22nd December: Portsmouth

Today saw the 15th & last marathon of the year and one pretty close to home down on the south coast: The Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon… As far as descriptive names go, this is about as accurate as it gets: Portsmouth, check, Coastal, check, Waterside definite check, as you are never more than 10m from the sea at any point!

The course commences at the Pyramid Leisure Centre on the promenade at Southsea and follows the shore-line around to the east around Langstone Harbour on to the tourist mecca of Hayling Island, then at the 13.1 marker, back we go to the start for the finish. With this route being pretty much as flat as a pancake with just changes of terrain to contend with, I realised this was as good a course as any to make a stab at beating my PB marker I'd set in Reykjavik.

I was not running alone today, as joining me from the village were Moose and Pini. Pini was chalking up another marathon as part of his running schedule to inch him closer towards the 100, and Moose was along as a virgin marathoner.

Earlier this year Moose decided to become an Iron-Man and has been training himself as a means to this end; entering Tri's and 1/2 Iron Man's to get his body closer to the big event in Lanzarote. As a consequence, he needed to start putting himself through the mincer over the marathon distance to see what shape he emerges from it as it is the third leg of an Iron Man, and this was his chosen first stab at it.

Driving down in the darkness and rain stupidly early on the day after the shortest day, we parked on the sea-front just along from the leisure centre as dawn broke over the choppy sea; the waves crashing on to the shingle beach. Registering in the leisure centre was a doodle and they had a Cliff stall there giving out free samples of the jelly shots and bars… And some free chocolate flavoured gels.

Returning to the van we all prepped for the race before wandering back to the promenade to warm-up in the case of the other two, or just hang around and attempt to keep warm in my case!

The event base at the Pyramid.

They had a troupe of drummers outside to entertain and inspire us 1,000 or so runners as we hovered in anticipation, then around 10 minutes before the start the heaven's opened deluging us all. Most of us made our way back in to the leisure centre for shelter and wait the final 10 minutes before the start.

Looking at my watch and seeing there was around 5 minutes left, Moose and myself made our way to the doors amongst the throng of people doing likewise, then 2 minutes before the scheduled start and without any warning, all of us assembled watched the race get underway! Near panic ensued… It seemed that over 500 people were now rushing to get to the start and get their race underway as everyone else was making their way over the starting mat and getting their race on.

Fighting my way through the stampede and over the mat I was off with everyone else along the promenade in the pissing rain. The field was quite compact at this stage and the promenade was strewn with all the debris from the stormy weather of late: shingle seaweed and other assorted flotsam & jetsam making it quite uneven and treacherous going underfoot. I stuck on the far left hand side to allow me to avoid weaving my way through the field in order to run my own pace and overtake on the outside of everyone who was slower than me. Soon there was a cycle-path on the road so I hopped-off the kerb to run on that to keep the terrain as flat as possible - as did quite a few others around me.

A couple of miles in and the rain eased then petered out as we hit our first change of terrain and traversed a bottle-neck of a gap in a fence to leave the tarmac and cross some slick muddy grass and a shingle beach. Here the less hardy of the runners tried picking their way around the dry parts of the beach, whereas some like me just piled-on through the little streams that flowed across it, gaining plenty of places in doing so and finally getting some elbow room as the field began to spread out.

From here we made our way round the edge of a boat yard and we were on the coastal path that borders the western side of Langstone harbour.

As I jogged along here I was pretty sure I recognised a couple of the figures in front as I ran up behind them: Stuart March and Barry Miller - who was running dressed as a Santa… Both of them are runners from the Hungerford Hares club who bore the Real Relay torch on the leg before me back in the summer of 2012. I was able to keep up with them for a couple of miles and tap them for advice on ultra running. Stuart has completed a Marathon des Sables amongst others and Barry has just run the Centurion Winter 100 and has won a place in the entry ballot for the Western States 100 next year I managed to hold on to their pace for about 2 miles as we ran this stretch and turned on to the northern section, where I had to relax my pace for fear of over-stretching myself, and they motored off.

The view from behind Barry 'Santa' Miller.

The first half of this stretch was parallel to 6 lanes of motorway, with the noise of this killing-off much chance of conversation, so not being with company it did not matter too much. The second part was along the exposed front of the harbour, fortunately the wind being to our backs… Speaking of backs, we briefly turned them on the sea and traversed a path of slick grass & mud like a herd of Bambi's on ice to a bottle-neck of a marshalled kissing gate, before making our way back towards the sea. Once across a small stretch of shingle beach the path turned to residential road and all of a sudden another aid-station appeared as we joined the main road at the head of the bridge to Hayling Island, with the tourist-welcoming flags flapping in the breeze.

One of the least glamorous sights seen from a marathon trail!

Grabbing a couple of gels on the way through, once across the bridge and onto the island we were greeted by a well trodden path that was slick mud and puddles as we ticked-over the 10 mile mark. Sploshing down the pathway, we had been advised to keep to the left, which was sensible as we approached the turnabout and when we got to about 11 miles then a couple of marshals came cycling towards us on the other side to make sure that everyone was heeding the instructions and a couple of minutes later the leaders were sighted. As they passed us, with one of Santa's Elves positioning very highly, I kept a count to see where my compadres were in the race… Moose was in 63rd position, which I called out to him as he passed and Pini was in 86th, which I also called out to him, so that they had a perspective on their positions to get an idea for planning the rest of their races.

