Oh Edinburgh. What an amazing place to visit and how much pain it brought me :). Last weekend was the third time I've visited Edinburgh and on Sunday 23rd May I ran the Edinburgh marathon for the second time. After last year's experience I was originally decided not to do this (or any other) marathon again but during one of our nights out with Paul we've come to the conclusion that a marathon would be a good way of training for Kili. Seriously, making decisions while lubricated by alcohol is not the best idea ever...
But there we were, ready and excited to show Edinburgh and the hottest weekend of the year that neither will knock us down. My training wasn't brilliant so apart from the excitement I was also feeling a little worried and this worry has grown into a big heavy knot in the pit of my stomach during Saturday. The lack of sleep didn't help (noisy and drunk hotel guests in and outside the hotel, thank you very much) although the morning started well with overcast sky and even a slight drizzle. Unfortunately as Paul has described in his post, the sun has decided to emerge just before the 10am start and remained happy and shining on the sky until the end of the day.
The route of the Edinburgh marathon is very flat and that's why it's considered the fastest marathon in the UK. It starts under the Calton Hill near the City centre and leads through the Holyrood Park towards Portobello beach (it's very difficult to run along the beach and not to be able to have a dip!!!) and out from the town to Musselburgh, Prestonpans (main feature being the power plant), Cockenzie and Port Seton and further towards the Gosford House where you basically turn around and run back to the Musselburgh racecourse. The route was also exactly the same as last year so I knew what to expect and sometimes I wished I didn't know. Hobbling on the incredibly hot road with head down, sweating and feeling my face being burnt I was thinking about what it's going to be like on Kilimanjaro without any nice people showering us with hose pipes, with uneven terrain and no seaside view. Also, in the marathon I knew that at some point that day I would finish (either on my own legs or being collected by the sweeping vehicle :-D) and enjoy the very cool pint of beer but on Kilimanjaro we won't have this until day seven when we get back... Still, the idea of the challenge pushed me (although very slowly) through the race and I've finished in 5 hours 13 minutes 9 seconds which is (incredibly) my new PB too!
The amazing weekend wasn't at the end yet though and although this doesn't have anything to do with Kili I HAVE to mention it :). It's my patriotic duty to express my big happiness and gratefulness for the Czech ice hockey team which led our country to the victory in Ice Hockey World Championships in the game against Russia on Sunday evening! After five years we made it again and the victory felt so much sweeter as we were classed as underdogs from the very beginning of the championship. The beer we had in a little Czech pub called Pivo (Beer) was a fantastic celebration of all the achievements of that day.
Two days later I am glad to say I don't feel any real pain or soreness, the main injury being my sunburnt face! I would like to think that the lack of pain is the result of my recent strength exercising and that my fitness level is not as bad as I originally thought. Bring on Kili then :-) (Ok, still a few weeks to go...)
Oh and Paul, congratulations on your completion, it's a great achievement! Now multiply the efforts by ten and you get what it feels like to be on Kili :)))
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