Luxembourg (27.05.17)
Ahead of the Luxembourg Night Marathon, my good friend Juli managed to track down one of the estimated 2000 ME sufferers there. I interviewed Katja who told me about her struggle for diagnosis and what it is like for patients in the Grand Duchy, click here to read. I had some great coverage ahead of the race from UKRunChat and Yorkshire Times.
I knew this race would be the toughest in terms of altitude but I had no idea that it would come amidst a freak heatwave with daytime temps hitting 34C! We got up at 5am for the morning flight on race day and walked around 4 or 5 miles getting from the Expo to our hotel and then on to chill out in the park/shade before walking up to face the race.
Start
There was a great buzz and huge crowds of runners at the start line up at Luxexpo. Jostling for shade and water it was difficult to stay calm and cool with the sun blazing and 15,000 runners all in a cramped car park. Trying to ignore the horrific Euro-pop I put on my hat and wandered over into the pen. It took a good 20 minutes to get over the start line and within a few hundred yards I was already leaking water (usually takes a good 2 miles in the UK for me to start sweating!). I'd realised standing in the pen that this was going to be more about completing than doing it for a good time. I've only felt that way once before when I ran Toulouse through injury in October and it's not a nice feeling knowing that you've trained hard but conditions make it impossible to do as well as you'd like. But I had to get over it quickly as marathon running requires real concentration and you have to banish all negativity to get round in one piece. We started with a 4-5 mile lap around the Expo, water stations were a farce unfortunately. With 10,000 runners ahead of us (an annoying mix of half, relay and full marathon entrants) already and a queue about 4-5 people deep like the local pub on a matchday they just couldn't pour it quickly enough. Tiny cups were getting half-filled, some people were panicking, elbows were up and it all got a bit ugly. I wasted at least 3 minutes at the first one trying to get served. Grrrr.
The course headed down the wide John F Kennedy Avenue over The Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge (what a grand name!) with views of the insanely pretty Barrio Grund old town area to our left. At this point I was feeling hot and bothered, effectively it felt like running into a continuous handryer blast. I was heavy legged but still in control and looking forward to getting into the heart of the centre with the crowd support and the shade of all those designer boutiques and bars. Without Ipod for the first half as I now like to do, it was good to take in the sound of drummers, brass bands, DJ's (mostly crap) and the odd rock band on the way round. One was playing a pretty decent cover of REM's 'Losing My Religion' which was cool, they got a thumbs up. The crowd of runners finally thinned out a bit, many of the half marathon and relay runners had already stopped and were walking which proved a bit of an obstacle course to get around. I mean, if you're going to just spontaneously stop then maybe veer over to the side or have a look around first.
Middle
We did a lap of the park that I'd had a snooze in earlier, there were still plenty of people sunbathing and drinking (more grrrrr), our path was directed by a bit of white chalk every now and again but luckily someone seemed to know which way to go. Reaching 11 sticky miles still with full sun in my face I walked through the water station to the sound of Phil Collins 'Sussudio' from another local band. Had to smile at that one. Lumbering on down the long Avenue Gaston Diderich the crowds were still strong and I collected plenty of high-fives from the kids. I reached halfway at 2 hrs 15, appalling really, over 30 minutes slower than in training but I had to start slow and stay slow for this one. Hitting the wall out here could be curtains for my chances of finishing the race. I decided to take a Honey Power organic energy gel and carry on weaving around the static runners as we headed through the pretty Parc De Merl. It'd be fair to say I was struggling at this point and I decided to run steady between water stations (every 2.5km) then walk for 0.2 miles. This worked out pretty well and approaching 20 miles I felt much more confident that I would finish.
The sun started to set at around 9.30pm, it was cooler but still 28C, not the cool evening I was hoping for! I put on the Ipod and carried on shuffling as my hips tightened up. Mercifully the course started to head downhill, we were heading towards the Barrio Grund valley. The path took us through the Leo Light Village where there were hot air balloons lit up and candle bowls lighting the way with an outdoor bar of cheering locals. It was simply stunning, fair play to the organisers. I tried to capture it on my phone without much success. There was a path along the river but I knew what goes down must go up and 'that' dreaded hill was coming soon. Sure enough there it was. More trudging but at least I had David Bowie to keep me company. Everything started to hurt at this point but I was mostly in control and resigned to the fact that it's not supposed to be easy.
