Heading for the Neolithic

Well, I’m off to do my Marathon tomorrow. It’s not actually until Sunday, but visiting the folks… I thought I’d paste in an account I wrote of doing the same race last year. I think it might not be so dry this time!

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Well, that turned out to be harder than expected… much harder than London last year. London is flat and on tarmac roads the whole way. Neolithic Marathon takes you over a couple of rows of hills and on some of the worst surfaces you could find! I had to negotiate deeply rutted tracks, rabbit holes, sheep paths along the side of a very steep hill, stiles, a wobbly plank bridge… At one point we reached what looked like a lovely green grassy field. Unfortunately it seemed at some point it had been muddy, and walked all over by cows, leaving nothing but holes and ridges in between. Which had then been baked over several weeks of hot weather… all with that lovely grass over meaning you couldn’t see where you put your feet. We had several fields of that. Then there was the second half on Salisbury Plain: all on tracks, which, unless I’m much mistaken, had a concrete base. Concrete is ten times as hard as tarmac, and believe me, going that far you feel it in every joint. And all covered in drifts of sharp stones and dust…

Then there was the wind… over the first row of hills it was strong enough to nearly knock me off my feet a couple of times, and felt like chlorine in my face it was so strong. On Salisbury Plain if it wasn’t coming from the side and getting my hair loose and in my eyes and nose, then it was from the front. And all the time it was raising the dust. You could see dust devils and great clouds of it when a vehicle went past. I was coated with it by the end.

Then the final laugh was the last run to the finish… one of the most tussucky fields I’ve ever seen. They had a loudspeaker announcing my arrival and commentating (lol!) so I had to try and run: very carefully down an animal path! Heaven help anyone who wanted to have a last race down there…

On the other hand… have to say the organisation was fabulous, with lots of water stations and loos out along the route. And I did get a fabulous welcome, lots of free food at the end, and free entry into Stonehenge . And much to my surprise considering how painful that concrete was, I’m in better nick than I was after London last year. One minor blister, combined sun/wind burn on my face, and (of course…) very stiff and sore. But much more able to walk than last year… I’ve even had a gentle jog yesterday.