My 1st Marathon! 2nd October 2016 : Chester UK

The only limits to what is possible are those which we impose upon ourselves….

I bring you this report from a very emotional place…

At the start of my journey, Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would one day be able to complete a marathon.

Please remember where I have come from, 4 stone overweight, very unfit, unable to run more than 10 yards without wanting to stop, a 2,5km fun run feeling like an impossible dream at the time….

Even after successfully completing level 8, the half Ironman triathlon in Dublin, I still had doubts that I would be able to run the full 26.2 miles..

I hope this review will be an inspiration to all the runners who have run a half but have any doubts at all that they can do a full., and to all the triathletes looking to move from level 8 to level 9.

I am here to tell you that you absolutely can do it.

I was able to move from running 20k, to 42k in only 6 weeks..

Furthermore, I wasn’t following some insane or complex training plan, I was able to do it by going for just 2 simple training runs per week.

Please understand that I say this not to brag, but to let you know that moving up from a half to a full is much easier than you might think.

Once you have read my book, and understand certain simple principles, the only thing stopping you, is you….

What follows is my account of my first ever marathon, and probably the most emotional race of my journey thus far…

It’s quite a detailed account, so you might want to get cosy and make yourself a brew, but many first timers  went on to message me via twitter saying how inspired they felt after reading it, and I hope you do too!

Before you begin,  take a look at this short video, it’s an old Nike advert, but it’s beautiful – the first time I saw it – I cried – it’s so who I am!

Please bear this in mind at all times as you read!

I had chosen Chester as my first marathon because it was fairly  local, described by the organisers as ‘relatively flat’ (can I have a word with whoever was responsible for writing that please?)  and the date of the event fitted nicely in to my plan.

The organisers had sent my race number and programme by post a good 3 weeks before race day so everything was already sorted in this regard.

I had made the decision to stay over the night before in Chester to remove any stress on the morning of the race.

I know chester fairly well and opted for the Village hotel at St David’s Park, approx. a 15 minute drive from race HQ which starts at the quaint Chester racecourse right in the city centre..

I arrived at the hotel at about 9.30pm on the Saturday evening and cheked in using their ‘self check in print your own key’ service which was certainly a first for me.

I starts making my way over to my room and came to a junction in the corridor, rooms 1-100 turn left, rooms 100-150 turn right.

To the left there was silence…

To the right there was a Charity ball going off in full swing with the guests in fine voice making merry and the music pumping out at maximum  volume…..

Guess which way my room was….

As I made my way past all the party goers getting pissed the reality of the path I had now chosen dawned on me.

It wasn’t long ago that I would be the one stood at the bar having ‘fun’ at this time on a Saturday night, but now I find myself on a very different road.

There is something tragic  about the lone athlete making his way to a hotel room  for an early night whilst the rest of the masses party the night away, although it is equally beautiful and tragic at the same time…

The devil came and knocked at the door and for a split second I thought about dumping the bags and joining them, but no, the marathon medal was the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world right now, so a pint was the last thing that I fancied.

As I walked up the stairs to the sound of raucous laughter ringing out from the party  I reminded myself that come the morning, when they are making their way home from the night before,  nursing a hangover and no doubt  cursing the marathon runners because of all the road closures, I would have the last laugh, and he who laughs last ,laughs loudest.

A member of staff that I had seen in the lobby passed me on the stairs, gave me a big smile and said good-night, I am sad to admit that rather than returning the compliment, I scowled at her and said ‘if I can hear all that in my room you will be seeing me again in a couple of minutes’…but she just smiled at me…

As it transpired it was so quiet I could hear a pin drop in my room….

I  set my alarm for 6.30am and managed to drift off into a deep sleep at 10.30pm.

At 12.30am I wakes up ‘ping’ wide awake.

I was simply unable to get back to sleep until 4.30am, Whilst I was aware that my body was resting in that it was just lying there, My mind was whirling at a million miles an hour with a mixture of nerves and excitement and I was just so excited about the day ahead that I simply couldn’t wait to get up.

