British Marathon Champs

My main focus for this year was the Marathon Champs. I’d never ridden a marathon before so in preparation I entered the Stilettoes on Wheels event in Sheffield the month before in the 4 hour solo category. This is a great event for getting women involved in the sport and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give mountain biking a bash without the pressure of seeing too many lycra clad bodies around! I completed 9 laps and won by 11 minutes so I was happy to get the hours in the legs at race pace.

The days leading up to the marathon were all about prepping the bike (with an emergency brake swap with my husband's bike), nutrition and hydration. As this distance was all so new to me, it was mainly about trial and error. I was quite nervous, hoping that I would have done enough. The weather forecast was also set to be the hottest weekend of the year so it was so important to ensure I had the correct amount of fluids.

We travelled up to Scotland the morning of the race in the glorious sunshine as the start wasn’t until 12pm. Once the tent was up, I just tried to relax and stay out of the sun as much as possible. The race began in the beautiful town of Selkirk with a neutralised start. On that start list were big names – Sally Bigham, Jane Nusselli and Catherine Williamson. I recognised some friendly faces of Kerry MacPhee and Mel Alexander from the XC scene.

Once we had completed the 6k neutralised start, the pace quickened up the first fire road climb. I was keen to get a good start and positioning so I sat in 6^th up the first climb keeping Mel and Kerry close in sight. After feed zone 1, Mel unfortunately got a puncture; therefore I moved up to 5^th. By feed zone 2, I was still only 15 seconds behind Kerry in 4^th place. It was somewhere between feed zone 2 and 3, that the energy levels and legs began to go! The hills were never ending! The climb out of Innerleithen was ridiculously steep and long and I was starting to regret running the single chain ring. It was also somewhere within this climb that I took a wrong turning and ended up descending on the downhill run. I had a little banter with a fellow local racer who said ‘this is the last big climb; they are only little ones after this!’ From this point forward my aim was then to maintain my placing and that it was I did. Sally Bigham not only took the jersey but finished 7 minutes behind of the men’s winner Neal Crampton.

 

The course was a brilliant mix of natural single track, forest roads, hand-made single track, trail centre routes and the odd mud route here and there. The climbs were certainly lung and thigh busting with some technical descents which you had to be really careful not to puncture on! The views from the tops were amazing. It reminded me of riding in South Africa with just no civilisation around for miles. Scotland has to be the most beautiful place in the UK.

Overall I was really pleased with my first marathon experience and coming 5^th.  It was a massive learning curve and there are so many areas in preparation and during the race that I would do differently next time. A big thank you to my husband who not only managed to feed me at each station and shout support but also looked after our daughter at the same time - who said men can’t multi task?