Kent Coastal marathon

The Kent Coastal is a lovely marathon, well organised by Thanet Roadrunners with loads of marshals and water stations, nicely pretty along the sea front, a few bumps to break it up and a bargain price. This is the third year in a row I'd done this race so there was a tiny incentive to beat my last two times here of 3'57 and 3'51, a rather challenging task given my shonky pace lately. However, I set off at a pace that felt a little stretchy but sustainable that turned out to be about 8'30s. That worked great until 16 miles.

Then I got a huge nosebleed, no idea where it came from, it's never happened in any of my races before. Apologies to the squeamish, but it was bleeding so much that it was down my race number, splashed onto my legs and all up my right arm, even on my shoulder and over my hands within seconds. Two very kind ladies from the cafe on the seawall rushed over with tissues and water to mop me up, and prop me up because by this time it was only the railing that was keeping me upright, it had all gone rather dark and spinny. After a fair bit of dabbing, I set off again as my legs were fine, if a bit splattered, but it wouldn't blinkin' stop. What was worse, it seemed to be correlated to my pace, the faster I ran the faster it ran. I tried to wash it off but gave up after a bit, it's not a beauty contest after all and it was just being replaced by fresh stuff. I was also feeling very very spacey and dizzy so had to have a few walk breaks from 20 miles, just to get the damn thing to dry up a bit and to give my head a break, I had a splitting headache by this time too.

It was a bit annoying because I'd been on for 3'50 to 16 miles but all the faffing about and feeling like I was about to pass out lost that. Oh well, there are other races and it's nice to know I do still have a bit of speed in the old legs. What did surprise me was when I spotted Warren just ahead of me about 100 yards from the finish and yelled "Warren, don't let me pass you on the line!" That's what I was trying to say, but it came out like a stroke victim - "Wozdohnlehpass'nline", I couldn't articulate at all. So it was perhaps less surprising when I came over the finish line and hit the deck. Some very nice marshals looked after me, indeed, today's highlight was Derek the medic dabbing the blood away from my face with a wetwipe, he was as gentle and caring as a grandfather looking after a small grandchild.

4'08 wasn't too bad I suppose in the circumstances, and suggests that 2 x sub 4s in the 2 to Go and Robin Hood double next weekend may just be within reach with a bit of HTFUing. Even as a Spartan.