Here’s Mike Webster’s account of him completing the Chester Triple, which is running the 10k, Half Marathon and either the full Marathon or Metric Marathon. A great running achievement.
I realised that after having done a few races but not sharing the experience, it’s about time I did so.
The Chester triple takes place over the course of 8 months as is fast becoming an addictive set of events although this years was a bit tougher due to a medical problem (ingrowing toenails) I was having but had been ignoring. These had been causing me pain on runs and I decided once and for all to get something done about it.
I only learnt about the Chester marathon itself in 2021 through Dan Thompson as he convinced me to run it, and I’m so glad he did. It was shortly after that, that I learnt about the Chester Triple which I decided to run as a challenge to raise money for a friend who died from pancreatic cancer at aged 37 during the pandemic. I enjoyed the 10k and half marathon that year but found the marathon very though, lack of experience and going off too quickly cost me (though I will be doing it again), although I did feel immensely proud to complete it having never attempted that distance before.
After competing in the 2022 set of races and my times not being what I had wanted I felt the time to set that right had come and it was game on, just me, my running shoes and the finish line. Oh and a few thousand other runners that happened to be in my way as I tried to run quicker!
Chester 10k
Anyway, we move onto 2023, and first came the Chester 10k in March which admittedly I saw as a simple Sunday morning run. The weather was fantastic, and the support was amazing. I felt good going into this and knew the pace I was aiming for, the only thing I had to do was get round while maintaining that pace.
While I was able to do this and finished with a time of 45 mins 30 secs, I do remember wondering how I get close to the 40 min mark. The only answer to that at the time was lose a couple of stone and cut down on the Ben and Jerry’s non-dairy ice cream. One day I will do this!
Chester Half Marathon
Second came the Chester Half Marathon in May, this is a distance I always enjoy, it is a fairly flat route and the crowd are incredible. I felt good in the morning, we left for Chester as a family after some breakfast and I told myself I was aiming for 1 hour 40 mins.
The start felt good and although I realised I had gone off a bit quicker than expected I wanted to try and stay ahead of the 1 hour 40 min marker. The first 6 miles felt good, it was good weather, the crowd support was great and the marker hadn’t passed me yet so I felt pretty confident of a good time. Up came the 8 mile mark and a small group including the
marker came parallel with me, my heart sank slightly but I told myself that all I had to was stay with them, what could possibly be so hard about that!
Suddenly my feet started to hurt a lot and knew my big toenails were digging in causing the pain and making running difficult. By the time I got to 10 miles I wanted the run to be over but kept telling myself that the finish was only a park run away and to just keep going. The last few miles seem to go on forever and my feet were in agony but looking down at my phone I could see my time was still good and I reached the finish line in 1 hour 43 mins 13 seconds much to my surprise.
Surgery
The 25th July arrived and I was finally able to have surgery to have my two big ingrowing toenails removed. I had been touch with the podiatrist at St Catherine’s and managed to time the surgery for after having competed in the Cotswolds Classic 70.3 and the Liverpool to Chester 100 mile bike ride, and then giving enough time for my toes to recover to get back into training for the Chester Metric Marathon.
The surgery went well and my toes were bandaged up and it was time for recovery. After a couple of weeks I could only manage walks and this was classed as low impact exercise to fine to do. I couldn’t do my first run until I had been discharged and my toes had healed which meant my first run was September 9th happened to be the Birkenhead Park Run. I found that very tough but managed 29 mins 33 secs.
I had been down to compete in the Great North Run but after some convincing from my wife, I agreed it was best to defer until 2024 which at the time I found incredibly hard to do.
I spent the next two weeks getting back into running, trying to take it easy and it felt good if not slow. With three weeks to go until the Chester Metric marathon I unfortunate enough to catch covid for a third time which completely knocked me. Waking up one day with no energy whatsoever and feeling tired all the time. 11 days later and covid free I managed to complete the Park Run in 27 mins and knew I had one week to somehow get myself ready to run 16 miles (26.2 km). After everything that had happened I wasn’t at my usual level of fitness but I was determined I was going to complete it, even if I had to walk half of it.
Chester Metric Marathon
I had initially been on for the full marathon, but knowing I had the surgery to come I had managed to get myself switched across to the metric distance and boy I was so glad I had done this.
The morning of the Chester Metric Marathon came, and I felt a nervous knowing that my training hadn’t been great but also trying to tell myself it was just a half marathon and a park run in one that I had to do. Aim to stick to 8:30 a mile and you’ll be fine I told myself!
I turned up at the racecourse, handed everything in just as the Marathon was starting and enjoyed the quiet after while getting my head in the game. The run started off well, I checked my phone to get myself to roughly 8:30 a mile and thought to just stick to this. The first 3 miles past and I thought to myself, you have completed a park run and only have a half
marathon left, how hard can this be. I was also enjoying watching the lead runners of the marathon go past in the first 8k which was an incredible sight given the speeds they were doing, although most of them were about 3 stone lighter than me and probably about 15 years younger. I thought what difference is a few stone lighter and a few years younger really going to make, quite a bit as I discovered!
I started to slowly feel it in my legs about 6 miles in but knew the halfway mark was approaching and thought to just be glad I only had 10 miles to do and not 20 miles!
I reached the 8 mile point and quickly stopped for some much needed electrolytes. This turned out to be a bad idea as I had lost momentum and struggled to get going again initially.
After a moment I carried on knowing I was over halfway now, I knew I was a bit slower at around 8:45 minutes to 9 minutes miles but thought to keep going and telling myself even a slow run was quick than walking. Come the 10 mile point and my legs were stating to go, I realised I was going to have to walk a bit which I was annoyed at but tried to minimise it to 20 seconds and then run again. The more I got into the run however the more my legs were going and even at the 13 mile point when I once again told myself I only had a park run to go, I just had to walk.
I was so annoyed with this but told myself to be proud that I was completing this having had surgery and then covid a couple of weeks beforehand. It felt like a reminder to be proud of how far we can come in a short amount of time and knowing that our bodies are capable of far more than we often realise.
As the last few miles of the Metric Marathon approached it felt good knowing I was nearing the end but my energy was zapped, the last few hundred metres felt a relief to run and I was able to cross the line in 2 hours 34 mins 53 secs.. I would normally be looking at 2 hours 10 to 2 hours 15 mins given my normal pace so I felt immensely proud of myself and the beautiful feeling of collecting not only my finishers medal but also the triple medal, that was incredible!
Post-race feelings
I have decided to complete the triple again in 2024 to get the triple triple (not an official medal but it sounds good). The Chester 10k, half marathon and both Metric and full Marathons are terrific events which are well supported and like the Great North Run, they become addictive.
