Hebridean Two Marathon Challenge – Richard Raw
July 2nd, 2008Read Richard Raw’s report on the Hebridean Two Marathon Challenge.
I took part in a one-off event, the Hebridean Two Marathon Challenge back in May. The challenge was to run two full marathons in three days, the first on the Isle of Lewis on the Saturday and the second on the Isle of Harris on the Monday. There were many members of the 100-Marathon Club present, including the world record holder, Horst Preisler of Hamburg running in his 1,557th full marathon.
The first marathon, the Point-1 Callanish Stones Marathon started at the famous Callanish Stones in the West Side of Lewis. The course continued northwards past crofting villages before cutting across the moor against a very strong headwind which many runners found hard going, and finishing in the grounds of Stornoway Castle. I ran this first marathon in 4 hours, 39 minutes and 10 seconds, six minutes quicker than the marathon that I ran in Rome back in March.
The second marathon, the North Harris Trust Marathon started at Amhainnsuidhe Castle on the Isle of Harris and followed a hilly undulating route through Tarbert before making a loop and finishing back in Tarbert again. This second marathon was much the harder of the two, but I do most of my training on the hills and so I found the course more to my liking. I saw that I was only four minutes down on Saturday’s time and had been running the first half very conservatively because my legs were still a bit tired after the Lewis marathon. I was spurred on though because I felt that I could make up some ground and by the end I had pulled back ten minutes and finished six minutes quicker in the second marathon with a time of 4 hours 33 minutes and 39 seconds.
I’m delighted with it because I had aimed to run both in a combined time of nine-and-a-half hours based on the time that I ran in Rome, but I was well inside it (4.39.10 for Lewis and 4.33.39 for Harris giving me a combined time of 9:12:49 for the full 52 miles of the challenge). I can now look forward to my 20th marathon in Helsinki in August. I’m confident that I’ll get closer to four hours in that one.
richardraw Says:
Just to clarify, I was four minutes down at the 13-mile marker on the first marathon’s split for that mile marker during the second marathon, and pulled back ten minutes in the second half. I don’t check my watch throughout a marathon, only at half way and again towards the end. In some ways the second marathon was easier because I could use what I learned during the Lewis one for the Harris one.
http://richardraw.blogspot.com/