Northumbrian Coastal Marathon

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Sue Jennings

I had really been looking forward to this marathon as I had been told it was one of the nicest marathons that you can do and I remember months ago booking it with Angela because John H had said he was going to do it and I was jealous – I don’t like to miss out lol.

Anyway as it turned out I started on my own (not that I would have been able to keep up with John or Angela anyway) and I knew that although I could probably keep up with Dave R, that if I did I would pay for it big style later on in the run. I also hadn’t done enough training having only ran a maximum of 15 miles in the last 2 months which is nowhere near enough for a marathon.

The weather was scorching and after a couple of miles I really thought that I might not make it. The terrain was really tough – sand then thin overgrown paths with nettles sometimes as high as your face (a bit like the summer BBQ run) and no shade from the sun. I was lucky enough though to meet a couple of other runners who I tagged along with and managed to stay with until the half way point. I told them to go on and leave me there as I really thought I would have to walk parts of the way back but Sharon said she would prefer the company. She was running the marathon for St James Hospital in Leeds and had raised £1500.

We got to about 15 miles and fortunately the weather had changed a little and the sun had gone in – what a relief that was. I was also suffering at this point from severe friction burns under my arms as I was wearing my striders vest and I have only ever worn it for short runs before. At one of the water stations I asked if they had any Vaseline but the only thing they could find was a lip balm stick. This belonged to one of the runners and I said I hoped they were going to tell him not to use it again on his mouth after it had been used on my armpits, but they said he would never know the difference!

We made it to the end in 5 hours and 44 – a bit slower than I had hoped but in the scheme of things, we ran the vast majority of the way, in the heat and with not enough training so I can only feel proud that I have now completed my eighth marathon and of course there is always next year to get a better time lol.

This is a beautiful course and a well organised event which is pretty easy to follow and not get lost (you know what my map reading skills are like) and I would definitely recommend it if you are interested in doing marathons. It is however nothing like a road marathon and definitely not a PB course.

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