Edinburgh Marathon
Yesterday I ran the Edinburgh Marathon, you can see the results here. One of the good things about these results is that they give split timings at the 10k and half-marathon distances as well as the full marathon. My split timings pretty much tell the story of my race: 58 mins 16 sec for the 10k distance (faster than the Glasgow 10k race I did in September 2007) and 2 hrs 15 mins for the half-marathon distance (not too far behind my time for the Glasgow half-marathon I did in September 2008). These are all great times for me, and I felt really good whilst running. Then it all turned in to a bit of a nightmare.
The whole of the UK is currently having a heatwave, and the temperatures on the race yesterday were very uncomfortable. After the half-marathon distance at about 11am, the day began to heat up and I started to suffer and was forced to walk for long stretches. I ended up finishing way after my target time of 5 hrs for the race.
I finished pretty near the back, 7276th out of 8257 with a time of 5 hrs 24 mins but according to the race website there were 12,000 runners in the Marathon so I think huge numbers of people didn’t even finish. This is not very surprising, there were a lot of runners reduced to walking, and quite a few people who needed medical assistance. I think if I’d really pushed myself and kept running, I’d have probably ended up in an ambulance too.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I admit that whilst lounging in my back garden yesterday morning I did consider that anyone running a marathon in that weather deserves to end up in an ambulance.
But, well done.
Now, where’s my copy of the Darwin Awards?
June 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Report from the Edinburgh Evening News about the race:
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Heat-is-on-as-17000.5320722.jp
“A total of 8,260 runners completed the marathon, out of 13,104 entrants” - this means that just 63% of the non-relay runners even finished the race - a pretty shocking statistic…
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
More fuss about the marathon on the BBC news website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8077741.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8079953.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8100488.stm
I was lucky enough to get all the liquid I needed during the race but the organisation as a whole was pretty poor, especially the finish at Musselburgh race course - the last thing you need after running a marathon is to be wondering around totally lost in crowds and having to scale large fences just to get out - this was my experience.
The Glasgow half-marathon I did in September last year was much better organised, and had twice as many runners. Edinburgh looks bad in comparison.
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:36 am
Dodgy photos of me running the marathon can be seen here:
http://www4.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?event=Sports/CPUK/2009/Edinburgh%20Marathon&match=8790
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 am
I forgot to mention that I also raised £155 for the Army Benevolent Fund when I ran.
You can see my fundraising web page here:
http://www.justgiving.com/edwardboyle
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
well done your sponsorship money keeps going up! I am very proud of you
June 16th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Bloody well done Eddie!
I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to run a marathon. You must have put some serious training in.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
At least you went for it - I just stood at the finish line this year with a pathetic excuse of a knee twinge for an injury.
Good start, never mind about it all going to pot at the end; part of that was definitely down to the lack of water. 2:15 at halfway is decent, and now that you’ve done one you can always do it again….
Go on, go on go on go on…