The weather was sunny and it did get a bit warm and later a bit windy.
There was a number of people there I recognised. There was another Elvet Strider, Fetchies I had met before and several marathon regulars, including a couple of 10 in 10ers, that I have seen at other races.
It was an event organised by the North East marathon club, so it was low key and well organised
I knew I had to start slowly, this is the first of three marathons in three weeks. Also my hip has been a bit sore this week. I went for a long walk on Friday and that seemed to improve it, but I knew I needed to be careful.
So off to a gentle start. katypie was not too far ahead of me and after about three miles she waited for me to catch up. We then ran together for the next twenty miles and they just flew by. However as we were approaching the last water station with about 3 miles to go, I just seemed to lose the will to run. We had a good chance of a sub-5 at that point, so I said to katypie that she should go on as she was clearly in much better place than me. Reluctantly she did finally did go on and she made it under 5 hours.
I really struggled in those last three miles, runners came by me and I walked far more than I ran. The final run into Alnmouth along the beach was very hard as the wind had picked up and it was in our faces. Finally made it back in 5hr 14min.
What happened ? I think I didn't have enough to eat. I had shot blocks, but had just 3, way too little. I had a flapjack at the first checkpoint, but nothing after that until the same checkpoint on the way back (23m). I wasn't even expecting any food at the checkpoints, so I should have taken some food with me and/or had more shot blocks. I did take the Succeed S-caps regularly so I should have had enough electrolytes.
It was great to have katypie's company, I am sure I would have struggled earlier if she hadn't been there.
I will be back next year
