London's Loss? Stroke Man does Edinburgh 2008 by RuddysMarathonEffort

Is that how the song goes? It should be a perfect weekend really. The bare facts of my perfect weekend:

Saturday: meet Janis Brown, Kim Cotton & Kevin Dargue for the first time at the expo and meet Colleen Rehbein again.

Hull City beat Bristol City 1-0 during there first visit to Wembley to gain promotion to the top Division for the first time in there 104 year history.

Sunday: Ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 4.35.25 to prove that if you want something enough........

Hull Kingston Rovers beat Harlequins 22-8, Hull FC LOSE to St Helens 22-14. 

I was up at 4.45 am to get the 6 am train from Hull to York and despite a 30 minute delay at York and my original hotel double booking us (the sorted us a better hotel) me & Karen managed to get to the expo for around 1.30ish and immediately met up with Janis, Kevin and then Kim with Colleen arriving a touch later.

Kevin Dargue, Kim Cotton & Ruddy. Kim looked so tired having travelled all night, I was worried how she would be, come Sunday.

Having taken so much stick from me on her blog, Janis gets the chance to hit me but didn't!

Ruddy & Colleen. C'mon single fellas, what ya waiting for, she's lovely!?

Group shot 1, Kevin, Kim, Ruddy & Janis.

Group shot 2: Kevin, Kim, Ruddy & Colleen

After the expo, Mrs Rudd managed to persude a local pub to change one the television from the Scottish Cup final to the English Championship playoff final - result! After a meal in Edinburgh I spent the rest of the night worrying as my achilles was aching the day before race! Kit ready, I went down to the hotel bar and a pint to settle my nerves.

The hotel had a number of marathon runners staying and kindly ran an early Sunday morning breakfast for us all (Porridge & Tea of course!) I dumped my bag at collection and immediately got a txt from Kim as to where to meet up.

Half an hour to go and still smiling!

Not long to go but still smiling - still in denial Kim?

A few minutes to go, not smiling now!

.

Within a mile of the off I could feel the achilles, within 3 miles if was hurting but it never got any worse and was manageable. At five miles I recognised another blogger, Rach Reynolds, from behind and as I had never met her up to this point, how did I manage that Rach?! Nice to meet you at last!

At 12 miles Karen took the following photo when I was still feeling (and looking?) good. About a mile later, the lovely Janis popped up and ran along with me for a few yards and gave some much needed support (Thank you!!)

Along the sea front miles (5 to18ish), it was cloudy and a head wind, thank God it wasn't raining, it would have been horrible! After that we turned back towards home with a back wind but the warm Sun had broken through by then!

I managed to run the first 30 K in under three hours. At this point i was on for a 10-15 minute PB. However, it was also at this point that my lack of quality, regular training during injury ravaged training campaign finally caught up with mith me! The wheels didn't exactly fall off more seized up! The heart and mind were still willing but the legs were shot. By mile 23 I would stretch off the calves and hammies but this would just set the thighs off cramping! It was around this time I caught up with Kevin Dargue whi was struggling big time also, we basically yo-yo'd over about 3 miles taking it in turns to pass each other and then seize up. Karen was at mile 25 and i rang her to tell her she wouldn't miss me because she was walking the last mile with me as the legs had gone. Karen still complained that I was walking too fast for her!!

At mile 26 I streched off as best I could and ran, no stumbled the remaining yards through to the finish at Mussleburgh race course in front of the Grand Stand. Kevin kindly waited at the finish to shake my hand, well done mate.

The journey back to Edinburgh was a pain but after a bath and a rest, me and the Mrs had a lovely meal on the "Royal Mile" before meeting Janis and husband Malcolm for a few drinks at a local pub. A lovely end to a lovely weekend. Many thanks for the lift home Janis, you saved me a lot of pain!

Sorry for the novel folks!

Ruddy