The Marcothon 2013, Done and Dusted

Last day done and my attempt to run all 31 days in December is finally complete. In case you don’t know already it was started four years ago by Marco Consani of Garscube Harriers who decided to challenge himself to run every day in November 2009 and, in response, his wife Debbie decided to do one day more and run every day of the following month, dubbing it the ‘Marcothon’ and writing about it on her blog. She and her husband are well-known international ultra runners and  consequently her blog is read by many people. Soon loads of other nutters were wanting to do the same, to the extent that this year there appear to have been over 1600 people from around the world having a go. Coach tells me he’s had a couple of goes at it but had to taper for races so didn’t complete it.

Each year I only remember well into December, too late to even start, however this time I read about it on Tuesday the 3^rd and realised I had accidentally already completed the first two days, Sunday and Monday being normal running days for me. A minimum of 3 miles or 25 minutes per day, whichever comes first, doesn’t sound much to begin with but obviously gets progressively harder although I managed surprisingly comfortably. Having said that, there were undoubtedly one or two days where just getting out of the door was an effort, the weather being the biggest problem – think of the low temperatures and the incessant wind and rain through most of this month. Dogged determination and stupidity (pre-requisites for ultra-running) were my greatest allies, more than one comment from my fellow-harriers confirming this, such as ‘ya daft sod’, ‘are you nuts?’, ‘you’re aff yer heid’, etc, etc. Thanks for the encouragement guys…in truth you were all very encouraging.  

Taking part in races was also a great motivation for continuing and I ran the Tollcross, Pollock and Victoria parkruns not forgetting that old perennial, the Ayrodynamic Turkey Trot. The latter was probably the most enjoyable day of the lot, running both the 5k and 10k races with around 20 minutes break between the two in the bright and warm Boxing Day sunshine. Not to mention the  good company of other Calderglen harriers and Athelites.

Some brief numbers: 32 runs in 31 days..169.5 miles in total..an average of 5.296875 miles per run..only 3 days of sunshine..1 massage from Grant…and goodness only knows how many washes and how much Daz.

The contrast between the first and last outings of the month couldn’t have been greater, the first being a very enjoyable long run down the glen to Blantyre and back with Ian (and Jez!) on a calm and sunny Sunday morning (we only got lost the once) and the last a stolid, lonely plod through the cold, wind and rain which have been almost a constant throughout December 2013

The next question of course is whether to do a parkrun or not on Ne’erday or, more to the point, will Alison put up with another set of winter running gear washing? Will I survive her wrath if I run again so soon? Will the washing machine survive the pounding it’s been getting?

If I live I’ll see you all at the club next year

A happy and prosperous new year to harriers old, new, near and far, ane and a’   from Alison and I