The Coniston Marathon has a cut off time of 6 hours so I am hoping I am up to it. When I applied for the place I had not realised that there was an earlier start option with a cut off of 8 hours and I perhaps should have applied for that instead. There are also checkpoints along the way
We get to our cottage in the end and the next day go down to collect my number and also a strange velcro on race chip that has to go on your ankle. It looks like it could be a warm one according to the weather forecast.
The following day is race day and I am up early to get ready. We dont have far to go though just about a 20 min drive along towards the town of Coniston where the race HQ is situated.
Its very hot. At 9am everyone is alternating between standing in the shade and paddling in the lake!
The start was delayed by about 15 mins due to an issue on the course but eventually we are off. The race heads towards the town and soon it looks like I should have taken the earlier race start after all as I am quickly near the back. Still I'm thinking someone has to be so I try not to let it bother me and I do manage to overtake a couple of people in the first 3 miles.
After that though comes a really big uphill and there is more road than I like. Then comes the first checkpoint and I am astounded when I am told I cant carry on as I am outside the cut off. By my watch I am still under it by around 10-12 mins, so i am a bit indignant but I realise perhaps they did not know the start had been delayed, and sure enough they don't (which tells me that the race communication is not the best!) but they are not sure whether to take my word for it or not so I am glad when someone else comes along to back me up. Still the Marshall decides he's going to warn me that I am 'still very close to it' and I should 'get a move on'. This annoys me as I am well aware of the time, and how does he know that I am not suddenly going to go a bit faster (I'm not of course but he doesn't know what my race strategy is). I feel like if i am inside the cut off even by a minute they should just leave me to it and if I am outside then fair enough I get stopped?
Anyway I keep going but its getting hotter and hotter and I'm feeling a bit pressured.
Why didn't i realise there was an earlier start option? What an idiot!
At around 7 or 8 miles approaching the loop of Tarn Hows (a local beauty spot with walks around a small lake) I'm starting to feel a little odd. I haven't felt like this when running before.
I feel a little dizzy, and breathless and feel like my heart rate is a bit fast.
I slow down and try a walk. I feel a little better and so carry on but this keeps happening. It must be the heat I think but am not sure what to do about it apart from dip my hat in the cold water and put it back on. I keep going. Maybe I need more sustenance I think and try to take on a gel but my stomach is having none of it and I throw up.
I think "that's not good" but I am not sure what to do about it apart from keep going.
Of course the more experienced of you will have realised that I am probably suffering from what i now know to be heat exhaustion, but not having experienced it before I didn't realise.
I had a vague idea that I am being affected by the heat in some way but can't seem to grasp the seriousness of it despite the fact that I have no energy left by now.
Eventually at around 15 miles I am just walking and looking behind me I glimpse the sweeper in the distance. I am on a white stony forestry commission type track and on a hill above Coniston water. The sun is refecting off the surface and the track seems to be never ending.
At some point in the next mile my befuddled brain has managed to alert me to the fact that something is seriously wrong and I know I need to stop. I decide just to keep walking until the sweeper catches me and then pull out as I know I am not going to be able to finish.
As she draws level with me at about 17 miles I explain all that has happened. She agrees that it is the heat and tells me not to feel bad about it, she had completed several ultras and once had to pull out of a 10k because she felt the same way!
She tells me that it will only get worse if not dealt with and that although it's always a difficult decision I had done the right thing deciding to stop. I had also ran out of water having had a raging thirst so she kindly gives me some of hers
Unfortunately, she tells me that we have another mile to go before any sort of side path leading off of the the hill towards the road at the bottom. But I would have to make it down the hill on my own. Or I can keep walking until the next aid station about 3 miles away with her, and pull out there, although unbelievably I am told there will be no one to take me back to the finish on the other side of the lake where Kev is waiting. So basically I have to try and organise Kev to come and pick me up myself.
I was not in a state of mind to argue but after the event I was not happy that there appeared to be no medical cover for this kind of thing, or perhaps it was not considered to be serious enough but in hindsight I thought it bad that I was just left to it?
Anyway 1 mile v 3 miles, I pick the former and hope that once I am off the main track the tree cover I will descend into will make me feel better. I also hand the sweeper my chip so that they can count me out of the race without us having to go back to race HQ
At some point I have phoned Kev and told him of the situation and although I cant really remember the conversation he tells me I have never sounded so bad! I try to explain where i am and what point i am likely to appear on the roadside
Unbeknown to me he now has to get out of the car park, the road to which the organisers have seen fit to make one way (in only) until a certain time of day. SO Kevin being Kevin he just ignores this and drives out anyway!
SO I do the 'walk of shame' down the hill path towards the road and eventually cross it to sit on a stone in a prominent place to await pick up
I don't have too long to wait but the cool shade is making me feel a little better and so once Kev arrives I am a little more coherent, and more importantly he has brought me cold ginger beer!
Never has ginger beer tasted more like the elixir of life than on that day.
We drive back to the cottage. I am ridiculously exhausted.
I didnt realise until afterward what I had been experiencing
So that was my first DNF. Not a spectacular DNF but more a long slow downward spiral.
What did I learn from it?
Well how it feels to have heat exhaustion for a start. Very useful to know.
How sometimes its OK to pull out of a race and you shouldnt always keep pushing on.
Dont overestimate your ability and if theres an option with a longer cut off, take it!
Obviously I didnt really enjoy the race because of how I was feeling, but that aside, I'm not sure If Id like to go back and try it again. There was more tarmac than I like on a race (not as much as the Salisbury 54321 but still a fair bit!). The event was billed as 'the most picturesque marathon in the UK' but to be honest I've done more picturesque ones.
From the emails i was sent It appears that Lakeland Trails is run by VOTWO which would explain the obsession with chivvying people along and the lack of support for anyone dropping out. (I'm sure they have their good points, but my own experience with them as a race event company has not been very good).
We do have a nice rest of the week doing some walks around the local countryside and canoeing on the lake, but it actually takes me a couple of days to feel really normal again.
The following week was Jenny's 50th parkrun which is at Poole.
The week after I decide that I am going to cycle the round the harbour route again to fill in the gaps in the video. Unfortunately it ends up raining a lot of it and I got completely soaked!
I ended up with usable footage however but the video looks a little bizarre as it swaps back and forth between rain and bright sunshine!
And so we come to the last weekend in June and the Giants Head Marathon starting at Sydling St Nicholas with Neil & Dave again. This is important to me to finish following the DNF as I need to know I can still do a marathon! This might sound odd but I had never DNF'd before and It had knocked my confidence a little. We are also on tenterhooks as my first grandchild is due any minute and Hazel is under strict instructions to keep legs crossed until at least after the marathon!
As it happens I shouldn't have worried as I ended up finishing in my fastest ever time I had done this race in 6 hours 20, and managed a lighthearted sprint finish with Dave! Poor Neil however had tweaked his knee with a couple of miles to spare and so had decided to walk the rest of the route in order not to make it worse.
Luckily the imminent grandson didn't put in an appearance and so we leave the month on a cliffhanger, waiting for the phone call....
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