October 2025

                

         Autumn soon came around. On the 4^th of October I was being picked up by my old running buddy Lawrence Chen who I hadn't seen in ages. 

In tow was his girlfriend  Apple, their dog whose name I forget and and old friend of Larry’s (Lawrence) whose name has also been forgotten. You can’t forget a name like “Apple” though, can you?

Anyway, Larry’s mate drove us to Salisbury, Larry acting in as SatNav. We had a lovely time chatting away and catching up until we got to Salisbury for the parkrun. Larry didn’t tell me this, but it was our friend Di Mattingly’s 500^th parkrun! Di said, she was trying to keep it quiet, despite carrying a massive cake with 500 parkruns scrawled across it.

       It was a lovely parkrun and I was very happy with my time of 18.40 and P6. Only 7 seconds away from my course pb. We had a lovely walk to the cathedral and into town for some food. It was so nice to catch up with Mike Mattingly too (Di’s husband).

      A week later, Clare and myself headed to Andover to celebrate another 500^th parkrun. This time, it was of a guy we had met climbing at Golden Gecko in Romsey. His name was Mark, it was also his birthday. I hadn’t done Andover parkrun for 9 years and barely recognised it. I quite enjoyed the 2 lapped course as I jogged beside CC. More tourism for her too. 

      After walking into town for coffee, we decided to go to Sunnyfields Farm near Totton. They had a big pumpkin display going on and I quite wanted to see the Ozzy Osbourne tribute, being a Black Sabbath fan myself. I booked two tickets to “Pumpkin time” and off we went.

      It was actually better than I thought it would be, although the food wasn’t great. We had a nice time wandering around. I was surprised how much the place had changed in 6 years from when we went to the Vegan cafe that used to be there. Shame the food is crap there now.

    ...And then, the weekend came that I was dreading and had been so nervous about for so long. Abingdon marathon!

CC and I headed to Oxford the day before on the 18^th of October. It was funny that we bumped into our friends Helen and Andy. Helen was also running the marathon and was representing England, despite having many issues making it to the start line. We went for a coffee and realised we were staying at the same hotel too. The bed was so uncomfortable and I didn’t sleep very well, if at all.

     The marathon happened to fall on the day that I would celebrate being Vegan for 6 years. Here I was, in my Vegan Running Club vest, feeling proud of myself but also nervous as hell. CC kept on reassuring me that I’d do great and would be fine. The weather didn’t look great with wind and rain predicted for the day. It sure looked gloomy out but I was ready to run.

       My marathon PB was 3hrs 20mins at the New Forest marathon from a few years back but I made the course over a kilometre short on my watch and the course didn’t meet UKA standards, so wouldn’t appear on my “Runbritain” or “Power of 10” either.

My aim was to run a sub 3.15 marathon. I had only done a couple of long runs. One of 20 miles and the other of 22 miles. I didn’t really feel like I had put much effort into the training but it became a slog towards the end and I just wanted to get it over with. I had been enjoying the shorter distances much more these past couple of years. I knew that I didn’t really have the discipline to be a good marathoner. Why was I doing this?

       Anyway, I jogged around the track a couple of times and my glute/hamstring felt a bit sore as usual. Would I even get to the end?

I had done my long runs at 7.30 min/mile pace. That was my original goal but wouldn’t get me a sub 3.15. I had changed the goal to 7.20 pace per mile and now decided to take a bigger risk of 7.15 pace. I had originally planned to put no pressure on myself and just go out and run a “soft pb”. Ok, I wasn’t going for a sub 3, but it was still way out of my comfort zone.

        The course was two laps. I saw CC cheering me on at around 7 miles. I threw her my cap which was already drenched in sweat (lucky girl). I had been looking forward to seeing her. I got to 10 miles and wondered to myself what the hell I was thinking trying to run for 26 miles. I hadn’t even completed a lap yet and it felt like a long journey already. I didn’t really engage with anyone but I had two Northern girls chatting away behind me that were using me as a wind shield, after a couple of miles I got a bit sick of them and ramped up my pace a bit. I had already gone out a bit quick and even had a sub 7 mile in there. Think I did my first 10k in 44 minutes. I took my first gel just after 10 miles. I have been using the Mountain Fuel chia seed gels. Raspberry flavour.

I was looking forward to getting to that halfway mark. I got there in 1hr 34mins. Now, if I was going to run a negative split, that would be a sub 3.08 marathon. I got the feeling that I was going to slow down towards the end. 

I saw CC again at 16 miles and I was feeling very good, a bit too good. Only 10 miles to go I shouted. I was in good spirits and running well. I had just taken my second gel too. I got talking to a guy named Sam who lived in Brighton. He was a lovely guy and we also added a lady called Laura to our conversation. Laura was quite quiet to begin with and just sat behind us while we chatted away. I was saying how good I felt and seemed to yabber on about all kinds of stuff. When we got to 19 miles, I said something about 2 parkruns to go as I thought we were at 20 miles and not 19. Doh! Anyway, Sam said he felt strong and pushed on. I got chatting to Laura a bit more and mentioned that my hamstrings seemed to be tightening up a bit now. 

We got to about 22 miles and it felt like I was stuck in mud now and running much slower. My pace hadn’t dropped off much yet but the effort was much tougher. Laura went ahead of me and pushed on. Where is the finish I thought. I’m suffering now.  Everything hurts and I am actually slowing quite a bit on the last couple of miles but I get there eventually as CC cheers me onto the running track where I cruelly have to complete a lap to finish. I was feeling a bit of nausea from 22 miles onwards, so decided not to take my third energy gel and just pushed on. 

I finished it. 3hrs 10mins and 37secs. Average pace of 7.17, so not too far off. A big pb indeed. I was so happy. It was so nice to see CC’s smiling face and give her a hug. I told CC that I would never do another marathon again that day though…

        I also spoke to Sam who ran a 3.04, he really pushed on at 20 miles! And Laura who ran a 3.08. PB’s for all of us.

My friend Helen did a 3.03 marathon. A massive thanks to her husband Andy too who was out on the course cheering us on and I got a high 5 too. Cheers Andy, your lovely smile kept me going. 

We walked back to the car in the pouring rain and then poor CC had to drive us home in the crazy weather conditions that ensued.

         A few days later I was able to walk again and decided to meet up with my mate Damo for a walk around the "Mill trail" in Whitchurch. We got 3 trains there and only got slightly lost, taking in various mills, the Bombay sapphire distillery and an expensive lunch at the Watership down pub. I hadn’t been there since we did Overton 5 miler about 9 years ago. It was quite run down then but looks very posh now. The food was good too. I had a butternut squash risotto with vegan cheese :D

We had lovely sunny weather and a really good catch up.

        I overslept on the Saturday but made it in time for Southampton parkrun. The legs were still recovering from the marathon, so it was a slower jog around. My 382^nd parkrun and my 118^th at Southampton. It was a good excuse to wear my new Orange Vegan Running Club vest too.

            Sunday was another day for recovery. CC and I went to a coffee shop at Botley Mills called “Deveroast” which is owned by Pete Devereux, formerly of the artful dodger fame with Craig David. Pete seemed nice and bought our coffees over too. Then we went into Wickham for a visit to Pirate Pasties where we had spicy vegan pasties and a vegan sausage roll. I sure have been hungry since my marathon ;) “You’re always hungry” as CC would say.

      Thanks for reading. Hopefully I’ll recover for Gosport half in a couple of weeks time! 

I have also been sober for 5 years now too. Such a great decision to make. So glad I made the change in my life and what what a change it has made!