Anglesey Marathon

Hills, hills, and more hills is a good description of this deceptively tough little marathon. Run through the lovely rolling Welsh countryside with a small but very select field. It attracts quite a few members of the 100 Marathon Club and a fair few Irish runners as well -- it's very close to Holyhead and the ferries. It is also the Welsh Masters Marathon Championship. Around 360 runners assembled at the Anglesey Showground at Mona. Basic changing and showering facilities were available. Overall organisation was excellent there were 11 water stations serving both water and isotonic fluid. The roads are not closed so there was a bit of traffic to contend with -- for that reason all MP3 devices were banned -- never seen that in a race before. There was also tremendous support all round the course, from families at the gates of farmhouses, to entire small communities out to cheer us on. Must rank as the toughest race I have ever run. As well as the many hills, we had to contend with driving wind which seemed to be in our faces all the way round -- so strong at some points that I was blown into the side of the road. Difficult course to get your tactics right. With an overall drop for the first six miles it is quite easy to go too fast and be lulled into a false sense of security. From 6 miles the hills start to kick in with some particularly tough climbs at 7 and 10, and a killer four miler at 14. There's a sharp rise from 19 - 20. A nice downhill at 20 is followed by another stonker of a climb at 23 and yes -- somebody was having a laugh when they chose this course -- the last mile is uphill. Very happy with a sub 4-hour finish. One small annoyance -- my watch showed a time of 3.57.28 and I started it at gun time. My official time is 3.59.24 almost two minutes difference. It was chip-timed. I know these Garmin devices are not 100% accurate, but to lose 2 minutes over a marathon ??? The watch timed two races, the Glasgow Half and the Millport 10 miler just a few weeks ago and it was accurate for both -- is it possible I was given the wrong chip ? I'll email the organisers and ask.
PS Colin Jackson presented the prizes. He was a really lovely guy. He was full of smiles the whole day and he spent loads of time surrounded by hordes of children signing programmes and getting his photograph taken with them -- not a sign of big-shottism. Top class guy !!!
PPS the winner was Rob Ashworth from Southport Waterloo AC in 2:53:42 -- that's almost 10 minutes slower than last year. Something to do with the strong winds perhaps !!!