It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this as nothing that I am about to write really seems to matter anymore after the attacks in Boston! As a runner and a marathoner this has affected me very much! I don't have any words, only tears!
Here is the write up for what it's worth:-
I woke up on Sunday morning to lots of rain and lots of wind! Luckily I had bought a throwaway poncho so after a spot of breakfast and putting on my running stuff, I threw on the poncho and stepped outside.
It was so cold and so rainy and extremely windy! I was not looking forward to running in this! I met another runner heading to the start line 20 minutes away so we walked together. He was Italian and running his first half marathon.
At the start line I queued for over 20 minutes for the standard port-a-loo stop and then headed to my corral number 8. I was standing there with all the other runners there and we were all jumping up and down in the wind and rain trying to keep warm. About 1 minute after the first runners had started the race a first aid car came past where I was standing with a lady in the back. I remember thinking that there must have been a pile up at the start. What had actually happened to the poor lady was that while she was using the port-a-loo it had blown over with her in it!!
The race itself wasn't very eventful. There were bands for the first half of the half marathon but then they seemed to have disappeared. Again because of the strong winds they couldn't play and neither could the band at the finish line so there was no concert at the end :-(
Running along the water front was awful!! I had the cold rain pouring down on me and the wind trying its hardest to push me onto the beach.
After the sea front I struggled up hills with the wind and rain again pushing against me! I had a hard couple of kilometres there.
Coming down the hill behind Arthurs Seat was great fun though as the wind was actually pushing us down it so we were all zooming along very fast. While going down I met a lady that I had climbed Arthurs Seat with a few days before. She is a coach for Team in Training from Canada and we got on so well :-) Hi Angela if you're reading this :-)
There we ran through the Old Town part of the city and right by where I had rented an apartment to stay in while I was there. Here there were many spectators braving the weather and this really seemed to help keep me going.
I finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes! 5 minutes off my best time but in those conditions I'm very happy with that time. After crossing the finish line I actually had to look for someone giving out medals! Just like in Berlin they tried to hand it to me and just like in Berlin I made them put it over my head. (Paul will remember that).
T-shirt pick up was after the race so I joined a long queue which I assumed was for the T-shirts and found out after 10 minutes it was for bag pick up. I found the right queue and stood shivering in it for another 20 minutes for my T-shirt. By this time I was so very cold! Some other runners had the foil sheets on but most of us didn't and no one seemed to know where we got them from. You have to remember that it was cold, windy, and rainy all the time so there were a lot of runners shivering. The queue for the bags was over one hour long (something to do with the tents blowing down) so runners couldn't even get their dry clothes and coats on.
After about 35 minutes I managed to find someone giving out the foil sheets but I was still so cold. I had a 20 minute walk back to the apartment where I would then be by myself. I therefore decided to play it safe and visit the first aid tent! I have never had to visit the first aid people before!
I sat in the tent for about 20 minutes and once I'd warmed up I went back to my apartment and had a relaxing bubble bath :-)
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| This is my mud line! Erghhh! |
Would I run this race again? Yes I would and want to do it again next year!