I have found that in every race so far this happens to me and the higher I advance up the levels, the earlier I wake up.

Its so annoying as its the mental strength you need more than anything on race day and only having 2 hours sleep on race eve is far from ideal.

I finally managed to get a good hour in 4-5 and was very thankfull for that as I am sure it made all the difference.

At 6.20 I walked down to the breakfast area, first challenge of the day, see if the chef will put my porridege  and milk in the microwave for 90 seconds for me.

I have had a bad  experience of this in the past where the chef refused to do it because of ‘health and safety’….. seriously???  stress you just don’t need.

Anyway I managed to find the chef and not only did he oblige but we had a lovely chat as he seemed very interested in the marathon, asking me all about it.

As I walked out of the kitchen a fellow athlete was coming in to do likewise, he was a decent runner and had prior experience of the course at Chester which he shared with me and I lapped it all up.

“Big Hill at mile 16 and then again at 24 he said but make it to 24 and then you are all downhill to the finish! ”

“Those hills are getting walked up” I said…he laughed and we wished eachother all the best for the race…

I arrived atChester in good time, 7.30 to be precise, I was aware the carpark on the racecourse was to shut at 8 to allow roads to close for race start at 9.

Driving onto the racecourse itself there must have been a couple of thousand cars on that field, the morning mist had not yet lifted and the sun was streaming down, it really was a beautiful sight.

Despite my lack of sleep earlier I was feeling strong and was ready for the race.

I could see the start line which was on the racecourse itself! and to the left there was a huge marquee with a few mobile cafes dotted around outside.

I treated myself to a ccoffe and made my way inside the  big tent which was accessible to members of the public, not just the athletes.

On the door a  helpful marshall gave me some overshoes  to stop the grass getting on my running trainers once I put them on – at this point I was still fully clothed and was flattered that he recognised me as ‘an athlete’!

It was vey busy inside the tent with all the fellow athletes and their families buzzing around.

, I have to say I was quite impressed with how nice everybody was, my experience in the build up had given me the impression that Chester was a bit of an elite race for some reason.

Whilst Chester does seem to attract lots of very serious runners, I found everyone I spoke to to be very friendly, which is great for a first timer.

Inside there was a big café, late registration, bag drop, sponsors stands and  lots of stalls selling all the usual clothes and gels.

Around the parade ring (remember we are on a racecourse) there was lots of different rooms and here you could find the massage room, a kids room and the ‘elite’ racers room which I was very tempted to walk into and just nod at people to see what would happen, but thankfully I managed to resist.

I went and collected some free goodies for the little one (hand clappers, balloons etc) and made my way back to the car.

Time for the customary pre race dump and there must have been about 100 portoloos in a long ine and whilst we still had 45 mins to go to race start there was already fairly big queues.

I went and joined it and watched in awe as many of the fellow athletes were jogging on the spot whilst they waited and then when one became free they would sprint up to it with the person leaving holding the door open for them before sprinting off themselves!

I have never seen anything like this before! another measure of how far my journey has taken me! i’m now rubbing shoulders with some serious runners here!

With that out of the way I just milled around for a bit taking some shots and once again the start crept up on me.

The announcer on the mike said ‘5 minutes to go so please come and make your way to the start’ – I waited to take some last shots of everyone lining up  which I shouldn’t have done really as it didn’t leave me much time.

Thankfully the car was not far away and I quickly stripped down to my trusty tri suit that has been with me since level 5, put on my running shoes and makes my way to the start., note there were still queues for the toilets!

At every race level so far I have started from the very back of the pack and I didn’t intend to change that now.

In total 2,200 lined up at race start on the racecourse itself and the line certainly went back a few furlongs!

On arrival at the back I starts giving everyone around me a high 5, it was obvious I was just buzzing to be there and before long I found myself surrounded by a couple of others who were clearly of the same mindset so we started our own little pre race  ‘bounce off each others energy’ party which was just the best!

