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On Sunday 25^th April 2010, I ran a solo super-marathon of nearly 31 miles from to , along the canal towpath which links the two cities. My aims were to complete the run in 4.5 hours without stopping and to raise money for the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, in honour of numerous friends and relatives who have suffered from the disease. Below is a full report on the event, but the facts in brief are that I completed the run non-stop in 4 hours 22 minutes, passing the ordinary marathon point in 3 hours 42 minutes, and I’m still alive to tell you about it!

I would be very grateful if you could recognise my achievement by making a donation to Beating Bowel Cancer, thereby helping them to carry on their invaluable work. For more details about this, please visit their website at www.beatingbowelcancer.org

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Thank you very much in advance for your generous support. Now here’s the full story, if you’ve got a moment:

“OK, confession time: I did something very, very silly on the Sunday before the Super-Marathon. I’m not prepared to tell you exactly what it was, but suffice it to say that I ran a very long way, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Three days later, the aching muscles in my thighs had calmed down, I did no more running until the event and I had a nice leg massage on Friday. By Saturday evening, all seemed well.

But it wasn’t, of course. Although my legs felt relaxed and ache-free, they were still trying to fix the damage done by last Sunday’s run and weren’t really ready for a 31-mile pounding – as I was going to discover to my cost during the Super-Marathon.

In preparation, we had inspected the canal towpath route on foot, bought a detailed map with mile markers and worked out from my intended pace the times at which I would arrive at various places along the way. This enabled Fiona to drive to those places, track my progress, inform others by mobile phone and hand me sports drinks.

Fiona and I got up at 5am on Sunday 25^th, London Marathon day. All our equipment for the Super-Marathon had been carefully prepared the previous evening and we were ready for action. I had two mugs of tea and a double-dose of a sports energy gel, donned my kit, which included a 2-litre Camelbak water reservoir with drinking tube, and was ready on the pavement at 5.57am. The run started at 6am prompt.

Light rain was falling from the start and the sky presaged worse to come, but it came to nothing: by Mile 6 the fitful showers had ceased and the sky gradually cleared. The last third of the run was made through delightful countryside in bright sunshine with a light breeze – perfect for an early-morning run.

The runner, however, was far from perfect. Although I’d practised running at a slower pace than I normally do, I couldn’t get into a comfortable stride that morning, ran the first mile much too fast, then slowed down too much and had to speed up to compensate. I did, however, remember to keep sipping away at my water supply every few minutes.

After Mile 7, my first challenge was the climb over Wast Hill, through which the second and longest canal tunnel passes. (The canal has five tunnels, only one of which has a towpath inside, so you have to leave the canal and follow a footpath or road over the four hills at the other tunnels). This proved to be tougher than expected, so, anxious that I had lost time in the climb, I fairly sprinted down the short, steep hill on the other side – a big mistake, since this jarred my knees and damaged thigh muscles very badly.

Once I was back on the flat, the pain in my knees gradually subsided, but discomfort in my thighs was already apparent and growing. At about Mile 10, I picked up the first of two bottles of energy drink from Fiona. These drinks proved to be very effective at revitalising me, but I had to hold the bottles still in one hand to stop the contents splashing out, which affected my gait because my arms weren’t swinging freely. In retrospect, it would have been better to have had the bottles with the valve tops off and downed the contents in one or two goes. Instead, I drank them over the course of several minutes, and ran awkwardly as a consequence.

The run continued uneventfully until the Shortwood Tunnel at around Mile 13, where I faced another hill climb. This proved to be much harder than I had expected, and my attempt to make up time by running fast down the other side only succeeded in making my thighs even more sore. Less than a mile later came the Tardebigge Tunnel and another climb, followed by a leg-jarring descent of stairs onto a dual carriageway, which I had to dash across as cars raced towards me at 80mph!

After Tardebigge Yard at Mile 15 came the famous flight of 58 locks which lower the canal to the level of . You might think that a gradual descent would be heaven for a tired distance runner, but it was a curse for me: every downward section of towpath was jarring my aching thighs, which were by now unpleasantly painful. But I hammered on down to Stoke Prior, gaining time with faster miles yet increasing my discomfort all while.

