There were around 10 club mates doing Loch Ness this year with some others running Kielder so the training for it was great as my club (Edinburgh Running Network) organised a specific training plan of long runs for those of us doing an autumn marathon. This makes such a difference as the long runs are tough enough without doing them on your own.
A group of us headed up on the train from Edinburgh on Saturday to go to the pre-race registration. The train was packed with runners so everyone was chatting away and talking about their experiences and their hopes and worries for the race so the 4 hour journey flew past and soon we were in Inverness. Anne had the great idea of a photo montage of our journey so we had our first pic at this point (Thanks to Anne and Andrew for their pics used in this blog).
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| Arriving at Inverness station (l-r Me, Trudi, Anne and Robert) |
We got checked in and headed out for a walk around Inverness. The town is lovely, and with the river Ness flowing right through the centre it is extremely picturesque. We headed out to the pre-race registration and picked up our race numbers. We met a couple of others from the club and wandered about a bit and got our picture taken with Nessie.
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| The obligatory picture with Nessie (l-r Robert, Trudi, Me, Anne, Maureen, Andrew and David) |
Everyone split up and went off to their respective accommodations. Anne, Maureen and myself stayed in town for a coffee and a blether which was great as I was too hyper to sit in a hotel room and it took my mind off the next day's race. We all met up again for a carb loading Italian meal in the evening (along with Suzanne who was running the 10k) and it was great that we had pre-booked (thanks Andrew) as the restaurant was full and there was a constant stream of runners coming in asking for a table. The food was great and we had a nice relaxing meal and a chat about the race.
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| Pre race carb loading (l-r Maureen, Trudi, Anne, David, Robert, Suzanne, Andrew, Elaine (out of shot), Me) |
Finally race day arrived. It was an early start as we had to catch buses out to the start at the far end of Loch Ness. It was lovely walking to the start with all the other runners, all there for the exact same reason, full of excitement and worry about what lay ahead. I jumped on a random bus and got chatting to a couple of runners up from England for the race who were running their first marathon. The journey out was enjoyable with beautiful scenery. It was quite a long bus ride though and we had to make a few unscheduled toilet stops as all the pre-race hydration was taking it's toll on the runner's bladders.
The journey took longer than expected and we only got to the start area about 40 minutes before the beginning of the race so it was a bit hectic as thousands of runners exited the buses and headed for portaloos and baggage drop stations.
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| Runners heading away from the buses and down to the race start |
I walked down to the start and met up some runners from my on-line running club Fetcheveryone, including sheri3004, Chewitt, Slowhand, Bonio and Tricialit. We were all a bit blown away by the location, as the scenery was amazing and the views all around were stunning. After chatting for a bit I walked down towards the start and waited at the back of the 4 hour crowd. The countdown to the start began and the elite runners went off and everyone else started to move down to the start line. It was a good distance to the start so I walked while others around me ran straight away. I was passed by several hundred runners at this point but I was keen to conserve energy so I didn't run until I got to the start line.
The course itself trends downhill for the first 10 miles or so so I decided to just run as the profile allowed me so if that meant I was a bit ahead of schedule to begin with then I would accept that and assume I would lose time on the hills later on and hopefully average out to the time I wanted. I had some thoughts on the train going up to Inverness the day before about going for a sub 4 hour time if I could manage it but that would mean taking 17 minutes off my previous best and I didn't think I was in that sort of form so I decided to head along at 4 hour pace to begin with but not worry if I couldn't keep it up.
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| Course elevation recorded on my Garmin |
The first few miles were generally downhill with a couple of little uphill bits and I went along nicely not putting too much effort in and enjoying the scenery. I caught up with Anne and Maureen after a couple of miles who were pacing themselves easy at the start so I carried on at my own pace. I got to the 5 mile point in 43:57 which was well ahead of 4 hour pace but it hadn't felt like I was going faster than normal. My splits were 8:51, 8:55, 8:45, 8:36, and 8:50 so I was running pretty consistently. I took a gel and some water and was feeling fine.
The first sharp uphill came at this point and I slowed down and made it up fairly comfortably. I noticed a lot of folks walking at this point, although I don't know whether that was a pre race strategy to walk the hills or not. The sun was breaking through and it was starting to warm up so I was glad I had coated myself in sun cream before the race. Having been burned during marathons before I use a very high factor to make sure I keep safe.
