Tim's marathon challenge
I'm Tim Smith, Planning and Performance Manager for Tesco and, over the next year, I will be aiming to raise £20'000 by competing in two of the hardest foot races in the world - the Jungle Marathon Oct 2009 followed by The Marathon Des Sables March 2010. Over the next year you will be able to follow the highs and the lows whilst I push myself to the limit to train for the two races.
I have a Just Giving page up and running http://www.justgiving.com/tims_jungle_and_mds_challenge please have a look and forward to as many people as possible.
Coastal Trail Series Round 4 - South Devon
After a 300 mile drive we arrive at the B&B, with a sick Sarah and a stressed Tim, the B&B leaves a little to be desired we turn in to the drive (mud track) and find out that it is a working farm with a landlady who has an opinion on everything! We unload chill out for a while then head out to register for tomorrows race. The drive to race HQ fills us with dread as there is low lying fog and VERY hilly single track roads. Would you expect any less from the Endurancelife team?? Back to the B&B for the Friday night kit check to find out that I have my bladder pack but no end for my pipe, thanks god for the Inov8 boys at race HQ, looks like they will be getting a sale first thing in the morning.
Saturday morning comes and it's a quick drive over to HQ and a mad dash over to the Inov8 stand for a new bladder pack, I have to go with a bum bag type, untested but seems OK. Loaded up with the normal kit I head over to the start. I meet up with Steve and Sharon and am relived to find out that Steve has the same race plan as me.......5 hours. 5 hours may seem like a rubbish time for a marathon but this is 27.6 country miles over a course that is only beaten by the legend that is St Just (the April race).
We set off and the course seems quite tame, 1 1/2 hours down and we are wondering what the big deal was about this race?? We 'think' that we have done the big climb, we should know the Endurancelife boys better by now. 2 hours in and they bring the pain, Steve's toes are playing him up and all he can do to keep the pain at bay is to run and he leaves me on what we find out is the big climb!!! A savage dip down and it a 300 ft climb over what feels like miles, this knock the stuffing out of me and it has now become just a matter of finishing!! All of my toes are screaming for me to stop, my left ankle is throbbing like hell and I am not feeling the love for the new bladder pack.
I catch up with a fellow marathon runner who is suffering with his knee so we push each other for the last 6 miles of the race. As we get to the final few miles of the race we see the final stretch and get the feeling that it is flat all the way home only to have a runner inform us that there is one more climb!! My god there is one more climb, we run through a nice little coastal village then up and over the cliff, the pain of a savage climb is beyond words after 26 miles of coastal hell. Once over the cliff we run down to Beesands and start to get all of the reassuring shouts of 'well done' & 'nearly home', we put a little sprint on toward to finish and I hear Sarah shouting my name and at that point I realise the race, after 5 Hrs 15 mins of hell, is finally over.
I get my T-Shirt and medal, meet up with Steve (who did me by 30 mins), get my bowl of chilli and head of to Torquay to recover.
Next up is the MK Half Marathon.......
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