We drove off to Inverness, where I was to board one of the many coaches that would bus 3000 or so runners to the start of the marathon. It was chatty and friendly on the bus, though I seemed to be sitting next to a chap who wasn't very happy or talkative! Eventually we set off the long journey to the start line. I was glad I had my phone, I was able to text and tweet a bit on the journey before the Scottish Highland signal died out. Many thanks to those twitter friends who tweeted good luck, every message was much appreciated.The journey was punctuated with stops along the narrow highland roads, when several men would hop off the bus and have a wee, this was highly amusing and frustrating to us female runners with bulging bladders, who didn't have the luxury of such things, or so I thought.... At the next stop a woman from the top deck of the bus hurried down the stairs and ran out of the door, in full view of the whole of our bus, she jumped into the ditch opposite the bus, dropped her trousers and well, I didn't watch to see what she did, but frankly she didn't leave much to the imagination. There was many intakes of breath and a few stifled giggles, admittedly the whole bus needed a wee, we were hydrated to the max and it had been a long journey. But there are limits... we really did see everything!! She's a braver woman than me!!
Eventually we arrived at the start line which was basically the road from Fort Augustus to Whitebridge, yes, just a road! It was pouring with rain the spectators were few, but the runners were many it was bedlam as people left the coaches and headed towards the toilets and start line. The mist over the glen hung low in the air and there was a slight wind, despite this the area had an unusual sense of calm and excitement. I felt mildly anxious, it was 9:40 and the queue for the toilets was long, the start was only 20 minutes away and I was worried I wouldn't get my bag on the lorry and sort myself out before it all kicked off. I gave little thought to the race ahead of me, I was more concerned with that moment. I really did need the toilet and was glad after 10 minutes in the queue it was my turn.
I then made my way hurridly to the luggage truck, stripped off my jogging trousers and sweatshirt, I sent a last quick text telling my boyfriend the start had been delayed by 10 mins and then said goodbye to my bag, water and pointless stuff I'd taken with me. I had made a last minute decision to run in my old windproof running jacket. It was raining quite hard and I was shivering I used to run in it and figured I'd be better off with a bit of protection from the elements, I regretted forgetting the black plastic bag.
As I moved with the crowd towards the start a band of pipers marched down the middle of the runners, bagpipes and drums, we all clapped and whistled as they walked past. You could hear the start line commentary really well, one thing that stuck in my mind was the total enthusiasm of the guy at the start. It was pouring with rain, we were soaked, he said something to the effect of 'It's the day we've all been waiting for for months, you've all prepared well, it might be raining but we're marathoners this is what we love, getting up early and running, even when it's raining.' There was not a voice of discontent in the line up, everyone was positive and expectant and dare I say excited. They put the Proclaimers 'I will walk 500 miles on' and the gun went off...
I was on my own, I had trained well, put in the hours, eaten well, slept well and I was totally up for it! It took several minutes to get over the line, but we were off. I felt relaxed, happy and rather soaked, but hey I was about to run a marathon! The setting was beautiful, despite the rain it was perfect running conditions.
I can't blog the whole race now as there is so much to say and I want to do it justice.
Thanks for reading
Jo x
