The marathon set off at 1000, but as the start is outside Inverness busses had been acquired to get us all out there. And at around 0750 a long convoy of busses were on their way all the way down the western side of Loch Ness, turned along the south point and ended up in nowhere on some very small roads where we all disembarked an hour after departure. It was quite impressive looking around and seeing the long line of busses all around on some otherwise very small roads, most of them not paved. Reaching the main road – and main is meant as the largest there, maybe 4-5 meters wide at best – you started towards the starting area further down the road. Along the way the road was lined with portapotties, equipment/crew vehicles, more portapotties and baggage trucks. After this just a long empty space on the road until you reached the starting line. And all around us was beautiful views of Scottish highland. And here all the runners huddled together in a chilly – but not uncomfortably so – morning with fair weather waiting for the start.
And at 1000 we were off.
Until Dores the run was mostly following a road cutting through forest lining Loch Ness limiting our views. We had the entire road for ourselves – 1-1½ lanes paved road winding through the landscape while descending down towards the water level. Around Dores, at around 25-ish km, the landscape opened up all around us giving us views out over the loch, and the road widened to a more commonly used 2-lane road where we were limited to the left side while cars could drive on the other side. All this meant that all traffic was blocked for the first part and after Dores only southbound driving was possible, thus the houses we passed in the beginning were effectively prevented from going anywhere until the afternoon when they’d open up the road again.
The weather was nice running weather. The sun was mostly covered behind clouds in the beginning, and not until we had gotten warmed up we got a bit of a drizzle before staying dry for the rest of the run. When the sun came out it could have gotten quite warm but running among trees we were in the shade preventing heating up too much. Coming out in the open at that point the sun was out but mostly in our backs.
The course wasn’t the easiest. The first 16-ish km it was mostly downhill from 310m to 20m, with a short steep uphill section midway. From 16 to 28km it was mostly flat – relative to the beginning. It was constantly gradually undulating but it wasn’t too bad in spite of it. The following 4km we had a gentle 100m ascent. It wasn’t particularly steep, especially compared to the start, but it just kept going. That section sucked a lot of energy and the following descent wasn’t steep enough to actually being felt like a descent equivalent of the ascent.
Reaching Inverness quite a few people had come out to support us along the way – a big difference compared to the course until then. While there were a few out around Dores before then it was mainly only runners out due to the conditions. Reaching River Ness with less than 2km to go you could hear and see the finishing area on the other side of the river which was enormously frustrating knowing you still had a bit to go despite the finish was just over there.
Crossing the finishing line and picking up my goodie pack and bag I waited for a bit to meet with a friend who was also running, this being her first marathon. Crossing the finishing line she was tired but obviously very happy doing it and completing. It was a quick hello/congratulations/ goodbye as she was meeting with family who was waiting for her – and that meant I could get back to my hotel to get a what felt like a well-deserved shower and rest. Feeling quite uncomfortable walking around in the sun, tired, worn out and severely dehydrated, a hotel room seemed very attractive at that point.
The probably funniest part was actually on the way back to the hotel. At the intersection where we were running along the river and had to make a turn to cross the bridge to the final stretch towards the finish there was a restaurant/bar. Outside this was a line of already finished runners, each with a beer in hand and very vigorously cheering runners along. The runners passing by were ones who would complete in 5:15 and later and many of them really needed that final cheering on. And when a runner came walking the onlookers would loudly chant “Run! Run! Run!” which energized them and had them back running, resulting in (even louder) cheers from them. It was a fantastic scene.
My goal for the run – like with any other marathon I run – was to finish in less than 4 hours. With the course profile being what it is I considered it being a real possibility of not reaching my goal, but as usual I approached the run completely ignoring that fact. My PR is 3:55:34 from my virtual Boston marathon back in September 2020. Or – to be more correct: My PR was 3:55:34 from my virtual Boston marathon back in September 2020. Because in spite of the plenty of uphill I managed to complete this marathon in the official time 3:52:53, an improvement of 2:41. I honestly didn’t expect such a result, but apparently the downhill for the first 16km were nice to me.
According to results, 3555 people were signed up and 3504 finished. I finished 749 overall (top 21,38%), 638 out of 2172 men (top 29,37%) and 184 out of 554 men 40-49 (33,21%). I crossed the halfway point at 1:49:52, probably the best time I have had for the first half of a marathon (not to be confused by my best half marathon time). In the second half I dropped 58 places – no surprise there due to the lack of lots of downhill and the long uphill stretch. Compared to the rest on the result page (50 results per page, i.e. 701-750) more than half jumped or dropped a 3-digit amount of places on the second half.
The average time for the first and second half of the run for M40 and men was 1:58:46 and 2:27:04, and 2:00:43 and 2:29:21, respectively. The last person crossing the finish line did it in 8:50:25 but that was both gun and chip time, so I assume something went wrong there. The second to last ran the distance in 8:40:08. The fastest did it in 2:22:04 and fastest woman did it in 2:43:45.
All that taken into consideration I am very happy with the result. Of course, nobody wants to drop positions and I clearly did that on the second half, but considering the race conditions and the fact that I got a new PR I can’t really find anything to complain about. It was, overall, a very nice run.
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