Dundee Half Marathon 25/6/06
I had only heard about the Dundee half via a colleague, as it is not SAF registered. Possibly as that might require the course to be accurate - Teresa had read reports that this race was a good bit longer than 13.1. Possibly SAF have minimum requirements for races – basic stuff like toilet facilities, which were conspicuous by their absence. The organisers had knocked themselves out and negotiated the use of two loos in a café. Luckily Dundee has lots of large shrub covered roundabouts so Tracy and I joined the majority of runners scoping out al fresco facilities, out of the sight lines of both the just graduated students having champagne breakfasts, and the local jaikies having buckfast breakfasts. Though the organisers couldn’t organise toilets, they had managed to provide entertainment in the form of a Malawi Choir, which made a fantastic noise, and Jack McConnel, who didn’t.
The race started slightly early by our watches, and the first mile was from the Caird Hall around the city centre, past the now familiar roundabout and back towards the Perth road. The organisers had provided a list of street names, but no map, so I didn’t have a clue where we were going. Between four and five miles we came out of the Technology Park and from there ran along Riverside Drive back towards town. A strange thing about Dundee is the number of giant sized rabbits at the side of the roads. I am led to believe that there are medical research facilities in the City of Discovery. Just a thought….
From joining Riverside Drive, the rest of the race is along the coast, finishing at Broughty Ferry. Unfortunately, the wind was against us, and the next 8 and a half (at least) miles were into a strong headwind. I had caught up with Teresa at about 2 and a half miles and we ran together for most of the rest of the race. Tracy caught us up between 8 and 9 miles, coming up to the Discovery, so for a while we ran together – Team Porty! Tracy was looking really strong and soon peeled off. Going round the Discovery was great, as the Malawi Choir were on board singing and dancing. Who needs the Cutty Sark?
The wind was really insistent and by 10 miles I was struggling, having done very little in the way of distance since March. Its funny how a half marathon distance has gone from less than my usual Sunday run to a real effort! I had given up running with Teresa and was just trying to keep her in sight. I put another real effort in at 11 miles when all these people I had previously overtaken started catching up with me, and managed to keep going to the point where I caught up with Teresa again, if not for long. The last mile and a half seemed endless. One of the really good things about this race was the support – there were a good number of people out and they were cheering everyone on. None of that standing torn faced for a couple of hours and only cheering or clapping when your particular nearest and dearest passes, very refreshing.
Finally the finish was in sight and a girl I had overtaken and been overtaken by at least three times went past me again. I just couldn’t let it happen, and managed to keep in front of her and eventually overtake three others on the very last stretch. My time was 1 56 26 which seemed pretty slow considering I felt I had been much stronger than at Loch Leven where I finished in 1 56. Tracy had been on course for sub 1 50 and had come in at 1 53 something – at time of writing the website is still ‘temporarily unavailable’ so no exact times here. Teresa was bang on 1 56 and had expected a faster time give how she felt she was running. There seemed to be a general consensus that the route was slightly longer than advertised - so we are considering ourselves to have PBs for 13.6 miles – at least! We could have consoled ourselves with the contents of our goodie bags had there been any, but no – a Mars Bar apiece was our lot. But the fun wasn’t over - the organisers had promised regular shuttle buses from Broughty Ferry back to Dundee. The crowd of waiting runners grew and grew. None of the organisers seemed to know anything, nor did the local constabulary, though both parties said they would try to find out. 45 minutes later a friendly policeman told us he had solved the mystery of the disappearing bus. The driver had apparently turned up, been told to hold on for a while until the field thinned a bit and he could drive down the road, and had in the words of the policeman ‘thrown his toys out of the pram’ and gone back to Dundee. Magic. The policeman’s boss was apparently in negotiation for the return of bus and driver. One runner sought clarification from our local copper as to what the sentence for assaulting a bus driver might be……Of course, by now, there were more runners than could fit on one bus, so when it finally arrived, I thought the many police present would be required for riot duties. We managed to barge on with much use of elbows which will be good practice for Teresa in the Great North Run, and eventually made it back to Dundee.
This race has apparently improved a lot over the last few years – this is year three. There is still work to be done though, and for the organisers of the Dundee Marathon, due to take place in October – here is a phone number for a mobile toilet service -01620 890234. Might come in handy.Report Fen Parry
