Edinburgh marathon report 2004

Well, at least you finished! As you may recall, I had to drop
out of my last marathon attempt....But it does sound like *quite*
a tough course, so you do get big congrats for hanging in
there in the heat and hills. And beating the chicken man!
And finally just relaxing and enjoying it, sometimes you just
have to let go and have fun when you know it's useless (that
was my fourth marathon...):-)

Teresa in AZ

Tim Downie said:

Well, you're all no doubt wondering how I got on. Rather
than boring you with tales of PBs I shall tell you how I
ran my worst marathon ever. I console myself that it's the
first *really* bad one I've run and one out of four ain't
bad. ;-)

Firstly, the good points. Despite passing me at 25.5
miles, the man with the chicken on his head did *not* beat
me. Lobbing an unburst water balloon *back* at the kids
who were throwing them was most satisfying and
entertaining. That was about it really.

I have to say, I didn't enjoy my marathon much
yesterday. If it hadn't been for family and friends
expecting me at the finish I could have very happily
dropped out at 19 miles.

This year the start was at by Holyrood palace and apart
from a lack of portaloos (can there ever be enough?) the
organisation was good. Unfortunately by the time I had
escaped from the portaloo queues and ditched my baggage, I
was *way* back in the line up of runners at the start.
There wasn't any attempt to place runners in catagories
but with chip timing it wouldn't have mattered too much if
I couldn't have got closer to the front. As it was, with
less than 5 minutes to go before the gun (which was a huge
artillery piece that looked very like the 1 o'clock gun
from Edinburgh Castle) a fleet of escort motorcycles
started trying to make their way thorugh the crowds.
Seizing my chance, I tucked in behind the last motorcycle
and was able to walk easily all the way to within feet of
the start line.

The first few miles are very hilly, over Arthurs Seat and
up the Cowgate. Foolishly, I struggled to get back on pace
too quickly and whilst I was on target at 6 miles, the
long uphill drag to the halfway point was taking its toll.

It was at about 9 miles that I realised that my target was
not only out the window, it had taken my car keys and
passport as well and was fleeing the country. A
combination of over optimistic pace (for the course) and
warm humid weather sapped my strength and left me
shambling along when I should have been still comfortable.
The first half was hills, hills and more hills and by the
time I started on the second half, I had nothing left to
try and recoup my lost time with.

From about 18 miles onwards I had had to start taking
walking breaks and I was hurting but after a couple of
miles of walk/run I started to feel a bit better. Batman
passing me at 20 miles was another low point but at least
he was a relay runner so it wasn't *that* bad. By 21
miles, I knew that I was going to make it. In fact I was
actually beginning to enjoy myself a bit. With no target
time to worry about anymore I was able to relax a bit and
I was by no means alone. There were *lots* of struggling
runners this year (although I would have to admit, I've
never been this far back in the field before).

After the run in with the chicken man (who was being
cheered on by everyone) I sprinted across the line
somewhere around 3:52ish, a personal worst, 17 minutes
slower that this time last year.

Resolutions/observations?

I'm *never* running Edinburgh again 'til they flatten some
of the hills out. ;-)

If the pace feels hard to maintain in the early miles of a
marathon, you're never going to keep it up the whole way.

Some courses you just can't compare times easily between.
Edinburgh is just so much tougher than the other marathon
courses I've run. I should have set myself a far more
conservative target time and made up time on the second
part of the course if possible. Of course I knew this all
along but sometimes there's a gulf between know something
and *really* knowing something. Before yesterday, I only
knew it, now I *know* it. ;-)

Whilst it was clearly the heat and the early pace that did
for me and I was careful to take on lots of fluids and
gels this year, I don't think I "hit the wall" as such.
Whilst physically I couldn't have gone much faster in the
latter stages, my problems were mental as much as
physical. Once I knew my target was doomed, it seemed
pointless to embrace quite so much pain. I console myself
that bad as my time was for me, it was still better than
many folk ever achieve.

What I need now is a nice gentle ultra run. ;-)

Tim

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Quoted message said:

The first few miles are very hilly, over Arthurs Seat and
up the Cowgate. Foolishly, I struggled to get back on pace
too quickly and whilst I was on target at 6 miles, the
long uphill drag to the halfway point was taking its toll.

Yes. This was my second marathon after Lochaber last year. I
had assumed without checking that it would be a flatter
course but the first mile and a half uphill were a killer.
The rest of the first half was hard. The first 5 or 6 miles
were hot with little wind. I finished just inside my target
of 4 to 4 1/2 hours. I,ll not be doing Edinburgh again until
Arthurs seat section is remopved from the course. Iain C

iarocu said:

"Tim Downie" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The first few miles are very hilly, over Arthurs Seat
and up the Cowgate. Foolishly, I struggled to get back
on pace too quickly and whilst I was on target at 6
miles, the long uphill drag to the halfway point was
taking its toll.

Yes. This was my second marathon after Lochaber last year.
I had assumed without checking that it would be a flatter
course but the first mile and a half uphill were a killer.

I'm tempted to say "You foolish man!" , however, I've no
such excuses as I did Edinburgh last year. Even with the
course changes I should have known what to expect. Twas I
who was even more foolish.

Quoted message said:

The rest of the first half was hard. The first 5 or 6
miles were hot with little wind. I finished just inside my
target of 4 to 4 1/2 hours.

Well done! As I came to realise at the end when chatting to
another runner, we all have different goals and the absolute
time means little. If you trained for and met your goals,
you ran a better race than me.

Quoted message said:

I,ll not be doing Edinburgh again until Arthurs seat
section is remopved from the course.

