A rock and a hard place
Eric Baxter • Published 23 Apr 2011 12:00
Tele reporter Eric Baxter takes on a baking hot Brighton Marathon:
The sun was already menacingly high in a blue sky as I waited to start the Brighton Marathon.
It was my first attempt at an event which began only last year and this time had 15,000 entries, making it already the second biggest 26.2-miler in Britain after London.
The predicted hot conditions seem to have deterred many of the entrants, however, for only 8,000 actually started the race.
Running legend and BBC sports commentator Steve Cram cautioned everyone to be wary of the weather before he fired the starting gun in Preston Park at 9am. Ten runners, in fact, ended up in hospital, with one being detained overnight.
There was an immediate incline around the perimeter of the park before we descended into the city centre past Brighton Pavilion.
Thousands of supporters were out already in a festive mood, demonstrating how much Brighton has taken this race to its heart.
The organisation was reassuringly impressive. They even had 1,200 youngsters running along the final mile of the marathon just before the main event.
And, the day before, an array of athletic luminaries appeared at an enthralling marathon expo seminar: former world champions Cram and Liz McColgan and Olympic gold medallists David Hemery and Sally Gunnell shared their absorbing thoughts on running. Cram warned that even elite athletes slow down at 20C (70F).
This was my 37th marathon in Britain, Europe, America and Canada, and it turned out to be one of the warmest, with the mercury indeed hitting 20C and an early breeze vanishing all too quickly.
I did roughly eight-minute miles for more than half of the distance, but started to struggle around mile 15 because of a combination of heat and a challenging first 11 miles which featured a long, steady rise east past the marina and golf course up to the picturesque village of Ovingdean.
There were spectacular views down to the English Channel and, heading back west towards the promenade, the white buildings looked Mediterranean as they slumbered in the haze.
Brave fancy dress runners were particularly suffering: a couple of firefighters were carrying a training dummy over their shoulders and clearly not relishing it, another guy had a tiger strapped to his back and, perhaps inevitably, there was someone dressed as a stick of Brighton rock!
My usual time of around three hours 30 minutes was looking increasingly doubtful as the wheels threatened to come off this seaside venture.
I re-set my target at 3.45 but feared it could stretch to 3.50 as I manoeuvred around Shoreham Power Station from 21 to 22 miles, turning east again past brightly coloured beach huts towards Brighton Pier, with the Channel now close by on our right.
The Pier remained ellusively distant for a very long time but, ever so slowly, I reeled it in and passed the 26-mile mark at the head of the iconic structure.
There were large, cheering crowds on each side of the final 385-yard dash as I clocked a mightily relieved 3.41.45 in 872nd place.
This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 23 Apr 11
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