Edinburgh 2014 - chasing the hairy haggis

[Mitchy1nge]

thread for anyone training for the full marathon or the half or any of the other events

it's my first marathon so am very excited, I know that in theory if I can do 21 miles then 26 (plus 385 yards) is achievable but only started running again a few months ago, it's so much more addictive than it used to be

Well done,that sounds like a great race. 15th in age category...impressive! I've had a couple of great runs recently ( lovely rush of endorphins running down a hill at 9.5 miles...gotta love runs like that!) so am getting excited now. Had a painful sports massage yesterday...so many knots to massage out..but all good now :-)

Less than a week to go.....Hoping the temp and wind drops a bit by Sunday.

Less than a week to go.....Hoping the temp and wind drops a bit by Sunday.

Just done my last run before Sunday :-)

Me too, I just did 5 km easy fartlek, to stop the legs seizing up completely.

I wish I could say that I have two days rest planned, but in fact I am off to London so no putting my feet up . When do you travel to Edinburgh?

I see that the weather forecast is cool and wet. I like cool but I'm not sure about wet

Hopefully it won't be too wet...light drizzle would be OK!
I live about half an hour outside Edinburgh so no travelling for me....and in fact have trained on much of the course! The hardest thing has been working out how to get close to the start with all the road closures...got several routes figured out now. I'm just glad I don't have to start as early as you Kristina !

Another vote for light drizzle

I'm saying overnight in Edinburgh as otherwise I would need to leave home at 5 am to get to the shuttle bus for 7 am.

I'm still on my way back from London , looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow ( will need to ignore fighting kids )

How are you feeling? I feel very odd having hardly run at all this week, aftre doing about 45 miles a week since January

Amy specific advice on the course? How windy is it out towards Musselburgh ?

Shouldn't be too bad out to musselburgh as its not so exposed. The prom at portobello would be the windiest bit I reckon but I think the wind isnt supposed to be that strong tomorrow. Its certainly very still today!
Good luck x

been thinking of you all morning, will check back for race reports later

Thanks mitchy

I did the half so we left at 8 am, as it was raining , but it cleared up quickly. I found it very busy and slow for most of the race, I thought it would thin out a bit but it didn't. It's my first big race and I ( foolishly I've discovered ) put down my actual target time, which is what I ran. Apparently you are supposed to put faster , or you get caught up as I did. Lesson learned.

I ran 1:53:07, which I was pleased with. As the pace was slower than I had planned, I enjoyed it more. I didn't like the long trek downhill in Musselburgh with the faster runners coming up the other side of the road -that but was quite discouraging. No steep hills but definitely not flat .

There was torrential rain about 2.5 hrs into the marathon and everyone got drenched. My friend said her legs totally seized up afterwards and she was much slower than usual ( she's an experienced marathoner ) . Hope blathers is ok

Thanks for asking

Well done Kristina great time.
I did 4:36:39...over half an hour off my previous pb but not as fast as I really wanted or felt I should be able to do. However given that I was seriously considering pulling out at mile 11 and suffered from cramp from then on which meant I had to do a fair bit of walking I've got to be pleased with my time. Gives me something to improve on for next time if I can work out how to avoid cramp ( never got it on my training runs?)

Oh and I didn't get caught in any torrential rain...must have been very localised. Was windier than forecast though which made it tough.
Thanks for checking on this thread mitchy ..it can be hard to do that if you've had to pull out. Make sure you start a new thread when you do get to do your marathon, so we can support you x

Half an hour off your PB is fantastic -I'd be over the moon with that ! Especially when you had cramp and had to walk bits. That must have cost you a lot of time.

10-11 mile mark always sees to be difficult, I don't know why. At least in the half you are nearly finished

I'm glad you didn't get wet, I don't know why my friend did . Maybe she's just making it up as an excuse . Though I was driving up the Gorgie rd ( I think, not good on directions ) and it was like a cloudburst . Water was bubbling up through the drains in the middle of the road.

amazingly well done you two! :)

sorry to hear about the cramp and am glad it didn't stop you from completing, hope it doesn't recur (dehydrated?)

