Jane Collingham shares her thoughts on her recent Marathon…
The Loch Ness Marathon tempted me in January; it looked scenic, it wasn’t in a big city, there wouldn’t be masses of crowds until the last four miles and my husband Dave and I could build a holiday around it. I’d just turned 68 and was beginning to think that if I didn’t get on and run a marathon soon I never would.
The route starts between Fort Augustus and Foyers and follows the south-eastern shores of Loch Ness finishing in Inverness. It’s in three stages, a predominantly downhill first third, a fairly level middle section and an undulating mainly uphill finish. The day before the race we drove the route in glorious sunshine and it was fantastic.
The weather couldn’t have been more different on the morning of the race; it was raining heavily and blowing a hooley. The queue for the loos was half a mile long (there wasn’t much level ground for the portaloos) and most people were diving for the Christmas trees. Everyone was shivering in their bin bags on that exposed Scottish hillside.
At last we set off to “500 miles” by The Proclaimers! Perfect for the occasion, and then as we crossed the start line there was a Pipe band – real stirring stuff. The rain eased off after a couple of hours and conditions improved. I knew the first half would be quicker than the second, but I didn’t think there would be quite such a difference! (2.15 v 2.40). It’s all down to race experience whatever the distance and on this occasion I was a newbie. The last few miles were absolutely awful but I did manage a smile as I went through the finish. I collected my goody bag and T-shirt and then had a big hug from my poor long-suffering husband Dave. I was thirsty so went to get the bottle of water from my goody bag – only to find it wasn’t water, it was a tin of soup!
Bright side: I’ve continued to do races throughout the training and my times have improved along the way. I really enjoyed the long runs – it was a joy to set off pretty much whenever and wherever I wanted. I failed to achieve a silver standard in the marathon but hey – I HAVE run a marathon at last.