Stability Through Motion

It’s supposed to be simple. Don shorts, T-shirt and shoes, run for 26.2 miles with a watch to check your pace, take on some fuel and water enroute, and Bob’s your uncle, or ‘Bob was my uncle’ as an American friend once put it.

Throw in some gale force winds, driving rain, then put on some previously untested running leggings and a fuel belt that hadn’t been worn for six months. Cue stomach pain on every much-looked-forward-to downhill section. I had to remove the gel belt and carry it all the way, but there was little I could do about the shorts and leggings. And the stomach pain meant I didn’t take on any fuel during the race, and very little water. Memories of Antwerp there then. In hindsight I should have removed the leggings and shorts and run half naked. Cold? Certainly, but better that than the pain on the faster downhill stretches.

Given all that, I’m happy to say I beat last year’s time and came in at 3:28:49, but miles off the 3:20 hoped for. My splits for the race tell it all. Too hard into the wind up to Pen-y-Pass, in pain on the lovely downhill stretch that followed, then giving up the ghost soon after Beddgelert in the tedious lonely section to Waunfawr. If I could have dropped out then I would have. It was lonely, endless road, mostly uphill, even though the wind was behind us.

I know a lot of folk struggle in every marathon, and thereby perhaps feel an incredible sense of achievement at the end, but I hate struggle! I run to enjoy it, and last year I did just that here - with energy left at the end, and a smile on my face. This year was just hard work, working through pain, and a pain that seemed to have nothing to do with running - not the legs, not the heart or lungs, just my bloomin’ stomach!

First half completed in 1:37, which was pretty much on target, second half in 1:52, ten minutes off target, and slower than last year. To my shame, I WALKED up Waunfawr hill - something I didn’t do last year, but was very glad to this year. Then, at the top, the winds tore my running number off my Tshirt, and I encountered a tortured scene of runners clutching their hamstrings or calves in agonising cramps, runners falling over on the slippy grassy section downhill, or being literally blown to the ground by the gusts of wind.

In fact at that point I was laughing, knowing I would finish sub 3:30 I cheered up no end. Sprinted to the finish to meet a smiling Bob (not my uncle, but really a Bob) and get back for a hot shower and food.

I set off with a plan to pace with Ru, a woman met on the Runners World Forums. We stuck together until the top of Pen-y-Pass, when she shot off downhill and I discovered my stomach was going to give me trouble. I found out later that she was 2nd lady with 3:18! Brilliant result, and she stars in the S4c (Welsh television channel) coverage of the race.

I’ll post pictures when they turn up - relying on official ones as I didn’t carry my camera phone for once.

So, top marathon tip: the same one as always for a marathon - don’t try anything you haven’t already tried! In my case, too-tight leggings.

Click on the top image for the S4C coverage of the race.

Time: 3:28:49
Position: 95th out of 1133 finishers.
Category position (men over 40): 23rd