Yesterday Richard Quartermaine and myself participated in the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon. As the name suggests the race follows the coastal path for an out and back course. Although gusty in places it is a flat, scenic course with only about 4 miles on road. Due to the tide times it was a reasonably early start – 8.45am – thereby necessitating a very early start from Tunbridge Wells! The race was well organised with very efficient, friendly marshals. Indeed there was quite a lot of crowd support. With 1250 runners, it’s a popular race. The only disadvantage was that the paths were very narrow in places which made overtaking very difficult.
Unfortunately I had quite a nasty fall only 2 miles into the race. It was on a narrow stretch of beach. A woman had chosen that time to walk her dog on the same stretch of beach (with 1200 runners running towards her!) and in the process of avoiding the aforementioned dog, I tripped over a rock and landed on the shingle lacerating my hand and both knees! Still I managed to persevere and finished 6th woman in a time of 3:26:33 ( 2 minutes faster than last year!). Despite it being off road, I reckon it’s a club record in my now older age category!
I didn’t hang around at the finish. I must have looked fairly grim, as on finishing an official immediately took me over to first aid. I acquiesced, thinking someone would clean up my wounds. After ascertaining how far away my car was, the first aid guy gave me a foil blanket and told me to stay warm! By now, of course, the mud and grit were well encased in the congealed blood!
Anyway, looking at the results Richard finished in 3:54:30.
Best wishes for a great Christmas
Tara