Portsmouth Marathon

Portsmouth Marathon on 21st December this year was my 8th marathon and my second time at this one.  It's mostly flat and you would have thought fast, but you have to factor in how busy it is, the single track paths, the sections of muddy or shingle beach to negotiate, the cold windy wet weather and.... AND... the mulled wine at the water stops!

Last year it was lashing with rain at the start and there were wet and muddy puddles along much of the route, but apart from that it was quite pleasant.  OK it was windy but the sun was shining for much of the time and the out and back course meant you got to see lots of runners and friends on the Hayling Island section.  There was the issue for some of having to wade knee deep through the sea at 24 miles where the tide had covered the beach, but a bit of bulldog spirit saw us through.  This year problems with the tide coming in have been solved by changing the route to avoid having to cross the last beach on the return to the Esplanenade.

Not Training Again?
Preparation for this race had not been focussed on distance as I had another objective which was to do well in the last club handicap run of the year.  You can read about that here.  That club handicap run went really well, so it was well worth training for, but it only left me time for a couple of 15 mile long runs and medium club runs in the 2 weeks before Portsmouth.  In terms of overall fitness I thought I was in pretty good shape, maybe about the same level as I was going in to Abingdon, which was 2 months ago in mid-October.  My only worry was that I had been suffering with sore and stiff calves recently, partly as a result of not being able to do any foam rolling as I had had a hand injury.  Anyway, I thought I ought to give a PB a try and just see what happened, so my plan going into the race was to go out at 8:30min/mile pace aiming for a 3:45 time.

Race Prep
The day before I thought I was doing really well having done Frimley Lodge parkrun with the family, running with Elinor in a gentle 28 minutes, then having a nice big breakfast at the cafe, finishing off the Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, baking flapjack and sorting out my race bag before having an early dinner.

There were due to be 11 or 12 Sandhurst Joggers going down to Portsmouth and I had a lift with Chris Lambourne and Emma Lewis with a pick up time of 6:15.  I slept OK but struggled out of bed at 5:45 and didn't quite manage to finish my porridge before Chris and Emma arrived.  We were already on the M3 before I realised I hadn't put my contact lenses in.  That was a real problem for me because I hate running in glasses, getting steamed up or rained on and not being able to see.  Fortunately after digging through my bag I managed to find a spare set and after finishing off a large piece of flapjack I was back to feeling positive about the race.

We managed to get parked close to the Pyramid Centre by Southsea with over an hour to go before the 8:45 start time, got our race numbers met up with some folks from the club (Max and Sacha Woods and Leon Hicks) and Kelvin from Cove Joggers. I went to find the loos, but unfortunately the organisers had not managed to provide loos with toilet paper!  This was sorted out eventually, but that's another thing to remember to put in the race bag along with spare contact lenses.  Whilst waiting in the queue for the loos I saw another couple of Sandhurst runners, Vicky Horne and Tina Acock, heading off to get an early start.

A little before the 8:45 start we gathered outside the Pyramid Centre on the Esplanade and were led down to Southsea Pier and the new start line by a pipe band (yes, bagpipes).  The weather was chilly and windy but not that cold, so I had decided to run in a t-shirt with my Sandhurst Joggers vest on top , a cap and gloves but bare arms.  I also took 6 Hi-Five gels and a few blocks of dark chocolate in my marathon belt.

Off We Go!
As soon as we got to to the pier, I looked ahead and saw that people had already started running, though I hadn't heard any gun or hooter.  I had already got my watch set up for the 8:30/mile pace and hit the Go button as I went over the timing mats.  The strong breeze was at our backs as we set off down the Esplanade and it was easy to get straight on to pace.  After 2 miles the first beach section caused a bit of a delay as we queued up to get down a narrow path.  This bit of beach was slow going as we were picking our way through seaweed and muddy patches and I was trying to keep my feet dry to avoid possible blisters.

Vicky and Tina on Hayling Island*

Going up the west side of Langstone Harbour was reasonably sheltered and the first 4 miles flew by.  At 5 miles I caught up with Vicky and Tina and gave Vicky a friendly butt-slap as I passed (payback for her stinging encouragement at the last aid station on Surrey Half earlier in the year).  Just beyond 5 miles you get to run alongside the main A27, a busy noisy road and my least favourite part of the
course.  Still, if you look to the right the views across the harbour are very nice.

