Glasgow to Edinburgh Double Marathon

Several firsts here, my first race as a Team Inov 8 athlete, my first blog for Team Inov-8, my first Ultra Marathon for 2010 and I finished…



On Saturday I toed the start line apprehensively of the second running of the Glasgow to Edinburgh Double Marathon, a fairly recent addition to the Ultra calendar which appeared to be growing in popularity with a 100 entrants this year compared to small field of 20 last year and, even the lengthening of the course by nearly 2 miles to 56miles hadn’t put entrants off!<

The race follows the Forth & Clyde and Union canals and takes in the Antonine Wall which I couldn’t remember seeing and the Falkirk Wheel before leading competitors into the heart of Edinburgh finishing at the Edinburgh Quay; we were told at the start ‘just keep the canal on your left and you wont go wrong!’ so no need to navigate on this Ultra.

The forecast was for a great spring day perfect for Ultra running, and I had a superb support crew in Paul Hart and Dougie Brown both experienced endurance runners from Dumfries Running Club to help along the way at the five checkpoints.

The race started very swiftly with two Scottish International 100km Athletes Grant Jeans and Stephen Mason taking an early lead, I opted for a cautious start running in a small pack chatting to Lucy Colquhoun for a couple of miles, till I decided my legs had warmed up and increased my pace to just under 7min/mile.

With the course following the canal towpath it made for a very flat course underfoot conditions ranged from tarmac to slippery sticky mud which made the going tough at times and, this was theme for the whole route which made trying to keep at a continuous steady pace difficult.

After about 8miles I soon closed down on Stephen Mason in second place and went straight past him, trying to keep my pace steady and not worry how far Grant Jeans was in front, I went through the first checkpoint at 13miles in 1hr 30mins; 6minutes down on the leader, so with a fresh fuel bottle in my bumbag and sunglasses on as the weather was starting to get really nice I continued my pursuit of Grant.

The next stage to the Falkirk wheel had the worse underfoot conditions of soft sticky mud which just clung to the trainers and weighed them down sapping the energy out of the legs and, causing me to zig zag across the path to find solid ground. The path became easier just beforeBonny Bridge as I got closer to the Falkirk Wheel our second checkpoint, where my support crew refuelled me and informed me that I had only taken 30seconds out of Grants lead.

I climbed the only hill in the course next to the amazing feet of engineering the Falkirk Wheel to join up onto the Union Canal which I would follow all the way to Edinburgh. I was surprised how picturesque the course was turning out to be specially with the different views from what I was expecting a rather monotonous canal run, like seeing the Ochills covered in snow the over side of the Forth Estuary as I started to leave Falkirk. The canal then goes through a very long dankly lit long tunnel which was a really bizarre experience as water dripped down from the tunnel roof.

Shortly after the tunnel I passed through the first marathon in 2:58.20 and a few miles later noticed Grant up ahead and trying to not speed up closed the gap and at 29.5 miles moved up into first place, just as my right thigh tightened up with cramp which was a common theme for the rest of the race.

I was able to maintain my lead on the following stage after Linlithgow to Broxburn where my Forerunner started having reception problems and showed my pace ranging from 14min/mile to sub 6min/mile pace, it even later on in Edinburgh started thinking I was going backwards as I saw the distance I had covered decreasing as I was moving forward!

From Broxburn there was a short 5mile section to Ratho where the final checkpoint was before the last section into Edinburgh began and the pain and monotonous of the route really started to kick in mainly due to not knowing my pace or distance with my Garmin playing up but also with being in the built up area of Edinburgh not knowing how soon the finish would appear.

Finally I could see the end of the canal but not the finish as it was conveniently hidden round a corner, I tried a sprint finish but only managed a small increase of my pace as I exuberantly crossed the finish line in 6:22:56, 18minutes ahead of the rest of the field place and, a new course record.

A great way to start the year off!