Disaster!

I’ve had a bit of a trauma this week.

I’m in my final cycle of training. 13 weeks today I’m going for my sub 3 attempt. Do or die. I’ve been in training for 8 months. It will have been 10 months of my life dedicated to this one goal. Everything is playing second fiddle to this. I’m getting up at stupid o’clock to do runs before 11+ hour shifts, finish work, shower, food, bed. I had to get up at 05.00 on my day off to get a run before the worst of the heat in our heatwave recently. As I said I’m in the final bit. The plan is tailored to my race, I’ve just got to follow it through to the end, which is the marathon.

Then on Friday, out of the blue, I got an email from my marathon saying they’ve decided to move it to April.

10 months on countdown to that fast and flat race and they’ve moved it. Just like that. Not because they had to, or because it benefits the runners, but because it’s more profitable and convenient for them.

There were some choice words screamed into Twitter.

I was livid, as you can imagine. I had to regroup and start looking for another race. Ideally I wanted a local, flat, marathon at the end of October. I googled flat marathons and all I could find was Chester in October. I’ve done Chester before and I remember it as being hilly. It goes into Wales and back. It was all they had so I had to book it. It’s 3 weeks too early (2nd of October instead of the 23rd), hilly, and it’s the week after the Warrington half marathon. My plan was designed for me specifically so it’s tailored around racing Warrington half, then carry on training to the full marathon. So now my plan doesn’t work and I have to throw my time at Warrington or I’ll have nothing in my legs for Chester. Suddenly sub 3 moved from being a really big ask to very, very doubtful.

I was stressing out, trying to work out how to jury rig my plan. It has me on two weeks taper (light running) before the marathon and a rest day on the Sunday before, which is when the half is happening. I looked up the other flat marathons and it was Blackpool and Manchester, both in April. I’m running the Manchester to Liverpool ultra in April. So that would mess the training up for one or the other. I was so stressed and nothing was working.

Then, randomly and totally unexpectedly, somebody on twitter tweeted a bit of an advert for a race they were doing. On the 23rd of October. Flat as a pancake (5 meter elevation over 5K) doing 8 laps of a 5K racing car circuit. OK, that sounds really boring, just running around a big track 8 times, but it is ideal for my sub 3 attempt. The only downsides are it looks to be on an exposed site so wind might be an issue, and it’s in Bedford so I’m going to have to get up about 04.00, drive for 3 hours, run for 2.59 (better not be any more!) then drive back again.

I DON’T CARE!

My plan works again, I have a race on the proper day, I can go all in for Warrington half, which is what I wanted to do as it will give me an idea what my expected full marathon time will be. I can treat Chester as a fast-ish training run. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact they don’t refund you if you cancel, I would sack Chester off. It was actually a mistake, now I’ve found Bedford, but it was the least worst option based on the information I had when I booked it.

All that because some greedy money grubbers wouldn’t honour their commitment. If they want to move it to April, run the October race then run it again in April. It’s not rocket science. Anyway, I’ve asked for a refund. The organiser’s head on a platter would be nice, but given their contempt for their customers I doubt they’ll oblige. Rude. I had to cancel the reservation for accommodation we’d made as well. Grrrr.

I’ve just today found out our Lisa has gone and got a really bad batch of the covids. Splitting headache, soaked in sweat and barking like a seal. Poor sausage. At least she’s fully jabbed up, so it’s about being terribly poorly rather than dead. I don’t remember what ours was like, but I’m fair sure we weren’t as bad as that.

In other news, that heatwave was a bit rum. Trying to go to sleep when it was 26C at midnight. In Warrington! That’s just ridiculous. Of course the climate change deniers were busy calling everyone a snowflake and saying about 1976.

Then we had the start of the kid’s summer holidays. And Brexit came home to roost. Last summer we were banned from France, this year was the first test.