Halstead and Essex Marathon

Since finishing the Milton Keynes Marathon last Sunday, my Achilles tendon has been feeling a little tender.  A massage from Mike Power at Cambridge Sports Massage in the week helped a lot, but it still wasn't feeling 100% this morning.  I vowed to take things easy today - and to swallow a couple of ibuprofen before the start of the race! Just to deaden any twinges.

Halstead is only about 38 miles from Cambridge, so I'm surprised I've not run this marathon before.  The marathon started at 10am, and with the drive only taking about 50 minutes on the quieter 'A' roads, it felt like I had a fairly leisurely start to my race day morning. 

When we set off at 10am it was damp, very windy and feeling very cold for May.  Fortunately, the weather did improve.  The course is almost a figure of 8 that is run as two laps.  There was one 100m section of road which we ran down twice in each direction, at approximately miles 4, 12, 15.5 and 23.5.  This was an obvious spot for spectators to congregate, so it was always nice to run along this stretch through a tunnel of enthusiastic onlookers.  However, none of them were able to organise the Mexican wave that I requested on one of my laps.

I felt pretty good all day.  I didn't feel any pain from my Achilles, which was a relief.  However, my right hip flexor became painful with about 4 miles to go, especially on the uphills.  I, therefore, felt very justified in walking up the steepest hills over the last few miles, none of which were very long, and anyone who did pass me as I walked uphill I soon caught and passed on the flat.  I finished feeling strong and confident for next weekends 50 mile run on the North Downs.

I finished in a time of 3 hour 11 minutes 35 seconds.  I felt as if I could have gone faster, but I'm very happy with this time.  I placed 39th overall out of 532 runners.  We were handed a fairly decent goody bag at the finish.  I found the inclusion of a notebook from a firm of personal injury lawyers to be a little curious.  Are they hoping we might want to make a claim against the marathon organisers?  There were the usual selection of snacks, a bottle of imitation Lucozade, a very welcome bottle of beer which I intend to open shortly, and a novelty key-ring shaped like a running shoe.  I'm not to sure about the shocking pink tech T-shirt.  Maybe I should wear it when I run with the Sweaty Betties!

Not a bad goody bag.

Ruth says the T-shirt suits me.  I'm not so sure.