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South Downs Marathon & 5K
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Hope you found it OK Robert.
Did everyone have a lovely time?! I did
Tad disappointed with the cotton t shirt (tent sized). They've never scrimped on the shirts before. Oh well, it wasn't to get a shirt that I did the event anyway.
4hrs 55mins BTW. No blisters or bruises.
Good show limper. The T isnt the best - nice advert for Salomon though I suppose. Accidentally ran a 4:09, and loved every minute, even after I lost the ability to run any sort of hill after 22 miles.
No blisters, but I can feel many bruises/aches. On reflection trail shoes would be better for this if ust for the stone plate - some of the downhills were sore under soft roadies.
Thanks 2:09, another great event - full review when I can think straight
I was expecting a technical tee
oh well, awesome day. Sadly my knee gave at mile 12 so i had to run/walk the remainer with a distincy limp and shooting pain every other step, non-the-less it was a great day and came in at somewhere around 4:50. What site do we go to to check our exact times?
Wot, no technical t-shirt this year?
The cotton one is pretty crap TBH but as Limper said you don't do it for the t-shirt....well, it helped to decide in my case! Maybe Mike will shed some light on the matter. I guess that Salomon are maybe cutting back in the current climate and all that.
As ever, a cracking event by 2.09.
3.44 for me......never again (again!).
Fantastic day loved it......sub 5:10ish for me very very pleased as was hoping to go under 5:30. Last 5m were a struggle with cramp! Ditto re the t-shirt....come on 2:09 we love the techie shirts
Great race well organised and I'll be back next year
FC x
Likewise missing the tech shirt - I was awaiting this year's colour scheme with some interest.
Great run however, weather perfect for me and my other gripe about starting times sorted as they let me change at the start to number 666! Got my sub 4
though it looked a bit hit and miss at the halfway point.
Did a faceplant in the aforementioned nice foresty bit after Harting Down but St John's patched me up at the finish and now, after a couple of drinks, I can't feel a thing. May be a different story tomorrow but it's still the weekend so I can stay in bed.
Well done to everyone who ran today...great times by all.
Rob..how were the blisters
Superkaz...thankyou so much for your company from mile two until the end....wish my time had been better but happy to get to the end even with a 6.23 finish time
Tonka - Blisters didn't even twinge! Your advice on the compeed was bang on the money! I owe you
Thanks but to be honest Tonka i think just getting accross the finish line is victory enough! No matter how much you train I don't think anything could have prepared me for those hills! I take my hat off to all finishers no matter what time
What a brilliant race.
Up at 5am, club mates picked me up at 6, then to the finish and a bus journey to the start, with an amusingy clueless driver who needed help from a handy Ipod enthusiast to find it. Then a delightful 2-hour wait at the start, a little picturesque school with startlingly glorious views towards the distant coast, as the organisers set off the relay runners and then the slower runners and eventually us. Was fun to pick up back markers almost all the way and the staggering worked well.
A 5-mile gentle climb up to the South Downs Way and then a course which basically plunges down into valleys at convenient 10K intervals and then climbs back up, with views so good I slowed down a couple of times just to take them in. Plenty of enjoyable banter with off road ultra nutters too. Picked up a bit at 6m, again a bit at half way, and had the uniquely pleasant experience of thinking I hadn't passed 20 and then passing 21. A slightly tougher second half but suspect I may well have run negative splits, and a nicely benign descent over the last mile and a bit to the finish, although suspect the 25m marker was a bit early.
Finished in 3:48 with only a few twinges of hamstring cramp in the last mile, otherwise felt quite strong throughout. Broke my rules by having not only a small bottle of water but also two gels, as was feeling quite peckish at half way.
Quite pleased, as training has been very, very light since the VLM. Nicely organised event, good medal, good logistics, faultless route marking, good start waves, even quite like the nice simple t-shirt (I disagree with the "technical kit" fanatics). Will do it again.
