Brighton or Bust?

Picking up from the last instalment of Run Reece Run, my planning for Brighton Marathon started last November in the wake of completing the Thames Meander Marathon.

As with my previous three marathons, there were some useful lessons to take on board from the TMM.

One lesson is to never underestimate the importance of adapting to weather conditions!  On a day of heavy showers when the course was already saturated from a week of heavy rain and with winds that, for the most part, were 20mph and at times 40mph, in hindsight I realise I should have started at a more cautious pace.  Instead I probably went out slightly quicker than would have been wise even if the conditions had been perfect!  

I think a factor that contributed to this was that on the three previous weekends I had gained PBs at half marathon, 10 miles and 10K distances and any internal metronome I have was probably set at a faster pace than ideal for a marathon!  The outcome was that, while I felt very comfortable in the first 10 miles running faster than 8m20s per mile (no great surprise as this was significantly slower than the sub 7m20s pace I’d run throughout the Great South 10 mile run two weeks earlier), by the time I reached the turn point on the course and found myself running into a 40mph wind I was definitely more fatigued than I would have wanted to be with 13 miles still to run.  By mile 16 I was seriously struggling!

At the time I considered an even more important lesson was to ensure I built more long training runs into my next marathon schedule.  While my training for TMM had included two twenty mile runs (four and five weeks before the marathon), I’d only squeezed in two other runs of 16 miles or more.  Prior to my three previous marathons I’d done significantly more runs of 16 miles or further and I had to acknowledge that while my training in advance of the TMM had been great for 10K to half marathon distances, it was far from ideal for a marathon.

For the six weeks following the TMM I gave myself a relative rest with just one “heavy week” (that included a 16 mile run) in the middle of this period.  That took me to w/c 20th December when my 17 week programme for Brighton was seriously launched.

The first three weeks of training went as perfectly as I could have hoped for with a combination of interval sessions, tempo runs of 3-7 miles and longer slower runs.   However, Saturday 9th January marked a turning point.  That morning I had the very unwelcome experience of finding I could not put any weight on my right leg as I went downstairs without significant pain to my knee.  Strangely, there was no indication of any problem when I was walking on the flat.  I tentatively ran a short distance with no noticeable pain in my knee and came to what may well have been an unwise decision to go ahead with Parkrun.  The almost equally strange occurrence was that I then proceeded to take 23 seconds off my 5K PB, finishing in a time of 21m00s!

Over the previous six Saturdays I had been pushing myself pretty hard at Parkrun with finishes ranging from a PB equalling 21m23s to 22m01s.  On some of those runs the conditions hadn’t been ideal so I felt there was a chance that on a day with less wind and/or less slippery conditions underfoot I might be able to take a second or two off my PB.  In the final kilometre I was pretty confident that I had a PB time in the bag if I kept pushing hard to the end but I didn’t have a clue that it was such a big improvement until I went through the finish and checked my watch.  Of particular satisfaction was that I once more had bragging rights in the Parker/Reece household!

While Lesley had started running only in January of the previous year she had made incredible improvement.  Compared to my training programme, Lesley was doing only a fraction of the runs and none of the strength and stretching exercises.  Nevertheless within a year she had attained a PB with an age graded (“WAVA” or now “WMA”) score that was better than 70%.  At last with my new PB I had achieved my first 70% WMA score at Parkrun (only my second 70% score at any distance, the first having been the Trick or Treat 10K in November).  I daren’t make too much of this as I know only too well that if Lesley did ever decide to take training more seriously, she might be pushing towards 80%, certainly way beyond my capability! [For more information about age graded scoring: https://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/200565263-What-is-age-grading- ].

My training through the rest of that week continued to go to schedule but by the end of the week I was getting the impression that there were issues with my knee that were more than just a temporary niggle.  Matters then took another turn at the end of the week when Mum had a bad fall and was rushed into hospital.  While I would desperately have wished for different circumstances, the fact that I had an enforced week off from running was not at all a bad thing for my knee at that time.

Looking back now, the training picked up again very well in February and I also had a few physio and chiropractic sessions.  By the end of the month I’d completed the Hampton Court Half Marathon in a 1h41m time and my first 20 mile run of the campaign.  However, the completion of the latter coincided with a further flare up of my knee problem and an associated ITB issue.  This led to another couple of weeks where I had to rest up.  Once more I had relatively reassuring sessions with physio/chiro and I ended the two week rest period on 13^th March with one of the highlights of my spring campaign - the Spitfire 20.

The Spitfire 20 is a challenging course of two ten mile laps that include some serious hills.  I’d previously completed it in 2014 in a time of 3h06m when the last two hills had seemed like Everest!  This time I felt far more in control and finished in 2h48m!  During the run and over the next day or so, I had no particular reaction from the knee or ITB but then later in the week I found myself having to abandon a run because of knee pain.

There then followed what in terms of my hopes for Brighton Marathon was a mistake.  One week after the Spitfire 20 I took part in the Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon.  I’d been allocated a place among the first wave of runners and against my better judgement went along with this placing and found myself swept along in an adrenalin fuelled tide of enthusiasm which led to just my second sub 1h40m half marathon time (about 30 seconds slower than my PB of the previous October).  While this was very satisfying in itself, the effort clearly had its consequences on my troublesome knee!

I found myself unable to do any running through the rest of the week and over the following Easter weekend my hopes of undertaking a final 20 mile training run were thwarted after just 2 miles by the discomfort in my knee and ITB.  A second week of relative rest which included a somewhat “clunky” 5 mile run and I decided that I had to take my place at the Richmond Half Marathon to keep myself in reasonable shape for Brighton, just two weeks away.

This time I maintained good discipline and ran at not much faster than my intended marathon pace.  My leg was fine through the run and, though it stiffened up through the rest of the day, I thought the signs were reasonably positive.  Nevertheless, over the week I didn’t feel confident enough to test it any further.  

In the final weekend before Brighton I ran Parkrun on Saturday which went well and on Sunday a 7 mile run with the Bearcat Running Club.  The knee felt absolutely fine for most of that last 7 mile run but within the last 100 metres, as we went over a footbridge, I felt the knee suddenly stiffen up.  I wasn’t particularly concerned at the time but by the end of the afternoon the knee was causing more pain than it had throughout the whole time since the problem first occurred in January.   For the next 48 hours I judged that the likelihood of me being able to run a marathon less than a week later was less than 20%!  

I resolved to avoid making a final decision until as late as possible and from Wednesday morning onwards there was definite improvement each day.  On Saturday morning, the day before the marathon, I took a cautious run round the block (about 400 metres) and didn’t feel any significant discomfort…

Brighton or bust?  I'd come up with an answer - not bust enough to stop me getting to the start line! I was going to Brighton to compete and not spectate!

Next instalment of Run Reece Run – Crunch time at the Brighton Marathon!