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2009 Albert Bartlett Edinburgh Marathon
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bumper -well done great time , Hope all goes well with the op, was lovely to meet you, mrs bumper and baby bumper on sat ....
very sorry to hear there are two runners in intensive care ...i think if the organisers dont apoligise soon they may well be struggeling to find anyone willing to hand over money to them again!
My first post in this thread.
yesterday was my first marathon and after running with an injury for the last 6-7 weeks and only running twice in the last fortnight, i would have been gratefull to finish. Then the heat on top of that filled me with fear.
I set off in the pink pen with a sub 3:45 , originally a 3:20 in mind before injury. The first few miles went by and i got fed up with my watch beeping at me so switched it to a manual record. Saw the first collapse at 5 miles which gave me a shudder and thought how will i get through this.
Well i decided on saturday night to graffiti my charity top and scrawl my work nickname on it (sharky), This was a master stroke and my lifting spirit.
I cant recall how many people shouted my name along the route, especially at the horse shoe turn at longniddry( where im not afraid to say i felt ten feet tall and had tears in my eyes and then along the finishing straight, and in many other places, you folks gave me the will to keep running and not give up.
One thing i will remember is, and it may sound daft but you know its hot when you can smell tarmac in the air.
My time was 3:45:03 which im over the moon with given the heat, 1562 place
,
I think this will be my one and only marathon , i much prefer the schedules of a half and a 10k, and so does my wife........
I have to say i have no complaints with the organisation with the exception of toiletting facilities at the satrt. everything was ok for me.
Well done to all who took part you should be proud of yourselves.
By the way , never say never
The nice thing about not being able to sleep is it gives you the ability to catch up on the thread.....
Smout Congratulations on your news, as well as a good finish, over the moon for you mate!
Bungee - thanks for organising the get-together and meal, great to meet people.
FOAR great run mate, superb time too.
Adie Turford nice on mate, good to meet you and the family.
Scary stories from the race, I guess that most if it happened behind me, as I didn't suffer from lack of water as I went round, but my day was still tough....
Ran strongly up till I got out of the Gosford house grounds and on the road back, and the heat hit me hard and I started walking at about 19 miles, but kept up a good pace (I still wanted to get a sub 4). ran/walked through to mile 24 then galvanised myself to run to the finish. I didn't find the plastic 'floor' as bouncy as before (does it get worse the more people run over it?), and crossed the line totally spent. Clock said 3 56 as I finished so I was delighted. I had two goals for the race - to complete the race without walking (failed) and to get a sub 4 (succeeded, so pretty happy - and even happier when I found that my official time is 3:52:41
).
Then discovered that my mobile which I had carried in my gel belt pocket had developed a fault and kept turning itself off as soon as it turned on, so while I had 10 text messages I couldn't read any and couldn't make or receive calls! Had to ask a fellow runner who was passing me as I was walking away from the course if I could use his phone to call Mrs Bumper as otherwise we wouldn't know where to meet each other - bit scary for a while, but HUGE thanks to the runner and girlfriend (who's phone I actually used) for the helping hand.
Got into the car sopping wet from the water I had been pouring over my head during the run (I only took 1 bottle each stop and drunk half/wore half), and once Mrs Bumper had got us and baby Bumper back to the hotel I had dreadful tummy problems (I'll spare you the details
) that laid me out close to the loo!!!
Anyway, glad to have done it, hope to do better next year, and grateful to have had the chance to share it with so many others here on the thread.
Great to have met up, sorry to anyone I've missed, good luck to you all for upcoming runs and races...
latest from the Scotsman
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/Boiling-24mile-marathon-with-water.5323583.jpAlison Grant from Hudds is Tiggia from fetch for those who know her
Well done everyone on your times. I faded at Gosforth House like most people it seems, and managed 5.16, but did a PB at the 1/2 way mark, so I can see where it all went wrong! My position was 7056 which I thought put me just in the top half, but reading what others have written about how many people took part this may not be right!
Had massage yesterday, after spending a couple hours at the turkish baths, legs not too bad, just the toes, not sure when I will be able to wear shoes again! Want to go out for a run but have to rest because plantar fasciitis is really bad so maybe at the weekend.
Morning folks.
Was in the office 1.25hours and the sh1t hit the fan, thoroughly f'd off already. I soooooooooooooo need out, why is the job market so dire at the moment...........
Good weekend feels a long time ago now.
Trimm Ditch - I think that was you that we left behind in the queue at the taxi rank. We felt terrible the whole way to Edinburgh. The taxi driver was working out how we could squeeze you both in, one with us and one with the other taxi but we just couldn't do it. So sorry. What a shocking start to the day. I hope you got your complaint letter in! What a fanatastic result you came in with though. Well done. I had been injured before I started and it flared up at 19 miles so I had to walk the rest of the way but was determined to run over the finish line so ran along the corrugated plastic bit. I was so worried that I would trip up and fall flat on my face. I just knew I wouldn't have been able to get up again. I described my day as the most horrible experience of my life, what with the bus and then the injury, water shortage and the heat and the horrible course through Gosford Park, and that litle loop that tricked you into thinking you were nearly on the home straight - that was just cruel. But today I feel fine and am determined to run another marathon as nothing can ever be as bad as that. I limped home about 5 and a half hours and just burst out crying when I saw my friends. It was so good to be finished. To add insult to injury by the time I finshed they had no small t-shirts left and ended up with a medium which is way too big for me.
