Yorkshire marathon 2014

Neither Melanie nor I was expecting to do well at this event. We only did the Kielder marathon seven days earlier and two weeks before that we had done the very hilly Great Langdale, so the best we hoped for was to be able to get round between 4.30 and 5.00.

I did the event last year and enjoyed it more I expected and recommended it to Melanie. She wanted to do it as she loves York and she studies part-time there. We also knew there were quite a few Striders there, including three who were doing their first marathon. There were also some Striders supporting and it was good to see them around the course.

Flip (supporting) drove us down with Anna (running). There had been fog warnings and they turned out to be accurate. The fog lasted most of the morning and it only burnt off after 1.00. But this was great for running, cool and no wind. We made our way to the baggage area, which last year had been inside and there were long queues. This year there were no queues but it consisted of tents in a car park. It was a bit chilly getting ready as the tents were just for the bags. We moved on quickly to a College bar (the race started and finished at the University of York) to keep warm.

Then off to the pens which like last year weren't crowded and soon we were off with Matt Dawson talking on the PA while high fiving runners. We went through the city centre and past the minister with the bells tolling in the mist. There was lots of support which was great.

On and out of York, through a few small villages and again the vicar in his full white regalia was out high fiving runners and saying bless you. I had thought the first half was flat, but my memory wasn't accurate, it started to undulate a bit at 8m. Melanie and I started a bit quick, but we slowed it down to about 9min 30sec which was still way ahead of what we had planned. But it felt comfortable.

We made it to halfway in 2hr 6min and neither of us thought we could keep that up. The first out and back at Stamford Bridge was fine and we pulled ourselves up to the next one. The second out and back seemed longer than last year and at the turn around point (18m) Melanie started to speed up. I managed to keep running up the drag and out of the out and back and at 20m I saw Melanie about 50 meters ahead. I was happy to get to 20m in 3hr 10min. Sub 4.30 was looking good and even a performance better than last year (4hr 25min) looked a good possibility. Last year I walked a fair amount after 20m, so this year I tried to walk much less and it worked, though I was slowing. When I passed Flip at 25 and half miles, I knew that even sub 4hr 15min might be feasible. This turned out to be a bit too ambitious. I did manage to run the final hill this year and flew down to the finish, but it wasn't quite enough 4hr 15min 20sec. I was very happy with that. Later I worked out it was my 5th fastest marathon/ultra out of 110 I have completed and I haven't run faster since May 2010 at Windermere which was 90 marathons/ultras ago !

Meanwhile Melanie had not slowed at all and speeded up slightly, so in the last six miles she had been closer to 9min 15sec. She came in with 4h 7min, a great negative split and she beat her PB from Vienna by about 13min ! A fantastic run.

This is definitely an event for PBs, quite a few Striders got one. I still prefer off road events, but I still find doing the odd road event fun. It was good to see so many of my clubmates (both Striders and 100 marathoners). The first timers from the Striders, Kerry, Kirsty and Lucy all finished well and Lucy turned in an excellent 3hr 45min performance !

Maybe our preparation hadn't been too bad for this event. Maybe we both would have done better if we had tapered. Who knows ...

Kielder marathon 2014

This was to be my ninth event running round Kielder. It is a lovely place to run, its almost all off road and the surface of the Lakeside Way is designed for mobility vehicles so it is very smooth. The route itself is very undulating with roughly 2600 ft of ascent.

Melanie and I had no designs on a fast time as we have another marathon coming along shortly, so the plan was just finish and if would be good to be under 5 hours. I hadn't looked at previous times at Kielder, but I knew there was at least one event where I had been over 5hrs and one at roughly 4h 30min when Sophster had dragged me round.

As we drove there we could look down on the valleys full of cloud, a beautiful sight. This year we were told that the parking was at the far end of the reservoir, but as we drove past the start/finish area at Leaplish we were directed there and parked very close to the start/finish, so no hanging round for a bus before or after the race :-) As usual we then enjoyed some of the home baking offered by the local village, Falstone.

The clouds burnt off and we had a bit of drizzle, but it all went away at the start. It was chip times so we started very near the back and ran up the first hill after the start. I have sometimes adopted the strategy of walking all the hills and running everything else, but this time I thought I would just run as much as I could and walk just the longer/steeper ascents.

And the miles clicked by. I took a gel from a checkpoint at one point and that seemed to help (I normally carry shot bloks, a nine bar and s-caps). At about 15m, Melanie said I was going a bit fast, so I slowed up a bit and got to the dam at 17m in pretty reasonable shape. Across the dam we were into the strengthening wind, which was harder but we were continuing to overtake people as we had done for most of the race. On to the Bull Crag promontory where I took another gel from a checkpoint. At first it seemed fine, but about two miles from the end my stomach felt pretty bad. I told Melanie to go on ahead while I took it a bit easier. I still managed to come in with my second fastest time ever at Kielder, 4hr 39min, so I was very happy with how it all went.

There were 644 finishers this year and some years there have been over 1000 so I hope this doesn't mean it is cancelled at some point.