Edinburgh Marathon 2010

Racman

Well done to all who ran yesterday, in particular to Aero2k and Seanynova. Aero2k's run was a fantastic performance given the conditions. My best 10 is just under 60 mins and best half is 79 mins and I felt optimistic about 2.50 before yesterday too but was happy to get 2.58.28 in the end (and 5th M50). This suggests to me that Aero2k has lots more improvement in him at all the various distances too. I think Seanynova also demonstrated that he has what it takes and will achieve sub 3 next time.

The death of a runner during a race has lessons for aspiring fun runners. According to the BBC report, the unfortunate man collapsed at 1225 on Musselburgh Road on the first leg of the relay. The relay started at 1000 and the first leg was about 8.5 miles long. If the time of the incident is correct, it is clear that the man was not running or even jogging and must have been less than fully fit.

And isn't the race website a real nuisance - unable to show results most of the time. Maybe tomorrow after the results have been published in the local newspaper (The Scotsman) and people have bought it.

aero2k

tisnotover wrote: »

Thanks aero2k, will do best for the report ...you'll probably make a separate training report about this, but were you doing PMP runs outside of your LSR or at end of a LSR ??

Also interesting to read that you use the DS Trainer and HyperSpeed III's, (I train and race in both as well)...love asics !

Hi tno,

Yeah, detailed technical stuff later, but PMP miles always near the end of a Saturday long run. Fast session on Tuesdays, shorter intervals at 10k pace working up to 1.75 miles at HMP x4. Started out with PMPat 6:40, brought it down to 6:30 for the last few runs. Struggled a bit at that pace tbh, but it didn't feel too bad yesterday, all things considered, and late slowdown nothwithstanding.
Wary of making a recommendation but tight calves is the only problem after wearing the Hyperspeeds.

Krusty_Clown

aero2k wrote: »

Nop, sorry...:D

Awesome. Well done. Pity about the weather, you could've gone a lot quicker. But you're only a spritely young fella.

pgmcpq

Just finished catching up on this thread. Congrats to all who ran this. It sounds brutal.

aero2k

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Awesome. Well done. Pity about the weather, you could've gone a lot quicker. But you're only a spritely young fella.

Ah, cheers Krusty, this morning I could do with a loan of my ma's walker (you know those things with wheels and handles like a pram).:)

Since you bring up the age thing, the women's winner Sarah Gee (no sniggering at the back) is 46. She started running at 40, and reckons she's still improving. She did 2:38 on Sunday, having been the fastest woman in the massed start at London, and in between she set a 10k pb of just over 35 min on a tough course. I saw her being interviewed on Scottish tv, and she looked as fresh as a daisy having run relatively even splits.

One of the last emails I had from the organisers talked a bit about the group that have run all 7 Edinburgh marathons. One of them managed to go sub-3 on his 21st attempt, aged 56. He said he thought he was running out of time - I thought the same after DCM 08 which took place on my 44th birthday. Now I'm thinking crazy stuff, which for the moment I'll keep to myself....

Diggy78

2 stars (poor)

Well done to everyone who managed to get through that, bloody tough work late on. Still at least we all have further proof to the medal, that being the shiny red foreheads. Was 3 mins off a pb myself, came in a nidge under the 3.30 so was happy with that. Some of my points on the marathon,
- Great city to visit pity we hardly saw any of it during the race.
- The route, wtf, has to be the worst design I've come across, out and back course and still the need to make you run a few hundered metres up a by road and back down, ridiculous I thought. Generally a very boring course, well not when I felt that I'd be done for trespassing after we ran into that farmers garden and up his dirt trail. I did enjoy the rolling hills between about 16 and 17? and then when we had them on the way back again.
- Great medal, really love the medal.
- The supporters were great on the way back in, from about 20?? miles in they were absolutely fantastic.
- Very friendly race I thought, a lot of good encouragement among the runners all the way, especially near the end. I stopped to check on a lad and get him going again at about 22 miles and at about 23 miles a completely different fella did the same for me.
- Water stations seemed to come around very quickly.


I enjoyed the race, despite the weather, but would I come back to run it again?, not a chance. Purely on the layout of the course. Maybe I'm being a bit naieve here but compared with overseas runners running Dublin, did we get a Scottish experience? Dublin Marathon brings you around the city and shows you as much as it can. The Edinborough one started you in Edinbrough and then told you to get the hell out of the city as quickly as possible, and try to avoid any sightseeing along the way. Anyway, that's my only real gripe, well done to everyone again.

mathie

Just did the half myself and it was tough so well done to all who did the full!

I managed to finish in the top 5% even though I was football training and didn't get to do any runs before it so I was happy with that

eliwallach

mathie wrote: »

I managed to finish in the top 5% even though I was football training and didn't get to do any runs before it so I was happy with that

If your football training consisted of numerous sessions of 40+ laps of the pitch, I'll believe you.

