Andrew Hollins
You can be forgiven for believing you’re supposed to have an elaborate and meaningful ‘why’ for every event you do as a runner, or any other challenge… “What is your x-factor style backstory?”, “what’s the origin story of this… [challenge]. You might conclude already that perhaps I don’t have one here, and you’d kinda be right. If I was pushed I would say I simply wanted to run a marathon turning 50 this year, but things sort of got out of hand…
I set about looking at events that were new to me but wanted to keep them sensible in terms of costs and travels, this very much looked like lots and lots of Google searching and cross checking of dates. I really really want to do the London Marathon so I planned around that in case I got a ballot place, but didn’t (again) and so plans pivoted to other events. What fell out was a return to Brighton marathon, a return to Newport marathon and a new race for me over in Llanelli (the Great Welsh marathon). Three marathons in the diary, across six weeks, and nothing that could be called a plan.
What to do when you’ve gone a bit crazy with race bookings? Get a plan of course and I had a man for that, our club coach Ben (aka “the legend”). He saw me through with patient weekly plans. It is very motivating to pay for a plan in terms of sticking to it, I found, but life gets in the way and I did my best to stay with it. I did find some consistency in the sessions I notched up, though I was under no illusion of breaking PBs at any point.
I chose to run these three for Mind the mental health charity, a charity very close to my brain, and set up a JustGiving page to try and raise a few pennies. The reconnect with running for Mind reminded me that long runs can hurt mentally if you push to places that push the wrong buttons for you, so my one goal in all this was to enjoy myself and not put myself anywhere unhealthy in training or ‘racing’.
Marathon number one – Great Welsh marathon (17 March) – 5:13:14. Fab race, really good organisation, decent sized field but not too many runners. It was a rainy day that turned into a sunny one on the beautiful Welsh coast. The head wind on the homeward leg wasn’t fun though, but the run walk strategy that saw me through 30km was great fun – and very effective. In the end my body said “come on, we’re not adapted for long long runs” and I hit the wall physiologically. I managed the last 12km well after that and found my legs again into the close (which for anyone planning on doing it has a cheeky little hill in the last mile).
I drove myself there and back reducing costs, and was super grateful to see club mate Neil at the start (another legend – we are a club chocked full of legends, us Pegs). My body responded really well afterward the race because I’d looked after myself beyond the wall, within a few days I wanted to go again. My mantra for the event “it’s just a training run”… this quickly became my overarching theme for them all.
Marathon number two – Brighton (7 April) – 5:23:26. I know how to finish marathons… no but I do. Somewhere in life I came across a tolerance (and even something of an affinity) of pushing through challenges. I loved Brighton, the organisation is full on big city marathon style, and the provisions were fantastic. My error here in what was quietly my ‘target’ race, was arriving too early in the start area and not topping up fueling, or chilling out enough, before the off.
The sights and sounds of the run were boosted massively by three things – an old school friend appearing to cheer me on unexpectedly (I wish I’d stopped for a hug!), the noisy support (and Mind supporters “go on Mind guy!”), and my wife popping up around the route.
I hit the wall at just over 30km where the course gets tough (that unfinished business from the year before, that stays unfinished!), but again I slipped into let’s get this home for next time. I fought harder this time to get the wheels rolling again but backed off when it just didn’t happen. It was a hot hot day and I knew full well that me and heat all too often don’t mix.
Marathon number three – Newport Wales marathon (28 April) – 5:17:19. The club one – loads of club mates out running over the three distances on the day. Julia and Jo (also both absolute legends and fellow Pegs run leaders) took on the 42.2km with me, or at least we traveled together as they are after all faster than me.
I wasn’t entirely happy with the course, but love Newport – and was determined to smile. It was this one of the three that almost undid mentally, because I’d built it up as a grand finale and had gone out with an ambitious “good time or fold trying”. I folded at… yes, you guessed it 30km though actually nearer 32km if you like. I took an extended walk break (a miscalculation) which took a huge chunk out of my finish time. There were positives in the experience and yet so many mixed emotions, suffice it to say that Bob Sinclair’s “World hold on” blasting out of a sound system in the last couple of miles saved my finish and saved me from a few tears. I wanted to end up with the best time of the three marathons this year in this one, but plans A, B and C went by the roadside.
In ‘closing’ – all in all I was super pleased to complete this madness and didn’t regret it at all. Lots of people have expressed surprise at me doing three marathons in quick succession, but I always point out that it isn’t all that rare when you get chatting to runners. So many times during a run I have heard about exploits that are far beyond this one – multiple half marathons in a month, desert running, ultra-marathon feats, charity challenges, comebacks from injuries to finish major marathons… all I can say is “have a go at what motivates you and you’ll find a way”. My next challenges are a first go at the Great North run and the Marathon Eryri (Snowdonia marathon), and I don’t rule out doing multiple marathons again sometime… though perhaps not next year.