So, whatever next...

It having been nearly 3 weeks since Le Mans, I think it's time for a brief update on events since and plans.

Having rather foolishly entered the Edinburgh leg of the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest some months ago, vaguely aware that it was only 2 weeks after Le Mans, I was on a bit of a race against time to see if the Tonsillitis would ease and I'd be fit enough to compete. Although the throat and slight lingering fever hung around, by the middle of last week I was feeling OK, and managed a light jog on Thursday with no adverse side-effects - and therefore passed myself "fit" for the race on Sunday.

The Survival of the Fittest is loosely described as an Urban Challenge - 10k or so of pounding round city streets with various obstacles or challenges thrown in for good measure. And, as it's Edinburgh, a special extra treat of hills. Lots of bloody hills. The event starts with a belt down the Royal Mile (with walls of hay bales to clamber over) before heading down some of the narrow closes and under Waverley Station before the first real challenge - the narrow but brutally steep staircase of Jacob's Ladder, before continuing to climb to the top of Calton Hill, from where there are superb panoramic views. Apparently. Difficult to see when you're bent double owing to being completely out of breath. And also broken Range Rovers to clamber through followed by a full on army assault course.

Having been appropriately beasted, we then descend Calton Hill by means of more narrow tracks and staircases, passing the Parliament and Dynamic Earth before the relentless drag up through the woods alongside Arthur's Seat to the next challenge - The Water Slide. Worryingly the guys at the top were discussing whether, through extreme wetting of the slide, they could get their victims into the trees 30m away from the end of the slide. I only managed a 15m slither across the soaked muddy ground, although as wedgies go it wasn't a particularly comfortable experience.

From there the route went through the tunnel of the old Innocent Railway before winding its way down onto Cowgate for the next fun. A slightly mad maze through road work accessories before a 5 storey climb up through a disused warehouse. On exiting this, we climbed (again) back up to the Royal Mile for a further bouncy castle challenge before dropping steeply back to Cowgate for the loop round the Grassmarket (with some light Parkour thrown in) and round the back of the Castle and into Princes Street Gardens for the last few obstacles - crawling through tunnels and one last 3m high wall to be navigated (helped over). As I'd expected a time of around 70 minutes in my "take it very easy" mindset, I was quite happy with 63. Sub-60 next year, though... I was nice to do an event that, although tough, is mainly for fun and has a great camaraderie amongst the participants.

In other news, I didn't make the ballot for next year's Virgin London Marathon. Not really that surprised, but slightly disappointed all the same. Came back home from Le Mans to find the "commiserations" magazine they send out, and was rather taken aback that more than half of it was filled with adverts from charities encouraging you to apply for a guaranteed place with them. Then the first 2 emails from the organisers were along the same line - if you're disappointed, here's a huge list of charities who DO have places. This was starting to irk me a bit - surely, despite all the excellent fundraising that goes on, this is a running event first and foremost? Well, perhaps not, actually.

Having got in through the ballot (and decided to raise funds for Marie Curie) last year, the whole "guaranteed places for charities" thing had kind of passed me by, but I did vaguely recall some controversy about it just before the race. Decided to do a bit of reading up, and it seems that of the 36000 places in the race, 15000 are guaranteed to charities through various bond schemes. Or, put another way, after sponsors and celebrity places, little more than half of the places are available for general entry. Which is why it's so damn hard to get in through the ballot.

Apparently charities pay £300 for a guaranteed place, with many holding between 200 and 500 places and some having in excess of 700! Ballot runners pay about £40, so it clearly suits the organisers to have more revenue-generating charity places than ballot entries. Apparently the charities are also charged for advertising in the official publications and website too. The charities then need to recoup that outlay, so look to people to raise a minimum funding level - usually of at least £2000. This seems to be playing into people's desperation to run the event - they're effectively guaranteeing to pay £2000+ and assuming they'll be able to recoup some or all of it through sponsorship.

Now, I think this is wrong. I'd like to see a lot more places available in the ballot. People who get in through the ballot will almost certainly still choose to run for a charity (it IS an important part of the event), and I don't think the charities would lose out - people would still try just as hard to raise funds and they wouldn't have the £300 a head to recoup. In fact, some smaller charities without guaranteed places might benefit as there would be a higher likelihood of people choosing them rather than the "official" charities with the guaranteed places and official advertising. Above all, it should be an open and transparent entry process with as many places as possible filled through the public ballot.

So I came to a conclusion. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. No more London applications for me.

There are hundreds of marathons out there that people who really want to do one can enter (something else the "commiserations" magazine is rather silent on, with its focus on pushing you to the charity places!), in so many different and interesting places.

So I'll still be doing a spring marathon next year. Sunday May 22nd will see me on the start line of the Edinburgh Marathon. As far as Autumn goes, I think I have some unfinished business in the Le Mans area, so if there's a second running, I'll be there to finish what I started.

In the meantime, I'll just be keeping the legs ticking over with some light to moderate running and maybe looking for a few winter events for some variety.

Well, that didn't go as planned...

The story of The Marathon du Mans is, unfortunately, one of I went, I saw, I packed it in half way round. Having been struggling with what I thought were the edges of a cold for a few weeks, not much was getting better in the days immediately before the race - in fact by the time I got to my Mum's on Thursday to break the journey, I hadn't enjoyed a decent sleep for weeks, was starting to run a bit of a temperature and generally feel decidedly grotty again.

