Marathon 5: Lancaster

One thing I learned with all of my Marathons was that I had a knack for not preparing…

“Lancaster Marathon, oooo that’s near here that will be flat!” ……………wrong!!!!

(Looking very relaxed pre-race...if I only I knew what was to come)

Just under 5 hours later, the finish line saw a very distraught and hobbling Liz practically collapse with exhaustion. Needless to say the Lancaster Marathon not only kicked Windermere’s but also was well on par for kicking Anglesey’s arse when it came to climbs.

(The first climb literally at the start line)

(and then came the rain....)

After the shock of Lancaster I decided to enter all of my future runs with the mentality of “expect the unexpected”, that way I could never be disappointed and would always expect the hardest run so I could tell myself that things could always be worse.

A good drenching of rain at the start was enough to literally dampen my spirits and have me wondering once again, what the hell I was doing, running another 26.2 miles on a Sunday morning, the best bit that defeat me mentally was knowing that the following week at the same time I would be doing it all over again.

Climbs, climbs and more climbs. What I thought was going to be a nice easy flat run was the complete opposite. When I describe climbs I don’t just mean the odd hill here and there, I mean that the course was either up or down. My legs and feet got an absolute battering.

It’s safe to say that at the end of the run, with the last 4 miles taking about an hour and a half due to severe toe cramp, that I needed a good strong drink. Luckily we got a bottle of stout provided by Lancaster Brewery as a memento of the race.