Manchester Marathon – 29th April 2012

Thought I’d write a post on the Manchester marathon despite being the only warrior who took part. It was my first marathon and therefore quite a daunting prospect even though I’d followed my Runner’s World 3.5-4 hour training plan to the letter. It was made even more daunting when I got up and saw the weather, wet, windy and cold. Managed to forget my Garmin so ended up arriving just before the start but this turned out to be a good thing given the weather.

Positioned myself as close as possible to the 3.5 hour pace flag at the start. Once we got going I caught up with Dingo (James – Ben’s workmate and occasional warrior) and we ran together for most of the race. Turns out having a comedy name written on your running top gets a lot of attention. James was being cheered on the whole way round which was nice. Really surprised at how many spectators turned out in the rain but it definitely helps to spur you on.

We edged ahead of the 3.5 hour group and managed to hold that pace for probably two-thirds of the race. As expected it was after the 20 mile mark where things started to get a bit dark. Mainly this was down to the weather though, my legs felt OK but the wind really seemed to get up in the last quarter. At about 22-23 miles the 3.5 hour pace group caught up with me so I knew I must have slowed up a bit. This seemed to give me a bit of a boost though. I stayed with the pace group until a couple of miles out and then managed to push on in the final stretch finishing with a chip time of 3:28:09.

http://results.racetectiming.com/MyResults.aspx?CId=38&RId=281&EId=1&AId=100048

Unfortunately after the race I was so cold I couldn’t really bask in the glory of the achievement. I didn’t stop shaking for about half an hour even after I got changed.

Here’s the route: http://www.mapmytri.com/routes/fullscreen/36198328/

I’d like to thank everyone who came out to support me, appearing on the course in this order: Tony, Richie, Steve, Owen, Sarah, Kev, Biggs, Ed and Kate. And also everyone who sponsored me, managed to raise a grand for The Christie. In retrospect it was a great experience (though I didn’t think that when getting battered by the wind at mile 20-odd) and I definitely want to try another one (sorry Kate) but maybe somewhere a bit warmer next time.