MALTA (25.02.18)
I made contact with the Malta ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia Alliance before flying out for number 15 of 28, here's what they told me about life in Malta with ME. I had lots of great support from the group and they managed to get the challenge featured in Lovin Malta alongside the coverage I managed to secure from Malta Marathon. Really delighted to have brought in over £700 for this race and get to £10K overall (39%) at the halfway mark for Invest In ME.
In this race I'd be joined by my good mate Ben Scott who was running once again for Invest In ME and also his brother Jay who was taking on his first ever marathon. We explored Malta with a bus tour stopping off in the lovely fishing village of Marsaxlokk before seeing much of the course we would run around Valletta.
Start
Meeting near to our hotel in Sliema at 5.30am we got onboard the bus to Mdina still in darkness for the 30 minute trip to the start line. There were plenty of Brits around us as we wandered around through the ancient city gate to look out over the countryside and route that we'd be covering for the first 16 or so miles of the race. They filmed parts of Game Of Thrones here don't you know. We popped in to have a look at the stunning ceiling and altars at the Church Of Annunciation and passed St Paul's Cathedral before loosening up and taking our place with the other 880 marathon runners. It was a fairly mild 10C with a light breeze as the brass band and MC started the race. After mingling with some Northern Irish runners we saw runners with t-shirts on from races I'd run in on the challenge, Dublin 2015 and Ljubljana 2017, always brings a smile to see that. Ben, Jay and I began the first few hundred yards together at a very steady pace before I pushed on a bit as the course headed mostly downhill out of Mdina. I was well off my usual pace as I hadn't been able to train properly after all the calf injuries and my breathing was restricted due to my cold but the first 3 or 4 miles were steady 9 min miles. There's a bit of drizzle going on which I hoped would last but it soon disappeared. We'd been treated to more brass bands in the early part of the race and there was young scouts handing out water bottles. I stooped to pick up a bottle cap off the floor so I could keep my water a bit longer without losing it, then keeping it for each bottle I'd be given until the end of the race (trick of the trade!).
Traversing across each side of the road to avoid big puddles from Friday's thunderstorm, the runners thinned out as we made it to Ta'Qali and the national stadium. It looked pretty impressive to be fair, quite new and similar to a good English League One ground and there's a big banner with pictures of current players which catches my eye as I was wearing an older version of the Malta football shirt. There was a bit of traffic around the stadium as people wanted to use the gym there and over the next 30 mins or so we seem to be doing a loop that takes us past it twice at least. Finally away from there and the view of the bastions where we started at Mdina, we run across a large car park where a market appeared to be assembling itself. There's a fruit and veg stall, alongside an old lady laying out lamps, ornaments and general tat in front of her car. The first hour is done, 6.5 miles, solid enough, no danger of a personal best but with no pain, decent weather and lots of downhill, I felt pretty good.
Middle
Over the next few miles we passed a fresh car accident, chalk has been marked around one of the cars and the occupants of the 3 cars involved are all on their phones, it's not a nasty one but I'd say the front right wing of one of them looks pretty unrepairable. Coming up for 10 miles and the route took us through Attard and the grand looking home of the Malta Amateur Radio League HQ. I was doing OK at this point, still without ipod and tuning in to other Brits conversations with each other to pass the time. There was a 100 marathon club runner nearby, a couple of chatty Germans and one or two dropping to a walk for a bit as things got humid. I finally passed the woman dressed in an avocado costume, puzzling choice that one, maybe she just really liked them. We were treated to an enthusiastic kazoo by a lone female supporter as the route meandered through what felt like a botanical garden with ivy clad arches and dusty paths. The halfway point came and went without many measurement or signs, in fact there weren't very many mile or km markers on the entire route which was actually quite refreshing I thought. I'd got to halfway in 2 hrs 4 minutes, around 10 mins slower than usual, mostly down to the lack of training miles through injury and my cold. I knew this was a good downhill course with enough space to run well but a PB was never on the cards from the start.
There was a slow incline until the course was joined by the Walkathon participants and I dropped down to a few seconds of walking so I could drop some painkillers and conserve my strength. The Walkathon runners were colourful and having fun but they were quite annoying as they tended to walk in a stretched line of 6 or 7 which meant a lot of time and energy weaving around them. We'd left the small bricked hedges reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales for a more urban feel and the Mriehel bypass. I'd reached for my ipod at this point and my first energy gel as the sun started to come out and I felt a bit sapped and dehydrated. The water stops seemed very spread out, every 3 miles after a fair length of time running seemed a little dangerous to me especially with the vast majority of entrants being from Northern Europe and having trained in cold winter temperatures. Some scouts were handing out sponges which definitely helped but I felt some more hydration and nutrition stations would have been better -especially given the number of runners we saw being taken off the course via the St Johns Ambulance. Anyway, David Bowie was back in my ears as I got to 17 miles and my glutes started to burn. I was concentrating on running a mile then walking 0.1 miles to get me through the next few miles as the heat was starting to get to me a fair bit. There were a few more music stops; it was mostly brass bands with the odd rock band singing pop hits with the exception of one bunch of lads who had decks, drums and an old guy playing a trumpet, it shouldn't have worked but it did.
