@apullum: Congratulations on your first half-marathon. Hopefully, the conditions were not as hot (being in the mountains and all).

So after a couple of days to recover, some thoughts on my first marathon.

I raced the Giants Head Marathon on Saturday, a hilly trail race with about 1000metres of elevation over about 28 miles of mixed terrain. Nine hills, covered in a range of deep grass, rough gravel, flint and rocks.

I camped on site, driving down on Friday evening and back on Sunday after a short, 4km, race as a bit of fun.

There were maybe 8-10 doing their first marathon, and about 350 starters. Only three DNFs. Right at the beginning the RD asked about those of us doing our first marathons, which led to a fair amount of comment about not reading the course description, although someone else observed that I was clearly a trail runner... We also had someone doing her 100th, and a fair few rapidly approaching that point.

My plan was to stop at every aid station, and to keep a close eye on my pace throughout. So the latter point was all about identifying runners in the same pace range, and sticking with them.

I managed to maintain a steady average of 6:30/km for about the first 21 miles, walking the steeper climbs and running the flats and descents, I then struggled a bit, pretty much as expected. The next mile was the worst, really feeling down and with a bit of hamstring pain. At that point I reached the final big aid station, known as the Lovestation. So I stopped for a few minutes, and replenished with some cider, flat coke, flapjack and cake, before starting on the move again. I think the rest did me some good, as I managed to pick up the pace again, although not as fast as before. That lasted about 2 more miles before I was hit by another steep uphill that I really didn't recover from. We also had some quite cold rain, which didn't really help the motivation.

While the uphills were very hard work, the descents were as bad. Many were very steep, so fast but quite jarring.

So with three miles left to go I was walking fast, and picking up the pace on occasion. At this point I was very fortunate that others were in a similar situation and we ended up chatting, and moving one another along.

At the final aid station, at about 25 miles, there was a brief stop, and then from there it was another three miles pretty much straight downhill.

The finish line was a big relief, but it was an excellent race. Very much a huge challenge for the first one, so lots of lessons to reflect on moving forward.

Putting the experience in perspective, the fastest runner as 3:57, and the only sub 4:00. I landed in the middle of the pack with a 6:08:03, which was initially a bit disappointing. Given the race, it was a solid result, with the final runners coming in beyond 8 hours.

On Sunday morning we had a small race, raising a bit of money for the local church fund. A short, sharp uphill, a challenge at the top and then get given our medals; a proper cowbell. Followed by a run down the descent with the cowbells ringing away.

It's worth higlighting that the medal is the Cerne Abbas Giant, that we ran past on the route, and part of it spins round...

two weekends ago i volunteered as a duracell bunny pacer at the Great North 10k.
5000 runner field.helped a few to sub 70 min pb's.
last weekend i volunteered at parkrun (free weekly 5k) and on the sunday was tail/runner at great run local gibside (weekly sunday free 5k).
this weekend i repeated volunteer roles and continued on to a 10 mile pb in prep for HM in 8 weeks.
tech shirt and medal from 10k,but the important bling was the thanks of newer runners i helped home.
karma repaid with my own personal pb,i feel.

5K Packanack Lake (Wayne) NJ. 29:04. Hot, Humid and had a large hill. Second among Males 60-69. Got a medal!

Finished 2nd in my age group. It was almost 90 F at 8:30 AM when the race started. They humidity was very high and the sun was bright. Needless to say, this was not my best effort. Of course everyone had to deal with the weather....

@Mobycarp - Damn impressive!

First race of the fall XC season! Ran a hilly 4.1 miles in 26:15. Super competitive race, so happy to finish in the top-ten for my age group (50+). Perfect conditions. (Cool and overcast.) I felt fantastic throughout.

Bad Cow Half this morning. The Bad Cow is a weekender, Marathon and 10K on Saturday then Marathon and Half on the Sunday, with lots of people doubling up the fulls, and one runner doing all four this weekend.

It's coastal heathland on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a 5.5Km circuit with two waterstations. With the full and half going on at the same time it fairly quickly becomes unclear who you're with, and I lapped a few people, as well as being lapped myself. Hard packed trail so I used my Inov-8 Race Ultras.

I didn't race it hard as I've got a 12 hour race next Sunday and didn't want to thrash myself, so was happy with 2:06:58. 37th of 127 and fourth in age group.

My first long race on repeated circuits, and next week is on a 7km loop, so it was quite good practice for that. My first circuit was a little fast, then reasonably consistent afterwards. The advantage was being able to make an assessment on the first circuit of how to manage the effort afterwards.

Resort to Rock 32K, 11th overall, 1st in age group. The first 17 miles went pretty well, then came a pretty rough climb, calves and feet were getting all cramped up. Managed to get through that and the rest was downhill to the finish line. Overall I fell pretty good. 50K coming up in a month.