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Edinburgh Marathon 22 May 2011 Stephane Toussenel reports: Once again the 20/6 rule applies quite well and maybe more than ever. The westerly wind helped me fly to the 18th miles, beyond expectations I was on a good 3h15 pace and so…really happy. Some issue with my Mizuno trainers forced a first pit stop in Portobello, I won’t complain since the place is beautiful; then around mile 11, I had to run beyond the water station to get to the loo. Back on track, I ended up catching a Walden Tri member, Bjorn, and have a good chat before the famous or infamous 18th mile turning point. The really helpful westerly wind turned to be a killer. I realised I needed to dig in my reserves to carry on while the head wind started to knock ten of seconds from my mile pace. Our lovely bunch of pink cow-girls cheering out loud, gave me a first boost to carry on. Then I dragged myself to the finish, expected to see Nathalie and the girls around mile 24. So when around mile 25th that happened, I went for a stop and kiss with them. Next, the most unexpected thing happened. As soon as I get back for the run, a loud “Come on Frenchy!” came from beyond. Ware Joggers David Pomeray put me right on track for a finish under 3h26 on the clock and 3h24’30 official. Great!
...and Steve Inkley reports: I feel it is now important to pay my respects and I would like to thank various friends and family. Firstly, my Dad. He ran several marathons in the 1980's and subconsciously I'm sure he was a powerful motivation in deciding to run a marathon. Thanks also to an assortment of Saffron Striders: Chairman Nigel, coaches Keith and Rebecca for their general advice and tips. The Tuesday night gang, especially Arthur O, Simon E, Tim P and Richard A for their encouragement. Kate (aka Kiki D) for her excellent technical excel based training schedules and nutritional advice. Gemma was an inspiration to me for her times in the Oakley 20m and the London marathon this year. Unsung Strider's hero, Paul Burgess and Fiona H for giving me some strong words of motivation and Paul for recommending my bible on marathon running, 'The competitive runner's handbook.' Also, fellow runners, Stephane and Al who appeared excited as I was to be running Edinburgh given the volume of e mail traffic flying around ahead of the race. Thanks also to my colleague Trevor L who decided to run a marathon around the same time as me. Our daily chats on tactics and training were invaluable and it was his jelly beans I consumed during the race. Thanks to my friend Steve G who joined me on my last long training run and carbo loaded with me at the Vittoria Italian restaurant, the night before the run. Also to friends Steve Y, Paul J and Peter W who all know what it's like to run a marathon - basically a 20 mile race followed by 6.2 miles of pain endurance. Thanks to my family, especially my wife Catherine who has been very patient with me this year and was an enormous support over the weekend. Finally, thank you to Jack, Isobel and James. Your Dad may be old and bald but he ran a marathon in under 4 hours!