After the sharp hill the next few miles were generally downhill again although more undulating. We came into the village of Foyers and hit another hill there where I caught up with Norma from my club who was going well. I had my first views of the Loch here but after a minute or so of enjoying the view I got my head down again and plodded on. I was still running pretty consistently effort wise but my mile splits for miles 6-10 were all over the place as some miles were much more undulating than others. The splits were 9:55, 9:08, 9:20, 8:33, and 9:31, giving me a time for that 5 mile section of 46:27, and an overall time of 90:24, which was a minute or so ahead of 4 hour pace. I took another gel and took stock of the first 10 miles. I was feeling pretty good and was running well but I knew I was going to start feeling the pace soon.
The overall downward trend flattened out at this point and the course meandered along by the Loch with a few smaller ups and downs as we went along. I was still feeling OK but I was a bit conscious of the heat and the effort I was putting in so I started eating a few jelly beans each mile to try and give myself a boost. At around 14 miles or so I was disappointed to see Trudi wrapped up in a silver space blanket at the side of the road. I stopped and chatted to her to make sure she was OK and was glad to she was fine overall but unfortunately just unable to run any more as she'd had a recurrence of a foot injury that she'd been trying to run through since mile 6. It was a real shame for her as she's a great runner, no doubt she'll be back to do another marathon soon.
I got to mile 15 in 2:17:44 so just a little outside 4 hour pace and feeling good. My mile splits for miles 11-15 were 9:22, 9:08, 9:27, 9:58, and 9:25 giving me a split for the 5 mile section of 47:20, a little slower than the previous 5 miles but still OK. At that point I walked while I took some painkillers and a gel but had a bit of faffing as I couldn't find the painkillers as I had tucked them away in a side compartment of my running belt. If you've read my previous blog on the Highland Perthshire marathon from earlier in September you'll know I did exactly the same thing then so I obviously hadn't learned from my mistake. That's the beauty of marathon running, every day truly is a school day.
All the faffing about put me off my stride a bit and I struggled to get myself going again. I often find the miles from 16-20 are the hardest in a marathon as I feel tired but there's still a good distance to go so you need to keep plodding on. I also had the upcoming hills on my mind so I was trying to conserve energy so I perhaps slowed down a bit too much in anticipation of the incline. At around 17.5 miles we hit a long slow climb which wasn't too bad initially so I was able to keep going but a little later on it got a lot sharper and I started to walk for the first time. Looking around me most other people were walking too so everyone was struggling a bit. The sun came out more strongly then and as I had slowed down I started to get very hot so I kept sipping my water while walking up the hill and I took the opportunity to eat an energy bar too.
I got to the top of the hill at about 19.5 miles and then there was a nice downhill section so I was able to get a bit of a run going again and actually felt quite good knowing I had the big hill out of the way. I got to mile 20 in 3:11:31 so I'd slowed down quite a bit over the hill. My mile splits for miles 16-20 were 10:32, 9:40, 10:37, 12:01, and 11:01, giving me a 5 mile split of 53:51. At this point I was 8 minutes outside 4 hour pace so I knew I wasn't going to make that but I also knew if I could keep going I still had a strong chance of a PB in my last marathon of the year. I took another gel at this point and kept going down the hill trying to make up a bit of time.
There was another sharp hill around 21 miles and I really felt this one as I'd not noticed it when looking at the course profile so it was a bit disheartening to come around a bend and see the hill in front of me. I only ran the first hundred yards or so and then walked again, concentrating on munching jelly beans and sipping water which had worked well on the previous hill. I was doing all sorts of mental calculations trying to work out how much time I could lose and still PB and I thought I was still OK so I kept plodding on up the hill as best I could. At this point of a marathon you stop counting up the miles you've done and start counting down the miles to the end which is usually encouraging as you know unless something disastrous happens you're going to get to the end, it's just a question of how long it will take you.
I caught up with David about then who was running his first marathon and was suffering a bit and feeling unwell. He was walking well though so I knew he would make it to the end and around a mile later or so he came up behind me again and passed me so I was pleased to see he'd gotten through his tough patch. We hit our first signs that we were nearing Inverness then as we reached a roundabout where there were loads of people cheering which was very encouraging.
