Windermere Marathon

[bestathlete]

Fantastic day in the lakes. The first time Brathay Trust had organised a marathon and what a fantastic job they did too. Plenty of water stations, marshals on every side junction, chip timing, excellent prizelist, well organized parking and much more.

Much more hilly than I was expecting though, and it's a while now since my long FLM training runs which meant I struggled from 20 miles to home. However, I managed to reel in a couple of fast starting strugglers in the last couple of miles to get 4th.

How d'you get on slowcoach? Enjoy it?

[Mountain Hare]

Well done Bestathlete.

What were the times like in comparison to a flat marathon?

I was the guy standing and clapping on the dry-stone wall on the right going up the first hill - an idyllic start location but tough-going I bet.

Not many under 3hrs I should imagine?

MH

[Calf]

bliddy ell Well done BA!

must be feeling pretty good now after london!

Brilliant!

[Deek]

So where are some results?

[Brummy John]

Haven't see the results, but one of the lads I run with at lunchtime did it as his first marathon and came 9th overall in 3:02, 2nd MV40. The winner was about 2:45 ish. ~ 965 starters. He thought it was mostly very well organised but needed a marshall on that side street in Windermere that cuts the corner, he batted round it and nearly ended up on a car bonnet.

[slowcoach]

I managed to reel in a couple of fast starting strugglers in the last couple of miles to get 4th.

How d'you get on slowcoach? Enjoy it?

Well done BA, good result. I agree with all your comments on the organisation, a great day out in a lovely location and with Wilf's being there what more could one ask for.

Not seen any results yet but I'll be closer to 400th I expect. The last 6 miles were slow and painful. Found it much harder than the 3P's - partly 'cos I didn't drink enough and partly 'cos I hate running on road. Glad I did it but I think I'll limit my road excursions to 10K in future.

[bestathlete]

Yeah, winner was 2:47, he paced himself very well as he started slower than I did.
Marshallling in Bowness on Windermere was a bit light - I had to manhandle a small oriental woman out of my way - god knows what it was like when the main field started coming through thick and fast.

As regards comparison to a flatter marathon, I can report that yesterday I ran (at 6:44 per mile pace) at a average pulse of 166 and that on a 10mile training run recently I ran at 164 average pulse which yielded 6:06 pace.
So based on that alone you can say 30 - 40 seconds a mile slower which is 13-15 minutes overall.
However I can also say that given better preparation (ie NOT running some of the FLM 4 weeks ago and having my last decent long run 7 weeks ago) I would have ran at least a couple of minutes faster.

So I reckon definitly 10 minutes.

I will be training for a sub 2:40 clocking in Dublin in October so some work to do I think.

[bestathlete]

Not seen any results yet but I'll be closer to 400th I expect. The last 6 miles were slow and painful. Found it much harder than the 3P's - partly 'cos I didn't drink enough and partly 'cos I hate running on road. Glad I did it but I think I'll limit my road excursions to 10K in future.

Some of the road surfaces were a bit rough I thought - OK on fell terrain but not ideal on unforgiving tarmac. What about that wooden bridge half a mile from the finish? OK going up it but coming down the other side with the 90degree turn I thought I was gonna end up in the hedge - would have been better to stick to the road I think (as it was only 100metres of path anyway).

You won't be doing it again then (if they have it)? I will consider it but hopefully as a long jog following a decent London or Boston next April.

[B.K.]

Try http://www.raceahead.com/SearchResults.aspx

[Deek]

Any sign of any results yet?