Race day!

Retrospect

Well I haven’t raced big miles since may 2005 when I did Edinburgh to north Berwick in 3hr 13m. my pb for the balloch Clydebank half mara in march 2005 was 1hr 43min much to maz’s surprise which had gained me entry to the 2005 new york mara! But due to the drastic year that lay ahead of me I missed the mara in nyc and was lucky to be able to just keep on running! Happy to say I was yet to run the real run [as the geddi maintains - yer nae a real runner till yev done a mara!!] so at last in 2008 I was coaxed by jill to enter the Edinburgh mara the following year! Bloody ages away I thought - yeah good idea - gives me something to aim for. So far away I’ll probably pull out anyway!! Ahah - red rag to a bull there I was training away and happy to be enjoying the training and managing to fit in 4 days a week!! Ok it was nothing like the training I did in 2005 but hey I wanted stress free easy version and that’s what I did. To the point that I actually enjoyed everyone of my long runs. In fact I feel the distance thing is my cup of tea although maybe not to the same extreme as my running buddy Debbie [read her post www.debsonrunning.blogspot.com to see what I mean] but hey never say never! Mo and I constantly say yes we will do something ultra in a couple of years and I do quite fancy something big - Duracell bunny big!! Anyway back to Edinburgh 2009!!

The big day!

The course was scenic travelling down from the centre of edinburgh along a coastal route and finishing at musselburgh racecourse - mostly flat with a good downhill start.

However the weather was not as expected of a May day in Edinburgh and even with the coastal breeze was akin to running in the desert when you are not used to such heat. In fact, none of my training runs came near to such temperatures! When i got out the ca on arrival it was already 15 degrees. On return it was 23 degrees!

Well where do i begin?

Mistakes

1) ate breakfast 3 hours before start too early!

2) wore new shoes today [same make and model] only 10 miles on them - never had a blister on 22 and half miles in old shoes!! these blisters started at 10miles!!

was doing sub 4 hour pace till 20 miles ran out of blood sugar, running on marshmallows on zigzags with buzzing in my ear!

lessons learned

1) eat more food

2) drink the wine i wanted to [150cals per glass]

3) no new shoes.

andrew and dec had a great time sunbathing!

thanks donna and carole for running me in!!!

Splits for the anal!
1- 7 49 too fast
2- 8 07 still too fast
3 - 8 09 yep
4 - 7 57 shouldn't have chased that guy with the nice arse!
5 - 8 12 still too fast
6 - 8 38 more like it
7 - 8 38 yeah
8 - 8 36 cruising
9 - 8 45 yep
10 - 9 00 perfect
11 - 9 06 slipping
12 - 9 21 slipping more
13 - 9 31 still calculating no bad!
14 - 9 36 oops
15 - 9 52 the rod's set in
16 - 10 03 yep
17 - 9 58 - got boost from seeing maz!
18 - 10 14 - held boost after seeing rob , lewis and victoria!
19 - 10 42 the beginning of the end
20 - 10 58 had it!!!
21 - 26 - don't ask!!

andrew did some sad spreadsheeting for me , just to make me feel worse....the 20mile pace should have turned out a 3hr 57m talk about whipping a dead horse. Away to boil some needles and squirt some juice!!

this is first time i have lost whole nail and bed immediately! the whole thing was floating in that blood blister completely detached!

To boot at mile 19 there was nae water!! and no one to complain to either. and that was after 2 miles of blistering heat in an open field!! murder! NEVER AGAIN..

…well till next year!

donna juice never tasted sooooo good thanks! xxx

carole ran the last 4 miles with me talking me in all the way [even the "move your ass woman" comment had good effect]! if you hadn't i'd have still been there 2 hours later. thank you petal. xx

Maz ran a stormer! She thinks she broke 3 h 27m - phenomenal! Jill also ran a stormer coming in at 3h 43m but did her knee in during race and ended up injured, limping home to the finish line. Kas too was happy finishing under 5 hours in this heat. i saw her running last half mile as i was hobbling to car!

This is the hardest physical thing i have ever done!

We are all celebrating today with lunch at in west end!