SCharm, I think there were about 8500 marathon finishers and about 5000 relay folks. That's where the high number of entrants comes from
Gotta get out Soph!! Take care
Wel, back in work this morning for me
. We stopped on the Edinburgh Caravan Club site, & luckily they had a shuttle bus runnnign to the start, which made life easy to be honest.
The race itself, well what can I say. I said last year I wouldn't do another because I felt so bad afterwards, but manged in 3.27. This year I thought I'd train properly & go for 3.20 - FAT CHANCE!
It was all going reasonably well until, as for everyone else, about mile 17, when I started feeling tired. I was just too hot so I took the concious decision to back right off and just get to the end as it was obvious that 3.20 was a no go.
So i pottered round to the end, with a few walk stops in between & also stopping to help a few distressed people. Anyway, I got there in 3.37 which to be honest I'm a disappointed with, especially since I was still sick as a dog afterwards
.
Well done to all who finished, and comisserations to those who didn't.
I personally thought the general organisation was better than last year, but Gosford house is a pain, as is that crappy matting at the end, at least it is the end though. I thought the busses were better organised but the reunion area was, er, well, just random really! Not really helped by poeple just stood in the road at the competitors exit.
As regards the water stations, I don't think the organisers help themselves by giving out screw top bottles with the tops already taken off - it just means that people grab a bottle, have a swig & pour the rest over themselves or throw it away. I took water as soon as possible, but ran to the pallet & grabbed a bottle with the lid on. This meant I could run for a while, take the lid off, have a swig when needed etc. A lot less wastage. Sports caps are even better!!
Puffingirl, I have a small top if you want it. I don't wear them. Just give them to a friend for cleaning his traction engines. I usually get ex large so he has plenty of rags! The technical sort are not so useful for him.
I received a reply from Mr Kilgour about the water supply which again says about the water theft and lack of it being reported by anyone. Still alot of spin going on though. Maybe not something that could have been forseen but maybe it wasn't very bright to leave something like that accessible from the road and unprotected! The thieves could have made a fortune trying to sell it round the route!
I do feel a little agrieved that the marshalls at that end took a while to react. I complained to a couple of marshalls with walkie talkies who said it wasn't their problem! No - but you have the radio! And yes the police bikes bought water down but it was like the boy with his finger in the dyke! Above and beyond their call of duty but hopefully it helped prevent many more collapses. The locals were fantastic and if anythiing they became more invovled with the event. Edinburgh will never be as good as London for atmos. I won't accept people complaining about runners taking more than one bottle. It may not be 'fair' but it was necessary!
Six years they've been doing this! Things were looking up last year, now back to square 1
Hi folks, my poor legs are hurting more today than they were on Sunday! Shocking how much walking makes you ache
Had a day off training yesterday, going to go for a walk out with my mam tonight as I've not seen her for a while, will be nice to enjoy the sun instead of wishing it away because it's too hot to run! My face is still a bit pink, dread to think what it would be like without the two coats of factor 50 I had on.
SCharm, best to rest with PF, it's horrible I certainly don't miss it.
HUGE congrats to Smout, how exciting!
Someone else to bring along to races 
Well done Trimm on your first marathon, brilliant especially after all that stress first thing in the morning.
People have been asking me how I did at the weekend and I daren't tell them, normally end up gushing about how much I enjoyed a race, what time I did, etc etc. However, after swearing I won't do Isle of Man with it being early August, I am now 95% sure I'll be sending off my application... it'll be a good training run for Nottingham! Madness!
Oh, and I forgot to mention my two gripes about the race:
1) the woman giving out Tshirts who asked what size I wanted, showed me the small and said "will that be big enough for you?" erm... thanks
(I'm a size 10)
2) The marshall who said there weren't any showers.... but someone above said they went to the school? Ended up having one at the train station, which was nice but had to pay £2 for the privelege and I could have bought more Tennants out of that!
I hear videos of the finish are going up, is this correct?
My dad managed to wangle his way over to the finish line from the grandstand by helping to dish the water out. He said a guy in a suit came round and told them not to hand water out to anyone unless it looked like they were desperate to which my dad responded that everyone had just ran 26 miles in the searing heat of course they are desperate for a drink - twat!
Anyway, I would like to think that is just about as hard as it is going to get and it wasnt as bad as I was expecting despite taking 5 hours. If I can train injury free next year I might just be up for it again! The feeling of emotion crossing the line was incredible and I'm not embarassed to say my dad and I had a bit of a bubble in each others arms especially after one of the MacMillan supporters shouted "your mums watching you"!
