Brathay Windermere Marathon Report

Specificity - the quality or state of being specific.

This is how I should have viewed my training for the Brathay Windermere marathon. The reports had said undulating. I should have paid attention and trained accordingly. That is not to say that I had a bad day at the office, just that it could have gone better if I had a) trained for hills and b) set a more achievable target.

Hilly marathons are not the same beast as the run of the mill marathon. They are hard to pace and should be treated differently. Even to the extent that I think a hilly marathon PB should be given its own recognition and not compared to a flat marathon PB.

My wife and I travelled to Ambleside on the Saturday. I've been there a couple of times before, it's very beautiful and sits at the north end of lake Windermere. Once we had checked in to our hotel we set off for me to register for the marathon so it would be one less thing to worry about the following morning.

On the way there we were passed by a handful of people running the 10 in 10 (i.e. running the course 10 times over 10 days). I can barely walk the day after a marathon let alone get up and run another and then another and then another....

I picked up my number and was given a goody bag which is a first for me. I normally get a goody bag after a race not before. And another first, it came with a free bottle of beer. I laid out my bounty on my hotel bed to take a photo:

Goody bag bounty

The rest of the day we relaxed around the town and hotel and went to a local restaurant so I could fill up on pasta!

We drove to the start the next morning (having already paid for a parking spot). My wife loved the car park assistants who used giant foam fingers to help guide you where to park.

It was a beautiful day. The forecast earlier in the week had the weather as being cool and overcast. It most definitely wasn't. Hills and heat, an ominous sign!

Not a bad location for a marathon

We walked around the athletes' village for a bit until finally it was time for the marathon to start.

Athletes' village, finish line in the background

All smiles before the run

We all lined up behind a band of drummers who marched us the 400m down the hill to the start. Possibly the best way to start a marathon I've experienced. I've copied the official video below to give a taste of what it is like.

Waving not drowning

Walking down the hill

A steep hill that we have to run (walk) back up at the end!

Snaking down to the start

Finally at the bottom we all gathered behind the start line, the drumming band gave a final salvo and then a shotgun shot went off and we were away!

Start line

I had trained to run a 3:30 marathon so naturally I went off at that pace. The roads were undulating but not too bad. Certainly no worse than I've run before. It took about three miles for me to get into my stride and settle my pace to where I felt comfortable (still about 3:30 finish pace).

There was support, not loads; this is a countryside marathon after all.

After going through a village called Hawkshead I struck up a conversation with another runner called Matt. It was his third marathon although his first two were both Snowdonia so he was well suited for this sort of terrain. We both fell into the same rhythm and chatted away for the next 4 miles. I remember saying that I didn't want to jinx things but if the ups and downs were all like how they had been then I would be very happy. Then we hit the hill at mile 7!

I've run up steep hills before in a marathon, Richmond Park springs to mind, but this hill felt like it winded me. It was steep and long and completely sapped my pace. I could also hear the skirl of bagpipes which is not something you expect while puffing up a hill in the Lake District. Sure enough though, at the top were two bagpipers playing Scotland the Brave. At least they helped me take my mind off the climb. It levelled out eventually and then started a gradual decline.

I had split up from Matt by this time and settled into a slightly slower pace since I was now aware of the potential climbs to come and wanted to conserve some energy.

The sun had come out and it was heating up so I started looking for shade wherever I could get it. Race guidelines had said that headphones would be banned on non-closed sections of the race so I had decided not to wear any at all. I'm glad because I was able to take in all the sounds of the surrounding countryside as well as the sights. A total 4D experience. At this point there was nowhere else I would rather have been.

It stayed that way for the next seven miles. The undulations were manageable with no repeat of mile seven. I rounded the bottom of the lake and felt good. 12 miles down, 14 to go.

The sun continued to heat up and then I hit mile 14. Not as steep as mile 7 but a definite increase in slope compared to what had come before. My legs started to feel the pain. Race reviews had said that the second half was tougher than the first due to the unrelenting inclines. They were right.

My average pace was dropping. I was no longer on for 3:30, but I sort of knew that anyway. There was no way I could beat my PB on a course like this. I readjusted my expectations. 3:45 would be an excellent result, sub 4 would be good. That felt achievable.

I could see that my pace kept dropping very slowly for the next 6 or 7 miles but I thought I could manage it. Then I hit the hill at mile 21 that is known as ice cream mountain because of the ice cream van at the top. At that moment it might as well have been a mountain. My central governor won my body over and I had to stop to walk for a minute. I was annoyed with myself, I always am when I have to walk. It feels like a minor failure but sometimes it's the best thing to do. Unfortunately once you stop once it becomes easier to stop again and again.

I adopted a run/walk strategy for the final 5 miles. 800m run and 200m walk. My average pace dropped significantly but it helped get me back into a groove.

With 2 miles to go Matt caught up with me again. He'd had a tough day as well and the hills had caught him out too. He seemed to be finishing stronger than me though so I let him go ahead.

I finally entered the grounds of the estate where the finish line was and was faced with the cruellest of hills to get there. No way would I be able to run it. I walked until there was about 200m to go to the finish and then picked my legs up and sprinted (shuffled quickly) to the line. Official finishing time - 3:49:36.

My wife was there to greet me but all I wanted to do was lay down on the grass and get some oxygen back in my lungs.

I felt far worse than I appear to look

Finally we headed off to get back to the hotel. It took a while due to road closures but once back I headed straight down the hotel's spa and pool to soak my legs and get some circulation back in my body (the reason I booked the hotel was because they had a pool, sauna, steam room and hot tub - all of which helped my aching bones).

So, how do I feel about the marathon?

I would recommend it wholeheartedly. It's well run, challenging and in a beautiful location. I can see why it is rated so highly by runners.

Am I disappointed by my time? Not really. You learn something every time you run a marathon. This time I have learnt that if I'm going to run a hilly marathon then I have to set my expectations better, really listen to what other people have said and to train for hills better. Next time I run a hilly marathon I would set a goal of 3:45 and not get carried away at the start.

Now I do nothing for two weeks while I let my body rest. I've got a slight post tibial tendinitis pain after Sunday so that will have to disappear before I can start any real running. Then I will ease back into running before picking up training for the Chester marathon on 2nd October. I might try for a decent time for Chester but that will depend on how training goes over the summer.