We set off from the city centre at 10am in lovely warm sunshine, full of nervous excitement and anticipation! You'll notice that Kat has a t-shirt on that says Sarah on it.... unfortunately Macmillan didn't get her a tshirt in time so she wore my old one from the Great North Run a few years back (see these things do come in handy when I don't throw them out!), and this led to much hilarity on the route as the crowd shouted "go on Sarah" "well done Sarah" "keep it up Sarah" all the way around! You might also notice that my number is black and not pink like the others which was a massive error on my part for not checking we had all put the same predicted finish time! This meant I had to covertly sneak into the pink pen or risk running the whole lot by myself, which didn't seem too appealing! Fortunately though it was fairly relaxed marshalling compared to other events and I wasn't the only one being naughty and breaking the rules!!!
The first 10 miles flew by as we took in the city sights and the lovely seaside views as we headed out to the coast. I was looking forward to seeing our lovely crew of supporters who were heading to the 10-11 mile mark, but unfortunately they missed us by literally minutes as they had been held up getting there. I was abit gutted but plodded on to 13 miles, happy to reach the halfway point and be feeling OK, but quickly had to push the thought out of my head that I still had at least another 2 hours of running to go as that was just terrifying!!! As we headed out of the towns into the countryside, the crowd got fewer and the heat got hotter! It was literally horrendous. Kat and I vowed to get to 18 miles without stopping, and at the 18 mile point we got to turn around and head back for the finish which psychologically was a huge boost.
Shortly after we got some slight shelter for a couple of minutes as we briefly ran through some trees, however, it was all getting abit tough and we took the decision to walk for a few hundred meters due to a combination of aching muscles, headaches, dizziness and general overwhelming exhaustion. Walking didn't feel great by any means, it was abit like an out of body experience but it gave us the break we needed to be able to push on and finish. We saw quite a few people laid out at the side of road, either being sick, unconscious or on drips which gave us a harsh reminder that this was a serious test of endurance which was being made even tougher by the 23C sun beating down on us! The wording on the event information kept ringing in my head: "The Edinburgh Marathon is not a fun run or a walk.An endurance road race of this distance is a serious athletic undertaking and should only be undertaken after doing the appropriate level of training". No kidding!!!
I'll be honest with you - it was horrendous. From about 16 to 22 miles I really, really struggled. I don't think I would ever have given up, but it was tough. Proper tough. Boiling hot, no shelter, no breeze, trying to drink enough water but being worried about drinking too much as that's not good for you either, I think at one point I started to lose my ability to think too as I just couldn't get the right words out! Fortunately though I had Kat with me throughout and we kept each other going chatting about random stuff and trying to distract ourselves from the challenge ahead. We were clear though that this would definitely be the only marathon we ever do!!!! Ticked that box - no need to put ourselves through that again!!!! At one point we passed a man in a giant bear suit, 'Marty', heading in the opposite direction - he hadn't even made it to 15 miles as we passed him on our way to 21. If I was feeling hot then my god he must have been sweating buckets in there! Good on him though!
Once we got to 23-24 miles we got a renewed energy, suddenly the end felt within reach and it seemed achievable again. The crowds spurred us on and someone had an M people song blaring out "what have you done today to make you feeeeeel proud!" - Kat and laughed both in humour but in sheer overwhelming emotion and exhaustion and we had to get abit of a grip and not cry otherwise we risked not being able to see where we were going and falling over!!! The last mile was amazing - the crowd were fantastic and we both ran with huge smiles on our faces, to lots of shouts of "go on Sarah", directed at Kat - haha! As we rounded the corner into the finishing area, our family and friends were spread out along the fence screaming and shouting when they recognised us - it was such a buzz to see them!!! As we crossed the finish line, hand in hand, Kat and I threw our arms around each other and said "thank god that's over!". Seriously though, it was a very emotional and proud moment and the hairs are standing up on my arms and I've got tears in my eyes just thinking about it as I write now. The sheer relief and exhaustion was overwhelming but it felt like a real achievement for everything we had gone through on the day. Our finishing time was 4hr40 which if I'm honest I'm slightly disappointed with as I wanted to do it in under 4hr 30, but there was literally nothing more I could have done on the day. I received a hilarious text from the event organisers informing me of my time:
What?!?! Do it AGAIN next year?!?!?! You've got to be kidding me!!!! We got our well earned goody bags with our tshirts in an had our medals presented by a man who put it around your neck for you. At the time I thought it was abit like having a medal presented at the olympics which was a nice touch but in hindsight I think it was more about not being able to physically lift the medal and put it around your neck after all the exertion! It was pretty heavy!!!
We found Emma and Gary in the finishing area who had done an amazing run - poor Emma had suffered throughout her training with all sorts of injuries, and Gary was struck down on the day with a leg muscle strain which meant he ran most of the second half of the race in a lot of discomfort. It was good to have us all back together in one piece and successful in our mission to finish, although I did hear Gary say at the end that he was going to do it again which was funny as at the 16 mile mark he most definitely said he was never, ever doing it again!!
I felt pretty horrific after the finish and had to lay down on the grass for a prolonged period whilst I debated whether I was going to be sick or pass out. Amazingly I only had one small blister and the rest of me seemed to all be intact, although my back felt badly bruised as thought I'd been kicked by a horse or something!!! After forcing down a rehydration salts drink, a packet of plain crisps and a portion of chips I finally felt able to move and think about heading up for the bus back to the city. Unbelievably this was over a mile away and up a HILL, which took us ages to hobble and stumble up! We finally arrived home at 10pm and after another packet of crisps, two yorkie biscuits, a bar of dark chocolate, a chocolate milkshake, and a diet coke I finally felt vaguely normal again!
I've woken up this morning feeling absolutely exhausted and unable to put any weight on my left ankle which is now a funny shape and colour for some unknown reason but so, so relieved that it's over and proud that we all did it and raised so much money for our various charities!
When I started this blog, I said this would be my first and last marathon, and I don't think anything has changed. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Nothing at the moment could make me want to do it again but I am immensely proud to say I've done it as I never ever in my life thought I would so to have ticked it off before my 30th birthday feels amazing.
So I'll sign off by saying thank you for reading, thank you for supporting me and thank you to everyone who has sponsored me! If you haven't yet, it's not too late you can go to www.justgiving.com/sarahwalkermarathon to donate, or you can text SOSW83 £1 to 70070
THANK YOU & GOODBYE :)
Sarah xxx
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