Marathon No.30 - Saxon Shore Marathon

Liz, John & Me at the FINISH (Back - Organizer Rachel and Traviss Willcox)

 Running on shingles isn't easy, I was very worried at how loose the ground was and I was being very careful trying not to fall or twist my ankle. I would have run on the grass if I could find it, didn't like the shingles one bit. There wasn't much grass so had no choice but to keep going..

 Saxon Shore Marathon was a very tough going trail run along 60% compacted sand, grass and shingle and 40% road.
The run started with a short opening loop followed by 4 out and back loops.The course is very flat along the Saxon Shore Way.

Elanor Willcox (Marshall) presenting me with FINISH Medal! - My FINISH Time was 5 Hours, 26 Minutes & 46 Seconds!

Me at the FINISH...........

  I had to wear 3 layers, I had my usual running shorts, 2 pairs of socks (one were compression socks and the other my normal running socks). Also I had my trusted gloves, I didn't remove them the whole run and at the 3rd lap they were completely frozen.

The goodie bag consisted of plenty of nibbles - Mars Bar, 400g TOBLERONE, Bag of McCoys Salted Crisp, Mini Cheddars, Curly Wurly and a Can of StrongBow. Nice little motivation for me and my sweet tooth!

The temperature on Saturday 1st December in Deal, Kent was very very cold, I think it was around 1 degrees.

Liz, Me & Ruth........ On our last Lap!

I saw John Close (a fellow runner at the 2nd final lap struggling, he looked so pale) I asked him if he was OK and he said it was just one of those days. His body was not co-operating  for some reason, I blame the shingles!. On the final lap I decided to help Liz (she had  a very bad cold and kept coughing) and John (who was struggling big time), we all kept the pace together and spurred each other on in the last lap - Good TEAM WORK!! Firstly we started to light jog and then gradually walked when we had problems with shingles. John started to sing Christmas tunes along the way 'Shingle Bells, Shingle Bells, Shingle all the way'................. All three of us completed the Marathon together hand in hand.. It was awesome.

 We also met Rosemary (John's Wife) who was running Saxon Shore for the 2nd year running during final lap. She passed on some of her Jelly Beans and this really helped motivate me run that last lap. Thanks Rosemary and her Jelly Babies!!

The Kissing Gate

The Mansion