Lewis Sheward
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read

Battle of The Borders Trail Marathon: Race Review

Back in June, my friend Luke said he wanted to do his first marathon and turned to me for advice as his “runner friend”. Looking for a new challenge I decided to, not only write him up a training program, but to enter myself in as well.

What my friend failed to tell me is that this was a trail marathon and not any trail marathon but a trail marathon with 1600m elevation (for clarity Mount Snowdon has 935m elevation!). And yes I take 0 responsibility for not checking the course profile myself before I entered.

Now, as some might know I am a semi-retired runner, I don’t really compete anymore but I just run for the enjoyment me to keep fit. Let me tell you, on the day, I really regretted my decision to not take the distance seriously. My daily training is not something which is appropriate for someone planning on running a good marathon, maybe spending more time training with my friend who I coached would have been a good idea.

For this trail marathon race review I am going to break it down into separate parts:

My preparations for this race (which is the same for any race I do)
The race itself
My friend Luke's training leading up to the marathon

Race preparations

A lot of people often want to know what supplements and gels etc. people use for marathons so incase your interested I'll list them here.

Supplements

My supplements for running always stay the same, these are very important for keeping healthy and running the best you can and recovering the best you can.

The links are links to the exact products which I use.

If you want to learn more about what these supplements can do for you then click here.

Gels

Simply the best of the best in my opinion.

SIS gels: https://amzn.to/3XvPiUz

Hydration

So, I have been looking into the benefits of hydrogen water for a while and decided to start testing it out recently. The benefits for sporting performance are endless, it is great for recovery and your overall health.

There are many different ways in which you can get hydrogen water. For this marathon I decided to use the tablets which just dissolve into water as this would be the easiest to use on the day.

I got to say I felt great on the day, my recovery was good and I feel better in myself and I put this down to the fact I have been supplementing with this product.

This is 100% a product I am going to be using going forward.

I want to be clear I am not affiliated with any hydrogen water companies, but this is a link to the one I have been using: https://www.optimalhydration.co.uk/products/oh-h2-molecular-hydrogen-tablets?variant=49896832532809

My first trail marathon: Race review

So, the race consisted of 3 different races, a 10k, half marathon and then the full marathon. All of these races set off at the same time.

Stupidly, I decided to go off with the front pack completely forgetting that there is more than 1 race going on. The first mile was nice and easy just following a road down, this felt very familiar and I was happily trotting along, however before long we took a stiff right turn to start an ascent which would last what felt like forever. The first part of the ascent was a hill which you would swear you would not be able to run up but filled with adrenaline I took it on.

After about 6-7 minutes of this horrible climb there was a steep decline, then through a couple of gates and we were back on the climb along a grass field for about the next 3 miles. This is where I was lucky that I was running with someone who had a Garmin telling us the way as I would have got lost quite easily (I did manage to actually get lost 3 or 4 times on this loop).

Once, I finished this climb, at about 5 miles in, there was the first aid station, we stopped for about 60 seconds to fill up on water on sweets and then we were off again. At this point I was still with the front group, who I came to realise were all doing the half marathon.

What followed was about 2 miles of undulating trails before we got to a steep downhill where I let myself lean into the hill and pick up some speed, which I paid for (quads so tight I had to walk down the stairs backwards for a few days).

Then came some on road climbs with occasional declines to keep up interested. Before I knew it we were going through a gate which was to take up back to the trails for more climbing. At about 12 miles in, and still with the front group, we reached another aid station. I was the only one who stopped due to the fact the others only had about 2 miles left to go (the loop came closer to 14 miles).

What followed was an enjoyable mile of gentle decent, maybe my favourite part of the course. Then came a steep rocky downhill which was a bit too risky to go down at a fast pace for me, however I got overtaken by a runner with poles who seemed to be nearly flat out sprinting!

Finishing the first lap, I decided to take 30 seconds to speak to my girlfriend, take another gel and compose myself for the fact I was about to repeat that whole thing over again. I confided with her that I had no clue how I was going to manage to get through this as I was absolutely spent.

Embarking on the second lap in first place and not knowing what kind of lead I had was a exciting feeling.

