A Ballsy Marathon

This report is very similar to the ones on the Free Spirits and Concept II websites - with a bit of extra detail and some extremely unflattering photos thrown in....... Click on them & you get the larger view - if you dare!

The day started inauspiciously as I pranged hubby's car on the way out of the drive. Then I taught two lessons while all the time getting more & more nervous. I finished the second lesson at 10:30 then went off to the Badminton Hall to set up carrying my little wooden table with me.....

Hubby & one of the gym staff were there to assist so we got out my erg, flanked by 4 others on each side for the boys to join in later. Mine was opposite the double door to outside. The posters went up, my little table got stocked with pints of water & bananas and collecting tins were placed by the door. My stomach really started churning at this point.

I started at 11:01, still assisting hubby with sorting out where to put up posters & where to place leaflets. I'd thought that the first 90mins would be hard as I was on my own ergo wise - but in fact by the time hubby had finished putting stuff out and started shaking tins the first half hour had already gone. It was really hard to stick to pace for the first half. I kept glancing at the display to find that the split was too low, so I'd throttle back, but then someone else would drop by to say 'hi' & by the time they left the split was 5-6s/500m lower again. I paid for that later..... Plenty of friends & colleagues showed up & at this point I was still able to have a chat.

12:20 and the boys started arriving; all of them members of the school Boat Club organised into five teams of eight, each boy rowing one eighth of a marathon (5275m) starting at 30min intervals so as to finish about the same time as me. I was still fine at this point & really enjoyed the first of their relays - the noise in the hall was great, one of them 'off games' took the tins & I could see him doing a sterling job of persuading passers by to donate ("do you know what that woman is doing? a whole marathon, all by herself! Do you know why?...... etc") This helped hugely. he kept popping in to see how far I had left & one of the coaches took on the task of updating the ‘meters to go’ board outside.

Halfway came & went - I was still feeling fine, smiling at the punters to get more money, still able to chat to visitors, still finding it hard to stick to pace. My rating varied between 22 & 25spm - lifting when the boys were doing their pieces alongside. I'd been taking in water at 30min intervals, but then around the 15km to go mark - which was my first 'nearly home' point - I started to feel a bit crampy in my thighs & a bit of pain in my knees - Pete Marston on the C2 site had suggested changing the height of the feet in such circumstances so I paused to do that & take on some water. It definitely helped & I decided to take water every 5k from that point. Hubby & kids had reappeared by now and even Jasper had a go on a spare machine - coached by Oscar!

The next 5k seemed to take ages..... I stuck out that bit, but by 10k to go when I paused for another water & a bite of banana I knew that 5k until the next was too long so decided to go for 2.5k before the next swig. The area between my shoulder blades was really starting to ache by now. By 7.5k out I was really suffering. It actually helped having been warned that the last 7k could be a b*stard - at least I knew others had finished while still feeling that. I remember thinking "OK, this must be what the runners call 'the wall' doesn't it get better eventually?" I went on for the next 2.5k - took another swig of water & plodded on. I had a wobble at this point - wondering if I could actually finish. My split was very slow indeed at this point

With 3k to go the last batch of boys arrived and some of the previous batch hung around - I had one in particular at my shoulder talking me through - the words didn't mean much, but the presence did! The lad next to me set his display to 5275m and looked across - "I reckon you'll finish first ma'am" - I wasn’t convinced! More and more stared gathering behind – and gave me huge encouragement – I had to pause again at 1.5k to go then managed to find a rhythm to take me through to the last 500m. Glancing across at the next ergo's display I saw that there was a distinct danger that I might not finish ahead - no way could I let that happen! Finally I believed I was going to complete it & so I went for a final burst – taking the split down to 2:03 by the end – helped by the applause starting at about the 500m mark and getting louder to the finish. I was aware of the crowd outside and inside the hall growing & the relief when I finally saw 0m on the display was indescribable.

I managed to turn round to say thanks to the supporters – then felt really sick…… Rather than give in to the nausea in front of the boys I rolled inelegantly from the erg & lay on the floor for a while. 3hrs46:56.1 - better than my prediction of 3hrs50 so I was happy! I had a little chat with a few people while still on the floor and eventually I got up.

I helped pack everything away & we came home. Chris took the Jasper & Oscar off to a colleague’s party once he was happy I was OK – which meant I could have a massively long, hot bath… but only after I’d counted the cash - £317.81 into the tins! Excellent!

This brings the current total to £2031.54 – and on top of that a lot of the boys and other visitors were taking the leaflets and cards – which was the other aim of the exercise – to raise awareness.

Two days on and I haven't been very achy. I am 'aware' of the muscles between my shoulder blades and my glutes & stomach muscles feel as though they've been used - but surprisingly there's been no stiffness. I'm still not going to do that again in a hurry though! I now have to catch up on all the marking & stuff that I neglected this past weekend...... I'll be back again soon - and thank you to everyone who supported in any capacity - it all kept me going!