24 May 2010 - the day after:

Well, this is it!

My Edinburgh Marathon Challenge is now over, done and dusted … just like me when I eventually crossed the Finish Line (that surely deserves capital letters!) a whole 3h 16min and 28sec after kick off, position 349^th out of 9459 finishers. It was an incredible feeling taking part in this thrilling event. The course took us from London Road, around Holyrood Palace, Leith, Portobello, Musselburgh (the finish was at the Racecourse), Cockenzie (half-marathon), Longniddry, around Gosford House (30Km mark) and back to Musselburgh Racecourse. It was one of the hottest days of the year so far with temperatures reaching 25ºC and humidity at the start of the race at 94% and pretty much no breeze to cool us down. Needless to say, that was hot!

The fist half of the course was really enjoyable as we were going downhill along the streets of heading out of town towards the seafront at Portobello. Half-marathon time was 1h33 – good legs, heaps of energy, I was feeling good. As the kilometres went by, the heat became more and more intense and from the 25km mark, I started feeling the strain. I kept my pace of about 4’25 – 4’30/km until the heat exhaustion really kicked in around the 30^th km. Not enough water! I was in real trouble. I needed to rehydrate … where could I get any water? There was just no fuelling station in sight (bad mark to the race organisers here … this weather condition required more frequent water stations along the course, especially in the second half – I haven’t failed making that clear on my feedback form) – thanks to the crowd of generous onlookers I managed to grab some orange quarters along the way and prevented further dehydration, which led many fellow runners to lay flat on the side of the road. According to the BBC: “242 runners were treated at medical points along the circuit. Eight people were taken to hospital. One 52-year old collapsed and died.” My thoughts go to the family and friends of this fellow runner.

The last 5km were just a matter of survival. When you are so dehydrated your body and brain turn into this survival mode where all the signals tell you just to stop running. This is when the race becomes more psychological than physical. To push your limits you have to reach them; only then you can see what you are really made of and what the power of your mind is capable of: “dig deep, forget the pain, think about the reasons you are running this race for, think about the people that sponsored you, think about the charity … think … think … think …”

This was an amazing experience, not only D-day but the journey that led to the race, the many hours of training since January. A great personal challenge both physically and mentally; I would highly recommend it to whoever wants to find out more about themselves, see who you really are.

I’m deeply indebted; your support was an invaluable source of motivation and energy. It also allowed reaching my fundraising target of £500 for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust – more pictures will be available on Facebook in the next few days. Many thanks!

 

Cedric

January 2010:

What the heck went through my mind on this winter evening when I came back from this 10k run in the deep crunchy snow in the late hours of this Saturday afternoon?  Could it be the dimmed light of this superb sunset over the white-top pine trees in Kirkhill forest?  May be it was the wet feet in soaked shoes, the drenched base layer embedded into the skin that took 20 min to take off, the abyssal temperature of this cold winter day burning both nose and cheeks. Which one of these was it?  Perhaps the whole of it - with a tad of craziness and a dash of unconsciousness, just enough to spice things up.

Anyway, I decided to set myself up for a challenge and run the Edinburgh Marathon in May 2010.  Here we go, this is said.

So rather than running for the sake of my own overdeveloped ego, I thought I would help fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.  The CF Trust, because of my professional interest in developing novel antimicrobials for the treatment of the infections associated with this genetically inherited disease.

Enough ink used; it is now time to get the training started and pile up the miles!  If you feel like I’m worth your generosity or just want to help CF research, I promise a full pint of sweat for every tenner you chip in ...  

Many thanks!!!

Cedric

... and here goes the more formal version with extra bonus material:

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