Going into the race I had 4 main objectives:

1. To make the first cut off point – half way by 3 hours
2. To collect the medal
3. To  make the finish within 5 hours to fall in line with my target for Ironman
4. To make the official results board on the Chester website (6 hours)

All of the above would be just amazing, secretly I was hoping for a 4:30 finish, so my strategy was nailed…

I would run the first 2 miles at 11 minute mile pace, and the other 24 miles at 10 minute mile pace, with a 2 minute stop and stretch every hour -this, by my calculations, would bring me dead on 4:30.

I had not done any mile pacing in my training, but could remember from my half races that both 11 and 10 minute miles felt relatively comfortable for me, so this was the plan.

Lets just pause for a second here, a 4:30 marathon would be considered by many competitive marathon runners as slow. but google the average marathon time globally and you will get the reply 4:21,….So, my goodness, to come in just over the global average will do me very nicely thank you very much!

Whilst I salute all those that were to finish ahead of me, remember that I am just totally over the moon to be lining up at the start line, and let’s not forget, at the end of the day my goal is ironman, not getting fast at running marathons!

Also, get this-  estimates suggest that only 1% of the population will complete a marathon in their lifetime…..,1%,. ….think about that for a second….. complete a marathon and you will have achieved something amazing that 99% of the population will never do in their life!

How fantasic is that?

I remember being stood on the start line feeling totally relaxed, I was once again  in that magical place where just getting round and collecting the medal would be enough for me.

I was confident my legs had the miles from the training I had done, I could now relax and enjoy it, soak everything in, and just take the race at a nice steady pace.

I wasn’t as emotional  at the start as what I thought I would be ,I was more just buzzing to be a part of the whole thing and ready for the longest race of my life.

It wasn’t long before the countdown began.

As the claxton sounded I let out my trademark scream of ‘COOOOMEEEE ONNNNN!” at the top of my voice.

As always this produces one of 3 reactions from fellow athletes:

1. they will join in
2. they will turn round and smile at me
3. They will turn round and look at me as if I am a psycho

The reaction in chester was an mainly 2’s and 3’s above, with an approx. 80/20 split in favour of 3.

This surprised me.

I am trying to emulate what happened in Dublin where 2,000 athlets joined in at the mass start and the roar that went up will stay with me for the rest of my days, it still gives me goosebumps every time I think of it.

I continue in my quest to replicate it at races with varying degrees of success, however something tells me that the response is likely to remain largely muted until july 17th…

I would add at this point that I was also quite surprised by the lack of fancy dress here at Chester.

I spotted one snowman and one spaceman and that was about  it out of 2000 runners, the rest all had the proper running gear on and many had a dead serious ‘club runner’ look on their face.

Nothing wrong with that of course, its great to run with so many talented athletes it really is and I wasn’t quite expecting the London marathon, full of people dressed as a chicken etc,  I just thought there would me more ‘fancy dressers’ for some reason.

Anyhow race finally gets underway and I noticed it took me only 3 minutes to cross the start line which I was shocked about as I was expecting it to take much longer than that.

I crossed the start line dead last.

For the first few hundred yards (furlongs lol) you are running on the actual race circuit which is good fun.

I stayed behind the Snowman and had a laugh with the other runnersaround me at the back of the pack.

Once you get off the racecourse you are out into the city itself and there were plenty of members of the public stopping to clap and waving at us from bridges as we whizzed by.

Out onto the closed open roads and almost straight away you run up a fairly steep hill, I had left snowman behind at this point and up ahead I could see the 5 hour pacers which I was really pleased about, I had caught up with them much quicker than I thought I would.

I joined them and almost immediately saw the one mile marker, I passed it at 10:45 so pretty much bang on schedule, and getting that first mile out of the way felt good.

I stayed with the 5 hour pacers until mile 2, there was a large group of runners with them and the pacer somehow had the music pumping out as he ran.

Mile 2 and I was now at 22 minutes so bang on plan, the 11 minute pace felt too easy for me and as the road started going downhill I took full advantage and set about increasing my pace to 10 minute miles.