End
So 4 miles left or so and the crowds in the centre were simply not letting anyone walk as the course meandered along. They were shouting, toasting, Mexican waving, fist pumping, drunkenly falling in front of the course, blocking the course, backslapping, you name it, it was mental (but great!) Far too much uphill here for my liking but the cups of coca cola seemed to give me just enough to get through it. The route crossed the bridge back up the JFK Avenue towards the Luxexpo, I passed another runner getting treatment, most around me were walking or stopped and this was the first stretch without a crowd. I passed a guy dressed as a clown and another who was wearing a costume of one of the sponsors (a bottle of what looked like shower gel), those guys must have been sweating buckets! 3 miles to go and I was fearful that I might not make it under 5 hours, this I knew I'd regret at the end of the whole challenge, don't want anything starting with 5 on my record! It would be tight I thought but hopefully I could find something left in the tank at the finish. Water stations were now out of water and unmanned (er, cheers guys!), it was just me and around 10 other runners jogging past the swanky KPMG, Linklaters and other super bank buildings. We finally made it past our hotel (The Coque) and two young lads were playing some god-awful R&B/Rap, still it was nice to see other human beings at this point and they re-assuringly pointed the way towards the finish which was via an unlit and pretty narrow path.
The 26 mile sign couldn't come quick enough and looking at the watch I had no idea how much was left. As I know all too well, you usually need to run 26.6 miles at least in a marathon to account for all the weaving. We could hear the music and see the lights from the Expo and a few people started to spring the last few hundred metres -and I'm one of them! Well, it was sort of sprinting, from the pictures it looks more like I was jogging and gurning but I see Cat with her camera who throws my Man Utd scarf at me and it was time to get this finished. I was a rabbit in the headlights heading into the disco/rave warehouse finish as I rounded the corner shouting 'Manchester' to myself. I could swear I heard the commentator saying 'For Manchester, Mike Harley, Gross Britannia'. Perfect. I'm over the line feeling punchdrunk and panting my way towards the medal. I'm disappointed over the time but pretty chuffed I've finished, it would have been easy to throw in the towel on this one but with the support I've had that was never a possibility. Cat got a sweaty hug, I got a warm bottle of Bofferding beer and I couldn't stop smiling.
Pics
Official pics here
Training and our trip photos here
Weather
Unseasonably hot, 33C in the day, dropping to 30C at the start of the race. A shame as I'd trained hard for the race but couldn't replicate anything like these temperatures back in the UK. That's 8 out of 11 marathons at 23C+ -hope I get a cold/rainy one soon!
Ratings
I knew this race would be the toughest in terms of altitude but I had no idea that it would come amidst a freak heatwave with daytime temps hitting 34C! We got up at 5am for the morning flight on race day and walked around 4 or 5 miles getting from the Expo to our hotel and then on to chill out in the park/shade before walking up to face the race.
Start
There was a great buzz and huge crowds of runners at the start line up at Luxexpo. Jostling for shade and water it was difficult to stay calm and cool with the sun blazing and 15,000 runners all in a cramped car park. Trying to ignore the horrific Euro-pop I put on my hat and wandered over into the pen. It took a good 20 minutes to get over the start line and within a few hundred yards I was already leaking water (usually takes a good 2 miles in the UK for me to start sweating!). I'd realised standing in the pen that this was going to be more about completing than doing it for a good time. I've only felt that way once before when I ran Toulouse through injury in October and it's not a nice feeling knowing that you've trained hard but conditions make it impossible to do as well as you'd like. But I had to get over it quickly as marathon running requires real concentration and you have to banish all negativity to get round in one piece. We started with a 4-5 mile lap around the Expo, water stations were a farce unfortunately. With 10,000 runners ahead of us (an annoying mix of half, relay and full marathon entrants) already and a queue about 4-5 people deep like the local pub on a matchday they just couldn't pour it quickly enough. Tiny cups were getting half-filled, some people were panicking, elbows were up and it all got a bit ugly. I wasted at least 3 minutes at the first one trying to get served. Grrrr.
The course headed down the wide John F Kennedy Avenue over The Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge (what a grand name!) with views of the insanely pretty Barrio Grund old town area to our left. At this point I was feeling hot and bothered, effectively it felt like running into a continuous handryer blast. I was heavy legged but still in control and looking forward to getting into the heart of the centre with the crowd support and the shade of all those designer boutiques and bars. Without Ipod for the first half as I now like to do, it was good to take in the sound of drummers, brass bands, DJ's (mostly crap) and the odd rock band on the way round. One was playing a pretty decent cover of REM's 'Losing My Religion' which was cool, they got a thumbs up. The crowd of runners finally thinned out a bit, many of the half marathon and relay runners had already stopped and were walking which proved a bit of an obstacle course to get around. I mean, if you're going to just spontaneously stop then maybe veer over to the side or have a look around first.
