The Big One: Miles 1-5
The day of the run started with me getting up at six o’clock to do a quick ten-minute run in order to limber up. Then me and my parents, who would be cheering me on, made our way from our hotel to Edinburgh. We walked up through Edinburgh to the starting area on Regents street. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people crowding the street, most of them runners and the rest family and well-wishers. The weather was grey and overcast, yet it never threatened rain. My greatest fear was that my muscles would cool down to the point where I might get cramp once I started running. There were about 200m of timing pens where the runners were held according to their predicted finishing time. Since I had predicted a time of 6h 30m, I was in the last pen, furthest from the start. In fact, I was at the very back of the pen, as far back as it was possible to go. So this meant I had an extra 200m to walk before I even started the marathon! Read the rest of this entry »