GERRYS RUNNING TALES: LOCH NESS MARATHON 2/10/2011

Monday 3 October 2011

LOCH NESS MARATHON 2/10/2011

Touristy photo - Copyright Karen Craig

We took the long trip north for the Loch Ness Marathon in the pouring rain on Saturday afternoon hoping the weather would improve for the following morning. And improve it did to a gentle drizzle, not enough to bother you running though and ideal temperature and next to no wind.

Breakfast at 6.00am with my brother Chris and then off down to the marathon pick up point for the buses to take us out into the countryside for the start.

For those who haven't done this race a great piece of advice is not to start taking too much fluid on board until the buses are well into the journey as it does take well over an hour to get there and there is always a point along the way when you are going to have to pee, hence the hilarious sight of a convoy of buses blocking a single track country road and hoards of runners peeing in fields.

Met fellow VP-Glasgow runners Chris, Christine and Claire and wished them all the best and toed the starting line to the swirl of the pipe band.

The first few miles in heavy rain but by 7 miles it had stopped and also warmed up and by the time I was on the lochside I was in a steady rythmn and cruising along nicely although alone so no group to pace with. As always with this race the first half of the race takes its toll on the hamstring with the constant climbing and descending and my aim today was to get over the killer climb after Dorres at 18 miles without any sign of cramp. As I reached the top of the climb I felt fine just as I saw a runner up ahead pull up clutching his hammy. 3 times in a row it has happened to me so I understood how he was feeling and it is a slow slog into Inverness with that problem.

No such problem for me today and the march to Inverness continued, I passed another runner just on approach to the roundabout entering Inverness and a lady shouted across I was in 13th place, unlucky for some but not for me today as I was running freely and knew the cramp monster was not getting me today.
At mile 25 I heard a cry of daddy and glanced to my left and saw the support crew and Andrew waving away proudly telling onlookers 'thats my dad'.

Finishing Straight.

On into the town and over the bridge and along the finishing straight, I had not looked at my watch and was hoping sub 2.50 was on but as I approached the clock it just ticked on over 2.52. My official time was 2hr 52min 23secs, 13th position and 6th M40. My fastest time on this course so far so happy with that. Collected medal and goodie bag and headed off for a shower, then came back across to meet up with Chris and also met Chris Sheridan and both had run pb's. Great results all round.