Eden Project Marathon 2019
October 13th 2019
Marathon
The Eden Project Marathon (or half) takes place in Cornwall, starting and finishing by the biomes. The attraction of this race for me (and I came across it last year) was that at the end you get a pasty and beer! Mixed with the appeal of some light trail and I was keen to sign up as a fun end to my racing year.
The run up to the race wasn't too bad, I was pottering around doing some short and medium length runs, but hadn't seemed to have found time for any long ones. Plus in the couple of weeks before my knee had started to twinge after some fast 5k and 10k efforts, and Molly started nursery, bringing back for me a lovely, lingering cold.
I decided to test out how I felt by doing the parkrun on the Saturday. This started at the top of the Eden project and wound it's way down to the bottom - a huge net downhill, combined with being on tarmac gave me a PB of 21:21 which I was chuffed with. It was the boost of confidence I needed that my cold was also still in my head mostly and less in my chest, so I decided to go for the full marathon on Sunday, rather than the half.
I arrived an hour before like it was suggested - no idea why as the walk to the start was five minutes from the car! Given it was drizzling, I decided to sit in the car for a bit. My brief trip to the start had highlighted to me that most people were wearing road shoes, and I was in trail shoes. Hmmm. Although advertised as 70% trail I sensed that some of the trail may be quite compact, so made a quick shoe swap, getting back to the start still in very good time.
09:30 came around and we were off! A long downhill followed taking us onto a muddy track which followed a gushing water course. I'd spent a little while dodging puddles until we went through a long ankle-deep one, at which point I decided to give up and save the energy. This was a good decision, as the course went on the puddles and stream crossings got deeper and longer - there was one which was about 10m long and knee deep, brr!! In fact, the course was a starkly contrasting mix between road (maybe 60%) and very VERY muddy trail. I was happy with my shoe decision but equally a trail shoe which was better than my Salomon Speedcrosses on tarmac would also have been appropriate.
This first section would be repeated later, and it was about 7 miles in until the course split. Just at this point, I got overtaken by the lead runner for the half marathon (who incidentally had nearly lapped me at parkrun on a 2.75 lap course!) which was a bit disappointing! Anyway, 8 miles in spelled the end of the climb, which had been going on since 3 miles... The route became lightly undulating before taking us up onto the very scenic Helman's Tor.
Link to a video of me walking (eurgh) up Helman's Tor:
https://youtu.be/EVnL5stklfc?
This was followed by a nice grassy descent, before an incredibly muddy section from 10-12 miles. I found this slow and draining, and set myself a mini target of getting to the half marathon in 2hrs (which I just about did!) to pass the time. From the half mara point there was a section of uphill, then a zig-zag cascade down a steep bank at about 15 miles, which I would normally have loved but found very tricky in the old road shoes, and my knee was having a serious niggle. With 10 miles to go I couldn't risk it giving way so slowed my pace considerately.
From mile 17 was the repeated 5-mile section which I found quite tough, knowing that it was largely uphill, and that the end of the race was still 9 miles away. At 21 miles I made it back to the course split, relieved to be heading downhill but not managing to pick up much speed. The views by this point were great though, especially from the little lump at 23 miles. From here it was some light trail back to the roads leading to Eden, then a largely downhill last mile and a half into the project itself. The very welcome (when isn't it? but my knee was struggling with the long road downhill section) finish was near the parkrun finish, and I was eager to collect my pasty and beer voucher, as well as my wooden medal. Typically, I felt too sick to eat my pasty, so had to save it for three hours until I could stomach it. Not an uncommon occurrence for me unfortunately!
Overall I enjoyed the race, but should have trained or at least conditioned myself better for it. The organisation was generally pretty good and I would recommend it. I ran with my pack but wonder whether I could have survived on the on-course provision of water and energy drink (and a couple of jelly babies but not much in the way of food!). It was definitely more a road-run audience taking party than the usual trail runners that I see, definitely a different vibe with lots of running club vests, speedy people and a bit less on-course chat which was disappointing!