D*mned right! The sooner they bulldoze that pile of dirt the
better. ;-)

Tim

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Teresa Bippert-Plymate said:

Well, at least you finished! As you may recall, I had to
drop out of my last marathon attempt....But it does sound
like *quite* a tough course, so you do get big congrats
for hanging in there in the heat and hills. And beating
the chicken man! And finally just relaxing and enjoying
it, sometimes you just have to let go and have fun when
you know it's useless (that was my fourth marathon...):-)

Mine too! Fourths must be jinxed. ;-)

Tim

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Quoted message said:

I'm *never* running Edinburgh again 'til they flatten
some of the

hills out.

Quoted message said:

;-)

If the pace feels hard to maintain in the early miles of a
marathon,

you're

Quoted message said:

never going to keep it up the whole way.

" Find a pace that feels comfortable and then SLOW it down."
As you race more the more it will make sense. You've been
reading and hanging out with the sprint red-liners. Not many
can go balls to wall from the start without similar
experiences. But you know that. 🙂

Quoted message said:

What I need now is a nice gentle ultra run. ;-)

Learn from the ultras and factor it back into the marathon.

-DougF

Tim - sorry to hear that it didn't quite work out as
planned.

It looks like the main problem was working too hard in the
early stages on all those hills. I've never worn my
heartrate monitor during a race, but perhaps on such a hilly
course, when your pace per mile or per km is less
meaningful, it might be handy to hold you back, and not over-
extend yourself early on.

I see that Paul posted that report about next year and no
Arthur's Seat
- funny that - there's an Arthur's Seat near Melbourne in
Australia, also, and they have some race there IIRC.

Good on you for toughing it out until the end.

If you're still thinking about running London next year,
there's a chance I'll see you there.

Anthony.

Anthony said:

Tim - sorry to hear that it didn't quite work out as
planned.

It looks like the main problem was working too hard in the
early stages on all those hills. I've never worn my
heartrate monitor during a race, but perhaps on such a
hilly course, when your pace per mile or per km is less
meaningful, it might be handy to hold you back, and not
over-extend yourself early on.

I did consider it but when I have worn it in races, it's
sometimes scares me so I tend to leave it at home. ;-)

Quoted message said:

I see that Paul posted that report about next year and no
Arthur's Seat - funny that - there's an Arthur's Seat near
Melbourne in Australia, also, and they have some race
there IIRC.

Good on you for toughing it out until the end.

Oh I dunno. Sometimes I think toughing out to the end is the
dumb/easy option. DNRing takes guts. ;-)

Quoted message said:

If you're still thinking about running London next year,
there's a chance I'll see you there.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers.

Tim

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Doug Freese said:

"Tim Downie" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm *never* running Edinburgh again 'til they flatten
some of the hills out. ;-)

If the pace feels hard to maintain in the early miles
of a marathon, you're never going to keep it up the
whole way.

" Find a pace that feels comfortable and then SLOW
it down."

That's what you *always* say Doug. Okay, you got lucky and
this time you're right. ;-)

Out of curiosity, how short does a race need to be before
this *ceases* to be your mantra?

Cheers.

Tim
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Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

" Find a pace that feels comfortable and then SLOW
it down."

Quoted message said:

That's what you *always* say Doug. Okay, you got lucky and
this time

you're

Quoted message said:

right. ;-)

I'll bet I'm lucky about 98% of the time. Take me to Reno.
🙂 A few additional words so you don't think it's pure luck.
The inexperienced runner allows his/her adrenolin to take
control. The experienced person, follows a taper and toes
the line feeling great. Both go out too hard.

Quoted message said:

Out of curiosity, how short does a race need to be
before this

*ceases* to

Quoted message said:

be your mantra?

I say the 5k but the definition of comfortable and slow has
a different range. With the longer runs impatience, or bad
pacing i.e. non negative(even will crush you also), causes
many minutes to hours(nasty geometric). The marathon,
especially on the roads is THE classic distance.

-Dougf

Tim Downie said:

After the run in with the chicken man....

zen31010.zen.co.ukmanbeatschicken.jpgOpen ↗

Tim

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Quoted message said:

From about 18 miles onwards I had had to start taking
walking breaks and I was hurting but after a couple of
miles of walk/run I started to feel a bit better. Batman
passing me at 20 miles was another low point but at least
he was a relay runner so it wasn't *that* bad. By 21
miles, I knew that I was going to make it. In fact I was
actually beginning to enjoy myself a bit. With no target
time to worry about anymore I was able to relax a bit and
I was by no means alone. There were *lots* of struggling
runners this year (although I would have to admit, I've
never been this far back in the field before).

I was one of those struggling rather a long way behind you.
I distinctly remember seeing the 18-mile marker and losing
the will to
live. I'm glad to hear it was a tough course, though: I
found the second half a nightmare. Ambitiously (you
might like to insert a different word here), this was
not only my first marathon, but my first ever race. (I
may have run a cross-country race or two at school,
but I really can't remember that far back - I'm 34
now.) I'm still quite cheerfully noting all the
mistakes I made both in training
(e.g. definitely not enough runs in the 15-20 mile range)
and on the day. The classic on the day mistake was
one which, at the time, I was busy congratulating
myself on avoiding: setting off too fast. I was
smugly letting myself be passed by shedloads of
runners without yielding to the impulse to speed up,
but since, as the OP noted, there was no attempt to
line up the runners by ability at the start, these
were people I should never have caught sight of in
the first place. I fear my adrenaline stopped me
noticing how (relatively) fast I was going: the hilly
first half of the course felt rather too easy. I'd
love to say this was because where I live it's
difficult to run far without coming across a hill
(which is true), but this would definitely overstate
my hill-running ability.

At least my second run should be a little easier – the Great
North Run (a mere half-marathon) in September. I wonder how
much of a complete balls-up I'll manage to make of training
for this...

Gareth