Carmen had originally thought that for her 40th birthday it would be nice to travel somewhere in Europe. She’d got unfinished business with Track Wars though, and wanted the chance to get a marathon PB for this year. So when the date of this race was announced she decided this is what she wanted to do to celebrate, and I decided I may as well join in, and do a marathon too. Surely it’d be easier than my previous two for this year, even if it would be 106 laps of a running track.

Training

For this marathon I wanted to reuse my training plan from Manchester. I’d got a couple of weeks after Rwanda Marathon before I needed to start, which was handy considering I deliberately left my running shoes behind in Musanze so couldn’t run until I got home. I then caught COVID-19 NB.1.8.1 the day I got home, so needed some time to recover from that as well.

After having two very slow marathons already this year, getting some decent summer training in was my best hope to at least get one reasonable marathon done this year. The fact it would be on a running track could actually make it harder though, as whilst I wouldn’t have any hill climbs, it would mean I also couldn’t recover on any descents either. There’s also the psychological factor of running so many laps. It would certainly be a very different challenge.

Training for this didn’t quite go the way I’d wanted it to. The heat bettered me on at least one run a week, and it wasn’t until the halfway point in training that I actually had an entire week go to plan. I then had a mid-week longer run cut short as I was too tired and warm, with shorter runs at the weekends for two weeks in a row (one for doing LDN X) when I should have been starting to get the longer runs in. In the end, I had three runs that were longer than 16 miles. Not great, but then, I’ve always found summer training to be a challenge.

In terms of goals, it was a case of balancing the seemingly positive that it would be a flat track, and the negative of that this would also be off the back of summer training. My goals for Manchester in the spring had been:

• Bronze: Sub-3:25 (beat fastest post-pandemic time) • Silver: Sub-3:19:31 (beat my first ever Manchester Marathon time) • Gold: Sub-3:15

I hadn’t really thought how crazy it would be to have the same goals for this as a spring marathon, but I had added a fourth to them:

• Pewter: Sub-3:44:13 (beat this year’s Manchester Marathon time)

Surely even with a bad block of training, I could beat at least one of them?

Race Day

I was up at 05:30 for breakfast so we could be on the road by 06:30. It takes almost an hour to get to the location of the race normally, but today being a Friday meant we could have rush hour traffic. Track Wars takes place at the leisure centre in Walton-On-Thames, right next to where I’d done a couple of other Phoenix Running races earlier this year. When I was last there I commented that I’d quite like to do a race on a running track, but I never intended it to be a marathon.

We got there in enough time to prepare for the race start at 08:00, and we were then all led by Rik to the start point. After a quick group photo, the run had begun!

I had in my mind that each lap needed to be a little under two minutes ideally, and to do that I got up to the intended race pace quickly, which moved me towards the front of the pack - having started at the back.

The pace I’d settled into for the first few laps was a little faster than I intended at around 07:10/mi. I kept an eye on my watch too, hoping I’d be able to calculate the number of laps I’d done on the distance travelled, but in order to maintain pace I had to weave a little, so I was gradually drifting away from something I could calculate and found it necessary to count the laps in my head as I went. 106 of them. That felt so far away right now, with only about four laps done to reach one mile.

I quickly came to realise that running counter-clockwise around the track mean on the straight furthest from the stands, whilst that bit was mostly in the sun, it was also where I’d be running into a headwind on each lap - but it had the advantage of knowing that as long as I could push through it, there’d soon be a reprieve.

Lap after lap, I’d constantly think of the lap number as I crossed the start line each time. The only downside was that when my mind wandered I then started to wonder if I was losing track of how many laps I’d done. By the time I reached about lap 10, I was lapped by someone else, myself I think having lapped every other runner besides them multiple times by this point. I assumed if he was doing a marathon he’d be done long before I was - maybe sub-3:00 I thought. It was nice getting to check in on Carmen every few laps when I’d lap her again though.

Somewhere just after mile 6 I veered off to the side to grab my bottle of Tailwind to then run with the remainder of the race. After a few laps of this I decided to put it in my flipbelt as this felt more comfortable than clutching it whilst running - I could feel it was causing my shoulders to tighten a little from the imbalance, but this action prevented it getting worse and it soon improved again.

I did wonder how many laps it’d take before I started to walk. The farthest I’d gone in training doing so was 18 miles, but that was so long ago, and these laps were mentally tiring. I resolved to at least get half way, and that seemed to convince myself well enough to keep on going. Another lap would be just two more minutes of running; I could manage that.

The weather varied during the time on the track. It’d been fairly chilly to start with, so I’d seated with a light jacket on, and then got rid of that after the first few laps as I’d warmed up. The weather after that had gotten warmer too, but not to the degree it had done in Manchester earlier this year. The times when it had clouded over were almost welcome, and it’d keep the sun out of my eyes for a while too.

The halfway point more or less lined up with doing 53 laps, so my counting seemed to be on track. I decided I’d lower my pace at this point to increase the chances of keeping going for longer. I was only around 30 seconds slower than my originally planned average pace. The laps after that point really did start to merge into one as I’d spend more and more time concentrating on counting, and before I knew it several more miles had passed by without me really realising. This was almost like a distraction technique that made the laps easier to tackle mentally.

At 16 miles I wondered if I could run this whole thing by slowing further, though I was also aware I was running very low on Tailwind. Normally I don’t finish all of the 300ml bottle, but with no jelly babies or water this was my only fuel source for the race. After 74 laps I decided to use the aid station near the start line to get some water, and then walked around for an entire lap before starting to get my legs going again and building back up to my target pace. My legs now felt surprisingly good, even though I was over 18 miles in.

With Track Wars, you switch direction every three hours, and for me that meant after 92 laps I ran around Rik to then return back in a clockwise direction around the track for the remaining laps.

After a few more laps I stopped at the aid station for more water, and this time gulped down a full cup of water before immediately getting running again. This caused me to feel a little nauseous as I rounded the first corner, but quickly overcame that.

My strategy for these remaining laps was to try to run for two laps and then allow myself a short walk before then running the remainder of two laps. For walking I would move out almost into the third lane, to keep the inside lane free, and would then move back into the inside lane (where possible) once I was running again.

For one of the laps though, somewhere around 103, I walked with Carmen for a second time (having walked with her for about a quarter of a lap before the direction change). She’d not been able to train as much as she’d wanted, and hadn’t gone past a half marathon in the build-up, but was doing really well today, even if she was walking more than I’m sure she’d have liked. I got the impression beforehand she’d had doubts about getting a marathon done today, but could tell she was determined to finish, and it looked almost certain she would.

Two more laps passed by after that, and I figured that give or take a mile, I must be around 105 laps now, and wanted to be sure I wouldn’t do the wrong amount. I went over to the aid tent to check with Rik, and he grabbed a USB stick to go and get a reading off the tracking box whilst I ran another lap. Normally they’d be able to tell you there and then, but tech issues meant they were having to do things a little more long-winded.

When I got back round, they confirmed that when I cross the mat next it will be 104 laps. That was a little disappointing. I was determined to get it done now, so I sped up during lap 105, and then as I got close to the finish line for lap 106 I got up to a reasonable sprinting speed.

My final time was 3:39:20 so had at least beat my ‘pewter’ goal. I know this being an autumn marathon I should really compare it to others at a similar time of year. However, I did actually beat every marathon time I’d done since London 2022. Surprisingly I was also the first marathon finisher! My second first place finish this year. It doesn’t really feel right to count it as one though.