JP
Someone has found a snap of me from Sunday here.
Was thankful for that visor (kept from Prague marathon in 2006) but it was so minging I had to throw it away after Sunday.
Should be a bit cooler tomorrow if anyone is venturing out for a recovery run
.
Just been on the website and theres some cracking pics of me, 15 in all, think I might have to rder one of those and get it framed with my medal (which I also thought was really good, dont know how they compare with other races?).
JP
Adie, that's what happened last year, I was taken there by one of the pupils... silly man saying there was none, surele he could smell how badly I needed a wash?!
Jambo that's shocking about the water at the finish, what does a suit know about how desparate people will be? Well done to your Dad for putting him in his place
Good pic FOAR, I've not yet dared to look at any of me!
finisher certificate
Day 1 of 16 week training Berlin marathon training programme started today!!!!!
24 mins on dreadmill. 9.5mph for 1min then 10.5mph for 1 min alternating. Blowing out my backside by the finish but thats not a surprise. Then lifted some weights and did some of that plank type nonsence that I hate sooooo much. I'm trying to blank out the 31st March to the 31st May as a very very very bad dream. Maybe not all of it as I need a bit of moticvation and I did "run" Boston. I'm just going to start again from scratch and hope better times are ahead.
Onwards and upwards
Plucked up the courage to look at my photos, those clever chaps with the cameras seem to have managed to get me only when I was running, could have got away with saying I ran the whole thing
Well done on the treadmill sesh Caniggia - what's wrong with planks? They're fab! I usually alternate between on my elbows and on my hands, one of these is called an bridge and the other a plank but not sure which way round it is... And don't forget to do them on each side too
Hi all! After asking abouts meeting palces and times, unfortunately I never made any of them
Sub 3:15 FOAR - you bar-steward. I'm not jealous - Honest! Massive congrats.
My sub 3:15 attempt faltered - again. Was going well until about 15/16, then tiredness took over. No disasters, but took a conscious decision to ease off and try to enjoy it.
Comfortable finish of 3:26:41, so pleased with that.
I won't add my tuppence worth to the water/organisation etc debate, I'm sure it's all been said. Personally though, I had a fab time, great event and a great city.
Also, passed Poppy en-route as she shouted at me, and then managed to see her at the end.
Its the banana and supeman bits than hurt. Its not that they are all that hard or anything but I tend to get to the gym about 7:45. By the time I've had a run and lifted some weights its normally about kicking out time and I'm normally starving and still have to go home and make my tea. They are just too easy to skip. I'm sure they help but never look like not doing them will do you all that much harm.
Its the school sports at the primary school next door. What the hell kind of sports are they doing. If any of these sports reach the olympics the aussies, yanks, russians and africans had better watch out
I went to see my big sis in Oz a couple of years ago and thought it was great to see wee kids play real sports. My niece is also being taught to swim by Ian Thorpe's former coach. She is 18 months old. Is it any wonder we are crap at almost all sports (other than ones you play in the pub) when our kids dont get to do them until they get to high school? 
hello all
first time poster on this thread and would just like to add my twopenneth.
i also got stuck at glasgow, has anyone had an explanation/apology?thanks to the four lads i shared the black cab with, 2 lads on their own and two together hope your run went well.
i started like a train was on course for my target time of 3.30 then 17 miles arrived and BANG, thought i had been beaten with baseball bats all over my body, i just couldnt run, got severe cramp in calves and thighs and was literally at "the wall" but it wasnt going to beat me so i walked and hobbled till i got to the racecourse and jogged/fell over the line in a totally demoralising 4h40.
i was (irrationally) disgusted with myself, felt a failure and a fraud, someone gave me a medal and i threw it away feeling i didnt deserve it. a lady must have seen me do this as she came up to me and gave me a packed one in a bag and said i would thank her tomorrow. apologies time now as throwing away my medal was totally disrepectful to everyone who took part but i didnt mean it like that and if on the small chance the lady is reading this thank you.
with hindsight i should have set off with a getting around in respectable time attitude instead of trying to pb, i think i underestimated the heat but we live and learn in this life and i will definatly not make the same mistake again.
in spite of the shocking organisation and mind blowing arrogance of some of the organisers i will be back next year as no way is that b*****d going to beat me. edinburgh marathon you may have had me on the ropes this year but next time i will be back and i smash you to bits.
finally a massive thanks to all supporters both on and off the course, it was humbling, emotional and at times a beautiful sight to see so many strangers helping, encouraging each other. the world would be a better place if more people were like this all the time. my god that sounds like a new micheal jackson song.
if anyone saw me i was the little fat bloke in a white t-shirt with a misscarriage assocition vest with nigel and bwfc on it
oh and drinking in glasgow till 5am after doing that is not big or clever