Bank Holiday Monday 7th May 2018
Two weeks ago, the London Marathon was the hottest in its 38 years history with 24OC. 2 weeks later in Milton Keynes yesterday, the temperature was shooting up to 28OC. The May Bank Holiday Monday was officially hotter than Ibiza yesterday. The London Marathon was the hottest Marathon I had ever done but not anymore. Milton Keynes Marathon has been promoted to the hottest Marathon I have ever done in my life. Apparently, the sweltering conditions on Saturday and Sunday continued the trend of unseasonably warm weather and yesterday’s hot temperatures have made this year the hottest May Bank Holiday in the British history. People got sweaty just sitting in the shade so one can imagine what it was like by running a Marathon.
A small number of fancy dressed runners (Superheroes, King Kong, Rhino and the famous Milton Keynes cows) defied the scorching weather and ran with their costume at the beginning but I saw the “King Kong” handing his head gear to the marshal in about mile 20. I heard the marshal promised him to hand it back to him outside the stadium so that he could put it back on to run the last 250 meters to cross the finish line.
It was an exhausting event for both the participants and the event organisers alike. The organiser did their best to deal with the unseasonal hot weather (we are still in Spring !!) by providing more water stations. Many local residents came out of their house to dish out water in between water stations and to use their garden hose and water pistols to spray the runners. Some locals even bought ice lollies to offer to runners. I take my hat off to the hard work and support by the marshals, the St. John’s Ambulance Medics, the Northamptonshire Police Cadets and the local residents doing everything they could to keep runners hydrate. Despite all the great efforts, a number of Full Marathon runners couldn’t take the heat and decided to downgrade to the half marathon distance. It must be a tough decision to make as all those months of training to get the body to be ready for the full marathon distance had gone down to drain. But health comes first, it is better to play safe. And for those runners who decided to quit should not blame themselves. Heat stroke could trigger cardiac attack and could be fatal. There is always another Marathon in other time of the year.
I had never stopped and walked during my previous 18 Marathons before but this time I had to reduce to walking pace from mile 22 to 24 because I felt so hot and exhausted. When I crossed the half way mark in exactly 2 and a half hours, I thought my time would be similar to the London Marathon and was working towards sub 5 and a half hours goal. I thought I was allowing myself nearly 3 hours to finish the 2nd half and this should be plenty. I didn’t expect the 2nd half was tougher than the 1st half. The sneaky inclines kept coming as the race continued after crossing dozens, if not hundreds, of under paths. Once I started walking, I found it so hard to switch back to running mode. I only managed to pick up my running pace again in the last mile thanks for the encouraging words from the marshals and the spectators. I laboured to the finish line in 5:45’42” which was more than 21 minutes shower than the London Marathon. John finished his Half Marathon distance in 2 hours 57 minutes. He said being a big guy like him, he struggled a lot with the heat. He also had to switch to walking pace in the last few miles.
Here is the link to a clip showing the roasting conditions for the Milton Keynes Marathon:
https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/sport/athletics/video-roasting-conditions-for-mk-marathon-1-8490137
So far, there has not been any report of fatality from the Milton Keynes Marathon yesterday but I am very said to hear that a runner died yesterday during the Belfast Marathon:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44032949