Despite this being my first marathon and only having 2 weeks to train (for unforseable reasons) I had a fantastic 21 miles
Was aiming for a 6 hour finish but after getting to half way in 2 hours I started telling myself that 5 hours was possible. I hit 21 miles and then BANG! I had a light stumble on a root, didnt fall over but both legs locked with cramp. After 23 miles I was lightly running again but once I hit the 25 mile mark the cramps returned and more seriously I was feeling like I was going to faint. A few extreemly helpful runners kept me going and actually found me a doctor who was having a BBQ and he administered a dose of cookies and water
I walked the last mile in what seemed to be an age but finished in around 5:30 - on reflection I am delighted with the time and will do it again next year
What a fab day out!
I thought this event was going to be hard, and it was.
Organisation was fab, and I like having the faster runners catch us up. What a friendly bunch of people runners are.
Very, very happy to see the finish line, and finished in 5.30. Not too tragic.
however, a few negatives also:
The mile markers were all short, by mile marker for mile 25 my Garmin was saying 24.5. I thought perhaps my Garmin was measuring short because of the hills, so I rather expected the race to end at about 25.7 on my Garmin. Nope, 1.7 miles to the finish from the 25 mile marker!
Why was there a timing mat about 30 yards from the finish line? I crossed the mat assuming it was the finish line stopped my watch and started walking to be told I hadn't finished!
Tech T-shirt. I would expect them to be posted out to us, as it was part of the deal for the race.
The best off road race in the UK !
Stunning views , perfect organisation and a race full of friendly runners ! add to that some wonderfull hills and in my book you have a great day !
Yesterday is what marathon running is about , it honestly does'nt get much better than that , for me its all about the experience and yesterdays was perfect !
I will be heading out for a little run later thinking i might even be able to run that last hill into the country park next year ......
Maybe Mike will come on to the thread and tell us what the problem was with the shirts. It is a disappointment in an otherwise excellent day.
My official finish time may be slightly in excess of my watch time as I spent a while sitting on the ground with a runner who had fallen - but I know I wasn't having a rest break!
It was great to have so many ad-lib chats with so many other runners as we clambered up (and up and up!) the hills and reinforces my opinion that off road runners are the strangest and friendliest of folk!
Well done to everyone who finished. See you next year!!!
I have run/jogged all the legs with friends in the past to help them in the relay and not found them to bad..even the hills......but put them all together and what a different story that is...i was puffing like a train on most of the hills.
I think most of the field passed me and i siad well done to all of them and most said thankyou..it does seem like off roaders have a lot more race etiquete (is that correct) a reall friendly race and i look forward to actually doing some training and doing it again next year.
I found the 3rd leg sick, not sure anything could prepare fisrt timers for that
Hats off Tonka if you found that "not too bad" even if running it as a single leg!
I agree on the race etiquette point. Amazingly friendly, good disciplined running on the few single-file sections, and no-one getting shirty even when dog-runners inevitably nudged people as they were steaming through.
Makes a rather stark contrast to all the people in the VLM barging each other out of the way because they want to stick to the blue line.
From the 2.09 Events website....
"Medals to all finishers in the Marathon and Relay
Salomon Technical T-shirt for all finishers in the full marathon (relay runners will be able to purchase a t-shirt)."
Mike, please explain.
My wife was in a relay team and they got the same goody bag as me...including the T-shirt and some chocolates that i did not have in mine...at least i had run the marathon to get the marathon medal.
If they know in advance how many relay teams there are, then why do they not have relay on their medals?
I agree Sean G, I didn't do the race just for the Tshirt but it's a bit disappointing (if not a little naughty) when it's promised on the entry......
FC
I went along to support my boyfriend's relay team. I was SUPPOSED to be running in the relay but due to teammates backing out at the very last minute I was not able to run. (I'm still fuming about it)
The organisation for the relay runners was so much better this year, thank you 2:09 for sorting out the congestion problem at the changeover point just before Cocking Hill!
I will be there next year, with more reliable teammates!