Marabank 2024 - Ultra Marathon Race Report 🥉

Race Report

After a lot of waiting and dealing with the dreaded 'taper', the day of the race was finally here. And first things first, I've got to mention that the weather was flippin' perfect! All of the last 2 weeks, the forecast had ket changing with different wind conditions, and different levels of rain... and as we turned up to the event we were greeted by the above weather forecast for the whole day. It was a little chilly to begin with, and there was evidence of frost on the ground, but other than that the weather was glorious. Plenty of sunshine, zero chance of rain... and best of all there was barely any wind.

this was a releif, it has felt like it's been blowing a gale here in the UK for the past 2 months... never known anything like it

Anyway, I arrived at 8:30 to pick up my race number: 12

picture of my race number, with a frosty canal scene in the background

And then there was a very short race briefing before we walked up to the start line. In this picture it might seem there not many people, and you would be correct with that. There was only 40 places for the event, and Darren (Race Director) said that was on purpose, as this was the first running of the event. As it was a test, he wanted smaller numbers to test how it would work.

It meant the whole event was very understated and low-key, which suits me perfectly to be honest!

We all stood on the top of the bank, in a line on the gravel path as it was not very wide, and then while we were milling about, the Race Director suddenly said, well I suppose it's almost 9am, off you GO!... ad apparently that was the start

caught most of us unawares!

Everyone headed off, and I ended up waiting a minute or so while my watch found a GPS satellite so I could record the run.

The route itself was incredibly simple... from our starting position we ran North along the canal path until we found a sign about 1.2km (3/4 of a mile) telling us to "turn here"

And then we doubled back and followed the path 3.1km (2 miles) back down to the other end to find another sign tell us to turn back:

And then we headed the remaining 1.8km back to the original starting point on the bank, you can see this marked as a green dot in the map below. At this start point was the drinks/aid station, where some people had left bags, coats and supplies to return to during the duration of the run.

I kept all my stuff with me, but at the end of lap 2 I did take a coat off and left it here until the end... it may have been a chilly start, but it had warmed up really quickly

So that was one lap done. It was now a case of going back and forth ticking the laps of one by one, and then the various milestone distances

1 Lap = 6.17km (approx 3.8 miles)
4 Laps = 24.5km (approx 22 miles - Half Marathon)
7 Laps = 43km (approx 26.5 miles - Marathon)
8 Laps+ = ultra distance...

At the start of this race I had set myself a target of 10 laps for approximately 60km... time would tell if I would achieve this

10 Laps is a long way away when we were just starting, so I tried not to think too much about that. Instead I focused on just keeping my self focused on moving forwards and ticking off the miles and laps

Such a beautiful morning...

Oh and I should mention, not only is the route incredibly simple, it is also incredibly flat. Each 6.17km lap is almost completely flat except for 2 meters of elevation gain, which was basically down to this bridge. This was the only 'hill' on the course! You might think I'm joking, but on the last 2 laps, this became quite a challenge, and I ended up having to walk this on the last lap!

Anyway, it started off easy enough, and I quickly settled into a comfortable pace of 6:00 to 6:20 minutes per km. My Heart Rate was a little high at 150-154bpm (I'd hoped for 140-148bpm), but the pace felt 'easy' so I stuck with it

The laps quickly ticked over. The route might look boring, but I found the monotony strangely relaxing. There was a quick pause after Lap 3 for a cheese and marmite sandwich, and then again at Lap 5 for some cola. Lap 6 disappeared in a flash, and before I knew it, I was on the 7th Lap

Completing the 7th Lap would equate to completing a Marathon

I had been avoiding the time on my watch on purpose as I knew it would distract me from running sensibly, but for Lap 7 I changed the watch so it showed the Race Time, just so I could see what my Marathon time would have been if I had been doing that distance

And the above from Strava confirms I did it in 4 hours 22 minutes... and was actually a new Personal Best time for this distance

Really surprised by that as I hadn't been pushing for a fast time, just a comfortable, consistent pace. I suppose its a reflection of the improvement in my fitness and running performance over the past year

After Lap 7, I paused for some snacks from the Aid station before continuing.

My next Target was to go past a distance of 50km. I must have stopped still at the end of Lap 7 for too long, as Lap 8 was quite hard to get going again. I was starting to get stiff, particularly in my hips. I did manage to run most of the 8th Lap, but walking breaks had started to appear.

