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| Outside LUXEXPO |
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| The START |
Just
a week after my 40th Marathon..... Roll on my 41st Marathon in
Luxembourg. Having ran Lux in 2010 (3rd Marathon) and 2011 (8th
Marathon) I was so pleased that I was able to complete my 41st in
around 20 minutes faster and beat my previous times:-
3rd Marathon ~ Finish Time 05:31
8th Marathon ~ Finish Time 05:30
41st Marathon ~ Finish Time 05:09
Lux is the only NIGHT time marathon I've ever competed in, a marathon I've always found difficulty in taking part in mainly because of its very well known hilly trail terrains.
3rd Marathon ~ Finish Time 05:31
8th Marathon ~ Finish Time 05:30
41st Marathon ~ Finish Time 05:09
Lux is the only NIGHT time marathon I've ever competed in, a marathon I've always found difficulty in taking part in mainly because of its very well known hilly trail terrains.
It
started off raining very heavily an hour before the start of the
run.... and then it suddenly stopped! Thankfully we arrived quite early
and were able to check in our bags and sort out all our gear for the
night time run. .
The weather was fairly warm this year, temperatures rose above 20 degrees in the evening. When we got to around 5-6k it started to hail down rain very heavily for a short time, which made it a little cool but it was fairly humid throughout the night!
This year the Half Marathon started together with the Full Marathon runners at the 7pm start time. It did get a little congested at the start as there were a fair bit of Half runners that had decided to slow down and walk.
I had decided to run with running buddies Lida and Gudrun until we got to the 11.8km mark, where our Champagne Stop was. A very good friend of Gudrun/Claude 'Jacques Grigioni' had promised us that there'd be Champagne waiting for us. Jacques was a local resident there and each of the years we ran Lux he made sure he was there with Champagne treat for us Ladies. 'Thank You' Jacques and Family for being very supportive. After a quick 5 minutes chat at the stop me, Lida and Gudrun continued our journey along the course. I had told both the girls that I'd be taking it steady as I had entered my FIRST Triple Marathon which is coming up next weekend in San Francisco and I was not up to causing an injury before then......
The weather was fairly warm this year, temperatures rose above 20 degrees in the evening. When we got to around 5-6k it started to hail down rain very heavily for a short time, which made it a little cool but it was fairly humid throughout the night!
This year the Half Marathon started together with the Full Marathon runners at the 7pm start time. It did get a little congested at the start as there were a fair bit of Half runners that had decided to slow down and walk.
I had decided to run with running buddies Lida and Gudrun until we got to the 11.8km mark, where our Champagne Stop was. A very good friend of Gudrun/Claude 'Jacques Grigioni' had promised us that there'd be Champagne waiting for us. Jacques was a local resident there and each of the years we ran Lux he made sure he was there with Champagne treat for us Ladies. 'Thank You' Jacques and Family for being very supportive. After a quick 5 minutes chat at the stop me, Lida and Gudrun continued our journey along the course. I had told both the girls that I'd be taking it steady as I had entered my FIRST Triple Marathon which is coming up next weekend in San Francisco and I was not up to causing an injury before then......
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| Names displayed at the LUXEXPO |
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| Trouble Desk |
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| Complimentary Champagne stop at +/- KM 11.8 - Right hand side of the avenue de la Fayencerie - With Thanks From Jacques Grigioni |
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| Before the Start of the Luxembourg Marathon - Emily, Moi & Vixx |
Emily
Hannon, a running friend I met on my previous marathon was the first to
catch me sipping away at my Champagne , she shouted out as she ran past
me 'May, What are you doing?'.... and of course I shouted out somewhat
over confidently that I was 'Having
Champagne, but will soon catch up with you'. Infact I never did see her
on the course again. That first 11.8km was probably my fastest pace as I
was listening to music, which I don't usually do on my other runs as I
like to concentrate on what’s going on around
me, but as Lux was a free from traffic marathon and the fact that it
gets dark around 9pm, I thought it might give me that little boost to
ease my mind off the trail pains I was going through. The music somehow
managed to work. Just listening to the random
song from my IPod Nano made everything seem more bearable..... The
music was on full blast until I got to the final 3kms, where I stopped
listening and that must have been the most difficult last few miles I
was going through. My legs seized up a little and
then I slowly started to walk and jog that final stretch. I kept
stopping to do some light stretches.
When I got to the half way mark at 2 Hours and 25 Minutes, the 5 Hour pacer was right ahead of me. He had a gentleman running beside him. My mind constantly kept repeating 'I WANT THAT 5 Hours very badly' pushing so hard I was well ahead of him, then eventually he caught up with me. This kept going on for quite sometime, then eventually I could no longer keep up with him no matter how fast I ran..... I never saw him again after 35k, however I did see the gentleman who was running alongside him earlier. He looked as if he was struggling as he was walking the last 12k. This is the point when the adrenaline kicked in and I could no longer see the same runners.
They provided fruit along the course (mainly Bananas and Oranges), Flapjacks, Cups of Water, Energy Drinks and even Coca Cola on the course. And the stops were very frequent throughout the course.
When I got to the half way mark at 2 Hours and 25 Minutes, the 5 Hour pacer was right ahead of me. He had a gentleman running beside him. My mind constantly kept repeating 'I WANT THAT 5 Hours very badly' pushing so hard I was well ahead of him, then eventually he caught up with me. This kept going on for quite sometime, then eventually I could no longer keep up with him no matter how fast I ran..... I never saw him again after 35k, however I did see the gentleman who was running alongside him earlier. He looked as if he was struggling as he was walking the last 12k. This is the point when the adrenaline kicked in and I could no longer see the same runners.
They provided fruit along the course (mainly Bananas and Oranges), Flapjacks, Cups of Water, Energy Drinks and even Coca Cola on the course. And the stops were very frequent throughout the course.
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| Before the Start of the Luxembourg Marathon - Gudrun, Lida and Moi..... |
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| 102 Year Old Retired Fauja Singh & his Sons |
We managed to see Mr. Fauja Singh, the 102 year old marathon man whom has now retired after running his final run in HK earlier in the year, he was accompanied with his sons at the start, and they all seemed to be enjoying the atmosphere. I wanted to go over to say 'Hello', but the crowds were too dense and I couldn’t find the energy to navigate through them.
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| 'I swear, I'll never do this again.' RUN Luxembourg - Taken from Vixx Thompson on Facebook |
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| With my FINISH Medal |
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| Having a Glass at the FINISH with Emily.... |
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| Me and Vixx with our hard earned LUX Medal! |
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| Gudrun, Moi & Lida - Outside Refreshment Stand |
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| Refreshments |
When
I got through the finish line, there was a loud buzzing atmosphere all
around. We were handed our medals and a bottle of water. I then finally
managed to meet up with the others and had a lovely refreshing well
deserved glass of Cremant.... Whitle watching
Vixx finally run through the finish line with a Big Smile!!!
My split times were :-
2010
10k - 01:07:01
Half Marathon - 02:30:46
Full Marathon - 05:31:49
2011
10k - 01:06:51
Half Marathon - 02:41:09
Full Marathon - 05:30:47
2013
10k - 01:02:54
Half Marathon -02:27:17
Full Marathon - 05:09:20
I ran my first Lux in 2010 and said 'Never again', I then went back in 2011 and said it once again 'Never again'..... Having gone through it twice I gave 2012 a miss and guess what? Yup, I went back this year and conquered all those nasty terrains and hit a fab time....Another Marathon done and dusted!
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