A Journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step

Neolithic Marathon - May 2004

At the start, I'm hidden behind the man holding the post

The Neolithic Marathon of 2004 was my first marathon.

I suspect that I started faster than was wise, Janet and my sisters' family who saw me off at the start were going to try to see me en-route but missed me at the first place they tried to as I had already gone past. That was at about 7 miles. After they did manage to see me about 6 miles from the end, I was finding it hard to maintain my not very fast speed that I had been doing until then. This was the 'wall' that you hear about in relation to marathon running.
I was suprised to find a 'wall' on Salisbury plain!

Coming into the finish, I had not even realised there was someone close behind

I think that although the Neolithic Marathon is virtually all off road, in some ways it was a good first marathon because you are always passing people and at no time do you feel as though you might be going the wrong way. This is not because I was fast but because the Sarsen Walk follows the same route, so you are continually passing walker who give encouragment as you 'speed' past.

At Stonehenge, in the sun, with my finishing medal, and one of dandilion necklaces made by Cerys - my niece

When doing this fund raising event I appeared in the Melksham News 4 March 2004