Beachy Head was wonderful. Mind you, I'm still in the "I'm never running a marathon again ever" phase. "It's been emotional" as they say. The weekend was a roller-coaster ride, both in terms of physical elevation and mental. The profile of the route is a series of ups and downs totalling 3500 feet of ascent. And sometimes you have to go quite close to the edge.
The night before was chaos about where the RW people were meeting up: talk of the Odyssey chip shop, a false rumour of The Pilot pub, and eventually everyone seemed to be in The Ship. I met a few old friends, and a couple of people that I know online but had never met in person before, which was nice. I need the "I-spy book of forumites" (like a train-spotter) so I can cross them off as I meet them. Yums and Mark1 are now ticked off.
The B&B was way too hot -- probably heated for the elderly -- and I had a lot of trouble sleeping, which was not ideal preparation, as I'd only had a few hours the night before that. And they were not expecting to serve any breakfast before 8, which needed a little bit of negotiation.
The race itself was much better than I expected. Very scenic. And fine weather. I had been apprehensive but felt good nearly all the way round, until about a mile from the end, when one knee started to hurt. No trouble from my collarbone. No "hitting the wall". I felt able to sprint up the first of the "seven sisters" at about mile 20. Okay, she's the littlest sister, but still…. There was a lot of walking too, I don't want to give the impression that it was all running. We finished in 5:50 (whereas on the flat I would do maybe 4:30). I am very happy with that result over that course.
I'd never run a marathon with someone else before. It's better. No music, but conversation, and amazing scenery. Oh, and Karen had run another marathon a week earlier in Amsterdam. So she would have been fully entitled to have a lousy race; but she didn't. (She's Superman's big sister.) And the "water stops" were something else. Mars bars, fruitcake, sausage rolls, tea and coffee… it was a continuous pig-out …
And then another evening in The Ship …
