The Lincoln Spires and Steeples challenge is a race along the Spires and Steeples heritage trail from Lincoln Castle to Sleaford. It's mostly a flat off road, and roughly marathon distance (26 miles). This was the inaugural event, so I was part of history!
Quick results below
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Time
3:51:53
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This was a great weekend. I'd never been to Lincoln before and so Lauren and I got up early on the Saturday and travelled down to Lincoln to see some of the sights. It was a quick tour sadly though due to having to leave the car at the finish in Sleaford (so I could get back from the end of the marathon the next day!). Lincoln Cathedral looked very impress, and for some reason Lincoln seems to be associated with Tea as there are many bizarre tea shops and retailers near it in the cathedral quarter. There's even an old windmill in a housing estate! Well worth a visit.
On the Sunday I got up early, drank most of the orange juice in the B&B before other guests got up, and headed out to the start. At the start the atmosphere was good, and as the announcements got underway it became apparent that navigation on the route may be needed as it wouldn't be clearly marked, the problem being that for runners they simply had a sheet of paper with abbreviated directions on... well they didn't exactly make much sense to me! So I looked for local running clubs with the thinking that they would know the route and I was surprised to see that the small town of Sleaford had two running clubs, Sleaford Town Runners and Sleaford Striders! I was keen to get the inside gossip on the rivalry between the clubs, and decided that the less serious and more family oriented Sleaford Striders would be my honorary running club for the day.
As the whistle went we had an easy start running down from Steep Hill to the canal to follow that for a while. I chatted with an Irish chap who was running with a backpack because he had no support crew / system, and so needed clothes to change into at the end! He was a marathon veteran of over a 100 and so I knew he'd be OK. Irish Chap wasn't a local resident however, and my new club of the Sleaford Striders were nowhere to be seen. Up ahead I could see some Town Runners (TRs), but they were going at a fair pace, and I suspected they were only doing the half marathon route, and so it would be a very bad idea for me to keep up with them, so I just plodded along keeping some unmarked runners in my sights.
Thankfully with it still being reasonably early in the race there were generally people in sight and so at one really tricky point I was able to follow someone (just) who knew the way to the first checkpoint in Branston. Leaving Branston I managed to catch up with two TRs (members of my arch rival running club for the day). It turned out that the chap was a rather mean guy (Idiot Runner) who took pleasure in non-locals getting lost and had been trying to lose me between checkpoints. His attitude was one of "do your homework, know the course and print a map out, I'm a canoeist not a runner so I need all the help I can get", mine was more of, "It's billed as a run, not a navigational challenge, and you've joined a running club, are at marathon standard, and have been controlling your pace with your partner based on heart rate so that makes you a runner as well as a canoeist". I'd say in my years of running, he managed to claim the prize as the first runner during a race I've met who was a prat, luckily there's not many like him. His partner in crime turned out to be a nice lady (TA Runner) who was a teaching assistant.
As the next couple of miles wore on Idiot Runner slowed down dragging TA Runner with him, and I took the opportunity to tag along with Irish Chap and realised my route instructions had fallen out of my pocket! Now I really was in trouble if I lost sight of people! Luckily Irish Chap was rather good at running, reading and navigating and managed to get us to the halfway point in Metheringham.
After the halfway point Irish Chap had to stop for a short while and so I looked round in desperation to join another group, and the only one in sight was Idiot Runner and TA Runner, so reluctantly I joined them again. As the miles wore on there were some interesting sights to be seen. Naturally there's loads of churches on the route, but we also passed an RAF airbase and the Dorrington Demons caught my eyes as being the best thing on the route with an interesting history also!
Idiot Runner tired after Dorrington and TA Runner, another runner and I were left. Thankfully TA Runner had recc'd the final 10 miles of the route, so my plan was to stay with her. As we crossed yet more farmers fields though the toll of running on dried uneven ploughed fields and a strong headwind took its toll and I could feel my strength begin to fail. This was frustrating to say the least as I'd been putting in a fair bit of tough training involving hills in the Peak district, so I'd hoped the flats of Lincoln would be "easy" in comparison. At the 23 mile marker I had to let TA Runner and the other chap go, and by 24 miles I was reduced to run walking.
Psychologically it was very hard having to walk sections, as obviously I started beating myself up thinking if you can't even run the whole of a flat marathon in Lincoln, you've got no hope in the MdS. Looking back now I wonder if I had needed to eat more during the race?
Anyway, I eventually got over myself and managed to start running again for the final mile and cross the finish line. A lady in full mayoral chains congratulated me and seemed very impressed that I'd travelled from Stockport. Rather bizarrely the results have not been published online for the events, and in my daze I forgot what position I got, so all I know is the time from my Garmin!
Anyway, a big thanks to the race organisers, and to Lauren for coming along and keeping me company before and after the race. Overall I think the last 6 miles gets a little boring, but the rest of the route is excellent, well worth a try.
Cheers
Andy
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