Part Two
Not long after the half way point a fellow runner started chatting to me which provided a useful distraction for a little while. He said he thought he'd started too fast as well but soon vanished up the road (I actually re-passed him at mile 18 and I had a horrible negative split so his must have been much worse!) Luckily about the time I lost him I reached the part of the course where we could see the lead runners coming back the other way to the finish - man were they quick!
From here the course ran out along the coast to just after 17 miles where we turned back (literally round some cones which wasn't that easy!) and headed for home (or at least that's how it felt to me). It wasn't a straight road back sadly - there were one or two lovely diversions to enjoy! The first was through some park land past a stately home which was a nice change of scenery but given there was driving rain as I ran through this section of the course I couldn't really enjoy it! There were also some chickens on the course here which amused me. On a less pleasant note my left ITB really started to ache at about this point and basically continued to do so until the end. This was also the first stage where I really started to hurt generally (in that way that only marathons can hurt!) - at mile 18 with 8 miles still to go I suddenly found it really hard to keep going and my pace dropped right down from between 8 and 9 minute miles to 10/ 10.30s. Part of the issue was that we'd turned at the head of the course into a strong headwind and I literally felt as though I was running into a wall! Decided a quick walk break was needed so at the 19 mile water station I took a quick rest to take another gel on board - it was tricky to start running again after walking but the gel did seem to help and I also got a mental boost when one of my club mates passed me still on her way out and screamed my name at me!
Despite the head wind and the general marathon fatigue I was able to pick the pace up to a slightly quicker speed. I actually thought I'd lost 4 hours by this stage and my goal had become just to finish which in some ways took the pressure off and allowed me just to run (or shuffle as it was by this stage!) I took another quick walk at the 22 mile drinks station as I was really thirsty and needed to get some water down properly (we had the oddest set of weather at the race, wind, driving rain, hail (which hurt!) and even some quite sunny periods when I got quite hot and dehydrated (and sunburnt!)) I had planned to take walk breaks as and when I needed them to the end from here but as I hit 24 miles I realised that so long as I could 10 minute miles or better sub 4 was somehow, amazingly back on. So I gritted my teeth and ran like my life depended on it. It wasn't fast and it wasn't pretty and I actually remember very little of those last couple of miles (bar looking at my watch at least 20 times and wondering why the distance was going up so slowly!) but as I staggered across the line in the world's worst attempt at a sprint finish and looked down to see that the Garmin read 3.58 I was absolutly delighted and quite teary (a marshal actually asked if I was OK so I must have been in a state!) - I must have hit stop a little late as I was promoted today to the 3.57s (OK so 3.57:59 but still it's a 3.57!)
Today I am aching all over - both ITBs, left calf and my back (not sure how!) but I am still very very happy and have bored everyone I know with the news. As I am also 30 today it felt like a fantastic birthday present to myself!
