Abingdon marathon 2011

I had heard a lot of positive things about this event. It turned out to be well organised, almost completely flat, the running conditions were great (overcast and no wind) and there were supportive marshalls. There was also lots of people I knew from the fetcheveryone.com, they formed over 10% of the entrants. It would have been a great course to go for a fast time, but there was no way that I was in any shape to do this, this was my seventh marathon in less than a month. The aim had to be just to get round.

The course was roughly a figure 8 with the bottom loop covered twice. I found the top part the more scenic, but sadly we only covered that once. There was a bit of an incline on the bottom loop but it was eased by someone who had done some pavement writing in chalk. It listed some famous runners in Tour de France style and encouraging phrases. Some fetchies who weren't running had come quite a way to form a Fetchpoint, a support point for those running from fetcheveryone.com. It was in the bottom half of the course, so the runners passed it twice. I was counting down the miles to the Fetchpoint as I needed all the support I could get. They were noisy and supportive and kept me going.

I had started at ten minute mile pace and I managed to keep that up until mile 15, when I started to slow. I was hoping for a kick of energy at 17m like last week, but nothing happened. It did finally come, but not until 24.5m, a bit late, but I did enjoy the last 1.7m! 4hr 34min 32sec in total.

I had started at ten minute mile pace and I managed to keep that up until mile 15, when I started to slow. I was hoping for a kick of energy at 17m like last week, but nothing happened. It did finally come, but not until 24.5m, a bit late, but I did enjoy the last 1.7m! 4hr 34min 32sec in total.