Did it!

This morning I wandered down to Princes St with dearg, who kindly accompanied me to the start. It was raining. Baggage given away for transport and a last pee stop, I lined up in the 3:30-4:00 pen. After a short wait, we were brought forward to the start line, and the race soon started.

I intended to run 8-minute miles (3:30 marathon), and started off by the pair of 3:30 pacers (imported). I found myself drifting forward, at an easy pace, and by the half way mark was 3 minutes up. Hard to judge the pace there really, since either I was changing pace by about 1 minute/mile each mile, or the markers were off. Good signage, mind (and water/energy drink stations for that matter), just probably off.

At perhaps 15 miles I found myself running with a guy, with the odd bit of chat, and we seemed to be passing quite a lot of people quite effortlessly. Anyway, some time later after he took a pee-stop, a mile or two later he reappeared, and shortly disappeared in front, clearly my pace was slowing. Things were fine until about 22 miles, when my legs disappeared. Those last 4.2 miles were ridiculously hard, at a slow jogging pace with runners streaming past. I suppose at this point my remaining goal was to not drop to a walk at any point (a fair few in front had), which I am glad to say I achieved, slow as my pace was.

Finally at 26 miles we turned into Musselburgh Racecourse, and the .2 struck. The crowds, generally good throughout the course despite the rain coming in off the Forth (at one point almost horizontally), were bigger and louder here, and I really needed that support to push through to the end. My finishing sprint was still rather slower than my average pace, but finally I crossed the line in about 3:26. All that remained was to try to stay upright, and get home.