Windermere Marathon 2024

July 7, 2024

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Doing the Windermere Marathon was a bit of a no brainer. It starts just 2km from where we stay in Ambleside (we are up there pretty much every month for a weekend) and I had a free race entry with Brathay after volunteering at Langdale Marathon, the hilliest road marathon in the country at just over 1000m in the 42.2km! With my place secured it nestled nicely into my upcoming six weeks with five events (Manchester Marathon, Steel City 60, Blood Cancer Bikeathon, Windermere Marathon, and Rasselbock Secret Test Event).

Fi joined me to pick up my race number the day before after enjoying a hearty breakfast at Fresher’s Cafe, and then again the following day, arriving about 20 minutes before the race briefing. I picked up a VAGA hat after being successfully influenced by Gary House and his no-nonsense approach to coaching and content.

I was feeling surprisingly good as the race began and I considered keeping up with the 3:30 pacer. I quickly did away with this idea for many reasons. 1. This was my second official road marathon and specific training (given all the events I’ve had in) was non-existent, 2. It was so incredibly hot, even in the shade. I don’t do well in the heat and much prefer being in a vest in the cold. 3. The course is hilly for a road marathon, gaining 560m, and you finish higher than you start! 4. There was no way I was holding 4:58/km over the course, especially as the pacer sped off at a much quicker pace than this.

The first half of the course I had already run with Fi the month prior to get a feeling of what the roads would be like. It wasn’t as enjoyable as the day with closed roads and aid stations every 5km, but it let me know there were some killer hills which I would need to be careful to not cook myself on and jeopardise the second half. I was overtaken by a few people, and I overtook a few as we all settled into our own paces. I ended up falling into step with a woman who I ran with for about 20km before she disappeared up a hill. Not ten minutes later she came back into sight walking having bitten too much off on the hills. It was a good reminder to me that you are only racing yourself.

The crowds, when there were crowds, were fantastic. There’s something better about people cheering from a pub garden than just at the side of the road, I can’t explain it. There was a particular part through Bowness-on-Windermere which I wished the course went through. Church Street is a super narrow pedestrian road with loads of outdoor seating for the pubs. Approaching it there was a huge cheer from the punters but unfortunately the course heads left down the backroads.

From here I began slowly picking up places, and thankfully didn’t give up any places either. I would join the back of a small group and slowly pass on the road, then focus on the next bundle of people to pass. Descending into Ambleside I decided to really turn on the jets. I had slowly begun picking up the pace from Windermere, knowing only 7km remained, and I was confident that I could push it for the last couple miles. Unfortunately, I had been pretty much at my limit and wasn’t able to go as fast as predicted but I kept pushing. Remember the pacer I mentioned, I ended up passing him just before the small wooden bridge leaving Ambleside. I think a combination of his too fast start, the heat, and pacer flag hitting the overgrown trees was just too much.

The start line for the race is on the road outside of Brathay Estate. The finish line is on the estate up a nice big hill. I got to the bottom, gritted my teeth and pushed. I had kept a fluctuating distance with another runner in grey for about 90 minutes which was maybe a couple hundred metres. I wanted to pass her. I couldn’t, but having someone there to chase really helped and I bounded across the finish line in 03:41:17, closing that couple hundred metre gap to just five seconds.