Portsmouth Coastal Marathon 2012

[Deleted User]

Congratulations to everyone who finished yesterday!

I had a tough race, messed up badly at the start by going way too fast in the first half getting there in 1h30m then something happened with my knee and I was pretty much in agony for the rest of the race - staggered back very slowly and finished in 3h42m - over 20m slower than my target.

But I have to say although I didn't enjoy that, more-or-less every runner who passed me asked if I was ok or needed help as did many of the supporters - and that made up for my pain and disappointment. 

Overall thought the race was really well organised, the stewards, supporters and fellow runners were great - so thanks to all of them. I would suggest anyone considering doing this race in the future to get some cross-country experience - the mud and puddles make it a very different sort of challenge to a bog-standard road race.

[Deleted User]

Fantastic race. Much better than standard road runs and great atmosphere. Big thanks to the organisers. Glad to see not too many DNFs as well. Can anyone clear up where the 'missing' 0.2 miles was? Expecting the finish to be beyond the start it was like Christmas come early when the blue mat came into sight. If only all race organisers would be kind enough to hide a few miles here and there towards the end of long races!!!

Charles R

My GPS came back with 26.3 miles.

Great race - really good fun compared to road races once you realised that running in a straight line through puddles on the forefoot was far better than weaving around them.

I couldn't get my heartrate down which was annoying - I ran the first 19 miles at a pace that would have been 150bpm in training but on the day was 160+ However, it didn't rise at all which was good, so with 7 miles to go I got a bit bored of going slowly and sprinted to the finish at 170-175bpm. Apologies to all the people I came piling past in the last 6 miles. Finished in 3:38 - my dry weather road target was 3:23 so considering the conditions, perhaps that 15 mins would have been very close? It was a personal best anyway!

Also, did anyone see Phil Hewitt (author of "Keep On Running") getting round with blood all over his face? You can read about it here: http://marathonaddictuk.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/the-kindness-of-runners/ It was me that distracted him just at the wrong moment! Ooops.