Stubbington Green Runners

09:00 Saturday 11th December saw 250 runners venture out into onto the Portsmouth Seafront by the Pier for probably the UK's least undulating and possibly last Marathon of the year.  
What is also unusual for this Marathon is that you can also see the half way point from the start as well and strangely it doesn't actually look very far away.
Weather was extremely kind as well, no wind whatsoever, and the thermometer touching a tropical 6 degrees.  

I lined up at the start with a cold knowing I probably didn't have anywhere near enough miles in my legs for a full Marathon alongside Tony "The Marathon Machine" Smith who seems to be able to run any distance at exactly the same pace!
I had a definite goal in mind though, and that was to obtain a 3:15 Good For Age time for the London Marathon in 2012, and save having to go through the ballot next year.  I felt relatively confident that I would get round under that time despite my lack of preparation.

The excellent route took us down towards Eastney, then down beside Eastern Road, across Farlington Marshes to Hayling Island, down to the end of the Hayling Billy Trail and back again.  I'm not normally a fan of an out and back route but I have to say I really enjoyed this course.  It was excellent for spectators as well.  M&D came down to watch and they could stop off at any point to cheer me on !..  It was mostly off road on dry tracks with a bit of pebble beach and only 1 place were we had to negotiate a road with any sort of traffic on it.  

I picked up a Camelbak at the 10 mile mark and that was where I started to fall behind Tony, and with still 16 miles to go I decided to settle into my own pace to make sure I got to the finish.  He ploughed on at 6:50 pace and disappeared into the distance !..
My gels started disappearing as well, I had 4 on board, and there were plenty being dished out round the course as well.  I had eight in total, I'm wondering if that is a club record?  
Water was in good supply as well round the course.

Heading back up Eastern Road things started to get quite hard !.. I did begin to wonder whether or not I was going to make it under my target time.  I thought I'd completely blown it shortly after the 24 Mile mark when the chap in front of me turned round having realised he'd gone the wrong way.  Myself and 3 or 4 others had followed him up a blind alley !.
We managed to rejoin the course having done an extra half mile and struggled back down the sea front to the finish.  
My watch had mysteriously stopped, so I had to ask the time keeper what time I had done when I crossed the line, and the lady confirmed 3:14:51.   9 seconds to spare,  Job Done !!
I've not seen the official results yet though.

Wooly hats off to Tony Smith though,  He finished 4th in 2:58, an extremely impressive time.

I enjoyed the race, it was well organised and I'll definitely consider doing it again next year.

Official photos here
https://www.theimagefile.com/?skin=7251&Action=_VC&id=68171650&ppwd=81413vck
Tony's bib No was 98, mine was 269.

David Jeffery