Middle
We did a lap of the park that I'd had a snooze in earlier, there were still plenty of people sunbathing and drinking (more grrrrr), our path was directed by a bit of white chalk every now and again but luckily someone seemed to know which way to go. Reaching 11 sticky miles still with full sun in my face I walked through the water station to the sound of Phil Collins 'Sussudio' from another local band. Had to smile at that one. Lumbering on down the long Avenue Gaston Diderich the crowds were still strong and I collected plenty of high-fives from the kids. I reached halfway at 2 hrs 15, appalling really, over 30 minutes slower than in training but I had to start slow and stay slow for this one. Hitting the wall out here could be curtains for my chances of finishing the race. I decided to take a Honey Power organic energy gel and carry on weaving around the static runners as we headed through the pretty Parc De Merl. It'd be fair to say I was struggling at this point and I decided to run steady between water stations (every 2.5km) then walk for 0.2 miles. This worked out pretty well and approaching 20 miles I felt much more confident that I would finish.
The sun started to set at around 9.30pm, it was cooler but still 28C, not the cool evening I was hoping for! I put on the Ipod and carried on shuffling as my hips tightened up. Mercifully the course started to head downhill, we were heading towards the Barrio Grund valley. The path took us through the Leo Light Village where there were hot air balloons lit up and candle bowls lighting the way with an outdoor bar of cheering locals. It was simply stunning, fair play to the organisers. I tried to capture it on my phone without much success. There was a path along the river but I knew what goes down must go up and 'that' dreaded hill was coming soon. Sure enough there it was. More trudging but at least I had David Bowie to keep me company. Everything started to hurt at this point but I was mostly in control and resigned to the fact that it's not supposed to be easy.
End
So 4 miles left or so and the crowds in the centre were simply not letting anyone walk as the course meandered along. They were shouting, toasting, Mexican waving, fist pumping, drunkenly falling in front of the course, blocking the course, backslapping, you name it, it was mental (but great!) Far too much uphill here for my liking but the cups of coca cola seemed to give me just enough to get through it. The route crossed the bridge back up the JFK Avenue towards the Luxexpo, I passed another runner getting treatment, most around me were walking or stopped and this was the first stretch without a crowd. I passed a guy dressed as a clown and another who was wearing a costume of one of the sponsors (a bottle of what looked like shower gel), those guys must have been sweating buckets! 3 miles to go and I was fearful that I might not make it under 5 hours, this I knew I'd regret at the end of the whole challenge, don't want anything starting with 5 on my record! It would be tight I thought but hopefully I could find something left in the tank at the finish. Water stations were now out of water and unmanned (er, cheers guys!), it was just me and around 10 other runners jogging past the swanky KPMG, Linklaters and other super bank buildings. We finally made it past our hotel (The Coque) and two young lads were playing some god-awful R&B/Rap, still it was nice to see other human beings at this point and they re-assuringly pointed the way towards the finish which was via an unlit and pretty narrow path.
The 26 mile sign couldn't come quick enough and looking at the watch I had no idea how much was left. As I know all too well, you usually need to run 26.6 miles at least in a marathon to account for all the weaving. We could hear the music and see the lights from the Expo and a few people started to spring the last few hundred metres -and I'm one of them! Well, it was sort of sprinting, from the pictures it looks more like I was jogging and gurning but I see Cat with her camera who throws my Man Utd scarf at me and it was time to get this finished. I was a rabbit in the headlights heading into the disco/rave warehouse finish as I rounded the corner shouting 'Manchester' to myself. I could swear I heard the commentator saying 'For Manchester, Mike Harley, Gross Britannia'. Perfect. I'm over the line feeling punchdrunk and panting my way towards the medal. I'm disappointed over the time but pretty chuffed I've finished, it would have been easy to throw in the towel on this one but with the support I've had that was never a possibility. Cat got a sweaty hug, I got a warm bottle of Bofferding beer and I couldn't stop smiling.
Pics
Official pics here
Training and our trip photos here
Weather
Unseasonably hot, 33C in the day, dropping to 30C at the start of the race. A shame as I'd trained hard for the race but couldn't replicate anything like these temperatures back in the UK. That's 8 out of 11 marathons at 23C+ -hope I get a cold/rainy one soon!
Ratings
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