TakeaBowSon

Only back in Dublin today and the sunburn is starting to fade now!

Tough tough work overall...Finished in 4.01. A little dissapointed considering it was slower than Dublin (3.57) and I had trained pretty hard for this but thats the way it goes!!

Was really feeling it after half way and my splits of 1.45 and 2.16 tells its own story.

Overall I have to say I wouldn't run it again. The out and back nature is a pain and as the poster above had said you don't really see the city at all!

Anyways enough moaning - well done to all and back to the drawing board!!

mathie

eliwallach wrote: »

If your football training consisted of numerous sessions of 40+ laps of the pitch, I'll believe you.

Unfortunately we do very little running in our training.
I'd be fit so I'll be interested to see what I can do now the football season is over and I can concetrate on the running.

eliwallach

mathie wrote: »

Unfortunately we do very little running in our training.
.

That makes it all the more amazing.
Think you're concentrating on the wrong sport.

Good luck.

seanynova

photos are up on the official website(the ones for sale), there is a beauty of me pulling a wild facial expression as i was trying to trot down the finish straight!

tunguska

aero2k wrote: »

One of the last emails I had from the organisers talked a bit about the group that have run all 7 Edinburgh marathons. One of them managed to go sub-3 on his 21st attempt, aged 56. He said he thought he was running out of time - I thought the same after DCM 08 which took place on my 44th birthday. Now I'm thinking crazy stuff, which for the moment I'll keep to myself....

I know what youre thinking and it aint so crazy.......You gotta think big.

Burgman

Now call me a numbers nerd if you like but I did some analysis of the times and came up with these stats:

Total of 2,670 finishers in under 4 hours out of 9,459 finishers overall.

Out of these 2,670, only 81 ran negative splits (i.e. second half faster than the first half). One of these was almost 16 minutes faster! None were in the top 100 and only two were under 3 hours. Admittedly, this is probably understandable given the course profile but you can be sure the heat was a factor too.


The average time for the second half was 16.2% slower than the first half.

Out of 226 runners who went through half way between 1:25:00 and 1:30:00, only 51 finished under 3 hours. 21 of the others finished outside 3:25 so Seanynova had plenty of fellow sufferers. Spare a thought for the guy who went through half way in under 1:21 but didn't finish until 3:44.

There were 116 finishers in under 3 hours. The first 300 finishers were through in 3:13:14. In contract, in Dublin 2009 (10,472 finishers - about 10% more than Edinburgh), there were 284 finishers under 3 hours and the first 300 finishers were through in 3:00:24. Given the independently awarded description of "fastest marathon in the U.K.", this gives an indication of the adverse impact of the hot weather on performances.

Overall, given the risks of getting hot weather in spring/early summer marathons, there is a lot to be said for aiming instead for the cool autumn weather in Dublin.

Krusty_Clown

Burgman wrote: »

Overall, given the risks of getting hot weather in spring/early summer marathons, there is a lot to be said for aiming instead for the cool autumn weather in Dublin.

Thanks for the analysis. There's also a good argument for a marathon earlier in the season, like Barcelona in early March.

aero2k

Racman wrote: »

My best 10 is just under 60 mins and best half is 79 mins and I felt optimistic about 2.50 before yesterday too but was happy to get 2.58.28 in the end (and 5th M50). This suggests to me that Aero2k has lots more improvement in him at all the various distances too. I think Seanynova also demonstrated that he has what it takes and will achieve sub 3 next time.


And isn't the race website a real nuisance - unable to show results most of the time. Maybe tomorrow after the results have been published in the local newspaper (The Scotsman) and people have bought it.

Hello again Racman - just to congratulate you on your time and the fact that your name appears in a highlighted box on the centre spread of the souvenir pullout in the Scotsman.
I'll be trying to match your times for the 10 and half over the summer, somehow I think that'll be a much bigger challenge for me than the marathon.
38% of those who finished ahead of me were over 40, further proof that age is not a barrier.
Yeah, the website is slow. They need to be quicker with the results and the site itself needs a few energy gels or something, it takes a while doing searches and every so often sits down to have a little rest.:)

Git101

3 stars (average)

Diggy78 wrote: »

The Edinborough one started you in Edinbrough and then told you to get the hell out of the city as quickly as possible, and try to avoid any sights.eeing along the way.

TakeaBowSon wrote: »

Overall I have to say I wouldn't run it again. The out and back nature is a pain and as the poster above had said you don't really see the city at all!

In all fairness lads during a marathon in probably not the best time for sightseeing. A tour bus may be a better option

Eventually finished my blog post (link below).
No technical stuff just my ramblings and feelings on the day.
Hopefully I'll be able to add some photos later.

aero2k

The out and back course posed one huge challenge for me - I had to pass an open Lidl store twice in the space of 2 hours without nipping in to check for cheap running gear and tools. The OH still doesn't believe I managed that!:D