Bournemouth Marathon 2013

What a Scorcher!

Waiting for the first of the Speed of Light 5K runners to come through

This weekend saw the first ever Bournemouth Marathon Festival. We joined the festivities on Saturday evening, just in time to catch the end of the 10k. Earlier in the day the children's 1.5k and 3k races had been run. After dinner we made our way the the finish area to watch the Speed of Light 5k and, despite being an October evening, it was very warm and pleasant. Plenty of spectators had come out to watch the runners and there was a really good atmosphere, helped greatly by the Heart radio team and their impressive selection of upbeat night/light themed music to keep the LED and glow stick adorned runners going. I was amazed to hear that one man, referred to as 'Top Gun' was running all four adult races during the weekend, I don't know how he did it!

Ready to go!

Sunday morning arrived, I forced myself to eat a bowl of porridge with fruit & honey and we made our way from our Premier Inn in Poole over to Kings Park in Bournemouth to park the car and find the start area. I was relieved to discover that it was very easy to find and there were plenty of spaces (unlike my previous marathon, where the road closures had cut off access to the car park, there was inadequate signage to direct us and the marshalls didn't seem to know where we should go to avoid the closures, which really stressed me up!). We walked through the park to reach the starting pens where we found plenty of portaloos, although some had already run out of toilet paper and weren't flushing, despite how few people had used them. The race got off to a well-organised start and we weren't waiting long to cross the line.

A lovely day for sunbathing...but not so much for running a marathon!

The first half of the race passed without incident and the views were absolutely beautiful, although I was becoming increasingly aware of how warm it was and how little breeze we were getting. As we approached midday and it continued to heat up I began to panic because of the heat-induced stomach problems I'd suffered during my previous marathon. I had to focus really hard on keeping my pace down and started to add GU Brew electrolyte tablets to the water from the water stations to counter the effect of the amount of sweat I was producing. I began to feel a familar discomfort in my stomach and decided to skip an energy gel - not an ideal situation, but I considered my options and thought there was no point taking on extra carbohydrate if it was going to make me feel too ill to run, I did not want to end up walking the last 8-9 miles again! I rationed my fluid intake to avoid worsening my stomach situation, but still took regular small sips because of the heat. Throughout the marathon I had to skip two gels in total, but it seemed to work as I suffered no more than a few warning signs. During the second half I managed to find plenty of drinking water taps on the promenade to top up my bottle and splash my wrists and neck, one of the major benefits of a coastal marathon!

When we reached mile 18, to our horror, we had to climb a lengthy hill in direct sunlight. I'd managed to run up the previous shady hill through Boscombe Gardens (where many had walked), but by this point it was too hot and the sun was absolutely beating down on us. We'd already seen a few conscious casualties being attended to by paramedics. I had an inkling of a headache and decided to be sensible by walking halfway up, stopping in the shade of a portacabin for a moment and then continuing up the hill to a flat bit when I could run again.

For me the hardest part of the race was the last stretch of promenade from about mile 20-21, heading away from Bournemouth - the turning point to run back to the finish line seemed to take forever to come, especially as the runners heading back towards us were on mile 25-26 and very nearly finished. It was a relief to finally turn around and head back.

Nearly there, time to step it up a notch!

I sprinted the last 200 metres at an impressive (after 26 miles, in that heat) 9 minutes per mile. I hadn't been watching my overall time for a good few miles, so when I crossed the line, looked down at my Garmin and saw a considerable PB I was completely overcome by emotion, I sounded so bad a marshall asked me if I needed any help! My official time was 5 hours and 12 minutes, 5 minutes of which were spent on two 'wee stops' (we found plenty of really decent PROPER toilets on route, no need to use the portaloos!) and many blissful encounters with the lovely cold water taps along the way.


Bournemouth Marathon was one of the best organised, most enjoyable races I've ever run and I think everyone involved has a right to be extremely proud. So many races get really big things wrong, so for this one to have gone so well in it's first year was amazing! Entry for next year is already open, I'd thoroughly recommend joining in! http://www.run-bmf.com/?entries_open

Four Days to go!

This time next week it'll all be over! The long weekend runs are all done, I've said farewell to my club for 3 weeks (this week is a taper and I'm taking 2 weeks off of running after the marathon) and my bag is almost packed. I've booked a hotel and marathon bus tickets and looking forward to a weekend by the sea. I now only have two runs remaining and one of those is just 10 minutes.

I blame the camera, rather than my speed for this blurry shot!

Going for Gold
So, what have I been up to these past few weeks? I'll admit there's not been much of great interest - just a lot of miles, not a single sports massage and very little stretching (oh naughty, naughty me...), but in a way 'uneventful' is good, I'm not going to complain! A couple of weeks ago I ran a track race for the first time at our club 5000M Championships, walking away with a new PB (23:23) and a gold medal in my category...although regrettably I'll miss the presentation evening to collect my medal as it's the night before my marathon and I'll be doing my best to relax by the sea! I found 12.5 laps of the track really monotonous, but appreciated complete flatness - my usual 5K is parkrun St Albans, which has a little climb before the final straight.

Choose your Battles Wisely
I was supposed to run Women's Running 10K in London a few weeks ago, but my cat, Sassy, was taken ill the evening before the race. Thanks to worrying about said cat (who had eventually fallen asleep halfway up the stairs because she felt too unwell to travel up or down any further) and a loud and lengthy domestic next door at around midnight I had a sleepless night. I decided I just wasn't 'up to' travelling to London by myself and racing - I was on a very short fuse, quite tired and not feeling at all sociable. I'm really annoyed that I missed it as it was a race I was looking forward to and had booked a long way in advance, but I think I made the right decision. (That afternoon Sassy wasn't improving so we took her to the vet and she was hospitalised on a drip for four days, I'm pleased to say she's back to her old self now).

Race Plan
My plan for Sunday is to run by feel, not my Garmin. So, I'm taking the first half at warm-up pace ('easy' pace), running the next quarter a little bit faster ('steady' pace) and seeing what I have left for the final quarter. I'll be wearing my Garmin but it'll be there as more of a 'how am I doing?' tool than dictating my pace. During my recent longer runs I've found that walking for the 30-60 seconds it takes to take my gels gives me a chance to re-set my posture and shake my arms and legs out, so I'll be sticking with that plan for the marathon. I'm aiming for 4:30-4:45 and my number one goal is to run the whole way, not take a sickly 8.7 mile walk at the end!

Wish me luck, I'll see you all on the other side!