At the Stoke Prior boatyard, roughly Mile 18, there was a small welcoming party, consisting of Fiona, Melanie Hurst (a work colleague of Fiona’s) and her husband Ian, a runner with several marathons under his belt who had generously volunteered to accompany me for the last 13 miles. This was a huge boost to my morale at a time when I seriously doubted my ability to go the distance, and I would like to thank Ian publicly for his good humoured support as I whinged and groaned my way towards . I owe you one, mate!

With Ian cracking jokes and inviting me to push him in the canal for a laugh, I struggled on, my pace steadily dropping below the 8m 20sec-mile target as the pain intensified. By the early 20s I was becoming unsteady on my feet and my self-belief was being tested to the limit, but there was another boost for me at Tibberton, around Mile 25: there was another welcoming party, consisting of my father, sister Jane, cousin Jenny, Fiona and Mel, all clapping and cheering mightily. Furthermore, my brother-in-law Niall joined us for the final 6 miles, so I knew there’d be two people to pick me up and give me a decent burial if I pegged out!

The turning point for me came when we reached the marathon distance just after Mile 26, at 3h 42mins. I knew then that, provided I didn’t suffer some catastrophic muscle tear or other major damage, I had the energy to run the last 5 miles and would cope with the pain. Miles 27, 28 and 29 seemed endless, but I was maintaining a steady pace and, during 30 and 31, I was actually accelerating towards the finishing line, though various muscles were warning me that they were close to breaking point.

Hitting the tape at 4h 22m 4s was, as you can imagine, a moment of triumph and huge emotional release. And there was no collapse, lying on the ground, foil blanket and such: I’d kept well hydrated and fuelled up, so was standing chatting to everyone after a minute’s breather. The problem was the desperate state of my thigh muscles, which immediately began to inform me candidly of their opinion of the treatment they’d just received.

Trying to get in the car was my next challenge: having sat on the seat, I found I couldn’t lift my legs in over the sill! And so it went on. At the time of writing, 36 hours after the finish, I still have to walk downstairs sideways, one step at a time, and I can’t get out of a chair without assistance from my arms.

Was it worth it? Yes, it most certainly was, for all the money raised for Beating Bowel Cancer and other charities, and the sense of achievement.

Would I do it again? Yes. In fact, as long as we’re in , I’ve decided to make it an annual event on the day of the London Marathon. But I’m going to train better and run it faster next year. And I’m hoping to entice other runners to join me and face the Super-Marathon Challenge. How about it, then?

Finally, heartfelt thanks to all my sponsors and my supporters on the day, with very special thanks to:

(i) my wife Fiona, for helping with planning the run and giving up most of her Sunday from 5am to provide seamless support before, during and after the run, communicating with everyone and taking all the video footage and stills;

(ii) Ian and Melanie Hurst for turning out early on Sunday to support me, and especially to Ian for getting me through the last 13 miles;

(iii) Niall Campbell, for joining me for the last 6 miles.

Mark Smee

Here, for the geeks, are some facts and figures:

Total distance: 30.83 miles

Time: 4 hrs 22 mins 4 secs

Calories burned (est.): 3,971 (So a super-marathon a day would be a sure-fire way to lose weight.)

Average pace: 8 mins 30 secs per mile

Average speed: 7.1 mph

Times for each mile: (1) 7.41 (2) 8.09 (3) 8.25 (4) 8.22 (5) 8.18 (6) 8.31 (7) 8.17 (8) 8.28 (9) 7.50 (10) 8.22 (11) 8.18 (12) 8.20 (13) 8.47 (14) 8.18 (15) 8.45 (16) 8.05 (17) 8.05 (18) 8.18 (19) 8.39 (20) 8.32 (21) 8.38 (22) 8.46 (23) 8.44 (24) 8.57 (25) 9.04 (26) 8.46 (27) 8.46 (28) 8.51 (29) 8.56 (30) 8.41 (31) 8.39

Equipment:

Asics Gel Nimbus 11 (wide fit) running shoes  (Excellent: highly recommended.)

1000-Mile double-skinned socks

Camelbak ‘Omega’ 2-litre water reservoir

NRG lightweight running shirt and Lycra shorts

2 x 500ml bottles of Viper sports drink