It's been a long year, but it has finally come to an end and what better way to finish it than with the Lochness Marathon.
Yesterday saw me tackle only my second pure marathon and I'd have to say what a great race Lochness is. It's a point to point run which I really enjoy as you always feel like you are getting to the end and not weaving your way around the streets of a city centre. The course follows the banks of Lochness so it's terrific scenery all the way on quite roads.
Going into the race I had been told it was a rolling course, which I was really looking forward to as it breaks up the monotony of running on a pan flat course. Having now ran the course, I'd say it was a little more than rolling, there were some big climbs and even more punishingly some big descents.
People say that London is a fast downhill start, I've done London and it has nothing on the start at Lochness, I was trying to rain myself in at the start and not get carried away and I still managed to do a 3:24 for my first kilometer, that's practically my 10km pace and that wasn't even the biggest and fast descent. From my garmin my top speed was clocked at 24km/h so in hindsight I think I was probably taking the downhills a little bit too quick and unfortunately paid for this come the back end of the race.
Around the 18mile point where the biggest climb on the course was just up ahead my quads really started to pack in, and it really turned into survival running from there on in with my 2:45hrs target starting to slip away and the sub 3hr running also looking in doubt.
With about 4miles to go a small group of us formed and I began to run well (relatively speaking) again, it sub 3hrs looked possible. Unfortunately for me this group formed a little too early and I just wasn't able to hold that pace for the remainder, with 2 miles to go I started to fall off the back and my pace drop dramatically and those final 2 miles seem to go on for ever. Coming down the finishing straight I saw the race clock, 3:03hrs gutted the sub 3 had eluded me again but I was still on course for a pb so pushed the last 300 meters to come in at 3:04:23 (3:07 old PB).
The race hurt, but I finished it and more importantly I learnt a lot from it, so I can now take that into my Ironman preparations for next year. But for now time to relax and take some time off going to get some rock climbing in, maybe some golf, get back to my pilates and just enjoy being able to do as I please as well as eating and drinking as I please, Cheers everyone :-)
