Prestonpans Half Marathon 23/09/07
With the Half fitting in two weeks before a marathon, I was under the impression that I could possibly be in my best condition for a good run. Little did I know that the Greek wind God ‘Aeolus’ was up early that morning.
The course on paper is quite straight forward, a long straight flat bit, left down a wee hill, left along the coast, left up a wee hill and finish along on a flat straight.
Every time I fall for the ‘it looks like a nice (easy) route’. You would think after running 12 half marathons that at some point it would sink in that they are far from easy. The start was on the main road and with plenty of room I found myself at the front with Willie Jarvie. After a few announcements from the official we were off, with Willie as my pacer it did feel fast, however as always I ignored the watch. For the first 2 miles I could actually see the lead car which for me is a novelty. Soon we turned to the left and started down hill as a small group of three, where with the help of gravity the pace felt a little easier. It was here that I started thinking about the wind on the coast; how bad could it be???
Just before we took the left hand turn on to the coast road, we were treated to the spectacle of three guys kite surfing on what looked like a very choppy sea. Yes there it was: the head wind.
For the next 6ml all I could do was watch Willie disappear into the distance whilst I felt like I was doing some sort of two forward one back shuffle. What felt like hours later I got to Ma Forman’s and knew that after the left turn it was an up hill then left and home. With all the effort that I found for the hill I felt quite good until at the summit I was overtaken by two guys that breezed passed. It wasn’t until I was on the flat home stretch that I realised that I had run out of Juice. The only saving grace was that one of the guys that had passed was not getting any further away. Little did I know that Leo was closing in on me.
The home straight or hell as I now call it, was definitely not flat. It felt like there was at least one munro in there somewhere. How else could you explain the lack of speed and the fact that the finish should have been ten minutes ago.
Right turn just before the start line and I knew that it was almost over. Round the car park, over some grass… and yes the finish. The lead car with the clock that I watched disappear was now parked with a time of 1:23:45… Yes new pb. It was only when over the line that my watch said 1:24:02, still a pb from 1:24:47*. Just not as nice a sound as 1:23. Next time!!! Janet has promised that the Jedburgh half is going to be idyllic and I should get the 1:20 I am after.
Two things I have learnt from Prestonpans half:
1/ Never ever underestimate a course
2/ King of the winds is called ‘Aeolus’ and he has Four Subjects
Boreas
North Wind
Zephyr Eurus
West Wind East Wind
Notus
South WindAnd yes you can meet them all on the same day.
* According to Bert this time is disputed as the course at Forthside was short
Report Scott Ferguson
Here's Ben's report....
I counted twenty Portobello runners at Sunday's Prestonpans Half which was a great turn out and made it feel like a home event. Sadly there are no photographs as I don't think we had a camera between us (I can sense a new jokes feature on the website: "How many Portobello runners does it to take to... "). It was probably best no one brought a camera as it might have been blown out to sea in the tornado that we had to run through. Also glad I don't wear a toupee for same reason.
The run was going well for the first three and a half miles until we headed seaward and then had to run 6 and a half miles into a powerful headwind. As we hit the coast I was aiming for sub 1:30 for the first time in my running 'career.' As I braved the wind to reach each mile marker I re-set my ambitions for what I could achieve. The hardest part of the run was that there were around five runners who hid behind me using me as a wind buffer for the entire stretch along the coast - once we turned out of the wind for the last three and a half miles I expected them all to hare past me. For once in my life I found a competitive streak inside me and thought "none of these b******s are getting past me after all the hard work I put in" and managed to keep ahead of them until the finish. I was delighted to finish in 1:34 (a PB by over 2 minutes) especially given the conditions. I was even more delighted to stay back for the prize giving and bask in Portobello's glorious trophy-fest - well done to all those who picked up silverware and to Louise who slashed 5 minutes off her PB. My favourite part of the prize giving was that John Pickard (who had long since left) won a T-shirt as a spot prize - the T-shirt is a Large so John will have to use it as a nightie.Report Ben Carter
and John Pickard...
moving swiftly on to the pans half which i did not do last year ( I was at linlithgow ) everything was going fine until yes you know what i am going to say, the wind, so ben if you are doing glen clova this is what the second half is like but with a few hills from 11 miles onwards. The pans course is one to go for a fast time on, but with the wind and the hill when you turned to head back the last 3 miles was going through the motions (meaning I cant be a***d) the good thing was at least it was a good workout before the loch ness marathon. Good one ben about the t-shirt, that would have came in handy for the cold mornings but i am leaving royal mail. yes after 18 years and 1 month being out in all weathers i finish on thursday.
Photos: Again thanks to David at roadrunpics.com who allowed us to use these pictures. There are dozens of Porties snapped racing at Prestonpans here: too many to duplicate on this page. Thanks David and keep up the good work.
This message from the organiser:
If you could thank all the Portobello Runners who ran it would be appreciated, 20 Portobello finishers, we hope that they enjoyed the race, although I know some of them didn't like the 6 miles into the westerly wind!Regards
Grant Aitken10 William Jarvie 01:21:58
15 Scott Ferguson 01:24:02
16 Leo Zijerveld 01:24:37
22 Moray Patterson 01:27:10
25 Janet Dunbar 01:27:49
27 Scott Jarvie 01:28:22
38 Bert Logan 01:32:23
45 Ben Carter 01:34:16
47 John Pickard 01:34:38
55 Paul Eunson 01:36:21
58 Paul Edwards 01:36:51
Richard Dennis 1:38:54
73 Shelagh McLeish 01:40:27
80 Alan Aitchison 01:42:28
94 Sheena Sutherland 01:47:20
111 Karen Munro 01:54:26
113 Louise Finnie 01:54:56
127 Eric Foster 01:58:47
140 Sandra Murray 02:04:22
152 Louise Kay 02:09:45
156 Cath Webster 02:13:25
