The Kilomathon

I love running in inaugural events, and that's why I entered the world's first metric marathon (The Kilomathon) for 14th March 2010. I wasn't disappointed because it was a great run and I met some great runners from my other world of Twitter. We even met up at the Corner House Pizza Hut for a pre race 'Pasta Party'.

I had planned to make this event like an easy 'social run' and had planned a time of around 2:26 or around 9 min miles. However this plan was flawed before I had event stepped over the start line. Unknown to myself, one of my Twitter friends @JamestheKat was scheming to put me under pressure. He tweeted me to say he would sponsor me for £1 for every minute I ran under 2:26 plus he tweeted for others to match his offer. Before long, I had around £100 in pledges and had no choice but run like the clappers.

I have trained at up to 20 miles several times before so I knew the distance would not beat me. But what I was really concerned about was the elevation and pace. So I devised a strategy.

I have run many half marathons before and managed 8 min miles (5 mins per k), usually with negative splits. But with the Kilomathon being very hilly on the last 50% I knew I had to run the first half at 10k pace to get a significant positive split, so if I lost some time on the hills, it would not matter as much.

The plan had never been thought out properly or even tried and tested, especially as I was intending to 'tweet on the run' as I always do in these events.  
I did managed to make around a dozen tweets including 1 cursing the slow runners blocking me who should never have started in front of me anyway, and another tweet which simply read 'Runners Trots'. Everyone knew what I was saying, and some replied 'run through it', and other were concered I would poop myself and miss my time goal. So it was amazing to find it had worked, and when I crossed the line at 2:10:38 I was overjoyed and a little emotional.

If anyone is interested is seeing the route and my splits times from my Garmin Forerunner 405, they can be found here, and to see the actual route/elevation/speed/ heart rate etc, click here

Anyone still wanting to sponsor me for Cancer Research UK can do so here www.justgiving.com/stephenauker