My mid year multi terrain multi technical Marathon in the Braemar to Aviemore pass called the Lairig Ghru took place yesterday at 10am, an interesting profile of the climbing you do is now on http://connect.garmin.com/player/7369582 where you can also see a map my speed which was affected by the boulders en-route.
I was lying in 5th place after 3miles on the tarmaced road up to Victoria Bridge, I had been alongside a guy called Mark as per the markings on his jersey. He slowly started to pull away between 3-7miles I was was averaging 6.45min miles which was not impressive even on this good surface however with the experiences of the Edinburgh and my excessive training since then has made me more aware of my pace on the first half of marathons.
Weather was great a breeze albeit in our faces which was advised in a previous weather report, so it wasn’t too warm or cold, I also thought this would help the runners on the 95mile West Highland Way race which was also taking part from Milngavie to Fort William. The bunch of 4 at the front had started to open up so I must have been bring them in. Got up to the 9mile river crossing where I was now right behind 3rd, 4th and 5th placings here, I never done very well getting up that first climb where I got over taken into 7th by a young guy from Cosmics.
A slideshow of Pictures can be viewed on this shortcut below:
http://action-heroes.co.uk/galleries2/LairigGhru/index.html
He was running strong at this point he later confessed he really enjoys the rough stuff, when we got onto the flatter section I could see the bothy the ground was wet plenty of puddles, small boulders and stones having to get over, I was now closing on John McKay from Fife. Unfortunately there is no passing places on this section so 3rd, 4th, and 5th place guys were opening up where John was maintaining his current pace, I managed to get by him about the bothy area I think, so we were now starting to get into the Boulder field and the real technical stuff, you start climbing here for a bit the ground is sodded and you start to feel the wind against you more.
By this time I had drank 500mls of fluid and eat a bar of Tablet, so I was feeling strong and catching a guy from Motherwell Athletics club and gaining on the 4th guy Mark.
Into the boulder field the Motherwell guy was walking so overtook him and then Mark started to walk, when I went by him his face was white with dried in salt on his face, being a bit concerned especially where we were I stopped and asked him if he was ok, he replied quickly and seemed to be fully responsive so carried on, I kept this position until we were nearing the end on the rough stuff heading back over the stream when I got overtaken by the guy from Motherwell which put me on a bit of a downer. Carried on the next section was where I fell badly on my knee, where is a flat area but a real bad bumpy area where you can jump from boulder to boulder with peat in the middle again I lost a wee bit of time and I got taken by a guy from Fife which didn’t make things worst, although I was being overtaken I felt I wasn’t slowing down in fact the Fife guy looked as if he was flying so keeping things into perspective we were now into the Forest it’s downhill from here so care had to be taken as I had also fallen here before, normally I would be wanting to fly down this section however I said keep it together because if you fall you can sometimes cramp up and once you get your cramp releasted you’ve lost time and lost momentum and you start to feel the pains on the body more.
So I went for the cautious mode which seemed to pay off looked at the watch 3hours don’t think I’m going to be near 3.30 this year. Over the Cairngorm bridge sun now really warm, remembered the great run Gail, Steve and Lynne round here at Easter right 3 miles to go 4 gates to slow you down I can’t stop because you may not start again.
Watch Bleeped 7.22 mins last miles not brilliant but if I can keep this steady I hope I should be ok and not lose 6th place, onto the main road, you have a long stretch whole body tired just wanting to stop remembering Edinburgh feeling a bit like this however kept saying to myself 15mins to go 2miles you can make, opted to run on the road rather than the path as it felt easier, got to the iron bridge right half mile now, climbed up the embankment onto the main high street, remembering coming in 1st at Aviemore half last year, keen to get over the opposite side of the road to be nearer to the finish, good, right 400meters to go you can see the finish 3.43 can I get under 3.45, passers by shouting come on you can do it, nobody chasing going to finish……….3.45.07 by my watch. Thank god, fell over the line onto the back and remained there for 5mins, I was in rag order as we would say in the Army, however finished albeit slower than last year but something to work on, I was more pleased with the process rather than the final outcome, this can be built upon for a far less challenging route for the next Marathon in a few months time!
Winner was Ray Ward from Hunters Bog Trotters in 3.23
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This post was written by Tommy on June 21, 2009
