Sussex Marathon
Race photo. Photo creds to Coastal Trail Series
Coastal trail series Sussex marathon:
I signed up to do my first marathon about four months ago, and yesterday race day finally arrived. My friend Yui came with me to cheer me on, and we left Edinburgh on a 6:20am flight the Friday before, arriving in London and then taking the train from there to Brighton, then on to Eastbourne, the seaside resort town near the race venue. I've always thought people who flew somewhere for a marathon were a little crazy, yet here I am, doing the same thing. I guess distance running can make anyone crazy.
Views of Eastbourne. We spent Friday afternoon walking around the town, getting ice cream and hot chocolate and enjoying the beach and a big pasta dinner. It almost felt like a summer vacation (if the weather were warmer, it could have been!).
Fueling up the day before with ice cream that looks a bit like astronaut food.
We both assumed that since we were traveling from Scotland to the very southern edge of England, the weather would be nice. Think again...it was SO windy the entire time we were there, and not especially warm either!
We stayed the night at Beamsley Lodge, a very nice b&b, and spent that first afternoon walking around Eastbourne, which has a very pretty rock beach. It was extremely windy, though - the gusts were blowing at about 30mph, according to our weather app. I kept hoping the wind would stop before the run, but alas, it did not. We went to sleep early, but I didn't sleep well, pre race nerves waking me every hour. Each time, I listened for the wind, and each time, without fail, I heard it wailing out the window. Finally it was race morning, and we headed to Birling Gap, where the run would start.
The starting line - can you tell it's a bit chilly?
There were about 4,200 ft of elevation - the most I've done at once.
I call it race morning, but really I had no plans for making this run a race. For me, it was an endurance event, my first marathon, and to be honest I had a lot of doubts about wether I would even be able to finish. My training had been interrupted by shin splints and sore arches, and it was also difficult to correlate with football training. I had managed 17 miles as my farthest run to date. So, only 9 more miles to make up...I was nervous, more stressed than I've ever been about a run before, but I set out at 9:20 with all the other marathoners (168 others completed the marathon) and tried to quash my nerves. As soon as we started running, my nerves calmed as I fell into the rhythm. We started on rolling hills above the white chalk sea cliffs - the Seven Sisters. It was beautiful, but hard to run up because of the strong winds - though it was still early in the run, nearly everyone around me (myself included) walked up the hills.
While I was running, Yui was exploring. She got some pretty awesome photos!
I had decided the night before not to use my GPS on my phone - my phone battery was mysteriously running low very quickly, and I didn't want it to run out before the end of the run in case I couldn't find Yui or needed to call a cab. During these first few miles, that choice became a huge benefit. Running up those sea cliffs, my morale dropped, as I thought I'd spent an hour running about 3 miles. As the route turned inland, however, I discovered that in fact we'd already gone about 6 miles, which was a huge confidence booster. I fell in with another runner, and we ran and talked and kept each other company until the second aid station at 14 miles. Thanks to him, those miles passed fairly quickly! The next 4 miles - up to mile 18 - were surprisingly great. I walked all the steep hills, ran the downs and flats, passed sheep, horses, more seaside cliffs... I started listening to some music around mile 18, which boosted my mood. I kept waiting to "hit the wall", as I've heard happens around mile 20 or so, but so far so good. Then came the third aid station, at mile 21. "Only 5 miles to go!" I was told. I can do 5 miles, no problem, I told myself. At this point my calves and thighs were very tired and pretty sore, so I had to talk myself into keeping up a jog as we crested a hill and came back head on into the (still!) strong winds. It was pretty brutal for a while running into the wind, but then I found another runner going my pace and tucked in behind him. I kept going, forcing myself to keep pace with him, and he later told me that I was also encouraging him to keep running by being so close behind him. So thank you to that runner for letting me use him as a wind block! After about a mile of that we came to the final uphill, which we walked together, chatting a bit, which really gave me the motivation I needed to run the final 2 miles into the finish line. And then, I had done it! My first 26.2 miles. It was hard, maybe one of the hardest things I've done, but not quite so very hard as I had imagined, and I'm so glad I did it.
In the train about an hour after finishing.
After the run I just wanted to sit down and rest, but we had to hurry to catch our cab to the train to the plane back to Edinburgh, where we had a celebratory meal near Princes Street.
A big bowl of fresh Scottish mussels
