There are some cyclists that seem to be very natural runners. Those who can go without running for a year and then do a  marathon or more with the bare minimum of training. If you have ever seen the start of Mountain Mayhem then you will see the pace some guys can run at. Anyone who saw me run at Mayhem this year will know that I am not one of those cyclists. I cannot run, simple as that!

After returning from Pakistan I decided that I wanted to improve my running. There were several reasons, one being to keep fit while I took some time off the bike during the autumn and also to improve my running for when it is needed during MTB events such as Mountain Mayhem or even Iron Bike.

I set about to improve my running and decided to give myself a goal and entered the Endurance Life Gower  marathon. This would be the longest run I’d ever done, doubling any previous efforts. I’d heard good things about the series and I much prefer running off-road so it seemed perfect. I started doing short runs, around 15-20 minutes and I suffered after each run with sore muscles. I tried to mix on road and off-road runs, finding the road running helped build the speed and off-road runs were more enjoyable and easier to up the distance. A new pair of Asics Sky Speed 2 trainers which saved a big chunk of weight off the feet and were more comfortable as well. It took a long time to build up the distance and running time, well off a schedule I had hoped mostly due to niggling injuries in my left leg and foot.

Before I knew it the event was just around the corner, yet the longest run I had done was 1hr 30min at a very slow pace. Given last years winning time in the Gower was 1hr 38min and the average Men’s time was 2hrs 25min I would be going into the unknown.

The whole setup and organisation was brilliant, very slick and professional. Staggering all the distances available from ultra, marathon, half marathon and 10km through the day it was designed to get everyone finishing around the same time. The half marathon distance started at 10.30am and I set off at a good pace with the aim of beating the average mens time. It was a little too quick to be honest but I kept pushing, trying to stick with a few similar paced runners around me. 15 minutes in and I started to get pain in my left leg. This was in exactly the same place as it usually hurts and I was expecting it. I also knew that in previous runs it disappears by 30min in. The first few miles were undulating before a long and steep climb up above Rhosilli. Nearing the top, at the 30 minute mark the pain disapeared right on cue and from there it was a quick dash along the top of the mountain before a brilliant steep and slippery downhill. I’d entered a short fell run as training a month previous and struggled on the downhill so I was really surprised to find myself passing everyone in sight! A few people gave me advice before hand to let myself go and I tried my best to do that, although it was so steep that I had to hold myself up form time to time.

Reaching the bottom we hit a beach and I was going pretty well, passing a few more people along the way. At the other end of the beach it was back onto undulating coastal trails and that is when I started to slow up. This point was about half way in, about as long as I had ever run previously and I knew it would be a long way back, especially if my legs decided to pack in. I started to get passed by a few people, but not too many and kept pushing. I was able to tick off each mile passing by on my Garmin Forerunner which was a massive help, especially once I’d gone past the half way mark. Coming through the village of Llangenith I knew we just had one more climb and some open moorland to the finish, about 4 more miles. It hurt. I was ready for it to end there and then and I got to a point where I was struggling to lift my feet up, constantly catching them on the lumpy grassland. When we reached the road I knew the end must be close so pushed a hard as I could, which didn’t really mean much at this point. The end finally came into sight and I clocked myself in with the wrist chip. My finishing time was 2hrs 6min, a huge amount inside the time that I was hoping for and I was absolutely over the moon with it! The winning time of the day was 1hr 43 minutes and my time placed me 40th out of 260 starters in the  marathon. Chuffed to bits! What is perhaps even better is that I feel that with some more training I can take at least 10 minutes off, which would put me into the top 20.

I’d recommend the Endurance Life series to anyone and I’m hoping to enter another one in the series over the winter if I have the time, but even if I don’t have the time I will keep running and hope to do 2 runs a week to keep the muscles used to it ready for next summer. I’d love to step up to do a marathon, so maybe that can be next autumn’s off-season goal.