Date of adventure: 25th October 2015
Adventures for me are not about seeing how much torture I can put myself through to reach a certain goal. They are meant to be fun – challenging yes – but ultimately they are not meant to be something I drag myself through kicking and screaming. However that’s how it felt lining up at the start of the Bristol to Bath Marathon. It was the first time I was at the start of an adventure and didn’t want to be there.
Ironically I’d signed up to run Bristol to Bath and my second marathons in a week because my health in the summer had worried my Doctor so much that at a recent consultation they talked about doing further tests and potentially changing my medication to a more aggressive one which had worse potential side effects. After hearing this news I didn’t want to wait for the potential negative test results that could have put an end to my adventures. I told myself that if my adventures were going to end then I wanted to go out on my terms so I said yes to two marathons in one week. Unfortunately though my health took a nose dive sooner than expected a few days before Bilbao.
After everything that happened before and during the Bilbao Marathon it was impossible to have recovered enough in preceding 7 days. Instead of an adventure, attempting to run the Bristol to Bath marathon now felt like a tick box exercise. Something I never wanted my adventures to be.
I was filled with some positivity at the start line though when I bumped into a fellow runner who after finding my page messaged me to say they also had Inflammatory Bowel Disease and were also running Bristol to Bath. Like me they were doing it to make the most of their better health as their Ulcerative Colitis had hampered previous marathon attempts but now they were in great form to potentially set a marathon PB.
We started the race together but soon I had been dropped after stopping to do my shoelace up and attempting to catch up would have been a serious waste of my limited energy no matter how good it would have been to have company for a little while longer. I knew that getting through this marathon was all about energy management with all the hills in-between Bristol and Bath, something that had made me say no when I was first offered the place.
Knowing what was ahead of me I was determined to run as much as I could before hitting the first major hill just after the halfway mark. If that meant running slower than normal that’s fine. This marathon was just about finishing, not about the time.
The first half was just about manageable, although it was an increasing struggle to try and stop myself from walking. The course was relatively flat but I was so tired already that walking seemed like such a lovely option. I tried to forget that I’d already ran a marathon that week and convince myself that this was a separate event, not allowing myself any excuse to walk. The trick was working as I was still in running move as I reached the first major hill at mile 14. However this is where my running wheels came off and I hit the wall. Through my stupidity I decided to run up the hill when most others were walking it to conserve their energy. I passed quite a few people on the climb but they all soon overtook me again on the downhill as I’d burned all my energy up for very little reward. The walk/run had now begun and my trick of forgetting about the previous marathon now started to fail as I started to bemoan my stupidity of saying yes to this marathon. It was no longer fun anymore, I kept telling myself that
three marathons in 2015 was enough, a forth was totally unnecessary and just idiotic!
My mood did lift whenever we passed through the little villages on the way to Bath where people had decide to make the most of their roads being closed by coming out of their houses to cheer us all on and it was at those moments I’d try to run again but any undulation in the road just made me stop. I’d look forward to the top of hills as I thought I’d be able to run down the other side but even then my knees hated the descent so I was hobbling more than running. Most of the hills weren’t major but they were frequent enough to zap any momentum I’d build up or any enthusiasm to even try to run on the relative flat bits.
At mile 20 walking was the only option for everyone as the course went up its longest hill which seemed to last for over a mile. It was a strange feeling to be in a running marathon but everyone around was walking. I seriously wanted it to be over now.
My spirits were dramatically lifted though when a supporter on the side of the road handed me a Refresher Ice Lolly. It was such a simple thing but the surrealness of the moment put such a silly smile on my face that I decided to divert my energy from frustration into energy to make me run more.
The finish line was so close now and the faster I moved the quicker it would be over with. From then on I was back enjoying the marathon, especially when we reached the outskirts of Bath and the crowds started to get bigger. I wasn’t going at any great speed, more shuffling my feet than running but I was determined not to walk again. I tried to drag another runner with me by encouraging them to run but they seemed to be struggling even more than me and just waved me on. Just like Bilbao one of the bonuses of being near the back of a race is that the crowd’s attention is more on you which resulted into more “Go Tom” and “You’re so close now” shouts which I fed off like they were oxygen.
I did relent by walking for a bit more but soon enough it was all over and somehow I managed to get a time similar to Bilbao of around 5hrs 20mins which I was pretty proud of. However after the struggles my health and the two marathons had put me through in the last week I never ever wanted to do a marathon again. It felt sad to be leaving marathons on such a sour note but I was glad of my achievements of 4 marathons in 2015, something Crohn’s Disease would never be able to take away from me.
I ran the Bristol to Bath Marathon in aid of Crohn’s and Colitis UK. If you would like to sponsor my effort me click here. Thank you!
The Chronic Adventurer 