This season I wanted to complete an ultra marathon, but I chose to run 3 marathons within 7 months instead. My personal best (PB) was 3hours 58 minutes and 54 seconds, which I accomplished at London Marathon. I wanted to improve my time so I signed up for a local event Abingdon Marathon. I started to train, but I found it hard to motivate myself because it didn't feel as challenging as the Ironman triathlon which I have considered as the biggest physical challenge.
The Abingdon Marathon was first held in 1982 in Oxfordshire. The race date was 18th October 2015. That morning my boyfriend and I, we drove to Abingdon and around half way through we got a puncture. I was worried that I'm going to miss the race. My boyfriend changed the tyre very quickly and we carried on. Luckily we got there just in time.
The race started at Tilsley Park athletic track and continued through the town centre, heading out on a two lap route through villages of Drayton, Milton and Sutton Courtenay and back through the town up to Tilsley Park and finished with a lap on the track. The course was flat and fast, ideal for achieving a personal best. The drink station was at every 4 miles and on every 8 miles they provided some sweets and bananas.
The weather was perfect for running, dry and cloudy around 10 degrees. We set off at 9 am. There was around 1200 runners and a few of them were from Datchet Dashers running club. As I was approaching 5th mile, Rebecca from Datchet Dashers caught up with me and we ran along together. We have similar pace so it was good to support each other. I also spotted my boyfriend which was really nice. Rebecca was looking strong all the way. I tried to keep up with her but I couldn't. I started to loose her on 21st mile. I was pushing myself and felt exhausted and I couldn't wait to the finish. I was thinking to myself just last push and it will be over soon. I did it in 3 hours 57 minutes and 43 seconds which was my new personal best. I felt much better afterwards when I found out that with this race I won Berkshire County Championship in my age group. The hard work has definitely paid off!
Thank you to my boyfriend, my sister, family, relatives and Datchet Dashers for their support.
