I slept well, really well actually, and the first order of business when staying in a fancy hotel is breakfast. Although I had to run a marathon that night I reckoned I had enough time between now and then that I could get away with having a fry-up!
This was my first night run, we were due to start at 7pm, and I was excited and a little worried having spent a week on a motorcycle. My sister and family drove down from Belgium so I spent the day pottering around Luxembourg city with them.
The start area was a little chaotic, but that added to the excitement! I got talking to some American medical students and was surprised how many English speaking people there were around me. Once we were on the way I had to focus hard on running slow, I always make the mistake of dashing off for the first few miles and suffering later.
I managed to keep my pace but I still suffered… Before mile 20 I was in agony, but I met others in worse shape than me who were still running so I gained strength from that and managed to run through the pain. We were running though the streets of Luxembourg around closing time for the pubs, it was an odd experience to be running through crowded streets, through crowds of drunk but well wishing and enthusiastic crowds.
The last 2 miles were a little lonely, we were heading back to the start area in the outskirts of the city and it was hard to keep running but with under two miles to go the 5 hour paced passed my by. One of them turned around to face me and beckoned me to follow so I did and spurting everything I had into the last two miles I crossed the line in under five hours.
I was so happy. Happy to have finished my first night marathon, happy to have finished at all! It was well after midnight before I got myself together and started to think about getting home. There were buses heading back into the city centre but I had no idea where my hotel was in relation to the centre of town. Luckily I put a €50 note in with my hotel key and found a taxi.
My brother in law said that he might meet me in the bar after so I made my way up and opened the door to a jam packed, smoke filled bar. I was in my shorts and looking like I had just run a marathon… There were a few strange looks but I went in anyway and was glad he wasn’t there… I was so tired and went straight to bed.