... and Alistair Cooke reports: The runners (now known as the SAS team - Steve Inkley, Alistair Cooke and Stephane Toussenel) were joined by family, friends and cowgirls in a weekend where the weather was more akin to the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse than conditions you'd ideally prefer for 26.2 miles of running. This race cost £50 to enter, which is pretty steep when compared to London's marathon and this higher price is a further irritant by the quite shambolic organisation of the post-race finishing area (but more on that later). The good thing (unlike London) for those arriving outside of Edinburgh is they send you the race number (with an embedded timing chip) ahead of the race so you could plan to arrive on the Sunday and race. However, they don't bother to send you any printed race day instructions, instead they email you to say you can download these PDFs at your leisure from their website and print them out at your own expense.....hmm so you do now start to wonder what exactly am I getting for my £50?. The Marathon is the culmination of the Edinburgh Marathon Festival weekend, where on the Saturday they hold Junior, 5k and 10k races and then on Sunday an early start for the half-marathoners followed by the Full Marathon (and Marathon Relay) which sets off two hours later at 9.50 and 10am (the quicker guys heading out slightly earlier). On the Friday and Saturday before the Marathon all runners are invited to the "HUB" at Holyrood Park, where a mini-expo is setup and for overseas runners a chance to pick up their race numbers. We went along to this thinking we might spend half-day, but in the end after visiting the Lucozade stand (pilfering plenty of gels, jellybeans and pace timing bands) we did not really want to bother with what was a usual array of exhibitors offering gait-analysis, clothing and invitations to other Scottish running events. So alas, we were soon on our way out of the Expo and instead took in the delights of what Edinburgh had to offer. On to the race day. To be fair to GSI events, the starting pens were well organised. The London Road (9.50am) start is for runners who indicated they will finish sub 3h 45mins, whereas the other start Regent Road (10am) is for the rest of runners (I.e. those who said 3h 45+) along with any charity, fun runners, and marathon relay entrants. Each start had pens that were separated into coloured zones, and there were plenty of loos around which meant for only a 10-15 queue even as close as 30 before the race start time. I had indicated sub 4 hours (3h 59m) on my entry form and so was pleased to be in the front (pink) pen for the Regent Road start which meant I didn't have to negotiate my way around too many of the fancy dress costumes and fun runners. As the organisers suggest, true to their word, the course starts with a progressive downhill for the first 7 or so miles. This is only splattered with a small number of inclines around Edinburgh city centre but you definitely aware of the fact you are going mostly downhill, and for me this meant a nice comfortable start to the run, with the key being not to over-race in these first few miles. Inside Edinburgh, there were plenty of people watching the race, but surprisingly not so much cheering on of people (maybe they were all asleep or hung-over?). I did see a couple of Japanese Drumming groups which I find is always a "pick me up" as well as 3 or 4 sets of bagpipers as you'd expect. You definitely know your in Scotland when you hear the Proclaimers - I would walk 500 miles..... blaring out from someone's stereo system in their front room. At mile 3, as we passed our apartment we were greeted by the Cowgirls, yes our family and friends had dressed up in Pink Cowboy hats (don't worry they were all women!) to cheer us on. This was actually the first time we heard some real cheering and encouragement. The Cowgirls did remark the fact a lot of other spectators along the course looked at them like they were from another planet, maybe they were just upset at being woken up!. From mile 4 you do already reach the shoreline which then remains on your left hand shoulder for another 13 miles before you eventually turn around, so this really is coastal run, no doubt about it. The route takes you into Portobello (mile 6), Musselburgh (at mile 9 and the eventual finish line), as well as Prestonpans (Mile 11). Upon reaching the shoreline you did for the first time really notice the strong on-shore wind, but as this was currently behind us, it was a definite welcome breeze to keep your temperature down (a cool runner is a happy runner). Not so nice was the often sharp but soaking downpour, or actually I should say side-pour as this is horizontal rain country. From mile 10 the course is essentially an out and back loop along the shoreline, so it was at mile 13 when we greeted the leading men and women running in the opposite direction towards the finish, I have to admit I always find it quite amusing watching how comfortable the front guys and girls look, but then as you continue you see the pained expressions increase as the elite turns into the also-runners, you then do wonder how rough I must look to those guys. :) One thing I did also take away from the little seaside communities up here in Scotland was that none of them looked run-down, the cafeterias looked inviting, the amusement arcades didn't look like they were in a bad state of repair and the swings/slides were happily being played on by children (despite the rain). So definitely