Stirling Marathon - a hill of a course!

Months of hard training, friendly rivalry and psychological warfare eventually culminated in the first ever Stirling Great Scottish Marathon on Sunday 21st May. Many Harriers had been attracted by the prospect of a new marathon only a short drive up the road and the more you asked, the more you found out had actually entered it. I was one of them.

In 1986, after my third Glasgow Marathon in a row, each one slightly slower than the last and each time slightly more injured on the start line than the time before, at the tender age of 21, I decided to "retire" from marathon running by mutual agreement with every single mile of the event to focus on the shorter, faster stuff that I had been better at (or longer stuff as long as it wasn't on the roads)! Everything was fine for another 31 years and I wasn't even tempted to reverse my decision. Then they had to go and announce a marathon on my home patch and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

The extra incentive was that maybe I could also set a PB. I haven't set a PB at any distance for maybe 20 years and it's not going to happen at my age at any of the shorter standard distances. However my very first marathon in 1984 was my fastest one. 3:03 and some seconds was my time then I think. Didn't really think much about times back then. I knew more than most in the club that Stirling wasn't a flat course as I had spent my whole life travelling around these local roads but a sub 3 might just be possible. Even a sub 3:03 would do. 33 years after I set my PB! Or maybe I had left it a few years too late. Time would quite literally tell. So I was one of the 9 Harriers who were standing full of nervous tension in Blair Drummond Safari Park on an overcast but mild Sunday morning with thousands of other runners. A pair of giraffes looked on with interest from their field.

After a stress-free journey to the safari park on a fleet of double decker buses from near the finish in Stirling, Davie Searil, Kenny Leinster, Kay Conneff, Kirsty Wilson, Paul Rooney, Jim Holmes, Richard Lawton, Eddie Reid and myself looked as ready as we would ever be. We also caught up with several experienced former Harriers ready to take on the challenge; Gerry McParland, Ivan Field and George Haining were the ones I spotted but there were probably more. We headed to the start pens. I was lucky enough to be in the sparsely populated "fast-paced club runners" pen where I got the chance to shake the hand of an inspirational legend from my teenage running years, Zola Bud, who was lined up beside me on the start line. Liz McColgan was at the other end of the start line but I had already experienced her elbows in road races in the 1990's so gave her a wide berth. Wee Rab Gilroy tapped me on the shoulder and said "awright Alan!" and once again I was back in my usual race environment. Then Brendan Foster gave the start signal and we were off (excuse the name dropping. It won't happen again).

To cut an already long story short, I made the fatal mistake of changing my race plan on the start-line. Sub 3 was my target but my plan was to take it just 5 seconds per km inside 3 hour pace for as long as possible and then push in the final 10k if I could. The training and particularly the long runs suggested I would be comfortable at that pace and could go another 5 seconds/km faster if I had to. But as this was effectively my first marathon all over again, I would be sensible. Then Gerry said, "och you'll be well inside 3. Let's run together". So we did. I knew after 5/6k when we hit the first of the longer uphill drags that I was working too hard and eased back a wee bit but the cumulative damage was being done and I kept drifting on to a much faster than required pace every time we hit a flat or downhill bit (see the post script at the end for details). I was fine until about 30/32km and began to tighten up but was still moving fast enough for comfortably sub 3. Then we were in to the two and a half undulating laps of Stirling city centre in pouring rain. The bit that finished me was a steep descent in and a steep climb out of pedestrian underpass crossing a roundabout on the last lap. On exiting the underpass my left hamstring cramped suddenly and I stopped dead. A quick stretch and I carried on but only for 100m and the same thing happened. I thought the race was over for me. Another, longer stretch and I started again but with a very short stride. The quads had seized whilst I was stopped so I was hardly moving at all, dropping minutes per km. I could see now that I would not make the sub-3 target and sub 3:03 was looking marginal too. The last lap was confusing as there were so many lapped runners and the mind was wandering but eventually I joined the quiet lane to the finish line and saw the clock drifting onward with a lot of 3's on display 3:03:37 apparently.

Now, the problem is my PB is 3:03 and some seconds I think. I can't remember what those some seconds are but have a feeling they are a single digit, so I have probably missed a PB. I am sure the finish line photo from 1984 is at home in Callander somewhere; just got to find it. It would have been so much easier if I had just managed 3:02! The conditions had been perfect. Maybe the rain dampened the spirits in the final stages but it did no harm to the time. The hills were where they have always been, so no surprises there. I trained on even bigger hills. It was just the "40 years of racing" brain seemed to have been left at home.

The crowds were fantastic; every farm road end was decorated and families were out cheering. Blair Drummond, Deanston, Doune, Dunblane, Bridge of Allan and Causewayhead were mobbed. Stirling town centre was like a stage on a cycle race at the narrow bits. It was fantastic.  And the best thing was all the Harriers who kept popping up all over the course to shout their support on a day that ended up not being that great for supporting weatherwise. There were shouts, cheers, photos and all sorts going on. Thanks to you all.

