2014 Droitwich Half
There were 4 races I had done before: GNR, Birmingham, Silverstone and Edinburgh. All the others were new to me. At the time and looking back I have to admit the scheduling of the races wasn’t ideal! However, it gave me a number of challenges that worked out for me carrying on as an endurance runner. Two half marathons on the same weekend in July. In 2017 I took this even further, but we’ll come to that; eventually. Races 12 to 20 were on successive weekends. 9 races in a row. That was probably not the way I should have done it, but that is how it panned out and apart from 1 of those races, it worked out OK for me. The 3rd and final challenge were marathons on successive weekends. That was a risk, but I decided to go for it. I avoided too many summer races as I wasn’t at that time confident of running in hot weather, although Shrewsbury half that year was a scorcher!
Some of the races became ones I would revisit as I enjoyed them. Namely Manchester full, Coventry half and to a lesser degree Shrewsbury. Some of those races I have never done since! Some of them have changed a lot since I did them e.g., Oxford, others don’t exist like Nottingham full and some of them never appealed again.
So, it was going to be an interesting challenge. But I was focused on it. I didn’t have a training plan as such! I’d sworn off doing any stretches or warmups, but I could do this. Couldn’t I?
Back next week with the first instalment of 2014. Get ready for lots of photos of me wearing that afro!
Usingh Bolt - Endurance Runner 