Robin Hood Marathon - From the MarathonTalk.com Motivation Station!

What a weekend, as I sit here with my legs feeling like they had actually done the Marathon I reflect on a great two days.
Saturday morning started as always with parkrun and a super turnout of 70 finishers, a few were heaton parkrunners, a late notice closure of the park (well the bit we use) meant a hasty dash to Oldham.
After parkrun I headed off to "Go Outdoors" far an emergency purchase of sleeping bags and a mallet... long story.

Stephen practices "Clacking" and blowing the whistle

Stephen and I then drove down to Nottingham firstly to see Rick Bennett who was very busy doing his role his Site Supervisor at the festival, then it was off to the campsite. We were the first from the team to get to there and it was very windy, I quick call to see how far Tom Williams was away confirmed at least an hour so we agreed to wait it out. Greg Brock (The website guru behind www.MarathonTalk.com was next to arrive, soon after Paul Sinton-Hewitt (PSH) pulled into the carpark. Another call to Tom and we decided that it was better to set the camp up as the wind had died down and the sky has brightened up.

In all there were about 20 campers who tucked into a great BBQ, a couple of runners who were taking part in the race joined us, it was a bit cruel as we enjoyed Burgers, Kebabs, Helen's world famous Veggie Burgers and a fair amount of booze. They of course had exciting pasta and Lucozade in preparation for the Marathon!

At around 9:00pm the heavens opened and thus the MarathonTalk motivation team beat a hasty retreat under canvas, an early night ensued...

How does this work again?

5:15am an un-holy noise of trucks and inconsiderate workers who laughed, swore, dropped crates and basically acted  like louts setting up the Water-Aid station for mile 17. This just happened to be on the over side the hedge were were camping next to, annoyingly we think these were the same people acting like morons clearing our tables and pallets at Mile 20 (The MarathonTalk motivation station) before the race had ended!!!

At 8:20 we headed out for a run to the start of the marathon, after a couple miles my knee was in agony, I gritted my teeth and carried on. We had a group photo at the finish line and headed back, the knee surprisingly was not nearly as painful on the way back. A quick camp clear up and we went in convoy to the mile 20 station to prepare for the runners (The first two already at mile 9) Stephen and the other children got busy opening bottles and we soon joined in the... fun.

On the whole the day was great fun, encouraging the runners like we do at parkrun only for a much longer time! Stephen who had said the night before he had wished he had gone to Blackpool with his Mum and Brothers, admitted in the car on the way back that he actually was glad he came and would be back next year!

It was great to see Jamie Cook who takes part in Heaton parkrun running well, Ria Bright however was struggling, given that this was her 3rd Marathon in 3 weeks that would be enough to destroy most people especially if you are on your legs for 6 hours at a time! Well done to both of them!

Well I am off to soak my legs in the bath after a hard days graft, next time you are in a race and someone handles you a bottle of water... thank them please... a whole lot of hard work goes into making sure you get much needed nutrition.

Oh to the louts that woke us early setting up the water station... (being paid and on double time at least)...

"Make the fleas of a thousand dogs infest your armpits!"

Have a great running week

Regards

Mark