End
Heading towards Valletta we ran through an orange station, I didn't grab any, never been a big fan but it made me think of all the strange food I'd been handed around Europe which made me laugh (Pickled gherkins in Finland and carrot cake in France to name a couple). The course tracked the coast now amongst the moored up super-yachts and heavier traffic the other side of the cones that separated us. I looked at my watch and saw I wasn't making the best of progress. Nearly 4 hours up and still 3 miles or so to go, but I knew that after a grinding last 5 miles of stop-start running, I had some adrenaline left and would get the job done. In truth I needed the toilet quite badly but I wasn't about to do anything maverick about it, I didn't see one the whole way round. Perhaps it gave me the impetus to hurry up a bit and get round, I'd decided to stop drinking any more water and get my head down.
The last couple of miles took in some fantastic waterfronts through Sa’ Maison, Pieta, Msida, Ta’ Xbiex and Gzira as the crowd got a bit fuller and more sirens wailed by us. There were a few half marathon runners walking back towards us with their medals on, couldn't be far from here I thought. In fact I could see the shoreline at Sliema and the red inflatable Vodafone finish line, it looked about a mile away. I trudged on and flicked through to find a song to get me there, deciding on Huey Lewis & The News - 'Power Of Love' from Back To The Future. I made out our hotel and a Tex Mex Bar Grill I set my mind upon going to later and got overtaken by a bunch of runners with something left in the tank. Last few hundred metres and I spotted Cat in the crowd who takes a photo. Cheerleaders and a very decent crowd behind the barriers push me over the line. I pointed to the clouds with both hands, that one was for Lilla, my late grandmother. She always wanted me to look after my knees and fortunately they've got me round number 15 without too much trouble, hopefully she'd be proud of today's run despite the injury/health challenges. I grabbed my amazing medal, found Cat and waited to cheer Ben and Jay home.
To sponsor me please visit: www.justgiving.com/mikeseumarathons
Pics
Gallery photos here
Weather
Warm throughout even with a 6.30 am drop off in the dark. Reached 17C by 11am, clear skies and sunny for the last 2 hours or so.
Ratings
In this race I'd be joined by my good mate Ben Scott who was running once again for Invest In ME and also his brother Jay who was taking on his first ever marathon. We explored Malta with a bus tour stopping off in the lovely fishing village of Marsaxlokk before seeing much of the course we would run around Valletta.
Start
Meeting near to our hotel in Sliema at 5.30am we got onboard the bus to Mdina still in darkness for the 30 minute trip to the start line. There were plenty of Brits around us as we wandered around through the ancient city gate to look out over the countryside and route that we'd be covering for the first 16 or so miles of the race. They filmed parts of Game Of Thrones here don't you know. We popped in to have a look at the stunning ceiling and altars at the Church Of Annunciation and passed St Paul's Cathedral before loosening up and taking our place with the other 880 marathon runners. It was a fairly mild 10C with a light breeze as the brass band and MC started the race. After mingling with some Northern Irish runners we saw runners with t-shirts on from races I'd run in on the challenge, Dublin 2015 and Ljubljana 2017, always brings a smile to see that. Ben, Jay and I began the first few hundred yards together at a very steady pace before I pushed on a bit as the course headed mostly downhill out of Mdina. I was well off my usual pace as I hadn't been able to train properly after all the calf injuries and my breathing was restricted due to my cold but the first 3 or 4 miles were steady 9 min miles. There's a bit of drizzle going on which I hoped would last but it soon disappeared. We'd been treated to more brass bands in the early part of the race and there was young scouts handing out water bottles. I stooped to pick up a bottle cap off the floor so I could keep my water a bit longer without losing it, then keeping it for each bottle I'd be given until the end of the race (trick of the trade!).
Traversing across each side of the road to avoid big puddles from Friday's thunderstorm, the runners thinned out as we made it to Ta'Qali and the national stadium. It looked pretty impressive to be fair, quite new and similar to a good English League One ground and there's a big banner with pictures of current players which catches my eye as I was wearing an older version of the Malta football shirt. There was a bit of traffic around the stadium as people wanted to use the gym there and over the next 30 mins or so we seem to be doing a loop that takes us past it twice at least. Finally away from there and the view of the bastions where we started at Mdina, we run across a large car park where a market appeared to be assembling itself. There's a fruit and veg stall, alongside an old lady laying out lamps, ornaments and general tat in front of her car. The first hour is done, 6.5 miles, solid enough, no danger of a personal best but with no pain, decent weather and lots of downhill, I felt pretty good.
