Jenny Blizards Elite Marathon Journey
Sep 28, 2023
I thought I would detail my previous marathons and running from the elite start lines. It is a long one but hopefully interesting and maybe a little funny at times too!
Marathon No.1 London 2010 2:49:10 28th Elite Female
This was my first time training for a marathon and with no lactate testing or heart rate training in place we just looked at the equivalent marathon time from my half time which was 75 mins and went for the target time of 2.37. I built up the miles from 60 to 75 per week. My longest first run was 17 miles and I remember it clearly as by the time we got home every footstep was jarring right up to my shoulders! How shoes have made a difference.
When the time of the race came I remember feeling totally out of my depth for the whole of the marathon weekend. As an elite starter you are put up in a hotel for the weekend, have all your breakfast and evening meals prepared for you. It is an extremely intense experience as all athletes are together for the whole time. There is usually a race briefing the night before which is again “intense” on another level, then there is the bus journey to the start where absolutely no one is speaking! London is on another level altogether when all the celebrities are staying in the same hotel too. I was shocked at how big James Cracknell was when he got in the lift.
Onto the race and the women’s elite field of around 25-30 women started 45 mins before the men’s/masses. After a few minutes I was running solo and then it was basically a 25 mile solo time trial through the streets of London. Dave said after “what was it like running through Cutty Satk?” And I was like “where was that?”. Honestly for me it was traumatic all I could think was everyone is just staring at me rather than enjoying the experience! My attention suddenly turned to the finish and got me thinking “shit the men might finish at same time as me and that means I am gonna be running down the mall on the TV looking like a complete d***! Fortunately I managed to finish before them. Afterwards I was escorted on a boat back along the Thames to the Tower Bridge hotel. That was amazing!! I didn’t walk a step that day, fell asleep at my sisters with a whiskey in my hand and couldn’t get down the stairs the next day.
Marathon 2: Amsterdam 2010 2:46:31 13th place
Second time around I thought it would feel easier but then travelling to another country to do a marathon was a whole new experience. Whilst it seems fun and easy to run as an elite it is actually quite stressful as race organisers have paid for everything and your sponsor (mine was Mizuno for three of the marathons and they paid for this trip) has also given you loads of kit, so for me that was an added pressure that I wasn’t comfortable with. A few memories from that race were being taken around the whole course in a minibus with a load of Kenyan athletes and their very American agent “Zane” who was actually the agent who got Dave plenty of races abroad when he was running well. Secondly in the evening briefing the race organiser Jos Hermens (now founder of Global Sports Communications and NN Running team) basically shouting at us saying “Do not stop your watch on the finish line” (doesn’t look good on the TV). Also in the briefing the pace makers times were discussed and I was placed with the 2.37 group. Onto the race and half way through the pace was faster than 2.37, we were with a group and Dave who was meant to be helping me said “I’m sticking with the group as feeling alright” I got dropped and also dropped 10 mins in the second half which was agony. I had the last laugh though as at 23 mile Dave was being helped off the course by first aiders as he couldn’t walk. He got the fingers from me as I went past. I coaxed myself to the finish by thinking about pancakes with ice cream (never craved pancakes before 
). Afterwards (2 hours later Dave finally got to the finish) we walked to get the pancakes. I remember it clearly 1) because I was walking around Amsterdam in this horrendous yellow and black Mizuno tracksuit that made me look a bumble bee and 2) the icecream and pancakes that I was really looking forward to never fully made it into the gob because I was that tired and not realising we were sat on a round table I cut into the pancakes and the plate fell off the edge of the table and straight down the bumble bee tracksuit. The waitress came and cleaned me down.
). Afterwards (2 hours later Dave finally got to the finish) we walked to get the pancakes. I remember it clearly 1) because I was walking around Amsterdam in this horrendous yellow and black Mizuno tracksuit that made me look a bumble bee and 2) the icecream and pancakes that I was really looking forward to never fully made it into the gob because I was that tired and not realising we were sat on a round table I cut into the pancakes and the plate fell off the edge of the table and straight down the bumble bee tracksuit. The waitress came and cleaned me down.We walked and walked afterwards as my family had come to watch too. The next day my legs actually did not feel too bad.
Marathon 3: Brighton 2011 2.46:00 4th place
This race was organised by Richard Nerurkar an ex British marathon runner who placed 5th in the 1996 Olympic Marathon and a PB of 2:08:36, who has also wrote a book on marathon running. I used to have the hots for him watching the athletics on TV when I was younger. Dave knew this and was constantly at me about it the whole weekend as you can imagine.
The miles ramped up for this one topping 105 miles at my peak. Cracks literally were starting to appear as I was often in pain running in my right foot and left hip.
Pacers this time were going out at 2.40 pace. Again I slowed in the second half, the turnaround point at 23 miles was straight into a headwind and you can see the pier where the finish was for the whole of the agonising 3 miles. Dave was at the finish waiting for me. I sat down on a chair completely spent, then when I came round started to smell 
. Panicking I was looking down at myself wondering where it came from. Dave came across and told me the third place runner had finished in a state with down her legs. I sat on the same chair.
. Panicking I was looking down at myself wondering where it came from. Dave came across and told me the third place runner had finished in a state with down her legs. I sat on the same chair.I was in real pain that day but then a week later I received confirmation that I had been selected to run for England in Denmark in the Autumn so after some relative rest I got training again. I was in pain walking but just ignored it.
