Kielder Marathon

Although I ran just as far as Scott and Connell (albeit it took me a bit longer) my report will be much shorter.!! (Great report by the way)

After my usual ad hoc training regime for a marathon which managed to fit in a 16, 18 and 21 mile training runs, and not much in between I was a bit nervous on the starting line as Kielder makes you suffer for the beauty of its forestry trail route with its undulations from start to finish.

Conditions were good for the race with little wind and occasional drizzle but nothing too heavy and in any event we were sheltered a little by the forestry which surrounded the reservoir.

I started off a bit quicker than my planned pace but was finding it difficult to slow down too much and still feel comfortable so resigned myself to just going with it.  Reaching half way in 1.39 I was quite happy and steadily passing runners ahead (as usual I’d started too far back at the start line).

With 10km to go, and having just passed Eileen in her agreed spectator point (although too busy taking this photo to hand me my back up energy gel) I was having to dig in as the route had some of its steeper inclines – 20metres in the space of a kilometre! and my pace dropped by about 15s per kilometre through to the finish.

The last couple of miles I felt like I was just dragging my feet along but the Garmin shows I didn’t slow down much more and I was delighted to cross the line in 3.24.20.  12 mins down on my PB but about 20 mins ahead of what I thought I may do.  A day later and my legs don’t feel too bad so perhaps the slightly more forgiving forest trail underfoot is better then 26 miles on the road.

A great venue for a marathon, and despite the undulating course, the scenery and variety took away some of the monotony that can set in on a marathon.