Edinburgh Marathon

Bag packed for the finish, food and running plan set so set off up to my Dad’s in Blairgowrie on Friday night with Catherine and the kids. After a poor nights sleep but decent breakfast, I set off on a final gentle run of just over two and a half miles, a loop down to the local river along the track beside it and up a steep but short hill back. It felt Ok but my legs didn’t feel as fresh as they should have – maybe too much training in the last week?

Sunday Morning

Terrible nights sleep, with Harry (my partners little boy) waking at three and coming into our bed, little chance of much sleep after that with a wriggling kicking buddle next to me. My confidence dented a bit further, but the weather forecast looked  better than at the start of the week with the winds not picking up until later in the morning and only about 30mph gusts. My Dad drove me down to Edinburgh so I could take it easy and so began the final preparation before the gun and the off. First stop toilets (and second and third…) then to meet up with Marc Penn from Blengdale Runners AC (based in Gosforth) who’d been following a strict schedule for the last few months including no beer (such a good source of electrolytes and carbs). A couple of photos, drop the bags off, gentle warm up and stretch then to the start.

Me and Marc in our fetching bin bags at the start

The Race Plan

Basic plan was to go for 6:20 pace which would give me a time of around 2:47, but the wind meant this needed to be adjusted. Since the first four miles of the course are predominately down hill with a net decent of 40m and you always have excess adrenaline at the start I planned to run these at an average of about 15 seconds per mile faster than race pace with the first mile being the fastest. This would put me 1 minute ahead as I eased down into my race pace running. The miles out were to be around 6:15 pace which would be to about mile eighteen meaning by 30K I should be about 2:15 ahead before turning and facing the wind. What to expect and plan for the last quarter was difficult – running into a strong head wind at the hardest part of the race is hard to plan. I guessed it would cost about 30secs a mile into the wind with about another minute lost in the last few miles due to fatigue and a final kick for the last half mile or so with negligible effect on the time but a good psychological benefit. With luck the plan would get me around in 2:50 and hopefully inside that time or three minutes behind the 6:20 pace.

The Race

Immediately I made a mistake by positioning myself too close to the front. The obvious affect of this was to go off too fast (5:56 first mile) though I managed to reign myself in to go through four miles at just over one minute ahead of schedule only a bit faster than planned. First part of the plan achieved now to the steady running, this went well until a slight twinge in my left hamstring luckily that was all it was and it didn’t slow me down much or for long. By now I was enjoying it chatting with people before moving on, the temperature was about right the wind as of yet not too bad and the occasional heavy shower refreshing. Hit 10K at 38:27 and half marathon at 1:21:28 both a bit fast but not massively so and by the turn; earlier than I’d thought at just over 17 miles I was about 2:35 ahead meaning about 1sec a mile faster than planned and still feeling strong going well and picking off runners one by one. After the turn the pace slowed with the head wind by about 30 seconds over target pace as had been expected this I maintained for the next couple of miles still picking people off…

Last Quarter

Disaster struck: after taking a mouthful of lucozade at a fuelling station almost immediately I felt a twinge in my right abs a bloody stitch. Was the same thing going to happen to me as happened to Steve Angus at London? The only thing I could do was ease off and try to control my breathing, stamp it out and massage the area. A quick change of plan was needed as the people I’d passed started to stream back past me which was very disheartening as my stitch wouldn’t allow me to give chase though my legs and heart wanted too. My pace had dropped significantly with the 2:50 time almost certainly gone. By mile 23 my heart had gone and my legs decided to follow. I just couldn’t get back into my running with the constant ache where the stitch had hit home. Every time someone passed me I tried to pull them back but the ache would get worse in my deep abs and the effort was mentally tiring. Disheartened I just tried to continue enjoying the race though that too was hard with the knowledge that the chance of a good position and time had evaporated and running was no longer comfortable. I still managed to pick it up a bit for the last half mile though nothing like my former pace crossing the line in a PB time of 2:52:42 in 70^th place of over 8500 runners so not bad for a bad run!



Well deserved beer

 The Wind

At the finish nearly everyone said they had suffered in the wind, one guy from Motherwell AC ran 2:48:31 last year and ran 2:52:44 this year but felt fitter and stronger which goes to show the affect the wind was having. Even in the conditions the top five men all were inside Steve Littler’s winning time of 2:26:30 in 2010 and nine women went under three hours compared to only three in 2010, though with a slower winning time. Marc also had trouble in the wind but managed to break the three hour barrier, his target for the race, finishing in 2:59:06 and 141^st position.



Marc first beer since January

 Post mortem

A few things went wrong some that can be controlled, some that can’t and some that can be minimised. Off the weather nothing can be done so 2:50 was always around the best to be expected. The stitch is a tricky one, maybe the pre-race food or drink? Since it kicked in almost immediately after having a drink of Lucozade that is the most likely cause, the only solution I can think for this is to carry my own hydration tablets and just drink water as I did at Langdale Marathon last year. The tailing off of the pace could be partly to do with lack of race pace longer runs so that is something else to be improved on. The major positive is that even with all these set backs I still got a PB and feel the 2:45 is now a serious possibility, if not this year then soon!