Soon we made the turn, which was literally that, a division in the path, switching sides from left to right as we rounded it before heading-off the way we came… The thing is they had an aid station pretty much on the apex of the turn, with everyone stopping to fuel and water and combining this with the spectators there cheering us all on, it was almost impossible to run through here with the extreme congestion. Another couple of gels and a cereal bar and I was on my way for the return, having made good time to this point in my pursuit of a PB.

On the return.

The view across Langstone Harbour to Pompey.

Running back along the path I was pleased to see that there were plenty of people behind me still to reach the turn and I was still passing the back-markers as I approached the Hayling Island bridge.

The Hayling Island bridge.

The return across the north section of the harbour was much harder with the wind now being firmly in our faces. The whole section I found was a proper struggle, and running along the side of a motorway it made me thankful for most of the races I have run fantastic views! I found I was having to dig really deep to keep motivated and my pace as high as possible to keep me on track for the PB, so after finishing listening to an episode of Radio 4's 'The News Quiz' to get me chuckling away to myself, I turned the iPod on to shuffle… And the following played out to me on the way back towards the finish:

Ashes - Embrace
Sexy Boy - Air
Blue Monday '88 - New Order
Lost in Space - Apollo 440
Frances Farmer will Have her Revenge on Seattle - Nirvana
Love Me - Chumbawamba
Buddha For Mary - 30 Seconds to Mars
Street Fighting Man - Rolling Stones
Serious Stuff - Eve's Plum
Galaxy - Curve
Marooned - Pink Floyd
To A Little Radio - Chumbawamba
Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before - The Smiths

As we approached the boat yard that marks the end of the western stretch of the harbour we were confronted by a group of people standing by the side of the pathway holding a direction sign telling us to carry straight on and follow the signs. This took us past a pub and on to the streets of residential Southsea. After a couple of streets I realised there were no signs to follow, so I just carried on following those runners who were in front.

Fortunately I knew where I was through driving in this way so I was not overly concerned as I knew we were kind of making our way back on to the promenade, eventually reaching the sea-front at a roundabout. As I waited to cross the road I could see other runners on the promenade to my left and I put 2 and 2 together...

The person with the sign and the others with him were not marshals, supporters or anything... Just some local scrote and a bunch of hangers-on who had blocked the true path, removed the signage and deliberately sent us on the wrong way. Fortunately for us it seems that we managed to get ourselves back to where we should've been, despite the fucker's best efforts, although it did add a 1/4 mile to our distance.

As I ran along the final stretches of the promenade, past the pier and in sight of the finishing line with 1/2 a mile left. I could make out that both sides of the barriers had people shouting and cheering us to the finish… My PB was in sight, spirits were soaring, then OUCH - my right calf cramped and would no longer flex. With everyone looking back and cheering, I felt I couldn't face being seen to stop now so close to the line to stretch it out and cost myself time. I decided I would tough it out for this final length and I gritted my teeth fighting the pain through good old mind-over-matter. Just then, Olympian by Gene - one of my favourite songs - began to play. It was the perfect thing to listen to and instantly it lifted my spirits as I managed to get myself towards the line. On the right just before the mat Moose and Pini were there having showered and changed in the hour they'd been hanging around waiting for me to finish and Moose gave me a High-5 as I crossed the line in 4:25:43 in 702/1165th place, knocking a full 7 minutes off my previous marathon best!

After a quick chat with Moose and Pini to find out how their races had gone, I collected my bounty and a mince pie and sat on the steps to recover some composure. Moose had found it a lot harder the longer the race went on through fatigue and a problem with his left quadriceps that meant he could not stride properly and found himself slipping back through the field - although not by much as he finished in an excellent 76th overall in his first ever attempt at the distance. Pini had steadily progressed through the field and finished in 45th position - a very good end to a terrific year's running for him. As I sat there chatting to someone who had also just finished I recognised a face coming towards me from previous marathons: Andy Chandler, with whom I had a brief chat before he had to run off and find his other half!

Grabbing my minging post-race recovery shake and scotch eggs from the van I made my way back to the seafront and waddled off in to the sea for an ice-bath.

Knee deep in the Solent.

The view to my right.

As I stood there, gritting my teeth and attempting to stand in for as long as I could in the painfully cold sea before it all became too much, I could see something in the water just in front and to the side of me… Someone swimming in the swell, the freezing swell. I watched as they slowly swam past, skin salmon pink with the cold, thankfully with a swimming cap on their head and goggles as well. Fair play to that person, whoever they are!

The spray in the centre is from the swimmer's kicks!

On the way back the 3 of us stopped at the Poacher Inn pub in South Warnborough for a celebratory beer - each supping on a pint of King John - one of the beers from our local Andwell Brewing Company which is at the foot of the hill as you leave our village to the west.

Today was a great way to finish-off my year's marathons: Setting a PB and putting 15 under my belt over the course of 12 months, running it with a couple of friends and chatting to others with whom I have met through the running escapades over the last year or so. Finishing closer to the middle of the pack in this race and the last one makes me appreciate how far I have come as a marathon runner since finishing 3rd last in my first competitive race in the Pembroke CTS a little over a year ago

I'm pretty sure I'll be back to run this one again as it is so close to home and being so close to Christmas it does not clash with anything on the date. The free gels at the aid stations was a great thing to have and the stations were well supplied and well manned throughout. The marshals were numerous and friendly and the event was very well marked and organised - bar the chaos of the start, which had the weather been anything other than what it was would not have happened!.. Oh and the local shit who stitched us all up with the signage at the boat yard. But then again, the organisers can't legislate for wankers who happen to live there and want to cause problems. It happens with races all over the place unfortunately. I just hope the tosser in question gets a good dose of karma jammed sideways up his arse when he's not expecting it!