Becca Jane St Clair

On October 27, I participated in the AOK Quarter Marathon as part of the Dresden Marathon. I came in last place, but I don’t care because I did it.

Back in 2022, when I was in Dresden for Christmas with Tim and my friend Jen, we saw information about the Dresden Marathon. Jen is a runner and she was keen to sign up for it and I thought the shorter race (at the time, we thought it was 5K) would be fun, even though I had never ran before in my life other than a few feet here and there to catch busses and trains. Plus the opportunity to participate in my first run in my favourite city in the world was too good to pass up on. So I told Jen I would do it with her in 2024 and I downloaded the Couch25k app. In March of 2023, I ran Week 1, Run 1. It took me six weeks to be able to fully run all three Week 1 runs. I developed shin splints and calf cramps, but solved these issues with compression sleeves, and then knee high compression running socks when the weather became too warm for the sleeves.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I soon became frustrated when trying to move from the Week 3 to Week 4. I just couldn’t seem to get my head around it, and then I sprained my knee that August and I felt like I needed to start all over again, so I started Week 1, Run 1. This time, it only took me the one week to do all of Week 1 runs and I was soon onto Week 2 and then Week 3…but again, struggled to move on to Week 4. I finally decided to try extending the initial walk time from 5 minutes to 10, thinking that perhaps I needed the additional warm-up walking time. It worked, and I even ran more than the original Week 4, Run 1 interval called for.

We also discovered that the shorter race wasn’t a 5k, it was in fact 10.55k, a quarter marathon. I studied the route carefully. I know Dresden fairly well and my route took me basically across one bridge, followed the path along the river to another bridge, across that bridge, and then along the river again. Perfect.

Then I discovered a method called “Jeffing”, which is basically interval running and honestly, this is where I shine. I downloaded an app that will ping at you when you should switch between walking and running and I started out with 30 seconds of running, 45 of walking. This wasn’t doing much for my pace, so I changed it up to 15/30 and even tried 10/15. 10/15, despite sounding crazy really works for me!

A few weeks before the race, one of the bridges across the Elbe collapsed. This was a bridge we were expected to run under along the riverfront. I panicked a little, but the organizers assured us the race would happen, they were researching alternate routing. About a week before the race, we received the alternate route. We would run across the Marienbrücke instead of the August, then go slightly away from the river before coming back to the river path, going across, then routing slightly through old town on the Marathon route to avoid the closed off area. This also added a little elevation, though I really didn’t pay much attention to that! I just kept training.

I was racking up the 5K runs in my village and getting my 5K time to around 48-52 minutes. I set my 10k goal for under 2 hours at this point.

The weather forecast was honestly all over the place in the weeks leading up to the race. At one point, we thought it was going to be 6 degrees (Celcius) and would need to run with long sleeves, thick socks, headbands, and gloves! Fortunately, the forecast changed a few days before we packed, and the forecast showed a high of 17, but it would be chilly in the morning. Jen suggested I pick up a cheap jacket or jumper that if I lost it I wouldn’t care about and so I grabbed one for £1 off Vinted. I was still wearing thicker compression socks, but I figured I’d be fine.

The day before the race, I made a big mistake. We walked all over Dresden, clocking in over 10KM of walking. My legs were absolutely killing me to the point that I bought muscle relaxing bath salts, a knee compression sleeve to sleep in, and new, thinner, compression socks from a stand at the running expo. My outfit was going to clash, but who cares? I carefully laid everything out. I was going to wear my contact lenses for the run, so I had a cheap pair of Primark sunglasses (in case I lost them) in my belt, along with a spare set of headphones in case my Shokz failed. I also packed my inhaler, paracetamol, some High 5 gels, a little bag of gummies, a cereal bar, and a small battery charger for my phone that plugged directly into my phone. I prepared a bag for Tim to put in his rucksack for after the race that included a change of socks and pants (in case I felt sweaty after), some body wipes, and deodorant. I might have shoved a clean T-shirt in there, too.

Morning arrived, and yeah, I was pretty nervous and terrified. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had been collecting songs from my friends to add to a playlist for the run and I had arranged the list so that I had a half hour of motivational music before it started, and after around 50 minutes, an uplifting song from Tim, then another 50 minutes of good, upbeat music, and then I added in about 15 minutes of additional motivational songs. I ate a light breakfast and we got ready to go….

Jen was running in the half marathon, but my friend Connie was also running the quarter, so we lined up. My playlist wasn’t working because I forgot to download it, so I was stuck with music physically on my phone….BNL and Carbon Leaf. Which was fine as they are my favourite bands, but not all their songs are good for running. I should have stuck to my original plans of run/walking, but I started running at the start and did the first Kilometre entirely as a run. I then switched to walking and walked pretty much until I hit the halfway mark. There was a water stop for the marathon runners and I just happened to look over at it and the one volunteer yelled at me (in German) that it wasn’t for me. Which was a little annoying as I hadn’t been planning on getting a drink, I was just looking around!

I got to the Waldschlösschenbrücke and decided to start running my intervals again…and I found myself in the midst of the half marathon runners! I moved all the way to the side of the road part of the bridge. The pavement was lined with people cheering for the runners, and because my name was on my bib, I got lots of shouts that included my name! It honestly was a fantastic feeling as I crossed over that bridge, hearing all the cheers.

I turned off away from the half marathon runners…and I was on my own! I didn’t pay attention to my pace, I just kept going. at KM 6.5, we had a water stop and I wound up pouring half on top of my head to cool off. I had a water bottle on me that I had been taking sips of, but it had a bite valve so couldn’t be poured. I also at some point took off my headband and tied it to my water bottle holder.