Thanks. I had some niggles in my hip/glutes/hamstring on that side before starting so I think it was a matter of just tightening up in those areas. Maybe I could have run for longer before starting to walk bits but psychologically I wasn't in a good place! I kept to a fairly strict walk for 0.2 miles, run a mile and definitely felt everything tighten up again as I was approaching the end of every mile run.

I have just consulted Paula about cramps

Causes include drinking too much or too little, or eating too soon before race. Or going out too fast.

Or it's indicating an injury that you need to Do Something About

I'm quoting loosely here BTW

My friend said she also got cramps at about 12 miles, I'm wondering if it's to do with glycogen stores or something. But she takes gels and I'm guessing you do too.

11 miles is always hard, but in a HM it's easier because you know it's nearly finished.

Def didn't eat too soon and not over hydrated.Poss went out too quick but I wasn't really sure what I was going to be able to do so much wasn't sure what pace to go at...didn't want to not push myself enough! I know my glutes are a bit weak generally and I had been doing exercises to help that...but I reckon that's where it stemmed from, that and probably my mind making it into a bigger thing than it initially was! So next time more strength training is in order...back to cross fit when my legs feel like mine again!

The pace thing is quite hard isn't it. Since it was my first HM, I wasn't sure, and I was worried about going out too fast. I did that in one long run during training and I ended up walking the last bit.

I just made a race plan , which was to run at 5:25 for the first 5 km , then 5:20 and for the last 2km run as fast as I can, which is probably about 4:45 at that stage of a run.

What I'd not reckoned is that the first 5 km was really slow, I couldn't get through the crowds and it didn't thin out much later on either. I spent a lot of energy trying to get past people and saying " excuse me " when I had hardly any breath left ! I was running on the pavement and dodging round wee old ladies waiting for a bus!

And that last bit in Musselburgh, where you are running down the hill and the faster runners are running up it beside you, that was murder! I could t get past people on the downhill and I knew I would be slower on the way back up. I kept overtaking in the centre of the road and having to dodge people coming the other way !

I put down 1:53:00 as my finishing time, so I thought i woudl be in a pen with similar runners. But in the long bus queue afterwards , an experienced runner told me that most people seriously under estimate their time in these big races, so you need to put a faster time that you will actually run.

So I will definitely do that next time, as I need someone to pace me, passing people isnt a good motivator for me IYSWIM.

Ah Kristina you had a sensible pace plan at least...getting faster. I was aiming for no faster than 9:45 min miles to start with knowing that I would slow down. It should be the other way round as you planned, but I can't get my head around not slowing down as I get tired. Perhaps next time I need to be braver and start slower but aim to be consistent!
You going to do a marathon next time?!

Ah Kristina you had a sensible pace plan at least...getting faster. I was aiming for no faster than 9:45 min miles to start with knowing that I would slow down. It should be the other way round as you planned, but I can't get my head around not slowing down as I get tired. Perhaps next time I need to be braver and start slower but aim to be consistent!
You going to do a marathon next time?!

I found it hard to work out the correct pace. I knew my 10km pace fairly reliably, which is between 4:55 and 5:00. HM pace is supposed to be about 20 seconds slower per km, which makes about 5:17.

I also used race time predictors, which have me a similar pace, but based on my time in training I thought that was too fast , So I aimed for 5:20 overall, with a little slower at first and faster for the last few km.

That gave me a pace I could reasonably sustain for the HM , as long as the course was flat ish

I was very worried about going out too fast, everyone has warned me that is the classic beginner mistake. I didn't realise that it would be so busy , there was no danger of that!!!

At the moment have no plans to do a marathon, I don't know if I'd like to commit to that much training. TBH I found the 45 miles per week quite a lot , time wise. And I was very lucky not to get any injuries , I'd be worried about getting injured with a big increase in the mileage < wimp>

I will admit to have browsed the lists looking for another HM soon ....

What are your plans?

45 miles a week would be enough for a marathon though...my longest mileage week was around 39!
My next goal is to get a new pb at 10k, then I will have got pbs at 5 & 10 k and half & full marathons this year! I have a 10k in mid July aiming to get as close to 50 as possible if not sub 50. Then another half in September.
I will do another marathon next year...have put in for the ballot for London.... Fingers crossed!