Kielder Marathon

England’s most beautiful marathon, they say, and sometimes, parenthetically, “and hilliest”.

It’s not, of course, and there are a few claimants to that crown. And anyway, I thought, it’s just a path around a reservoir, how hilly can it be?

And the answer is, almost continuously! A few steep climbs and descents, but mostly nothing too arduous. Just continuous.

It was a good day for running and we’d made a good start on coffee and scrambled eggs before we drove across to the race car park. I took the shuttle to the marathon start, Wol and Hannah to the half, and the Minx walked across to the area where both races would finish (also the marathon start).

I made a pretty good beginning, sticking to a slow pace and resisting the temptation to succumb to the adrenaline and join the lively rush of jostling bodies, and after a few miles, the pack thinned out and settled down.

I’m not sure when I became aware of the toll the undulations of the path was taking on my legs. I was already frustrated that I couldn’t vary my pace in the way that I’d trained, but my thighs in particular were tiring.

The sixteenth mile was the worst, as I realised I was no longer sure I’d finish. I just carried on putting one foot in front of the other, whilst worrying whether that was a viable strategy for the next ten miles.

But I kept on going. I felt better as I hit the high teens, and then the twenty mile mark. I enjoyed the (completely flat) section over the dam, and at some point I was at mile twenty-three, which I’d thought would never come.

Lots of people were walking by now, which was almost a necessity for the remaining steeper sections, but the signs kept appearing, not as if by magic, rather like hard won promises: 24, 25, 26.

The last two hundred yards was on a gently descending slope, and as I rounded the bend to its start, there were the Minx, my brother, and Hannah.

The emotional shock brought tears to my eyes, as did the cheering and encouragement from the crowd as I made it to the line. Five hours, thirteen.

It seemed a long haul from there to the point where I was home, bathed, and lying on the sofa with a beer, but that time did come and it was wonderful!