I beat the Quadzilla, of course by beat I mean limped over the finish line battered and bruised, but victorious nonetheless. I even finished the final of the 4 marathons with my fastest 2km of the 4 days, amazing how you can find that extra burst when you know the end is in sight. Sitting here just over 2 weeks since finishing it all feels a little surreal really, the 4 medals sat next to me the only real evidence of what I did. My legs are pretty much back to normal now after feeling like blocks of lead for at least 10 days but I do still feel a bit achy when I get back from my morning runs.
It won’t surprise you that finishing the quadzilla was tough, getting up for 4 days straight to run another 7 laps of a lake in Milton Keynes hurts both mentally and physically. It was also almost as tiring making sure I managed my recovery well with nutrition, stretching and rest. Surprising how hard it is to force down carbs and protein straight after a marathon, but knowing if you don’t it’ll make a big difference to how you recover. The race route isn’t going to win any prizes for it’s scenery with the A5 whizzing past one end but it was actually ok and finding someone each day running at the roughly the same pace to chat to for a few laps certainly helped. Incidentally you make think I’m crazy but one guy I chatted to had run 58 marathons LAST YEAR. That’s a whole other level of crazy.
But quite honestly all the aches and pains are irrelevant, I was doing this challenge for a reason and that was to raise some money for 2 pretty darn awesome causes. Knowing why I was doing it made a real difference at the inevitable low points like 30km into marathon 3 trying to run into a 50 mph head wind, or starting marathon 4 and hobbling the first 2km with knee pain. I feel so lucky and grateful that so many of you were willing to donate your hard earned money to support me. I set a goal of £1,000 because it felt like a nice round number and as of now the total stands at a mighty £1,215 and if you add in gift aid that rises to £1,455. Amazing. Thank you if you donated, there is still time of course if you didn’t I’ll pop the link here just in case you need it.
I’ll finish by saying thank you to my amazing family, to the lady of the manor for putting up with me disappearing to do these silly races and then running a lap with me on the last day, to my little brother Josh who came up after the 3rd marathon so I could make use of his new sports massage skills and then spent 2 laps on the last day listening to me moan and groan, to my amazing little monsters who gave me the best hugs at the finish line and finally to my mum for her lovely emails each day to wish me luck.
End of day 1
End of day 3, notice a difference?!
The final finish line on day 4
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