Next up for my series on bite-sized marathon reviews is my old mate Sam Baxter. And today he is going for a biggie and running the Race to the King. Good luck, Sam! Here’s to you fantastic achievements!

1.       London 2014. One of the best days of my life. The crowds were incredible. There was so much support from the crowd and other runners. I didn’t do enough training, so the wheels came off after about 14 miles. It doesn’t matter because it was my first marathon and I can take it as a learning curve. I spotted a couple of friends who gave me plenty of encouragement.

2.       Manchester 2015. I signed up for this race as it described itself as the flattest and fastest marathon in the UK. I really enjoyed the course as it was flat. There was plenty of crowd support and well organised. This time around, the training went really well and I got a sub four hour time. I paced myself really well. I didn’t set off too quickly and maintained a consistence pace for the whole race.

3.       Wrexham 2016. I signed up for this marathon as preparation for Canalathon. The field was small, but that helped with my preparations. There were a few things that stuck in my mind about the run. The Kellogg’s factory smelled like popcorn, they must have been making Corn Flakes at the time, and I got chatting to another runner for a couple of miles towards the end of the race.

4.       Canalathon 50km 2016. This was my first ultra and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a good UKRunChat meet up for it. I love running along my local canal at home, so this was perfect for me. It was well organised and the aid stations were so much better than any of my previous races. I will certainly be coming back to do this race in the next few years.

5.       Manchester 2016. I enjoyed this weekend and good UKRunChat meet ups. Again, there was plenty of crowd support. I signed up to do this marathon shortly after doing it in the previous year. As I did Wrexham and Canalathon in the previous five weeks, I wasn’t concerned with a set time and I wanted to enjoy the race, which I did.

6.       Liverpool 2017. I really enjoyed this race. I kept to a consistent pace without getting carried away at any point. There was plenty of support and the atmosphere was amazing. There was plenty of music on the route and it took in many of the sights Liverpool has to offer. There was a good UKRunChat contingent at this race. The weekend was very well organised. I used this as preparation for Race To The King 2017.