runography

As mentioned in a previous post we decided to enter the Edinburgh Marathon Hairy Haggis Relay to help pace our friend and fellow runner, John Monaghan, around the course. This was a tough challenge for us, and as you’ll find out a fairly difficult task to organise.

Order of runners: – Team Runograph.com

• Derek – 8.1 Miles (The Royal Leg)
• Stephen – 5.4 Miles (The Cock & Pan Leg)
• Roddy – 8.0 Miles (The Gosford Leg)
• Runography – 4.7 Miles (The Glory Leg)

Challenge – start with John and pace him around the whole marathon course at an average speed of 8:20 min/mi giving him a finish of around 3hrs 40mins.

Our day started very early, John was getting a bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh and that left the 4 relay runners to get there ourselves and meet John before the start. I got picked up at 6.20am with Roddy and Derek already in the car, we then picked up Stephen at 6.30am and set off on our trip to Edinburgh. Thankfully we were all up and ready, so no hanging around in the morning.

We arrived in Edinburgh around 7am and Derek located a parking space not far from Princess St. The guys decided to put on their numbers in the car, but as I wasn’t due to run until 12pm I decided to wait until nearer the time so I didn’t have any mishaps.

We made our way to the start line area and telehoned John, who was still on the bus travelling to Edinburgh, it was 8am and getting close to the start time. Stephen had to go and get the relay bus to changeover 1, so he took my bag and Dereks bag and off he went. The idea behind this was that he’d give the bags to Derek when Derek arrived at changeover 1, Derek would then have his own gear and would take my gear to the finish line where I’d be able to put on some warm clothes.

It was only 5 minutes after Stephen left that I realised I’d left my race number in my bag… argh!!! panic panic. Roddy and I hatched a plan that I’d be able to take Stephens race number from him and wear that. I was still in a sweat though, what if I couldn’t get on the bus to the relay changeover point because I had no number. What if I couldn’t get access to the changeover area to meet up with Stephen. My stress wasn’t alleviated until I’d actually arrived at the changeover point and realised I would be able to see Roddy and Stephen make the changeover and I’d be able to spend an hour with Stephen before it was my turn to run.

Roddy’s bus was leaving at 8.45am so he left and made his way to the buses, leaving me with the largest sports bag I’ve ever seen. He must have been planning a week in Andés after the run.

John arrived around 8.25am and with Derek they quickly moved off to the start line, but not before dumping his bag in one of the trucks that would take his bag to the finish line. Well organised it was.

(this post could be long)

I had been planning on making my way to the start line for some photo opportunities but because I was carrying a huge bag I decided not to risk going any further in. I think I was taking out a few runners with every few feet I went, so I turned tail and went back towards the relay buses. My bus was not due to leave until 9.30am but I got there around 9am and managed to get on the bus without my number. I did have a “Leg 4″ sticker on me, but there was no driver when I boarded, so it wasn’t an issue. I got talking to a few fellow runners and told them my story. They were all upset for me.

When I got to the relay changover point at Seton Sands I realised how simple it would be to get Stephens number, so there wasn’t going to be a problem.

This was good. I met up with Roddy about 20 minutes later. The first of the marathon runners passed our point in 1hr 15, not bad since Roddy’s changover was at the 1/2 way mark.

Our changeover points were only a couple of hundred meters apart on a grass area, with mine on the beach side of the grass heading back to Edinburgh and Roddys on the road leading away from edinburgh.

Thankfully the gale force wind coming off the sea was blowing against Roddy and not me , at least for the first few miles of his leg anyway, until they turned around and headed back towards me. Unfortunately for the marathon runners this meant that miles 13 to 17 would be particularly difficult. After they got to the top they would turn round and run back along the waterfront with the wind behind them, which hopefully would perk them up at their moment of need. Roddy goes for a quick warmup to get ready and it’s nearly time to get going.

Now we wait on Stephen to arrive, and if it’s gone according to plan, he’ll have left John slightly before the changeover point so he can swap the ChampionChip and let Roddy meet up with John so we aren’t playing catchup. I made my way to the exit of Roddy’s changeover point to let him know if John was ahead or behind, but somehow I didn’t manage to see either him or John. Next thing I saw was Stephen coming round to see me and to tell me they had made the swap and Roddy was now running with John. Not sure how I missed them but at least we know they are on track. Stephen tells me that John is pacing at around 8:10 min/mi so he’s slightly faster than he wanted to be, hopefully the headwind for the next few miles doesn’t affect his run too badly.

