Sunday 25th May dawned grey and
rainy in Edinburgh. I was in my pen at the marathon start on Regent Road
for 10am, sporting an City of Edinburgh Council bin bag to ward off the cold
and drizzle, looking good. The announcer kept the nervous runners entertained
by rambling on about a couple of runners who'd just got married, and a
SMURRRRRF who was running (two SMURRRRRFS who'd just got married would have
been better). My mission: to come in under 3 hours 50 minutes, which
would count as a 'Good for Age' time (yes, I know I am already Good for Age)
and get me a place in next year's London Marathon.
We
set off just after 10, and I was cheered by the sight of Mr Keenan and the
junior Keenans at the start. At first we ran through the city and out. I
did my usual thing of focusing on what I had left to do rather than what I'd
already done. After the first few miles I could already tell myself 'this is
nothing that you haven't run before' (that was true, due to my unerring knack
for getting lost I'd run 24 miles and a couple of 22 milers in training).
There was a nice friendly spirit among the runners. Unlike London, the
runners were mostly dedicated club runners, and there were hardly any
interesting costumes to observe, but the upside of this was that I didn't have
to waste precious energy and mileage running round wombles, human fridges and
comedy fruit. I had what felt like a disaster at the start in that my
Garmin watch wasn't working, but this turned out to be a good thing, in that I
just ran at what felt like a fastish pace on my little legs and managed to keep
on going, and going, and going.
The
course goes out to Portobello and then on to Musselburgh, where it starts a
loop that goes from mile 10 to mile 18 then back to mile 26, the finish at Musselburgh
Racecourse. Parts of the route were lovely, running along the sea front with
clumps of local supporters and at one point a brass band with their notes
carried away on the sea breeze. Other stretches were not so good, just the
runners and the open road for miles, with no spectators. The out part of the
out and back is tough, seeing runners coming towards you on the other side of
the road who are already miles ahead of you. I did get to see the leaders
though, which is pretty awe-inspiring. The first 13 miles felt ok and I
seemed on course for time. Things got tougher in the second half. The mid
section was a slog, and after about mile 18 I had no confidence in my pace.
I felt as if I were going very slowly. Only the fact that I was keeping
up with other runners in my group and even overtaking some of them kept me
going. In the last few miles I knew I was ahead of schedule and just had to not
fall over or conk out by the side of the road. When things got really
hard I told myself two things: Dig Deep, which is what Mandy told me in
our training sessions, and Think of Helen, who ran and raced both before and
after her diagnosis, and during gruelling treatment. If I could summon
up just a hundredth of her courage and determination I knew I could do it.
The
sun came out at about mile 6 (was it?) and shone on us for much of the course,
and then at about mile 24 the skies darkened and it absolutely chucked it down.
Thankfully this did not deter the spectators and for the last couple of
miles the roads were lined with supporters cheering us on and shouting out
'Come on Rebecca!' (not just randomly, I had my name on my top). At mile
26 the course takes a sharp left into the Racecourse. Wonderfully, Mr
Keenan and the girls were there at the finish - I called out to Jamie, 'What's
my time?' and he shouted: 'You've got three minutes - go on and do it!'.
Spurred on afresh, I raced for the finish, and crossed the line with the
clock showing 3:52:27. I had no idea whether I'd got my time or not.
I felt so emotional I wanted to hug the junior squaddies lining the
finish area, and burst into tears. "I've just run a marathon!" I felt
like telling them. Well, Dur ...
I
was standing about in the finish area waiting for Jamie and the girls to come
find me when I got a text from EMF: 'Congratulations Rebecca: Your provisional
time is 3:43:47'. I'd done it! And knocked 16 minutes off my
personal best from 2013. I still feel emotional thinking about it.
I really could not have done it without the support from my friends and
family, and I'm so grateful not only for your donations to my fundraising but
for all your interest and encouragement during my training.
I
was very glad to be able to run in Helen's memory for the Arthur Rank Hospice
in Cambridge and Sarcoma UK. Arthur Rank wrote a nice piece on their
website about my run, which includes a link to my fundraising page, for anyone
who's not yet contributed and would like to.