The first mile on the second lap was a nice decent down the now familiar road, but the sight of the uphill on my right was haunting me. I managed to run all the way up it without dying.

The following miles were the tough grassy trails the same as the previous lap, these miles I decided to take a little bit easier to prevent myself from blowing up later in the race.

I got the aid station at 16 miles, refueled for about a minute and then continued on my way.

By the time I had covered the undulating trails which lead to the steep downhill road I was battered. My quads hurt so bad the downhill's were worse than the uphill's.

I was slowly jogging down this hill at an embarrassing pace when I heard the daunting words "Lewis I'm coming for you" from a voice from about 150m back, as I could seem my friend (who has never beat me before) motoring on at a rapid pace.

Knowing that the smart thing to do was to put my ego to the side, allow him to catch up and to work together against the course, I decided to sprint down this hill at a stupid pace (sub 6 mile pace at mile 18).

I got to the the point in the hill where we had turned before, and turned right, looked up to see I had make a sizeable gap on my friend and continued to bomb it down this hill for about a further 3 minutes. I remember looking around and realised I don't recognise this part of the course from the last lap. Then I heard my phone ringing in my bag.

It was Luke. I answered to hear the words "you turned the wrong way you plonker". Those words haunted me.

Knowing I had to turn around and head up the hill I had just ran down so quick was heart-breaking.

I wasted no time and pushed as hard as I could up this hill. Knowing full well that my friend had at least a 4 minute gap on me.

I knew the smart thing to do was to close this gap slowly and hold a pace in which I could reel him in over the next 5 miles or so. So, I decided to push as hard as I could, get the bit between my teeth, and catch him as fast as possible.

From thinking I had nothing left, to having to put back to back sub 6 minute miles in really shows that you never know what you have left. Anyway, I caught him in 2.

We ran the following 2 miles together, battling the steep hills we had become so familiar with. Talking about how well the day had gone, he explained how surprised he is to go from where he was before to the point where he could run for so long feeling so good. We knew he was in good shape from the fact he was running parkrun's feeling quite comfortable in about 21 minutes (his goal now is to run 19:XX for 5k in the next month).

Closing in on mile 24, knowing I had about 4.5 miles to go (partly my fault for going the wrong way), was were I decided to make my move.

I pushed on the hills where I knew he would be hurting the most (this was hell for me too but I pretended I was feeling good). A gap grew fast and the last miles gruelling. Considering I felt physically finished by about half way, I had gone the wrong way, my friend managed to catch me which I never thought possible, it was fair to say I was surprised to find a second wind.

The last couple miles, which I mentioned were my favourite of the race, felt so good. And coming down that rocky last mile was extremely slow as I was worried about throwing the win away by having a bad fall.

Anyway, I managed to win my first ever trail marathon (also my first marathon) and my friend Luke managed to secure a 3rd place finish.

Here is a link to the results: https://www.webscorer.com/racealldetails?raceid=364794&fbclid=iwzxh0bgnhzw0cmteaar3sbrmf-sysdczvfh5pba9mrdknvjod43ckkxpfvpb0sdb7ql23inoigrw_aem_uimlsuas_vufnw1on5xkma&topn=0

Overall, I would highly recommend this race to anyone who wants a challenge!

Luke's training leading up to the race

I wrote all of Lukes training for this marathon.

His training was a 4 month plan, at which he started out at the point where he could just about run a 10k. By slowly increasing the mileage (and keeping in mind that he used to be very injury prone), we built up to running 5 times a week. This included a 20 mile run long run, a 7 mile tempo run (slotted into a 12 mile run), 1 interval session per week to learn to run smooth at faster paces and the rest of his training consisted of easy miles, strides and runner specific gym work.

He was previously extremely injury prone and we actually had to take a down time in the first month to deal with niggles. We sorted this with ATG exercises from the ATG program. The ATG program is designed to improve performance and to cure long term weaknesses which lead to injury. The specific program instructed Luke to focus on the following exercises; the ATG split squat, the Nordic curl, sled drag, back extensions and many more exercises which promoted strength through length.

If you are interested in putting your injuries behind you then you can find more information by click this link: https://bit.ly/3VlfEb6

And for a discount use code: GLHDISCOUNT