This is not my claim but the race organisers and I’ve not found anyone who disagrees!
Where is this you may ask? Great Langdale in the Lake District.
We made it a family weekend up in the Lake District, not just for me to run this marathon but it was also the annual dinner for the members of the 10in10 club at Brathay Hall.
It was lovely to arrive in the Lake District to be greeted by not only other 10in10 runners and the Brathay staff but beautiful sunshine. Something I wish I had seen more of back in 2011 when I ran the 10in10. Lucas had brought his new camera which he got for his birthday and we enjoyed taking some scenic photos of the mist rolling off the lake.
All the family enjoyed being back at Brathay Hall and we had a lovely day in the Great Langdale valley catching up with friends. Abbey and Lucas even made a new one in the form of the Stickle Barn Tavern’s dog.
This was to be my 1st marathon of a bunch of 6 I’ve booked for over the next 6 weeks so the question was what pace to run? I have Berlin to follow next weekend and would like to give that a good crack considering it is a flat, fast course and the world record course. So should I take Great Langdale a bit more conservatively? In the end I thought I would go with how I feel but not push it. The course was 2 laps. I clocked half way in a very respectable 1 hour 46 minutes (considering how hilly it was) and even on the second lap I seemed to have plenty of strength and stamina.
My finishing time this year was 3 hours 37 minutes 20 seconds, 21st place out of 173 finishers and a very pleasing course PB by 11 minutes. Let’s just hope I haven’t taken too much out of the tank for next week.
Saturday night Yuk-Lam’s parents looked after the kids so we could get dressed up to enjoy a lovely meal at the 10in10 dinner. My only frustration was a bit of indigestion and dehydration from the run affecting my appetite. The evening was full of good conversation and humour with so many great 10in10 running friends and thoroughly enjoyable.
Dawn mist at Brathay Hall
