stoke-on-trent city marathon 21st June 2004

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 21 June 2004 13:08:26

having seen the forecast for this weekend, overcast, cool, maybe rainy.. i.e. perfect running weather.. i decided to go and do a local-ish marathon.

stoke on trent city marathon as it's know this year, or the potteries marathon as of previous years as it's home to royal doulton & wedgewood etc. i'd been warned it was a hilly course but with halstead and the yomp behind me that didnt hold a great deal of fear.

having ridiculed the concept of entering a marathon on the day i drove up on sunday morning to do just that (second time this year!) so clearly it's not really such a bad idea.

starting from trentham gardens the route was one big loop. to be honest i've no idea where it went but it wasn't that scenic to be honest!

having met up with some of the runnersworld peeps we all set off for the start. i'm having a major memory lapse on this race at the moment.

i was soon caught by flying ant and we nattered away keeping somewhere just inside 9min/mile pace, which i was happy with and seeing as it was his 3rd marathon weekend on the trot i hope he was too!
there were some hills which were just a matter of controlling your pace up so as not to knacker yourself too much.

the main highlighht of the first few miles was a running battle with a tweenie! really at this stage the last thing i wanted to be doing was trying to keep a childrens tv character behind me! and it did get ahead a few times before mercifully fading somewhere before 10miles.

the support along the route was excellent lots of impromptu water & feed stations and cheering 'stokies' as they seem to be known.

at one point i guess around 10miles we turned a sharp left and started heading toward some very dark clouds! and eventually we reached them to get a thorough soaking, which must have lasted up to just before 20miles.
still running in my sunglasses with rain spots on the front of the lense and the back of the lense steaming up i really couldn't see a great deal and almost totally missed a water station! but to an extent i wasn't bothered just watching the road ahead for puddles and bumps we kept running on.

at 20miles i was pleased to be feeling cool, collected and fairly fresh. quite likely the weather had helped, maybe i've grown wise to how much fluid i need to take on, or maybe my fuelling just worked this time (half an energy bar at halfway/2hours and a gel just before 20miles).

looking at my watch my personal best time of 3:50 was up for grabs although it was going to take some work over the last 6miles, but for the first time at this stage in a marathon that was a challenge i was game for!

i split from ant and pushed ahead for a couple of miles, only for him to pass me and stretch ahead again. for the first 20miles i felt like i'd been in an almost meditative state with the legs just going one after the other but for this last section i knew i was running and struggled to muster the mental effort to keep going... not that i was going to stop for anything!

only at 25miles did i know the game really was afoot for a personal best, albeit a marginal one as my watch was reading just short of 3:40.
i pushed on on the downhill stretch, surprising myself by closing in on ant.
i just managed to pass him before we turned back into the gardens and up the short grassy climb to the finish in 3:48.

much grinning, and very pleased with my new bit of crockery! i trested myself to a massage as a good excuse to lay down for a bit.

well done to all who finished a hilly, damp race!

results here