Race Report: Brathay Windermere Marathon 19/05/2013

Following completing the Sandstone trail ultra I felt pretty good and decided to enter myself in to a marathon. I looked at a couple and decided the reviews for the Brathay marathon made it worth a shot.

Paul and Michael in the car park before the race start.

The marathon was described as beautiful scenery and well organised. The little bit that said it contained brutal hills and was a real tough marathon I seemed to of glossed over.

The next plan was to find a Strider daft enough  to do it with me. Now who would that be then? Ah-ha, Mik of course, rumour has it that he likes the odd marathon now and then. Mik took some real persuading to join me NOT! In fact the moment I mentioned it he was chomping at the bit to do it, despite the fact he had to work a night shift on the Saturday.

So come race weekend I began carb loading on the Saturday night with a good dose of Domino's pizza and garlic bread. A good nights sleep from me and I was up and ready to go at 06:00. I headed to pick Mik up who appeared a little tired but I allowed him to have a sleep on the way.

On arrival in to the Lake District I came to remember how beautiful a place this was. Lovely and green with fantastic hilly views on a beautiful morning. Eventually we arrived at Brathay hall which was to be the start of this event. The hall is in a fantastic setting and on a wonderful backdrop of rolling hills and the outstanding lake Windermere.

With some time to spare Mik treated me to an expensive coffee from one of the various stalls that were there. We then met a couple of other marathon runners that we knew before getting on the start line and getting ready to go. We were led to the start line by a band of drummers that made a great noise and before we knew it we were on our way. The first 8 miles or so took place on closed roads winding through some fantastic scenery. However not only was the scenery fantastic but the road went up and down a lot, it was really quite hilly, not as brutal as I was led to believe but definitely hilly. A few other runners that I ran with had done the course several times before and began to give me a bit of information on the course. For example, at mile 7 the hill was nicknamed Tourettes hill due to the amount of swearing people use to get up it. Then at mile 21 there was ice cream mountain, named so because it was a brutal climb with an ice cream van at the top.

MIchael and Paul post-race with Marathonics Anonymous creator Wona

I continued thought the course until eventually reaching the small town of Hawkshead. At this town I was given such a lift buy the terrific support of the locals. They had practically lined the street cheering and shouting all the way through the town.  As we came out the other side of the town we were warned that the roads were no longer closed. The course continued to be winding and hilly but we continued through some wonderful scenery.

As i approached half way I was reminded by my app that I had completed half the course in just 2hrs 3 mins. Now if that would of been a half marathon on such a hilly course, I would of been quite pleased with that time. However would I feel It later?

So half way through and I was feeling pretty good but god knows why considering the tough terrain. I continued running and chatting with other runners, one guy even told me he had done over 700 road marathons. Wow I thought and then said to him that there was another guy in the race from Germany that had completed 2000 !!!

The course, click to enlarge.

At approximately 16 miles coming down a rather steep hill I seemed to jar my knee, not horrifically but enough for me to feel it. I stopped at the water station at 17 miles to make some adjustments and add a knee support taking about  5 mins off my time. However with the adjustments made I set off again and hit another rhythm until about mile 20 at this point I entertained ice cream mountain. I began the long climb up the hill puffing and panting until I eventually reached the top. At the top there was an ice cream van neatly positioned in the lay by but unfortunately I had no money to buy one.

As the road winded down to the lovely town of Ambleside and even more support I began to feel my legs going. My pace had dropped to about 12 min miles but I was still moving ok.  I began to struggle about mile 24 but I was still moving , only just but I kept going. At mile 25 something strange happened, I have heard about hitting the wall and thought that I had done so before, after all this was my 8th marathon. How wrong I was, it was mile 25 I was minutes from the end of a great marathon. I could feel my pulse points on my arms pumping, my head was full of pins and needles and I had a very numb feeling in my face. I could just about manage to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. The last mile was to take me over 15 mins to complete but complete it I did. I had also experienced a stitch from mile 16 onwards due to a gel I had taken that was in my goodie bag given before the race.

 

I struggled in to a time of about 4-44 which for a course like this was really good, in fact I'm convinced that if this would of been a flat race I would of easily gone sub 4-30. I had felt good, I had spent some time sorting my knee out, I had proper hit the wall in the last mile on a difficult course please enter excuse here.

At the end of the race I felt rather weird, and therefore ended up in the first aid tent for a quick assessment, I had my blood sugar, bp, pulse and oxygen sats done and thankfully were all normal. I was given a couple of dextrose tablets and 20 mins later, I was good to go for photos so I suspect it was just a bit of marathon fatigue.

The medal given at the end of this race was fantastic, a really really nice big slate medal of the hall. The event is a charity event aimed at raising money for disadvantaged children.

I gave my ratings for this race on runners world. They were high, very high, it's a terrific race, tough, fun, scenery to die for great support, a worthy cause, great medal. The only minor downside is running on the roads which are not closed in a busy tourist area. Nearly all the cars are very thoughtful with many shouting encouragement out of the window, however, it only takes one idiot to spoil the race for all those running. Fortunately I never came across any thanks to the police motorcycles constantly patrolling the area and keeping the boy racers in check.

Mik managed a good time on a tough course and also stated how much he enjoyed the race, so taking into account his experience I must be right in thinking that this is a great run. Would I do it again? You bet I would.

For those supper brave enough, the course also offers the chance to run the ten in ten challenge, that's ten marathons in ten days. Not cheap mind, as you have to raise £2000 sponsorship and pay the £750 entry fee.

For more information visit the Brathay Windermere website.

Paul N.