Apologies for the delay in putting up the Nottingham Marathon race report. I left to go on holiday the next day and have been struggling to find time since.
Anyway back to the report. Quick results for those short on time are below:
ChipPos ChipTime RaceNo Name GunPos GunTime
463 out of 1059 03:58:26 10187 Andrew Shirres 457 04:00:02
My training had been very broken leading up to this race and whilst the confidence had taken a little dint from this, the recent passing away of Jane Tomlinson reminded me people with far more troubles had overcome the Marathon distance and I drew strength from that. I had originally targeted less than 4 hours but with the training I thought at best I’d only have a 50/50 chance to get that, but I reminded myself this was more about the distance than the time.
I arrived in Nottingham on the Saturday and stayed with a mate (thanks Jim). I woke up Saturday morning a little nervous, but very excited. My mate Ben was particularly hard core and drove up from London on the morning to see my first Marathon, though I think he gets a quick out of seeing me in pain! After wolfing down 3 Wheetabix and headed off to the start.As we arrived at the start the atmosphere was well and truly building up with thousands of people milling around. I ate my banana, did a few stretches and handed my post race bag to Jim. I moved closer to the front, watched the clock tick down, and then we were off! Almost straight away I realised I’d drunk too much water and I needed the loo! Thankfully, after 500 metres there was a public loo so there was no need for a Paula.
As the race unfolded we ran through the streets of Nottingham city centre and headed out towards Wollaton Park. I was being cautious with my running and making sure I was holding something back, but despite this I started to slowly edge ahead of my Runners World pace band which was set for a 3 hours 50 minute finish as well as ever so slowly begin to overtake runners.
Wollaton Park turned out to be a beautiful place to go for a run, and as I started nearing the end I noticed the crowd cheering a little louder as I ran by them. Not having become famous for my Marathon running yet I began to wonder why this was, and a quick look round my shoulder revealed that the cheers were for Spiderman who was right behind me and going from strength to strength!!!!
As I left Wollaton Park I passed through the most memorable water stop of the course. Not only did two bottles of water slip from my hands onto the poor volunteers handing them out, but the volunteers were the local American Football team for Nottingham University fully kitted out! Not wanting to hang around to see if these chaps would take offence I shouted a “Sorry!” and notched the pace up.
As I ran along Castle Boulevard, I managed to catch up with Spiderman and as we ran round the corner we entered the home straight for the half marathon runners. Both my uni friends, and a friend from work managed to see me running along this stretch and it gave me a boost. At the half Marathon mark, my time was 1:50:00 which put me 5 minutes ahead of the pace band which meant I had 15 minutes spare for under 4 hours. I started to feel I could do it!
However the half Marathon had taken its toll, and quiet quickly by mile 14 the odd person started overtaking me and by the 15 mile marker I noticed I had lost a minute on my pace band and now only had 4 minutes in hand. A dull ache in some of my leg muscles had started and it was at this point with over 10 miles to go I realised that the race was really only just starting!
Around the 16 mile mark a middle aged chap slowly overtook me wearing an Isle of Man shirt. Its funny how little things like this stand out during a long run, but for the next 3 miles I overtook him at every water station (when he tended to stop for a drink) and he then promptly overtook me on the straights once he’d got his speed back up!
Just after the 18 mile marker, I overtook the Isle of Man runner for the final time, with only 1 minute up on my pace band and approached a part of the course that will forever send a shiver down my spine… Nottingham boating lake! For the four miles I had to run round the rowing lake of the National Water Sports Centre. This place looks beautiful, but it’s one pig of a place to run round! The site is probably perfect for rowers, but for runners it is very exposed, and unfortunately a strong headwind was present for around three of the four miles of this part. It was soul destroying, the legs where pleading for me to stop, the headwind making an already painful stage more painful, the scenery gave the illusion that you weren’t making any progress, and to make matters worse, as we emerged from this section, I found myself on the banks of the Trent with only slightly more shelter than the boating lake, for another mile and a half stretch.
