National Work Out at Work Day - Ashfield Health Village Marathon

Another Marathon another hot dry day! When I look back so far this year I think I have had to wear my waterproof for about 10 minutes so far. Amazing how it seems to come right on a Marathon Day.

So todays challenge was a multiple one. It was part of the National Work Out at Work Day 2014 where physios up and down the land come up with novel ways to include activity into a working day or reinvent old ones. We did the latter and decided that our challenge would be to walk, jog, run or even egg and spoon around our hospital road. A distance of 575 metres. Participants could take part by completing one lap through to more or many many more as they saw fit to do so.

When I mentioned this challenge in a Team Meeting many months ago, it was met with a few raised eyebrows, but the idea lingered on and appeared to grow. Championed on by a few key people. Thanks here definitely go to Maddie.

I had the opportunity of during a few practice runs on the lap, in the early evening after work, when mentally drained and itching to get home. Helped on by Malik. We found each time it was really tough to get into the route, not helped by generally wet weather and my GPS going bananas with reflecting the signal off the proximity of the building. So one night we decided to measure the lap to get a true picture of how far we were going and therefore how many laps we would need to complete. This came out to be 575 meters which equated to approximately 73.5 laps.

I had discussed how amazing it would be if we managed to complete 150 laps between us or over 2 marathons (approx 52 miles or 85 km in new money). This raised eyebrows further and had people shifting awkwardly in their seats. But the challenge appeared to be on.

So a late start for me as I was on paternity leave and an easy warm sunny drive into the hospital. As I drove round to park, I had a massive heart sink moment. Despite numerous posters up warning of the challenge and all-users emails noting the disruption to parking, the top carpark and carpark the run was due to go up into was full of cars! Argh. I hadn't brought the tape measure in so couldnt remeasure and also couldn't rely on the GPS. This is where James stepped in. Well more than stepped in, the boy was legendary with getting cones marking out the route and not only the cars shifted but in consistently keeping the route free, despite one or two somewhat stubborn drivers! A sterling job! This unfortunately delayed the start by 15 minutes.

So with the weather hotting up and the coconut suntan lotion reminding everyone of slightly more tropical places, Becky and I started with her staying out on the course for the first 10k. We had designed a big board with all sorts of info on it to help focus the mind whilst running round and round and round and round etc... This was great and was well manned and kept accurate all the way through. Today was going to be a mental game and so this board and the splits that were read out became my constant companion. Thank you girls for this amazing and probably quite dull job.

Due to the short laps and flat route it was fairly easy to set myself a pace and stick to it consistently, well that is until a spot of chaffage set in. First place to set in was the nipples. In the excitement of car parking prior to the start I had forgotten to tape them. James and his magic zinc oxide tape to the rescue, although I drew the line at his keenness to apply it for me. Second up was the shorts on my legs due to the heat, sweat, previous chaffage, so a detour was taken for some liberally applied Vaseline, no volunteers for this job! Slightly more content it was time to crack on. By now the heat had really been turned up and for some laps there was no wind at all making it tough going and meaning I had to start stopping and dowsing myself in water.

As the laps ticked by I found myself spurred on by the familiar people that had come out to support with a lap or two and also the unfamiliar people who joined us out in the sunshine. Tremendous! And also the pennies that had been raised in the collection buckets by the front entrance and the top carpark. Everyone who works at AHV appreciates the economic challenges that are faced by the surrounding population so I am always humbled by people's generosity here. Amazing. Thank you very much to the wonderful people of Ashfield that on the spur of the moment completed a few laps or chucked in a few quid!!

Back to the run and I had a few wobbles towards the end and found myself stopping and dowsing every 4 laps and each time a little voice reminded me that pain is just in the head, then suddenly it was less than 10 laps to go and within spitting distance. Soon 5 laps to go and looking back on it I was just about to type that it suddenly all became easy! How can memories be contorted so quickly? The last 5 laps were pretty miserable if truth be told, but luckily I had company and going into the last lap I was joined by 3 with a rapidly dropping pace, bordering on a hammie cramping. As we neared the finish line 3 swelled suddenly to a group and job done !!

16 Marathons completed in 13 weeks and number 17 is scheduled for 2 days time. Many, many, many thanks to everyone who helped this event happen, from Maddie for getting the relevant permissions and doing the PR work through to George, Lynn and James for manning carpark 2 not forgetting the crew out front of house doing drinks, splits and counting laps whilst also directing traffic, educating and gently persuading people to take part and of course lastly to Malik and Becky my lap buddies, always there at just the right time. I quite simply could not have done it without you all.

So the final tallies? We aimed for 85km however we smashed it and as a total completed in excess of 170km !! We've done 'step ups' before and indoor cycling and have come up against fierce resistance to 'exercise' but today we hit on something special, something easy and something everybody can relate to and do. It is accessible and it is cheap. We also made sure that all the promotional documents talked of activity rather than exercise which is perceived by some to be exclusive. Sometimes the simple solutions are best and as a consequence we doubled our target. I think this says it all!

Total Time: 3 hrs 27 mins 12 secs. Run Time: 3 hrs 11 mins 25 secs.
Shoe Choice: Nike Icarus - Stealth. Quite simply a stunning shoe!
Stats. Distance: 42.5 km  Elevation: 0.15 km  Total Dist: 687.5 km  Total Elevation: 11.33 km
km/marathon: 43.0 km