Some pictures

The edinburgh marathon website has some photos of me in the race.

This one is during the first few miles and everything is hunky dory

This one is much later on and things have gotten much less enjoyable.

The day after the day after

Well that was pretty much the toughest thing I've ever done.

Race day finally came round and I did the marathon on Sunday. It did not go according to plan. This is a taste of the events of the weekend: I drove up on Saturday and the weather was hot. However, I was assure by the BBC that it would be cloudy and rainy in Edinburgh on Sunday. I bought some carb gel things as recommended and charged up the ipod. I felt as ready as I was going to be. The hotel I stayed at was so shit it was actually funny. The old woman was so miserable I felt sorry for her. The rabid dog did not get my sympathy. I definitely saw it looking at my jugular. It was basically Fawlty Towers with tartan. Looking on the plus side, I did get a pretty good exfoliation from the towels.

When the run started at 10 am it was still a little over cast and looked like it might rain. Within an hour of the race it was clear blues skies and blistering heat. For about 3 hours I was going according to plan and was on target for a 4 hour ish time, then at about 18 miles I just lost all my energy and thought I was going to pass out. I think that over 3 hours in the sun in the hottest part of the day, whilst running my first marathon was a little too much. And it wasn't just me. Bodies were strewn by the side of the road and the sound of ambulances echoed around.

To add to all this, the vaseline I'd generously applied seemed to have disappeared in the heat and I was left with a serious case of chafing.

So, the last 8 mile took me an hour and a half. 4 hr 42 mins when at one point I thought I wasn't going to finish. I've got a very sun-burnt heat and face and was pretty sick on Sunday night. Next time I'm running in winter...at night.

3 days to go...

I haven't written anything for a while partly because I haven't really done anything. I've been for the odd 45 minute run every few days and some gym but that's it. It says on the program to wind it down witha couple of weeks to go anyway. I went for a very slow jog this evening and enjoyed it much more than I have recently. I think I wasn't just thinking about keeping up a pace and that which helped. I plan on doing a bit of pre-run reading (what to eat, prep day before). But I'll probably not get round to doing it.

On a different note, I had a look at some of the other blogs on the google blogger and most of themm it not all, are better than this one. There seems to be a lot of american wives and knitting blogs. I think when I've ran the marathon I'll have a look back over the whole blog and realise that I havcen't learnt a thing.

nearly there

went for a fairly brisk 43 mins run on wednesday and an easy 37 mins run tonight. I hadn't been for a run for a week before that. Not good. I've really lost motivation so close to the race. When I go out for a run now I feel tight and heavy and its not that much fun. I think that I haven't been stretching enough after the long runs and now I've siezed up. I think its a serious amount of stretching next week. Again I can't go running this weekend because of a wedding. Cack.

knees-y does it

Went for the run I should have done at the weekend today. I did 2 hours 41 minutes which is the longest so far and in fact the longest I have ever ran. My knees are really feeling it now; more so than anything else.

The amount of time it takes to do these runs now is quite prohibitive. Its taking a fair chunk out of my day and I think I'm not looking forward to the runs so much because of this. The Camelbak is really good for the longer runs though. I'm glad I got hold of one, especially when the weather warm like it was today.

Just a note about animals and running. I've been 'attacked' by a couple of dogs and at the least they just get in the way. I'm also a bit weary of the larger bird like the geese and swans; they seems a bit hostile. Maybe its the fluorescent yellow top.

MORE running

Its getting a bit boring now. I'm not looking forward to the runs as I normally would. As I said today, it feels like the story of when the dad makes his kid smoke a whole packet of cigarettes after he catches his smoking. Running is cigarettes.

I went for a brisk 33 minutes run today. My lungs still hurt because I was gasping for air the whole way round. I plan on going to yoga for the first time in a while tomorrow. Hopefully it'll help my aches and sour mood.

Sports massage and furthest yet

The sports massage, as I was warned by the woman at the start, was pretty painful. I now know that there are lumps all over my body that a trained professional can poke to cause pain. I think I'm going to go back for more of the same.

Also ran for 2hr 35 mins today, which is the furthest that I have ever run. I'm a little achey but ok. Need to check how far it was exactly.

Generally speaking I am feeling knackered though.