Milton Keynes Marathon: To The Manor, Run! Halfway to Mile 20.

When I started running in 2012 you could have written my expertise down on the back of a parkrun finishing token.  I was unfit, had a 2 year old son, and I had a premonition that he was going to get faster and I would be the fat dad at sports day that couldn't join in.  I took up running to counter that premonition, mainly because I didn't like the idea of joining a gym, I was too unfit to take up any team sports, and running is free*.

Fast forward to today and I now consider myself to be quite an experienced runner.  I'm a qualified Run Leader, have raced numerous 10ks and half marathons, and can chew the fat with most other runners about races that have gone wrong and training techniques that I have found that suit my body and lifestyle.  That said, when it comes to the Marathon, I am still very much a novice.

I have got one marathon under my belt.  I took on the Yorkshire Marathon in 2015 and managed to hit my target of running a 4 hour marathon by 22 seconds (3:59:38) and I'm using that experience as my guide as I train for the Milton Keynes Marathon in May.  I've kept my training plan very close to the 2015 one but I have cut out the slew of races that I did that summer.  I found that they got in the way of the main target and didn't prepare me properly for taking on 26.2 miles.  I've also been reflecting on the race day experience to see if there were any nuggets of useful information or memories that will help me around MK.

One of the major bonuses for any race is knowing the route beforehand.  During York I had no idea where I was for vast chunks of the race and it's disorientating.  It's hard to judge pace if you don't know what's around the next corner.  I live too far from Milton Keynes these days to run the route prior to the race, so over the last couple of blogs I have been reminiscing about my time in MK, specifically with the route of the marathon in mind, to help with my race prep, and potentially to help others prepare for what's in store for them.

During the York Marathon I was fine through the first half of the race, but it was after that when things started to unravel.  I'm hoping that as half way to mile 18 of the Milton Keynes marathon is my old stomping ground, I should get through without entering the running doldrums.

Just after mile 14 the marathon route joins the Grand Union canal at Pennyland.  I spent many an afternoon after school, fishing along this stretch of canal.  It was at the Pennyland Boat Basin where I once caught a friend in the head with a pike spinner (not that I ever caught a pike).  The route follows the towpath into Giffard Park until it crosses the canal onto the redway network in Great Linford and heads towards Great Linford Manor.

As my ex-local pub (The Nag's Head) is situated at the gates of the manor, I spent quite a lot of my youth (once I was old enough you understand) around the Manor.  I always found it reasuring that in a town as young as Milton Keynes, my local was old.  It was a throwback to a bygone era and it's probably where my love of traditional boozers comes from.  More often than not our evenings would spill out of the Nags and into the Manor, but come May 1st I'll just have to be content with the memories and not pop in for a pint.

Not every night in The Nags Head ended this way...

With the Manor behind us the route hits a disused railway path for a couple of miles.  I'm looking forward to this stretch as if it's hot it will be a haven of shade and if it's raining the canopy of trees will keep the worst off us.  The railway walk was one of my main arterial routes between friends' houses but I was always on my bike or walking so a run will make a nice change.

The marathon continues through Blue Bridge and Bancroft, and this is where my reminiscing will come to an end.  From mile 18 to the finish I'll have flashes of memories but nothing from having spent any time on the route.  We do get to run past the infamous Concrete Cows before mile 20 though...I wonder if they are the originals or copies, after they were stolen and then recovered many years ago.

I am training for the Milton Keynes Marathon on the 1st May and have been selected to be one of their ambassadors.  I am also raising money for Bliss, the premature baby charity.  You can find my Just Giving page here.

*Little did I know!