42.06k
Start 11.00
Official time 4:36:18.
After days of weather-watching and Doris-fearing the day was sunny and as good as wind free. Absolute perfect running conditions and I could comfortably wear the short-sleeved shirt and turquoise capris (they've become my race breeks - too nice to wear out on my daily runs) which were my first option.
Last night there was some rain on the van roof, but very tentative stuff and this morning the sun was rising over the water I'd parked on and it was all looking very good. I'd collected my number the night before so just had to cycle the 800m or so along to the start to use the loos and then back to the van to get myself organised. I'd set the alarm earlier so that I could breakfast well ahead and that all seemed to go well.
Race started in a gym hall which meant we didn't even have to hang about in the (mild) cold beforehand. Half and whole marathon started together so it was pleasantly busy for the first circuit. Ah - the one thing that went wrong. My new mp3 player, which I'd loaded with good running music, died at the 20k mark. Hmm, should have tested the battery length beforehand and had my auld tiny iPod (which has mostly podcasts on it but some music as well) in my belt as a spare. Ach, it wasn't a disaster but the second circuit was a bit lonely with no music and very few runners. Kept myself occupied by calculating finishing times based on the average pace (which was sinking a bit, but not too badly...) on my Garmin. And singing (silently) my favourite running songs in my head. Had a few short conversations with folk I passed or who passed me. All very amicable back of the pack stuff.
And then. And then... when filling in the entry form they asked what your favourite song was to have played at the finish. I put AC/DC's Thunderstruck as it's one of the tracks that always speeds me up and makes me smile during my runs. There's something about the bass line at the start that just delights me. Hearing it at the end of a marathon had me almost weeping with happiness, whilst grinning like an idiot - always a good trick if you can pull it off I find. I'm very curious to see what the finishline photos will look like ;-)
In all the musical excitement I forgot to stop my Garmin as I crossed the line and didn't hear exactly what my time was but I'm pretty sure it was around the 4:35 mark, which I'm happy enough with. The times will be up on the site tomorrow.
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Anyway, forgot to say yesterday. No bling! No medal! That's 2 of the 10 counties I've run so far that have been blingless. Noord-Holland isn't such a problem, I can easily do a different/bigger one there sometime, but Groningen, not so sure if that will be possible. The 'goodie bag' consisted of a bidon full of local milk. Which I accidentally left by the sink in the loo and didn't feel the need to go back and collect once I'd realised. I have enough bidons and don't drink milk. Not that I'm complaining - €15 for a well organised marathon is a bargain.
I did buy a rather nice t-shirt for €5 from a young girl who was raising money to get herself to Tokio in 2020 (Olympics?) The t-shirt was a Brooks one from last year's World Athletics Championships in Amsterdam and had a nice design of canal house silhouettes along the bottom.
===========
I did feel pretty much ok at the end so suspect the energy dispensing system in my body did perhaps have some benefit from the carb cycling regime and I am plannning on doing it again this week. I still gradually slowed down as the race progressed though so it's not a miracle worker. I don't use gels any more - I did have a phase of using them but really just didn't like the gooieyness of them and prefer my own dried fruit and honey and peanut butter concoctions, wrapped up in wee coin sized portions in my running belt. I also have wee bottles with my own energy drink with ginger syrup and an electrolyte powder. And half a packet of Dextrose tablets - treating myself to one every kilometer got me through a large chunk of the closing stages. I like to have something to count down to the end. A lot of completing a marathon is down to cutting the distance into manageable chunks.
Start 11.00
After days of weather-watching and Doris-fearing the day was sunny and as good as wind free. Absolute perfect running conditions and I could comfortably wear the short-sleeved shirt and turquoise capris (they've become my race breeks - too nice to wear out on my daily runs) which were my first option.
Last night there was some rain on the van roof, but very tentative stuff and this morning the sun was rising over the water I'd parked on and it was all looking very good. I'd collected my number the night before so just had to cycle the 800m or so along to the start to use the loos and then back to the van to get myself organised. I'd set the alarm earlier so that I could breakfast well ahead and that all seemed to go well.
Race started in a gym hall which meant we didn't even have to hang about in the (mild) cold beforehand. Half and whole marathon started together so it was pleasantly busy for the first circuit. Ah - the one thing that went wrong. My new mp3 player, which I'd loaded with good running music, died at the 20k mark. Hmm, should have tested the battery length beforehand and had my auld tiny iPod (which has mostly podcasts on it but some music as well) in my belt as a spare. Ach, it wasn't a disaster but the second circuit was a bit lonely with no music and very few runners. Kept myself occupied by calculating finishing times based on the average pace (which was sinking a bit, but not too badly...) on my Garmin. And singing (silently) my favourite running songs in my head. Had a few short conversations with folk I passed or who passed me. All very amicable back of the pack stuff.
And then. And then... when filling in the entry form they asked what your favourite song was to have played at the finish. I put AC/DC's Thunderstruck as it's one of the tracks that always speeds me up and makes me smile during my runs. There's something about the bass line at the start that just delights me. Hearing it at the end of a marathon had me almost weeping with happiness, whilst grinning like an idiot - always a good trick if you can pull it off I find. I'm very curious to see what the finishline photos will look like ;-)
In all the musical excitement I forgot to stop my Garmin as I crossed the line and didn't hear exactly what my time was but I'm pretty sure it was around the 4:35 mark, which I'm happy enough with. The times will be up on the site tomorrow.
===========
Anyway, forgot to say yesterday. No bling! No medal! That's 2 of the 10 counties I've run so far that have been blingless. Noord-Holland isn't such a problem, I can easily do a different/bigger one there sometime, but Groningen, not so sure if that will be possible. The 'goodie bag' consisted of a bidon full of local milk. Which I accidentally left by the sink in the loo and didn't feel the need to go back and collect once I'd realised. I have enough bidons and don't drink milk. Not that I'm complaining - €15 for a well organised marathon is a bargain.
I did buy a rather nice t-shirt for €5 from a young girl who was raising money to get herself to Tokio in 2020 (Olympics?) The t-shirt was a Brooks one from last year's World Athletics Championships in Amsterdam and had a nice design of canal house silhouettes along the bottom.
===========
I did feel pretty much ok at the end so suspect the energy dispensing system in my body did perhaps have some benefit from the carb cycling regime and I am plannning on doing it again this week. I still gradually slowed down as the race progressed though so it's not a miracle worker. I don't use gels any more - I did have a phase of using them but really just didn't like the gooieyness of them and prefer my own dried fruit and honey and peanut butter concoctions, wrapped up in wee coin sized portions in my running belt. I also have wee bottles with my own energy drink with ginger syrup and an electrolyte powder. And half a packet of Dextrose tablets - treating myself to one every kilometer got me through a large chunk of the closing stages. I like to have something to count down to the end. A lot of completing a marathon is down to cutting the distance into manageable chunks.
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