quite a bit different from a lot of English seaside resorts where most things are boarded up/closed down. The course eventually ended up taking us through Longniddry and the turn around point at Gosford House (17.5 miles). This was the only time since Mile 4 that we ran without being in sight of the Shoreline, as there was a little loop around Gosford house, which most people found unpleasant due to the bad state of repair of the road, there were pot holes that came up to my neck and so many loose stones you really had to watch where you were planting your feet. Unfortunately for one runner we saw, this combined with a faster downhill section resulted in them loosing balance, a heavy fall and being in need of treatment from St Johns (ouch!). After turning around we then noticed how strong the wind was gusting, and for the first time in my run I started to doubt whether mother nature was going to let me get anywhere close to the sub 4 hour I was dreaming of. That said, I did also have a 2nd and 3rd target of trying to beat my London 2009 PB of 4h 21m 4s and my brothers PB or 4h 6m 47!! There was a nasty little uphill and downhill spur off the main shoreline (to ensure the race hit it's distance) at mile 19/20. But for the remainder it was a slog into the now headwind back through Prestonpans into Musselburgh for the finish. My little legs were really starting to feel heavy around mile 22 running into the now constant wind, but I managed to keep on pushing, but it was at this point I knew unless I could finish doing 8 minute miles I was not going to get a sub 4, but I really did want to hit my other 2 targets so continued on best I could, and I was pleasant surprised how many people I overtook in the remaining miles. I found my fuel (pre and during race) was spot on this year, there was "NO WALL" for me, but just a heavy leg feel to the remaining miles. I did do a couple of ugly 10 min miles at 23 and 24 miles, but Mile 25 and into 26 I was back into 9.30mile obviously spurred on by the ever increasing crowds. The final push was here, I could see the finishing gate, but now there was no crowd cheering, this is because spectators are not allowed close to the finishing line so the last .2 miles your on your own with the other runners. That said, I was powering through, and I must've collected about 20-30 runners in the final 100 metres or so. I was pleased, in fact very pleased as I'd crossed the line in 4hours 05mins and 34seconds. Beating my previous best by nearly 16 minutes and important (for sibling rivalry) I had beaten my brother a massive 73 seconds. (sounds so much better than 1m 13s) :) The organisers had promised a "grandstand" finish, and apparently in previous years they had used the actual grandstand at Musselburgh racecourse, but this year were prevented in doing so. So instead our watching family and friends had to make do with a large TV screen in the adjoining park. Once I finished there was a 200 metre walk to the finish area. First we were offered Lucozade sport (which of course no one really wanted), we then walked further still to some get water. Next up were the medals, which were nice and chunky and said "EMF Marathon" but were lacking in dating the race, the ribbon stated all of the races that weekend rather than just saying the marathon. We then had to queue, queue and queue some more (almost half an hour) for goodie bags and T-shirts. At this stage I started to feel unwell (I normally have this sudden come down / dizziness feeling after longer runs), so instead of queuing with what must've been now 500+ runners I sat down to one side, only to be told by an organiser that I needed to move as I was blocking the safety exit. I did explain I didn't feel well, but this was obviously lost on him. I'm glad that it wasn't raining at this point otherwise they would've had 500+ runners suffering from exhaustion and hyperthermia!. Eventually I got the necessary strength to stand back up and collect my goodie bag and T-shirt, we were then further hampered by the narrowest of gaps for the runners to leave the bagging/finish area to be reunited with family and friends. Who were like us very disappointed to say they did not have see us finish as the big TV screen had packed up long before they even arrived. So they had been waiting for over an hour not really knowing if we had finished or not. Alas the organisation at the finish line of this event, really does need looking into. I heard other stories of people being given "half-marathon" T-shirts because they had run out of certain sizes. I was also surprised to see the runners in the Marathon Relay, got exactly the same medal as those who had done the full distance. Not sure it's really fair to have the medal if you've only run 6 miles. The other final gripe about the organisation, is the fact you had to pay £6 for a runner/spectator bus ticket back into Edinburgh after the event. However the bus is a long walk (at least a mile) to the park and ride from the finishing area, and once you are there, we were greeted with another queue (this time 1000+ people) for buses, and by then they weren't even checking tickets. Believe it or not, it actually took me the same amount of time to get back to the apartment from finishing the race as it did to run it (maybe I should've ran back?). I arrived back at the apartment at 6pm very tired, a bit sore, but mostly happy for a new Personal Best, for that Edinburgh marathon I will always be thankful! :)
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