Moray Marathon 7/09/08
I have been a member of Portobello for about 4 months now and have spent an unacceptably large amount of both my free time and work time reading reports from others on races the length and breadth of Scotland and beyond and I have to admit I really fancied writing a report of my own.
Since my running career properly re-started earlier this year I have been eager to do a long race but have been stopped primarily due to a lack of proper training and a phobia of entering races that you have to pre-enter (organisation is not my strong point). However a week and a half before the Moray Marathon I decided to bite the bullet and enter despite having not run beyond about 15 miles in literally years. Regardless of this fact, I still considered sub 3 hours a very achievable target.
So I managed to reach Elgin on the Saturday and just about managed to stay positive despite a pitiful (there are other adjectives) performance from Scotland’s national football team.
The race starts at Cooper Park in Elgin and immediately I found myself recalling the memories of my last visit (5 years ago) where, unlike here, I had managed to break 3 hours. The course itself is fairly rural and the first 8(ish) miles were spent telling myself to slow down. I rarely run with a watch (organisation is not my strong point) but I could tell by the company I was keeping that I was on track for my target. I managed to settle into a group that provided me with shelter from the wind and also jelly babies from one of the Aberdeen runner’s families.
After about the half way mark things got a wee bit more serious, as myself and a runner from Fraserburgh caught up with a runner I knew from Dundee who I knew was well capable of a sub 3 hour marathon. All going well so far then.
From this point on the marathon field was engulfed by the half marathon field and I managed to slowly work my way past a few of them. By the time we got to Lossiemouth (about 18 miles) I was feeling genuinely optimistic. 8 miles to go. In 6th place. All I needed was for my legs to hold on and I'd be laughing.
Alas, a marathon is not an easy thing and by 6 miles to go I knew I was faced with a very serious and very painful task.
The road from Lossiemouth to Elgin is the longest road I have ever run. Gradually I began to get slower and slower and half marathoners managed to drift past infuriatingly slowly. I did manage to pass another marathon runner who was in a worse state than me (he must have been close to death) but by the ‘3 miles to go’ marker my race was run. 2 marathoners went past in the last 3 miles, the first of which beat me by over 2 and a half minutes which makes me wonder just how much time I lost in the last few miles. The first lady went past me with a mile to go shouting encouragement, which was appreciated despite the fact I could do literally nothing to up my game.
I finished in 3.02. 7th. Not too shabby. Results have me down as ‘MJ’ which makes me think I should have hung around for a wee bit longer to see if I could have been given anything.
Despite my initial disappointment, I had to be pleased with myself as I finished in one piece (just) and I really didn’t give this race a second thought up until 2 weeks before hand and it has certainly heightened my desire to do more training.
I’d also like to thank Portobello Running Club in general for taking me on this year. Very much feel that without a running club, running would be an awful lot harder and I wouldn’t get nearly as much enjoyment out of it.
I would recommend this race on many counts, it’s certainly a quieter marathon than most marathons but it’s an excellent race. Won't be running another marathon in a hurray though, not till next year. Will probably do a few suicidal hill races and hopefully more training before anything else.
Report & photos Michael Geoghegan
Results / Moray Marathon website here[Well done Michael, I think that might be the fastest PRC marathon time of the year so far]
I stand corrected: Scott (he tells me he is not competitive) reminded me he did 3.02.10 earlier in the year.