As I accelerated away from the 5 hour guys I heard one of them say ‘see people go way too soon’ –  words which  I could have done without hearing to be fair, at least wait until I am out of earshot pal!

Mile 2 to 3 and I was getting  closer to my target 10 minute mile pace.

I really appreciated running on fully closed roads, it makes such a massive difference, and I just wallowed in this luxury for a while. with the course still ‘undulating’ at this point (I hate that word by the way- what does it even mean?).

I have since discovered that the word ‘undulating’ means not flat, i.e. up and down…..

Or ‘hills’ to you and me, but the organisers can’t put that otherwise no-one would enter so they use the word ‘undulating’ instead.

There was a water station at around 5k which I took advantage of as my mouth was dry from the start  with all the adrenaline.

A note on the water and feed stations at Chester, they were approx. every 3 miles, not that it mattered to me, save the water.

I can not over emphasise enough how important race day nutrition is, One of the biggest secrets that I learned from the Ironmen was about this subject, and unless you can say that your race day fuel strategy is 100% nailed on then this chapter  alone will be worth the cost of the book tenfold.

I caught up the 4:45 pacer group which was busy. I passed them fairly quickly as at this point I viewed running with the pacers as cheating on the basis that there will be no pacers at Ironman so I wanted to replicate this.

I  spent the next couple of miles chatting triathlon to a lad in a tri-suit. The road started to go very straight and gently down and at around the 10k mark I could see the 4:30 pacers up ahead.

In training I had been stopping every hour to have a 90 second stretch by the side of the road and whilst I was feeling strong the hour was upon us so I forced myself to stop.

Many other runners overtook me at this point and gave me a bemused look as if  they couldn’t understand what I was doing or they were thinking jeez, if this guy is stopping now what’s he going to be like later. but I had my plan and I was sticking to it.

Energised from my power break I sets back off in a quest to catch the 4:30 guys.

The next 10k went by smoothly. and fairly flat, 6 weeks ago, I had been knocking out 20k ‘long’ runs on a Sunday for fun, and this distance came easy to me now.

I was playing cat and mouse with the 4:45 pacers, Every time I went ahead they kept catching me up, so I kept telling them to piss off  and thankfully they saw the funny side. (the pacers at Chester are ace by the way).

I said ‘whilst I am on a quest to catch the 4:30 guys if I see you on the hill at mile 24 I will be a very happy man!’

One of the most wonderful things about running a marathon is the people that you will meet whilst running.

At Chester you are out running on the roads surrounded by beautiful countryside and there is not much going on so it gets a bit boring.

The organisers get round this by putting bands on at various points but more on them later.

I passed the time by catching people up and chatting to them until we were both bored of eachother before moving on to the next victim.

One of the most interesting guys I met was wearing a t-shirt for the ‘100 club’ – it transpires there is a club for people that can prove they have run over 100 marathons! this guy was in his fifties and on number 162! He had travelled all over the world running them.

Meeting someone like this, he’s knocked out 162 marathons and I’m making such a big deal about completing one, there is something mentally awakening about it…

I asked which one of all was his favourite ‘Loch Ness’ came the reply.

I remember that getting to mile 9 seemed fairly straightforward but getting to mile10 seemed to take ages, I paused between the 2 to take my second hour power break.

It transpired that the mile 10  marker had gone awol, as confirmed by a friendly marshall, so the next marker we saw was at mile 11.

Here the course doubles back on itself and I looked to see what the mile marker said on the other side of the road .

It said mile 15, meaning the guys crossing us were 4 miles ahead.

There were just as many runners going into mile 11 as there was coming the other way into mile 15, with long lines either side.

The ones that were 4 miles ahead gave us that smug ‘I’m kicking your arse’ look but I didn’t let that phase me, I was interested to see  how many would still be on the other side when I got to mile 15 though!

I got round the next 4 miles which were flat and pretty uninteresting as we were out in the middle of no-where, the field now very spread out.

