3rd October 2021 was a big day in British marathon running because it was the new date of the London Marathon – cancelled in 2020 and delayed from April in 2021. But the London Marathon is, like, so mainstream… so I had opted for the hipster option of the Kielder Marathon.
We’d intended to make a family weekend of it, but The Boy had caught the ‘Rona a week earlier and was still in isolation – bricked into his room with food thrown through a slot. Pam had entered the Half Marathon but stayed at home with the diseased teenager. In hindsight, this was good for me as she definitely would not have been speaking to me after seeing how hilly the route was.
So it was just me and Katy in Hexham for the weekend, with a Saturday morning parkrun as a warm up, and a bit of sightseeing at Hexham Abbey.
On the morning of the race, it was a good hour’s drive to Kielder, and it was RAINING. Double speed wipers all the way as we drove in contemplative silence about what was to come. A shuttle bus journey from the car park to the race HQ added more time and a little complexity, but the logistics were really well organised throughout the day.
The route was basically a lap of Kielder reservoir. I had told Pam that running round a bit of water must be pretty flat but I knew it wasn’t, as the path regularly snaked down to the water’s edge and back up into the forested hills. My plan for the day was to run the first hour with Katy, then press on and try to run the second half faster than the first.
As we shuffled across to the start line, the rain stopped, which was remarkable. It did rain a couple of times over the next few hours, but never with anything like the ferocity of the morning’s downpour. We got very lucky with the conditions. Katy and I set off as we followed the crowd around a short loop that took us back to the start and onto the main lap around the reservoir.
I wanted to make sure I wasn’t putting pressure on Katy to go faster than she wanted, so we chattered away and walked the steep bits, making friends with the people around us. The course is beautiful. Aside from the very occasional bit of tarmac, the paths were hard packed forest trails. A few puddles here and there, but the decision to run in road shoes rather than toenail removing traillies was definitely the right one. We ran up into the pine forest, back down to small bridges across tributaries. Sometimes the reservoir would disappear from view for a while, but it would always come back, calm and glassy to our right as we worked our way around.
After an hour, I decided to stay with Katy until the 10K mark, and had come up with a plan to attempt to run each 10K a little faster than the last. This would be a good exercise in pacing and self control, avoiding the temptation to spring away from Katy and burn too much energy in the second hour. It would also be a good test of my strength endurance – could I finish strongly even after four hours of running?
At the 10K mark, I wished good luck to Katy and jogged gently off. This race plan was absolutely terrific for the ego as I basically spent the next three hours overtaking people. There were literally hundreds of faster runners than me at this race, but I never saw those buggers. My motivation was sustained as there was always another runner in the distance to chase down.
It was difficult to maintain a steady pace over such mixed terrain, but I did it mostly by feel, just trying to keep my heart rate down and not getting out of breath. When the path got steep, I would run till I could feel my heart thumping, then walk to the top. This seemed to work okay and I completed the second 10K in just over an hour.
By now, we were halfway round the reservoir, and could hear the race announcer across the water shouting in the Half Marathon finishers. I was scouring the opposite bank trying to pick out tiny runners among the trees, knowing I’d be round there in a couple of hours.
For the third 10K I wanted to keep to 6:00/km pace. That’s my target pace for endurance runs, so I knew it’d be just about achievable on this terrain. One advantage of that pace is that the arithmetic is easy. Six minutes per km is 30 minutes for 5K and a straight hour for 10K. With the inevitable ups and downs, the pace moved around a bit, but held steady on average, all the while I was catching more people to boost my confidence.
As I approached the 30km mark, the path levelled out and brought us onto the dam at the southern end of the reservoir. A kilometre or more of flat smooth tarmac. Luxury. A beautiful view across the water to our right, while the valley fell away to our left. Then as we reached the end of the dam, a huge crowd was gathered. This area was one of the other car parks, and had also been the start of the Half Marathon. The marshals along the route had been great, with lots of enthusiastic support, but this concentration of spectators was really encouraging, especially as I now had to lift up another gear.
With more than 10K to go, it was far from a sprint finish, but I wanted to be able to stay comfortably under that six minute pace for the last hour. The route now took us out and around a large promontory called Bull Crag. Within earshot of the finish line, we still had a long way to go as we turned right in what felt like the wrong direction.
I was now running the hills. Keeping things under control, but now working as hard as I felt I could sustain. Still overtaking people, some of whom were now visibly struggling, my feeling changed from smugness to guilt. I felt like apologising as I went by people in the last few kilometres.
Nevertheless, I felt strong, and clocked through 40km with my fastest 10k split of the race. Mission accomplished, I wondered if I could just relax and saunter to the finish, but I was all in now and gritted my teeth to finish hard, just remembering to smile for the cameras.
I had a little time to gather myself and change into dry clothes before walking a short way back along the course to cheer in Katy. (Incidentally, a tip for spectators… the 26 mile marker is a great place to stand because everyone is genuinely delighted to see you.)
Conclusions from this peculiar progressive method of running a marathon? It’s probably not the optimal way to do it, but it was a good experiment, and if I had done a slightly faster first 10K, it probably wouldn’t have cost me much at the end. We know that top runners try to negative split a race, and holding back in the first half will always benefit you in the second. It’s just a question of judging the right amount to hold back. I think the next marathon I do (hopefully on a more forgiving course) I will attempt a flat two hours for the first half, and then see if I can go faster in the second.
I really recommend this event. If you prefer shorter distances, they do a 10K and a Half Marathon, and they even have a duathlon on the Saturday. The organisation is friendly and efficient, and the area is just beautiful. I would love to come and visit again perhaps a little earlier in the year.
10km Splits:
0-10km. 68:36
10-20km. 63:28
20-30km. 58:52
30-40km. 56:48