{"id":5024,"date":"2019-01-29T11:05:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T11:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/?p=5024"},"modified":"2019-01-29T11:05:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T11:05:47","slug":"excalibur-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/?p=5024","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having claimed he\u2019d retired from running marathons last year, (and not for the first time I might add! In fact I\u2019m pretty sure he retired twice last year and twice the year before! haha!) Anyway however how many times it is, our chairman Glen Jones has taken himself off the bench once more. Not for \u201cJust one more marathon\u201d as his blog is aptly aimed, but for one more marathon every month for a whole year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something for charity and as I\u2019ve run a few marathons now I didn\u2019t feel that running just one was enough to ask people to part with sponsorship money. So I thought I\u2019d up the anti, and really challenge myself\u201d he tells me. \u201cAs many of you know, myself and my wife Ruth have been involved in fostering kids for many years, so I have chosen to raise money for the NSPCC. It seemed like the perfect fit for me\u201d<\/p>\n

So on Sunday he found himself on the startline of \u201cjust one more marathon\u201d up in Sawbridgeworth in Essex.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Organised by Phoenix Running, the Excalibur Series is a brand new sequence of races offering upto 12 \u201cconquests\u201d throughout 2019. The perfect start to Glens own 12 in 12 challenge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A slightly different format for this marathon. Similar to the Frolic format of loops\u00a0 <\/span>of a short course, this one is taylor made for a marathon specific distance with 8 laps of the 3.28 mile course perfectly works out at the golden 26.2 miles. However with 6 hours to complete it in, the runners can run more or less laps as they do choose collecting a different coloured wristband on each return to the race HQ before ringing the antique 1920s school bell to announce their retirement and collecting their medal.<\/p>\n

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Glen arrived in plenty of time the day before to do a little recce of the course, and it was a good job he did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI originally thought it would be quite a fast run as it was up and down the flat towpaths. The venue had hosted a similar event the day before so much of the course was pretty churned up. Add to that a full night of rain and by race day it had gone from quite muddy to very muddy\u201d<\/p>\n

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Unperturbed Glen set off from the Whoosh Canoe Club and out through the metal gates and onto the towpath with the River Stort on his right. Covered with\u00a0 <\/span>deep puddles, the freezing water added to the cold and blustery conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other side of the loop was trail and was treacherous underfoot\u201d<\/p>\n

Glen slipped and struggled to maintain an upright position as he made his way around the course. He knew immediately that he would have to readjust his pace to allow for the conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to take it easy, as it was so energy sapping. So I took advantage of the excellent hospitality at the race HQ area and kept plodding out the laps chatting to people as I went\u201d<\/p>\n

He managed to reach his target distance in a tidy 4.55.23 and a fantastic 23rd place overall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was hard on the legs, but the organisation was great! I\u2019ve signed up for Excalibur 3 on the back of this. I\u2019m pretty sure that one won\u2019t be muddy… it\u2019s on a track\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brilliant start to an epic challenge from the chairman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next stop …. Martello Marathon on February 15th with none other than the master of marathons Mr.Stephen Hickman.<\/p>\n

You can keep up with Glens journey at https:\/\/onemoremarathon.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having claimed he\u2019d retired from running marathons last year, (and not for the first time I might add! In fact I\u2019m pretty sure he retired twice last year and twice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5024"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5024\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}