The end was near! I was passing the 9km mark when I felt pain in my calf. It felt like someone had punched me in the calf or like I had been hit with a tennis ball, but it was quick and I kept going for another KM until I had so much pain I screamed and had to limp over to a barrier to hold onto while pain absolutely ripped through my calf. It was quite nice of the race photographers to capture the exact moment!

A few people who had already finished the 10.55K stopped to see if I needed any help and I didn’t know how to say “Calf Cramp” in German, but we managed to work it out with their bit of English and me pointing at my calf. The one woman told me I was 500m from the finish line and offered to walk with me for support if I needed it. Two of the medics came over to ask if I needed help and I chatted with them for a few minutes while I massaged and flexed my leg. They gave me a little sugar boost, and I was back on my way, slightly limping.

I limped across the finish line in under 2 hours like I planned on. I was second to last place over all and last in my age group, but I don’t care. I FUCKING DID IT.

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Offical race photos provided by Marathon Photos Live

Monday was a day off for Tim. After I got back from a GP appointment, I said to Tim “let’s go on a walk ’round the farmer’s fields”. Tim got out the Ordnance Survey Map for the area instead and picked out a route that went across the A46 through a wooded area and through some fields. We were originally going to walk to the Stepping Stones (some metal stepping stones placed in the river to walk across), but Tim got a phone call while we were out asking him to pick up a shift that evening, so we cut across a nettle-filled path that went right on the edge of a grain field and the beck to get home, but we walked 5 miles in total! We stopped at the corner Spar shop on our way out and picked up some sandwiches and snacks, and filled up our water bottles before we left. Fortunately, the rain held off and we only got spritzed on as we were almost back home.

There are over 140,000 footpaths in England and Wales. Picking up an Ordnance Survey map is a great way to get to know an area. The maps have all the public right of ways marked, so as long as you can read a map (and maybe have a compass) you’re good to go out and explore. You just need to remember to always stay on the footpaths. Some footpaths go around farmer’s fields, and some even cut through people’s gardens! Tim was telling me a story once about a public right-of-way that actually went through a person’s house because their house got built on top of one.

As we were walking, I noticed wild blackberry bushes. I commented that I wished I had brought along a basket…and then I had a brilliant thought. I could use my hat! So, my hat became a basket and we gathered blackberries and hazelnuts (off the trees) while we walked.

Apologies for the photo quality. I forgot to grab my camera and I’m still using the Sony Ericsson W200i phone, and it only has a VGA camera.

I’m going to freeze these, I think. I leave on Saturday for a trip to Wales with my friend H and her son, and I don’t want to make something Tim will forget to eat, so I’ll freeze them and figure out what to do later.

We also have a bumper crop coming in outside on our “cultivated” bushes, as our neighbour called them. Apparently the difference is the “cultivated” bushes have tighter, smaller sections than the wild ones. No matter to me, a blackberry is a blackberry and mmm, I’m already dreaming of blackberry and apple crumbles made from our own apples and blackberries!

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Tim and I have been trying to get out and do more walking lately, and one of the best ways to do so is to walk on one of the many Public Footpaths in our area. Public footpaths are pretty interesting. If you’ve got one on your property, you aren’t allowed to block access to it and need to let people walk on it, so some of the footpaths run down the middle of a farmer’s field or behind someone’s house! Apparently there have even been cases where a house had been built over a public right of way, and the owner had to let people traipse through their house! (not really. If you needed to, you could provide an alternate path and ask that the current path be diverted).

All the paths are marked on the Ordinance Survey map, and Tim happens to have one for the area. Tim’s parents walk the family dog along a public foot path and we did some walking with them (or just with the dog) last year, so this time we set out for a different path. Last week, we drove over to explore a new path in a nearby town, but yesterday we stayed close to home and probably walked about a mile round trip.

The walking was great fun….until we came to a muddy field that almost took my new shoe! In the future when we walk that path, we’re going to make sure it has been dry for a few days, I think. It also started to rain on us, which wasn’t too pleasant either!

We made it about halfway to Scothern (a neighbouring village) yesterday before we had to turn around and head back home due to the weather. Our goal is to walk the same path multiple times and to see how far we can get in a half hour as we improve our stamina.

I got new shoes just for doing all this walking, too. I think I spent at least an hour in Millets trying on multiple pairs of hiking shoes until I settled on the pair I got. They were a little pricey at £69, but not as high as some of the pairs they had (there was a pair I wouldn’t even look at because it was priced at over £120!). And I actually do notice the difference walking in them. My feet don’t hurt as much (or at all) when I’m wearing the boots. They’re a bit cumbersome though. I’m not used to clunky shoes so I keep tripping myself. But it’s still way better than trying to walk the muddy paths in some of the shoes I usually wear! I should take a picture of my shoes sometime ;).

Here are some photos of our ramble yesterday. It looks like (judging from the quality of the photos) my camera might be on it’s last legs (or it was the dying battery), so please excuse the poor quality:

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Just because Google offers walking directions, doesn’t mean you should follow them.

On Friday, Tim and I made plans to go see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I knew where the movie theatre was and I knew how to drive it, but Tim and I would not have access to a car on Friday. I used Google’s new walking direction feature, and it surprisingly took us the same route as we’d go via car.

Problem: The road (Schoolhouse Lane in Manor Twp) doesn’t have a sidewalk for most of the road! It doesn’t even have a shoulder at parts of it, and some of the homes along the road have Poison Ivy along the curb, so you don’t want to walk on the edge of the lawns. It was hard going and we kept getting dirty looks from the cars whizzing by us, but we finally made it over to the cinema.

As for how we liked the movie, that’s probably best for a different entry.

We’re leaving in a few minutes to head down to DC for a week, so see you on the flip side!

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