Having decided to break the journey on Thursday, Friday turned into a horrible, horrible drive south. Without a word of a lie, it poured with rain every mile of the way from Yorkshire to the outskirts of Le Mans. What, in normal circumstances, would a reasonable drive turned into an absolute epic - intense concentration every mile of the way so that by the time I reached Le Mans at midnight local time on Friday, I was absolutely spent. This state of affairs, it must be said, was made even worse by the French aversion to cat's eyes and their cunning use of road lining paint that looks black in the dark. The combination of the two meant the French leg of the drive was particularly unpleasant and the concentration levels even higher.

There was bound to be an adverse reaction and I spent a horrible night on the Friday, with a raging fever and very little sleep. Eventually emerged at lunchtime on Saturday, feeling really rough, and decided to mooch around the centre of town before heading out to the circuit to pick up my number. To my slight surprise - as all I've ever seen have been the industrial outskirts - the town centre is lovely. A well laid out combination of medieval and modern buildings, clean and well maintained in the way of so many French provincial towns.

It had been my intention to take the tramway out to the circuit to collect my race pack, but some sort of problem on the line meant that nothing was running out to the Antares arena stop. Grabbed a quick bite of lunch and returned to the stop, only to find that now nothing was running at all. So I ended up jumping in the car and driving the few kilometers out to the circuit. The registration process went like clockwork - only a few minutes were needed to hand over my Medical Certificate (a requirement of races in France), confirm my identity and collect my number and race t-shirt. Wasn't delayed over-long by the 6 stall "expo" but there was a good atmosphere in evidence and a definite sense that this event was about running and enjoyment.

Was still feeling quite rough, so went back to the hotel for a rest before heading out to try and get a final bite to eat before the race. Plenty of nice restaurants in evidence around a very scenic area of streets in the medieval area which, as with most places in France, seemed sensibly priced with 15 to 18€ for two courses being typical. Naturally after 2 weeks of carb loading, I was pretty pasta'd out by this point, so I decided that steak frites was the order of the day, with a small red for relaxation purposes. 

I was still feeling a little rough at this point and had even started to doubt whether I would race. Had it been a local race, I almost certainly wouldn't have done, but after travelling all this way I wanted to leave my options open and decided to wait to see how I felt in the morning. I also had the knowledge that, as a two lap race, I would have the option of pulling out after the first lap if all wasn't well.........

So, I had a reasonably comfortable night on the Saturday and convinced myself that I was feeling OK and fit enough to start the race. After a light breakfast I decided that the tramway issues the previous day might make it a bit of a risk to rely on and therefore jumped into the car and made my way to the circuit.

Arriving just before sunrise evoked magical memories from the 24 Heures, where the pre-dawn light is one of the finest times to enjoy the race. Car parking was well organised just inside the circuit and I parked up overlooking the Bugatti circuit. By this point, I'd convinced myself that whilst I really wasn't 100% well, a sensible slow approach would still get me round. Organisation was spot on, and at 9 sharp the 900 runners were sent on out way. Took it nice and steady to start with as the first few hundred metres were up the hill to the Dunlop Bridge, then into an OK stride down the other side.

I really enjoyed the experience of running on the circuit and ticking off the landmarks, Tertre Rouge, out onto the Hunaudieres (Mulsanne) and past the famous Auberge before the course even took us round the specially opened Playstation Chicane. After this, the route lost it's way a little as the need to get extra distance in to each lap meant we headed out for a 7k loop through industrial parks, back roads and even forest trails. Very scenic, but I dread to think what the underfoot conditions would have been like if the forecast rain had arrived. As it was conditions were warm, muggy and windy. The fact that I sweated up almost immediately after the race began was a bit of a worrying health signal, and a pace of 8:30 miles on entering this loop had become 8:50 by the time we emerged from the woods just before the second chicane on the Mulsanne. 

Again, the organisers had set things up well with water, sponges, fruit and gels every 5k and I was taking a full bottle of water and a sponge every time to try and keep hydration up and temperature down. After hanging a right at Mulsanne Corner and heading towards Indianapolis, I started to realise that I was struggling, gradually slowing and sensing that I was short of energy. I plugged on, but by the time we left the public roads and came back onto the permanent circuit at the Porsche Curves, I was struggling horribly and realised the game was up. 

As we got back to the grandstands, the route took us along the Bugatti circuit (which must be one of the world's dullest!) and through the half marathon point (2:05:25) before rejoining the main circuit in time for a nice climb  at just above walking pace back up to the Dunlop Bridge before dropping down to the pit straight, where I bowed to the inevitable and abandoned. Again, very efficient organisation, as they sent me to the finish area, took my timing chip away and handed me a medal. Almost gave it back on the basis of "didn't finish the race", but what the heck, it's a nice souvenir!

I'm glad I had the discipline to stop when I did. Although I was barely moving forward by this point, it would have been easy to try and push myself stupidly and try to complete. Not sure what damage I'd have done to myself if I'd tried it, but I suspect the answer is "lots". Inevitably I was disappointed, but I also realise I did absolutely the right thing. No race is worth killing yourself over.

And then the real issue was discovered when I took myself off to the Doctor when I got home to be diagnosed with tonsillitis. Which explained just about everything.

So, I have unfinished business with the race, and think I may need to address that next year if it's re-run. Despite some Twitter sniffiness about French organisation levels when I said I was running a first-time event there, I have to say then event was well organised, well marshalled and provisioned and clearly had good medical support in place. About the only questionable part of the event was the aforementioned 7k loop off the Mulsanne which would have been a nightmare in bad weather - I'd prefer to see them do 3 laps of the circuit in the same way that the supporting relay event did. In reality, I wouldn't have a second's hesitation in running there again and very much suspect I'll be writing a post-event blog from there this time next year.