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Loch Ness Marathon - Sunday 2 October 2005
Hmm . . . tempting, especially the hills. Looks a bit wet though . . .
Sadly I'm spending most of September in Aberdeen. Sadly? A little harsh, for there are many good reasons to be in Aberdeen, not least a feast of fine golf courses and wonderful beef. However, I will be helping to co ordinate Europe's largest bi-annual oil & gas exhibition, and the opportunities for good long runs (3 hrs +) will be few and far between. This may well prove prohibitive, along with my seasonal ability to gather debilitating respiratory illnesses around Autumn Marathons - right SP? (I entered, fully paid up and then cancelled Dublin and New York in the past two years).
Just finished the Hamburg epic. Fantastic, moving, heart-wrenching stuff. It's so weird how reading a fresh account brings back all the feelings (and pain) of one's own recent race. I think you're spot on - Marathons aren't simply running races; they are puzzles; tests of human enurance and commitment, measurement devices of devlish complexity. They never seem to ask the same questions from race to race; rather they find a weakness, a fissure in one's mental or physical vaneer, and it's all you can do to keep it together and finish.
And you did, as clearly noted on your T-shirt, just in case there's any doubt. To this extent 'winning' is irrelevant; your PB, rightly accepted as a fine substitute for the sub 5 Grail that will surely come, is almost besides the point. Marathon took you in his fearsome grasp, squeezed you 'till your eyeballs popped, threatened to blacken your very soul - and you spat in his eye and laughed the maniacal runners' laugh, flaunting your medal in pure defiance as you sought Bratwurst and Lager.
Good on you old son.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
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