How to describe the feelings on day 7? Firstly, relief... that I had made it as far as the seventh day injury free... and that it was nearly all done. Secondly, apprehension... as there was still another marathon to run, and it doesn't matter how many of them I run, they are still 26.2 miles long and that's still a long way to run. We had opted for an early start on the Sunday, with the 7 in 7 folk going off earlier than the rest of the marathon, half marathon and 10km competitors, although I had asked one of my friends, Lynn, who was doing the 10km if she wanted to join the early start, so she joined us early as did a couple of other runners. This meant that I had the pleasure of Lynn's company for the first four miles of the day, which was a marvellous treat after 3 days of running almost entirely solo. I had decided to stick to the same game plan that had worked for Friday and Saturday so was aiming for 12 minute miles again, although the excitement of it being the last day, coupled with the company, meant that I went off a little quicker, but felt comfortable enough to maintain that pace even once I had parted company with Lynn. The day seemed to zip past, and before I knew it, it was 'lunch time' (two peanut butter sandwiches and a cup of coca cola!!), and I was 14 miles down with just 3 lots of 4 miles to do (with a return to base at the end of each 4 miles). Towards the end of my first 4 mile loop, another friend, Rachel, and her hubby walked out to meet me having completed the 10km run earlier and then grabbed a bite to eat. They were happy to jog alongside me for the ensuing 8 miles (with my 6 year old daughter Eleanor joining us briefly too) which made for a fantastic end to the week for me. We eventually hit the finishing post in a time (for me) of 5 hours and 2 minutes, with Rachel having run 8 miles more than she had ever before run in one day (and having set a personal best for the 10km run too!!). So there it was ... I had run 7 marathons in 7 days. All my times fell between 4 hours 44 mins and 5 hours 9 mins. There are some interesting (well... to me anyway) facts and figures to be analysed regarding my training, my heart rate, pacing etc, but those can wait for another post on another day... What about everyone else? Well, there were 7 people starting out on Monday to try to achieve the 7 marathons. Some of us knew some of the others, but we were a bunch of relative strangers. Through the trials and tribulations of endurance running, with the vagaries of the British weather in February throwing sun, ice, rain and winds at us, we slowly moulded into a bizarre army, fighting adversity with as much good humour as we could muster. It was like some odd social experiment on commercial television, but without anyone being eliminated... yes, we all made it across that finish line! We all completed 42 loops of the 'morning' circuit (up to the 14 mile point) and 21 out-and-backs of the 4 mile 'afternoon' course. What an achievement! Here's a few pics from the week... Credit to Ian Wall, Mick Ward, and Ultra Running Ltd for the photographs.
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