Crossing on to Hayling Island at 9 miles you are very exposed and the wind was almost whipping my cap off, but it wasn't long before we got on to the Hayling Billy Trail down to the turn around near half way.  Last year I didn't quite manage to get to 10 miles before the leaders appeared coming the other way, but this year I was comfortably past the 10 mile marker when I saw the leader come cruising past with a smile on his face and almost a 6 mile lead on me!  In the mile before the turn I saw Lisa Hale and then Chris Lambourne and then on my way back between miles 13 and 15 most of the rest of the SJ team (Sacha, Leon, Emma, Vicky and Tina and Lance King).  It was great seeing all the guys and a good mental boost too.

Hoever, it was about this time that I started to hit problems.  I was doing well up to about 14 miles staying between about 8:20/mile and 8:50/mile depending on the terrain (beaches or muddy paths slowing me a bit), but from 14 miles my left knee began to hurt with what I thought was an ITB problem.  It felt just like at the Pilgrim back in September when that knee pain caused me to walk most of the last 4 miles and I couldn't run downhill.  I struggled on slowing from 8:40/mile to 9:30/mile.

Cruising along at about 12 miles*

This was really getting me down and I was thinking that if it got any worse I was probably going to have to stop.  If I ended up slowing below 10min miles there was a risk with the wind chill that I would get very cold.  However, at around 19 miles I went through a mental check of how I was feeling and realised that my knee actually wasn't hurting much and in fact it only hurt a bit when I was running on a side slope.  Once I had figured this out I felt a lot more positive and I knew I was going to finish.

The cold windy weather was having its toll though and with the muddy slippy paths and shingle beach section I wasn't setting a fast pace.  I was stopping at each aid station to get squash and jaffa cakes and the odd shot of mulled wine and whereas last year my pace might have dropped beyond 11 minute miles, this time I managed to keep knocking out the miles no slower than 9:30.  I needed to keep it going like this to keep warm.  I was also thinking "The faster you go now, the sooner it will be finished!"

Emma, Greg Ward and Ed Mills near the finish*

At 23 miles, we got to the new diversion to avoid the now tide flooded last beach section.  This was a run along some quiet back streets and through Bransbury Park before coming back to the Esplanade with 2 miles to go.  The last 2 miles seemed to go on forever, battling into the cold wind.  I was looking out for the Pyramid Centre but couldn't see it with a mile to go; the pier was in the way.  As soon as I had passed the pier, though, I could see the blue pyramid roof mercifully only a few hundred metres away with crowds of people forming a tunnel of noise for the last 100m.

I hadn't looked at my watch for the last 4 or 5 miles so it was great to see I had finished in 3:54:28.  My second sub-4 hour time and only 2 minutes away from a PB having overcome some quite challenging conditions.  All in all a very good result.

Splits for this marathon were a bit all over the place:

8:21 9:01 8:21 8:29 8:36 8:25 8:39 8:37 8:48 8:47 8:32 8:42 8:52 8:44 9:08 9:29 9:18 9:19 9:29 8:52 9:06 9:26 9:12 9:14 9:28 9:25 2:07

Afters

All the SJ and Cove runners got home safely - Well done all.

Max Woods 03:33:28; Lisa Hale 03:34:16; Stuart Overhill 03:51:10; Chris Lambourn 03:53:15; Richard Boese 03:54:28; Sacha Kendall Woods 04:25:12; Leon Hicks 04:42:32; Lance King 05:14:52; Greg ward 5:21:17; Emma Lewis 05:22:21; Tina Acock 06:50:17; Vicky Horne 06:50:17.

Kelvin Gower 04:35:11 (comfortably making his Comrades Marathon qualifying time)

Post race recovery was found in the very decent Crown and Cushion near Minley Barracks.  The Thai curry chicken and pint of Spitfire went down a treat.

Now I'm looking forward to the Christmas parkrun season with the family (including wife Julia's 50th run) and possibly another attempt at the Winter Tanners 30 mile challenge event in early January.

*Thanks to Janet Foran for the race photos.