Heaven and Hell Half Marathon

With a name like this you don't expect your usual Half Marathon.

Elevation - Min: 59 ft, Max: 801ft, Assent: 1099ft, Descent: 1083ft

The Heaven and Hell Half Marathon was based at Perth Airport outside a village called Scone (Pronounced Scoon!), about 1 1/2 hours from home, but an 11am start meant I didn't need to leave too early.

I pitched up to the pre race 'talk' to discover a long table down the middle of the room pre loaded with lots of sandwiches. I was going to enjoy the post race scran I thought! During the race brief we were told that this course was one of the hardest 1/2 Marathons in Scotland! Well I know it was hill but I didn't think it was going to be that bad.

Start was a 5 minute walk from the hall which enabled me to do a wee gentle jog to get the legs working. I was able to give my jacket to a marshal to take to the finish 1/2 mile away. Fantastic news as I was on my own. I was having a stretch up when all of a sudden the crowd started moving. That will be the start then! I'm glad I wasn't looking for an accurate time, I would have been annoyed otherwise!

From the start we went along a very gentle incline for 3/4 of a mile which lead into a mile of varying decent. At 1.5 miles, I pulled alongside a chap, called Duncan, and got chatting. We were targeting the same pace so we decided to run together for a bit.

At 2 miles we started going uphill, sometimes steep, sometimes shallow, always up for three miles before flattening off. Duncan said we should slow down a bit as we crept up to 8.5 minute mile pace but I pointed out that we would need to to keep our average at 10 min miles. Besides, our pace felt comfortable. It seemed wrong to slow down when we were on a very slight decline/flattening. After another brief uphill the course went steeply downhill for a mile. It felt like this was where any pain would be inflicted, but felt later. Only time would tell!

We turned left at the 8 mile point and were faced with a sign saying 'Welcome to Hell' will a stuffed Devil toy on top! There is nothing quite like support to encourage you the hill! It did make me laugh though. The hill was tough but I was still running along side Duncan. We stopped taking at this point, focusing all our energies into the hill. 2.2 miles later we reached the top, Oh happy days! The last mile had been super tough as a strong head wind was whipped up.

The final 3 miles were great because they were down hill but the change of pace gave me a stitch. Concentration on breathing, altering the pace and giving my water bottle to Duncan really helped. The final mile was in to a strong, gusting head wind. It was the final mile though, so you just put your head down and ran. The finish was round a blind corner so I couldn't quite pace the last few hundred metres but I did sprint over the line. Maybe I didn't work hard enough?

I had only intended to run along side Duncan for a bit but it was nice to have company and it certainly was great whilst running through heaven, hell and beyond.

Thanks Duncan.

Oh... the final time? 2hrs 6min. I'm pleased. Really, really pleased.