It had to happen I guess! The day of the Greater Manchester Marathon finally arrived yesterday so I thought I would take a couple of minutes to tell you all how it went!

To begin with it was dry, which was a lot better than what the forecast was telling me! I felt good in the morning and decided to stick with my plan of going off with a pacer who would run the race in 3hours and 45 minutes. All went to plan up to half marathon distance which was reached a little ahead of schedule in 1 hour 51mins, but that is also where things started to go wrong! My pace started to drop gradually until 17 miles in I finally cracked and ran a 10 minute mile, something that hasn’t happened for years! Digging in my pace went up and down like a yoyo for the next 9 miles, some were good others felt like I would have been quicker if I had chopped my legs off and dragged myself along! In the end I made it and my last mile was just as quick as when I was at half way.

Ive got to say I am gutted with my time of 4hours 15 minutes, I had really thought I would finish in under 4 hours but at the end of the day I am proud to call myself a marathoner! Would I do it again? Maybe. Ive got to say no matter how fit you are nothing can prepare you for the relentless pain that you feel both during and after the race. 24 hours later and a flight of stairs still feels like an ascent on Mount Everest! Also there is no substitute for simply putting in mile after mile of training getting used to that feeling of running for hours rather than the relatively short blasts I was used to. Mentally I had the strength to keep picking myself up and putting in extra bursts of pace but physically my legs were just not ready!

My final thoughts are of mixed emotions, with time I could do so much better. However, I can say something that not everyone else can, Ihave run a Marathon and for now thats good enough for me!