Great stuff.
My gear was largely ready the night before and so all that remained was to get changed, carry out a last minute kit check. all done and all good. I left home just after 0945 to drive the 20minutes to the start and registration. This is where it went wrong, with at one point me sat in the car losing my temper and shouting abuse at myself - pretty funny looking back now but at the time i just kept thinking i was going to miss registration and lose my place.
A phone call home and some map reading later i registered 10minutes late (thank you organisers) then hurried to get myself ready. My heart rate and adrenaline, needless to say were through the roof. I got changed at my car and there were a couple of marshalls that were happy to chat and that helped me relax (another thankyou!)
One of the things i was not sure of was what to wear for the race. The weather was fine and dry but the temperature was barely 5C. I had every combination of clothing you could imagine in my bag from running fleeces to t-shirts, hats, gloves and tights. In the end i went for a shorts, compressions t-shirt and normal t-shirt combination with my gloves. This proved to be ideal and looking around the course was a pretty frequent combination. I also had on my 2XU calf guards and looking around the field it struck me that at least 50% of the runners were kitted out similarly, how did we survive before the advent of compression clothing!! I also had KTTaped my left Achilles to help with some tendinitis that i get a little and that really did the trick although today (a day later) my left ankle is very sore.
The runners were grouped at the staging area and then followed the pace car to the start line. On the way to the start i struck up a conversation with a fellow runner that ended up irritating me! I asked him the usual questions around his marathon experience and expected time - he waxed lyrical about his endeavours and did not ask me a single question. As soon as the hooter sounded i left him - some people do not know how to have a conversation!!
The route was an unknown to me as my preparation did not include a recce of the course! It started easy enough with a small figure of eight before we hit the course proper, it was then 3 laps with a turn to the finishing straight. The laps were marshalled at the turn point with runners wearing hair ands on their wrists to keep tally of laps.
The three laps were surprisingly interesting although the hills were unwelcome. There were plenty of spectators and the Marshalls and helpers at the water stations all genuinely great.
I made a decent start following a group of 3 club runners that were keeping a pace where they were talking to each other and that i was comfortable with. I followed them for about 5miles with the group growing to about 8 runners. Between miles 4 and 5 i wanted to push a bit harder and so moved out of the group and increased my pace. It was then that nature called! I needed a pee!! I spotted a discrete gate and well you know....as i was doing this the pack went past me with heckles of "...you'll need that later..." when i had finished a rejoined the road they had gone some way in front of me and in fact another pack had also gone past me. I resolved to keep my pace steady and catch them over the course of the next 10 or so miles rather than pushing hard for a mile and blowing up.
The decision was correct - i kept a steady pace, checking my Garmin frequently to make sure my pace stayed in the 14km an hour zone. By mile 8 (56minutes) i had started catching some of those that had fallen off the back of the pack. I continued the pace eating a gel on the hour. I was comfortable although was pushing it - my time at mile 13 was 01:33:00 which is only 6minutes off my PB for that distance. Lap 1 was completed without any excitement or problems, it was a little disconcerting to think that there were two to go but i just kept focused on the time.
In this respect it was unusual for me because i was very aware of the time the whole way round, at one point i actually thought i might be close to a magical three hours but that thought evaporated when my maths were found to be rubbish! At 16miles i was just under 2hrs and in my head thought great another 8miles in an hour and i've done it. It then dawned on me at the mile 18marker that actually there were 10more miles to go and so 3:15 was looking likely.
On my second lap i encountered my first back marker who was still on her first lap. She was running up one of the hills as i passed her - i offered some words of encouragement and continued. Second lap done and now it got hard. On the third lap the first hill was about 2miles in and had the first twinges of cramp in my quads. I made it to the top of the hill without having to break stride but was concerned that the cramp could do me in with a long way still to go. As i cleared the hill there were a lot of runners in front of me - those on their second laps. This was quite motivating as it was a case of aiming for the next runner regardless of what lap they were on - this kept me entertained for a couple of miles until on the next hill cramp. This time in my hamstrings that forced me to walk. I walked up the hill, started jogging again and then back to a run. My kph was dropping and at one point was a lowly 10kph. It was on the hill i saw Mick and Phil the Marathon Lads - truly amazing.
Mick and Phil (not sure who is who) looks like a father and son team where the father pushes the adult son in his wheelchair. That in itself is amazing but the father had a word of motivation or some quip for every runner in his vicinity, those that he was passing or that were passing him. People like this never cease to amaze me, the bond that they must have from being together like this is incredible. So inspirational.
In a different sort of way the runners that run at a gentle pace and finish in 5hrs+ are also motivational. It proves that everyone can do this sport and that everyone has their own motivation and reasons for being there. For some it's about winning, other about breaking 3hrs then there's those who just want to complete it with the time almost being irrelevant. The achievement is the same - they all ran a marathon on Sunday 24th January!
The final miles of the final lap seemed to go on for ever. At mile 24 i was ready to stop, the finish line loomed. Past the lap counters for the final time and a mile to the finish. I was overtaken with less than 200m to go and had nothing left counter. Essentially i was racing the clock at this time anyway. I crossed the finish in 03:15:00 exactly (official time has me at 03:15:01).
Elated that i had hit my stretch target. When i set out to do this i thought i could do sub 03:30:00 with 03:15:00 being my stretch target. To acheive that on a hilly course was awesome!
I picked up my memento (a paperweight) and then to the bus to head back to the starting zone. Thank god i took the bus rather than walking it as it was further than i thought and i would have also got lost! Back at the car a quick change then a blood test. My blood sugar was 3.1mmol which was essentially a bonk (the threshold being between 4-7mmol). No wonder i had nothing left on the run in.
Driving home i was glad my car was an automatic as my calves were very stiff/sore and i had a blister on the outside of my left foot. A roast dinner was waiting for me but unusually i could not finish it! Needless to say the rest of the day was quiet.
The official results are in an i was 22nd out of 282 which i am really pleased with!! Awesome!! Looking back to my first marathon this is an improvement of 1hr 5minutes!
On checking the forums today though i saw some terribly sad news. One of the runners, who had travelled down from Oldham, had a heart attack and died on the course.... thought are with his family and running buddies.....