Marathon No.4: Odense, Denmark 2011 2:45:10 2nd place
I continued to be in pain in the left hip and the right foot for the whole of the training block. The pain in both areas was quite random in that some days i could do a 20 mile run easily and only have pain afterwards and then other sessions I would have pain the whole run. In just a decade since the research into training, injuries, strength and conditioning (what was that?!) has changed so much, not to mention the positive effect nutrition and footwear has on training and racing for a marathon. 95% of my “training” was running and just 5% of the time was devoted to non actual running related training, now i am around 60/40 up to 50/50 split between actual running and other stuff related to running that isn’t running. In all my marathons I took 75g in gels now the recommendation is 60-90g per hour, no wonder I kept blowing up.
On the flight over on the Friday (2 days before the race) i just hurt all the time and I just couldn’t imagine how i was going to race by the Sunday. The more I stressed about it the worse the pain got. There is research that supports this now and having been through it myself I feel that as a physio i can relate to other runners being in the same situation.
I got through arrivals (travelled solo) and there was no one to pick me as planned. After a phone call and a lengthy wait the race organisers had forgot about me as I was travelling from a different airport from the rest of the team. I had a 2 hour drive in a minibus with some random Danish driver, who was very nice but felt a bit strange!
On the Saturday I did a 20 minute jog and was still in lots of pain and trying not to panic.
Onto race day and the weather conditions couldn’t have been any worse. I don’t mind rain starting in a race but I hate being wet before its even started. The rain was torrential, you literally couldn’t see the ground or in front of you because of the water pouncing on the ground and the steam it created.
We were already soaked from warming up (joke) and standing freezing on the start line which seemed like forever. I wore a cap just so i didn’t have to squint for 26 mile. Things got even worse as the course was a 2 lapper. The first lap i ran with Sam Amend and she just started to tire a little as we came around to start the 2nd lap. It took every ounce of mental energy to start the second lap as it was just too easy to bail and get straight into the warmth of the race quarters. All i was thinking is that all these people back home who have supported me, sent me good luck messages and the fact that i was taking an England place up to. Once through the first mile of the second lap i was back in a good frame of mind again and thinking of getting to the finish. With 3 miles to go the calfs really started to tighten and I was slowing. The rain was still bad and visibility was still poor, I had my head down just focused on one foot in front of the other and then all of a sudden nearly tripped over another runner who was coming backwards so fast, quickly averted an accident and then realised I had just overtook the 3rd placed runner, so I was now in 2nd, I couldn’t believe it. Once at the finish line which was on the track i was half desperate to gain the 10 seconds to finish in 2:44 and the other half didn’t give a crap!! I was just happy to finish.
What was more amazing than anything was that I literally ran the whole race TOTALLY PAIN FREE. The brain is a remarkable organ.
The prize presentation took place and i was delighted and also shocked to be given a cheque for the equivalent of £2500 in Danish Krone. I am not sure what I was more excited about the dosh or my first huge size cardboard cheque. My excitement for the large (literal) sized cheque was quickly dampened when I wasn’t allowed to take it back on the plane in the hand luggage.
That week i got home i had an x-ray on my left hip which confirmed osteitis pubis and an MRI on the left foot which confirmed a stress fracture in my left talus and the beginnings of avascular necrosis which is loss of blood supply to the bone. All this basically meant was 12 weeks of no running. I then returned to running and started back training for further marathons. I was DNS in the Brighton marathon in 2012. I had to tell Richard Nerurkar I wasn’t starting which was doubly awful with my childhood crush but also because i had took up an all expenses place but then actually quite funny as he said “if you are not starting then Dave has to be a pace maker for Rebecca Robinson” who was aiming for 2:32. I was then a DNF at Edinburgh Marathon the same year. Both marathons i was struggling with achilles tendon pain in both feet and that put an end to my marathons. I was hugely disappointed that I hadn’t ever really reached my equivalent potential over the marathon distance compared to my other event times but at that point running in pain every day was so mentally demanding that it was no longer enjoyable. Less than a decade later and research showing that fully recovering from achilles tendon pain with a targeted but prolonged and progressive rehabilitation program is more the norm rather than becoming a chronic problem.
What is also exciting is with the research into performance improvements with nutrition, strength training and the now the super shoes, what can be achieved despite my advancing age!
Whilst myself and Dave are continually teasing and mocking each other, Dave is the one who literally turned me around and stopped me from packing in running in 2006 and this turned out to be my best ever year. In 5 months of being coached by him I went from 16:45 over 5K and hating running to 16:11 on the track, getting the horrible position of 4th in the European trials but still getting my first GB vest having run the 2nd fastest leg of the day by just 1 second in the National Road Relays. I eventually ran my PB of 16:09 and won a British Grand Prix event later that year. Dave allowed me to understand that easy running wasn’t being lazy it was a requirement. When he started coaching me I did 4 weeks of very easy running and then ran a huge PB over 5 miles. The penny dropped. I couldn’t believe running easy made you faster. In my first ever conversation with him the sentence “well what do you expect you are running too hard too often” still sticks in my mind.
Hope you enjoyed the read. I have included some pictures from each race and this is me with my big cheque and also my Mizuno kit which I recently found from Amsterdam!!!!