I was running about 6 minutes behind plan and my minutes per mile had droped down to around 10:30.

I  remember hitting the 13.1 mile half way point at about 2:20 and the reality of how far this race was began to hit home, but at least I had made the half way  cut off time of 3 hours.

It was now my turn to hit the 15 mile marker and look back at those approaching mile 11 at the cross over.

There was now just a slow trickle  of runners approaching the mile 11 point and instead of giving them ‘the look’,  the people on our side clapped them and shouted encouragement as we crossed.

One of the guys approaching the 11mile marker at this point was the snowman! he was still in full costume and I have total respectfor this guy.

Onto the dreaded mile 16 and what a stonker of a hill this is.

I knew from the outset that this was getting walked up and walk I did, annoyingly someone took my picture on this section and I joked with him that he could have took it at mile 5 when I was in full flow!

As you got to the top of the hill you enetered a small village, Holt if I remember right, and the hill was lined with people shouting encouragement at you which was very much appreciated.

As you got to the top and turned the corner there must have been 1,000 people packed onto the street at either side, it felt like the whole village had come out to support the runners.

The course was now flat at this point so I started to run again and shouted ‘COOOMMMEEE ONNNN!” at the crowd – this was like lighting the blue touchpaper of the best firework in the world and the crowd erupted and started going mad.

The noise they made gave me such an amazing burst of energy at exactly the point in the race when I needed it most and it is worth running the Chester marathon  just to experience this sensation.

People of Holt – thank you!  you rock!

I rode the adrellaline wave from the crowd for the next 2 miles, and before I knew it I was at mile 18 although I remember feeling a little bit dis-orientated at this point.

Here there was a further water station with a brass band.

I  stopped for a loo break and for some reason I tried to get the top off the water whilst still in the portoloo as I wanted to put my electrolyte sachet in  it but the water eneded up going everywhere! Why I attempted to do this whilst still locked in the portoloo I will never know.

I apologised to the next in line for the loo and returned to the water station where a helpful marshall opened a new bottle for me.

If you are taking electrolyte don’t take the powder satchets like I did they go everywhere, invest instead in the tablets.

Shortly after I took my 3rd power break.

Miles 18-22 were the hardest bit of the race for me as it flet like this was one long, continuous slight climb that never ended save a short respite at mile 20..

Many people were walking by this point but I was still managing to keep going, albeit slowly, but I hate these long slow steady slight climbs that go on for ages, there is just no let up for the legs.,.

I have heard a lot of talk about ‘the wall’ in marathon, and was wondering when I was going to hit it, stupidly, I half wanted to experience what it was like, but as yet , I was still OK.

My 4:30 dream had pretty much gone out of the window by this point however I was still ahead of the 4:45 boys as they had not come past me for what would be the hundreth time!.

The army had come out to support the event and at mile 20 I loved the sergent major shouting ‘6 miles to go, lets get moving’ as if the previous 20 miles were just some kind of warm up  and this gave me a lift..

Around mile 22 it was time for my next power break, this I now badly needed, but I took comfort in the fact that the long slow climb appeared to be nearly over.

I felt energised by how far I had come, and by the fact that I knew in just 2 more miles we would be downhill.

We passed another band and I clapped them as I ran by because they were ace, but the lead singer just looked at me with a look on his face as if to say ‘you are the one doing all the running son’

A note on the bands at Chester, every 4 miles or so there is a different band playing as you run by.

There is something magical about these bands that I can’t put my funger on, the way they look at you, the mutual repsect of you appreciating them and them appreciating you, there is something haunting about them.

It was almost  as if when you run by you do so in slow motion and really savour the moment, it’s beautiful, it really is.

The next 2 miles I got through, I think passing mile 20 gives you such a psychological boost, I said to myself in 10 minutes i’ll be at mile 23, then another 10 minutes 24 and then I’m nearly done.

It was weird, miles 18-22 were harder for me than miles 22-24!

