Following the recent achievements of other club members (ultras, fell running, PBs), my run at the Nottingham Marathon was fairly unremarkable.

Sharon and I arrived in Nottingham the day before the race and amongst other things we went to the Notts County 5-2 Northampton Town game. The home fans had a song with just two lines, "I had a wheelbarrow, the wheel fell off", which would almost sum up my race (very much a race of two halves).

On Saturday evening we met Peter, Andrew Harper and some members of Vegan Runners, at a small vegetarian restaurant in the city. On the day of the race we met some other Vegan Runners, so overall there was quite a good vegan/veggie turnout.

Based on recent 10K and Half Marathon times, I had set a target of 3:07. Despite my pre-race concerns that the start would be too crowded, the first few miles were actually okay. One or two mile markers were in the wrong place, which gave the impression that I had slowed dramatically in the second and fourth miles (and run a 6:06 fifth mile). The first half included a few undulations and hills, but nothing too steep. I reached the 10 mile point in 1:12, so closer to 3:09 pace.

Halfway was reached in just over 1:34, so again this was around the target pace. Up to about 17 miles things were fine, but at this stage the 'wheel on the wheelbarrow' was becoming a bit wobbly. There was a stretch where runners were going in both directions and for some reason I found this a bit off putting. Next the route reached the rowing lake, first we went left and near the end turned 180 deg into a strong headwind for the next 1.3 miles. Another runner suggested that we took turns in running in front, which helped quite a bit. Finally we turned again and ran along the other side of the lake, which seemed a particularly testing section.

The route then followed the river Trent, with narrow sections on grass and gravel paths; quite a contrast to the wide roads in the city. Normally such routes don't bother me (particularly as I often train on similar sections), but towards the last stages of a long race they just seemed hard going.

I was slowing down in this part of the race, as were quite a few others. In fact a number of runners were stopping or taking walk breaks, but I was determined to keep running (if I did stop the wheel would definitely fall off). I lost sight of the runners in front for a short while and wasn't quite sure where the course went, but there were plenty of marshals to help out. The footbridge over the Trent in the last mile seemed a particular challenge, with what appeared to me to be a crowd of spectators (but in reality about 15 people) on it. By now I had calculated that as long as I maintained a slow but steady pace I would finish under 3:15, which I did with a chip time of 3:14:02. So the wheel stayed on the wheelbarrow, just. (I finished 93/1325 and 12/117 in the MV45 category.)

Sharon ran the half marathon in a steady paced 2:25, which made for a far better experience than her previous half at Milton Keynes.

While Notts County may be destined for promotion and greater things, my next target will simply be to achieve a course best time at the Bedford Half Marathon in December.

Keith