Friday 11 October 2013

Bournemouth Running Festival - The Marathon

On Saturday 05 October, Wayde and I set of to an adventure that brought us to the town of Bournemouth. There was a running festival and we would participate in the Marathon.  Fair to say it looked great, at pier for the finish.

We checked into our hotel the Trouville. Build in the 70's or earlier, but not sure what century. But it was clean and for £40 pppn, who cares.
The parking lot was full, the interred red and black. And the elevators well, they were there as well. Bit if you participate in this event, I recommend it. En route directly out of town when done.

We set off exploring this wonderful town and find something to eat. As you do you carb load. So I had a number of beers and the most bland pizza ever in Pizza Hut. Where you get unlimited salad. For those of you who have ever seen Going for an English, this pizza could have been in there. 

As said the finish near by the hotel, the bus to the start near by as well. And Bob's your uncle (whatever that means).

So dinner done. Bedtime. Luckily or not I forgot the following things:
Phone charger,
iPad charger,
Running watch and heart rate strap.

So up the next morning, breakfast. No complains there either. Coffee, and all the trimmings you would expect from a sea side hotel. But I just had yogurt and some toast.

Done that, on our way to the bus. Easy to find got in, and on our way to the start. The sun was coming out and it felt nice and warm. What was nice, not a lot funny dressed people.

We were joined by John and the 3 of us set of in the sunset to the startline.  Pink and Green, we represented. Those are the times we believed we would do.

Well that's when it all went wrong. Well for John, it probably went reasonably but he hurt his bum-cheek. Not sure what he did, but am sure he finished it.

The event, was fun, but could have done with the following;
Not just gels every 3 or so aid station
Not just water every aid station
Fruit, salty stuff, electrolyte drinks were not there. As it went way of 20 degrees and the sun was nice and burning, a lot of people seem to struggle.
Don't get me wrong, it's good event, but you would have thought they would have covered that. But, read the website and it does say clearly what they would provide. And they did exactly that. Luckily I had 4 Zipvit bars. And a great breakfast, sort off.

So we finished, in the 4:22:54, not exactly my target time. But what can we say. I had fun.

So much for now, Kingston Garmin 8.2 miles on Sunday 13 Oct, then Amsterdam Marathon Sunday 20 Oct. Then hooray. Season is over. Less running, more gym/weights.



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