By mile 24 I was feeling the effort I'd put in earlier and wasn't getting a lot of consistency but I was still running fairly steadily without walking so I wasn't losing too much time. I got to 25 miles in 4:04:02 so I knew I had 13 minutes to run the last 1.2 miles to get a PB. My splits for miles 21-25 were 9:27, 11:42, 9:55, 11:00, and 10:27 which was a bit all over the place but it still gave me a split for the 5 mile section of 52:31 so happily I'd actually speeded up slightly over the previous 5 mile section. I was keeping David in view about a hundred yards or so ahead of me so I knew I was going OK.
At around 25 miles we hit the town proper and the wind was really blowing hard. I was glad we'd been sheltered during the rest of the race as I found it very tough to run in. I had been trying to catch up with David to run in the last bit with him but the wind really knocked me back and I started to walk. At this point Anne came along side me and she was looking really strong so I tried to run along with her but I had to stop and walk again so she ran on. We had reached the bridge over the Ness river so I knew I was in the last mile so I walked and ran as best as I could towards the end.
The approach in towards the finish seemed to go on forever and I stopped 4 or 5 times in the last half mile but the idea of a PB kept me struggling on. I could see the time on the clock at the finishing line and it was saying 4:19 something and I knew I had a few minutes in hand as I had walked to the start so I just needed to keep going and eventually I got over the line in a watch time of 4:16:53 which was a PB by about 90 seconds. My splits for the last 1.2 mile section were 10:54 and 1:55 so even though I'd felt bad in the last mile I'd managed to keep it together quite well so I was very happy. My official finisher's time turned out to be a couple of seconds quicker in the end, 4:16:51.
I stumbled through the finishing area and was given my lovely finishers medal. I know it's not all about the bling but the image of the running shoe laces in the shape of Nessie is a very iconic one.
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| The Loch Ness marathon 2012 finisher's medal |
Andrew took a picture of me in the finisher's area and I was obviously feeling the pain. I'm not sure if I'm smiling or grimacing, probably a bit of both I guess.
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| Ooooh, that hurt. |
I caught up with Anne and David and was pleased to see Trudi, who was in good spirits despite having to pull out. Robert came in just then so we got a nice pic of the 5 of us.
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| Happy runners (l-r Andrew, Anne, Trudi, me, Robert) |
As part of the race package we had a ticket for a post race meal so we headed to the food tent for a very welcome curry which went down well. Trudi had said that Maureen was probably still about an hour away so we thought we would eat and then go cheer her in but we were still eating when she arrived in the tent so she had done a brilliant run in her first marathon.
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| In the food tent post race (l-r Robert, Anne, Elaine, Andrew, Trudi, Me, Maureen, David) |
We finished up and headed back into town along the finish route so we cheered in the runners who were struggling a bit as the wind had really picked up and was blowing a gale. Sheri3004 from Fetch came through at that point so we cheered her in.
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| Very windy post race pic (l-r Maureen, me, Anne, Trudi, Robert, David) |
We had an Indian restaurant booked later that night and some very tired but happy runners gathered to celebrate our achievements.
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| Post race meal (l-r Suzanne, Anne, Trudi, Robert, Me, Maureen, David) |
Looking back on the race now I had a great weekend and I'm feeling quite positive about it and very happy with my PB. The race is very well organised and even though the course profile is quite tough it is enjoyable and I'm pleased to have done it.
The one downside is that my hoped for sub 4 hours finish still feels a long way away for now. I continue to fade from my 4 hour pace at around 15 miles and even though I'm still running relatively strongly I'm not hitting the 9:09 splits needed for a sub 4. I'm not going to let this take away from my achievements this year though, and stepping up from running a single marathon each year to running 7 (including 2 ultras) has gone really well with no serious injuries to report and I've enjoyed each and every one of the races.
That's my last marathon done for this year (with one ultra still to come next weekend at Glenogle). Next year I'll be doing a few more ultras (I've signed up for the 53 mile Highland Fling in April 2013) so I'll be running slower and longer which may mean the 4 hour target may have to wait for a bit but I will get there at some point.
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