Having given up on any hope of being marathon fit several months ago I had transferred my place in this years Abingdon Marathon to VRUK member Shelley and volunteered myself for marshalling instead. I’d no real idea what my duties would be or how long I’d be needed for till just before the event so as the weather forecast got increasingly ominous I was beginning to wonder what I’d let myself in for.
Come 20th October I dragged myself out of bed in time for a good breakfast and drove out to the rendezvous at Draycott where I was 15 minutes early so parked up and waited in the car listening to the rain hammering down. A wet cyclist appeared then disappeared and I had a look round thinking she may be another marshall but she’d obviously gone off to shelter somewhere. A car pulled up beside me and Lucy from Abingdon parkrun emerged from it and, noticing the rain seem to be stopping, I got out and said hello. We spotted the others gathering over the road from the pub and joined them where Nigel very efficiently handed out our various positions and duties along with emergency contact numbers etc.
I was to go to Milton and try and get runners to use the pavement rather than run on the road at a section where the road was already narrowed by parked cars. Despite running this marathon twice I’d managed to forget there were 2 laps of a big loop making up much of it so runners would be passing my station at about miles 9 and again at mile 18. This spot had been a bit of a potential problem in previous years as it was not previously marshalled and there was a pub over the road which increased traffic come lunchtime. As it happened the Admiral Benbow was closed for refurbishment so I wouldn’t have to worry about this.
Dry now I nibbled a 9bar sitting in the car while waiting for 9:25 when my instructions said I should be in position. This proved a bit optimistic and it was nearer 9:45 when the lead bike, escorting 3 fast runners well ahead of the rest, came past. From then on it was pretty well a non-stop stream of runners for 3 hours. The rain returned for about 30 minutes about 10:30 and everyone looked pretty wet but then it gradually cleared and there was even a bit of sunshine. I shouted encouragement and clapped for so long I susequently found I’d upset my frozen shoulder and it took a day to stop aching again.
VRUKs Shelley and Alex came past running strong. Various local faces came and went but most were unfamiliar with a good spread of club vests near the front reflecting Abingdon Marathon’s reputation as a fast and well organised race. A couple of marshalls on bikes passed me several times. The fast guys came back round before the last of the slower runners had completed their first lap, still looking strong and determined. After a while some were showing the strain of the second lap, some taking walking breaks, some wearing determined expressions despite the lopsided gait of sore legs. A few chucked me their energy gel wrappers to dispose of. No one looked in danger of collapse. I clapped and cheered shouting out ‘please run on the pavement through the village’ when appropriate. There were several shouts of ‘thanks marshall’ and very few miserable faces despite the gloom and pain of bad patches some must have been struggling through.
Eventually the field thinned out and the bail-out minibus pulled up with no passengers on board. I was told there were 3 more runners that were almost with me and were expected to continue despite rather pushing the 5 hour overall time limit. Way behind them were 3 more who would continue but unofficially. The fact that both the last official runner and one of the out of time group were wearing their 100 Marathon Club shirts suggested they knew all very well what they were doing. About 12:45 I handed my yellow marshall tabard to the minibus officials and drove back home, a bit tired but not half as much as the runners. A very a rewarding experience and highly recommended!
Meanwhile – a couple of weeks back now – I completed my 50th parkrun timed to coincide with Oxford parkrun number 100 so I should be getting my red running shirt soon. I guess that counts as an achievement clocked up for this otherwise rather inactive year.