Aviemore Half Marathon 2013

Chip Time: 01:52:10  Position: 391/841

So I'm awoken by my alarm at 6:00am on Sunday morning. Eh.. What?! For a moment I have no idea why! It's not Monday morning yet surely?! I'm not working today am I?! Then the horrible truth sets in. I have to get up and drive 80 miles up the A9 to run the Aviemore Half Marathon. Registration for the race finishes at 8:30am which means that I have to leave the house at 6:30am. It's cold and still extremely  dark outside. I remember over doing it at a BBQ the previous evening and I have the first signs of a cold coming on. Once collated, I find all of  this new information extremely disturbing.

Negative thoughts begin to creep into my mind.. along with excuses to ease my own conscience.. Why am I even doing this? Do I even like running? How can I possibly run another half marathon? Sometimes I struggle even to walk and my legs feel sore just lying in bed! Can I even stand up? However, all along at the back of my mind, I know there is no backing down. I had signed up and paid to enter this race. No matter how painful it was going to be (and that was just the getting out of bed bit), the disappointment I would feel in myself for dropping out would hurt so much more. So with that thought in my head, my legs creak out of bed, I say goodbye to my partner and creep down the stairs so as to not wake the children.

For breakfast I rush down a bowl of "Branana". This is something I like to think I named. Sometimes I even claim to have invented this super-food. Which I obviously didn't, as in reality it's just a bowl of bran flakes with a banana sliced on top. (It's great fuel for running though!) Then after throwing on my kit, I hobble out the door, de-ice the car and climb in. Radio coverage is poor to non-existent on certain stretches of the A9 so I plug my mp3 player into the USB socket on the dash, turn up the volume and hit the road. Chris Rea's "Road to Hell" begins to come to life.

Out of all the roads I have encountered in Scotland, I think I detest certain stretches of the Perth to Inverness section of the A9 the most. They're so bleak and depressing with perpetual mist and rain. The kind of place only the Hound of the Baskervilles would choose to live. (And even it would require a heavy dose of canine Prozac so as not to throw itself under the first passing articulated lorry.) Average speed cameras may be the last straw for me ever driving the full length of this road again. Even at Scotrail prices the train seems like a more viable option. Roll on dualling!

But I digress. I arrived at the MacDonald Hotel Resort in Aviemore at around 8am and headed off to registration to collect my number. On the way I was greeted by a fellow race addict whom I had met on mile twenty-five of the Loch Ness Marathon two weeks previous. His friendly reception lifted my spirits. After collecting my envelope, attaching my number to my top and the timing chip to my shoe, I stashed my remaining belongings back in the car, then joined the ever growing coach queue. After standing for twenty minutes, in what seemed like freezing conditions, I managed to get the last place on a coach and we were ferried off to the start at Badaguish Outdoor Centre.

Dropped off in the middle of a forest, we had to walk about 500m to the outdoor centre itself. As usual I was unprepared, wearing only a short sleeved technical running top and shorts. Everyone else seemed very well kitted out, some in full tracksuits, others with space blankets. Whilst I was freezing my arse off, I tried my hardest to pity these people, wondering how they would survive the inevitable zombie apocalypse without all of their home comforts. As my body started to shiver and my teeth began to chatter, I found this little consolation.

There was a great reception put on for the runners of both the half marathon and 10k at Badaguish, this included porridge with honey, tea and biscuits, music and the usual warm up  motivator. Despite trying everything on offer, nothing kept the cold at bay. I wandered around shivering for about 45 minutes before the race began. I did bump into a couple of work colleagues. One an ultra-marathon runner who works in the same office as me just outside of Perth. He was undertaking the 10k. The other, an aspiring runner from our Inverness office who was running his first half-marathon. After a chat, I wished them well and made my way to my designated starting position.

The course is a mixture of stony forest track, paths and road. My knees were the first to notice the difference between these surfaces and found it difficult to adapt when they hit tarmac. The first seven miles take you through Glenmore Forest Park and Glenmore village before crossing the road onto another forest track which takes you around the beautiful Loch Morlich (which was used during World War II as a commando training area, for proposed operations in Norway, due to its similarity to the Norwegian landscape). From here you join the main road running past Coylumbridge and Inverdruie. You cross the Spey River by footbridge, then travel under the main Highland Railway line, across Aviemore High Street to the finish line back at the MacDonald Hotel. I was happy to complete this race in 01:52:10. (Although my knees would have preferred if I took much longer). After receiving my finishing medal *Hooray* then wolfing down a banana and some shortbread, I hobbled up the hill back to the car park and set off for home.

I have few complaints with this race. (Apart from being over taken by a charity runner dressed like he was riding a horse!) It was very well organised and marshalled and I definitely plan on running it again. So if you are looking for a half marathon with some of the most stunning scenery Scotland has to offer, I would say that this one is up there with the best of them!