Middle
Over the next few miles we passed a fresh car accident, chalk has been marked around one of the cars and the occupants of the 3 cars involved are all on their phones, it's not a nasty one but I'd say the front right wing of one of them looks pretty unrepairable. Coming up for 10 miles and the route took us through Attard and the grand looking home of the Malta Amateur Radio League HQ. I was doing OK at this point, still without ipod and tuning in to other Brits conversations with each other to pass the time. There was a 100 marathon club runner nearby, a couple of chatty Germans and one or two dropping to a walk for a bit as things got humid. I finally passed the woman dressed in an avocado costume, puzzling choice that one, maybe she just really liked them. We were treated to an enthusiastic kazoo by a lone female supporter as the route meandered through what felt like a botanical garden with ivy clad arches and dusty paths. The halfway point came and went without many measurement or signs, in fact there weren't very many mile or km markers on the entire route which was actually quite refreshing I thought. I'd got to halfway in 2 hrs 4 minutes, around 10 mins slower than usual, mostly down to the lack of training miles through injury and my cold. I knew this was a good downhill course with enough space to run well but a PB was never on the cards from the start.
There was a slow incline until the course was joined by the Walkathon participants and I dropped down to a few seconds of walking so I could drop some painkillers and conserve my strength. The Walkathon runners were colourful and having fun but they were quite annoying as they tended to walk in a stretched line of 6 or 7 which meant a lot of time and energy weaving around them. We'd left the small bricked hedges reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales for a more urban feel and the Mriehel bypass. I'd reached for my ipod at this point and my first energy gel as the sun started to come out and I felt a bit sapped and dehydrated. The water stops seemed very spread out, every 3 miles after a fair length of time running seemed a little dangerous to me especially with the vast majority of entrants being from Northern Europe and having trained in cold winter temperatures. Some scouts were handing out sponges which definitely helped but I felt some more hydration and nutrition stations would have been better -especially given the number of runners we saw being taken off the course via the St Johns Ambulance. Anyway, David Bowie was back in my ears as I got to 17 miles and my glutes started to burn. I was concentrating on running a mile then walking 0.1 miles to get me through the next few miles as the heat was starting to get to me a fair bit. There were a few more music stops; it was mostly brass bands with the odd rock band singing pop hits with the exception of one bunch of lads who had decks, drums and an old guy playing a trumpet, it shouldn't have worked but it did.
End
Heading towards Valletta we ran through an orange station, I didn't grab any, never been a big fan but it made me think of all the strange food I'd been handed around Europe which made me laugh (Pickled gherkins in Finland and carrot cake in France to name a couple). The course tracked the coast now amongst the moored up super-yachts and heavier traffic the other side of the cones that separated us. I looked at my watch and saw I wasn't making the best of progress. Nearly 4 hours up and still 3 miles or so to go, but I knew that after a grinding last 5 miles of stop-start running, I had some adrenaline left and would get the job done. In truth I needed the toilet quite badly but I wasn't about to do anything maverick about it, I didn't see one the whole way round. Perhaps it gave me the impetus to hurry up a bit and get round, I'd decided to stop drinking any more water and get my head down.
The last couple of miles took in some fantastic waterfronts through Sa’ Maison, Pieta, Msida, Ta’ Xbiex and Gzira as the crowd got a bit fuller and more sirens wailed by us. There were a few half marathon runners walking back towards us with their medals on, couldn't be far from here I thought. In fact I could see the shoreline at Sliema and the red inflatable Vodafone finish line, it looked about a mile away. I trudged on and flicked through to find a song to get me there, deciding on Huey Lewis & The News - 'Power Of Love' from Back To The Future. I made out our hotel and a Tex Mex Bar Grill I set my mind upon going to later and got overtaken by a bunch of runners with something left in the tank. Last few hundred metres and I spotted Cat in the crowd who takes a photo. Cheerleaders and a very decent crowd behind the barriers push me over the line. I pointed to the clouds with both hands, that one was for Lilla, my late grandmother. She always wanted me to look after my knees and fortunately they've got me round number 15 without too much trouble, hopefully she'd be proud of today's run despite the injury/health challenges. I grabbed my amazing medal, found Cat and waited to cheer Ben and Jay home.
To sponsor me please visit: www.justgiving.com/mikeseumarathons
Pics
Gallery photos here
Weather
Warm throughout even with a 6.30 am drop off in the dark. Reached 17C by 11am, clear skies and sunny for the last 2 hours or so.
Ratings
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