Grafham Water Marathon

Today's marathon was my fourth marathon of the year, but the eighth long run, given that I've also run four ultras.  My intention had been to just go along for a nice steady run and to not even think about a target time.  Saying that, I realistically expected to finish in about 3 hours 30 minutes.

The event is in it's second year, and is reasonably low key with a 500 entry limit split across both the marathon and half marathon.  For the marathon itself, there was just 70 or so runners taking part today, quite possibly the smallest field of marathon runners I've ever been a part of. One of those other runners was a close friend, James, taking part in his first ever marathon. I congratulate anyone who signs up for a low key event as their first ever marathon.  It is definitely a lot harder to keep yourself motivated over those last six to eight miles of a marathon with no crowd support and with very few, if any, other runners around you. So well done to all the first timers today.

Me and James at the start surrounded by half marathon runners

The marathon actually started a few minutes earlier than the advertised time, which was fine by me given that it was freezing cold and blowing a gale at the start area, with the wind coming right off of the lake.  The marathon runners were set off about 10 minutes before the half marathon, and as soon as we were away we pretty much settled into a long, thin line of runners.  I found myself running in about seventh place, but still determined to not take things too seriously and to not push myself too hard.

By about four miles it was already feeling like a very lonely run.  I could just see one runner ahead of me, with another not too far behind, but that was it.  The running order didn't change for the first half of the race.  I caught up with the runner ahead and had a little chat with him for a mile or so, but I then had to stop for a loo break.  I didn't see the runner behind me again, I'd obviously pulled a long way clear from him.

The view at about 4 miles - looking ahead. That tiny white speck is another runner.

And looking back towards two marshals and one other runner.

I had expected to be overtaken by some fast half marathon runners before I reached the halfway point, but this never happened.  Clearly the event hadn't attracted fast half marathon runners.  I crossed the halfway line in a time of 1 hour 34 minutes, a lot quicker than I'd intended.  I perhaps should have been concerned that I was running too quick, but at that point I was feeling pretty good.

The route itself only followed the shore of Grafham Water for about 3 or 4 miles in total.  It then deviated away from the lake and ran mostly on footpaths around the edge of farmland, with a few short sections on tarmac road.  It could have easily turned into a quagmire if it had rained hard.  Fortunately for me, I finished just before the rain arrived.

On my second lap I started to catch a few runners that were ahead of me.  At about 15 miles I went past the guy who had been just ahead of me the whole way.  Shortly after that I passed another runner, who seemed to be struggling.  With about 6 miles to go I passed a third runner who appeared to pull up with cramp.  I asked if he was ok and he told me he'd be fine, so I left him to it.

I was feeling really good, so I tried to up my pace a fraction for the last six miles.  With four miles to go I started to overtake some half marathon runners/walkers.  For the last mile and a half we had the wind on our backs pushing us to the finish line, which explains why my last mile was the fastest mile of the day.

I crossed the finish line to a chorus of cheers from a few dozen spectators.  It seemed that some thought that I was the first marathon finisher.  I knew that this couldn't possibly be the case, but was greatly surprised to learn that I was the second person to finish the marathon. Apparently two runners who had been leading up to halfway both had to pull out with an injury. So the runner who should have been third found himself promoted to first, but to be a winner you first have to make it to the finish line.

I was very happy with my day's run.  I'm not sure what my official time is, as I forgot to stop my watch at the finish line, but it was around 3 hours 8 minutes.  I suspect I might be back to give this one another go next year.

At the finish with medal and goody bag