The course might have been tough but it didn't prevent a whole load of fine times and even PB's from the other 8 Harriers. Davie Searil always deserves a special mention. A week after a 50 odd mile ultra trail race, Davie is out there running a marathon on the road. A speed session for an ultra runner just to keep ticking over before the 96 mile WHW in a month! Davie recorded 4:16:28. Paul Rooney maybe hasn't been at the club much recently but has been quietly putting the miles in over the months and was rewarded with a 3:55:52. Training had been going so well for Richard Lawton until he upped the long runs to around 20 miles a month or so ago and then the body started to break. First a back problem and then a calf. So he lined up with some concerns over whether he would finish. But there was no problem (at least no more than the rest of us were experiencing!) and Richard recorded a debut marathon time of 3:48:46. Then the ladies (wee) Kirsty Wilson and Kay Conneff who had trained a lot together, were going to run together and hopefully both get PB's together! Kirsty has done 3 or 4 marathons previously before joining the Harriers and had yet to break 4 hours. Kay was buoyed up by the fact that she already had a qualifying time for London in the bag and could just go for the PB today, aiming for sub 3:45. So different expectations but the same motivation. Improvements. I don't know who big Kirsty Wilson is but I doubt she can run as fast as wee Kirsty Wilson who smashed her PB with a fantastic 3:44:10. Kay and Kirsty did run together but eventually Kay's endurance took over and Kay went on to set a new PB of 3:41:15. Well done to the ladies who said "what hills?" to the course. And then Jim Holmes. Another one like me who had run marathons bh (before Harriers) and had said "never again" but he fell for it too. Despite a lot of training interruptions due to midweek work travel, golf outings, parties, gigs, etc (I'm obviously taking this running lark too seriously), Jim stayed close to his target and was delighted with the time of 3:36:55. Eddie Reid has been on a long comeback trail from some long term running injuries but now has eventually got consistency back into his training and felt able to add to his illustrious major marathon track record (London, Boston, Amsterdam, Dublin and Lochaber to name a few) with several times well below 3 hours. However, PB's were not in Eddie's plan this time. It was a case of proving he could withstand the training again and run a solid race which he did. Eddie finished in 3:24:37. The times will come again on a flatter course now that he has that foundation to build on again. Finally, the cheeky monkey who escaped from the safari park and just kept going, Kenny Leinster. Master of psychological warfare in the months before the race, Kenny really had to back up the talk with the walk on race day. And he did. Kenny has got better and better with every marathon in the past couple of years despite not being a spring chicken (he's a monkey remember).  At Amsterdam he improved on his Dublin performance but could he do the same on a hilly Stirling course? Yes was the answer with a fine PB of 3:22:10, taking some minutes off his Amsterdam time I believe and setting a club Bronze M55 performance award standard in the process. Not only that, Kenny was second M55 in the race! Well done to Kenny. Maybe his coach did tell him something useful in Portugal after all or maybe it was the industrial quantities of beetroot juice he has been consuming recently. To round out the Harriers' times, as noted above I was 3:03:37 which was second M50, 95th overall and was a club silver M50 performance standard. I don't know who else of the Harriers besides Kenny, Kay and Kirsty set PB's during the race so please do let us know (if your name doesn't start with a K, it seems unlikely you got a PB).

What a great time by my "pace maker" Gerry McParland. He kept the pace going after I dropped off at 19/20 miles and finished in 2:54:11 as 3rd M45. Well done Gerry.

There are many, many photos on Facebook. Hopefully we can gather together a few for the blog too. Let me know if you have any (but preferably not of me in the final lap!).

Finally, the post script. One of the wind ups we had with Kenny in the weeks before the race was about performance awards and the fact that Kenny still needed to set a standard in 3 different race distances to get an award. Getting one in the marathon alone was not enough. Kenny joked he would do it at Stirling going through at least 3 of the distances in standard award times (5k, 10k, 10mile, Half marathon and marathon). We all encouraged him to hammer the first 5k and just hold on to hit that target. Well, what have I just gone and done. My splits for Stirling (5k and 10 mile are off my Garmin as there was no timing mat there so do not count) were:

• 5k 19:46 (unofficial M50 bronze)
• 10k 38:36 (M50 bronze)
• 10 mile 64:02 (unofficial M50 silver)
• Half Marathon 1:24:29 (M50 silver)
• Marathon 03:03:37 (M50 silver)

That is NOT AN EXAMPLE OF A WELL PACED MARATHON! But at least I don't have to bother doing any more races this year as the performance award is in the bag :-)
Alan