The Edinburgh Marathon – 31st May 2009

Most marathon runners know how it feels on a hot day – you’ve been running for maybe 3 hours (less for the faster ones), you’re getting tired, the hottest part of the day is approaching and you still have 7 miles to go. The return route along the coast road towards the finish at Musselburgh seemed to be at a slower pace for most of us. Some runners just slowed down, some tried to keep up the pace and ‘hit the wall’, and one or two didn’t have much trouble. The water supply was running out at some stations, there was a long stretch at the loop (somewhere around mile 17 to 19) where I didn’t see any water. The official website states that some pallets of water were stolen in the early hours. I thought the supply was generally good, but later runners had the most problems.
Emma D’Alton was 9th female, excellent result. Trish Robson had another good run, finishing 6th in her age group. Graham Bazely was just seconds over the 4 hour mark, and for me a sub- 4 hour run was not likely in the last few miles, so I enjoyed them as much as possible. I was just happy to still be running after 20 miles without cramps or other injuries. The 26th mile marker was passed, I plodded on until I was passed by a ‘senior vet’, which for some reason fired me up for a ‘sprint’ finish. This was not helped on the final run-in over a sprung ‘wobble board’! This feature must have added to the spectator entertainment.