I had a really busy week at work two weeks before the marathon, and at one stage was even contemplating just dropping out of the race. I had been really stressed and wasn't sure if I was mentally capable of running the marathon and I was mentally and physical very tired from the stress at work. Anyway, I decided that we would see how I was feeling and if needs be I could just "trot round" in sub 3 hours and enjoy the whole experience. As if that was ever going to happen!
The Tuesday before the race I entered a two mile race in Bristol to blow the cobwebs out from the previous week's lack of training (yes work really did get in the way!). I had a good run, 10m28 on an undulating 2 lap course. First lap I ran a 5m09 and the second 5m19. Not perfect pacing, but as I seem to find so often in these kind of races, the pacing relative to others doesn't seem that bad.
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| Mincing around at the start |
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| and they're off! |
I was trying to find my pace, but I seemed to keep missing the mile markers. Around what I thought was 5km I asked one of the other runners in the group if he'd seen any mile markers. No. Oh great, no mile markers...I hadn't even thought to check if there would be mile markers, I just assumed for a race of this magnitude that there would be some. No.
Somewhere between here and the 10km marker I had a bit of an incident with a marshall. The marshall had been opening and closing a piece of road to allow cars / runners to pass through a piece of road. This involved him opening and closing the road with a piece of tape. For some reason he had kind of fallen asleep and didn't know if the road was open or closed but he then decided to come alive and start moving as runners were charging at him. I absolutely clattered him. Bloody idiot! I know the guys was probably just a volunteer, but I've done my share of volunteering at races, you do still have to do a job, even if it is out of the goodness of your own heart!
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| ah yes, we are in Scotland, Iron-Bru anyone? |
We got some feedback at the 10km point. It was not officially marked as the 10km point, but we went over a timing mat with a chalk marking on the side of the road. Time of 36m28 for the first 10km was a bit too fast, however I couldn't risk slowing down. I thought if I consciously slowed down and there were no mile markers I might slow down too much. So I just kept with the pace. Besides, I was running in a good group, including the leading females. This meant I spent a lot of time with the cameras on me, I think there is going to be some coverage on Sky Sports at some stage. I'll hopefully be able to post this up on the blog.
At mile 12, the mile markers surprisingly materialised, and at last I could start trying to pace myself. However, by this time I think the damage was done. I didn't end up going ridiculously hard, but probably 1 minute to quick for the first half marathon which is enough to do the damage over the marathon. I struggled from mile 15 - 18 and really had to dig not to lose the group. They pulled away a little but I kept the group in sight and pulled them back in. However at the 17 mile mark we reached the turning point. I was kind of dreading this and we had to turn and face the wind...boom...30seconds per mile lost immediately. If BBC news is to be led the wind was 20mph, it certainly felt strong. Luckily we didn't run into the wind all the way home, but from 20 miles onwards we were running into a headwind all the way home. To give you an idea of the kind of time we as a group lost, we hit 15 miles at 1h29m30, and then 20 miles at 2h00m30 which is a fairly significant slow down...but not at bad as what was going to come!
I hit mile 22 and then I was in all sorts of trouble and I knew it was going to be a struggle to get home. I really slowed down (unfortunately I don't know how slow...but 43 minutes for the final 10km isn't the best!). I had the strangest thing happen in the last few miles, I felt very tight in the chest and when I tried to push on it felt even tighter. Not the nicest feeling and a little bit worrying....but I guess my body was in a stressed state and these things happen. One to monitor though. Interestingly in this period I overtook someone who had been running in Vibram Fivefingers. On the road, his legs must've taken at absolute battering, I whizzed by him and given the state I was in that meant he wasn't almost going backwards!
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| The wind was killing me at this stage, really digging in. |
On finishing the race I didn't feel too bad, I think the body has a knack of looking after itself when its in a bad way. Because I probably pushed too hard too early in the race, the body just shuts down towards the end to protect itself. However if I'd run a little easier at the beginning and been in a position to push hard at the end I'm sure I would have come away feeling slightly more battered. No real science behind this theory, just a kind of gut feeling of how the body reacts to these situations.
I don't like to slag off races, and usually I don't. It takes a lot for me to be disappointed. However, I have to say I was very disappointed with the Edinburgh marathon and you should consider taking it off your wish list. I list my reasons below:
1) The race doesn't really make the most of Edinburgh, it'd would've been nice to have seen a bit more of Edinburgh in the route.
2) No mile markers...disgraceful.
3) The organisation at the end was terrible. In particular a very long walk to the buses. The out of town finish meant my missus only just had enough time to make it to the finish to see me at the end. She was then told that she was in the wrong place to see the finish, when she actually wasn't. Marshalls should be briefed on these things.
4) The organisers run many races over the weekend as past of the Edinburgh running festival, therefore maybe they take the eye off the ball in what I think is the main event, the marathon
4) Given the above 3 points, it makes the event look very expensive.
Oh well, one to tick of the list. Might head back to Barcelona in March, definitely the best city marathon I have run so far!
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| Posing for the cameras at the finish. I'd just been beaten by a girl! |
I'm in a period of rest and recuperation now. I've already raced three times above the marathon distance this year and I need a mental recuperation. I do have a marathon planned in July but I will be using this "for training" opposed to battering myself.
Oh, interesting fact. Twice I've been in Scotland this year and both times I've been sunburnt, who'd have thought!