Around 11.35am I go for a quick 1/2 mile warmup so I’m ready to go when John arrives.

Just before 12:00pm my team number is called “R160″, and I watch Roddy running into the changover point. I quickly give him my watch and take his Garmin 405 ( my 305 I’d stupidly left in my bag ), and I had a chance to talk to Roddy for a few seconds as we waited on John to come past the changeover point. He told me they’d been doing 8:10 min/mi pace for a lot of the time and were currently on a fairly fast mile. For me that’s close to my 10k race pace so I was a bit worried that John might have to pace me, but I needn’t have worried, it’s a fairly flat course, the wind was behind me and most of my training had been on very hilly terrain.

I leave the relay changover just as John reaches the exit and a quick high five and we are off on “The Glory Leg” and John’s last 4.7 miles of his first marathon.

Without having to slow down we made our way past the beach and towards a little village and my first experience of a water station. Runners were all snapping up the Lucozade and water and taking a little sip and disposing of 90% of the contents. When John grabbed his Lucozade I offered to carry it after his first sip so he’d be able to take a bit more on board once he had the energy. I carried it for around a mile before John had had enough, it felt good to be running at that pace and being able to speak and help out on the run. I was constantly encouraging John, although to be fair he was getting his fair share of that from the crowd as his shirt had “JOHN” emblazoned on the front so everyone was shouting his name.

Running through the towns on that final stretch was amazing, the crowds were all out cheering and encouraging the runners. It felt a bit odd to be doing it as a relay runner and even at that, not as a racer. Pace setting though was rather rewarding. We passed lots of other runners on our way to the end, and at one point a guy collapsed in front of us, only 2 miles from the finish. John shouted “Medic”, I thought it was like a game of Call of Duty 4, fighting for survival, although I was feeling great there weren’t many that were. I spent most of my run a foot or two in front of John. As we approached the finish the road got narrower and narrower as the crowds closed in around us. We entered Mussleborough race course and had upped the pace a bit for a fast finish. We got onto the plastic section which had a bouncy feel to it, and I was thinking anyone unsteady on their feet at that point may have some problems with that surface. With everyone shouting “JOHN” we drove to the finish line and John was leading home, I accidentally got in front as he slowed a little, I think I was a bit enthusiastic at that point. I looked up at the clock and shouted, come on John, it’s saying 3:39, lets get in below 3:40. I quickly dropped back to his pace and watched as John crossed the finish line in around 3:39.19. What a remarkable race.

At the finish after a few seconds he got his breath back (a little) and reminded me that his time didn’t start until after he’d crossed the finish line, so it could be as low as 3:36 as it took a few minutes to cross the line. Superb!!! I made sure he didn’t sit down as it can be difficult to stand up again and we walked, collected our medals and goodie bags and made our way to the Reunion Points where John was to meet his family and I was to meet the other relay runners.

I’ll leave the rest of the story for another day, but I’ll just say that we didn’t manage to find Derek for 1:40 minutes because he had been waiting at the finish line and couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t seen us!!! John didn’t manage to see his wife, kid or parents as they had been stuck on the M8 on the way there following a bad car accident (not involving them). John left with his sister and her partner and we waited and waited and waited…. for Derek.

Eventually he found us as we’d given up and gone to the buses. We didn’t have time to go for a meal or anything, but did manage to pick up a snack. I opted for a Greggs Steak Bake at 97p as I couldn’t face paying £2.69 for a Pastry Shop Cornish Pastie from inside Waverley station. I’m not traditionally tight, but that’s just ridiculous. We happened to be in Waverley as Roddy was picking up his mobile that he’d left in a café called “The Upper Crust” on Friday when we were through at the Marathon Expo, and some kind soul had handed it in.

I then thought I’d lost my mobile as I was convinced I’d stuck it in my bag, but after numerous calls home Ann informed me I’d left it in the house.

We had a great day out, enjoyed the race and all the talk on the way home was about when we are going to run a marathon ourselves!!! What a buzz! We shall find out John’s official time in a couple of days, and of course our individual relay times.
Ok – updates: Official Times now in:

Position        Name and (Number)          Times           Race

1278                 John Monaghan  (3339)            03:37:09          Full Marathon

137                   Runography.com (R160)           03:37:09          Marathon Relay

Superb, 2:51 under the 3:40:00 target – great result for first marathon and sets John up nicely to target a sub 3:30:00 marathon next time.