My Forum

Congratulations to everyone who finished yesterday!

I had a tough race, messed up badly at the start by going way too fast in the first half getting there in 1h30m then something happened with my knee and I was pretty much in agony for the rest of the race - staggered back very slowly and finished in 3h42m - over 20m slower than my target.

But I have to say although I didn't enjoy that, more-or-less every runner who passed me asked if I was ok or needed help as did many of the supporters - and that made up for my pain and disappointment. 

Overall thought the race was really well organised, the stewards, supporters and fellow runners were great - so thanks to all of them. I would suggest anyone considering doing this race in the future to get some cross-country experience - the mud and puddles make it a very different sort of challenge to a bog-standard road race.

Anyone have an idea what conditions are like on the ground? I noticed a news story on the bbc about a village - Wallington - on the otherside of portsmouth harbour that has been evacuated because of potential flooding! The forecast isn't looking great either.

I bought a pair of sealskinz waterproof socks (£20!!!) yesterday as I was freaking out how wet it's going to be. I don't fancy the idea of 26 miles with wet feet - hope they work. Anyway whatever it's like I'm just going to do my best to grit my teeth, have fun, and not worry if I don't make my 3h20m pb target time on this one.

I'm pretty new to running - only done one marathon (Edinburgh) and two halves (Bristol & Cardiff) so far. To begin with I was nervous of entering the smaller events because I thought they'd be for 'proper' runners - but now I'm doing the Portsmouth marathon which is much cheaper - and by the sounds of it will be better vfm - but it is a totally different sort of event to the big road races. Overall I'd agree that running is one of the cheapest mass participation sports and in particular it doesn't cost much at all to get started - which might partly explain the rise in its popularity.

Anyway I'm moving to Vancouver next month and you can count yourselves lucky with UK prices. I've entered a small local half there in February - 40 quid! and the Vancouver marathon is 109 quid!! Cost of living is higher there but still. I have no plans to fork out that much for the privilege of running for three and a bit hours. Just hope that the UK doesn't follow north america's example.

Did 30km in 2h 20m in lovely early morning sunshine on Sunday - and have my final long run - about 38km in 3h next sunday with two halfish marathons and a 10km in between them. I might be imagining it but my training schedule seems a bit brutal - my calves certainly think so. Looking forward to this one, hopefully it'll stay cold and dryish(!) for the next couple of weeks so it won't be too muddy - at least on the way out.

Hi Joe - well done with the 12 in 12!

I've booked into the Ibis Budget Portsmouth which cost me 34 quid for the saturday night. Looks basic but ok, and is about a mile or so from the start at the pyramids centre.

K-Dawg - don't suppose the porstmouth mara will be as glamarous as NYC, you must have been gutted but I think they made the right decision to cancel. Take it easy at the start (easy to say) and I'm sure a sub-5 is possible even though the course will be challenging. I've been running on some muddy trails to try to get used to it, it's very different from roads!