Brathay Windermere marathon 2013

I saw a couple of students on Friday who appeared to have the same stomach bug. It had been bad enough for them to have missed exams whicg they will now have to retake in the summer. If felt a bit queasy yesterday and I started to be a bit concerned. However, I woke this morning and felt fine 

We drove down to the start from Penrith and got there in plenty of time to register and seen the 10 in 10 runners start. There have been some awesome performances this year and I was disappointed I hadn't been able to come across and watch them on a quieter day

For the marathon itself, they had the same rolling start as last year but we were much nearer the front this time. Not really by design and we knew that it meant that many faster runners would be coming by us and this is exactly what happened.

There quite a few supporters out on the course and there was a lovely atmosphere  We doodled along at about 9 min 30 pace, apart from the 8th mile containing the dreaded hill. Halfway in just over 2 hours 

Then it was the tough third quarter and we got through it in what felt was a reasonable pace, but looking at the splits they weren't too good. Then suddenly having completed the hardest bit I ran out of energy at about 18m. I sent MelanieLH ahead and took a bit of break to eat a 9 bar. MelanieLH went on and did very well, less than two minutes away from setting a new pb and she finished twenty minutes ahead of me  

But I never really got much energy back. I finished in 4hr 39min and I was happy with that 

A few of my clubmates did this event this year. I have been banging on about how good it is and it looks like it has had an effect finally 

My seventh Brathay Windermere marathon  Just remembered I had this photo of me at mile 21 on my first Brathay Windermere marathon in 2007 (my first marathon)

I didn't feel like that at mile 21 this year !