I did my best to run as far as I could before stopping to walk, because I knew the worst part of walking was that trying to transition into running again was really quite painful...once I ran for more than 30 seconds that pain would subside (until my next walk break, where I would have to face it again).

Lap 8 took me to 49km, and if I wanted to break 50km, then I had no option but to keep going. Lap 9 was where the wheels eventually well off, and I seemed to spend half of that lap walking instead of running.

Its strange to consider how quickly that happened... Laps 1-7 I was ok and ran the whole time, Lap 8 was 'OK', and Lap 9 was quite frankly rubbish!

I suspect that was mostly down to a lack of mental strength, I was beginning to 'give up'

With a combination of running, walking and plenty of groaning, I finally made it to the end of Lap 9

9 Laps - 55km - 6 hours - JOB DONE!

I had wanted to do 10 laps, but I had run out of motivation by this point. I did have time to squeeze in a final lap, but my mind was made up, I was done.

All that was left was pick up my medal, and take a well earned rest on a nearby bench. When my lift arrived, I gingerly stood up and hobbled over to the car to head home.

I was completely exhausted, but it had been a brilliant day

Results

Well the main focus of today was to see how far I could go, and see how long I could run for. I had mentioned I was hoping to do the full 7 hours, but in the end I settled for 6 hours. I still managed 55km in that time, which I am really pleased with in its own right

However, the nature of the event was technically a race, so its very easy to compare with the performance of other people.

Results Source

And it turned out I did quite well, as out of 14 people who were entered into the 7 hour category, I actually came 3rd.... an actual podium finish! 🥉 (well, if there had been a podium to stand on, but I digress). As you can see, this based purely on distance covered (or laps completed). the first 2 people managed 11 laps in 7 hours (so 41 miles), I managed 9 laps (34 miles) and then 4th place and below managed 8 laps (30 miles) etc.

So I may not have been quick, but I was consistent, and persistent... and I think that counts for a lot

The full results aren't very clear though, because the whole event was split into 3 categories 7 hours, Marathon and Half-Marathon. These all had separate results, hence why you can not see any people listed above having completed 7 laps (which would have equated to the marathon distance.

When I go through and compare all the people who managed to complete the Marathon distance, I realized that I was the 11th fastest out of 30 runners. That was also unexpected, because as already mentioned, I wasn't actually trying to run a fast time. Instead I had chosen a pace that was comfortable, and that I could hopefully maintain for the full duration of the event.

An overview of my pace is shown below:

As you can see, I was pretty consistent with pace, averaging 6:13/km up until the 43km mark. I then paused at this milestone to take on fluids (2 cups of cola) plus some snacks. The pace after this point then started to slowly decrease, as I was beginning to get tired, and started to include walk breaks. These became longer and more frequent until I finally gave up at the end of lap 9.

I technically would have had time to do a 10th lap if I was motivated, but by that point I had had enough! I'm still pleased with how well I did though, and even though it's nice to compare my results to others I'm most proud of being able to complete 55km (34 miles) in one single run.

Admittedly, the '3rd place' is still pretty cool haha! 🥉

Conclusion, and what is next?

So for a summary, I think you can tell that I'm pretty please with how this went! It was a shame I seemed to suddenly get so tired right at the end, as the 10th lap (60km) would have been nice to get, but I managed my longest ever run, and I've pleased with how I executed most of it.

Regarding that early finish, I suspect it might be due to the format of the race... which was "run as far as you want in 7 hours", and while I really REALLY wanted to get over 50, I evidently didn't want the 60km bad enough.

I've since spoken with the Race Director, and he has already mentioned that due to how successful this event has been, he will be trying to do create a similar event for the same time next year. And if he runs a 2nd edition, you can bet I'll be there again, and with a years more training under my belt, I'll be looking to improve my performance. It was also a really relaxed set-up, and I enjoyed spending a day running around in circles with like minded people.

What's next? Well, my next race is a Marathon in Boston (UK) at the end of April, and after an easy recovery week I will have approximately 8 weeks to get stuck into some training so that I can set a new Marathon PB. I'll be aiming for somewhere between 3 hours 30 and 4 hours, dependent on how well my training goes... so once again, watch this space!

Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.

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All Photos taken by @dannewton unless otherwise stated.
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