Sunday 4/10 Loch Ness Marathon

What a beautiful way to start the post! This was the Loch Ness marathon - which I claim I finished in 3 hours 51 mins, despite the championchip saying 3hrs 52. My Nike+ hasn't failed me on timings, and even then if it was slightly out, it still said 3hr51min20secs. I don't see how it could be out a whole minute!

Anyway, let me begin. I had an awful night sleep the nigh before the marathon, and only managed to eat a small amount of porridge in the morning. I felt so nervous, more so than any other marathon! Speeding down the A82 towards Ft Augustus we got stuck behind 3 identical minivans - they must've been tourists, as I don't think anyone in Scotland would do under 40mph the WHOLE way down the side of Loch Ness! I was panicking badly, as we then got caught behind the swing-bridge thing at Ft Augustus! Had to wait there for ten mins. I arrived at 9.55am, parked and ran to the start line, only to see a handful of people. I nearly wet myself.

Then, however, one of the marshalls told me that the buses had been delayed leaving Inverness and had technical problems. When I thought back, I remembered seeing them all going the opposite way (towards Dores) as we were driving through Ness at around 8.50am! Apparently one bus from Ft Aug had broken down and the runners had to walk 3 miles uphill to the start! Oh dear. Needless to say, I was relieved but we actually didn't start until 10.55am. It worried me slightly, as I was freezing and had only had a little meal for brekkie.

Started off strong - kept the pace up on all the uphills and belted the downhills - figured I may as well make up some time on those! At about ten miles I started to feel a little low...simply because Dores was my point where I knew I could start pushing the pace and that was 7 miles away! What kept me going tho was the magnificent podcasts I was listening to on my ipod. Scott Mills from radio 1 - I was actually laughing out loud at some of the stuff. It is a fantastic way to while away the hours whilst you plod along.

At Dores Derek was waiting for me (almost missed me as he didn't have his glasses on!) He took a pic and I kept going. The hill out of Dores was a toughie but I kept going. Stopped momentarily at the top but had a few people in my sight who had slipped ahead of me at the start, so was a good incentive to push it and catch up with them. The hill at 20 odd miles though, ouch. That was a tough one. Nonetheless I kept some people in my sites and at 22 miles the people from the Scottish veterans' Residencies were there - providing some isotonic drinks and a great energy boost! I really picked up the pace from that point, without having looked at my timer the whole way. I figured that I would regret it if I didn't.

The last mile was TOUGH. In every sense of the word (I was using it loosely before ;D ). I really struggled to keep the pace and the loop round the park to the stadium seemed to go on forever. Looking over however, about 400m from the finish I saw the timer above the finish line. 3 hours 52 mins, it said. I was overjoyed! Just pushed it and gave it my all...grimacing as I crossed the finish line and completely missing those cheering for me (sorry!!!) but crossing the finish line feeling like I wanted to cry. I had done it. Pushed it and got a great time. Still makes me smile (:

Thank you to all who came to see me finish, and thanks to Derek, for being my designated driver. Also thanks to the guys from SVR who gave me great words of praise at the end. What a fantastic day!