I remember seeing a road sign that said ‘city centre 2.5’ so at this point I knew the medal was mine and this gave me such a lift..

Before long we hit the dreaded hill at mile 24 and this was another stonker.

It didn’t phase me though as it was getting walked up and I knew once I got to the top I was done. Half way up and who catches me? the 4:45 pacer, but this time I was pleased to see him and we high 5’d..

Once at the top the hill went down but what was waiting at the bottom? another stonking hill!

This got walked up too but thankfully the guy in the hotel was right and once you got up this you sailed all the way down into the city centre.

Into the last mile and it was a joy running along the river with the streets  lined with supporters. (still no sign of ‘the wall!’)

It felt like it took me ages to get onto the racecourse but I finally makes it onto the hallowed turf and you run the final few furlongs like a racehorse and round to the finish.

The run down the home straight was very well supported with everyone clapping you, the announcer on the mike calls your name as you approach so I high 5’d him and one of the organisers was there to welcome you home with a big smile and a well done, so he got high 5’d too.

I was buzzing to cross the finish line in 4:46, which I am elated with as it hit all of my pre race goals and placed #1744 / 2896 on the official results board.

But, when you look closer, over 700 either entered the race but did not turn up (kerching for the organisers!) or started the race but did not finish it.

So my ‘real’ position out of the people that actually finished the race was:

1744/2135

Yes, 1,743 people finished in front of me.

But that is irrelevant.

Don’t forget – I started the race at the very back of the pack  and I crossed the start line dead last.

Remember also that this race was filled with dead serious ‘club runners’

And do you recall the girl in the video?

I was fully expecting to come last.

Not only did I not come last, but I actually overtook 391 people – Three Hundred and Ninety One!!!

How awesome Is that?

Offer me that at the start of the race and I would have snatched your hand off!

Remember always that it’s your perception of what is good that becomes your reality – have you seen Alice through the looking glass?

Finally, never forget that it’s all about joining the 1%.

I had done it, I had completed a marathon, (no way lol) more importantly, I knew Ironman was now  surely mine. as this marathon was the final piece of the jigsaw in the ironman puzzle.

At the finish I got presented with a medal and yet another kiss! (Iam on a lucky streak in this regard) a goodie bag containing jelly babies, a kit kat chunky,a  snood which will be ideal for cycling, some energy gels and a satchet of porridge.

I also got given a long sleeve t-shirt with Chester marathon written on it.

So I had got round without meeting the dreaded and eagerly anticipated ‘wall’… maybe that was him flirting with me at mile 18, although I am convinced the power breaks & fuel strategy kept him at bay..

I chilled for a bit to let it all sink in before walking over to the bridge where I clapped the other finishers (including snowman) before making my way back to the hotel for a well earned bowl of pasta and to go  sit in the Sauna for at least a week!

I have to tell you, collecting that medal was a fantastic experience, very emotional, and one that I will never forget in my life.

I never imagined at the start of my journey that one day I would be collecting a medal at the finish line of a marathon, it was so far out of my reality there was more chance of me going to the moon..

It still feels like it’s all not real, and I’m just having some amazing dream.

But, I have to let you into a little secret….

Something the 1% would rather you didn’t know about………………….

A Marathon is a sheep in wolf’s clothing- it’s all bark and no bite you know….

The word ‘marathon’ has this mysterious magical power about it, and many people put it on a ‘not possible for me’ pedastol, way up in the clouds somewhere, completely out of reach.

Yet at the end of the day, what is a marathon?

A marathon is just one big run, exactly like all the others, but longer!

And once you learn and apply certain secrets, then follow a plan, you will realise something magical……

That the only limits to what is possible, are those which we impose upon ourselves….

To your amazing journey!……

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By the way, I have written a book, it’s all about how I went from zero fitness to completing an Ironman triathlon, it’s only just come out but it has got some fantastic reviews already!- you can check them out here: (also available on Amazon in the US but please read the UK reviews first!)

www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Ironmen-Iron-Rookie/dp/1974002322/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503233130