Edinburgh - done and dusted!
After my last update where it was evident that my nerves were picking up again, I found myself, yet again, looking for reasons to not take part. The heat - yes, it was hot but that's no excuse. The tiredness - yes, I was absolutely shattered but did I ever think that running a marathon at this point in the academic year would be anything different? Tiredness is no excuse. My tonsillitis - OK, fair point but I was nowhere near as bad as I could have been and was definitely out of the 'other side' by the time race day came so that's no excuse. SO, being all out of excuses, I ran on Sunday 27th May as planned and trained for.
After a long drive up with my friend Emma and two of our children on Friday night, the 380 mile journey (not 360 as expected) which saw the most beautiful sunset, not one but TWO speed camera episodes, 3 burger/loo stops, lots of gossip and the entire world put to rights, we finally arrived at our hotel at 12.30am. I'd love to claim careful planning on my part but it was purely coincidental that our hotel was about 20 seconds from the A1 and extremely close to the finish line - this made life SO easy on Sunday.
Saturday was spent being a lazy tourist in the city - I haven't been to Edinburgh in years and forgot just how beautiful it was. Although the heat and lack of desire to be a tourist on a mission saw us spend the best part of the day sat by the new parliament building paddling pools and in restaurants although the castle and park were duly visited. Too hot and sunny to even want to do any more than that, factor in the fact that I was running a marathon the very next day and the urge to be any more active on the Saturday was in serious decline! I did however run (well, jog) a couple of slow miles early on the Saturday morning which, as expected, added to my nerves as it was already hot, hot, hot!
So, after a lovely day on Saturday, lots of pizza, olives, pasta and water (SO much water, having an aversion to running in the heat, I was taking no risks here.), I managed a reasonably early night. A good feed up on Sunday morning, a taxi drive to the start with some random fellow marathon runners staying at my hotel, a mocha in a nice little cafe near the start line (I was, unbelievably, early for once in my life) and several loo visits, I was in my starting bay and a bag of nerves but ready to start. The temperature at this point was a mild 15 degrees.
The course itself is beautiful: starting in the centre of Edinburgh and moving out and down along the East coast, following a loop back on itself and finishing near Musselburgh Race Course. I actually quite enjoyed most of the run and made a point to run at a pace that I might perhaps have felt a little fast but I knew that I would suffer in the heat and wanted to get as many miles under my belt before that time. This was a REALLY good move and was on for a PB until well over 20 miles in. My 30km split was 2 minutes ahead of the same split in Milan but then the heat really kicked in. In the early stages along the edge of the coast, it was beautiful, sunny and benefited from the sea breeze. By 12pm, this was NOT the case and by 1pm, I was desperate for a breeze, some shade and a light shower. Sadly, nothing other than heat and sun! I spent very little of the entire run without a bottle in hand and made sure that I took every opportunity to drink before and throughout the event - SUCH a good move as there were an awful lot of people not looking too well at the edge of the course, especially in the last few miles.
By mile 21, nausea had kicked in and the pace slowed. My earlier average of 8.25-8.40 minutes/mile changed slowed to 9 minute miles and at one point, I'm sure I clocked a 9.30 mile. The typical mind over matter and literally 'talking myself through' the steps, the 400 metre marks (1/4 of a mile, 1 lap of the track) throughout the last 3 miles was SO hard.... and then, suddenly, I saw the 26 mile marker. Lord only knows how but I then sped up. My elation was so great I think that I managed to speed up to an 8 minute/mile average for this last section. The little video of the finish clip that I have actually shows me speeding up and overtaking. (To be fair, I was probably running so very slowly but others were running slower still. I'm more than willing to admit just how deceptive the video actually looks.)
My final finishing time: 3:49:43 Exactly 95 seconds slower than Milan but given the conditions, I'm really pleased with this. A part of me is berating myself for not going faster but sore hips kicked in at 18 miles and I genuinely couldn't have done any better. Hence, I'm trying to focus on the fact that I did as well as I did.
My placing: I was the 1991st finisher in Milan of approximately 6000 finishers. In Edinburgh, approximately 23000 runners, I was the 1992nd finisher. On that basis, I'm all the more proud of my time.
My highlight however was being passed by runners from Norfolk Harriers and Wymondham running club in the early stages but passing ALL of them again in the last 5-6 miles of the course. Good to see other local East Anglia runners in the event but better to have beaten them (forever the competitor)!
Even happier when I arrived back in Suffolk after the long, stiff and tiring 380 mile journey home again.
So, the last week has seen me recovering from sore hips and tight hamstrings. A lovely massage from Sheryl and I'm ready to go again. I only ran 8 miles last week and have been deliberately lazy. This week picks up the miles again a little but I don't really want to run any more than about 20 miles in total (including the Stowmarket 5 on Friday night) and then the serious training kicks in again next week. The Stevenage marathon is in 6 weeks from now and is also partially cross-country/trail running. My training plan will have to take this into account but more to follow on that one!
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