Marathon
The Eden Project Marathon (or half) takes place in Cornwall, starting and finishing by the biomes. The attraction of this race for me (and I came across it last year) was that at the end you get a pasty and beer! Mixed with the appeal of some light trail and I was keen to sign up as a fun end to my racing year.
The run up to the race wasn't too bad, I was pottering around doing some short and medium length runs, but hadn't seemed to have found time for any long ones. Plus in the couple of weeks before my knee had started to twinge after some fast 5k and 10k efforts, and Molly started nursery, bringing back for me a lovely, lingering cold.
I arrived an hour before like it was suggested - no idea why as the walk to the start was five minutes from the car! Given it was drizzling, I decided to sit in the car for a bit. My brief trip to the start had highlighted to me that most people were wearing road shoes, and I was in trail shoes. Hmmm. Although advertised as 70% trail I sensed that some of the trail may be quite compact, so made a quick shoe swap, getting back to the start still in very good time.
09:30 came around and we were off! A long downhill followed taking us onto a muddy track which followed a gushing water course. I'd spent a little while dodging puddles until we went through a long ankle-deep one, at which point I decided to give up and save the energy. This was a good decision, as the course went on the puddles and stream crossings got deeper and longer - there was one which was about 10m long and knee deep, brr!! In fact, the course was a starkly contrasting mix between road (maybe 60%) and very VERY muddy trail. I was happy with my shoe decision but equally a trail shoe which was better than my Salomon Speedcrosses on tarmac would also have been appropriate.
This first section would be repeated later, and it was about 7 miles in until the course split. Just at this point, I got overtaken by the lead runner for the half marathon (who incidentally had nearly lapped me at parkrun on a 2.75 lap course!) which was a bit disappointing! Anyway, 8 miles in spelled the end of the climb, which had been going on since 3 miles... The route became lightly undulating before taking us up onto the very scenic Helman's Tor.
Link to a video of me walking (eurgh) up Helman's Tor:
https://youtu.be/EVnL5stklfc?
This was followed by a nice grassy descent, before an incredibly muddy section from 10-12 miles. I found this slow and draining, and set myself a mini target of getting to the half marathon in 2hrs (which I just about did!) to pass the time. From the half mara point there was a section of uphill, then a zig-zag cascade down a steep bank at about 15 miles, which I would normally have loved but found very tricky in the old road shoes, and my knee was having a serious niggle. With 10 miles to go I couldn't risk it giving way so slowed my pace considerately.
From mile 17 was the repeated 5-mile section which I found quite tough, knowing that it was largely uphill, and that the end of the race was still 9 miles away. At 21 miles I made it back to the course split, relieved to be heading downhill but not managing to pick up much speed. The views by this point were great though, especially from the little lump at 23 miles. From here it was some light trail back to the roads leading to Eden, then a largely downhill last mile and a half into the project itself. The very welcome (when isn't it? but my knee was struggling with the long road downhill section) finish was near the parkrun finish, and I was eager to collect my pasty and beer voucher, as well as my wooden medal. Typically, I felt too sick to eat my pasty, so had to save it for three hours until I could stomach it. Not an uncommon occurrence for me unfortunately!
Overall I enjoyed the race, but should have trained or at least conditioned myself better for it. The organisation was generally pretty good and I would recommend it. I ran with my pack but wonder whether I could have survived on the on-course provision of water and energy drink (and a couple of jelly babies but not much in the way of food!). It was definitely more a road-run audience taking party than the usual trail runners that I see, definitely a different vibe with lots of running club vests, speedy people and a bit less on-course chat which was disappointing!
Times
Total time: 04:06:15
Standings
Age category: 8/38 21%
Gender category: 17/86 20%
Overall category: 78/266 29%
Total time: 04:06:15
Standings
Age category: 8/38 21%
Gender category: 17/86 20%
Overall category: 78/266 29%
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