I checked my watch at the 24 miles marker and it was roughly 3 hours 41 minutes. I’d haemorrhaged roughly 11 minutes of my in hand time on the 4 hour mark and I was now one minute over the mark and that was if I could regain my pre-boating lake pace. Luckily as I rounded the bend at 24.5 miles, I was finally out of the head wind, sheltered, and now very angry, and threw absolutely everything I had into what distance was left!
I’ve no idea where I found the energy from, but I really motored through the remaining distance and it felt as though my fastest mile was probably done in this section! As I crossed over the bridge, I continued to make the most of my momentum and push onwards overtaking people fairly rapidly by now.
As I passed the 26 mile marker I heard the announcer start the countdown for getting under four hours on the gun time (chip time is my personal time, gun time is from the official start, but on big races it can take several minutes to cross the start line). I decided I wanted under 4 on the gun time to and went screaming down the final straight, but it wasn’t meant to be and I missed the gun time by 3 seconds!
Post race was a bit of a daze and I managed a couple of post race interviews with my mates who fancy themselves as future Ray Stubbs I feel! My legs felt destroyed but relieved to have finished. For me personally, I was really pleased with my time, and felt a great sense of achievement. Looking back, it’s been a steep climb since I started running first in 2005, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m already starting to look for other races so keep checking back every now and then!
I’d like to thank all the race marshals, volunteers and organisers at the Nottingham Marathon as the event was excellently run. I’d also like to thank all those people who’ve sponsored me as this has made the event so much more worthwhile doing, and for those who have been meaning to sponsors me but haven’t yet, there’s still time for you at my Justgiving website.
Cheers
Andy
Around the 16 mile mark a middle aged chap slowly overtook me wearing an Isle of Man shirt. Its funny how little things like this stand out during a long run, but for the next 3 miles I overtook him at every water station (when he tended to stop for a drink) and he then promptly overtook me on the straights once he’d got his speed back up!
Just after the 18 mile marker, I overtook the Isle of Man runner for the final time, with only 1 minute up on my pace band and approached a part of the course that will forever send a shiver down my spine… Nottingham boating lake! For the four miles I had to run round the rowing lake of the National Water Sports Centre. This place looks beautiful, but it’s one pig of a place to run round! The site is probably perfect for rowers, but for runners it is very exposed, and unfortunately a strong headwind was present for around three of the four miles of this part. It was soul destroying, the legs where pleading for me to stop, the headwind making an already painful stage more painful, the scenery gave the illusion that you weren’t making any progress, and to make matters worse, as we emerged from this section, I found myself on the banks of the Trent with only slightly more shelter than the boating lake, for another mile and a half stretch.
I checked my watch at the 24 miles marker and it was roughly 3 hours 41 minutes. I’d haemorrhaged roughly 11 minutes of my in hand time on the 4 hour mark and I was now one minute over the mark and that was if I could regain my pre-boating lake pace. Luckily as I rounded the bend at 24.5 miles, I was finally out of the head wind, sheltered, and now very angry, and threw absolutely everything I had into what distance was left!
I’ve no idea where I found the energy from, but I really motored through the remaining distance and it felt as though my fastest mile was probably done in this section! As I crossed over the bridge, I continued to make the most of my momentum and push onwards overtaking people fairly rapidly by now.
As I passed the 26 mile marker I heard the announcer start the countdown for getting under four hours on the gun time (chip time is my personal time, gun time is from the official start, but on big races it can take several minutes to cross the start line). I decided I wanted under 4 on the gun time to and went screaming down the final straight, but it wasn’t meant to be and I missed the gun time by 3 seconds!
Post race was a bit of a daze and I managed a couple of post race interviews with my mates who fancy themselves as future Ray Stubbs I feel! My legs felt destroyed but relieved to have finished. For me personally, I was really pleased with my time, and felt a great sense of achievement. Looking back, it’s been a steep climb since I started running first in 2005, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m already starting to look for other races so keep checking back every now and then!
I’d like to thank all the race marshals, volunteers and organisers at the Nottingham Marathon as the event was excellently run. I’d also like to thank all those people who’ve sponsored me as this has made the event so much more worthwhile doing, and for those who have been meaning to sponsors me but haven’t yet, there’s still time for you at my Justgiving website.
Cheers
Andy
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