This is the short story…
So after all my worry about my fitness before Edinburgh
Marathon and my resetting of my goals, I only went and got a new marathon personal best and a London
Good for Age (GFA) and Boston Qualifying (BQ) time.
This is the long version – stop and grab a cuppa before you
start.
In all honesty my training in between Manch
So the morning of Edinburgh came around all too soon, I had
reassessed my goals and said that I was happy with a sub 4 hour marathon, well
sort of happy! It is safe to say that the weather matched both my mood and
prospects, the rain has started to fall and it steadily got worse. Sean was happy and looking forward to his half
marathon, he told me to go off and find somewhere warm to wait until the start
of my race ( I think I was killing is pre-race buzz)
Firstly I found shelter in a bus shelter, but soon got bored
and thought I may as well head to my
starting pen and then there glimmer of light in the distance “Starbucks” sign
shone out like a beacon. As I pushed through the door, the warmth hit me and
the queue was small and free WIFI RESULT. Twenty minutes later after a couple
of trips to the facilities and a full fat tall latte with a caramel shot I felt
ready to tackle to walk to my pen and bonus the rain had stopped!
My plan was to set out and run 8:30 for the entire race,
this should get me a 3:44:30 marathon time and a London GFA – what is that I was meant to be going to a
sub 4 hours, well yes but you know how it goes…… the 1st couple of
miles would be the determining factor.
As it was the I found my pace which was around 8:15 which
was well ahead of my required pace, now here is the problem the rule of thumb
with marathons is start slow and get quicker (this by the way had been my
strategy at Manchester). The worry with
going to fast at the start is that you can blow up in the last few miles,
really fall apart and up losing your race goal.
However I felt good and I decided I was not going to over
think it, just go on feel and see how things pan out. As it was I was
having a really good run, feeling surprisingly
strong and focused. Before I knew it we
were heading passed Musslebourgh Race course and off up to the BIG Stately Home,
it was at this point I saw Sean coming back long towards his finish and I gave
him a shout out and carried on.
Now this is a LONG stretch not a particularly bad part it is
just a little long, the only hope on the horizon is that you often get to see
the race leaders coming back the other way, which helps to take your mind off
things.
Head down and concentrated on
each mile I was in, trying hard not to over think about my pace, how much further I
had to go or if I would run out of energy.
Before I knew it we were running in
to the Gosford House grounds and I focused and made sure that I didn't drop the pace (which happened last year), so my plan was to work on catching the
people in front of me to keep me going. Passed
the home and now back out on to the road and the end was really in sight and
all I had to do was keep going.
As the final miles ticked by my pace did start to fall off
to around 8:30 ish, which was the pace that I should have been running all
along, so all was good. There was time banked and this was my safety cushion
just in case my pace really fell away, in the later miles.
It was around mile 23 that I decided it was time to break out
the emergency jelly babies, I slowed to a walk and crammed in jelly babies like
a woman possessed and washed them all down. Using visualization technique I
imagined the release of sugar being turned into energy and making it was down
to my legs and powering them along.
Mile 25 and unlike Manchester nothing hurt, I was tired but
nothing really hurt, the crowds started to get thicker and then the heavens opened
and the rain started, but I didn't care I was on target to finish under 3:45 and
I just needed to keep going and if possible speed up.
My only grumble is that my garmin and the mile markers didn't seem to want to sync up, so as my watch clicked over to 26.2 miles I was still
0.24 miles away from the finish…….GFA was still on the cards but there was no taking
my foot off the gas, I had to keep going
as we turned on the to the grass I could see the finish gantry and clock, time
was clicking down and my legs where feeling really heavy but there was no
stopping… my mantra “just keep going” “keep going!”
With a small raise of my hand I made it over the finish and
my official time 3:43:28! Looking at my photos on the home stretch it’s easy to
see how tired I was, tired but elated. As I made my way out of the finishers
enclosure Sean was there waiting for me, a little soggy around the edges but a
very welcome sight, he congratulated on my time and my finish.
My words to him “now I have achieved a London GFA and Boston
Qualifier, I never want to run a marathon again!!” Oh yes and I did remember my bra ;o)
Stats
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