Kielder Marathon

I knew this marathon was going to be tough but I totally underestimated just how tough. Kielder is in Northumberland, close to the English – Scottish border, the site of England’s largest forest and Europes largest man made lake which the marathon circumnavigates. While I knew this was going to be a tough run because of the terrain I failed to appreciate that the route may not follow the lakeshore exactly,  my logic was that if it did follow the waterline faithfully the entire run would be flat. The organisers had different other ideas and often took us deep into the Forrest along ridiculeously challenging terrain.

I wanted to cry on a few occasions but every time I felt like breaking down I was overtaken by a granny or someone dressed as scoobydoo which guilted me into not giving up. I crossed the line after running, walking, disparing and repairing for 4.58.07. I spent the next hour recovering, the guy next to me asked me several times if I was ok… apparently I was rocking back and forth muttering to myself.

We learned afterwards that the guy that came in second actually jumped on a bus around mile 20 and rejoined the race close  to the end. There is an amusing piece of TV footage of him being interviewed with the “real” runner up  looking on with a look of total confusion on his face, later he explained that he couldn’t work out how that guy managed to run faster than him without overtaking  him.

Hands down this was the most difficult AND enjoyable marathons I have ever run.


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