Virtual London Marathon + Life update, 3 Oct 2021

2021, the year of endurance challenges and the start of a new chapter of my life. The grand finale was to be my first ever attempt at running a marathon. I entered the virtual London marathon last year as I was enjoying my long runs so much. I wanted to challenge myself but not quite commit to the “real deal”. The build-up was far from ideal with work and life challenges galore, however I managed to bank a beautiful 20miler 3 weeks out from the race so felt pretty confident going in to it.

The great thing about a virtual marathon is being able to plot your own route, timings and aid stations. I managed to rope my housemate Hatty and my mum Maria in to accompanying me on bike for 4.5 laps of Richmond Park at 7am on Sunday 3rd October.

The weather conditions were perfect- mild temperature, zero rain and some sunshine. However, it would soon transpire that the weather conditions would lead to a silly mistake that would seriously affect the later half of my run. I set off just as the sun rose. I wanted to get out early so that I could run on the roads of the park and not cause too much havoc amongst cyclists. I had done many of my training runs at 6am before work, so early wasn’t a problem. The first two laps felt great, I had a great tempo going and was enjoying Hatty and Maria chatting away on the bikes behind me. The first two laps felt so great that I did not stick to my nutrition or hydration plan at all… 15 miles went by and I had consumed 1 gel and 200ml water max. I quickly learnt that underfuelling can lead to as extreme nausea as overfuelling - disaster. The last 10miles were extremely uncomfortable. Despite knowing I needed to take on more food and fluids, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Some tough love was needed and Hatty managed to get me to suck on haribo sweets which allowed my legs to just keep turning over. The last 5k was the longest of my life, however some incredible encouragement got me through it and I crossed the finish line (Roehampton gate car park) in 3hrs 45mins.

The time was not at all what I was hoping for but the sense of achievement blew that out the window. I have done several tri/duathlons that last longer than the marathon did, but this was a whole new level of endurance.

26.2 miles is really quite a long way to run and I now have a whole new level of respect for anyone who challenges themselves with the distance. Not fully satisfied with my marathon performance and with many aspects of it I can work on, I have of course entered another one… practise makes perfect hey! Late March 2022 I will be taking on the streets of Rome and I am excited to continue this challenge of developing my endurance running (and fuelling strategies!)

What about duathlon?

This year has been pretty thin on the duathlon front for me. The last couple of years have challenged me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I envisioned summer 2020 being my final big hit out with international and national racing before I started working life. However, COVID took away the finale I dreamt of. Racing was cancelled, my relationship with my partner of 5 years ended and I had to navigate a very strange ending to medical school. My enthusiasm towards sprint/standard distance competing dropped off but I really started to enjoy challenging myself with increasing my run distances and my bike elevation gains. The endurance challenges I have completed this year have provided me with all the excitement and competitive drive I have needed. No 5k/10k run times to stress about, no fast transitions to practise, no comparison with others, just doing my own thing and loving it.

Starting work as a junior doctor has added in even more challenges. My contracted working week is 48hours, yet I often do 60+hr weeks and never finish on time. I am constantly stimulated at work and have really struggled to switch off and sleep well. Early morning running and turbos have been a saviour; time to clear my head, get some endorphins going and not spend the whole day worrying about when I’ll get to train. Some days I am too tired to train and need to prioritise sleep, and that’s totally ok.

Although my job is tough, I absolutely love it. It has brought a whole new perspective to my life and I now have a completely different set of priorities. For this reason, I have deferred my duathlon world championships entry to next year and will re-evaluate my duathlon competing future as the year progresses. It’s been one hell of a physical and emotional journey to get to the point of writing this and I couldn’t thank Tim enough for all of the support he has given along the way. I will always be proud to be part of Catenary Coaching and the ethos behind this awesome team.

Megan Powell